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10 Tips for Copywriting Success
While video and multimedia technologies are rapidly expanding, the Web remains a largely a text-oriented system. Text utilizes far less space than video or audio, and remains the go-to medium for the majority of the web’s public content. This means that there is a lot of copy on the web, so a savvy copywriter should be on the lookout for any technique that will improve the material he puts forward.
Tip 1 – Know Yourself
This piece of advice has been kicking around for several thousand years, and it has persisted for a reason – people make better decisions when they know their strengths and limits. If your writing lends itself to narrative structures, find ways to tell stories about the product, perhaps in the form of a testimonial or an interview. If you aren’t capable of writing technical articles, don’t try to bluff it.
Tip 2 – Improve Yourself
The web changes, language changes, people change, products change… in short, everything changes. This is a good thing. Improvement and training are important changes that everyone must go through in some degree if they want to remain relevant. You may want to consider enrolling in a writing course, study new SEO and copywriting tips, pick up a highly rated style manual, or continue refining your skills in some other way.
Tip 3 – Target Your Language to the Audience
There is always an audience. Whether writing a letter specifically to one individual or composing for a website to be viewed by international customers, take the time to find out who your audience is and tailor the writing accordingly. Academics will have different writing standards than a DIY auto repair services, and neither will appreciate receiving articles targeted to the other.
Tip 4 – Write Coherently
Compare the following two statements:
* The Large Hadron Collider, created and maintained by CERN in Geneva, is designed to locate and study the Higgs-Boson particle, which will provide insight into the origin of the universe.
* CERN intends to use the Large Hadron Collider to locate and study the Higgs-Boson particle in an attempt to gain insight into the origin of the universe.
The first sentence is full of asides and parenthetical statements while the second conveys the information more fluidly. There are times when asides and references are important, but as a general rule, take any opportunity you can to simplify your writing. Your message will be stronger and clearer for the effort.
Tip 5 – Write Specifically
Again, consider this ambiguous sentence; “Anti-nuclear protestors released live cockroaches inside the White House Friday, and these were arrested when they left and blocked a security gate.”
While it seems innocuous enough on the surface, this statement does illustrate the problem with ambiguous grammar. Good copywriting is precise and unambiguous. Here it comes across as funny, but if your customers aren’t coming to your site to laugh, go with a clearer example.
Tip 6 – Write Concisely
Strunk and White’s ‘The Elements of Style’ sums this up as ‘Omit needless words.’ Stick to short, clear paragraphs and sentences. Elaborate where needed, but focus on efficient writing that gets the message across without pointless extras.
Tip 7 – Start Strong
Journalism focuses on a technique known as the lede. In short, this is all the relevant detail of the story conveyed in one sentence, and it always comes at the start of the article. “A local man was arrested today in connection with the recent kidnapping of a foreign exchange student.” Notice it doesn’t give names or quotes, just the hard-core facts. While online copywriting rarely needs to emulate this exact approach, it still illustrates a key point; good articles present their best facts quickly while hooking the reader.
Tip 8 – End Strong
There are countless examples of writing that start out with the proverbial ‘bang,’ only to wander off pointlessly. Focus your writing on its key message and make sure the final statement is as strong as the first. Write your beginning statement and ending statement at the same time and make sure the article is always leading toward that killer end sentence that ties the article up in a powerful way.
Tip 9 – Read
While this partially falls under the idea of improving yourself, it’s also a specific example that deserves its own mention. Read constantly. Read good articles and bad, seeing what works and what does not. People who are widely read write better than comparable writers who don’t read as much.
Tip 10 – Write Constantly
Copywriting is a talent like any other. Daily practice with writing will expand your ability to try new ideas and reinforce good habits. Even if you have no copywriting assignment at the moment, browse the web looking for websites in your area of expertise, and see if you can’t improve their copy. Then you can either consider it free practice, or perhaps give the authors a call to see if they’re interested.
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Conversion Secrets
Once you’re online business website is live, generating targeted traffic is your next hurdle. But to maximize your online success you need to go beyond traffic generation. You need to focus on web site conversion. Many online marketers spend lots of time and money on traffic generation. And they fail to pay attention to website conversions.
Here are 7 website conversion secrets to help you get more customers and make more money. Period. Lets start…
Conversion Secret #1
Pay attention to the buying experience. Put your self in your buyer’s shoes. How would you rate your site? The most important rule of thumb is to make everything drop-dead easy. No hoops allowed! Minimize the number of clicks in your ordering process. If they have to register… make it a one-step process. I recently read that up to 40% of ecommerce shopping carts are Abandoned without an order because the order process was confusing.
When your customers get confused, they get frustrated or angry and then they leave. Not sure how you’re doing? Be smart. Test. That’s the only way. Or contact your customers and ask them to rate their buying experience at your site. Just find out and you’ll know! Very simple.
Conversion Secret #2
Optimize your site structure. Sounds easy enough. And it is! But you’d be shocked to know how many marketers Don’t. Make it well organized and stupid simple to navigate. Prioritize your themes and sub-themes and structure accordingly. You have less than 6 to 8 seconds to capture your visitor’s attention and get them interested. Most people don’t sit there and analyze. They respond to unconscious feelings and the famous ‘gut’ feeling.
Conversion Secret #3
What is the goal of your site? Your conversion goal? What is the purpose of the page they’re on? I hope you have thought about this. If not… do it now! Do you have 12 options for them to click on? Ever consider they might get confused because there ARE so many options? You can have many options for them. And if you do then it’s critically important to have a very clearly defined navigation structure.
Conversion Secret #4
Make sure your site or page loads fast! The faster, the better. You know how impatient we’ve all become. Your site needs to be fully loaded in less than 6 to 8 seconds! Fully visible. Research shows again and again that up to half of your visitors will Leave if your site is more than 6 to 8 seconds to load.
Conversion Secret #5
Do you have an effective and clear call to action? Here’s something that has been known for many decades. Courtesy of direct mail pioneers who came way before the internet. But it’s still true! People need to be told what to do next.
Absolutely still true. Don’t be afraid to ‘politely’ inform them of what to do next, or just what to do! Tell them! Don’t expect the website visitor to know what to do next. You can alleviate fears of the unknown by telling them, in some fashion, what their next action will do. Click to order your product… click here to register for your free download, etc. People need to be reassured and you’ll do that by telling them what result will happen from their next action.
Conversion Secret #6
Do you have a strong message? This is different from call to action. I’m talking about a clear, strong, and consistent message throughout your page. If you’re talking about a particular product, theme, service… whatever it is, stay on topic and focus on it.
Conversion Secret #7
Test, test, and test again. Increasing your conversions takes time and is an ongoing process. There are lots of programs available to do this. Find out how much time people are spending on your pages. What do they click on? Find out what’s strong and improve on it. See if you can expand on it. Find out what’s weak and see if you can improve on it.
Your profits will soar if you do only half of what I’ve shown you here today. But why would do that? Do All of them. And there’s even more to be learned. Failing to work on your conversions is like running on half empty, or running on misfiring cylinders. So don’t do it!
Make Your Ezine Make You Money
Writing a regular ezine (online newsletter) can sometimes feel like hard work. So if you’re putting in the time and effort to give your readers valuable content, consider implementing at least a few of the strategies in this article to help your efforts pay off in profits.
Here are 4 ways to help your ezine make you more money:
1. Self-promote
Besides giving valuable content in each issue of your ezine, don’t forget to add a little self-promotion as well. After all, it is one of your best marketing tools, and you want to make sure that you’re letting your subscribers know what products and services you have available for them. It’s best to do this in a separate section of your ezine, instead of in the copy of the article you write for your readers. A short blurb about you and what you offer, as well as a bit about one of your products and services with a link to more information is all you really need to do.
A tip: If space allows, consider adding one or two short testimonials from your clients/customers who are raving fans, too.
Depending on the method through which you are publishing your ezine, you can track how many times your links are clicked on, which gives you valuable market research information about what your readers are interested in finding out more about.
2. Give Options
If you are a service professional, know that there are many people who would like to hire you one-on-one but that option doesn’t fit into their budget just yet. If you offer them other options, and promote those offerings in your ezine, you’ll turn some of those prospects into paying clients.
For example, if you coach or consult one-on-one, consider offering a group coaching program with a price point that would be much more accessible than your private fees would be. Or take your knowledge and package it into an ebook, or a series of teleseminars, or an ecourse, and price them reasonably. Then promote them in your ezine.
3. Offer specials
Your readers may find the content of your free ezine valuable and would really like more, but they might need a bit of encouragement to buy from you. So give your subscribers a special discount on something you offer, with a time limit for purchasing (which really does encourage people to “act now”).
For example, offer a 2-for-1 deal on your ebooks, or 20% off one of your programs if they register within a week. This strategy will move some of your readers from the “free” part of your funnel into the “fee” part of your funnel, which is exactly what you want.
4. Offer recommendations
I get so many questions about the services I use in my business that I periodically give recommendations in my ezine. These products and services are ones I truly believe are of high quality, because I have used them personally or because they come highly recommended to me by my mentor coaches. Some of these I am a reseller of (an affiliate), meaning I make a small commission on every sale I refer, and others are products and services I love and know would be of value to my subscribers.
Don’t forget that your number one priority with your ezine is to provide valuable content for your subscribers. Proportion 10-20% of your content with promoting you and your offerings, and you will be working smarter and not harder.
Also remember that with each issue you put out, you are building trust and rapport with your list, becoming known as an expert in your niche, and gaining lots of exposure (especially if you submit your ezine articles to article submission services), all of which are so important to the overall success of your business.
The Benefts of Professional Article Services
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
The Benefts of Professional Article Services
Professional article services can provide you with effective article marketing campaigns that can turn a failing online business into an unexpected success by giving you the time to focus on the more important aspects of your business.
This is not to suggest that you cannot write articles yourself – of course you can – but it can be time-consuming to write in a manner that attracts readers, keeps them reading and then compels them to click the links in your resource to reach your website.
Sure, you can do that yourself, but do you have the time? Probably not, since the majority that are developing their online businesses want to spend their time doing that and expanding their range of products or services. What time is left to write compelling articles and submit them? Next to none!
Article services can do that for you – not only write your articles but also submit them. However, there is always an associated cost, and you have to determine what the cost of your article services are in respect of the benefits you receive. There are two basic ways of looking at this, and while it is not possible to quantify them for individual cases, you can at least consider them with respect to yourself, individually:
1. Saving Time
It takes time to write a good article. Those that claim to teach you how to write a great winning article in 15 minutes are taking nonsense. You might write 300 words about your product, but that won’t impress anybody, and won’t be accepted by many of the important directories that require a minimum 500 word count or even more.
Also, can you write compellingly? Can you persuade a reader that your product is better than the next guys without being allowed to mention your product or even your website? That doesn’t seem very easy, does it. You won’t learn that skill quickly! How long will it take? I know people that work for an hour or more on a 500 word article just to get the spelling and grammar right!
Spelling is extremely important, and any errors in these days of spell checkers will be regarded as unacceptable and careless, but no spell check will tell you that ‘there’ should be ‘there’ or ‘to’ should be ‘too’. In spite of what you have heard, grammar also counts with a number of people. An article with no errors in its grammar will attract more visitors to the link on the resource than the same article full of schoolboy errors. That’s a fact, not an opinion!
So, how long will it take you? Figure that out against the cost of the article from a site offering professional article services. If the money spent is worth the time saved, then it makes sense. If not, then it doesn’t. Your choice, but it is a logical and economic one as all business choices should be – not based upon opinion but on facts.
2. Now for the benefits
Until you are aware of the its benefits, you will be unable to determine the real benefit of the time you will save by using professional article services to help with your article marketing strategy. There are four main benefits:
* You can have your articles published on ezines and article directories. For each of these that accept your article you will receive a share of the PageRank of the web page on which your article is published. The Page Rank cited for the Home Page of the article directory is irrelevant – that is immaterial because the ranking points you receive are related only to the page on which your article is published, and also the other links leaving that page. However, it improves your Google PageRank score.
* Contrary to what many believe, visitors to article directories read the articles. You can get several hundred people reading your article each month if the title attracts them.
* Many people use published articles as content for their websites. This is particularly popular with those that use Adsense and other contextual advertising systems to monetize pages on their sites. To do so, they must also include your resource that publishes your website links, so you get Google PageRank points from the links back to your website from the page on which your article has been used.
* Naturally, anybody visiting that other website can click on your links and visit a page on your website. That page must lead readers to a page that relates to the topic of the article you have written, and also contain a link at least to your home page.
All things considered, when you take into account every benefit that a successful article marketing campaign can provide for you, then using professional article services might make sense rather than trying to do it yourself.
A professional article will be more likely to attract readers and keep them on the page till they click on your link. After that it is up to you, but the same service can also be used to provide the content that will them keep the visitor on that page and perhaps even purchase your products or services.
Is it worth it to you? That is for you to decide, but just as you would consider professional SEO services, advertising services and emailing services as possibilities to help you market your business, so article marketing is an aspect of advertising that good, professional article services can look after for you, leaving you to do what you do best. Make money!
Top Five Ways Your Virtual Assistant Can Help You Make More Money
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Top Five Ways Your Virtual Assistant Can Help You Make More Money
1. Ezine
An email newsletter will help you get prospective clients into your marketing funnel. Your VA can format the plain text and HTML versions of your email newsletter. All you need to do is write your primary and filler articles each week and forward those to your VA to format and send the finished product out to your newsletter list.
2. Media
Have your VA research an industry-specific media list . This value of this list is in developing relationships with these media contacts so that you’re the expert they immediately think of when they’re doing a story on your area of expertise.
3. Article Marketing
Write once and have that article work for you again and again. Have your VA submit articles you’ve written to online article databases to increase the number of links back to your website and to send more visitors to your website.
4. Strategic Alliances
Once of the quickest ways to grow your business is by creating strategic alliance or joint venture relationships. Have your VA research potential strategic alliance or joint venture partners who provide a service to a similar audience or whose client base could benefit from your product or service.
5. Product Development
Got recorded interviews sitting around gathering dust on your hard drive? How about information you’ve created for presentations that you’ve never done anything with? Have your VA coordinate the transcript and audio editing of any recorded files you might have and help you polish those into saleable products. Your VA can also help your format printed material into an ebook, ecourse, special report, etc. and before you know you, you’ll become an information marketer!
5 Reasons Why You Should Start Using Article Templates Right Now
Are you a small business owner or internet marketer who’s pulling hair out, grinding teeth and wiping sweat from your brow trying to figure out how to write articles that drive targeted traffic to your website?
Well, then it’s a good thing you’re reading this article, because I’m going to give you the power to get out of that dark, cold, gloomy corner and see the light.
* How?
First, I’m going to explain in detail what article writing templates are – and how they can help you overcome your writer’s block. Then, I’m going to give you an opportunity to get 3 of my instant article writing templates for free! These article templates are guaranteed to help you write articles faster – and in many cases, you’ll be able to write articles in 30 minutes or less. So keep reading.
* What Are Instant Article Writing Templates?
Article templates serve as a blueprint for building great articles in a particular style. They provide the guidance and inspiration you need to quickly and easily build an incredible inventory of high-quality, original articles.
For example, when you get my instant article writing templates at http://www.StartWritingArticlesFaster.com you get worksheets that guide you throughout the process.. Each template is in chart format. All you have to do is put the information that’s in your head and put it exactly where I ask you to. Once the template is complete, all you have to do is copy each section and paste it into a new document – and you’ll have a finished article.
* 5 Reasons Why You Need to Start Using Instant Article Writing Templates Now
1) Inspiration
Are you stuck at the gate? Are you confused on how to begin your article? Are you stuck for ideas? Just browsing through through article templates will help you spark an idea for your next set of articles.
2) Speed
Are you thinking in your head right now – It takes too much time to write articles. That’s because most of your article writing time is spent staring at a blank, white screen. Then, you focus a tremendous amount of time trying to organize your ideas in a flowing manner. But, when you use article writing templates, you’re given a structure and format. So you can write articles faster. Rather than spending time on creating the proper structure for your articles, you can now invest the time you save into writing new articles!
3) Ease
Using the right instant article writing templates make it easy to build high-quality articles that are designed to inform readers while also driving traffic back to your website.
4) Clarity
Since these templates have been well thought out in advance, you’re articles will flow smoothly and have a clear introduction, body and conclusion that will make your articles clear and easy to understand.
5) Style
I can’t tell you how many of my article marketing clients sacrificed speed for quality. They had NO flow, NO organization, NO easy transitions. If I had submitted their articles as-is, their articles would not generate results. So, for the last couple of years, I’ve worked hard to solve these article marketing problems that hinder your chances of getting more prospects and sales online. I’ve analyzed hundreds of articles that I’ve written for my blog, for my newsletter and for article submission. I spent hours reviewing all of my client’s articles that I have proofread, formatted and optimized so it can get published on top websites like About.com, I looked for clear patterns and structures that you can use to write your articles right now. You want to use proven article templates that are designed specifically to give you an article layout and structure that insures an attractive, easy-to-read article that’s almost guaranteed to get results.
* Where Can You Get Instant Article Writing Templates?
Now, if you go to http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com, I’ll give you 3 of my article templates for free! All you have to do is enter your name and email in the provided box, and you’ll immediately receive the article templates download.
Article Templates That Will Help You Attract More Clients Like Magnets
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Article Templates That Will Help You Attract More Clients Like Magnets
Some business owners attract clients and customers like magnets. Their marketing seems effortless. They don’t advertise. They haven’t made a cold call in years. They charge more. They’re regularly asked to speak at conferences and are featured in newspapers and magazines. Their articles are found on top websites and ezines. They’re invited to be guest bloggers on very influential blogs. And, everyone knows their name, and they get all the business they can handle.
It’s almost as though they were famous.
Their names come to mind when people are looking for a particular product or service. They get more business – not only more, but the right kind of business. Unlike you, they don’t have to work so hard to get it.
Why?
Because they have become a thought leader in their industry. You can too if you start writing articles with the idea of becoming a thought leader.
3 New Article Templates for a Thought Leader WannaBe:
Article template #1 – A Little Bit of Controversy
An article stating a controversial opinion can attract interest and readers if it is written well and based on facts and if it avoids inflammatory statements or personal judgments. Although “controversial” implies disagreement, you don’t have to use words that intentionally create divisions among readers and set one group of readers against the other.
Your goal as a thought leader should be to tell the truth, even if it’s uncomfortable or challenges common assumptions. Make controversy a side effect of your article rather than its goal.
Article Template #2 – Predictions
It’s generally believed that authors who make informed, reliable predictions gain credibility in their field. Good predictions are based on knowledge, experience and an ability to recognize and explain trends, developments and signals. They provide a glimpse of what lies ahead and are highly sought after by those not yet in-the-know.
Using this article template, you can quickly tap into your particular knowledge and expertise to generate articles that are both enticing and provide a high-value insider perspective for your readers.
Article Template #3 – Traps and How to Escape Them Article Template
We’ve all been trapped from time to time on almost every plane of possibility, whether it was a physical, mental, emotional, spiritual or financial challenge. With this article template you get to save the day with your expertise by delivering the “escape plan” followed with a Resource Box where they can learn how to further escape from the trap.
Now, I’d like to help you escape your challenges of becoming a thought leader so you can start attracting more clients and customers like magnet. So, I’m going to invite you to claim 3 of my instant article writing templates for free at http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com
This way you can start writing articles more articles, faster. And, then submit your articles to become the expert in your field.
5 Types Of Titles That Can Get More People To Read Your Article
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, December 9, 2011
5 Types Of Titles That Can Get More People To Read Your Article
You probably already know that article marketing is a great way to get your story in front of people that can benefit from it. It helps to drive targeted traffic to your website and is the beginning of the relationship that you build with your customers.
But in today’s fast paced world where visitors take only about 4 seconds to scan a webpage, you are competing with thousands of other article writers so you need to write a compelling title that draws in readers like a magnet so that your article stands out from the crowd.
Here are 5 different types of titles that are sure to get more people “clicking in” to read your article:
A) The Question Title
People are curious by nature, so phrasing your title as a question can cause an irresistible pull for them to satisfy that curiosity.
But not any type of question will do. You need to use an open ended question – one that compels the reader to click into your article to find the answer. This is a question that has more than just a “yes” or “no” answer.
For example, you might want to use the title:
“Do You Know The 1 Trick That Will Stop Your Dog From Jumping?”
As opposed to:
“Do You Want To Stop Your Dog From Jumping?”
See, how the first title peaks your curiosity more? What is the 1 trick? Do you know it already? Even if you do, you feel compelled to click into the article to see what the author knows that you might not.
B) The List Of Tips Title
Another great way to get people to click on your title is to formulate your article into a list of ideas or tips. For some reason people love a list of tips. Not only will that help make your title compelling, but having a list format in your article with subheadings for each “point” on the list is a great way to structure the article itself and makes for easy reading.
Almost any topic can be written as a list, you just need to think vertically instead of horizontally when writing your article.
Then once you have the topic and the number of “points” on your list, you simply write the title in this format:
“X Ways To {Solve Your Problem}”
So, you might try something like:
* 10 Ways To Help You Lose Belly Fat
* 5 Ways To Get Your Dog To Obey You
* 6 Tips For Growing Bigger Tomatoes
…. And so on
Does this type of title work? Well, it enticed you to click into this article, didn’t you?
C) The How To Title
Let’s face it, most people are surfing the web looking for information on “how to” do something. Whether it’s buying a product or trying to figure out how to do something related to a hobby, or clearing up their acne, there’s a “How To” for it.
So why not just give them what they want?
* “How To Teach Your Dog To Sit”
* “How To Choose The Best Laptop”
* “How To Clean A Saltwater Aquarium”
Think about what you search the web for – wouldn’t an article with the title of “How To” followed by your subject matter be something you would want to read?
D) The Benefits Title
If you can, you should try to work your benefit into every title – even the other types listed on this page. But sometimes, it’s just not feasible to combine these different types and you might want to simply use the benefit as your title.
Benefits are very powerful because the illicit emotion in the reader. Benefits are what make people pull out their wallets and buy.
Yet, a lot of people confuse features with benefits and end up highlighting the wrong things!
A benefit is something that you can feel – that makes someone’s life a little better, less painful or easier. A feature is something about the physical product or service.
For example, someone who has insomnia doesn’t want a list of herbal remedies or relaxation techniques, what they really want is to get a good nights sleep. The “good nights sleep” is the benefit.
So, you would want to use a title like:
“Get A Good Nights Sleep Tomorrow By Using These Relaxation Techniques Today”
Tell them what the end benefit will be and you’ll have more people clicking into your article to learn how they can realize that benefit for themselves.
E) The Why Title
They word “Why” grabs attention – after all, who doesn’t want to know “Why”? Using “Why” in your title can turn a boring drab title into one that commands interest in your readers.
Consider this title:
“A Memory Foam Mattress Helps Ease Back Pain”
Now add the word “Why” in the front:
“Why A Memory Foam Mattress Helps Ease Back Pain”
Which one seems more interesting to you?
Using “Why” is actually one of the easiest ways to make your titles more engaging. You can add it to almost any title you currently have and make that title more interesting.
The next time you write an article and are considering the title, try to fit your subject into one of these types of titles and I think you will see that you get a better click through rate into your article.
But, of course, the title is only the first part of getting the visitor to your site. Next, you must deliver on the information you promised in the title by answering the questions or listing the tips indicated and, of course, making your article body and resource box compelling enough to get the click to your website or offer.
By using an irresistible title, you’ve done the critical first step of getting the reader into your article – the rest is up to you!
Article Submission: Services How To Find A Good One
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Article Submission: Services How To Find A Good One
So, you’ve finally made the decision to make your life easier by employing the services of an automatic article submitter. That is a very wise decision, because if you choose the right service you can save a ton of time and vastly increase the effectiveness of your articles.
When you’re evaluating article submission services, keep these tips in mind:
1) A referral from someone who has actually used the service is your best bet in finding an excellent article submission service
If you haven’t been referred by anyone, check the website of the article submitter you’re investigating and look for testimonials. If the service is good, its customers should readily volunteer their recommendations for it.
2) Look for a service that has stood the test of time
In the online world, a service that is 5+ years old is a veteran one, and the longevity of the service speaks to its stability.
3) Is it known for its customer service?
When you need help, you want to know that you can get timely and accurate answers. When considering a friend’s referral or testimonials that you are reading about the article submitter, is the business’ customer care complimented?
4) You will want to use an article distribution business that has professional editors on staff who review each and every article
Why? You want your article to be pre-screened for any obvious issues that might prevent it from being accepted by publishers.
5) Does the service update their distribution network on pretty much a daily basis?
The distribution network is the list of publishers to whom your articles are sent. Having a well-maintained list is crucial, as these types of lists can go out of date pretty quickly if they are not attended to regularly.
It’s a perk if the service has a good reputation with publishers. If the publishers directly request to receive articles from the article submitter, then they are much more likely to approve your articles for publication.
6) How many article submission are you allowed?
The most flexible option would be unlimited submissions, although I must caution you that when you are submitting automatically you need to submit far fewer articles than when submitting manually. Usually 8 articles per website is enough when submitting automatically to a large network of publishers.
7) How about scheduling your articles?
This type of feature allows you to submit your article and then have it be distributed at a later date. This is particularly helpful if you are going on vacation and want your article marketing campaign to continue when you are away. Many people also like to submit all their articles at the beginning of the month and schedule them to be distributed at various dates throughout the month.
Can you “trickle” your article distribution?
Normally when you submit through an automatic article submitter your article would be sent to the entire distribution network all at one time. However, there are SEO benefits to having your article submitted to a few publishers a day, perhaps over the course of a month or so.
This creates a more organic accumulation of links, which Google appreciates. Check to see if the service you are interested in will allow you to submit in this “trickled”
fashion.
9) What kind of article spinning features are available?
It’s great if a service allows you to create article variations so that the same article is not sent to every publisher.
10) Is the article submitter committed to ongoing education?
Most article submission services concentrate on the technical aspects of article distribution, rather than on teaching their customers how to improve their article marketing. If you find a service that offers ongoing training, that is a plus!
It may take you a while to find the article submitter that works for your unique needs, but it’s worth the time and effort to do this investigating. The more information you can gather about the service beforehand, the more likely you are to be satisfied.
10 Useful Tips To Attract People To Your Web Site
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, December 1, 2011
10 Useful Tips To Attract People To Your Web Site
Combinations of two or more of the tips below are being used by many successful sites today. Use your imagination and see what you can do with them. Because there are so many web sites on the internet today visitors are spread quite thinly and web traffic is one of the scarcest commodities on the internet today. Without it your online business does not exist:
1. Give people a free subscription to your newsletter
Almost everyone is publishing a newsletter nowadays so it is important to give something extra with the free subscription. You need to set yourself apart from the other internet marketers out there. This might be done by offering a gift or free advertising when people subscribe.
2. Provide visitors with new and original content
Your content will be more attractive to your visitors if it is up-to-date or original. You could also offer people the option to reprint the content in their newsletter or web site. You will need to change your content frequently if you do this. But the benefits are worth the effort. The search engines will love your site and keep coming back. Your site will rank highly in their results and your visitors will keep coming back for the latest updates.
3. Use PPC directories
You can advertise in pay per click directories. With PPC you only pay when some one clicks on your link. If no one clicks you pay nothing. This method is very good if you are selling a product at your site. It is easy to assess the cost of each sale and measure you success.
There are lots of PPC sites out there now. Google and Yahoo! are not the only ones. You can often get a better deal at these other sites depending on the competition for the keyword you are using. Shop around. There is probably a site out there with your keyword going cheap. But, Make sure that it can deliver the traffic. You can do this by checking its Alexa rank. If it is not getting much traffic itself, how is it going to direct traffic to you?
4. Give visitors a free ebook
You could write your own and include an ad in the ebook linking to your site and allow other people to sell it or give it away. If you don’t want to take the time to write one, you could ask other writers permission to use their articles and assemble an article eBook. Or commission an eBook. There are plenty of writers around willing to write a fresh eBook for you at a fair price.
5. Hold free online classes or seminars
They could be held in your web site’s chat room. The idea of “live” information will entice people to visit your web site. You will become known as an expert on the topic.
6. Offer free consulting to your web site visitors
You could do this via e-mail or by telephone. People will consider this a huge value because consulting fees can be very expensive. Use a separate business line if you use the phone or you will have calls coming in to your home phone around the clock as the world turns. If your site becomes known for this service you may need to employ people to help keep up. If this happens you can bring in a two tier system whereby you have a free service and a paid service offering something extra.
7. Give visitors a free entry into a contest
The prizes should be something of interest or value to your visitors or relevant to your site’s topics. Most people who enter will continually revisit your web site to get the results. Do not be discouraged if the first one or two contests do not set the world on fire. The word has to get out. People will talk to their friends about this site that is running this great contest, and before too long your site will have a name for running contests. There are people out there who really go for that sort of thing and will visit your site regularly.
8. Let visitors download free software
It could be freeware, shareware, demos etc. You could even turn part of your site into a free software area and let other people sell it or give it away from this area. You do not need to produce the free software yourself. There are plenty of sources on the web. All you have to do is link to them. If you gather a significant amount of software of a type relevant to the topic of your site you will make your site a valuable resource for your visitors and they will keep coming back to get more.
9. Offer free online services or utilities
They could be search engine submitting, copy writing proofreading etc. The service or utility should be helpful to your target audience.
10. Give your visitors a free membership to an online club
People like to feel that they belong to something, why not your online club. You could also give away a free newsletter for club members only. The members will very likely want to contribute a large part of its content making it easy to source articles. If you offer them a link back to their own site your members will be queuing up to put content in your newsletter.
It goes without saying that all of the above should be relevant to the topic of your site in order to be of interest to your visitors. Do not keep changing the topic of your site. I see this happening all too often. The webmaster has a site for three months or so and becomes disheartened because his site not taken off as he hoped, so he decides to try a different topic.
Doing so he / she loses the regular visitors he / she had and has to start at the beginning again in the new topic. Also, the search engines will very likely be slow to change to the new topic, confusing everyone who visits from there. It may also affect the PR of the site as the new topic may initially be viewed as unrelated content.
The Ten Most Effective Ways To Promote Your Website
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
The Ten Most Effective Ways To Promote Your Website
In a nut shell, this is what I’ve found that will help promote your website. These methods are very effective. Keep this blog post as a reference and make sure you are doing all these things. Ok here it goes:
1. Adwords (or any search engine ads at all)
Of course we all know that Google is the top dog but there are many other decent search engines that will get you the same good traffic. For $40 bucks a day I get over 100 unique hits on my website. Every little bit helps
2. Blogging
Even if hate to write, just post relevant information regarding your site just make sure you give credit to who wrote your blog post. Oh and link on your blog post like crazy. I didn’t believe in this method at first but trust me I have learned the ways of the blog.
