Niche Marketing is a terrific way to maximize the impact of your Internet Marketing efforts.  Choosing a niche that not only you know is profitable, but that you hold a firm interest in, will help you achieve the best results possible.  Finding the right niche and getting your niche site up and running can be easier than ever by using some of IM Report Card’s top rated niche marketing tools, as rated by our members.

Micro Niche Finder(197 grades, A-)from James Jones is an SEO-oriented research tool that allows you to research keywords and niches. The primary feature of this tool is to allow you to easily discover micro niches that have not been taken full advantage of yet and can easily be dominated. The tool also features an indicator that allows you to quickly get an idea of the competition level.

Keyword Explosion (20 grades, A-) is an info product, spreadsheet database and online researching platform developed by Internet marketer and software program Jonathan Leger. Aimed at Google AdSense publishers, Keyword Explosion focuses on uncovering profitable niches that may make for high paying websites. Mr. Leger brings his considerable search engine marketing experience to bear with this product.

Mony-Tree(19 grades, B+) is an online software niche site builder that helps you create niche websites that are ready for you to start promoting. Through their niche website wizard, you choose from among several different templates and you provide the niche and keywords that you want to use, and the program builds you a niche store around it.

Build a Niche Store (19 grades, B+) is a software program that allows you to build ecommerce sites. The software bases its product displays from the eBay network so you will have to be an affiliate of theirs in order to use it. The intuitive process takes you from choosing a template to a niche store with relevant product listings.

Niche Profit Classroom (42 grades, B) is a membership site created by Adam Short and Alen Sultanic. The membership teaches Internet Marketers how to set up niche businesses even if they are on a limited budget. The site contains video training, is updated with new strategies, and members are given additional support via interviews, teleseminars and webinars.

Do you have an awesome website but just can’t seem to get on the top search engine results?  Link building is a great way to improve your search engine result ranking.  Search engines take many things into account when ranking which sites to return for a search query.  One of the variables is the number of inbound links a site has.  More inbound links props a site up as being more established and more relevant to the search query.  Here are a few great link building tools we have reviewed in IMReportCard.com.

DoFellow (A- grade, 18 reviews) – is search engine optimization (SEO) software that will enable you to get hundreds of free do-follow back links quickly and easily. When a person comments on your blog they will automatically get back links to their own blog – this will make other bloggers want to visit both of your sites. The large amount of visitors generated by the software will improve your search engine rankings which will in turn generate more traffic – the perfect circle.

Link Farm Evolution (B+ grade, 52 reviews) – is an online software tool that helps people build quality one-way links to their sales websites and blogs through social media platforms. The tool automates many of the steps required to get your links in such places as WordPress multi-user and Pligg hosts, and even automates a lot of the registration process.

SEnuke (B+ grade, 35 reviews) – is a service created by Joe Russell and Areeb Bajwa. This service gives you access to a tool that lets you automate many tasks you would have to do manually to build an SEO campaign. The main focus of the software is in taking advantage of many web properties such as web 2.0 sites, social networking sites, RSS databases, and more to build back-links back to your site.

30 Minute Backlinks (B grade, 134 reviews) – If you’re out looking for an affordable and easy link-building strategy, then you won’t be disappointed with 30 Minute Backlinks. It is a link-building tutorial developed by Michelle MacPhearson and is being sold for as low as $97. The 30 Minute Backlinks program promises to give you a boost in the number of backlinks within just a matter of days.

Linkvana (B grade, 42 reviews) – is a service that gives its members the ability to increase the amount of one-way links coming to their website from a network of blogs owned by the Company. The creator of the system is a man named Dave Kelly who has extensive experience in search engine optimization and has been a leader in the field since the mid-1990’s.

What are your favorite link building tools and tactics?  Let us know by leaving a comment.

What good is a website or blog without traffic?  IM Report Card has an extensive list of websites and programs that claim to increase and generate traffic.  Whether through SEO, link exchanges or more, there are several easy ways to start increasing traffic to your website today.  Here is a list of five of some of the highly rated traffic generation sites reviewed on IMReportCard.com.

Traffic Travis (A- grade, 148 reviews) – Experienced internet marketers know that SEO is not as easy as it sounds. For one, you need to have the right frame of mind and be equipped with the right tools. In addition, SEO can involve a lot of investments for tangible results to appear. Fortunately, Traffic Travis can help you succeed in whatever niche you’re involved in.

