Link2DirectCopy (L2DC) Blog serves as an introductory and informative E-Commerce/Internet Marketing medium to the Beginner or Entrepreneur starting in the E-commerce business.
General and Basic information are provided covering various areas of Digital Marketing, including topics on Coding, the Web, Web monetization, WordPress, HTML, Marketing, Affiliates, the Social Media etc. The reader will find a little bit of everything with various short courses offered online as well – most of them are Free.
I hope that I’ll be able to provide the reader with some valuable information able to assist in solving problems and issues that we all encounter in our attempt to access the digital world to make money online.
A Web-host is a company that leases out memory space on their Web Servers allowing their clients to publish their Websites on the Internet (World Wide Web). Web hosting is the service provided by the Hosting company that allows you or your company to access the world wide web (WWW) by hosting your Domain (your website) on their servers. They aid with Domain registration, offer Domain mailing services, Website Builder Software and Tech support. They do charge a service fee; their services are not free.
A Domain name must be purchased and registered, provided its available – meaning that the name you have chosen is not already in use. The Domain name is the name that you will assign to your Website. Therefor your domain name will be as an example www.yourdomainname.com.
Everyone interested in having their own website, are required to have a Domain Name. The recommendation is to choose the right Domain name; this is important. Remember that in E-Commerce the focus should be on SEO – Keywords and Keyword phrases, so essentially you would want to choose a name that identifies your Business, is simple, and easy for your customers and visitors to remember. Know also that even though your website is recognized and considered by Search engines, using a professional Domain name for your Business will get you more attention.
When choosing a Web host for your business choose one as listed above, a professional outfit that provides full service with the accompanying support … do not choose one of those that provides Free Hosting Service. Remember it’s imperative that you host your Business Domain through a Webhost Service provider and not one offering Free service.
A known fact is that Search Engines tend to ignore Domain addresses that resides on “Free Servers”, also, you would not want your business-name to have a server host name extension. For example
mybusiness.com/wordpress.com
as you can see whenever you register with a Free Host your Domain name will be attached to their servers name as an extension. You would rather have a domain like www.mybusiness.com for your business instead. Same as with your business email-address, wouldn’t you rather choose, for example info@mybusiness.com instead of mybusiness@hotmail.com?
A proper business email-address like info@mybusiness.com can be obtained by registering your Domain with a paid Web host Service Provider.
I have mentioned in one of my earlier WordPress Blogs that registering at WordPress.com will give you no liberty customize your WordPress website and with WordPress.org you can customize and play with your Website layout and functionality as you please. Having registered with a Paid Web host service provider you install WordPress and can customize it as you please with plenty of different Themes available; some hosts even offer the service of installing and customizing your website for you for a fee.
Contact a Web Host Service provider to register your Domain name and choose a hosting package that will suit you. They will take care of the Domain registration for you, and will aid you in setting up of your Website, whether you choose for WordPress or any other Web builder.
Google Adsense or “Adsense” is an Advertising program offered by Google to Website owners. Google gives you the Website owner the opportunity to earn some money by allowing Google to place advertisements on your respective websites. Adsense is a FREE program.
The earnings obtained are based on 1. The amount of Google Ads displayed on your website and 2. Number of times visitors to your website actually click on these Ads. Advertisements can be either Text or Image based advertisements. Google AdSense system will calculate your revenue, and the website owner is rewarded either by a cost-per-click or cost per impressions’system. Cost-per-click is also known as CPC.
Google accepts requests from businesses who would like to advertise their products and or services through the Google AdSense system. They will sign up with the Google Adsense program, and depending on how much they want to invest towards advertising determines how Google AdSense delivers the advertising service. Google AdSense will make sure the visibility of their products or services and will also increase traffic to their website; hence fulfilling their purpose of advertising.
AdSense is a fantastic advertising concept that was conceived by Google some time back, and although new and different advertising concepts keep coming up all the time, Google Adsense is still one of those that is altogether different.
To sign up you have to visit Googles website and sign up at (https://www.google.com/AdSense).
How do you go about receiving revenues from Google Adsense?
First, the The Website owner is required to enroll into the Google AdSense program. Google AdSense program requires you to be a website owner.
Next you will be provided with a piece of Code, HTML Code to be placed on your website Page or Post. An HTML Code is a programming script. This piece of code determines the structure of the advertisement and also their content.
This piece of code can be placed anywhere on your Web page, it all depends on where you want the advertisement to be placed. There’re rules to be observed with regard to the placement of the Codes.
Once the advertisement is placed and observed by your web visitors you will be rewarded by either an “Impression” or “Click”, depending on the program you signed up for.
