Month: December 2022

Start a Business For Free?

Many would-be entrepreneurs want to know if it is possible to start a business for free. Technically, it’s possible as long as you don’t put any value on your time. However, your likelihood of success is almost nil. Your options for what you sell are very limited, your ability to reach your potential customers is severely restricted and the likelihood that you will know enough to manage the business correctly and make the right decisions is very low.

Here are the top five ways to start a business for free and why they don’t make any sense if you want to succeed.

 

1. Entity and Name Registration — There is no cost if you choose to run your startup as a sole proprietorship. However, you will also have no protection of your personal assets from business liabilities — somebody sues your business, they are suing you. And, your name will have to be the business name as well, because nearly every state requires you to file a DBA (doing business as) fictitious name registration to use a different business name (and there is a filing fee).

2. Type of Business — Your options are limited to selling something that costs you nothing, basically a purely service venture. Selling any type of tangible product or providing a service that requires tools of any type will require spending some money. You are basically limited to 1099 work (non-employee status work for an actual company), personal services, or “information services” (you write informational pieces to sell.

 

3. Online Presence — Every business requires an online presence. There are scores of web host companies that allow you to post your website for free. Of course, you don’t get your own domain name — your site will be a sub-domain of the host site. And, your site serves as host for the company’s per-click advertising revenue. That is, the host company makes its money from advertisers, which will be shown on your homepage. You do not have any say in which ads are displayed. Free websites tend to be very basic — they are the tent cities of the internet. It is extremely difficult to develop a positive business image using free web hosting.

4. Marketing — Of course there are free opportunities in marketing a business, but gaining a critical mass of prospects through free marketing techniques will take forever and a day. Some of the best free marketing options can be very successful, in conjunction with other paid marketing efforts. Press releases are a great tool, but only if you have news to deliver. Building a customer base through online forums and social sites is effective, but it takes a while when you are reaching only a few people at a time. If you want to succeed in business, a strong marketing plan is key. At a minimum, you will need business cards, a website, and a stable of opportunities to reach your target market.

5. Startup Information — Currently there are hundreds of websites that offer free startup information. A few are pretty good; most are useless. Overall, you get what you pay for. Most of the free information barely scratches the surface — they tell you what to do but not how to do it. For example, every business plan outline tells you to create a sales forecast, but they don’t tell you how to come up with reasonable estimates. In fact, a shocking number of them tell you to just guess. Very few, if any, tell you how to calculate a resource-based and value-based forecast first. Which, when taken together with your market-based estimate, will help you estimate a reasonable sales projection. This is a critical step. Without a viable sales forecast, there is no way to know whether an idea can be profitable. And, the sales forecast is just one of over 200 steps required to sufficiently plan and launch a startup.

 

Every startup requires a combination of time and cash to get off the ground. Having less of one means you need more of the other. If you are looking to support yourself fully through a business you own, get creative about finding the cash you need to get started. Some amazing success stories have sprouted from just a couple thousand in seed money, but very few, if any, began with no money at all.

Building an Internet Reputation For Successful Freelancing

Developing a powerful Internet reputation and promoting your freelance business is not about income. It is about using the web to build your individual brand and enhance worth.

In order to build a successful Internet reputation, you must make connections within your industry and develop visibility. If you want to get people talking about you and spreading the word about your freelancing, they must be aware of your existence. It is important to develop a positive online persona that is visible in the right places.

First, you need to establish a base location online where existing and prospective customers are able to find additional information on you and your freelancing skills. The majority of freelance workers do this with their own blog, online portfolio or through one of the many available social sites.

A website associated with your business name is an ideal way to establish Internet presence, allowing you to build recognition for personality, form and style. Profiles on popular social networking sites and blogs effectively create an identity online that will aid you in developing relationships with prospective and existing customers as well as other freelance workers.

A base location is critical to building an Internet reputation for successful freelancing. If you do not already maintain a website, online portfolio or blog, then you should get started right away on one. It is best to create a brand name or use your name as a domain name. You do not have to go to extremes developing an online base, a basic blog or static site with a portfolio, biography, or resume should suffice.

