YouTube has become an amazing way to generate free traffic to your site. Just like a website, you can optimize your videos for the YouTube surfers who use the search feature.
Just as someone could type in "golfing tips" in Google.com and find your site, they can do the same with your videos on YouTube.
How?
Because you can enter a title and keywords for every video you submit and this information helps people find your video when they do a YouTube search.
More and more people use YouTube every single day and this can funnel quite a bit of traffic to your video... especially if the video is done well.
And not only can you capitalize on targeted YouTube traffic, but you can entertain your own site's audience by embedding your video into your web pages by simply copying and pasting the provided code.
Getting Your Video on YouTube
Computers and cameras are making it easier and easier to get video on the Web. It used to be you had to buy additional software just to get your video on the right format.
Now most digital camcorders come with the necessary software, or your PC or MAC may already have the software you need to make it happen. Plus YouTube accepts so many different video formats, you don't have to worry about converting the file.
Not to mention, Windows Vista has a free video editing program called "Windows Movie Maker" which is super easy to use.
You simply download your video from your camera to your PC. Then open up Windows Movie Maker to make edits to your video. You can add captions, credits, crop and more.
Since Windows Vista is a free program, there are some limitations. For example, you can't control the placement of the captions. So if you've centered yourself in the video, you'll have to deal with the fact that the captions/text may cover your face temporarily.
Also, you can't control how long the credits stay on the screen. After all, the credits are a great place to re-emphasize your website address so you want people to remember it.
But in my opinion, these are very small drawbacks. Remember you only get so much for free and you can still create a nice quality video with this software.
You can see one of my videos below I created with Windows Movie Maker and then uploaded to YouTube...
Other Video Editing Software Options?
If you would like more control over your video, you can opt to by video editing software. I used to use Pinnacle Studio . Unfortunately my version was not compatible with Vista so I had to stop using it. I'm assuming their later versions are now compatible, so it's worth a look.
It's a big resource hog as far as computers are concerned, but a very nice video editing tool if you don't mind spending the money.
Power Director is another popular program with good reviews. I've never used them, but they seem to have large share of the video editing market.
However, if you're on a budget and you have Windows Vista, then Windows Movie Maker will do just fine for starting out.
And sorry to MAC users, I'm not familiar with options for you but I can only assume you have many more cooler options than us poor Windows users. :)
More Video Production Tips
1. Have adequate lighting.
Make sure people can actually SEE you. What are you hiding anyway? ;-)
2. Don't memorize a script...
unless you're good at delivering it where it doesn't sound like you're talking from memory. I've found if you just talk off the top of your head, it comes across much more conversational and natural.
3. Watch the time.
Your video should be as long as it needs to be, and get to the point. If you start rambling for 10 minutes about nothing, you could lose your audience before the video is finished. If your video seems long, think of ways you can summarize and condense certain points.
4. Check your backdrop.
Remember, this video is representing you and your site. If you've got a junk heap behind you, it will distract your audience. If you don't have a nice background, then just film in front of a blank wall.
5. Watch your filler words.
We don't realize how often we say "Um" and use filler words until we see ourselves on video. It's normal to need a sec to think about what to say next, so practice just being silent in those moments if you are an "Ummer." :)
The Bottom Line
No matter what method or software you use, it's definitely worth experimenting with video to help promote your site. And since YouTube is owned by Google, that can only mean good things if you make a good video and optimize the title and keywords for your audience.
Just like Google.com, YouTube can bring you a good amount of targeted visitors, and people can even subscribe to your YouTube channel so they'll be notified any time you add a new video.
And if your video is good enough, others will want to embed it into their sites. What a great, viral way to promote your site and get your name out there.
So take your time making a quality video. Once the viral effect kicks in, it can make quite an impact in your traffic levels.
When I first heard about Twitter, I thought it was incredibly dumb. Who in the world would use this tool to tell people what they're doing every minute of the day?
Well, turns out... millions of people use it for that very reason.
Me, not so much.
I don't necessarily enjoy babbling about what I'm eating, watching on TV, thinking or feeling. However, I have enjoyed using it as a promotional tool for my sites and blog.
