If you haven't tapped into the video world, you may want to consider it. Not only does video help build credibility for your site, it builds traffic too.

Just like a website on Google.com, you can optimize your video for YouTube searches, and drive more targeted traffic to your video.

Learn how to turn this YouTube traffic into more visits for your site.

I wrote this article about a year and a half ago, but thought it was worth re-emphasizing because I continue to see thieves stealing my content.

Lazy people still don't get it. Rather than working hard to get Google to love their content, they still believe the best way to get a top ranking in Google is to steal someone else's content who is ranked high.

(shaking my head)

They don't realize Google is much smarter than they used to be. They ignore duplicate content and often will shell out heavy penalties if they find you plaigerizing someone else's content.

How does a permanent ban sound to you?

The bottom line is... shortcuts don't work. Stealing someone else's work, may seem quick and easy because you don't have to do the work. But is it worth getting banned from a traffic source that can provide you with thousands and thousands of free, targeted traffic everyday? I don't think so.

Do the work.

Be original.

You WILL be rewarded in the long-run.

A fellow Site Build It! (SBI!) customer contacted me today. Someone emailed her a compliment regarding her website, deliciouscakerecipes.com, and went on about how she loved the site and would like the SBI! owner to design one for her.

The new SBI! customer was honored by the compliment, but didn't know how to respond. After all, she didn't design her site from scratch. She used Site Build It! and was not in the business of designing sites for other people. She just wants to make money from her own website.

I told her this was the perfect opportunity to tell her admirer about the web host she used. Not only will the admirer learn how to build her own website, but this is a great time for her to plug SBI!.

This is affiliate marketing at its best, folks.

In this case, the SBI! owner wouldn't even have to push the product down the admirer's throat. After all, the lady emailed HER about her site first.

This is when you simply take the opportunity to tell your story about the product you own, why you love it and more importantly how it can help the person asking the questions.

That's why it's so important to own the products you promote. When you can talk enthusiastically about its features, this builds your credibility level and increases the chances someone will buy from your link.

Imagine how excited the admirer is going to be when she finds out the SBI! owner is not a designer and used Site Build It! to build her site in minutes. Instantly her curiosity for SBI! will rise, and a subtle plug from another SBI! customer may be the convincing she needs.

And thanks to the generous SiteSell affiliate program, this SBI! owner is on her way to earning a quick $75 for the referral AND $75 every year this potential buyer owns Site Build It!. Yes, SiteSell's commissions are of the residual and lifetime variety.

Pretty cool, eh?

See? Affiliate marketing doesn't have to be about flashy banners and links that say "Buy this now!". Sometimes owning a product and making a subtle recommendation to an admirer is a much more effective combination. After all... it's worked for me for years. :)

Which method do you use?

OK, I don't normally like to duplicate my blog posts, but I just blogged about this on my site AffiliateNonsense.com and felt it was worthy of a repeat here.

You know you're doing something right when people ask you to provide them with your affiliate link before they buy a product.

That's what happened today in my forum, WebsiteBabble.com. And to be honest, it's not the first time I've been asked.

In my opinion, this says so much about the importance of PREselling a product. When you give useful information, build credibility by actually proving you use the product... you'll find many people will WANT to make sure you earn the commission for the sale.

Honesty is an element that is missing from so many affiliate sites. So when people find it... they value it and are often happy to reward you for it.

When I first got started with affiliate marketing, I used to do everything I could to hide the fact I was getting a commission. But that was because most products I promoted, I didn't really use.

Well, I've come full circle in affiliate marketing and now could care less if people realize I am an affiliate. After all, I now only promote products I believe in so what's there to hide?

Yes, I do earn a commission when people buy Site Build It! through my link and I'm OK with people knowing that. But I also make sure they know I actually use and love the product. And that's the difference.

So the next time you try to disguise the fact you are an affiliate. Ask yourself why? Do you have something to hide?

Yes, some people may be turned off by the fact you are getting a commission, but if you do a good job in PREselling and show you really own and use the product, those who buy because of your honesty will outweigh those who don't by far.

And from time to time, you'll get the nice surprise of being asked to confirm your affiliate link before they buy. Wow! ;)

You know absolutely nothing about web design and the thought of creating your site intimidates you. So it's just best to pay someone to do the site for you right?

Not necessarily.

Read this article for my thoughts on the subject.

Thinking of buying Site Build It! but not exactly sure if it's for you or how you can apply it? Take a sneak peek at some sample sites equipped with stories from the SBI! owners.

