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Would you like to be a top Internet marketer in 2009? IF the answer is yes then do you know what it takes to be a top Internet Marketer? Recently I saw the list of the most influential online marketers of 2008. If you carefully look at the list, you will find out that the list is actually a popularity list and include names which are popular. The list has names of marketers who have strong personal brands. It does not matter how much money they’re making. The ranking is more dependent on how well they’re known by the masses.

Actual credentials and earning do not determine the ranking in the list. Some people are ranking better because they are more connected than others. (I think actual earnings and credentials should be of more value while determining the most influential or successful Internet marketers). These marketers rank better because they know how to market themselves and they have a higher perceived value.

Now let’s see how you can be a top 100 Internet marketer in 2009? It’s for sure that you will need success in selling, building exposure, and making money but there is one more important aspect – building a strong personal brand for yourself and then make sure people believe that you are more valuable than what you actually are.

You will need a strong positive image in the eyes of the people you want to influence. Following are the 7 strategies that will help you to build your brand and reputation

1. Get the right credentials first

First of all you will need right credentials. With just a few subscribers, you cannot become a top Internet marketer. For that you will need to have successful past Internet Marketing campaigns. If you do not have a past successful marketing campaign, then you will not be able to become one of the top 100 online marketers any time soon.

Like when you apply for a course in any prestigious university or technical colleges you need to have a standard qualification to apply for it. Only if you have the qualification, you can apply for the course. Likewise, you need to have a standard qualification before you can try to be the top Internet marketing.

2. Find a specialty and stick to it – be known for something

It is always better to be expert at something rather than trying everything. It is easier to be known as expert in one field. For example, you know Seth Godin when we talk about Blogging, Aaron Wall for SEO, Michael Arrington for tech and so on. They are known for a niche or a particular field. They are not jack-of-all-trades but are specialist in one particular field.

While you try to become an expert why not tell the world your personal story because people love to hear personal stories about how you have done it.

3. Be confident – fake it ’til you make it

This advice is not from me but from people who are already in the top Internet marketers list. You need to fake it till you make it. Do you think people will follow the guidance and advice of a newbie? They won’t. But if you can portray yourself as an expert, then people will flock to your site or blog to know amore about your guidance. People will think of you as an authoritarian and will help you build your personal brand.

You should exude confidence in everything you do. A good impression is very much necessary for your online business. Read an excellent article by Rebecca Kelley about how you can fake it and make it.

4. Associate with successful people

This is helpful in many ways- people begin to know you and see your name around, you learn lot many things from the experts, and people believe you because they see you with successful people. You can learn the business secret from them and apply them in your own business. Have you heard of Neil Patel? Read more on why Neil is successful, and you are not.

5. Help people out – make friends and build relationships

Making friendship and building relationship has its own benefits. You need help in different aspects of your online business and people can help you here. If you have a good relationship with someone, then he/she will help you when you need.

One easy way to become friends is to help others. When you help others, you become friends easily and early.

6. Think and act like the person you want to be

Psychology has a great role to play in your success. If your psychology is right, then you will definitely become successful. When you think and act like a person you want to be, you become that person. So act and think like a successful person and you too become successful .For becoming one of the top 100 internet marketers, you need to read good books. Start reading leadership books. You can start with Dale Carnegie‘s books or Napoleon Hill books. Try out Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (free on the public domain). You need to start thinking like a top marketer if you want to be one. Slowly your mindset will change to that of a top marketer and you will win.

7. Put yourself everywhere

This is again marketing and promotion. Even if you are an expert in your niche but if nobody knows you then there is no use of it. You need to market yourself, put yourself everywhere, so that people know you. You need to build exposure. How do you do that?

1. Build a Wikipedia page for yourself

2. Take active part on social media sites and forums. While doing that, use a profile name and avatar that is same everywhere.

3. If possible speak at conferences

4. Create your video and post them on YouTube

5. Put pictures in Flickr

6. Write frequently on your blog

7. Spread a few press releases.

Let more people see you and remember you.

Do you think you are worthy of becoming a Top Internet Marketer in 2009? If yes, then start working towards it now.

