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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!
Who Is Your Online Writing Role Model?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Article Marketing Tip: Who Is Your Online Writing Role Model?
If you do not already have an online writing role model, find one. This is perhaps the best article marketing tip that I can give you to help you grow in your writing.
When you start article marketing, each month you will need to produce a steady stream of articles. At first you may have an initial burst of creative energy that helps you consistently produce your articles, but after a while it’s very easy to lose your focus and your inspiration.
This is where an online writing role model comes in. Not just any type of writing role model, but one who writes for the internet. Online writing is different from any other type of writing.
If you have someone who you can look up to, who you can see producing quality writing on the net, you have a built in motivator. It’s encouraging to think, “If he can do it, so can I!”
Having an web writing role model also helps you to learn. As you watch this person you admire write, you will continuously pick up some of his or her positive writing habits and characteristics.
This is not to say that your writing will mimic someone else’s–quite the contrary. By having someone whose writing you look up to, you will learn from them and have the confidence to develop your own style.
I have a select few web writers who I really look up to, and I’d like to share some of the crucial lessons I’ve learned from them:
* Lesson 1 – Your articles should provide a generous amount of helpful information
When writing an article, the idea is to serve your reader by providing valuable information that is not found elsewhere. Aim to give your reader more than he is expecting. When you write in this fashion, your articles will convey a sense of professionalism, quality, and dedication that readers appreciate.
* Lesson 2 – Focus on teaching in your articles
Not sales, not links, not anything that is directly geared to benefit you. The body of your article is for your readers, and the reason why a reader wants to read your article is to LEARN something. Each article should teach something new. You can be writing on the same topic, but each article should offer new tips, new information, new angles on your topic.
* Lesson 3 – It is never a waste of time to thoroughly think through your article structure and proofread it several times
We’ve all seen articles that are obviously thrown together with little thought for how the article is organized and with numerous spelling or grammar errors. What do you think when you see an article like that? Readers can form some pretty powerful opinions about an author, the author’s business, and the author’s products when the article is obviously low quality. It pays to spend time writing an article that makes sense, has proper spelling and grammar, and offers valuable information to the reader. Writing quality articles takes time, but it’s worth it.
* Lesson 4 – Learn to write on your topic from every angle possible
Publishers do not appreciate seeing virtually the same article being submitted repeatedly. No matter what your topic is, you must come up with a way to offer fresh content. Think about how a beginner would view your topic. Also write articles with more advanced content. Get creative with your approaches to your topic in each article. Any topic can be exciting, depending on how you write about it.
* Lesson 5 – Be yourself
Your articles should demonstrate your expertise, but there’s no need to try to be someone that you’re not. Write about lessons that you’ve learned the hard way. Admit to not always doing things perfectly. Your readers will appreciate your honesty, and they will have the benefit of learning from your experience.
These are some of the major lessons I’ve learned from watching online writers that I admire. Do you have a web writing role model yet? What has he or she taught you?
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.
The Art and Science of Article Marketing
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
The Art and Science of Article Marketing
I’ve noticed lately, a lot of writers (and I use that term loosely) are saying article marketing no longer works. They’re complaining, no one is reading their articles, and their pageviews are in the toilet. Well, maybe there’s a good reason for that. Maybe they aren’t giving readers what they want.
Look, contrary to popular belief, article marketing isn’t just writing a bunch of words, submitting them to EzineArticles and other top directories, and magically getting back a ton of traffic and a gazillion backlinks. It just doesn’t work that way. It just isn’t that easy. Believe it or not. There’s actually an art and science to article marketing.
* The Art and Science of Article Marketing
For example, according to a readability study conducted by Jakob Nielsen of UseIt.com, 79% of Internet users rarely read web pages? Instead they scan, picking out individual words, sentences and paragraphs.
What? You didn’t know that? You see, there really is an art and science to article marketing. Okay, now that you know, how can you use this knowledge to your advantage?
Well, if you want people to read your articles, the first thing you have to do is get their attention. And the best way to do that is with compelling article titles. Stay away from boring, unimaginative titles that are likely to be ignored or skimmed over. Get readers excited! More importantly, get their attention.
Are you attracted to boring titles? Of course not, and neither are your readers. So when writing your article titles, put on your thinking cap, and be creative. Following are a few examples of article titles designed to get the readers attention:
-The 10 Biggest SEO Myths Exposed
-The Pervasion of Disrespectful Marketing
-The Seduction of Internet Marketing Newbies
-Article Marketing Success Tips: How to Write and Promote Articles
-How to Write Headlines That Make Readers Slam On Their Eyeball Brakes
If you’ll notice, the last title on that list is a “How To” title. It’s an article I wrote recently titled, How to Write Headlines That Make Readers Slam On Their Eyeball Brakes. In that article, I offer tips and advice on how to write better headlines for your ads and/or sales letters. But, the information applies to article titles as well. So you should definitely Google the title, and read the article.
Speaking of titles, “How To” titles are very effective at getting attention. Always have been. So use them as often as possible. By the way, all of the above titles are from real articles. In fact, I’m the author of each of those articles. You may have even read one or two of them. Notice how each title peaks your curiosity, and makes you want to read more?
But as compelling as those article titles are, a great title is only the beginning. Remember, Internet users are notorious scanners. That means you have to give them plenty of additional eye candy, in the form of subheads, bite size paragraphs, bullet points, etc. And having a well-written, interesting and informative article doesn’t hurt either.
Oh, one last thing. While we’re on the subject of titles. Always put your keywords in your article titles. It’s been my experience, it really doesn’t matter where in the title your keywords are placed, just as long as they’re in there. After all, if you’re going to write articles, you might well get some SEO benefits out of the deal.
* Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
In addition to the readability study I cited earlier, I also read a very interesting study on “findability” that was also conducted by Jakob Nielsen. In the study, he was discussing how having too many so-called “new” words can actually ruin your search rankings, as well as diminish your website’s value. Because all those new words are unlikely to appear in search queries.
For example, many website owners attempt to coin new search terms because they’re under the mistaken impression they can own the top search position, if the new search term becomes in vogue and catches on. But the reality is, more often than not, people will continue to use their old terminology, because it’s what they’re used to.
Here’s a quote from Jakob Nielson’s study titled, Use Old Words When Writing for Findability:
“Familiar words spring to mind when users create their search queries. If your writing favors made-up terms over legacy words, users won’t find your site.
If you fill your pages with fancy new words, you’ll lose the most powerful tool in Internet marketing: the ability for users to find you in search. Making the search listings is a crucial first step, but it’s not the only step: users must also click your entry, and your site must have a good conversion rate.
There’s more to website success than simply being found, but it is the first step. Use old words and you’ll be that step ahead of the competition and their useless new words.”
* Consistent Promotion is the Key
As I stated at the beginning of this article, article marketing isn’t just writing a bunch of words, and submitting them to EzineArticles and other top directories. There’s actually an art and science to the process.
That being said, art and science notwithstanding, even if you do all the things I mentioned in this article, it will all be for naught, unless you consistently promote your articles, like there’s no tomorrow!
Promote them on article directories, promote them on your website or blog, promote them through social media, promote them on social bookmarking sites, promote them on RSS directories, promote them in your newsletter.
Write For Your Readers Or Search Engines?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Article Marketing Tip: Write For Your Readers Or Search Engines?
Should you write for your readers or for the search engines? That is a really good question to consider.
Search engines are still the best sources of warm and targeted traffic. They aim to provide online users with quality content.
That is why they put much weight on articles that are informative and content-rich. If you can offer these kinds of articles, you can be assured that the search engines will help you better connect with your potential clients so you can boost your sales and revenue.
Here’s how you can improve your article marketing by writing for your readers and letting the search engines benefit from it:
1. Write for your readers
You need to know how to impress online users so you can maximize the benefits that you can get from your articles.
Start by giving them content that they will find useful and relevant to their lives. Offer answers to their most frequent questions. Empower them to do things on their own by offering them step-by-step guides.
Offer solutions to their pressing issues, and share information that can help them better understand their problems and their areas of interest.
Then, ensure that your articles are easy to understand, easy to skim through, and concise. Remember, you do not want to waste the time of your readers as they have short attention span.
2. Talk about your products and services
Article marketing is one of the best ways to promote your offerings without burning your pockets.
You can highlight the benefits and features that your products can offer and communicate how they can help your potential clients improve the quality of their lives.
You just have to make sure that you don’t fill your articles with marketing hype and sales pitches. You need to do the selling in a subtle way so your copies will not be rejected by the publishers. And the search engines will love you more as well.
3. Create a killer resource box
You would want your readers to click on your resource box as this is the only way to get them to visit your website or your squeeze page.
You can get them to act on your favor by making sure that your resource box is benefit-driven. Tell your readers what they can expect to get from your website or offer them with exciting freebies like vouchers and free e-books.
When people know that they will benefit from something, they will surely do it in a heartbeat. This can lead to enormous conversion rate that can help in growing your e-business exponentially.
Follow these article marketing tips and write for your readers. The search engines will find you too.
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.
