The Secret Of Marketing Power

How To Write Ads That Work

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:19:00 -0700

This is as close to a magic formula as you can get. There's a lot more to writing ads than following a formula, of course, but having this framework should get you well on the way to writing a competent, if not great, marketing piece.

If you've been digging around at the library and gotten into the archives of the masters you've almost certainly discovered the formula of AIDA = Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. that's a good start, but this is how it's really done.

As you write your piece, try to get into the head of your client or prospect. What exactly are they looking for and how would they benefit from using your product or service? Furthermore, how would they benefit by buying from you rather than a competitor. So.. give it a shot.

Just one thing.. make sure you budget a whole bunch of time - even a short piece can take a non-writer as long as 10 to 20 hours to get right.

Here you go:

1. Headline (the "Attention" part)
This is, by far, the most important element - this has to be a big, bold promise of some kind. Give them a reason to read the next line.

2. Sub-Headline.
Just as the purpose of the headline is to get you to read this line, the purpose of this line is to get them to read the next line. Plus, backing up the promise is really important.

3. Benefits (sort of today's version of "Interest.")
Use the benefits of your product (as opposed to features) to put your prospect smack in the middle of the picture. How should your customers feel when they're using it? How would they feel if they missed out?

4. More Benefits.
Skepticism is high these days; it takes a lot to convince people.

5. Proof.
Testimonials work. Amazing facts are always good. Easy-to-understand statistics help, too. That sort of thing. Prove that your product does what you say it will do.

6. Risk Reversal.
How about a money-back guarantee? There can be no risk whatsoever.

7. Photo.
This isn't required, but it will definitely increase your response rate. Show someone enjoying the product. Illustrate the benefits. Even a photo of you, which personalizes the piece and makes it seem real, helps a lot.

8. Offer. (Just one, though)
You have to offer something. It's amazing how many ads are produced without an offer. "It's important to get your out name out there," is the reason heard most often. Sorry - without an offer, your ad is dead. Nothing happens.

9. Call to Action.
You must ask your prospect to do something. Really! If the rest of the ad is reasonably well-structured, people will act - they'll take advantage of your offer and do exactly what you ask them to do. This is where your ad can become your best salesperson.

10. Reducing the Resistance to Accepting Your Offer.
It's that guarantee again. And it's OK to mention it more than once - reducing your customer's risk to zero is really important.

Now.. if you really want to kick it up a notch:

11. Create a Sense of Urgency.
Use language like: "Just five days left..," "Only 12 lucky golfers will..," "Take advantage today and you'll also get.." You know what I'm talking about, right?

So there you have it. Try writing a couple different versions and split up your mailing or post two different web pages to see which one draws responses. That's how it's done..

entireweb.com

About the Author: Mike Schwagler is a direct response copywriter with over 20 years experience in industrial sales and marketing (B2B) in a wide variety of areas, including highly technical and scientific products, product assembly and services. He's also worked direct to consumer with over 12 years in residential real estate sales. You can check him out at http://biznik.com/members/mike-schwagler.

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Trying To Write Compelling Salescopy? Play To Your Readers' Emotions...

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Sat, 9 May 2009 23:13:00 -0700

Benefits show -- in detail -- how your product will solve your customers' problems, improve their lives, save them money, and so on.

In a nutshell, benefits answer the BIGGEST question on readers' minds: "What's in it for me?"

But how do you know which benefits to focus on? What are people searching for when they type words into a search engine and end up on your sales page? More importantly, why are they searching?

(Hint: it's not because they like to spend money on random sites on the Internet!)

The answer to "why" is the secret ingredient that lies at the heart of EVERY successful salesletter: emotional appeal.

People don't buy things for rational reasons. They buy for emotional ones. They want to feel good... hopeful... satisfied... proud... relaxed... acknowledged... secure...

... you get the picture.

If you can identify the underlying emotional needs your product or service satisfies, you can write copy that identifies with your reader in a very intimate way. In a way that says YOU understand them. That you've been there yourself. And that you've found a solution to the very problem their emotions are driving them to solve.

That's powerful stuff.

So how can you write emotionally-charged salescopy that connects to your reader? Start by looking at the problem your product solves. What's the underlying emotion it addresses?

Let's say you sell an eBook on 5-minute makeup tips. What problem does your eBook solve? The need to look professional in a hurry and without too much effort? What emotions are being catered to? Pride? Vanity? Laziness? All three?

Out of all human emotions, some are more powerful "sales" drivers than others. So the first step to writing emotionally-charged copy is to identify which "power" emotions are at the core of your product.

Here are seven power emotions that you can tap into, to write salescopy that converts the MAXIMUM number of visitors into paying customers...

Power Emotion #1: Fear of Loss

One of the most powerful human drivers of change is fear. Fear of losing those things that are most important to us. It could be our sense of security that's at stake. Our money. Our health. Or even our happiness.

When you identify fear, you can write salescopy that speaks to that emotion, and indicates how your product will overcome that fear.

Here are some examples of copy that recognizes fear and offers a solution to it:

"Lose $3,000 tomorrow without this advice…"
"Protect your computer from viruses that can wipe out your entire hard drive."
"Selling your home? Avoid the top 10 mistakes that can cost you thousands of dollars!"

Notice how these examples use words like "protect" and "avoid"?

Just as there are power emotions, there are power words that correspond to those emotions!

What are some other power words besides "protect" that correspond to fear? Well, you can try words like:

Save
Secure
Safety
Clinch
Red flag
Defend

Keep in mind that when you identify negative emotions like fear, your ultimate goal is to show how your product or service takes away these fears.

Your job is to identify the fear that is there, relate to your reader based on that emotion, then provide relief from that unpleasant emotion. That's why the power words related to fear are positive.

Power Emotion #2: Greed

Greed is another powerful emotion that drives us to take action on our goals. Whether it's our thirst for money, security, fame, recognition, power, or just about anything else that we desire.

So how do you acknowledge these desires in your salescopy? And more importantly, how will your product provide them?

Take a look at some examples of copy that does just that:

"We'd like to introduce the easiest, simplest, and most efficient proven method for you to make money... This revolutionary method is 100% real and effective, and it will make you increase your income about 90%, so you can make between $100 and $500 a day."
"Club Sportiva gives you the keys to our private multi-million dollar car collection... letting you experience everything from the classics like a Jaguar E-type and Bentley to the newest exotic Ferraris and Lamborghinis."
"Tired of scraping by, only buying products if they're on 'sale', living paycheck to paycheck? Discover how to break the cycle once and for all, and start living a life of luxury."

And here are some power words you can use to connect with your readers' inner longing for easy acquisition:

All
Amass
Money
Millionaire
Monopolize
Results
Proven

Power Emotion #3: Lust

Lust is perhaps the most pleasurable of the power emotions. And who couldn't use a little more pleasure in their lives?

Some examples of salescopy that hand you lust on a platter:

"In this section, you will learn a step by step process for how to win the game of love, so that you can immediately begin attracting the love of your life."
"Learn the seduction secrets that will make women melt in your hands..."
"Are you ready for a night on the town? Your best girl friends -- check! Money for cover charges and one drink -- check! Oh wait -- what to wear? No worries, FlirtCatalog has one of the largest selections of sexy dresses to put your mind at ease!"

Home in on this pleasurable emotion using some of these lustful words

Compel
Attract
Love
Delicious
Tempting
Enticing
Charming
Discovery
Health
Tempt

Of course, people can lust after things as well as people (like a Lamborghini!). So keep in mind that your product doesn't have to be focused on "getting the girl" or other types of people-related lust.

Power Emotion #4: Vanity

If your product caters to people's vanity -- pride in their appearance, abilities, and achievements reflected back by others -- you're in luck. It's another top-selling emotion.

"If you want to be one of those women who always looks great no matter what you're wearing, no matter what your age...and even if you're not at your "ideal weight," then this will be the most important letter you've ever read."
"In the last 10 years, we've helped thousands of men and women of all ages and fitness levels to look and feel their very best -- people just like YOU!"

In fact, whole industries are built around this need to look and feel our best. Let's face it. We can all use a boost sometime. And those products that appeal to our vanity can provide them.

Some other vanity power words include:

Attractive
Confident
Magnetic
Younger
Stronger
Beautiful
You

Think about how your product or service caters to this power emotion... image consulting, exercise equipment, cosmetics, laser eye surgery, baldness cures... the list goes on.

Power Emotion #5: Pride

Do you feel pleasure when you know you've done something well? Feeling good about your accomplishments is what pride's all about.

To connect with pride, your ultimate goal is to show how your product will provide a sense of worth or accomplishment.

Let's take a look at a couple of examples:

"Would You Want Your Name Written In The 'Largemouth BASS' Hall Of FAME? What if I could show you insider up-to-date secret techniques that will put your name in the history records like the old-school stars -- Kevin VanDam, Denny Brauer and Gary Klein?"
"Now You Can Transform Ordinary Fabric Into a Handmade Quilt That Your Family and Friends Will Love, Admire and Cherish – Even If You Have Never Made a Quilt Before!"
"Transform the book idea in your head into a completed and ready-to-publish manuscript in your hands."

The opportunities for identifying with pride are endless! Your pride power-words:

Accomplish
Master
Transform
Best
Biggest
Greatest
Money
Proven
Results
Envy

Power Emotion #6: Envy

You've worked hard all your life, but you're not even close to making that 6-figure salary you thought you'd be making by now. But it seems every time you turn around, there's someone else who is.

Ah, envy. Whether you've got it for someone else or you want others to envy YOU, it's a powerful emotion. And it's one of the top instigators of change.

