Thursday, July 12, 2007

Link Building Tips for New Websites

Check out these 15 tips for link building for new websites from Dosh Dosh. This is a great article and can be used when you first start selling your gorgeous handcrafted jewelry/goods online. It isn't just enough to have a website..."Build it and they will come"...mentality will get you zero traffic and zero sales. Yikes!

I feel pretty good that I've done a lot of thins on this list...good thing because I've had the virtual business for over a year now! ;)

For my virtual jewelry boutique, I have submitted www.Designing-Diva.com places like DMOZ, Google, and Yahoo. Check out this add your url website for more SEO friendly places to submit your url.

If you run a blog like this, you can also build traffic for your blog by submitting your blog url to a variety of blog directories.

I have several link partners to help with PR (page rank).

I have written several press releases since I started my "virtual boutique" which you can see about 2/3 of way down on my press page on my website. I have used PR Leap's free and paid service. I like the fact that I can log in and check my stats.

I get traffic to my main website and blogs through my several lenses on Squidoo.

I have written several articles using Ezine such as Marketing Your Handcrafted Jewelry.

I blog on several other blogs and forums as an expert.

I've held several successful contests.

See even us creative artists can learn the business side!!!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Advertising-spend your dollars wisely

Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.
- Stephen Leacock

Online and off line advertising can bring you business if you know who your target market is. Some of the best advice I ever got early on is, learn who your target market is (who buys your product) then decide how to get your product/service in front of them.

Do you know who your target market is?

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

How to Create Web Traffic Using Keyword Research

How to Create Web Traffic Using Keyword Research

Building your web page content around specific keyword phrases is a must in order to generate free organic search results for your website you must invest some time in keyword research and creating keyword rich content.

Keyword content means content organized around the precise search terms that your target market is using to find websites and business like yours - locally and globally.

There are many Internet-based research tools that can provide insight into the most frequently searched terms along with other data such as the competitive nature of the terms. These tools can help you determine the highly searched terms as well as search terms for which you might stand a fair chance achieving a ranking.

In short, the more generic the term, the less likely you will be able to rank well. The competition is just too stiff. From a true prospect's point of view, the more specific the search term, the more qualified the prospect.

A person searching for a car might use any one of these terms:


  • Used Cards
  • Cars
  • Used Saab
  • Used Saab convertible
  • wholesale used Saab convertible
  • wholesale red used Saab convertible

The more specific the search, the more likely it is that surfers will find web pages that offer what they are truly seeking.

Keyword research tools

The following online tools are very useful to help you create and refine your keywords for your website:

  • Good Keywords - http://www.goodkeywords.com - free software
  • WordTracker - free lite version http://freekeywords.wordtraker.com
    Pro version http://www.wordtracker.com - subscription-based and very powerful keyword tool
  • Yahoo! Search Term Suggestion Tool - http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion -free tool that shows search terms from the Yahoo search advertising system

  • Google AdWords Keyword Tool - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal -Google's search suggestion tool based on Google's search data


  • Keyword Discovery - http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/ - an entire suite of search and keyword tools getting lots of praise

  • TopRank Blog by Lee Odden has a nice list of keyword research tools here
By thoroughly researching the important keywords and phrases for your market before you ever design your website, you may gain some real clarity in the most effective way to lay out your entire site to more effectively generate higher search engine rankings.

It's important that you take a realistic approach to your keyword research. You simply can't compete for most highly competitive search phrases or generic industry terms, so aim for a larger list of less obvious terms. If you can collect top 10 search placement for a handful of lesser searched, but more specific terms, you may actually be better off in terms of the quality of the traffic you can generate.

Once you develop a list of keyword phrases you intend to build your content around, you can create entire pages with the goal of ranking highly for specific search terms. This type of high-quality, search engine-friendly content is one of the most effective search engine optimization practices available.