Tips to Get More Video Viewers
Videos have become a very dominant tool in communicating with readers and the public. It is also not costly to produce. But the problem occurs once you upload it on your website. You do not just display the video in your homepage; you should also consider the other elements involved. It is not about SEO and how to get people to your website. This article will give you tips on how to make people click on the “play” link once they arrive on your website.
The following tips are the best practices gathered through the years. These calls to view techniques will hopefully benefit your site conversion:
1. Give visitors a compelling reason to watch the video
The title should be well-thought out and focuses on the benefits. It can come in the form of a “how to” title. Using words like “powerful”, “funniest”, and “best” may sometimes be appropriate as well, depending on the video. If a well-known personality is featured, be sure to mention his/her name in the title as well.
2. Integrate color changes in the border
This is a very simple trick and no one really knew about its impact until some tests were done. By “lifting” the video off the all-white webpage background, the video stands out in itself and it looks more important. Views can increase to as much as 20%.
3. Choose the graphic image for the video carefully
When people look at a collection of videos, they scan through a lot of images and will only click on the most interesting ones. Most marketers take the easy way out and use the opening shot of the video as the graphic. If it is not compelling, substitute it with another image that may be taken from within the video itself or from another related source.
4. Describe the video
Make it a point to describe the video on the graphic image to strengthen its appeal. The message gives them more reason to watch the video to find out what it contains. Be sure to choose a color that is complementary to the background while being easily readable at the same time.
5. State the length of time
Most people think that videos usually last 3-5 minutes. And indeed, this is usually the case. But there are also web videos that last up to 9-10 minutes or more. People don’t want to open lengthy videos so if yours is a short one, place it on the graphic image.
6. Include the video bar
Finally, the video bar makes people feel in control. Don’t take it away for any reason because it lets the user set the volume, pause, play, and reply as they want.
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.
What Should You Include In Your Video Resume?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, October 10, 2011
What Should You Include In Your Video Resume?
A video resume may just be the key to your next job. Still relatively new, video resumes are now being used to land smart job seekers their “dream job,” because the HR field is beginning to embrace online branding and the use of new technology.
For example, recent research shows that 85 percent of recruiters and HR professionals make positive and negative hiring decisions based upon a candidate’s online reputation; good content equals positive decisions, negative content equals candidate rejection. Studies also show that 60 percent of hiring managers have shown high interest in reviewing video resumes from possible candidates.
Making a video resume to define your skills and to highlight your experiences just makes sense, especially for creative professionals who need to show off their creativity and ability to change with the times.
That’s because today’s society is extremely visual. We are used to growing up with a television in front of us. We’re used to learning, getting information, and being entertained visually. So why not take advantage of this and use the same technology to land a job?
* What should I include in my video resume?
This is no different from your paper resume. It is a sales tool designed to help you get an interview. Your interview is where you’ll get your job. So your resume needs to be short, to the point, and highlight your most important qualities. You want to make sure that whatever you include, it matches your style, personality and the particular image you want to present. When including key skills in your video resume, make sure whatever is included is relevant.
It needs to be appropriate for the target industry and particular career.
Length of the video resume is also important. Your paper resume should be no more than one page long (remember, it’s getting you that interview, not landing you the job). Your video resume should only be a couple minutes long at the most.
Treat this almost like a commercial for your favorite product: you. The goal of this resume is to sell yourself. If anyone is an expert at you, it’s you. This should be used like a tool in a sales and marketing campaign.
A video resume needs to include your strengths and highlight them using the most up-to-date technology. Including the best quality graphics is also important. In order to hold an employer’s attention span, your video resume must be visually appealing.
This job-searching tool can also help you manage your online reputation, helping to push any negative content off the front pages of the search engines. This way, when an employer searches for your name online (remember, 85 percent of hiring managers make decisions based on your online reputation), the the first thing they see is the stuff that will help you get a job.
Using a combination of photos and hitting the high points from your paper resume, video resumes are key in achieving that unique look out of the bunch. But you need to make sure the audio, graphics, and video quality are all the best they can possibly be. So if you don’t have the equipment or knowledge, consider hiring a professional firm that can manage it for you. Consider this your job seeker’s canvas: whether you want your resume to be light-hearted and cool, or serious and conservative, there are a wide range of templates and designs that are suitable to many different career choices.
A video resume is an effective way to show yourself in a manner that is different and light-years ahead of what everyone else is doing. It should be one of the most effective tools in your personal branding toolbox, and one that you can use to great effectiveness.
How to Set Up Your Video Marketing Studio in 30 Minutes or Less?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, October 7, 2011
How to Set Up Your Video Marketing Studio in 30 Minutes or Less?
* How to Quickly Set Up Your Video Marketing “Studio”
You know you want to do video marketing consistently. You may even want to use video to create products and services.
That means setting up a space to do video in. Because if you’ve taken my previous articles to heart you know that setting up your video properly makes a huge difference in how you and your company are perceived.
* The Complication of Video Marketing
But that adds a complication, doesn’t it? Because now you have to move around a bunch of lights, mess up your workspace, tell everyone to keep their noise level down, choose a background, compose your shot, set your audio levels…well, you get the idea. It can be a royal pain in the you-know-what.
Is there a better way? The answer is most definitely yes. In fact, you can get this whole prep session down to about 5 minutes. But there’s a catch. And the catch is that you have to make a decision.
* The Decision That Makes Video Marketing a Snap
That decision is very, very simple and very, very hard. It’s simple, because once you make it, the way you make videos will be very easy from then one. You’ll save hundreds of hours that you can spend selling, creating products, devising marketing campaigns, the whole nine yards.
But it’s also hard, because making the decision is also making a commitment. Ugh. There’s that word again. What are you committing to, precisely? I think you’ve already guessed it, haven’t you? The commitment is that you are going to use video to begin attracting your best clients in a kind of auto-pilot marketing program. It means you will be putting out video content on a regular basis; from once a week to once a month.
And that is the sticking point for most people and most businesses. They aren’t really super-sold on the fact that video can truly help them or that it’s worth the time and trouble to set up a dedicated space. So if this is you, I have a solution for you.
* How to Quickly Set Up a Video Marketing “Studio”
This solution will allow you to prove to yourself that video done right works really, really well. And it won’t cost you a penny to implement. Ready to find out how it works? Great! Right before I tell you how to set this up, I’d like you to see a particularly nice example of this solution in action.
Please click on where it says “new video”: www.bamagazine.com
Now, did that look very difficult to pull off? Of course not! It looked like he was working at his desk, then just shifted in his chair to talk to you. That’s what we’re going to make your space look like. You can set this up in just a few minutes, and…this is the commitment part…keep the setup there for a few weeks. You may decide you like it so much that it becomes your permanent studio.
Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
1. One video light
2. Camera on a tripod set up at eye level
3. Wired or wireless microphone plugged into the camera and ready to clip on.
You can even set the light and camera aside if you place a mark on the floor where they will go when you need them.
Set the light from 20 – 45 to the side of the camera. If you want to get crazy, hang a little backlight from the ceiling and leave it there out of the way. That’s it.
That’s all you need to do. Remember composition. Where you place the camera is important. Put yourself off-center to create a pleasing composition, just as John has done in his video. If you want to review how to handle this particular piece when no one else is around, click here: www.youtube.com/watch?v-sednrGipvvk
* The Unique Advantages of Your Own Video Marketing Studio
And that’s all there is to it! You can literally have this entire “studio” set up in less than 30 minutes. Now anytime you get the inspiration to talk to your audience, you can do so on the spot and you’ll have the confidence to know that it will look fantastic.
There’s one other less tangible benefit to all this. It will encourage you to keep your work area relatively clean. I find that a clean workspace tends to free my imagination anyway, so it might even make your videos better.
Consistency in getting your message out is really important to establishing your credentials. Don’t let lack of a dedicated studio hold you back.
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.
5 Useless Internet Marketing Tactics You Should Avoid
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, August 7, 2011
5 Useless Internet Marketing Tactics You Should Avoid
Knowing what doesn’t work can sometimes be more important that learning what does. Here are some things you should avoid when marketing your web site.
It’s easy to get confused with all of the various ways that you can be marketing your web site. Over the years I have tried just about every one and have learned some things along the way. Here’s some real time and money wasters that you can safely avoid doing.
1. SPAM Don’t waste your time on trash
You don’t like getting spam in your email do you? Neither does anyone else. Don’t send unsolicited commercial emails to try and promote your web site or product. (Out of all of the things listed here, I have never gone this route and won’t).
You risk getting your site shut down if your Internet Service Provider gets enough complaints. You can also be “blacklisted”. This means your email can be labelled as spam and be blocked by a lot of service providers.
Spam is stupid and a very poor decision for a business to make.
2. Free For All (FFA) Links
There are some sites which let anyone list a link to their own site. Sometimes you are required to put your own FFA link page up on your site. This tactic does not work. The only people reading FFA sites are other sites looking to post their own link. It is totally untargeted towards any potential customer.
Additionally, some search engines will penalise you for having FFA links on your site. They basically equate them as being garbage and not something a legitimate site would do. I can’t say I blame them.
