Google Pagerank: 0 to 3 in 12 months

Not a spectacular accomplishment, but an accomplishment none the less. Especially if you consider how many websites are out there for years and never achieve any pagerank.

I am not an SEO expert, nor do I know everything there is to know about building websites. I’m an average person with an online business.

My first step was to purchase desktop software so I would not have to rely on the onsite builders offered by most hosting company’s. I wanted to have complete control over every aspect of the design, keywords, content and SEO of this site and the only logical way to do this was to not be reliant on software that didn’t quite do what I needed it to do.

After a bit of research and advise from a mentor I decided on XsitePro. Designed specifically for network marketing it gave me the advantage of being able to check things like keyword density, alt tags, meta tags, total number of words on page as well as other important SEO qualities.

The next step was Keyword Research. Knowing what keywords work for your site and your industry will play an important role in the success or failure of your website. Sure you can get lucky using keywords that are standard within your industry, but knowing which words are good, profitable and niche is what will make your site stand out above the rest.

I limited the total number of keywords for each page to 10 or less. This doesn’t mean I used only 10 or less keywords within a page, I only listed 10 or less. This created a keyword rich page that was very SEO friendly.

I tried to use solid keywords within my industry to name each of the pages within my site. There is some debate on whether this is a good strategy for solid SEO, but it seems to work for my site.

I also spent a fair amount of time on developing my site content. Providing good quality and unique content is just as important as SEO for your website. It needs to flow as if conversational and it needs to provide information. I made it a point not to use the typical hype that is so common in MLM, but did try to inject my own excitement for my business and product line.

I paid particular attention to the Meta tags for each page. Many people use the Meta tag as an advertisement when it’s purpose is to describe the page. Earlier websites I had built never did well and part of the reason is because of how I used Meta tags and the overuse of keywords which tagged the site with the major search engines as a spam site.

Paying attention to your alt tags is also important. Again the proper use of an alt tag is not to provide an additional advertisement, but instead to provide a description of the image associated with the alt tag.

Link strategy has always been an issue for me and my websites. I knew paying for links could harm my site and link exchanges pretty much cancel each other out so I had to find a way to bring in some one way links that were legit.

I currently am using several techniques to achieve links into my site. Articles are a primary source for inbound links to my site. I also use endorsements of other products and services which provide links into my site. And I’ve put other domains I own up as mini sites or landing pages that link to my primary site.

Traffic is another important factor for any website. Simply putting up a website does not automatically mean you will have traffic. When you start a new site you have to let people (your target audience) know that it’s there.

Because of the massive amount of money I had lost in my first two years of business, my husband pulled in the purse strings. This meant I had to find creative ways to drive traffic to my site that did not cost money.

I had used Traffic Exchanges in the early days of my business and I decided to revisit that option. I opened accounts with several exchanges and started surfing. It was slow in the beginning but picked up after a couple of weeks. I continue to use traffic exchanges to drive traffic to my site, and while it’s not “targeted” traffic, I view any traffic as good traffic.

Now that it has been just over a year and I have seen a steady increase of search engine traffic generated by my choice of keywords grow. Natural traffic doesn’t happen overnight and to get it you have to take the time to do the keyword research and find those profitable keywords and niche keywords that will put your site on the first 2 or 3 pages in the search engines.

Amazingly enough, many of the terms used are quality keywords that are not listed in my keyword list. This was surprising to me and helped to reaffirm the importance of providing quality content for my site visitors.

Understand your own industry and make your choices based on what works within that industry. Provide your site visitors with information they are looking for and take the time to do your keyword research. These steps will set your website apart from the others.

How My Home Business Benefited Me when I could not Work my Business

I have had my home business since January 2005. My first two years I spent following blindly what I was told to do. This was not profitable for me or my business and only put money in the pockets of those above me.

I managed to start using my common sense in late 2006, early 2007 and rebuild the foundation of my business based on facts and not hype and have enjoyed a profitable home based business since January 2007.

Clearly a business that is in profit is something to enjoy, but the major benefit was realized late last year when I suffered a catastrophic health event that put me in the local ICU.

You may be wondering how that could possibly be a benefit for my business and the truth is that on the surface it would seem to be a horrible event for me personally as well as for my business.

The fact is that because I took the time early in 2007 to rebuild my business foundation and retrain those in my downline, my business ran without me and continued to make money while I was in the hospital.

The key factors that were changed in early 2007 were my dependence on my upline and sponsor for information on how to run my home business. I also changed my focus from the heavy ad campaigns I was running to building a website that was user friendly as well as SEO friendly.

I also provided my distributor base with usable tools that were understandable and easy to use with the added benefit of being free. Training was implemented and directed towards what my team members wanted and not what had been dictated to me in my first two years.

Because I was in the hospital for a while I asked one of my distributors to maintain my team forum for me and she was able to do so with no issues primarily because of the effort that was put into the forum and the amount of information that was provided to the team on the forum.

My own realization that my home business was built on old school marketing techniques as well as far too much hype enabled me to honestly reassess my business and start the process of determining what was important to me and what my own goals were. The most important goal was to start earning money and get the business into profit.

