Last time I looked nearly 27 MILLION people had downloaded the video!
“Sometimes, a hug is all what we need. Free hugs is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, A man whos sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives.
In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal.
As this symbol of human hope spread accross the city, police and officials ordered the Free Hugs campaign BANNED. What we then witness is the true spirit of humanity come together in what can only be described as awe inspiring.
In the Spirit of the free hugs campaign, PASS THIS TO A FRIEND and HUG A STRANGER! After all, If you can reach just one person…
Once of the places where I consistently see people getting ripped off is with the creation of websites. This article is going to have a certain amount of jargon in it. Take the time to look up the words that you don’t understand because the links you find will teach you a lot.
If you are a sub-micro entrepreneur and have an extremely limited budget then there are 3 points that I want to make right up front concerning websites;
1. Domain Registry should cost less than $10
2. There are tons of Web Hosting Plans for less than $5 a month
3. There are a wide variety of free website builder software programs that let you build a simple and useful website quickly and easily.
If you absolutely want a website then keep those factors in mind.
However, my question these days is ‘Why would you want a website in the first place?’
You MUST have a web presence. That’s a given. If you want to start taking advantage of eCommerce and developing multiple streams of passive income then you absolutely must have a web presence. However, websites are far from the best way to accomplish that.
Blogs Blogs, or weblogs, started out a few years ago as a version of online journals. They had some qualities that didn’t exist (and still don’t) for most websites;
1. They are extremely user-friendly. Very little or no HTML needed in most cases.
2. Consistent look or theme throughout the entire site.
3. Easy to add pages and posts.
4. Easy to build traffic.
5. Huge support systems around the internet for promoting your blog and finding tools and accessories, usually called plugins.
I started using WordPress in 2006 simply because a friend referred me to it. There are other blog systems that probably work equally well so pick what you like.
I host my WordPress blogs on my own hosting account. You should be able to get a decent web hosting account for $50 to $100 per year, so DO NOT get caught up in the $29.95 a month traps that exist online.
Without getting too deeply into Search Engine Optimization (SEO) I just want to say that if possible get the keywords for whatever you do in the URL and avoid the .info and .biz domains. Some SEO experts will tell you that those domains have been abused by web scammers to the point where Google and the other search engines will react negatively to them.
Having said that, you’ll see that my primary URL is http://SpiritualEntrepreneur.biz. To me it was more important to get the keywords than to avoid the .biz. You’ll also notice that my URL leads to a blog.
One of the advantages to the blog system is that people can subscribe to it and have updates delivered directly to their email, phone, PDA or the chip in their head (coming soon). In many cases people will subscribe to your blog through a Really Simply Syndication (RSS) Feed and never actually come to your URL!
Installing and Using your Blog
Installing a WordPress blog literally takes less than 10 minutes (less than 5 if you know what you’re doing). You’ll need to know how to create a database and a few other techy things, but there are great step by step tutorials on the WordPress.ORG site that will help you do this.
My advice is to take the time to learn to install WordPress because you’ll then be able to install the myriad other PHP based programs that you’ll find useful online.
The forums and tutorials at WordPress.ORG (notice that I keep stressing the .ORG) will walk you quickly and easily through almost anything that you’d want to do with your blog. Be sure to search the forums before you write in looking for help. I assure you that the answer you need is probably already there.
One note about the forums – DO NOT write a post with something like “Need Help” or “Stuck and need answers” or “AAAAAAAAH!” or something equally stupid in the subject line. When you do that it keeps the people who might help you from being able to see what the problem is!
Put the ‘error message’ that your blog gives you in the subject line, or at least a description of the problem.
Updating your Blog
There’s a simple equation to blogging;
Frequent updates = more readers
Updating your blog doesn’t mean writing a new article everyday. There are hundreds of Article Directories online where you can get good content. I like GoArticles.com and everything I write gets published there. Go to the search box in the upper right hand corner, do an Author Name Search for Robert Morgen and you’ll find a list of my articles that you can use on your blog.
I generally only right about 20% of the articles that I post on my blogs and newsletters. The rest come from the article directories.
Syndication
Get the word out about your blog! I like FeedBurner.com because they give you a lot of tools to optimize your feed and your blog and make it easy for people to get you content.
