The technique takes advantage of a weird way humans make buying decisions.

And it’s so easy, you just make some quick text changes to your ads and website.

You can watch the video here:

Feel free to write me with your questions or to share your personal results from using “The Rate Decoy”, I love hearing all your success stories

Be safe, as always,
Erin

So, without wasting any time, let’s jump right into it…

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Number 10
No Metrics: Not Tracking on Paper What is and What is Not Working

How many times have you said to yourself – “I’m not going to advertise there, because it doesn’t bring in any calls.” And then you referred to a spreadsheet that actually reflected what you were saying was true?

If you’re like most people, you store all of your data in your head.

The problem is, our brains aren’t very reliable when it comes to keeping track of really detailed information.

Most business owners would think you were crazy if you suggested they keep track of all their ad results in their head. So, why should your business be any different?

Every ad, every change you make to you ad, should be tracked and recorded in a simple to access spreadsheet of some sort.

That way, the next time you turn down a “25% off your ad” offer at XYZ.com, it will be because you referred to your data, and it’s telling you 89% of the potentials you got from your last ad there, were from complete time wasters.

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Number 9
Not Positioned as Unique: Trying to Appeal to Everyone, Not Being Appealing to Anyone

When you try to appeal to too large of an audience, what ends up happening is that you fail to appeal to any type of an audience.

Just as people are drawn to the unique qualities of the people they select as friends, a man looking for an escort is going to use the same type of selection process.

A client looking for your special attributes wants them to stick out more than the generic ordinary qualities that every girl has.

If you are a 5’1 half Latino, half Asian girl with a large bust, then proclaim your uniqueness. Don’t dye your hair blonde and play up your height.

Be an exotic petite busty adventure, not a blonde Barbie “girl-next-door” that every other girl is claiming she is, too.

If you are blonde, again, play up your uniqueness. Instead of trying to come across as the generic and overly claimed girl-next-door, take on the role of the femme fatale, a Bond Girl type of persona.

Remember, think fun, exciting, discreet, playful, elegant, and mysterious. Try to come up with a style that will set you apart.

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Number 8
Poor Rate Structure: Not Using Good Rate Techniques

It always boggles my mind when I see ladies using half hour rates on their ads and websites.

I know why they do it. I just wish they understood how much it hurts their impression on a new viewer.

You would think it might appeal to the man, causing him to think you are a very accommodating provider. Unfortunately, what it says to an upscale gent is that your time is worth so little, that you are willing to slice it up and put it “on sale” so to speak.

High class providers do not offer half hour rates. It is simply a waste of her time.

Another missed opportunity is not using the rate structure I’ve coined as the Rate Decoy. It uses the concept of starting with what you want your 3 hour rate to be, only knocking off $50 to come up with your two hour rate, then dividing that in half to get your one hour rate.

What you end up with is a much more compelling rate chart that actually subconsciously makes the potential want to book a 3 hour session with you!

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Number 7
Poor Screening Methods: Not Using Preventative Measures To Avoid Time Wasters

Another huge and unfortunate mistake escorts are making with their business is not taking simple steps to save time through pre-screening.

Instead of allowing anyone anywhere with a keyboard to send a time-wasting vulgar message directly to your email, put up a secure contact form as your only method of communication.

Contact forms are great, because they can contain fields that are mandatory to fill out before he can submit it to your inbox. This way, he cannot leave out any important details that you need.

One step further is charging a very small “one time fee”, so that only the most serious potentials get through.

This fee can be refunded during his first session, or it can double as a lifetime membership to your VIP newsletter, etc.

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Number 6
No Budget for Marketing, Advertising, or Professional Photography

I don’t know who started the rumor in the escorting biz that you should spend as little as possible a month on your marketing and advertisements, but it could not be father from the truth.

As a rule of thumb in business, if you market to the public you are going to want to be spending a higher percentage of your income on marketing and adverts than other businesses.

If you are an escort, then you are marketing to the public. So, already we’ve figured out you might be spending a bit more than other industries.