3. Mailing List
This is a tough area. Its like you need money to make money. But in this case you need email addresses to send emails. Do your best in trying to provoke your customers into signing up for your mailing list. Offer something for free (not a free newsletter) something legit. This will help you by encouraging repeat visits. Its better to keep the same visitor than trying to get new ones, plus it’s easier. Oh and it’s good for word of mouth (which is still the best way to advertise)
4. List, Register & Sign Up!
Spend at least one whole day signing up for every freaking search engine, directory and relevant search site you can. The more you name and website are out on the internet, the better you are ranked by the search engines
5. Links
Ok this is tricky, yes you want your link on as many websites as you can but even better than that is getting your website linked on a website that is really big. If you are officially linked to a big website that will look very good to search engines. Think of your link as a vote to get you to the top of the search engine. And think of a big website and your link like a campaign contribution. That’s right, get the big guys behind you and they’ll help you climb your way to the top. It’s all about who you know.
6. SEO
If you don’t know what this is, then learn. SEO (Search Engine optimization) is very important. The whole point to internet marketing is to get to the top or as high as you can on search engines. They are the number one way people find things on the internet. So in order to help your chances make sure you website is riddled with good keywords, relevant ones. If you are having a hard time with this, follow this logic: If you are online and you wanted to find a website like yours, what would you do? What would you type into a search engine. Ask yourself that question and then ask that question to everybody you know. That way you get a better understanding on what people are searching for.
Also add meta tags like keywords, descriptions and alt tags to all your pages. You can do this all at the end if you want.
7. The No Brainer
Just make sure your site looks good. If you have a crappy looking website then chances are no one will want to stay. For instance if you never cleaned your house do you think new guest will want to sleep over. Nope. And if you suck at making a website look awesome enlist a professional or someone with a clue to help.
8. The Little Things
Do these little things to your site: Add a “Tell A Friend About This Site” Button (For word of mouth, the best marketing), Add a “Bookmark Us” button to your site, give away free stuff, lure customers with contests, make jokes, get an RSS Feed (if you don’t know what that is, then learn, if you are a website designer then you should already know), put some fun things to do on your site to get people to stay. Case in point: Your having guest over for coffee but your TV is broke, all your board games are missing and you just recently started not talking to anyone, your guest will want to leave because it’s boring and it sucks.
9. Get On Myspace or Facebook
If your website is looking for a younger audience then get on anyone of these site and make friends will as many people as you can. Spend hours a day doing this. Make sure your page is chock full of ways to get to your site. This will boost traffic like nobody’s business.
10. Last But Not Least
Be consistent. If you want to have a high traffic website ,then you need to dedicate yourself to the cause. You need to be on the internet doing these things every single day. It’s just like exercising or dieting, if you don’t stick to it everyday, you will fail. But I have faith in you, do as the Romans do.
Four Powerful Ways to Keep Your Customers Informed
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, November 28, 2011
Four Powerful Ways to Keep Your Customers Informed
These days, it’s hard to walk down the street without seeing some sort of news headline or hearing about the latest story. With instant messaging, internet on our phones, and simply talking to our friends, we are constantly bombarded with the latest updates. However, when it comes to your website, you need to act in the same way. Though you might not be able to report on anything catastrophic on your website, in order to be memorable, you do need to start looking at ways to keep your customers informed:
1) Mailing Lists Do Work
Though many websites have eschewed the use of mailing lists to inform their customers, when done right, these are highly effective reminders for customers. The key to doing these mailing lists well is to get the mailing lists on your own – don’t buy them from marketing groups. While it’s true you will get longer lists from the marketing groups, you might also be getting a lot of negative feedback from people who didn’t want to receive your information in the first place.
On your website, create a way for interested visitors to sign up for a weekly email from you. All they should need to do is to give you their email address and their first name and they can find out what’s new with your site each week. This email shouldn’t be a sales letter, but more of a note about what’s going on and what people might want to stop by your site to see.
2) eZines are Still Going Out to Customers
To extend on the idea of a mass email list, you might want to look into making a magazine for your mailing list, or an ezine. This piece of information should be longer than your weekly email, but it should also contain some sales language about things that are coming up for your business.
This is the perfect way for you to update and inform your visitors about your market, while also showing that you are knowledgeable about your chosen business. Try talking about new findings in your market, for example, if you are selling nutritional products. Think about ways to give your site visitors something that they might not have learned on their own.
3) Daily Blogging is a Fun Avenue
Of course, if your business is a little less formal, you might want to opt for a business blog. This can be from the point of view of yourself or perhaps a fictional worker in your company. By simply talking about the latest news and what it means for the site visitor, you can create a modern dialogue that allows you to show your casual side, while still being informative.
You can also talk about loyal customers or about new innovations to products that are in the works.
4) Try Sending Out a Press Release
If all else fails, the press release is still the best way to rest the maximum amount of potential visitors that want to see your site. However, since these releases are generally send to a larger audience, it’s harder to target the customers you really want to target. If you can, you might want to try to submit the press release to publications that your target audience will be looking at as well as posting it on your website to help spread the word about a new product or service.
When it comes to informing your customers, you need to make sure you explore as many possibilities for doing this as possible. While you don’t want to be the only thing on your customer’s mind, you do want to be one fo the top ten.
The 10 Best Ways To Promote Your Website
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, November 26, 2011
The 10 Best Ways To Promote Your Website
To make money on the internet you need an effective marketing plan. So here are the best marketing tips that you must follow to make your website a powerful magnet for traffic and sales:
1) Banner Advertising
Although many marketers already know about pay-per-click advertising, very few are purchasing guaranteed banner click-thru’s that are available on hundred’s of sites. Look for sites that cater to your target market and look for, or ask for, their advertising rates. Slowly but surely most of the sites that sold banner impressions are starting to offer performance advertising in the form of pay-per-click.
2) Write articles
Writing Articles is an excellent way to promote your website and best of all you can get recognize as an internet business expert. You can submit your article to ezine or article directory.
3) Exchange links
Exchanging links is one of the best method for getting web site traffic and ranking higher. When you start a site you should exchange many as possable links with sites that are Related to Your site. Robots are eager to find new links and fresh information.
4) Mailing List
Having a mailing list can bring wonders to a web site, not only will it help bring old visitors back , but they will send the newsletter to their friends (If they like it).This is like gold for you. The only real purpose for a consumer website is to capture leads and to sell products. Send out a monthly e-zine that offers FREE valuable information and mentions similar products they may be interested in. Search Engine Optimization It is no secret that search engines are the number one traffic generating method for driving visitors to web sites. Search engines are very useful in helping people find the relevant information they seek on the Internet. The major search engines develop and maintain their own gigantic database of web sites that can be searched by a user typing in a keyword or keyword phrase in the search box.
5) Search engine optimization
(SEO) is the process of studying the search engines in an effort to determine how to get your web site to rank high on user searches. Depending on the statistical information reviewed, search engines account for over 80% of the visitor traffic to web sites.
6) Free online forum
One forum can be about “Online Business”. Another forum can be about ” Joint Ventures”. When people join those forums, make sure that they need to come to your site first and log in from there, if they want to log on and post on the forum.
7) Market Statistic
You can use features on your website such as visitor polls, online surveys and your website statistics to find out what your customers like more and how they feel about certain aspects of your business to determine how you can improve your product and the way you do business.
Free Advertising
There is alot of Free Advertising on the Internet. There is Classified Ads. Free For All Pages (FFA), Ezine, Article Submission and Newsgroup of course and many more.
9) Blogging
Blogs are a relatively new and popular way to publish content on the Internet. They allow the blogger to publish content; very quickly and get feedback from the people that read it. Because they are new and content is created regularly, search engines love indexing them – and if search engines love them, you should too.
10) Real Syndicated Content
RSS marketing is a tool used by many on the Internet to deliver articles, advertisements, emails, customer support responses, ezines to clients and potential clients.
Tips for Increasing Online Sales
I’m going to let you in on a very dirty secret:
There is one question that is being dodged by experts in EVERY market. Answer that question and you’ll corner the market, be worshipped forever and get more customers and sales.
If it was that easy, why aren’t other experts answering these questions?
It’s because they fear an informed audience. That’s outright silly! But, we’re not going to tell them that. While your competitors run scared, you’ll be getting more sales since you’re going to follow the steps I outline in the article below. You will educate your targeted audiences, get more website traffic, teach people how to buy from you and increase your sales.
Now, are you ready?
Step 1: Find the questions that are being dodged by other experts in your industry
I can’t tell you what these questions are. It will vary from industry to industry. . So, how do you find these golden questions to answer?
* Go to Yahoo Answers and type in your keyword. Examine the questions carefully and see which ones keep popping up. If people are asking the same questions, that means that people have the same questions. There’s a need that’s NOT being fulfilled.
* Go to forums and watch what your audience is discussing
* Survey your clients, customers and list of prospects
Step 2: Answer the questions in as many formats as possible
For each question create a blog post. Do NOT date these blog posts – you will see why later on. Once you create your blog post, expand it into an article. Then, turn your article into a video, special report, podcast and audio interview. You should also create online press releases. If you need help with writing your articles and blog postings, I have templates that will help you write your articles in 30 minutes or less. Just go to http://www.StartWritingArticlesFaster.com
Step 3: Answer the Questions in As Many Places As Possible
* You should submit your blog posts to as many RSS feeds as possible
* You should bookmark your blog posts using Digg, Technorati and De.li.cious
* You should submit your articles to the top websites, ezines and article directories that accept article submissions. We can do this for you at http://www.IWantMoreProspects.com
* You should submit your videos to YouTube and Viddler. You may even want to think about investing in the TrafficGeyser.com video submission service
* You should post links to your blog, articles and videos on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and Linked In.
* You should post your articles on social marketing websites sites like Scribd and Squidoo
* You should submit your press releases through PR Web or Webwire. If you use Webwire.com, all you have to pay is $20. But, I do suggest comparing the two services and see which one matches your needs.
* Videos teaching people how to buy from you or how to use your product should be on your website.
* When people opt-in for your special reports, ebooks or other free offering, you should have an auto-responder series that gets people to go back to your blog or website. If you have lots of blog postings that answers your prospects’ top questions – all you have to do is create a summary for each blog posting and send people back to your blog every day. This way each blog posting will get the visibility it deserves. And, by not showing the date, these postings become evergreen.
Follow these steps and you will increase website traffic and get more sales, because you’ll be educating your prospects, answering their questions and teaching them how to buy from you.
Why Your Legitimate Online Businesses Websites Need to be Self-Hosted?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Why Your Legitimate Online Businesses Websites Need to be Self-Hosted?
To establish a presence on the web it is vitally important that your legitimate online businesses websites are maintained. Unfortunately there are many small businesses who don’t realize the necessity of having self-hosted websites and they tend to use the free alternatives instead.
So let’s take a look at why self-hosting websites are so much better for establishing your own online presence.
1. You Get Your Own Domain!
With free hosting you do not get to use your own domain and owning your own domain is vital in establishing a good web presence. Some of the reasons why this is so are; you don’t ever need to worry about the content on your website where as when using free hosting, if they stop operating for any reason at all or go out of business you will lose everything on your site.
They also have the right to dictate what you put on your website and this includes the advertisements, plus they can put their own ads on your website and they don’t need your permission to do it. When the ownership of your domain name is yours then you have total control over where people can find your website.
2. Freedom of Functionality
When using self-hosting the choice of software is yours alone and that means that you can make the decision about what type of software will best serve your needs. This includes the kind of software you choose to use on your blog to connect to possible customers through social media. With free hosting you do not get this choice.
To have the flexibility to run your legitimate online businesses the way you want, never even consider using free hosting, in fact you need to ascertain that the paid hosting company you decide on is of good quality if you wish to have flexibility with the way you operate.
3. Your Online Businesses will look more Professional
If you expect people to take both you and your online businesses seriously then YOU must also take your business seriously. When you use free hosting what you are saying to anyone who visits your website is that it really is not worth their time. Free website hosting companies are using your website to advertise their own products and this will automatically detract from your own business opportunities.
Once people leave your website chances are pretty good that they are not going to return to take advantage of any of your services or products that you have on offer.
In case you haven’t noticed yet, everything we have discussed up to this point comes down to one thing – Control.
Why would you want any other company to have control over your legitimate online businesses website? Self hosting not only gives your website a more professional look but it also allows you to make your own choices to create the website exactly as you want it to be.
Unless you are willing to treat your business seriously don’t expect that anyone else will do so. Free hosting will never give you the same advantages that self hosting will and in order to brand yourself and your online businesses you must have a professional and flexible website.
Five Essential Elements Every Business Website Should Have
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, November 11, 2011
Five Essential Elements Every Business Website Should Have
Although business owners and marketer’s are coming to recognize the importance of having a website for their business, how those websites are being designed and built is still very much a problem. In most cases, a website that replicates an online brochure is what most businesses have. The result thereof is ultimately a poor return on investment for the (often large amounts of) money they have spent on the site. Here are five essential elements that every business website should have:
1) Sign-up Form
Having hundreds or thousands of visitors to your website every month is no use if you are only capturing the details of a small percentage of them from people who actually inquire. What you need is a sign-up form that offers a freebie (a free report of interest to your visitors), a newsletter or something similar. This way, you are able to capture the details (name and email address) of the visitors to your site, as well as build your list of prospects.
2) Highly Visible Contact Details
The purpose of your a small business website is generally to encourage inquiries, which will ultimately lead to sales. It is therefore essential that your website has your company’s contact details clearly displayed on every page. Ideally, you should place the contact details in the header, or in the top right area of the page. Also, try to provide as many contact formats (telephone, fax, email, Skype) as possible.
3) Dedicated Sales Pages
This one is a little tricky, depending on your business. Ideally, you should try to have a separate page for each product/service, or group of products/services. This allows you to focus on marketing each product or service’s benefits, features, and so forth to its specific target market. It also gives you the freedom to provide extensive information on each product or service, as opposed to merely providing a product name or model number. Furthermore, this additional content assists in terms of search engine optimization (SEO).
4) Testimonials
Why should anyone who visits your website trust what you have to say about yourself? You are, after all, trying to sell yourself online. It is therefore always wise to feature testimonials on each sales or product page. Ideally, you want to place testimonials about each product or service on their respective page. I usually recommend placing them down the right-hand side column of your page, but it all depends on your layout.
5) Blog
You may think that blogging is some weird, new age concept that only the “arty” and creative people of this world indulge in – you’re wrong. Setting up a blog allows you to write about anything related to your business, for example: new products or services, events, how-to’s, insights and opinions. Be sure to feature a “subscribe” option on your blog, so that you can build that database of prospects as well. Blogging also assists from an SEO perspective, by continuously adding fresh, original content to your website, which Google loves.
As an added bonus to these five essentials, I always recommend using an analytics or tracking program, such as Google Analytics (which is free), to track the goings-on of your website and assess how much and where your traffic (visitors) is coming from. As with anything, commit to learning about the topic, in this case, internet marketing, and keep an eye out for new trends that may benefit your business’ website.
Strategies for making your Fan page a success
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Strategies for making your Fan page a success
* Make your Fan page a resource
Consider your customers interests. What information do they need? Post articles and links to useful information on your wall. Your Fan page is an opportunity to showcase yourself as an expert. Provide these things for your customers and they will return to your page again and again.
* Connect
Interact with customers. Make use of all of the Facebook tools. Respond to comments. You may not want to list your entire product line. A sample on your fan page could lead new customers to visit your website for more. Spamming is always a bad idea, but targeting offers to customers who show interest can lead to increased customer loyalty.
* Be human
Pictures and personal information put a face on a company. As long as you present an image that enhances your business, personalizing your Fan page is a great way to get followers.
* Be present
Fill out your profile completely. Keep article, photo and video content current. It’s not enough to throw up a page and be done with it. Make sure to respond to customers who become fans. Create a group for your business. You can also participate in groups related to your business.
* Innovate
Facebook moves fast. Don’t be afraid to try the latest thing. Explore webinars, and other interactive media as options to improve business relationships.
Creating Facebook fan page is great first step toward integrating social media into your marketing plan. Don’t forget to provide links from your website to your Fan page. Make sure to connect your Facebook fan page to other social media so your network will grow. In no time your Fan page will be the central hub of your successful online marketing campaign.
YouTube Marketing Tips to Grow Your Business
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, October 13, 2011
YouTube Marketing Tips to Grow Your Business
The world’s biggest online video-sharing service, YouTube, is the perfect place for marketing campaigns to shine, if only marketers know how to grab the spotlight. The community is diverse, and its population huge. YouTube marketing can increase sales and widen brand coverage by using this innovative platform to connect and capture existing and potential customers.
But despite the huge market base, not all campaigns flourish in YouTube. Many companies’ YouTube marketing campaigns sizzle at the beginning and fizzle sometime thereafter. What’s the secret to staying power at YouTube? Let’s find out.
1. Quality and quantity of content
A large fraction of company or brand videos at YouTube are of the “flash-in-the- pan” variety, which means that they were initially uploaded as part of a viral marketing strategy. As time goes by, the channels are left untended and un-updated. This is a waste, because the initial videos should have been followed with more and more good content, to sustain the campaign and reap the results.
Video production technology is at its peak these days, providing the tools to create engaging videos, and lots of them. However, video quantity is a function not only of technology but also the quality of content. Companies that create fresh perspectives on a regular basis capture audiences better.
Regular content can come from current events or news related to the brand. It can also come from interviews with experts, endorsers, and even ordinary brand users. The delivery of such useful content can increase brand loyalty and confidence through time.
2. Market for wider coverage
YouTube marketing carries a deep potential for widening the customer base, for many reasons. The first is YouTube’s international audience, and the other is the cultural diversity. With the right content, marketers can capture a slice of this population to boost any marketing campaign.
Here are some ways to do this:
* Categorize videos according to audience preference. This segmentation refines the target audience population through a tailored communication aimed specifically to appeal to a group of audiences. The long-term result is an accumulation of searchable videos that are continuously viewed by common-interest users.
* Cultivate a subscriber base that views and returns to view the uploaded videos because they find value in unique and useful content.
* If possible, publish in as many international languages as possible. This widens the coverage more than when publishing only in a single language such as English.
Marketers should bear in mind, however, that building a wider market base through YouTube marketing takes time and patience, as much as it does using other channels.
3. Offer an expertise
Shying away from blatant self-promotions, a subtle yet very effective YouTube marketing strategy is to build a reputation through videos with have useful and practical information.
YouTube is not only full of entertaining videos, there are also many educational presentations or documentaries that impart knowledge and skills to users. Audiences view these videos to learn from the expertise of the company or brand.
How-to videos where notable experts are dishing out innovations and providing clarity on particular subjects are frequently viewed in YouTube. The experts may be well-known industry gurus, or the company’s president, or even a simple employee.
The secret to this YouTube marketing approach is sincerity and conviction in the message. This sincerity connects with audiences and makes them trust the information that they were provided with.
Good Process Makes Good Partners
1. Broad Strokes
Take some time to think about what you’re trying to accomplish with your website or web project. Hone in on how your project fits with your business, your industry and ultimately your customers. If the project is for internal use, how does it fit with your staff? Your website is ultimately about a business or marketing solution that solves a problem or set of problems. What are your trying to solve? What are you trying to accomplish?
2. Who Are You?
Help your web development company understand your business and your brand. If it’s a new website or a redesign that reflects a new look, it’s helpful to have some of your promotional materials, logos, letterhead, etc. available for the discovery meeting. You want to convey who you are as a business and how you present yourself to the world. The company or web developer you are working with should be interested in this and be able to summarize it back to you. If you’re a new company tackling small business website development for the first time and don’t really have too much in the way of branding or logos, don’t sweat it. A good website design company should be able to work with you to create design elements that reflect who you are or recommend a copy that specializes in logo or branding for business. Keep a list of websites you encounter where the web design speaks to you. The important thing is to reach a good design consensus.
3. Remember Your Audience
As your thinking about your business website development project, focus on your website visitors. Who are your customers? That’s ultimately who the website or web development project is being created for. Who is going to be using the website and how are they going to be using it? What’s the goal? Are you looking to generate leads from your website, automate your ordering process, sell products online, allows customers or staff to access certain information? Since you are the voice for the end users of the site, make sure and give them ample consideration during the discovery process.
4. You Don’t Have to Do It All At Once
The beauty of the web is that it is a dynamic and flowing medium. Your website can evolve in phases and you don’t have to accomplish everything in Phase I of your web project. You can brainstorm without barriers about what you want. Then, hone in and decide where the best starting point is. This is an area where an experienced web developer should be able to provide guidance. Perhaps phase I of your business web development project will be a new site creation that focuses on good design and offers essential content about your company and your services. It might include a newsletter subscriber “call to action” box on each page. Phase II might be the addition of an online store that allows customers to view order history and create reorders. Phase III could integrate added functionality to the store like the assembly of certain components, detailed reporting or a place for customer reviews. For small business web design and development, budgetary constraints have to be contended with. A website can be a work in progress and grow with your business. Breaking the project into digestible pieces can not only help you in getting better insight into what the priorities are but it can also help in spreading out the cost.
5. The Devils in the Details
You don’t need to know every detail in advance in terms of how the project will look. A good business web designer or developer should work with you through the process to draw out those fine points. It is useful to give some thought in advance to as many elements of the project as possible, particularly where projects involve interactive customer-based websites. To that end, it can be helpful to sketch out the step-by-step flow of what you’re trying to accomplish and how information flows. You might have a crystal clear idea in your head regarding how each element should look and behave. Putting it on paper helps communicate it to the web company. Or, maybe it’s a bit murky and setting the pencil to paper can be extremely helpful in clarifying your own ideas and objectives. Whether designing a new site or redesigning an existing site, jotting down a site outline is a great starting point. What are the key sections of the website? What content do you want to include for your visitors and where do you want them to go? During the initial discovery meeting, the objective should be to do a lot of fact finding. The more details you can provide the web development company, the faster and more effectively you can bring your vision to fruition.
6. Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff
While it is very useful to put some serious thought into the project for your initial discovery meeting, the nature of business web design and development projects is that many fine points will be shaped and forged as the project development unrolls. That’s why an integral part of the process should involve the web development company staging your project on the web (preferably in a staging area of the web company’s server). Then, as steps are completed and the project moves forward, a consensus on the final result is maintained. Small adjustments as the project progresses are common and expected. As long as all of the key points are in place, don’t feel like you can’t adjust minor details as things move along. With that said do keep in mind that major revisions or additions to project development can add hourly labor and impact the cost. Make sure you understand how much “adjustment” space you’re allowed without incurring additional costs. If you have a change or addition that is going to impact the bottom line on the proposal, request that you be notified in advance and have full veto or approval before work proceeds.
* Conclusion
The best way to ensure that your web development project doesn’t miss the mark is by preparing for the process and selecting a small business web development company that can help you to realize your vision. Hopefully, this guide will serve as a useful tool in the creative and development process. It was designed not only for small business owners and managers but to be shared with the website developer or designer you ultimately engage. The process of good web development is about reaching a consensus defined by budget, vision, technical requirements and good communication. The blending of those elements serves to lay the groundwork for success with your project and a final result that realizes your vision and serves your business.
The Android Phone
Google and T-Mobile have teamed up to create a new breed of cell phone. The T-Mobile G1 is the world’s first Android Phone. An “android” is traditionally defined as a robot with human qualities. Perhaps the name was chosen because of the capabilities of this new phone.
It’s known as the T-Mobile G1 Android, the Android Phone, the G1 Phone, or (more informally) the Google Phone.
The G1 Phone integrates fully with your Google accounts. Here are a few of the features and capabilities of this new cell phone:
* An Android phone allows you to browse the Internet just as you would on a normal computer.
* It allows one to run several applications at the same time, on one phone. You can switch between applications, and you can also be notified when something new occurs on one of those applications.
* It allows you to chat and share photos on applications such as Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, etc.
* It allows you to copy URLs and share them with friends via a chat line, using a simple touch-screen interface.
The following Google applications can be accessed and used directly by the Android Phone:
* Google Maps
* YouTube
* Gmail
* Contacts
* Calendar
* IM (Instant Message)
All of these Google applications will be available to you with a single logon – and they will be automatically synchronized with the web. What that means is that any change you make in one of your google accounts from your phone will also show up the next time you log on from any other computer.
For example, when you are out and about with your phone and you meet a new contact, you might want to save their contact information. All you do is save it into your Google Contacts on your G1 phone. That information will be available to you online, in your Gmail account, and in any other applicable Google account, accessible by any computer in the world.
Any information you save on your phone in this way will appear on your computer as well – and vice-versa.
If you lose or break your phone, your data will still be there waiting for you on your Google account, which you can access from anywhere in the world. And there is no need to worry about your information being stolen, as its password-protected.
Here is another example of the a use of a Google Android phone. Once you have a contact address saved into your Google account, you can easily find that location on a map – using Google Maps, of course. And what’s more, you can access street level events in any area where this is available.
This makes it a breeze to get directions to a new location! Simply find your contact on a a map with a couple of clicks, and use a street-level view to find your way if needed!
Another example of the use of the this phone is the integration of the cell phone with your Google Calendar. Any event you save on your Google Calendar will be available to you on your phone, wherever you are. So you can access your schedule easily, on the go and from anywhere, as long as you have your phone with you.
No more schedule books! And you can probably say goodbye to those tiny notebooks and pads of paper you carry around to save your information.
What’s more, once you save information on your Android phone, there’s no need to transfer it over after you get home. Its all there, safely stored on your Google account, for ready access whenever you need it.
Niche Marketing Strategies
Niche marketing is essential for any good internet marketing campaign. Niche marketing is easy enough almost anyone can drill down to the micro niches where money can be made, but some people aren’t doing necessary niche research before hand. The key components to finding these money making micro-niches is proper research and careful selection. So how do you select a niche? Here’s 3 simple niche marketing strategies.
1. Follow Your Strength
Remember in school when you had to do a presentation and the teacher was assigning topics and you got stuck with one you weren’t exactly happy to do research on?
Don’t relive those feeling with picking your niche. Select something you are passionate about or at least would enjoy doing research on. It’s important to select a niche you have a natural strength in because following a strength will give you leverage and make your work seem less like work.
Selecting a niche you have no interest in will reflect to your customers or clients. Lack luster enthusiasm or information about a niche will equal lack luster sales.
Though, when you have a strength in a particular field it shows through not only in your writing and the amount of value but it helps give you an edge over your competition because you know where to find your target audience and exactly what their looking for when it comes time to market to them.
2. Look to Mainstream Media
Turn on the TV, open a magazine, and watch talk shows. You can get a ton of ideas of profitable, hot niches just by flipping through a magazine while standing in the check out line at the supermarket or studying television commercials during your favorite show. You can even log onto Google Trends to see what the latest trends are online.
There are many clues beyond the internet which will indicate good niches. Many of the advertisers you see in magazines and TV also operate affiliate programs so be sure to check out advertisers you’re interested in.
3. Do Your Keyword Research
Keyword research is essential when selecting a niche marketing or any other type of marketing. Do not skip researching potential keywords to target. Research a possible niche with a keyword tool and investigate if your niche will be profitable.
Does it get a fair number of searches per month? Are there more searches than there are competing websites? Also, see if there are advertisements running along the side of the search results of your main keyword, that’s another indicator the advertisers may very well be making money in that niche.
Look for indicators in a potential niche will be profitable. Keyword research can be fascinating, but be sure not to get too involved with research or you might not get anything done.
Niche research can be fun and it should be like anything else you do online. Not only is it fun and relatively easy, but finding the right niche can also create a nice part-time or full-time income. Just remember follow your strength, look for hints of profitable niches from the real world and always do your keyword research with proper keyword research tools. With those three niche marketing strategies in mind you’ll be your way to becoming a niche marketing wizard.
Directory Submission: The Key to site Promotion
Most website owners fail to differentiate between a directory and search engine, failure to do so has resulted in failure to harness the powers of Internet directory effectively.
Search engine uses the spiders – (an automated software program) to locate and collect data from web pages for inclusion in a search engine’s database and to follow links to find new pages on the World Wide Web. While directories depends on human editors, who in most cases examine every single new listing before they are added to their directory. Most major search engines these days use links from human edited directory to measure the quality of the site they index. That is why you should place emphasis on the type of website or directory you list to and how to do that effectively.
However, there are some significant differences between the two link sources, Directories have only one purpose in life and that is to provide links to other sites. Directories are an established source of authority in regard to various subject matters. Being listed in directories serves as a level of measure as to the site’s worth.
A Directory Submission Service, in my opinion, is a company that will submit your website to directories. Now, the client must be careful when selecting a company. Many I have seen say something along the lines of “We submit you to over 800,000 Search Engines and Directories”. This statement alone lets me know that they are not trustworthy. We can all fire up ANY free/shareware submitter and boast the same statement. What I LIKE to see, when checking my competition, is a listing of directories they will submit to. And, of course, no one can guarantee inclusion.
There are several ways you can submit your RSS newsfeed to directories. The first, obviously, is by hand. You can get a list of the directories (http://www.rss- software.net/rss-directories.php), then go to each website and add your feed manually. Since there are many RSS directories, this can take quite a while. To save the webmaster time, two ways of automated directory submission exist.
While the article directory submission site is growing, granted yes, they may not get as much traffic as the big guys. But that means that the visitors that they do get, are more likely to see and READ your article. This means your article can find its way to ezines that want unique and fresh new content.
Search Engine Optimization is a fuzzy art in which the rules and techniques change as quickly as the Internet changes. Nonetheless, a good SEO consulting expert will always be able to help move your website towards better search engine placement, greater visibility, and consequently higher levels of targeted traffic. When it comes to choosing any professional — a dentist, doctor, travel agent or hair stylist, it may take you a couple tries to locate the right SEO professional for your business, but it’s usually better to focus on what you do best, and hire experts who spend all their time staying informed and practicing effective website promotion.
How to use the Google Trends Website
The Google Trends Website was made public in 1996 but many marketers on the Internet don’t know about it. Some know but don’t understand it and so don’t get the benefits out of it that are possible.
The Google Trends website is a service offered by Google to users that want to get some fantastic data about keyword searches in the Google search engine. For example if you wanted to know how popular Levi jeans were over the past 6 years you could type in “Levi Jeans” and get data that would show you the search trend for Levi Jeans. It will not only give you the search trend but you can begin to focus the searches on country, city or even by language.
For anyone looking for a Niche to market and make money Google Trends is something they should not do without.
