If you are in business of any kind, whether it is Network Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Insurance, Retail, or whatever, your business relies on leads.  Your business will not grow without new people frequently taking a look at the product or service that you offer.

The most difficult part of generating new leads is knowing where to start.  Some people buy leads.  These leads can vary from old recycled leads, that EVERYONE has seen, to fresh verified leads.  The leads can be very expensive depending on just how fresh they are.

Then when you get those leads, how many of them are actually interested in doing business with you?

Out of 10 leads, you may get one.  Which is great, don’t get me wrong!  But what happens next?  Yep, you go back and purchase more leads.  Again, one out of ten AND there you go purchasing more leads.

STOP THE CYCLE!

Lead sellers will probably hate me, but promise me that you will never buy another lead again!

Now, you may be saying…”But how can I get more leads unless I pay someone to get them for me?”

My friend, here ya go…

Harness the power of the internet to bring people to you.   Now, we don’t just want everybody to come.  Nope, we want the targeted traffic of people that are looking for what you have to offer.

First, you should be working with a website that has been optimized for the search engines.

For a refresher, head over to my article on SEO for Blogs

Now get your link out there.  If you are marketing a dog training manual, go to the sites where people are discussing dogs and how to train them.  Participate in any discussions.  Become an expert in that community.  Make sure that your profile signature and any forum postings you make, include your website address.

Write articles on dog training and post them on sites like ArticleBase.com or GoArticles.com.

Find other blogs that are discussing dog training and make RELEVANT comments on their sites.

The actions outlined above, are some of the same things that I did for a particular site almost a year ago.  I was promoting a particular upcoming service for a company.  With all of my optimization in place, I rose to the top of the search engine results.  And there I remain to this day.  Do I still get calls and emails that were generated from that website regarding that service?  Yep, I still do.

Now here’s the kicker…I haven’t posted anything on that site since September 18th of 2009.  If done right, the actions you take today can continue to pay off for days, weeks, months and years to come.

I was gonna cover this in a separate article, but will mention it since this is related.   Additionally, you can get the right tools that will keep a supply of leads accessible.  I recently came across a tool that is sure to take your my generation of leads to whole other level.  I watched as this software pulled over 1500 targeted leads across the country  based upon a keyword.  Don’t take my word for it…watch it in action.  Lead Generation will never be the same.

See the point is…you can generate leads for free by just making the effort.  Remember, internet marketing kinda falls in line with the old riddle.  ”How do you eat an elephant…one bite at a time.”

How do you succeed in business and gain new customers?  Simply take one day at a time and just do it!

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“How do I get traffic to my website?”  Quick answer…Search Engine Optimization.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO for short) is the  mechanism by which you use the search engines to generate traffic to your site.  Word of mouth is great, but how would you like to have 4 out of 5 visitors find you simply because they are looking for what you are offering.  We’re talking about people finding you and your site NOT just because they heard the name. They found you they were searching for a product, service or information that you offer and the internet told them you were one of the best sources for it!

Today I will walk you through some simple steps that will help you optimize your website.  Much pf this is geared towards blogs since they are my tool of choice, but many of these tips can be used for a standard website as well.

Blog Design and Theme

This is your chance to make a great first impression.  Personally, I’m a fan of Wordpress.  However, no matter the blog publisher or website host…NEVER go with just the standard/default template that is available.  Search for templates and themes that are “clean” and fresh looking.  If you are using a lot of pictures and videos, you may want a theme that is darker in presentation.  Lots of text and information, lighter colored themes seem to work best.

Keyword Selection

We could really spend all day talking about this topic, but for the sake of the article we’ll keep it short.  Effective keyword usage is your way of telling the search engines what information your website contains.  If you are marketing a dog training course, your blog/site should be peppered with the phrase “dog training” through the site.  Never, EVER…do keyword stuffing (using the same phrase over and over) it is a quick way to get your website sent to the bottom of the pack.

META-TAG Optimization

In all honesty, there are some people that say this is unnecessary.  My opinion is that every little bit helps.  Plus, for the most part, once you do this you rarely, if ever, need to go back and update it.  This is the area that you can put your top 10-20 keyword phrases.  Additionally, use a MetaTag description that is a 4-6 sentence description of your website.  Make sure you place several of your keywords in this description.