I tossed out the hype, buzz words and old school techniques and had my home business in profit in less than 30 days and have maintained a profitable business ever since. Because I was able to see the flaws of what I was doing prior to January 2007, I have benefited from a profitable business even while I was confined without the ability to work in an ICU.

Would these methods work for you in your home business? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on you and what your goals are. Use your own common sense and decide what you need to gain from your business. Once you have done that it’s easy to set your goals and start moving forward.

I will also note that I stopped all paid advertising for my primary business and have relied on the knowledge I gained from about my industry and solid SEO for my websites since January 2007. My business continues to grow and earn more profits each month which gives me the freedom to explore other money making opportunities that I can work from home.

Defining Success in a Home Based Business

Success is one of those words that is tossed around the home based business arena quite often. Those of us who start home based businesses generally are able to illustrate clearly the reason we did so. Earning money to contribute to the household income, being able to stay at home with the kids and for some simply as a hobby to fill their time.

Regardless of why you start a home business, defining your success can only be done by you. You see, you know better than anyone what you need out of your home based business. This is not something that should be dictated to you by your sponsor or upline.

Keeping your focus on your own success should always be your priority over helping your sponsor or upline achieve their success. They will benefit from your success only if you achieve the level of success as defined by them.

This simple revelation took me the better part of two years to discover and this journey was not a profitable one for me. I was losing money every month in my business with the majority of my business expenditures going into affiliate programs and purchasing leads from those in the business above me. It’s important to note that a business that consistently loses money is one that will eventually dry up and close its doors while a business in profit rarely closes its doors.

I have often talked about the steps I took to rebuild my home based business into one that was profitable, but the most important step I took was deciding to define my own success.

For me it was as simple as getting my business into profit. This didn’t just mean breaking even, I needed to see cash after the monthly expenses were paid for. This realization propelled me into a new way of looking at my home based business and started a domino effect that has resulted in the realization that I could have a profitable business.

Think about the reasons you started your business, or the reasons you are thinking about starting a business. List them and use that list to help you define what success is for you. For some it could be as simple as generating a hundred dollars a month to help pay for a household bill. For others it could be the ability to become financially independent or the avenue for quitting your day job.

I know that once you’ve made the list you won’t see helping my sponsor or upline achieve their success on your list, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is your business not theirs.

The role of a sponsor is sometimes lost in the hype of a company. A good sponsor will do what they can to help you define your success and provide you with tools and resources necessary to achieve that success regardless of how it benefits them.

Your ability to define your own success also relates closely to taking responsibility for your home based business. While it is great to have a sponsor or upline willing to provide the tools and resources to help you achieve your success, ultimately it’s up to you as the business owner to use the tools and resources provided. Furthermore if those tools or resources aren’t working for you, it’s up to you to find the ones that do work in your situation.

Expecting anyone other than yourself to build your business is irresponsible and frankly not a solid business plan. Defining your own success is just one of the puzzle pieces that will help you to build your home based business successfully and earn you the income you desire.

Copyright Violations Suck

Shortly after writing on this blog about my friends copyright being violated, I got a Google alert. When I check it out sure enough my own copyright had been violated. The lack of ethics astounds me.

I wrote an article about a recent "catastrophic health event" that occurred in my life and my own ability to accept what had happened to me.

Unlike my friend Lori's experience where her article was republished without her resource information, my article was hacked up and now makes no sense.

Example,the first line of my article reads:
In late 2007, I suffered a catastrophic health event that changed my life in ways that I never could have imagined.

On this blog the first line reads:
In late 2007, I suffered a catastrophic upbeat event that changed my chronicle in ways that I never could hit imagined.

It gets worse but I'll spare you the details. Clearly it's wrong to republish anything in violation of a copyright. And the way it was done to my article makes me look like I suffered much more brain damage than I actually did.

I immediately contacted the blog owner and requested that he either remove the article or re post it in original form. 5 days later I've not heard from the blog owner nor has the article been removed or corrected.

So what do you do in this situation? Here's what I've done and intend to do.

I emailed him directly, no response.
I filed a complaint with his ISP, again no response.
I posted a comment to the blog. The comment is waiting to be moderated. I'm sure the blog owner will approve the comment...not!
Because the blog site uses Google AdWords so I will be contacting them. I believe that violating a copyright will cause Google to remove his AdWords account as well as any earnings from those ads.
Last step, contact my attorney.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's had their copyright violated and how they handled it.

Has Your Copyright Been Violated

As mentioned in my previous post about my friends Article being posted to a blog site without the benefit of her resources being listed I have an update.

The owner of the blog that posted her copyright material has responded and provided a link back to her site, however he still has violated her copyright my changing her resource information from what was posted with her article.

I also noted in the last article on this subject that I would post names of other authors who possible were having their copyrights violated. I will update this post as I have time because this site is very large with many months of posts.

I'll give the title of the article and the author's name. If you are the author, or know the author have them Google their name and article title and go through the list to see if your copyright has been violated.