In the logs

Another often overlooked place to find good keywords is in the data that your website is already collecting in something called server logs. Most web hosting companies can provide you with your site's visitor statistics, including the search terms visitors most often use to find your site. Your keyword strategy may involve making some minor changes that can improve your ranking for those terms.

Google is currently offering a very powerful tool that allows you to learn a great deal about the traffic coming to your site. The tool is called Google Analytics : http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html

What to do with your keywords

Now that you have a list of keyword phrases that you want to use to build traffic to your website, you can work on creating search engine-friendly pages built on those phrases

The following elements on each web page should include your keyword phrase-

Title - Use your phrase in the title
Headlines - Add the phrase in an H1 tag
Anchor Text - Include it in the highlighted link text (Don't say "click here"!)
Body Text - Use some variation of your term in the beginning and again at the end of your body text.
Bold, italic and lists - Special-emphasis characters get more weight, so bold, italicize and bullet your keyword phrase.

Small Business Marketing Ideas and Human eyes are going to be reading these pages too, so it's important that while your keyword phrase appears in each element, your content must still read well. It's a bit of an art. Work the phrases in and then edit for clarity.

More is not more, though. Use your keyword phrases as described above, but don't think that simply filling a page up with your keyword phrase will produce better results.


About the Article Author-

John Jantsch
is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide published by Thomas Nelson.

He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system. You can find more information by visiting http://www.ducttapemarketing.com

Short and Quick SEO Checklist

Patsi and Denise of the Blog Squad recently shared this gem-a SEO checklist courtesy of Tom Antion.

1. Create a simple html site on a specific niche
topic (one keyword phrase is best).

2. Create lots of short article pages about your
specific topic (each page uses a different
keyword relating to your niche).

3. Place specific keywords about your topic
properly on the page (keyword placement counts
more at the top and in headings).

4. Get lots of links coming into your site (high
quality links are worth more).

5. Create a blog on your specific topic (to link
and send traffic to your site). Also your website
link on your blog will help it get indexed faster
by the search engines.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Partner with a a Non-Profit /Charity Group and Have a Jewelry Fundraiser

Partnering with a non-profit/charity group and hosting a jewelry fund raiser is a win win situation for all parties involved. Even if your product/service is NOT jewelry related, you can still use this information and resource!

1. The non-profit can raised funds for their cause
2. You sell your jewelry wholesale or donate a % of the proceeds from sales and gain valuable exposure in your community
3. Both parties can use this in a PR campaign to of course raise awareness and funds

I was just recently introduced to a company, Smart Raise, by the co-founder, John Keating. I love their business model. It can help any non-proift/charity group have an internet presence to assist in fundraising.



SmartRaise is a 100% free fundraising program that allows school groups, community organizations, and other charitable causes to easily develop an internet presence and safely raise money online.
At SmartRaise, groups earn money by inviting their supporters to make everyday purchases through our network of leading online merchants. In turn, the merchants in our network pass a portion of their sales back to each shopper's designated cause. Supporters pay the exact same prices they always would (or even less thanks to our many discount programs) and automatically earn financial rewards for their favorite causes. It's that simple!**

Personally, I can think of several organizations that I could approach for fund raising projects...
1. My children's school
2. Animal Shelter
3. Church
4. Women & Children's Center...

**This information was collected directly from the website Smart Raise.

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Press Release for Designing-Diva Jewelry

I was recently involved in Swag Bags for a celebrity studded event. This alone is great PR for Designing-Diva Jewelry. But to truly leverage, I also wrote a press release:

Designing-Diva Jewelry Announces Its Participation In The 2007 Reebok Heroes Celebrity Baseball Game Gift Bags

I also have access to photos that I can use in my PR kits with the title , "As Seen In", when pitching national magazines and other media outlets. This is what I call leverage. There is already "buzz" about my jewelry designs but I'm just trying to keep the momentum and buzz going lone enough for it to convert into sales....yep, it's all about new customers! ;)

The point is that it is not enough to just be in a swag bag and advertise. You want to leverage this into sales/new customers.