Community building is something that takes skill and patience, but the out come is remarkable nothing can out beat it you don’t have to depend on search engines well not to the full extent such as putting all your eggs in one basket. The thing is with community building is that you can literally have full control over your traffic if that makes any sense.

Building communities can be done in many ways rather its done through PPC, Blogs, Online Banner Ads, and etc. The idea behind building communities is to create constant momentum and start sucking in your visitors most generally blogs are a lot easier to build then forums, but then again if you have the money you can easily build forums and thats by creating momentum like I was saying earlier.

I mean think of it you drive in 5000 uniques a day for 3 months straight your bound to get sign ups every day speaking your leverage your traffic right. Some of the biggest online communities out there were built using these techniques for example v7n.com was built using PPC and many other successful forums were built the same exact way or some type of advertising.

Not only is the advertising good for traffic its also good for branding to get your community name out there.  The idea is to have relevant traffic coming from relevant sources of course for example if your wanting to build an online community around search marketing then you would advertise and promote in relevant areas.

As you start to promote and every where people look they see your logos, your name, your identity, and you name it there going to check you out sooner or later and give in. You just have to build the traffic and leverage it. Its a pretty simple process well maybe to some people, but if test, test, and test sooner or later you will get it.

Conclusion 
I just decided to write this post up to give people an idea of how to build online communities there is several ways of building online communities of course, but to be honest the best way to do it is by building momentum into your site and like I was saying blogs are a bit different they take more of a viral approach with then the content, but forums are a different story.

Last night I was reading The Fall of Advertising by Al Ries and Laura Ries and it created some ideas for me about marketing in general and then I got to thinking of it today it even gave me more ideas about link baiting by the way if you don’t know who Al Ries and Laura Ries are they are very well known marketing consultants they consult with INC 500 companies, and many other very well known companies.

When I was reading The Fall of Advertising it mentioned on how you can use Movies, Tv Ads, and Magazines to create ideas for your advertising campaign, for example why not create ideas from somewhere else and use them for your online marketing purposes which don’t take me wrong I’m not saying copying off any ones ideas at all, but you can learn from sources like this can you can study and see how the consumer reacts to certain things.

Link Baiting is about being creative which granted not every single piece you write up will be link bait or set a viral market off, but if you put effort into everything you do on your website or your content on your website it will go a far way.

The idea about making an effective viral website is to build something that will connect with people and you can use Ads, Magazines and other unrelated sources to create ides for you say for example you are promoting web development services, but you see something really creative somebody did in a movie or commercial and then you think and speculate to your self I could do something similar with my content or my website in general.

I have even read many times on the internet a lot of bloggers will pay attention to magazines front page and it always helps them with there post and I would have to agree with them the reason being is because most generally the front of a magazine is the most eye catching thing out of that whole magazine the reason behind that for is because they want to grab your attention and marketers will do what ever it takes to grab your attention even if its somewhat deceptive (only in positive ways).

Conclusion
The main reason I wrote this post up was to create ideas for you just always pay attention to what other people are doing and maybe you could reuse that idea not the same exact idea by any means, but you could reorganize it into something else that will grab your consumers attention rather it being a magazine that creates link bait ideas for you or some type of color or animal that you could use into your branding ideas such as logos and etc.

Sometimes you might have a product thats hard to promote or better yet it is more famaliar with some people then other people or say for example you have a product or service your wanting to offer that helps with something else, but not every one is famaliar with that particular service or product, so what should you do?

Well lets say its link building, not every one is famaliar with link building. I mean honestly most generally when people want higher rankings there going to search for something like internet marketing, search marketing, pay per click marketing, and similar terms to that.

I have talked with numerous prospects that have no idea what link building is by any means. I will bring the term link building up and there like what is that, I’ve never heard of that, and then I explain to them what link building does and how it increases your search engine rankings and then there like ok I see.

Now in this case what would you exactly do if you wanted to get people more famaliar with this service?

Simple you create content on your site I would prefer hefty articles and similar things to that and then you just get the content known around the web you know through social media sites and get it indexed on the search engines try to get this content ranked using terms such as internet marketing, internet marketing services, online marketing services, and etc.

Maybe you could even explain in this article what link building is and then you just build trends in your service.

There is tons of ways of promoting products and building trends around it and thats the best thing about the internet specially with the web 2.0 life style, so give it a try and start created some viral content.

