In the past 10 days, you've sent me more than 400 cries for help.

I'm talking about the comments you've been posting on my blog in response to the question, "What's your biggest challenge right now?"

Some of your stories really touched me -- like Mark, who just lost his business in a fire and is looking for a way to start over. (Mark, I'm really sorry to hear that. I'll be giving you some advice on how to turn around your fortunes in just a moment.)

Susan's story inspired me. She sells luxury condos in 4 and 5-star hotels and was asking about email marketing strategies that will make her business even more successful. (I'll be answering that question next week, Susan!)

And I was motivated by Ed, who wrote to say that he went from making minimum wage to five times as much in just a year, thanks to IMC. (Thanks for letting us know, Ed. Success stories like that make us happy to come to work every day!)

I want you all to know that I am absolutely committed to helping you solve as many of your challenges as possible. And I'm bringing in my team of experts to help.

So make sure you read all the upcoming issues of the IMC Insider -- and also look out for some mid-week emails I'll be sending you as well. You never know when we might answer YOUR question!

Mark, this next one's for you...

Editorial: How to start an Internet business with $179.72
By Derek Gehl

Recently I asked you to leave me a comment on my blog, telling me what your number one challenge was.

One member of the "IMC Insider" community is currently facing a more difficult challenge than most. Mark just lost his entire business in a fire and doesn't know what to do next in order to begin again.

Well, Mark, if you're thinking about starting an Internet business, you're definitely on the right track. Out of any business you could start, an online one is by far the cheapest -- and the quickest!

To help you get started on the right foot, here are some tips on how you can get your business up and running in 30 days -- and making a profit -- with under $200.

Step #1: Use Wordtracker to find a product people already want to buy (1 month = $55.78)

The first thing you need to do is locate a niche market and discover a product you can sell to them.

Wordtracker is a keyword research tool that makes this step as easy as possible. It shows you what people are searching for in the search engines, so you can discover what their problems are and then present them with solutions.

A one-month membership should give you plenty of time to complete this first step. You can sign up for Wordtracker at: http://imc.wordtracker.com

Step #2: Choose a domain and set up your hosting account
(3 months = $23.94)

Most hosting companies are dirt cheap these days and will give you a domain name when you sign up.

If you get a beginner account with 1and1Internet, you can get three months of hosting for just $23.94. It's a great hosting company and will provide you with everything you need to get started.

You can sign up by going to http://www.1and1.com.

Step #3: Build your site using NVU (It's FREE!)

Although 1and1.com provides you with a basic website builder, you may decide you need more advanced web editing capabilities to customize your site.

If you're on a tight budget, NVU will do the trick. It offers a great WYSIWYG editor for free. As you get more advanced, you may want to upgrade to Dreamweaver (which you can buy at Adobe.com). But NVU is more than enough to get you started.

You can try it out at: http://www.nvu.com.

Step #4. Set up your payment process using PayPal (It's FREE!)

If you're going to sell your own product online, you need to be able to take payment for it! And if you're counting pennies, PayPal is by far your best option because it's free and so easy to add to your site.

Be sure to sign up for a "Premier" account. It's still free but offers some additional features you need as an ebusiness.

Okay... so your site's up and you're able to process payments. Now you need visitors!

But how do you get traffic on a shoestring budget?

Step #5: Use pay-per-click engines to drive qualified traffic to your site (1 month starting cost = $100)

Here's some good news: When you sign up for your hosting account with 1and1.com, you get $100 in free traffic from Yahoo, Google and Microsoft. If you match that investment, you'll have $200 to play with -- and that amount of money can go a long way if you play your cards right.

Just make sure you don't blow on your money on high-priced, overly general keywords!

Stick to savvy pay-per-click strategies and bid on cheap, overlooked keywords -- and you'll be able to get quality traffic without draining your bank account.

(Hint: think synonyms and misspellings!)

Step #6: Distribute articles to free directories and content sites
(It's FREE!)

One of my favorite free traffic strategies is simply writing a couple of info-packed articles and posting them in newsletter directories and free content sites where other people can pick them up and republish them.

It's a great way to get inbound links pointing to your site, so it rockets to the top of the search engine listings. Plus, the articles spread word about your business and help build your credibility as an industry expert, so your visitors will be more likely to buy from you.

Those are just two traffic strategies that cost very little and will get you ramped up and making money quickly. There are lots of others as well -- such as blogging, Web 2.0 strategies, affiliate marketing... the list goes on.

That's what I love about the Internet -- it's so unbelievably cheap to get started.

How cheap? Well, the six steps I listed above will cost you only $179.72 -- not a bad investment for a profitable business!

However, there's one thing you need to know: The secret to setting up a truly successful business in such a short time is to make sure you have the right training and information guiding you along the way.

The entrepreneurs who end up blowing all their money with nothing to show for it are the ones who spend too much on strategies that haven't been proven to work... or get sucked into "get rich quick" scams... or try to reinvent the wheel.

A small investment in your education will save you a huge amount of money over the long term. Not only will you learn what you need to do to avoid costly mistakes and grow your business in record time -- you'll also discover how to recognize incredible money-saving opportunities when they come your way.

(Opportunities, for example, like the one I'm going to tell you about below!)

So Mark, I hope that gives you some direction on how to bounce back from the fire and get started with your next business. I'm willing to bet this one will be more successful than your last one ever was!

Please drop me a line and let me know how you're doing. And if there's anything else I can do to help, just let me know.

