Changing Jobs in 2012 – The Skills to Make it Happen

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Are you thinking of changing your job next year? Or even switching careers completely? Before you make a move, research carefully what skills employers will be looking for over the next couple of years.

Of the highest in-demand skills for 2012: computers, the Internet and information marketing. All the skills we teach at the Internet Marketing Training Center. Here at IMTCVA, we know that marketing on the Internet: blogging, website design, online video, e-commerce and more, will be growing each and every year. Businesses look towards Internet Marketing as a cost-effective and powerful way to reach their customers. Compared to traditional marketing: television, radio and print, the Internet gives companies a huge advantage of reach without blowing out their budgets.

The problem with marketing on the Internet is that businesses are having a hard time finding enough qualified people to do the work. Internet marketing is relatively new. Because of that, few people possess the exact skills and training to do the job. What that means for the ones who know how to do it is a huge in-demand skill set. You could even work for a number of businesses from the comfort of your own home. That's what we call a “virtual assistant” and there is no shortage of work for those who know how to do it. In fact, we believe that “virtual” jobs and “tele-commuting” is the wave of the future.

Where can you learn everything you'll need to know to be in high demand? Well, right here of course. Check out or free downloadable career guide and list of the classes we teach. You'll be glad you did.

Setting Up Your Website With WordPress

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Setting Up Your Website With WordPress

Setting Up a WordPress Website

Setting Up Your WordPress Website

If you are new to WordPress you may find it to be a bit overwhelming to understand. This article will help you get started with setting up your WordPress website.

First off, WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that enables you to create a static website or blog. The WordPress software is free and can either be downloaded from WordPress.org and manually installed on your server, or you can install it directly from within your hosting account.

Setting up your WordPress site is fairly easy and should only take several minutes to complete. Here are the simple steps to take:

  1. Register your domain name.
  2. Set up a website hosting account.
  3. Install the latest version of WordPress.

Register Your Domain Name

There are two places you can register your domain name. One place would be a domain registration company, and the other would be your hosting provider. It would be much simpler to purchase your domain from your hosting provider versus a registration company simply because you eliminate the extra steps of having to change the Nameservers. And most new website owners don't have a clue of what a Nameserver is.

At the moment you can find a domain name for under $10 per year.

Sign Up With Website Hosting

Next you will need to purchase a web hosting account. You can find reliable and cheap web hosting for under $7 per month. An excellent place to start is by visiting GreatInternetMarketing.com. The majority of web host support WordPress, but be sure to check before signing up for their service.

Installing WordPress

You have two choices when installing WordPress to your host, an automatic install or manual install. The easiest and quickest way is by using the automatic installation wizard your host provides. If you choose to install manually you will have to download the WordPress software, manually setup your database, then upload all the files for installation.

Upon completion of the installation you receive a link to your WordPress administration login page. Here you will be able to login, access and manage your website or blog. You will be able to change your websites design layout, theme and add content to your pages.

For more complete information on setting up a WordPress website, I encourage you to visit the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia – http://imtcva.org , and please don’t forget to download the FREE career brochure!

Video Marketing – Keeping up with the competition

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Video marketing is one of the hottest new options when it comes to promoting your products and services. Over time, video will become an even larger tool for small and large businesses alike. Any time video marketing is mentioned, talk of YouTube comes up as an obvious leader for potential customers. YouTube's viewership is the largest of any of the video sharing sites and it's also the second largest search engine right behind Google (which owns YouTube).  Keeping up with the many changes and features YouTube implements is an extremely important aspect of using this valuable tool as best as you can. One of the best resources to stay up to date with what YouTube does is the YouTube Blog. The YouTube Blog is updated almost daily with the newest features, options, and tools that YouTube wants to highlight. Not only is the YouTube Blog important for updates regarding the site itself, it also emphasizes new videos, trends, and topics that you may be able to capitalize on for your own business.

Be sure to check out the YouTube Blog.

Integrate video with all of your other Internet marketing techniques.

