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Darin Ferraro
7813 Posts |
 Posted - 12/20/2004 : 09:15:58 AM
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Thinking of setting up a seperate forum for mortgage broker internet marketing. How many members here have websites that they control the publishing of?
I have numerous net marketing systems we can use to help boost all over our rankings and get more business. |
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Advantage Mortga
20 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2004 : 12:17:47 PM
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| I am a new broker who will be licensed 1/1/2005 and have a website I have control over. advantagemortgagellc.com. Hope to come up with a two or three pronged attack at marketing my services. Thanks. |
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Darin Ferraro
7813 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2004 : 1:04:38 PM
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Welcome Bryan,
I've been in internet marketing since the internet began. I have some cross linking ideas we can use and all work together to stay up on top on the search engines. This is where the money is.
In the past, it was pretty simple. Now, it takes a lot of time or a collection of a lot of people all working together toward one goal.
Id like to have active members of this site all work together to achieve top listings for our licensed areas. I have some solid ways of doing this. We just need to get a good handfull of members working together here.
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rflodin
15 Posts |
Posted - 12/23/2004 : 09:17:26 AM
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this sounds good to me darin
quote:
Originally posted by Darin Ferraro
Thinking of setting up a seperate forum for mortgage broker internet marketing. How many members here have websites that they control the publishing of?
I have numerous net marketing systems we can use to help boost all over our rankings and get more business.
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choungm
73 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2005 : 07:03:44 AM
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Hey Darin,
I have control of my content as well. Sometimes it can be challenging trying to find fresh information to put out to my client base. I would welcome any advice on this. |
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Darin Ferraro
7813 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2005 : 09:21:25 AM
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Mike,
First you have to determine what your site's goals are. For example, each site you own must have a specific goal.
If its your homepage to sell mortgages to consumers, put consumer targeted content on it, and make your contact info or a submission form very easy to get to.
My experience proves that LESS is MORE. When I get someone to my page, I want them to contact me. No browse for 20 minutes through information they can get on a million other mortgage sites.
The longer a person browses your site, the increased chances you have of losing them. Some real world examples:
1. Late night, tired, closes the browser, too much information.
2. Search engines for an hour, finally finds your site, too much info, bookmarks to come back later if you are lucky. (how many bookmarks have you saved to never go back?, I have a long list).
3. Honey, dinner is ready, get off that computer NOW!
4. Gotta go, time to pickup the kid.
My point is, people are BUSY at all times night and day. There is TOO MUCH information available.
So as a small PEE WEE in the big world of the internet, if you are so smart or lucky enough for someone to even FIND your webpage, what do you want them to do?
I say.. brief look at the page should give them an overall feel that you can help them with what they are looking for. Then a prominent contact form that doesnt ask for TOO MUCH information, or TOO PERSONAL of information. Asking too much is a barrier to lose the customer. You don't want barriers, you want a big open door to contact you.
Also you direct contact information and email links. Make sure at one glance someone can see what you offer, and how to contact you immediately.
I've testing hundreds of website designs with various traffic sources and my BEST $$$ RESULTS come from the above example.
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choungm
73 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2005 : 3:09:34 PM
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Thanks Darin,
It's alot to think about. My site right now is info heavy. I was wondering if I should pare it down a little. I'm going to try your advice and cut out the fluff. I'll let you know how it works out. Thanks again,
Mike |
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Advantage Mortga
20 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2005 : 2:43:00 PM
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Hey Darin, as you know I am new to having my own broker business but hope to do most of my business over the web eventually. Anyway, was wondering if you (or anyone else on the forum for that matter) could give me a quick opinion of my website. This is just to get a baseline opinion of what I've got here. Built it from scratch myself using Yahoo Small business hosting and tools. Love this forum and look forward to eventually doing this for a living and quitting my regular accounting gig. Thanks in advance.
Bryan D. Wade
ADVANTAGE Mortgage Funding
www.advantagemortgagellc.com |
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jandr
1543 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2005 : 3:10:39 PM
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| Nice Website..so you did this on Yahoo. I was thinking about doing the same thing. How much did it cost you to create the site all together? How many leads have you generated from this website? Do people really give you there SS on a non secure site? They must really trust you. |
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Darin Ferraro
7813 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2005 : 3:53:19 PM
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Bryan, make sure you change your home page title tag to something other than home. Make it more targeted with the same keyphrases you have on the main page.
Also, I prefer to have complete contact information on the first page. Even if its near the bottom. This helps search engines localize your site to an area, and also allows a potential customer to easily contact you.
Remember, your webpage is a big business card, make sure they can contact you once they find you.
