Unless you have a substantial Internet marketing budget, it can be difficult for a new website to find visitors.

Pay-per-click ads are an option, as are press releases and sponsored links, but each of these can be expensive at best, and wasteful at worst.

If you were to visit Amazon right now and look for books on losing weight, or improving your health, you'd likely find tens of thousands of different titles.

And yet, if you go see your family doctor and explained that you like to enjoy a firmer, fitter body, there's a good bet you'd hear some advice that revolves around doing things like getting more exercise and taking in a few more vegetables. In fact, that's probably the same advice you could get at almost any doctor's office.

Build your business using inbound marketing principles.

If you aren't sure what "inbound marketing" is, don't worry, it's very simple and you may even be doing it already. Inbound marketing has a few different names. Seth Godin coined the term "permission marketing", which in many ways is the same thing.

6 Components every blog post needs.

1. It's written for people.

Yes, SEO and key-wording are incredibly important, but if no one wants to read it then what's the use of Google finding it? Avoid tactics like keyword stuffing. Not only are search engines recognizing some of these "black hat" tactics and punishing sites, they generally detract from the enjoyment or readability of the article.

An online presence that is as unique as a lefty.

Baseball season is upon us and again I'm reminded that one day I will teach my children to throw left-handed. Lefties are unique and therefore valued. Approximately 1 in 10 people are left-handed, yet over 25% of major league pitchers are left-handed.

Content creation drives visitors in the TOFU.

So what is TOFU material?

We're not talking soy products here. TOFU is an acronym for top of the funnel, which is refering to a sales process. People enter the top of the funnel and work their way through the middle and bottom and come out the otherside as a customer. TOFU material is anything that will bring your product/brand/service awareness. Awareness on the web is generated through content.

3 habits you should develop if you want to be successful at inbound marketing.

1. Blog weekly.

Blogging is the meat of any social media presence. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are all great tools, but the blog allows you to expand on a thought and create really valuable content. Blogs also take a static website and make it dynamic. Search engines look for this activity and reward regular content updates with higher rankings in searches.

No Comments, No Cry

Why are blogs removing their comment section, and is it right for you?

I recently read an article on a favourite blog of mine, The Minimalists, about why they have joined the likes of Seth Godin, and Leo Babauata of Zen Habits, and removed the comment section from all of their respective blogs. All three of those blogs are in my reading rotation, along with a few million other people. So why are they shutting us off from commenting?

Blog Content and the Gotye Cover

The recipe for original social media content? Copied, with a twist.