EasyHits4U (B+ grade, 376 reviews) – EasyHits4You is a traffic exchange that allows members to earn visits to their websites by visiting other members’ websites. This program also offers banner advertising and text ad advertising by assigning earned credits. Bonuses can be earned as well for viewing sites and simply for signing up, and traffic credits can also be purchased through the program.

Article Marketing Robot (A- grade, 17 reviews) – Article Marketing Robot is a traffic generating tool that will show you how to get traffic on complete autopilot through article submissions. Article marketing will not only get you ranked on the major search engines quicker, but it also helps you surpass your competitors. That is where the Article Marketing Robot software comes in, by helping you generate and submit articles that will get your website indexed faster and push you to the top of the search engine rankings.

247TrafficPro (A- grade, 17 reviews) – 247 Traffic Pro offers you quality traffic to help generate sales. Traffic exchanges can be tiring and boring; they make 247 Traffic Pro fun and exciting while delivering quality traffic to your website. To use the service, it doesn’t cost anything. 247 Traffic Pro is not a paid to surf program, but it is a traffic exchange program. When you refer people and they are your direct referral, you get paid recurring income.

Splash Page Maker (A- grade, 15 reviews) – Splash Page Maker is a web-based tool that helps you build splash pages. This program is intended to help Internet Marketers that use traffic exchanges to get traffic to their sites. For people who have no specialized knowledge of HTML or graphic design, Splash Page Maker will make creating your pages a breeze.

In our last article we reviewed the Top Ten Internet Marketing Sites of 2012, now let’s move on to 2013!  This is sure to be an exciting year for Internet Marketing with new trends and money making ideas to grab hold of. Let’s start the year off with five hot new reviews added to IM Report Card that you should definitely check out during 2013.

1. Resell Toys on Amazon – (A grade, 21 reviews) Resell Toys on Amazon is a list developed by Jordan Malik of the best new and used toys to purchase and resell on Amazon and Ebay. Selling toys online is a great way to make an extra income – if you know what toys actually sell well on those venues. This ebook will give you all the information you need to make the right choice when you are at your local yard sales or flea markets.
2. B.l.e.S.H.a. : How to ‘Buy Low on eBay and Sell High on Amazon’ – (A grade, 16 reviews) B.l.e.S.H.a.: How to ‘Buy Low on eBay and Sell High on Amazon’ is a training PDF that has been developed by Jordan Malik. If you are a reseller – go to storage units, yard sales, and thrift stores – then resell those items, this will be right up your alley. The title basically says it all – you are going to get merchandise cheap on Ebay and then turn around and sell that merchandise on Amazon.
3. MemeCrusher – (A- grade, 2 reviews) MemeCrusher is a traffic generation system that has been developed by Paul Clifford. Traffic generation is one of the most difficult aspects of internet marketing for most people – they just don’t know how to get the traffic they need without investing a lot of effort and a lot of money. This training will show you how you can quickly and easily get all the traffic you need and it is very inexpensive.
4. Four Hour System – (A- grade, 2 reviews) Four Hour System is a complete training course that will show you exactly how you can take just a minimal investment and turn it into a very large amount of money. This course has been designed to help people who are just getting started in internet marketing, those who have not had any success with their efforts, and those who are looking into additional ways to add to their income.
5. Marketers Media – (A grade, 1 review) Marketers Media is a service company that helps you by issuing press releases to promote your website. Using this service will allow you to easily maximize your backlinking giving you the SEO edge you need to get a high page ranking in the major search engines. This is important because by having a high page ranking, you will be able to enjoy organic traffic (people who are actually looking for what you are offering).

Today there are several web-hosting companies offering great deals to win you as their newest customer.  From hosting as low as a penny in cost, to going green with wind energy powering your online business, IM Report Card has a long list of web-hosting sites reviewed and graded by our members.  Here are some of the top web hosts, as graded by IM Report Card members:

iPage – (A rating, 1 review) 100% powered by wind energy and currently running a sale for only $1.99/month for the first three months.  Hosting comes with WordPress, SiteLock and generous advertising credits for Facebook and Google.