3. Banner Ads
Once upon a time (in the late 1990’s) banner ads were very common and fairly effective. They don’t work very well at all anymore. I have read statistics that the click through rate is down to a mere percent of what they used to be.
You will have a much more effective chances of getting a visitor to your site by having a legitimate endorsement. You should also avoid having banner ads on your own site unless it is for your own products. Why on earth would you want to be sending people away from your site when you could be earning a higher profit if they stick around?
4. Classified Ads
Online newsletters commonly offer low priced classified ad spots. You can pay a few dollars and have your 4 to 5 line ad listed at the bottom of some newsletter when it gets sent out.
Generally these ads don’t work too well. I don’t read them. Do you?
5. Anything That’s Not A Solo or Top Sponsorship Ads
As a follow up to the classified ads, it is worth mentioning that not all ads are bad. You should try for a more prominent ad if you are going to go the newsletter route.
I recommend the Solo Ad or as second best, the Top Sponsorship Ad.
A solo ad is just that. Your ad is run all by itself. You have the reader’s full and undivided attention to your ad. The downside is that you will be paying top dollar so you want to track your results. If the ad was profitable, then keep running it until it is not anymore.
A top sponsorship ad is the very first ad in a newsletter. These can be pretty effective. They are a good alternative if you don’t want to take the plunge to buy a solo ad.
When it comes down to advertising in a newsletter I stick to either solo or top sponsorship. Otherwise I don’t even bother.
Knowing some of these tips can help you to avoid wasting your valuable time (and money) on ineffective marketing tactics.
Tips For Launching A Successful Email Marketing Campaign
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Tips For Launching A Successful Email Marketing Campaign
If you’ve ever considered launching an email marketing campaign, you probably very rapidly discovered that there are two main road-blocks between you and email marketing success. The first is the question of how to get your hands on an email subscriber list. And the second is once you have begun building your list, what should you send them? This article will focus on those two fundamental tasks of email marketing.
List-building is not as hard as you might imagine. All it really takes is the effort of asking people you are already coming into contact with to join your mailing list. You can do this in person if you run a restaurant, dealership, or other brick and mortar venue. At a retail store, the cash register is the best place to offer a free membership. If you are trying to convert your existing web traffic into email subscribers, you will want to create an attractive sign-up form and place it very prominently on your web site. You will also need to provide a good explanation of the value that people can expect to receive by being subscribes to your mailing list.
We all know that high quality content is not cheap. And when you’re dealing in email marketing, that is likely to be the primary expense related to your campaign. So you want to make that investment worthwhile by getting as many potential buyers as possible signed up for your mailing list. Take advantage of your existing web traffic by making your subscription form a central feature of your web site. It should almost always appear above the fold, and almost always on every page of your site. Keep in mind, email list subscribers convert much better than one-time web site visitors, so you should not be afraid to lose a sale or two in the short term in order to collect a large number of subscriptions that will become valued clients over the long term.
When you think about designing content for your email list, there is a very important question you should ask yourself: What will people in my target market be happy to receive? What value can I provide to them? Because the first task of an email list is to ingratiate you to your subscribers. If the list is ultimately going to convert into sales, then your subscribers must trust you and see you as someone who provides things that they value. Once you have developed the unique proposition for your mailing list, then you can begin developing content to fulfill that promise.
These two basic steps are all it really takes to build an effective list that you can continue to improve upon indefinitely. The list and the techniques that you use to market to the list will evolve over time along with your overall business strategy. But the long and the short of it is simply this: create a mailing list that offers a real value to your market, and then ask people to sign up for it. Everything else simply improves on this basic, winning formula.
7 Campaign Killing Affiliate Marketing Mistakes
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, August 1, 2011
7 Campaign Killing Affiliate Marketing Mistakes
Affiliate marketing is becoming more and more popular, especially with the current state of the economy. High unemployment rates have many people turning to the internet as a means of making ends meet.
It sounds great at first. You’re told all you have to do is start a free blog and write a few articles, and you can achieve wild riches. Many people buy into this myth, and are let down after weeks go by and they haven’t made a single dollar.
Believe it or not, more than ninety percent of internet entrepreneurs fold up shop within the first month. Once reality sets in, it’s easy to get discouraged. Affiliate marketing, like any other business, requires hard work and effort for success to become a reality.
In this article, we’re going to discuss seven of the worst mistakes that an affiliate marketer can make. If you can avoid these career killing pitfalls, you’ll have a good chance at becoming a successful affiliate marketer.
1. Using Free Services
The problem with many affiliate marketers is they don’t want to make an investment into their business. This is due in part to all of the tutorials available that instruct marketers to use free services. While there is nothing wrong with free services, the lack of imminent control over one’s content can be a problem. If the company providing the free service decided to delete your account, or went out of business, you could lose content that may have been making you some money.
2. Promoting The Wrong Product
Market research is especially important in affiliate marketing. Many affiliates promote products that have a very low demand, hence making it near impossible to succeed. Researching your chosen niche is crucial.
3. Promoting Too Many Products
It’s easy to lose focus. There are so many great products to promote that many affiliate marketers try to promote five or ten products at once. It’s not good to spread yourself so thin. Rather than promoting ten products and giving ten percent effort to each, it’s better to put one-hundred percent effort into promoting a single product.
4. Not Starting An Email List
Many affiliate marketers refuse to believe in the importance of email marketing. This is partly due to the wealth of information available about article marketing. Many are led to believe that article marketing is a miracle money maker. While it’s true that money can be made this way, it’s much better to establish a contact and build trust with a potential buyer through email.
5. Spamming
Spam is a gray area when it comes to affiliate marketing. Basically, spamming is blatantly promoting your products or services to those who didn’t ask for information. The worst kind of spam is email spam. Many affiliate marketers engage in this without even knowing. Spamming is a surefire way to ruin your reputation as a marketer.
6. Not Writing Unique Content
Affiliate marketing requires a lot of writing. It usually comes in the form of sales copy, classified ads, and articles. Since outsourcing the work is costly, many affiliate marketers turn to what’s known as private label rights, or “PLR” articles. These are articles that have been written specifically for the use of others. The problem is that they have been sold to many people. This means that they are no longer unique. Most marketers rewrite the content before publishing, but the general idea of the article remains the same. Content is king on the internet, and those that write fresh, exciting content will always have a leg up on the competition.
7. Not Using The Products They Promote
A great way to promote affiliate marketing products is by writing reviews. However, many affiliate marketers review products that they don’t own. If written properly, this can be effective. For the most part, though, readers can tell if the reviewer has actually tried the product. It’s not a good idea to recommend a product to anyone that you don’t like and use. If you don’t purchase the product, you can’t honestly know if you like it. If the product isn’t quality, and you continue to recommend it, you’ll quickly lose customers and tarnish your reputation.
Affiliate marketing is hard work. However, you shouldn’t get discouraged. The best advice I could give you is to avoid making the above mistakes, and NEVER, EVER give up! Persistence and knowledge are the two most important tools you could possess if you want to be a successful affiliate marketer.
10 Ways to Energize Your Email Marketing
emailmktgEmail marketing has grown tremendously over the years and it can benefit your business substantially. As with any type of marketing, email marketing takes a great deal of time and effort to insure it is working effectively.
There are many types of email marketing such as sending out periodical newsletters/ezines, sending out promotional emails and product updates, tutorials, etc.
Regardless of which type of email marketing you utilize, one important thing you must do is continually evaluate the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign. Do not let your email marketing go stale. You need to keep it alive, fresh and energized.
* Below are 10 ways you can help energize your email marketing campaign:
- Fresh and Helpful Content
Always be sure to include good, solid content. Check the content to make sure it is reliable. You want to make sure you are providing true, helpful information for your mailing list. Offer good resources, tools, tips and other content that will actually help your subscribers. This will help in building the foundation of the essential trust relationship between you and your mailing list members.
- Make it Personal
Making your email more personal will help build trust and your reputation. You need to connect with your list and by making your emails more personal, warm and friendly, you will accomplish this task.
- Grab Their Interest with Your Subject Line
Grabbing the readers’ interest with the subject line can make all the difference as to whether they open the email or just delete it. Keep the subject line short and to the point. Use words that will pique the readers curiosity and make them want to know more. Use power and/or action words such as new, innovative, secret, reveal, etc.
Which email would you open? How to Increase sales or New, Innovative Sales Strategy Revealed…
- Be Available for Your Readers
There is nothing worse than emailing questions to a company about their products/services and waiting days or longer to get an answer. Make it a point to answer questions and concerns as soon as possible. Be as helpful and responsive as possible. You will be amazed at the difference this will make in your business.
- Be Consistent
I know some people that will send out an email here and an email there – sometimes with months in between. This will never bring you any results. Send out your emails on a regular basis using the same design, layout and format each time. Keep them neat, clean and free from a lot of clutter. You want your readers to become familiar with your mailings.
- Add New Features
Always be thinking of new features to add to your mailings to keep it fresh and alive. Add a Q&A section or do interviews with your readers. Give your readers a weekly challenge to accomplish to help them obtain their goals.Publish success stories. The possibilities are endless!
