Internet marketing has never been as relentless as before. The list of the above-mentioned networking activities has all the intention to increase a web site's visibility where readers can be eventually converted to buyers. Meticulous attention is needed to determine what is attractive and will sell to the readers of a portal and thus gain footing at numerous sites through website promotion.

In web page optimization, a keenness for selecting the right keywords will allow it to be placed at a high level by the search engines. Look for sites that have big relevance to the published materials and become active in them. This increases the likelihood of traction when the page is included inside social media marketing sites.

The most popular social media sharing websites are Reddit, Digg and Newsvine. For the social networking sites, MySpace, Facebook and  LinkedIn are the most preferred by users. In addition, social bookmarks do provide a list with tags through web feed. Social media marketing sites allow video and photosharing.

These forms of social media optimization thereby increase the odds in internet marketing.

Internet marketing is not a single-faced reality.  It is an interconnected facet of creativity and technicality. It involves the net, strategy, progress, advertising, and commerce.

Internet marketing does not commence and end in putting up a website. It does not even entail search engine optimization as the be-all and end-all of it.

Effective internet marketing and advertising requires an all-embracing team of business-owners, marketing experts and consumers wrapped in a maze of programs and designs.

One of the crucial facets in internet marketing and advertising is establishing a corporate identity. This is a language which speaks the uniqueness of a certain company. A name may tell all. However, it is not all of what a corporate identity is about. A corporate identity brings a business' own image which sets it apart from the million-headed monster which competes on the net space in a common market space. 

Establishing an image is very important. A business cannot go online faceless and nameless. Its subsistence can not even be guaranteed if it does not stand out among others. The corporate identity needs to be consistent and convey the image of the company to its clients.

There are multifarious languages available for internet marketing. Each language speaks a truth of its own.  However, this language is like the spoken language which may be understood or misinterpreted.  

• code writing
• content writing (article composition and submission)
• analysis of the traffic in the web
• analysis of visitors' flow in the site
• keyword optimization
• directory enhancement

This article does not address search engine optimization as a site's bid to be visible on the net.

This article addresses another strategy in being visible and prominent in the net.  This is the so-called Social Media Optimization (SMO).

The term is attributed to Rohit Bhargava. He set basic rules in carrying out a good Social Media Optimization. To wit:

• Increase linkability
• Make tagging and bookmarking easy
• Reward inbound links
• Help content travel
• Encourage the mashup
• Get communities connected

Social media optimization is dealing with intricate set of procedures to create exposure. It is dealing with another maze of its own.   The social media are devices for the dissemination of information among human beings. It puts together technology, social interaction verbal and non-verbal images like videos, pictures, words, audio. This combination and the presentation are different with consideration to various perspectives among online communities and community sites sharing stories and experiences in the net.

Subscribing and sharing of RSS feeds, blogging, social bookmarking and employing photo slides and videos are some of the methodologies utilized in SMO.

In social media optimization, one does not deal with the abstract like algorithms. It deals mainly with what is concrete.  It deals with people having tastes and judgment which can be manipulated and predicted. However, social media optimization is not an easy task.    Establishing one's status and reputation in the net is not an easy game.  

Blogging is a very powerful means of communication. It serves many purposes and its uses have evolved through time. Blogs primarily served as personal online journals. Some time later, professional writers also used blogs as a spot for posting press releases and news. Then, hobbyists made them into venues where they could discuss everything about their item or field of interests. Finally,  business strategists saw its potential to be part of an effective online marketing campaign. And the list could probably go on.
           Recently, blogging is further used as a personal money-making tool. Though hearing this idea may not be entirely new, because Google Adsense had already been applied by some, still, what is exciting with this is that one can actually generate more income by employing a couple of more innovative concepts. The niche mini site strategy explains such idea.
            Creating a portfolio of profitable niche sites is a fantastic way of developing a recurring income stream. However, the questions remain. How can this be done? What is the role of blogs for this strategy?
         A niche mini site is actually an improvised blog spot where information about a specific niche market is organized and presented in order for browsers to easily track down the items, topics, services, and other pertinent information they are searching for in the web. The clicks made within the personal blog site are the one that generates money. With various applications concocted together, the blog site becomes an income-generating mechanism. An average mini site may earn $60 a week. It may appear little, right? How about if you'll make it four? That would mean an extra yearly income of $12,000. That definitely spells the difference.
           The said strategy is very straight-forward. Here are the basic steps which let you build a workable niche mini site.   
       First, you must find a niche which has an excellent profit potential and is not yet oversaturated with competitors. Explore on various markets, and find out which ones are viable to initially work on.
          Second, determine a list of related keywords that people usually search for then, write rich-content pages that are optimized for each of your identified keywords.         
        Lastly, simply upload your content pages in your blog site wherein each keyword is accorded with one blog category. The technique here is to properly organize the content. Make the outline of your blog site interactive so that browsers will be able to have hassle-free navigation between pages. Once finished, browsers could just refer to your niche mini site for updates on the things that they search in the web. This is very convenient for them because, if the mini site is done properly, they've got everything in just one site.
        So there they are - the initial steps in creating a viable niche mini site. With this, the form and functions of blogs are extended to their limit. The versatility of blogs enables them to take more complex forms and eventually provides better opportunities for their users. Hence, to all bloggers reading this, why don't you take some thought on niche mini sites? Doing so would more likely make you enjoy the benefits of the internet world and the blogging technology.