* How to use the Google Trends website Practically?
a) PPC Marketing
If you are primarily a PPC marketer Google Trends is going to help you in your geo-targeting. I was involved in a niche that was hot in the United States but it gradually tapered off in the USA but got real hot in the Japanese market and so you set up your Adwords campaigns to target Japan. Thank you Google for saving me money on advertising and making me money by knowing where the buyers were.
b) Spying on Competition
To the right of the trends graph there are a list of links that show you articles that are ranked high for the keyword that you chose. Look over those articles, get some ideas, spin it and submit it. Have you seen our page about Online Article Marketing?
c) Hot Trends for Bloggers
Google Hot Trends is a separate service and URL. When you are blogging you are in need of content and if you want to have something relevant to your crowd that is timely with world events or something else you can use Google Hot Trends to see what is real relevant. Not long ago Tiger Woods went through his hardship with his family and the reporters. If you type Tiger Woods into the Google Trends website you will see the spike that was created over the bad press. I would not use Hot Trends to determine a niche because it is only reporting the hot things that are very current and as we know, news is changing all the time.
d) Keyword Analysis
The Google Trends website should be a part of your keyword research in conjunction with a program like Traffic Travis (download Traffic Travis for FREE) and the Google external keyword tool. Google trends will save you money from choosing keywords or a niche that is no longer active in a particular country that you may be targeting.
Another cool part of the keyword analysis that I should mention is something I saw in a webinar. The Google Trends website was used to compare “table tennis” and “ping pong”. Which do you think is more popular? Which country would you think either is more popular? Curious? Well I am not going to tell you. Go to the Google Trends website and check it out for yourself. While you are there play with it and see if you should alter some of the marketing that you are doing.
Remember that this is only Google traffic and does not account for the traffic on other search engines like Ask, Yahoo and Bing. Clearly Google dominates as a search engine and gives a good picture of what is most likely taking place in the other search engines.
How to Increase Google Page Rank
Visit any internet marketing forum and you are bound to find at least a few discussions on Google page rank. But what exactly is Google Page Rank and what do you need to do to increase it?
First of all Page Rank is a value that Google assigns to a web page based on the importance of the page. It is determined by the number of incoming links to that web page and few other factors including the page rank of the page giving the link to you.
There has been discussion recently asked to the importance of page rank. However one thing to consider is this, if Google thinks page rank is important than page rank is important.
Remember Google gets over 65% of all the search traffic on the Internet every day. If you were to take 10 websites that were all optimized for the same keywords, typically you would find that the page with the highest page rank would rank higher in the search engine results than the other pages.
* So what are the best ways to increase your Google Page Rank?
1. One of the first things you should do is aim to increase the numnber of backlinks that you have pointing to your website. This fact alone can increase your link popularity and ultimately increase your page rank. Combined with that is the fact that the more back links you have pointing back your website for more potential traffic you will get from it.
2. As well as increasing the quantity of links to your website you should also try to get your links on high quality web pages. This means getting your link on pages that are ranked as high or higher than yours. When you do this some of their page rank can be transferred to you which ultimately helps increase the page rank of your site.
There are lots of ways to increase your page rank, but the most common methods are posting in discussion forums that have a high page rank, article marketing, submitting your site to directories, commenting on blogs and distributing press releases.
You should also try to get some deep links in addition to the links to your home page. Deep linking means linking to internal pages on your website as opposed to always linking to your homepage.
There are many other methods that you can use to improve your page rank, but any time you spend on getting links is well spent!
It is worth noting that the page rank displayed on the Google toolbar is not up to date. Although Google is always internally updating the page rank of web pages, the toolbar page rank is only updated every few months.
You should also be aware that just because a web page has a low page rank it doesn’t mean that getting a link on that page isn’t worthwhile. The page rank could increase on the next toolbar update.
Finally, it is worth remembering that a good Google Page Rank on its own is not necessarily going to mean lots of traffic. You also want to ensure that you have chosen good keyword phrases and have optimized your website.
3 Important Questions to Ask Google Analytics
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, June 25, 2011
3 Important Questions to Ask Google Analytics
With dozens of free web analytics tools available in the market, Google Analytics stands out because it provides data like no other tool does. Just add a few lines of JavaScript code to your website’s footer and you have access to a vast amount of metrics you can slice and dice.
This data is useful to develop and implement fresh website marketing strategies and understanding the behavior online of your web visitors.
But before diving into Google Analytics, prepare a list of the most important questions you want answered from this tool:
1. What do you want visitors to do on your website?
Every website has a purpose. It may be to provide information, build a brand or sell products online. Set your goals for the website and build it accordingly.
The Goals category of Google Analytics helps you to understand the number of goals achieved in a day, week or month. All you need to do is set your goal URL in the analytics settings and watch the data pour in. The funnel visualization sub category provides this type data:
* How many visitors completed my goals?
* How many visitors abandoned the goals to move onto other URL?
* Which internal pages did visitors came from to the goal webpage?
2. What is the Visitor doing on the Website?
Analysis of this data enables you to track the visitor’s action on the website. You can find out whether the visitor completed the goal you set. Accordingly you can make the changes which will reinforce goal completion. The content category in the left sidebar of Google Analytics provides important data:
a) Top Content: It contains a list of the content viewed by the visitor, arranged in descending order. This lets you know the most popular pages of the website and how to leverage them.
b) Top Landing Pages: These are the pages visitors land on, before going ahead and browsing the website. You can view the browsing path for each webpage and find a pattern.
c) Top Exit Pages: It contains a list of web pages which failed to generate interest among the visitors and lead them to exit the website. Revamp the exit pages with these details and aim to convert them into your top content pages.
d) Site Overlay: The Site Overlay opens a new web page which contains a small progress bar over every link. This bar shows the percentage of the number of clicks on that link. As the number of clicks on a link increase, the percentage of the progress bar increases.
3. Where is the Visitor coming from?
This is one of the most important data elements you can work on to get insights into the visitor. The ‘Traffic Sources’ category displays the websites and keywords which send traffic to your website. This category can be segregated into:
a) Direct Traffic: This contains the number of visitors who came to the website by entering its URL into their web browser. Direct traffic is also used to determine the popularity of the website.
b) Referring Sites: Referring websites are the ones which link back to a website using some content and a link. The visitors get referenced from the source website and land on the target website using the link provided. Referring websites can be used to judge the success of social media marketing techniques.
c) Search Engines: It contains a list of the search engines which send traffic to the website. Google Analytics also lists keywords which were clicked upon by the visitors. A high percentage of visits from search engines indicate a successful search engine optimization strategy.
The answers to the above questions coupled with custom reports and segmentation provide rewarding insights. These metrics can be used to model the website around the desired goal and achieve higher conversions.
“5 Tips on How To Use Google Sidewiki Efficiently”
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
“5 Tips on How To Use Google Sidewiki Efficiently”
Google launched Sidewiki on 23rd Sep 2009 as a part of its toolbar. Google Sidewiki appears as a sidebar in the browser and allows visitors to comment on any webpage. Its main aim was to collect useful information on any webpage from people around the world and therefore lead to better user experience.
For example, a person searching for a local restaurant can see its review in the sidebar by the previous diners.
Google Sidewiki comprises of an algorithm which pulls out the most useful and valuable comments from its database. This ensures that a visitor will see the most relevant comments on a webpage. Listed below are 5 steps for using Google Sidewiki efficiently.
1. Get Started With Google Sidewiki
Sidewiki is available in the options tab of the Google toolbar. Simply download the Google toolbar and select the option to integrate Sidewiki using the checkbox. It appears as a blue sidebar in the browser which slides open when you click on it. Google Sidewiki works perfectly well in Firefox. Although, Google’s own browser, Chrome seems to be having some issues in integrating Sidewiki.
2. Add Comments on Useful Webpages
Adding comments in Google Sidewiki is extremely easy. You need to log in to your Google account and click on the “Make an Entry” link which appears at the bottom of the sidebar. Enter your comments and publish. It is advised to add something which ads more value to the content. If your comment is relevant to the topic, then it can be placed on the first page of Sidewiki for that web page, unless you are the website owner.
3. Claim Your Position At The Top Of All Comments
If you want to place your own comment at the top, you need to verify ownership of the website by using Google Webmasters Tool. If verified, as the page owner your entry is placed at the top entry for that page. The top slot can be used to leave a note for anyone who is yet to comment.
4. Share Your Comments With Everyone
Each comment in Google Sidewiki has the option of being shared on Twitter, Facebook or emailed to any user. This enables everyone to read the Sidewiki entries without using the Google Toolbar. This option is very useful if your web page has received some great comments from visitors. Sharing these comments will pull readers from others streams like Twitter and Facebook onto your website.
5. Flush Out Negative Comments By Blocking Sidewiki
Google Sidewiki does not provide an option for blocking or deleting negative comments on a webpage. Many users have expressed their displeasure with Google for not providing an option for this purpose. If your web page is inundated with negative or irrelevant comments which are harming your website, you can block Google Sidewiki. This can be done by switching from normal http:// to secure https:// pages.
Google Sidewiki is not the first of its kind. One of the first commenting add-on, Third Voice was launched way back in 1999. AddATweet and Kutano are plug-ins which can be installed on your browser and let you tweet comments on a webpage.
Despite many competitors, Google Sidewiki has risen to become the most popular commenting tool of its time. Start your week by experimenting with this comment tool.
How to get Started With Google Analytics
* Set up a Google account
If you do not already have a Google account you will need to set up an account to continue -click on the link “Sign-up Now” and complete the requested information.
Once your have established an account, login. Click on the “Sign Up” button and you are on your way. It is important to note before proceeding that you must be the owner of the website that you are wishing to track or have the permission of the website owner.
Blog sites such as WordPress often will have resources that will allow you to place code on your particular Blog page(s).
* Setup Google Analytics
You will be directed to a couple of input forms that will ultimately provide you the coding to produce tracking data for your website.
- General Information – On this page you will be asked to submit your website’s URL, a name to serve as a domain identifier and finally your country and time zone. (You can elect to identify your locality based on your physical location or your target audience/primary user location.)
- Contact Information – This will simply request your name and your physical location.
- Accept User Agreement – Naturally, Google will request that you approve their Terms of Service. If they are acceptable to you check the box and click on “Create New Account”.
- Add Tracking – Finally, Google Analytics will produce a Javascript code for your domain. This should be added to each page of your website at the very end of your page coding between and .
* Tracking your website
Once you have inserted the information onto each page, you will return to the Google Analytics page. Click on the link for the website you are wishing to review. This will bring you to the main “dashboard” and provide a wide range of general information including – daily usage, bounce rate, new visits, geographic locality of users, most viewed pages, etc.
You can receive more detailed information by clicking on various menu items. Detailed information will include specifics like what browser your visitors were using, by what means they accessed your page (directly, search engines, etc.), what keywords were used when accessing via a search. Google Analytics offers an area for users to establish goals to focus on specific areas of interest and particular campaigns.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool which offers the user such a wide range of in depth data the greatest risk is becoming overwhelmed by the amount of information received.
Google Adwords for Your Internet Based Business: The Upside and Downside
When people need information on any subject today, the first place they will look for it is on the internet. One of the best things to come out of the internet revolution is the search engine and the most popular search engine is Google.
Having the internet and Google has made for a quick and easy method of finding out whatever it is that you want to know. Not only does Google make it very easy to search for information but it also allows for fast growth of an internet based business for anyone who chooses to use Google Adwords as a means of advertising.
If you have never heard of Google Adwords this is a pay-per-click program that was started by Google ten years ago and it can be used to generate traffic to your website and increase the number of sales that you make. The way it works is that an internet business owner will pay Google for the amount of exposure Google gives them on the search engine.
There is an upside as well as a downside to using Google Adwords that you should be aware of before jumping in and using this type of advertising:
1. On the upside Google Adwords reaches an enormous audience. According to fairly recent research approximately 65% of all internet users will resort to Google when searching for information of any kind.
With this type of exposure one would automatically assume that by using Adwords advertising on Google your website would be displayed and bring interested buyers to your website, people who will purchase the products that you have on offer.
The advantage of this is that even if you are running your business on a limited budget you can still get your brand out there at least in the online world. By setting up your adverts and your landing pages correctly you are likely to not only recoup your advertising outlay but make a good profit as well.
One other good thing with using Adwords is that you only pay per click. In other words Google will only charge you when someone clicks on your link so no clicks no charge. Remember though that the position of an ad on the Google search page is dependant on the budget you specify and that is something else to think about. If you set the budget at 1 cent per day don’t expect your ad to be positioned in a prominent place as budgets can go as high as $100 per day and those people are going to get much better exposure.
With Google Adwords you have the flexibility to make alterations according to what you prefer – this is something that you cannot do with other forms of advertising and it only takes about 15 minutes to set up an ad on Google Adwords so it is no big deal to make frequent changes to it if you so desire. You also have the option of a multitude of languages and this allows you to cater for a niche audience.
Here is the downside!
One of the biggest downsides to using Google Adwords is that you will not be able to get any information on how well your competitors are doing. Google has a policy of not sharing this information and this can make it a bit difficult to strategize the best way to advertise effectively.
The other downside is that with Google Adwords you are very limited with the amount of copy space that you can use. You have only seventy characters with which to catch to prospective customers’ attention and this can be very difficult to achieve at times.
Even though there are these downsides when using Google Adwords it can still be a very profitable method of promoting your internet based business as it gives plenty of exposure especially with the internet being as overcrowded as it is today.
GoogleApple War: What does it all mean?
For those who have been living in a cave, Google recently bought AdMob, the small but highly innovative mobile advertising company for the extremely inflated price of $750 Million. That is the gross national product of the country of Kiribati, a small country made up of a bunch of atolls. While AdMob hadn’t quite made anywhere around that amount of revenue, Google wanted to gobble it up before someone else did and to have a quick way to access the growing revenue stream available on Mobile Applicatications. Part of this strategy was to be able to access the significant population of IPHONE users. However, recently Apple came out with new developer rules that will prevent ADMob and Google Adsense from being displayed on iPhone applications… and thus a significant issue with ADMob’s revenue stream. However, perhaps things aren’t as they seem…
Let’s make this really clear, Apple is looking to break into the advertising and eventually search market. Google, as the all encompassing leader of search clearly dominates the market. However, they recently also decided to get into mobile market with the Google Android system, which while itself doesn’t make that much money for the company, the offshoots such as the product development, application development, google interfacing and even their own google nexus phone has been a significant success. In fact, according to most reputable reports, the open-source android phones are taking over as the dominant force in the market, pushing out Apple. Apple, ain’t happy about their market share being taken. They saw themselves as dominating the mobile space for a long time to come. Don’t forget also that Apple had actually wanted to buy ADMob, but the $750M price tag was way too high – they bought a competitor with just as much revenue and potential, it seems for a significantly lower price tag of $250M.
While some people might say this is a stab at Google for getting into “their business”, there is much more here than meets the eye. Apple has no reason to actually allow Google Adsense onto their applications – because they don’t make a single dollar from those ads. Since Apple is making their own system, they need to ensure that the only way to run advertising on the system is through them. It’s pretty damn simple – Google already has an extensive database of advertisers, and they would easily overshadow any attempt by Apple to compete with them even on their own platform. This wouldn’t fare very well for Apple, if in a year a report came out that not only was Google Android overtaking Apple iPhone, but that the predominate type of advertising on the IPHONE was actually Google.
What is strange about this mobile advertising war is the investment versus the actual possible revenue being made. Everyone is talking about mobile advertising on applications and application development as if it is the “end-all” of advertising and will take over advertising left and right. However, people ten years ago pushed application advertising and ad-supported applications as the method that would take over interactive advertising. Now it’s almost impossible to find any program that actually does this and the predominate type of advertising is in the browser.
I honestly think that this is a very possible future for mobile also. As mobile devices get bigger, as the web integrates with mobile more and more, there will be a growing seamless interaction between the two mediums. In fact, if you think about it, a great portion of the “internet” users are really “mobile” – laptops are a “mobile” device of sorts, and they have become smaller and smaller, while phone screens have become bigger and bigger. At some point in the near future they will meet in the middle and we will have laptop/netbooks that are nothing but combinations of mobile phones, laptops that do everything. Most people that I know who have android phones and iPhones spend quite a bit of their time, browsing the web using it as a “little computer” of sorts and see all the banner and other type of ads made specifically for the websites.
So, does this war really matter? Perhaps for the short term, but within a few years, I can’t see it will really matter except to corner a very small part of the marketshare. Mobile as separate entity, with its own features (mobile billing, mobile applications) will become part of the entire interactive, internet, web-process. No one actually believes that ADMob was worth $750M, but sees it as one chess piece in a greater strategy that both these companies have to dominate the web. This has little to do with “Mobile”.
Making Money Online With Google Adsense
For most bloggers, Google AdSense is the first and easiest way to start making money online. But reports of how much money you can actually make with it vary widely across the board. While popular bloggers have had a great deal of success with it, smaller blogs often find AdSense to be frustratingly limited. This discrepancy has been perpetuated to the point that many bloggers now believe that to make money with AdSense, you need to have a lot of traffic.
While that’s not exactly wrong; your site’s traffic has a great impact on how much you can earn from it; it’s not the whole truth either. Most importantly, you should not give up on AdSense because of this, because, as famous bloggers themselves have proven: when it works, it works like a charm!
In order to make money with AdSense, you first need to understand how it works. AdSense is a simple ad-publishing tool that can be incorporated into a variety of online mediums and displays ads based on the keywords within the existing text on the page. Every time a visitor to your site clicks on an ad published in your data, you are paid some money. Hence it is called PPC or Pay-Per-Click Advertising. This is usually a figure in cents or pennies, and the exact figure depends most of all on how competitive and profitable your keywords are.
* Types of AdSense
AdSense is available for web content (on blogs and web sites), for search (as when you add a Google search bar to your blog and visitors click on a sponsored search result), for mobile content (for mobile-version web sites and pages), for feeds (so that you can display ads even within your RSS and Atom feeds), and for video, parked domains and mobile applications.
* How to Make Money With AdSense
1. Understand how AdSense Works
In order to make good profit from AdSense, it’s not enough to just sign up and start publishing ads. First you must know its rules – so that you don’t break them – and its payout method – so that you can develop your strategy accordingly. Take a look at Google’s AdSense center to begin learning.
2. Choose profitable keywords
Even if you already have an existing web site, in order to make money with AdSense you need to choose the most profitable keywords within your niche. If you plan on writing your own content (as opposed to hiring freelancers or copywriters), it is also crucial that you know something about the subjects of those keywords and can research and write useful material on them.
3. Create useful, keyword-rich content
Once you have chosen your keywords, you can actively start creating content while keeping those keywords in mind. Don’t start keyword-spamming, because users will not find your site useful, and while they might click on an ad just to get away from your page, that’s not a profitable or traffic-building strategy. If your content doesn’t make sense, you also risk getting banned by Google; not just the AdSense program but the search engine too!
4. Place your ads strategically
The placement of your ads within your content really matters. The optimum placement will of course depend on your design and the placement of your text. You also have the choice between image, text and video-based ads, and how well one works for you will depend on your readership, the type of your content and primarily your existing web design. Many WordPress themes and the like come already enabled for displaying ads, but don’t let that prevent you from trying different options and choosing for yourself which one has the best ROI.
5. Build traffic
The more traffic your site has, the more users will click on your ads – it’s that simple. Traffic building is a whole another blog post, but remember that it goes hand in hand with creating useful, keyword-oriented content!
Making money with AdSense is easy – once you understand the program and follow some simple strategies for maximizing your profits, it’s truly a program you can “set and forget”!
The Power of Google Analytics
Internet marketing efforts need to be tracked so you know if you are using your resources wisely. Google analytics is a good, free tool you can use to track traffic sources, conversion rates, etc.
Make sure you have Google analytics or some other type of analytics installed on your website.
- Traffic Sources
You want to know where your traffic is coming from and where it is not coming from. This will help you allocate your resources properly. Google Analytics is able to track where your site visitors are coming from, where they go on your site, etc.
A few examples of where your traffic may come from:
- Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc)
- Pay-Per-Click campaigns
- Twitter, Facebook, etc
- Articles and press releases that include links
- Websites that have your links
- Etc.
Having this information can help you have a more effective Internet marketing plan.
- Easy Come, Easy Go
It is easy to find out where the traffic comes from and what page they leave from. Both of these pieces of information are valuable. Knowing them can help you identify if your Internet marketing strategy is working.
The page people enter your site on is important. You want to make sure they arrive on your website on a page that has a focused message for what they are looking for (most websites have multiple entry points, each focused on a different search term). Pay careful attention to what page your visitors land on and make sure it is well designed and well written.
The page visitors leave your website on is also important because it may identify a problem with your site. If you find that a certain page is the primary exit point you want to see if there are any technical or other issues with that page that make people leave your site.
- Conversion Rates
Though it is important to learn about where your traffic is coming from it is more important to know where your sales are coming from. Conversion rates in Google Analytics are tracked by traffic source. You can see where your actual buyers are coming from so you can put more emphasis on those resources.
Google Analytics is important to add to a website. Learn about your website traffic, conversion rates and more so you can make important tweaks to your Internet marketing strategy. It’s free to use so all you have to do is go for it.
Time Spent In The Google Sandbox: Still Important To Success
Google denies that they sandbox new websites. Yet, webmasters and SEO gurus alike have been frustrated to no end by the sandbox effect noted when a new website is launched. Google does acknowledge that there may be something in the algorithm that penalizes new websites and gives them lower rankings until they have proven their value. The reasons for such a filter are many and include keeping people from putting up multiple sites with links to one another when one website is what they need. Whatever the reasons behind ending up there, time spent in the Google Sandbox is still important to success.
Whether it was a conscious decision on the part of Google owners or not, they have written into the algorithm a set of filters that manage to establish the quality of a website using time-based indicators. These indicators include the age of the web site or domain, the age of different backlinks and inbound links to the site, and other factors. One important feature to note is that not only new sites are found in the sandbox. Older sites that suddenly get a rush of inbound links are often sandboxed while the value of the links is established.
With these points in mind, many who have paid for SEO services and still ended up in Google Sandbox are wondering what they can do to get out. Sadly, the only true way to climb out is to be patient. Time is actually on the side of those who are in the sandbox. There are several reasons for this.
The first reason is that time spent in the sandbox allows the website owner to work on tweaking any problem that is found with the site so that it is 100 percent ready when page rank climbs to a point where new visitors are coming in large numbers. This is the best time to test and fix any programming errors noted.
The second reason is that it allows you to work on the content of your site and any related sites linked to it. On the internet, content is king and Google is no different on that score. New, keyword optimized content appearing regularly with links that go back to a site that has been sandboxed catch attention and increase the odds of getting out sooner. Of course, these links must be relevant to the material on the website to be of any real value.
It gives webmasters time to establish relationships with others that are considered authorities in their fields. These authorities can include links to a site in their own pages. If these individuals are recognized as authorities in their fields, the value of their links increases dramatically.
Trust is an important part of any business relationship. There are some sites on the internet that are trusted more than others. Links from these sites are seen as more trustworthy by the search engine, and can help boost page rank quickly.
Ideally, you should try for a trifecta by seeking out relevant links from sites owned by recognized authorities in the field who have been deemed trustworthy by Google and users doing business with them. These links can combine in an exponential manner to boost a page ranking significantly regardless of the page’s age.
Another trick to consider is not limiting yourself to Google when performing SEO operations. One can be in the Google Sandbox and still get good organic results on other search engines such as Yahoo or Ask Jeeves.
You can also optimize for more long tailed keyword phrases. The sandbox effect only seems to affect sites that use highly competitive keywords. Therefore, if you sell an item that can be described in the keywords, the longer keyword phrases may help increase page rank. Of course, you must choose keywords that users are likely to type into the search engine.
In a nutshell, to take advantage of these time-based indicators, you should:
1. Get links that deliver the most trust, first.
2. Start your website today and also begin your link-building task as well
3. Target quality 4-in-1 links. This means going for links that are Relevant, Authoritative, from Trusted sources and from High page rank pages.
The Google Sandbox is real, despite denials from Google. These filters are part of the algorithm that assigns page ranks and they do penalize new sites that use competitive keywords. They also penalize established sites that enter into link farming agreements and try to manipulate the rankings artificially. The filters are age related for the age of the domain, the age of the links to the pages, and other factors.
The time spent in the Google Sandbox is important for the success of any web based business. To be more precise, what is done during this time is important. This is an opportunity to work out any bugs in your website that could hurt business. It is also an opportunity to establish high quality relationships with other site owners who can provide links to your site that are relevant, authoritative, from trusted sources, and coming from pages that are ranked highly, allowing you to take advantage of their rank until your own comes into being.
Google Instant Means The End Of SEO
Initially, Google’s new Instant Search system could mean a major change in how web surfers look for information online. Instead of typing a search query into Google and then hitting return, and waiting for a list of results, Googlers now see a dynamic list of results as they type. Google considers this a positive step forward in the development of searching. Google claims this new style of response will save between two and five seconds per search query. That potentially means 11 hours are saved every second. but does anyone other than Google really care?
The internet marketing community, however, will never be very enthusiastic about Google Instant. SEO consultants, who try to get sites listed at the top of Google’s organic search rankings, and SEMs, who battle for their clients’ sites to be placed near the top of Google’s Adwords Sponsored Listings, have been blogging and tweeting as if Armageddon is here.
The SEO community is paranoid at the very best of times, and perhaps with good cause as: a small change in the Google algorithm can determine the future of many websites. In this instance, however, the reaction is not necessary, essentially the results are the same, the sole change is you can see potential results of each word as you type it in, so if you are typing in ‘Italian restaurant’ you will observe everything Italian prior to getting to the restaurant results and then you will have to include your location unless you are very flexible about your travel arrangements, so in fact long tail key phrases are far from dead.
And this time round the latest Google scare is ‘much a do about nothing’ or will it be? There isn’t any denying that Google’s original innovation in search transformed how the Internet worked and made the business of finding stuff considerably quicker and easier. It also created an enormous market – one Google still dominates – that allowed companies to market us things depending on whatever we had entered in that box and all was well, for a while.
But something happened. Social networking, social media, whatever you want to refer to it as… suddenly, content was coming right at us, without us even looking for it. We couldn’t escape it. Several hyperactive egotists in each community began curating content and spewing it out to their friends. People were sharing photos, stories and links so we found that we were spending less and less time foraging around for things and increasingly more time sitting back and allowing it to wash over us.
Fast forward to 2010, and we’re being assaulted by more stuff than we could possibly consume. Facebook, Twitter, and email are shoveling pictures and video down our throats more and more quickly. Feedback loops enabled by sharing and retweeting functions imply that each of us has now changed into an over-sharer as well as an over-consumer. If you are not confused and over loaded with information, you soon will be.
Google Instant Search for Marketing
Google recently introduced their “Instant Search” feature which starts to populate search results the instant you start typing into the search box. At the same time, Google suggests alternate search terms as you type to help narrow your search without forcing you to enter entire search phrases.
The main idea behind this new feature is to save users a few seconds on each search and cut down on misspellings for search terms, business names or product names. Users may not notice much difference in their overall experience, however, for small businesses and online entrepreneurs, this new search method carries a few interesting ramifications.
Since Google clearly ranks as the “900 lb. Gorilla” of the online marketing world, acting as de facto gateway to the Web for millions, any change to their system makes businesses nervous. Many have expressed concern that this latest change will force users of Google’s AdWords program, the search giant’s lucrative pay-per-click marketing arm, to pay for more expensive keywords.
They reason that since the most popular search terms appear in the search box first, and that most people will opt to accept Google suggestions, those most popular searches will carry the highest click prices. In other words, businesses that depend on Google to show their ads fear that Google will force them to pay more money by recommending more expensive keyword searches.
I disagree.
The suggested search term feature actually appeared on Google quite a while ago, and all that’s really changed is Google starts to display the actual search results AS you type. With the old 2-step process, Google made suggestions as you typed and then you clicked the search button to see the search results.
Instant Search just creates a FAST way to see the results for different search variations without forcing you to click the button each time to see those results. This process makes it simple to see the results, change your mind, and not wait for the results each time you change the phrase.
My experience shows that most people always start with a broad search and then narrow it by including more descriptive terms (often called “long-tail” keywords) to better find what they want. This new process won’t change that.
In fact, it will give people more chances to refine their searches on-the-fly by providing Google more details of what they want. Instead of posing a threat, I believe this new Instant Search feature creates an opportunity for any business to perform high-speed market research to look for possible opportunities and trouble spots.
The following four steps will help any small business use Google’s new feature for instant results.
1. Go to Google and search for your business as if you were a consumer.
2. Make a note of the keyword suggestions Google offers as you type.
3. See if those suggestions give you any ideas for your own marketing (since they should represent the most popular phrases).
4. Note which competitors show up and where you appear in relation to them.
These 4 simple steps make a great barometer for taking a read on your local market, fast.
Who appears consistently?
Who shows up hit-and-miss or every once in a while?
Who shows up in Google Maps?
If your competitors show up and you don’t, you’ve got some work to do!
Bottom line: as a small business, use Google’s new Instant Search to quickly get the big picture when it comes to your business, industry, and local competition.
The Buzz about Buzz
If you haven’t treated yourself to a lovely shiny new g-mail account, then you are missing out. Not only does it have endless memory, quick processing of large attachments, and a lovely search function of deleted e-mail; it also has a super cool new function called Buzz.
Buzz functions like many other popular networking sites, but it has a few new perks. Instead of friend-ing someone, like on Facebook, with Google’s new Buzz you follow them. So you want to get as many people following you as possible. Start with friends, family, and people you network with regularly on other social web-sites. Now for the cool part: any website that you have attached to your Buzz account generates posts via Buzz. Websites that you can attach to Buzz include Google Chat Status, Picassa, Flickr, posted via Buzz@gmail, Google reader, and Twitter.
Once you have connected any of these websites to Buzz, anything you post on the other website automatically appears as a post on Buzz. Anyone who is following you will be able to see these posts. You get twice as much exposure with half of the effort. You can post information about events, a sale your business is having, or a gig your band is playing. Buzz will get the information out.
Buzz also has some other nifty features, similar to other networking sites. You can comment on someone else’s post or a post of your own. You can like a post. You can re-share a post, e-mail a post to anyone (whether they have Buzz as well or not), and finally, and probably the most cool, is one of your contacts is online and has their G-mail account open you can reply to the post by chat, which is conveniently built into G-mail’s website.
- How Does This Affect Pay Per Click Marketing?
Buzz taps into Google’s AdSense program with a more refined algorithm. If someone clicks on an add while on a Buzz screen, then the logic states that their friends might also like similar ads, articles, and websites. This adds a powerhouse punch to pay per click advertising. Much like harnessing the power of Facebook, PPC advertisers now have new avenues opened before them. Unlike fishing on particular keywords, potential customers are assisting in the event. Using this analogy it is like having fish help teach you how to fish.