Brand reputation is by far the most important thing in marketing, I mean honestly no one can out beat a strong brand. When a consumer sees a brand that there famaliar with and they’ve heard nothing, but good words about that particular brand it builds there confidence and thats what you want.

The facts are if your good at what you do and people like you there going to refer you, come to your site, use your services, and etc.

Whats builds your brand?

1. The People, one thing I’ve always learned in business is that the people build your brand and no one else which don’t take me wrong there is numerous things that come into effect when building brands rather it being online or offline, but the main idea about building a strong brand with then the people is to offer quality service and to actually give results in other words keep your people happy.
2. The Image, Building an image into the consumer mind is very vital. You will need colors, logos, so in other words you need to give your brand a character, give it a look and feel that people will remember.

If you can manage and build your brand better then any one else then your heading in a positive direction. You ever bumped into something or though about using someone services or something to that, but then you got to thinking of it one of your friends or associates told you not to use them because they did not have a good experience with them and then you all suddenly changed your mind.

Which granted we know as CEO Of Companies, Business Owners, and etc its hard to keep every body happy, but the facts are you have to manage your brand properly so it builds your reputation :).

Anyways guys I’m out of here I had to make this post sweet and short I have some important things to take care ;).

I will have discussions with many of my clients from time to time about PPC (Pay Per Click) Vs Organic Search and some of them think that PPC is a waste of money until I explain to them the power of PPC and how it can be such as fabulous marketing model to use.

PPC is a very powerful marketing tool, so is organic search, but with contextual advertising services such as Adwords, Yahoo Publisher, and MSN Ad Network you can create very fast sales over night and when I mean over night I mean literally over night if you are a PPC guru then you know exactly what I’m talking about the thing is with PPC is that it takes skill and patience to get it going its not something thats going to happen over night.

Another big factor about pay per click is spending most generally the more you spend in the beginning the better off you will be for the future the reason being for is because you need to build your CTR (Click Through Rate) rate up then you can slowly start to decrease your bids also keep in mind they’re many other factors in the pay per click game such as account history and etc.

If your someone looking to get fast traffic over night or wanting to build momentum into a website that will be used to build e-mail lists and similar things to that nature then you will definitely want to use pay per click I have seen many website and companies grow from nothing to inc 500 companies with then a quickness.

I have seen many forums launch and build very fast by using pay per click networks for example v7n.com which has a user database of over 40k users was built through PPC and affiliate marketers including my self use PPC to generate revenue which I plan on promoting our affiliate websites through organic search, but right now my main focus is using PPC due to the quickness of traffic and sales that it can generate, so always keep in mind PPC is a very powerful marketing tool and don’t ever put all your eggs in one basket specially as strict as organic search engines are getting with paid links.

I was just reading a post over @ v7n.com and it had a link to an article over at Search Engine Guide called Do Directory Submissions Still Hold Any Value and I think over all the write was an excellent write up and I would have to say Mr Wallace does has some valid points.

The thing is with directories is that a lot of them that charge any more are getting penalized for selling links, so therefore I wouldn’t be surprised if they pass any value or not, but then again I think to my self does that page rank bar even mean anything I mean it does, but I don’t think it means as much as what Google is making it out to be.

For example I was talking with CEO of Environment Web Directory a very good directory that is dated back to 1996 it ranked for the keyword web directory still even after its page rank got devalued, so does the page rank mean anything?

No I don’t think it does I mean maybe to a degree, but the thing is I think once your page rank hits a certain point it goes no higher of course for example you could get a link from a page rank 7 website that will make you a pr6 and thats all you need on the page rank side I don’t really think the link increases your ranking any more then what a pr0 does (using your desired anchor text) and from my honest opinion and from my experience basically alls the page rank does is increases your ability to rank for whats not in your anchor text such as your content optimization and things to that nature which it might have a little to do with anchor text.

Generally what I tell my clients is to get a few good authority links with higher page rank links and older sites and at the same time I tell them to make sure they keep in mind that page rank is not everything I have personally ranked websites for very competitive keywords such as printing with links from websites that have pr0 and I have also seen websites rank by just submitting to free directories over time combined with numerous other strategies.

I think a lot of people get confused when they see websites ranking for very competitive keywords they automatically think the website is ranking for such a competitive key term because it has a bunch of high page ranked links or links from old websites which yes I do think links from old websites pass more value then newer websites, but would I say that links from high page ranked websites pass more value then low page ranked websites?

