Basically, an autoresponder allows you to automate some or many of your communications tasks, particularly the ones you find yourself doing over and over again. With all you have to do as a business owner, doesn?t it make sense to automate as much as you can? Particularly the activities that allow you and your personality to shine through your writing or speaking. With all the technology we have available today, you are not limited to using autoresponders to send written messages - you can send audio and video, too!

I want to say a big Thank You to Lisa Kitter for inviting me to speak on her Marketing 101 teleclass tonight. I had a great time and got some great feedback from her class participants via email afterward.
Lisa’s got a 4-week class coming up on January 6 called Creating Your Vision for 2009 and Beyond! and she’s running a promotional special now through the 30th that allows you to register and bring not one, but TWO, friends along for free! Do the math, folks - that’s called get …

This is the ninth and final post in our DIY SEO for WordPress series.

Whew! You made it! You rock!

By now you have some serious DIY SEO for WordPress tools in your toolbox to help you get the attention of the search engines. By no means are you now an SEO expert - sheesh, neither am I - but you’ve got the basics now and let me tell you what - that’ll take you far.

I know all this might seem a bit overwhelming when you think about applying all these tips and tricks to your posts, but I’ve made a handy little checklist to help you.

Stuck in a job you hate? Get help and a plan here.

If you’ve been marketing online for any length of time, you’ve heard the adage, “The money’s in the list.” The list is your subscriber mailing list. You know…that list you work so hard to build so that SPAM filters and SPAM laws can make getting a message to your subscribers next to freakin’ impossible? Yeah, that list.

But now, there’s a new subscriber list kid in town: RSS. He’s a square looking dude, all orange and obvious, and he says to your visitors, “Pssst…when there’s new stuff here, I’ll let you know instantly. All ya gotta do is subscribe and it’s yours - hot off the press, no waiting - with NO SPAM in the mix.” And best of all, this little dude is FREE. No monthly fees…for you OR your subscribers.

So now what?

Your page rank is, among other things, a numeric representation of your reputation in Google’s eyes. When you link out to other sites and allow the search engines to “follow” the links, it’s like putting your reputation on the line and endorsing those sites you’re linking to. Allowing the search engines to “follow” your links is like saying, “Yeah, they get my vote cuz I think they’re good.” Endorse a bunch of crap out there and what happens? Your reputation suffers.

There are many, many things that increase your page rank (your ‘authority’ or ‘reputation’) and you work hard to achieve it. But you don’t have to be in an all or nothing situation when it comes to putting that reputation at risk in order to help other bloggers.

Commenting is one of the easiest ways to drive traffic to your site. Assuming you’ve got great content waiting for your visitors when they get there, it’s also a great way to initiate conversations and build community in your target market. You can use commenting to get the attention of and build relationships with other bloggers which might turn into JV partnerships down the road. And of course, allowing comments on your own blog gives your visitors, customers and referrals a way to connect with you and give you feedback about your content, products and services.

This is the seventh post in our DIY SEO for WordPress series.

This step really has more to do with your site overall, rather than individual content. Though you do want to have a site navigation plan in place from day one, some of what I discuss here will only make sense when you’ve been adding content for awhile.

Great site navigation is extremely important because it helps you keep your visitors on your site longer. Remember, all the great content in the world won’t help if your visitors can’t find it. So, let’s make sure visitors can easily find all that great content you’ve got!

This is the sixth post in our DIY SEO for WordPress series.

Short, but illuminating exercise today: determining your keyword density.

What’s Keyword Density?

Keyword density is how often your keywords appear in your text relative to other words. Let’s say you’ve got a 500-word post and you’ve used your keyword 25 times - that’s a keyword density of 5% (25/500 = 5%) - and that’s the target that’s most widely recommended. Any more than that and you run the risk of Google thinking you’re “stuffing”…

Our gift to you - download it today! Click through for details on how to contribute to Vol. 2.