When an escort is new, launching a new name and persona, seeking new clients, or trying to gain exposure, then she should be spending at least 20% of her monthly revenue on her marketing and advertisements.

Once she is at a point where she’s satisfied, this percentage can be trimmed down to 8 – 10%.

What can be considered advertising and marketing is anything that gets you more exposure, gets your name out there, helps you make more money, and helps attract new people to you.

Professional photography is a key ingredient in making the most out of your advertisements and marketing and you should be investing in this regularly.

You have to give a little to get a little.

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Number 5
Bad Photography: Slutty Vulgar Images That Do Not Attract Good Clientele

Wow. I could talk about this one all day long.

It never ceases to amaze me how many escorts who are not considered “high class” or “upscale” post naked photos of themselves online.

Are they not taking notice that Amy Taylor doesn’t put pictures of her boobs up anywhere? ‘Cept maybe in her Private Member’s Area behind lock and key.

It also never ceases to amaze me when the same ladies who posted up nudie photos of their exposed boobs complain about all the vulgar emails they have to weed through.

Hello?

If you want to be taken seriously as a worthwhile escort, then put up sensual worthwhile photos of yourself.

This doesn’t mean your photos won’t be considered sexy. On the contrary, you can use a little known technique called the Peekaboo Law for maximum effectiveness in attracting upscale males.

The Peekaboo Law is when you cover up or hide the naked bits and pieces of your naughty places with a white sheet, bubble bath, shower curtain, etc. in order to entice a man.

Get creative with your photography, but no more of those exposed naughty bits! Save that for later.

———————————————————————

Number 4
Sloppy Ineffective Copywriting

Why don’t articles published in magazines feature misspellings, abbreviations, fragmented sentences, run-on sentences, or other bad grammatical errors?

Because magazines know those types of things do not compel readers.

Why some escorts think their ads and website copy should be written any differently than an eloquently written article is beyond me.

It is true that men make extremely quick decisions about your ad before they even begin to read your copy, which is why it’s so important to have good, clear, professional photos.

However, once he’s in, if you want to keep him in, then it’s your task to write compelling copy that leads him down the page to your contact information.

Stop using abbreviations in your advertisements today. You might see them used on review boards among hobbyists, but that doesn’t mean you should be using them in your ad copy.

Spell everything out. Leave nothing up for misinterpretation. While we’re talking about spelling, make sure yours is accurate.

Your ad copy should tell a story. Tell him what you have, what he’s going to get, and then tell him what you want him to do. It’s as simple as that.

As always, be sensual, creative, and discreet with how you word it. Just as you shouldn’t have slutty vulgar images advertising your beauty, you shouldn’t have slutty vulgar text advertising your services.

———————————————————————

Number 3
Their Website is “All About Them”, Not “All About Him”

When was the last time you were on some company’s website and found yourself reading page after page of information that was all about them, their history, their employees, where they grew up, what’s their favorite color, what’s their favorite band, how many kids they have, what their names are, how many pets they have, what their names are, what their hobbies are?

Probably never, because that sounds boring as hell.

You probably spend the majority of your time on websites that care more about your experience than shoving information about them down your throats.

Your audience feels the same way.

Sure, a potential is interested in you… to a degree. What he is interested in is finding the information he wants about you, namely your rates. More importantly, what he might not even be aware of is… he’s most interested in how your site is making him feel.

If you can make him feel like he’s already in session with you, after being playfully seduced, and now being spoken to by someone who knows exactly what he wants, then he’ll read your entire site, and then contact you for an appointment.

———————————————————————

Number 2
Not Building a Mailing List

Practically every escort that has a website is missing out on a huge potential by putting a big scary disclaimer on her first page.

Instead of this, what she should be doing is using that most visited page to promote visitors to join her personal mailing list.

Without a mailing list you are at the mercy of the review boards, the forums, your ads, your search engine ranking, the economy, the political climate, the weather, and the strange whims of men.

Most people don’t purchase a product or service the first time they are exposed to it. This piece of psychology also applies to men looking for an escort. They typically surf directories for hours, and then end up returning to ads that have caught their eye more than once.