Factors and Trends of SEO

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A Few Factors and Trends of SEO

Factors and Trends of SEO

Factors and Trends of SEO

The world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an ever changing environment. The purpose of this article is to identify some of the main factors that could in fact alter your SEO strategies, and eventually your search engine rankings. I'll also explain some good points, and a few of the bad points of these changes.

Google Local Search

If you throw together organic and local search results you get Google Places. Since the merge of these search results the layout and the rankings have changed quite a bit. For example, if you typed in “Sushi Bar” you would find several high page ranked websites, as well as local neighborhood listings. The same applies to mobile device search results, Google now uses the mobile user's geographic location.

The positive side: Since Google's merging of local search engine results, many businesses has had the opportunity to reach higher rankings. Also, if you have the taste for Sushi you can read restaurant reviews, view photos and pinpoint locations in one shot!

Social Indicators

Both Google and Bing validate that social indicators are in fact used as part of their ranking system. For some time many believed social media to be just that, but now its a fact that Facebook ‘likes', Google's ‘+1' and such are used to influence rankings and may at some point become equivalent to back links.

Google's Branded Search Results

At one point in time Google would only allow up to 2 search results from any given domain to appear in the search results. But, now Google is recognizing brands and has changed their restrictions allowing multiple results to display from the same domain, if they feel the user's intent is in search of a particular brand specifically.

The positive side: If your a known brand you will benefit greatly because this can in fact affect your rankings in a positive way.

The negative side: If your an affiliate of some sort selling third party products it may be extremely difficult to rank for these keywords any longer.

Speed of Your Website

Back in 2010 Google confirmed that the speed of websites will be a factor in determining their rankings. There are several elements of a page that can actually slow down a website such as, videos, images, audio and maps. Other things such as your server size, page code and errors may also slow down your website quite a bit.

The positive side: This gives you an advantage to outrank your competition if your website speed is optimal. Also, this will force many website to optimize their slow pages giving users faster search results and a better browsing experience.

These are just a few factors and trends that can affect our SEO strategies.

If you would like to learn more SEO factors and strategies I encourage you to visit the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia – http://imtcva.org , and don’t forget to download your FREE career brochure!

Internet Marketing Careers – WordPress Website Creation

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There has been an explosion of WordPress websites for business in the last 18 months. Almost everywhere you look, companies large and small, plus individuals, are using WordPress software to create their websites. Why? Because compared to traditional websites, WordPress is cheap and easy to make. That doesn't mean that just anyone can build them. On a basic level, most beginners can create something simple. But ad in a custom header, special widgets, plug-ins, opt-in forms and simple HTML code and you'll have a mess on your hands if you don't know what you're doing.

That's where the training in WordPress creation and management comes in. At IMTC, we teach you the advanced techniques for quickly and easily building a WordPress site for either yourself or a business. This is a high ‘in demand' service because of the explosive popularity of WordPress. There are more businesses who need help in managing their sites than there are people who know how to do it. This is a BIG opportunity for you to make money with your knowledge.

And it doesn't stop there. Your customers will still need consultations in keyword placement, image management and much more. At IMTC, you'll learn all of that too. This really is the career of the future. The work will only grow in its demand, and armed with the knowledge from IMTC, you have all you need to take this new career by the horns. Check out all of the classes we offer and download our career brochure too. See you over there!

Internet Marketing – Ingredients For Success

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Internet Marketing – Ingredients For Success

Internet Marketing - Ingredients For Success

Internet Marketing - Ingredients For Success

Becoming a full time Internet marketer is a growing trend nowadays, but too many individuals fail to implement the key ingredients that make up successful Internet marketing. Below I will point out a few important tips when beginning an online business.