Envy is the state of seeing others who have what YOU want. So if you're going to identify with envy, you need to be prepared to tell them how your product will give them what they're lacking. In a word, your copy needs to promise fulfillment.

Testimonials, examples, and personal stories inspire envy -- and give inspiration to take further action:

"Your buddies will be AMAZED at your LUCK or so it would seem... If they only knew what you're about to discover..."
"I was working a corporate job for almost 9 years. Finally I had it when my salary was cut by 30%... Today my life is drastically different. I work out of my home office in NYC. I gave up the suit for jeans, sweats and shorts. And I spend most of my day doing what I love: working out, shopping, volunteering and walking my dog Cheila. And I have already tripled my income this year working this business 20-25 hours a week."
"Desperate Scrawny "Nerd" From Texas Humiliates The "Big Boys" At The Gym After Accidentally Discovering The Body's Hidden Natural "Trigger" For Blasting Through Rotten Genetics And Packing On Up To 3 - 6 - Even 9 INCHES Of Shredded Muscle...NOT In Years...But Just WEEKS!"

Here are some envy power words you can use:

Desire
Covet
Begrudge
Secret
Ordinary
Extraordinary
People just like you

Just remember, envy is only a negative emotion if it doesn't prompt someone to take concrete steps to change whatever it is about their lives that isn't working for them.

And if your product can provide those steps, your customers need to know about it!

But first you have to capture their attention... by using genuine testimonials or personal anecdotes you can inspire a little envy, then go on to describe how your reader can achieve the same enviable state!

Power Emotion #7: Laziness

These days, there are a lot of things competing for our time and attention. Family, work, hobbies, giving back to the community... the list goes on and on. So products that can provide quick results with minimal effort are extremely appealing.

That's where laziness comes into play.

Laziness is the need for maximum results with minimum effort. And its allure is powerful.

Here are some examples of "lazy" copy:

"Avoid the common fitness mistakes that waste your time."
"How would you like to write your book in 3 days? Attend my Author's Boot Camp and get that book that you know is inside you out of your head and onto the paper in one weekend."

Your lazy power words:

Instant access
Save time
In less than
Break-neck speed
Lightning
Easy
Guaranteed
Roadmap
Blueprint
Avoid mistakes

Those are the top 7 power-emotions in a nutshell. Did you notice that salescopy from the same website came up in a couple of examples? For instance, the examples about writing a book covered laziness AND pride. Most copy will cater to more than just one type of emotion.

And there are natural combinations of these emotions, too: pride, laziness, and greed; fear, pride, and vanity; or envy, vanity, and laziness, for example.

So by all means, choose two or three to highlight throughout your copy and sales process. In general, any more than that, and your copy won't be as focused or effective as it should.

But remember, emotion is the element that will turbo-charge your salescopy, so think -- and FEEL -- like your potential customers.

marketingtips.com

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5 Tips to Become a Better Marketer

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Mon, 4 May 2009 20:28:00 -0700

Let's start off by discussing what marketing is. According to the American Marketing Association (from Wikipedia)...

"Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. The term developed from the original meaning which referred literally to going to market, as in shopping, or going to a market to buy or sell goods or services."

The above tasks are by no means easy, especially now during our less than stellar economy. Marketers have fascinating yet challenging jobs that essentially boil down to making business work. I was thinking about a few things that marketers can do to help improve their game and wanted to share those things with you.

Stay up to date with technology

Technology is shaping how we market to and build relationships with our users. We have tools that let you communicate to the world instantly, social networks that allow you to build fan pages, applications that can tell what store carries a particular product and for how much, etc. As a marketer you need to be aware of the new technologies out there and how they could potentially impact how you do business.

Create conversations not broadcasts

Broadcast messages are dead, they are just too easy to ignore and tune out. Instead of focusing on creating broadcast messages to large groups of people, shift strategies and try to create conversations with your marketing tactics. The more flow of information you can create the better.

Communicating the new

It's no secret that the marketing landscape is changing. It's not enough to just want to be a part of the new type of marketing. You have to be able to understand why you want to be a part of it and how to communicate that to senior execs. Take twitter as a simple example. Would you be able to justify using twitter for business to your boss? Part of marketing is being unique and standing out, being the "purple cow;" the other part is communicating why and how you are going to become that "purple cow." Desire and ideas will only get you so far, you have to back up your actions and decisions.

Metrics and measurement

Part of being an effective marketer is the ability to show results. How do you do this? by identifying metrics that tie in with your marketing objectives and then showing those metrics increasing. How do you justify the cost for a billboard ad or a television commercial? How do you justify creating a facebook fan page or a twitter account? Learn how to use online analytics and measurement tools and make sure you understand how to correlate your metrics with your actions.

Listening and responding

As a marketer you should be keenly listening to, observing, and engaging in the conversations and discussions that are going on around your product or service. Pay attention to what your users want and don't want what they like and don't like. Technology has created virtually free ways for marketers to monitor their brand and create online focus groups. Much of the information a marker needs can be found online for free (or can be gathered). If your customers complain, listen, if they talk to you, respond. This is how you can keep your conversations from turning into broadcasts.

There are several other things that can be added to this list but I'd rather hear from you. What are some of your tips for becoming a better a marketer?

Source : http://www.mpdailyfix.com

Author : Jacob
http://www.jmorganmarketing.com

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Online Business Functionality

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:02:00 -0700

What Do You Want Your Online Business To Do? I'm sure you've heard the term Web 2.0 recently and wonder... What does that mean?

Well, "Web 2.0" refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design, that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Essentially, Web 2.0 changes the way people use and interact with the web.

The concepts behind Web 2.0 have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, social-networking, blogs, Twitter, et cetera, et cetera. There are some really cool web companies coming online and doing great things.

As a business owner, you're probably thinking, "Web 2.0 means I need to spend even more money on my already oversized technology budget." Well, we're here to help.

With Web 2.0 we need to change some terminology. Instead of talking about your "web site" let's talk about your "online business". The technology changes to the web have changed the way web sites work, or at least, should work.

nstead of having your web site simply display your telephone number and physical address, web sites are now living working extensions of your business. Your web site should be more proactive and work hard to:

* Amplify Your Voice
* Automate Your Customer Service (Self-Service)
* Sell Products Online
* Generate New Leads
* Build Your Community
* Build Customer Loyalty
* Amplify Your Voice

Amplify Your Voice

One of the best ways to amplify your voice is through Blogs and Email Marketing. Good content addresses your customers' information needs, and search engines love good content. It also gives your business a human touch.

Automate Your Customer Service (Self-Service)

How many customer phone calls do you get asking about the same thing? And, how much time is spent answering the same question? Every web site should have a section that focuses on Customer Service. It is important your web site has an FAQ section, Webforms and Workflows and Secure Zones to help your business automate your customer service.

Sell Products Online

Building eCommerce web sites and selling your products online was once a very expensive, time-consuming adventure. The cost to develop online shops has gone down dramatically. If you want to sell your products online, there is nothing standing in your way. Online shops are a great way to expand your business' reach and product offering.

Generate New Leads

Your web site should offer users an option of getting in touch with you. Webforms and workflows help ensure your web site is converting users to new leads.

Build Your Community

A good business will always have a community of dedicated customers. With your online business, Blogs, Forums, Comments, Customer Databases help to build that community and keep it strong.

Build Customer Loyalty

Building customer loyalty is a lot harder than it seems. It takes incredible focus to make sure your customers are loyal. Your web site needs to help you do just that. Targeted Email Marketing, Comments, FAQs are all aspects of your online business that should be working for you to build that loyalty.

Businesses must embrace the strengths of the web and use it as a platform. Make your web site, your online business, work for you!

Oh, and if you need a great web site design and development company to help, let's talk. We'll take you by the hand and provide good guidance. We give concrete ideas about suitable design, what functions your web site should have, and strategy to help you achieve your business goals. We take the time to help our clients prioritize their goals so that we can provide you with a great solution.

About the Author: John Sullivan - After 5 years as the Interactive Director for a fortune 500 company, Bullsprig was started by John Sullivan in 2003. Since then, we've done a lot and learned a lot. We take pride in being partners with major companies, small start-ups and everything in between. Our work has won national and international marketing awards.

entireweb

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Work On Your Web Content And Your Content Will Work For You

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:48:00 -0700

Effective website content can generate targeted traffic, improve conversions, increase average sales value, and even increase customer retention levels.

It's no secret that website content plays a pivotal role in generating traffic; virtually every marketing website and SEO newsletter extols the search ranking based benefit of keyword optimised content.

However, content that concentrates solely on keyword densities and extensive keyword lists is often bereft of character and may be doing more harm than good – you can generate as much website traffic as you like but if your content doesn't effectively convert traffic into bottom line sales then your business will suffer.

You Can Improve Rankings With Good Quality Content

Website content CAN improve rankings, but improved search engine positions do not have to come at the expense of poor quality content.

Use your researched keywords but add inflexions as well as semantically, or topically, related keywords. Throw in a collection of Search Engine Presumed Synonyms (SEPS) and you have the ingredients to write high quality content that will perform in every way.

Convert Visitors To Customers

Writing good quality web page copy isn't enough to ensure you get conversions. The copy needs to sell and it needs to sell to your target market.

If you don't know or understand your target market then you should start researching and really get to know the people that will be visiting your website. Effective copy should also give visitors a reason to buy your products or pay for your services and to do so immediately.

Generate A Buzz

Word of mouth marketing has been one of the most effective forms of marketing for small businesses and service providers for generations.

Websites can benefit in a similar way but on a much grander scale. Offer something of genuine value that causes intrigue, answers a question, or offers credible and useful information. Not only will your visitors appreciate it and be more likely to trust what you say but they'll also be inclined to tell others with similar interests. The end result could be the type of viral marketing you only dreamed of.