So, the last thing you want to do is rely on a man’s memory when it comes to your business. You need to sweetly remind him every once and awhile that you’re around, and you’re still available.

If you are always waiting for men to come to you, then you’re leaving at least half your business on the table.

Remember, escorting is not just the business of creating the feeling of a quick pleasurable encounter for men. Successful escorting is figuring out how to maintain and deepen relationships over time. That is the difference between a lady that is still hustling dozens of clients with few repeats, and a “high class companion” that has half a dozen wealthy benefactors.

The challenge is – half a dozen wealthy benefactors don’t typically fall in your lap in just one afternoon. It will take time to create this kind of lifestyle, no matter who you are or what you look like.

The way it’s done is by learning how to differentiate the worthwhile clients from the crappy ones, and taking extra special care to deepen the quality of the relationships with the good guys.

This is easier to say than do, of course, but a mailing list will profoundly help with that challenge.

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Number 1
Having Unclear Goals and Values: Not Treating Their Business Like it’s a Business

The number one mistake I see escorts making today is not treating their business like it’s an actual business.

Now, I don’t know if this comes from lack of confidence, self-esteem, or the fact that this industry is sometimes looked down upon by simple-minded individuals.

Regardless of what the rest of the world thinks, escorting is a very lucrative REAL business, and you should be treating it like one.

The first step to running a successful business is to get clear on your goals and your values.

Once you have that accomplished you can dig in deeper and explore your ideal client, what he wants, and how to effectively speak to him in your adverts.

Believe me, your clients will thank you for it

———————————————————————

I hope that helped to give you a little bit of a perspective on some of things you might have previously overlooked.

Feel free to leave a comment and share me your thoughts and feedback.

Your Friend, Erin

They are stealing your time, which is money.

And they are annoying you, which steals your energy and your
happiness.

I think you might know who I’m talking about.

I am talking about those irritating little …

.. “time wasters”

They come to your website and directory ads like this is a
game, their own personal peep show.

They fill out your contact form, they call your cell phone,
they send you emails …

And the whole time they have ZERO interest in booking a paid
call with you.

GRRRRrrrr …

When I launched myHoneysuckle two years ago, I was surprised
when girls kept telling me about this issue over and over,
and how seriously frustrating it is for you.

You are trying to make money, to support your lifestyle, to
pay your rent, to feed your children. And these jackasses
are screwing around with you.

Pretty infuriating, actually.

Over the years I’ve put a lot of thought into this very
problem, and many others just like it.

And I’ve discovered a lot of things you can do to help you
to not only completely avoid time wasters .. but also to
simultaneously increase the amount of upscale clients
booking paid sessions with you … AND simultaneously
increase the likelihood of these ideal clients booking
multi-hour sessions when they do …

What this means is more money, working LESS hours and only
with the cool fun clients that you prefer anyway.

Now, normally I only share this material with my high-end
clients that pay me pretty steep hourly fees to consult them
on taking their escort business to the next level.

But recently I’ve been considering creating some kind of
information product for you, a kind of “home study” course
that you can buy for a lot less than it would cost to hire
me personally, yet still give you access to the same great
information.

The problem is, an eBook that sits on your computer is
hardly the best way to learn this stuff.

It’s a boring format … and so the PDF file just sits
there for weeks and weeks making you feel guilty that you
ever bought it. (Hahah… well, this is what happens to me
anyway, LOL.)

So, I’ve been thinking … I could just take VIDEOS of
myself and teach you this stuff face to face!

And I could break the training up into new lessons each
week.

A combination of videos and interactive exercises.

I could cover things like how to get more calls, how to
attract better clients, how to successfully charge higher
rates, how to book more multi-hour sessions, screening
secrets I normally reserve for my private clients only, how
to get much more traffic to your ads and to your website …
and much more.

It would easily be the most in-depth and comprehensive
escort marketing training ever created.

But I need to hear from you …

Is it worth my time to create something like this?

Is this something you would be interested in?

If you are saying YES, will you please do me a huge favor?
It will help me out a lot.

Will you write to me or comment here expressing your interest in
this training, and tell me …

What are YOUR biggest frustrations and challenges as an
escort?

