Someone asked me how I use photos to help to optimize my site for the search engines. Well, what most people do is name their photos with keywords. A lot of times you can do a thing called “alternative text (alt-tag)” where you can insert a description for your picture. An example of alternative text is when you right-click on a picture and select picture properties.  You can actually see the description there in your alt-tag if you have one and you can also see the name. So you not only name your picture a certain specific keyword, but you can also insert some text that represents keywords or keyword phrases in your alt-tag.

However, a word of caution, you don’t want to stuff too many keywords in there because that’s not going to help you at all. You might want to use one specific keyword phrase when you are doing it, maybe two, but that’s it. Search engines don’t like keyword stuffing. They basically see it as spam. To them it looks like garbage content and not well thought out keyword content. So, make sure you take your time to choose one specific keyword phrase for your photos.

You can also post your photos on social networking sites like Flickr.com. Now, when you’re talking about Flickr, that’s more like off-off-off-page optimization. However, when you’re talking about SEO with specific photos, that’s really about all you can do. You can also get links from other pages and point those links to that page where you have those things. That can help you out in your optimization efforts.

Remember though that the key to getting higher in the search engines is by having links to your pages from sites with more authority. If you have links entering your site from highly ranked authority pages that will be a tremendous help in your rankings. Well-ranked sites pointing to your site are going to help you out. In addition to Flickr, you can also use social bookmarks. If you use Internet Explorer or Firefox, you can go up to the top and bookmark pages so that you can go back.

Whenever you’re on your computer and you’re using either browser (Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox), you can go and find the actual pages that you saved by clicking on bookmarks. It will list all of your bookmarked pages. But you do need to know that social bookmarking is a little bit different. What you do is you go to pages on the internet and you bookmark them on the internet so that you can go back to those pages on the internet and find them. Do realize that the search engines actually get to see all of that. And once they do,  it will benefit your page ranks all the more.

Take your time and choose in demand keywords for your photos to improve the rankings of your pages and your sites overall ranking as well.

Best Regards,

Matt Bacak

Need support? Go here ->
http://mattbacaksupport.com

In the last article I spoke about removing the “noise” of online marketing and addressed the concerns many people have of feeling the need to buy everything new that’s being offered to them in the world of online marketing. How do we avoid making the mistake of purchasing too many products and not taking the steps to use the methods given to us to properly build our business? Perhaps there is a secret to making money online.

The question remains, how can you be more successful online without feeling the need to purchase every product being offered to you?

Well, you need to start making decisions and choose one person to follow and model yourself after. Then, after you do that, pick another person off the shelf and say, “Okay, now I’ve got this business model up. Now I’m going to go to one of these other guys and figure out how I can use their model to build my business.”  I just bought somebody else’s stuff the other day. I’ve got it on my shelf. I’m not looking at it right now, but I know later on down the road I’m going to pull it out and study it. I’m going to use it when I need it. So what I say is take everything off your shelf and say to yourself; “Today I’m going to follow this guru’s business model.” And then take the steps and actually begin to follow their model. That’s going to be the best thing for you to do because it will empower you to start building your business.

Next, what you want to do is you’ll need to find out how to do specific steps along the way i.e., setting up a sales page, mini-site, autoresponder sequence, upsell etc. Once you have those things set up, then you’ll need to take the next step. The key is to get something up and running as soon as possible. Nothing happens without taking action. Put everything else out of your mind and stay focused on the task at hand.  You don’t even have to pay attention to them. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself. You’ve got to just follow what your guru “mentor” is doing in order to begin to make money. So, you’ve got to follow one model first before you can succeed online. Follow it exactly, step by step. Do exactly what they’re doing and make it happen!

So, to recap you need to just pick one guru, follow their model. Then once you have their model figured out, you need to get the various tasks which make up that unique model done. Once you do that, then you can go and dive into other programs to find more information. You’ve got to get things set up first in order to move forward. If you don’t have your opt-in page or you don’t have a hosting account and a URL, buy it. Go find a domain, get a hosting account and get that up as soon as possible.

The reason all these gurus are big and are able to sell you the things they sold you is because you’re on their list. So, you also want to start building your list so you can sell stuff like they’ve sold to you.  Once you have that, then you’re going to follow their model to build your own following. That will help you succeed online with a solid foundation that you can build upon in the future.