When you create your blog, designate a couple of pages for your resume or portfolio, and then write posts on your niche. Your online base will give you a URL address that you can post on your social networking profile, blog comments and several other online communities.

Once you have developed a base location for your freelance business on the Internet, the next thing to do is make a list of the online communities of which you are interested in becoming a member. Be sure to include the most popular news sites, forums, blogs and social media networks. When you are creating your list, try to focus on location as well as on your particular niche. It is important to familiarize yourself with others in the same industry.

Once you have your list, come up with a schedule to register your profile on the social networks and contribute to your choice on online communities through article submissions, comments, discussions and much more. In no time, you will have built a powerful Internet reputation to help you succeed as a thriving freelancer.

"Make Money Now Online" – This Is The Right Time!

If you are interested to “Make money online now”, it is definitely the most appropriate time because the popularity of the internet is progressively growing in less developed countries like china, India or Africa and such.

Based on statistical findings and reports, It is reported that the number of millionaires and billionaires are growing exponentially every single year and the “rich just get richer” indeed.

Moreover, some aspiring entrepreneurs have literally made their very first impressive “Millions” at a very young age like 23 and most of them are not even university graduates!

And how did they do it?

One of the proven ways is to target the global market with the power of the internet.

With an internet business, your market is the world of 1,000 millions internet users and this number is still growing exponentially every single year excluding those less developed countries like some parts of china, India, Africa and such…

Just think!

If you have an “idea”, you can easily turn it into a great product or service like an e-book, video courses or audio courses. In fact, you don’t even have to do it yourself but to outsource. And by capturing just one percent of this market, you would have the potential of 10 million customers buying from you!

Now do the math – imagine if each customer were to spend just $1 with you, that is a good $10,000,000 (10 millions) in earnings already!

This is the amazing results one could attain by doing business on the World Wide Web – The Internet! (Especially at this point of time)

With a traditional brick and mortar business, you earn money in your own currency and have to wait between thirty to sixty days for payment to be seen in your bank account most of the time.

However, with an internet business, you earn your money in US dollars and payment to your designated bank account can be made instantaneous without having to wait for a month or so!

In a traditional brick and mortar business, you need lots of money to be a big

player. You might need to have huge offices or factory, hundreds of staff and

spend millions on advertising to make an positive presence and capture desire market share.

On the internet, you could be a “Nobody” with little money and still create a brand name for yourself with a bit of creativity and a good idea.

Ideas Rule the World

A very witty phrase, if you ask me. Going by the definition by Wikipedia; “an idea is a concept or abstraction formed and existing in the mind. Human capability to contemplate ideas is associated with the ability of reasoning, self-reflection, and the ability to acquire and apply intellect. Further, ideas give rise to actual concepts, or mind generalizations, which are the basis for any kind of knowledge whether science or philosophy.”

So why do we say they rule the world? “Everything you see and touch was once an invisible idea until someone chose to bring into being.”- Richard Bach. Like a dream, an idea sprouts up in the mind, flies around in our brains till its used or naturally fades out. The uniqueness and power that set apart any successful businesses or individual, starts with the kind of ideas they come up with(usually influenced by their state of mind, environ and situations).

It is not enough to have an idea, but it is a good start. To create a business, you need to come up with an idea. Then once you’re in business, you need more ideas for design, engineering, capacity building, marketing, creative problem solving, customer retention, etc. Day in day out, you would need to think and generate new creative ideas to sustain the existing ideas. The accelerated pace of change and current ease of new entrants to new markets due to technological advances leaves no time to be sloppy in encouraging and nurturing ideas. The success or failure of a business could be could depend on just one idea or the timing.

Most companies are not short on new ideas, but they are short on ways to assess, prioritize, and execute those new ideas. For example, IBM existed when Dell took advantage of the internet and started online computer sales. Dell Computers had “an idea” IBM lacked and developing that single idea at that time, made Dell MONEY and a strong brand name. Ideas don’t just bring you out of your shell, they possess the power to creatively stand you out.