And …

What do you WANT to be feeling and doing once we’ve gotten
these frustrating challenges completely solved and out of
the way for you?

I really want to make sure that if I do create this program,
I’ve covered every possible aspect of helping you with the
REAL issues you are facing day in and day out in your
business.

So write me back, tell me what’s up!

Hope you had a great weekend.

Take care,
Erin

PS - I’m putting the finishing touches on a new report
entitled “The Top Ten Biggest Mistakes Escorts Are
Making”. I’ll be sharing this with our whole group here
soon enough, stay tuned.

Part I of this article was written in the spring of 2007 and we published it on our blog in January of 2008. It was written by Sean and carries loads of useful information regarding SEO. However, it seems to be a growing trend that adult web designers and escorts alike are dangerously confused as to what SEO’s role should be to an escort’s site. The article was written to bring everyone up to speed.

When you hear the word “marketing” in regards to online marketing, you might think of SEO.

Now, many of you write me questions, saying you are a little confused by what SEO is, so let’s go ahead and review it. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and is the online art and science of making your website show up as close to 1st as possible, when someone types in certain words or phrases into a search engine, such as Google. Your “ranking” can be increased by doing certain things to or with your website. Generally speaking, the closer to #1 your site is in Google for a certain keyword, the more traffic you are going to get to your site for this keyword. So SEO is essentially one of many strategies use to increase traffic to your website.

Now, while you might think “increasing your traffic” is a great goal to have for your new website, it is not the main goal you should be focused on and is certainly not the first goal in a marketing strategy.

WHAT?
I know, it sounds really strange, right? Stay with me.

As an escort it is much more important for you to focus on relationship building rather than impersonally increasing generic traffic. It is much more valuable for you to attract 9 quality visitors to your website, rather than 900 empty visitors.

SEO is a part of SEM - Search Engine Marketing. It’s fine and great if you need to market yourself in the search engines (Google, MSN, Yahoo).

However, Online Escort Marketing should not revolve primarily around SEM, and certainly not SEO.

Why? Well…
The truth is you need to first start building your traffic with directory ads.

Want me to prove it? Ok…

How many times do you think a hobbyist/upscale gentleman goes to Google and types in “redhead escort in long beach” when he’s looking for companionship for the evening?

Not very often. Why is that?

Well, because there is a little thing in online existence called a “directory” and most hobbyists know that going to directory to search for the red head in long beach will lead to a much quicker find.

If I were to get online looking for a cute red head in Long Beach, I’m NOT going to Google.com to look for her. I’m going to the Eros Guide, baby. Not only do they separate their girls by location, but also by hair color.

I’ll further my proof… let’s say I’m a newbie. I don’t know about the Eros Guide or that escort directories exists. Not knowing much about the industry, I simply go to Google and type in “red head escort in long beach”… take a guess about what comes up 1st, 2nd, 3rd?

ESCORT DIRECTORIES

Eros, ThatMall, countless others… they have those keywords cinched-up when it comes to SEO. If you type in just about any word escort-related into Google, I bet you Eros shows up for the top results.

You see, Eros is a giant, and they can afford to have an amazing SEO/Marketing guy working full-time to get them high up in the search results. It’s pretty safe to say that you won’t be able to beat them in the search engine for any escort keywords.

And I getting my point across here?

Let me share a funny little story with you. It’s about Sean, myHoneysuckle’s tech guy and the love of my life. Sean is hands down the most knowledgeable SEO guru in the adult web industry. I say this with the utmost confidence.

Sean spends significant time each day researching SEO and keeping up with the current trends. He participates in online SEO challenges, belongs to several online SEO groups, and knows enough about SEO to get himself into trouble, literally (which I’ll explain in a moment). Most importantly, Sean spends tens of thousands of dollars each year attending seminars and purchasing courses teaching him SEO secrets. Information you can’t find on a blog, or learn from reading an article, or assimilate from watching a free video on YouTube.

The guy knows his stuff.