Site Build It (SBI!) – (A- rating, 134 reviews) Right now Site Build It is having a buy one get one free sale through Christmas Day 2012.  According to their home page, Site Build It “is the only all-in-1 step-by-step system of process-and-software that delivers thriving businesses.”

HostGator – (A- rating, 119 reviews) They have been known to offer hosting deals as low as $0.01.  I just got an email from them saying this Friday, December 21, 2012, they will have an “End of the World” sale like none seen before.  Don’t pass up that epic sale!

Yola – (A- rating, 156 reviews) This web host offers a free trial and packages starting at $4.95 a month. Plenty of add-ons, for things like accepting credit cards and PayPal payments, are available to help make doing business a breeze.

IX Web Hosting – (B+ rating, 35 reviews) Throughout the 2012 Holiday Season they are offering up to 55% off with the use of coupon Code HOLIDAY2012.  IX Web Hosting offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth.

FatCow – (B rating, 3 reviews) Offering a hosting sale for only $3.15/month which includes $50 in Facebook Ad credit, $100 in Google AdWords credit and a lot more extras to give your business a kick start!  Also, 100% powered by wind energy.

Lots of discussions have recently been running concerning the recently introduced Google Authorship. It’s important to understand what Google Authorship is and how it affects your web page’s position on the search engine’s result pages, as well as the Google CTR (click through rate).

What is Google Authorship?

This is a method that Google introduced to give authors the chance to identify themselves as the real owners of a given piece of content. Using the “rel author” markup, you can associate a web page that you have authored with your G+ profile. Author information containing your name, image and G+ information will then start appearing on the Google search engine result pages that contain your web page as one of the search result.

How to implement Google Authorship on your websites

This is a simple process that only takes a few minutes. All you will need is a Google + profile. This is how to do it:

• Log into G+ and go to your profile
• Click on the Edit Profile button
• On the About tab, go to Contributor To link and add the URL of your website, set the permission as public and save
• While still on your profile, copy your profile id (a 21 digit number you will find within the URL in the address bar of your browser)
• In the following html code, replace “your-code” with your profile ID <a href=”https://plus.google.com/your-code?rel=author”>Add to the circle</a>
• Paste the html code with your profile ID in the header section of your website and wait for some time (about 24 hours) for your Google Authorship to start appearing on Googles SERPs

Benefits of Google Authorship to SEO and CTR

Improves Google SEO

Before the implementation of Google Authorship, the sites listed at the top of the SERPs are seen as most relevant and useful, without the ability for users to differentiate which sites are actually the most credible or trustworthy sources of information.  Google Authorship makes it easier for authentic and credible sites to be found.  Additionally, given the rapidly growing social media trends, Google Authorship is making search more social by putting a face and name to the website.

Increases in Google CTR

It is logical that readers are more likely to click on content that has its authorship known than on that which does not. The presence of a profile picture on Google Authorship also helps readers to easily identify your content. So if you have established yourself as an authority in your field, the click through rates even on the other pieces that you have authored will be increased.

Win, win, win?

Sure, there’s a clear objective from Google to build up its Google+ network using Google Authorship, but… so what?  This is a beneficial relationship for 1) people searching on Google and getting better access to relevant, credible content 2) content-based websites trying to rank on Google and 3) Google itself.  It’s an excellent opportunity for smaller blogs with excellent original content, but low rankings in the search engines to gain exposure for themselves in the SERPs and worth taking advantage of!

Posted May 21st 2012 to Blogging,Google SEO,Internet Marketing,SEO • Comments (1)

If there is a part of search engine optimization that is crucial in today’s era, then that part is SEO link building. Experienced experts in search engine optimization will tell you that many of the sites that have high rankings on Google and other search engines are there because they have many credible websites linking to them.

Of course search engine crawlers still look at other factors including the use of keywords within the text in your pages and the contents of your website’s Meta tags, but getting links to your site remains of the most important determinants of where you will appear in the SERPs (search engine result pages). This is because search engines interpret the fact that other sites are linking to yours to mean that your site contains very useful information, which is what Google and its counterparts have always wanted to give their users.

So, how do you do SEO link building for your website?  Simply put, create great content for your website and others will link to it, and you won’t even have to ask them to do so. This is actually the best and the only acceptable method by search engines. The problem is that it is not as easy as it may sound. Developing that great content will require lots of work and time, and it would probably take even more time before other website owners start discovering your content and linking to it.

