Crazy I would have to say thats more then enough money to live off 300 million is a nice chunk. Read more about it at SEJ

You know I don’t really agree with the term “build it and they will come” which granted I do in one way, but then again theres always a hook to something. Which yes they will come if you build it, but the idea is to have a hook to whatever your building I mean you could build anything such as a website and nothing every happen generally when a site takes off its because of viral content and etc.

For example you could put a forum up, but no one ever comes you need some type of hook or momentum to get them into the forum, so in other words you need channels to market through and leverage through. Which I can’t really tell you what channels to market through this is for you to figure out, but as time comes you’ll start to figure out what works and what doesn’t work.

So when building something ask your self are they really going to come, and if you think not well then you need to start thinking of how your going to market that product, service, forum, or whatever you have in mind. Just find  a way to hook people and that will lead you to success.

Building momentum through a website is very important you can use momentum to build traffic into numerous parts of your website and leverage it into other things such as forums, affiliate programs, convert sales, and etc. For example if you have traffic dedicated around your forum or maybe a blog that has a high rss subscriber list you can leverage your traffic into your forum and start getting sign ups which there numerous way of building momentum, but if you read on I’ll get more into detail about it and give your some tips.

• Search Engine Traffic:  You can use search engine traffic to build momentum through your website which its not the best way, but over time it can be very effecitve combined with numerous other strategies.
• PPC (Adwords, MSN Ad Centers, and ETC): You can use ppc such as adwords and other pay per click program to build traffic and create momentum. Which this technique can be very effective if done right, but its very costly. So expect to have some money to throw into it if you want it to work, and experience of course.
• Blogs: If you have a RSS feed built up you can leverage your subscribers into other areas into your website. Just channel them freely for example maybe your wanting to build a forum channel them into your forum and get them to sign up there is several things you can do, and create.
• Social Networking Sites: You can use social networking sites to build momentum.

See how momentum can be so helpful just build it one way or another and leverage it. Marketing is pratically about building momentum and leveraging it one way or another. The idea is to just test, test, and test like I’ve said many times and see what works you sure won’t get anywhere not trying thats for damn sure thats one thing I don’t understand about people to be honest they want traffic, but they don’t want to test anything or start building momentum up.

So give it a try and leverage it.

When starting an online business most generally you won’t make no money in your first year maybe a little, but nothing like you would expect to make or better yet I should say like you want to make, but then again it depends on how much experience you have in other similar fields. When you register a new website you will find your self changing things around all the time actually you will find your self doing that all the time specially in the early stages and then later on when things do start to work you will get nervous about changing them certain things around. I think every one gets nervous about changing things around that is already working they’ll set around and brain storm night and day I do it my self sometimes I drive my self up the wall about it.

You will define your niche and you will find out not everything will work some things might work for other people when other things don’t work for you. Once you find your niche focus on your niche and think of how you can build that particular vertical niche. When you have your niche defined on what is working for you most generally this will seed you into other direction it will give you more money to invest and etc.

I think a lot of the reasons why online business fail is because people give up before they actually start to find things that work and of course probably many other reasons such as lack of building a brand. The idea is to just test, test, and test and see what works from most people I have talked to it can take you a good year or so before you actually start to find something that works and maybe longer to push that one thing that works so for example it could take you a year to find something that works and maybe another year to get it going.

Its almost like a process of elimination your always testing different things to see if they work and some things might work and the thing that do work replicate them into other ideas. Its really hard to explain what I’m thinking, but I’m sure you’ll get the idea, but the bottom line is if your building a website traffic up, blog traffic, or whatever don’t give in because that will get you no where.

Have you ever been somewhere and was thinking man I’m going to blog about this when I get home. I know I have I’ve been at a meeting; with family; at another business / company; and I have gotten these thoughts. Most of the time when I do get these thoughts my mind kind of goes the other direction I’d have to say it never fails (in other words when the time comes I forget what I’m going to blog about), so why not take notes. I think a lot of people are the same way they might think of something and they forgot about it or maybe it sounded more interesting at the time and you changed your mind about it later (detail your notes).