A few months ago, Sean helped one of our clients get her page ranking extremely high in the search engines. It got so high that it started out-ranking a big directory for some of their terms. He got a call asking to remove the terms. He kindly obliged and we were both shocked at those results. I knew he was good… but, that was really impressive.

SEO can be great and do great things, however your focus should first be placed in other areas regarding your “marketing.”

My goal is to help you make more money, first and foremost, always.

As an experienced web developer, it’s my opinion that you should have basic SEO done to your site when it’s developed, which includes: keyword rich page urls, well-formed titles for each of your pages, auto-generated daily sitemaps, keyword rich alt tags for images, keyword rich image names, and content optimization (LSI).

I also strongly suggest your site be converted into a WordPress site. myHoneysuckle was the first web development group in the adult industry to take this stance a couple of years ago. Since then, a few other adult designers have jumped on board with it, slowly but surely. I am hoping to see more in the future.

All of the optimizations I mentioned above are easy-peasy for any half-brained web developer to do and should NOT cost you an arm and a leg, with the exception of the LSI and a conversion to WordPress. Those are both time-consuming and more on the high-end of things.

If you would rather not convert to WordPress, that is fine too. Search engine optimization is still available for your site. You are still able to do standard optimization which would include keywords, optimization of your URLs, title tags, alt tags, image names, etc. and optimization of the content. And of course, link exchanges, which is another very important part of search engine optimization.

Ok, now I want to mention something I’ve been noticing lately and I will be writing a longer article on in the future. A very odd trend I see occurring with adult web designers is the desire to stuff SEO tutorials and articles down escort’s throats. Some even offer CMS tools for you to do the SEO yourself.

Hello?

SEO isn’t that interesting. It’s not that fun. Also, it isn’t expensive… or it shouldn’t be for what an escort needs it for.

I would understand this need if it were expensive… or if it were just so much fun I can’t contain myself!

I’m baffled by who started this trend and why on Earth they thought you would find it a wise investment of your time to do it yourself. It’s time consuming and tedious. It’s also very tricky. You can read 4 hours of SEO research a day for 4 years and still not be a pro. It’s not like making pie. It’s like making concrete.

I have an employee who does my SEO projects. He is very good and cheap, making the rates cheaper for my clients. Sean checks over all his work and then we track and test the results.

Do you get what I’m saying?

If you really think reading boring tutorials and implementing SEO on your own site is what you need to do, then more power to you.

My advice would be, pay someone $200 and save yourself a lot of trouble. Unless you are looking to change careers and become an SEO nerd, there is really no need to bother. I would consider reading articles on how to be more seductive or watching videos of cool new make-up techniques would be a much more enjoyable use of my time. But, that’s just me!

If you really want to get involved with your site, research something a bit more interesting… such as blogging tips and techniques. Do some creative writing exercises. Book a photographer and take some new photos to post as an update.

Where does myHoneysuckle place their focus in regards to escort marketing? Zoning in on quality traffic from your existing sources. Cleaning up errors preventing you from more quality visitors. Designing a site using real marketing techniques. Building up your clientele. Creating new sources for quality traffic. Tracking. Testing.

Depending on your specific goals, we could actually come up with several different strategies. In some cases, we would use extensive SEO. A lot of factors depend on when and how we use it and how deep we go.

I’ll end this article with much of the same sentiment as Sean ended his… in the world of marketing, things are always changing. What works today might not work tomorrow. It is important to take real metrics, examine them, see what works, what doesn’t, continue doing what does work, and throw out what doesn’t.

The fastest way to failure is to find out what works and stop doing it.

Written by Erin Ann Myer for myHoneysuckle.com

Escort Blogs - Their slogans says it all… Where providers say what’s on their minds! This is a great site to use in addition to your website blog. It’s a great exposure to new hobbyists. Sign up today for a free Escortblog.net account and tell everyone what’s on your mind.

Yes! Trusted sites are listed here for you to connect with and communicate to your peers, associates, and fellow entertainers. These forums are useful tools to help you find out information, and the latest news.

Desire Alliance - This sites focus is on building leadership and constructive activism in the sex worker population to advocate for sex workers’ human, labor and civil rights.

