SEO Tips to Get Your Website to the Top of Search Engines

When it comes to the success of digital marketing and finding new customers via the web, keyword optimization is one of the most important tools you can bet on. Keyword optimization or keyword research is the act of researching, analysing and selecting the best word or concept of great significance to your product, services or campaign in order to target and drive traffic from search engines such as Google to your website and other digital platforms.

Getting your website or blog on the first page of search engines can be a daunting task if you do not understand the fundamentals of optimization. Although this tutorial is not guaranteeing you the first place in major search engines, it does point out what one needs to do to be in the Search Engine Optimization game.

It is much easier than you think and this article is to guide, help and provide you with the basic and key for successful search engine optimization:

Step 1. Choose the right keywords

It is tough to be the best at everything and that includes Keyword Optimization. The first step of reaching the top of search results is identifying the right keywords. It can either be a single or multiple words or entire phrases. As you might already be aware of, most searches on the internet are made in the form of a question. Therefore, before you start writing down the keywords, you need to decide which keywords you want to focus on. These are the words people would type into the search engines in order to find your page, blog, website or product.

It is very essential that the word you choose as the keyword is broad enough for lot of people to search for on the internet, but narrow enough that you have a decent chance of getting a high search rank for it on the search engines and results.

For example, the word “shoe” is way too general. However, “Where can I find cheap shoes online” is a pretty good one. Similarly, the word “Europe” is way too general and Wiki sites will normally dominate these top spots. So, “the best holiday destination in Europe” is a much better phrase to focus on.

Here are my top tips for choosing the right Keywords:

1. Start with customers

Think about who your target audience or customers are. What are they likely to type into the search bar when they are looking for answers where your services can help them? Why not ask existing customers what they would search for?

2. Weigh up the competition

Although it is important for you to choose words that many of your target audience might be typing into search engines, they should not be words that bigger companies with the most muscles and bigger budget will compete for.

3. Use Google tools

Guess not only. Google has several good tools which can aid you find what is popular to search.

On Google Trends, a public web facility based on Google Search engine, shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages including a list of popular searches. You can also enter keywords and see how popular they are, compared with other phrases and ideas on similar terms – in order to choose the one that most are looking for.

You can also find keywords using Google’s ad tool AdWords. You do not necessary have to advertise, you can just create an account and select using the “Keyword Planner” under the “Tools” menu.

Step 2. Customise Your Content

Once you have successfully chosen your keywords, there are a few other things you need to do in order get your site ranked high on search engines. One of such things is content creation. You have to create and distribute relevant and valuable content (such as speech, writing, photograph or any of the various arts) that attracts and engages your well-defined target audience. Content marketing helps us to attract new customers and build loyalty with existing customers.

For existing customers, this could also mean they take part of the relevant content that creates additional sales by learning more about your offer, and is more expensive products/ services than they have done previously. The following are few tips to consider during content creation:

1. Working actively with texts

Use keywords in the title and preamble of all the pages. Also, include the keywords in the body, the much higher up it is in the text, the better it is for your ranking.

However, be careful not to use your keywords too much. Google may interpret your site as a nonsense page which is only trying to attract traffic and you go down in search results. A rule of thumb is that your content should feel natural and interesting. Which of course is also important for your visitors.

2. Do not forget your photos!

Rename even your photos with your relevant keywords. This will make it possible for search engines index them and you can get hit even in image search. If you have the opportunity to enter an alternative text for each image, do not let go of such an opportunity.

Step 3. Get visits and links from others

The most important thing for search engines is to deliver good and relevant results, remember that’s their primary business. Therefore, priority is given to websites that Search engines deems others rate high or think is good. An example is sites with links and many visitors who stay long to engage with the site. Therefore, this is really important to:

1. Make sure to get a lot of visits to the page

Ask family and friends to visit your website. Get the link or URL out there as often as possible, for example, you make a video, put it up on YouTube and the links there – but incorporate all the content on your site and link to it there.

2. Ask others to link to your site

Ask friends, business partners or customers to link to you, perhaps in exchange for a link back or share interesting tips in your field and let others get put up pieces of contents with a link to you.

3. Share your site on social media

Sharing your website and contents on social media (not forgetting Google+ Google for obvious reasons) is extremely important. It can provide visits to the website, more traffic, attention and higher rankings

4. Get visitors to share

Get others to share your site and contents on social media, using “share” buttons. AddThis is a one of the free tools allows you to instantly share or bookmark pages with one easy-to-use tool. AddThis can also get statistics on how much your content is shared.

Step 4. Revise the technical

Even how your site is built technically is important for your rankings. Here are some things you can do:

1. Use Google Webmaster Tools (Now Google Search Console)

The Google Search Console (aka Google webmaster) is an amazing tool which offers many tools that will aid you to thoroughly analyse your site. From this analysis, you can work on problem areas to make your site rank better on Search engines especially Google

2. Make Your Site Mobile Friendly,

With a good percentage of the world’s population owning mobile devices these days, it makes sense to make sure that your site is mobile friendly. Mobile users also expects good mobile experience when they visit site.

If your site is not mobile friendly, it may rank lower in searches from mobile phones. Google recently Google released a significant new mobile-friendly ranking algorithm that’s designed to give a boost to mobile-friendly pages in Google’s mobile search results, therefore you can’t go wrong with this offer.

3. Make sure the page is fast

A site that takes a long time to load will rank lower on search engines. Google has indicated in the past that site and page speeds is one of the signals used by its algorithm to rank pages.

Page speed is also important to user experience, the slower your site/page speed the more likely you will have high bounce rate and lower average time on your site. Some of the great tools which can help you with your site speed is Google Pagespeed Insights and GTmetrix. This are tools that empowers you to make decisions that increase the performance of your website.

Step 5. Use Web Analytics Tools

Use analytics to measure the outcome of your efforts or to determine which areas of your site are doing well. Google Analytics offers free and enterprise analytics tools to measure website, app, digital and offline data to gain customer insights.

Example: Google Analytics enables you to track the visitors to your store, and generates reports that will help you with your marketing.

Under the “acquisition” in Google Analytics select “all traffic” -> “Channels” -> “organic search” so you can under the “keyword” to see which keywords drive the most traffic and the “source” which search engine. Using Google webmaster tools, you have access to them in Google Analytics under “acquisitions” -> “search engine optimization”.

Step 6. Use Google AdWords

Business regardless of size, wants to be found on the first page of Google. Getting seen by customers at the exact time they are looking for your information, products, services, deals or location is intent marketing (marketing based on someone intending to find your products), and it’s profitable.

Many businesses use Google AdWords to archive these by creating highly effective advertising campaigns to market their products and services, drive traffic to their website, and ultimately, increase sales.

I hope this article has given you an in-depth view of keyword optimization and you find one or more of the above tips useful.

Search Engine Optimization – What Not To Look For

Have you received emails spam emails from people promising to increase traffic to your website by making you rank high in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages)? We get them all the time. As a matter of fact Google states they even get these unwanted solicitations. Here’s an example of an email Google received in the past:

“Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories…”

Funny huh? But how many people are responding to these ridiculous emails and spending lots of money with hopes that they can increase traffic to their website? What’s worse, many of these companies are actually able to brainwash their clients into thinking they really are benefitting! Companies that use these unethical business practices give the entire SEO (Search Engine Optimization) community a bad reputation.

Two Point Enterprise writes this article about what NOT to look for when shopping for SEO so that you may arm yourself to make an informed choice. We know of no better way to illustrate this article for you than to present a spam email we received from one of these rogue companies. Carefully read the email in the capture below, and then see our comments afterwards.

Click here to see a capture of the email

The subject of the email was “Do You Want Referrals from you Website?” (I guess they were in such a hurry to fire this email off they didn’t even take time to check the spelling.)

The first red flag is your receipt of the email in the first place! Check out Google’s Information for Webmasters and you’ll see that the very first thing they tell you is “Be wary of SEO firms that send you email out of the blue.”