- Offer Subscriber Only Specials
Let your subscribers know they are appreciated by offering them deals and specials that you would not offer anyone else. Give them an extra percentage off the price or give them a free gift in your mailings. Doing little things like this can go a long way for your business.
- Get Your Mailing List Involved
Encourage them to email you with ideas, suggestions and feedback. Let them know you are willing to consider all their suggestions. Ask them if you can use their feedback. Post their questions with the answers to help all your readers. Make them feel like they make a difference because THEY DO!
- Contests and Competitions
Hold contests and competitions for your subscribers and offer prizes. For example: Each week in my newsletter I have a trivia challenge for free advertising and a movie quote contest for a free e-book. They are a lot of fun and my subscribers let me know how much they enjoy it.
- Offer Referral Incentives
Let your mailing list members know that if they refer people to your mailing list, they will be rewarded. Have contests on who can get the most referrals for a grand prize.
Business owners who successfully implement an email marketing campaign are likely to gain a huge advantage over those who don’t. But you must keep your email marketing fresh, alive, consistent and reliable. Keeping in contact with your mailing list members and providing them with useful, helpful information and resources will help build a solid foundation of trust with which to grow your business!
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.
How to Navigate Online Marketing’s Slippery Path
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
How to Navigate Online Marketing’s Slippery Path
It’s not an easy task to be successful at online marketing. One slip and you can practically watch your leads and sales roll down a hill and end up with some other company.
Here are 10 key tips and suggestions to keep in mind as you make your way along online marketing routes.
1. Grow thick skin
Encourage your staff or consultants to tell you the plain truth instead of going out of their way not to offend or upset you.
If your website design has serious issues, own up to them so the rest of your campaign can really pay off. In other words, if you invest in getting more traffic and visitors give up on your website, then you’ve failed.
2. Pick the right keywords for search engine optimization (SEO)
It’s not about just researching keywords. It’s about selecting keywords. You need to think about site age, keywords in the domain, competition, current rankings, existing content, planned content, page headers, keywords in URLs and more.
3. Learn how paid search really works
The primary pay-per-click tools are easy. You can have an ad up in no time. If you waste your money, it’s not Google’s fault. If you send your paid search visitors to your home page and can make a good profit, great. Odds are, you’re better off directing them to a specific interior page. In fact, you’d be wise to make some outstanding custom landing pages with clear Calls to Action and not a lot of distracting navigation.
4. Use paid search negative keywords
Why should you pay for the wrong keywords? Think of all of the ways you don’t want to be found. Maybe you sell men’s jackets. You better rule out women’s jackets. Your options – broad, phrase and exact match can make a huge difference.
5. Use misspellings with paid search
You can find different tools to generate misspellings, including one at SEO Chat. Sure, these phrases won’t get a lot of traffic. But it could be worth while adding a number of them to your overall mix.
6. Write content – lots of content
At least from an SEO perspective, tiny websites get what they support – tiny traffic. Whether you expand the website with a blog or regular pages following existing navigation, write more words. Yes, you may rank well for keywords on a single page. However, several pages with cross-linked pages can make a big impact on rankings.
7. Don’t bury your calls to action
Too often, I see pages with 12 paragraphs followed by a phone number that’s probably going to be overlooked. Promote the phone number up high. Add a short form – you can easily see. Create an image that points visitors to case studies, white papers, demos, how-to guides, etc.
8. Track everything
Are website analytics on every page? Did you set up your goals (Google Analytics makes it easy)? Are you using all of the right settings with your paid search? For example, are your ads running all of the time or just when you want them to appear? Are you favoring certain ads or giving all of your ads a shot?
9. Don’t ignore link building
It takes time – a lot of time. Sure, you can register with hundreds of free directories. But what’s the impact? Make sure you get links from industry-related websites and credible directories with structures categories that relate to your services and products. Swap links with some other businesses (try to get them to include strategic keywords when they link to you). Create a blog and get involved in other blogs. If you participate, you’ll increase the odds that someone will link back to you. Share your knowledge – write articles for online publications (you always get a good link in your bio). Speak at conferences (you’ll get another link).
10. Test and measure everything
If people get lost on your website, fix it. If your keywords don’t rank, change them. If no one is calling, stop hiding your phone number next to your outdated 2003 copyright notice. Make note of where people leave their shopping carts in your digital aisle. Shorten your long response forms. Seriously, do you really need their address, zip code, state in all cases? Look at your competition. Are you charging more than they are and can you defend your pricing? Add some testimonials – real ones (the fake variety turn me off).
10 Networking Blunders That Cost You Sales
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
10 Networking Blunders That Cost You Sales
Networking is a critical skill sales; after all, the more people you connect with the more you sales opportunities you create. However, many sales people make a variety of mistakes that prevent them from maximizing the power of networking. Here are ten blunders and mistakes you need to avoid.
1. Attending the wrong networking events. When I first started my business I attended as many local networking events as I could fit into my schedule. However, I quickly noticed that I encountered the same people at these events-other small business owners out looking for business. These people were not my target market and very few of them interacted with the type of decision-maker I usually worked with so I realized that I was going to the wrong events. Get the most from your networking opportunities by showing up at events that your prospects attend.
2. Waiting for people to introduce themselves. Let’s face it; the vast majority of people are reluctant or hesitant to approach strangers. However, if you take the initiative to introduce yourself to others you will be perceived as a person of authority and power. Not to mention that the other person will be relieved that they didn’t have to make the first approach.
3. Spending too much time talking. One of the most fatal mistakes is to dominate the conversation. If you truly want to make a great impression, limit the amount you talk to no more than 40 percent of the airtime. Remember, networking events are not the appropriate setting to sell your solution. However, they are perfect situations to uncover potential sales opportunities.
4. Failing to ask other people questions. The most effective way to create a connection with someone is to ask them questions about their business and what they do. Ask them about the challenges they face and what they enjoy most about their work. High-value questions encourage people to share information and help you position yourself as an expert and a great networker.
5. Becoming distracted by other people. Have you ever had a conversation with someone who constantly watched the room instead of paying attention to what you were saying? If so, you likely felt ignored and unimportant. I also suspect that you would not refer business to that person. Don’t make the same mistake. Pay close attention to every person you meet and learn how you might be able to help them.
6. Focusing on your self-interest. This follows the last point. If you make the effort to find out how you can help someone else, the chances are they will reciprocate. In the words of motivational guru, Zig Ziglar, “You can anything you want in life if you just are willing to help enough other people get what they want.”
7. Failing to articulate your value proposition. I once spoke with a small business owner at a networking event and after a 20 minute conversation I still had no idea what she did because she was unable to clearly articulate the purpose of her company and her ideal client.
8. Failing to establish a connection. Effective networking means connecting with people. Although you will not connect with everyone you meet, you can improve your results by making great eye contact, smiling, asking questions, and showing interest in the other person.
9. Executing the “meet & move” strategy. We’ve all encountered the person at a networking event who introduces themselves, gives you their business card, asks for yours in return, and immediately moves on to repeat the process with another victim. You get much better results by connecting with a small number of people rather than trying to meet as many people as you can.
10. Failing to follow-up afterward. Post-event follow-up is critical. However, don’t make the mistake of calling someone three months after a networking meeting and saying something like, “We met a few months ago and I thought I’d touch base with you.” This approach simply does not add any type of value to the relationship. Here two follow-up strategies to consider:
- When you meet a potential customer, arrange to contact them shortly after the event. Mark it in your calendar and make sure you contact them on the agreed-upon day and time.
- After you meet someone who is NOT a prospect, look for opportunities to refer business to them. You can also help them by sending articles or information related to their business.
Networking effectively can have a dramatic impact on your sales providing it is done correctly. Avoid these fatal networking mistakes and improve your results.
The Impatience of Internet Marketing Newbies
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, July 24, 2011
The Impatience of Internet Marketing Newbies
If you attempted to take a test without studying, chances are, you’d fail. Yet, every single day on the Internet, thousands of newbies are performing the equivalent of the aforementioned test analogy, by putting up a website without having the slightest idea how to promote it. And guess what happens – they fail. No, they don’t all fail, but most do.
The point is starting a business – any business without having even basic marketing skills is putting the proverbial cart before the horse. It’s a bad move. Competency in marketing is one of the most important business skills that you can acquire. If you become proficient in the art of marketing, there is no limit to what you can accomplish in the business world.
A) Take the Time to Educate Yourself First
Look, there’s nothing wrong with being ambitious and enthusiastic. Those attributes can take you a long way in business. But you also need to be smart about how you approach things as well. Why be in such a hurry? Take some time to educate yourself first. Does it really matter if you build that website now, or a few months from now when you’re more prepared? Of course it doesn’t.
Starting a business is like building a house. You start with a strong foundation, and then you build on it. Well,in business, being knowledgeable about basic marketing fundamentals is your strong foundation. You just have to build on it.
