DarrenMcDuffie.com

Internet Marketing: Come join me in the dojo

Darren — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:14:48 +0000

Hey… have you ever wondered if your sites , blogs, etc. will get any visitors? Do you just put up your sites haphazardly and “hope” you’ll get enough visits to maintain interest or even make money? I just wrote a two part post on traffic so its been a big concern of mine and I would guess it should be a concern with you! You can’t sell anything online if you can get visitors your site, correct?

Have you ever heard about Search Engine Optimization or SEO? Yeah, I know it sounds like a flying sauer and I had some problems with all the Internet Marketing acronoymns myself and honestly I still do! SEO is something you need to know about before you start to construct a site “hoping” to make money online. Why is this so important to do? Well… SEO can mean the difference in having a site that can potentially make lots of cash versus having a site which could “fizzle” out in less than a month. Do I have your attention now?

The practice of SEO is researching keywords that people may type into search engines to find your site. For example, if I go to google and type in rubber bands, thousands of sites will come up, hence rubber band is a keyword you might use if you were selling that product. But… I can tell you that the keyword rubber band might have thousands of competitors in that niche making it unattractive from a monetary standpoint. At this time, most people would pack up call it a day and move on, right? What if you had a tool to drill down deeper so you can find a micro niche to sell your rubber bands using a related keyword? Well, such a tool does exist and its called Market Samurai. I recently used this tool to do research for keywords for my first articles to post on article submission sites. It really took the guesswork out of everything for me. I was able to drill down to several micro niches that have a respectable amount of traffic, so I know my site will get visited. It takes some time to learn how to use MS, but to speed things along you get tutorials which will help you. In addition, I used YouTube and found others who are using this tool and got more tips. Heres the best thing! Market Samurai gives you a free trial for up to 30 days ( I think) and during that time they offer a discount on the full purchase price before the trial ends. They don’t have an affiliate program so I am not getting paid for this, but I just thought it was one tool you need to have in your arsenal. Check out the link below and click on to start your trial. I can tell you it is worth it and will pay for itself a thousand times!

Darren McDuffie

Internet Marketer

“Who says Jocks aren’t smart?”

Stuck in Traffic Part 2

Darren — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:19:53 +0000

Hello! It’s been a three day weekend for me but its slowly coming to an end. I had a chance to unwind and catch up over the past weeks. I can finally finish up the post on traffic and what I have been doing to increase traffic for my site. By the way, have you set up your blog yet? If you haven’t, you need to get a blog up now!!! Let the world know you exist and get your name out there. This is the first step. You can find out how to set up a blog by getting the free report located here . Once your blog is established then you are ready to use the following methods to generate traffic.

• Blog hopping- In this method , you’ll visit various blogs within your niche and leave comments. How will this work? When you leave comments, you can leave your name and blog address and people who read the comments will more than likely click on your name and will be redirected to your site. Trust me… it works! Use the most well known Internet marketing blogs so you can get some of their overflow of traffic.

• Social Media- Do you have a Twitter or Facebook page? You need to get one! Facebook and Twitter are easy ways to generate traffic. You can even install a plugin on your blog which goes directly to these social media outlets once you post.

• Forums- Visit internet marketing forums and help others out with questions or issues they may be having with their blogs, programs, etc. One of the forums I use is warrior forum.
• Press release- I learned about this one from Alex Jeffreys training class! Did you know you can write your own press release? I did one for toxic beauty. This is my girlfriend’s site and she’ll be appearing on blogtalk radio on February 23rd at 3:00 pm, est. I really want to thank Alex for this tip as I had no idea on doing a press release. If you don’t know how to write one, just google it and find a template… very easy to do. I caution you on press releases, they must be newsworthy! Only do a press release when you have created a product and you are launching it or if there is some groundbreaking news about your site, product, etc. you want to relay. What are some methods you have used to increase traffic?

Darren McDuffie

Internet Marketer

” Who says Jocks aren’t Smart”?

Stuck in Traffic!