Enjoy Greater Average Sales Figures

If you're adequately tracking your website's performance then you should have a good knowledge of the average sales value your site generates. The greater the average figure, the more you can afford to spend on design, development, marketing, and other website and business improvements.

Your return on investment will be greatly improved if you can provide content that persuades visitors that they need to buy a handful of products rather than one. As well as offering discounts or offers such as free shipping for orders over a certain value, directed content can help towards this end.

Gain Greater Customer Retention Rates

The most successful businesses are those that retain their customer base. This is true whether you're selling products or services, whether you're promoting your own products or those of an affiliate program.

A returning customer costs you less in marketing, improves your website ROI, and increases your sales figure. What's more, a returning customer that's happy will already be sold on the service that you offer; they will trust you and believe your word.

Offer useful and insightful tips and articles on how to get the most from your products or services and always provide a high level of after sales customer service to enjoy the best possible customer retention rates.

About the Author: Matt Jackson - WebWiseWords is a website content writer providing content writing and SEO copywriting services that are geared towards improving all aspects of your online business.

Entireweb.com

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Google Set To Change Ranking Algorithm

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:57:00 -0700

By Jason Lee Miller - Tue, 04/21/2009 - 17:26

Blackhat SEO spammers force Google’s hand

Google is set to make changes to its search ranking algorithm to combat the spate of links leading to malicious web pages appearing at the top of Google’s search results, according to an inside source.

Over the past few months, cybercriminals have been using blackhat SEO techniques to manipulate search rankings. When it first began, they were marginally successful at following Google Trends to find buzzy search queries and elevating a newly created targeted webpage.

But after a short period of time, these same gangs appear to have become disturbingly effective. Last week, when researching a news story, I found the top five results all led to fake scareware pages.

Obviously if Google fails to do something about this manipulation, users will lose trust and the good ole days of Google will be over fast. A Googler speaking on condition of anonymity told WebProNews a ranking change is pending that tackles spam of this kind. Once the change goes live, users shouldn’t see it “nearly as often.”

A report from security company PandaLabs identified over a million links targeting malicious webpages ranking for auto part searches. Google noted that many of the phrases mentioned in the report were rare. A phrase like [1989 Nissan Pickup Truck Engine Check Light Troubleshooting], for example, only appears on attack sites set up by spammers, which explains why Google brought back so many attack sites in response to it and similar queries.

Google's response seems also an admission of how difficult it is to provide fresh, timely search results while simultaneously combating spammers. Part of the appeal of Twitter to many people is the platform’s ability to provide real-time information; the live Web works remarkably well there so far because Twitter’s set up isn’t very conducive to spam (yet). At least Twitter has to some extent control over accounts.

Google, on the other hand, cannot control for content appearing on the Web at large, and historically its famous algorithm performed better than any other at weeding out spammy webpages and malicious results. Unfortunately, that was a version of the Web that was more static. The live Web presents entirely new challenges manifesting as the first major weakness the search engine has faced.

The company naturally didn’t have a comment on the recently pondered “link velocity” ranking factor. Search engine optimization experts have identified the speed at which organic links appear as a possible important influence.

Link velocity therefore aids in explaining how blackhatters were able to manipulate search results by dropping enormous amounts of link spam into comment and discussion areas of social sites. The freshness or buzzy nature of a query also aided in this pursuit, and cybercriminals merely have to follow Google Trends and Google News to know which keywords and phrases to target.

About the author:
Jason Lee Miller is a WebProNews editor and writer covering business and technology.

Five Reasons to Post Your Commercial on YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:38:00 -0700

By Apryl Duncan, About.com

Don't let the money you've already spent on your commercial go to waste. You should stretch your ad dollar even further by posting your commercial on YouTube.com. Here's why:

1. Your Commercial's Already Produced
You spent your ad dollars to create an effective TV commercial so make the most of your money. Posting your commercial to YouTube is free and you get a longer shelf life on your ad even after your run on local airwaves is over.

2. New Way to Reach Customers
There are a couple of new ways to reach customers by posting your commercial on YouTube:

Invite Current Customers
Send an invitation by mail or Email to your customers inviting them to watch your commercial on YouTube. If you have a newsletter mailing list or contact Email addresses, send a personal Email that announces your commercial and where they can see it.
Just be sure your customers have given the okay to be contacted so your company isn't considered a spammer. You always want to make sure you send any bulk Email responsibly.
Reach Customers Outside of Your City
Millions of people visit YouTube and the site's traffic consistently falls in the top five of every online ranking system. Even if you live in Small Town, USA, selling local products, you have the ability to reach new customers by taking your ad campaign outside of your immediate area.

You may or may not get a sale because someone saw your ad on YouTube but you could generate a lot of buzz, which leads us right into the number three reason to post your commercial on YouTube.

3. Possible Local Coverage
There are a couple of ways you can get even more exposure for your company by posting your ad online. Make a PR effort after your ad is posted. Send press releases to local media outlets announcing that your company is taking its ad ad campaign online with your TV commercial being available on YouTube. This is a good story for newspapers, magazines and Web sites that cover local interest stories.

Don't ignore your TV markets, though. While this is not really a story that's a right fit for TV coverage on its own, you never know when a morning show needs a guest to talk about online advertising and what you've done.

You also want to keep tabs on how your ad is doing. When you reach a milestone, such as 10,000 views, a spot on the "Most Discussed" list, being featured, etc., send out another press release to announce the latest news. Be aggressive with your PR efforts to get the most out of your YouTube ad campaign.

4. Potential to Earn Revenue
You can get paid when people watch your ad on YouTube if you qualify for YouTube's Partner Program. You'll want to stay on top of your PR push after your video is posted. The more people that view your ad, the higher your commercial's rank climbs, the more potential you have to earn money back on what you've already paid to have created.

5. An Easy Way to Get Your Ad on Your Site
Your Web site helps advertise your company. Take your ad campaign to a whole new level by allowing your customers to watch your commercial just by visiting your Web site.

Once you've posted your ad on YouTube, you can easily put it on your site. There are a number of reasons why you would want to do this:

Save Your Bandwidth
When potential customers come to your site, they need to be able to see your products, prices and answer any of the questions they have fast. If you have people watching your commercial through your own site's bandwidth, that commercial is hogging the speed and slowing down your site.

Most small business Web sites don't have a lot bandwidth to support videos being watched because they don't need it. After your ad is on YouTube, though, you have the option of linking to your ad or embedding it on your site. YouTube covers the bandwidth and your site continues to run smoothly and unaffected.
Increased Video Views
Adding a link or embedding it on your site helps your video views. Since the commercial's hosted on YouTube's server, you get credit for every view. This also increases your commercial's rank, which helps you in your PR efforts as well as your potential to earn money if your ad becomes popular enough.

Many companies are missing out on a unique opportunity to attract customers. Don't post your ad and call it a day, though.

Be sure to follow up with an aggressive PR push and track your ad's success. Not only do you get extra mileage out of your commercial, you never know who's watching.

Source : About.com

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URLMetrix (beta)

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:20:00 -0700

This tool is useful to check the popularity of a URL (link popularity) of a Blog or WebSite. Only by entering the URL, we are directly some important information about the presence, position and rank and the number of backlink from a few popular services like Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, compete Rank, Quantcast rank, Technorati Rank, Google Indexed, Yahoo Indexed, Google backlinks, Yahoo backlinks, Delicious Bookmarks, DMOZ Links and some other popular services.

Urlmetrix

Enjot it friend:)

Your Website & the Importance of Keeping an Eye on Bounce Rate

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:18:00 -0700

By Merle (c) 2009 Merle's Mission

When you hear the word "bounce", you're probably more inclined to associate it with a checking account, not your website. But for those who study and understand website statistics, they understand that "bounce rate" is an important measure of your website's effectiveness.

Bounce rate, simply put, is the percentage of people who come to your site, then immediately leave without viewing any of the inside content pages. Think of it like window shopping. Say you browse by a shop and don't really care to enter based on what you saw at first glance through the window. The window in this case is your home page. A bad first impression, or irrelevant content, can chase away a visitor and stop them from freely investigating the full content of your site.

Google Analytics defines bounce rate as:

"The percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. Use this metric to measure visit quality - a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren't relevant to your visitors."

Therefore, a high bounce rate is bad but a low bounce rate is a positive sign that your visitors are engaging and exploring your website. So what constitutes a good rate? This is a very hard question to answer, but if you do some research, most say it needs to be under 50%. It also will depend on the type of site that you have. For example, if you're a blogger, many times a visitor will come to your blog to read the latest updates then leave. Thus more often a blog will have a higher bounce rate than a "normal" site as there is no need for them to go any deeper.

How do you know what your bounce rate is? One free program that makes it easy is "Google Analytics". Register, list your sites and paste some HTML code on your pages and you're ready to go. You'll clearly see your bounce rate go up and down as you view the in-depth reports.

So, how can you improve your bounce rate? First, you'll need to track the rate over time, and also look at the amount of time your visitors are sticking around. Also, take note of the traffic sources. Where is the majority of the traffic coming from? Search engines, direct links, social networking sites like Stumble Upon or Twitter, etc. The source of the traffic and the quality of that traffic will contribute to the overall bounce rate being higher or lower for the week. Some traffic, depending on the source will naturally convert better than others.

Once you know your statistical rate, you'll need to start making small changes, then run tests to see if it improves over time. It all starts with trying to improve the usability of your site's landing page. Translation: what people see when they come to your home page.

