Of course, more and more number of people started having friendship and other contacts through various social networking sites like facebook, twitter and youtube. On account of wide usage of internet facility by individuals, corporate and many others, the networking sites are becoming popular and marketing becomes more comfortable and convenient during these days.

There is no doubt that everyone starts spending their valuable time on the internet using one or more social networking sites. In fact this has become the topmost destination for different marketers who are willing to market their products on account of the facts, that the message reaches to more people at a short notice compared to advertisements released through newspapers or television channels.

There are large number of ways by which the power of social media can be well utilized for the purpose of SEO link building and manual link building.

Categories of social media sites:

In fact the so called social media sites can be divided into three main categories. The first is social networking sites namely; facebook and twitter and the users are able to connect with their friends, group members, organizations and others by sending messages and establishing contacts. There are social media pages and contacts exclusively for photographers, freelance writers, actors, technicians, beauticians and many more.

The next category of social media comprises of aggregation sites namely; Reddit and Digg. Contents are gathered from the above mentioned sites either through posting of contents by various users or automatically through RSS feeds. The posts are graded and ranked depending upon the viewership and writers are vying with one another for posting their contents in order to get the front page posting. This increases the market potential since more readers are interested to learn new topics each day. There is no doubt that marketers are able to generate sizeable income by posting attractive advertisements in these sites.

The other category relates to the video sites like Youtube and there is no doubt that videos provide delight to the viewers and various kinds of videos on music, training, film, drama, games, learning, animal nature and many more are available and the marketers can easily exploit the potential available in these sites through suitable strategies.

Why social media sites?

Of course there is a difference between linking social media link building and traditional link building. When it comes to traditional link building, the focus is more on anchor texts collected from other websites; however, in the case of social media, contacts are made through manual link building by developing friendship with interested individuals.

How contacts are made through social networking sites?

Nowadays thousands of companies are having separate pages for the purpose of motivating their clients and interested individuals. In fact, individuals are using social media sites exclusively for the purpose of retirement and relaxation and they want to get themselves involved in these sites and they are interested in reading attractive messages posted by their friends and others and viewing important videos.

The marketers who are creative and innovative are making use of these sites in providing valuable contents consisting of interesting messages and video clippings which are of interest to the visitors to these sites.

There is no doubt that social media can play a vital role in developing the link building to a great extent.

As a website owner you must have witnessed a sudden drop in traffic sometimes. There can be a lot of reasoning to it. Given below are some steps that will help you identify some of the reasons behind this drop and also throw some tips on how to combat it:

Confirm that there has been a traffic loss – There could be a possibility that you/your developer has accidently removed the analytics tracking code from some of the pages/sections of your website OR some pages/section of your website have started showing a 404 error (which is not tracked) due to which the right traffic figures are not recorded. Checking and rectifying (in case of an error) this will help you determine whether there has been any actual loss in traffic.

Extent of traffic loss – Check your analytics data to know the extent of traffic loss. This will let you know about the severity of the issue.

Seasonal Traffic – Some businesses might have a huge spike in traffic during a particular festival, event, or season. For example an online greetings card/gift store might have remarkably high traffic during Christmas and New Year eve. An online tutorial site might have very high traffic when the final exams are approaching. Such sites are bound to observe a decrease in traffic as soon as the relevant events get over. So it cannot be actually termed as a traffic loss.

Type of traffic loss – If all parts of your website are working fine and you have confirmed that there has indeed been a traffic loss then your next step should be to identify what kind of traffic loss it has suffered. Is it the loss in number of direct visitors, or from referring sites, or from search engines? You can easily find that out using your analytics tools.

• The loss in direct visitors would imply that the problem most likely is either temporary or related to your online reputation. It could also result from a decrease in your online marketing and/or advertising efforts. Your PR team should be informed at the earliest to take remedial action.
• A loss in traffic from referring sites would indicate that your marketing efforts have faced a setback. Some of your online in-links may have gone dead. You can generate a referring sites traffic report from your analytics account and personally contact the partner sites where your links have expired. Once you replace the dead links, things should be back on track.
• Search engine traffic loss – It is the most severe type of traffic loss and might require a very thorough analysis of your analytics data, website, search engines guidelines adherence status, and even your server logs. You can start by finding which keyword/keyword phrases have a significant decrease in visitors. Can you spot any obvious reasons for the same?  How many keywords have faced a decrease in visitors, just a few or almost all? Generate a report for landing pages associated with the keywords which have faced a dip in traffic/rankings. Have these landing pages undergone a major update recently? Validate the individual pages code and confirm that these pages are still accessible to users as well as search engines. Check Google webmasters account for any html, http, or robots.txt errors or malware warnings. Confirm that your landing pages follow search engines guidelines.

