After much thought and preparation, I finally launched my search marketing company: Root Search Marketing

Over the past 12 or so years now, I have been heavily involved in search marketing, with emphasis on the SEO side of things.  It all started when I developed some of my first domains and wanted to make them rank higher in search result pages.  The research that followed helped create the foundation that would become my search marketing career.

Yes, I am still a domainer and yes, I still do freelance work here and there.  However, after leaving an in-house search marketing position, I have noticed a substantial increase in demand for my SEO related services.  The best part about search marketing is my passion.  Never have I ever felt so good about the work I do.  I love the challenge and the ability to see results over relatively short periods of time.

As an entrepreneur, it is only natural to channel my passion into a career, thus, Root Search Marketing was born.

If you are interested in search marketing (SEO or PPC), please channel all of your inquiries through to my business website:  RootSM.com

If you are considering a company with a site offering SEO services laid out and pre-packaged, then leave immediately!

SEO is a process, often ongoing, that must be shaped or molded to the individual client needs.  It should be custom quoted.

I am not going to spend much time on this, but if you are looking for SEO related services, be sure to find a firm that is recommended and doesn’t try to streamline the service by dividing it into packages.  The only results that come from pre-packaged SEO services is a streamline waste of money with nothing to show.

With the current bear market and an economy that is not doing too hot, we must find ways to maintain our high percentage returns on investments.  If you look to the stock market, you won’t find anything right now that can yield appealing percentages.  However, if you look online, you see a few options.  Even worse, those of us with money in the market, are seeing little or no returns.

No, please don’t go and get an online savings account with a .01% better rate than your local bank, because that is NOT what I am talking about.  I am talking about making money FROM the internet.  Here I will talk about one way you can yield high percentages online while doing very little work, and watching it pay off more and more over time.

We have all heard that blogging is a great tool to make some extra cash - right?  Well, that’s true, but you must stick with it and post often, and create “juicy” headlines and titles to attract readers, etc.  Some people just aren’t into that.  My suggestions are similar, but not exactly to that extent.  Here is what you do..

Figure Out What Topics You Have a Genuine Interest In

Seriously, it might be your career, or a hobby you spend time on when you get home.  It also might be a category that you frequently find yourself answering all the questions on Jeopardy!  Who knows.  We all have interests that we either supress or never find time for.  So dig deep and think about something that would really interest you.

Set Up a Wordpress Account

Once you have decided on a topic that intrigues or interests you  -  You can set up an online Wordpress account in a matter of a few seconds.  If you are an advanced web user, you can download Wordpress and install their standalone version on your web hosting account.  Either way, you will eventually be starting a BLOG.  Don’t worry, we aren’t trying to turn you into a journalist here.  We just need to use the advanced software that blogs are made from to get your site up.  They are also very easy to set up as well.  Some websites are run on Wordpress and you cannot even tell because they look like normal sites.  Wordpress has evolved into something much more than just blogging software.

If you are a Wordpress.com user (Beginner) then I recommend you change your theme to something that fits your blog’s overall theme.  You will find the option in your settings area on Wordpress.com.

If you are using the standalone hosted version of Wordpress, then check out some wordpress themes sites for some advanced looking themes that can easily and inexpensively be applied to your site.

Start Posting Information About Your Chosen Topic That Will Benefit Others

After you get your Wordpress account all set up and you have a chance to tinker and figure things out, then start posting!  Don’t just post a bunch of random crap, but think of things that you feel will benefit other people about your chosen topic.  Separate each point, tid-bit, or chunk of information into separate posts.  Be clear, but don’t worry about your writing skills.  People researching topics don’t want to see some corporate professionally written stuff, they want information from people that know what they’re talking about - like you!  Post as much as you can, whenever you think of something.

Don’t get upset if your site isn’t performing as well as you had originally hoped.  Sometimes it can take days, weeks, and even a month or two before search engines like Google and Yahoo come around and put all of your data into their search rankings.  Eventually, search will become your number one source of traffic.  When that happens, you will know it.

Implement Ads Into Your Site

Now you are ready to monetize this website into something that should make you a little extra money.  You can use Google Adsense or other advertising networks that are easily integrated into Wordpress.  The Wordpress.com (beginner) version offers easy to use tools that help implement ad placement.  The great thing about Wordpress is that almost any advertising model works very well with it.