This sort of advertising momentum can take your marketing campaign to the next level. Couple this with analytics tools and your PPC approach will be unstoppable. All PPC Google ads permits companies to set their advertising budget down to an exact dollar amount. In fact, the minimum required daily budget to advertise with Google through PPC Ads is one dollar. As always, the advertiser only pays when an ad is clicked, and Buzz doesn’t change that, it only helps to harness the power of social media for the purpose of ad refinement and dissemination.
Tips For Google Adwords
One of the best Google Adwords tips I can give you is to not consider this a do it yourself type of traffic tool. Adwords has many elements to it and if you want to make more money than you spend you will need to find someone, or some course, to teach you how to get the most out of it.
Pay Per click (PPC) can work exceptionally well at getting hordes of very targeted traffic to your website virtually instantly. Of course, you may be asking, if it’s so good, why doesn’t everyone use it?
That is the crux of the matter. PPC is not an easy thing to learn how to do. It will take time and you need to be willing to invest not only the time but the money too. You will need to carefully test and track various elements of each ad that you place. In the start you will spend way more money than you will earn.
Another challenge is that Google isn’t really worried to much about you or your advertising budget, they are more concerned that their searchers get what they are looking for. The searchers on any of the search engines are the real customers and if they don’t find what they want they’ll go elsewhere. That is why Google wants to make sure to keep them happy by providing them with just what they’re looking for.
To do this, Google will periodically change the way they do things. They will rewrite an algorithm or make other changes and if you’re not right on top of those changes you can find that the ad that once made you a lot of money is now costing you a lot of money.
Here are a few tips that you can use to optimize your PPC campaigns:
1. Find a course or a mentor who can teach you the ins and outs of PPC advertising. If you try to just jump in and figure it all out on your own you had better make sure you have a lot of time and very deep pockets.
2. Carefully choose the keywords you use. Don’t even try to compete for the one or two word keywords since they will almost always have so much competition you’ll be spending way too much per click. Instead focus on the keyword phrases that have 3, 4, or 5 words in them. These ‘long tailed keywords’ can fly under the radar yet still get you some decent click through rates (CTR’s).
3. Always test your ads. You can do this by having several versions of each ad running at the same time. Find out which headlines get the most clicks. Which body text gets the most clicks, etc. Keep testing until you’ve got a winning ad. When testing make sure you only change one element at a time otherwise you won’t know which change really made the difference.
Out of all the Google Adwords tips I can give you the one I think is the most important is to find someone to show you the ropes. PPC is effective if you know how to do it right, but if not it can very quickly become a money pit.
Google’s Need For Speed Means You Need to Check Your Website
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Google’s Need For Speed Means You Need to Check Your Website
Not too long ago Google released a new search tool “Google Instant.” Google Instant tries to speed searches by anticipating what you are going to type next based on what you have searched in the past. When you start typing Google offers you a selection of results and you can watch the results change with each letter typed. Google claims that it will save 3.5 Billion global seconds a day! I don’t know about you but I feel better knowing that I won’t be searching for the same thing fifteen years from now.
Putting aside the privacy issues and the file Google has on each and every one of us, let’s look at how this will affect your website and your search placement. In that same Google interview they stated they will pursue all options to shorten search times. At the top of the list was site load times and robot read times.
We already know there are rules to govern the code to content ratio, keyword density and placement, and content quality but this rule goes right to the foundation of every website. This rule speaks right to the background code, which by the way, has changed a lot over the years. Under this new rule the load and read speeds of your website will have a direct affect on your ranking.
How do you know if your website needs to be updated?
1- Web code standards and browser capabilities have advanced a lot in a short time. If your site is pushing five years since the last tune up, it is time to look.
2 – Was the original site written with outdated or obsolete WYSIWYG software? These are notorious for adding tons of erroneous code (Google already penalizes for this).
3- Copy placement. Search bots only read so many words in to a website. It is important that these be the important words. We call that “strategic copy placement.”
4- On-page optimization. Is your website easy for Google to find and more importantly, understand where you want to be listed? Older sites have little or no optimization at all. This is especially true with WYSIWYG and templates.
How do you fix this problem? Sorry, there is no short answer. The best thing to do is find an experienced website designer and get an evaluation. Not an artist turned developer but a good design / code / search optimization team. I have argued this point many times in the past and won’t go into here. But, other than the graphic design there are two other components to a website. These two parts together are the most important components. First, the way the site is written and second is the search optimization, which includes current market research.
What the code should look like, again that is too deep to cover here. We coined a phrase a couple of years ago “search engine positive code”. This is how your website is presented to the search engines. You need to give it to them the way they want it. This is now critical to website placement and that is important in this competitive environment.
Once you have the evaluation tackle it one step at a time. You can re-do the code with minor changes to the design. Another option is to just re-do the index page. The occasional overhaul is part of the normal evolution of maintaining a website. Technology changes and you have to also, you can bet that your competition will.
Seven Things You Never Want To Say To A Potential Customer
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, May 2, 2011
Seven Things You Never Want To Say To A Potential Customer
Unless your goal is to scare potential customers away, never say these seven things to them.
1. Never say to a potential customer: We don’t accept credit cards – Your customers expect you to accept credit cards – when you tell them you can’t – you immediately disappoint them and give them a big reason not do business with you!
These days, most businesses do qualify for a merchant account from their bank or at the very least qualify to open a WorldPay account. (We’ll cover that in another article.)
Bottom line – you are not really in business unless you can accept credit card payments.
2. Never say to a potential customer: Please allow 28 days for delivery- When your customers are ready to buy, they usually want the product immediately.
If you tell potential customers they have to wait 28 days before they can get the product, most will go somewhere else to buy. Even if customers have to wait just a few days, or in some cases, a few hours (i.e. to access to a subscription web site or download an eBook/Software item), they will often go away without placing the order.
Bottom Line: To avoid losing customers, make sure your products are available for immediate shipment. Be sure to offer next day shipping when possible. And never offer products that require customers to wait 28 days for delivery.
3. Never say to a potential customer: No questions allowed! – Often customers will want to speak to you before placing an order. But if you don’t include a phone number in your ad or on your website, it is like saying ‘no you can’t call us and ask questions!’
Not having a phone number where customers can reach you before the sale often discourages the sale itself.
Bottom Line: Always include a phone number in all your ads, web site, press releases, and sales letters.
4. Never say to a potential customer: We aren’t interested in your call – Incoming calls to your business should always be answered – either by a live person, or by a professional voice mail system.
Never let phone calls go answered. Doing so immediately causes doubt in the customer’s mind. They begin to wonder, “Is this a real business? No one seems to ever answer the phone. Maybe I should place my order with another company.”
In my office I have a voice mail system to answer all incoming calls that Nadine and I can’t personally answer. When we are out of the office during business hours, we forward our office phones to our mobile phones. This allows us to take business calls whenever they come in, wherever we may be.
The same is true with fax calls. Potential customers expect you to have a fax machine – all real businesses do. If a potential customer wants to fax you a question, a sales order, or anything else, you want to be able to receive the fax.
Bottom Line: Make sure your business phones are answered. During business hours the phones should be answered by a real person, and a voice mail system after hours. If you can’t afford a voice mail system and stand-alone fax machine, then configure your computer to answer your phone and receive incoming faxes for you.
5. Never say to a potential customer: We don’t have a web site – these days, customers expect you to have a web site. And they expect to see information about your company, your location, the products you offer, support materials, and more at that web site.
If you don’t have a web site, your customers might find a competitor who does.
Bottom Line: Almost all businesses should have a web site. The website should have a professional design, be easy to use, and provide the kind of information potential customers will be looking for.
6. Never say to a potential customer: Sorry, I don’t have a business card – it continues to amaze me how often I am asked for a business card by potential customers who I come in contact with in non-business environments.
For example, recently whilst I was buying a new car, the salesman asked about the kind of business I ran, and after hearing the explanation he said, “I know someone looking for that kind of software. Give me your business card and I’ll pass it on to him.” And he did, and we got a call from someone who may turn into a customer.
Bottom Line: Make sure you have business cards with you wherever you go. You never know when you might find a new customer. (Make sure your business card has your name, your company name, your web site address, your email address, and a brief description of the kinds of products or services you offer).
7. Never say to a potential customer: Yes, our product can do everything you ever wanted. That can’t possible be true – no matter how great a product or service you have, it can’t do everything.
If a potential customer asks about features your product doesn’t have, be honest. Tell them that you haven’t included the feature, but it is a good suggestion and you’ll consider adding it (if that is possible).
Whatever you do, don’t mislead potential customers about what your product can and can’t do. Be honest about it – customers do appreciate honesty. You can avoid disappointing customers by being clear about what your product can or can’t do.
Bottom Line: Better to lose a sale than to create a disappointed or angry customer. If your customer is looking for a feature that you don’t include in your product, tell them so.
Breaking Down the New FTC Endorsement and Testimonial Rules in Layman’s Terms
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Breaking Down the New FTC Endorsement and Testimonial Rules in Layman’s Terms
Over the last several months, I’ve had numerous individuals e-mail me complaining they didn’t fully understand the new FTC Endorsement and Testimonial Rules, and how it applied to them.
That’s not surprising, since government rules and regulations at both the state and federal level are notorious for not being written in layman’s term.
With that in mind, I decided to write an article about the new FTC rules in language I’m sure everyone can understand. Let’s get started:
On December 1, 2009, new FTC regulations that govern the use of endorsements and testimonials to promote products went into effect.
FTC regulations now require all endorsements to disclose any “material connection” between the vendor and the advertiser.
For example, suppose you are an affiliate marketer who owns a website that provides reviews of products that you promote. If your reviews about those products are favorable, by law, you must disclose the fact that you are receiving a commission from the sale of those products.
These new rules apply even if you receive a free or complimentary product and are asked to review it. Under the new FTC rules, you not only have to disclose the fact you got the product for free, the onus is on the vendor who provided the product to make a sincere effort to insure you make that disclosure.
In addition, under the new rules, advertisements featuring consumers that give the impression that his or her experience with a particular product or service is “typical” when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the “real” results that consumers can generally expect.
In other words, if you don’t have clinical data to prove or substantiate the type of results you claim consumers will generally achieve with your product, the FTC now offers you two alternatives — either furnish such data or stop using “success story” testimonials altogether.
To be fair, the FTC clearly states, the new rules are administrative interpretations of the law, intended to help advertisers comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act; they are not binding law themselves.
That means any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act.In closing, while the burden of proof may indeed rest with the FTC, you also don’t want to give the Commission a reason to come after you either. I can assure you, a fight with the federal government and all its vast resources is a fight you can do without.
How to Satisfy Small Business Clients?
A lot of us web business gurus tend to miss something important: Most money changes hands in the real world, not online. Depending on who you ask, U.S. online sales total $200-400 billion annually. Not bad, right? Sure, but the total of all transactions in the economy works out to $14 trillion or so. Online sales, impressive as they are, only account for two to three percent of the total economy at best.
Most of my clients are small businesses with fewer than 100 employees. One thing the proprietors have in common is that they do not spend much time online. Whether the client is a dentist or a pet groomer, the only thing they care about is that their online presence brings warm bodies in their doors, preferably warm bodies with credit or insurance cards at the ready.
Those of us who spend a good portion of our lives tilting the plane of cyberspace in favor of our clients’ businesses tend to lose sight of the real world. You know the one – the one you can actually smell. Conversely, our clients tend to regard cyberspace as a distraction or a frivolity because they are caught up in the day-to-day drama of running their businesses.
My clients and I live in different worlds. I actually have paying customers whom I’ve never met in person and, quite frankly, I don’t care to meet them. All I care about is that their checks clear and that they are pleased with the results of my efforts. For their part, all they care about is the influx of business that occurs after I “do my thing.”
So what is my “thing” and how do I do it? There are elements of the secret sauce that I simply will not reveal without being paid a handsome sum, but I will give you a basic sketch. In fact, I’ll give it to you step-by-step:
1. Listen to what the client wants in the real world but tune out what they say about the web because they generally don’t know what they’re talking about. I always bring the conversation back to the real world. “So Fred, the flashy website with all the nifty widgets and gizmos sounds cool, but the ultimate goal is for the phone to ring, or perhaps I’ve misunderstood…” They know what they need in the real world, but you are the expert when it comes to web design, SEO, social media, PPC, video marketing or whatever else you’re going to do for them. The only exception to this rule is when they have a very specific business need for a web application that will streamline their operations. If a physician tells me she wants patients to be able to schedule appointments and pay their co-pays through the website, that is precisely what I give them.
2. Talk turkey early in the game. Ask straight-away about their budget, and tell them what to expect within those constraints. If their budget is $500 a month, show them how you will generate an extra $2,000 in sales for them each month. The worst thing you can possibly do is promise them the moon if their budget will barely buy a dead Soviet satellite. A lot of times, I gain clients by offering to do a small project on a small budget so that they can get a taste of the potential before committing to a bigger campaign.
3. Design a custom plan and never – ever – use a cookie cutter. Small business people are often visionaries. Learn as much as you can about their philosophy, their customers, their products, and their plans for the future. Build a web campaign around that. Make it about them, not you.
4. Execute the plan. You’ve done this a thousand times. You know it will work. Now do it.
5. Track the results. This one can be difficult. I can say with total honesty that every single client I have ever worked with has seen an increase in business within a very short time of my efforts. I can also say with honesty that they often chalk it up to coincidence. That is to their detriment when the contract period is up. It feels awful, like you’re pulling the rug out from under them. The funny thing is that they do not chalk the resulting decline in business up to coincidence and often come begging at that point. Best to avoid this, however. Track results. Show them how their increased website traffic or video views correspond to increased sales. It makes the renewal process much more pleasant for everyone involved.
This deserves an article of its own, but it needs to be said: Getting warm bodies in the door is not the same as gaining maximum exposure. SEO does no good if the site tells the wrong story. Viral content can be effective, but only if the message is clear and the target market reached. Helping small businesses is all about delivering the message that the business owner wants to deliver to the people that want to hear it.
Remember that while you and your client inhabit different worlds, one thing you do have in common is that you want the same end result. Focus on achieving that, and everyone will be happy.
How To Find The Perfect Price?
How To Find A Price That Sells Lots ….
How do you decide the best price for a JV product?
I’ve read a lot of very complicated, scientific theories on this. And I’m not sure any of them work. So here I’m going to run through a few very simple tips which I think you will find very useful.
Firstly, you need to know the economics of your business. You’ve got to know the price of your product and all your other overhead costs – like mailing, fulfillment and your partner’s JV commission. And you’ve got to add on a little bit …. well preferably a lot …. as a profit margin. It stands to sense that your perfect selling price has to be at least what all those amounts add up to.
Now what about the price in terms of marketing pull. Well, although it seems logical, charging the lowest price you can afford to charge is probably not the best strategy. You have to understand a bit about your product and your customer to know how price pushes their buying buttons.
To give you an example: I’ve seen modern art for sale in fashionable, posh-part-of-town art galleries at $250, $350, $500 and even more. Presumably someone must buy them, because those sort of upmarket businesses seem to do very nicely thank you. Then again, I’ve seen much the same thing up for sale in discount stores for $15 …. but they just sit gathering dust for months. You see, there’s something about the fashionable gallery environment that attracts the higher spending customer and persuades them to spend more on what they want. It’s just the same for lots of other JV-related products.
With every product there will also some level of price resistance. Together with various price points which the customer is happy to buy at. In the information manual and DVD business the first price point might be $29.95 – a point where sales drop off if you go beyond it. However, once you pass that point there might be no significant difference in sales conversion rates between $39.95 and $79.95. That means that if you can’t price it at $29.95 you might as well price it at $79.95! There are other variables of course, such as the exact contents of the package, but many times it works like that.
Every product or service has its own range of price points. You have to take some time to find out yours.
What about ‘full pound’ prices – $30 versus $29.95 or even $29.99. This is one of those great marketing talking points. Often I find that a price ending in .95 works better than .99, .89 works better than .95 and odd pound figures almost always outsell even pound amounts.
If you sell on installment terms or finance you might not headline on the total price at all. I have seen lots of courses sold on offers such as ‘3 Monthly Payments Of Only $27.89′. In these cases, it’s important to get the installment price right rather than the total price. (Which in this case is a totally bizarre $83.67, but you might well find that it works very, very well.)
I will, however, make this very important point: The skimpier the sales job you do the lower you cap your price. And if you’re very limited in terms of time and space then the price gets a lot more important.
Try this great technique for seducing your customers! If you think your price seems a bit high and you want to make it look fantastic value then consider using price comparisons, like this ….
In top brand designer stores you’ll probably pay $180 to $200.
In popular discount stores you may pay as little as $49 to $69.
But our direct valued-customer price is just $27.97.
OK, so let’s try and summarise the secret of great JV pricing in just four simple points:
* The economics of your individual business decides your lowest possible price.
* Knowing your product and your customers will tell you how little they would like to pay – and also how much they will pay.
* Know your individual price points. Testing will help. If you can’t stay within one price point you might as well push your price up to the next one.
* How you present price can make a difference.
Twitter Case Provides Critical Lessons in Administrative Security
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, April 28, 2011
SaaS-eCommerce Sites: Twitter Case Provides Critical Lessons in Administrative Security
In June, 2010, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled charges that Twitter’s micro-blogging site had engaged in lax security practices that amounted to “unfair and deceptive trade practices”.
While previous cases brought by the FTC for lax security procedures focused on lax electronic controls, the Twitter case focused on lax administrative controls. Webmasters of SaaS and ecommerce sites who fail to learn and apply the critical lessons of the Twitter case do so at their peril.
- Twitter Case Facts – Two Hacks
The FTC’s complaint against Twitter alleged that lax administrative controls for data security permitted at least two hackers to acquire administrative control of Twitter resulting in access to private personal information of users, private tweets, and most surprising – the ability to send out phony tweets.
Here’s how the hackers got access to Twitter. According to the FTC, hacker no. 1 was able to hack in by using an automated password guessing tool that sent thousands of guesses to Twitter’s login form. The hacker found an administrative password that was a weak, lowercase, common dictionary word, and with it the hacker was able to reset several user passwords which the hacker posted on a website that others could access and use to send phony tweets.
Hacker no. 2 compromised the personal email account of a Twitter employee and learned of the employee’s passwords that were stored in plain text. With these passwords, the hacker was then able to guess the similar Twitter administrative passwords of the same employee. Once into Twitter, the hacker reset a user’s password and was able to access the user information and tweets for any Twitter user.
- Twitter Settlement Lessons
The FTC noted that Twitter’s website privacy policy promised: “We employ administrative, physical, and electronic measures designed to protect your information from unauthorized access.”
Focusing on Twitter’s administrative controls (more accurately on the lack thereof), the FTC alleged that Twitter failed to take reasonable steps to:
* Require employees to use hard-to-guess administrative passwords that they did not use for other programs, websites, or networks; * prohibit employees from storing administrative passwords in plain text within their personal e-mail accounts;
* Suspend or disable administrative passwords after a reasonable number of unsuccessful login attempts;
* Provide an administrative login webpage that is made known only to authorized persons and is separate from the login page for users;
* Enforce periodic changes of administrative passwords, for example, by setting them to expire every 90 days;
* Restrict access to administrative controls to employees whose jobs required it; and impose other reasonable restrictions on administrative access, such as by restricting access to specified IP addresses.
* The FTC settlement included (among other things) the requirement that Twitter set up and manage a comprehensive data security policy that will be reviewed by an independent auditor periodically for ten years.
- Conclusion
The FTC represents consumer interests to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices. Privacy and data security have been high-priority issues for the FTC, as evidenced by the 30 cases brought over the last few years for lax data security practices.
In its investigations of data security cases, the FTC looks at 2 standards:
* What the FTC considers as “standard, reasonable” security procedures, and
* What a website’s privacy policy promises to consumers regarding data security.
If the website’s actual data security practices do not measure up to either of these standards (a worst-case scenario would be the failure to measure up to both), the FTC concludes that the website has engaged in lax security practices that amount to “unfair and deceptive trade practices”. A complaint and costly lawsuit may follow.
The reason that the FTC publishes the results of its settlements is to provide lessons to others regarding what the FTC regards as an “unfair and deceptive trade practice”.
Do you know if your site measures up to the two standards?
The Eternal Debate: Apple Mac vs. PC
In this world where technology rules, no business can survive without a computer. Not only that, but it is also necessary that computers are updated to keep up with new technology being released every year. So which computer is the best for your office based business?
When buying a computer, the main thing to realize is what you will need in terms of the business requirements, then do a little research to find out what suits your requirements best.
Not wanting to be simple, but we have to start somewhere!
So, there are two different types of computer processors, PC and Apple Mac. PC stands for Personal Computers and is the term used to refer to all computers that are IBM compatible. Most software available on the market, especially games software, is PC compatible though because the PC is so common; it is also beset with virus problems while Apple Macs do not encounter the same degree of problem areas.
Apple Mac computers are for the most part well designed and look more stylish than the majority of the business targeted PCs on the market. A Mac is widely used by designers and photographers and most computer savvy users believe that the Mac is a much better computer, with improved audio and video software compared to a PC. This isn’t to say it is best for you business, as individual company needs do vary. For example if you are storing lots of images on your computers, a Mac may sound like a good option though if you don’t intend to edit the photos or do not particularly need to see those images in such high quality, then a standard PC with a good processor and lots of memory may suffice.
Though the Mac is easier to use, it can be difficult to train up employees that have been used to using a standard PC. It is worth noting that a lot of computer experts are only experts in PC and only a few specialize in Macs.
Though it is seldom that Apple Mac breaks down, when it does, it can be difficult to find someone to fix it and it can be expensive visiting the Apple stores for repairs, so these computers don’t always allow for a small budget.
There are many more software programs available for a PC; this may be the reason that so many companies take this option. And with personal computers being available at most office suppliers, it makes it an easy all round option – Mac’s are generally only sold by stores authorized by Apple and there aren’t many specialists that deal with them, hence the price.
We couldn’t possibly tell you which computer is best for your office based business, though we hope that you carry out good research and spend your budget wisely!
Taking Action on Parked Domains
Internet marketers and business owners who invest in dot coms tend to purchase the “org”, “net” or “info” variations and misspelled versions to prevent competitors from using them. These parked domains may be worth thousands of dollars someday if developed into thriving websites using an affordable site building service.
* Benefits of monetizing
Maintaining a huge collection of names is a cash outflow that can be costly when you consider the renewal registration fees that you have to pay for them annually. Balance the outflow by monetizing them to promote cash inflow. Here’s what you can do with them:
* Increase their resale value
Keyword names and those with suffixes other than “.com” don’t always sell well, if at all, in the resale market unless these point to active and thriving websites. Your strategy should be to build and develop multiple websites, generate traffic and sell products on them so you can easily resell them in bulk when you’re ready to unload these names.
* Start a business
Sell your own items or promote affiliate products on your sites. With sales automation tools, your websites can turn into passive income streams so you can earn while aging your domains.
* Build and lease
Offline businesses and traditional brick and mortar establishments often need websites with relevant keywords and visibility to jump start their entry into the Internet. You can fill this need by activating your domains, building sites and optimizing them with your target niche in mind and then offer to lease them for a few years and give them the option to buy the site and name at the end of the lease period.
* What you need?
You will need the following to monetize your parked domains:
1. Website
2. Content
3. Traffic
4. Products and
5. Enough time for aging
If you’re an Internet marketer with advanced skills, aging websites is something you can do on your own, but could be overwhelming when you’re looking at a vast collection of about 30 to a hundred names.
If you don’t have the time or the skills for aging your own websites, why not follow the lead of domain experts who outsource this task and use a reliable service to do it for them? An experienced outsourcer will take care of building, adding content, optimizing and feeding fresh articles to your sites for you to get the best return on your investment.
Improve Online Reputation Management with Proactive PR
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, April 25, 2011
Improve Online Reputation Management with Proactive PR
Practicing online reputation management is a must for any public relations professional who believes his or her company may face a corporate crisis in the future. As our news gathering and reporting moves online, online reputation management is becoming more important. Now, news stories and blogs are being indexed by search engines, and many times, if a company makes the news, that can sometimes be the first item found in the search engine rankings.
Proactive PR is important for online reputation management, because it means you are creating positive search engine results, which can keep negative search results from ever appearing. You can focus on positive content-generating activities, rather than putting out fires via reactive management.
Here are five ways to improve your online reputation management:
* Start a blog
Fill it with as much positive information as you can find. News releases, product and service descriptions, customer questions, employee interviews, and anything else you can think of. The more content you can create, the better your online reputation management efforts will be, because you will have a central location you can direct people to.
* Create a Twitter profile and a Facebook page
Fill your networks with customers, journalists, and anyone else who would have an interest in your company. Answer customer care questions, link to your blog posts, and be a valuable resource to anyone you interact with on these networks. An important part of your online reputation management will be to create positive relationships with people. This way, if something ever does go wrong, you’ll have a group of people who are willing to support you, or at least forgive you.
* Use your own face and name on your company’s social media profiles
While this may not be possible for a large corporation, it’s crucial for a small business. An important part of your online reputation management will be to put a personal face on your corporate brand. People will be able to relate to your company more easily, which will make your online reputation management efforts much easier.
* Join a niche social network for your industry
Start communicating with people on the network, especially answering questions and providing information. You can help your online reputation management by becoming a trusted resource among your industry peers and customers. Form relationships with people on the network, make referrals to people inside and outside the network, and work to become a regular, well-known presence in the group. If there is a crisis that hits the media, you may end up finding allies in your industry group who will speak favorably about you.
* Good online reputation management includes effective search engine optimization
Do all of these other steps with an eye toward SEO. Your ultimate goal is to win all searches on the big three search engines; Google, Bing, and Yahoo; which will help keep negative entries off the front page. If you’re already sitting on top of the mountain, it will be harder to unseat you. But if you aren’t even on the front page when an incident blows up, you’ll have a hard time getting to the front page let alone the top of the results. And the longer you wait to begin, the harder it will be.
It’s important you begin your online reputation management efforts immediately. If you ever find yourself in a crisis, and the news results hit the search engines, it’s too late to start thinking about online reputation management. You’ll be playing catchup for days, weeks, and even months later, trying to overcome every news story, blog entry, and tweet that other people have been posting while you’re still setting up your first Twitter account.
The key to online reputation management is to do it before you ever need it, and to create a positive online brand. Follow these five steps and you’ll be ahead of the game.
Protect Your Business and Your Sanity – Back Up Your PC Data
Disasters happen, no matter if it’s in “real life” or in the business world. When it comes to protecting the physical assets of a business, many companies and private professionals have insurance to cover themselves and their businesses. But here’s an important question: What are you doing as a business owner to protect one of your most valuable assets – the information stored on your computer?
Digital assets can be the single most valuable part of a small business, both for small storefront and office-based companies, and also SOHO (Small Office / Home Office) practices. In the Information Technology (IT) world, that information is called “mission critical” data. Are you doing the basics to protect your critical business information? For my money, backing up that data is the easiest way to create a simple, effective disaster-recovery plan. one that lets you sleep comfortably at night, without worrying about lost business information.
I’ll talk about all the different kinds of information stored on a PC that should be saved and backed up. Every computer stores huge amounts of information. But don’t worry! Only a small percent is the kind of data that needs to be saved on a regular basis. I’m talking about information that changes on a day-by-day basis. Think about it: new clients are being added to your records every day, or additional inventory arrives on a regular schedule. All kinds of important records change every day, including financial records, customer files and more.
The good news is, Windows-based computers store all this information in one central folder. Folders are the containers the computer uses to store information. Storage devices such as the internal hard drive contain numerous folders and sub-folders, and each of those can be used to store program information or what’s called “User Data.” In a word (or two), user data is the “stuff” you create. No matter if it’s a document you typed, a pictures transferred from your digital camera, or a song downloaded from an online store, its’ all “user data.Any PC folder can contain more folders, or files, or both.
In the newest version of Windows, (Win 7), all the user data you create is stored in a folder called Users. To find it, click the Windows “Start” button, then look at the upper-right portion of the two-column layout. Usually, the upper most right item will either be your user name, or some other name that was put there when the computer was first started. You might see a name like Owner or Administrator. Under that one folder, you’ll see all the various sub-folders in your user account. Inside, there are folders including Documents, Music, Pictures and others. Documents are the most important “chunks” of data to back up, but you may also need to save additional folders such as Pictures, Music and others.
Coming up in a future article… where are all these important files to be backed up located?
5 Ways to Grow Your List
The quality and quantity of your opt-in email list will greatly affect the level of success you, as an internet marketer enjoy. Whilst beginners complain that they can’t get enough people to subscribe to their list, professionals are always looking for ways to refine their lists and improve quality by cutting down on quantity. Whichever approach you take, the bottom line is that you still need to constantly grow and cultivate your list – here are five ways to start building your list today.
* Make Your Opt-In Form Highly Visible
Many internet marketers only place their email opt-in form on their homepage, assuming that this is the most popular page on the site. This is a mistake for two reasons – firstly, not everyone will arrive on your website’s home page (they may land on a splash page or a content page) – secondly, only having your opt-in on the home page simply limits its visibility. For these reasons, you should aim to have your opt-in available and highly visible on every page (or at least the majority of pages) of your website.
* Provide Something of Value
Too many times, we see different websites offering the same cheesy, low value PLR (Public Label Rights) eBook in return for an opt-in. Whilst you may want to use a PLR product as a base to work from, and perhaps to gain ideas, you really should try creating a freebie that is both unique and that resonates with your site as a whole. By this, I mean, at least ensure that the colour scheme and graphics match up with that of your website. Most importantly though is that you provide something unique and of value. Taking a weekend off to put your own eBook together will pay huge dividends down the line. If you’re not a great writer, hire a ghost writer and provide them with the raw information.
* Create Referral Incentives
Create an additional product (eBook, audio recording, etc) that your current subscribers can receive in return for referring three or five friends to your site (or opt-in page). You may want to display this offer upon initial signup (as a sort of up-sell), or promote it in your auto responder series. Either way, make sure its appealing, useful and of high quality. Getting this trick right can equate to a ratio of about 1:1, which means that for every signup, you are assured of another signup free.
* Create a Contact Us Add-on
This tactic is particularly powerful, but needs to be implemented ethically. On your contact us form, create a checkbox that reads “Also sign me up for your newsletter” or something similar. What’s important is that you ensure that this checkbox is not checked by default, as that is unethical and will ultimately just lead to a lot of unsubscribes.