Take some time and explore the different ways that you can use FeedBurner. It’s a great tool that I recommend wholeheartedly.
Plugins
There are literally thousands of Plugins available for blog systems. I use plugins for Google Adsense (creates a passive income stream from Google), YouTube, Search Engine Optimization and Social Bookmarking.
Content is King!
One last note. It doesn’t matter how much you promote your blog if you have lousy content. While Britney Spears may be able to take bad PR to the bank, you probably don’t have that ability.
Find GOOD articles to put on your blog. If you can create a blog that has good, helpful content then you’ll find that people will not only read and subscribe to your blog, they’ll refer their friends to it (Viral Marketing) and that is the best advertising you can get.
At this point you should have enough information to start getting the answers you need to set up your blog. If you started reading this article looking for a comparison of blogs v. websites you’ll notice that I didn’t waste time telling you the difference between the 2.
If you don’t know that already then save yourself a LOT of time, hassle, inefficiency and money and get your BLOG going asap.
Small business owners have always struggled to get more traffic for their websites. You can have the greatest product, the best deals and the most important information, but if you don’t get any traffic then it doesn’t matter.Viral Marketing can be the entrepreneur’s best friend. Also known as buzz marketing, viral marketing is the concept that you create an article or a video or some other informative and entertaining item that other people are inspired to share with their friends, family and coworkers.
I’m going to share 2 techniques and 1 free tool that I’ve used to get many thousands of hits to my websites.
Technique #1 Article Marketing. I still consider article marketing to be one of the best ways to draw new traffic back to your website. When I work with new authors I always tell them “Don’t try to write a book, instead just write one article per week. Use those articles to draw traffic back to your website while simultaneously compiling the information that you want to publish in book form.”
In others words, start writing now, and start benefiting from your writing NOW rather than when your book is published. The way you benefit from your writing is to publish your articles on the hundreds of article directories that you can find online. Be sure to put your website URL in the Authors Bio box that goes with your article.
When you publish your articles online then other webmasters will use those articles on their own websites. Remember that webmasters need tons of up to date, relevant content to put on their websites. If you can provide that content then they will be happy to publish your articles.
In my newsletters and online magazines I use about 4-5 times more content from other authors than I write myself.
Technique #2 YouTube videos. With the digital revolution it’s easier than ever to put a decent quality video online with YouTube.com, Metacafe.com and a host of other video sharing sites.
Make it funny, informative and short and other people will post it on their websites and blogs and refer their friends, family and coworkers to watch it. You can see a short video that gives you more information about how to use YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_mcc42QMhE
I also promised to give you a great FREE tool that will help you boost your website hits. I’ve personally used the Free Viral system for almost 2 years. It’s easy and it’s free and it works.
Here’s how it works;
1. When you register at http://abe5.com/3if, you will notice there are 6 text ads on the sign up page. Click on the ads, insert the code from the ads into the correct box. It only takes a couple of minutes.
2. Once you have all 6 ad codes, you can complete the sign up process and you’ll get your own viral marketing URL.
3. You then create your own text ad, which will go to the top of the 6 ad list.
4. Each time someone signs up for viral marketing using your links, they will have to view your ad or website to get their ad code. This applies to everyone who signs up under them as well, out to 6 levels.
5. Here is how the system works;
10 people sign up from your page 1 x 10 = Your ad on 10 new sites
10 people sign up from each of them 10 x 10 = Your ad on 100 new sites
10 people sign up from each of them 10 x 100 = Your ad on 1,000 new sites
10 people sign up from each of them 10 x 1,000 = Your ad on 10,000 new sites
10 people sign up from each of them 10 x 10,000 = Your ad on 100,000 new sites
10 people sign up from each of them 10 x 100,000 = Your ad on 1,000,000 new sites
You can see how this works at any of my online magazines and websites. If you go to http://sae.holisticplus.org you’ll see a green banner ad at the bottom of the page that says ‘Free Viral’.
One piece of advice. If you use the text links then be sure to cloak the link and shorten it in order to be sure that your link gets used properly. I use ABE5.com for my short links.
If you take advantage of and really learn to use these 2 techniques and this 1 free tool then you’ll have all the traffic that you could possibly need.
About the Author
Robert Morgen experienced a near-death kundalini awakening in 1992.