You can make changes to the design, look and feel of your site. Make sure there are other links readily available to peak the visitor's interest so they'll want to dive further into your content. Of course, you always want to make sure your site's navigation is user friendly, and that the site itself is easy to use and well organized. Another trick is to play around with different headlines, even change your website's copy. Another big problem is a heavy load time. Make sure your site loads quickly so the visitor isn't reaching for their back button before it even finishes loading.

Change one thing at a time, and keep your eye on the bounce rate to see if it improves. If you're not doing so already, have Google Analytics email your site reports weekly in PDF format. This will make your homework a little easier.

As you can see, bounce rate is an important statistical measure and says a lot about the "stickiness/effectiveness" of your website. There are also those who believe it plays a role in search engine algorithms and how they rank your site. If this is true or not, I don't know - but if it is true it gives you some extra motivation in working on improving it. For more on this controversial subject see:

SearchEngineLand

WebProNews

By studying your site's bounce rate, you really can learn a lot as to what's working and what's not with your website. It really is an important number to know and one you'll want to continually strive to improve upon.

Like costly heated air leaking out a drafty window, you'll want to do what you can to plug those leaks and try to keep visitors at your site a little longer. It's only when they are fully engaged that they'll make a purchase, subscribe to your ezine or do whatever action you consider a conversion. In the end, isn't that what it's all about? If your site's been losing visitors as fast as they enter, it's time to follow the "bounce rate" and make some much needed changes.

About The Author

Merle's Mission Blog - "Rants, Raves and Random Acts of Kindness" a self proclaimed "Internet Junkie" with a passion for net marketing, affiliate marketing, social networking. An avid Blogger and writer with several niche sites to her credit. Find out more at MerlesWorld.Blogspot.com

Picture from pain4glory.com added by pitonhneg

Hunting high pagerank links

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 05:33:00 -0700

We know that if more and more quality links with high PR that are specific to our blog. We will be better. Because, will increase the PR value of our blog page. Either to find out all the links on the PR value stored on the blog can use a free service tools iwebtool. This Tools not only used for hunting link. However we can use to find out all the links that are stored in our blog page.

how to use. Okay friend,let's see how...

How to use this tool?

1. Go to iwebtool site

2. Enter the exact website address of the page you want to check the PageRank for into the text box. (eg. www.iwebtool.com/tools/)

3. Click the "Check!" button

The result pagerank checking links :

Safe use friends....! :D

Keywordle

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:47:00 -0700

Who should use keywordle.com?

keywordle.com is a very generic application so it's really up to the whims of the user as to what it's used for. Here are some possible applications:

1. Improving your website by adding keywords to your site's meta-tags
2. Compiling a list of terms for a keyword-based search engine marketing campaign
3. Understanding how key terms in competitor's sites differ from yours

What is keywordle.com?

Keywordle.com is a 'mashup' that utilizes the public APIs of both google.com and yahoo.com

First we search google.com for information about the URL you have entered. We search within the site itself but also request results from google about sites which link to the URL as well as for results that google believes are related to the URL

Note: Because we use google as our primary search source, it's important that the site is listed in google.

Finally, we take the results of our google searches, and filter them using yahoo.com's "Term Extraction" service and display the resultant keywords!

How to use keywordle.com?

Enter your URL (ie., www.yoursitename.com) in the box provided and then hit the "Generate Keyword Suggestions" button

After the keywords have been returned and displayed, weed out those that you don't want by using the small delete button to the right of each keyword

Finally, choose the type of listing you are interested in, and click the appropriate button. Copy the tags and paste them into your own application.

Why keywordle.com?

Yes, "Keywordle" is a pretty dumb name for a site. But it does contain the term "keyword" and, frankly, all the decent names seem to have already been taken by domain name squatters and other tossers. So, what are you going to do?

" Some men see things as they are and ask, 'why?' I dream things that never were and ask, 'why not?' "

I Follow

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:48:00 -0700

Almost all blog platforms by default are set up so that a “dead end” piece of code is inserted wherever there is a link in a comment, so that search engines will not “count” the link as they are crawling the internet. This was originally designed to help stop comment spam, but it doesn’t work. What it does is remove some of the incentive for your readers contribute to your site by commenting on your posts.

What can you do about it? Turn off “nofollow”. Show your commenters that you appreciate them. Spread the link love.

How? Depending on the blog platform you’re on, you can install a plugin (like this one for WordPress), or disable it (see this post if you’re a Moveable Type user), or modify your template (check this site for Blogger tips).

Turning off the “nofollow” on blog comments has become a sort of “movement”. Well, if we’re going to have a movement, we should have something to show our readers that we’re part of it, don’t you think? I’ve created some little “I Follow” logos that would work well for a side bar, and if you’ve written a post letting your readers know that you’ve turned off nofollow in your comments, you could link the logo to that post. I’ve also set up some quick CSS if you’d rather:

If you’d rather use just CSS - click here to open a separate page and then view the source to copy the CSS from. You can easily change the colors to fit in with your site.

Source : randaclay

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Content Relevancy and Link Popularity Explained

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:08:00 -0700

How does a web page get ranked #1 on Google? There is no doubt that the methods of the 1990s no longer work - and most definitely, not since Google went public in 2004

Back then, the content of your website's pages was the major factor. Today, however, having links on the Internet that point back to your website is another important criteria, which will require that you involve yourself in the Internet community.

The later point is a very interesting to consider. How do you involve yourself in the Internet community? What does this have to do with search engine optimization (SEO)? Actually, involving yourself in the Internet community doesn't directly have anything to do with SEO; however, many people seem to pigeon hole anything related to the search engines into SEO. Therefore, we will need to define the various acronyms that are used in the Internet industry.

The Internet has also created an environment in which institutional control of information has been lost. As a result, control of information has trickled down to the individual level. Imagine the transition from several thousand companies once controlling messages through traditional media to today's expansive communication via several million individuals free to distribute their own information on the Internet. What you find is that the logic process has also been spread over millions of people; and for this reason, it is harder to explain why certain things happen on the Internet.

Because the Internet has opened the communications to the individual, the individuals are now exposed to the concepts of business. Not everyone has a business degree and most only have a superficial understanding. As such, the definition of marketing and how advertising plays a role in this process is not well understood at the individual level. This has caused improper usage of the various acronyms used on the Internet today.

Marketing and Advertising Defined

Before we can understand the various acronyms being used within the Internet industry, it is important to understand the definitions of marketing vs. advertising.

* 'Marketing' is the process or technique of promotion, selling and distributing a product or service. * 'Advertising' is to make your product or service publicly known; an announcement to call public attention by emphasizing qualities to arouse a desire to purchase.

You can see from the definitions that advertising is part of marketing. Marketing includes everything about raising the awareness of your business from branding, messaging, public relations, advertising, events, customer relationships and much more. Advertising is a component of marketing and should never be the only method used to promote your business.

Defining SEM, SEA, SEO and LP

Using what we have learned about the definition of marketing, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) would include all processes related to promoting all of your website's pages with the search engines. Included in this process would be Search Engine Advertising (SEA), which would be the sponsored search advertising - or, what some also refer to as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. These are the sponsored links along the top, right side and bottom of search results. Also, included in SEM would be SEO and your outreach program on the Internet away from your website that increases the number of links to your website, also known as Link Popularity (LP).

What is SEO?

It is important to understand how to tell the search engines that a particular page of your website is an authority in a particular topic. Keywords and phrases are utilized to communicate this expert status to search engines. You will notice that we are talking about pages of your website. Each page of your website can be optimized for a topic based on its visible content. We are no longer optimizing blindly the entire website for the same information, but using each page to help drive traffic to our website. By all means, this does mean that for a particular search result, visitors may enter your website from somewhere else other than the home page!

Each search engine has a different algorithm in deciding what the person searching is seeking and how relevant the information on the individual pages of your website relates to the search. They take into account the title of the page, the meta description, and the visible text. Some search engines do look at your meta keywords, but not nearly as much as they used to in the past. What you are presenting with visible text is what the visitor will see; and therefore, the content has more value than the Meta keywords. This also prevents spammers and fraudulent websites from hiding their true identity.

Why is SEO Important?

The volume of information on the Internet is staggering. The Internet seems larger than our real world. Search engines have an enormous task to filter all of this information to provide something meaningful to the searcher in a matter of seconds. Compared to the old days of using search tools like Archie and Veronica that required hours and sometimes days finding information on the Internet, the results from the current search engines are significantly improved.

The competition of web pages (whether they are direct competitors or not) as well as your business competitors are all seeking to also be ranked within the first three pages of search results. It is important that you seek out the right resources to help you optimize your pages and give you a fighting chance.

What to do before you SEO

Research, research, research! There are many tools out there that provide you information about what people actually type into the search engine, the number of searches performed over a 30 day period, as well as how many competing web pages exist for that search term. These are the three major parts to the research you are seeking. The search engines can provide you the first two with their tools, while the third item may require you to perform a search in quotes to get a real understanding of the total competing web pages. There are third party tools that can also provide the complete information, however, always keep in mind that the search volume is not an absolute from any source including the search engines. Use the information as a guideline to give you direction. Regardless of the tool(s) you use for your research, they will all provide you options for other key phrases to consider based on your initial entry. This will be helpful to consider other alternatives you may not have thought about.

In this process you will learn two important items.

* First you will learn that the rest of the world may not necessarily search for your website's products and services the same way you expect them to. For example, you may be ranked number one for a particular term, but if no one is searching for that term, what difference does it make if you're number one or number 100? Go with what people are searching.

