I write this post with the purpose to educate and help you to determine if your money (or your company) is well-spent through online campaigns.

The keyword here is measure. You cannot manage what you can’t measure. It is through testing that I managed to increase my Adsense earnings by 200 to 300%, it is through testing that I discover profitable keywords with extreme high ROI ($0.20 per click to convert a $400 course). I mean, what is better than having an increased in revenue without additional budget for marketing =)

No matter how much you spend currently for your marketing campaigns, you must track and measure if the channels are effective. Google Analytics is one of the best tools (its free!) in the world to help you measure such effort. Everything seems to clear up once you look into the analytics report.

The following is one video that illustrates how to identify profitable keywords by using Google Analytics.

If you are still unsure what this post is about, drop me an email and I will be glad to help you out =)

I think this is also a good case study to share some of the strategies I used so that to help you in optimizing your new website for the search engines as well. Let us start with the on-page optimization:

1) Descriptive titles – Every web page should have a unique title to describe the content of the page. A one or two liner should be enough to do the job.

2) Use text-based navigation menu – Use meaningful anchor text to link to your internal pages. This will help the search engines to allocate more relevancy to your page.

3) Include keywords in critical places – In general, you should insert keywords in your page META tag, images, headers and most importantly, in the content of your page.

You can read the comprehensive guide on Google Search Engine Optimization released by Google here. There are many other things you can do to your page but I find the above three things work best for me =)

If its so easy, why everyone is struggling?

Of course SEO does not stop here. What we have done above only covers 20% to 30% of all our effort. What matters most is how you are going to get people to link to you. This is where the other 70% fits in. The following are some of the ways to boost up your rankings via link baiting.

1) Write articles with your author’s bios and submit to article directories. Visit this top 21 directories list to start off.

2) Comment on blogs and get people to visit your site. This works well if your comment is highly valuable and people will click on your name to find out more.

3) Rand from SEOMoz mentioned something on getting awesome links sometime ago.Watch this useful video and apply the techniques!

What is this project about?

I am helping students to equip them with the knowledge of Internet Business and powerful website creation (without learning programming) skills. After acquiring these skills, they will be confident and able to start their own Internet Business with the proven strategies.

I will be personally training these students in my upcoming one-day Internet Entrepreneur Bootstrapping Course (IEBC). IEBC costs $299 for one person but the selected students do not need to pay me. Read on to find out more.

What’s the catch?

The only thing I ask from the students after learning the skills and techniques of Internet Business from the IEBC, is to help one person (for each student) in my WebSprout Networking Event to create a website / portal.

The reason for this is that most of my associates have great business ideas and network but is lacking in the area of web development. I believe by helping out each other, the students will also learn and be able to expand their network, which is very important in my opinion.

Are you eligible?
You are eligible if you are currently a student studying in Singapore. The most important criteria is that you must have an interest in Internet Marketing / Business and willing to explore.

How can you apply?
If you are interested, please send me an email stating the following information before 02 Feb 2009:

1. Name
2. Current academy status (polytechnic, JC, university students etc)
3. Current course name
4. Contact number

Successful applicants will be attending IEBC on the 07 Feb 2009. You can read more about IEBC here. Do help to spread the words if you have friends who are currently students and are interested to learn Internet Business

This course, Internet Entrepreneur Bootstrapping Course (IEBC) is to help aspiring Entrepreneurs who want to setup their Internet Business but is limited by the know-how. I have met many people who have great ideas but they can’t implement their ideas because they do not know how to setup a website with the features they have in mind. If you know what I’m talking about, read on.

We are no longer in the HTML world

What do I mean by that? We no longer need to know HTML or any web development knowledge in order for us to build a site. You might be surprised that I have built my WebSprout Consulting site without actually touching any HTML codes! There are actually open source (free) programs that enable anyone to build a sophisticated site without any programming knowledge, these systems are known as CMS (Content Management System). Some examples of CMS are Wordpress (for blogs), Joomla (for web portal) and Moodle (for e-learning).

You just need to get familiarized with the CMS tool and utilize the functions to create a site that fulfills your requirements.

Powerful new skills for life

One of the objectives of IEBC is to teach the creation of website and instill Internet Business start up strategies to the attendees. These are essential skills for anyone when they are starting out in any online business.

There are two advantages for mastering the above essentials. First, if you know how to create a site on your own, it will not only save you valuable funds, it will also allow you to test your ideas quickly. Second, if you start on the right track (by minimizing expenses and knowing where to find your resources), this will cut down any wastage of time as well.

Web development will never be the same again!

If you are interested in my upcoming IEBC on the 07 Feb 2009 (one-day course), the full information on the course can be found in the IEBC Official site here. The course price is S$299 and is only conducted in Singapore currently. Do let me know if you have groups in your country whom are interested in my course and we can definitely work out something.

Do contact me if you have any questions regarding IEBC

I have met many Internet Business owners during the last few months and one popular question they have is how to bring their passive income to the next level. I am covering this critical question today to help you to gain some new perspective.

Internet Business is a Business

If you really want to take your Internet Business to the next level, run it like a business. Many Internet Entrepreneurs see their online business as websites. All they do is build some links, post some occasion comments on popular blogs, reply some threads in forums and submit a few articles every month. There are millions of webmasters doing these exact same stuff month after month.

If you are serious about making big profits from your Internet Business, you will have to make sincere connections and collaborate with strategic partners. Most successful Internet Businesses do not comes from the effort of one person, they require the help from their social sphere.

The following are three tips that you can put into practice if you want to see your passive income skyrocket.

1. Don’t be afraid to promote your Internet Business

Let’s be honest here. When is the last time you mention your website url during your conversation with someone else? If you do not mention your business to others, do not expect people to initiate or even remember about what you are doing online.

One excellent way is to write and create guides in your area of specialization and make them available in your site. It will come handy when people have questions about your line of business and you can simply point them to your site for easy reference.

2. Attend networking session

I have under-estimated the power of physical networking session when I am having a full-time job last year. It is during a networking session that I started talking about one of my books and several associates went to my site and purchased the books that very night!

Networking is all about connections. Look out for people who you think will benefit from your service and work with them to see if there is any chance of collaboration. Think of minimizing efforts and maximizing results.

3. Help others first

I put this as the last point because I suggest you to test out this strategy in your next networking session: Help 3 people in your next networking event without asking for anything in return. You can simply ask each individual this question, how can I help you in your Internet Business? You will be surprised that you (or someone you know of) can actually help them out