Utilizing online marketing as a strategy in boosting sales performance is not as simple as one might think. The accessibility of internet tools used in website optimization makes online marketing highly competitive and dynamic. Hence, if one is engaged in endorsing products and services in the web, then, keeping oneself updated with the latest tools and techniques is a must.

An effective online marketing campaign does not solely rely on a single SEO campaign, rather, it calls for an arsenal of various optimization techniques and link building strategies in order to be at the edge of the competition. To shed light on this matter, here are general tips to insure quality traffic and, eventually, sales increase in every online marketing campaign:

1.)    A flourishing Internet marketing campaign may drive organic traffic to web pages, but it may also include the use of paid advertising on search engines and other pages. This may imply an additional cost on the part of the company but it can definitely maximize the optimization process.

2.)    Creating excellent web pages to engage and persuade visitors is an optimization in itself. The functionality and interactivity of a site keep viewers attention on the page which increases the possibility of an eventual service and product purchase. This would further mean that the site must be catchy without sacrificing its content and interactive features.

3.)    Resolve technical problems that may block search engines from crawling and indexing those sites. Successful websites are SEO-friendly. This would mean a number of considerations like avoiding animations based on java, writing informative content, an organized sitemap planning, and an appropriate IP address, among others.

4.)    Create "analytics" programs in order for site owners to measure their successes, and to enhance the site's conversion rate. Evaluating an optimized website is necessary as this will inform the owners and the developers on the site's strengths and weaknesses, making them prepared for the next SEO and link building campaign.

Seomoz.org, a top-ranked SEO blog site, reports that: "Search marketers, in a twist of parody, receive only the slightest share of traffic from search engines." This would mean that their major sources of traffic are inbound links from other websites.

Undeniably, SEO can generate returns on investment. However, search engines are not compensated for organic search traffic, their algorithms are constantly reconfigured, and there is no assurance of continuous referrals. Due to this uncertainty, businesses that rely greatly on search engine traffic can bear major losses if search engines ceased to send visitors. Hence, it is believed to be a wise business practice for website operators to free themselves from total reliance on search engine traffic and venture on discovering fresh means to significantly drive traffic to their websites.

          A case in point is the creation of a talent working-group meant to offer insights on labor and employment market trends, issues and directions, and plays "applicants' advocate" role during the design and testing of talents. CHED, DepEd, TESDA, and the umbrella association of outsourcing firms in the country, BPA/P (Business Processing Association of the Philippines) spearhead the campaign in preparing students to be ready for possible employment once they graduate.

        Aside from these, there are also partnerships between companies and universities in the pursuit of modernizing the curriculum to be more industry relevant. One school in Makati is currently strengthening its use of the English language by transforming the call center English program into a required English conversation class. Another school responded by way of providing a call center elective to graduating students wherein those who pass are guaranteed with call center jobs after graduation.

The various government agencies and educational institutions initiated the said activities the moment they found out that graduates are actually not equipped enough for them to qualify for employment in BPOs. Research studies show that out of the 400,000 fresh college graduates every year, only a quarter are proficient in the command of the English language, and are eligible to work in call centers and various BPOs. There is a glaring discrepancy between the jobs the industry can provide and the pool of workforce produced every year by college institutions. The industry can provide 600,000 new jobs by 2010. This can never be filled up by the few qualified graduates at hand.

For the mean time, various efforts are being adopted in order to improve the employability of graduates. The outsourcing industry provides a remarkable number of opportunities. Therefore, it is worthwhile to know that the government and the concerned sectors are finding ways in order to meet the said demand. After all, those efforts are for the benefit of all; on the part of the firms who are seeking assistance, and on the side of a nation where unemployment remains a pressing issue.

