Issue #2499

• WEALTHY: 3 cash-rich companies that can survive the slowdown (Charles Delvalle)
• HEALTHY: The power of vitamin C (Jonny Bowden)
• WISE: Lou Holtz on building an empire

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• Without these three poles, your SEO tent might fall (Alexis Siemon)
• If you’re passionate about marketing and business growth… (Wendy Montes de Oca)
• It’s Fun to Know… about something we have in common with koalas
• Add “enjoin” to your vocabulary

== Highly Recommended ==

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… I only have 6 choices AND have a VERY good idea about which choice to make because of the insider signal. Click here to learn more… 

Dear ETR: Will the Slowing Economy Affect IT Spending?

By Charles Delvalle

“How much of an impact will the global financial turmoil have on the technology field – particularly the telecommunication sector? Hoping to hear from you soon.”

Muneera M.

Hi Muneera,

The answer to that question is actually pretty simple.

The reason the markets have been in a freefall lately is because banks have been unwilling to lend to each other, much less to corporations. So if corporations can’t borrow money from banks, how are they supposed to make upgrades – like improving their IT equipment?

For that reason alone, we should see a slowdown in the technology field (which includes telecommunications). While I won’t say that growth in this sector will disappear, the rapid growth we saw in the past five years won’t be sustainable.

Cash-rich companies that should be immune to this slowdown include Intel (INTC), IBM (IBM), and Nvidia (NVDA).

- Charles Delvalle

[Ed. Note: The real secret of how to bank riches in the market is to look in unconventional places. Right now, about 7,000 companies could be about to issue a "Red Flag" alert, an unconventional signal that you could profit from. Discover what this "Red Flag" is - and how to use it to your advantage - right here.]

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“Build your empire on the firm foundation of the fundamentals.”

Lou Holtz

Build a Rock-Solid SEO Foundation

By Alexis Siemon

Over the past couple of years, we’ve given you many powerful, actionable ideas on how to get your site ranked in the major search engines. Several of ETR’s experts (including me, if I may be so bold) have shared techniques on keyword research, search engine optimization (SEO) dos and don’ts, link building, and more.

While these are all crucial elements in building targeted traffic (and, ultimately, sales) through the search engines, they are, in fact, building blocks of a larger SEO structure. And they all rely on each other to support the SEO foundation. If any one of these building blocks is missing, the structure will collapse, and you could miss out on profitable search engine traffic. But if you truly understand the relationship between them, you will have a rock-solid foundation for executing everything you learn about search engine marketing in ETR, and will see your traffic and profits soar!

When doing research for this article, I was looking for the simplest and most direct way to explain the building blocks of SEO and how they relate to each other. I found one so brilliant I wish I could take credit for it. But I have to tip my hat to the folks at SEOmoz for the diagram below.

All of the SEO techniques that you’ve read about here in ETR fit into one of the above cornerstones. Every building block of SEO can be categorized as a technical component, a content component, or a trust component. Let’s dive on in and see what fits where!

Technical SEO Components

The technical components are typically what scare people the most, especially if they are new to SEO. But you don’t need a detailed understanding of how these building blocks work to know what they are and be able to talk to your Web designer about them.

Executing the wrong technical components on your website could result in the search engine spiders being unable to access its content. I have covered some of these problematic components in my “SEO Don’ts” series. The ones to watch out for – and eliminate from your site – include, but are not limited to:

• Flash graphics
• Important text inserted in images  
• iFrames – an HTML element that allows you to “frame” another HTML document within the original
• Session IDs – a string of nonsense characters appended to the URL that uniquely identifies a visitor’s session

The technical cornerstone of your website is the first one you must address. What you’re doing here is kind of like giving the search engines the keys to your house. Of course, once you let them in, you have to make it easy for them – and your potential customers – to find what they’re interested in. You don’t want them to stumble onto a door marked “kitchen” when it’s the bathroom they’re looking for. This is where the content cornerstone comes in to play.

Content SEO Components

The content components are the ones that are discussed the most. Typically, this is in terms of doing keyword research and writing keyword-relevant articles. It is important to understand the language your potential customers use when searching for your products. If you are optimizing a product page for “key fobs” and everyone searches for “key chains”… well you see the disconnect.

But content issues don’t end there. Information architecture is an often neglected part of the content cornerstone. Information architecture basically breaks down to the navigation and linking structure of your website. It’s like arranging the furniture in your house to create a clear pathway to a door that’s clearly marked “bathroom.” The easier you make it for your potential customers to find your content, the better it will be for the search engines. This includes using things like:

• Flat site architecture – the fewest number of clicks from the home page to important content
• Breadcrumb links – a trail of text links at the top of the page showing the user how they arrived at that page
• Anchor text links within articles – the clickable text part of a hyperlink
• Universal link menus – navigation menus that appear on all pages of the site, making it easy to access different areas from each page

By using the same language as your customers, and holding their hands as you guide them through your site, you will automatically be doing the same for the search engines.

Trust SEO Components

The third and final cornerstone in a rock-solid SEO foundation is trust. Simply defined, this boils down to links. Building a strong network of inbound links from relevant, trusted sources tells the search engines that your site is also a trusted source for your particular niche or market. When the search engines trust your site, they will be more likely to serve it up in the top of their results pages.

When you break down SEO into these three main building blocks, it’s much easier to see how they relate to each other, and how success can be achieved only when all three are present. If your search engine friends trust you but can’t get in the front door, your site won’t rank. If they can get in the front door but stumble over the coffee table to get to the only bathroom upstairs that you’ve labeled “kitchen,” your site won’t rank. Only if they trust you enough to use your keys and then breeze through the living room to the bathroom will your site rank.