That means taking the time to learn how to do things the right way. Be patient, and prepare yourself for success. By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. Study and apply basic marketing fundamentals. Read a few marketing books. To get started, I highly recommend Web Marketing All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies. It’s actually eight books in one, and is written by multiple authors. It’s perfect for newbies, and touches all the bases including,
* Establishing a Web Presence
* Search Engine Optimization
* Web Analytics
* E-Mail Marketing
* Blogging and Podcasting
* Social Media Marketing
* Online Advertising & Pay-Per-Click
* Mobile Web Marketing
B) Increase the Odds in Your Favor
To be clear, I’m not suggesting you have to become some sort of marketing expert, before you build your website. After all, even experts don’t know everything. And reading books certainly doesn’t guarantee you’ll be successful. But at least by educating yourself first, you give yourself a fighting chance – you increase the odds in your favor. And the Internet marketing process won’t seem like such a foreign language to you. In addition, your learning curve won’t be nearly as steep.
Conversely, when newbies rush into the process with their eyes wide shut, more often than not, they end up thoroughly defeated, disillusioned, and convinced that Internet marketing doesn’t work. Many give up on Internet marketing altogether, and never bother trying again. And that’s a shame. The sad part is many times those failures could have been avoided, if newbies had just taken the time to learn how to do the process the right way.
C) What’s Effective Frequency?
I’m a member of several small business forums. And one of the questions newbies ask most often is why isn’t anyone responding to their ads. Now if these newbies had taken the time to educate themselves about marketing beforehand, they would know about effective frequency.
What’s effective frequency? Effective frequency is the number of times a person must be exposed to an advertising message before they act on it. How many times that actually is debatable. However, some marketing experts believe in The Rule of 7…meaning on average, people have to see your ad a minimum of seven times, before they act on it. Does that mean people will automatically buy what you’re offering after they’ve seen your ad seven times?
No it doesn’t. Again, it’s just an average. It could be more than seven, but it could also be less. The fact of the matter is there are far too many variables involved to suggest that after people see your ad seven times they will automatically whip out their credit card, and purchase what you’re offering – not the least of which is traffic quality, competency of your sales copy, and the viability of the item being offered.
The point is by educating yourself on basic marketing fundamentals, you will learn about and understand marketing theories and concepts like effective frequency. By the way, the theory of effective frequency isn’t new. In fact, as far back as 1885, Thomas Smith, a successful London businessman wrote:
1. The first time people look at any given ad, they don’t even see it.
2. The second time, they don’t notice it.
3. The third time, they are aware that it is there.
4. The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it somewhere before.
5. The fifth time, they actually read the ad.
6. The sixth time they thumb their nose at it.
7. The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it.
8. The eighth time, they start to think, “Here’s that confounded ad again.”
9. The ninth time, they start to wonder if they’re missing out on something.
10. The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbors if they’ve tried it.
11. The eleventh time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads.
12. The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product.
13. The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value.
14. The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time.
15. The fifteenth time, they start to yearn for it because they can’t afford to buy it.
16. The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future.
17. The seventeenth time, they make a note to buy the product.
18. The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty for not allowing them to buy this terrific product.
19. The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully.
20. The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what is offering.
Indeed, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Thomas Smith’s words are every bit as salient today as they were back then.
In closing, Internet marketing is serious business – so be sure to treat it that way. Slow down, and take the time to educate yourself first. In the long run, it will be in your best interest. Because unlike the movie, Field of Dreams, where “if you build it, he will come.” In the real world, if you build a website without knowing how to promote it – nobody’s coming!
The Different Types Of Mobile Websites And How They’re Used
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Mobile Marketing – The Different Types Of Mobile Websites And How They’re Used
More and more people are signing up for advanced mobile plans, which means that smart business owners and entrepreneurs have a window of opportunity open to them right now. Mobile marketing is cheap and people don’t have ‘banner blindness’ when it comes to their mobile device.
Those to things spell out an incredibly easy marketing solution. What I want to do is lay out a few different ways mobile marketing. Then, I’ll follow it up with a few resources you can check out for more information.
* Mobile Squeeze Page
Mobile squeeze pages serve one purpose, and one purpose alone, to collect data. Basically, what you do is offer a free download of some kinds or discounts/coupons to visitors who sign up for your email list. That way, you can market to them again and again in the future.
* Using A Check Out Page As A Mobile Landing Page
Another effective way of mobile marketing is sending prospects directly to your main product page or the page where they can sign up for your services. Obviously, a higher ticket item will need some pre-selling, but lower end offers work well.
* Mobile Landing Page – Phone Number
One of the best innovations of mobile marketing ads is its click to call technology. What that means is that when someone clicks an ad, it automatically dials a phone number! That’s awesome for pizza shops and doctor’s offices!
* Does Mobile Marketing Work?
Right about now, I’m sure you’re thinking that all this stuff is good in theory. But does it actually work?
On a cell phone, there is very little screen real estate. The user only has so many options… Sign up for your free download or exit the page. More times than not, the person will sign up so they can get your information or they’ll call you. It really is incredibly effective.
A properly designed mobile website won’t have any distractions at all. It’ll have a call to action and a action option… Something that the user has to do.
Graphics will be minimal and the page will seem relatively simplistic. That’s OK though, because mobile phones are typically much slower than normal computers and will need more computational power to load the page.
* My Mobile Marketing Results
Based on the testing I’ve done, mobile marketing is definitely a big hit. Generally, people who view mobile websites or find your business on Google Maps are very well targeted. They know what they want and are willing to pay for it. If you place an email marketing opt-in box on the mobile page itself, you’re going to get lots of new leads. The ‘click to call’ option is also really impressive.
Mobile Marketing – Another Market To Build Your Empire?
Smartphones have suddenly become the device to have. No longer a novelty, or a tool for the rich, everywhere I look I can see someone using their iPhone or Android phone. Doing everything from making calls to searching for information. That’s new eyes in a new market with new customers. How could you incorporate a business model using mobile marketing, and affiliate marketing, as a part of your Empire Building?
The surprise arrival of the iPhone a few years ago and its incredible growth has given rise to explosive growth in the mobile market. Over 2 million phones were sold recently by Apple. The recent launch of the iPhone 4 was Apple’s most successful yet. Then there are all the other handset manufacturers that are scrambling to catch up. Let’s stop and consider for a moment the number of people that are connected to the internet from their smartphone right now… Most people have their phones within 3 feet of them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Furthermore, over half of all new connections to the internet are from these new mobile phones.
* Smartphone marketing
What is it? In it’s broadest definition it is providing customers with personalized information that is time and location sensitive using media sources that is interactive and wireless to promote goods, services and ideas, such as from Google search.
There are not many marketers in this market yet. I will emphasize the word “yet”. With mobile advertising your ad is the ONLY ad that will be displayed on the page. With a bit of tweaking and personalizing your ad using a bit of research and geo marketing and you can begin to see how easy it would be to get someones attention without all the noise and distraction of other AdWords and flashing banners on the page.
Everything that you are using now in affiliate marketing using ClickBank, CPA offers, and building a list will also work the same with the mobile market as it does with a PC. The difference is that it is not as competitive.
The mobile marketing potential has just started, and there appears that it is not going to slow down anytime in the near future. The number of people going mobile continues to rise – using their smartphone for so many more things than just making calls.
How you could use this developing market to build your Empire?
Linking Strategies: “To Buy or not to Buy, That is the Question”
Buying text links for your website is a highly controversial subject online. Like it or not, approve of the practice or disapprove, it does exist and there are many website owners who are doing it. I’m not going to debate the issue one way or the other; just shed some light on what some consider a “gray subject.”
So why would you want or need to buy a text link on another website? It all goes back to “link popularity.” Search engines look at how many other sites are linking to yours when deciding on your ranking. Granted, this is just one criterion, but nevertheless an important one to pay attention to.
If you don’t know how many other sites are linking to yours, go to any search engine and type this in: link:http://www.yourdomain.com … you should get a pretty good idea of your “popularity.” Keep in mind that Google never shows all sites linking to yours, so what you see in the results will not be an accurate presentation of those linking to you. Why they do this is not clear (it’s one of those “Google Secrets”), but a possible explanation is that it’s one of the methods they use to keep their ranking algorithms private.
When considering a link purchase, only buy from sites that are related to your theme and use the Google Toolbar to check their page rank. You can download it here:
http://toolbar.google.com/
A page rank of 4 or above is pretty good but a 7 or 8 is excellent. Never buy a link based on page rank alone. If the site doesn’t relate to your site’s content, don’t do it.
Here are some things to keep in mind before making any purchases:
There are two types of links: one-way and reciprocal. A reciprocal link is when two sites agree to link to each other, a one-way link is just one site linking to another without linking back. Purchasing a text link is an example of a one-way link. One-way links are counted higher by most search engines and therefore are more valuable then reciprocal.
When supplying your text link to other sites, make sure to include your keywords in your anchor text. The anchor text is the part of the link that is clickable. Use a variety of key phrases so as not to raise any red flags with the search engines.
You also want to be consistent with your url. Use the “www.” part in all incoming links, as links to “yourdomain.com” and “www.yourdomain.com” could be treated as two different websites by the search engines.
Another tip when buying links is to do it slowly. Don’t buy too many at one time. You want it to look natural to the search engines. Hundreds of sites deciding to link to yours in a week is not “natural” and may catch unwanted attention from the powers that be.