The next thing the author of this spam email tries to do is make a feeble attempt of identifying themselves with real estate agents. Hence the words, “Location, Location, Location”. (Sorry partner, you ain’t jumping in bed with me.) Then they pay credit that you might already have a nice website, but if traffic could be increased could potentially drive millions of customers and billions of dollars to your website. They rule out pay-per-click services apparently without giving credit that real estate is actually one thing pay-per-click can work fairly well with, namely in large cities. Finally, as with all spam emails like this, they believe they have the solution you’ve been looking for!

We couldn’t help but chuckle a little at the next line where they increase the font size and announce, “It’s Here!!!! & Satisfaction is GUARANTEED!!!!!!!!” (One more exclamation point and I think everybody in the office might have wet their pants.) Seriously though Mr. Spam Email Author, what’s here? Is it SEO services with a perpetuating monthly fee to guarantee yourself recurrent income? I hate to crash the party, but SEO was around a long time before you registered your domain on September 24, 2004. And monthly fees were invented a long time ago too. I will give them a little credit for putting a guarantee on your satisfaction rather than your ranking. Rule #2 from Google is, “No one can guarantee #1 ranking.” They don’t tell you how they guarantee your satisfaction in the email though. I’d be surprised if it’s a 100% money back guarantee. I’ll bet they have it set up where they end up pocketing money some way or another. If they can brainwash you into thinking they are doing a good job they don’t have to give any money back.

The next thing this spam email does is make an attempt to establish credibility for themselves. They want you to go to a search engine and search for the massive, non-competitive five keyword phrase “neighborhood prospecting websites for realtors”. If the reader hasn’t deleted the email and flushed it through their recycle bin by now they’ll see that the company that sent this email currently ranks #1 for this search. We plugged the five word phrase into a Google AdWords campaign and put a bid of $5 on it. After submitting, Google automatically adjusted the price down to $0.02 (because that’s how much it’s worth), assigned it the top position on the page (because there is no competition for that phrase), and estimated that our cost per day for the phrase would be $0.00 (because nobody in the world would be searching for that). So big deal guys if you are the #1 result for “neighborhood prospecting websites for realtors”. That’s because nobody else wants it!

Now look down a little further and see what we have here! Well if it isn’t an intellectual property and trademark infringement against the search engines, Google, MSN, and Yahoo!. I’d be willing to bet that these search engines didn’t authorize any use of their registered trademarks. Also I don’t see any notice at the bottom identifying the rightful owners of the trademarks, nor do I see the author disclaim himself from any affiliation with these search engines. Subtle little images like this can mislead the reader into thinking some kind of special relationship, or affiliation, has been radified with the search engines. Google says “beware of SEOs that allege a ‘special relationship’ with Google”. My guess is that Google has no plans of entering into some sort of strategic partnership with these whiz kids any time soon.

Next we have the sign-up button where we can make our monthly donation to these people. How thoughtful of them to make the button so nice and big. We don’t want to miss when we try to click it with our mouse!

At the very bottom they try to stay with the rules and offer you and itsy bitsy link to opt out of future emails from them. Unless they are conpensating you, why should you have to take time out of your day to opt out of this email you didn’t ask for in the first place? Good luck with that, by the way. Two weeks ago we received this email and we asked them to stop sending us spam. They replied and told us we received it because we signed up for something, which we know damn well we didn’t. However, we cut them some slack and dismissed it. Then on 3-2-2006 we received this same email again after we told them 2 weeks before to stop emailing us!

Hope you enjoyed the article! Good luck with your SEO!

Changes We Are Going to Experience in the SEO World in 2017

“A year can change a lot” – something very truly said. And when it comes to a world where change is occurring every other minute we need to scrutinize and review what all things needs to be addressed in order to keep moving. The world of SEO continues to change at lightning speed. SEO value is increasing everyday so there’s a high demand to figure out and rethink optimization strategies. For better optimization of strategies we need to be aware of the changes we are going to encounter in the coming time. Here are some important changes that we’ll be experiencing some time soon:

MOBILE SCREEN OPTIMIZATION

We have entered in the third screen world. The first screen involved big room size computers fashioned by Charles Babbage in 1990’s, then came in desktop screens, what we refer to as Personal computers (PCs) and now we have entered into the world where we opt for mbile phone screens for anything and everything and all this proactively works for creating a new Mobile ecosystem. So this requires to kick off on creating responsive mobile websites.

Statistical data and Facts:

• 95% smartphone users put location-based site links.

• Huge traffic can be drawn to mobile friendly sites as more than 1.5 billion users use mobiles instead of any other screen.

• A good UI (user interface) the engages good amount of prospect’s for longer period of time.

• 15% of all Internet traffic is mobile traffic, globally. (Source: Newtarget. com)

• 70% online action within an hour comes from Mobile searches. (Source: Socialmediatoday. com)

Social Media

SEO usually puts all the keywords people and more specifically targeted audience are inquiring for. Your audience is no longer in one place. People use other mediums to communicate their requirements, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Discussion panels or forums such as Yahoo answers, Quora etc. and directly browse on web, now the trend has changed and is more on phones. Keeping this in mind, plenty of brands has grown mobile-friendly in 2015. Social media is all about building a brand and spreading awareness about the prospects. To increase your ranking in Google search you need to have good reputation on social media that implies good network and active presence on social sites. That acts as a helping hand in having a great SEO rank.

Becoming more available or Real time is the key i. e. Audio Input to Search is a preferred mode

Nowadays, people prefer audio search instead of typing keywords for search just because of its convenience factor, specially when someone is driving or is engaged in multitasking. Almost all mobile devices have a voice search function. With audio search having so much of appealing power, most of the software companies, nowadays, focuses on audio search interface. Some like Microsoft, Google, and Apple have launched their own versions of advanced voice-responsive assistants – Cortana, Google Now and Siri, respectively. Even ‘Domino’s Pizza’ has a ‘voice-ordering feature. Allo, Whatsapp, and many more. However,

1. Long tail Keywords: When people carrying out with audio search they are more likely to ask questions like why to…? How to? When to? etc. these sentences come under long tail keywords category.

2. Know your Prospects: It’s always beneficial to use those keywords your target audience is searching for. Hence being aware of the keywords and usage of long tail keywords is a gateway to success and in real time could be an added advantage to it.

BACKLINKING AND INTERNAL LINKING IS ALWAYS IN

Backlinking or internal linking shall help you in engaging the right prospect who has come to your website. It’s not a new SEO technique but a very important one to keep the customer engaged once he has shown his interest.

INFOGRAPHICS:

1. USE ANIMATED DATA instead of text content: Content having animation pictures with tag lines is more likely to be preferred over text as its more user engaging.

2. USE SLIDER INSTEAD OF TEXT CONTENT: A Slider is considered to be a quick way to deliver an overview about a website to the visitors and in a more effective manner than just an image. Helps user to understand without putting in much effort.

3. SMALL VIDEO: A website named http://www.vimeo.com/ and many others help you create and share videos that furnishes and delivers your content in a more effective manner. Small videos would be like cherry on the cake.

Add Admob In Digital Marketer in their curriculum

Grow your business

Cross-platform capability

AdMob can be used with all types of platforms such as Android and iOS, windows etc.

Auto updates on Google Play

AdMob’s integration with Google Play provides preferred auto updates for better performance without additional SDK changes.

Smarter Monetization through mobile phones

• Earn more

Output of your effort is what matters to a Marketer the most. Admob helps to increase your earning, exponentially, if you do it right. Enable ad network optimization to earn good from CPM stack in real time.

• Promote your apps for free

Cross-sell your or your friend’s app or other apps to your users is now attainable.

• Direct deals

Run your own manipulated adds with right negotiation and advertisement through

AdMob Campaigns.

Easy automation

Its available free of cost and paid option are totally automated following your country specification details.

Link your AdMob app(s) to your database and start making smarter decisions about your business. Gain insights into your Android and iOS apps with Analytics.

YES! It’s that time already to start preparing our digital strategies for 2017.

Why I Love Using Door Hangers In My Mortgage Business

Everyday we go through 100’s of doors without even thinking about it. How would you like to be able to make people stop and take notice of your mortgage marketing message?