Conventionally, SEO is approached by way of the so-called "Traditional SEO System" wherein the payment is done by charging a client at the beginning of the project. A large sum of money is paid for a benefit that is about to come, that is, remarkable visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs).

However, nothing is certain until it's done. Not all SEO-campaigns provide beneficial result as the factors in determining who must be at the top of the primary page are constantly changing. Take algorithms for instance. Google reconfigures its algorithms whenever results turned irrelevant. From time to time, results are changing, so as the ranking of a particular site despite the efforts of optimization are maintained. For this reason, the payment does not guarantee that good results can be obtained. The very process of SEO is very contingent to a lot of factors. That is why, the promises made by the provider at the start of the project might nothing but empty ones if the campaign fails to succeed. It can be drawn from this that clients are at the disadvantaged position because they are paying for something that is not yet at hand. The risk is completely placed upon them. No work is being guaranteed. There are no safety nets if ever the project fails.

In the light of this scenario, it is deeming necessary to have some form of assurance that will make the risk be distributed between the business firms and the IT solution providers. From this, a new system came into surface to address the loopholes inherent in the traditional system of payment. Here comes the "Performance Based SEO System". In contrast, this system offers a totally different stance as to who assumes the risk. Work is initiated even without the handing down of payments. And the work continues until such time the client sees rewarding results from SERPs. Hence, the risk is transferred to the solution providers particularly to the SEO team working on the site. Payment starts when results turned favorable, and if it's otherwise, then, no exchange of payment will materialize. It can be noticed from this arrangement that the client is completely free from risks. The resource is maximized, while the provider has to monitor the site's performance and utilize the employees' utmost competency in order to earn.

With this arrangement, SEO contracts seem to favor the client. But on the part of the provider, it is just a matter of commitment and expertise in order to meet the demand of the former. In fact, this system becomes a trend as more clients are satisfied with such position.

            All in all, this exemplification of how SEO is being shaped by its actors asserts the idea that all things are driven to perfection. Whatever the loopholes in the way SEO has been carried out are now being addressed. And if ever there are still inadequacies undiscovered, then, the actors within the global online marketing must be vigilant enough in order to keep these considerations be monitored and be beneficial to all who are concerned.

38 people charged with Internet crime
are members of global organized crime,

says US investigator

US government charged 38 people with identity theft who were able to victimize as much as thousands of individuals from several countries. The 38 Internet criminals stole Social Security identification numbers, credit card data and other personal information that would give them access on the financial sources of the victims.

The said scam is actually part of the global crime ring based in Romania. People involved are 19 Romanians and the other half are coming from United States, Pakistan, Portugal and Canada. This means that the crime is not only local but global threat since it involves Internet.

"Criminals who exploit the power and convenience of the Internet do not recognize national borders; therefore our efforts to prevent their attacks cannot end at our borders either," thus said, Deputy Attorney General Mark R. Filip. He was the one who declared the crime charges against the 38 people at Bucharest (Southern Romania).

This online fraud is known as phishing. Phishing is done through sending emails from seemingly credible senders such as well-known bank institution or online payment processing service for online vendors and many others. Example is the PayPal which was used by the "phishers" as bait in the mid 2000 to allure the Internet users, specifically PayPal customers. The phishers used the capital letter 'I' (as India) instead of small letter 'l' (as in lima) so that "paypai.com" would textually look the same with paypal by having "paypaI.com." Phishers usually play on the textual aspect of a credible company website in deceiving the Internet users.

The content of the email message being sent by the phishers usually contains a link or links leading to a website of a credible online financial company website that is actually fake. The fake website contains online form that requires the visitor to fill in with their personal information, including sensitive data such as that on credit card information. This also takes in other method because the latter is easily detected and would likely drive fewer victims since people who are not smart enough or easily fooled in the Internet are getting extinct. Since there is a growing awareness of such fraud, phishers use Spyware instead. It is sent as an email attachment that automatically gathers the needed data to access personal financial accounts when clicked by the unheeding Internet user.

According to the anti-organized internet crime group, the only key to prevent one from being a prey is to be cautious on the messages flooding in the inbox. The more tempting the header sounds, the more likely that it comes from the phishers. Avoid bait to avoid getting "phished."

Page ranks, links, traffic, keyword phrases, anchor text, and a lot more comprise the Search Engine Optimization, aside from its sibling--Link Building. It is often referred as SEO in the industry. What does it do to you? Well, if you're an entrepreneur (be it small, medium, or large-scale), definitely SEO is the best thing for you.

