Apollo Hosting Company Blog

So you’re just starting with your internet business. When it comes to the internet, it doesn’t matter how young or old you are, you still have a good chance of competing against the giants. In order to thrive against the tight competition on the internet, you will need to focus on enhancing your credibility. It requires tireless effort and would take months (sometimes years!) to build. It is difficult for everyone.

Here are 4 tips to help you build your credibility:
1. Provide quality. Whether you are a blogger or a producer of a new product, it is necessary that you associate yourself with quality results. If you are providing a service, do your best for your clients and you will get good reviews. The best thing about this is that you get recommended to friends and your business can grow without spending much on advertising.

2. Associate yourself with industry leaders. Talk to people who know a lot about the business. Befriend them and you will find yourself mentors who can assist you in your quest for success.

3. Use your capabilities to their maximum advantage. With the internet economy becoming a leading force in modern life, almost everything is now possible. It doesn’t matter that you’re young you can still get the attention of other entrepreneurs. Showcase your talent by creating press releases and contacting tier 1 media such as the New York Times, Business Week and many others!

4. Don’t let go of your enthusiasm and youthful arrogance! Older people see a lot of “impossibilities” in the world today and it is the young’s responsibility to show them that they are wrong. Everything is possible, if you have the courage and the will to fight for your goals.

Isabel Rodrigues - Works for Apollo Hosting
www.apollohosting.com

In order to take advantage of video in building your brand, you need to consider these elements – the story line, the hero, the villain, the agent of change, and the format. It is important that your video tells a story in order to become persuasive. They need to shape experiences and in order to do that, they need to talk about experiences. Let’s talk about these elements in more detail.

The storyline is your marketing message. It should include your brand’s capability to transform your customers from dissatisfied to satisfied. This is more than a statement of features and benefits, but should also act out your audience’s hidden agenda. What do they desire the most? Address this through your video and you will find more people becoming loyal to you.

Your hero is your messenger. Don’t you ever wonder why more and more ads are actually using celebrities? It’s because people sympathize with whomever is delivering your message, so choose your brand spokesperson well. What you want to develop is a brand character, someone who can deliver your message consistently.

When we talk about the villain, it doesn’t just mean the competition. It’s about tackling the alternatives and making your audience understand that even in different situations, your brand can still address other issues without compromising the intended quality.

Isabel Rodrigues - Works for Apollo Hosting
www.apollohosting.com

If there’s one thing that websites in common, it’s the need to create confidence in whatever a website is promoting and whoever is behind it. The presentation found on the site must be credible and motivational in order to become a successful means of communication.

Contrary to common belief, branding is not only a physical manifestation. It is not only a logo or a tagline, instead, it is composed of a set of impressions of customers (and potential customers) relating to your company, products or services.

With the internet becoming a significant component of modern day living, the online experience is also vital in the success of your business. Through video, companies can now communicate with their potential customers and simulate a face-to-face interaction. However, the success of using videos as a marketing media depends on its ability to communicate to the subconscious – the forgotten experiences which form attitudes and prejudices.

When you choose to use your video to communicate the obvious, logical and rational, then you are not using this media to its full advantage. Brands are formed in the subconscious, and this is what your video should target. By understanding the basics of presentation and realizing how they affect performance, then you can deliver videos which are of high value to your target market.

Isabel Rodrigues - Works for Apollo Hosting
www.apollohosting.com

There are many ways you can build backlinks to your site. You can use a blog, or submit your site to other web 2.0 sites. You can also submit to web directories, write and distribute press releases and other articles. You can use all these if you have the time and resources, or you can just focus on one such as article marketing.

Article marketing is probably the easiest way you can build backlinks to your site. Many article directories have been online for a long number of years and are already considered as authority sites. They are ranked high by many search engines and getting your articles published on these sites will build one way links pointing to your website.

Every article will let you include 2 to 3 text links. When search engine bots get to these article directories and “see” these links , each one is counted as a backlink to your site. If your site gets to the “featured” page, you get additional links. Also, when another website likes your article and republishes it on their site, you get another backlink.
By creating and submitting relevant content to these article directories, you can bring in targeted traffic to your site! This way, you can increase your chances of conversion!

Isabel Rodrigues - Works for Apollo Hosting
www.apollohosting.com

Finding the right keywords to optimize is important if you wish to get lots of traffic flowing to your site. The use of general or overused keywords decreases your chances of getting real income from paying customers. In this sense, your targeted keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. Before you start plotting your strategy, you need to gather and evaluate the keywords and phrases you want to target.

Looking for keywords from tools such as WordTracker or the Google Adwords Keyword Tool can be helpful, but it is best that you go direct to the source. Ask your customers/clients/visitors about the keywords they used to get to your site. By doing this, you will get a compilation of words and phrases you probably didn’t think of yourself. Once you have the list in hand, the next step is to evaluate the keywords you have gathered.

You need to narrow down the list to a smaller number – those that have the highest potential of directing the highest number of quality visitors to your site should be on the priority list. In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords, keep in mind three elements:

1. Popularity: this is the easiest to rank. For this, you can use WordTracker and other keyword discovery tool.
2. Specificity: choose keywords which specify the product or service you provide. Although your chosen keywords may not be among the top 500 in your niche, it is best to use them since you will face lesser competition.
3. Motivation: you need to know why people search for keywords and whether your website answers their need. For example, if you need to choose between “job listings” and “IT recruiters”, you have to consider who your target market is and decide accordingly! The first keyphrase is general while the second targets clients who have decided on the career they want to undertake and would serve your site better.

Isabel Rodrigues - Works for Apollo Hosting
www.apollohosting.com