Even if your at your computer try to take notes I know I do I’ll open up notepad or I’ll just start writing on a blank piece of paper thats setting on my desk I think its a great idea and generally I’ll put a little description beside it this way when when I open my blog pad the next day to write I have something to write about it this is always helpful and keeps your blog motivation going.

Take a look below on how keeping notes can help you with your blog development.

• Builds RSS Feed: Yup of course why wouldn’t it if you take notes it will give your more stuff to blog about which will result in more RSS Subscribers.
• More Organized Thoughts: Taking notes will help keep your thoughts more organized.
• Keeps You Motivated: Quite honestly when I’m setting here and I take notes about something I’m going to blog about later on in the night or the next day it keeps me motivated and keeps me going. The reason being is because I already have in mind what I’m going to write about instead of just setting at my computer feeling dumb founded.
• Link Development: Taking notes can help with your link development process when your writing down your great viral thoughts it can help with your link development which will result in higher search engine rankings.

Taking notes can come helpful in a lot of of ways, but the main idea of taking notes of course it to just keep you going which granted some people are better at holding thoughts or creating new thoughts, so I’m not saying you have to take notes its just a tip, but I do know it helps me when I take notes. I’ll even record urls at times maybe 10-15 of them and then research them later on and write about them, so give it some thought.

I just notice we was getting traffic from MSN which we generally do, but it has went up a little. I think I know what I did to get it there which I won’t discuss, but I notice MSN is pretty easy to rank its a little different on how it ranks its keywords for example if you compared Google to MSN you’ll notice a big difference of course.

We was actually number 2 on google for website design were like number 12 now and getting ready to hit the top 5 for internet marketing on Google, anyways cool stuff!

Building a blog takes time, and encouragement. Well I wouldn’t say encouragement, but it takes someone that has dedication and motivation. And I’ll admit this is something I need to do more often well here lately I have been kind of slacking I generally work 12-14 hours per day 7 days a week and I’m not kidding, but I have been not making my blog post here lately and only have been putting in around 8 hours a day 7 days a week which is pretty low and not to my standard, yea I know it sounds odd.

The purpose of running a blog is to build a community up of course and possibly leverage it into other things such as sales, so in other words you can advertise your products directly from your website; run affiliates through your website; or advertise your services there several different things you can do with them to generate cash flow.

Some people just blog to blog and don’t care about the money and most generally these people are more on the success side I wouldn’t tee totally say these type of people are on the success side, but what I could say is if there staying focus on building there RSS feed up and posting viral content then I would have to say success is rolling in for these people. It takes someone that can create ideas ever day and always thinking of new stuff to blog about. I mean if you can’t think of what to blog about then what will you blog about.

So one way or another you must always keep somewhat an innovative mind set I guess you could say which it don’t hurt to write about the same post, but try to detail them out or improve old post for example you wrote a post called 25 ways to build a better blog well lets say you write a similar post, but with a renamed title or you just switch it around a little bit well in this post try to detail it out or improve it maybe people liked your last similar post, but they would like to see a more detailed in depth post.

Conclusion 
We all know there is several ways of building a better blog, but just keep in mind the idea is to create viral content and always think of new stuff to blog about and change things around. Also pay attention to what you get the most comments on and whats attracting the most links if you write post that are attracting a lot of links and attention try to re-frame your self in the direction and write another similar post.

To become a search marketing expert there is a lot of principles that need to be defined so your name and brand can be defined in that expert area. Sometimes its really not even about being an expert which don’t take me wrong it is, but sometimes more then anything its about having the resources and the knowledge to put things together such as resources for your clients and then you become an expert, so in other words no resources would mean no results.