Darren — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:40:03 +0000

2010 is here! Its time to do it big! I am still looking to make my first bit of significant cash online. I have no doubt it will happen more sooner than later. The key to making money on line is getting traffic and building a list. I am now concentrating on specific traffic strategies and am starting to see results. One of the first strategies I am using is called blog hopping and am getting great results. I am visiting various blogs within my niche and commenting on them and inevitably I am receiving traffic from the blog owner and also the people who look at the blog’s comments. It’s working great. I have also researched some keywords and have been using those keywords, once I am ready to post on my blog. I can’t say things have happened overnight, but I am slowly but surely gaining a following using the traffic methods I have learned in Alex Jeffrey’s and Dean Holland’s marketing classes. I’ll be discussing these methods a bit more in detail in my next post. Drop by and see me…Darren.

Darren McDuffie

Internet Marketer

” Who says Jocks aren’t Smart”?

Hang in there!

Darren — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:01:02 +0000

I had a call witn my mentor Dean Holland last Thursday and I got a very inspirational message for him. He said to hang in there and the sales will come. Many of the people in my class are starting to build their lists including me. It is any exciting time to see this happening as it seemed far away a couple of months ago. I never thought I would have a blog or even know what a C Panel is much less purchasing domains for other sites. Its an exciting time and I am glad I decided to begin this journey. When are you going to start yours?

Darren McDuffie
“Internet Marketer”
Who says jocks aren’t smart?

Don’t finish before you start

Darren — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:20:49 +0000

Things are getting back in the swing as 2010 has rung in loud and clear! I know many of us have resolutions and for the most part some probably have broken them already, have you broken yours? I don’t want to sound too negative, so I am going to hope that most of us are still on our “A” game and are sticking to them. Did you ever notice that most people make resolutions for the easy stuff, but few if any make resolutions on the hard stuff they want to change. Why is that?

I firmly believe that most of us finish before we start. Huh…. what am I saying? It means we talk ourselves out of the big stuff in our minds before we start it so we don’t have to deal with failure. Do you know what I am talking about? I’ll use myself as an example. A couple of years ago, I bought a well known real estate course because I wanted to finally make some money and fire my boss. I got the course and read through it, and it seemed simple enough, but something strange happened as I got deeper in the course. I began to listen to my own self talk and halfway through the course, I quit!!!! I didn’t give myself a chance to experience failure because I was too scared to put my plan into action.

There are some of you who might be reading this and are hesitant to get into Internet Marketing. I urge you tp put your plan into action, right now! Don’t finish before you start. Everyone has to start somewhere and who knows… you may just become successful.

Darren McDuffie

Internet Marketer

” Who says Jocks aren’t Smart”?

Get your Welcome Video up fast!!!!

Darren — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:18:44 +0000

I hope your New Year is off to a great start!!!! I told you I would be back to give you some more information for recording a welcome video. Before I get into that, I wanted to talk about a comment I received and expand on it a bit. How brave do you have to be to do a video? Not very brave… trust me on that one! I find that many people are reluctant to record videos because they are afraid. Afraid of what? Afraid they might mess up, afraid they might stumble over their words, and just plain afraid of being in front of the camera. Get over it! You have to come out of your comfort zone to accomplish anything! Here’s the kicker… we are our own worst critics. Your video is probably not as bad as you think it is. Remember: People want to connect and see the person behind the words. Now that’s out of the way… on to better things.

Let’s get ready to record your video. First you’ll need to record it with something… I prefer to use my Flip Video Camcorder. Once your video is recorded, you’ll need to upload it to a host. I like to use Tube Mogul because it uploads it to many different hosts at one time. Keep in mind you’ll need to have a youtube or metacafe account before you can use TubeMogul, but it is a great way to upload your video to 1 or more hosts at a time. Once your video is uploaded get your embed code and you are ready to roll, well almost ready. You’ll need to visit your blog’s back page and and install the flash video plugin. Once this is installed, you are ready to go. All you need to do now is take a text box from your widget page and drag it to where you want to install the video then paste your video embed code into the text box, and your video is almost ready to show the world. All you need to do is one little thing . On your text box where you installed the embed code you’ll need to adjust the height and width of your video, by changing the the numbers which correspond to them. Keep in mind the embed code has four places where the height and width of your video need to be changed. Once you change these, hit save and close on your text box and go to your blog and you should be broadcasting to the world. So what are you waiting on??? Hop to it!!!!