This difficulty has led to website owners seeking other ways of getting the desired links. There are basically two approaches that you can use:

1)       You can choose to do it yourself

2)      You can pay someone else or a company to do it for you.

Let’s start by looking at how you can do it yourself.  There are actually more ways of doing this than we can discuss in this article. The most popular techniques include article marketing, blog marketing, social bookmarking, creating Squidoo lenses, use of directories and posting in forums. The basic idea behind these techniques is to create content, comments or posts that contain information related to what your website is about and posting them in the respective areas, with links to the website you are marketing. These techniques work to some extent but as search engine algorithms change, they may stop considering these links as powerful since they are not merit based.

Having discovered how important quality back links are to websites rankings, there are many companies that sell link building services. You can use the services of these companies in your SEO link building without much struggle.  There are several companies that offer backlink services and you should be careful in choosing the companies since some of them will use link spam techniques which once detected by search engines will hurt your ranking. Members of IMReportCard love the trusted service like LinkVana, which builds powerful link wheels around your site using high PR sites in the wheels.  The links that are created in the wheels are permanent back links to your site!

IMRC members also get access to an exclusive 30 day free trial of LinkVana, which is an excellent way to get started with your link building strategy.  You can sign up for the Free LinkVana trial here.

Another great option is SEnuke X which is an automated tool that helps your build backlinks on autopilot.  SEnuke X offers a FREE 14 Day Trial which is definitely worth checking out!

In conclusion, it is clear that SEO link building in 2012 calls for a creative approach. There is also no doubt that great content on your website is crucial if you are to get merit based links, which Google and other major search engines deem to be most credible.

Posted May 08th 2012 to SEO • Comments (1)

Tweaking or adjusting some important factors in your website can dramatically increase your search engine rankings and traffic. However, lots of internet entrepreneurs overlook, underestimate or ignore the power of on-page search engine optimization. As a result, they are not able to maximize the results that they can get from increased organic web traffic.

A popular misconception about on-page search engine optimization is that it is a difficult and extremely technical thing to do. However, the truth is that the concept or principle behind it is much simpler than it really is. The following tips and step-by-step guidelines will help you adjust on-page website factors to dramatically improve your organic traffic:

1.    Strategically place industry competitive keywords in your page title and meta tags. This requires you to include the keywords you want to rank for within the page title of your website. In the page title alone, it is possible for you to target at least three to five keyword phrases. However, you should be wary of repeating the keyword phrases too often. Avoid repeating individual words more than once or twice, as it will look like spam to the search engines.

The meta tags section of your website is where you should place a longer list of keywords that you want to rank for in the search engines. Make sure that the keywords you list in this section are relevant to the content of your website.

2.    Create a sitemap. A sitemap is a separate page that lists down all the links and pages that your website has. The links and pages are arranged in hierarchical order and clearly show which page links to the next. Creating a sitemap is extremely important if you want to increase your online rankings because search engines crawl this to determine the structure of your site and internal linking factors. Sites with a better structure and clearer hierarchy of webpages tend to have higher search engine rankings than those who do not have any sitemap at all.

3.    Make your navigation bar links keyword-rich and SEO friendly. Instead of using common words in your navigation bar such as “Home”, “About Us”, or “Contact Us”, try to include your keywords. For example if you are in the weight loss niche, try navigation bar headings such as “Weight Loss Home”, “About Our Weight Loss Team”, or “Contact A Dieting Expert”. On the other hand, try not to overdo this as it may be bad for your rankings and traffic if done in a spammy way. Another good strategy would be to use generic, common terms within the home page, then use keyword rich navigation bar titles on your site’s subpages.

4.    Let keywords occur naturally in your website copy. In the past, SEO practitioners simply included their targeted keyword phrases repeatedly within the body of their website content in order to optimize their sites for the search engines. Today, this method does not work as effectively as before. What you should do to get the search engines to love you is to let your keyword phrases occur naturally within your site’s sentences and paragraphs. Sometimes the individual words of a keyword phrase must be spread out and diluted all throughout the sentences and paragraphs to make it all look more natural.

Adjusting important elements within your website may seem a bit difficult at first, but its long term results are worth it. Constantly tweaking your site, or outsourcing the task to an on-page SEO professional, is well worth the time, money and effort you invest because you’ll get much more targeted traffic in the long run.

