Promoting your Multi-Level Marketing Website

In response to a friend who wants to promote her store website.

Ok, it's going to be a little tricky since you're a franchise site (meaning, there are many more sites out there with the same content). You won't be able to depend on the normal Search Engine Optimization methods (keywords, title tags).

You have to create a pseudo warm market. You have to find people on the web who have an interest in you and what you're selling.

Step 1: Start a blog. Talk about yourself and how you're starting a business. Talk about the ups and downs, etc. etc. And always link back to your store site. I recommend blogger.com, as you can throw Google Adwords on there and bring in a few extra bucks a month (it might only be pennies, but it's a good motivator to post new blogs and send people there). Post once a day!

Step 2: Send your family to your blog. Anyone who is sick of hearing about your business will not be sick of reading your blog. Use that!

Step 3: Join forums that relate to what you're doing, or to you. Illinois Forums, Chicago Forums, Gardening Forums, Work from Home Forums. Register, introduce yourself, and start posting. Enter the conversation in the same way you would in real life-->reply to other people, give insight, be funny... THEN, talk about yourself. In the Signature line, post a link to your blog AND to your store site (see forum rules for what kind of advertising is allowed).

Ok, start with that! The only thing on the Internet that is NOT immediate is creating a web presence. It takes time to build traffic. The more people you can get to your store site, the more popular the site will become, the more products you'll sell. But, people can be turned off by a store site--so send them to your blog first!

Your business: Stuck inside the box

This video I'm blogging about is one to laugh at. The topic I'm comparing it to.... not so funny.

It's sad to see businesses stuck inside the box. It's my job at Waking Girl Web Design in Reno, Nevada to "unstuck" businesses. It's not my job to figure out WHY they're stuck, but I usually run into it along the way.

The number one reason why your business (and website) is stuck:
YOU ARE A CONTROL FREAK
A good business owner does not get stuck on the details of her business. She hires strong people, surrounds herself with qualified partners and consultants, delegates as many jobs as possible, and trusts and supports the work of others. If you run your business more like a dictator than a leader, please do NOT get Waking Girl involved in your failing government.

Waking Girl Web Design hopes to make every client's website profitable. This becomes impossible when you micro-manage. Rates suddenly increase, every little piece of work is billed. And then, the web designer has to do the work over and over and over again. Expensive!!

And therefore, contrary to our mission statement: to bring companies closer to their goals in a PROFITABLE, cutting-edge, low-frills manner.

Just like the boy in the video, if you ever make it outside of the box, PLEASE don't hop right back inside. It's painful and counter-productive!

http://wakinggirl.com
Wake up your business, or your clients.
Whichever is sleepier.

search engine optimization doesn't always make sense.

search engine optimization doesn't always make sense.
our searches depend on computers that are trying to be
"creative." so the results are often comical.

ways to increase your external links:
keep answering questions on yahoo answers! throw a link
to your site (if it's relevant). watch the links add up!

sitemaps:
sitemaps allow pages beyond yourdomain.com to show
up in a search. if you type in a specific search you may see your site listed, and then directly beneath it an indented listing that directs the user to a more specific page. this allows users to directly
click to the page they are looking for, and it allows
google to index the content from the subsequent pages.

simple to-do list to increase your presence:
make sure you have a listing at the following sites... make sure your web address is there!!
switchboard.com
superpages.com
yahoo.com
maps.google.com
rgj.com (local newspaper)

so, what's so comical about all this? these are some of the top search queries; how people got to my site in the last week:
1. girl stuck youtube
2. webdesign myspace
3. moves to do on a girl

nice. the third one is really great for business. *sarcasm*

the content on a website is so important to get the right people to your site. the words and phrases you keep repeating on your site need to be relevant to your business. now, sometimes we accidentally repeat a word over and over again.

the words i'm repeating:
1. waking
2. girl
3. business
4. design
5. myspace
6. hosting

i should probably focus on bringing waking and girl down lower on the list, while pushing design and web (where's that one?!) up higher. or, maybe this month i'm targeting video clients. then video is the word i need to keep talking about.

those are also the words i should bold. :)

Scholarship

Waking Girl Web Design announces the 2007 Design & Business Scholarship Contest.

Please see our website for more details.

Google Calendar

The great thing about Google is that it combines function with SEO on just about every new widget it offers. In other words, not only do Google's widgets help your site manage content and clients, but it also makes your site more visible to new clients. In a phrase, Google lets us kill many birds with just one stone (and stones are free!).

top search engine placement

[from an email to a client]

curious, i googled my internet nickname. i do this
every few months.

the response this time was fascinating. the order in
which sites were returned should illustrate my point
about using other sites to drive traffic to your own
site.

1. NICKNAME.com (google looks first to see if there's
a domain that has the search phrase you typed in)

2. youtube.com..... (a link to my youtube profile,
which links to my business website)

3. yahoo.com.... (a link to my yahoo answers profile
which links to my business site)

4. myspace.com.... (a link to my myspace profile which
links to my business site)

after that it goes into more yahoo answers (every
question i have answered is indexed!). beyond that are
various forums that i have posted on.

since these "TOP" sites are linking to my business
website, it's going to help my ranking when someone
types in something like "girl web design" (1st page)
or "reno marketing consultation" (1st page) or "reno
web maintenance" (1st!).

Web Hosting with Waking Girl

If your website was a house, the host would be the
land that it sits on. Continuing with this analogy,
you need to look for land that is large enough for
your house, easy to build on, close to the main
highways, and most importantly, AFFORDABLE.

SPACE:
How much space will your website need? Probably not as
much as they're selling you. Unlike a house, you don't
need to worry about the neighbors next door when it
comes to your website. If your website is just
informational (1-10 pages, a few images on each page,
a mailing list), you don't need to worry about space.
Waking Girl's Buttercup Hosting will suit your needs
perfectly. We would look at expanding your hosting
space if your site received a LOT of visitors each
day. Waking Girl personalizes your hosting to fit your
needs.

If your website is heavier (lots of hits, video, more
than 10 pages, e-commerce) the Daisy Hosting will
better fit your needs.

EASE OF USE:
A web host can become costly when it is difficult for
a web designer and client to navigate. If there is any
sort of interactive function to your website (mailing
list, blog, shopping cart), your web designer will
need to access the Control Panel, which is maintained
by the host. Like a power company hooking up
electricity, the land needs to be easy to access and
use. If you are planning on using Waking Girl for your
web design needs, please use Waking Girl hosting. It
will save us time, and you money!

SPEED:
Everything we do nowadays on the web has to be FAST.
This is why we only partner and do business with Tier
1 bandwidth carriers who are known as the best in the
industry. Together with partners such as Level3, Time
Warner, and Savvis we bring your website to a whole
new level.

AFFORDABLE:
It's a good idea to spend more of your web budget on
the site than the hosting. On the Internet, it's NOT a
good idea to have a small run-down cabin on 40 acres
of land with beachfront and mountain views. It's
better to have the Taj Mahal on a cheap urban lot.
Waking Girl Hosting ranks with the most affordable
hosting on the web. For only $5/month we can survey a
plot of land just for you!

Waking Girl is a reseller host for Hostdime which is
presently ranked among the top 50 hosts in the world
by hostcount.com, housing over 1500 servers, and
hosting over 100,000 domains. The servers are located
in Orlando, Florida. If you are concerned about the
safety of your website, please ask your web designer
for instructions on how to back-up your website.