TwitterFeed
I first started using Twitter to announce my new blog posts. If you use Twitterfeed, this free service will automatically broadcast your latest blog posts to Twitter.
This was the only way I used Twitter for the first 9 months or so.
Then I kept reading more Twitter success stories from other Bloggers and Webmasters so I decided to tweet more to see if I could get similar results.
The Best Way to Use Twitter for Business
If you are using Twitter to promote your site or blog, I've found that the best way to use this service is to tweet about useful, relevant articles and helpful advice.
Hard selling can be a turn off. Twitter is not the place for that. An occasional promotional tweet here and there is not going to hurt you, but your number one goal should be to provide value.
For example, since my sites are about making money online, blogging, web design, etc. I tend to tweet about useful articles I'm reading that are related to my niche. I also announce my new videos and any other relevant projects I feel my followers may be interested in.
When you find the right tweet mix, your followers will appreciate it and they will often Re-Tweet your tweets to their followers and the viral magic begins.
It's Not About Money
Even though I don't sell anything or do a lot of direct promoting on Twitter, I use it to help build my credibility and connection with the people who are interested in what I do. It's just another form of marketing and a way to connect with the people who do use Twitter.
Whether you like it or not, there are millions of people who use it, so you might as well discover a way to reach out to your audience.
It's not always about getting the quick sale. There's something to be said about building credibility and providing useful information to gain trust.
You may not see immediate income results from Twitter, but with continued use (provided thatyour tweets are valued), you'll find that it will improve your traffic in the long-run. And as you know, traffic can lead to more sales.
It's definitely a more indirect way of promoting your sites and brand.
Is Twitter a Waste of Time?
Some people think Twitter is a waste of time, but most of them are referring to people who use it for personal reasons, or people who haven't figured out how to make it work for their business.
Here's a video where I talk about how Twitter has helped my online business.
If you've been involved in SEO (search engine optimization) for a while, you may remember the time when you could create a web page and get it ranked at the top of any search engine with little effort.
All you had to do was load up the page with the keywords you wanted to rank high for, make sure your meta tags were stuffed with those same keywords, submit the page and within a few days or weeks you've captured a top 20 or even top 10 result.
The major search engines were pretty easy to figure out. Some focused on the first 90 characters on a page, others gave more weight to the title tag in your HTML, another paid more attention to the overall content and finally some used a combination of factors to determine a page's rank.
If you were an SEO expert, you knew what each search engine looked for and it was pretty easy to optimize your site for a top 10 rank.
Back then, you didn't get penalized much for keyword stuffing, hidden text, and some of the other tactics that can get you into trouble in today's world.
The bottom line is search engine optimization for the average webmaster was almost like a cakewalk years ago.
That was then. This is now.
Times have certainly changed! Those same methods described above will not only hurt your rank, they can even get your banned from the engine permanently.
There are no shortcuts to search engine success anymore. You have to work it. All those lazy webmasters who steal other people's content or use the tricks mentioned above are now discovering that the search engines mean business.
Confidential Google Report Disclosed
In early 2006, a Google employee broke a non-disclosure agreement and revealed a report that shouldn't have gotten out to the public. Actually the information wasn't surprising by any means.
In a nutshell, all we learned was that Google is cracking down on spam and sites that offer little content - a.k.a. "thin affiliates".
A thin affiliate is one that offers very little information and the main purpose of their site is to send visitors to the affiliated merchant's site in order to collect a commission.
Often times these sites have more external links than they do actual content. They also may contain several doorway pages (more on those later) that do nothing but link to the merchant's website.
The report even revealed examples of live sites that Google considers "suspect." Trust me...this is NOT a place you'd want to see your site appear. You can bet these sites won't be getting much traffic from Google anytime soon.
This report seemed to indicate that Google has hired humans to evaluate the accuracy of Google's search results. Can you blame them?
Google has always said their main focus is to provide relevant results. The main reason the engine has been so successful is because it gives searchers what they want.
If you've noticed, you don't see lots of ads, banners and other distracting revenue-sucking techniques on their pages. They want their customer, Joe Surfer, to find what he is looking for.