STORM Project - A Non-Profit providing consultation, outreach education, specialized training and media presentations to direct service providing agencies, universities, schools, and other organizations seeking to add or enhance their knowledge of the sex industry and best practices to serve the community or individual involved in sex work.

Free Speech Coalition - This organization is a rallying point for those who believe in the free expression of adult-themed works. The FSC protects the rights of members in all areas of adult entertainment.

Network of Sex Work Projects - NSWP is another legally constituted international organization for promoting sex workers’ health and human rights.

The International Union of Sex Workers - The site that DEMANDS acceptance of your rights and nothing less.

Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network - BAYSWAN is a collaborative project providing information for sex workers and about diverse sex industries. BAYSWAN links individuals to resources provided by sex workers’ and other rights based organizations. BAYSWAN organizes to improve working conditions, increase safety and services for workers, and to eliminate discrimination on behalf of individuals working within both legal and criminalized adult entertainment industries.

Escort Support - Just like myHoneysuckle, this useful site offers tons of advice for providers in the business. Whether you’re male or female, straight or GLBT, or even have a different adult entertainment occupation, you’ll find this site to be an excellent resource for the info you need to effectively run your business and enhance your life.

Written by Erin Ann Myer of myHoneysuckle.com

RoomService2000 - I love this site. The customer service is amazing and the service over-all is outstanding. This site offers verification memberships to your clients, for easy hassle-free appointment screening.

Preferred 411 - Preferred411 is a screening service that is extremely discreet. Offering a private network to members who wish to connect with others in a safe way. Another site protecting the safety of ladies in the business, make sure you join today.

Date-Check - This site offers nationwide screening and verification for female escorts, making your connection with your client safe and easy.

Written by Erin Ann of myHoneysuckle.com

Most entertainers are aware that having a website with a member’s section can bring in extra income, but did you know that having a simple website to store your basic information can improve your chances of having more repeat clientèle? Also, a website is often viewed as upscale clients as a status symbol that says,”I am a professional and I take my business seriously. You can trust me to provide you with a professional experience.” - increasing your chances to be selected by them.

Other ways that a website will enhance your business:

Save Yourself Time — Do you get a dozen calls asking for services you don’t offer? Do you spend time describing information over the phone when you could be doing a dozen other things? Direct those calls to the picture and text description on your website. Let your website screen those phone calls for you.

Build a Loyal Customer Base — A satisfied customer can easily check a website to see what’s new and look at your schedule. Update your gallery often for repeat visitors. Your customers will come back again and again because to them, it will feel like you are interacting with them on a personal level - even though you are doing it for everyone across the board.

Easy to Remember — Some people can remember telephone numbers (I can’t), but most people remember a name or phrase better. A catchy web address is all a potential customer needs to find you and get in touch with you quickly.

Customer Convenience — A website is for your customer’s convenience. They can explore your website in their own time frame. They no longer have to call on a schedule where they can reach you on the phone. Your site is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

These are all factors to consider when going over the pros and cons of spending the extra money is takes to having a website developed for you. There will be a bit of energy and time spent, alongside the financial investment, but the payoff is more than worth it in the long run.

Did you know that studies done reveal that online banner ads are as effective as television ads?

Information released from Business Wire cited that “…online banner advertisements are as effective as television advertisements in their ability to significantly increase consumer awareness of brands.“

Smart adult entertainers know the value of branding yourself and what better way to do it than placing banner advertisements featuring:


- Your face
- Your name
- Your web address
- Your phone number

Prospective clients will become familiar with your brand and will be more likely to call on you.

Banner ads should not be wasted on just link exchanges. You should also seek to purchase strategic banner ad placement on directories, review boards, and sites where gentlemen will be looking for companionship.

Written by Erin of myHoneysuckle.com

The language used in this article is a bit geeky… don’t feel bad if you don’t understand everything. I just wanted to put some things on the line for you so you know what to ask for when approaching a team to do marketing for you. With hat being said, I’ll just dive right in!