  1. Find Yourself a Mentor – Just like any business not having the proper training in place is detrimental to its success. By finding yourself a quality Mentoring program that provides online marketing training will greatly increase your chances at running a successful Internet marketing business. Not only will a Mentor guide your business in the right direction, they will also save you from the common pitfalls that many new marketers face on a daily basis. They say learning from experience is the best teacher, but in this case learning from an experienced Internet marketer is the better teacher.
  2. Functional & User Friendly Website – Whether selling products or services your website must be fully functional, user friendly and easy to navigate throughout the entire site. Your website should also be attractive to the eye, drawing visitors to explore more of your content. Also, you should always have your products or sales page just a few clicks away, this makes your visitors buying decision easier and convenient, plus it improves your conversion rate.
  3. On-Page Optimization – Your website should consist of multiple keyword optimized pages. This is one of the most important tips when attempting to rank well in the search engines. These keyword driven optimized pages will be the gateway to your website via the major search engines. By doing thorough initial keyword analysis and applying the proper on-page optimization will result in higher visibility, and in turn will drive more traffic to your website.
  4. Off-Page Optimization – Off-page search engine optimization works similar to on-page optimization, but it uses other high page rank sources such as blogs and article directories to help with search engine rankings. Not only will your off-page content rank fairly well in the search engines, they will also provide you with relevant backlinks to your main website.

Here are a few off-page optimization resources:

  • Web 2.0
  • Blogs
  • Social Media
  • Article Directories
  • Social Bookmarking Services
  • Directory Submissions
  • Press Releases
  • Forums
  • RSS Submissions
  • Video Submissions

These are just 4 important tips out of many when beginning an Internet marketing business. If you would like to learn more regarding the proper techniques, tricks, and strategies I encourage you to visit the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia – http://imtcva.org , and don’t forget to download your FREE career brochure!

Authors – Use video and Internet marketing to promote your book

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If you are an author, you know how hard it is to market your book. One interesting technique that seems to be taking of is to use video and the power of the Internet to promote your book for you. What a lot of authors are doing is they are creating video book trailers. Just like movie trailers that show clips of what the movie is about, book trailers do the same thing. Book trailers can simply be still images set to music. Add a little text to the video and you're done. Video trailers can be used to introduce characters in the book, summarize the plot, or even promote the upcoming launch date. That's right, not only are authors using video trailers to market books they've already written, they are also promoting books they haven't finished yet. This way, video trailers help produce buzz for a book. Any time you start getting buzz for a book you haven't yet finished, it pushes you to keep going and get that new book finished. Also, you can get a feel for how many sales you will get after you launch.

But, video book trailers need to be found online for potential customers to find. This requires Internet marketing knowledge. A lot of questionable Internet marketing techniques can be found online with a lot of searching done on your part. Or you can get certified from the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia. Not only does IMTC give you the most focused education on Internet marketing around, but it provides you with a certificate you can use to get a job with any number of businesses that need Internet marketing done for them. Also, you can take the knowledge you now have and market your books or any number of goods and services online. And all of this can be accomplished in as little as six months.

So what are you waiting for? Start using every option to market your book, right now.

Customizing Your Blog…

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…and by blog I mean WordPress website.

WordPress Themes

There are probably hundreds of thousands of WordPress themes in the wild, and a LOT of them have the standard BLOG format.  “The Blog Format” is slightly difficult to get away from but it's an easy-to-navigate layout.  Header, Content, Sidebar, Footer.  Some themes will pull featured or other specific content.  That is one of the beautiful things about WordPress, it's an excellent content management system (CMS).  It can be as robust as you can imagine, but as you start to really imagine, you have to add modules you may not understand in order to add certain functionality.  There is a way create custom fields on the back end so that WordPress Content actually becomes more of a “plug” form.  Picture here, price here, check this, check that and you have a very versatile website.

That is not really the customization I was wanting to talk about though.

Brand Your Site in the Header

I want to talk about some of the most BASIC ways to customize your site to brand it to your company.  The first and foremost way is to have a header graphic designed.  You can try to do it yourself, but I recommend against it. There are hundreds, probably thousands of people on fiverr.com or craigslist.com that will be more than eager attempt to design a header for you.

I am not adverse to cheap labor, but I believe you get what you pay for.  $5 for a design? It might look better if you let your 5 year old nephew whip something up in crayon. I recommend trying to find a local freelance designer. Agencies will usually be too big and too expensive with their time to actually want to work with you, but a freelancer might be willing to do a few quick designs for $20 or $30 bucks.