The answer is “Door Hangers” or if you prefer “Door Knob Hangers.”

If you’re like me, you probably love to close a mortgage using a low cost origination idea. Door hangers definitely fit in that category and are a great originating tool.

Here are a few of the advantages of using door hangers:

1. They’re inexpensive,

2. They’re easy to generate,

3. The response is almost immediate,

4. They help you establish a farming area,

5. They can be targeted to a specific market,

6. Somebody is going to get a lot of good exercise.

As noted above…There’s lots of very good reasons why you would want to work the door hanger idea into your marketing plan. But, here’s the most important reason of all: You’ll receive an immediate response using door hangers. If you’re new to the mortgage business…this is exactly what you want…you want prospects now…not next week, not next month, and certainly not next year.

If you’re an old hand with mortgages but experiencing a little lull in your business…this provides a quick jump-start to find some new prospects.

And, remember…this is low cost mortgage origination that you can do immediately. If you need business…and, won’t incorporate this idea…I really can’t help you…you have other issues that need to be addressed immediately.

I’m sure you realize that door hangers are meant to be used as one shot effort to gain prospects. There’s no follow-up because there’s no contact information. Only when your mortgage prospect calls you is this the beginning of any kind of two-way communication. Door hangers are meant to get your message out there quickly, efficiently, cheaply, and in great quantity.

So…your door hangers are delivered. What’s next and what can you expect?

First, you’ll hopefully get immediate calls. In fact, unless you’re prepared to gather information while you’re delivering; you may need to shut off your phone for an hour until it’s convenient for you to return the call.

Second, you may run across people willing to carry on a conversation with you right then and there. Just be prepared for that.

Third, the life span of your door hanger is short, usually, three or four days at the very most. This is an immediate response idea with no long term residual value.

Fourth, your response numbers will approximate the response rate of direct mail without the associated costs. Expect about a one to two percent response.

Fifth, you will get complaints. Don’t worry about it; just be aware you’ll get them. You’ll find they fall into two categories, both of which revolve around that little sign posted at the entrance of the complex where you placed your door hangers. It reads: “No Soliciting,” or something similar.

You may get a call from a resident that you are in fact soliciting. Apologize profusely and move on. Your response is: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend…I’ve done many refinances in the community and everyone is very well pleased…I do provide a valuable service for your community.”

If you just attacked a rental community…you will get a call from a not-so-happy Property Manager. If you don’t get that call; they’re not doing their job. So, expect the call and be prepared.

They will call you and threaten to contact either the Sheriff or the local Police. Here’s your response: “I’m sorry…I didn’t realize…it won’t happen again I can assure you.” Be humble and apologetic and diffuse the situation.

Just so you know…I not aware of any folks in the mortgage industry serving jail terms for violating that little posted sign. This is not an offense that puts you in mortgage jail, believe me.

In the case of a rental community, I usually wait a year and then do it again. You can always blame your staff (even though you don’t have one). the next time…but, chances are there will be a new Property Manager to holler at you instead. They turn-over at about the same rate that rental units do.

OK back to basics…Let’s pick a target for your door hangers. It may be a rental community, a residential area of single family homes, condos, or townhouses. Obviously, If your door hangers are geared towards rentals, your a theme can be “Renting is hazardous to their wealth,” or something similar to that.

For residences, a refinance flier with a free report is always a good choice. In both cases, give them a reason to call you now…give something that is free if they respond.

Personally, I prefer to deliver my door hangers to rental communities, townhouses and condos versus neighborhoods with single family homes. Why? Because, I can deliver a huge number of fliers in a very short period of time.

I also like to deliver them on Saturday morning. You can either count this as your exercise time or hire a couple of kids to place them on doors in a particular neighborhood. If you hire kids…do get the parents permission and supervise the placement of the door hangers.

You can buy blank door hangers that are already perforated and print them yourself. Here are a few sources you can review or use Google search if you prefer. You’ll have lots of choices.

paper.com/index.html – Use their search box and type in “door hangers.” Their 3-up door hanger on 8.5″ X 11″ comes in a 250 sheet pack (750 door hangers) for $33.08 plus S&H.

pcform.com/doorhanger.asp – Their 3-up in a 250 sheet pack (750 door hangers) is

priced at $45.00, 1500 door hangers for $72.00 etc.

kwiktickets.com/updh_3up1.html – Their 3-up package is 333 sheets per pack. 1 pack equals 1000 door hangers for $28.00. Available in white, green, blue or, yellow.

You can also make your own using a full page letter size flier.

First…layout a good flier on yellow letter size paper. Use the entire page. If you’re targeting a residential neighborhood…use a refinance theme like “Don’t Miss the Boat, Rates Have Never Been Lower.” If it’s a rental community…”Renting is Hazardous to Your Wealth” is a good one to use.

Second…let’s take that full page flier and turn it into a door hanger.

Fold the flier just as though you are going to put it in an envelope…in thirds. The secret here is to fold your flier with the printing on the outside so that even when it’s folded…the first third is visible and readable.

Third…while folded…punch a single centered hole in one end and loop a rubber band through it for hanging. You’re done…so simple…so quick…and, so very inexpensive. Now…Let’s get them delivered.

Keep this little origination gem in the back of your mind…there’s lots of door knobs out there that need door hangers.

To Learn About SEO, Think of Your ABCs

I am often asked what SEO is, what it isn’t, and what’s one thing my clients can do to help their SEO. As you will see Search Engine Optimization is not just one thing that will or won’t keep your site from reaching the coveted first page of Google. I’ll try to cover a good deal of what contributes to a site’s Search Engine Optimization.

Ascertain competitors inbound links

Often by researching your competitors, you can find where their inbound links are coming from and, advertise/promote yourself at those exact links if applicable. While you are at their site, check out their keywords – you can maybe get ideas as to what keywords/phrases they are using that you may not have considered.

Blog

I can’t say enough about blogs and the effectiveness of blogging! They offer credibility to your site and your knowledge of your product/service/industry, they let your customer know you care enough to share this information with them, they promote two-way conversation by allowing visitor comments; then you comment on their comments, they allow for more opportunities for your website/keywords to be found.

Content

* Body text, titles and headings (using appropriate CSS tags) and body copy should support and reiterate rich keywords, and be unique to each page

* Bold keywords within the body copy

* Sites containing less than 2,500 words can be penalized by search engines

* Utilize keywords in your H1 text (Headings)

Domain Name

Purchase your domain name for long periods of time. Search engines see that as a stable, notable site. Many spam or adult sites are “here today, gone tomorrow” and are therefore not ranked as high with search engines.

Also, a domain name with a name bearing your industry is much more effective. For example: instead of choosing “JoesStore.com”, select “JoesShoes.com” This is much more descriptive for the search engines. The downfall of this is that many good domain names are often hard to find or come with a high price tag and sometimes you are left with something that isn’t your first choice.

Email Marketing

Each time I send out an email marketing campaign, I receive calls from customers. Not just one call, but several – mostly that same day! Talk about great return on investment! This is because when you deliver an effective email campaign, you are keeping that communication open with your clients and reminding them that you are there for them. But probably the most important feature of email marketing is getting clients to “hit” your site. Link articles and other important information back to the pages on your site.

Feeds

RSS Feeds are quickly becoming an industry standard for potential clients to subscribe to your blog and being notified when new content is posted. Feeds bring more hits back to your site as well.

Google

The name is synonymous with web ingenuity.

* Use Google Analytics to check visitor trending such as, keyword usage and adjust accordingly. Check ROI immediately by seeing visitors coming from referring sites, create a traffic funnel for how you want clients to navigate through your site, and MUCH more.

* Create a free Google Local Ad

* Google Webmaster Tools are a great way to see how often your site is being indexed, if a Sitemap has been uploaded, number of inbound links and more.

Honor thy Press Release…

by submitting them to PR Directories. Worthwhile news can be shared with others and offer more opportunities for inbound linking and others to find your site.

Indexing

In order for your site to rank well in search results pages, it’s important to make sure that Google can crawl and index your site correctly. Uploading a Sitemap (not a visitor site map) to Google and Yahoo is particularly helpful.