WordPress is without a doubt superior from an SEO standpoint to that of a regular HTML site or worse an all-FLASH site… but you will also want your development team to make other careful customizations to optimize it even further.

Such as:

#1 Structuring well-formed, keyword rich page URLs. This is crucial. Search engines highly prefer URLs structured this way. In fact, search engines will almost completely ignore URLs that are jumbled and nonsensical.

#2 Programming dynamically generated, well-formed and keyword rich titles for each of your pages. This is really important, and we hand write these for all of your pages.

#3 Programming WordPress to auto-generate daily, complete XML sitemaps of your entire site which are then automatically sent to Google and picked up by Yahoo and MSN.

#4 Keyword rich alt tags and keyword rich image names. If you are unfamiliar, alt tags are short, optional descriptions put around the code for images on a website. You can see if an image has an alt tag by hovering your mouse over it. If the image has an alt tag a little yellow box will pop up with a short description.

This is great for Search Engine Optimization. And same goes for the actual filenames of the images themselves.

#5 Content optimization. This involves the proper placement of special tags within your content itself that signify the most important text on each page. Taking it one step further is the option to make key revisions to the text on each page, so that it is not only more dense with specifically chosen keywords, but also includes semantically related keywords.The latter optimization takes advantage of a feature of search engines called Latent Semantic Indexing and is super cutting edge stuff. It’s time-consuming, but worth the effort.

#6 Option to have a WordPress powered blog. This is one of the key features of WordPress which has made it, hands down, the most popular blogging platform on the Web. Making even just a few posts a month to a blog on your own website is one of the very best things you can do for Search Engine Optimization. Search engines love blog posts. I configure all my websites to WordPress so that each post I publish is automatically included in the sitemap, which is picked up by Google, Yahoo and MSN. On top of that the post is also submitted to several popular blogging search engines, such as Technorati and DayPop. These popular blogging search engines are also highly indexed by regular search engines, so it all comes back full circle to even better SEO for Google, Yahoo and MSN. Wow, that was a mouthful!

There are many other little tricks to do when building WordPress sites, but these things mentioned above are what we base our emphasis on when building a new site. And actually this is just the tip of the iceberg of what is possible.

If you would rather not convert to WordPress, that is fine too. Search engine optimization is still available for your site. You are still able to do standard optimization which would include keywords, optimization of your URLs, title tags, alt tags, image names, etc. and optimization of the content. And of course, link exchanges, which is another very important part of search engine optimization.

Competition analysis link exchange campaign is available from myHoneysuckle without WordPress conversion. What this involves is, after we get really clear on what keywords you are targeting in the search engines, we will analyze the top 3 spots for that keyword in Google, Yahoo and MSN and find out which sites are linking to them. These links are an important factor in why they are in the top 3 spot. So once we have this list of links we can better assess what we are up against. We can provide you a report with these links as an HTML page or an Excel spreadsheet. We can also conduct these link exchanges for you.

Ok, this last one is pretty exciting and cutting edge…

We actually developed it early 2007 and we aptly named it Social Network Marketing. Basically it consists of creating profiles on the top social networks and/or blogging websites such as MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, Blogger and there are some adult ones too - Adultspace, Red Light Social Scene, etc. After the profiles are created, they need to be updated with new blogs and new photos at least once or twice a month. There is a bit of science behind this (the blogs cannot be identical, for instance), but it’s not rocket science The time and effort doing this work is the biggest challenge of it. The ingenious power behind this strategy is that these social networks are highly indexed by search engines.

These natural links to your site on social networks and hosted blog sites are considered as much more valuable “votes” for your site. A single one is more valuable than a dozen links done through traditional link exchange, where your banner ends up on a page clearly marked “links” and amongst dozens of other links.

Always remember, online marketing is ever-changing. What works this week might not work next week, and so-on and so-forth. Exactly the reason you should be inquiring as to how current your webmaster/designer is with online marketing. If they are still using tactics they learned in 2002, then you’re going to be disappointed with your Google ranking. Just remember, when selecting a team for your marketing requests, ask them critical questions, such as what are they doing for on-going education? A great marketer does research every day.