Arrow pointing to websute URL: http:/www.If you missed Tuesday’s teleseminar with Tom Antion, my mentor, who explained his (and my) three-pronged strategy for business success—Internet marketing, public speaking and success principles—you can download it.

You’ll hear Tom talk about dozens of topics, including the three big mistakes many website owners make. I made the first one when I hired a company to create my website. 

See how many of these you made:

Mistake Number 1:

You write a list of keywords and keyword phrases that you assume people will be typing into the search engines to find the kind of information at your site. You hire somebody to build the site, using those keywords. And then you wait for traffic.

Rather than trying to pull traffic, do your keyword research BEFORE you build the site. Learn the exact keywords people are using when they search. And then place those keywords in the right places on the appropriate pages at your site. Tom calls that “Going where the traffic is, and then standing in front of it.” 

Here’s a great example. When I hired a company to build my site, I told them people would be searching on the phrase ”news releases.” (That’s what my newspaper co-workers and I called them.) A few years after my site was built, my good friend Don Crowther asked if I realized that far more people were searching on the phrase “press releases.” Of course I didn’t because I hadn’t done my keyword research. But he had.

Mistake Number 2:

Fancy flash openings in which things on the screen blink on and off, scroll across the screen, and jump from side to side.  Flash requires such complicated HTML coding that it makes it almost impossible for the search engines spiders to find relevant keywords at your site.

Mistake Number 3:

Beautiful websites with navigation structures that confuse visitors, proving that pretty doesn’t make the cash register ring. 

The teleseminar was a preview of the kind of content Tom will share at Fusion, the seminar he’s hosting Oct. 17-19 in Los Angeles to teach his (and my) three-pronged secret to business success: Internet marketing, public speaking and success principles.  

Tom invited me to speak at Fusion, but I declined. I’ve been able to build the Internet marketing part of my business to the point where, after traveling for 10 years to speaking engagements and enduring dozens of travel hassles, I can enjoy the luxury of only speaking locally. If you love to travel to speaking engagements, good for you. Fusion will help keep you on the road when you want to be, and stay at home when you’d rather make money sitting in front of your computer.

Can’t attend Fusion? LIsten to the teleseminar and read about the other 5 Valuable Lessons Tom Antion Taught Me.

Posted In: Business Promotion, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 9/12/2008: 6:41 pm: By Joan
Comments: 6 Comments