This is your foundation for generating tons of targeted search engine traffic and sales for your website.

[Ed. Note: Search engine optimization should be one marketing element you're using at your company. For 11 other tried-and-true "profit accelerators" that could add as much as $10 million to your bottom line, check out the brand-new book by MaryEllen Tribby and Michael Masterson. Get your copy of Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business right here.]  

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== Highly Recommended ==

The Three Magic Words to Building Wealth Online

What are the three most important words for rapidly building enormous wealth online?

Quick, cheap, & easy! Our new Internet program has them all.

You see, the problem with most Internet advice out there is it’s designed for people with big (multi-million dollar) advertising budgets, lots of administrative, legal, and accounting support and an existing marketing base.

But if your company is smaller than $1 million and/or if you don’t have an Internet business yet, then you need something different… something that lets you start off small.

One man I know turned $10 into over $500,000. How’s that for starting small!

Let me show you how you could get a similar Internet income stream running for almost nothing.

- Charlie Byrne

ETR Associate Publisher

A Must-Have for Your Business-Building Arsenal

By Wendy Montes de Oca

Over the course of the last 8.5 months, various members of the Early to Rise team have been involved – in one way or another – with the whirlwind simply known around our office as “CTC.”

CTC, or Changing the Channel, is the new book co-written by Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby. Whether you’re a marketer, entrepreneur, expert, or novice – if you’re looking to increase revenues and start or grow your business through breakthrough multi-channel marketing techniques, this is a “must-have” for your business-building arsenal. Changing the Channel has cost-effective, powerful, and easily executable real-world solutions to common business problems.

I’ve been in direct marketing for almost 15 years, and before I read the galley (a pre-publication version of the book) I figured, “What else is there to learn? I’ve practically seen and done it all.”

However, I still took away some very useful tactics from Changing the Channel. It took me less than a day to read the entire book. And if you’re like me – passionate about marketing and business – you won’t be able to put this book down.

What I like best about Changing the Channel is that it not only gives theory but also practical, hands-on examples that anyone – from a stay-at-home mom looking to start a home-based business, to a struggling entrepreneur, to a marketing director at a Fortune 500 company – can use to make money. And that the tactics are not wallet-busting either, which is ideal in today’s current economic environment.

Some of my favorite parts of the book include:

1. The “putting it all together” section of the Direct Mail chapter, which clearly illustrates a comprehensive mail plan spreadsheet.

2. Chapter 15, “The Incredible Power of a Multi-Channel Campaign,” which includes what NOT to do in a new product launch.

3. The Appendix. Yes, the Appendix. I know that appendices in books are usually wasted space, containing useless, boring addendums. But this Appendix is chock full of real multi-channel marketing examples you can study and emulate.

Plain and simple, if you’re looking to excel at business… ANY business… you’ve got to pick up a copy of Changing the Channel. 

[Ed. Note: The more marketing channels you use, the more money you stand to make. But before you jump into any new form of marketing, you should know a little about it. You can get the details behind channels like Internet marketing, television, magazines, and much more in the brand-new book by MaryEllen Tribby and Michael Masterson. Learn how to get your copy right here.]

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Lower the Risk for Diabetes With This Vitamin

By Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS

We all know how great vitamin C is for the immune system – and even for general health. But did you know it may help lower your risk for diabetes?

That’s the finding of University of Cambridge researchers writing in a recent issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. The study revealed an association between higher levels of vitamin C in the bloodstream and a lower risk of developing Type II diabetes.

The researchers looked at over 21,000 men and women who did not have diabetes when the study started. Their vitamin C levels were tested, and they were given dietary questionnaires to fill out. The researchers then followed these people for 12 years. During that time, 423 of the men and 312 of the women developed diabetes. But the men and women who were in the top 20 percent of vitamin C levels had a whopping 62 percent lower risk of developing the disease compared with those in the bottom 20 percent.

Moral of the story: 90 percent of our vitamin C comes from eating fruits and vegetables, so make sure you include plenty of them in your diet. But to be on the safe side, take a vitamin C supplement as well. I recommend 1,000 mg a day.

[Ed. Note: Natural methods - including eating more fruits and veggies and supplementing with vitamin C - can have a powerful effect on your health. For more natural ways to feel better and live longer, check out nutrition expert Jonny Bowden's book The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth.

Increasing your vitamin C intake can help protect you from diabetes. But you should be eating right and exercising to get the best results. For ideas about which foods you should be eating and which foods to avoid - and recipes for delicious, healthy meals - sign up for ETR's natural health newsletter.]

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It’s Fun to Know: Something We Have in Common With Koalas

Like humans, koalas have fingerprints that are unique to each individual. And, in fact, their fingerprints are so similar to ours that it’s even tough for an expert to tell the difference.

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== Highly Recommended ==

Hey, Rat Race Runners… Need a Change? 

If your soul has been screaming at you to get out of the never-ending rat race, here’s your chance. After all these years, don’t you deserve to live the good life?  Get started making money for yourself instead of your boss. 

Word to the Wise: Enjoin

To “enjoin” (en-JOIN) – from the Latin for “to fasten to” – is (1) to direct or impose with authority, or (2) to prohibit.

Example (as used by Sanford M. Jacoby in Modern Manors): “Few judges were friendly to unions, as demonstrated by a steady stream of decisions enjoining strikes, boycotts, picket lines, and other collective actions.”

[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]

Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008

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