Long tail keywords traffic – If you still don’t have any clue about the possible reasons for the traffic loss, check for your long tail traffic. It’s worth mentioning that this is generally applicable to large websites only. This will constitute of keywords that individually bring only a few (or even 1) visitor to your website but in aggregate they made a big part of total website traffic. If this is the case with you, it would simply mean that Google is finding some other pages more relevant for those keywords and hence, sending traffic elsewhere. You’ll need to add more valuable content and/or optimize your website further.

Find out if it’s a search engine penalty - If none of the above mentioned possibilities seem to help you then it’s very likely that you are dealing with a search engine penalty. Check in your webmasters tools account for any notification for penalty. Make sure your entire website adheres to the search engines quality guidelines. If you find the reason, fix it at the earliest and drop a detailed reconsideration request to the search engine team explaining your position related to the penalty along with the remedial action you have taken to correct the situation. Giving them an assurance of the situation not re-occurring in future would help.

After having a close look at all the points mentioned above, we find that it apparently becomes very important for us to keep a strict vigil in terms of website traffic and take remedial steps before it is too late. Even better would be to be proactive and keep devising new strategies for website marketing and fixing any technical glitch before it starts to hamper your website performance.

Search Engine Optimization/SEO is the process of creating new web pages or editing/modifying existing ones so that they rank higher in search results for keywords which are supposed to carry relevant traffic/visitors for the given pages. There are various aspects of improving web pages including -

• Accessibility – Your website has to be accessible to search engines as well as human visitors. There should be no 404 errors (page not found) or dead links. Make sure search engine spiders are given access to the pages intended to rank in the search results. Adhere to search engine quality guidelines. All technical and coding issues are covered under this step.
• Visual appeal (Look and Feel) – The overall look of the website has to be eye catching. The use of colors, design layout, choice of font, variety in font size, and use of graphics etc. should be paid close attention to. Pages have to look balanced and various sections must be highlighted in order of their importance. If needed hire an SEO-friendly website design company.
• Conveying your business message – In addition to a website being visually attractive, it should be able to convey its business message very explicitly. If a website is about tips for managing money, it has to represent that idea in its theme. You may think of a single word that carries the essence your business theme while ensuring that design also reflects the same. The word should be fitting enough to be thought of generally, if someone were to take a glimpse of your website. The use of colors and graphics must be appropriate to that theme.
• Usefulness – Your website must offer some value to the visitors. It could be the wealth of textual information on your website. Content is considered most important in SEO. Make sure your text copy is original, unique and rich in information. If a visitor lands at your website, he must find it useful or at least relevant to what he intends to look for. You can use this opportunity to generate further interest in your products or services and prompt the visitors to go further in the sales cycle. You might want to hire professional SEO copy-writing services to ensure maximum effectiveness.
• User friendliness – It refers to making visitors stay on your website a pleasant one. You can do a number of things to improve their experience viz. structuring your website/content logically , web pages must load almost immediately, navigational easiness, a good feedback mechanism, proving tools to share the information with relevant people, and making most of things self explanatory. Remember: the visitors have limited time, search engines have limited bandwidth and so have you.
• Call to action – This is your chance to tell them about your products or services and sell them. However, you must do it at the right time and in the right way. It is said that graphics convey a message better than words so use any graphics wisely. Think of the questions/doubts which can prevent visitors to become clients and answer some of those questions beforehand. Ask for the relevant information from the visitors while assuring them of the security and privacy of their personal information. If possible, offer live online support for addressing the important questions/doubts immediately.
• Trustworthiness – This could prove to be the last nail in the coffin. It’s all about generating trust for your product and services, and building your reputation in the business you operate in. You can do this by being transparent in your working, providing links to your policies, sharing your past client experiences and case studies with the visitors. Any awards and accolades received can also be shared at this point.

Overall, the above mentioned key points may significantly help you to build your On-page SEO/Search Engine Optimization framework more robust and subsequently attract more visitors by helping you cater to their intended search topics.