Link using Keywords

No website should be an island to itself.  No links in or out is a surefire way to make sure you don’t get any search engine traffic.  Whether you are linking to or from your site, use one of your relevant keywords as the anchor text.  Simply using “Click Here” does very little for your SEO and internet marketing.

Link within your blog/site

As you create more articles and post more content, its safe to say that you will discuss the same or similar information in different postings.  Link to other articles and postings within your blog.  Give the search engines every piece of help in indexing your site.

Good Permalink Structure

Again, using every opportunity to get our keywords involved in our internet marketing…make sure that you are using good permalink structure.  What’s a permalink?  The URL for this post is http://kevincrawley.com/2010/02/27/seo-for-blogs-internet-marketing-101  With this URL, my keywords “internet marketing” is getting another opportunity to shine.  Had I not made the change, my URL by default would have been something like http://kevincrawley.com/?p=5

Get a Domain Name

If you are on a budget…fine, get the free option of a blogger.com or wordpress.com site.  However, if you really want to make some headway with any type of marketing strategy for the internet, invest the few dollars and get a domain name.  There are several hosting companies out there.  My personal preference is Global Domains International.  I’m an affiliate and it allows me to build an income by sharing the service which makes my hosting FREE!

These are just a few steps that you should take if you want to improve you search engine optimization.  No, you will not jump to the top of Google rankings on day one, but consistent effort and actions will bring you results that will pay off.

Recently, I was introduced to Global Domains International (GDI) opportunity by a good friend of mine. He knows that I am involved in Network Marketing, and use the internet to build my business.  What he recognized was that I was essentially use the net as a tool, but had never moved from the renting stage to becoming an owner.

See, I have acquired several domains through the years.  Then I would pay a monthly fee for hosting that domain.  After that year, I would have to again, pay for the domain and then continue to pay for hosting.  Now, no matter how many people used the hosting I recommended or registered with the same provider…I still paid for domains and hosting.

With GDI, I have my domain and hosting for only $10/month.  Now as I refer the service to people…GDI pays me $1 for each person I personally refer.  Which means that with 10 people referred…my website and domain is FREE.

BUT…it gets better!

First — I am not limited to only referring 10 people.  I can refer an unlimited number of people AROUND THE WORLD!

Second — When the people that I refer begin to share the service of GDI, I get paid $1 a month for every person that they have referred.  This continues for 5 levels down.  Giving me an unlimited potential for income.

Don’t just take my word for it.  Take a free test drive of GDI Global Domains service and tools for 7 days.  After that, it is only $10 a month (until you have 10 reps in your downline.

Take your test drive today at www.FiredMyBoss.ws

When you decide to join as a member of our GDI downline team know that we will work with you to help you build a successful business in GDI.

So, yeah, I love technology.

But I have been a little slow in making one transition.  That transition from PC to Mac.

There I said it… “I want a Mac!”  But, I’m not really ready or able to pay that 15″ MacBook Pro price.  So what is an internet marketer/entrepreneur to do?

Well I came across this site Notebooks4Free.com which promised to give me a free MacBook Pro.  At first, I thought this might be too good to be true.   But as I did more research, I came across hundreds of video and photos of people showing their free stuff.

Then when I saw the news clip, I thought why not?  See I understand the concept of internet and affiliate marketing and how companies are always looking for ways to secure potential new customers.

Here’s the way it works:

1. Go to the referral site – Notebooks4Free.com (don’t worry, there are other options like Ipods, HDTVs, etc)
2. Select your gift and register (Create a “throw-away” email address at Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail)
3. Complete an offer (Most are free but all are from legitimate and well known companies like BlockBuster, NetFlix and FreeCreditReport.com)
4. Refer friends to do the same.

I, personally did the FreeCreditReport.com offer.  It was a free trial offer which allowed me to see my credit report and score.  Once the offer was acknowledged as verified and completed (approx 2 days), I cancelled my trial offer and was not charged anything.

So, here’s the thing… I need your help.  I really want a MacBook Pro and am VERY curious to see if this works.  Do this for me…

Go to my site… http://www.notebooks4free.com/default.aspx?r=1436192

Register and complete a free offer.  Keep checking back for updates.  For the MacBook Pro, I need 24 referrals.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Success and Blessings,

Kevin