Stay away from link farms when choosing link partners. Just associating with “bad sites” can be enough to get you banned by the search engines. You’ll also want to make sure you’re getting links from different IP addresses. Search engines will give the links more weight if they don’t all come from the same IP.
* So now that you have the basics, where do you buy the text links?
I thought you’d never ask:
1) LinkHaul: http://www.LinkHaul.com
Purchase static links to PR 4, 5,6, 7 or 8 websites. Pricing starts at 3.00 per month.
2) Text Link Brokers: http://TextLinkBrokers.com
Offering a variety of link building programs to increase your link popularity.
3) LinkAdage: http://www.LinkAdage.com
Buy or sell text links within an auction format or buy direct thru a broker.
4) Text-Link-Ads: http://www.Text-Link-Ads.com
Offering $100.00 in free text link ads when you spend $125.00. So you only have to spend an initial investment of $25.00
5) BackLinks: http://www.BackLinks.com
* A service that allows webmasters to trade, sell or buy text links
When you buy a link, it’s usually billed on a monthly basis and you’ll always pay more for a site with a higher page rank, and also for having them put your link on their main page compared to a page deeper down within the site. Once you purchase a link let it run for a few months at a time, search engines will need it in order to find and spider them.
Right or wrong, purchasing links is one way to improve your link popularity quickly and move your site up the ranks in the search engines. Remember, there are many ways to increase your website traffic, and buying text links is just another means to an end.
What is the Difference Between Inbound and Outbound Marketing?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, July 14, 2011
What is the Difference Between Inbound and Outbound Marketing?
When it comes to marketing, you can go either inbound or outbound marketing. Most of us are familiar with outbound marketing. This type of marketing is a push strategy where you advertise to purchased leads, have a cold calling department, use telemarketing, and advertise through various channels. Inbound marketing is different in that it focuses on attracting people to your business.
Inbound marketing is where you focus on strategies to get the attention of prospects, industry leaders, and customers. An example of this is setting up a blog for your business where you attract subscribers and readers by posting valuable content. By focusing on quality content, you will start to establish yourself as an authority, gain credibility, and start a conversation in the community around your site.
An additional benefit of inbound strategies is that you will start to get traffic from the search engines because other websites start to naturally link to yours. You will also get traffic because the blogosphere is viral and loves to share great posts. Bloggers love to work together, share other valuable blogs, link to great resources, and are open to helping each other grow.
Another example of inbound marketing is email marketing. Many marketers use the Internet to deliver a regular newsletter to their subscribers. Through this newsletter and regular email communication, they are able to create relationships with prospects and customers. An email list also provides a great way to promote your latest product and services. Email campaigns have been known to generate big profits because of the fact that it is very affordable to use.
So should your business use inbound marketing or outbound marketing? It really depends on where you are and what direction you want to go. If you’re looking for quick results and have money to spend on advertising then outbound marketing may be a great way to grow your business. Most businesses depend on outbound marketing to bring in their profits.
However, if you’re on a limited budget and you have the time to spend on developing an authority site then inbound marketing may be the better choice. If you have the confidence to deliver something of value to your industry and community, then inbound marketing can really produce great results for you.
By establishing yourself in your market and industry, many people will choose you over competing businesses because they feel you’ve presented enough value, have established credibility, and also because they are more familiar with you as opposed to other businesses that don’t have a following behind them.
The difference between inbound and outbound marketing is that outbound marketing can help you get quick results and can give you a scientific way to measure your sales.
Inbound marketing is more about a long term strategy that will establish your business in the market and industry. It may be a great solution if outbound marketing channels are too crowded or expensive to compete in.
Many businesses that have used outbound marketing are also using inbound marketing to complement their business model. They are realizing that while maintaining cash flow with outbound marketing is important, they need to establish themselves in the marketplace and connect with people so that can ensure long term success.
Inbound marketing is still in its infancy and there is so much to learn about how to use it to its full capacity.
Many businesses are using multiple channels from blogs, email, Facebook, Twitter, to community forums. There are different ways to monetize these channels as well as rules that you need to follow when using them.
The best way to get the most out of inbound marketing is to focus on learning how to use one channel at a time and slowly integrating it into your overall strategy. There is a community of marketers devoted to learning how to use inbound marketing to grow their business and is worth your time to learn from them if you want to get the most out it.
In conclusion, there are big differences between inbound and outbound marketing. Some say that outbound marketing is the better choice while others think inbound marketing produces better results. It’s really up to you which strategy you go with as it will depend on your business model and also on what direction you want to lead your business towards.
Confidence Building Tips For Internet Marketers
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Confidence Building Tips For Internet Marketers
It doesn’t matter how much talent or acquired ability you have, if you lack confidence you aren’t going to get anywhere. On the other hand, if you have confidence plus desire, even if you lack the raw talent, you can acquire the ability you need to succeed.
This is as true on the Internet as it is anywhere else in life. When you look at who has succeeded with Internet marketing you will find a surprising range of people. They are not all technical whiz kids at all. Yes, some of the Internet marketing greats have a lot of technical talent, but on the other hand there are plenty of work from home mums, retired company employees, youngsters with no formal qualifications who have built successful businesses on the Internet.
They succeeded because they had the desire and determination plus the confidence to risk failure and not worry about what other people thought about their dream to succeed on the Internet.
So what can you do if you want to succeed as an Internet marketer but suffer with your confidence? Let’s look at some confidence building tips for Internet marketers.
Just telling yourself that you need to be more confident will not help. Instead, think about and imagine your ultimate goal as an Internet marketer. You may have no idea how you are going to achieve this goal at the moment. Don’t worry about that at this stage. It is important to see yourself as having already attained the goal that you have set for yourself. Don’t just see it, but feel the feeling of success, the exhilaration of having achieved your goal.
Now you will need to set yourself a series of small goals that you can achieve in a reasonable amount of time. Each small goal should be seen as a stepping stone towards the ultimate goal that you have mapped out in your imagination. State what it is that each mini goal is seeking to achieve and set a time limit in which you aim to achieve it.
When it comes to Internet marketing there are several things that you can try to achieve without challenging your fear of failure.
For example, you could aim to improve your website’s Alexa ranking by a certain amount in the course of the coming month. This kind of goal can be achieved with various online activities, such as posting articles, building back-links, blogging and posting comments on other people’s blogs or on forums and so forth. (See Alexa.com if you do not know what I am talking about!)
When you see that your activities are producing results, it will give your confidence boost and help you to set slightly more challenging goals, while keeping your new positive business building habits as part of your routine.
The next step could be, for example, starting to build a mailing list and aiming to get so many subscribers by a certain date. This would involve learning about auto responders and researching list building tactics and putting them into action, one step at a time.
Gradually, as you see your skills improve, your website ranking improve, and traffic to your website starting to increase, you will want to think about how to convert your traffic into your first sale. Just aiming for one sale if you have not yet begun to sell anything is a good goal to aim for because once you have sold something you will feel more confident in your ability to simply do it again. After all, if you’ve done it before you can do it again. And again and again.
As each of these small steps takes you a little nearer to your ultimate goal of Internet marketing success, they will in turn help to boost your confidence in your ability to succeed. A key confidence building tip is simply that the art of success is discovered in trying to succeed, and a feeling of self-confidence is generated almost as a side-effect of this process.
Finally, another valuable confidence building tip for helping to build confidence is to read the stories and testimonies of other people who have come from unpromising backgrounds and circumstances to achieve great success on the Internet.
There are many examples of successful Internet marketers who are just average people, with no special skills beyond a determination to succeed, often from a starting point of abject failure. Reading their stories will help you to build your own confidence and determination to succeed as a home-based Internet marketer.
5 Tips on Creating and Using Successful Squeeze Pages
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, July 11, 2011
5 Tips on Creating and Using Successful Squeeze Pages
* Creating a successful squeeze page that converts well is a must if you want to be successful as an Internet marketer
Basically, a squeeze page (also known as an opt-in page or a splash page) is used to capture visitor information, like their name and email address, so that you can build a relationship with them. A good squeeze page will help your business save time and money.
Getting traffic to your website can not only be very time consuming, but it can also be very costly. However, if you have a good squeeze page, you will attract more subscribers to your list. And with a list, you can leverage your marketing efforts for the years to come.
One problem most marketers face with their squeeze pages is the reluctance of people to enter their contact information online. To help you with this, five tips to effectively create successful squeeze pages are discussed below so you can increase your visitor opt-ins:
1. Personalize
Since you will be asking complete strangers to part with their information, you have to make sure they are comfortable in doing so. Introduce yourself and make them feel that they know something about the person they are giving their information to.
Add a video, picture, or an audio message of you so that you can establish rapport at your first point of contact.
2. Professional Layout
A professional layout means that you don’t overcrowd your squeeze page with graphics and bright colors. There is no need to hire a professional designer to accomplish this. Use the swipe system…simply check what other successful marketers have done with their squeeze pages and copy and paste the process.
Evaluate it and if it looks cluttered to you, adjust it accordingly.