For example you have a company thats wanting to get at least a 2,000 extra uniques a day well your not going to produce this with your 50 links you have to sale. You need resources which I’ll get into all that, and also them 2,000 uniques are not going to happen over night, but it can be done pretty fast (well i wouldn’t say fast, bu then again depends)  if you know what your doing anyways lets get more into depth on what you need to do before you actually define your self an expert which granted someone can define there self as an expert in certain areas which is fine, but do you have the expertise to take on large projects maybe ones that will carry a larger scale profit margin.

1. Define your Clients: This is very important define your clients and what type of people your going to work with in that area so you can become an expert. For example are you going after inc 500 companies, small business, mid size companies or every one. When you define these boundaries it gives you an idea of what you got to do so you can brand your self as an expert, so in other words what resources your going to use to give these type of verticals the results they want.
2. Unlimited Supply of Links: Do you have access to as many as links as you want, this is something you need to think of this is highly important in the search marketing industry you will need a way of getting links whether its through blogs, link baiting, buying links, ppc marketing that results in links. Just basically what ever works for you and your clients.
3. Learn to Network: Networking on the web is highly important and making friends with other SEO’s in Communities is highly important if this is not something you have done then I’d suggest you doing it. Which granted its not a vital thing, but it sure does help to network with people. This also helps in promoting you as an expert through social networks if your new and someone starting out and you’ve done something out of the ordinary that no one else has achieved be sure to brand your self to other people it will get them talking about you.
4. Learn to Conduct a Keyword Research: Conducting a keyword research is vitally important I know some people that say they know how to conduct a keyword research like some of these SEO scams out there that claim to get you rankings over night and etc, but the facts are conducting a keyword research is something that will probably need to be done a quite of few times before you actually know what your wanting to go for. As time goes by you’ll get better with them, but honestly it will take a few good years before you actually get the hang of it because quite honestly there is a lot more to conducting a keyword research then just using overture and etc, so in other words there is a lot more metrics behind it.
5. Learn To Brand and General Marketing: SEO is more then building links and etc. Quite honestly it really helps to have some education in marketing in general, so buy your self some marketing books and start reading and researching.

Which granted there is a lot of principles behind search marketing. As time goes by you’ll get better with it, I see many SEO companies fail because they are struggling to make it they under price there self, or they think they have something that works and it don’t sad to say (just being honest). Search marketing is about giving results most of the time if you have a reputable client there not going to get all caught up on the price speaking there wanting results, but the bottom line is just practice, practice, and practice and see what works for you and your company.

Branding is vitally important in marketing reguardless of what you’ve done or who you are you must always focus on establishing some type of brand (depends on what your after but if your after building brand then read on) one way or another you need to put the image into the consumers head of who you are and what you do. The idea behind branding is to brand your products, your self, your services or whatever to the consumers in the way you want it to be. Its like an image that they see and talk about. Branding is something that takes time and several business fail because of lack of branding they get all up caught up on pricing there products lower then every one else and that right there is where the business are failing. The whole idea in business is to worry what your charging and what works for you not necessarily always trying to price everything so low.

Why not price things higher, but offer a more valid quality service that is more beneficial to the consumers, or better yet why not differentiate your self from your competitors this will allow you to build a strong name, but at same time pricing your products freely because you do stuff that others can’t. If your in business and people are in high demand for a certain services or even if you can do something that will play into effect into the market place then you got it made, and thats what its about.

Below is a few tips on how you can brand your online business.

Blogs Build Brand: Web 2.0 has sparked with blogs and social media, the idea behind blogs is to build a strong blog that people will read on a daily bases whether it covers search news, educational resources, or anything thats related to your brand and there on out you can build trends around your products, but wait it gets better a lot of news sites go around searching for stuff to write about, and if you have built a strong channel for these news sites to relate to it will create brand awareness because they will write about your products, services, what you’ve had to say, and etc this creates massive brand awareness through social networks.