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Now we do not have to emphasize the importance of traffic for any online business. Traffic is the life blood for any online home business. More often we find questions like below from our Internet Marketing friends -

1. How do I get more traffic to my site?
2. How do I get more people on my list?

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But very few people ask a questions like “How do I get quality buyers to my site and on my list?”

Quality website traffic is more valuable than just traffic. Think about it:

You have a list of 20,000 untargeted people and you have another list of 500 people who buy your product. Which list is more beneficial and valuable to you? You decide.

These are the ways through which we generate traffic in order of how high quality the traffic is.

1. Own List

Your own list can get you quality website traffic. This is the best type of traffic for your site. You might have a customer list (people who bought your product or service) or a list of people who subscribed to information from your site. You can put subscription boxes in different pages of your site so as to encourage people to subscribe to your blog. Keep the list updated and you will have a real great source of traffic.

2. JV Partners

Create a joint venture with other bloggers, site owners and online marketers. You can offer them some benefit so as to reach people in their lists. Your JV partners can send your product or service offers to their subscribers in return of a benefit or if you offer a special price. This gets you additional traffic from sites and marketers which you do not have right now. Such traffic can get into your list by subscribing to or by buying your products or services.

3. Offline Leads

Along with online leads, you can also generate offline leads. Offline leads can come from different sources such as seminars, renting lists, advertising in magazines, newspapers etc. The cost and time may be little higher here in comparison to the online methods but it is sure a way to diversify your customer base.

4. Affiliates

Affiliate can be another good source of quality website traffic. Affiliates promote your product or services for a commission. They may have their own list, blogs, sites or other ways of communicating with their audience. Affiliates promote your products and services and you can get lots of quality traffic from sources that you haven’t tapped yet.

5. Bloggers

Blogger can get you lots of quality traffic. Bloggers generally have huge influence over their visitors and readers and they can turn huge number of people to your site just by writing about you. If you have a JV with bloggers then you can expect continuous and enthusiastic mentions of your and your products and services in their blogs.

Also if you really offer great value and have good content, then bloggers will link to you and this links can be great quality traffic earner for you.

6. Search Engines

We have a PageRank 2 in Google. The change from PR 1 to PR 2 happened really fast (within a month).  Search engines bring in lots of quality traffic to you if you can utilize them for your benefit. Using keywords in your content is a normal but effective way of getting better search engine ranking as well as links from other sites.

Your search engine traffic comes from different keyword phrases. Not just one single keyword can give you the needed result.

7. PPC

PPC or pay-per-click advertising is very effective. It is targeted and so you get quality traffic from advertising. It does cost you few dollars but gets you the necessary traffic. You can create a landing page or a Squeeze page for people coming through the PPC ads so that you can convert them to subscribers or buyers. But please make sure to make your advertising very much targeted.

8. Content Submission

Content submission has been working for a long time. You can write articles, press releases and then submit them to different article directories and press release submission directories. They not only get you good quality traffic but also get you links back to your site or blog.

9. Social Bookmarking

This is very essential today. Social bookmarking helps in several ways- it gets you link back to your site which helps in search engine optimization, it gets you direct traffic from social bookmarking sites, it attracts bloggers to your site or blog and they write about you.

That was about good quality website traffic. Now you can also get low quality paid traffic by several different ways. Low quality traffic can also be profitable for you.

Low Quality Paid Traffic

Advertise on free advertisement placing site or sites that charge little money for putting ads, use co-registrations to build your lists, use craiglist for getting leads and so on.

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Did you think that search engines are the main source of website traffic and without them your home business is dead? Probably you can change your views now. We present to you 27 different ways to increase traffic to your website or blog without the help of Google and other search engines. (However, get a bonus from us – These web marketing ideas will also enhance your search engine ranking in a positive way).

1. Social Bookmarking
There are more than hundred social bookmarking sites present today. Do not use all of them but use the good ones such as Digg, StubleUpon, Reddit, Mixx etc.

2. Social Networking
Use social networking to meet people and let them know about your websites or blog. There are many social networking sites available today Facebook, LinkedIn, Friendster, Orkut (Find Bikash there) and so on.

3. Forum Participation
Forum participation is great in two ways. First you find answers to your questions and you get traffic. You also add value to the forums by adding your knowledge there.