3. Giveaways
In order to motivate your visitors to fill in your opt-in form, give them something in return when they do so. Simply offer them something of value like an excellent ereport, ebook, interview or video that would entice them to opt in.
Everyone loves freebies and you can take advantage of this fact. Just see to it that your giveaway is beneficial to your target market so that your conversion rate will increase.
4. Remove Distractions
Keep in mind that everything in your squeeze page should work together with one goal in mind – getting your visitor’s contact information. See to it that your headline, graphics, and copy support what you are trying to accomplish.
Don’t make the mistake that many marketers online make by creating extremely long squeeze pages with unnecessary information. This practice defeats the purpose of getting the much desired visitor information because when people get distracted, they tend to leave the page immediately.
Distracting them away from opting in on your squeeze page defeats the purpose of the squeeze page…to gather their personal information for your list.
5. Templates
If you’ve been around lately, you’ll see squeeze pages that look exactly like each other. Before you label these pages as spam, think again. There’s a reason why people continue to use them — they are very effective in getting the conversions required. For this reason alone, it is recommended that you create a squeeze page with a similar template and see it work its wonders for your conversions.
By taking these five tips into mind, you’ll surely have a squeeze page that will get you the conversions you need. However, if you already have a squeeze page up, you must test and tweak it until you receive your desired conversion rate.
The Forgotten Method of Marketing: Forums
Forums are a great way of marketing alongside articles, email and blogging – there is no real way to compare all of these, they are just a different way of communicating. The big difference however with forums is that many many more people will see you and get to know you which builds trust as you interact with the community.
Forums have been around in many forms since the dawn of the internet, they provide a means of conversation with like-minded people in a community-driven atmosphere of helping one another with problems. If you don’t know how they work, let me just tell you a bit about them.
First off, you have to find your forum in your niche, the best way to do this is type in subject forums as the keywords (replacing subject with your topic) into a search engine. Once you have found one in the topic you’re interested in, with a nice community going on, registration is the next step.
Registration is pretty simple, its just a case of filling your details in and perhaps entering a captcha (one of those funny sets of digits and numbers that tell the site that you are not an automated spammer!) You may have to click a link in your email to register the fact that you own the email address you registered with.
There usually is many sub-forums, i would reccomend finding one that usually reads something like “introduce yourself” and post a brief overview of what you are about and say hello. I would advise against just registering and posting “buy my product now” or “come to my website” etc. type comments as you’ll end up with a flame war – if you dont know what that is please do a search on it as its not a nice thing to happen to you!
Get involved in the forum, post replies to people’s problems to help with any questions that you can – its a community-type feeling that you will enjoy. Forums which are busy have the advantage of many more people in the nich you are targeting, so you can find out about some really exciting new widget thing in your niche that is very important to you, and also reply and ask more.
Some forums have a specific buy, sell or trade section where you can sell your products, this is the place to be if you want to directly pitch your product. Another way of pitching your product is to enter links to your website in your signature, this is shown directly under each post that you make and is updated automatically – be careful however, some forums dont like this and will ask you to remove them. Some have rules on the size of images or links allowed, please read these before adding it.
Some of the more advanced forums that run vbulletin have private messaging which can be great to directly carry out business to people privately on the forum, i’ve bought many websites and domain names using this – some sites like digital point have itrader which is also a way of showing how trustworthy the user is in terms of buying and selling, similar to the ebay feedback system.
One last thing to remember, forums are a great place to communicate rather than a place to pitch-fest – if you want to advertise on a forum, but you cant find any other method other than the ones i’ve outlined, contact the owners of the site and ask for banner rates, this is a great way of getting in front of these people, then you have the right to freely talk about your product or service which is a huge bonus compared to advertising on a static site!
Are You Sacrificing Your Long Term Internet Marketing Success For Short Term Profits?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Are You Sacrificing Your Long Term Internet Marketing Success For Short Term Profits?
One thing about internet marketing is that all the strategies you implement require a level of specialization in order to be successful. Very often, this causes internet marketing start-up businesses to sacrifice consistent, passive long-term profits for short-term gains.
This isn’t a bad strategy when done correctly, but it will most likely mean that you’ll always be looking for the next sale instead leveraging the power that you have gained over time. Here’s a look at some of the potential trade-offs that are often made.
* PPC vs. SEO
PPC is a very common short-term tactic which is one of the quickest ways to generate targeted traffic to your web pages. The key to effective PPC campaigns is a mix of bid management, effective ad creation and conversions. While this approach can be extremely successful, it also involves consistent monitoring. The skills involved also require some level of specialization and time.
On the other hand, SEO has consistently proved that it’s the most effective way to ensure that your website has long-term visibility. While more work will be required at the outset to generate traffic, in the medium-long term, less and less time needs to be allocated to SEO. Plus, all of the work builds upon itself, so over time it will provide you with a large number of valuable assets that can be leveraged to promote new websites you may have in the future.
The trade-off between PPC and SEO is twofold. The first is time. Putting emphasis on one almost requires focusing less on the other when there is only a limited amount of time and resources. While PPC marketing can generate short-term profits, you’ll need to monitor and tweak your strategy consistently. Plus, if you decide you no longer want to pay for anymore PPC ads, you’ll no longer get any traffic.
On the other hand, if you stop doing SEO tactics, you’ll still be able to generate traffic based upon your past efforts. In most cases, people can set-up small websites, and once efficient enough, can be left to generate passive income without any additional work. Thanks to effective SEO, these websites can continue to generate profits for years after they are left alone.
* Possible Solutions
There are ways that you can include both PPC and SEO into your short and long-term marketing strategies. Regarding PPC, make sure that your landing page is focused on generating opt-ins to your newsletter list rather than trying to directly sell a product. This will allow you to use PPC to feed your long-term traffic and marketing strategies.
Also, if you’re currently only using PPC, then take 25% of your net profits and use them to start building your SEO efforts. Then, you’ll still be able to generate short-term profits from PPC but will also be able to invest time and money into creating and executing a long-term SEO strategy.
You can now see that it can be tempting to put off generating long-term passive income for short-term profits. However, if you plan accordingly and make sure to focus on the end-goal, then you can easily maintain both short-term profits from PPC ads and your dedication to SEO tactics. By doing this, you’ll cut down the amount of work that needs to be done in the long-run, without giving up on generating a profit in the short-term. This is the key to Internet marketing success.
The Sunny Side Of Internet Marketing
I am the type of writer that can look at the glass half full or look at it half empty. Sometimes I think Internet marketers need to fully realize what a sunny business they have chosen to be in.
Here are 4 things that bring a smile to my Internet marketing lips!
1. Instant affiliate commissions. I love the fact that I can get paid to sell other people’s stuff and I do not have to wait to see my money.
Today there are affiliate programs you can join that will set you up with your own PayPal url. When you make a sale your commissions are instantly deposited into your PayPal account.
WackyCentral.com has a great program. PaySpree.com is an instant payment affiliate network. Both are worth joining for free.
2. Easy blog set up. I admit that I do not like to build websites. Even setting up a WordPress blog used to be enough to turn me into an A #1 Procrastinator. Not anymore.
Most hosting companies offer a Fantastico icon you can click on for fast WordPress set up. This is simple enough that I can even do it.
Because of how easy it is you can also pay someone to do it for you and not break the bank doing it. Outsourcing a WordPress blog set up is very cheap to do.
3. Very good training available. When I started out online good Internet training was expensive. Today you can join membership sites for under $1 a day and get some really good personal coaching. The Affiliate Power Group is at the top of my list.
There are also many top notch discussion forums where you can get excellent training and meet some fantastic Internet marketers. The Warrior Forum is one of my favorites.
4. People will pay you to do things for them. I learned this by mistake at first. I had my son write content articles for me starting back in 2005. He was a journalism major and I wanted to expose him to Internet writing.
Out of that came our own Internet writing company and article marketing company. We have been able to turn that into a 6 figure writing business.
There are many examples of people getting paid by other Internet marketers. Some of what they do includes copywriting, blog building, virtual assistant, graphic design and so on. You will be smiling all the way to the bank when you get paid to stay at home and do things for online businesses.
These are 4 things that make me happy about Internet marketing. It is very easy to see the sunny side of this business when you think about all of the advantages it offers!
Some Tips In Creating Consistent Marketing Collaterals
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Some Tips In Creating Consistent Marketing Collaterals
A few weeks ago a flyer was handed to a friend of mine at the mall by a lady selling real estate. My friend doesn’t have any intentions of purchasing a house, but she read the flyer anyway and checked out the company’s website. The houses looked nice and the prices were reasonable but being a marketer herself, she was turned off by the typographical errors she spotted on the flyer and wondered why the color schemes in the flyer and the site were different. In marketing, image is everything.
This is why having consistent marketing pieces is essential. You may have a clear mission, vision and values when you started your business. You know your objectives, and you’re thrilled to execute your marketing strategies.
You know you need to build your communications based on your value propositions, so you look at some of the most commonly used marketing materials and decide which ones you’ll create for your company such as brochures, newsletters, product sheets, and business cards. With a good copywriter and a creative graphic designer, it should be a piece of cake right?
