Online marketing experts do not become experts by chance. They take focused action, act consistently, and follow a winning formula. The first two are entirely up to you, but I can help you with the formula.
When you follow this 5 step marketing process over and over (yes you could even say consistently…), you will become the master of your own destiny.
Step 1: Create Great Content
Kind of a no brainer, right? If you don’t know what to write about, consider any of these great ideas:
- Book reviews
- Product reviews
- Tutorials and How To’s
- Interviews with others in your niche
- “Top” lists (top 10 things to blog about…)
- Technical info
- The latest and greatest (fill in the blank…)
- Personal stories, reflections, views, etc.
Step 2: Ping It
When you ping your material, it sends a message out to the search engines that you have new content. This helps your site to get ranked quicker, which will bring you more traffic. There are several sites that will ping your material to multiple search engines, including:
Step 3: Social Bookmark It
Online marketing experts know the power of social bookmarking. It not only brings you greater visibility but also provides backlinks to your blog. And we all know that backlinks bring better search engine rankings.
You want your visitors to bookmark as much of your material as possible, so please do make it simple for them to do so. You can do this by adding plugins such as:
- Sociable
- Simple Facebook Share Button
- Digg This Button
And my favorite, OnlyWire for WordPress. This is such a useful plugin that I have devoted an entire post to it.
Step 4: Submit To Multiple Directories
For each blog post that you produce, you should create an article and submit it to multiple directories. Make sure your article is not self promoting. You’ll want to provide nothing but value (or entertainment) in the content, and use the authors box to link back to your blog post. Many article directories allow you to include 2 links.
Some of the more popular article marketing directories include:
- http://www.ezine.com
- http://www.ArticlesBase.com
- http://www.buzzle.com
- http://www.searchwarp.com
- http://www.articlealley.com
- http://www.goarticles.com
- http://www.web-source.net
- http://www.articleset.com
- http://www.webpronews.com
- http://www.amazines.com
For more information on article marketing, check out my post.
Step 5: Build Links On An Ongoing Basis
Again, the more backlinks you have to your site the better. This includes internal links (often referred to as anchor tags) as well as external links. Along with backlinks posted in the authors box in your articles and those provided through social bookmarking sites, you can build backlinks through:
- Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook
- Press Releases
- Reciprocal links with other bloggers in the same niche
- Videos posted on sites such as YouTube
Follow these steps closely and consistently, and you will find your place among the online marketing experts.
If this has been of value to you, please let me know by posting a comment in the box below, and share with others by retweeting or social bookmarking. Thanks 
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post Kathy! I’m sure you can turn these five steps in 50 steps with your knowledge, but this is a great start.
Thanks for all your great information.
Kathy,
You’ve shared tons of great resources here. I especially like all the different article submissions. I’ll have to check into a few more of those. Glad to have such a big list to choose from!
Have an awesome day,
Val
Aloha Kathy,
Wow, thank you so much for all of this wonderful information. You are so knowledgeable about all this stuff! I will take it one bit at a time and keep all of these in mind.
Thank you,
Kellie
This is one of the best summaries of how to do this business properly that I’ve ever read, Kathy.
You outline a pretty simple process, but by no means easy. There’s clearly a lot of work involved in these 5 steps, but the rewards for those who follow them will be great!
Thanks, Kathy, for mapping this out so clearly and with such detail and great resources… And, for inspiring me to work harder to make the most of my online marketing efforts.
Hi Kathy,
I appreciate your articles and the tips and links.
Amazing, how many article marketing directories you listed.
I have learned lots form your post.
Thank you!
Love and Joy
from
Yorinda
Yorinda´s last blog ..Joy is the Goal
Kathy. It is always great to read a clear and concise article on the basics of internet marketing. Sometimes we are so overwhelmed with all of the possibilities, it is good to be reminded that taking care of the basics is the foundation for all of our other strategies and tactics. Thanks!
Scott Pollov´s last blog ..Why Write A Business Plan – Eight Great Reasons!
Great tips Kathy! I agree that making it simple for people to promote your post is very important. It frustrates me to no end when I have to work at promoting a post. It should be easy!
Kevin M.´s last blog ..Life is a Journey
Being still a blogger in training, even though I’m beginning to slowly shed my training wheels, I value your list very much. I’ll refer to it often to keep me on track and to share your tips with others. I especially like that your post is clearly written and does not overwhelm me with information.