Find great ideas? Basically, ideas are born by combining existing ideas to form an invention(e.g. “car” and “kitchen,” = “mobile restaurant,”). Firms must enthusiastically welcome new ideas and suggestions. If an idea is given proper attention, it may become the hero in town, the next great marketing campaign, or even the perfect incubator for your next innovative product or service.

There are several instances in history where great ideas were born and have made success:

Finding solutions to a need gave birth to Crayola brand crayons which started as a need for a child friendly school instrument. To improve its business Garment Care (another laundry shop or better still a “glorified wash-man”), accepted Alder ‘s concept of “branding” and the success, we can tell. The famous Mark and Spencer wanted to be different from other retail stores in UK; today, miles away the Igbo*-boy in Tejuosho* market, sells with lines like “this one is original stuff, like Mark and Spencer”. Post It Notes was created from the “failures” in a series of experiments in trying to create a heavy adhesive. Adapting to change has helped Madonna (the world known singer and business woman) keep a firm grip on her legion of fans. Despite all the critics surrounding her career, by incorporating the latest dance ,music and trends into her own style, she has managed to retain her stage space in the entertainment industry, for decades. I remember banking in Nigeria was also very boring before Bond Bank(then)* and GTBank* changed the game thanks to Alder consulting. The lists goes on and on.

To build a strong brand out of businesses or individual you need to have a unique story to tell. The Einsteins, Gates, Dangotes*, Bruces*, Modelas*, had all made it because, Ideas Rules The World!

(*Note: this article was written from the Nigeria perspective and languages.)

Importance of Free Domain Names

Internet marketing is approximately 25 years old. Since 1989, different marketing techniques have been used to maximize the business revenue through the internet. In this article, I am going to discuss some link-building techniques for your website. The Google algorithm was based on the calculation of links pointed to a website. Considering this, I have listed the 5 most important components of any digital business:

1. A good domain name

2. Exceptional copywriting

3. Attractive designs

4. SEO oriented sitemap

5. Quality outbound & inbound links

There are other elements as well, but, I have tried to keep the list short. Quality links are an important tool to enhance your online presence. Well, there are many link-building tools available, a free domain name is the oldest & most reliable way to attract quality links. Here are some reasons:

Free domain names have thousands of links pointing to the root domain.

You can easily create a free domain with minimum designing effort.

Free domain names have a high page rank and Alexa rank i.e. WordPress.com has an Alexa rank of 18.

It is an old marketing technique to use free domain names for link-building purposes. Lets suppose you have a website named as “http://www.lifestyle.com” and you want to create quality backlinks for this website. You can easily create a free WordPress blog for this website. It should be “lifestyle.WordPress.com. This website will give you a quick access to thousands of backlinks. You can also get a few hundred visitors from this free website. Also, this website is very niche specific and provides a very relevant backlink to your site.

So, you can create 50 free domain names to create 50 relevant backlinks to your website. Internet marketers have used this idea and still now, It is a very good trend to do so. You will need to have an exceptional fast copy writing service to write all the content. I know it is hard to create 50 websites but, it is a good idea if you are creating a celebrity brand. Building blogs on the root domain is also a good idea to get good links. Some website allow their visitors to create blogs on their website without paying a penny. It helps in attracting fresh content, generating sales, and attaining good page rank.

Please do not try the same platform to create all of those 50 websites. You can create different websites on different blogging platforms. Here are few websites that I recommend:

Blogger

WordPress

Weebly

Tumblr

Livejournal

Thanks.

How To Make Easy Money on the Internet — But This Time It’s Actually TRUE!

Introduction:

On the World Wide Web, domain names are the equivalent of real estate. Owning a domain name lets you stake you claim to your piece of the Internet. For several years, many people from all over the world have been making a good living from the comfort of their own home through the power of domain names. Many domain names have sold for thousands of dollars, and some have sold for hundreds of thousands or even millions. For example, one of the names I registered recently was appraised at a value of $6,000!

Contrary to popular belief, the “dot com crash” has not spoiled the domain name market. There is still a very strong demand for quality domain names. The biggest sales have all come in recent years, as the market continues to grow. Selling names remains one of the easiest and least expensive internet businesses available. It requires a minimum of time and little or no initial investment. It is an ethical, no-nonsense business which avoids the most common pitfalls of other work-at-home ideas.

There are a lot of technical details about how domain names work, but it is not necessary to know these details in order to profit from the names. There are many kinds of domain names, but for the purpose of making money, only “Top Level Domains” (TLDs) are important. The best TLD extensions for making money are listed here:

  • .com
  • .net
  • .org
  • .biz
  • .info

Making money with domain names can be one of the easiest businesses around. There are really only four steps involved:

  1. Search for names.
  2. Register the names.
  3. Sell the names.
  4. Collect easy money!

Let’s go through each step in more detail…

Step 1: Search for names.

The first step in making money with domain names is to search for available names. Your goal is to find high-quality names that have not yet been registered. This is not as difficult as some people may lead you to believe. I do it all the time, and so can you. There are still plenty of valuable, high-quality names available for the taking.

To search for names, you need to use a domain name registrar. At my site, Domain Doctors, we offer a availability check and registration service. On any other registrar’s website, you should see a similar search box that allows you to type in a name and find out if it is still available. Doing this is as simple as typing in the name you want to search for and clicking a button. You will see the results of your search in a few seconds. Checking for availability is completely free.

When you are looking for names to register and re-sell, there are a few simple guidelines to keep in mind:

  1. Shorter is almost always better. The fewer letters a name contains, the more valuable it is likely to be.
  2. Similarly, the less words the better.
  3. You want to pick names that target markets which are both large and specific.
  4. Stay away from hyphens, dashes, numbers that replace words, intentional misspellings, and all other gimmicks.
  5. Don’t try to be too clever, and don’t try to “invent companies by registering names.”
  6. Finally, watch out for trademarks. Don’t register names that infringe on the trademarks of established companies.

If you are having trouble thinking of names to re-sell, Domain Doctors offers an inexpensive suggestion service. We guarantee that every name we suggest will appraise for at least ten times what you pay us, or you get your money back. I do not know of any similar services available elsewhere, although you can always use Google to research other options to help you find good names.

Step 2: Register your names.

After you have some names you think will be valuable, the next step is to register them. Most names will cost you $15-35 each to register. You may find a few places that offer registration for less, but you should keep in mind that as with anything in life, you get what you pay for. Domain Doctors registers names for $19.95. Other reputable services should be in a similar price range.

Step 3: Sell the names.

Once you’ve registered your names, you can list them for sale immediately. There are two ways to do this — through listing sites and through brokers.

If you want a faster sale, go through a broker. Because they make money from the sale, brokers will list your name, promote it, and attempt to get you the best possible price. In exchange for those services, they will deduct a percentage of the sale price when the transaction is complete. 10% is a typical broker’s fee.

If you are willing to potentially wait a bit longer for a sale in order to avoid paying a broker’s commission, you can list you names for sale at a listing site. To find brokers and listing sites, you can type “selling domain names” into Google, or you can find them at the Domain Doctors site.

Step 4: Collect easy money!

After a name sells through a broker, you get paid the sale price minus the broker’s fee. If it is a private sale through a non-broker listing, you get whatever price you and the buyer agree on. Unless you invested in a huge number of names, a single sale could easily repay all of your initial costs and leave you some money besides. If you like, you can use part of this money to register more names, and keep building your business this way.

Taking Action:

You should now have everything you need to get started. As you make progress and do more research, you will learn many tips and tricks to increase your success, but the most important action step for newbies is to jump in and get some good names listed for sale as soon as you can. Again, be sensible and don’t spend a fortune on registering names before you get some experience, but do get a few names on your plate as soon as you can and use them to learn the ropes.

I think you’ll find that speculating on domain names is a fun and rewarding business. It is not a get-rich quick scheme, but with a good eye for names, you can make a comfortable income without leaving home. Remember, if you like the idea of the business but you aren’t sure you have an eye for names, Domain Doctors can help.

We guarantee that every name we suggest will appraise for at least ten times what you pay us, or you get your money back. We also offer domain name registration and appraisal services. A version of this article with a lot of additional tips and informative content is available at our website, through the link below.

Best of luck, and please do drop me a line if you make a good sale or get a name listed for a good asking price!

-JC

Monster Amazon Crocs – Why Creative Brand Names Work Best

The most common company naming trap is this – creating a new business name that’s accurate and descriptive, but utterly forgettable. And it’s easy to see how it happens. Unlike real life application, naming is usually done in a vacuum — with no context, no accompanying logo, web site or brochure copy. A group of key decision makers sit in a boardroom and toss names around in the air. And with no supporting cast, no background, no props, the good names often seem disconnected and even ridiculous. It’s at this stage the mind wants to make sense of the names and without context, without supporting elements, it defaults to free associations from the past. This is what kills off many a great brand name.

Imagine a committee looking for a brand name for a new computer company. Someone suggests the word “apple.”

“Apple?” the group reacts in shock and bewilderment.

“That makes me think of my mother saying ‘One bad apple spoils the whole bunch,'” one committee member protests.

“It sounds like something fruity to me,” claims another. “We can’t be perceived as a fruity company!”

“And what about worms that get into the apples,” a third member agrees. “And the way they rot, and how the juice gets sticky, and how…”

“All right!” the suggestee apologizes, curling up in a near fetal position, vowing she’ll never venture another idea.

And so the group comes to absolute agreement that the name must convey what the company does. So the next set of suggestions seem right on target…

“United Computer Manufacturers”

“General Computer Systems”

“Quality Computer Corporation”

“Superior Computer Builders”

“Global Computer Worldwide”

The closer the committee comes to describing the “what” of the company, the more they become homogenized and blend right into the rest of their industry. They sound more like a business description than a brand name, and in doing so they obscure the very identity they are trying to create. They don’t realize that the new company name will exist in a setting that helps define it, so that the name is free to evoke feeling and emotion. An apple is fresh, approachable, healthy, and invigorating. And so a company can borrow on the attributes inherent in a completely unrelated item to convey the way they approach its business.

So if creative company names are so much more memorable and effective than descriptive names, why is it that so many businesses make this basic mistake? In large part it’s because we conditioned from childhood to conform, to be like others, and to follow the leader. As much as we don’t like to admit it, most of us would rather follow an established trail than to blaze a new one. One of the first questions I ask potential clients is whether they want their new company name to blend in, or to stand out. Most adamantly say they want to stand out, but when stand out names are presented, the red flag goes up.

“I’m not sure,” they might say. “These names are unique, but they’re so different from anything in our industry.”

And so it goes. The names continue to blend in until someone names an airline Virgin instead of Southwest. Or an online job site Monster instead of CareerBuilder. Or a massive online store Amazon instead of Books-a-Million.

Not only are descriptive names less impactful, they are more difficult to visualize. I can picture a Monster, but I have trouble picturing a Career Builder. When it comes to beach shoes, I can imagine a pair of Crocs, but not a pair of Keens. These vivid mental pictures provide yet another way to anchor the brand name in the customer’s mind for easier recall.

Creatives names are also less restrictive. If you have a purely descriptive name, what happens if your company’s core products or services being to change? How much additional advertising does it require for Burlington Coat Factory to convince customers they sell more than just coats?

Are highly memorable names the only way to go? No. Some small businesses don’t have the luxury of a marketing budget and resort to literal names out of short term necessity. And there are other viable naming strategies that work well. But for those looking to build a brand name that will set them apart, and reserve more space in the customer’s mind, then an evocative, memorable name is the way to go. Seth Godin makes a convincing case for memorable company names in his New York Times bestseller, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable.

So whether you name company after a river, a fruit, a dessert, a reptile, or even an odd color bovine, chances are you will, on a minimum, make a name for yourself. And once potential customers notice and remember your company, the rest is up to you. If you do your job well, you’ll have a company that’s not only memorable, but one that’s unforgettable.

