In this post, I aim to clear up some of the misconceptions about what cloud computing is, and isn’t, and hopefully provide some useful pointers for how it could be deployed in your business.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is a revolutionary concept because it can dramatically reduce the IT costs of businesses whilst sharply increasing their efficiency. Perhaps the greatest benefit it brings is that of infinate scalability. When you buy IT services through the Cloud, you only pay for what you use, from a single byte of storage, or a single user software license, to hundreds of terabytes and thousands of users.

It means therefore that IT costs can become variable instead of fixed.

It is especially appealing to small businesses because it means they don’t have to make disproportionately large investments in technology at start up.

Basically, there are three ways in which ‘the cloud’ is implemented and of use to us through the Internet.

1. Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS)

This is the provision of a networked computer infrastructure over the web. So, instead of buying locally stored network server hardware and peer-to-peer access, for example, you can now pay a monthly fee for a remote host which is infinitely scalable, and which only you and your organisation, have access to.

2. Platform as a Service (PAAS)

The object of PAAS is to enable a complete development platform to be provided over the web. It is especially useful therefore to workgroups and teams who are sharing, and working on, data files concurrently.

Otherwise known as ‘cloudware’, PAAS is an alternative to companies who use workflow facilities for building software or web applications, or collaborative projects just as architechture. It also includes highly scalable hosting solutions (as an alternative to a dedicated server, for example).

3. Software as a Service (SAAS)

The days of downloading and installing software, or buying it in a box and installing from disk, are coming to an end.

SAAS is perhaps one of the fastest-growing industries in the cloud, and already there are hundreds of applications which can be run efficiently through your web browser instead of locally.

Google docs, for example, now provide a real (free) alternative to Microsoft Office. There are other software services available too, for graphic design, brainstorming and flowcharts, help-desk, appointment and event management… and the list is growing all the time.

One of the main advantages of SAAS to the software provider is that new updates can be made seamlessly, without the need for the customer to install patches or upgrades. Everything required to run the software is held remotely and so minimal processing power is required on the local machine.

Following is a list of recommended SAAS resources:

Email list management:  Aweber

Online survey design and management:  Survey Gizmo

Brainstorming/Mindmapping: MindMiester

Helpdesk management: Zendesk

Email + Office-like apps: Google

Graphics: Aviary

Diagrams/Flowcharts: Gliffy

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All too often I hear people telling me they suffer from information overload, or that they know exactly how to set up and run an internet business but still can’t get off the starting block…

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Fact is, you can get all the information you need pretty quickly.  And once you’ve got it, no one ever tells you, “you’ve learned enough now -  you can make a start”.

Did you know that attending a single well-chosen Internet seminar can give you all the information you need. Just don’t leave it thinking you’re a beginner, and that you have to learn even more before you start. Its not true. You’re no longer a beginner. Its time to use your knowledge to strengthen your confidence in making a start.  Trial and error helps.

Its your actions which earn money, not your learning.

Of the advice I give to my clients in Action Time sessions, much of it they already know. So the difference between the people who actually succeed with Internet Marketing and those who don’t isn’t what they know, its what they do.

And that is the point of these action sessions: to break it down into clear, easy-to-follow, action steps. Big as the Internet already is (1.6 Billion users with 500 million buyers, at the last count, and still growing exponentially) there are gaping opportunities for entrepreneurs to grab a huge slice of profitable niches as long as they perform good keyword research.

There are several reasons why good keyword research is so important, but the truth is, if you don’t do it, you can’t expect to succeed. It would be like building your house on sand: You know you can do it, but it will fall over.

And yet the most amazing thing is most people (99%) don’t actually take the time to do it! There in itself is the opportunity: Do keyword research well and you can find yourself ranking among the most established businesses in your niche very quickly.

Keyword research: vital to the growth of your business

Keyword research isn’t just picking four or five phrases which you imagine your customers might type into a search engine so you can use those words in articles on your site. Well, that is keyword research of a form, but its very basic. Its not going to help much. So here are some pointers, some ways in which I do keyword research, which I have found to make a real difference.

