Back by popular demand, the second installment to the "'secrets they don't want you to know about" series (see Affiliate marketing secrets they don't want you to know about). Without further ado, here are the 3 secrets "they" try to keep away from you: effort, time and money. Once again I admit that this is not want you expected to hear, but believe it or not many novice webmasters (even experienced ones for that matter) often overlook these simple rules of thumb.

Before I elaborate on my three "secrets", I would like to let in on another little secret: who are "they"? You might be inclined to think that "they" is all the major search engines out there, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. Your intuition is good but in this case misguided and is exactly what "they" want you to think. You can't blame search engine for not reviling there secrets, if everybody knew how to get top 10 rankings, there would be no reason for these search engines to even do business.
"They" in this case is all those SEO firms who milk you out of your hard earned money promising you the moon (top ten rankings in this case).

Secret #1: Effort
The effort you put in your search engine optimization campaign remains the most important factor in determining your positioning is search engines. There are countless strategies you can use to boost your rankings, but you must first do your research. Reading articles like this is a start but visiting specialized websites like Search Engine Watch to learn even more is your best option. Writing informative content is also a great way of attracting search engine traffic. Just the other day, I got a hit from Google Brazil. The user typed the oddest keyword, but ended up staying on the landing page for quite a while, so I guess it's safe to say he found what he was looking for. You can also share your articles with article directories. Not only do you spread the word around on how great your site is, but you also get a link back to your website form a reputable and established high ranking website, which is a plus for your rankings. The fact of the matter is, you can't just create a website and then dump it on the net in the hopes that the hits will come. You will have to update and consistently offer new content. Not only will this help you with your search engine rankings, but it will benefit the lifeblood of your website, your visitors.

Secret #2: Money
Despite all the free strategies there exist, you will have to strongly consider spending some money to help you in you search engine optimization campaign. Signing up for Google's Adwords or any other search engine keyword marketing service for that matter would be money well spent. By biding on specific keywords that best suit your website, you will get an add space on Google. The good thing is you only pay when someone clicks on your add and you could also set yourself a daily budget. Paid inclusion in some quality online directories is also a good idea. While this remains a viable strategy, it's easy to get carried away. Spend cleverly by searching for the most reputable directories beforehand. The only real advantage as opposed to free online directories is immediate inclusion. While free directories can take up to a year to include your website, a pay-for directory will index you within a predetermined amount of time (usually 24 hours).

Secret #3: Patience
Finally, the last secret I would like to elaborate on is patience. Now without getting into a philosophical debate with all of you, our society in general is becoming increasingly impatient. While hocking your horn on your way back home after a long day at work might give you the illusion that you're getting home faster, impatience like that does not serve you well in the world of search engine optimization. What many novice webmasters don't realize is that even getting all the major search engines to index you can take several days. And all that means is that your in there database, that doesn't mean you will be getting top 10 rankings. You must be patient and continue working on the strategies we discussed earlier and the (and only then) will you start to see positive results.