To your success,

Derek Gehl

How much is success worth to YOU? (And what are you willing to give for it?)
By Derek Gehl

What are you going to spend your next three dollars on? A Starbucks coffee? A Big Mac at McDonalds? A Haagen Daz ice cream bar?

... Or the complete solution to the biggest challenge you're currently facing with your online business? (As well as the challenges you'll be facing next month... next year... even next decade?)

Here's why I'm asking you all these questions...

Last week I offered you the chance to test-drive my comprehensive e-business training system, The Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet, for a full 30 days -- for just $2.95.

But I limited the offer to just 250 people (because guess what, I actually lose money when I offer my course for $194.05 off the regular price.)

Well, your response to my proposal blew me away.

Those 250 copies flew off the shelves in just a few hours, leaving me the not-so-fun duty of writing hundreds of emails saying, "I'm sorry, but the offer has ended" to a lot of disappointed people.

It seems like many of you were eager to become my next success story!

Well, I'm sick of talking to disappointed people. I'd much rather talk to people who are bursting to share their latest victory. That's why I've decided to widen the ranks of future success stories by extending the offer to another 129 people.

(In a stroke of luck, I paid a trip to my warehouse this weekend and discovered that we actually had 129 more course packages in stock than I'd thought. They were hidden away on a back shelf, go figure. That's why I'm now able to extend this offer to more people!)

So if YOU'D like to be one of this week's lucky 129 future success stories and get your hands on my 800-page Internet marketing bible -- the #1 rated online marketing course on the Web -- and test-drive its strategies for a full 30 days, all for the price of a Starbucks coffee, then I encourage you to visit:

http://www.marketingtips.com/testdrive30days

It's the ultimate risk-free way to turbo-charge your business growth and get on the fast track to success!

"Why is my site not showing up in Google?"
By Nicole Ephgrave

[Ed note: Nicole Ephgrave is our in-house SEO "wizard." You can meet up with her in our exclusive "members-only" Search Marketing Lab forum.]

Note from Derek: Quite a few of you have written to say how frustrated you are because your site isn't showing up in Google's search results.

Rob wrote me personally to say, "I selected all the best KEIs and sprinkled them properly throughout my salescopy. One of the keywords had a KEI of over 1,500 with over 100 hits a day. Why am I not showing up on Google's searches?"

Rhys is dealing with a similar problem. For one of his top search terms, he's ranked #1 in MSN, Yahoo, and Alta Vista - yet he's not showing up on Google at all!

I've asked Nicole, my in-house SEO guru, to give them some answers. I hope her advice helps you, too.

Now here's Nicole...

Hi Rob, Rhys, and everyone else who's having problems getting listed with Google. To start, I want to point out that there are two important components to any successful search optimization campaign:

• Your on-site optimization efforts -- such as "sprinkling" your best keywords throughout your salescopy (like Rob did)
  
  
• Your off-site optimization efforts -- such as getting quality inbound links to point to your site

You need to focus on both these areas if you want your SEO efforts to pay off.

Now, in terms of how to get Google to give your site a good ranking, there are three specific things you need pay attention to (because they're what the Google spiders pay the most attention to!):

1. Your inbound links

I'll say it before, but I'll say it again because it's just so important: If you want to get a good, solid ranking with Google -- one that won't just disappear overnight -- you need to build a network of high quality inbound links pointing to your site.

By high quality I mean, from sites that have a Google PageRank of 4 or more. (You can check out a site's PageRank by downloading the Google Toolbar to your browser.)

The best ways to get these links are to:

• Get your site listed with the 'Net's top directories, like Yahoo and DMOZ.org (the Open Directory Project)
  
  
• List your site on industry-specific directories
  
  
• Write content-rich articles and submit them to high PageRank article directories
  
  
• Offer free content to high PageRank sites that target the same market as you (but offer different, complementary products)
  
  
• Participate in forums that are popular with your target market and be sure to include a link to your site in your signature block

Make sure you acquire your inbound links gradually over time, so they look natural. As I mentioned in last week's newsletter, you can buy links, if you want -- just don't buy a whole bunch at once. Nothing screams "paid advertising" more than 100 links mysteriously pointing to your site overnight!

2. Your anchor tags

It's not just enough to have any old inbound link pointing to your site... do whatever you can to make sure the anchor tag has your top-performing keywords in it.

Google is looking for hyperlinks attached to actual phrases (as opposed to URLs). The idea is, hyperlinked phrases are more likely to lead to a useful reference site.

For example, if you have a dog training site, Google will pay more attention to a hyperlink that's attached to a phrase like, "best dog training tips" than a link that's attached to: www.doghouserules.com.

Here's what the ideal link looks like:

keywordphrase

And like I said last week, make sure your anchor tags don't all use the exact same keyword phrase. They should include variations on a number of different keywords. That'll make them look more natural in the eyes of the search engines.

3. Your title tags

Did you know that your title tag is one of the most important tags on your site?

It's one of the first things the spiders look at when they arrive on your site. That's why you absolutely have to make sure you include your top-performing keyword phrase in your title tag.

(You can see what your title tag is by looking at the very top of your browser when you're on your homepage. What information appears there? Does it include your top keyword phrases? It should!)

On top of that, your title tag is the text some search engines display in the listings that appear in the search results. So it needs to clearly communicate to your visitors exactly what they'll find when they arrive at your site. And the best way to do that is by including the keyword phrases they typed into the search engine.

Finally, I wanted to point out that you need to have patience. Search engine optimization isn't an overnight cure to your traffic woes. Sometimes it can take up to six months to see the results of your work. But I promise you, the results will be worth it!