Before you head off in search of a designer, you need to think about what you want the header to convey.  Who is your audience?  What do they expect to see as far as how you represent yourself? If you're selling a product, should images of the product be in the header? Is your face/name the brand? Do you have an actual logo?  A slogan or hook can also appear up here.

Another important element to think about is your colors.  Your header and theme colors should work together, not against each other.  For this reason, it's important to either know how to use CSS or get a theme where you can actually adjust some of these options.  Remember, the more options a theme has, the harder it is going to be to use and interact with different plugins.  I have been recommending Weaver 2 lately, since it does give you a good control over colors and such, but don't fall in love with it or take it as gospel, it may not be the easiest to work with if you really want to change layout elements. I have found it difficult to work with on a few projects since it does have so many options, it can take away some of the things you want to do.

That said, if you plan to upgrade the theme when upgrades come along, then DO NOT CUSTOMIZE—or let any web people customize—any of the code of the theme.  That includes html, php, or stylesheet of the theme.  It will break at the upgrade.  That is not to say you can't use the theme options, just do not go and alter the code.

There is an art and a science to web design.  Learn how easy it can be at the Internet Marketing Training Center. Visit our website and download the Free Career Brochure.

Shopping Cart and Auto Responder

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Things to Consider When Choosing the Perfect Shopping Cart and Auto Responder

Shopping Cart and Auto Responder

Shopping Cart and Auto Responder

For all successful Internet marketing it's important to have an advanced shopping cart and auto responder for your email campaigns. There are many shopping carts and auto responders available for free via web hosting services, but unlike advanced ones they are fairly basic and lack the power.

Before choosing a cart and auto responder you should take into consideration several factors. Below I will discuss several features and options to look for that will benefit you the most.

  1. When sending automatic emails to your opt-in list it's effective to have the option to send personalized messages. Sending a message with the subscribers name automatically added to the email makes it personal, and can psychologically have an impact on them to become a buyer. Therefore, being able to send personalized messages is one of the biggest factors when choosing an auto responder.
  2. The next feature to look for in an auto responder is having the ability to send follow-up messages. Most auto responders from hosting services only allow you send one follow-up message to your subscribers. It's important to have the ability to send multiple follow- up messages because this helps to boost sales dramatically on auto pilot!
  3. Another key feature you should look for is having the ability to update or add new messages to your email campaign. This gives you the power to inform your subscribers about new products or opportunities you may offer, which can increase your earnings.
  4. Having the ability to track your adverts performances is another option to look for in an auto responder. This enables you to track your marketing campaigns and performance, letting you know what's working and what needs improvement.
  5. If you plan on selling digital downloads make sure you choose a shopping cart that has the features to handle automatic digital downloads. The cart should have the ability to create automatic downloads and expiration’s.
  6. Recurring billing is an important feature if you plan on selling products or services that have monthly billing. This feature has an automated recurring billing system built in that automatically bills membership or recurring products.
  7. Another excellent feature to look for in a good shopping cart is having the ability to upsell. By adding post-sale upsell options to your campaign can dramatically boost your sales. You can create upsell funnels to display different offers to each customer.
  8. Multiple Shipping options is another feature to look for when purchasing a good shopping cart. It should support different shipping methods, have the ability to offer free shipping, real-time UPS/USPS shipping calculations, international shipping, ship by quantity, price or weight and much more.
  9. You should also purchase an auto responder that offers support or some sort of training. By having training videos and tutorials helps you to learn and become more familiar with its features 24 hours a day.

These are a few important features to look for when purchasing an advanced shopping cart and auto responder.

To get more information visit the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia – http://imtcva.org , and don’t forget to download your FREE career brochure!

Internet Marketing Careers – Affiliates Working From Home

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http://www.imtcva.org

Did you know you can make a generous living selling other people's products from your home computer? At the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia, you can get a dedicated certificate in as little as six months and be on your way to your own home based business. Visit the site to download your free career guide.

Certified to operate by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia