What’s a Backlink and Why Do I Need Them for My Website?
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If you’re new to the world of website development and online marketing, you may have heard a lot of noise already about backlinks. Everybody always says how important they are, but what’s the real story? What is a backlink and why do you need them for your website in order to be successful?
A backlink, also known as an inbound link or an incoming link to your website, is simply any link from another website, blog or online outlet that leads to one of the pages on your own website. So anytime that you get added to somebody’s links page or blogroll, or anytime somebody references one of your products, services or articles via a clickable link, that counts as a new backlink to your site.
Now, why is it that these are so important? Well, one of the most powerful options at your disposal in order to find new prospects and customers is to be ranked highly in the search engines. That’s not always easy to pull off, particularly when it comes to crowded markets and niches. You’ll find that even with the right keyword selection and on-page SEO, that you still may not be able to crack the top listings.
This is where all of those backlinks come into play. Each backlink that you have leading to your website is like adding a vote or tally to your cause within the search engine’s complicated formulas. Every time that somebody links to you they are basically saying, hey, I vouch for that website, and that increases your value. The more backlinks you have and the better quality that they are, the more this can boost your positioning.
Yes, that means that not all backlinks are worth the same in terms of the push that they can give your own reputation and ranking. Think of it as a politician running for office. Nailing down the head of that big union in your district and getting him to support your cause will be much more valuable comparatively to getting Bob on the street corner to vote for you. Every vote counts, sure, but the backing of a powerful player means even more.
That means the best backlinks you can get for your site are the ones that come from highly reputable sites themselves. Additionally, backlinks that come from related sites as opposed to unrelated sites, and backlinks that are natural as opposed to exchanged, will be worth more as well. So ultimately, while the more links you get the better, certain ones are far more important than others.
The bottom line with backlinks is that quantity and quality incoming links will improve your positioning in the search engines. Your reputation and online presence will grow, and you will be able to find more prospects and convert more of them into customers and repeat clients. For many small websites and businesses, it can be the difference between success and failure, so clearly, backlinks are something that should not be taken lightly.
Happy Birthday Wealth Masters International
By · CommentsThe testament and strength of a successful company is measured in time. When Wealth Masters started 5 years ago nobody knew what to expect, but one thing was certain and that was a dedication to provide everyday people with the financial tools necessary to create and protect there financial well being. According to industry expects the future of the global economy is in for some major changes, and it looks like things will get worst before they get better.
But there is a silver lining and many opportunities will be available for those who take it upon themselves to seek out the knowledge threw the financial education that Wealth Masters provides. Are you looking to invest in gold and silver wealth masters has the answers, what about rare coins, maybe even alternative fuels and yes real estate.
We’ll even show you how to properly set your business and protect your assets from prying eyes, all this and so much more when you become a member of Wealth Masters International. So please come join us for our 5 year birthday blast off on January 30 in the great state of Texas. And be sure to check out the video below to get more details about this exciting event see ya there.
Wealth Masters Introduction Part 1
By · CommentsDo I Really Need to Bookmark My Content Online?
By · CommentsOne of the most popular forms of online marketing for businesses and websites today is the world of social media, and more specifically, social bookmarking. Social bookmarking can be an extremely valuable tool when used correctly, however like nearly anything else its true merits have been questioned, and not all individuals see the results that they would like to. Here’s a quick primer on understanding social bookmarking and making it work for you.
Social bookmarking is the process of taking your website and its individual pages of content and saving it as a bookmark on various different web 2.0 websites. There are many popular outlets designed specifically for this purpose. These include sites coupled with voting such as Digg, Reddit and Propeller, and more general storing and sharing websites such as Delicious.
There are several different advantages to bookmarking for your overall online success. The first of which is that you’re exposing your content to lots of fresh faces. If you send out compelling content that truly engages people and entices them to take a look, then you’ll drive some serious traffic to your website and watch the list of your prospects and customers grow.
Additionally, the second main benefit to bookmarking your content on social media sites is that you’ll build up your base of incoming links. The more incoming links you have leading to your site and all of its pages, the higher you will rank in the results pages of the search engines. This can provide a great, free boost to your positioning.
Knowing all of this, are there any downsides to social bookmarking, or why do so many fail to succeed with it? The truth is that far too many people simple copy and paste generic content into dozens of websites and hope to see results. This isn’t going to get you very far, as your links will be devalued and nobody will bother having a look for themselves.
If you really want to see results, you have to really invest some time and effort into providing valuable and interesting content. When you post to multiple sites, you have to make those postings unique enough to be considered as such. Additionally, you need to become an active member of the community you’re involved with. If you friend other users, view and comment on their postings and generally participate in the environment, then people will do the same for you.
If you build up a base of followers, your posts will automatically receive a stream of content, and will have a much better chance of catching on fire. And that can be the biggest benefit of them all, having your content go viral. It’s not something you can really try or force to happen, but when it does you can see a ton of benefits.
Social bookmarking has grown quite popular, and it’s here to stay. If you want a quick and easy way to drive traffic to your website and boost your positioning in the search engines, then social bookmarking is a fantastic place to turn. Just remember to actually take the time to do it in the right way in order to see results.
The Carbon Copy Pro Experience In Las Vegas 09
By · CommentsJay Kubassek Presenting Live In Las Vegas 09
By · CommentsCarbon Copy Pro 3.0 Live Event In Las Vegas
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The Carbon Copy Pro Event Live In Las Vegas
It’s been a little over a week now since my first Carbon Copy Pro event in Las Vegas, and man what an experience that was. It all started with a rush to get the premium front seats once the doors opened to start the event, as everyone took there seats the roar of beating drums could be heard in the background. I still don’t know who this group of drummers was but it was pretty evident as they made their way down the aisle and ultimately to the stage that there precision drumming techniques were second to none, wow what an opening.
Traffic Geyser
They started us off with Mike Koenigs founder of Traffic Geyser, for all of you who might be looking for a web 2.0 syndication service that distributes to over a million video platforms per week and generates web traffic, leads and top ranking to search engines by sending video content to over 70 video sites social media, blog and podcasting directories as well as bookmarking sites, no one does it better than Traffic Geyser. I’ve had the program for a little over a year and it has done wonders for my video marketing efforts.
Beating the Odds
Next we were introduced to Karen Teresa head of sales and customer support as well as the customer support team that works with her, these guys do a fabulous job of getting everyone’s questions and concerns taken care of in our Carbon Copy Pro back offices. Karen shared a truly inspiring story of her son who over came a hearing impediment to become founder and CEO of his own company TekTegrity a regional provider of information technology on the central coast of California. Talk about beating the odds Karen’s son Russ Levenway is a wonderful inspiration for us all.
The Power of the Spouse
For those of you who have been on any of the CCPRO daily wakeup calls I’m sure you know the name John Jackson vice president of leadership development, JJ or BIG JOHN as he is affectingly known. John is one of those guys who can invite over for a cookout not even know him and fell right at home with his presence. In staying with his principles of passionate leadership Big John moderated this session of The Power of the Spouse, we were introduced to Liz Parkinson wife of Aaron Parkinson and Sophia Rashkin wife of Aaron Rashkin. They spoke about how important it is for the spouse of an entrepreneur to have understanding and commitment to the dreams of one day having a successful business.
This one really hit home for me, I can remember over 20 years ago now how much of a struggle it was when first starting my building maintenance company. My wife at the time didn’t understand the realties of sacrifice that it took to make one’s dreams come true, my marriage ultimately ended up in divorce it was hard but I got over it. Quitting was never an option for me, and I made a commitment to myself and my son’s that nothing would get in my way of making my dreams come true. It’s so important for a husband and wife to work together as a team, and Liz and Sophia provided perfect examples of The Power of the Spouse, I’m sure this one left some tears in the eyes for many of us in the audience I know it did for me.
The Urban Cowgirl
You want to see what personal branding will do for you? Well then you’ve got to check out Cherie Yvette aka The Urban Cowgirl. Cherie is founder of The Urban Cowgirl and Wild West Media, both companies are geared towards helping today’s entrepreneur navigate the world of online marketing specifically Google Adwords/Pay Per Click. Cherie has been responsible for helping 100’s of small business owners gain top search engine rankings, leads and continuous traffic for there websites and blogs. She also has been responsible for managing Adwords campaigns for many of the top producers with the network marketing industry.
It’s obvious that Cherie knows her stuff, but the one thing I’ve so interesting about her is the way she markets her business. The whole theme around both her companies revolves around the concept of the Wild Wild West. I mean everything from her marketing materials to her slide presentations to her websites in some way or another relates to gun slinging cowboys/cowgirls back in the Wild Wild West. This is what I mean when I say she’s done a fantastic job of personal branding, when ever anybody mentions Cherie Yvette’s name you automatically get this picture in your mind of a cowgirl complete with cowgirl boots, blue jeans and a cowgirl hat. So if you’re looking for an expert on Google Adwords look no further than the The Urban Cowgirl.
Wealth Masters International
We where than introduced to Wealth Masters founders Kip Herriage and Karl Bessey, who gave us in inside look at where Wealth Masters is going as a company and the new opportunities they have planed for the future. Kip has over 15 years as vice president, financial planner, and money manager for one of the largest investment firms in the world, having managed over 70 million dollars in assets. Karl comes from the blue collar arena having spent over 22 years as an underground coal miner in Utah and ultimately becoming a million dollar producer in the direct sells industry.
After meeting each other at a network marketing seminar both of them decided to do something that would help other entrepreneurs in the areas of Health, Wealth and financial education. You could definitely tell that both of these guys are passionate about what they’ve created with Wealth Masters as a company and are truly dedicated to helping people pursue there dreams.
Step by Step to Seven Figures
Andrew Cass or as I heard many people call The MC extraordinaire presented his Step by Step to Seven figures. Andrew was the first member of Carbon Copy Pro, and was number 1 in sales in 2008 he give us a brief overview of his history in the financial services industry and his rise to become a top earner within the Carbon Copy Pro system. Andrew is now senior vice president of marketing for Carbon Copy Pro as well as Vice President of Business Development for Wealth Masters and sits on the company’s board of directors. If you’re looking for a model to follow and a Step by Step to Seven figures Andrew Cass is it, he’s also a great MC as well.
The Millionaire Roundtable
Aaron Parkinson co-founder of Carbon Copy Pro treated us to a million dollar roundtable session with four of the top earners within the Carbon Copy Pro system. It was interesting to see how well these guys interacted with each other, it was obvious that they were all friends but there was definitely a feeling of competition among them. It’s always good to see from a personal perspective how different people are doing business wise within the company, Michael Force along with Andrew Cass give us some really enlightening information on how they were able to move up through the ranks and obtain top earner status.
Aaron Parkinson asked the right questions and I know myself as well as many others truly benefited from the answers received. Aaron has a pretty interesting history himself, having been a seven time top producer in several direct sells organizations. I also found out that he fought as a mixed martial artists for over 10 years, being a long time martial artist myself I could relate. We really enjoyed the great information we received from this million dollar roundtable, as it was the topic of discussion during the break.
Carbon Copy Pro 3.0
Kevin Thomas and Ferny Ceballos Carbon Copy Pro Live Las Vegas 2009
Ok last but not least Jay Kubassek took to the stage with an energetic presentation into the future of Carbon Copy Pro 3.0. Most of us know the story of Jay from his humble beginnings as a Midas muffler salesman to launching Carbon Copy Pro in 2004. But not too many know about his philanthropic associations and his love for the arts, he’s produced several independent films and even has his own movie production company (Aliquot Media). I’ve seen some of his work, and just like everything else Jays does his films are top notch and could rival any movie production company out there.
We also got a glimpse into the new Inside Out DVD and also the new business in a box or what it is now affectionately known as the BlackBox, the second generation of the BIB. Jay talked about the importance of keeping up with the training in the Carbon Copy Pro Back office as well as networking and staying engaged with Carbon Copy Pro community members.
Well after the awards ceremony which was dominated by Michael Force, man talk about a go-getter the event winded down for the day. As we made our way out of the meeting room in to the lobby and hallway everyone was a buzz with conversations about how to take there marketing to the next level.
I’m really glad that I attended this event because lets be honest, being an online entrepreneur locked up in your office in front of a computer all day can be a little lonely at times. And being able to see real people, connecting names with faces I’m sure was a huge boost for us all to get back home and take building our businesses and marketing efforts to a whole nother level. I had a chance to meet people from all over world and made quite a few networking connections many of whom I’ve spoken with since the event. Carbon Copy Pro has everything you’re looking for in an internet marketing company, and I as well as many others look forward to being a part of the evolution and growth of Carbon Copy Pro.
My First Wealth Masters M2 Conference
By · CommentsWell, after a long 7 hour flight to Las Vegas from the east coast I had no idea what to expect from my first Wealth Masters M2 event. After arriving at the airport I then caught a taxi to the beautiful Paris Hotel were the M2 Conference was to take place. As I approached the lobby to check in there was quite a line of apprehensive Wealth Masters participates chatting and getting to know each other.
Ferny Ceballos Kevin Thomas (Me) and Raymond Fong receiving our financial re-education at the M2 Wealth Masters event in Las Vegas
I then made my way to the end of the line and was pleasantly surprised that the last person in line happened to be my upline sponsor and one of my mentors Ferny Ceballos I’m not joking this really happened Ferny along with his partner Raymond Fong are the creators of Attraction Marketing Formula and SEO Networker. And boy did I take advantage of this situation, I picked Fernando’s brain all the way to the front desk.
After checking into my room and resting a bit I then made my way to the welcome reception were I met top earners Sophia and Aaron Rashkin on the elevator up to the reception, wow talk about a good day. I mingled and networked for a couple of hours and then returned to my room to get ready for the first day of the event.
Day One
Day one was very interesting to say the least it was pretty much centered around the impending economic collapse of the America economy as we know it. These signs have been evident all around us for the past couple of years from the dot.com bubble to the bail out of Wall Street but what made this day so interesting was the evidence to back it up. The one speaker that I found extremely impressive was best selling author Peter Schiff and his book Crash Proof-How to profit from the economic collapse, it was so impressive that I bought the book. We then heard Wayne Allen Root best selling author and 2008 Vice Presidential candidate for the Librarian party man talk about a success story this guy is in his own words relentless. When the day ended it was pain stakely obvious that the information had had an emotional and metal drain on us all by evidence of the long faces and heads held low.
Day Two
After a great breakfast and networking with people from all over world we all headed to the conference room for the beginning of day two. Day two turned out to be more up beat and not so much the gloom and doom of the previous day. The speakers provided us with viable solutions on how to profit form what could arguably be the largest wealth transfer in human history. We learned that by making sound educated financial decisions that the reality of positioning ourselves to profit in the coming years is extremely possible if we make the decision to properly educate ourselfs on financial issues that will impact our lives in the future.
Wealth Masters provided us with excellent speakers that covered a board range of topics everything form investing in collectable coins, real estate investment programs, high yield oil stocks, to one of my favorites Michael Maloney’s guide to investing in Gold and Silver. In keeping with Wealth Masters vision of Wealth, Health and Wisdom we also were entertained with motivational speakers Andy Andrews and health presenters Deanna Latson and a very informative speech by Gwen Olsen author of Confessions of an RX Drug Pusher which gave everyone an inside look at the pharmaceutical drug industry and there mission to keep everyone of us addicted to so called legal drugs solely for profits sake, this one was good and yes I got the book. Man after day two I could hardly sleep with so much information spinning around in my head, today was a good day.
Day Three
As we entered the conference hall for our third and final day I was thinking to myself wow how could they possibly top day two, well they did. Day three was basically a continuation and a part two question and answer session for all of the Wealth Masters attendees. There were part two presentations from the day before and an in depth explanation and follow up from day twos investment programs. The presenters than answered questions and made sure no question went unanswered it was this type of family atmosphere that really struck a cord throughout the audience. After words the speakers made themselves available for book signings, networking and more information on there investment programs.
The day ended with a formal Farwell Banquet and a last chance to network with everyone who attended this event. As I left and said my finial good byes you just couldn’t but think what a first class organization Wealth Masters is. I didn’t know what to expect from the first day I arrived but I know when I boarded my plane back to the east coast that Wealth Masters is truly one of the best online marketing companies out there. I look forward to a great future with this company and can’t wait to attend my next event.
SEO or PPC?
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Carbon Copy Pro Live Event Las Vegas 09
The two main components of search engine marketing are search engine optimization and pay per click management. The two are very contrasting in terms of their benefits, their costs and how you go about using them for your website. It’s important to understand how both of these components of search engine marketing wok and how you can use them to help your business’s online presence and profitability.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO entails everything you do both on your website and off your website to boost its standings in the displayed results of the search engines. There are many different pieces of effective search engine optimization. For example, you can include targeted keywords and phrases into your content, you can build the amount of incoming links you have on your website and much more.
Results you see from SEO are known as organic. A visitor to your website that arrives there from a normal query in the search engine is known as an organic visitor. You didn’t have to pay to drive that person to your website, instead it was a result of your natural placement in the search engines.
SEO takes time to become effective and is generally a gradual process. You can’t throw up some keywords on your website and expect to be number 1 in Google the next week. Instead, SEO is about boosting the value and credibility of your website over the long haul. With the right strategy deployed continually for a long period of time you will be able to see and maintain substantial results in your search engine positioning. The result, of course, is increased traffic flow to your website and a greater online presence.
Pay Per Click
PPC campaigns entail purchasing sponsored listings that appear in the search engine results. When you make a search in Google, the sponsored results show up right at the top of the page, as well as down the sidebar of the page. Every link you see in these areas has been purchased.
The main thing to remember however is that you don’t really pay for the placement, you pay each time somebody clicks on your ad to go to your website. This offers a direct link between visitors and the amount you pay, and you can control your daily budget to limit how much you end up spending. The way that the listings are determined is through an ongoing bidding process. The more you are willing to spend per click, or per visitor, the higher you will end up getting ranked.
The great benefit of PPC is that it is instantaneous. You may not be able to run a masterful PPC campaign right away, but as soon as you create and launch a campaign, you will start seeing results. Therefore it’s an extremely powerful way to make an immediate impact on your traffic.
As opposed to SEO however PPC of course costs you money. If you don’t target your market appropriately and bid on keywords strategically, you can end up wasting a good deal of money. Another important aspect of PPC management is developing effective landing pages that convert visitors who click on your links. This is extremely important when every visitor you receive has been paid for.
Clearly there are many differences between search engine optimization and pay per click campaigns. SEO produces long term results and doesn’t cost you money directly. PPC can produce instant results but will cost you every time someone ends up on your website.
An effective search engine marketing strategy will usually incorporate pieces of both. It’s all about fitting a specific plan into a budget you can afford, and deploying tactics that help you achieve your specific goals. For example, if you just created a website and want to begin seeing traffic right away, bidding highly on some of your important key phrases will help you gain an immediate presence.
However, to keep costs down in the long run while further developing your presence, you will have to use SEO to help climb up the rankings. PPC is also commonly used when you are directly trying to sell a product or service to someone, as opposed to convert them over longer periods of time.
Be sure to consider both PPC and SEO when developing your Internet marketing strategy. Both can pay huge dividends for your website, but as mentioned they are extremely different from one another. Used in conjunction, they can be an extremely powerful tag team of Internet marketing.
Offline Marketing Strategies for Your Online Business
By · CommentsMany small business owners fail to successfully connect their online business with the offline world. What this means is that they either don’t realize that online businesses can be promoted with offline strategies, or they don’t know how to make it work for their specific situations. The truth is that many traditional forms of offline advertising and marketing strategies can be extremely successful for businesses that are entirely online based.
It’s easy to get caught up in the world of online marketing when you are running an Internet business. Indeed, 
succeeding in the areas of search engine optimization, social networking and PPC campaigns are all extremely important to the success of your business. Additionally, they are all extremely cost effective forms of advertising and promotion that enable you to reach a potentially huge market. No online business would be wise to avoid online marketing.
However that doesn’t mean that you have to forgo offline marketing or traditional advertising altogether. In fact, what is consistently proven time and time again is that the most successful businesses form comprehensive marketing plans that incorporate many different tactics and platforms. Including offline advertising into your online marketing plan is simply a smart way to broaden your horizons and diversify your plan of attack.
The most important thing you have to remember though is that not all offline advertising opportunities make sense for online businesses. The trick is finding the ones that work for your particular business or industry. There is a huge variety of different options, including newspaper ads, trade magazines, conferences and tradeshows, post cards, radio advertising and more. So how is your online business supposed to find the platforms that work best?
Just as with your online marketing work, you are looking for cost effective, efficient and highly targeted forms of advertising, marketing and promotion. In the world of search engine optimization you wouldn’t try to target the broad search market of “cars” when what you are really offering is “vintage car auctions in New York”.
You would be facing far too much competition, and the costs of your efforts will be significantly higher. Additionally, the people who eventually find you may not be interested at all in what you have to offer. They may be looking for “car repair shops” “cars with the best gas mileage” or anything else.
Of course the same rules apply when you are working with offline marketing. You want to target your market as effectively as possible, and reach out to your potential prospects and customers in the places where you are most likely to find them and where they are most likely to listen to what you have to say. This will help you keep your costs down while providing yourself a better shot at actually reaching out to interested parties.
The offline methods of marketing you choose have to have clear, tangible benefits for your business. Just advertising and opening up your budget for the sake of it isn’t going to get you anywhere. Instead you need to think about what you specifically are trying to accomplish and then devise ways of making that happen.
Are you trying to add 1,000 new names to your email list so that you can grow your presence and find new prospects? Are you trying to promote a new product or service you just released? Are you offering a limited time discount or promotion designed to get customers into your doors with the hopes of selling to them repeatedly over time?
Whatever you are trying to accomplish, the first step is specifically plotting out your desired results. From there, you can find the quickest and most cost efficient ways of achieving that goal. To find 10 or 20 highly valuable prospects a tradeshow or conference may be the best route, but to send as much traffic as possible to your website a newspaper or radio ad may make more sense.
Think about your goals, keep your budget in mind and then choose the offline marketing strategy that fits the best with what you are going for. Remember, online businesses aren’t restricted to the online world. There is no unwritten rule that says a website can’t promote itself using traditional methods. So dive into the world of offline marketing for a way to increase the success of your online business.