A Good Habit or bad habit? If you are aspiring to become a Good Content Writer it’s imperative (recommended) to develop the Habit of creating Content; with other words, write and create Content often. It’s a good habit!
Habit is defined as “a settled or regular tendency or practice one that is hard to give up”. By repeating an action, with intend, you WILL become good at it. The same goes for Writing; the more you write the better you become at it.
The best way to get into this routine is to set writing goals; it can be total number of words you decide to write a Dayor number ofposts you decide to write per week. If it’s the number of posts, you decide on the number of words you would have to write per Day. Whichever one you choose start right away and stick to it.
Of Importance is that before you start, to be honest with yourself with regard to the amount of time you have available each day and per week. Once you’ve done this set up a planned schedule that includes some writing time for yourself.
Once you have decided the amount of time, decide on the sort of Content you would like to create, and choose a NICHE. Your “Niche” may be your favorite topic, work, hobby or specialty; something you like to do, is good at, are knowledgeable about and comfortable in doing.
Choose your Niche and Start Writing
To start, I would suggest to start writing Blog Posts or short Stories, and gradually progress to longer scripts like Articles or perhaps E-books.
There will be moments that you don’t have anything to do or feel bored. There will also be times when you don’t feel like writing and contemplating. I suggest using these moments to jot down your thoughts and feelings. These notes can help motivate and inspire you to make up some Content in the future.
There will be times that you will receive an influx of ideas, or inspiration; be aware of them and write them down at once. As I’m saying this, I would recommend carrying a small note-book with you.
Start writing – I would say every day – schedule 1 hour a day, sit down and start Writing. Write about any-thing or choose a topic of your niche as mentioned above.
Once you have completed your writing – your Draft – leave it and return to it for instance later during the day or a day after to fine-tune your writing and or make corrections. You’ll find that every time you return to your script and re-read it there will be something to be corrected, re-phrase, adjust or to add.
It’s important to make writing a Habit and develop good writing habits. Writing is one of my favorite habits. I personally have chosen to write 1 Blog Post of 500 words every day, preferably in the morning.
“Search Engine Optimization” has its own terms and abbreviations same as in any other specialized field. Today I will look at the terms SEO “SLUG” and the SEO “TAGS”. When creating Posts in WordPress you will be asked for the proper” Tags” or when creating Categories, to label your Posts, you will be asked to enter a Slug.
A SEO slug is a part or piece of the URL (*) that is used to find this specific Web page on the Website, and also serves to explain the content of this specific Web page, in an easy to read form. As an example of a slug lets look at the following URL page:
HTTP:\link2directcopy.com\test
the last part “test” is called the SLUG which refers to this specific Web page of the above Website.
The “Slug” is important for SEO because it explains to the bots the content of that specific page.
Note (*):
The URL is the Websites’ address of a Website. This is how you find the business you are looking for when searching.
Meta-Tags or “Tags” are snippets of text (pieces of information) that help make it easier for Search Engine Bots to find what your Website Content is all about; Title and Description. Information intended to both Search Engine and Website Visitors.
The information of the page is placed in the HTML of the document, and are placed in the “Head” section of your Web page document.
I have included screenshots of WordPress Admin for the relevant sections below.
As is mentioned and recommended by experts, proper SEO, Keywords, Page layout and design etc. are important.
But how about the customer, our focus should be primarily on the customer, the person, his/her habits, likes and interests etc. We know that Search Engine Optimization and good rankings won’t keep your visiting customer on your Website or make them buy anything.
It’s imperative to be aware that by having the customer “stick around” once visiting, will help and increases the chance for them to buy something. Your Website must ensure the customer gets interested in your services and or products, gets engaged and stay.
The first step towards a Sale is when the customer finds the products or services they are looking for. The second step is to keep them interested in what you have to offer on your pages by linking pages.
Page Linking
You could motivate the customer to buy a product by providing clear and unambiguous information, give as much information as possible, yet this extra information can be kept on different page(s). This is true if you happen to sell more than one product or Service.
Give suitable and visible links to the Content so that your customer can navigate to the relevant pages to get the details, good relevant information that will educate him/her and therefor gets them more interested in your product(s) and hangs around.
So linking pages (1) to the Services or Products you are offering will help keeping the prospective customer around.
When Designing your Website you imagine that it will attract customers, but you do not know your customers. Who they are, there Likes, dis-likes and what they want to buy. You must also be aware that the online business is either an extension of your Storefront or a replacement for the standard storefront. In the absence of the customer presence you must learn to figure out their Likes, Needs, Wants and Desires.
Figure out their Likes, Needs, Wants and Desires. This is accomplished by asking questions.