* Secondly, you will want to seek out a balance between the number of searches and the number of competing web pages. The search term that has several million competing web pages will take you longer to rank where as those that are only in the thousands will be easier. Take a look at the search volume to see what would happen if you had 1% of those visitors purchase? Based on what you are selling you may not need to be ranked for terms that have thousands of searches. For your business, those with lower search volumes and less competition may suffice as a foundation.

Consider your research as a starting point, not an end point. You can always change your optimization later; and always keep in mind that you can optimize the pages within your website to cover a variety of possibilities from your research.

What you do to SEO

Search Engine Optimization does require some technical understanding of the HTML code in order to add the necessary meta tags, insure you have the right image alt descriptions, the right link title descriptions and lastly, to appropriately write the visible text on the pages. The elements of this process include the following:

HTML Code

Be sure that your HTML code adheres to the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) standards. Many will ask the question why and the answer is simple. If you adhere to the standards, you can't go wrong. If you don't adhere to them, there is a higher chance that it will have a negative effect for browsers and search engines.

HTML structure

Websites with outdated Flash animations, frame designs, and broken links are certainly not going to allow search engines to identify the content of your web pages. Use current coding methods, not table based websites. Can you easily navigate your website? If not, then neither can the search engines; and therefore they cannot identify how to rank your web pages.

Website Flow

Does your website allow a visitor to reach your business objective easily from the point of entry? Make sure you have a call to action on all pages of your website.

Use of all meta-data

Meta data goes beyond Title, Keywords and Descriptions. There are a variety of meta tags that inform search engines about the content of your web page. Use all of them. Don't forget to have unique Title, Keywords and Descriptions for each of your web pages. Duplicate content is not something the search engines appreciate.

Visible Content

Be sure to have well-written, grammatically correct and spell-checked content to your web pages. If your website becomes a resource for its unique content you are more likely to receive traffic-seeking information about your business.

Your Outreach Program: Link Building

Consider link building as a process that will increase the critical mass of information about your business. The information or content you post (vs. advertise) on the Internet will have a shelf life of years. Therefore, the links to your website will also accumulate over time and also have a shelf life of years.

The more links you have pointing back to your website the more popular your website is considered by the search engines. Based on the content that is posted your website will be considered an authority on that topic.

The process of posting content on the Internet will not only generate traffic from the search engines, but also generate traffic to your website from the websites where the content is posted. Oddly enough you will get traffic from these websites before receiving traffic from the search engines.

Content you will post on the Internet will come in five primary forms: Articles, News Releases, Videos, Photos and Social Media Marketing. The process of content marketing is quite involved and is also labor intensive when done correctly. If you come across anything that may sound like a "link farm", you will want to run because they will not give you any long term results and are not considered responsible link building.

Finally the link building process comes in three formats: direct links to your website, cross linking content on the Internet, and deep linking to specific pages within your website. Understanding this process becomes a strategy in order for your prospects to find you and have all paths lead back to your website.

Conclusion

Is this an overnight process? Absolutely not! It is an ongoing process that acts not only as a public relations tool, but also as a long term advertising tool. The process of maintaining your website and the content marketing process of link building is something you do daily, weekly and monthly. Part of this process and Internet marketing strategy also requires the initial research process and the measurement of the results and the effects of your efforts.

About the Author: SmartFinds Internet Marketing agency (Smartfinds) develops strategies for corporations with a sophisticated approach to digital marketing. From website development, creative, branding, to research and strategy development to digital marketing to digital advertising to measurement, reporting and data analysiss.

Entireweb.com

Picture from studiomotori.com added by pitonhneg

How to Sell a Website for $1 Million

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Thu, 9 Apr 2009 04:39:00 -0700

By Gregory Go, About.com Guide to Online Business

Shane Pike, an entrepreneur who built NursingJobs.org from the ground up and sold it to a major Internet company for big bucks, has written an in-depth article about his experience building and selling a site.

How to Sell a Website for $1 Million teaches other site builders what it takes to have a million dollar exit. Shane talks about:

Is your site worth $1 million? When you're evaluating the value of your website, some factors to consider include the strength of your brand, your site's defensibility (how vulnerable is it to new competition), are you still growing, how valuable is your niche, and your site's uniqueness and market position (are you the leader or one among many).
Are you sure you want to sell? Shane talks about why now might not be the right time to sell, and more importantly, why now is the perfect time to sell. You may want to sell now if a sale will set you up for life, if the business is risky and external forces may strip your site of all its value, or if you're just burned out.
How to sell for the maximum price. Shane offers 3 ways to sell a site -- do it yourself, use a broker, or use an investment bank. He then explains how using an investment bank (the way he sold his site) maximizes the dollar amount you can get for your website.

I had a chance to talk to Shane last year at BlogWorld Expo and found him to be a very open and knowledgeable guy. His blog, AskShane.org, is well worth a read for anyone trying to earn a living building (and selling) websites. Check out Shane's blog and ask him some questions. He's generous with his experiences and more than willing to teach others how to reach their goals too.

Picture from www.landlordtenant.org.uk added by pitonhneg

Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Thu, 9 Apr 2009 04:33:00 -0700

By Gregory Go, About.com

What is Twitter:

Twitter - microblogging pioneer

Website: Twitter.com

Twitter is the pioneer of microblogging. The idea is to have a really easy way to post short public messages. Twitter imposes a 140 character limit on "updates".

Ubiquitous input is another hallmark of Twitter (and to a lesser degree, microblogging in general). You can post a Twitter update using a Web form, email, instant message, various smartphone interfaces (iPhone, Blackberry, etc), downloadable desktop widgets, and more.

Peeling Back the Onion: Metrics that Matter to a Good Search Engine Optimization Company

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Wed, 8 Apr 2009 08:27:00 -0700

By Scott Buresh (c) 2009

"I want to be number one on Google for (insert hyper-competitive keyphrase here)."

It's usually the first thing we hear in terms of search engine optimization - a company wants to be in that coveted top spot on Google, Yahoo!, Ask, and MSN. No matter the industry or specialty, when companies approach us with their desired goals for an SEO campaign, it's usually all about improving their rankings and positions...and often nothing else. Yes, achieving first page rankings or top spots on the search engines is an incredibly desirable accomplishment to many companies who want immediate and noticeable results. But with such a considerable investment in an SEO campaign, you'd think companies in need of search engine optimization services would also be concerned with their overall ROI, especially in light of the current economy.
Vastly improved (or even #1) rankings are rather easy to achieve in an SEO campaign, even by a novice search engine optimization company. I once wrote an article demonstrating that top rankings were simple - and proved it by optimizing the article for the phrase "Leprechaun Repellent ." To this day, that article, on various sites, takes up nine of the top ten spots on Google for the ridiculous phrase. The obvious question, then, is what those rankings ultimately accomplish. And so we peel back the layers of the onion until we get there.

The First Layer - Rankings

Rankings, rankings, rankings. This is by far the most popular metric for any SEO campaign. Occasionally, a search engine optimization company may not be concerned with your bottom line because it can offer guarantees and focus exclusively on achieving this goal (even though, as in the 'Leprechaun' example above, it's really not getting you anywhere significant in the long run).

Rankings by themselves mean little, and the problem with companies obsessed over rankings is that it doesn't demonstrate the usefulness of search engine optimization. For a company website, high rankings are great (and impressive for an SEO campaign), but they are just the first layer of the onion. As any good search engine optimization company will demonstrate, our goal is (and yours should be) to bring and/or improve the levels of high quality traffic to your website, meaning visitors who come to your website via a search are already reasonably interested in your products or services.

The Second Layer - Search-Engine Referred Traffic

Increasing search-referred traffic is not a perfect metric because, if visitors are not converting on your website, there's not a big value proposition to be had. Alone, the metric relies heavily on the right keyphrase selection by your search engine optimization company during the beginning phases of your SEO campaign.

Say that a farming supply company who wanted to be number one on Google for "affordable farming equipment" decided to try a different tactic while attempting to improve its search-engine referred traffic. If the website had been optimized for 'Britney Spears,' for example, traffic levels would undoubtedly be high (if the site ranked well for the term - admittedly a huge challenge), but few visitors would be converting, and business, in turn, would be far from booming. Visitors will jump ship immediately and serve as an immediate reminder of the negative impact that poor phrase selection by your search engine optimization company can have on your long-term ROI.

The Third Layer - Take Rate

Essentially, the take rate refers to the number or percentage of search-referred visitors showing interest in your products or demos (your POA or Point-of-Action). The take rate merely signifies a visitor who demonstrates an interest in your POA, for example, by clicking on a "Contact Us" link. The data you're gauging here is simply overall interest, since not all of the visitors will follow through and actually convert.

Fortunately, there are ways to improve your take rate during the SEO campaign - making the point-of-action blatant and clear on every page is usually the most effective (but overlooked) method. Collaborating with your search engine optimization company to make certain that the primary POA on your website is indeed the most desirable action that a visitor can take is of paramount importance.

The Fourth Layer - Conversion

Strictly speaking, "Conversion" is the percentage of visitors to your website that actually follow through with your POA. Once your search engine optimization company has helped you improve your take rate, you should work on getting more of those people to actually convert. Is your form too long? Do you show a prominent privacy policy promising not to use or sell personal data? Is it a quick, easy process or do people have to jump through hoops? A good search engine optimization company will be able to help you to identify the elements that are serving as barriers to conversion.

The Fifth Layer - Offsite Metrics

If a client allows it, we like to get involved in the nitty-gritty of offsite metrics as part of the SEO campaign. Though the usual search engine optimization company doesn't go this far into the process, this area alone proves invaluable to demonstrating your ROI.

By analyzing offline metrics on a granular level, your search engine optimization company can examine and report on your average dollar sale for search-referred traffic, the average dollar value of each search-referred lead, the average lifetime value of each search-referred lead, and much, much more.