* Hold a Competition
This is possibly the oldest trick in the direct marketer’s book, but is nonetheless still incredibly effective. Hold a competition with a decent prize (possibly one of your products or services), and allow people to enter by opting in to your competition list. Provided that you market the competition well (and offer a desirable prize), you should receive quite a few opt-ins. When implementing this tactic, consider the average value per lead, and then work out a marketing budget for the competition using that figure.
More than anything else, growing your opt-in list is a long term process. Commit to the process, continually research new ways to grow the list, and have a little patience – All of these traits will pay off in the long term.
Top Three Advantages in Tapping into the Freelance Market
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, April 22, 2011
Top Three Advantages in Tapping into the Freelance Market
When a business is opened, the first thing that the owner does is search for employees. That, at least, is the standard move as more employees mean more manpower to finish the projects and get jobs done. Times are changing though, and nowadays both employers and employees are getting to know and understand the strength and promise of the freelance and the contractual market.
So what exactly are the strengths of this part of the labor market? Several reasons exist, but the top 3 advantages are:
Cost – Freelancers are paid on a per project basis. Business owners just have to determine who to hire, and then agree on the fee that is to be paid for that project. Most contracts end upon delivery of the project. There is no training cost, no hourly fees computed, just the raw contract. Also, work materials are not a problem as the freelancer usually has the basic materials required to finish the job. The business does not have to provide permanent office space and hardware.
Time – Again, freelancers are paid on a per project basis, or at least most of them are. Since this is the case, it is extremely beneficial for them to finish projects as soon as possible so that they can go ahead and attend to other jobs. The more jobs they finish, the more income they earn.
Quality – This has never been a problem in the freelance industry. Even though speed is essential, freelancers still make sure they deliver quality work as they need to build a strong customer base. A strong customer base means more opportunities for jobs, translating once again into more income for the freelancer.
At times, certain business projects require a third party to look into it in order to make it improve. This is also an advantage that one gets when using freelancers. Freelance employees have a huge amount of experience as they work with different people on different projects. Some are even exposed to various cultures as they can work with employers from different countries. This would allow them to contribute new ideas to whatever projects they work on, and employ strategies that they have developed.
With the advantages stated, much is to be gained by employing freelancers. There are still positive points to having in house employees, but the fact that there are freelancers that are readily available should never be discounted.
The Effect of Spam on Business
Spam, or junk email, is one of the largest frustrations for Internet users. For businesses, this frustration adds up to dollars lost and spent trying to prevent it. Reports estimate that spam costs U.S. businesses more than $71 billion in lost productivity annually, which equates to $712 per employee. I’m sure most businesses, especially in the economy’s current state, can think of a better use for those dollars.
The thing that makes spam a unique, and subsequently the reason it increases every year, is that the cost of email is placed on the receiver rather than the sender. With traditional direct-mail, a person or company spends money on every piece sent. Think about the amount of junk mail you receive every day at your home and business. Now imagine if each piece of mail did not have a hard-cost for the sender — we would all need much larger mailboxes.
Spam can also hurt the reputation of your business as well. It is all too easy to “spoof” or fake the email address that an email shows it is being sent from. You certainly do not want customers and clients to receive junk or malware emails with your company’s name in the sender’s address bar. Spoofing email is, unfortunately, very easy to do as it exploits a level of trust that the basic email protocols use. I’m sure when these protocols were initially developed no one envisioned the future of email to be what it is. While there is no full-proof method to prevent email address spoofing, newer methods such as SPF records and the Sender ID framework are working to reduce it. It is important for businesses to put these new safeguards in place, as the sooner the adoption rate increases, the sooner more mail servers will start enforcing them.
Fortunately there are several hardware and software products that can be deployed to protect your business from spam and the security threats they bring. Depending on your email infrastructure, a dedicated-hardware solution may be the appropriate solution. For others, a third-party Software as a Service (SaaS) solution may be a better fit. Don’t worry if you don’t have existing personnel to put these solutions in place, a full-service Managed IT provider can help.
With the number of spam emails being sent increasing every day, it is important to make sure you have the necessary solutions in place to protect and prevent spam.
The Greatest Lies Ever Told About Internet Business
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
The Greatest Lies Ever Told About Internet Business
Starting an Internet business can be tough. Especially if you have never owned your own business in the past. Not only that but your family and friends can discourage you from ever starting your business!! They will tell you, that only a few people ever make any money and it is a HUGE waste of time!
Sadly, though they may be half right. Unfortunately, only 2% of the people who ever start an Internet business will make any money whatsoever. The people who do make money online are not any more skilled that us…NO! Instead they were fortunate enough to know the 5 great lies of Starting an Internet business.
1. Starting An Internet Business Is Expensive
An Internet business can actually be started for ZERO cost! That is why this is the very first great lie of Internet business. When you are getting started in your online business you can start with something as cheap and simple as affiliate marketing. Affiliate Marketing cost you nothing to get started, and your only job is to drive traffic to a website that you don’t own. Then once people purchase a product from that affiliate website, through your link, you get a commission. And here’s the best part: There are MANY free ways you can learn about to drive traffic to a website.
2. You Can “Get Rich Quick” With An Internet Business
Many people have a “Get Rich Quick” mentality when they first start their Internet Business. These people think that having their own Internet business is easy and does not require any work. Do not believe this because it is a fools hope.
Often times the people you see who are “overnight successes” on the Internet, have spent months if not years perfecting their business. Very rarely will someone truly be a “overnight success”, and when that does happen, it is almost all luck. So the bottom line here is, your Internet business is exactly that…..a business! Treat it like one, work diligently on it, and never give up. Success takes time.
3. You Must Know HTML, Programming And Graphic Designing In Order To Start Your Business
I have to admit that this is one thing that held me up a little personally. I am NOT a tech savvy web guru by any means. In fact, I could not put together a web page if you held a gun to my head. However, what I found was that there are people who are willing to do this for you…..for cheap!
Sites like Elance, and Odesk are sites where you can hire people to do all of this work for you. And here’s the best part, it’s really cheap! Most of the bidders at Elance and ODesk are from India and will be willing to do the programming work for you, for as little as $6.00 per hour!
4. You Don’t Need To Know How To Sell Anything
Think about the logic in that statement above. It doesn’t make sense. Of course, you need some salesmanship abilities! How on earth do you plan on selling things on the Internet without being able to sell? Now don’t panic, if you don’t currently know how to sell. This is all stuff that can be taught. However, you must go into your Internet business with the knowledge that you will need to learn how to sell.
5. You Don’t Need To “Build A List”
Have you ever heard the phrase “The Money Is In The List”? Building a list is essential to having success with a Internet business. Without a list, you won’t make any money! Building a list is important because it builds your list of people that you can market and sell to! Not only that, but you can sell to the same people multiple times.
The 5 great Internet lies listed above are all things you must know and accept. You have to be smart in order to really achieve success that you could possibly imagine.
Success is like enlightenment. It is a path and not a destination.
How Will You Handle Customer Support for Your Site?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
How Will You Handle Customer Support for Your Site?
There are many ways to deal with customer support at your website. Which method you choose will depend on how large your company is, what your customers want, and what you feel most comfortable with.
One of the classic ways of handling customer service and support is via telephone. This is often the preferred methods for customers, because they can usually get their problems resolved much faster than they might using other methods.
Unfortunately, providing telephone support probably isn’t realistic unless you have the staff to handle it and your product or service is selling at a price that covers the often huge additional cost of staffing an inbound call center. If you’re a solo operation, phone support may well be out of the question. So what other options are available to you?
The two major alternatives are e-mail and support ticket systems.
Email support lets you answer support requests in your own time, but it may upset some of your more impatient customers. There will always be people who will fly into a rage if their email isn’t answered within 5 minutes, even at 3am on Sunday morning!
The other problem with e-mail support is spam. If you make an e-mail address available for support it won’t be long before you’re starting to receive significant qualities of spam and ultimately the e-mail address can become completely unusable. Even with spam filters installed it’s difficult, even bordering on impossible, to stop at least some spam coming through. The last thing you want is to have to spend more time deleting spam than helping your valued customers and that’s exactly what can happen if you’re not careful.
On the plus side, e-mail is easy to handle for both the sender and yourself. It’s easy to set up standard replies for commonly asked questions and it’s also possible to reroute e-mails to different addresses should the need arise (e.g. when someone hasn’t received a shipment and you need to bring this to the attention of your shippers).
An alternative to e-mail that is well worth considering is a support ticket system.
More and more people are starting to turn to support ticket systems, or help desk software as it is often known, to handle their support requests. Although this is generally one of the best methods for the companies that use them, they can be troublesome to the customer.
Many help desks require the user to register in order to submit a request. This takes time out of the customer’s busy schedule, and may annoy them further if they’re already upset about something related to your product.
Some of them even require the user to verify their email address before they can log in to submit a request. This could be particularly upsetting if your server happens to take longer than a minute or two to send out the confirmation request.
Customers can be very impatient, especially if they haven’t received something they paid for or if they have a problem with something they did receive. Once people reach their maximum tolerance level, the hassle will usually no longer be worth it, and they’ll ask for a refund and that’s obviously something you don’t want to happen.
Support ticket systems do have some advantages and these can easily outweigh the downsides.
Ticket systems are an excellent way of managing the support work-flow. They keep everything in one place and make it very easy to see all the previous messages relating to any support issue. This is useful for both the customer and yourself as it saves having to search through old e-mails (some of which may well have been deleted) to find previous correspondence.
Ticket systems can also help you to get a real handle on what the major issues are. In an e-mail support system it’s easy for this to be hidden in the deluge of e-mails whereas in a ticket system it is usually possible to categorize incoming tickets so that matters pertaining to a specific subject can easily be monitored.
Ticket systems also usually offer far more robust reporting than a standard e-mail system. This makes it easy to see how many tickets are opened/closed each day and who dealt with them.
Another benefit to ticket systems is that they can avoid the issue of non-delivered e-mails. The problem of valid e-mails not arriving at their destination is one that all companies face on an increasingly frequent basis. By providing a ticket system that people can view whenever they like means you don’t have to rely solely upon e-mails getting through.
No matter which method you choose, it’s important to respond to requests as soon as possible. Due to the very nature of the Internet, people expect immediate gratification. Since the Internet is available 24/7 in most places, people tend to think Internet businesses are also open 24/7 and that is rarely the case, even with very large companies such as Microsoft and Apple.
These expectations may be unrealistic, but that is the reality you face as an Internet marketer. Some people will expect you to be available at all hours of the day, even on weekends or holidays. You can’t alleviate this problem completely, but by dealing with incoming support requests as promptly and efficiently as possible you will go a long way to satisfying the needs of the vast majority of your customers, and that is what’s important.
The Internet is a Dangerous Place for your Data
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, April 18, 2011
The Internet is a Dangerous Place for your Data: Debunking the Myth
We’re always being warned about the many perils and dangers lurking in the deep dark recesses of the Internet. Those of us with children are constantly being urged to protect them from ‘Stranger Danger’ and Cyber bullying on chat rooms, instant messaging and social networks. According to the media, dating websites are full of predatory strangers waiting to murder us or empty our bank accounts. Scams, Identity Theft, Spam, Spyware, Adware, Malware, and Computer Viruses: the list of hazards goes on and on. It’s not just a web, but a veritable labyrinth full of pitfalls and hidden traps for the unwary.
So it stands to reason that a web-based, or SaaS system, for applications such as Document Management and Project Planning and Time Reporting, must be inherently unreliable, and the Cloud must be a bad place to store your data, right? Wrong! Entrusting your personal or business data to an outside company is a risky undertaking, isn’t it? Not necessarily!
To entrust your irreplaceable, confidential data to an external agency is a leap of faith, no doubt, and obviously you must choose your SaaS system very carefully. Choose a well-established and reputable service provider, however, and your data will actually be more secure than it would be on your own company’s data server. It’s not the Internet that is dangerous: it’s the people who use it, and the way that they use it. You wouldn’t hire a nanny for your children without checking out her references. You wouldn’t go on holiday and leave your house with the doors and windows open and unlocked. You wouldn’t leave your wallet on the bar counter while you go to the washroom. You wouldn’t lend your Credit Card to a stranger. At least, I sincerely hope you wouldn’t do any of these stupid things…
The beauty of SaaS is that it frees you up to access all your projects, files and folders any time and anywhere in the world, and sorts out all your security issues at the same time. It’s much more secure to use a SaaS service, when traveling or working from home, than it is to rely on portable storage devices such as laptops, CDs and data sticks, which are easy to steal, easy to lose, and are regularly left on trains, buses and in taxi cabs.
Still worried that the Internet is a dangerous place for your company’s confidential data? It’s very prudent of you to be aware of Internet security issues; we all know about the risks of hackers, viruses and Internet fraud. In order to fully benefit from the advantages of having your projects and documents online, you need to ensure that they are fully protected from hardware failure, good old human error, and from cyber attack. Look out for SaaS systems which offer additional security features for controlling file access and permissions. These will allow you to decide who can access your data, and also to control the level of access they are granted.
Any reputable SaaS provider will be ISO20000-certified, and will regularly back up all your files and folders. All data transmitted via the internet should be fully secure and encrypted. Your data should be stored in a secure server environment equipped with fire protection, climate control and using multiple internet connections with a range of internet providers. Before you sign up for a new SaaS system, check out that these safeguards are all included. With a reliable SaaS system in place, and all your security controls set up, you can relax and let your service provider take care of day-to-day chores like file back-up and data encryption. That will leave you free to spend more time doing what you are good at – running your business!
The Beauty of Reviews: Good and Bad
I was taught, way back when I was in sales, to ask for a report card from clients ESPECIALLY when you think it’s going to be a bad one. This gives you a chance to address the issues with the client, let them know you are listening and concerned, and turn those issues around. Plus you get extra points for being proactive.
Many companies that are reluctant to dive into social media tell me that they are afraid of their brand being “out there” for public criticism — whether it is deserved or not. Reputation management is one of the key objectives for which SMM (social media marketing) can be used, and that same “report card” lesson applies.
No one can debate the benefits that a good review or customer comment can provide to any business. But a bad review, or blog/Twitter comment, can be just as useful if it is addressed correctly and in a timely manner. Below are some tips on how to make lemonade out of that potential lemon of a review.
Assess the damage
-Take some time to figure out what kind of comment it is, how it’s intended and where it’s coming from.
-Is it constructive criticism? If the customer truly caught a problem and is bringing it to your attention, that’s a very good thing.
-Is it seemingly well intentioned? The tone, message, or verbiage may be cutting but is the intention good — to help you as a business owner recognize a problem and address it.
-Is it venting after a frustrating experience? The venting might be volatile and angry, but if it’s ultimately helping you recognize a problem, it’s still a good thing.
-Does it sound just hurtful? You know pure anger when you hear it. You may then decide whether or not to respond.
Decide how you are going to respond, but whatever it is, respond quickly.
-Be sure to respond directly and personally (in tone) and don’t hide behind corporate speak.
-Stay proactive, positive and productive.
-Don’t ever be defensive, that never helps anything.
-If criticism identifies a real problem, cop to it, offer information on solutions that are already in progress, or at least offer some info on your intention to address the issues.
-If reviewer discussion is too hot and you do want to respond and find that it is appropriate to respond, then take it off line. Provide an 800 number or email address or just your business phone number and invite the commenter to call to figure it all out.
When NOT to react
-If you are too angry – chill for a day or so. Reacting in the heat of battle will never result in anything positive
-If the reviewer is angry at the world, not necessarily your business
-If the review is spamming or trolling, just looking for linking or trackbacks – just ignore it. This is one of the artful aspects of good PR, knowing when NOT to make a mountain out of a molehill.
Even a bad review can be good. Remember that mantra of social media connect/create/engage. The secret sauce is transparency. A bad review addressed is a very good thing. Don’t be afraid to have your brand out there, it’s all good.
How To Skyrocket Your Perceived Value?
It is of great importance that your visitor “see,” the bargain within your offer. There are ways to enhance this perception. People often observer Sales pages with a “what is in this for me,” mindset. Your offer needs to clearly show them what is in it for them.
When someone does form their first impression about your site, would you not want it to be a good one? When we present our product or service to visitors, it is vital that they see the value within as important to their desire to prosper themselves.
Here is where our USP should stand out from the crowd, giving us a keen edge over competitors. This “Unique Selling Proposition” should grab their attention and hold it – all of the way to the conversion point, whether it be to buy, or to opt-in for a newsletter.
Whether it be a capture page, where they enter their email address, or reach for a credit card to purchase, this USP is a critical point in the process in getting conversions.
How does one create a perception of value to first time visitors? In the world of sales online, everyone is clamoring for their attention flashing buy now or click here messages.
To stand alone in the crowd, and be the “first choice” in the mind of “lookers,” one has to offer “more for less,” – greater value, – a unique selling point, that compels them to chose your product or service over the many others.
This is the very reason your USP must compel them to see the greater bargain your offer has over other competitors. The way you present an offer unto visitors is of great importance. You have to “show,” them what greater value your offer contains.
Once they are looking at what you have to present, it is then of utmost importance,to have your sales copy capture prospect’s full attention. To do this, you have to be unique. You want them to transition into a qualified prospect who is a perfect position to order now.
To get them from where they are now, to the desired conversion point,(what you want visitors to do next) you must continue to position your offer in a way that flames their desire. If their attention is distracted from the momentum once started, you could lose their interest, and there goes the sale.
To keep their focus on tract, the elements of persuasion must continue to drive them forward, keenly interested, all the way to the “order now” button, or the “enter email,” conversion point.
To meet this objective, the perceived value they began with must be inflamed with focused precision. This enhances the very thing which caught their eye in the beginning.
These proven marketing methods, press their emotional “hot buttons” triggering their need to fulfill their want. This is done through positioning the perceived value in such a way, that increases the prospects interest, all the way to the point of the “how much” question.
When this is done correctly, even high-end or products or services, can be moved without objection to price, for indeed the prospect has already made up their mind.
The “I’ve got to have this, or I need that,” hurdle, has already been jumped in their thinking. They have been “sold.” They move to the “buy now” button, and proceed without hesitation.
Good copywriters know exactly how to reach each objective in the sales process. Good solid copy begins by first grabbing visitor’s attention, it then directs them into the body copy, and quickly shows them why they are in the right place. They then “know,” they are going to get exactly what they want.
If It is interesting, flows freely, is personable, and engaging, it becomes winning copy because it is not “hyped-up. It shows them perspective, and insight about why this offer is so much better than competitors.
It is punchy, clear and concise. By the time they hit the “order now” button, they are completely happy – and happy with their buying decision, feeling like they have really gotten a great deal.
Fatal Webinar Mistakes That Cost You Money
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, April 15, 2011
Fatal Webinar Mistakes That Cost You Money
Webinars have become a low-cost way for people and companies to promote their products and services. I have certainly used them and attended many webinars on a variety of topics. However, I have noticed that many webinar organizers, hosts and panelists, create a variety of mistakes that reduce the effectiveness of their program.
1. Requiring too much information. I don’t mind giving my name, email address, and company name when registering for a webinar. However, I don’t like giving my address, telephone number, and five other details. I know that you want to collect data but the more information you ask for, the less likely I will register for your program.
2. Ask mandatory questions. Most technology allows the person hosting the webinar to ask registrants several questions when they register. However, making these questions mandatory can work against you, especially if the question is irrelevant. Many people will refuse to answer these questions and will chose NOT to register for the webinar. Carefully consider which questions should be mandatory.
3. Unfamiliar with the technology. A fatal mistake many people is to familiarize themselves with the webinar technology shortly before the program begins. I admit to include myself in this category. A few years ago I agreed to deliver a series of webinars for a client and unfortunately, my contact person was unfamiliar with the technology. As a result, we had several glitches and problems that reduced the overall effectiveness of the program.
4. Using a speaker phone. I recently attended a webinar and it appeared that one of the panelists spoke from a speaker phone or computer microphone. This created a vacant echo which became distracting whenever she spoke. It is critical that you have a good connection to the call and many companies suggest that you use a landline to ensure that you have a good connection with minimal interference.
5. Poor PowerPoint slides. Death by PowerPoint! My belief is that webinar slides should reinforce your key point, not make them. Too many people use too many bullet points or try to cram too much information on a single slide. Improve your effectiveness by creating a better PowerPoint show. Check out Slide Share for some great examples on how to create an effective presentation.
6. Taking too long to get into the program. I have attended countless webinars where the first five to seven minutes is absorbed by self-promotion, introduction of the presenter or guest expert, or information that was irrelevant to participants. Although sponsoring companies want adequate airtime, it is essential that you manage their expectations and keep the introduction brief and concise.
7. Too much promotion. Many of the webinars I have attended have been a thinly-disguised attempt at selling a product or service. I certainly understand the importance of generating sales but if your webinar is promoted or sold as an “educational” session and you spend most of your time talking about your product or company, I am going to quickly disengage.
8. Failure to deliver high-quality content. A webinar should deliver value for attendees. Unfortunately, too many programs give “here’s what you need to do” information without explaining how to actually apply the concepts. It is better to delve deep into a topic than offer three dozen ways to improve without providing substance.
9. Failure to deliver value. This ties in with the previous point. A successful webinar provides high value to the participants, regardless of the price point. Enough said.
10. The webinar is too long/short. The length of webinar is irrelevant. What’s important is the value that is delivered
during the program. You can’t stretch a short program into a long one and an intense, lengthy session cannot be condensed into a short webinar. Whether you are the host, organizer, or guest expert, make sure that you allot the appropriate amount of time for your particular program.
11. Not allowing questions. Many people who attend webinars have questions and they want to have the opportunity to ask them. Increase the value of your webinar by giving participants time to ask questions and allot time for these questions so that you don’t have to race through the last five of six minutes of your presentation.
Webinars can be an effective marketing vehicle and a great way to generate sales leads. Improve your results by avoiding these common webinar mistakes.
How To Skyrocket Your Perceived Value?
It is of great importance that your visitor “see,” the bargain within your offer. There are ways to enhance this perception. People often observer Sales pages with a “what is in this for me,” mindset. Your offer needs to clearly show them what is in it for them.
When someone does form their first impression about your site, would you not want it to be a good one? When we present our product or service to visitors, it is vital that they see the value within as important to their desire to prosper themselves.
Here is where our USP should stand out from the crowd, giving us a keen edge over competitors. This “Unique Selling Proposition” should grab their attention and hold it – all of the way to the conversion point, whether it be to buy, or to opt-in for a newsletter.
Whether it be a capture page, where they enter their email address, or reach for a credit card to purchase, this USP is a critical point in the process in getting conversions.
How does one create a perception of value to first time visitors? In the world of sales online, everyone is clamoring for their attention flashing buy now or click here messages.
To stand alone in the crowd, and be the “first choice” in the mind of “lookers,” one has to offer “more for less,” – greater value, – a unique selling point, that compels them to chose your product or service over the many others.
This is the very reason your USP must compel them to see the greater bargain your offer has over other competitors. The way you present an offer unto visitors is of great importance. You have to “show,” them what greater value your offer contains.
Once they are looking at what you have to present, it is then of utmost importance,to have your sales copy capture prospect’s full attention. To do this, you have to be unique. You want them to transition into a qualified prospect who is a perfect position to order now.
To get them from where they are now, to the desired conversion point,(what you want visitors to do next) you must continue to position your offer in a way that flames their desire. If their attention is distracted from the momentum once started, you could lose their interest, and there goes the sale.
To keep their focus on tract, the elements of persuasion must continue to drive them forward, keenly interested, all the way to the “order now” button, or the “enter email,” conversion point.
To meet this objective, the perceived value they began with must be inflamed with focused precision. This enhances the very thing which caught their eye in the beginning.
These proven marketing methods, press their emotional “hot buttons” triggering their need to fulfill their want. This is done through positioning the perceived value in such a way, that increases the prospects interest, all the way to the point of the “how much” question.
When this is done correctly, even high-end or products or services, can be moved without objection to price, for indeed the prospect has already made up their mind.
The “I’ve got to have this, or I need that,” hurdle, has already been jumped in their thinking. They have been “sold.” They move to the “buy now” button, and proceed without hesitation.
Good copywriters know exactly how to reach each objective in the sales process. Good solid copy begins by first grabbing visitor’s attention, it then directs them into the body copy, and quickly shows them why they are in the right place. They then “know,” they are going to get exactly what they want.
If It is interesting, flows freely, is personable, and engaging, it becomes winning copy because it is not “hyped-up. It shows them perspective, and insight about why this offer is so much better than competitors.
It is punchy, clear and concise. By the time they hit the “order now” button, they are completely happy – and happy with their buying decision, feeling like they have really gotten a great deal.
The Pitfalls Of A Web Site With No Calls To Action
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Pitfalls Of A Web Site With No Calls To Action
A potential customer has just opened up your web site. They see a fancy introduction that grabs their attention. The little video sparks a laugh, and they stay on your site to find out more about your business. After getting through all the fancy animations, he or she is greeted with a beautifully-crafted home page with killer copy that keeps them reading all the way to the end. After the novelty of the menu animations and the gorgeous background wears off, your customer sits – thinking.
He or she has no idea what to do next.
They could click on the “About Us” page to learn more about your company. They could visit your blog and see the latest news and opinions from you. They could look at your portfolio or list of services. The web site design looks great and has some great catch phrases, but the marketing message is getting lost and the visitors don’t know what to do next. Now what?
The problem: no call to action. You led your customer to the water, but you did not tell him to drink. No matter how much you lead a customer, you have to make it very clear to them what they need to do next.
The following is a list of things you can do on your web site immediately to improve the conversion rate on your web site:
Make it simple. If you want the business, tell them to give you their contact information or tell them with a graphic to buy your service.
Make it valuable. Offer a free gift or consultation just for contacting you.
Make it clear. At the end of every page content, you should include a simple statement.. Call Us Today For More Information – 555-1212. This tells people they can call you immediately for more information. Calls to action are one of the most important aspects of marketing and really need to be incorporated on every single page of your web site, not just the contact page.
One simple call to action that no one really takes advantage of is your contact phone number. For whatever reason, web designers started created web sites with a phone number only listed on the contact page with a link at the bottom of the web site in extremely small font type.
Some corporate web sites don’t even list their phone number at all. When you consider how many people call companies for more information about their products and services, the fact that they don’t have a phone number blows my mind.
Statistics show that people read web sites from top to bottom left to right. The best place to put a call to action? The top left of your web site. Very few companies put their phone number in the most effective place on the web site.. the top left. If it’s not there, the next best place is the top right. Your phone number should be on every page of your web site listed very visibly.
One of the most common features of a web site is a contact form. This also happens to be one of the main standard calls to action. On the contact page of every web site, there should be a form people can fill out to get more information about your product or service. In our experience, companies that have a form located on the homepage see a lot of response from that page as well as the contact page.
Without the call to action, your customer is lost, and so is your sale. You need to find a professional web design company to discuss your corporate web design and ensure that your customer will know what to do when they visit your site.
Maximize Your Sales Online With These Ten Tips
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Maximize Your Sales Online With These Ten Tips
These ten steps will help you to make more sales online. Use some or all of them, depending on the type of Web business you operate.
1. Increase your page rank in Google (SEO) Search Engine Optimization
To do this, it is important to know how to write clear, concise articles and page content that will draw fresh visitors. Write interesting, informative articles, and post them in the article submission sites. Include in the article a link back to your site. Hyperlinks are best, for when they click these, they will create incoming links. This will create back links. They will serve to help increase your sites visibility to search engines, and help improve your sites overall optimization.
2. Link Exchange
Find sites, which are related to your product/service, and get them to exchange links with you. (Sites that are getting good traffic are best.) When people click your direct link, it will help to build even more incoming links to your site. The more incoming links you have, the better your site will rank in the search engine results.
3. Search Engine Submission
We have all seen the ads (submit you site’s URL to 80,000 search engines here). While it is wise to submit your sites URL to the major search engines, some of the smaller engines are quite obscure. Get your URL listed in all of the most popular search engines. Do a search on “search engines,” and find the ones which will best serve your interests.
4. Optimize you Keywords
Use tools like Google analytics, and find keywords that are used most often in search queries. It is important to have the right number of keywords in your site. Avoid “keyword stuffing,” for to do this proves to be harmful to you sites page rank. It can even cause penalty, or “blacklisting. Some sites have even lost their domain over such issue.
5. Avoid duplicate content
While there may be many other sites having content relevant to your sites objectives, it is not wise to copy and paste this information. Search engines will find such, and flag them as spam. There are many software applications that search and find such pages. Many try changing the words around, or adding words here and there, but this still, will not result in having new or fresh content. Google and other search engines will find and flag such. To avoid these pitfalls, use only fresh new content for your Website.
6. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing has become a boom to many who understand how to create pages that get good rank in search results. You promote other peoples products through your web site and earn up to 60 to 75% commission per sale. Click-bank and Amazon, earn hundreds of millions of dollars per year, in e-book sales alone. You can get your share of this pie by creating great page content, then promoting their latest best seller. Many affiliates create multiple pages, optimize them, and then sell the hottest products selling on-line.
7. Adsense Earnings
When you have a page that gets a good rank in the search engines, you can earn cash per clicks by having Adsense ads of various types placed on a page, which is relevant to the ads. You get paid every time someone clicks through the ad. This is where having lots of targeted, high-quality traffic comes in. The more traffic, the more clicks, the more money.
8. Pay-per-click
I would not advise one who is just beginning to start with a huge budget with pay-per-click. This is where you use Google Adwords to send traffic directly to your site. Because you are paying a good price for every click, it is important to send them to a sales page that is converting well. To use Google pay-per-click advertising, you in effect pay them so much per click (70 cents to $10 per click) depending on the market value of the word, and they give you a sponsored link that shows up when someone chooses keywords you have bought.
This listing displays in Google search, on the right side (or on top) of the generic search results. Since you only earn when someone buys the product/service – it is vital to know exactly what you are doing, in this, or you could lose your shirt.
9. Adsense Marketing ‘with Affiliate Marketing’
One can really earn while they sleep, once they figure out how to incorporate Adsense along with affiliate marketing. This is having a huge site, getting tons of clicks. This type of high profile Web site earns money two different ways. The Adsense placement ads earn cash every time someone clicks them (whether a sale is made or not) and the affiliate links within the site, make money every time someone clicks through the ads and makes a purchase. Having a Web site like this takes research and testing on a regular basis, but it has the potential to earn big bucks for the owner.
10. Super Affiliates
Super Affiliates have an established Web presence, when you click keywords they have bought, their name comes up in Google search results listing as page one – number one results. It takes some money as well as time, to reach this status. Several examples of Super Affiliates are names which are easily recognized such as: Amazon, Click bank, or Google. They have incorporated so many keyword phrases into their paid searches, they have top placement in all of the search engines. To get near the top, where they are, takes total optimization, and hundreds of thousands of back and incoming links.