They don't want their index to be turned into a hodge-podge of doorway pages made by those thin affiliates. They want unique quality content that offers valuable information to their customer - the web surfer.
Search engine spiders are not humans. They are programs. They can only do so much when it comes to weeding out the good and bad sites. It only makes sense to me that Google would help protect its reputation by hiring real people to ensure their results are as clean as possible.
Without going into detail over the report (I wouldn't want Google to penalize me!), I've just outlined a few of the topics that were touched upon. You probably won't be shocked by what you read.
In fact, none of this may be new to you. But if you are performing any of these techniques, stop now!
SEO Techniques to Avoid
Useless Link Exchanges
Once upon a time, you could scout out other websites that were related to yours and swap links to help boost your link popularity. The more the better. These days the search engines are frowning on certain link exchange strategies.
The best kind of link exchange is one that offers a contextual link to both parties. So instead of creating a "page-o-links" that no one will even read, offer your potential link partner a contextual link in an article that is related to their site. Ask your partner to do the same for you. The search engines will see this link as a much better quality link than a link from a page chuck-full of other sites.
Let's say you have a website on dieting. Instead of creating a "list-o-links" page titled "Other Diet Resources" where you list 300 different partner links, write some diet-related articles and recommend a few of your link partner's sites within the context of the article.
Don't go hogwild with link exchanges. They are not nearly as valuable as they once were so I wouldn't spend too much time seeking out a bunch. If you can get a few, relevant quality exchanges that's fine
Nowadays, the real value comes in the one-way exchanges where someone links to your site and you do not have to link back. The best way to earn those is to create a site full of value.
Doorway Pages
Doorway pages are small, keyword focused pages that mainly serve the purpose of getting the visitor to your affiliated web site. They usually offer no value to the website as a whole, and often times they are cluttered with several different affiliate links.
Google is smart and can scope those kinds of pages out. You may be penalized if it finds these on your site.
Hidden or Tiny Text
This is an OLD tactic and it amazes me people still use this.
Using white text on a white background or making your text so small it is hardly visible to the human eye is one of the oldest search engine tricks in the book.
Many people would use this technique to hide tons of keyword phrases they wanted to rank high for by hiding the text at the very bottom or top of the page and make it match the background color so they are invisible. Others would use a tiny font to add these keywords in various places all over the site. The human eye may have a difficult time finding them but the search engine spiders would.
So as you can see, the above info is not shocking by any stretch of the imagination. Those are all very bad optimization practices and will never work for the long run. You may get lucky here and there but the engines will eventually find you and penalize you for it.
Too Much Duplicate Content
It's OK to use some of the article directories (ArticleCity.com or EzineArticles.com) and reprint some of their content. That's what they're there for and they are useful if you want to add information on a topic you may not be well versed in.
However, if 90% of your site is from these sites or if you are illegally using copyrighted material without a webmaster's permission then you deserve any penalty that Google gives you.
Google loves unique content. After all, it's what drives their success. They don't want the same articles showing up in the results so they pay close attention to duplicates.
If you don't like to write, try hiring a copyrighter to do the writing for you. Trust me, it will be worth it in the long run.
Oversubmitting to Directories
Submitting to a few relevant, high-quality directories is fine. Spending hours per day seeking out high PageRank directories is not. It's a waste of time.
In the video below, Matt Cutts (Google's lead engineer) tells you what Google thinks of most directories and which ones they value.
What You Should Be Focusing On...
Unique, quality content rules. Don't get stressed out about your meta tags, link lists, exchanges etc.
If you want the search engines to love you, build a website with lots of useful themed content. Promote your website in relevant places (social networking sites, forum signatures, blog commenting, etc.)
Once people begin discovering your site, many will link to you voluntarily (assuming they find it valuable) and THAT's how you get the search engines to respect you. It takes time, but it's definitely worth the wait.
Write for humans, not the search engine spiders. Forget about keyword density (the ratio of a keyword phrase to total body content), just write for real people.