Just say no to SEO killers

* Don’t use Flash, frames or DHTML on your site

* Don’t use images on your site for navigation, buttons or important information – search engines can’t “see” images.

* Don’t use tables on your site

* Too many graphics, not enough content

Keyword Analysis

Focus on high-traffic, highly-relevant keywords. Give the search engines a few days to access your content and re-check your ranking based upon this. Tweek and refine as needed.

Links

* Make sure links are representative of what they pertain to, as search engines pick up on links as being an important part of your site. For example, a link to a continuation of an article, instead of click “here” to read that article. Say something which is more descriptive for the search engine spiders to read, have it say “building valid links.”

* Periodically check for non-functioning or broken internal and external links. There are many free link checkers out there.

* Keeping the number of links per page under 100.

* Don’t belong to a weblink or link ring. They don’t work.

Meta Content

* Include meta-tags and keywords relative to page content

* Titles and headings should support and reiterate keywords, and be unique to each page.

* Don’t leave out or duplicate the title, description or keywords as search engines rely on these to “read” unique content on your site.The title is one of the most important things that Google and other search engines utilize when evaluating page content.

* Keep descriptions, title and keywords to the specs below as specified by major search engines:

Title: max 70 characters

Description: no more than 150 characters

Keywords: 10 words/phrases per page is a good amount

Newness

Search engines are increasingly considering the age the site and how long the domain is registered for. To help this, register your domain for as long as you can (to let search engines know you plan on sticking around) and get an aggressive SEO program in place.

On-Page SEO, Off-Page SEO

On-Page SEO pertains to the actual content (keywords, meta information, to increase searches) in/on the website. Approximately 25% of visits are based on this content.

Off-Page SEO pertains to driving traffic to site through linking (via social media, RSS reeds, directories, etc). Approximately 75% of visits are based on (inbound) links.

Page Rank

Google ranks websites based on how “valuable” a website is. Google relies upon the nature of the web and its vast linking structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value.

Having a higher page rank equates to higher probability of being at the top of searches. Links are the basis for page rank – those sites that are less known is because they aren’t as important and have few people linking to them. Those sites with thousands of inbound links, Google sees as being a worthwhile site.

Quantity of Inbound Links

Don’t fall prey to the link networks, or link webrings; nor ever pay anyone that promises to bring you links.

Repeat Visits (encourage)

# Use at least one conversion form to get leads (keep the form short and sweet)

# Increase hits back to your site by doing regular email/eNewsletter marketing campaigns

# Add a “bookmark this page” to your site so customers can easily come back

# Add an “email this page to a friend” link to your site

# Your website address should be printed on all business and marketing items, and also your email signature

# Start a blog – this helps in many ways: keeps the communication open between you and your visitors if you allow comments, search engines will index (and rank) your site higher when you keep uploading new content, shows potential customers that you care about their interests, offers more opportunity for search engines (and customers) to find you.

# Email marketing with links back to articles continued at your site.

# Keep a “running article” going on the site. For example, I have an article that is kept current with upcoming contests for designers and photographers. It’s a great way to get repeat visits.

Submit articles to directories and bookmarking sites

This ensures your website carries an extensive web presence outside of your own website. Furthermore it will allow more opportunities for prospects to find your company by adding greater visibility for your business.

Twitter, Technorati and the entire Social Media realm

Social media, Bookmarking, Article Submissions, Social Networking can and should be utilized to its maximum potential to market your business.

URL

Put keywords or phrases in the URL via the folder/directory structure or the HTML page name. Again, this offers more opportunities for search engines finding keywords.

Be sure to print your URL on ALL marketing materials you have (business cards, signage, brochures, etc), and in your email signature – MANY people use this link.

Valid or Quality Links

The more quality inbound links you have coming to your site, the higher your Google page rank will be.

Writing on forums, Q&A’s and other blogs

Many people will click on a forum signature in response to someone’s question. Be sure to take this opportunity when posting to well traveled forums, blogs and Q&A forums to have a “signature” that states your name and URL to your business.

XHTML

Utilizing such technologies as XHTML, CSS and PHP, ensures less page errors, faster loading times for your visitors and also eliminate the need for tables which can cause problems with search engines and accessibility.

XHTML limits the code size naturally and you end up with being simple to crawl for Google and other bots.

Yahoo, Google, MSN – Submit your URL

Though Google boasts the most searches per day, Yahoo! and MSN are also very well traveled. Regularly check your standing in popular search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) using keywords potential clients would be using to find your site.

Zap Spam – simple web guidelines from Google:

* Don’t hide keywords on your pages or use too many in the metatags; search engines can see this as a potential spam website and won’t index it.

* Don’t use hidden text or hidden links

* Don’t load pages with irrelevant keywords

* Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains or domains with duplicate content

* Don’t use doorway pages.

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The Four Steps In Your Ultimate Niche Finding Formula Give You the Product That Sells!

This article describes Tools For Marketing: specifically, the four steps in your ultimate niche finding formula that give you the product that sells!

One thing I want to emphasize right up front is this: having a niche is a good thing because it gets you to focus on one thing, and thus you can get very good at it. Main reasons people fail to be successful in the internet business are luck of having a plan, a direction, and a focused point. Therefore, having a focused point, a niche, can allow you to combine several related interests into something that is unique and solves a particular problem. In the end, having a focus and an overall goal, i.e., a niche, will make you more successful and bring you more money, long-term.

Finding your niche and the right products to promote requires a methodic way of searching for value, volume and high profit potential. The whole process has to be done right from the beginning. That is why you need a winning formula you can follow, step-by-step, from the beginning to the end. We will therefore start with the basic niche finding – niche getting – niche winning formula that you have to follow, your blueprint if you wish, that will get you results…

Below are the four steps of your ultimate niche finding formula that will maximize the potential success of your efforts to accomplish this task. They are derived from your personal interest on a topic which denotes your passion for that topic, your knowledge about the competition – because you need to know the size of the market, and your ability to do market research to find out the demand for your niche (are people out there looking for products within your niche).

1. Brainstorming a list of potential niches. As a rule, this is the first thing you need to do to determine if there has been enough interest in the market for a particular niche. The idea here is that if there is enough interest out there for a particular topic, people would have written books about it. Dummies.com is a good place to start.

2. Discover the search volume for this niche. This is the second step towards finding a profit making niche. Here is what to do: use the Google keyword tool (you can find this by Googling for it), then search for the keywords of the topic of interest – look for keywords with a very high number of global searches – 100,000, 500,000, etc. You do not want to be in the 25 million range as this niche is bound to be too competitive and therefore hard to make money with it.

3. Determine competition. In this step you want to make sure that there is a small number of paying vendors out there – paying for ads – which means they are making money. You do a Google search for key words of interest and see the number of competitors on the right hand side of Google’s web pages; must have at least 5-7 competitors.

4. Determine if there are existing affiliate products in your niche. Once you have determined that there is a niche for you out there, and enough people are searching for products in this niche, and there is some competition for that niche, meaning people are making money in this niche, then you need to look for products to promote. You do this as follows: log on to ClickBank.com – one of the biggest depositories of affiliate products, and click on “Marketplace”. Search for your keywords related to tour niche – and see if there are enough products for you to promote and sell.

There you have it. The four basic steps to find your niche, find a product for your niche, and sell it for profit!

Top 10 Traffic Strategies For New Bloggers

Nowadays competition is stiff in almost any niche! If you’re a new blogger you really can’t expect to become world famous quickly or just because you blog regularly.

As a new blogger you need to know that people are not watching everything you do. Some people don’t even care and most aren’t aware of you or your business.

This is why so many new bloggers are struggling with traffic. Don’t live in a bubble, take action and change your situation.

A good way to start is to build traffic the right way. Follow these 10 Traffic Strategies and start driving traffic to your site today!

Traffic Strategy #1 Distribute Viral eBooks for New Bloggers

New Bloggers creating an eBook that you write and produce once can drive traffic to your site for a very long time. How you ask? By putting your name, website address and email or phone number on each page.