4. Blogging
Blogging is the most important way to market your site. Blogging is the most happening thing today. It is also easy to use if you can write.

5. Linking Generously
Link generously to other sites and blogs. Such links will get you more and more traffic

6. Advertising
You can advertise in different media and different networks. PPC ads are good for getting targeted traffic.

7. Email Marketing
Email marketing gets your message to the intended recipient. It’s easier and direct to your customers.

8. Directory Listings
Directory listing gets you traffic from the directories. Add your site to a niche directory.

9. Flyers
This technique is applicable for local promotion. Get flyers ready and distribute them with newspapers, in the local cafes and bulletin boards.

10. Yahoo Groups
Yahoo Groups is a place where you can answer and ask questions. This is a place where you can place your website link and then get traffic to your site.

11. Listservs
You can host your own email discussion groups to get people to visit your site. You need to be little involved here.

12. Press Releases
Press Releases improves your visibility in the online space. It also helps you in getting links to your site.

13. Video
Videos are great source of getting traffic. There are hundreds of video sites, where you can post videos.

14. Twitter
Twitter is a very active traffic builder. My twitter accounts (workhomemoney and TakeAPlunge) get me lots of traffic.

15. Conferences
Conferences can provide you with lots of traffic and promotion. Search for any Internet Marketer who hosts and takes part in seminars and you will find thousands of results.  

16. Meetups
Take part in it and do real time networking.

17. Blog Comments
Comment on other’s blog. This helps in a great way. Encourage them and they will revert the favor.

18. Associations
Get involved in associations because such association helps in getting promotional benefits.

19. Widgets
Using sites like BlogRush and MyBlogLog to get referral traffic to your site.  

20. Memes
Participate in Memes. This is a good source for long term traffic and links.

21. Blog Carnivals
Blog carnivals are good for your website and blog. I haven’t used it personally but experts recommend it for traffic.  

22. Craigslist
Craiglist listing brings back traffic and links. You get traffic and prospects that converts.

23. AdLandPro
It is a forum where you can promote yourself. It’s free.  

24. Contests
Contests are good to attract people and getting them in hundreds and thousands.  

25. Article Marketing
I use this technique often and it is really good. Some of my articles have got thousands of views. It helps.

26. Use Email Signatures
Check my email and you will find links in it. Emails can be viral and then it helps in attracting the targeted people.  

27. Feature RSS feeds prominently
Create RSS Feeds and help users to read you easily. Create RSS buttons so that your subscribers know that you are offering them useful contents through RSS feed.

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1) Link-Building

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: None

Links or better say backlinks are very important for you and your site. Many times, when there is high competition on search terms, then backlinks to your site determines your search engine ranking. Better search engine ranking is always needed because most of the visitors come from search engines. There are so many link building techniques and way. Find more about it.

2) Social Media

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: None

Social media is a very good source of traffic. Social media is very popular now and it has tremendous scope of bringing huge traffic to your site. But do it right to get the benefits. If your site is interesting and you get people to read it in the social media, then you can expect to find more visitors from there to your site.

Read Michelle McPhearson’s blog to know more about it.

Getting social media traffic may not always be so easy. If people like your site and content, then they will submit and discuss about it without you knowing about it.

3) Community Participation

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: None

Community participation means taking part in community discussions. These discussions may be in forums, groups, blogs and other such sites with community aspects attached to them. Community discussion helps you in many ways- it helps you create a presence, helps in establishing yourself as an authority in the community and gets your bran name popular. Such discussions get people to your site. The process is slow but with definite benefits. You will find your regular readers in such community space.

4) Article Marketing

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: None

I love this traffic generating technique. Being an expert author in ezinearticles and in other article directories I know this helps. One of my articles alone was viewed thousands of times and it sent me thousands of visitors. There are many article directories available today and they accept original articles. At the end of the articles, you get a space where you can put inks back to your sites. This is like a free advertising space. You can submit your articles for free and get the traffic for free.

5) SEO

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: None

SEO means optimizing your site for search engines. The more optimized it is, the better will be your search engine ranking. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a way to help your site rank better in search engines by tweaking the existing features and by using available community and other media. You need to know some technical things to become successful in SEO. You can learn it. Start with the SEO Book by Aaron Wall.