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Advantage Mortga
20 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2005 : 6:39:49 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by jandr
Nice Website..so you did this on Yahoo. I was thinking about doing the same thing. How much did it cost you to create the site all together? How many leads have you generated from this website? Do people really give you there SS on a non secure site? They must really trust you.
Yes, I have SBCYahoo DSL service and they have a small business portal that offers domain purchasing, web hosting, site building help, etc.. So when I first started setting this up I went with them and have done everything with Yahoo. They have a free program download called Yahoo Sitebuilder that is pretty feature heavy and easy to use. So the site build was free and the domain purchase was included with the hosting which is 9.99 a month and comes with 10 email addresses with 2GB storage each. To answer your question, noone has given thier SS# yet but I have only had a few people use the feature so far. My license was only valid on 1/1/05. I will probably take those fields off. Thanks for the tips also Darin. |
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LeadMan
33 Posts |
Posted - 01/11/2005 : 8:56:15 PM
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Hi Guys,
This is my first post to this forum. Excellent topic on an excellent forum. It's true the power of the web if harnessed can be an enormous tool in the bag of any lending professional. It's with this in mind that my partners and I have launched GetLeadsFast--a specialized web solution company for the mortgage industry. We provide hosting, design and optimization for lender websites that are proven effective. Our system also features a Complete Lead Management Solution (CLMS) that allows loan officers to manage their pipeline, track working leads, and provide reporting. Lenders can also use the system in tandem with telemarketing to effectively save those calls that are heading south with a simple email invite that can be sent to the people they are communicating with who have little or no time to speak to a telemarketer. This has proven to be an outstanding tool. Also, we are developing a Closed Referral Network Link that insures that efforts made in referral networking pays off for the officer that is developing a solid referral network--no longer will calls from your networking partners be directed to someone else in your office. We work closely with our clients and welcome ideas for systems improvement that they suggest. Take a look at our site www.getleadsfast.com and see for yourself. Feel free to reach me if you have any questions.
Domingo |
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Darin Ferraro
7813 Posts |
Posted - 01/11/2005 : 9:02:15 PM
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Domingo welcome to the Outpost!
What does your company do to actually generate the leads on the websites you host for the LO's? My point being, if an LO doesnt know how to generate their own sites then they wont know how to generate traffic to them either. What advantages does paying your $99 a month fee have for the everyday LO using your services? |
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LeadMan
33 Posts |
Posted - 01/11/2005 : 9:32:07 PM
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Darin,
Thanks for the welcome. You've done outstanding work with this forum. Thanks for your question too. As I'm sure you're aware there are many competitors of ours out there that offer many of the same things, but not completely and for far more. Many of the sites that they develop have a great number of bells and whistles but they leave their clients with little or no knowledge of how to drive traffic to the sites. We take care of much of that with total optimization, submission to relevant search engines, and much more. But we also go the extra mile. We like to consult with our clients on effective ways to use on and offline advertising to generate traffic to the sites that we provide. As you know a website is nothing more than an "electronic storefront." If you build a retail shop in the middle of the desert with no signage or infrastructure to get there it's going to be a bust. It's the same with the web. We help our clients determine the best and most cost-effective ways to make their sites pay. We also have a professional design team that develops national quality advertising for our clients at rates that are much much lower than the average advertising agency. Currently we offer custom design at a rate of $55/hour. With an average ad taking no more than 1 to 2 hours to develop, this is very affordable. The thing is, we don't just take a client's subscription fee to our services and then throw them to the wolves. We partner with our clients to create effective marketing plans that go in hand with the site we provide. It's in our best interest to make them sing our praises. If we just took the subscription and ran we wouldn't last long. Add to all of this the fact that our sites generate exclusive leads that can be exported in almost any format and the CLMS and it starts to make sense. If you look our site over completely www.getleadsfast.com I'm sure you'll see more of what we have to offer.
Domingo |
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Darin Ferraro
7813 Posts |
Posted - 01/11/2005 : 9:38:41 PM
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Yes, the site looks nice. Im awaiting the tutorial in the works! Also, do you have sample websites so LO's can see what they look like?
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LeadMan
33 Posts |
Posted - 01/11/2005 : 10:37:41 PM
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Darin,
Yeah I know. We've got to get that tutorial up and running. As I mentioned above, we just started our company. The things I mentioned about how we like to work with clients is easy at this point as we only have a few. lol. But we are driven and we are growing and we've determined to maintain the personal service that we show now always. For an example of the kind of work we do go to www.titanhomemortgage.com. You'll see the quality of our work. Another thing about our sites that I failed to mention above is that we collect apps over a totally secure server. Many of the sites that LOs build on their own are far from secure and create a very real liability.
I'll let you know as soon as our tutorial is up and running. But for now, feel free to ask any questions you might have.