To the List:
February Articles
Myths And Misconceptions About Job Hunting by Tony Jacowski
Brainstorm Your Way To A New Career by Jacqui Mitchell
Dealing With Gaps In Employment by Tony Jacowski
Dealing with Job Loss - Stay Connected by Lisa McGrimmon
Resume Cover Letters - Turn The Toughest Job Hunting Chore Into A Powerful Assetrew by John Groth
Job Search Secret - Sending a Thank You Letter When You Don’t Get the Job by Jane Trevaskis
Building the Executive Resume by Abby M. Locke
Moving on after layoff not easy, but plan is essential by Amy Lindgren
Creative Job Hunting - How To Access The Hidden Job Market by Jacqui Mitchell
Top Tips For Incorporating Your Personal Brand In Your Job Search by Michelle Dumas

Unethical Blogging Practice, Copyright Infringement

Recently I was speaking with a good friend of mine Lori Clark who owns a consulting business called Clark Aviation Consulting. She has started writing articles and found that one of her first articles had been picked up by another website.

Since this is the desired outcome of an article she was happy about it. However when checking out the site that picked up the article she found something that none of us want to see happen with our articles.

The article was picked up from a secondary source which had not included her resources, namely her contact information or the link back to her website. When the article was published on the 2nd site it was linked to the site who did not include Lori’s resources.

There were now 2 instances of her article being picked up with neither of them giving the required credit and link back to Lori’s site.

To make matters worse, the site that is violating numerous authors copyrights has monitized his site using content links. So not only is he stealing copyrighted material, he's making money from it.

She contacted the 2nd person and they rectified the resource issue right away. The original person who posted her article has an entire blog site filled with great content and an excellent PR. The problem is that the excellent content is provided by others who have no idea that their articles are being taken and used without their resources.

This is a blatant copyright infringement and without a doubt the lack of links back to the original author’s has contributed to the high PR for this blog. Sadly this type of thing occurs on a regular basis on the Internet and it’s up to us to be proactive in protecting our copyright material.

When you submit an article for publication as soon as the article is published, you need to set a google alert for the name of the article. A Google alert are a great tool for keeping track of your articles and also provides you the ability to stay on top of any copyright infringements.

There are remedies for this type of infringement. First contact the person that posted your article and ask them to include your resource information. If they don’t comply, your next step is to contact their ISP provider and let them know that this person is violating your copyright. The ISP has it within their power to take these types of sites down.

Another option for you when you find your copyrighted material has been violated is to contact google and let them know. Clearly they can’t take the site down, but if there is any pagerank associated with the site they can and will make adjustments to that pagerank.

It’s important to know that you have to be proactive in protecting your Internet persona as well as protecting your copyright material whether it is your site copy or an article. Doing so will ensure that you will grow your own Internet presense and build your own reputation as an expert in your field.

I will be compiling a list of authors who's work is featured on this site and posting them here on my blog.

2007, My Business Year in Review

I’m a believer in personal growth. Growth is usually the result of your personal experiences and how you relate and react to those experiences. I can tell you from my own personal experience that regardless of how bad an experience seems to be at the time, there can always be something good to come from it.

Your own ability to find the good in each experience is what will truly define how much growth you achieve in day to day life.

Late in 2006 I started to realize that those I looked to for leadership in my primary business simply did not have the skills, tools or knowledge to lead me in the direction I needed to go. They also did not share my business ethics and consistently droned on about working your warm market, the 3 foot rule and all the other old school techniques that don’t work in todays internet marketing environment.

The feeling I had was that I had been taken for a ride for the sole purpose to either build the credibility or line the pockets of my leaders. I’m sure there are marketers out there who have also felt the loss off respect for their leadership.

Many of those marketers will simply drop from their program, give up or start looking for a different direct marketing opportunity.

During that time of enlightenment in 2006 I had to start making some serious decisions and determine if I what I had was worth continuing. Because I did have faith in my product line and had already built a small team which I was already collecting residual income on I decided it would be to my benefit to continue.

The majority of 2007 was spent turning some bad experiences in my business into something positive. I shifted the focus of my disappointment in my leaders to learning and building what I had truly wanted in my own home business.

At first my business overhaul was fueled by my emotions but as time went on I learned how to make logical decisions based on fact and not my emotions. And believe it or not, in spite of the emotional upheaval I felt I now realize how grateful I am that I had experienced it was what put a fire under me and got me started toward the right direction.

Like a child who grows up and finally takes that necessary step out into the world on their own, I needed to do the same with my business. I cut the ties with my own leadership and started on a year long journey to make my business reflect my wants, needs and desires.

The final outcome of my 2007 efforts will be an ongoing process as my own business continues to grow. I now have a solid foundation for my own business and have developed up to date tools for my team to help them build their foundations and get their business into profit.
My personal growth during the calendar year 2007 has also been quite amazing. The largest part of that growth has been learning to trust my own instincts and use my common sense when it comes to my business.

It’s important to always remember why you got into a particular business, for me it wasn’t hard to cut the ties that were holding me down because I did not start my business to be popular or to make friends, I did it to make money.