Is Search Engine Submission Necessary?
The simple answer is no – search engine submission isn’t necessary. Then the majority of search engines Including Google crawl and index pages by following links. So all you need is a single inbound link from any already-indexed webpage this will identify your page to the engine. So as a result of that, any links to other pages within your site, will also be indexed… and so on.
For this reason, inbound linking is very important. In fact, acquiring back-links is one of the most important steps of any SEO campaign. In theory though, a website owner shouldn’t have to ’scout’ or ‘hunt’ for links. If the presented content is of interest, useful, and/or important, then there is a natural tendency among web users to link to relevant information. This is the basis for the Google Page-Rank algorithm.
That said, submitting your site to the search engines is to be advised, as some links may not be found if not submitted directly so we always advise getting this done and remember you only need to submit your site once. It doesn’t help or get your site crawled any quicker or any more often unless the content has changed and is of current relevance.
It should be noted that submitting your site to Google, Yahoo, MSN, and many others doesn’t cost anything. Many SEO companies assert that you need to pay a fee to the Search Engines in order to get your site indexed. This isn’t the case and although nobody should be expected to work on your behalf for free, we would advise all web users to stay away from companies who are charging an indexing fee for indexing.
1. Choose a targeted market
The biggest mistake most people make when starting a business is that they choose a product and then try to find people who want to buy it. If that is the direction you are starting from on your journey, then stop now and put yourself in the shoes of the buyer for just one minute. Wise businesses operate from a different concept. They pick a market first, and then they pick a product those people are searching for. In other words, instead of trying to find leads to sell their product to, they find targeted leads and then ask them what they are wanting to buy.
Don’t even consider starting a business until you know exactly where you are going to get your leads from. Think targeted customers first. Then, you can come up with a product for those individuals. The question you should be asking yourself is; would you rather have 1,000 visitors a day browsing your website OR 10 visitors a day who are willing to buy your products? For further information on startups, we recommend you find a supplier who specialises in startup businesses like this one here.
2. Develop a Product
Next, you need to develop a product or service for this market. Don’t just jump on the bandwagon of affiliate programs when you come to this step. There are three major ways to selling a product online:
1. You create your own exclusive product.
This is the best opportunity you have. If you develop your own product, you can pick it’s price, sell reprint rights to others, set up an affiliate program, etc. Tens of thousands of innovative entrepreneurs have used their own information products to get their careers started. so you can to!
Throughout your life, I am sure that there is something you have learned that you can share in a How-To product. Maybe you know someone else who has the right knowledge for a How-To product and you could offer to help them create a product if you both shared the rights to it.
2. You buy the rights to a product or you Joint Venture for an offline product.
You can buy the rights to successful products for anywhere from £500 – £20,000 and more. If someone else has created a product that you know your targeted market is interested in, offer them a large up-front fee for the rights to it. This way you can get your own product and never have to pay a penny in royalties. You can also search through magazines your targeted market reads and look for products people are selling. Then, give them a call and ask for the exclusive Internet rights to their product for a certain percentage of the profits or an up-front fee this simple but effective method has made more millionaires than you could ever believe.
3. You join an affiliate program.
If you are just starting out online, this can be a good choice. You do have to keep in mind though that it doesn’t offer quite the profit potential that creating your own product or obtaining rights to one has.When choosing an affiliate program, make sure that it is something your targeted market cannot be without. They absolutely have to have it. Also pay special attention to the profits you receive from each sale.
If you are only be paid 5% commissions on the sales of £10 items, you will only be making 50 pence per customer. It would take 2,000 customers just to product £1,000 in profits. You cannot make money like this online! Look for higher priced products and higher commissions higher profit margins will secure you an income moving forward so you should ideally be looking at commissions in the 25% range or higher.
3. Create a USP
Create a Unique Selling Point (USP) for your product or service. Too many companies are just trying to jump on the band wagon when it comes to online sales. You cannot be a copy cat and expect to make a massive profit in a global economy you need to try to eliminate the competition and not create it!
You have to create a Uniqueness to your product or offer that makes your business stand out. What can you offer that no one else can? Can you offer better guarantees, better customer service, more technical support, faster shipping, or lower prices? Think of something that will set you apart from all of your online competitors and tell in complete detail what that exactly is and why it will benefit your customer.
4. Pick a Domain Name and Hosting Service
The next step is to pick a domain name that describes your company, USP, and offer. Try to keep them as short and descriptive about your business as possible. Avoid using dashes or misspellings of your product. Both of these things will cause people to leave out part of your domain if they type it in. Someone else will be getting free traffic that you worked hard to obtain having the right advice before you get started can be beneficial.
When it comes to hosting, we personally recommend hosting your website in the country your business is actually based and indexed! We have lost count of the times UK companies we deal with that had their website hosting abroad with a foreign supplier often they did not even know where the website was hosted as nobody had ever pointed this out to them. Getting the right customer service and technical support in this industry is key to running a successful online business.
5. Develop a Customer Friendly Website
The next step in the process is to develop your website and put it up for the world to see. If you are planning to own a full-time Internet business, you may want to consider hiring a web designer to do your site for you. When designing your site, always keep the customer in mind. Provide order forms for online credit card orders. Make all of the links easy to find and understand. Try to keep your site simple. Think like a customer, not the business owner.
Your customers are not nearly as interested in your business as you are. Make sure to put the benefits of your site and your USP right on top of the site. More than half of the web surfers never drop down past the first screen full of information. So, you have to give them the information they need as quickly as possible. The rules for any type of business are Benefits, Benefits, and more Benefits.
6. Offer a Freebie
One of the major keys to developing traffic and sales at your site is to always offer some type of freebie as a drawing factor. For example, we offer free website audits to our clients. One of our greatest drawing factors throughout the past 12 months has been the fist service for free offer we have to people who subscribe to our newsletter.
You need to come up with a freebie no matter what type of business you are in, create a free report and give it away. Add in a message board or some other type of savings program. Give a free demo of your software. Create something that you can give away for free on your site to draw in the visitors and get people talking.
7. Start Your Own Opt-In List
Almost every full-time Internet marketer we work with has developed their own Opt-in email list of some type or another. For most of them, it is a weekly newsletter they send out by email. For others, it may be a Tip of the Day. Other people might just have a list that they send out important updates to.
No matter what you choose to do, odds will be on your side if you concentrate on building a list of loyal email subscribers. Very rarely do customers purchase from you the first time they visit your site. Most of them will get on your list, hang out for a few weeks or months, and then they buy from you.
They have to get to know you before they are willing to spend their money with you. We have found that the most effective leads come from offline advertising. For example, you could purchase ads in a popular targeted magazine for your business. You could also purchase a postcard in one of the card decks. Start up a co-op and get 10 other people to advertise with you and run your own ads for free. Offline leads which come to your site often turn out to contain a much higher percentage of buyers than any of the online advertising methods.