Domingo |
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Duncan
26 Posts |
Posted - 01/12/2005 : 2:54:21 PM
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Darin,
Great idea. I have a site that I control the content of that site. I also have sponsered links on google, earthlink, and askjeeves. So far the results from that site have been dissappointing.
I also advertise the site on all the traditional marketing that I do. More people could be hitting the site than I realize and then calling in.
Hope you decide to create forum just for this topic. I look forward to paticipating. |
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brittonmtg
3 Posts |
Posted - 01/16/2005 : 02:25:56 AM
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| My site is brittonmortgage.com and I can't believe the amount of business I generate from the site itself. It definately keeps me busy. So busy I have not had enough time to work on the site to improve it. Always looking for some honest opinions and ideas on keeping the site ranking in the search engines. |
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Darin Ferraro
7813 Posts |
Posted - 01/16/2005 : 08:33:22 AM
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Welcome to the Outpost Sara!
I always say, if it aint broke, don't fix it. If the site is working for you, leave it alone. You are well optimized on that site.
My suggestion would be, to make more sites. Under various domains, not copies of your main site through. Make them different, design wise and wording wise. Make sure they link back to your main site somewhere so you have more 'internet reach'.
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mortgagecap
5 Posts |
Posted - 01/16/2005 : 9:17:54 PM
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| My name is Richard Milford with MortgageCap Financial. I have had my website since 1998, it is http://www.mortgagecapfinancial.com but also have the domain name of http://www.commercialfinancing.com we specialize in commercial real estate financing primarily land loans and construction loans and acquistion and development financing for residential and commercial projects throughout the USA Would be interested in expanding traffic to our websites suggestions and ideas are welcome and appreciated we do get over 3000 hits per month pretty active website, do get a number of projects to review each week our website is http://www.mortgagecapfinancial.com |
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NJTAXDR
1 Posts |
Posted - 01/17/2005 : 08:51:18 AM
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Starting new referral service on my site need realestate agents to put on site for referral fees. Also have mortgage brokers and investors. Please tell me what you think. www.njtaxdr.com
E~mail- njtaxdr121@hotmail.com |
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richmichmerc
4 Posts |
Posted - 01/22/2005 : 10:01:30 PM
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Hi, I am a newbie in St. Louis, MO. I just took the leap from closing to LO and I am scared of course, but excited as well.
Your forum is very informative and I have been considering a website but have limited funds right now. I hear yahoo is the way to go...anyone have any success with that? The $299 quick start program?
My brokerage is very small, anly 6 LOs and our website seems to be under construction indefinitely so I wanted to go my own route.
What about purchasing leads, I have heard mostly negative stuff about this.
Help!!!! |
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Darin Ferraro
7813 Posts |
Posted - 01/22/2005 : 11:31:38 PM
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Welcome to the Outpost Michelle!
Yahoo is a great host. I've had sites hosted with them and the downtime is nearly nill. Remember, a website is really nothing without traffic. Make sure you have a budget set aside for paid marketing as well. With the right marketing efforts, you can make a simple ugly looking webpage very profitable. |
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Advantage Mortga
20 Posts |
Posted - 01/23/2005 : 09:17:25 AM
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| Welcome also Michelle, I think you will enjoy this forum. I am a newbie as well and have gained a lot from my daily readings here. Anyway, I am using Yahoo to host my website and I built it using the free Yahoo Site Builder program that you can download when signing up for webhosting. Believe the hosting fees are 11.99 a month and includes 25 email addresses, etc.. Site is prob not up to par with a lot of more expensive sites from larger brokerages but I wanted to start out simple and at least have a web presence. Good Luck.:) |
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lvhloans.com
47 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2005 : 2:23:57 PM
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Darin This is my website http://lvhloans.com and i control the publishing on it lets all work together thank you
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ashorefunding
11 Posts |
Posted - 03/16/2005 : 12:36:41 PM
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I have control over several websites.. :)
I am interested.
Tracy |
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lenderama
887 Posts |
Posted - 03/16/2005 : 3:17:59 PM
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You guys need to put your url in your signature here. Then, every time you post, a link to your web site will be published. Google indexes this forum, I know because I set up a google alert for the word "lenderama" and get an alert about this forum, just about every week.