When using the standalone version of Wordpress, you will find that most ad models offer some type of plugin that you can install and activate which will easily start working with little knowledge needed.  There are also tons of great resources on how to properly optimize your ad placements for the most clicks (PPC Model).

In the end, the more content you publish to your site, the more likely someone searching or researching your chosen topic is to come across your website.  With every post you submit and publish to your site, you are becoming more visible among the sites with your topic on search engines.  While there are some tricky ways to manipulate search rankings, you don’t need to worry about that now.  Just stay on track and post as often as you can with valuable information.  If you place your ads in the right spots, near and next to the content, then you will probably get a few clicks eventually.  The goal here is to accumulate a few dollars a week, month, or every so often.  But, when you add up the little money trickling in, and do the math… it turns out to be a nice little bit of change that can help offset your losses in the stock market and economy.  It can also help pay for gas, now that it’s averaging over $4.00 per gallon here in the United States.  The money your site generates can quickly grow as your site becomes more indexed into search results.  As I mentioned before:  Every bit of content you add, you are increasing your visibility among your chosen niche.

Extra Benefits

There are some extra benefits that can potentially come from running a successful website about something you are passionate about and knowledgeable on.  Often, when large media publications become interested in your niche or industry, they turn to the established pros, like yourself, to quote and cite.  This can lead to a career change for some people as they become the “go to” person in their niche.  If you are smart, then you will quickly figure out how to capitalize on your new found popularity.

Hopefully this post benefits some of you, because I sure find this very helpful to my income.  Most of my personal sites have gotten large enough I either have staff writers posting daily on them now or I turn them into destinations on the internet, rather than just trying to gather search traffic.  Eventually, you may choose to do the same.  I now make several hundred dollars each day from my network of websites and domains.

What does the Fourth of July mean to internet entrepreneurs?

Well, for starters, the Fourth of July celebrates our Independence as a country.  We are the United States of America.  This country is the land of the free and home of the brave.  We have troops overseas right now fighting for various reasons so that business owners, their kids, and grand kids don’t have to.  The Fourth of July means that we can open a business, offer services, make money, and stimulate the economy because many people gave their lives at one point during the birth of this country and it’s independence.

What many people don’t know about me is that I was a United States Marine.  I wasn’t in very long, and I never went overseas, but I am proud to say that I was in the United States Military.  I try to believe that I contributed to the very cause that allows each and every one of us “Make Money Online” entrepreneurs to run our online businesses while wearing pajamas - for 4 hours or less each day (John Chow).

The Fourth of July means remembering all of those brave people: soldiers, contractors, and agents who gave their lives to make sure we have something to wake up to each morning (or for some of you, each afternoon).

Was just feeling patriotic and thought I would share what was going through my mind.  Have a great rest of the weekend everyone. 

How awesome is this?  A few days after I posted about the coolness of Guy Kawasaki’s new startup, Alltop, this blog was accepted into the Entrepreneurship / Startups categories!

You can all see my cool new badge in the upper-right corner of my blog now!  Isn’t it cool?

As someone who utilizes the value Alltop offers each day - I plan to make my site more valuable to my readers because of this.  I know I have a problem posting often, but I have set time aside in my daily schedule to start updating and adding more content with value to my site, more frequently.  Since it is Fourth of July weekend, I will use this time to gather some creative posts and then start publishing them come the first of the week.  I know if I post them this weekend only a fraction of you will see them, so I can wait a few days.

Anyhow - I just want to say, Thank you Alltop.  I am truly honored to be listed on your featured sites.  Especially in more than one category! 

This company is top notch and I highly recommend them to anyone.

I came across this cool looking balloon thing, and read a little more about it. It’s called the Magenn Power Air Rotor System.

So, as an entrepreneur and someone who would like to leave a little Earth for my Grandkids someday, I find myself asking: Why the hell haven’t I ever seen one of these things in use before?

I mean, if I was a local city government, I would be buying these things like crazy. You float these suckers in the air, tethered down, and they instantly start generating electricity. It’s that simple! This could put every power plant in the world out of business, but why aren’t we using them yet?

I look forward to seeing these in use someday.

Have you ever seen one of these? If so, please tell me the details about when and where in the comments!