1. Brainstorm your target market thoroughly

Brainstorming for keywords means more than just picking a few words and phrases off the top of your head. It means thinking hard about your customers, their age, their habits, what they wear, what they earn, and creating a complete profile of them, because then you’ve got to get inside their brain. When you’re in the brain of your precisely-defined target customer, you can imagine exactly what keywords they would use. For example – might they miss-spell or use foreign spelling? – might they abbreviate? – might they include a location, a city or state, in their search phrase?  Or perhaps a date, or year…?

Consider these things and more when drawing up your first list of keywords, and make it a good, healthy and long list of twenty or thirty – more if you can, which you consider to be good base keywords for your niche. Don’t think about long and short tale at this stage. (Long tale keywords are the ones which are more specific. They get less searches, but they are prone to convert better because they’re more precise).

2. Expand your keyword list using Google’s free keyword tool

Once you’ve got your base list, open the free keyword tool at google, and enter the keywords to get Google’s list of related keywords. Enter them one by one and do a search with each one. Pick through this list, adding keywords you don’t already have – and are relevant – to your existing list. In a separate list,  and with the base keyword as the header, make a list of all the keywords in the Additional keywords to be considered column. This is found underneath the list of Related Keywords. The reason why I recommend google’s free keyword tool and not wordtracker, for example, is because Google controls the indexing of web pages, Wordtracker doesn’t. So when Google help us with keyword lists, either related, or to be considered, its actually telling us which phrases it is most likely to index us well for. Wordtracker is a great tool too, but overall, I have had more success with Google’s free keyword tool and Fabian Lim’s excellent Keyword Research PRO software (which uses Google and Wordtracker).

3. Store your keywords somewhere safe and somewhere you can share them

You will want to have quick and easy access to your keyword list, and so will  anyone you employ to create content for you. I use a spreadsheet in Google Docs to store my keywords, that way I can access them, and add to them, wherever I am, and share them directly my article writers and video creators easily so they can be working when I’m not.

4. Set up your content stream

Now that you have the keywords which you know will draw traffic, you can use them in several ways. They will be useful for pay-per-click contextual advertising but my interest, for now, is to get organic search traffic without having to pay for it.

When I do this, I find I can get between 3 and 8 listings in the organic Google search for terms which Pay-per-click advertisers have bid a dollar or more for.

The trick is this: Get a consistent stream of good content on your site, with a main keyword in the title of the article and between 3% and 7% keyword density of other related keywords - which you got from the Google Keyword tool, plus a splash of the Additional keywords to be considered, to help Google’s LSI (Latent Semantic Index). Then you will find that you can begin pulling traffic overnight to a wordpress blog with the All In One SEO plugin installed.

In my next installment, I’m going to show you how you can start getting that constant flow of content without having to create it yourself. Once you get it right, it can all be put on autopilot. In the meantime, be sure to get Sparky, Alexa.com’s browser toolbar. It gives you the alexa rank for every site you visit, and you’re going to want to watch the rank of your own site. As a rule of thumb, you should aim to get it below 100,000 first of all (i.e. be within the top 100,000 most visited sites on the Internet). Once you start doing this basic SEO stuff right, with good keyword research, you’ll be surprised how quickly the Alexa rank will move.

TIP: Keywords on your site are only any good if your site is being seen and indexed regularly by the search engines. It can take a while for a new domain to be indexed by google, so here’s a quick way to speed it up:

Download the Google Toolbar and install it in your web-browser. Then, enter your domain in the toolbar search box. If your site isn’t returned then its not indexed by Google yet. However, the action of entering “yourdomain.com” in the search box, or “yourdomain.info”, for whatever yourdomain is, places it in Google’s index so it will reach your site when it next sends the spiders round.

I hope you’ve found this helpful. Let me know with a comment below, and listen out for the next part in the series, when I show you how to put your entire content and high-volume organic traffic stream on autopilot.

Until then, I recommend having a look at Fabian Lim’s new Keyword Reasearch Pro Tool… I’ve been using this recently, and I’m impressed…

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Videos from the recent Freedom Class in London are now available to view at the link below. If you’ve already seen them, or some of them, please let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

These are a series of training videos which give techniques and strategies to use in growing your own online business.

The Freedom Class is a private laptop seminar in which participants are guided through the process of setting up their own self-propelling web business. They come away with a sales site, a blog and a double-dimension viral growth mechanism. All from scratch.

If you haven’t seen them yet, click on the image to get started.

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If you have seen them, please leave a comment saying what you think of them below…