And better yet if you work at it hard enough things could lead into magazines such as Wall Street Journal, and ETC. This creates major brand awareness gives you more credibility towards the consumers in your market place, so are blogs wonderful to have?

Yes most certainly if a company is trying to market there products through the web and trying to create more brand awareness this is the way to go which granted there is several other ways to establish brand recognition, but this would be a great start.

Online Advertising: With the efforts of online advertising you can create awareness and some media (maybe), but this is a more costly method. The idea behind advertising is to drive traffic and generate more sales, so yes it will build your brand just a bit more costly method. When advertising online make sure to use your same image of course and promote that image in the consumers head such as your logo and what you do and just give it a positive impression.

Link Development: I wouldn’t really consider this something as building a brand right off the bat, but it can help the thing is with link development it will build your search engine ranking which will draw in more leads and that right there gives more people more room to talk about you because if you have done something for them that they was happy with there going to promote your name and this right there will build your brand, so generate the leads, make the sales, promote the image in the customers head and let them spread your name.

Conclusion

Building a strong brand takes time and patience. Its not something that will happen over night it takes a lot of work, but the things I have mentioned above just give you some insight on what needs to be done and how you can do it, and most certainly blogs in the Web 2.0 sphere is the best way to market and create media if you ask me.

Not only are blogs good for media, there also great for link development and increased search engine rankings because of the link popularity it drives you. Just test, test, and test and sooner or later it will work

You know there is several great ways of getting links of course whether buying them, e-mailing a webmaster, or even calling someone, but let me give you just a few ideas on what you can do to accomplish links. Which some of these techniques can be time consuming, but are worth while time does pay off believe that.

Call The Webmasters: Don’t be afraid to call a webmaster, sometimes this is the best way of getting links from high quality websites. When you call your more direct with them and you got there attention and most generally you can find there phone number located somewhere on the website this is typically better then e-mailing the webmaster. Whats so great about this method is that you can actually get .edu links or links from high quality resource pages for example say you have written online article on your website about PHP, HTML or just something educational well find college websites that are linking to websites like this and make sure your piece is better then any one elses and then call the webmaster up and say hey could you link to our article we just wrote up on PHP and if they say yes bingo you scored. Think about it if you have a good piece why wouldn’t they link to you, I mean if there linking out to people such as educational resources and etc. You can obtain some highly quality links like this specially from high page rank websites that have a very good domain age.

If you don’t get links from them don’t get upset just move onto other websites or just keep trying new tactics sooner or later you’ll score some high quality unique one way links.

Viral Link Bait Content: If you read the last paragraph then this is something that will come into play by doing the above. I hope before you go calling someone you at least have some link worthy content you can use as bait. See the idea in marketing for links to use stuff as bait and then start making the sales, but if you stick around the blog you’ll learn more about that, but back to what I was saying focus on building bait content that will catch your viewers, and get them to link to you. You might not get links right off the content, but its still on your website and is building the value of your website. The idea behind link baiting it to just stay focused and keep practicing at promoting viral content and then sooner or later you will start to figure out what working and whats not working.

Buying Links (very effective): Buying links can be very effective by all means, and you can get a great ROI from it and reward. Which granted don’t take me wrong the above methods are great ways of getting links to and I would highly suggest using all these techniques, but if your someone out to get quick links fast with your desired anchor text buying them would be the most effective and time free way because generally when you hire a SEO company or a link broker to acquire you some links you can get them fast and get desired results such as ranking for keywords that you want to rank for.

Conclusion

There are several ways of obtaining links through articles, press releases, directory submissions, link baiting, and etc. These are just to create some ideas for you to help you out and I would recommend you trying all these techniques or hiring a SEO company to do it for you. Building links is something that takes time and very time consuming thats the whole reason SEO companies charge so much for what the do because the strategies that we have developed over the years are effective and we know how tough it can be getting links, but like I said the easier way to get them is through buying them now if you become a link bait master then you got it made, but overall buying links you’ll get your desired anchor text, and etc.