A software system is usually required to report the data acquired during your SEO campaign; we use Salesforce, a leading CRM (customer relationship management) solution that can be implemented to track these statistics for you. Though it requires diligence to analyze (as well as follow leads from cradle to grave), your company can analyze which engines attracted the most visitors, which keyphrases were the most profitable, the value of customers, and retention levels.

More than Rankings

All layers of the onion, so to speak, are important to an SEO campaign, but the closer you get to the actual dollar return, the more accurate your assessment of success or failure will be. Rankings alone are no indication of success. For that matter, neither is search-referred traffic if the visitors don't take an action on the site that can lead to a sale. And when the lead finally comes in, there is no way to track the value unless you follow up with offline metrics to determine exactly how much leads from your website are worth.

These are all base metrics - many campaigns are much more involved and use thousands of different data points. But if you are new to the conversion/ROI game and are thinking about hiring a search engine optimization company, make sure that its goal is to be attuned to your bottom line.

About The Author
Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing, which was named the number one organic search engine optimization company in the world in 2006 and 2007 by PromotionWorld. Scott has contributed content to many publications including The Complete Guide to Google Advertising (Atlantic, 2008) and Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004), MarketingProfs, ZDNet, WebProNews, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue serves local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, DS Waters, and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.

Picture from traffic-genie.com added by pitonhneg

RSS and Search Engine Optimization

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Tue, 7 Apr 2009 18:53:00 -0700

After putting a lot of thought into how to best use RSS feeds on your website and then creating them on your website, the next step is to promote them. As with any kind of marketing, where and how you advertise your website can determine the amount of visitors. The same applies to RSS feeds.

As you create your RSS feeds, keep in mind that the title should contain optimal search keywords. The more keywords contained, the more likely you are to have your feed come up when a particular search string is entered. This is not to say you should cram every possible keyword into the title of the RSS feed. Instead, keep in mind that you can have up to 15 different titles listed for the same link, article, content, etc. when creating the original RSS file.

Use descriptors to attract visitors to your site by tempting them to click on your feed. Think of text that will enhance your content, but not make it appear irrelevant. People are less likely to click on a RSS feed if it doesn't fit their needs and wants. By keeping the descriptors concise, but also tempting, you will drive people to click on your link over someone else's.

In keeping with the keyword search, don't forget that you can now search by theme. Use this to your advantage and group your RSS feeds into themes. When submitting them to search engines, group the feeds into specific themes. This can help bring your feeds up more often when similar themes are searched.

When you add RSS feeds from other companies, you can tell your website how to react when the feed is clicked on. Rather than have visitors transported to the new site, have it come up as a new window. This will help lessen the chance your site visitors will leave your website completely.

People don't use the back button as often, so it increases your chances of the person to continue to peruse your site if the RSS feeds pop up as new browsers.

As you design your RSS feeds, include your company's contact information. This entails your website, any relevant contact information, and if possible, your logo. The more experience a person has with your website, the more frequently he or she will recall it when thinking of your products or services.

Consequently, it also goes to say you need to make sure the experience is a positive one because it goes the same way with a negative experience, except it deters visitors from returning.

Use your feed within your own site. By promoting it within your own website, you can improve its standing on external search engines. Search engines often return results by the most frequently clicked first. If you don't have enough faith in your own RSS feed to include it in your website, why would anyone else want to subscribe to it? At the same time, RSS feed search engines often return results alphabetically.

Typically an English teacher would not count the word 'A' in a title when cataloguing it, but in RSS search engines, it is viewed as the first word of a title. Try to word your titles to begin with 'A' to improve their standing. As they are clicked on more and more, it will increase the feeds' standings in other search engines.

In order to utilize your well written and constructed RSS feeds, remember to subscribe to them yourself. Nothing gives others' faith in their content like seeing it on the originators' website. Use keywords appropriately in titles because you can write multiple titles to fit the same content. You can also use themes to help capture the essence of your RSS feeds. Keep site visitors at your website by 'instructing' external RSS feeds to open in new browser windows.

Lastly, don't forget to include your company's contact information with the website in your feeds. The more often these are put out to the general population, the more exposure you will get.

About the Author: Tim Eisenhauer - RssFeedDirectory.org gives you the maximum exposure for your RSS Feed. We are the premeire RSS Feed Submission service on the internet, helping your website get the extra exposure and traffic you need. Submit your RSS feed to our RSS Feed Directory today.

Picture from www.semspot.com added by pitonhneg

How embarrassing is that?

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Tue, 7 Apr 2009 02:47:00 -0700

Have you ever kept something around that was out-of-date, thinking it might be useful again someday, when it really should have been thrown out?

How about your website?

It's probably only a few years old, but is it outdated or just plain not working? Is it time to figure what you really need, and what you don't?.
95% of existing web sites were built using obsolete models. People re-created their sales brochures online, or put up sites so they'd have "a web presence" or were convinced that "if we build it, they will come." If sites like these have any significant traffic at all, they aren't working to generate leads and close sales.

Is your site one of these?

Ready to fix your site so it actually brings in a steady stream of qualified leads and/or sales?

While I don't want to get anywhere near your attic, and in fact I could still use some help with mine, I can show you how to clean up your online marketing so you can grow your business this year.
Look at your sales figures and site stats and answer these questions:

1. Does my site attract a steady stream of visitors?
2. Do I have a system for increasing traffic to my site?
3. Are at least 10% of the visitors to my site contacting me or buying from me?
4. Do I have a simple process in place for converting visitors into paying clients?
5. Is my site optimized to maximize the value of each visitor and customer?

If you answered NO to any of the above questions, it's time to clean up your site and put it to work to increase your profits. Don't wait until it's as useless as my daughter's baby carriage. Do it now.

With a few changes to your website, you could be one of the few business owners who will increase their online profits this year.

To your success,

Charlie
marketingforsuccess.com

Picture from www.splodge-plog.com added by pitonhneg

What should You do after you make a mistake in a email?

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Mon, 6 Apr 2009 10:57:00 -0700

Mistakes happen. Are you Prepared?

You create a beautiful, well-designed email. You test the message for how it will render in the major email clients. You review and revise until you are cross-eyed. You hit the send button and sit back and breathe a sigh of relief. All of a sudden, your heart stops — the email went out with a mistake in it. Has this ever happened to you?

What do you do now?

First, relax. Mistakes happen. It’s what you do after the mistake that makes all the difference. Second, stop the send, if possible, so that you can correct the mistake and then send out the revised email to the remainder of your list.

Next, determine if it will be necessary to send a correction email. The only type of mistake that should warrant a correction email is one that impacts your business. A broken image may not necessarily need a follow-up email, for example. However, an incorrect phone number, wrong sale start date, or wacky HTML coding issue that causes the entire email to be unintelligible would certainly be cause for a follow-up correction email.

A recent example of a “must remedy” email was from Lindblad Expeditions, an expedition cruise line and Bronto client. Lindblad sent out an email promoting a cruise along the Danube. One of the ways to book is by calling an 800 number, making it vital to have the appropriate phone number in all promotions. Unfortunately, this email went out with the incorrect phone number. As soon as the mistake was realized, a correction email was sent out:

Here’s what Lindblad did really well:

1. Sent out a corrected version within hours of the original email. Timing is everything when a mistake is made. In order to reduce complaints and curb potential lost sales, send out a correction email as soon as possible.

2. Used the original subject line and appended with “Correction to” so that those contacts that had already opened the original message could quickly tell two things: First - that it was not a duplicate of the original email; and second - there was content from the original message that was incorrect and they should open the correction email to find out what the mistake was.

3. Placed the correction at the very top of the message in the preheader space so it couldn’t be missed.

4. Copied the original email beneath the correction so that if the recipients of the correction email hadn’t opened the original, they wouldn’t miss the content.

The only thing I’d have liked to see was the correction text in red or bolded or something along those lines to make it stand out from the rest of the content; but all told, Lindblad handled the situation like a champ.

The moral of the story is that after the storm passes, be sure to put a plan in place so that you are prepared when the next mistake happens. You want to be able to act quickly on an error to minimize damage.

Have you seen positive results after sending a correction email? Do you have any stories of your own where you saved the day after the mistake? Share them below.

Kelly Lorenz
Account Manager at Bronto

Google's Still Not Buying Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Sun, 5 Apr 2009 10:51:00 -0700

By Jason Lee Miller - Sun, 04/05/2009 - 07:45

At least not right now...

Likely, Boomtown’s Kara Swisher gets tired of being the TechCrunch Google-rumor-debunker. Maybe not. She seemed to enjoy reminding readers about the Michael Arrington grapevines sprouting out tales of Google buying Digg and Bebo, neither of which ever happened. This time it’s Twitter.

Kara Swisher

In the comments of TechCrunch’s rumor report that Google was in late-stage talks to buy Twitter, Arrington notes that posting a rumor is a good way of shaking out information. Maybe next time he should just give Swisher a call and save everybody a lot of trouble. Swisher, married to a Google executive, generally has the better inside scoop.

Here’s what a Swisher source had to say about it: “Seriously, no negotiations, no deal, nada.”

That’s more in line with Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s earlier statement about sitting on Google’s money until the economy gets better. With unemployment at a predicted peak last month, that could be as early as this summer, if you’re the extra-optimistic type. Although CEOs of multinational corporations are notorious liars about everything, Schmidt’s generally made good on what he puts out to the public.

Swisher’s sources say there have been preliminary discussions between Google and Twitter about real time search and “product stuff.” That seems to match up with AdAge’s report that Google will be using Twitter to sell AdSense ads. Advertisers will have the opportunity to stream their five most recent tweets all across the AdSense network.