Understanding your customer by asking Questions
Are your Product descriptions better? How is your customer support, do you have a fast client respond time? Do you offer Coupons or Discount prices.? Are your prices consistently lower than others? What about your return policies?
You could Email the customer requesting to complete a short survey – this can also be accomplished while they’re browsing your Website – and inquire about their likes and choices
Email the customers that sign-up and ask them what they like or dis-like about your website, what they Do like about your products and ask for suggestions.
Contact the customer after they have purchased a product or Service and ask if they were satisfied with the product or service
the Contact form should must be named, address, age, gender, the product purchased etc.
Get the customer more involved by asking for their input and participation using Email and Short Surveys (2)
Does your website show enough contact information, and Payment Options?
Your online business will be operating 24/7, people from different states and from all over the world will be visiting your Website, and may need to contact you about Sales, a Product, a Service, general questions or technical problems with your Website. It is important to have your Contact information, preferably on every page of your Website, complete with mailing/email address, telephone number able to reach you.
Buying online requires either a credit card or some other sort of online payment method. Does your Website offer enough payment options – or with other words do you offer different online payment service possibilities? You do not want to lose a customer simple because you were not able to process a Checkout.
Your contact information should be on every page of your Website, for instance in the Footer of your page
a good idea is also to have your email forwarded to another email address besides the email address you have posted on your site. This will make sure you do receive the customer support messages.
Make sure you have different payment methods available on your Website.
Lincoln (L2DC)
1 – see Blog post on Page Linking 2. – Emails and short Surveys
Planning for proper SEO – a minimum of 8 aspects of SEO must be considered
S.E.O. or Search Engine Optimization is a process of choosing/selecting the most appropriate and targeted Keywords or Keywordphrases related to your site. To choose and ensure you have the right keywords will help ensure that your website will rank high by the Search Engines. To Rank High means that your website will show up in the first number of websites listed by the Search Engines at the completion of a SEARCH request.
Meaning when someone searches or enters specific key phrases, when searching, the initial returns listed may or may not list your website; all depends on how well your SEO is done. The choice of right Keywords is however not the only part of the SEO procedure. SEO is basically fine tuning the content of your website along with HTML, Meta tags etc. SEO also involves appropriate Link building processes.
SEO its not about Keywords only; we are looking for a number of actions or details added to your website content to – strengthen the website – and to obtain proper SEO.
To start, your websites Domain name (a good name), Metadata, Back-links, Intuitive, Strategy, Web Design, Marketing plan and HTML. To achieve this requires proper planning in advance, and as you go along work on improving your site SEO.
Search Engines are also called web-crawlers that like spiders Read and Analyze your Web Content to figure out your content, keywords etc. This Data Analysis is a continues process to determine the overall quality of your Website and Website level of SEO. This is done in order to Rank your Website among the other Websites. It is like various Websites competing against each other.
The Search engines keep their methods and ranking algorithms secret, to get credit for finding the most valuable search-results and to deter spam pages from clogging those results. Some of these Search Engines have different Search Algorithms. Popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL and Ask Jeeves. A search engine may use hundreds of factors while ranking the listings where the factors themselves and the weight each carries may change continually.
Algorithms can differ so widely that a webpage that ranks #1 in a particular search engine could rank #200 in another search engine. New sites need not be “submitted” to search engines to be listed. A simple link from a well established site will get the search engines to visit the new site and begin to spider its contents. It can take a few days to even weeks from the referring of a link from such an established site for all the main Search Engine Spiders to commence visiting and indexing the new site.
Search Engine Marketing and Promotion companies, will look at your Business Website design and suggest how SEO should be implemented and the corrections necessary. In fact there is always some recommendations that you have overlooked that may dramatically improve your Websites rank. Therefore keep your ears open to whatever suggestion is given (from anyone), no matter how simple it may seem, and be willing and open to make changes.
Raising your Web Search Engine Ranking will WILL increase your Website Traffic.
If you are unable to do your own Research to find and select the appropriate Keywords to improve your Website Ranking ranking, it would a good idea to hire a professional to assist with this.
SEO consultants will review your Website for improvements and do provide ongoing consultation, to report and monitor your website performance. Their recommendations for editing and improvements to keep your Website Traffic flow will follow and your Search Engine ranking will rise.
Normally a Search Engine Optimization Expert will work with the Web Designer to build an integrated plan from the start of the Design, so that all aspects of Design are considered and implemented from the beginning, however there will be those Do-it-yourselfers (like me), that want to build themselves and experiment. For those of us it will be a longer road, but eventually you’ll get there.
Remember Proper SEO is imperative for thesuccess of an Online Business.