SEO For your home business- SEOBook

6) New Age New Media Publishing

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: None 

During the old time, only text was thought to be the content for any site. However, this has changed now. You have other options such as images, videos, audios to use in your websites. New media sites such YouTube, Flickr and other video, image and audio sites offer you chance to upload images, videos and audios which can get traffic to your site. By using it cleverly, you can get people to your site from such community new age media.

7) PPC & Third Party Advertising

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Low – High

PPC (Pay Per Click) is a very popular method of getting people to your site. But it involves a cost. You need to pay for each click that is done on your ad. The budget and cost per click varies depending on the keyword you use. However be careful here because it can drain you off money everyday. There are third parties where you can advertise about your site. All these include costs of advertising.

Email Marketing

Difficulty: Hard
Cost: Low – Medium

Email marketing means contacting your readers and subscribers through email However, it does not mean buying emails and then spamming them with emails. You have to built email lists of the readers and subscribers and then sent them something of value. The list that you get from such list building efforts can pay really well all they are very much targeted traffic.

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1) On Page Advertising

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: None

You can use this type of advertising on your web pages. This type of revenue generates money in several ways- per click (CPC), per action (CPA) or per impression (CPM). There are many such on page advertising options such as AdSense, Text Link Ads, and AdBrite. Some times these ads appear separately in various places of your websites. Sometimes certain words of your copy are underlined. This is one of the easiest ways to earn money.  But personally I do not have much faith on this as it generates few pennies for a general website. If your websites gets thousands of visitors everyday, it will not generate much income for you. It alone won’t be enough for your business.

2) Affiliate Marketing

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: None

In affiliate marketing, you promote a product and earn money from it. There are many affiliate services such as Clickbank, www.cj.com, Azoogleads etc. You first find a product to promote and promote with the help of your websites and content. You make a commission on each sale doen by you. There are various types of affiliate products to promote and you can easily find one thst suits your content.

3) Donations

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: None

You can get donations through your site. You can offer something free to the readers and subscribers and can get donations from them. You can simply start getting donations by installing a WordPress plugin. Donations that come from people may not be very high, so take it as a supplementary method only.

4) Info Products

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: None

Info products can be a good source of monetization. You can create info products like ebooks, videos, Podcasts etc and sell them to people. This is easier once you create the product. Later you can duplicate and distribute them as you want. So try to develop a great product which remains in demand for quite some time. There are many free tools to create such info products.

5) Subscription Based Services

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Low

This is little tough because before you do so, you will have to establish yourself as an authority in the niche or area you are targeting. You can charge a price or a premium for your content. You can get subscription money from your subscribers on a regular basis. This is why this monetization method is very popular and profitable.

Some of the content and services for which I pay subscription, or intend to pay

• Blog Mastermind

6) Direct Sales

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Low

You can sell something directly from your website. The item may be soft copies of a book, or an ebook or any other hard existing product. There are endless list of products that you can sell through direct sales monetization method. Some of the products that are on offer for selling may be

 Goods from an offline business

ebooks, reports, podcasts

Advertising

Reviews

Direct sales are profitable when you have a good reader base. You will need good traffic to earn good money in this method. However the money earned in this method are far more than money earned through on page advertising such as AdSense.

7) Network Marketing

Difficulty: Hard
Cost: None

Network marketing is a good method to earn money. It also provides residual income. But getting people to become your downline or associate is little hard. In this method, you can sell items yourself and get people to join your chain to become your downline. When you get downline, you get a percentage of their sales commission. This is a two way money earning method as you get commission for your own sales as well as sales of your downlines.

However, there are many scams in this industry and you should be careful before signing up with anybody.

eBay Businesses

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Varies tremendously

We have written several posts on eBay and making money from it. Today, thousands of people are trading on eBay and making a living out of it. We tried it for one of our clients and helped him in getting started in eBay. It offers good money for the business.

In eBay, you buy and sell products earning profit in between.  You can buy low and sell high to earn profit. You can also become an eBay affiliate and earn money. EBay can also be used to generate traffic to your website and blog.

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