We have decided to sell the natural makeup that my wife creates on the Internet.  Though we are new to selling anything online, from what we have learned from our friends, we needed some sort of software to make the site work.  From what we were told, we should be looking for some dotnetnuke shopping cart software to make the dream a reality.

While searching for the right shopping cart software, we came across Aspdotnet.  It was a site that provided the exact solution that we were looking for.  They provided an all-in-one solution for the e commerce needs that we would have as a business.

We have contacted the company to see if they offer installation and customization services, and we are waiting to hear back from them.  But, I just can’t wait to get the store started and see how well my wife’s makeup will sell online.

Many people that own websites have different link building strategies: some people comment on blogs, comment on forums, write and submit articles, do directory submissions, or one of the many other ways to promote their sites.  Instead of focusing on delivering a quality product, they spend most of their time marketing their sites.

I wanted to be different.

You see, I love writing content and marketing, but the website marketing takes too much time.  So much time that I am unable to do it effectively most days.  Instead of quitting my link building, I have decided to outsource it.

I am going to outsource my site promotion to an SEO firm that comes highly recommended: SubmitEdge.com.  They offer a link building service that tackles many of the best link building strategies such as directory submissions, article marketing, and social bookmarking.  I especially love the fact that their article submission service also provides you with the articles that will be submitted - so that I don’t have to spend more time coming up with more content.

Consider outsourcing your website marketing as an effective way to free up some of your time and drive traffic to your websites.

Imagine my surprise when my brother came to be and he wanted to learn how to blog.  He is new to the whole Internet and blogging scene and thought that he could maybe start out with a blog since he has heard me talk about how blogging is really easy.

I had to ask him what he would be interested in talking about on his blog - because a good blog has a good topic and stays focused on that.  He had many ideas that he was throwing around, and he eventually settled on setting up an online gaming blog.

After helping him out picking out a domain name and setting up his web hosting, I showed him some blogging software that he could use to help him write his posts.  It took awhile for him to catch onto what writing style he should be using, but after he caught on, he was on fire.

His first article he wrote was about the health risks of excess computer gaming.  It turned out okay, and I think he has the hang of it.  It will be interesting to read more about what he writes - he has always had a unique perspective on the world.

Some of you may be familiar with Internet marketing - you know doing things such as article marketing, directory submissions, social bookmarking, and forum posting.  Most of us webmasters do it on a daily basis, but for those of you out there, do you know what the goal of Internet marketing is?

It’s easy.  We want higher search engine rankings.

You see, the higher rankings usually translate into more traffic and possibly sales on our sites.  Think of it this way - if you were to build a store in the middle of nowhere, would anyone come to shop?  Probably not - unless you advertised and let people know you are there.

So how do you do Internet marketing?

Well there are many ways.  What I would suggest is that you take a look at some of the online media sites and watch some videos - they will fill you in on how and why you want to do some Internet marketing.

I did not know how to use bookmarks on my computer until just the other day. I am one of those people that have sticky notes all over my desk and computer monitor with website names written all over them. And then, magically, a friend pointed out that I could bookmark these right in my computer.

I have a lot of fun websites written down on my sticky notes and sometime, when I mix them up, I get really angry that I don’t have a better way to organize them. It was so handy to learn that I could do this without the paper trail.

I, obviously, will not pretend that I am very good with the computer or even understand what all the Internet buzz is about, but I enjoy tinkering in my leisure time and I am sure as time goes by, I will learn more and more.

I am interested in learning about different website ratings. I had a friend ask me if I was on Facebook. I had never heard of this before and then found out that anyone who was someone was on Facebook. I am on there now.

Why would you build a website that no one ever visits?  Not only would that not make sense, but chances are it would cost you money.  For most people that own websites, the goal is to make money - not to lose it.  In order to do that, a company needs good link building strategies in place to ensure that they get the links and traffic they need to survive.

How do you start link building?

Well, that is easy.  There are many different link building ideas out there at the moment, ranging from a lot of work to very little work at all.  Some examples would include directory submissions, article writing and forum posting.  For simplicity, if you do multiple link building methods you will have greater success than just doing one.

Where to start?

Well, a good place to start is by commenting on blogs to get high value links.  These links can pass page rank or even traffic back to your site quickly.  You can even try it out below in the comment form.

I have just now gotten my website up and running. During the creation of it, I ran into quite a few problems and had to go to a website advisor for help more than once. He was quite a helpful person and it was because of him that we are up now. I am thankful for his knowledge.

He told me that a good way to get my site known was to approach different article sites for help in promoting my site. I am not sure if I am ready to launch it to the whole world yet, but I will definitely keep this advice in mind for the future.

I was also informed about the various SEO services that are available to also help promote my site. I think that my advisor may have the wrong idea about what my site is for. It will be more for personal use than to bring in millions of dollars.

I will, however, do some keyword research. I think that this will be fun and the knowledge that I gain could be quite rewarding. I had to call my family tonight to let them know that I was up and that they needed to go and check out my site.

If you own a website, chances are that you are doing a little marketing.  Without marketing your site, no one would know it was there and you would never get any visitors.  Since the goal of a website is to get some traffic (and sales too), you need to get the word out that your site is there and share what it has to offer.

Do any of you submit your sites to link directories?  I know I do.  With so many new ones coming out each week it is hard to keep track of which ones you have submitted to.  I find it hard to keep track of the new ones as well.

This week I was luck enough to find a site that had everything you could ever want in a site about link directories.  The site has over 8000 web directory listings including everything from fee directories to ones that offer deep links.  Best part it is free.

So, I have been making my way through the list on the site and submitting my websites to it.  It is sure going to take a long time - I may need to find a better way to do this.

Well, there is no point to blogging if no one reads it, right?  So, every blogger needs to market their site to let the world know that they are out there.  You can find bloggers using free directories, article directories and forums to promote their site.  The problem that we have though is that these marketing methods take time that could be used to write new articles or content instead.  So, I have made it a point to find other, better ways to market my site with a smaller time commitment.

Take free directory submissions for example.  You really have two options for this marketing method - you could either promote the site yourself (taking a lot of time) or purchase a blog directory submission service and let them do the work for you.  I find that the miniscule cost more than justifies the benefit and the time I save.

For those of you out there that don’t have a lot of money, or are cheap, listen up:  by spending a little of your money to promote your sites, it gives you more time to work on those things that actually making money.  Think about it.

Some of you out there know that I am a big Super Mario fan.  I have played most of the games that have been made - and a lot of them I can play with my eyes closed.

Some of you might call me a fanatic of sorts - I have Mario clothes, backpack, laptop bag and jacket.  I also have some Mario pajamas for at night - don’t laugh!

So, I have decided that a good video game Myspace layout, specifically Mario, would be perfect for my profile page.  Really, the whole point of Myspace is to express yourself and who you are - so that is exactly what I was going to do.

I checked out some of the free MySpace layouts from many sites and found a Mario one!  I was so excited that I changed my profile as quick as I could.  Now, when I login to my account, I see Mario looking at me - and that puts a smile on my face.  It is definitely one of my favorite Myspace layouts.