Be sure that the content on your Website is class “A” Web copy. Have rich, clear, concise information, which your visitors will be glad they found. Have every page optimized for targeted keywords, and get sales copy that will pay you!
The Psychology Behind a Successful Business Owner
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, April 11, 2011
The Psychology Behind a Successful Business Owner
Business owners have to do much more than offer a quality product or service today. With a market that continues to increase in competition, thanks to the global ramifications of the Internet, successful businesspeople will also be characterized by certain qualities that get them noticed in their industry.
If you thought psychology classes were strictly for the health care professionals, think again. There’s plenty of psychology that goes into the effective running of a business, particularly when joint venture marketing comes into play.
* Relationship Building
Successful business owners must know how to form relationships both with potential customers and prospective JV marketing partners. Relationships with joint venture business partners must be professional, but they must also inspire trust and creativity between the two of you. When a JV marketing partnership is healthy and thriving, both businesses benefit.
Make sure your communication with your partner is used to build up rather than tear down the other individual. Offer positive feedback and show enthusiasm for your joint business venture. When you make others feel good about their contributions and their relationship with you, they are more likely to stick around for the long haul.
* Networking
Networking is an important part of building a successful business, whether you are interacting with other business owners or potential customers. Networking events are an excellent place to meet other like-minded individuals who might be interested in building a JV partnership with you.
However, these occasions may cause shy individuals to shiver with anxiety and may even result in you missing out on valuable business opportunities because your fears prohibit you from attending. If social networking makes you nervous, take a class on interpersonal communication that can provide you with the skills you need to handle these events with confidence.
* Team Playing
An effective business is a team of individuals, all working together toward a common goal. If you want your business to be successful, you will need to learn to play nicely with others. This includes other business owners in your field that might be lucrative JV partners, as well as those who work directly in your business with you. Cooperation, contribution and positive encouragement are all traits that make individuals effective team builders.
If you are lacking in any of these traits, team-building classes will show you how to work well with others. Learning specific techniques like active listening and group brainstorming can also show you how to make the most of the creativity and enthusiasm within your staff to make your business run more smoothly.
Psychology plays an important role in a successful business, whether you are forming JV partnerships with other business owners, working with your staff, or interacting with your customers.
If you feel your interpersonal skills are lacking, now is the time to get educated on the finer points of networking and team building. Professional classes are available in psychology, communication and interpersonal skills through community colleges and professional training forums. The money you invest in building your professional skills will go a long way in helping you run your business more effectively.
The Importance Of Being Earnest, Err… Honest
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, April 10, 2011
The Importance Of Being Earnest, Err… Honest
Whilst “The Importance of Being Ernest” was a trivial comedy, the importance of being honest is a little lesson that anyone looking to benefit from SEO could learn from. Google’s commitment to each and every searcher is to provide the most relevant and trustworthy result for their specific request. It is therefore safe to assume that if we, as SEO’s and marketers want to rank well in Google, we need to commit to a similar philosophy, isn’t it?
The answer is of course yes – quality content wins the day, and theoretically, the more quality content you provide your website visitors with, the more you should be rewarded by Google with traffic. Yet, time after time, we see newcomers to the SEO scene filling their websites with garbage (content that is either poor quality, makes no sense, or both!), buying dodgy, powerless links and expecting their site to draw a flood of traffic from Google and co. The reality is that whatever success might be achieved using this methodology will certainly be short-lasted. Here’s a (perhaps overly) simple equation to SEO success:
Quality Content (in whatever format) + Decent Promotion Thereof = Backlinks & Therefore Ranking
The problem that most “legitimate” internet marketers face is simple: they create the super-duper content, but nothing happens thereafter, leaving them feeling disheartened and tempted to follow a more sinister route…
The missing link in the equation is promotion. Quality content, be it a free ebook, report, tool, information, whatever – will NOT promote itself. It is your job to make sure that it gets promoted so that people start talking about it, following which, the traffic and links begin to flow… A few simple ways to promote your content include:
1. Signature links in relevant forums (”Get This Free XYZ By Visiting ABC Now!)
2. Soft promotion in blogs and comments
3. Email Marketing (if you have a database of relevant prospects)
4. A careful selection of banner ads (if your budget allows for this)
5. An even more careful selection of Adwords keywords (get a stack of cheap keywords and promote)
6. Facebook Ads (once again, only if your budget allows it)
The options are endless, and all it requires is a little thinking on your part. Where do the people that would like what you’re offering (the target market) hang out? How can you most cost-effectively reach them?
Once you get that initial flood of visitors, be sure to implement simple sharing tools, like a “refer a friend” script and the like. You might also want to provide an incentive to get people linking to your site, such as a free eBook or similar.
However you go about it, remember that quality content alone is not enough – you need to promote it. Imagine if YouTube never told anyone about their site when they started, and just expected people to type in their web address by mistake.
So this brings us back to the beginning – the importance of being honest… What did that have to do with anything? Well, it’s quite simple – provide a quality, honest product or service that provides value, promote it, and you will naturally have more and more people linking to you over time. No need to employ dodgy link builders in India, or try implement strange “black hat” tactics. Just provide value, promote it, and the world is your oyster…
Could Tomorrows Storefront Be Your Web Site?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Could Tomorrows Storefront Be Your Web Site?
There is good news. Web based sales have continued to spiral upward year after year. Sales are projected to hit $200 billion by the end of the year. The better news: by the year 2012 this figure will increase to $335 billion.
The internet is making mega dollars for those who implement wise usage of it’s vast potential. It has continually grown in online sales, as more and more people take advantage of buying and selling online.
With the spike in gas prices, it becomes reasonable to shop from home – save the commute to town, save time and effort during the Christmas rush!
Not to mention the bargains that can be found through online auctions, close-outs, and retailers who do not even have to worry about overstocking, or inventory- due to on demand shipping.
It is a safe bet, that those who go global now, are positioning themselves to reap the rewards of this huge marketing bonanza! More and more businesses are stepping up their online presence to where more than half of their overall sales are coming from the Web.
And why not? Why pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a brick and mortar store, where only hundreds of visitors may occupy, when they can have an online store which thousands can occupy daily?
Most big stores close for the night, where the dot-com stores never have to close! Why put hundreds of thousands into payroll for employees, when one server can meet the same needs in the digital world?
Why pay megabucks in health care and retirement – if the same results can be gained by retailers who simply sell and do not manufacture?
Don’t get me wrong, there will always be mom and pop stores simply because there are plenty of services that require employees.
But many are finding they can sell online – at a fraction of the cost, of building a retail outlet! This is a trend which will only get bigger.
Which is better, banking three or four million a year in profit, or taking in nine or ten million a year, only to bank two million after overhead?
Those who already have a huge online business, can only look forward to growth. They have proven themselves as a worthy online retailer to their customers.
The customer is pleased to know that whoever they send to your site will get the same treatment as they did.
It becomes a win-win exchange. This is how Fortune 500 companies, and other online retailers can know their expected growth is most likely certain.
It pays well to have your customers best interests at heart, for clients will reward those who take the time and effort to make sure their customers are well pleased.
Who would you buy from? Those who prove to you how important your business is, or those who seems indifferent and treat you as a number?
Your web presence and online appeal is directly related to how your prospects view your site. If it is polished, and a help to their needs and interests first, you can be sure of repeat business.
However, if it comes off as “thrown-up” and offers no help or assistance, but simply offers a shopping cart and an order now button, it is doomed. Bad news travels a little faster than good news in the business world.
If you are serious about growing your online sales, and want to prosper in the coming boom, do yourself and others the favor of hiring a professional writer for your Web content.
It will pay you many times over what you pay them, and once that expense is absorbed, you can face with confidence profits upon profits!
5 Focus Factors To Use For Your Online Business
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, April 8, 2011
5 Focus Factors To Use For Your Online Business
One of the biggest game killers for an online business is lack of focus. The internet is jam packed with distractions and time wasting activities. It is easy to waste hours doing useless things online without even realizing it.
There are millions of websites and people trying to get your attention and that can be very distracting, if you let it. The key is to stay 100% focused on your business and perform only those tasks that will move you forward.
After wasting hours and hours of my own time online, I decided to get serious and stay focused on my business. As you can imagine, it has helped me a ton and it will help you as well.
1. Stick To A Designated Action Plan
It is super important that you have an action plan for your online business. It is not a good idea to get online without a gameplan. If you get online without a clear idea of what you are going to be doing, you will just get lost in a never ending sea of distractions.
Having an action plan will help you to navigate through all of the online distractions, so that you can focus on what is important for your business. Having an action plan
will also help you to stay more consistent with your efforts.
2. Don’t Check Your E-mail More Than Once Per Day
As you probably already know, checking your e-mail can be a very big distraction. If you have to check it more than once per day that is fine, as long as you limit yourself.
It is a better idea to check e-mail only after you have completed all your tasks for the day. This way it won’t distract you.
Almost all e-mails can wait. In fact, you could probably check your e-mail 2-3 times a week and be perfectly fine. The trick is to eliminate your distractions and e-mail is a big distraction for most people.
3. Set Goals
It seems like everyone is always talking about the importance of having goals. Well goals are very important for your online business because they are going to help you to stay focused. You should have daily goals that are part of your action plan.
When you are setting goals you should remember to set short term, medium, and long term goals for yourself. This is going to keep you on track to achieving what you want.
4. Keep Track Of Your Progress
It is also good to look at the progress that you have been having in your business. Being online makes it very easy to get all of the statistics you need to see. Google Analytics will give you all sorts of helpful statistics that you can go back to often.
This will give you a good idea of what is working and it will also motivate you to get more good results.
5. Have A Clear Vision
This is almost like having goals for your business, except it is a little bit different. Goals are great for pushing yourself to reach new pinnacles of success. Having a clear vision means knowing where you are going.
There are so many ways to make money online that it can be confusing some times. You should know exactly how you are going to monetize your efforts and then stick to it. It will not be effective for you to try to make money a million different ways.
* In Conclusion
Doing these 5 things above have dramatically changed my productivity online, and they will do the same for you if you apply them. There is no substitute for focused, consistent action in any business online, or off.
16 Questions Critical To Starting An Internet Business
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, April 7, 2011
16 Questions Critical To Starting An Internet Business
It is usually overwhelming for a prospective internet marketer at the point of starting an internet business.
What with the many aspects he has to consider.
1. Does it matter whatever domain name I pick?
2. How much should I invest in this online business initially before it starts generating revenue?
3. What advertising sources do I invest in and which do I get free?
4. What website type do I use – static or dynamic?
5. What online marketing training program do I join to put me through? Which are the best of these online marketing training programs?
6. Which forums do I hang out at where I can find my colleagues in a similar niche? Which are the best of these forums?
7. How do I get my website set up? Do I design it from scratch, use templates or even go for an already completely set up website?
8. What plethora of internet marketing tools and resources am I required to keep and utilize?
9. On completion of my website set up, how do I subsequently keep updating it? Update myself or outsource?
10. If I learn to update my website, what software or web platform is most ideal for me to get this done?
11. What blogging platform do I use – blogger or wordpress?
12. Do I start with just one internet affiliate program and after making some progress begin to add others?
13. Of the available internet affiliate programs, which do I join?
14. How will the internet affiliate programs I intend selecting pay me my commissions?
15. How fast will I start to make money online with affiliate program?
16. Can my country’s nationals fit perfectly into the internet affiliate programs I intend getting involved with?
Negotiating Your Corporate SaaS Agreement: Do You Flunk the Test?
You’re offering a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution to the corporate market. You’ve developed your standard form SaaS agreement (sometimes referred to as a “hosted software services agreement”). And you’ve presented your agreement to your corporate prospect’s representative.
Are you prepared for the issues you’re most likely to be confronted with by a SaaS-savvy corporate user – or do you flunk the test?
Two Approaches to SaaS Contracting
There are two basic approaches to SaaS agreements with end-user customers:
* The click-wrapped agreement approach – a “take it or leave it” online agreement that’s presented electronically during your site’s registration process with an “I Agree” button, and;
* The traditional paper-based, signed agreement approach – an agreement that’s presented with the expectation that it will be negotiated and eventually (you hope) accepted and signed by the user.
Since the click-wrapped approach is not subject to negotiation, that’s not the subject of this article. What we’re concerned with here, is whether you’re prepared to negotiate the cutting edge issues of a traditional paper-based, signed agreement with a corporate user – and a SaaS-savvy one at that.
The single, most significant driver of your prospect’s questions and concerns with your traditional paper-based, signed SaaS agreement is the fact that your prospect is considering surrendering its valuable and sensitive data to you – transferring it into the “cloud.” Your prospect will test you with questions and concerns regarding the privacy and security if its data. How you respond will determine, in most transactions, whether you’ll get the business. Are you ready for the test?
Your Data Center
If you’re typical, you’ve outsourced your data center to an outside hosting service provider, and your prospect knows that. So the prospect is considering a transaction where its data is being outsourced not once, but twice. This raises questions and concerns regarding privacy and security.
Some of the key questions and concerns are:
* Who is your hosting service provider? What’s their reputation in the field and financial viability? Is it permissible to visit the data center for purposes of evaluation?
* Where are the servers located? Will servers be required to be located only in the United States?
* Security audits – does the hosting service provider provide SAS 70 reports periodically (Type 1 or Type 2)?
* Changes to a successor data center – will the prospect insist on approval of any change to another hosting service provider?
* Privacy and security agreements – are satisfactory privacy and security agreements in place between you and the hosting service provider?
* Responsibility – will you be responsible for the acts and omissions of the hosting service provider as if the acts and omissions were yours?
* Disaster recovery – what’s the level of support?
* Redundancy – if there is a problem with the active server, does a mirrored server kick in?
* Backups – what’s the frequency of data backups?
* Access to data – who at the hosting service provider has access to data in the server?
Your Customer’s Access to its Data
Although the data resides in servers located at your hosting service provider’s facility, your customer may have a need to access this data from time to time.
Some of the key questions and concerns are:
* Data requests – how will the customer’s requests for data be handled, including responses to legal discovery (eDiscovery) requests, search warrants, and subpoenas?
* Return of data – when the SaaS relationship ends, how will the data be returned and will the hosting service provider retain data, such as in its backup system?
Are You an Insurer for Data Security Breach?
Do you give an indemnity for any and all security breaches that affect your customer’s data? This is a key question. If you do, you need to be sure that you’ve added an additional fee to your pricing to cover this significant risk.
Think about it. It’s a fact that there’s no system currently known to man that is guaranteed to be absolutely safe and secure from outside hacks. So, if you guarantee data security with a general indemnity, you’re providing a guarantee over which you have no control and which you’ll be expected to honor financially in the future with some of your customers. Count on it. In essence, you’ll be providing an insurance policy, and you had better be charging an insurance “premium” to cover the risk.
One way to deal with the issue is to agree to a standard for data security that you’ll be responsible to satisfy. The standard may be general in nature, such as compliance with reasonable data security measures that are generally followed in the industry. Or, the standard may be more specific, such as standards set by the EU Safe Harbor or the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, or a very specific negotiated standard. In any case, once the standard is agreed upon, you might agree to be responsible for a security breach only if it’s enabled by your failure to comply with the standard. If the breach is not enabled by your breach of the standard, you’re not responsible.
One of the issues regarding your scope of responsibility for a data breach is who is responsible (or the extent that the responsibility may be shared) for notifying the persons affected by the data breach as required by the patchwork quilt of state laws dealing with breach notification.
Conclusion
Did you pass the test?
If you’re not prepared to discuss these questions and concerns competently, then you’ve flunked the test.
If you’re not sure about how to handle these issues, you’re advised to seek competent legal counsel who’s familiar with them.
The ultimate questions are whether you:
* Understand and adequately provide for the risk allocation inherent in your SaaS agreement, and;
* Provide a satisfactory response to your prospects’ questions and concerns regarding privacy and security.
Attract More Clients By Dumping the Junk – Your Pita Clients!
If you want to attract more clients, then you need to fire the pain-in-the-ass (PITA) clients who do nothing but suck up your time and energy. You know exactly who I’m talking about — the time-wasting, buy-nothing customers. By dumping them, you free up time to develop and care for the ones who really matter.
Why You Should Fire the PITA Customer
You can see the warning signs a mile away as they…
* Push you on price
* Threaten to take their business to your competitors
* Make unreasonable demands
* Masquerade as the decision-maker
* Don’t return phone calls; yet expect fast, complete and reliable delivery of your service.
These clients do nothing more than create added stress that you don’t need in your life, PITA customers are never happy. They drain your energy, test your patience, and waste your time. They demoralize your entire sales team. Yet companies accept this bad business continually, thinking bad business must be better than no business. But is it?
Dump the Hidden Costs and Start Attracting More Clients
When organizations take on bad customers, they pay a hidden cost as they leave thousands to millions of dollars on the table. By focusing on PITA clients, many business owners are losing the opportunity to use those resources going after and servicing the phenomenal clients they want and need to make money! Collect too many PITA customers and watch your profits dwindle… not a compelling scenario.
Why accept business from a few customers who drive us crazy and drain our resources? Many salespeople say they sell to “anyone who fogs a mirror”–because of a looming quota, or because their company insists on certain deals. Many sales organizations create unrealistic expectations that they can turn a bad situation into a good one. Are you dreaming? Bad business is bad business. Period.
Dump the Junk and Attract More Clients Who Want Your Help – And Is Willing to Pay For It Dearly
Targeting just “anyone” often means attracting more PITA customers. Never ask a PITA to refer you. Why?
Because PITAs hang out with other PITAs. They belong to the same organizations, play golf together, and love telling stories about how they negotiated an unprecedented deal, or whipped a salesperson into shape.
Your best sales decision: Fire the PITA. Don’t take them in the first place, and if you have one, recognize you have a PITA situation and fight back.
Yes, fight back! Don’t take their abuse. You deliver a service that boosts their business. If they push you on price, be willing to walk away. That really turns the tables.
To demonstrate this point, picture two people standing with their arms out straight, pushing on and resisting each other’s hands. No one gets anyplace. It’s a stalemate.
Now re-create the same picture: One person stops resisting. What happens?
The other person moves toward the one who ceased resisting. The same thing happens when you’re willing to walk away. Sometimes you’ll walk, but many times the PITA comes to you.
Are You Now Ready to Fire PITA Clients and Attract Even More Clients
Great! But words don’t mean anything. Take action now and fire the PITA! We know them 90 percent of the time before we even begin to work with them. Say NO. It’s OK to walk away.
When you walk away, you have time to attract exactly the kind of clients you want. Follow my advice and you will watch your sales soar!
3 Ways Small Business Owners Confuse Their Prospects
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, March 21, 2011
3 Ways Small Business Owners Confuse Their Prospects
Small business owners are smart, savvy and creative. This is, oftentimes, what causes more confusion with prospects. Let’s use an example to make it clearer.
Imagine you’re at a networking event and you’re talking to someone who could be an ideal client. You’re really focused in on them. You’re listening carefully to their every word. You begin to realize they’re not talking about their business, but about their life. You may think to yourself, “Yeah, yeah, we’re all really challenged economically right now in our personal lives, but how’s your business doing?”
And before you know it, you’ve let that slip out and their eyes kind of glaze over. You wonder, what just happened here? This, after all, is a business event, so why are you talking about your personal life.
Well in case you missed it, for a lot of small business owners, their business is their life. That’s how they support themselves financially and spiritually! And this points to the first reason you can confuse a prospect!
#1 You don’t understand their problem
If you’re not “hearing” the problem and the pain it’s causing them, you may address the symptoms and not the underlying cause. Here’s an example. Let’s say you are an expert in providing health and nutritional products. A prospect complains they’re not feeling well and is in need more energy because they’re balancing work, family, etc. You “hear” the possibility for “supplements” could be helpful to boost their energy. What you may miss is their lifestyle may require an “overhaul” meaning diet, exercise, valuing who they are, etc. So the “supplements” will only give them the energy to stay out of balance!
#2 You don’t understand your comprehensive solution
So you focus on the supplements, however your “comprehensive” solution might include an overall plan for this person. An approach that includes “wellness” of which supplementation is only a small part (even though it’s you’re core business). But you have to know your full repertoire, i.e. all of your available solutions in order to be effective in solving the prospect’s problem. And if you don’t offer it directly, who could you partner with to address the prospect’s problem?
#3 You can’t help the prospect bridge the gap
Continuing with this example. If you were focused on listening for the “business challenge” and not asking the questions that help you see the connection between their lack of business clients and the lack of life balance, you will overlook how the two are, in fact, affecting each other. Your role is to help the prospect clearly see the connection; you have to help them bridge the gap. Otherwise, your prospect will not see how your solution will help both in their personal and business life and the opportunity is lost! And they walk away confused as to what you do or offer.
The moral of the story is? Truly listen to all aspects of your prospects “being” because it will serve as a rich source of information. It will also help you determine if your solution will solve their problem. And after all, isn’t that the business we’re in? And remember, a confused mind never buys.
Article Marketing Vs Guest Blog Posting
Since economic resources are scarce and not limitless, one has to make choices according to one’s scale of preference in order to allocate scarce economic resources amongst competing alternative uses.This is the genesis of the comparison between Article Marketing and Guest Blog Posting.
From basic economics, opportunity cost is the real cost of anything in the sense of the alternative forgone.
In the light of the above, since resources, in this case time and money to be spent is not limitless and has so many competing uses, the internet marketer has to schedule these resources between Guest Blog Posting and Article Marketing amongst all other internet marketing strategies.
The comparison becomes more relevant since both aim to achieve almost the same objectives of building backlinks and generating traffic and so are effectively substitutes.
The question often arises as to which of these two strategies is a better option.
My answer to this question is very simple. Start by identifying which objectives each of these options aim to achieve and identify which of the two achieves these objectives better.
Guest Blog Posting usually require very original but shorter articles.
Secondly, the guest blogger quite often gets one or may be two links for each article he gets published on the host website. In most cases, guest posts reside majorly on the hosting website and are not usually syndicated widely.
Some guest blog posting is done free but ironically? some sites require you to pay before you can guest post.
I say ironically, because as you will see in my analysis and final conclusion to this article, I would even consider greatly whether it is worth my while to guest post not to talk of being asked to come and make payment to do this.
They call them by different names to cover up the true intent of such schemes e.g. link building mechanisms.
Such schemes only end up being of greater benefit to the hosting website since content is being supplied to them and being paid for at the same time.
Now to a comparison with Article Marketing
In Article Marketing, the major snag is that you have to write a longer article of about a minimum of 400 words.
Ordinarily, the article should be original. Note that I use the words “ordinarily should be original” contrary to when i was referring to Guest Posting when I used the words “very original.”
This is because article spinners and article leverage tools are now the “in-thing” in article syndication such that it is questionable to refer to such articles as “very original.”
However, once written and syndicated, each article can be distributed to the entire network of article directories of an article syndication service or an article submitting software and with each article entitled to have about two backlinks each pointing to the author’s website, then you can multiply out the number of backlinks each article will produce in comparison to the just one or two, of the Guest posting.
These backlinks and accompanying traffic generated through article marketing now even goes viral when the articles begin to be republished from the original article directories the article syndication service or article submitting software syndicates the articles to.
Do you now see why I made the earlier statement that I will even think greatly before accepting to guest post for free not to talk of being asked to make payment to guest post.
To me, except the hosting website is a very high traffic website and/or high authority website (with very high PR), I do not think it is worth the while, depleting scarce resources of time and sometimes money on such strategies (Guest Blog Posting) given their opportunity cost in terms of the alternative foregone (article marketing) since one will definitely impact the other in terms of the volume you are able to churn out.
How Wikipedia Defines Branding Success?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Building Brand Identity: How Wikipedia Defines Branding Success?
It is instructive and inspiring to take a look at the people who have succeeded in your field. Whether it’s an attempt to learn from their mistakes and victories or just a pause to reflect on the admirable accomplishments of another, studying the work of those who’ve set the benchmark can inspire reflection and spur us on to greater heights.
The world of branding success stories is one of the most fickle, given the rise of the web. Every day, there is more new information generated and discarded than has existed for most of human history. Trends and fads come and go with ever-increasing speed, and things considered hilarious and exciting baffle people just a few months later. Then there are successes that fundamentally change the way the world sees things. They become so ingrained that everyone wonders where they’d been the whole time.
* Wikipedia
There is not enough good in the world to say about the Wiki project. Those who would criticize it for lacking accuracy and scholarly rigor have totally missed the point. Wikipedia is the spirit of what the web is meant to be. It is cooperative, self-correcting, open to interpretation, controversial and dynamic. Ever changing and yet extremely distinct, it represents the purest expression of what the web can and is meant to do. People are talking about Web 2.0, but it’s honestly already here in the form of the Wiki.
Wikipedia is a simple idea, one so straightforward that it could be imagined it shouldn’t work – an encyclopedia free of charge, open for anyone in the world to edit. It shouldn’t continue to exist, by all logic. The internet is full of trolls who will eagerly fax sheets of black paper to people they’re displeased with, over and over until the receiving machine runs out of ink and seizes up. What in the world is to stop them from vandalizing the heck out of every Wiki page they come across, a fate that many other Wikis indeed have succumbed to?
The answer is that Wiki has taken its audience seriously, appealing to its sense of pride and self-interest.
For every troll who hops onto a Wikipedia or Wikiquote article and scrawls quotes calling the moral and social behaviors of the editors into question, there is someone else who is incredibly well-informed about that page, backed up by both a number of authoritative sources and a deep pride in their work. Vandalism is steadily defeated through pride and reversion, and the sheer scale of people who want a good, quality resource.
In allowing anyone to edit, and treating those edits as matters worth discussing on cooperative terms, the Wiki project has ignited a sense of pride in people. Now they want the articles to succeed; they want to see their hard work displayed on the front page as a featured article.
Additionally, the Wiki project chose an iconic visual aesthetic for itself: White background, clean lines, plain text and simple images. Yes, anyone can edit a page as they like, but the project rewards pages that comply with its style guides and presentational standards. So whenever someone says “Wiki,” people imagine that little puzzle-globe logo, the way a page is set up and the little blue edit tabs in the corner.
Of course, one of the best ways to judge the success of a project is to judge that of its emulators. So for comparison’s sake, let us consider a relative newcomer even to the open-source editing style: TV Tropes.
* TV Tropes
A trope is a rhetorical device. The damsel in distress is a trope, as is the idea of having just one bullet left in the final sequence of an action film. They aren’t exactly clichés, though they can become so. Rather, they are patterns that people have learned to recognize in conversation, argument and entertainment that form the basis of all communication.
TV Tropes is a website based on two ideas: First, tropes are awesome things that deserve discussion, admiration and study, and second, everyone has something to contribute. The site does not use the Wiki format, but does have an open policy on allowing people to comment and post about the tropes they find interesting.
Pages on the TV Tropes site range from those discussing a specific trope to those showing a film or book and listing the tropes present in it. All are freely editable.
The success of the TV Tropes project may not be measurable monetarily like Wikipedia’s or other more commercial ventures. However, the project has become intensely popular all the same. It has the same “well, I’ll click one more link” popularity that Wikipedia had cornered for itself, and the same “I can talk about what I like here and be taken seriously” appeal as all open source projects. People reference tropes in casual conversation on message boards, and it’s creating a communal language.
That really is the key behind these two projects – brain extension. They’ve taken a good idea and brought it into the common discourse, allowing people to communicate with each other. People can discuss differing myths from literature, and realize they’re talking about the same trope, even if it’s not the same story. People automatically click to Wiki for information if they need some quick discussion material. For those who want to take a lesson from the Wiki style of success, remember that it emphasizes not the product, but the way the audience is using and sharing words, language and information.
Is There a Brand in Your Stand?
Watch out for the branding gurus. Beware of the branding police who focus only on images of brand. Fire the branding consultants who feel qualified to tell you what your brand should be. Ignore the branding zealots who proclaim “brand or die.”
Good, now that we have frightened off the undesirables let’s address some fundamental questions about branding and offer you some probing questions to consider. That first paragraph demonstrates the three rules of creative positioning as explained below.
* Should you have a brand?
Maybe. It depends on the goals of your business. You need to ask yourself some questions. Will the brand give you the return on your investment? Will you invest the resources to claim and sustain the brand?
* What is a brand?
A brand is the emotional bond that your clients have with you. Ask your best clients how they would describe you to others. Look for the common message in what they say – especially the emotion. That might be your brand.
Brand is the feeling others experience when they think about you and your product. Brand can help them think of you first – or better yet – only you. Brand can justify higher prices – or even better – make price a non-issue.
* Not Branding
Branding is not about creative logos, pretty fonts and pantone colors. Fire anyone who attempts to sell you that pabulum. Those things are only images. Have you noticed that the successful brands change these images every few years?
Branding is a marketing strategy. It is only one of many marketing strategies from which you might choose.
* Is branding an accident or on purpose?
Because branding is about creating emotional messages you are always branding. However, are you aware of your messages, are you consistent and are you effectively branding yourself?
You could create or claim your brand. Domino’s Pizza created their brand – “Pizza in 30 minutes or its free.” They own that brand. It’s simple, memorable and unique. Some companies look for an opening and build their business to create that brand. Some companies discover their brand by accident. Feedback from clients, remarks from the media or a competitor’s comment reveals the brand that was hidden in plain sight. In that case it is up to you to claim the brand and run with it.
Avis claimed their brand by turning a disadvantage into their brand when they launched their marketing campaign with “Avis is only Number 2 in rent-a-cars, so why go with us? We try harder.” And with cheekiness they leverage further on their “disadvantage” by adding, “The lines at our counters are shorter.” That brand has been successful for over 40 years.
* How do you create your brand?
There are two ways. Like Coke, Nike and McDonald you could throw gazillions of dollars at it. Or you could use creative positioning. Look for the holes in the marketplace. Go to where your competition is not and claim that position. Take a stand like Harley Davidson, Buckley’s Cough Mixture and Nova Scotian Crystal.
Each of these companies claimed positions in the market the competition was unwilling to take. Folks either love or hate Harley Davidson. Buckley’s proudly claimed that “it tastes awful but it works” along with a money back guarantee. Nova Scotian Crystal is proudly the only Canadian crystal manufacturer and they offer an incredible one year breakage warranty. Drop your whiskey glass and they will replace it; no questions asked.
You can read the interview with Rod McCulloch, President and CEO of Nova Scotian Crystal on my “Business in Motion” blog.
Each of these companies was willing to take a position that would drive some folks away while attracting a loyal crowd of fans.