Nowadays, according to current researches that more than 80% of people, regardless of professions and ages, are relying to the Internet for daily information needs. This attracts money-makers from around the globe to put their products and/or services in the World Wide Web. There is no more practical than to have your business exposed in the monitor of every home anywhere in the world. Your business will not only be locally known: through the internet, it gets global exposure to your product or services. More likely, your business, the products or services it offers will be potentially sold in this kind of setting.

How then would SEO help in your business? Here's how.

It is a great advantage if you have your business website well-designed and well-developed. However, the beauty of your website would be nothing as a dust on an ancient table if it does not appear in the search engine. Search Engine Optimization helps your business visibility that brings forth its popularity in the internet. Of course, the very first thing that entrepreneurs do to sell their products/services is through advertising. The purpose of advertising is to expose the face of your products or to give the targeted market an idea how they will be beneficial if they purchase them. As an entrepreneur, you must know that the customers' concern is not the progress of your business. Try to venture on other fields if you think that way. There are only two things that customers consider in buying a product/service: (a) the benefits they can get out of that product/service and (b) the price if it is worth buying for. These two things must also be what you must consider to attract potential customers. If your business website appears in search engine results page (SERP), ranked 700th out of 300,000 results, that's a good start. However, to entice customers to have your product sell would be hard in that condition. Entrepreneurs have the spirit in striving to top over his or her competitors. If you don't have that spirit, stop your business before further financial damages can be done. Your goal must to top over any other businesses of the same kind, being in the top 10, or at least in the top 20 of SERP. It would be best, if you can make it to Top 1 or 2. And only SEO can help you.

SEO can be done through link building. Link building is a positioning technique in the search engine results page (SERP). It is done by directory submissions, blogging, forum postings and blog commenting, reciprocal link campaigns and many others. The goal is to improve link popularity in which page rank (PR) increase follows. The basis is quality, not merely on quantity of links. Link building used to be a number game but due to further development of search engine technology, here comes the qualitative basis for ranking. A good link builder optimizes a website the right way. The only way to check if a link builder is doing well is to check the SERP (by searching the right keyword) if the websites he/she is optimizing has a good page rank.

Competition for gaining a higher PageRank (PR) in search engine results page (SERP) is getting harder and harder. Now, it takes only as quick as days or hours that ranking in the SERP changes. Therefore,link building (SEO's backbone) should be excessively and carefully done. The process such as reciprocal link campaigns is comparative to the act of mining in which a link builder is looking for precious websites as link partners. Link building and mining are both using the same principles which is looking and digging for a precious stuff. In the case of mining, it is precious metals or minerals while in link building, it is quality links.

Why digging for quality links? Basically, quality links are the ones that you can be used to improve your site's PR. We can compare them to food enhancers that make a certain dish more palatable. To determine a quality link, lots of things must be considered. Factors such as anchor text, semantic relevance and page relationship matters. According to SEOmoz Professional's Guide to Link Building, before deciding what website will be used as your links, they must be trusted and valuable. "The more trusted, valuable links your site receives, the more trusted and valuable your site (and the links you give) becomes."

We must also consider three fundamentals of a link: anchor text, link location and link intention. Anchor texts are the words used within the link. Usually, we encounter hyperlinked text such as Click Here, that when clicked, leads us to another website. That is the "traditional" and recently declared as not as effective as the one that is described by the SEOmoz Professional's Guide to Link Building--the ones that provide not just the link but also offer additional semantic relevance. More chances for your site that it will be indexed and later, be ranked since search engines are picky when it comes to words. So, anchor text itself, as advised, must carry semantic value to the site it is leading the internet users to. Link location or URL location is where a site's page structure your link is found (SEOmoz). It has two kinds, the shallow and deep links. Shallow links are the ones that lead to homepage, while the deep links are those that lead to a more specific page. It is said that is preferable to have deep links because the search engines are always considering the relevance of the page's content from the linked text. Lastly, the link intention must be in accordance with the need of the searcher. Your intention should serve as the link to give additional information on the topic that your site is linked to. Otherwise than that, such as to serve only as advertisement, then your PR is in danger.

One thing is clear here, everything must be relevant to each other, the content to anchor text to link and to all other elements within the website.

Just like mineral mining, a miner has to encounter large boulders and pieces of rocks and pebbles but he has to carefully examine every rock if they contain mineral which will be further process to extract only the pure. If the rock indeed contains mineral, then it means money is at hand. Relevance also plays a role in the act of mining as with link building. If you are working in a gold mine company, then it is out of your job to mine copper or silver beneath the earth.