This site proves that SBI! will help you monetize (make money) with almost any topic you can come up with. All you have to do is follow your passion and let SBI!'s guide lead you to success.

View the sample sites here.

When you're struggling to get enough traffic to your site, it can be tempting to exchange links with anyone who is willing. More is not always better when it comes to link exchanges, so choose your partners wisely.

Swapping links with sites that have little to do with your theme won't do you much good. Think about it. When you go to a jewelry site, you're there because you're interested in buying jewelry. It's not likely an ad on buying furniture is going to get your attention.

Not to mention, the search engines give you more "points" when they see your site is linked with sites that have content related to your theme. If you're targeting jewelry shoppers, partner up with other sites that relate to this subject matter.

Don't confuse the engines (and your visitors) by linking to sites that have virtually nothing to do with your content.

And if your site doesn't have a main theme then that's your first problem. You should be able to describe who your site is targeted to in one or two sentences. If you can't, then it's time to stop and focus your content. Targeting everyone means you really target no one.

It's best to define one main audience and structure your content around this group of people. Then find related sites and develop some kind of link exchange with the Webmaster.

Not only will you have an easier time selling to your audience (because you'll know their needs), but the search engines will bring you more targeted traffic because the related sites pointing back to you help identify what your site is about. Also be sure your link partners link back to you with the keywords you want to be found for.

Take advantage of the benefits solid link swaps can bring. Use them to let the engines know what your site is about to help improve your rankings in the long-run.

I call it the "Hodgepodge Theory." And if this applies to your site, it may be a big reason why you aren't seeing your AdSense earnings increase.

Watch the video below to learn more about why I believe many people struggle with building their AdSense revenue...

I thought this would be a great, candid discussion to start in my forums.

Everyone is always talking about what you should do for success. But often times you can learn even more by focusing on what you shouldn't do.

I started the discussion by talking about 3 previous sites I created that failed, and I'm forever grateful for them because I learned a lot.

Feel free to read about my experiences, and/or add your own story.

This blog entry was inspired by a post in my forum yesterday.

It's easy to get bogged down in the technicalities of how to create a website...

How do I create a chat room?

How am I going to setup a membership area?

How exactly am I going to make money?

How do I accept credit card payments from my site?

Sound familiar?

Even though these may be crucial components to your website, they don't mean a thing if you do not know how to attract a targeted audience who wants to participate in the site you worked so hard to create.

THE most critical phase of any site is the planning process in the very beginning. And planning doesn't just involve the technical aspects of how things will work and are setup.

It's imperative that you sit down and think about the kind of person you want to attract, and how you will get them to find you.

Unfortunately building a website doesn't guarantee an automatic influx of interested visitors. People don't just stumble upon your site like they do a store on a busy street.

Sites become popular on the Internet because they are recommended. The recommendations may come from word of mouth, blogs, social networking sites and even search engines.

Yes, search engines recommend sites too. The reason you see a site ranked on the first page of Google for a particular search is because Google knows the site has numerous links from other sites, blogs, etc. all over the Web in association with that keyword phrase. So Google recommends it to you as a relevant search result.

Something about your site has to attract your audience's attention, meet their needs and provide a service, product or information that isn't offered everywhere else.

So if you aren't taking the time to...

1) Plan how you are going to make your site stand out over your competitors

2) Map out the kind of visitor you want to attract and meet all of their needs, wants and interests...

Then it doesn't matter how much the site costs, how you setup a shopping cart, chat room, how you are going to design your navigation, etc.

Don't waste your precious time and hard-earned money on all these site enhancements until you have a definite plan. I guarantee it will be worth the extra effort in the end.

I've created many sites without a plan, and it's no coincidence they are no longer around.

If you are expecting a full-time income from your website, expect full-time work. Take it seriously from day one don't just skip over the planning phase because you're in a hurry to rake in the money.

How you plan in the beginning is the difference between success and failure in the end.

You know about search engine submitting, blogging and writing/submitting articles for other sites. So what do you do when you've done all these things and still can't get enough traffic?

The video below discusses topics which often get overlooked when people create websites. While some of it may seem like common sense to you, why are you and so many people still neglecting these key tasks?

While people are encouraged by my online success, some often frown when I tell them it took me six years to make enough online to at least match my 9 to 5 salary. Even though I made a profit every year, there were a lot of ups and downs in the beginning as I learned from my mistakes.

My success didn't happen overnight and if I could do one thing over again I would have learned how to write for my audience instead of myself.

What I mean is that so many people build sites without regarding who their target audience is and what they want to learn about. For example, if you are going to build a fitness site, don't write 10 pages about you and your weight struggle. Write to help your readers.