If Google made an offer for Twitter, an offer that would have to be near the billion-dollar range, it might be because every Tom, Dick, and Harry outside of Google really, really wants Google to buy Twitter. While Tom, Dick, (Mike) and Harry are pushing the deal, Robert Scoble reminds his audience that Google historically has been where good microblogging companies go to die.

Remember Jaiku? Dodgeball? If so, it’s only because you were aware of them before Google bought them.

Online Marketing Methods That Work

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Sat, 4 Apr 2009 03:37:00 -0700

By Jeff Beale (c) 2009

Business owners are facing a harsh reality: A website in itself offers no assurance of business. "If you build, it they will come" is a cliché that has misled many into believing all a company needed was an online presence to succeed. However, without a strategic marketing plan and a tactical approach, you're more likely to fail than to reach your goals. Proper planning will not only improve your chances of success, but it will also keep you from throwing away money on e-commerce fiascos.

The first step of planning is to define your goals in light of the target market you aim to reach. As you classify your target, you should determine the core needs of that group and observe the buying behavior that occurs among your potential purchasers. Characterizing their purchasing habits enables you to position your business to appeal to your target market with compelling information before they buy from another resource.

Several online resources can help you place your business in the forefront of your target audience. The process, however, can be complex because a variety of online vehicles, if utilized properly, can help you yield the results you desire. Also, the key to successful marketing online is in developing a diverse marketing plan which takes advantage of several approaches to deliver your message. Components in your marketing plan should include such elements as search engine marketing, pay-per-performance, ad placement, joint ventures, targeted traffic, e-mail marketíng, media marketing, optimization and copywriting.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing has been one of the most highly visible forms of marketing online. With millions of businesses employing search engines to gather information daily, search engine placement for key terms has been a major business generator for companies who properly place themselves in the search engines under the right terms relevant to their market offering. An obstacle to being ranked at or near the top, however, is that thousands can be competing for the same position. And with the search engines changing their algorithms often, achieving placement on the first page for the terms relevant is extremely difficult without a solid working knowledge of and experience in the search engine marketing field. Consequently, one should not solely rely on ranking.

Pay-Per-Performance

Another marketing technique on the rise is pay-per-performance advertising. This is a method for which you pay per click, impression, or visit a site that refers to your site. The application works best if the placements chosen are locations that directly connect with the target market you desire to reach. Advertisement rates are based on an auction format in that the highest bidder obtains the top placement. If your bid is $1.00 for every time someone utilizes your link while your competitor bids $1.01, your competitor will gain a better placement than you. If 100 individuals click your link, you should understand that you will owe $100 whether they buy from you are not. Pay-per-performance advertising clearly requires a full understanding of your conversion ratio to determine the budget necessary to commit to such a program.

Ad Placement

Ad placement is similar to pay-per-performance in that you pay for advertisements on sites or newsletters. The difference is that you typically pay for impressions and market reach. Impressions encompass how many unique visitors view the location in which your ad is placed. The market reach refers to the number of individuals accessing that website or newsletter over a period of time. However, you have no guarantee of the number of visitors who will follow your ad to your website. The concept is similar to traditional print ad placement in that advertisers have no guarantee that people exposed to their print ads will visit their places of business.

Joint Ventures

Another method, joint ventures, can be highly effective in helping businesses obtain referral customers. Joint ventures can be as simple exchanging links with another website or as complex as assembling a tiered affiliates program.

Targeted Traffíc Marketing

Targeted traffíc marketing is an additional marketing online tool with two main applications. The first involves the purchase of a demographic defined list which will contain individuals that match a specified demographic to whom you have permission to send information freely either through an e-mail campaign or a sales call. The second form of targeted traffíc entails the purchase a specified number of unique visitors to your site who match a demographic. This is a mass marketing or shotgun approach. Using either approach requires a skilled implementation of marketing content or your conversion ratio will be low, meaning you'll be wasting money.

E-Mail Marketíng

The most criticized but still effective form of online marketing is e-mail marketíng. Too many marketers utilized this method improperly by imposing upon individuals who had no interest in their products or services. The answer to marketing effectively using e-mails lies in ensuring you have permission before sending to those individuals.

Media Marketing

A more effective method would be to utilize media marketing in which you write articles, white papers and other content relevant to your industry to be published. Sharing valuable insights and information rather than out-and-out selling helps to validate your company's expertise as you also acquire free brand exposure.

Relevant Content & Copywriting

Finally, marketing effectively online requires the right kind of preparation for your website. Many sites fail in that they generate traffic but they lack the kind of relevant content that retains the visitor, educates the prospect, and/or encourages the prospect to take action. Developing content that relays a clear message to your visitors is critical. Copywriting professional Sallie Boyles states, "Lead with your punch line. Be clear. Be concise. Rather than covering each page top-to-bottom with solid content, use windows and links to provide detailed explanations as needed. When people gather research online for an immediate or future purchase, they want ease and efficiency - or they'll leave the site and go elsewhere."

In developing your next marketing online plan, follow these key steps to success: First, define and research your market. Second, prepare your site for action. Third, position yourself in the marketplace utilizing several marketing methods. Fourth, be prepared to follow up and close the deal. A world of e-commerce awaits!

About The Author
Jeff Beale is a marketing consultant with Jazar Dezign, a marketing firm that provides search engine optimization, web design, search engine marketing, and other Internet marketing services. Visit his blog at www.searchenginenewswatch.com and the company site at
www.jazardezign.com.

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Consultative Selling for Nichepreneurs

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Sat, 4 Apr 2009 03:22:00 -0700

by Susan Friedmann

Achieving Riches in Niches means occupying a dual role: acting first as a skilled professional, you must also be a powerful, effective sales force. Not only do you perform the services your clients value, but you promote and market yourself as the best place to obtain those services.

While you may be very confident in your professional skills, it's the sales part of the equation that's proving to be problematic for many Nichepreneurs™. Don't worry. You're not alone! Many Nichepreneurs™ find themselves in exactly that position: while they know practically everything possible about their profession, they're not nearly as strong when it comes to presenting themselves and their services for sale.

Selling is both an art and a science. Sales professionals devote years of their lives learning the best way to approach a potential client, create and negotiate a relationship, and finally, most essential of all, close a sale. These are all specific skills, and you don't automatically come into possession of them because you go into business for yourself.

Luckily, sales skills are the type you can acquire ‘on the job'. However, you want to minimize the learning curve and quickly gain mastery of these skills -- after all, it's literally your livelihood on the line.

One of the most powerful and effective sales tools -- and one that is a logical natural fit for Nichepreneurs™ -- is the consultative selling model.

Consultative selling has been around for a very long time. The model first appeared in the 1970's, and it's been used successfully ever since. A consultative sales experience is different from any other type of selling, because you begin the relationship with your potential client by providing value right off the bat.

Imagine this scenario. You're a Nichepreneur™, specializing in workplace efficiency. If a job site isn't working as well as it could be -- projects are taking too long, customers are complaining, sales numbers are dropping -- you want to be the person called in to get the team back on track. You've got great problem solving skills, years of management experience, and a staggering ability to cut through the nonsense and get to the core of the problem.

The only problem is, no one knows you can do all of this.

In a consultative selling scenario, you meet with someone who is trying to turn their company around. Free of charge, without any sales pressure whatsoever, you go to their site. You do a needs assessment, identifying challenges and problem areas. It's critical to pay careful attention to the client, so that you both hear and understand what they perceive the issue to be and what outcome they'd like to realize. That's when you offer some suggestions and solutions to their issues.

Implementing your solutions brings us to the sales part of the conversation. At this point, you've already demonstrated an understanding of the client and their needs. You've offered real value: insight and useful recommendations. The client is already beginning to trust you. You've lowered the sales resistance walls that may have existed between you and your client. Closing the deal is an extension of the process begun with that initial consultation.

The question then becomes: how do I connect with people in the first place? How do I get them to want to talk to me about their problems?

There are many answers to that question, and they all come down to one answer: visibility. If you want people to take you up on the offer for free consultations, the first step in the consultative selling process, you need to put the offer where they can easily see and act upon it.

Ways to do this include:

Print Media: Many publications offer an "About the Author" paragraph or blurb. Use this space to offer a carefully worded free consultation. If you submit articles to free content websites, make sure the offer is part of your boilerplate text (generally a paragraph that appears after the article), so it appears each and every time the article runs.

On Your Website: Feature your free consultation offer prominently on your website. Position it so that people can click a button or send an email immediately after reading about the offer -- you don't want to lose them by making them search page after page finding a way to contact you! Make sure to mention the free consultation offer sporadically in your blog.

Community Events: Community events are a great way to generate free consultation leads. Consider conducting a class, teaching a seminar, or leading a workshop. Offer all participants a free consultation. Only a few will take you up on it -- but if those few turn into sales, you've more than recovered your investment in the event.

These are some of the most common ways to promote a free consultation offer. If you're hesitant about your sales skills, consider consultative selling. It's an easy way to demonstrate your professional skills, which may be far more comfortable than straight selling. You'll grow and refine your approach with each consultation, and before you know it, meeting with potential clients will seem as easy as pie!

Written by Susan A. Friedmann, CSP, TheNichePreneur™ Coach, Lake Placid, NY, internationally recognized expert working with service professionals to increase their niche marketing potential. Author: "Riches in Niches: How to Make it BIG in a small Market" and "Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies." http://www.richesinniches.com

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Is E-commerce In Your Future?