Pick a topic that your readers would happily pay for. Then write the eBook and then give it away for FREE! Yes, I said FREE! Have the topic relate to what you are doing, what your website is about. Tell people who get your eBook to share it with their friends, share it with everyone they know.

Remember all of your contact information is listed on each page of your eBook. This will bring traffic to your website. People will want to see what else you have to share with them. They will come to your site because they received this great eBook from you for FREE!

Traffic Strategy #2 Self Promotion for New Bloggers

There are so many little things that new bloggers can do to help promote you that many can be overlooked. Everything you can do to promote you, you can also use to promote your website which is better.

Keep in mind you may not be able to drive large amounts of traffic with these methods, you just never know what will happen with those handful of visitors.

Add a link to your website in your email, share links to your posts and of course your business cards are just a few ways to self-promote you and your website.

Traffic Strategy #3 Quality Content for New Bloggers

Now as a new blogger you may think that quality content has nothing to do with getting traffic to your website. The impact of quality content can be very substantial.

Visitors come to your website to find out what you have to offer and read your information. If they like what you have, what they read, the will subscribe to your RSS feed, sign up for your newsletter and of course tell their friends about your great website/blog.

Remember content is king! Blogs are a fantastic tool for creating quality content on a regular basis. Each time your add a post you increase your blog content which is turns is creating a smorgasbord of relevant content that Google and other search engines really love!

Traffic Strategy #4 Article Marketing for New Bloggers

As a new blogger you may think why do I need to write article? I’ve been told article marketing no longer works! There are far too many articles out there, what could I possibly have to say that hasn’t already been said before?

I personally use article marketing to drive traffic to my website, to increase the visitors to my website/blog. Some of them (the visitors) will turn into customers/clients. The time spent writing and promoting the articles is time well spent.

New Bloggers article marketing will continue to work as long as people need information. Think…how you can as a new blogger fit in by contributing that information…into articles.

Article marketing is one of my favorite traffic strategies which does not take months to see results. You can start to generate traffic within days. Write articles that are targeted to your market, your niche. Submit your articles to the top 5 to 10 article sites including your name and website url.

Traffic Strategy #5 Social Networking for New Bloggers

Social Networking sites are popping up everywhere. You can join groups of like-minded people that are bloggers or entrepreneurs.

As new bloggers don’t let all the social networking sites overwhelm you! A few of the top sites to join are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Start with these first and then add more later when you get comfortable.

As a new blogger it is important to remember is start with your profile, invite your friends and start connecting with likeminded people.

You have a website/blog it is important to not only create a personal Facebook page; you also need a Fan Page for your business. Facebook Fan Pages are really starting to take off as a method of traffic generation for your website/blog.

Keep in mind start with a couple social networking sites…get to know them, how they work etc. Get really good with those networks before joining more. Quality time is more important than quantity. As new bloggers joining a ton of social networks and not participating will not generate traffic. You will feel overwhelmed and just give up.

Social Networking only works if you participate regularly…Relationshipping with people. This is a relationship building business.

Traffic Strategy #6 SEO and Keywords for New Bloggers

What you write whether articles or content for our website/blog you need to use relevant keywords. A keyword density of 3-8% is a good target for getting higher page rankings in Google and other search engines.

Research your keywords to find the most popular words used in the search engines for you target market, your niche. Use tags and keywords in your posts will help you move up in the search engines.

All photos and also add an alt tag using your keywords helps in the search engines.

As you write your posts you want to optimize your pages for both your human readers as well as search engines. Some say that if you make it work and rank for your keywords that your website/blog will be a search engine magnet.

You can write naturally and the search engines will notice if you know which keywords to target. Search engines do need time to work so don’t expect instant results.

Traffic Strategy #7 Social Bookmarking for New Bloggers

Being a new blogger you may be wondering what is Social Bookmarking?

How do I use Social Bookmarking?

What do I Social Bookmark?

With Social Bookmarking you submit your posts to the top social bookmarking sites. This allows others who are members of those sites to visit your website/blog. Taking this time to submit your posts to social bookmarking is a simple way to quickly boost traffic to your website/blog.

Social Bookmarking is all about people sharing their posts or posts that interest them at your website/blog. In other words your visitors if they like your posts they can also bookmark your posts…they can share with others through social bookmarking.

Put a plugin on your website/blog to the top social bookmarking sites, this will help your visitors to bookmark your posts or pages quickly and easily.

WordPress has several different social bookmarking plugins to use…one favorite is Sexy Bookmarks. Sexy Bookmarks has several of the top site to pick from. Add this plugin to your posts and pages and make it easy for your visitor to bookmark your website/blog.

Traffic Strategy #8 Document Sharing for New Bloggers

New Bloggers every document, article, post that you write is by my definition a marketing document. These documents present an image of your business, your website/blog.

It’s important to reuse your articles and posts…turn them into PDF’s and upload them to the top 10 to 15 document sharing sites. Why you may ask?

The reason is the top document sharing sites have thousands of people visiting daily, looking and reading and finding your articles and will in turn visit your website/blog for more information.

Each article needs to have your contact information, your name, your website/blog url. Set up your profile at each of the document sharing site with your website/blog url as well.

What you are doing is creating backlinks to your website/blog and generating traffic.

Sharing information is what they internet is all about. Document sharing sites are a boom and a great way to generate FREE traffic to your website/blog. Be creative add pictures, increase the font size of your header and add color to your articles before you turn them into PDF’s.

Traffic Strategy #9 Video Marketing for New Bloggers

Listen up new bloggers Google and other search engines love videos! Video on your website is becoming more and more an effective method to help continue to grow your business, your online presence.

Here’s some trivia. A school of business stated a well-produced video increases information retention by 50% and it also speeds up buying decisions by 72% over a printed brochure.

Video marketing is quickly becoming the medium for branding and online communications. This is an important traffic strategy that you need to incorporate into your business put on your website/blog.

The most popular video marketing websites is YouTube which is owned by Google! See why Google loves videos?

Produce your quality videos; upload to YouTube plus at least 10 to 15 other top video marketing sharing sites and of course your website/blog. Always making sure your website/blog url is listed in your video. You want to send people back to your website/blog. This is also creating quality backlinks to your website/blog and this is generating free traffic.

Traffic Strategy #10 Syndicate Your Blog for New Bloggers

Setting up an RSS feed and putting a button on your website/blog makes it easy for you visitors to read your blog each time you publish new content.

As a new blogger it’s important to give your visitors ways to know you’ve added new content. You don’t want to rely on people’s memory, to remember where your website/blog is located. To remember to come back now to your website/blog; then to visit and see if you have add new content or not, everyone is busy so give them a way to remember!

For new bloggers and all bloggers who are growing a business online, making money by selling products or services, visitors are important and returning visitor the lifeline of your business.

Setting up an RSS feed for you website/blog is very quick and easy and another avenue for generating FREE traffic to you website/blog.

Conclusion to Traffic Strategies for New Bloggers

I want you as new bloggers to know that there are several more ways to promote your website/blog, to generate more traffic than what was mentioned in this article. It is just a matter of creativity and diligence.

Some traffic strategy methods work better than others. Some traffic strategies sources will send and generate more traffic for you website/blog.

Remember all traffic strategies take time don’t expect overnight riches or millions of visitors. Consistency is important, don’t just do each of these traffic strategies once or partially and expect tons of traffic. You will see traffic and it will continue to increase as long as you continue to follow the traffic strategies you put into place.

Regular traffic to your website/blog will continue and will increase if you as new bloggers continue adding new quality content to your website/blog and if you consistently continue these and other traffic strategies. I know I said that before but it is worth repeating.

Do I Need Responsive Web Design for My Website?

The term “responsive web design” refers to websites that change and adapt their appearance for optimum viewing on all screen sizes, tablets, smartphones, ipods, kindles along with desktop and laptop computer screens. Occasionally, in the digital arts industry, it is called “fluid design”, “adaptive website design” or “RWD”. Unresponsive websites do not change to fit different screen sizes, which means they can be difficult to navigate and look at on smaller devices.