The three principles of creative positioning are best explained by UK entrepreneur BJ Cunningham, who as CEO of The Enlightened Tobacco Company sold a cigarette called “Death Cigarettes”. It was presented in a black package emblazoned with a white skull-and-crossbones logo. Just imagine how this might appeal to the rebels. Everyone except the tobacco companies knew that cigarette smoking was bad for your health. BJ did what none of the other tobacco companies were willing to do. He took a stand.
Cunningham’s three principles of creative positioning:
1. Take a polarized position.
2. Make enemies.
* Create tension
Branding starts with market review and self-examination. Standing alone can be scary, exhilarating and hugely profitable. It you are going to claim a powerful brand take a position away from the crowd. Stand where no one else is standing.
3 Steps to Grow Your B2B E-mail List More Effectively
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, January 28, 2011
B2B marketers say that their internal e-mail lists are seven times more effective at generating quality sales leads than third-party lists. However, most also say that their e-mail lists aren’t large enough to drive the volume of leads their sales organization needs.
What they’re missing is a list-growth strategy that attracts a lot of high-quality names without undermining list growth and vitality. If you follow these three tactics, you should begin to see genuine list growth soon and avoid the dangers that lie in wait when you try to grow your list too fast without the proper controls.
Step 1: Work With Your Sales Team
Traditionally, sales teams and e-mail marketers don’t seen eye to eye over list growth. In fact, most salespeople are reluctant to share their contacts with their e-mail teams. They fear “marketing” will hurt their sales relationships by bombarding customers or prospects with too many confusing or irrelevant e-mail messages.
Smart B2B e-mail marketers are transparent with their sales teams and work with them to define goals and objectives for the e-mail program.
- Offer details regarding the messages you’ll be sending out, including the frequency, call to action, and message points that you’ll use for the campaigns.
- Explain exactly what data points you define as necessary for complete and accurate lead data and what questions you’re using to segment respondents for sales classification and follow-up.
- Listen to the feedback from salespeople. If they say, “That isn’t going to work,” discuss their ideas and make changes, as necessary, to the program to support the sales process and ultimately boost conversion.
Once you’ve established comfort and trust within sales, you’ll be amazed at how many e-mail addresses you’ll find available for your internal list and lead nurture program. I recently worked with a client that tripled its list size in less than three months by opening new communication channels with its sales organization.
Step 2: Build Your List Organically
Most e-mail marketers have mastered e-mail list-growth basics such as promoting e-mail sign-up on your website, in all of your online and offline marketing collateral; asking for sign-ups at trade shows; and capturing e-mail addresses at the time of purchase.
However, you can have many other creative tactics to build your list. Consider these ideas:
- Think beyond the trade show booth: Develop a thought-leadership series – webinars, white papers, e-books, even one-page takeaway articles with Q&As or best practices lists. These give your prospects and customers valuable answers and advice. Require the customer or prospect to register to access the content and ask for opt-in e-mail marketing permission at registration.
- Leverage search and social media marketing: Provide a simple e-mail opt-in in the header and footer of each paid search landing page and social media shared content. Then ask prospects and customers to share e-mail and Web content with their social networks and make it easy for network members to become subscribers.
- Identify offline opportunities to drive people online: Southwest Airlines has mastered this technique. It promotes e-mail sign-up with a call to action on everything from its schedule boards and jet bridges to in-flight magazines, drink napkins, and even its peanut bags. Consider where your customers might be standing around doing nothing and seize the opportunity to promote e-mail sign-up.
- Utilize QR (quick response) codes: QR codes are small, barcode-like images that smartphones with digital cameras can scan and send to a mobile website. Create a QR code that directs customers and prospects to a special landing page to view more information and sign up for e-mail. Include the code on business cards, marketing collateral, airport ads, and print ads so prospects don’t have to type in a Web address or remember a URL.
- Implement Facebook Connect: The Facebook Connect API gives you access to the information prospects have already added to their own Facebook pages when you offer them the option to sign on to your website using their Facebook accounts. They will be asked to provide permission for you to access their public information, send them e-mail, and access their Facebook profile, which you can use to send more targeted e-mail messages.
Step 3: Don’t Turn to List Rental in a Panic
Avoid renting lists as much as possible. Third-party lists are expensive and typically do not perform well. You can spend $10,000 to $15,000 on a highly targeted, high-quality list, only to fall far short of your intended goals.
If your organic list growth strategies still haven’t moved the needle as much as you hoped, invest in carefully targeted paid search campaigns that will drive people back to your site and build your own list.
The Last Word
Remember, generating high-quality leads must be the goal and result of good B2B e-mail list growth. Make sure you track the opt-in source and continually analyze which sources bring the best leads. Continuous tracking will allow you to optimize your list growth efforts and learn which sources to avoid.
When you succeed, you will have a high-performing internal e-mail list that delivers highly qualified prospects that your sales organization can turn into revenue.
Know eBay’s Different Auction Types
Over the years, eBay has introduced all sorts of different auction types, in an effort to give people more options when they buy and sell their things on eBay.
For every seller who doesn’t like the idea that their item might sell for a far lower price than they intend, there’s another who wants to shift hundreds of the same item quickly. eBay tries to cater to all tastes. This email gives you an overview of the different kinds of auctions and their advantages for you.
* Normal Auctions
These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions everyone knows: buyers bid, others outbid them, they bid again, and the winner gets the item. Simple.
* Reserve Auctions
Reserve auctions are for sellers who don’t want their items to sell for less than a certain price – a concept you’ll know about if you’re familiar with real auctions. They work just like normal auctions on eBay, except that the buyer will be told if their bid does not meet the reserve price you set, and they’ll need to bid again if they want the item. If no-one is willing to meet your price, then the auction is cancelled, and you keep the item.
* Fixed Price (’Buy it Now’) Auctions
Buy it Now auctions can work in one of two ways. You can add a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning that buyers can choose either to bid normally or to simply pay the asking price and avoid the whole bidding process. Some sellers, though, now cut out the auction process altogether and simply list all their items at fixed price. This lets you avoid all the complications of the auction format and simply list your items for how much you want them to sell for.
Recently, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the ‘best offer’. This means that buyers can contact you to negotiate a price, which could be a good way to get sell some extra stock at a small discount. The only downside to reserve and fixed price auctions is that you pay a small extra fee to use these formats. In general, it is more worth using reserve auctions for higher-priced items and fixed price auctions for lower-priced ones – but remembers that you can combine the two formats.
* Multiple Item (’Dutch’) Auctions
These are auctions where you can sell more than one of a certain item. Dutch auctions can be done by bidding. Buyers bid a price and say how many items they want, and then everyone pays the lowest price that was bid by one of the winning bidders. If you have trouble getting your head around that then doesn’t worry – everyone else does too! These auctions are very rare.
What is more common is when a seller has a lot of one item, and lists it using a combination of two auction types: a multiple-item fixed price auction. This just means that you can just say how many of the item you they have, and offer them at a fixed price per unit. Buyers can enter how many they want and then just click Buy it Now to get them.
Now that you know about the different types of auctions, you should make sure that the items you plan to sell don’t violate eBay’s listing policies.
How to Destroy Your eBay Business
Don’t be fooled. What you are about to discover could prevent your eBay business from failing. Reputation is everything when selling on ebay and when tarnished with the wrong type you will forever struggle to regain buyer’s confidence. Be very aware of the following and by ensuring you are never guilty of any of these, you have every chance for eBay success.
Untruths: If it does not work, don’t sell it. Don’t say it’s in perfect condition when it has a defect of any Lind. Honesty will be rewarded.
Your auctions end anytime: If your auction ends say during the middle of the night, how many potential bidders do you think will be around to create that bidding frenzy? How many will be around to ensure that they are the winner?. Ensure your eBay auction finishes at a “profitable” time.
Why would you ever sell rubbish?: If you would not be prepared to sell it elsewhere else, don’t expect a rush of bidders just because it is eBay. If you think that you can make good money selling anything that you can pick up then think again. EBay buyers are just as discerning as any other buyers. And they won’t buy rubbish either!
Never give discounts: Ever considered that a special deal might just seal a sale to a very happy and grateful customer that will make them return to your site to buy again. EBay is still like the real world, discounts and special deals are always good incentives to make sales. Don’t ignore their power.
Unattractive listings: The easiest way to make a potential bidder click the back button is to have your listing full of noise, clutter, colour, capital letters, wrong font. You get the answer. Just because it is eBay, does not mean you can be bold and brash with your listing. What listings are professional and successful? Look at them and copy their ideas.
Photos. Who needs them?: You do! Never, I repeat, never make an auction listing without the benefit of a photo of the item. All eBay Power Sellers use photos, so make sure you do to. As a customer, you will want to see the item that you are buying, so have the same atitude as a seller. And the more photos the better. Leave no question unanswered by the use of photos.
Only use a short description: Never think that a two line quick description shall do.The more information that you give the potential bidders, the more inclinded they will be to place a bid. EBay is all about giving as much information as possible so an informed decision can be made by the person as to whether they wish to bid or not. Never let a potential bidder click off because they did not have enough information on which to make a decision.
Ignore emails: A potential bidder may want to ask you a specific question about the item. This person could be the winning bidder; they may start what could turn into a bidding frenzy. You don’t know, so don’t restrict your opportunities by giving poor service by ignoring emails. If the customer does not receive a reply from you, how likely is is that they will bid?
Posting at your leisure: An ebay customer will remember, they will post bad feedback and your reputation will suffer all because your mailing of the itemjwas not efficiently dispatched. A last point, don’t overcharge on the posting. There is a fair post charge and there is a blatant money making postage charge. Don’t antagonise the customer, here is someone that is liable to buy from you again so treat them well and that will be rewarded.
An Apple Mac: Reasons for Choosing to Own One
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, January 6, 2011
An Apple Mac: Reasons for Choosing to Own One
When people are looking to buy a new computer, whether for work or home use, they tend to opt out of buying an Apple Mac. Choosing an Apple Mac is perhaps one of the most wonderful computer investments you will ever make. There are a lot of companies that offer them at very affordable rates; comparing prices will of course save you a lot of money.
There are a lot of people who later decide against purchasing an Apple Mac because they are a little bit afraid that they may not be able to conveniently connect with others, because they erroneously feel that a Mac is not compatible with other systems.
You will discover that one of the biggest problems faced by people, who would love to buy a Mac to replace their computer, is that they are unsure as to whether they will be able to conveniently transfer data from their old computer to the new one. This is certainly no longer a problem; Microsoft has now allowed their “Office Programs” to be effectively applied to Apple Macs.
Users also have the opportunity to conveniently access other types of popular software programs too. These days you will discover that Apple Macs also come with these three;
- Adobe Photoshop
- Access to iTunes
- MSN Messenger
If you find out that there are certain files you have on your old PC and your Apple Mac does not seem to have the application to use them, fret not. There are lots of programs which are available that can assist you in transferring the files that are quite common for different types of computers to your Apple Mac, utilizing the right type of application.
You need to understand that there are certain programs i.e. Microsoft Publisher (which usually does not allow users to convert their files into an Apple Mac format) – thankfully, Apple has corrected this problem. These days, all the Intel based Apple Macs will allow users to boot up directly into MS Windows and allow users to make the required changes from Microsoft Publisher into an Apple Mac Application instead.
So you see you can get an Apple Mac, not only because it is beautiful and lightweight, but because it will meet all of your requirements whether you are using it at work or at home. Using a Mac is always special and it will keep you stay out of the crowd.
How To Skyrocket Your Perceived Value
It is of great importance that your visitor “see,” the bargain within your offer. There are ways to enhance this perception. People often observer Sales pages with a “what is in this for me,” mindset. Your offer needs to clearly show them what is in it for them.
When someone does form their first impression about your site, would you not want it to be a good one? When we present our product or service to visitors, it is vital that they see the value within as important to their desire to prosper themselves.
Here is where our USP should stand out from the crowd, giving us a keen edge over competitors. This “Unique Selling Proposition” should grab their attention and hold it – all of the way to the conversion point, whether it be to buy, or to opt-in for a newsletter.
Whether it be a capture page, where they enter their email address, or reach for a credit card to purchase, this USP is a critical point in the process in getting conversions.
How does one create a perception of value to first time visitors? In the world of sales online, everyone is clamoring for their attention flashing buy now or click here messages.
To stand alone in the crowd, and be the “first choice” in the mind of “lookers,” one has to offer “more for less,” – greater value, – a unique selling point, that compels them to chose your product or service over the many others.
This is the very reason your USP must compel them to see the greater bargain your offer has over other competitors. The way you present an offer unto visitors is of great importance. You have to “show,” them what greater value your offer contains.
Once they are looking at what you have to present, it is then of utmost importance,to have your sales copy capture prospect’s full attention. To do this, you have to be unique. You want them to transition into a qualified prospect who is a perfect position to order now.
To get them from where they are now, to the desired conversion point,(what you want visitors to do next) you must continue to position your offer in a way that flames their desire. If their attention is distracted from the momentum once started, you could lose their interest, and there goes the sale.
To keep their focus on tract, the elements of persuasion must continue to drive them forward, keenly interested, all the way to the “order now” button, or the “enter email,” conversion point.
To meet this objective, the perceived value they began with must be inflamed with focused precision. This enhances the very thing which caught their eye in the beginning.
These proven marketing methods, press their emotional “hot buttons” triggering their need to fulfill their want. This is done through positioning the perceived value in such a way, that increases the prospects interest, all the way to the point of the “how much” question.
When this is done correctly, even high-end or products or services, can be moved without objection to price, for indeed the prospect has already made up their mind.
The “I’ve got to have this, or I need that,” hurdle, has already been jumped in their thinking. They have been “sold.” They move to the “buy now” button, and proceed without hesitation.
Good copywriters know exactly how to reach each objective in the sales process. Good solid copy begins by first grabbing visitor’s attention, it then directs them into the body copy, and quickly shows them why they are in the right place. They then “know,” they are going to get exactly what they want.
If It is interesting, flows freely, is personable, and engaging, it becomes winning copy because it is not “hyped-up. It shows them perspective, and insight about why this offer is so much better than competitors.
It is punchy, clear and concise. By the time they hit the “order now” button, they are completely happy – and happy with their buying decision, feeling like they have really gotten a great deal.
The Psychology Behind a Successful Business Owner
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The Psychology Behind a Successful Business Owner
Business owners have to do much more than offer a quality product or service today. With a market that continues to increase in competition, thanks to the global ramifications of the Internet, successful businesspeople will also be characterized by certain qualities that get them noticed in their industry.
If you thought psychology classes were strictly for the health care professionals, think again. There’s plenty of psychology that goes into the effective running of a business, particularly when joint venture marketing comes into play.
Relationship Building
Successful business owners must know how to form relationships both with potential customers and prospective JV marketing partners. Relationships with joint venture business partners must be professional, but they must also inspire trust and creativity between the two of you. When a JV marketing partnership is healthy and thriving, both businesses benefit.
Make sure your communication with your partner is used to build up rather than tear down the other individual. Offer positive feedback and show enthusiasm for your joint business venture. When you make others feel good about their contributions and their relationship with you, they are more likely to stick around for the long haul.
Networking
Networking is an important part of building a successful business, whether you are interacting with other business owners or potential customers. Networking events are an excellent place to meet other like-minded individuals who might be interested in building a JV partnership with you.
However, these occasions may cause shy individuals to shiver with anxiety and may even result in you missing out on valuable business opportunities because your fears prohibit you from attending. If social networking makes you nervous, take a class on interpersonal communication that can provide you with the skills you need to handle these events with confidence.
Team Playing
An effective business is a team of individuals, all working together toward a common goal. If you want your business to be successful, you will need to learn to play nicely with others. This includes other business owners in your field that might be lucrative JV partners, as well as those who work directly in your business with you. Cooperation, contribution and positive encouragement are all traits that make individuals effective team builders.
If you are lacking in any of these traits, team-building classes will show you how to work well with others. Learning specific techniques like active listening and group brainstorming can also show you how to make the most of the creativity and enthusiasm within your staff to make your business run more smoothly.
Psychology plays an important role in a successful business, whether you are forming JV partnerships with other business owners, working with your staff, or interacting with your customers.
If you feel your interpersonal skills are lacking, now is the time to get educated on the finer points of networking and team building. Professional classes are available in psychology, communication and interpersonal skills through community colleges and professional training forums. The money you invest in building your professional skills will go a long way in helping you run your business more effectively.
The Importance of Marketing Data
Depending upon the size of your business and at what stage of development you are in, the types of marketing data you collect will vary. For a business that has just started recently or will be starting up shortly in the future, you’ll want to do a tremendous amount of market research regarding target markets, advertising and marketing options, customer buying habits, local demographics, transportation and shipping costs, salary ranges, and anything else that may be relevant to your particular business.
If your business has already been established, you’ll hopefully have already collected much of this marketing data. But you should also now be collecting more comprehensive marketing data about your current customers. This includes information as to the regional area that contains the majority of your customers, payment methods, and average spending amounts. You should also be aware of your most popular products or services, your least popular products, and factors that may affect sales seasonally.
Together, all this information can help you better market your products or services. Additionally, it will be beneficial to know what your customers think of your products and services, and your business overall. This can help you gauge customer loyalty, and determine whether you may be in danger of losing customer to the competition. The more you understand about your customer base, the more empowered you are to provide them with expert service and beneficial products.
Obviously, you should also be collecting contact information if feasible, so that you can communicate easily with you customers about upcoming sales events or promotions, or other information regarding your business that they may be interested in receiving. Being aware of what publications your customers read, and what social networking sites they frequent will also enable you to market to them more effectively.
In regards to marketing specific products or services, your most profitable and best-selling products will likely be those that provide the greatest benefits to your customers. Knowing this information can help you to improve existing products as well as develop new ones.
Collecting marketing data on customer’s previous purchases can also help you determine where to focus your marketing efforts, and how better to segment your target markets so that you can even personalize your marketing to a specific customer base.
Collecting marketing data typically occurs in two stages. The first stage, in which primary data is collected, is when you collect marketing data for the first time. Collecting secondary data is the second stage: this type of data is usually data that already exists and is purchased from another source.
Primary data can consist of simple customer contact information, or more comprehensive data culled from customer surveys and questionnaires. Your customer’s purchase habits also fall into this category, as well as the fluctuation of sales data on daily, weekly, or monthly schedules.
Secondary data should never be discounted as meaningless: it can often give you great insight into specific areas and target markets. Additionally, thanks to the availability of vast resources on the Internet, much of this type of marketing data can be obtained for free, provided you have time to do the research and know where to look.
It is beneficial to have a good networking system in place to record and house all the marketing data you collect, as well as data backup and protection tools in place so that you do not accidentally lose your data. You’ll also need to ensure that you comply with the Data Protection Act, which serves to protect the privacy rights of your customers and the data you’ve collected about them.
Maximize Your Sales Online With These Ten Tips
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Maximize Your Sales Online With These Ten Tips
These ten steps will help you to make more sales online. Use some or all of them, depending on the type of Web business you operate.
1. Increase your page rank in Google (SEO) Search Engine Optimization
To do this, it is important to know how to write clear, concise articles and page content that will draw fresh visitors. Write interesting, informative articles, and post them in the article submission sites. Include in the article a link back to your site. Hyperlinks are best, for when they click these, they will create incoming links. This will create back links. They will serve to help increase your sites visibility to search engines, and help improve your sites overall optimization.
2. Link Exchange
Find sites, which are related to your product/service, and get them to exchange links with you. (Sites that are getting good traffic are best.) When people click your direct link, it will help to build even more incoming links to your site. The more incoming links you have, the better your site will rank in the search engine results.
3. Search Engine Submission
We have all seen the ads (submit you site’s URL to 80,000 search engines here). While it is wise to submit your sites URL to the major search engines, some of the smaller engines are quite obscure. Get your URL listed in all of the most popular search engines. Do a search on “search engines,” and find the ones which will best serve your interests.
4. Optimize you Keywords
Use tools like Google analytics, and find keywords that are used most often in search queries. It is important to have the right number of keywords in your site. Avoid “keyword stuffing,” for to do this proves to be harmful to you sites page rank. It can even cause penalty, or “blacklisting. Some sites have even lost their domain over such issue.
5. Avoid duplicate content
While there may be many other sites having content relevant to your sites objectives, it is not wise to copy and paste this information. Search engines will find such, and flag them as spam. There are many software applications that search and find such pages. Many try changing the words around, or adding words here and there, but this still, will not result in having new or fresh content. Google and other search engines will find and flag such. To avoid these pitfalls, use only fresh new content for your Website.
6. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing has become a boom to many who understand how to create pages that get good rank in search results. You promote other peoples products through your web site and earn up to 60 to 75% commission per sale. Click-bank and Amazon, earn hundreds of millions of dollars per year, in e-book sales alone. You can get your share of this pie by creating great page content, then promoting their latest best seller. Many affiliates create multiple pages, optimize them, and then sell the hottest products selling on-line.
7. Adsense Earnings
When you have a page that gets a good rank in the search engines, you can earn cash per clicks by having Adsense ads of various types placed on a page, which is relevant to the ads. You get paid every time someone clicks through the ad. This is where having lots of targeted, high-quality traffic comes in. The more traffic, the more clicks, the more money.
8. Pay-per-click
I would not advise one who is just beginning to start with a huge budget with pay-per-click. This is where you use Google Adwords to send traffic directly to your site. Because you are paying a good price for every click, it is important to send them to a sales page that is converting well. To use Google pay-per-click advertising, you in effect pay them so much per click (70 cents to $10 per click) depending on the market value of the word, and they give you a sponsored link that shows up when someone chooses keywords you have bought.
This listing displays in Google search, on the right side (or on top) of the generic search results. Since you only earn when someone buys the product/service – it is vital to know exactly what you are doing, in this, or you could lose your shirt.
9. Adsense Marketing ‘with Affiliate Marketing’
One can really earn while they sleep, once they figure out how to incorporate Adsense along with affiliate marketing. This is having a huge site, getting tons of clicks. This type of high profile Web site earns money two different ways. The Adsense placement ads earn cash every time someone clicks them (whether a sale is made or not) and the affiliate links within the site, make money every time someone clicks through the ads and makes a purchase. Having a Web site like this takes research and testing on a regular basis, but it has the potential to earn big bucks for the owner.
10. Super Affiliates
Super Affiliates have an established Web presence, when you click keywords they have bought, their name comes up in Google search results listing as page one – number one results. It takes some money as well as time, to reach this status. Several examples of Super Affiliates are names which are easily recognized such as: Amazon, Click bank, or Google. They have incorporated so many keyword phrases into their paid searches, they have top placement in all of the search engines. To get near the top, where they are, takes total optimization, and hundreds of thousands of back and incoming links.
Be sure that the content on your Website is class “A” Web copy. Have rich, clear, concise information, which your visitors will be glad they found. Have every page optimized for targeted keywords, and get sales copy that will pay you!
How To Skyrocket Your Perceived Value
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, September 4, 2010
How To Skyrocket Your Perceived Value
It is of great importance that your visitor “see,” the bargain within your offer. There are ways to enhance this perception. People often observer Sales pages with a “what is in this for me,” mindset. Your offer needs to clearly show them what is in it for them.
When someone does form their first impression about your site, would you not want it to be a good one? When we present our product or service to visitors, it is vital that they see the value within as important to their desire to prosper themselves.
Here is where our USP should stand out from the crowd, giving us a keen edge over competitors. This “Unique Selling Proposition” should grab their attention and hold it – all of the way to the conversion point, whether it be to buy, or to opt-in for a newsletter.
Whether it be a capture page, where they enter their email address, or reach for a credit card to purchase, this USP is a critical point in the process in getting conversions.
How does one create a perception of value to first time visitors? In the world of sales online, everyone is clamoring for their attention flashing buy now or click here messages.
To stand alone in the crowd, and be the “first choice” in the mind of “lookers,” one has to offer “more for less,” – greater value, – a unique selling point, that compels them to chose your product or service over the many others.
This is the very reason your USP must compel them to see the greater bargain your offer has over other competitors. The way you present an offer unto visitors is of great importance. You have to “show,” them what greater value your offer contains.
Once they are looking at what you have to present, it is then of utmost importance,to have your sales copy capture prospect’s full attention. To do this, you have to be unique. You want them to transition into a qualified prospect who is a perfect position to order now.
To get them from where they are now, to the desired conversion point,(what you want visitors to do next) you must continue to position your offer in a way that flames their desire. If their attention is distracted from the momentum once started, you could lose their interest, and there goes the sale.
To keep their focus on tract, the elements of persuasion must continue to drive them forward, keenly interested, all the way to the “order now” button, or the “enter email,” conversion point.
To meet this objective, the perceived value they began with must be inflamed with focused precision. This enhances the very thing which caught their eye in the beginning.
These proven marketing methods, press their emotional “hot buttons” triggering their need to fulfill their want. This is done through positioning the perceived value in such a way, that increases the prospects interest, all the way to the point of the “how much” question.
When this is done correctly, even high-end or products or services, can be moved without objection to price, for indeed the prospect has already made up their mind.
The “I’ve got to have this, or I need that,” hurdle, has already been jumped in their thinking. They have been “sold.” They move to the “buy now” button, and proceed without hesitation.
Good copywriters know exactly how to reach each objective in the sales process. Good solid copy begins by first grabbing visitor’s attention, it then directs them into the body copy, and quickly shows them why they are in the right place. They then “know,” they are going to get exactly what they want.
If It is interesting, flows freely, is personable, and engaging, it becomes winning copy because it is not “hyped-up. It shows them perspective, and insight about why this offer is so much better than competitors.
It is punchy, clear and concise. By the time they hit the “order now” button, they are completely happy – and happy with their buying decision, feeling like they have really gotten a great deal.
The Pitfalls Of A Web Site With No Calls To Action
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, September 2, 2010
The Pitfalls Of A Web Site With No Calls To Action
A potential customer has just opened up your web site. They see a fancy introduction that grabs their attention. The little video sparks a laugh, and they stay on your site to find out more about your business. After getting through all the fancy animations, he or she is greeted with a beautifully-crafted home page with killer copy that keeps them reading all the way to the end. After the novelty of the menu animations and the gorgeous background wears off, your customer sits – thinking.
He or she has no idea what to do next.
They could click on the “About Us” page to learn more about your company. They could visit your blog and see the latest news and opinions from you. They could look at your portfolio or list of services. The web site design looks great and has some great catch phrases, but the marketing message is getting lost and the visitors don’t know what to do next. Now what?
The problem: no call to action. You led your customer to the water, but you did not tell him to drink. No matter how much you lead a customer, you have to make it very clear to them what they need to do next.
The following is a list of things you can do on your web site immediately to improve the conversion rate on your web site:
Make it simple. If you want the business, tell them to give you their contact information or tell them with a graphic to buy your service.
Make it valuable. Offer a free gift or consultation just for contacting you.
Make it clear. At the end of every page content, you should include a simple statement.. Call Us Today For More Information – 555-1212. This tells people they can call you immediately for more information. Calls to action are one of the most important aspects of marketing and really need to be incorporated on every single page of your web site, not just the contact page.
One simple call to action that no one really takes advantage of is your contact phone number. For whatever reason, web designers started created web sites with a phone number only listed on the contact page with a link at the bottom of the web site in extremely small font type.
Some corporate web sites don’t even list their phone number at all. When you consider how many people call companies for more information about their products and services, the fact that they don’t have a phone number blows my mind.
Statistics show that people read web sites from top to bottom left to right. The best place to put a call to action? The top left of your web site. Very few companies put their phone number in the most effective place on the web site.. the top left. If it’s not there, the next best place is the top right. Your phone number should be on every page of your web site listed very visibly.
One of the most common features of a web site is a contact form. This also happens to be one of the main standard calls to action. On the contact page of every web site, there should be a form people can fill out to get more information about your product or service. In our experience, companies that have a form located on the homepage see a lot of response from that page as well as the contact page.
Without the call to action, your customer is lost, and so is your sale. You need to find a professional web design company to discuss your corporate web design and ensure that your customer will know what to do when they visit your site.
Fatal Webinar Mistakes That Cost You Money
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Fatal Webinar Mistakes That Cost You Money
Webinars have become a low-cost way for people and companies to promote their products and services. I have certainly used them and attended many webinars on a variety of topics. However, I have noticed that many webinar organizers, hosts and panelists, create a variety of mistakes that reduce the effectiveness of their program.
1. Requiring too much information. I don’t mind giving my name, email address, and company name when registering for a webinar. However, I don’t like giving my address, telephone number, and five other details. I know that you want to collect data but the more information you ask for, the less likely I will register for your program.
2. Ask mandatory questions. Most technology allows the person hosting the webinar to ask registrants several questions when they register. However, making these questions mandatory can work against you, especially if the question is irrelevant. Many people will refuse to answer these questions and will chose NOT to register for the webinar. Carefully consider which questions should be mandatory.
3. Unfamiliar with the technology. A fatal mistake many people is to familiarize themselves with the webinar technology shortly before the program begins. I admit to include myself in this category. A few years ago I agreed to deliver a series of webinars for a client and unfortunately, my contact person was unfamiliar with the technology. As a result, we had several glitches and problems that reduced the overall effectiveness of the program.
4. Using a speaker phone. I recently attended a webinar and it appeared that one of the panelists spoke from a speaker phone or computer microphone. This created a vacant echo which became distracting whenever she spoke. It is critical that you have a good connection to the call and many companies suggest that you use a landline to ensure that you have a good connection with minimal interference.
5. Poor PowerPoint slides. Death by PowerPoint! My belief is that webinar slides should reinforce your key point, not make them. Too many people use too many bullet points or try to cram too much information on a single slide. Improve your effectiveness by creating a better PowerPoint show. Check out Slide Share for some great examples on how to create an effective presentation.
6. Taking too long to get into the program. I have attended countless webinars where the first five to seven minutes is absorbed by self-promotion, introduction of the presenter or guest expert, or information that was irrelevant to participants. Although sponsoring companies want adequate airtime, it is essential that you manage their expectations and keep the introduction brief and concise.
7. Too much promotion. Many of the webinars I have attended have been a thinly-disguised attempt at selling a product or service. I certainly understand the importance of generating sales but if your webinar is promoted or sold as an “educational” session and you spend most of your time talking about your product or company, I am going to quickly disengage.
8. Failure to deliver high-quality content. A webinar should deliver value for attendees. Unfortunately, too many programs give “here’s what you need to do” information without explaining how to actually apply the concepts. It is better to delve deep into a topic than offer three dozen ways to improve without providing substance.
9. Failure to deliver value. This ties in with the previous point. A successful webinar provides high value to the participants, regardless of the price point. Enough said.