To put it bluntly, people don't really care about your story until you show them how your site can help them first.

Check out your competition and add information that they are missing. Instead of talking about all the things people should do in regards to the subject, switch it up and focus on what they shouldn't do.

Be different.

Stand out from the crowd.

And once you really know who you want to target and focus on their needs AND offer information that cannot be found anywhere else, then you will have success much faster than I did.

In the beginning, I kept copying other people's concepts and would only have minimal success because my site was not unique enough and got lost in the crowd.

But once I realized the secret was to take a topic and offer information that my competitors were not, add my own voice/personality, really learn how to communicate with my audience, that's when my traffic and sites started to take off.

Not only does 2CreateAWebSite.com have a new look, but I've finally abandoned the little annoyances of Microsoft FrontPage and decided to design and manage my site in Dreamweaver.

I must say, FrontPage does have its quirks such as adding unnecessary HTML code and not handling certain file extensions very well (.php, for example). But it isn't that bad if you want a small, simple site that is mostly written in HTML.

But if you want to do more with CSS (a must for a large site like mine) and have the ability to add Flash elements and other cutting edge web features, you really need to graduate to something like Dreamweaver.

Plus, with Microsoft now abandoning FrontPage for its successor, Expression Web, I decided to move to a more "Web acceptable" design tool. Besides, I've heard nothing but horrible reviews for Expression Web so I was not going to continue to support their web building tools.

My new site design is managed with CSS and SSI (server side includes). In English, that simply means I can update my entire look (layout, colors, navigation, font size, etc.) by simply editing one file. And when your site is over 130 pages, this is a must-have!

When I used FrontPage, I did use CSS, but FrontPage doesn't handle CSS very well and was constantly adding excess code that overwrote the styles I setup in my CSS file. (Sort of defeats the purpose of using CSS). I'm really glad to be done with FrontPage and have much cleaner HTML to work with.

As I continuously emphasize on my site, I am NOT a designer, nor do I want to be (which is why it took me so long to graduate to a more acceptable piece of design software), but I'm very glad to have my site managed in a program that is much more "Web acceptable" and does not add all this extraneous, annoying code.

Thumbs up to Dreamweaver!

Selling products online can be quite the challenge, particularly if you are building your first site and have no brand awareness/recognition. A big mistake many newbies make is they try selling products before they have the traffic and credibility.

Building a store is not a guarantee people will just flock to your site. You must give them a reason. More importantly, you must give sites like Google a reason to bring free traffic to a newcomer such as yourself.

The best way to succeed with an online store is to build content first and the store last. And if you don't understand what I mean, watch the video below and for complete details read this article on building online stores.

The first contest at my Webmaster forum, WebsiteBabble.com really helped grow the forum quite a bit so I've decided to hold another one. This time there will be multiple winners (3) and they will be randomly selected.

For more details, read the announcement at WebsiteBabble.com.

And while you're there, why not join the friendly community? It's a great place to meet other people just like you who may share similar questions and ideas.

A lady asked me today why I created a site on fitness (flat-stomach-exercises.com) when a topic like that is so saturated.

I have to agree. Fitness is a very competitive niche. That's why I narrowed my topic down a bit to just flattening the stomach.

Plus, it was a topic that interested me since I began to notice my mid section wasn't nearly as toned as it was when I was in my 20's. I figured it would be a fun topic to dive into since I had done so much reading on toning the stomach lately.

But the main reason I created that site was for an experiment. I had been recommending Ken Evoy's products on my site for years because I was so impressed with his first book he first released in 1999 and then re-released in 2002 called Make Your Site Sell (It's now free.)

And even though I never bought his latest product, Site Build It!, I knew it had to be a hit because his other products OVERdelivered beyond my expectations. So I began promoting Site Build It! like crazy.

But still a part of me felt a little hypocritical. After all, how could I be telling people to buy a $300 product that helps you create a high-trafficked, money making website, when I've never used it myself? That's one of the big no-no's in affiliate marketing.

So I decided to buy it to see if the product really does do all that Ken's site says it does.

Well let me just say that Ken's products never disappoint me. Not only did my SBI! site's traffic start to take off after only 3 months, but in less than 2 years the total amount of daily visitors to my Site Build It! site surpassed my 5 year old website, 2CreateAWebSite.com.

Suddenly my guinea pig site has become one of my primary online income sources.