Best Regards,

Matt Bacak

Need support? Go here ->
http://mattbacaksupport.com

Many of you out there may be in the position where you have purchased several products from several different internet marketing gurus and have not really used any of the methods in any of the programs to make any money.  In the mean time, you continue to read more and more sales letters about other products that sound fantastic and continue maxing out your credit instead of merely applying what you have learned. Why do you continue to buy more and more products? Why are you continuously reading sales letter after sales letter with the belief that the product being sold to you is the next best thing that you can’t do without? Well,it is usually because you get into a habit of over analyzing something and become mentally paralyzed.

A confused mind has a hard time making a decision. Also, if you are on a tight budget, you are faced with the additional burden of having to get it right the first time. You have no breathing room to make mistakes. In the markets they called that “scared money”. When a person gambles with money that they can ill afford to lose, they end up making poor decisions based on fear.

I have bought multiple programs myself from many gurus over the years because even though I’ve made lots of money online, I still have the desire to keep learning new stuff so I can continue to stay on top of things. Have I made mistakes in the past? Of course I have. I am no different than you. However, success comes to those who can make clear and informed decisions not based upon fear. I did by taking that first step many years ago. I didn’t know everything then and I don’t know everything now, but I am successful.

The only way to bypass all of the fluff and noise online is to only focus on one guru who you know has made a success of themselves online with their products and information. If they understand marketing and know how to sell online, why not follow what they do! Purchase their products, see how they market to you and follow those same strategies with your own audience. This will not only make you sell more, but by following their marketing methods you’ll better align yourself with your list and build stronger relationships – thus creating more traffic and a more successful business.

Stay tuned for part two of this article series. I’m going to discuss how you can become more successful online.

Best Regards,

Matt Bacak

Need support? Go here ->
http://mattbacaksupport.com

If you really want to scale up your internet business and really gain more leverage, you are going to have to outsource various tasks of your business to different people. This is exactly what I do to help grow my business.

One great person that you could use to do a lot of your web design and graphic design is Vaughn at Killer Covers. That’s exactly who I personally use. If you want to get your websites and web pages set up as well as direct response pages, squeeze pages and opt-in pages or whatever else, you might want to go to Webmaster4Hire.biz. They are both very thorough and professional and do an excellent job. They understand online marketing so that makes things a whole lot easier.

Anything you can do to outsource out is going to be a lot easier for you because you’re leveraging other people’s time to make things happen. The big tip I offer anyone outsourcing is to make sure that your contractors are direct response savvy. They need to be familiar with direct response marketing. You don’t want to just get anyone that thinks they know graphics and graphic design. They need to understand how it works in the online marketing world. You want to hire people that know about direct response, that would be the first concern. The other thing you want to make sure of is that you’re utilizing contractors who other people have used. For example, a lot of my clients have used Webmaster4Hire.biz, which show that they must obviously know what they are doing.

My experience with outsourcing has been both good and bad. It’s a hit or miss. I mean,  sometimes it’s either the communication back and forth that is the problem, where you tell them one thing but they do something else. However, once you get somebody that’s good, keep them in your rolodex and take care of them. If you build a strong working relationship with them, they’ll not only do a good job everytime, but they’ll be eager to do work for you again in the future. They’ll also be more willing to do rush jobs for you simply because they like and respect you.

If you want to get well-written content for your website, I highly recommend ContentDivas.com They provide a great content and transcription service that surpasses any other service I’ve ever used. I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad experience with them. There was only one time that I tried to make them do something I knew that they probably couldn’t do but they said they could and then they couldn’t get it done. This was a mistake on my part. Don’t do the same thing. Just make sure that your expectations are realistic.

Once in a while you can find good people off of Elance. I’ve had hit or misses with Elance. I’ve actually found some amazing people at Elance and some really horrible ones,  but I would still say it is a great place and worth a try.

Another place is Scriptlance.com.  I’ve never personally had good experience with Scriptlance, but I’ve had a lot of friends who have. Sometimes you just have to take the plunge. It may just work out.

However, one thing to keep in mind when you are hiring a freelancer is don’t just go by price. I think that’s a really, really important tip. Sometimes you might find the cheapest person is going to give you the worst work. But sometimes it might not be that way. They could end up giving you the best work simply because they are trying to get established in their business. However, the point I’d like to emphasize is don’t just skimp out on price. If you’ve got somebody that’s working for you, someone that you’re going to use to make money, paying somebody a couple of extra bucks to make sure it gets done right is going to save you a lot of headaches, like it did for me. Do your research, take some chances, find out who others have used and this should get you further ahead in your business and in accomplishing more in less time.

Best Regards,

Matt Bacak

Need support? Go here ->
http://mattbacaksupport.com