Absolutely not, if anything it will get you penalized getting a bunch of high PR links. A lot of website that are ranking on very competitive keywords are using strategies such as directory subs, link exchanges, blog links, article links, and similar things to that nature the idea is to get relevant links not always high page ranked links if you get a good relevant link from a relevant site its going to pass you value thats just the bottom line.

So don’t always get confused when your submitting to directories just because its a higher page rank directory and considered an authority directory don’t let that catch you off guard because sometimes free new directories can pass just as much value you just have to know what to look for which don’t take me wrong I’m not saying paid directories suck or anything like that I think there is some paid directories out there that kick ass and why do I think that for because there editorial status is high they don’t accept every single link, but then again look at DMOZ and Yahoo there supposed to be authority links, but yet they accept numerous links such as adult sites, gambling, and etc.

The bottom line is when your submitting to directories or getting links from other websites you just have to use your best judgment, and don’t be so picky when you are finding links thats another problem I see out in the SEO space some people want rankings ,but yet they pick at every single link they find and decide they don’t want it and then before you know it they never rank, but people that go all out and just start finding relevant links are ranking for very competitive keywords.

Becoming an effecitve PPC marketer is something that takes time and dedication, but the thing is if you are really wanting to improve your skills in the PPC game start promoting affiliates programs.

The reason I say start promoting affiliate programs through PPC is because this will by far increase your skill set the reason being is because your limited to what you work with such as commissions and plus when your promoting affiliates generally your promoting several niches at one time through a particular vertical market.

When your promoting multiple niche products from numerous companies rather it being cellulite lotions, ringtones, online dating, or computer products. What this does is it increases your skill set your probably asking how could this increase my skill set?

1. Limited Profit: See with affiliate your limited to your profit margin you only have so much profit to work with, but at the same time your paying out on PPC. Now if your promoting your own products generally you’ll have a lot more margin to work with.
2. Numerous Verticals: Your promoting numerous products for numerous verticals or just for the individual person. What this does is increase your lateral thinking skills for numerous markets and lateral thinking is highly important when it comes to promoting affiliates.

The thing is with PPC is that it can be a challenge, but if you set there for long enough and test you’ll eventually figure it out, but to be quite honest spending is the biggest factor in the PPC game the more you spend the better you will be and the more CTR ration you gain the better quality score you have.

If you want to get into the PPC game I would suggest you to start off by promoting affiliates first which you don’t have to, but it sure wouldn’t hurt thats for sure.

PPC marketing is very affective if used properly. The thing is with PPC is that you have to spend before you actually get results what I mean from this is you literally have to invest money to improve your QS score, so spending is the biggest factor of building a good Ad Words campaign.

Which granted relevancy of ads does play a vital factor, but if you ask me I would think you would automatically optimize a relevant ad with your keywords. The thing is I’ve notice with a lot of people they keep trying to tweak with there ads when they launce a new campaign and I did the same exact thing until I learned that spending is the key.

You know you might lose some money in the beginning well I wouldn’t say lose some money, but in the beginning stages what your doing is trying to get that CTR rate up and as that CTR comes up with the more competitive keywords or your more broad keywords your Quality Score will improve big time, so don’t get upset if your QS keeps reading poor just invest some money into some good keywords that have an excellent CTR rate.

Now what do you do when the QS goes up for these more broad terms and there converting very well. You have room to play in now you can build lateral keywords around your highly converting keywords and start to play with your bid rates and get it down to where your profiting right off the bat, but keep in mind don’t automatically take your bid rate down too much if you do that your QS score can get hit again.

Also keep in mind your Quality Score is humanly edited a lot of the times if your QS score gets smacked bad then it was probably someone monitor your account, but overall from my experience you should be fine with your QS as long as your CTR rates are good thats mostly automated from my understandings for example if you have a great CTR rate then your QS score should go up.

Now I’m not 200 percent on everything I said above, but from my understandings and what I was told thats pretty much how it works, but when it comes to organic I will tell you this I’m the best if you ask me, but PPC is something I have been playing around with the last week or so because I’m starting to promote affiliates through it and possibly I might even start promoting our own site through it just keep in mind spending is the biggest factor and don’t be afraid to lose money if you have 1k why not just throw it into your adwords account and find out what keywords are converting, but at the same time improve your QS score.

Also keep in mind you can get super high CTR rates by making more targeted ad groups for each keyword, but that does take time there is software thats called Speed PPC which will dramatically increase 1000’s of ad groups in seconds.

For more information about PPC and even Affiliate marketing check out Jeremy Palmer E-book which he is offering for free at Quit Your Day Job (ebook).