Bottom line: Don't take shortcuts. Be ethical and work hard to build the best site you can. You'll be rewarded in the end.
Getting listed in Google and the other popular search engines is one of the most effective ways of directing free, targeted traffic to your website.
Below you'll discover what the search engines look for when determining your page rank so you can optimize your pages for best results. This is often called SEO or search engine optimization.
To this day, the marjority of my traffic comes from the major search engines.
How Search Engines Determine Your Rank
Before you try to add your site to the search engines, you should understand what they look for when they decide how to rank your site. Just because you're listed doesn't mean you'll get traffic. You have to make sure your site is search engine ready.
The general rule of thumb is that most engines use a "formula" to determine keyword relevancy. The technical term is called an "algorithm", and each search engine has its own unique algorithm that it uses to rank pages.
Generally, this magic formula consists of your page title, overall body content and the number and quality of links pointing back to your site, how long people stay on your site, etc.
It's important to note that every engine is different. Some may look at inbound links (number of people linking to you), others may place more emphasis on your body content. These days, meta tag content is becoming less and less important.
In case you don't know, meta tags are hidden descriptors that appear at the beginning of your HTML code, inside your tag. They may be invisible to your visitor's eyes, but search engine spiders can read them.
They usually consist of a title, description, and keyword tag and they look something like this:
Title of Your Site
Because of abuse, many search engines no longer use these tags to help rank pages, but you should still include them because they do use them to display information about your site.
For example, whatever is inside the
tag is what the search engine will use as the title of your site in the search results.
Watch a Video on Adding Meta Tags
What You Need to Know About SEO
Don't stress out over the meta tags. You should definitely use them on every page. Just understand that how well you rank depends on how popular your site becomes over time. Watch the video below for more info on how to rank well for competitive keywords.
The Big 3 Engines - Google, Yahoo and MSN (Live)
There are a handful of engines out there that bring traffic, but the reality is a very large percentage of search engine traffic comes from Google, Yahoo and MSN. Yes, there are other engines like AOL, Netscape etc., but they pull their results from the Big 3.
So in other words, once you start getting traffic from Google, Yahoo and MSN, you'll rank well in the others automatically.
How to Get Listed In Google
There are three ways to list your site with Google, but I will warn you that using any one of these 3 methods no longer guarantees your site will be listed.
Google is getting more and more selective about who gets in, and the first step is ensuring that your site is full of useful, unique content.
After that, work on getting quality, relevant sites to link back to you. These days those two steps are the best ways to find your site in the almighty Google.
Having said that, here are some methods that may also get you in...
1) Get your site listed in The Open Directory - www.dmoz.org.
This is a directory that is managed by volunteers that act as "category editors." To list your site, simply go to the most appropriate category for your web site, then drill down to the relevant subcategory and select the "Add URL" link at the top of that category's page.
Wait about a month to see if your site appears. If it does not, I recommend emailing one of the category editors and asking for advice on how to get your site listed. If you're lucky, you'll receive a helpful response, but most of the category managers do not answer emails.
Sometimes it may take up to one year for an editor to review and list your site and other times it may only take a couple of weeks. Be patient and please don't keep submitting!
Unfortunately since DMOZ is run by volunteers, the time it takes to get your site reviewed really depends on the availability of the volunteers. Sometimes they may not check the submissions for weeks, which can be quite frustrating for people trying to get listed.
Lately, it seems to be more and more difficult to get in, but the good news is this is not the only way to get into Google. Years ago this was one of the fastest ways to get listed and ranked. Fortunately there are other options that are just as effective, and I'll discuss those below.
Warning: Don't try to submit to The Open Directory unless you have enough useful information on your site. If your site is only one or two pages long, then you won't likely get listed. They want medium to large sized web sites with useful and unique content. Strive for at least 15 pages.
If you need more content, articlecity.com has some free articles you can post on your site. Simply find the category that closely matches your theme and add them. Be careful though, don't use too many articles because the engines may penalize your site if you have too much duplicate content.
2) The second way to get listed in Google is to use their own Add URL form located here http://www.google.com/addurl.html. This method is not as dependable as listing with The Open Directory, but it can get you in. Google admits that they may not add every site, so don't be surprised if this does not work for you.