While searching for local businesses on Google, you’ve surely noticed the local business listings and accompanying map at the top of the results page.   These listings are from local businesses have taken their position on Google places, which in many case are listed even above the other organic listings (prime SERP real estate!).  We surely cannot overemphasize the benefits that businesses get from these listings, and the loads of traffic that the unlisted businesses are missing out on. That is why every serious business should claim its position on Google Places.  As a matter of fact, to set up your listing, you simply need to go to http://www.google.com/places/ and fill out the details of your business. However, doing only this may not get you to a coveted position on the first page of Google search results.

So, here are 6 important steps of Google Places optimization that you should follow to get your business on the first page.

1)      Ensure is that you have a complete listing- There are several fields that you will be required to fill when listing your business on Google maps. If you really want the most out of the listing, do not leave any of the fields empty. Remember that you are in a competition with other businesses. Picture this out; several other businesses similar to yours have also claimed their position. In such a scenario, wouldn’t Google crawlers give preference to the business that has a video to that that does not?

2)      Use keywords- If your business name contains target keywords, that’s an instant plus. Most importantly, you should ensure that you include one or two keywords in the business description. Of course you should keep in mind that excessive use of the keyword may harm rather than benefit you.

3)      Take advantage of categories- When creating the listing, Google requires that you choose categories from a list of suggestion, for your business. Take advantage of this to help your Google places optimization by picking specific categories that describe your business well. The good thing is that you can pick up to five categories.  Think of what people search for when looking for your business, such as “Mexican restaurant” or “car dealership” and choose these categories for your business.  The first 3 categories are most important.  Another tip is to see what categories your top rated competitors have selected, as well.

4)      Build local links- Links from local resources such as the Yellow Pages, the Chamber of Commerce, local business directories and bloggers provide even more authority to your listing.

5)      Get reviews and comment on them- you may notice that some listings have stars under them.  Your average star review rating will not appear in results until you get at least 5 Google reviews.  Stars improve the CTR of your listing in search results.  Providing comments in response to your customer reviews build engagement and interest about your business.

6)      Video and photo sharing- One technique of link building that many successful businesses are utilizing is the use of video and photo sharing platforms. The secret here is to include your business’s physical location and keyword in the title of your video and the name, address, website url and phone number of your business in its description. Google allows you to upload 10 pictures directly to your Google Places page.  To get even more pictures to show up, you can upload them to websites like Flickr, InsiderPages and CitySearch.  That will allow you to tag the photos with your business’s physical location and keywords. You can then use the tagged photos on your Google Places listing by using the “Add a photo from the web” option.  Additionally, getting customers to post pictures through Google will allow you to showcase even more photos and show potential customers that your customers care about you (so your business may be worth checking out)!

Once you have your listing complete and submitted to Google, make sure you verify your listing.  It can take up to 2 weeks for Google to verify your listing.  Optimizing your Google Places listing provides your business with maximum exposure for minimum cost.  By minimum cost, we mean it’s FREE so be sure to take advantage!

Off-Page SEO consists of everything you can do outside of your site to improve search engine results and largely revolves around link building.

The number, relevance and quality of inbound links to your site are primary factors in determining your site’s page rank in search engine results.  With that in mind, getting more links to your site is good; getting links from high quality sites (meaning relevant sites with high page rank) is great!

Given the nature of inbound links, there are some aspects you have limited control over.  However, today let’s focus on optimizing the opportunities where you do have control!

Link Anchor Text is the text that’s in the link back to your site.  It is an important factor in Off-Page SEO because the words in your links can help reinforce the keywords on your site and help you get ranked for those words.  Therefore, when you comment on a forum/blog/article and link back to your site, try using a keyword rich phrase rather than just your company name or the generic “click here!” links.

Directories can be a good source of inbound links, but it’s important to select high quality directories to list your articles.   Search engines will give more weight to quality directories (ones that rank well and are more selective with the articles they accept).

Lastly, reciprocal links can be beneficial in driving traffic to your site from your partner’s site, but for SEO purposes, the reciprocal links can end up canceling each other out.  Abusing reciprocal links- by doing too much exchanging, especially with unrelated sites-  can get you penalized with the search engines.

Posted January 27th 2011 to Internet Marketing,SEO • Comments (1)