So if you're thinking of trying Site Build It!, I can confidently recommend it now. Not because I'm assuming it's good based on his other products. But because I use it and now have proof it really works. ;-)

It's wonderful to receive all the e-mails from the people my site has helped over the last 5 1/2 years. But of course, with praise always comes criticism from my er... "fans?" :)

I met a new "fan" today.

Apparantely this gentleman had a problem with my site because it's very limited in its teachings. Since I don't go into details on ColdFusion, XHTML, XML and many more of the advanced languages that are used for website building, that seemed to be a big problem for him.

I guess he failed to recognize not everyone who wants a website wants to become a programmer or learn a bunch of languages. Some people just want to get their site up quickly and be able to manage it without having to take a course in XML 101.

Don't get me wrong. You can do a ton of powerful things on a website if you want to take the time to go beyond HTML and CSS. And if that's what you want to do, I encourage you to do that!

Fortunately for me, though, you don't need to learn all those languages to make a living online. I prefer to spend my time learning how to market, write and build relationships with my visitors. These are the techniques that have helped me succeed over the years, and what I choose to focus on.

So how did I respond to Mr. Anonymous?

Well, I didn't bother to go into how much traffic my sites receive and how I make a living online. After all that wouldn't have impressed him anyway since my site is too simplistic, right? Surely a site as horrible as mine can't bring in any financial success. So what would have been the point?

As the Web continues to mature there will continue to be more and more developments in Web languages that will help people make their sites even more powerful. I think that's great for those who want to learn.

But thank goodness there will always be those people like me who prefer to keep it simple and focus on other aspects like generating revenue from affiliate programs, etc.

One of the keys to being successful online is to write about the topics that interest you. Programming in general has never interested me, but copywriting and online marketing has. That's why 2CreateAWebSite.com has always focused more on these topics and less on the former.

And guess what, Mr. Anonymous...

I have no plans to change that anytime soon.

Well, the $300 giveaway has certainly helped the activity on my new forum, WebsiteBabble.com. In fact, it's been so good I will probably continue the cash awards after the first giveaway next month.

Not only is it a nice tax write-off for me, but it really does encourage people to contribute quality information. Even though Website Babble is a spam-free forum (no self promotion allowed), you can still drive traffic to your site by using a sig file with your posts.

The more useful your posts are, the greater the chance people will visit your site. So if you haven't joined, what are you waiting for? It's a definite win-win for you.

Join Website Babble today.

I just received an e-mail from a gentleman desperate to find something to do online so he could quit his job that he hates so much. He asked me how long it took me to make a full time living online and I got the impression he would do anything to get rich on the Net.

First of all, I really hate the "How long did it take you to make money online?" question because people often use that as a benchmark for their own success. And because there are so many factors that determine how successful you will be and how long it will take, that is a very difficult question to answer.

I receive a lot of desperation e-mails from people who would do anything to make money online but unfortunately the desperate people generally usually have the hardest time finding success.

Why?

Because money is their only motivation and they focus so hard on the "how-do-I-get-rich" part that they forget this is a job and you have to enjoy yourself in the process.

I remember when I was only making $30 per month, I still worked on my sites 20-30 hours per week reading and learning because I enjoyed the concept of Internet Marketing. Even though I wasn't making a lot of money, I saw the potential and I still loved to write and help others with my websites.

Making money online is not about copying someone else's idea or getting rich quick. It's about understanding that you have to treat this like a business. You need a plan.

1) Who are you going to target?

2) What are you going to do with your site to attract that audience?

3) What kind of products are you going to offer?

4) If you plan to join affiliate programs, which ones are the best for your site and how are you going to promote them?

5) How much do you have to invest because starting a business does require money, even if it's just for hosting your websites. Please don't expect to make money hosting your site at a free host. It's a joke.

6) Are you good at writing to communicate and/or sell? If not, do you plan to get someone to help you?

People who are making money out here, didn't do it by luck. It's all marketing just like any offline business. It's time people start taking Internet businesses more seriously and understanding that it's more than just putting up a website. You really do need to...

1) Establish a plan

2) Understand that this is a business

And last but not least...

3) Enjoy yourself.

And if you are seeking a get-rich-quick solution, I suggest you take a look at this article.

Years ago a top search engine ranking wasn't too hard to come by. You simply created a site with a few pages, added your meta tags, stuffed some keywords, got a few links from other websites (related or non related)...

And Voila!

You've got a top 10 ranking!

However, times have drastically changed and Google continues to crack down on sites that offer no value.

Ken Evoy of SiteSell, has been saying for years that traditional SEO would soon be dead.

And that time is here.

Read a very telling blog post from Ken here.