Gaining visibility and direct traffic of the website being optimized (be it for the visibility in search engine or social networking sites) are the main goal of link building. Once your site gains traffic, you gain money--in which what business is all about--just like mining.

Keywords are words typed in by the searchers in looking for websites that contains information they need. This means that they are the blood that gives life to optimize a website. They are what Search Engine Optimizers are very particular of; just like how particular fishermen are with fishes.

Website without proper keywords to drive traffic and returns of investment (ROI) is like catching a school of fish that draws nothing at all but empty fishnet. Efforts and time are wasted. In business world, that is a serious failure that may remain permanent if not remedied.

How is choosing the right keyword done? Three things must taken into consideration on the process namely; keyword popularity, competitive value of the keyword, and relevance. These elements are important while doing the following three general steps of choosing the right keyword.

Step 1. Keyword Research and Analysis

The keyword researcher should have a mind of a customer or potential customer, not a curious researcher because "business" is what you are dealing here and not "science." Bear in mind that we are inviting potential customers, not information-hungry internet savvies or lookers. To start, type in words that are more possibly used in accessing products or services offered by your company to test the visibility of your website on the SERP. If it appears on the first page and has good ranking over more than 100,000 websites, it means that you are doing well on the optimization, if otherwise then it's time to alter or improve the keywords or keyword phrases you used. Keyword popularity is the frequency that words or phrases are used by searchers on a given period of time. This is the basis of knowing the keyword value. The more popular your keyword, the better, but the disadvantageous part is that achieving rankings is very difficult.

It is impractical to have more competitors over the same keywords, so searching for another potential query words or phrases that are popular and not competitive is highly advised. How is it done? It's easy with the help of WordTracker.com, Google Sandbox Tool, Search Term suggestion tool from Overture, and many more. These tools help you find keywords and decide which of them are appropriate for your web page. Popular keyword shared by a large number of your business competitors in the search engine is not always a good thing unless you top. Remember that the main goal of optimizing your website is traffic with sales conversion and not ranking or traffic alone. Being ranked 10th in the second results page over 30 SERPs is better than being ranked 1st in the keyword that nobody uses at all. Worst, if you're getting more traffic without conversions happened. Website with high popularity and more traffic is as useless as catching dead fishes if there are no returns of investment (ROI). In addition, the relevance of your keyword is also important. It is tested by this step. Your website must be seen together with the websites having the same theme with yours on the results page.

While doing the keyword research, please avoid single word keyword. Internet users tend to use phrases than single word queries. Being specific, but not too much, is the best way of attracting target audience (potential customers of your products or services). Your company name or trademarks as your keywords must be added with generic ones to make it more accessible to large number of targets, but consider also your unique products or services as well as regional keywords (specified by location). Though it's difficult to get good ranking in this case, do not worry because SEO companies exist for that purpose if you cannot do it all by yourself. Seek help to trusted SEO companies.

Step 2. Keyword Selection

You must come up with at least 30 keyword phrases that best represent or describe your website after doing the previous step. Keyword selection is done by scrutinizing potential keywords that will drive more traffic and ROI. For instance, a keyword phrase that drives 4000 hits with 20% sales is far better than the other keyword phrase that drives 40,000 hits with .02% sales only--that's 800 vs. 8 sales. Thumbs up for you if you got 40,000 hits, and for 8 sales, definitely thumbs down.

In this process, more things will be considered such as regional differences of words: "panties" in the Philippines is called undergarments in UK, and "jumper" in UK is called "sweater" in US. Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) measures the value of your keyword and is done with the help of tools mentioned previously (WordTracker.com, Google Sandbox Tool, Search Term suggestion tool from Overture). KEI helps you decide which among the 30 keywords are best for your website.

Step 3. Keyword Placement

SEO experts affirmed that this is the most difficult process because it is done continuously. The keyword density is determined to avoid keyword stuffing. Density range must be 4% to 9% only, or else Mr. Spider will accuse you of spamming. The right placement is decided after seeing results that would take months long. This involves series of experimentation and analysis of results wherein careful iterations are made.

The placement takes place in the Meta Keyword Description, Title Meta Tags, Anchor Text, Title Tag in Anchor Tags, Header Tag Content, Header Tag Content, Alt Tags in Pictures that are Links, Alt Tags in Pictures that are not Links, URL/Filenames, Bold/Italic Tag Content, and Body Text. The keywords in each page of your website must be evenly distributed without exceeding the 9% limit.

If choosing the right keyword is done accurately, expect to bring in more Returns of Investment like tons of fishes that a fisherman draws after the intensive effort of patience and perseverance.