3) The third way to get listed is to be linked from another web site that is already in Google. That way, when Google's spider goes to visit that site for updates, it will pick up the link to your site and add it. This method does not always work, but many sites do get in this way.
Getting into Yahoo and Live (Formerly MSN)
Most websites get into Yahoo and Live by getting spidered from other sites. Meaning if you're already linked from another site or web directory, Live and Yahoo's robots will eventually find you when they update their search index.
Not to be confused with the regular Yahoo search function, the Yahoo directory is also a place you can add your site.
When you go to Yahoo.com and enter a search into the box, you are using their regular search engine, not the directory. So it is possible to be included in Yahoo's regular search index and not be included in their directory.
The Yahoo directory is actually a categorical listing of sites located here http://dir.yahoo.com and it's not used very much by web surfers.
The real benefit to being listed here is to have a high quality link pointing to your site. Many search engines look at who is linking to you and if you have a link from the Yahoo directory, it may give you some "credibility" points.
Some believe that having a listing in the directory will help boost your rank in Google and other engines. There is no solid proof of this, however. Yahoo also states that if you are listed in their directory, it does not have any affect on your position in their regular search results.
If your site is commercial it will cost you $299 per year to be included in Yahoo's directory. So if you can justify/afford the cost, I would still recommend getting into Yahoo just to have the high-quality link pointing to your site - but don't expect a lot of traffic from the actual page you'll be listed on.
It's up to you to decide if it's worth it or not. Many webmasters do quite well in the "Big 3" search engines without a listing in the Yahoo directory.
A Powerful Search Engine Traffic Generation Tool
If you're building a money making website then free search engine traffic is an absolute must. It's the reason my sites became successful, and ultimately the reason I was able to quit my job.
Site Build It is a great choice if you want to learn the right ways to master the major engines.
It's only getting tougher out here to master Google (and other engine's) algorithm and so many people are doing it wrong as they sit and wonder why they can't find their site in the results. SBI ensures you do it right without wasting money in the process.
I can say this with confidence because I use it now. I bought it to see if the hype over SBI was worth it. After 11 months, my other website, www.flat-stomach-exercises.com, earned $700 per month in Adsense income alone, and 90% the traffic comes from Google.
At the time I'm writing this, I'm ranked on the first page for the keyword phrases flat stomach and ab crunches.
SBI actually coaches me as I build every page to make sure it's completely optimized for the best possible results in the search engines. Then it automatically submits your pages ONLY when necessary.
Now, when I say "coach", I don't mean they teach how to "trick" or "cheat" the search engines. You will learn how to build content-focused pages that search engines will love for the long haul.
It amazes me when I hear of big businesses and dot com start-ups spending thousands of dollars a month on advertising while first-time web site builders are getting more traffic, just from using a web host like SBI.
Read this next paragraph carefully . . .
Over half of SBI customers rank within the top 3% visited web sites on the net because of their excellent search engine rankings. There are over 56 million web sites on the Internet right now, and to say that over half of their customer base ranks in the top 3% for traffic says a heck of a lot about this tool.
Let's not forget who's benefiting from SBI. There are sites created by stay-at-home moms, retired school teachers, aspiring entrepreneurs, full-time workers looking for part-time income, etc. Most of these people who are succeeding with SBI have no previous website building experience whatsoever.
I wouldn't recommend SBI if I didn't use it myself. And I'm not the only one with a success story. Check out these customers who have made videos showing how SBI changed their lives.
Israel's navy has intercepted a ship carrying weapons some 160km (100 miles) off its coast, the military says.
Marines boarded the Antiguan-flagged vessel, discovered it was carrying weapons and towed it to the port of Ashdod, a military spokesperson said.
No details of the ship's destination or the types of weapons it was carrying have been given.
In recent months Israel has stepped up efforts to combat the smuggling of arms to Hamas and Hezbollah militants.
PM's congratulations
The vessel was intercepted during a routine patrol by the navy.
Israeli media reports said the weapons were concealed as commercial freight.
