By Nashlah Boyayan- Published at Engage Magazine

Google is much more than just a search engine. They fascinate me. Especially because they make my life easier. As business owners we’re always asking ourselves “what problems do I solve for clients?” – that’s a tough question to answer because the answers are always evolving. Today I decided to feature some of the problems I’ve learned Google solves for me:

Local Time (gn-time.png)
In our business we’re constantly talking with people from all over the world. Sometimes it’s imperative that we know the time in their location to avoid scheduling conflicts, that’s when Google comes into the picture! What time is it in Thailand right now? Ask Google. Enter simply “what time is it” to get the local time in big cities around the world, or add the locale at the end of your query, like what time is it hong kong to get the local time there.

Currency, Metrics and More (gn-convert.png)
As you probably know by now Shahar and I do quite a bit of outsourcing in our business. As much as we’d like to keep our toes in everything, outsourcing was an essential piece of our success. Sometimes however, the job is done in a different country and it helps to know the currency difference:

Google’s powerful built-in converter calculator can help you out whether you’re cooking dinner, traveling abroad, or building a PC. Find out how many teaspoons are in a quarter cup (quarter cup in teaspoons) or how many seconds there are in a year (seconds in a year) or how many euros there are to five dollars (5 USD in Euro).

Search The Site (gn-site.png)
More often than not in our benchmarking we need to keep an eye on the competitions moves and website. That’s when we turn to Google to peak at their site!

Use the site: modifier. This will return results only from a specific website. For example, to search for an article by Nashlah, you’d enter – site:buzzbooster.com Nashlah

Beyond Pages (gn-filteype.png)
Searching for more than just images and pages has been undeniably valuable to me. Every now and then you’re in search of a specific file type, contract, spreadsheet, etc. Google can help you find those too!

You can search for Word Documents, PDFs, MP3s, Excel spreadsheets, images and much much more with the filetype: modifier. All you need to know is the file extension and search away. You can find some pretty good stuff via this method. Say for instance marketing plan filetype:pdf

Flight Tracker (gn-flight.png)
To see flight status for arriving and departing U.S. flights, type in the name of the airline and the flight number into the search box.

Stock Quotes (gn-stock.png)
To see current market data for a given company or fund, type the ticker symbol into the search box. On the results page, you can click the link to see more data from Google Finance.

Package Tracking (gn-track.png)
You can track packages by typing the tracking number for your UPS, Fedex or USPS package directly into the search box. We’ll return results that include quick links to easily track the status of your shipment.

Area Codes (gn-area.png)
To see the geographical location for any U.S. telephone area code, just type the three-digit area code into the Google search box and hit the Enter key or click the Google Search button.

Zip Codes (gn-zip.png)
Want to find where that zip code is located? Simply enter it into Google search and you’ll have your answer.

Public Data (gn-pop.png)
o see trends for population and unemployment rates of U.S. states and counties, type “population” or “unemployment rate” followed by a state or county. You can click through to a page that lets you compare different locations.

Fill in the Blank (gn-wild.png)
Sometimes the best way to ask a question is to get Google to fill in the blank by adding an asterisk (*) at the part of the sentence or question that you want finished into the Google search box.

Here are some foolproof ways to create a rush of traffic to your site with 5 easy strategies you can use today.

1) Bring More Traffic To Your Site With One SIMPLE Word! I’ve seen a massive rise in hits on my counter after discovering the magic word that draws people in crazed hordes! And the word that delivers for me is FREE!

By simply putting that one word in my ads, and backing it with something that the reader will really value, I’ve noticed a steady surge of traffic coming to my site. And even though I’m baiting them with a FREE offer, I’m still making a hefty profit from this technique.

2) Steal Other People’s Targeted Traffic! Whether promoting an ezine or ebook, any business can instantly benefit from the increased exposure of joint venturing with someone in a business similar to your own.

The secret? Find someone that has a large opt-in list that doesn’t directly compete with your offer, but instead compliments it. Approach them and let them keep half the profits from sending your offer to their list, then do the same for their product through your list. It’s a win-win situation.

3) Bring Hordes To Your Site For FREE When You Share! By far writing articles is one of the best ways I know to bring highly targeted traffic to your site. And all it takes is minimal writing ability and a bit of knowledge that will interest your target audience.

Articles run about 500 words, and instantly advertise your product in front of thousands for free when only a few quality ezines decide to use your article.

Spend a little time writing an article or two. Edit them the next day and find places to submit. You can hit the jackpot when you enter “Free Articles” in a good search engine.

4) Pay A Little For Lots Of Targeted Traffic! Pay per click search engines delivers. And you can do it on a budget.

Check out http://www.overture.com for what is, in my opinion, the best of the best for lots of targeted traffic to your site.

And here’s a tip. Have a sales letter that really converts visitors into buyers. That way, if you offer a product for $29.00, and sell 1 in 30, you can get a high ranking by bidding $.50 for each click, and walking away with about $14 for each 30 visits. And it’s possible to receive hundreds of hits in a day using pay per click search engines.

5) Only Pay For Advertising When It Makes You Money! Nope, it’s not a dream. You can bring tons of high quality traffic to your site and only pay when the traffic buys from you.

The secret? Affiliate programs. And if you’re not using one right now then you’re paying too much for your advertising.

With a few minutes of set up and promotion you can have your ads on hundreds or thousands of websites. And you’re only going to pay when that advertising makes a profit for you.

Check out http://www.clickbank.com for an easy way to set up an affiliate program.

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