Darren McDuffie

Internet Marketer

” Who says Jocks aren’t Smart”?

Change is Good

Darren — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:44:29 +0000

The only thing constant in life is change. I use to resist change but now I invite it in and welcome it to sit down. If you are going to be in Internet Marketing, you’ll need to adapt and change because things move pretty rapidly. I started exploring IM about 2 years ago and wow… have things change drastically since that time! Change is good believe it or not because change represents progression and if you plan on moving forward in IM you’ll need to progress. I have progressed and grown in leaps and bounds in a period of about three months. I knew nothing about blogging and now I have two blogs with various plugins,etc.

Blogging is fun and I am constantly looking for ways to “tweak” my blog and make it better. I happened to stumble upon something I didn’t think about while watching one of Alex Jeffreys’ training sessions. Have you ever thought of recording a welcome video? I did just that for my first blog which you can view Here. I’ll be doing one for Darren McDuffie .com. Look for it! In my next post, I’ll be sharing with you the various plugins and even different sites you can use to upload your videos. Stay tuned!!!!!

Darren McDuffie

Internet Marketer

“Who says Jocks aren’t smart?”

Full Steam Ahead

Darren — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:17:09 +0000

I haven’t updated the blog in a while… I have been crazy busy! I graduated from Dean Holland’s Starting with Marketing Academy and I didn’t miss a step… I jumped right into Alex Jeffreys’ Marketing with Me. I am learning a great deal about affiliate marketing and Alex is a great teacher. Alex Jeffrey’s is Dean Holland’s mentor, in case you didn’t know it. Alex goes in depth on affiliate marketing and how to build a business. My eyes have been opened to building a business online and what it takes to do this. Alex like Dean goes into believing in yourself but he also touches on planning for the months ahead. I never gave any particular thought to where I wanted to be 3 months or maybe even a year from now. I am now giving it quite a bit of thought and writing down more things to make them “concrete”. I heard an interesting thing on one of Alex’s brainstorming sessions where he tells one of the students to write things down because the subconscious mind has no choice but to see it and make it happen. I can relate to this because it has worked for me in the past. I have written many things down only to see them come true. I am definitely enjoying the ride and continuing to learn more about affiliate marketing and building a successful online business. Thanks Dean and Alex for your guidance!

Darren McDuffie

Internet Marketer

“Who says Jocks aren’t smart?”

Darren on Dean!

Darren — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:38:55 +0000

Hey… I finally did my first video. I would say it was a learning experience (smile). I had quite a bit of fun and I could have filled up a giant blooper reel… trust me on that one! I hope you enjoy my testimonial for Dean Holland’s Starting with Marketing Academy. Leave me some comments!!! I love um!

Darren McDuffie

Internet Marketer

“Who says Jocks aren’t smart?”

Ready to go on video, again?

Darren — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:43:44 +0000

Hey… I think I had a false alarm when I first started posting on my blog. I was a bit premature in my jump to do video! I just finished my last module in Dean Holland’s “Starting with Marketing” and guess what the final module was about? You guessed it video! I was glad I decided to wait as I learned a little bit more about how to use video on my blog. I am not sure how the first video will be, but I am am looking at it through positive optics!

I think on the next post, I will post a video and hopefully you”ll keep visiting the blog when you see what I look like (smile). I have really enjoyed Dean’s class I would recommend it to anyone looking for coaching. Stay tuned for the debut of me in living color on my next post. Keep reading and commenting as it is appreciated!

Darren McDuffie

” Aspiring Internet Marketer”

“Who says Jocks aren’t smart”?