One of the coolest things about marketing a website for me is watching the fruits of my marketing efforts.  Whether this is as simple as watching the traffic increase for my website, or seeing that the number of backlinks to a specific web page increase, any indication that what I am doing is working makes me very happy.

But when you tell your friends you have five thousand backlinks to your site, does anyone care?  Chances are that they don’t, but if you happen to have a bunch of friends that are webmasters, that might just be a different story.

For those of you who want to prove to the world(and yourself) that you are a true SEO master, you might want to try out the Busby SEO Challenge.  It is a contest put on by Busby Web Solutions, is you chance to prove that you know SEO inside and out.  There are prizes on the line to the tune of $5000 for first place, $2000 for second and $500 for third.

If you think you have what it takes and want to have a shot to enter the contest, there is still time to do so.  Take a look at this blog to learn anchor: More About Busby SEO Challenge.

Years ago, when I started to market my first website, I felt overwhelmed.  You see, I really didn’t know what I was doing, and it was a lot of trial and error.  But, after a number of tests, I finally figured out a marketing system that was going to work for me.

Many years later, I still have a marketing system, but I do things differently now.  You see, instead of doing everything by hand like the “olden” days, instead I depend on Internet marketing software tools to help automate some of my tasks.

Not only does the software help make the tasks easier, but with the number of sites that I am marketing at the moment, it also helps me to remember the marketing tasks that I have already completed.  I can also see at a glance the progress that I have made in my marketing efforts.  It definitely makes my job - and life - easier.

I had the opportunity to visit Calgary, Alberta earlier this week.  Though it was primarily a business trip, it was nice to have the chance to visit my extended family that lives in the beautiful city of Calgary.  It was not only a great time, but I was able to visit with an aunt of mine that I haven’t seen in a number of years.

But like I said, the main reason that I was there was for business.  You see, I had made contact with a Calgary Internet Marketing firm and have been talking with them for weeks online.  They had some very ingenious ideas that I wanted to discuss with them in person.

So, I found myself traveling to Calgary for the first time in the past five years.  Needless to say, the trip was a resounding success, both for the business and for the conversations that I had.  We will be definitely partnering with the marketing firm - it will be a recipe for success.

If you own a law practice that specializes in, say,  DUI defense, and you’re looking to use the Internet to bring in clients, first determine what terms your ideal client might search for. Then create, or have written for you, articles about DUI, client options, consequences, what a lawyer can do for clients charged with driving under the influence, even advice on getting and staying sober. Create good, solid, well-written content.

For example, if your firm is in Tampa, Florida, you might target the following keyword phrases: Tampa DUI Lawyers, Tampa DUI Attorneys and Tampa Drunk Driving Defense Attorneys. Within each article, you place one or more of these phrases as live links to your firm’s website. You can target particular pages, or your home page, although internal pages are best.

Finally, create a blog and place the articles there. If you keep adding new content, you’ll get noticed by the search engines for your keywords and traffic will eventually find its way to you.

I can remember back to when I started my first website and I was so proud of myself.  I had bought a program that would help me design the site, and I created my masterpiece.  It definitely took some time to get it done and then I put it on the Internet for everyone to see.

But no one saw it.

Well, the truth of the matter was that I did not do any search engine marketing - in fact, I hadn’t the foggiest idea of what that meant.  The way that I thought that it would work is that I would just build my site and people would come to it automatically.

It wasn’t until I talked to a SEO company that I learned that I would have to market my site just like anyone with a business in the real world would.  With this knowledge in hand, I began to market my site with some help, and I was able to achieve some real world success.

I have spent most of the day today promoting my websites.  This can be a daunting task, especially if you are promoting a large network of sites.  Today, I was doing six at one time, and sometimes I feel that it is tough to keep track of everything that I am doing.

What I really wonder about this time I am investing in promoting my sites, is what type of return, in terms of back links, am I really getting?  I mean, if you take a look at free link directory submissions that I have been doing, how many of them will actually be approved.

This is in stark contrast to the six links that I added to a link bid directory.  It was a business directory and I had to pay for the links - but they were approved right away.  There was no question in my mind in terms of whether or not I had wasted my time listing my site there - I knew that because of that site, I would get traffic in the near future.

I am definitely going to keep my eye on how the advertising performs - if it is as effective as I think it will be, I will be using more bidding directories in the future.

Amy is a good friend of mine who loves quilting.  She loves it so much, that for the past couple of years, she has been making quilts and selling them to friends and family.  Her success so far has been great to the point where she has reached a tipping point of sorts – she is at the point where she could make a living off of quilting.

She came to me with a website that was all setup and ready to go.  But, she confessed that she had no idea on what to do after she had her site setup.  She had the “if you build it, they will come mentality”, and her business was never going to get off of the ground if she continued with that train of thought.

I offered to help her with her website marketing as I have a lot of experience in that area.  Amy was so happy with the help, but she wanted to learn as well.  What I have done is organized tasks for her to do each week, broken up by day, so that she can market her site effectively.

So far, things have gone great.  She has sold a couple of quilts from her site, and is getting the hang of marketing as well.  She is even talking about setting up other web businesses to sell other products, and we may be going into a joint venture together.  I am so happy for her and her business success (and I am happy that I am a part of it).

If you own a website or websites, chances are you are always trying to get more visitors to them.  For most people, more traffic results in more sales and more income.

For most website owners, a little bit of time each day is spent promoting your websites on blogs, article directories, and web directories.  Today, I just want to highlight three web directories that can help you get traffic quickly, for a small investment.

The first directory I want to talk about is Directory Dave.  It is a paid web directory that costs just under two dollars to list your site, but it has helped me to get some of my new websites indexed quickly.

The second directory I should mention is Directory of Sites.  This site is a bit older and I like the orange template.  But, looks aside, I love the fact that when I list my site, it is picked up rather quickly.  I have even seen some traffic directly from the site.

Last but not least, I should mention Iron Trace Web Directory.  Sure, the name is kind of strange, but I guess it means that you can trace a link from the directory to your site?  Well, that really doesn’t matter - it is a good place to help boost your search engine rankings for just two bucks.

I have been learning a lot about link building over the past few months. I have always wanted to learn how to promote my sites and one day I decided to just sit down and learn. I must say that it has been quite successful. I am pleased with my results so far, but I know that I still have a lot left to learn.

I am presently looking into an article submission service, as I know it is one of the more effective ways for driving traffic to your site. It is amazing how much I have learned just by taking the initiative to do a little bit of research on the subject.

I started out just by finding out what article submission was all about and finding out about content sharing sites. It is a pretty diverse subject and there are so many to choose from. I am enjoying my self education on the subject and am hoping that it helps me to get better page rankings in the long run.

I contacted my website advisor yesterday about what I could do to further promote my site. He had many suggestions for me and I started to do some research on some various topics that he suggested to me.

I had heard about SEO services in the past, but was not exactly sure what they were or how to go about utilizing them. I looked it up and decided that maybe it was for me and that I would definitely give it a go.

I knew that keyword research was a big part of marketing your website and that more keywords would mean that you would probably make it into the higher rankings on a search engine.

I also went to some article sites to see how I could promote my site from other people’s blogs. My friend had done this and seen some incredible results. I wanted these results for myself. It may take a little time, but slowly, I will learn how to market myself.