Work From Home 4 Life

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become one of the basics of having an online business presence.

Whether you are blogging for cash, run an online E-commerce site, or have an off-line business you want to promote online, you soon learn that just ‘having a website’ doesn’t mean that you will have a path of punters beating a haste-y to your door.

To be seen by those lovely paying customers you first have to be ’seen’ by the Search Engines - typically the BIG 3 - Google, MSN and Yahoo.

Now there are a lot of Guru types that will sell you their ‘best’ (cough, cough) SEO secrets for a premium dollar tag, and even some ‘SEO Experts’ will even rent themselves out and make you pay for the privilege. However, if you are new to working online, (and there’s a good number of people trying to make a go of starting their own work from home online business), who do you go to about SEO and who can you trust?

My natural skepticism tells me not to trust the ‘hype’, and it’s a natural consequence that cynicism is a by- product of years of feeling duped by the so-called experts that abound the web.

Even the good guys get tarred with the same brush, after all most folk who are once bitten are twice shy.

To put it another way… fool me once - shame on you; fool me twice - shame on me!

Thankfully the average online surfer is becoming more savvy at spotting the posers and are voting with their feet. But how do you spot the genuine SEO Expert?

The rule of thumb I use is watch what they have to share with you for free, then test it.

• Was this recommended to me by someone I trust?
• Is it fluff or real advice - Can I use it? Does it work?
• What evidence is there that the info is current and leading edge?
• Can this person back up their claims? Will they let me peek behind the scenes?
• Is this person using my need to learn as an excuse to slam me with yet another daily latest-and-greatest-you-just-gotta-buy-it-to-pay-for-my-new-luxury-car email.

OK. Enough of the rant.

What I am leading to in all this is that I have come across (thanks to an Internet Marketer I know and trust) a great SEO resource from Dan Thies…

Fresh Start SEO - a free SEO book for you to download

Fresh Start SEO is free SEO e-book (97 page pdf) with clear step-by-step instructions for Search Engine Optimisation. It is a process-driven method which saves beginners and advanced webmasters time and money. Dan offers free ongoing support through his website, blog and newsletter to a growing Fresh Start SEO Community.

The SEO Book is totally free - you don’t even have to sign up to his newsletter if you don’t want to. (However I highly recommend that you do because Dan is the kind of guy you want to listen to)

I have my own copy and am currently devouring it before I put Dan’s theories to the test and apply it myself.

Dan Thies (Get used to this face… you will see a lot of it in his SEO Fast Stat website) has been writing about, teaching, and practicing search engine optimization for over 10 years. He is referred to as ‘Our Adwords and Keyword Guru’ by Andy Jenkins of StomperNet fame.

Now unless you have been dead or on holiday somewhere near Jupiter, You have got to have heard the buzz around the web about StomperNet’s latest release Going Natural 3.0. If you haven’t, check out Dan’s video and the other great videos freely available now.

You can watch Dan’s “Adwords Serets” video on the StomperNet Going Natural 3.0 site.

Depending on how you came to learn about creating a hosted Wordpress Blog you may find that your Wordpress blogging software is out of date.

If you have a hosted Wordpress blog installed on your site and you are not using the latest version you will see a message in your back office/wp-admin/dashboard stating you need to upgrade. Like many software producers, WordPress periodically updates their software, hopefully full of improvements.

I was first introduced to hosted Wordpress blogs through the NZPCS Million Dollar Blueprint and my first blog was this one you are now reading… Work From Home 4 Life.

Way back then the version I uploaded was 2.0 (yes I know, back in the dark ages) but it was part of a software package setup and being a complete newbie I didn’t know any better.

Of course I could have used Fantasico to install Wordpress, which gives the latest version available, but I find that the MySQL database names assigned (wdp1, wdp2, etc) not descriptive enough. I prefer to manually install so I can assign my own related database name. (However I should note that a Fantasico installed blog is much easier to upgrade)

I noticed straight away that it was out of date so I went looking for information on how to update my blog. I had already updated the theme to a widget enabled one which is relatively easy. (I found out later that I wasn’t supposed to so I created another unchanged work from home blog for my team members to emulate as per the program instructions)

However, the instructions on how to upgrade posted on the WordPress Codex site was so daunting that I just left it. I did make an attempt but blew it somehow… its safer to leave sleeping dogs lie.

Now there was nothing wrong with that strategy on the face of it, until I tried to use plugins and themes not compatible with my dinosaur!

What to do… what to do… what to do…

Enter my latest discovery!

Wordpress Automatic Upgrade Plugin

[Read more →]

Have you been trying to earn money online?

Are you frustrated with zero or little results? Are you sitting there scratching your head wondering how to become a successful work from home entrepreneur?

If you answer yes to these questions you are not alone! However all is not lost… hope in on the horizon!

The 2008 Thirty Day Challenge is just around the corner

WHEN DOES IT START?

This year’s challenge (the fourth one so far) starts on August 1st. However the Pre-season starts June1st, but don’t worry, pre-season will be a doddle and slowly prepares you for the real challenge. You can take part by simply by entering your first name and email address in the boxes on the 30 Day Challenge site to receive updates and get access to all the challenge training.

WHAT IS THE THIRTY DAY CHALLENGE?

In a nutshell… The Thirty Day Challenge is about making your first $1 online. For a full 30 days The team are going to be showing you exactly how to start your own Internet business and generate your first income online without spending a dime.

That’s right, this is going to cost zip, diddly, nothing, nada, ziltch. The entire training program is free, and you won’t have to spend a thing to get your business started and begin making money. No credit card required.

• You will create EXCELLENT information,
• You’ll Make it USEFUL - You wont need to sell!
• This is about creating a REAL, SUSTAINABLE, ECOLOGICAL and ETHICAL online business. Full Stop.

Join the thousands who have taken the 30 Day Challenge, See for yourself what the commotion is about.

10 Great Reasons to Do the 30 Day Challenge

[Read more →]

Traffic is the life-blood of any website. If you don’t have traffic, visitors coming to your site, you are dead in the water.
So much of an online business depends on getting traffic to your door, and much like an offline business you need to make your ’shop’ attractive to the casual passersby.

It is so important that much time and money is spent doing just that, getting people to your door in the hope they will come in and buy something.Let’s be real here… why else would you have a website if it is not to make money.

There are a number of traffic strategies an online business owner can implement. [Read more →]

One of the most effective ways to get people to link to your web site is by offering other web masters the option of giving away your free stuff. In exchange, they link to your web site.

Why would other web masters want to do this? They may want give away a freebie to draw traffic to their web site. They also may not have the time, knowledge or skills to give away certain types of electronic freebies from their web site.

Your Links Will Just Keep Multiplying.

When a web master offers your freebie to his or her visitors. Those visitors may decide to also give away your freebie. And so on and so on… The linking can become viral and so the more people that link to your web site the more traffic you’ll get.

Below are four of the most popular types of freebies given away on the internet to increase traffic.

[Read more →]