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Sat, 4 Apr 2009 03:17:00 -0700

by Ed Rigsbee

“Unbelievable, only one California distributor had a link!” In my recent opening keynote presentation for a group of industrial distributors, I mentioned that I was alarmed. Upon visiting a major manufacturer’s web site, I conducted a distributor search for California. When the list appeared on my screen, only one distributor listed had a link to their site from the manufacture’s site. It’s unfortunate that so many distributors are slow to partner with their principal suppliers. For some distributors it is because they do not yet have a web site, hard as that is to believe. And for others it is a trust issue. Some distributors still believe that by sharing information, they will loose customers. How wrong they are.

Your customers might not be getting any younger, but their purchasing staff most certainly is. With this youth, also comes new ways of doing business. Younger people are quite comfortable with the Internet and many prefer e-commerce to “bothersome” visits from your reps. Just the other day upon leaving for school, my nine-year-old son asked my wife to find him some pictures of jellyfish for a school project. He proceeded to explain to her how to go to www.Yahoo.com and so forth to find the pictures he needed. She thought it was so cute. For technophobes, it’s a wake up call!

E-commerce is taking on several forms from the straightforward Amazon.com style of giving your credit card number, selecting the items you want and receiving your purchase a couple days later via a delivery company to more sophisticated arrangements similar to what the automotive industry is putting together. I personally find CheapTickets.com both a convenience and a time saver, giving me a wonderful choice on my air travel needs. I might not have ever considered that as a possibility. But, a while back my travel agent started tacking on a $10 per ticket booking fee. Their new business strategy did not add value to our relationship in my eyes. Needless to say, I am no longer their client.

Back to the younger purchasing agent trying to work their way up the corporate latter. They are putting in extra hours, working late. Since it is late and manufacturers are closed, they go to ThomasRegister.com looking for a particular product supplier and find what they need. The manufacturer is a real partner in distribution and has distributor search capability at their web site. As with the earlier mentioned example, if there is only one distributor with a link that is where the purchaser goes. Will that be you?

Ford Motor Company is unleashing the power of the Internet for their employees around the world. It’s taking a step forward to reach its vision of being on the leading edge of technology and connect more closely with its customers. In support of this vision, the company announced on February 3, 2000 that eligible employees worldwide would be provided a computer, printer and Internet usage at home for a nominal fee ($5 a month).

Ford Chief Executive Officer and President Jac Nasser said, "This program keeps Ford Motor Company and our worldwide team at the leading edge of e-business technology and skills. We're committed to serving consumers better by understanding how they think and act. Having a computer and Internet access in the home will accelerate the development of these skills, provide information across our business and offer opportunities to streamline our processes."

Ford Chairman Bill Ford added, "It is clear that individuals and companies that want to be successful in the 21st century will need to be leaders in using the Internet and related technology. That's what this program is all about.”

Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO at Dell Computer weighed in telling business leaders attending the Windows 2000 Deployment Conference in San Francisco (February 15, 2000) for the new computer operating system by Microsoft Corp. He said, "The Internet will become as fundamental to your business as electricity. Businesses will need an information technology infrastructure that possesses the same attributes of systems that provide electricity whenever and wherever needed, at the click of a switch, to power anything from a small store to an entire city.”

Dell mentioned that industry researchers forecast that 38 percent of U.S. households will have two or more personal computers by the end of this year and that by the year 2003, high-speed broadband Internet connections will be used in 33 percent of U.S. households. "In a world where every business is an e-business, Internet systems technology will no longer be just the concern of the information technology department. It will be critical to your customers' satisfaction and ultimately to your bottom line," said Dell.

To put Michael Dell’s comments in perspective, Dell Computer Corporation is the world's leading direct computer systems company. This is based on revenues of $25.3 billion for the past four quarters (as of 2/15/00). Dell ranks No. 78 on the Fortune 500, No. 210 on the Fortune Global 500 and No. 3 on the Fortune "most admired" lists of companies.

This is just in from WALLY BOCK'S MONDAY MEMO -- 1 May 2000 (weekly e-newsletter). Bock states, “There were lots of studies and surveys out last week that give us some insight into how we're moving along the adoption curve of digital technology. Here is a couple. Net Portrait found that almost 60% of US households have a computer and that 47% of households have Internet access. Some of the others just stay late at work, where Greenfield Online found that 10% of workers stay late so they can access the Internet.”

I recently listened to Tim Underhill explain to a group of distributors how their customers frequently pay three times for the same shipping and handling services in a discussion on the value of integrated supply. I sure do not want to pay thrice for a product or service, nor do your customers. In distribution today the game is adding value and streamlining costs in the distribution chain, not simply adding cost. While we are still at the early stage of e-commerce, sooner than you think, your customers will be demanding the capability of you. Will you be left in the cold?

When I started my career in outside sales in the mid 1970s, my boss, Ray Kahn told me that if I lost a major customer while paying attention and doing everything I could to keep them happy, that he could live with it. But, if I lost a major customer because of not paying attention, that he’d fire me. Was he serious? Absolutely—Mike, one of my colleagues, got the axe for just that reason. If you lose customers because you are asleep at the wheel in regards to the Internet and e-commerce, should your suppliers fire you?

Ed Rigsbee, CSP is the author of PartnerShift, Developing Strategic Alliances and The Art of Partnering. Rigsbee has over 1,000 published articles to his credit and is a regular keynote presenter at corporate and trade association conferences across North America. He can be reached at 800-839-1520 or EdRigsbee@aol.com. For a treasure trove of additional information and ideas, visit his Partnering University Web Site at www.rigsbee.com.

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Work At Home Internet Affiliate Marketing Business

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Sat, 4 Apr 2009 03:10:00 -0700

by Larry Rivera

There is a trend today where many people are coming online to see if they can make money in a Work at home internet marketing business better known as affiliate marketing. There is some serious money to make if you treat this like a real business. Unless you have an actual Product you want to sell you will be getting involved with an affiliate marketing business.

The different types of businesses you can chose from are as follows. I call this type the "One Shot Deal". Basically you sign up to an affiliate vendor, the two most popular are Click bank and Commission Junction. Then you market your affiliate link using pay per click search engines like Google. Warning: This is the scenario that most newbies fall into.

The mistake: If you do get a sale you lose the customer immediately. More often than not your competition will eat you alive. The Solution: I never recommend marketing something that you haven't bought yourself. With that being said create a review page and offer a valuable free report that will enable you to capture their name and email address.

Then direct them to your affiliate offer. You now accomplished one of the most critical elements of Internet Marketing and that is to build your list. You now can recommend products to them later. The bigger your list the more money you can make.

The other type of Work at home Internet affiliate business you can get into is what I like to call "Make your money work for you business". The other type of affiliate marketing business that you can do working from home is Internet Network Marketing. This type of affiliate business is hands down the best type of home business to get involved with.

Generally when you join this type of business you are joining a team of net workers. If you join the right team you will learn how to successfully market online. It still amazes me how many people looking to work at home using their computer do not understand how to market online.

Warning: Joining the wrong team can mean absolute failure in this type of business. This has led many people to call these types of businesses scams. The funny thing is the same people still like trying to make the one shot deal work for them.

The solution: Find a mentor who is willing to teach you the correct ways to market. There is not a one size fits all marketing plan. Each person has specific skills and budgets they can work with. If you find the right mentor you can effectively learn how to make money working from home. Working at home allows me to spend more time with my children for that I am grateful.

Learning how to become a good Internet Marketer comes down to working with the right people. I started out as a simple affiliate marketer but didn't get satisfaction from it. I turned my attention to what I care about most. Helping other people leave their jobs and experience real financial freedom.

network-marketing-freedom.com

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Basic Viral Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Pitonhneg) — Fri, 3 Apr 2009 22:37:00 -0700

by Roy Bartell

One of the best ways for you to sell a product or service IS Viral Marketing. It's one of the best ways to make a lot of sales.

The way that viral marketing works now you don't need to have a big list, or a lot of money to put into advertising but you can still make a huge impact.

First let's see exactly what viral marketing is. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing is a marketing technique that facilitates and encourages people to share a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, images, or even text messages.

Viral Marketing is just a way of getting a bunch of people to tell other people about something you've created to build a buzz about your product or service. Then they share it witht other people, it builds social proof and that's a very well implied endorsement when you send something to someone else. Sometimes you get lucky and the more it's passed around the more it takes on a life of its own.

A perfect example is the "Free Hugs" video on YouTube. It has been viewed by millions of people. It was responsible for launching their singing career even though that was not the original intention. That video and the story behind it went viral and caught the attention and the hearts of people all over the world.

Well you might not be able to pull off a viral marketing campaign that does as well as their video, but you have to take a little time researching your market and your target audience and think outside the box, create a very successful viral marketing campaign of your own.

There a many thing's things can go viral? How about videos. Take a look at most of the gurus in the Internet Marketing field right now, you'll see they're all using videos on their website promote their launches and create marketing campaigns that go viral. However, if you don't have the desire to do videos, you can go with a Special Report or even Podcasts, they are white papers, all these have the ability to go viral and get a lot of people very interested in what you have to say and sell.

In order to have a successful viral marketing campaign, it's very important that you find the right mix of media, marketing and audience. Make sure that your target audience is going to be interested in what you have to say, the way you're saying it and how you're bringing it to their attention. If you get these three things right, chances are, you'll have a winner on your hands, and your next marketing campaign will go viral too.

About Author :

"Roy Bartell is Publisher of Instant Internet Newsletter sharing Powerful Informative Marketing Articles. Want To Make Passive Income While You Sleep? Discover How You Can Now Quickly Create Your Own Branded Cash Producing Viral Ebooks With Just A Few Clicks That Spread All Over The Web http://www.RBar67.com/viralebook.htm"

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