Desktop sales have been surpassed by mobile sales already, and most digital media education sources predict that mobile web use will overtake desktop use by 2014. Hence, it only seems logical that desktop search will be overtaken by mobile search soon as well. Sixty percent of web users say that they would be more inclined to buy from mobile optimized websites. Therefore, businesses that depend on SEO would have a lot of sense to start making the move towards mobile friendly sites, and responsive site designs specifically. Especially as the new Google algorithm updates now frown upon separate mobile only sites. Such as those with a.mobi in the url. More and more, new websites are built using responsive design methods to eradicate the requirement for standalone mobile websites. Also, this decision dramatically improves the user experience. This leads to more customer interaction and sales, as prospective customers are not alienated by tiny text and difficult navigation.

To make responsive designs work, a media query is used to determine the screen size that the site is being accessed from. The script can detect all devices, whether they are tablets, laptops or smartphones. Then, it uses CSS to show the website in a suitable format. Images can be re-sized accordingly to fit on screens that are smaller. The text is made bigger and the menus can switch to a variety of different dropdown formats, as opposed to the mostly standard horizontal display.

The benefits of using this kind of design, compared to setting up a mobile version of your website that is completely separate from your original site, are obvious. Whenever you update your website, it will updated for every device and display correctly on every screen. You only have to update in one location, where with a separate mobile site would require a separate location requiring updating as well. Often, your websites will be accessed from a tablet. If you have a two separate sites, a mobile and a desktop version, it is anybodies guess which version of the site tablet users will be seeing. With responsive design you get to control (mostly) what every screen size will be viewing.

Several companies provide both fluid design and mobile design for websites. However, RWD methods are constantly improving, so there appears little point in having a standalone mobile website. The only time when you might want a separate site, would be if you prefer to advertise differently to laptop or desktop users, compared to how you would advertise

to mobile users. For instance, a fast food company might wish to target individuals on the go with an instant special offer, but display their upcoming promotions and menu to laptop users. Nonetheless, in many cases, a website will cater to all users in an identical manner, thus a responsive design is the preferred option.

In the fast approaching future, all websites should have responsive designs, as users will come to expect it. Therefore, in a couple of years, businesses that build unresponsive websites will have to pay for a new site to make up to their users the lack in their website. Consequently, before starting any new website design projects, it would be advisable to learn more about the cost and advantages of adaptive designs.

Top 20 Guidelines to Budget SEO

SEO has never been efficient to websites until now. Popular search engines seasonally change its algorithm to rank the indexed websites. Different types of guaranteed SEO services are offered by large SEO companies. Take a look at the tips below to budget SEO before signing a contract with an organic SEO company.

1. Pick the most correct keyword for your website. Make use of long tail keywords so that users will be able to get into your website for specific terms.

2. Make your primary keyword be inserted on the domain. Use hyphen to separate words.

3. For better SEO, use the secondary keywords in the subsections.

4. Search engine spiders don’t like web pages with syntax errors so validate your HTML and CSS.

5. Shorten your title at least 60 – 80 characters or 3 – 9 words. The primary keyword must be included in the title.

6. For headings, use the h1 tag. Put your keywords on the headings but it should not be exactly the same as the title.

7. Make your meta keywords at least 15 – 20 keywords or 101 characters. Even though not all search engines give importance, there’s no catch on doing it.

8. Include your keywords to the meta description for it will be seen on the search results.

9. Instead of using images or JavaScripts in the navigation menu, use text.

10. When creating hyperlinks make sure to use your target keywords for the anchor text.

11. Use alt attribute to images using the proper keywords. Alt attributes are readable to search engines and not the images.

12. You must submit a site map of your website so that all the web pages will be indexed and crawled.

13. Visitors will not wait if the size of a web page is below 50kb. In SEO, 15kb is the ideal size.

14. Don’t insert contents in flash, frame, images and JavaScript form for search engine crawlers cannot read those stuffs.

15. Don’t use dynamic URLs, use static URLs instead. Make your URL search engine friendly.

16. Keyword spamming, cloaking and other black hat techniques must be avoided.

17. Submit your website to major search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Ask only once.

18. Provide newsletter and RSS feeds for your website subscribers.

19. Try to write and submit articles related to your niche and then leave a link going to your website.

20. Build links to related websites. As the number of links increase, the chance of improving search engine ranking increments. In general, to be able to budget SEO, go for the natural method. If possible, go for an organic SEO company that will provide you guaranteed SEO service and long term results.

101 Ways To Mold Your Mind

If you’ve ever tried to break a bad habit, chances are you know that it can be frustrating and seem near impossible to change something about yourself. The problem typically resides within your mindset – your subconscious belief structure that automatically governs everything you think and do.

I have struggled with personal development for years, and have the benefit of hindsight when it comes to analyzing what has worked and what hasn’t. For those of you new to the idea of molding your mind, I sat down and hammered out this list of effective tactics to help create yourself in your own best image. Enjoy!

Conscious Change – For some people, the best way to initiate a major change is to start consciously – focusing on actively guiding your thoughts and controlling your beliefs until they become automatic.

  1. When nobody is around – shout out what you want to change about yourself, as if you’ve already done it. Be forceful and emphatic and make yourself believe it. The more powerful you say something, the more you will believe it. In time, you’ll truly feel like you have the power to create anything you want in your life.
  2. Do affirmations right before bed – your mind is receptive and sleeping will help you internalize the information you just fed yourself.
  3. To-do list with a twist – keep a to-do checklist with important tasks you need to get done for the day, but add a twist to the list by including how you want to do them. Incorporate personality dimensions you wish to instill in yourself and emulate them until they become a part of you.
  4. Do affirmations when you first wake up – again, be forceful and emphatic and soon enough you will want to hop out of bed to do them because you will feel great afterwards, and invigorated to start the day.
  5. Tell others about your goals and aspirations. It helps to be accountable for your successes and failures.
  6. Think of someone you care deeply about who you would like to improve for. A significant other or important family member who you feel deserves the best from you. Strive to be the best you can for yourself and for them.
  7. Think of someone who you can’t stand… who is always outperforming you or rubbing their successes in your face. Strive to be better than them in every way you feel is important. Sometimes competition can be an incredibly potent driving factor..
  8. Internalize your successes by focusing on completing small goals whenever possible. Giving yourself the occasional easy-to-do task and thinking about it like a real accomplishment can boost your perceived self efficacy and give you the added will power to tackle those hard to reach goals.
  9. Reward all progress in some way – no matter how small. Be smart about it (don’t binge eat to reward a successful diet week) but indulge in something you otherwise wouldn’t take the time out for. Whatever suits you best – just to have something mentally to look forward to the next round.
  10. Enter a competition when you’re clearly not ready. Train for something. Enter a marathon or triathlon, structure a competition with a friend or coworker – do whatever it takes to give yourself a concrete reason to succeed.
  11. Learn something new every day or week. Pick a random book on a topic unrelated to your education experience or work background. Encouraging the development of new mental models will help diversify your knowledge and expand your capacity for thought all around.
  12. Take a free online course in something you know nothing about. Expand your horizons. Check out MIT OpenCourseWare
  13. Write your affirmations out before or after you do them. It helps internalize them!
  14. Record your affirmations and play them back on your iPod whenever you can for background noise.
  15. Keep a “scrapbook” of images and stories related to people you look up to, things you want to accomplish or traits you want to develop in yourself. The simple act of thumbing through it every day for a minute or two can work wonders for your motivation.
  16. Read success stories. Learn what successful people go through to achieve their success. Internalize it. Look forward to writing your own success story (or if you’re really ambitious, look forward to having someone write it about you..!)
  17. Make a “quote board” with motivational quotes. A big poster will do – read them in your downtime for inspiration.
  18. Turn off the TV – do everything you can to phase out mind-numbing programming from your lifestyle.
  19. Ask “Did I make the most of this day?” every night before you go to sleep. Strive to answer a resounding YES to that question – but always be honest, or it is meaningless.
  20. Blog about your progress. Try to get a few readers – just having someone to be accountable to can help you keep your eye on the ball.
  21. Give yourself a big reward at the end of the tunnel – something like a trip or vacation to really excite you and keep you on the path to success.
  22. Try your best to stop yourself from using self defeating language or thoughts. Whenever something pops into mind, question it and extinguish it, and move onto something more positive.
  23. Meditate. Even 15 minutes a day can work wonders for your mind, and prevent frustration with the minutia of everyday life.
  24. Take periodic breaks from studying/working. Give yourself a five minute break every 18-20 minutes, and a 15 minute break every hour for longer sessions.
  25. Remind yourself that only you are in control of your destiny in life. Nobody else. You are more than powerful enough to handle everything that comes your way. Believe it and success is yours for the taking.
  26. Take action right now – stop yourself whenever you start using the “tomorrow” or “next week I will..” self-talk. Today is the deed.
  27. Model your behavior after someone. I have written about this at length on my blog. It can be a powerful tool for instilling positive traits within.

