Mr Beach Bum.com

This may be considered a bit old school by today’s “web 2.0 ” standards, but the good old fashioned method of swapping links with other websites in your niche (blogs included) is still one of the best ways for you to get your site “out there” in front of people.

A lot of people set up their blog or website and immediately go to town on setting up Adwords and other pay-per-click type solutions and spend a lot of money trying to get the word out. I am not saying you shouldn’t do some of that but you really need to think about how the web really works. Why do we call it a web anyway? The reason is because it is a mesh of links between sites and your true goal should be to become somewhat of a “hub site” that people will come to in order to find not only your wonderful content or service but even more information and services from your niche.

Even if you don’t ever become a true “hub site” you will still benefit greatly by achieving a high number of incoming links from other sites and this should be one of your primary focuses, especially early on in the start of your site.

 The challenge you will have is that there are a lot of big time sites out there that make it very hard to get a link from. They may let you link to them but you might have to pay to get a link back. Don’t just pay every time. Try to be creative instead. What could you offer them now that might be of value. Perhaps a free review or something in exchange for a link to your article?

You will need to have a links section on your site and this will quickly become one of the ugliest pages on your entire site, but it is also one of the most important if done properly.

Also, don’t be afraid to check out your competition from time to time. Look at their Alexa site info. Especially under “sites linking in”. If those sites linking into your competitor have high rankings then you may consider contacting them to do reciprocals with you as well because most of the time these same sites will be somewhat related to your niche just as they are your competitor. Don’t reinvent the wheel here people, there is no shame in using some of the same methods to reach success as those who have come before you. It will be up to you to differentiate yourself in the long run but when you are just starting out, all bets are off.

We will look at this in more detail in a future post but for now, think about who your #1 competitor is and go straight to alexa.com and check them out. See who helped them get where they are now and then you can start sending link exchange requests like mad! Good luck!

If you run a website or blog already and are looking for a quick, easy and free way to get some buzz going then I have a link you’ll want to check out. It’s called MyBlogLog.com. The easiest way to describe it is by saying that it’s like Myspace for Blog/Website owners. You can list the sites/blogs you run and make friends who can join your communities and you can send messages to eachother, Myspace style.

Some of you might notice the MyBlogLog visitors in the sidebar of this blog. That is a widget you can add to your blog and I like being able to see some of the users who visit. If you do run a blog then I highly recommend joining because it is a great way to get visitors to your site. If you do join, make sure you look me up. Comment on my blog and give me your username info on MyBlogLog and I’ll be sure to add you as a contact. Then you’ll have at least 1 friend on there to start with.

Here is the link to MyBlogLog.com

I recently joined up with Text-Link-Ads to see how they would perform on my site. Unfortunately I’ve not had any real offers for link purchases yet on any of my sites, but what I have found is that Text-Link-Ads actually makes for a great affiliate program regardless of how their ads perform. You should definitely consider joining them if for no other reason than to get some affiliates to join under you - and here’s why

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Those of you who have started your online business, website or blog, know how hard it can be to really get things going in terms of site traffic. SEO is a term that is thrown around a lot. The problem is, you face so much competition and the rules change so frequently that it is nearly impossible to keep up.

Factor in that on top of all of these marketing tricks you have to try, you are still maintaining a website/blog and risk doing more harm than good if you aren’t careful. Wouldn’t it be nice just to focus on building your content and doing your work and have the professionals help you manage your SEO? I know, I know - sounds expensive. But it doesn’t have to be!

Discountclick Online Marketing Service specializes in getting you the traffic you deserve. They offer professional Search Engine Optimization and promotion services at an affordable rate. Their offerings include Professional SEO services, List Management services, and Ad Serving.

The thing I like about Discountclick is that they don’t require you to sign a long term contract like a lot of SEO service agencies do. You are billed monthly and can cancel if at any time you feel that you are not satisfied with their performance. And you may see results in as little as 2 - 4 weeks.

The link popularity campaign services that Discountclick offers are extremely valuable in my opinion. Their staff will add 40-50 one-way and reciprocal links to your website. Now we all know that links to your site from other sites are invaluable. But can you trust that you, on your own, could add 40-50 to your site every month? Do you even have the time for that? I sure don’t!

Check out Discountclick Online Marketing Service today and tell ‘em Mr Beach Bum sent ya!

(This was a paid blog post)

A lot of people who are just starting out tend to get confused as to which is the best way to track their results. Many webhosting providers offer built in statistics and there are numerous free and paid services you can utilize to count  your visitors for you. But in the end, what does all this data really tell you?

Back in the early days of the web, hits were all the rage. You pretty much weren’t worth a darn if your site didn’t have a high hitcount. While this method of tracking is still in use today, it is only a small fraction of the overall picture of a site’s performance. And yet, as you may have already found out yourself, there is still no single measure of performance that will suffice for everyone. Let’s take a look at some of the tracking methods available, shall we?

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