Our May teleclass is all about Search Engine Optimization. This video talks very specifically about ways to break up the page content so that people will be more likely to navigate it – it’s also designed to help search engines find you easily.

The reason I’m starting the program with SEO is because it all starts with your website. If you don’t already have a personal site, I RANT about this in Home Party Solution. This is an absolute must. At first, you may feel like you’re building something just for yourself, but over time, you’ll see the traffic grow. Having the site up is the key.

If you start building the site with good SEO, you’ll be ahead of the game. I just threw my site together using Office Live, and it was nice to look at, but poorly optimised, so the site didn’t draw much in the way of visitors – PLUS I had to go back and re-do my pages to be more appealing to the search engines – the result was a klunky revision, that I’m still working on. UGH.

But if you get things rolling from the start in a simple, easy to follow way, you’ll have fewer headaches than I did.

If you’ve already built a site, great. Don’t scrap it, just start making mods slowly over time. You’ll see the improvements and traffic will follow.

The goal of your personal website is to establish credibility and generate leads. If you look at my personal website, you’ll see that there’s a LOT of revealing info about me – but nothing more than I would care to share with anyone.

It creates trust and exposes my personality to the public.
It verifies in the mind of the reader that I am an expert and know my stuff.
It confirms my value in my marketplace, as well as my ability to communicate well with people.

It also took time to build.

I can’t stress enough how easy Office Live is to use. It’s template driven, so literally all you have to do is select a page layout, a color scheme and start adding text. The image upload interface is a breeze, too. You have to be careful when you resize the images, though, because sometimes they get skewed.

But in 30 minutes, you can set up your first home page, with a contact form, and start letting your clients know about you. You can even register your own domain name (which I STRONGLY recommend) for free for the first year.

So you’ll have a whole year to tweak, add and grow your business at Microsoft’s expense.

And with Peder’s tips and tools from our teleclass, you’ll be making great strides with the Search Engines right away!

One last tip:
Many Direct Sales companies won’t let you mention your company on your personal website. Some companies go so far as to call them “ILLEGAL” websites. Your own personal site is not illegal. Don’t be fooled.

Besides, you don’t WANT to associate your personal site with your company. You just might jump ships one day. The more IMPORTANT thing to do is to find an area of expertise: skin care, organization, makeup, relaxation, fashion consulting, health care, etc. and present yourself in a manner that validates your expert status.

Not an expert yet? Get to studying your company materials. I’m sure there’s SOMETHING you can be helpful with.