Concentration – Learning to master your ability to concentrate and focus on the task at hand can provide wonderful benefits in all aspects of life. These tips should help you accomplish just that, and prevent you from feeling overwhelmed or frustrated with your daily tasks or larger goals.

  1. The best time to concentrate is after reading something that is inspiring – as you’re filled with desire afterwards. Make this a habit before doing something you know needs to be done (but you don’t really want to do).
  2. Watch yourself during the day and make sure your muscles don’t get overly relaxed or strained.
  3. Get in the habit of taking deep, steady breaths instead of short, rapid ones. Think internally about how meaningful each breath is. Your steadier breathing will make for a more relaxing and productive disposition.
  4. When you decide to do something, eliminate all other tasks from your mind while you’re working. Thinking about other things while you’re working on something will only lead to frustration and poor quality of work. And by thinking about other things you could be doing, you prevent yourself from ever having the chance at achieving “flow” state.
  5. Turn off distractions when you work or study – no TV, cell phones, iPods, etc… The only truly effective distraction (don’t lie to yourself and tell yourself you need TV) is not really a distraction at all – classical music from the baroque period has been shown to facilitate concentration and learning, due to its 60 bpm tempo.
  6. Research shows that concentration works best in spans of about 18 minutes. Every 18 minutes, make sure to give yourself a little break (4-5 minutes) and return fresh and ready to push on when the break has passed. You’ll notice the differences right away.
  7. Exercising and eating right can work wonders for your ability to concentrate – more on this below…
  8. Prime your mind with the help of subliminal messages
  9. Get in the habit of “practicing concentration.” Like anything else, it is a skill which can be learned over time. Do a concentration exercise every day for five minutes or so and soon (be patient) you will see promising results. We’ve included some helpful exercises, courtesy of SuccessConsciousness.com below –
  10. Ex1: Take a book and count the words in any one paragraph. Count them again to be sure that you have counted them correctly. Start with one paragraph and when it becomes easier, count the words in a whole page. Perform the counting mentally and only with your eyes, without pointing your finger at each word.
  11. Ex2: Count backwards in your mind, from one hundred to one.
  12. Ex3: Count in your mind from one hundred to one, skipping each three numbers, that is 100, 97, 94, etc.
  13. Ex4: Choose an inspiring word, or just a simple sound, and repeat it silently in your mind for five minutes. When your mind can concentrate more easily, try to reach ten minutes of uninterrupted concentration.
  14. Ex5: Take a fruit, an apple for example, and look at it from all sides. Concentrate your attention on it and examine it from all sides. Devote the whole session to concentrating on it. Do not be carried away by irrelevant thoughts that arise. Stay with the apple. It could be any other fruit. Look at it and do not think about the shop where you bought it, about the way it is grown, its nutritive value etc, only about the object in front of you. Just look at it, see it, smell it and touch it.
  15. Ex6: This is the same as exercise number 5, only that this time you visualize the fruit with your eyes closed. Start by performing again exercise number 5 for five minutes, and then do this one. Try to see, feel, taste, smell the fruit in you imagination. Try to see a clear and well defined image. If difficulties arise open your eyes, look at the fruit, close them again and continue the exercise.
  16. Ex7: Take a small simple object such as a spoon, a fork, or a glass. Concentrate on one of these objects. Watch the object from all sides without any verbalization, that is, with no words in your mind. Just watch the object without thinking with words about it.
  17. Ex8: After becoming proficient in the above exercises, you can come to this exercise. Draw a small geometrical figure, about three inches in size, such as a triangle, a rectangular or a circle, paint it with any color you wish, and concentrate on it. You should see only the figure, nothing else. Only the figure exists for you now, with no unrelated thoughts or any distractions. Try not to think with words during the exercise. Watch the figure in front of you and that’s it. Try not to strain your eyes.
  18. Ex9: The same as number 8, only this time visualize the figure with the eyes closed. As before, if you forget how the figure looks like, open your eyes for a few seconds and watch the figure and then close your eyes and continue with the exercise.
  19. Ex10: The same as above in number 9 but the eyes open.
  20. Ex11: Try for at least five minutes, to stay without thoughts. This exercise is to be attempted only after all the previous ones have been performed successfully. The previous exercises, if practiced correctly, will endow you with the ability to impose silence on your thoughts. In time it will become easier and easier.
  21. Read “The Power of Concentration” by Theron Q. Dumont for inspiring prose and great additional exercises.

Subconscious Change – Sometimes accessing the power of your subconscious mind gives you the added boost you need to reach your goals and attain lasting personal change. These tips I have found most helpful and tend to make for interesting conversation as well!

  1. Record affirmations on your iPod (as in the previous tip) but play them back very quietly as you drift off to sleep. Use headphones if you are comfortable enough to fall asleep with them on. Leave the affirmations on repeat for the duration of your sleep.
  2. If you use your computer primarily for web browsing and don’t need to run memory intense programs, then subliminal messaging software might work for you. The programs flash your selected phrases on screen quickly to be absorbed by your subconscious but not your conscious mind.
  3. Select three to four videos from the Intelligent Warrior subliminal video series and watch them each in sequence, twice daily, for thirty days. You can find these powerful subliminal message videos available for download on my blog.
  4. Download free self-hypnosis software online and try it out until you find something that works for you.
  5. Google & YouTube often have interesting Self-Hypnosis videos. Find one you like. Bookmark it, and watch it until you see results in yourself.
  6. Select one video from the Intelligent Warrior series, and watch it 5 times daily for thirty days.
  7. Watch all seven videos in the Intelligent Warrior series back to back, once through each day, for thirty days.
  8. Use free audio editing software to insert your affirmations in the background of some of your favorite music. It works best with instrumentals, but can be applied elsewhere as well.

Environment – For some, it’s not so obvious that your environment can have profound effects on your mood and mentality. These quick tips can help you master your environment and master your mind in the process.

  1. De-clutter. de-clutter, de-clutter. I can’t say this one enough. Clutter in your environment leads subconsciously, and sometimes consciously, to clutter in your mind. It ignites frustration and prevents you from feeling free enough to work effectively at accomplishing your tasks.
  2. Use color in your workspace. Sure, lots of bright color may not always appear “professional,” but if you’re working at home, that’s no excuse. Use a variety of bright, bold colors to give your workspace a flare. Color is inspiring to the mind and will awaken your creative faculties without you even being aware of it. It works unexpected wonders – try it and see for yourself!
  3. Curves and circles are more inspiring and are more effective at activating the mind than are straight lines and squares. Where possible, incorporate curvilinear lines and odd organic shapes in your workspace – whether it be in actual design, the layout of your things, or something as simple as your schedules and to-do lists. Oddly enough, you’ll find that by doing this, and incorporating color, you will begin to naturally remember more of what goes on when you’re working.
  4. Leave yourself sticky-notes all over the place. Remind yourself not only of what you want to do, but how you want to do it. Remind yourself to be helpful and enthusiastic – sometimes just seeing the note will be all it takes to flip your bad mood on its side.
  5. Use natural light as much as possible. If you don’t have windows in your workspace, buy light bulbs that mimic the daylight spectrum. It provides less strain on your eyes, so you’ll be able to focus better without the frustration.
  6. Try out some feng shui.
  7. Put plants in your home office or workspace. Including plants will increase the oxygen levels of the room naturally, and provide a calming, organic feel to aid in relaxation when frustration starts to bubble up.
  8. Play background music – calming background music. Try classical music from the baroque period, that naturally facilitates learning and concentration.
  9. Use mirrors liberally – constantly “look in” on yourself to make sure you’re doing what you truly want to be doing, to guide yourself towards your goals.
  10. Include a LOT of motivational pictures or quotes around your workspace. Framed photos are not only a nice touch aesthetically, but they can be used to constantly remind yourself of what you’re working so hard to attain!
  11. Give your room a light color – don’t paint it anything dark or imposing. Dark colors will make the room feel small and bounded, and you’ll find yourself often frustrated quickly and easily, or slipping often into bad moods.