My blog varies between 2nd and 5th for the term "Mortgage Blog" in Google. I'm usually #1 for "Mortgage Industry Blog". This weekend, I started a new blog that just lists other Mortgage & Real Estate Blogs and it is already on the first page in Google for "Mortgage Broker Blog". If I were a regional mortgage broker, I would find and link with other regioanal brokers around the country. If it works for blogs, it should work for Mortgaage web sites as well. |
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lenderama
887 Posts |
Posted - 03/16/2005 : 8:52:11 PM
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| FYI, did you know that you can both edit and delete your posts? I have to do this all the time, thanks to my public education level spelling. |
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richmichmerc
4 Posts |
Posted - 03/17/2005 : 7:41:29 PM
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| Thanks Darrin and everyone for the great ideas......marketing the website on a small budget is the hardest part for me. I try to log on here at least once a week to read the postings but have been busy so I apologize for the late reply. I am having trouble driving business to the site, but I have only had it 2 months so it is too soon to tell. |
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richmichmerc
4 Posts |
Posted - 03/17/2005 : 7:44:39 PM
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| I think my site is content heavy also....what to lose to pare it down???????? |
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lenderama
887 Posts |
Posted - 03/17/2005 : 8:31:12 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by richmichmerc
I think my site is content heavy also....what to lose to pare it down????????
The marketplace, auto loans, credit report, credit card links are, in my opinion distractions. I know you can earn affiliate commissions for having them, but are you selling mortgages, or advertising. Also, are the real estate agents you link to, linking back? If not, that link has got to go. You can always recommend an agent AFTER you have established the initial relationship.
Also, I'm not a very big fan of tickers, but if you like it (most do), consider updating it with timely greetings like "Happy St. Pats" or "Visit me this weekend at the Maryland Heights open house..." or whatever. Google likes web sites that change, every time they are indexed. You can change the ticker yourself through your Myers Internet Admin Page. (I used to be a sales rep for them). I believe you can also edit your header, the part that says "Welcome to my website". if anything, I would get rid of that all together or put more timely info there. |
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TheLoanArranger
26 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2005 : 10:01:34 PM
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| Please count me in. Thanks!! |
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richmichmerc
4 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2005 : 10:14:45 PM
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Todd, Thanks for the info....I was a little uneasy about the affiliate advertising as well, so you gave me the push I need:)
No, I have not recieved any business from the STL real estate agent link either, so I think you have the right idea by "taking control" of the client first....I didn't think about the realtors that have in house lending that could get a referral from my site and then keep the loan too. The one RE agent I do get biz from I have listed on the "About us" link.
Also thanks for the tip on the ticker....it is so generic and I will check it out...I did not see a place to change it myself. It also makes the page load so much slower!!!!!
You are the best!
This is a great forum, hopefully whem I get going a little more I will be able to contribute back knowledge to someone else;) |
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Darin Ferraro
7813 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2005 : 10:40:07 PM
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Midas, THE GROUP WITH THE GOLDEN?
Whats that mean exactly? Its confusing, I think of that movie Goldmember when I see that :)
Also, EMPenhancement, for some reason I connected that to those spams I get on my email about not being satisfied with my size :)
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midas
4409 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2005 : 11:26:25 PM
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| you know, the midas touch turns everything to gold, even my member. after emp enhanced my credit everything else seemed to get bigger,that is when the golden touch came to mind.www.getmoremoney.biz |
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mb1321
43 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2005 : 10:18:54 AM
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I would also be interested in working together with the internet marketing idea. I have recently re-worked my website and have a few minor changes left. I need to set up a better title page and add a few more keywords in hopes to get more hits from search engines. My website is www.kelstaralaska.com Any suggestions or input would be greatly appreciated. Darin, share with me how to get your idea rolling and I will be able to get it done. Good luck to all!
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netskrill
211 Posts |
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lenderama
887 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2005 : 3:07:54 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by richmichmerc
Todd, Thanks for the info....
You're welcome! I was kind of worried my post came off a little harsh, glad you didn't see it that way.
One more bit of advice. START A BLOG! :) |
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netskrill
211 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2005 : 3:41:11 PM
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I agree %100 with lenderama about starting a Blog. Try to update it everyday if possible. Blogs and http://answers.google.com/answers/askquestion.
Google loves Blogs and it loves itself, so remember that when creating and marketing a site. Blogger.com is what I use for all my sites. Example- NetSkrill.com - http://netskrill.blogspot.com/ My Desktop Themes sites, themexp.org, ezthemes.com, ezskins.com- http://www.desktopthemes.blogspot.com/ I even have a Blog for a lease to purchase site I run at http://leasetopuchase.blogspot.com/ I have like 15 blogs right now all for different sites driving traffic. You don't see the Blog listings in google usually (which I don't need anyway), but the links from it is what the search engine spiders see as legitimate sites. If you're trying to manipulate search engines with your Blog it doesn't even really matter what you say on the Blog, just as long as you have some good information about what your site is about and lots of different links to it. Blogs create date stamps and Google is always looking for the most current information. Yahoo then follows suite along with MSN. If you can market to those 3 successfully, the other thousands of search engines are a snap. FWIW
Paul
Paul@NetSkrill.com
Click here to get FREE Mortgage leads to your email http://www.netskrill.com/members/signup.php |
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