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How do you get to the top of the search engines? One way is to buy a spot there.  It is relatively easy to sign up for “pay-per-click” advertising.  You can go to Google or Yahoo and search for something.  At the bottom of their list of ads they will have a link like “your ad here.”  During registration, they will help you pick the keywords where your ads will appear.  You then can bid an amount you are willing to pay -per-click for those keywords.  This will determine your ranking.

You’ll notice at the top of a results page there will be 2-3 bigger ads that almost look like part of the actual results.  These are the prime spots.  Whoever bids the most on a given keyword will get this spot.  Those who bid less per click will be on the side margins in descending order and if there are many businesses bidding on a set of keywords some ads may only appear on the second page.  You may want to note this while researching a product to sell. 

If there are many ads on the side margins there is likely a lot of competition and the market may be flooded.  I’ve paid as little as $0.10 a click and as much as $2.00.  There are tools available in a pay-per-click account to track how much you spend in advertising in order to make a sale.  I, myself, have always found it to be barely worth it when all is said and done.  That does not mean it will not be worth it for you.  It is a fast way to compete directly with those at the top of the search results. 

I like the “pay-per-click” because I can try a business out for a few days without the investment of time and energy promoting a site to naturally be at the top.  I don’t like it because of the relatively high running costs of such a campaign where if you stop paying, your business stops dead.

My preferred way to reach customers is to promote my website to make it rise in the search rankings. There are business who will do it for you for a fee calling it "site optimization."  I’m sure there are some of these services that are worth it, and I’m just as sure that some of them are scams.  If you could pay to be at the top of a search, everybody would pay and then everybody would be at the top of the search.  Be on the lookout for offers that seem too good to be true.

In order to be listed in the results for a search engine, you will need to submit your site to that search engine.  Again, there are companies that will do this for you for a fee.  Search engines have complex mathematical algorithms which search your website and will give you a ranking based on the qualities of your site.  The factors that determine a high ranking are closely guarded by the search engines for good reason. 

Have you ever searched for something and had nothing but bogus results at the top. Perhaps you’ve clicked on a promising result only to find it is another search engine with more results. 

Google and Yahoo want you to find what you are looking for because if you don’t , you will stop using their search engine.  They are trying to rank the web pages so that the most relevant results end up at the top.  This is a complex job when everybody is competing for the top positions, including those who have no business being at the top.  For this reason they can’t publish what will get a page ranked high. 

People do study it and look at the websites in the top results to guess what made them rise to the top.  I should also mention that the rules change all the time as the search engines try to get and keep the most relevant results at the top. 

With the preceding in mind, understand that you must take what I am about to say with a grain of salt.  I don’t really know what makes a site get a high ranking; however, I am ranked high and this is what I did.  The following may be confusing if you have never built a website before. You may have to read this over several times and then again as you build your website.

First of all, try to compete for just a few keywords that actually describe your product.  Remember the search engines are trying to get good results for the searchers.  I would not try and “trick” the search engines into ranking your site high for a search where it does not belong. 

Put your keywords in the web address, and many times throughout your site.  The order in which the words appear on the site seems to matter.  I try and put the keywords I am going for right at the top of the page.  Put the keywords in any labels, file names, and descriptions of any graphics or pictures you have on your site.

The links from your site to other sites, and vice versa, matter a lot.  I suspect this is where much of the ground work can be done for your future success.  Some people will trade links with you in order to up their standing as well as yours.  This is an okay practice if the site you trade with is ranked well in the searches in which you hope to be top-ranked. 

Otherwise, there is some evidence that too many links that are not relevant to your keywords may have a watering down effect on your site.  It is important that the links from someone else’s site include the keywords on your site.  If the link from another site is from their links section it may count less compared to one on their front page. 

I search the term I’d like to be ranked highly for and go down the list of results and try to get links on all of the sites that seem to have that option available.  This may be difficult.  I have found a great way to get links is to ask to advertise on the sites that are highly ranked. This will not work with your competitors but you may find it effective to pay for a few quality links.  It can take as much as a year to have your site rise through the rankings and settle in from your promotional efforts.

I believe there is a great deal of opportunity out there for the homesteader and would-be business owner.  I find more and more that I am buying my goods and services from small home businesses.  The internet offers a growing marketplace and a chance to compete.  In my own life it has become the perfect compliment to low-tech simple living.

Good luck with your enterprises!

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