10. The webinar is too long/short. The length of webinar is irrelevant. What’s important is the value that is delivered
during the program. You can’t stretch a short program into a long one and an intense, lengthy session cannot be condensed into a short webinar. Whether you are the host, organizer, or guest expert, make sure that you allot the appropriate amount of time for your particular program.
11. Not allowing questions. Many people who attend webinars have questions and they want to have the opportunity to ask them. Increase the value of your webinar by giving participants time to ask questions and allot time for these questions so that you don’t have to race through the last five of six minutes of your presentation.
Webinars can be an effective marketing vehicle and a great way to generate sales leads. Improve your results by avoiding these common webinar mistakes.
What to Expect from Web 3.0
Video: Google to provide Fastest Internet in US
The buzz is growing about Web 3.0, but as usual you have to filter out all the hype, self-serving PR, old-fashioned nonsense, newfangled marketing verbiage and other noise. You will then find a few facts that you can grab onto and try to figure out what’s going on. The first thing to remember is that, like “Web 2.0,” the term Web 3.0 is not an official term of any sort, does not represent any particular protocol or standard, belongs to no one – and is used, misused and made nearly meaningless by everybody. It is, quite simply, just an arbitrary “version number” that, at most, describes how the Internet is built and how it delivers services, at least as of the freeze-framed moment in time that represents the end of 2.0 and the start of 3.0.
Sometimes it is called the “semantic Web,” but perhaps the less-used term “everyware” is more descriptive. The new scenario is one of ubiquitous computing, the advent of cloud computing where a “thin client” (no- or low-powered PC, or even just a monitor and mouse) runs cloud-based applications using cloud-based data and services. The Apple iPhone, iPod and iPad are all examples of formerly standalone devices that were integrated into the Web, and connect people in a seamless, real-time and very simple way with – well, with everything, from libraries and department stores to other people, anywhere in the world.
From Read-Only to Interactivity
One of the Web’s true “parents” was Tim Berners-Lee, who had his own notion of how the technology and the Internet developed. The first phase of the Web had read-only capabilities. It was essentially a spectator experience until read-write functionality came along (sure, call it Web 2.0) that included services to enable contribution, collaboration, content creation and interactivity. The next step in Berners-Lee’s version vision, Web 3.0, is heralded as “new territory,” where users can assemble and run their own applications, create all sorts of cooperative and collaborative enterprises, and truly put their ideas in motion rather than simply uploading stuff to this, that or the other site.
People with money invested in other, still-useful devices – phones, PDAs, fax machines, etc. – don’t have to worry about Web 3.0 making them obsolete. In addition to letting users create their own tools, Web 3.0 is another step in the evolution of usage and interaction in which the Internet holds multiple databases and content that will be accessible to many non-browser-based devices and applications. The obvious uses will be video that streams from a PC to a TV, picture frames that receive wireless updates from an online or local photo app, and phones that display items recommended by your trusted sources – friends, review sites, experts – when you’re shopping.
From Data to Knowledge
In addition to the foregoing characteristics, Web 3.0 is also said to encompass other important advances. For one thing, all sorts of inputs are possible, which means all sorts of new combinations become possible. Content can be made even more broadly relevant when it’s related to GPS, so that social networking, for example, can be enhanced by knowing who is where and doing what.
More importantly, you will get more and better control of your data and be able to establish a number of personalization systems to “wrap” your personal information with different levels and types of protection – so that you can share it widely, narrowly or not at all. Over time, the accuracy of recommendations and trustworthiness of ranking systems will help us determine which data sources to take seriously and which to avoid.
From Business Faxes to Online Games
With the rise of “linkable web apps” you will be able to use all of your different desktop, server and mobile devices and applications – telephones, fax machines and online fax services, instant messaging, pagers – and control them from a single browser window on your desktop, smartphone or handheld device. All of it will take place in an always-on, always-everywhere environment, with functionality embedded sometimes in hardware, sometimes in software, sometimes in both – so that when you need to take care of business without downloading the capability, you’ll be able to do so.
Along with more of the visual and voice-based services that are already starting to proliferate, there will be more lifelike avatar interactions in the growing virtual social networking world. This will lead to social shopping trips and virtual reality gaming far beyond anything currently being done.
In mid-2009, the “Wall Street Journal” ran a story on the development of Web 3.0 capabilities and the promise of ever-greater interconnectedness among technologies, products, services and people. The story even gave us a yardstick by which to measure the success of Web 3.0, if in fact it does succeed. If, as the WSJ puts it, “computing could become as integrated and invisible as electricity and just as important” – and we can attribute it to the new and improved Web – we’ll know that the promise has lived up to the hype. Here’s hoping!
Why You Should Create Controversial Content
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Last week, like every other week, I wrote an article. This time I decided to syndicate it, something I should be doing twice a week, but only get to about 4 times a month, and that’s if I’m feeling up to it.
This was one of the biggest traffic draws from a single article that I have had in years. It is still producing a steady stream of traffic, sales and subscribers as I’m writing this.
It’s been 2 years since I’ve gotten that much of an appreciative response, or that amount of attention, period, for an article I wrote that wasn’t widely syndicated. In fact, it only appeared in one major publication.
So what’s all the hub-bub, bub?
As you may have guessed, there was a controversy surrounding the article. First, there were several typos. Normally I’d edit the article so relentlessly that by the time the article was perfect, it would be a month since I wrote it and it wouldn’t fit into my article marketing campaign for that week.
Since I’d been kicking my own butt to get content out on schedule, even when it isn’t perfect, I took my own medicine and just sent it out the way it was. And boy were the grammar, typing and spelling police mad!
Two people wrote me that they passed my article around at their meetings as an example of what not to do. Does it count as a backfire when one of the people who sees it Googles you and becomes a client?
(Just had to get in that little dig. Forgive me.)
What else was so bad about the article?
I called my readers “punks” – in the title.
This was a calculated risk – I’d run another version of the article, a blog post, and from sharing on StumbleUpon alone it got over 3000 visitors. In this new version, the article then went on to tell my readers to basically get off their over-thinking butts and do something, then gave them two examples of things to do.
There was, of course, a vocal minority of outraged responses about this too. But, curiously, other, louder, people who read the article – people I haven’t ever met or spoken to – came along and defended it.
In the end, my slang-ridden, typo-laden, in-your-face article brought me more profitable traffic and attention than any other article I’ve written this year. It was written in a moment of passion I had at seeing a friend almost lose her house, and a peer almost lose his business, mostly as a result of inaction.
And seeing this reaction led me to go back and look at my other articles. I write all my own stuff – it’s far more profitable for those of us who are at least halfway decent at writing to write an okay article injected with personality than it is to pay someone else to write generic content.
(I still hire writers for certain things though. But I concentrate on the ones with voice and depth, and pay them more for unique, engaging writing – I don’t simply outsource to the lowest bidder. I say if you’re going to hire a writer, get someone better than you.)
If you have the ability to generate controversy with your content, do it. Not convinced? Here are seven reasons why you should consider it.
1- It’s Effectíve
Nothing gets more attention than controversy. That’s why reality shows are popular. It’s why we read the journalist who we think is making an absolutely backwards prediction about something we care about. That’s why people gossip and debate.
Why merely participate when you can be the topic of discussion?
2- Negative Attention is Sometimes even Better than Positive Attention
Nothing spreads faster than outrage. Wide exposure for a controversial view is much better than no exposure for towing the conventional wisdom line.
3- Display Your Skill at Dealing with Diverging Viewpoints
Let people see the smooth way you react to the rude comments from people who take your words personally that WILL follow. I’ve gained lifelong friends, fans and customers from them witnessing what they call poise under pressure – and I call common courtesy.
You don’t have to respond from the same type of energy that’s being directed at you. Why let someone else having a bad day ruin your day?
4- It Vets Your Buyers
For example, if you want more clients that will take your advice to heart, get off their butts, and stop making excuses, try making a video that takes a hard line and tells people to get off their butts and stop making excuses!
Yeah, you’ll get reamed for it – by people who make excuses. They will be offended and won’t ever sign up to your newsletter.
Awesome. Because the people who needed a coach who believes in swift kicks in the butt will take your advice and hungrily seek more of it.
5- It’s Fun to Do
What’s more fun than seeing something controversial? Being controversial or doing something controversial. It’s not for the faint of heart, but if you can take it, boy is that a fun ride!
6- It’s Entertaining To Experience
When people are entertained, they buy more. You probably haven’t ever noticed the music playing in the background at the grocery store. It’s there because studies show that people browse longer and thus, buy more, when they’re being entertained.
Now you see more TVs at gas stations and in convenience stores. When I used to live in Vegas many of the Strip cabs had TVs on the backs of seats before I ever saw them in regular cars.
Then there’s the classic example of commercials during our favorite TV shows.
7- It Sets You Apart
You know why bigger companies are afraid of controversy?
Me either. If you find out, come tell me. All I know is, I’m not afraid of controversy because I see it as an opportunity. It’s another way to connect, to have something to discuss, and in the case of my last controversial article, to help people.
Even if you aren’t going to make a controversial audio, video, blog post or article, for goodness sakes, do something different.
No one watches boring shows on TV, invites boring people to parties, reads boring books or listens to boring music unless they have to, for study or evaluation.
Try a little controversy and see where it takes you. If that’s too scary, at least risk being extraordinarily passionate. The spotlight can be fun.
When doing business on the Internet, there are many ways in which you can make a website successful. Although the look of your website is important, fancy websites don’t make sales. There is much more to creating a quality website. To make a website successful, you must create a website that will be of interest to your target market and make them want to visit your website over and over again. In addition, your website should lead your visitors to take the action you desire, such as joining your mailing list, or making a purchase.
Selecting a Website’s Niche
The first step toward how to make a website successful, will be to target your website for one specific niche. For example, if you are designing a website about wine, everything within your website should relate to wine.
Selecting a Website’s Keyword Phrase
You must also select the most relevant keyword phrase for each webpage. A keyword phrase is two or more words that best describe your webpage. For example, if your webpage is about ‘making wine,’ your best keyword phrase would be ‘wine making.’ You should use your keyword phrase a few times within your webpage, as this will enable the search engines to determine what the website is about. This is a very important step to make a website successful.
Using HTML Heading Tags
When you begin writing your content, it is very important that you use the HTML H1 heading tag with your main title at the top of your webpage. In addition, use the HTML H2 tags for your sub-titles. This is very important, as some search engines place relevance on the text displayed with heading tags.
As the default text for the H1 heading tag is very large, you may want to use CSS style sheets to display the heading tags in the font style and size you prefer.
Using META Tags Within a Webpage
Another step to help make a website successful is to include META tags between the HEAD tags of your webpage. META tags help the search engines to know what keywords are relevant to the webpage. They are also used to tell the search engines what the webpage is about. Many search engines will display this description within the search results.
Backgrounds and Text
It is always best to display a webpage with a white background and black text, as this will make the text easy to read. Distracting backgrounds will make the text hard to read. A good rule of thumb is to just use common sense and keep your website simple. This alone is a great way to help make a website successful.
Animated Graphics
If you’re using animated graphics, it is important that you use them sparingly. Graphics that continually flash are VERY annoying and may prevent your visitors from returning to your website in the future.
Navigational Links
It is very important to include good navigational links on every page. They should be displayed at the top, bottom, left or right side of your webpage. In addition, your visitors should be able to get to any webpage within your website within four clicks.
Webpage Layout
Always be consistent with your webpage design. This is a very important step to help make a website successful. The layout for your website should be the same on each page. If you make it different, your visitors will become confused. In addition, it will make your website appear to be unprofessional. Your website design should include the same layout, logo, and navigation setup on each page.
Spelling and Grammar
Always make sure you proof read and spell check your webpages for errors. It is also very important that your webpage doesn’t have any broken images or links.
Important Webpages
When you launch your website, it is very important that you include the following webpages:
About – The ‘About’ page is used to tell your visitors about you and/or your company.
Privacy – The ‘Privacy’ page is used to let your visitors know what you do with their personal information, such as their email address.
Terms and Conditions – The ‘Terms and Conditions’ page should be displayed on your website for your protection.
Site Map – A ‘Site Map’ is used to help the search engines index your website more easily.
You can learn more about all of these pages by doing a search through your favorite search engine. They are very important and will help make a website successful.
Website Interactivity
Another way to make a website successful is to make the website interactive. This can be done by including a targeted forum that complements your website, a form in which they can subscribe to an ezine, a feedback form to enable them to give their opinion, or an informative blog in which visitors can comment.
Web Browsers and Screen Resolutions
When you begin designing your webpage, it is HIGHLY recommended that you install the most popular web browsers on your computer. This will enable you to see how your website will display in different browsers. You will find that your website may look great in one browser and terrible in another. It would be wise to design your website to display properly in Firefox and then it should display properly in Internet Explorer, Opera, etc.
It is also important that you view your website through different screen resolutions. You can either open your webpage in your browser and then change your computer’s screen resolution, or there are website’s online that you can visit, such as Any Browser, to test your website.
If you follow these simple guidelines, you can begin to make a website successful in no time.
How Many Links to Get to the Middle of Google Page One?
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Everyday it seems, people are asking me about the optimum number of inbound links they need to acquire for their website in order to rank well in Google.
My answer is going to seem a little flip, but it is the honest, best answer.
Answer: You need more inbound links – of equal or higher quality – than what your competitors have.
Albert Einstein argued that any mathematical formula that required pages of calculations did not contain within it “the mind of God”.
So when Albert Einstein developed E=mc2, then Einstein had fulfilled the promise of a simple formula that could encompass the brilliance of God.
When people wonder how many inbound links they need to acquire to rank in the Top 4 of Google’s search results or even the Top 10 of Google’s SERPs, they are generally hoping that someone will be able to give them a numeric answer, so that they know whether they can afford to undertake the process or not.
I understand the WHY of the question, but there is no canned answer that will work for everyone. Remember, your competitor may be asking the same question and undertaking the same processes as you are, trying to accomplish the same goal.
You can’t truly begin to understand the answer to this question, until you have taken the time to do an Inbound Link Comparison Analysis of all of your competitors in the Top 10 spots of Google’s SERPs.
• You need to look at the Top 10 listings in Google for a particular keyword.
• You need to do backlink checks for all ten URLs in Google’s search listings, and you need to check those numbers across a variety of sources, including Google, Yahoo and any other tool you can find to do a check. (Google and Yahoo both tend to understate the actual link counts. While Yahoo will show you more than what Google does, they also show a number of “no consequence” links in their results.)
• You need to look at the quality of a few of the pages that provide links to the URLs in the search results.
This is not an easy process to undertake. I have done it before, but the best you can hope for is a “snapshot” of what is out there, and therefore, what you need to accomplish.
Note: If Wikipedia turns up in your search query, few people with small budgets will ever be able to dislodge Wikipedia in the search results. What they make up for in a small number of inbound links, they more than make up for with links from dozens or hundreds of PR4, PR5 and PR6 pages. Wikipedia is the king of Internal Linking, and they use that to a great degree to rank extraordinarily high in Google’s search listings.
Your analysis should seek to uncover how many links a page has to it.
As a general rule of thumb, Google will show you less than 1% of the existing number of links for a web page. Yahoo will sometimes show closer to 5% of the existing number of links for a web page, but they will not show you the highest quality of those links.
So, as you strive to gain a “snapshot” picture of the playing field, you want to take Google’s Inbound Links number and multiply that by at least 100. Then you want to take Yahoo’s Inbound Links number and multiply that by at least 20, then cut the number in half to acknowledge the number of worthless crap links they have in their database. Once you have achieved these two numbers, then I tend to call the truth “somewhere in the middle”.
With your “somewhere in the middle” number in hand, you then need to look at the quality of links to a few of those search listings, to get an idea of whether those links exist on higher quality pages or simply junk pages.
If those links are on junk pages, then the goal could be achieved by just working the numbers. But if there are a lot of high PageRank pages in the mix, then whatever number is in your hand, should be multiplied, perhaps 100-fold, to overcome the quality of pages that link to your competitors.
If you get the idea that my simple formula leads to a complicated answer, then you are right.
All of the numbers that I have included in my sample formula are based on rough speculation, as the “snapshot” offers you your best hope of understanding the challenge in front of you.
While the number of inbound links may be relatively easy to determine, the link quality is a factor that is really hard to pin down.
• If you determine that you only need 300 inbound links to rank with the big boys, you may be right.
• Your 300 inbound links number should also be quantified against the number of links that Google will count worthy, so you may need 1200 links to get 300 links that Google will deem worthy. This calculation depends more on the “quality of your content”, rather than the “quantity of your content”.
• When all is said and done and your 300 Google-worthy links have not yet put you on page one, then you know that the quality of the links pointing at your competitors is greater than the quality of the links pointing to you.
If you were hoping for an easy answer, I am sorry that I could not help you with that.
But with this explanation of the challenge, you may be better prepared to answer the big question, the question that is really on your mind:
Are my hopes of achieving good rankings in Google within my reach?
I tend to throw “worry” to the wind and just start working. I don’t worry if I can afford to do it or not. I simply start doing, and I know that in one month, one year or five, I will have built enough value in my website that my competitors are going to be the ones who are trying to figure out if they can unseat me!
39 Tools for Marketing Your Small Busíness Online
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Friday, March 5, 2010
Thousands of free online marketíng tools clamor for attention, with new ones popping up every week it seems. You know you should be doing more to reach out to your customers, but just researching which tools to use can be a vast time investment, even if they don’t require a big financial outlay.
Below is a compiled líst of the most popular (or most useful) low-cost or free small business marketing tools. You might be using some of them already, but you’re sure to find a couple that will round out your small business marketing toolkit nicely. And, if you’re just starting out marketing a new busíness online, this líst may help point you in the right direction.
Directories
The Open Directory – A staple of the SEO crowd, this directory can be tricky to get into but well worth it for the link juice it passes along to your site.
Yahoo! Directory – It’s not free – this directory will set you back a couple hundred bucks a year – but it’s well worth it for inclusion.
Best of the Web Directory – This directory has been around a while and can pass along some good PageRank to your site.
Niche Directories
Find the directories in your industry that pass along good link building opportunities. Some examples to get you started: SBDGraphics.com for ad agencies, web developers, printers and other graphics professionals; sbdpro.com for small businesses and businesses that serve them; Cpapro.com for the accounting industry; SEOAlpaca.org for alpaca breeders, and so on.
Press Release Distribution Services
Marketwire – The most bang for your buck from an actual wire service, Marketwire’s prices are lower than PR Newswire and Businesswire. This newer service is built for powerful online exposure, and you’ll enjoy the full online distribution with any geographical AP wire distribution. (Sometimes you can get statewide wire distribution for nearly the same cost as only your local metropolitan area.) It’s great for building inbound links – just choose the SEO Enhanced option.
PRLog – A good-performing free press release distribution outlet, PRLog press releases rank really well and for a really long time if they are written with SEO copywriting best practices. Press releases include three links, though they are URL based (starting with http) rather than text anchor. PRLog also lets you create your newsroom where all your press releases reside, as well as an “about us” page and product showcase area.
PitchEngine – A relatively new PR-for-social-media site that promises to let you create and share press releases easily and for free and syndicate content to Google News. Lets you include HTML in your press release, so you can use keyword text anchor links. The site is marketing itself quite aggressively and will likely build a big presence quickly. The only catch is your release will disappear off the site after 30 days if you aren’t a paid member ($50/month for your press room).
Emaíl Marketing
AWeber – AWeber makes it easy to start building your emaíl marketing líst, if you haven’t already. For less than $20/month, you can build unlímited newsletter lists, send unlímited email blasts, and email unlímited autorespond messages to up to 500 subscribers/líst. (Then it’s $29/month up to 2500 subscribers.) Also offers a recurring 30% commission – a pretty good affiliate program for a service you’ll appreciate enough to recommend to others. (Disclosure note: the link above is our affiliate link. We’ve been using the service for 3 years now, after trying out Constant Contact and researching about 20 other providers! Most either do autoresponders or email blasts/newsletters – not both.)
Content Sharing Websites
Squidoo – Create a lens around your business area. A good one with lots of information will even rank in the search engines and can bring traffic to your web site.
Scribd – Share your expert content like white papers and articles. You can make them available for free or sell them. You can submit documents in PowerPoint, Word, PDF and many other file formats.
SlideShare – Post your presentations and documents online for others to view and share. This is a great way to get exponential exposure for your sales or marketing materials – or share documents privately. See some tips for getting more visibility with SlideShare: http://bit.ly/aNXmS2
Flikr – Does your product or service translate well visually? Use this popular photo sharing site to get more eyeballs.
Blip.tv – A video-sharing alternative to YouTube, blip.tv lets you embed links in your descriptions and create a TV station showing all your videos in one spot.
Social Networks
Facebook – Create a page for your business. Feed your blog in. Start a group. Get fans. Advertise to targeted users if your products appeal to the Facebook crowd (which is basically everybody nowadays). See using the new Facebook business page layout to learn more. Stop by our page and become a fan, too!
MySpace – Take a second look at this medium for social networking. According to MarketingProfs, more than half of MySpace.com users are 35 or older. Explore using MySpace for your business.
LinkedIn – Like a virtual Rolodex. Build your professional profile, link up with other professionals, join groups or even start a group. Participating in Q&A’s related to your profession is a great way to build credibility and visibility.
Ning – Build your social network around your business. You may even get your network into the search engine results pages. Learn more about using Ning for business. (http://bit.ly/amLKcE)
Read “Utlize Social Media to Gain Additional Exposure for Your Site” (http://bit.ly/bcoWEQ) for more information about social networks and how they can drive targeted traffíc to your site.
Social Bookmarking
Digg – Getting your content on the home page of Digg is one way to bump up your web site’s traffic by thousands within minutes. This can result in valuable links to your site. Start with this beginner’s guide to Digg.
StumbleUpon – Build friends and send them your articles to rate. More thumbs up will get your article shown to more people outside your network and can result in thousands of visitors every day. Tips for using StumbleUpon.
Reddit – Even if your content gets buried on Digg, it can flourish on Reddit – which can be a catalyst for jumping to the home page of other social bookmarking sites. Learn more about the types of topics that do well on Reddit.
Is Article Marketing Still Effective In 2010?
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 10:24 AM
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Is Article Marketing Still Effective In 2010?
Don’t exactly know what it is about starting a new year of
marketing online, but I always stop and take a hard look at all
my marketing tactics and methods. Article marketing is always at
the top of my list, mainly because it is and has always been the
cornerstone of everything I do on the web.
By cornerstone I mean it is the key to basically all of my
online earnings. Without article marketing I wouldn’t be a
full-time online marketer – it’s as simple as that. No articles,
no income.
Articles bring in the targeted traffic. Articles build those all
important one-way backlinks. Articles build those even more
important top rankings in Google for your chosen keywords.
Articles build your online reputation and credibility in the
eyes of your visitors.
I was struggling on the web for around three years before I
wrote my first article. “10 Reasons To Put RSS On Your Site”
which is still on around 8,000 sites around the web.
Writing was always a passion of mine, but it was more on the
creative side, although I did work briefly as a reporter for a
very small community newspaper. Looking back on it, I believe
(perhaps falsely) that I had to gain all those years of
experience before I could start writing articles about it.
Which was the totally wrong attitude to take since anyone can
research a favorite subject or topic and write a short
informative article on it. Most of us have been doing that since
grade school – it is the same as writing a report or an essay.
Only with article writing you actually see monetary returns
almost immediately. Surfers search for an answer in the search
engines, your article pops up, they read it and then click the
link to your webpage where you have conveniently placed your
affiliate links or your own products.
A Small Percentage of Those Article Readers Will Buy Your
Products and You’re in Business.
Over time, all those backlinks in your resource box at the end
of your article will make your keywords rise in the search
engines, especially Google. Then as someone searches in Google -
your site pops up, they click thru to your webpage and a small
percentage of these visitors will buy your product or affiliate
product displayed on your page.
Smart marketers will also start building a large list of
prospective customers by offering a free guide, ecourse, ebook
or software program to get those visitors to sign-up to your
opt-in list. These marketers can then do follow-up with all
these potential customers.
That in a nutshell is an article marketing model or funnel which
thousands of online marketers and webmasters are using. And have
been using for years.
But Will Article Marketing Remain Effective in 2010 and the
Coming Years?
More than likely the answer would be yes but the web is
constantly changing and there are other games worth playing. The
same kind of marketing system could be done with Videos, Blogs,
Social Networks and even with Twitter. Your options are more
varied…
However, I find article marketing can be integrated into all
these elements. For example, EzineArticles lets you Tweet your
articles to all your followers. I turn my best articles into
Videos and place them on YouTube which opens up a whole
different flow of traffic to my webpages and affiliate links.
Likewise, you can place your articles or links to them on
FaceBook, MySpace and the other social networks. I find getting
your articles on Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon… can bring in a lot
of traffic and increase your rankings.
But the Question Remains – is Article Marketing as Effective
as It Once Was?
My own answer and personal opinion is no since it’s
effectiveness has been watered down somewhat because every “tom
dick and harry plus sally” is doing it. Everyone has discovered
how writing short informative articles on the topic of your site
can be very lucrative.
When I wrote that first article five years ago, I was ‘writer
#1561′ with Ezinearticles. Now they have over 242,000 writers!
Back then, I found your article was placed on a lot more sites
mostly because there wasn’t that many articles out there and
competition was much, much less than it is now. More people
writing more articles simply means your article falls into a
bigger pool of other articles.
I believe video marketing is at the stage article marketing was
at around five years ago. So turning your articles into short
“how to” videos would probably be a wiser move and you would
have a lot less competition. You can also place your marketing
into the whole Video/Youtube craze that is still bringing in
tons of traffic and interested customers.
However, the popularity of free article directories have grown
and some of these sites have very high traffic numbers. Here are
some of the main ones I use:
* EzineArticles
* GoArticles
* iSnare
* IdeaMarketers
And I also like to place my articles on important but perhaps
lesser known sites such as:
* PromotionWorld
* SelfGrowth
* American Chronicle
* Buzzle
However, article marketing is still a very good way to get your
site and name on the web. It can still bring in traffic and help
build those all important backlinks and search engine rankings.
This is one marketer who will not be giving up article marketing
any time soon.
Some of my most effective techniques for article marketing are:
– Place your targeted keyword phrase in the title, usually
at the beginning.
- Make sure your article is informative and supplies the
information a reader is searching for – but always try to
motivate the reader to click your links in the resource box
for further information since your main objective is to get
the reader to click thru to your site.
- Most experts say to keep your article short, around 400 – 700
words, but I have found longer articles of 800-1500 words do
really well.
- Place your targeted keywords in the anchor text of your
resource box links, that’s the underlined clickable part.
Vary these keywords to avoid keyword spamming.
- For very important sites, try writing an exclusive unique
article for that site alone.
- Always spell-check and proof-read your articles. Grammar has
never been my strong point so what I do for finding the
correct usage of some tricky phrases or words – I do a search
in Google with “quotation marks” to find out which one has the
most links/usage… I go with one that has the most links,
even if it’s wrong. Thousands of people are making the same
mistake. Many marketers do the same thing with misspelled
keywords.
While they can be expensive, I also like using paid article
submission sites such as SubmitYourArticle, ThePhantomwriters
and Isnare… mainly because article marketing has been so
profitable for me, I don’t mind pouring some of those earnings
back into those sites. It saves me time and extends the reach
of my articles.
Article marketing will continue to be one of your best ways to
build backlinks, raise your rankings and bring in potential
customers to your site. It still works for me and hundreds of
thousands of other webmasters – it should also work for you.
Maryellen Kane, founder and chief executive of Olive Juice, a children’s clothing company, was used to shelling out north of $5,000 to man a booth for three days at industry tradeshows. That’s big money for a company with just 12 employees and about $3 million in sales.
One day, when looking for things to cut, Kane had an epiphany: The booth space had to go. “Most of the time these shows are nothing more than a popularity contest, where a big space denotes a big footprint in the industry,” says Kane, 42. “But there’s little actual sales that come from these things and the shows end up costing companies way more money than they make them.”
Kane still goes to shows but she doesn’t rent the booth. Instead she walks the floor and networks with buyers. Want to get even better bang for the buck? Try a virtual tradeshow.
Small businesses are always strapped for cash. Yet plenty still spend their precious capital on stuff they don’t need. Here are a few more fiscally responsible moves to consider making. For a full list of 10, see our slide show.
Go Easy on the Lights
Timers and motion-detecting power switches can now be had for less than $10. So there’s no reason to not have them for all lights within an office building, says Alan Lysaght, a planning consultant for companies such as Molson Breweries and Standard Broadcasting. From rarely used bathrooms to cavernous cubicle dens, ensuring lights are off when nobody’s around can cut electric bills by up to 40%, he adds.
Scrutinize Your Wireless Bill
CAMP, a roofer in Houston, took a look at its wireless bill and was able to negotiate rates that saved it $1,000 a month on its 32 lines. Movie Cube, which runs rental grocery-store kiosks, knocked its $25,000 monthly wireless bill down $5,000 a month and sliced its $100,000 monthly data bill by $10,000. Most companies don’t have an in-house staffer familiar enough with wireless billing to squeeze out these kinds of savings, but they can call a consultant such as Validas that will right-size their phone plan and deal with billing disputes.
Lose The Security Blanket
Jeanne Achille, chief executive of The Devon Group, a public-relations firm in Middletown, N.J., doesn’t mind paying Symantec for software to keep her computer network free of viruses and hackers. She questions, however, the value of paying her voicemail supplier, Avaya, $40 a month for “protection” of the voicemail software on her phones. “When was the last time you heard of a small company’s voicemail getting hacked?” she asks. Worse, she says, is that the service is difficult to cancel. Avaya told her that she has to give written notice of cancellation 12 months in advance. Avaya declined to comment on individual customers, but said that customers can cancel multiyear contracts as long as they serve out or pay for the current contract year’s services.
Ditch The Door-Stoppers
Just what are prospective clients doing with those fat catalogues you fling at them? Throwing them out, that’s what. Most big department stores have stopped printing door-stoppers, and you should, too. Rag & Bone Bindery, which hand-binds books and photo albums, used to distribute catalogues like Sears in 1955. “We were printing them by the thousands, giving them away and not knowing whether people were even looking at them,” says owner Jason Thompson. The company now pours that money into its Web site–and is landing customers at a faster clip.
Be Leary Of Bought Leads
No sales lead, no sales and no success. That’s why companies pay big money to companies such as InfoUSA to secure a pile of leads culled from industry databases. Olive Juice’s Kane, however, has found the accounts she lands through paid leads to be much less dependable (and profitable) than leads she earns on her own. “It led me to bug a lot of accounts that weren’t ready to buy,” she says. “Our most loyal clients are the ones who found us or heard of us from raving fans.”
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