Article Marketing Success – How To Write Articles to Boost Your Online Business

There is no better way to build a successful online business from scratch than article marketing. Not only is it absolutely free, but writing articles gets your name and your brand out there almost instantly and allows you to re-direct people right back to your website. Whether you are selling something small or something worth thousands, you can use article marketing to drive people to your business and you will see results from this form of marketing.

Even if you are not an expert writer, you can use article marketing to build your business, as the most important part of article marketing is giving your reader quality information rather than a well-written and polished piece of work.

If you want to achieve big success with your online business as fast as possible, use the following four tips to get your articles out there to work hard for you:

#1 – Set a monthly numbers goal

If you want to be successful in your business, you have to set daily, weekly, and monthly goals for everything. In your article marketing efforts, decide on how many articles you will write each month and then break this down into daily and weekly goals. While 100 articles every month may seem steep, when you break this into weekly numbers it is only 25, and then if you break that into a 5-day plan it is merely 5 articles everyday. This is an achievable goal and should take no more than an hour or two once you know how to write articles the right way.

#2 – Write something everyday

Even if you don’t work on the weekends, you can sit down or even write a single article before anybody else even wakes up. Saturday and Sunday you can write a single article in less than 15 minutes and this will take up almost none of your day. Once you’ve written several hundred articles you can stop this practice, but in order to build your business you have to go the extra mile.

#3 – Leave out the article’s conclusion

One of the most powerful ways to get someone to click on your link at the end of the article is to omit the concluding statement in your article. This will stimulate more curiosity in your reader and it will increase the number of people who click your links.

#4 – Make a clear, direct offer in your resource box

Instead of listing your accomplishments in your resource box, simply make a clear offer for the reader to download your free product. This ensures they won’t miss the chance to get your product and thus get onto your email list.

Netfirms Business Hosting With 5 Free Domain Names

Choosing a hosting company for your business may sometimes seem like an afterthought, especially if you run smaller websites that do not require a dedicated server to keep things moving along. However, no matter whether you are big or small it is important that you assign more seriousness to the final decision of where you ultimately place your business.

While some hosting companies will do and say anything to get your business only to leave you hanging once they have your money, others give you real incentives to choose their service for ongoing business needs. Netfirms is one of the best in the business because they understand how the Internet entrepreneur works. Rather than placing all your eggs in one basket, they know that you seek multiple streams of income to thrive in today’s economy. That’s why the Netfirms deal is not to be overlooked.

Signing up for business hosting with this provider lands you five free domain names right off the bat. This is a great way to start any online business venture because it allows you to experiment with your ideas and see which ones pick up steam. Most sites do not generate enough monthly income on their own to provide you with the type of lifestyle that you want to lead. It is always best to keep five or more active in order to reach more potential visitors and, thusly, more potential advertising dollars.

Other benefits of signing up for the Netfirms service include customer service that is unsurpassed in the industry. Any time you have questions, comments, or concerns regarding your hosting plan, there is someone available to talk 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, with never any time off, because when you own a business, the chances are likely you do not get time off either. The Netfirms crew is there to make your life easier and give you the support that you need to get ahead.

In addition to the five free domains and the round the clock customer service, you can also manage all of your domains from one user name and one password on one of the easiest to figure out intuitive control panels imaginable. The mechanics of how you operate your website should not be the primary focus of your business, especially when starting out. Netfirms makes sure that it is not. Giving you the tools and the experience to get started quickly is what Netfirms does the best.

While the freebies and incentives that Netfirms provides are great selling points, it would be all for naught without the attention to customers that the company provides. When you are getting ready to decide on the best hosting option for your business, this is one company to keep an eye on.

Finding A Good SEO Agency

Well done search engine optimisation, often called SEO for short, is designed to allow websites to show up in search results when people search for products and services rather than simply company names. The idea is that people looking for things online are able to find a business website without any prior knowledge of the business or its name. There are all manner of tricks and techniques which fall under SEO, but the good sustainable methods (also sometimes called “white hat SEO”) are based around the idea of making your website easier for search engine to read and understand, meaning they rank you higher in searches for appropriately relevant terms.