Fitness & Nutrition – While many people understand that good health is important, sometimes the additional benefits are overlooked. Maintaining good habits here can have profound effects on your self esteem and your overall mindset. Don’t believe me? Give it a 40 day test run and you’ll never look back…

  1. If you love something that’s bad for you – don’t eliminate it totally – just make sure to practice moderation. McDonald’s once or twice a month isn’t going to kill you. McDonald’s every day is.
  2. Work out, work out, work out! No matter where you are in life – thin/fat, young/old, depressed/happy – working out will elevate you to the next level. It’s no mystery. Try it and see for yourself. Don’t start and overwhelm yourself, but rather introduce a level of fitness that’s appropriate for where you’re starting off from. Gradually build on this base, and enjoy as you become healthier and happier.
  3. Eat chocolate! No, not Snickers bars or Reeses Pieces… but dark chocolate. Try Lindt’s 85% cocoa dark chocolate for a satisfying indulgence. Natural chocolate is actually good for you. It is filled with anandamides – chemical compounds found naturally in the body that elevate your mood. Great for a quick energy boost as well.
  4. Drink plenty of water – make sure you’re getting MORE than 8 cups a day if you want to truly see some results. If you’re not drinking enough now, it may be hard to adjust at first. But within a few days to a week, you’ll feel more energetic, less bloated, and ready to take on the world.
  5. Get your fruits and vegetables – MORE than five servings a day is optimal if you really want to see some effects. You’ll be loading up on good sugar (natural energy) and giving yourself the vitamins and nutrients you should have been getting all along. Remember – we didn’t get to where we are now by eating jelly donuts and breakfast-in-a-box. Eating natural is the right way to eat, and incorporating as much natural food into your diet as possible will provide enormous rewards in the short and long run.
  6. Get up and go running in the morning. If you can’t run, walk. Do something that gets your heart pumping and the blood flowing early on. It will be great for your mood throughout the day (thanks to the natural release of endorphins), and chances are you’ll find yourself better able to concentrate and focus right from the start.
  7. Take fish oil pills to provide your body with good fats. Take more than the recommended dosage to get the best effect. Remember – they’re just fatty oils, and good fats at that, so you can’t go wrong by loading up. Your heart, and your brain, will thank you day after day (by working better for you!).
  8. Have sex. Lots of it. If you have no one to have sex with, practice the other 100 tips. You’ll likely then be irresistible to the opposite sex and have no problem with this one.
  9. Take a Gingko Biloba supplement to boost your memory naturally and effectively.
  10. Stretch in the morning – stretching will help you naturally feel good and feeling comfortable in your skin will work wonders for your mindset.
  11. Eat lots of fish. Fish oil is great for your brain and your heart. You’ll feel better and be able to concentrate better in no time.
  12. Work out by lifting weights. Give yourself at least 6 weeks to see any results at all – but once your body begins to take shape you’ll start to love the way you look and feel. Your confidence will shoot through the roof and before you know it you’ll be itching to head to the gym. It’s tough at first to overcome the soreness and “out of place” feeling, but it passes quickly – I promise!

Appearance – Not surprisingly, changing your appearance can work wonders on your mentality as well. If you aren’t 100% comfortable in your skin, ask yourself “why?” Be honest. Work through it – the rewards are invaluable… self esteem is priceless.

  1. Get your hair done. Not just girls, but guys too. Make sure you’re well groomed and looking your best. Clean, well styled hair is one of the first things people notice about others.
  2. Be nice to your skin – take care to eliminate cuts, bruises, acne, etc… The products that help for skin are countless, but the best start is proper nutrition.
  3. Keep your body hair well groomed – shave and keep trimmed. Even if nobody else notices, you will – and you’ll feel better about yourself for it.
  4. Maintain a healthy complexion – a nice, healthy tan. If you’re uncomfortable with tanning beds or being in the sun too long, try a Dove “Natural Glow” product. They work well and don’t give you the orange look, but rather the healthy, natural complexion you want. Proper nutrition will give you a natural glow over time, as well.
  5. Dress to impress.
  6. Pay attention to detail in your wardrobe and your grooming. Your attention will get noticed, people will be impressed.
  7. Buy at least one REALLY nice suit or business outfit to wear when meeting potential clients or partners for the first time. You deserve to feel as good and as confident as you’ll look.
  8. Get a manicure – yes, guys too. When your hands are well groomed you will feel more confident about yourself around others – guaranteed.
  9. Work on your posture – stand up straight and tall (just like your mother told you). You’ll look more confident, and soon enough you’ll feel more confident too.
  10. When in doubt, overdress. Dressing up helps you feel good, especially when you take the tips in the Fitness/Nutrition topic to heart and develop an attractive, physically fit body as well.
  11. Practice projecting your voice. Whenever you find yourself home alone, read things aloud as if you were delivering a speech. Focus on annunciation and emphasis where appropriate. Soon you’ll be naturally more charismatic and attention-grabbing around others.

Record Keeping/Journals – While for some people this can be a nuisance, it really can lead to profound effects in your overall personal development, especially if you’re the type of person to have trouble “sticking” to something.

  1. Keep a daily journal for everything – all of your random thoughts. Don’t spend all day writing – that defeats the purpose. Instead, sit down every once in a while for five minutes or so and jot down your thoughts. Don’t structure them or worry about appearance – just write.
  2. If you want to develop a healthier mindset, keep a nutrition journal. Microsoft Excel can help with this one. Simply by paying attention to what goes in your body, you will be more inclined to control what you are eating. The result? A healthier, happier you (with the records to show others how you got there!).
  3. If you’re trying to get in better shape, keep a photo journal. This can be as private as you want it to be. Stand in front of the mirror with your digital camera once a week. Take a head on, and a profile picture, both flexed and un-flexed. At first, it can be intimidating and embarrassing – but within a month or two, you will be looking forward to the next picture… and maybe even showing them off to your friends and family.
  4. Keep a nightly journal where you answer the question “Did I make the most of this day?” If yes, why, if not, why not? Striving for more “yes” entries and understanding what went wrong in your “no” days will help you stay on the right track to achieving the mindset you want and attaining all of your goals.
  5. Write down one thing you learned each day, and review it at the end of the week. Commit everything to long term memory by internalizing it with contemplative thought and repetition.
  6. Write down one thing you want to learn, each morning. Learn it that day.
  7. Keep a brief time-log. Seeing how much time you spend on different tasks throughout the day can help you understand where you’re going wrong (or right). Make sure you’re not wasting too much time on activities that have no return!
  8. If you’re striving to attain any goal at all – find something in that goal that is measurable. Measure the hell out of it. Seek to improve… all the time.
  9. If you’re trying to mold your mind, chances are you’re trying to overcome at least one or two bad habits. Every time you encounter one of those bad habits in your day, step aside and write it down. Do your best to steer yourself in the right direction, no matter what it takes. Reflect on this later, and pride yourself on overcoming your old, bad self!
  10. If you’re close to someone, have them jot down thoughts about you during the day as well. Sometimes, seeing yourself through someone else’s point of view can help you figure out what you’re doing wrong, or right, or open your eyes to things you didn’t even know you should be working on improving. Make sure you choose someone who cares about you and who will not pass judgment, but rather give you an honest view of yourself when you ask for it.

Last but not least, read my Blog daily! This one speaks for itself 🙂

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