An easy way to build a content-based website
// One of the biggest stumbling blocks that people come across when starting to work online is how to actually design/build their website. This is especially the case if you are planning a large content-based site with many, many pages. Creating each page can be a highly time-consuming process and if you want to make even a minor change to your page template, you could end up having to amend hundreds of individual pages. There are different options out there that will make your task easier and in the past couple of weeks, I have been using some software scripts known as Content Management Systems. These scripts are installed on your web server (which is probably the hardest part of using them) and allow you to build and design your website via your Internet browser. The basic layout is set though you can choose different ‘themes’ to give your site a unique look. Where these scripts really come into their own however, is the ease in which you can add new content. Let’s say you have written an article and you want to add it to your site. You simply copy and paste the article into the appropriate form in
// Anyone involved in Internet Marketing will understand the importance of the Google search engine. It is, by far, the most popular search engine in the world and can be a great source of free traffic. Webmasters spend weeks optimizing their websites so that they rank highly in the Google index. BUT, the old saying, ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ holds very true when it comes to your traffic and in the last week, many website owners have been reminded of this following a change in the way in which Google ranks sites. Thousands of sites (my own included), that have enjoyed top Google rankings for months or even years, have suddenly disappeared from the search engine for certain keywords. It seems that Google has chosen specific keywords to target and whilst the aim of the exercise is unclear, it could well be that the days of Google being a free traffic provider are coming to an end as they try and drive more commercial websites to using their paid service – Google Adwords. Many people are whinging and griping over the change and I can understand this. If your business receives 95% of visitors from Google
C'mon Rich, tell me what to do…
// I get hundreds of emails per week and as you might expect, many of the emails contain similar questions. There are probably ten questions that I get asked most. I will save nine of them for another time as I want to talk about just one of the top ten questions today. The basic form of the question varies but essentially it is the same and here it is: ‘I have read everything I can about marketing online. I understand how to get traffic to my website. I know how to make my website appealing to customers. I know about generating income with ‘backend’ products. I understand everything you have taught me over the past X years…. BUT WHAT DO I ACTUALLY DO?‘ Yup, the question is simply ‘What should my online business actually be – what should I offer – what do I do?’ Of course, this is the $64,000 question and there is no easy answer. If I could pluck guaranteed business ideas out of the air every time someone asked for one, I would be a rich man. Unfortunately, I can’t and neither can anyone else. Even if someone did have a pool of surefire ideas,
The fact and fiction of working online…
// Fiction: Working online is a quick way to riches. Fact: It is possible to earn a lot of money online, but it won’t happen quickly. Take a look at some of the most successful online marketers and websites – they have been around a long time. I started working online in 1998 and it was 3 years before I was earning enough money to go full-time. Fiction: If you run an Internet business you only have to work an hour a day every now and then. Fact: Sure it is possible to automate a lot of the day to day tasks involved with an online business but to earn a consistent income it is important to continue to develop new products and services. Most of the top online marketers work longer hours than they would in any ‘real’ job. Fiction: You need to be a technical wizard to set up your own website. Fact: Not so – many Internet marketers (myself included) are completely self-taught in the art of web design etc. Working online is a learning curve like any other – the more time you spend learning, the better you will get. No one knows it all and
How back pain gave me a simple idea…
// Like many people, I suffer from back pain and therefore I visit an osteopath every once in a while to get everything ‘put back in line’. I visited my osteopath this week and while he crunched and pulled at my back and limbs, we had a chat about the Internet and websites etc. He explained that he was considering creating a small website to let local people know a bit more about his business – nothing fancy, one or two pages at most. Knowing that I worked online, he questioned me as to how you actually build a website and how you get from your computer to the Internet? So being the helpful chap that I am, I started to try and explain the process from start to finish. Now, this is not an easy thing to do in a short period of time and in the end, it occurred to me that, to be honest, there isn’t really any need for a small businessman such as my osteopath to learn how to design websites or learn FTP etc. After all, he only wants a one or two page site… I therefore decided that in half of the time