It is not uncommon to decide to outsource SEO to external marketing agencies and other companies, but there are far too many dodgy types out there who like to take companies seeking SEO – especially local and small businesses – for a very expensive ride. How then does one actually go about finding a good, honest and legitimate search engine marketer?

It is actually incredibly easy to find a decent SEO agency online. Go to a search engine like Google or Bing and type in “SEO agency.” Ignoring the paid ads at the top, whichever firm has landed at the top of the search results are what you want – they must be pretty good at SEO or their own website wouldn’t be so high in the natural listings!

To narrow things down a bit, you could try extending your search. Say you live in Essex and want a local agency – just type in “SEO agency Essex.” Or if your website is specialised and you want particular help with it you can add your industry or site type – “SEO tourism” or “SEO eCommerce” for example. This can be a great way to find niche SEO agencies who have specialist expertise in your field.

Sometimes SEO agencies (or at least people claiming to be SEO agencies) try to solicit companies by sending them emails or submitting contact forms with various enticements and offers. However if you see something like this come in then it is best to ignore it – if a company which supposedly specialises in search engine optimisation is reduced to spamming inboxes to get business rather than, say, doing SEO so their own website ranks highly and people can find them anyway, chances are they aren’t very good. The same is true of SEO services advertised on paid ads at the top of search engines or on banner ads on other websites. If their search marketing is any good, why are they having to pay for their placements?

Another thing to bear in mind is to steer well clear of any SEO agency that promises you “top position for x keywords” or something similar. Nearly all modern search engines used personalised searching, meaning that everyone sees websites in slightly different ranking positions depending on their personal search history. Absolute rankings are a thing of the past, any anyone claiming to deliver this kind of service is lying through their teeth. Modern SEO will use sustainable “white hat” techniques in order to bring useful traffic to your website, not use exploits and dodgy tricks, which will constantly get them slapped by search engine updates like Google’s infamous Panda and Penguin algorithm changes.

Once you’ve found an SEO company that looks mostly all right you’ll need to ask them some questions before you leap into their services. As well as the usual checks like existing client list and testimonials, it is a good idea to speak to someone directly on the phone or in person. Here are some good questions to ask them.

  1. Who does their search marketing work? Is it handled by in-house staff? Do they do any outsourcing, especially to foreign companies? A lot of agencies outsource to cheap link builders in Asia who tend to produce very low quality work that can have a negative impact on websites in the medium to long term.
  2. How often do they report, and what format do these reports take? Any professional SEO agency should be providing regular updates to all its clients, along with written reports detailing actions taken and progress made.
  3. What kind of skills and qualifications do they have? Take a look at their existing client lists for any recognisable big names, and see if they have anyone who is Analytics qualified. Some companies even use quality standards like ISO 9001 which is an excellent sign.
  4. What else do they do? A lot of these companies are primarily website designers who are resellers for outsourced SEO services to boost their profits. It is better to look for an online marketing specialist to ensure you get a good quality service.

If you don’t have the money to hire a professional SEO agency there are other options available. Some companies will let you pay for a one off website review to make recommendations on how to improve your site from a search marketing perspective, or you could research current techniques and ideas to do SEO for yourself.

Many online marketing methods are in fact startlingly simple. Boost your domain authority by getting other relevant sites to link back to yours. Get a backlinks boost as well as general marketing benefit by using social media like Facebook. Keep your website full of regularly updated and good quality content to encourage people to link to you as well as grow the site’s visibility and importance. Use a good, solid SEO plugin for your content management system, and make sure your website’s code is error free.

Remember you’ll get a natural boost from modern search engines if your website is

  • Well designed, easy to use and nice to look at
  • Full of good, up to date and useful content designed for real people, not search engine robots
  • Free of errors, fast loading and devoid of spammy ads or buggy code

Happy website marketing, everyone!

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