The media quoted anonymous defence officials as saying the arms included anti-tank missiles and could have been bound either for Syria or for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon - with the source of the weapons assumed to be Iran.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement that the weapons were being sent to what he called "the terrorist arena in the north".
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated the Israeli army, navy and security forces on a successful action to prevent the supply of weapons that he said were destined to strike Israel's cities.
Since Israel's offensive in Gaza last December and January, the Israeli navy and air force have been have conducting intense searches in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea for ships smuggling weapons either to Hezbollah or to Hamas in Gaza.
In February, Israel said a vessel detained off Cyprus was carrying Iranian weapons to Hamas in Gaza.
Iran denied the claim.
In 2002 the Israeli navy captured the Karin-A, which was carrying some 50 tonnes of arms thought to be destined for Gaza.
Police have clashed with opposition supporters in the Iranian capital, Tehran, witnesses and state media say.
Police used tear gas and batons, said witnesses. Unconfirmed reports said the authorities had also opened fire.
Video posted on a reformist website showed hundreds of opposition supporters chanting "death to dictators" in a central square.
It came as an officially backed demonstration was held to mark 30 years since the seizure of the US embassy.
Thousands of people turned out for the anti-American rally, about 1.5km (0.9 miles) from where opposition supporters gathered in Haft-e Tir square.
Riot police and pro-government militiamen had packed the streets in central Tehran, and security forces had made a number of arrests, reports said.
Iran's Irna news agency said protesters had set fire to rubbish bins and attacked a bus, and that two policemen had been injured.
It also reported that security forces had used tear gas in some parts of the city to disperse protesters.
Authorities have placed severe restrictions on foreign news organisations, making it difficult to verify reports.
Obama statement
Reformist leaders had urged their supporters to attend peaceful rallies at the former US embassy. In November 1979, 52 US diplomats were taken hostage at the embassy and held for 444 days by Islamist students in support of the Iranian revolution.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards had warned opposition groups not to stage demonstrations on the anniversary.
Thousands turned out for the anti-American rally
Opposition leader and former presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi briefly joined the protesters in Haft-e Tir square, according to a reformist website, Mowjcamp.
Unconfirmed reports were circulating that police had surrounded the house of another reformist leader, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, to prevent him from joining any demonstration.
Since June, Iranian opposition supporters have held repeated protests over elections they say were rigged to ensure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
At least 30 protesters have been killed in clashes and thousands arrested.
Some 200 opposition activists remain behind bars. Three have been sentenced to death.
On Wednesday's anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy, US President Barack Obama released a statement in which he urged Iran to move beyond the "suspicion, mistrust, and confrontation" that had prevailed between Iran and the US since then.
"Iran must choose," the statement said. "We have heard for 30 years what the Iranian government is against; the question now is what kind of future it is for."
Security forces in the Chinese province of Xinjiang have said they will "strike hard" against crime and disorder.
Officials vowed to "root out" crime and and "change the face of the public security" in the western province, after deadly unrest earlier this year.
Nearly 200 people died in July's rioting between ethnic Uighurs and members of the majority Han group.
A total of 21 people have been found guilty of involvement in the unrest and 12 people have been sentenced to death.
The Xinjiang authorities, quoted in state media, said the "strike hard and rectify" campaign would run until the end of the year to "further consolidate the fruits of maintaining stability and eliminate security dangers".
They said they would "root out places where criminals breed, and change the face of the public security situation in these areas".
The Xinhua news agency said local police would continue to hunt down suspects in the riots and "keep a close eye on clues and cases involving terrorism and explosions".
Swift justice
The violence in Xinjiang erupted on 5 July, when protest by ethnic Uighurs left at least 197 people dead and another 1,700 injured. Two days later, groups of Han went looking for revenge as police struggled to restore order.
Most of those killed were Han, according to officials, and Urumqi's Han population had demanded swift justice.
Last week, the death sentences against 12 people were upheld by an appeals court.
China says it is facing a separatist uprising from Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, but critics say Beijing is exaggerating the threat to justify its tight control of the province.