The internet has been instrumental in bringing together people from diverse geographic regions, businesses and preferences. It has been a platform for people to operate and transact, and the business that can be generated from the internet is really beyond one’s imagination. There is scope for innovation and improvisation at every stage. One of the best examples of this is affiliate marketing.

Before actually looking at the scope of affiliate marketing, it is important to understand the basics of it. This is an understanding between two parties – one who lends out space, and the other who utilizes the space to advertise the product or service. There is a lot to be benefitted by both parties.

The owner of the website usually lends out his space to the client. This is extremely profitable, since there is money which is paid for no extra work which is being done. Normally, the owner receives a certain amount of money as commission for every sale, click, or lead which is generated by his site. With very little or no additional effort, you are bound to make more money on a sustained basis.

The client is responsible for taking his advertisement to various owners and getting it on their site. The client benefits by getting more visibility and increased revenue from it thereafter. Although there is a price to be paid for placing the advertisement on the site, the benefits are far greater.

Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to publicize your product. If the client is able to pick the sites where he chooses to advertise carefully, the benefits of affiliate marketing can be felt almost immediately. The exposure that your product has to the public is increased, as is its visibility. You can advertise your product across geographic confines, and there is bound to be incremental business generated from this attempt. Once you have started to generate sufficient profits through affiliate marketing, you can begin to advertise on more sites and contact more owners to augment your sales. Once you are set, there is very little selling that you have to do by yourself – your marketing strategy will be able to see you through on its own.

There must be care exercised by both parties. For one, you must make sure you have established the credibility of the company who is advertising before you have given out your space. Ensure that your payments can be received and that they are trustworthy. The client should also look into the owner’s profile and make sure they have found a suitable match for their product. Ensure that the owner’s site is related to your product. The owner should be able to generate traffic to the site, and should also give you a fair share of space.  Make sure you have the visibility that you have been promised by the owner.

All in all, affiliate marketing has enough benefits for everyone involved. The client is guaranteed more visibility, and a voice on the internet. The owner has the advantage of using his space productively and generates more money by allowing clients to use his space for advertisements. The public also stands to gain by becoming more aware about products that were once beyond their reach. Affiliate marketing has been a blessing for everyone.

The dynamics of business today is nothing like it was a few decades ago. Methods were conventional, the approach was conservative and results were slow to manifest. Today’s world has changed the complete face of business as we see it. There is a more bullish approach, and the results are almost instant.

Information technology has revolutionized the way business is carried out. The ability to reach out to people all over the world and to integrate practices seamlessly no matter where you are located makes the scope of business almost limitless. Emails or electronic mails make it possible to connect instantly with clients everywhere. The ease and scope of the email is not confined to communication alone. Emails have also become an avenue for marketing your business today.

The principle of email marketing is to reach out to your target audience and send them messages with a view to increase your scope of business. The emails could use updated information about your company or products which need to be communicated to your market, or even content which can induce your audience to use more of your product or start to buy it.

The key to email marketing is to reach out to two different kinds of target audience. Reaching out to your existing buyers helps retain them and increases the volumes of business which is generated from them. The second dimension is to reach out to new prospective clients who can broaden the customer base and thereby generate additional revenue for the company.

There are a few important objectives which are achieved through email marketing, all of which help generate additional revenue. Firstly, email marketing helps reach out to more people than any other form. This is direct, and personal. Email marketing helps increase visibility and thereby aids recall of the brand better. This is another factor which influences buying behavior. Moreover, email marketing helps inform and influence buying patterns.

Email marketing is highly effective. People check mails on a virtually daily basis, and you are sure to get your share of time and attention from the audience. The database of people active on the internet is vast, and you can access many more people through email marketing than you could from most other channels. You can use text and literature which you would like your audience to read, and also employ audio and visual aids to help improve the effectiveness of the message. Email marketing is a complete tool as far as communication is concerned.

The most remarkable feature of email marketing is that you can actually calculate the returns that have registered and pit them against the investment that has been made on the campaign. It is also noticed that this form, when compared to all other forms of marketing carried out online has yielded the highest returns.

It is important to structure your email marketing campaign properly to ensure its success. If you have been able to draw up and effective message, the scope of email marketing can help multiply your business opportunity manifold.