* So why do we still see some inconsistent marketing messages in some marketing pieces?
a) The importance of a consistent look and feel
Just how important is producing quality, consistent marketing materials? These pieces are the “face” of the company, so it’s essential that they not only look great and have flawless content – they also need to sends out consistent messages in order to be effective. We wouldn’t want to mislead prospects, customer and clients with inconsistent messages, slogans and even company colors, would we?
I’ve enumerated some tips for creating consistent marketing pieces. These may be very easy and basic for any marketer, but still, I believe it bears repeating. Eventually, marketing materials speak volumes about your brand, company and credibility. Might as well make it perfect.
b) Colors and Images
Materials should be created from a consistent palate of colors and images. You don’t want to cause confusion. You would want to make certain that you are conveying a clear, consistent and compelling message, from your website, brochure and email newsletters to your print and billboard ads.
c) Perfect grammar, consistent terminology
What would you think of a company if you notice bad grammar after visiting their site or reading their brochure? Care about the words you use. Consistent marketing collaterals require the use of consistent terms so that your customers are clear on what you are explaining. Content is king in your marketing pieces, and this shows a lot about the professionalism of your company.
d) Update, update, update
After spending the time and money on your marketing collateral, perhaps, you don’t want to do it again.
Nevertheless, it’s important to keep them current. Make it a practice to check and review your pieces often to be certain that your messages are still consistent. Perhaps, you could even adjust the content and improve the design. No matter how busy business gets, never, never forget to keep your materials recent.
With consistent marketing pieces, you not only make an excellent impression – you also establish your brand and attract potential customers in!
5 Must-haves for Making it in Internet Marketing
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Successful Online Businesses: 5 Must-haves for Making it in Internet Marketing
Successful online businesses don’t come easy or we’d all have one—right? It is a hard game, and there are plenty of people who never make it, but the ones who do make it have a pretty good life indeed. And if you’re the type who was inspired by the Four Hour Workweek and loved Tim Ferris’s idea of tramping around the globe and leveraging currency differences in some of the best place son Earth, it doesn’t take all that much money for a good internet marketing business to set you free.
* So what does it take to create a successful online business then?
1. Ridiculous Work Ethic
Cast your assumptions aside – internet marketing success takes A LOT of hard, hard work – at least in the beginning. Most big-timers have put in massive amounts of time and energy to get their businesses where they are today. Sure, now they may be coasting now – although many learn to love the grind and just keep creating – but most have paid their dues.
Be prepared to put in 120% effort, as they say, and work while your friends and family are sleeping. Keep your eye on your dream, and push on.
2. Money to Invest
While it is possible to start successful online businesses from scratch, in most cases, it will take some money to get going along the way. Now, most costs, like web hosting, a domain name, and a quality autoresponder program, are quite cheap, but there are other costs you may not be taking into account until you get your feet wet.
I’d say a major one is skills. Learning things like graphics design, web design, and marketing itself – these things cost time and money. You can hire a quality freelancer to do some of them, and I recommend that with the most important ones, but if you want quality, be prepared to pay.
Another thing that costs is knowledge. You can find anything you want for free – or come up with them through your own through processes – but unless you want to grind away for years at this craft, it’s better to find someone highly successful to emulate, in which case you’ll likely need to pay for their knowledge.
Finally, if you don’t want to do all this while working a full-time job, you’d better have some money saved up – to last a good chunk of time. I highly recommend freelancing as a way to fund your internet marketing journey.
3. The Ability to Learn
Do you have the ability to learn new skills and the energy to keep after them until you have achieved mastery? In many cases, that’s what it takes, and while everyone says they can learn and love to do it, true learning is rare in our culture. Just look how often the people around you have made actual changes in their life if you don’t believe me.
4. Unrealistic Goals
Like any successful entrepreneur, you need to be somewhat of a dreamer. And the ability to stand behind those big dreams when no one else has faith in you is even more important in this business because all your friends and family will be there telling you it’s a sham.
5. Guidance
Finally, nothing is so valuable as solid guidance in the internet marketing world. It is hard to find someone you can put your faith in, but if you don’t find someone then you will find yourself running down one path after another, never staying on one long enough to get results.
I highly encourage you to find one person who you respect and trust that is doing very well for themselves, and follow them. Once you’ve mastered what they are teaching and begun making money, then you can begin to study someone else and keep building on your knowledge-base to emulate the successful online businesses that are already out there.
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.
QR Codes as Emerging Business Trend
Recently mobile marketing got armed with another powerful weapon – Quick Response codes, or, as you might have heard of them, QR codes. The first QR code was created by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave in 1994. Back then nobody could imagine that as soon as in around 15 years this invention will cause a real marketing boom all over the world.
Basically this code is a very useful and time-saving tool, it looks like an image that can be scanned with mobile device. From a technical point of view, these are two-dimensional matrix barcodes that contain some unique data (website’s url, contact information etc.). If you are going to use this tool in your campaign than you should know that there are many different QR code generators that can create unique code almost for everything that you want. Second thing you need to know is that this code can be scanned with help of free applications which must be installed on mobile phones.
Audience and Demography
Well, Japan and South Korea are real pioneers in the sphere of implementing QR codes into various spheres of life. Western countries are a bit slower in adopting this technology so far, however they’re catching up fast. The current situation shows that using this marketing tool will be more efficient with tech-savvy audience and youngsters (both of these are the most advanced groups in the new technologies). iOS and Android are most popular mobile operation systems that use QR code scanning and that have the most efficient apps for this purpose. Twitter and Facebook users are the most advanced segments on the web in terms of using QR codes. Given all that, you want to consider adding some additional information about your QR code (what is it, how to use it etc.) before starting QR code campaign. Also you can always experiment with the size, color and design of your QR code in order to better engage the visitors and make them try this technology and then come back for more.
Tips and Techniques
In short, we believe that QR codes can be used as effective marketing weapon for freelance designers and web developers. And here are some ideas that might help you to better understand how you can use QR codes to help your business. You should notice that such campaign will be quite experimental and maybe you won’t achieve positive results instantly, though according to some statistics about campaigns of famous brands like Pepsi-Cola and PlayStation, the usage of QR codes in marketing campaigns is definitely worth trying. Below we’ve tried to give you a short list of possible practices and the results that you may expect to achieve from QR codes.
- Branding and Promotion – you can create a QR code for your resume or portfolio and distribute this code in many different ways. For example you can put it to your business card, Facebook and Twitter profiles, avatar on forums etc. Also you can create a kind of a QR code that will add your phone number and other contact info into the mobile devices of the ones who scan this code. Pretty cool, isn’t it?
- Promos – as a part of your promo you can offer exclusive discount code that would available only via QR code. This may engage your clients and visitors to find out more about this technology and of course will make them want to take part in your promo.
- SEO – distribute QR code allowing free downloads of mobile-related freebies such as wallpapers, free illustrations, photos and other similar stuff with the link to your website.
- SMO – using QR codes to encourage your visitors to share your content on Facebook will give you some extra social media and link juice, make your brand/name more recognizable and may even help to build a community in the long run.
The Future
It is hard to predict all benefits that you may expect from using QR codes in your marketing strategy, it all very much depends on your goals, However we assume that in the nearest future we will see more and more original solutions for QR codes’ usage. It is obvious that next generation of barcodes will have more physical space for information and we can only imagine how far this technology may go. It would be a great pleasure to hear about your experience in using QR codes in marketing purposes, so please feel free to tell us about it. Don’t you think that QR codes may change some basic principles of usability theory, including web design usability? There is not much research data concerning this topic today, but we really hope to discuss that with you now.
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.
10 Steps to Triple Your Prospect Conversions with an Email Mini-Course
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
10 Steps to Triple Your Prospect Conversions with an Email Mini-Course
For years, I’ve been giving away a PDF ebook as my client attraction device to entice prospects to sign up for my list. This strategy has served me well as a way to grow my list. However, what I’ve discovered during that time is that many people download my ebook and then never open it. So, as you might imagine, my rate of converting a customer prospect to a buyer isn’t as high as I’d like.
Just like the people who join my list, I, too, often don’t open a PDF ebook when I download it. What I have noticed, however, is that when I subscribe to an ecourse that someone is giving away as a client attraction device, I’m much more likely to pay attention to it, since I’m getting emails every day with new information in them. And, all indications are that the conversion rate of prospect to customer is higher, as well, for this same reason. Your mini-course helps you automatically build a relationship with subscribers and drive sales of your products and services.
Here’s how you can create your own client attraction ecourse to help you triple your conversion rate:
1. Buy autoresponder system. In order to create your email mini-course, you need to purchase an email marketing system that has autoresponder capability, which is the ability to pre-set emails to go out at a periodic interval when someone opts into a list.
2. Determine your theme and catchy name. Your ecourse needs to have a theme or subject. What is it that you want to teach your prospects? Once you determine the theme, your ecourse needs to have a catchy title. Typically, you’ll want to focus on solving a problem or the result someone receives by enrolling in your mini-course.
3. Create content. Your ecourse should consist of 8-12 emails. The bulk of these emails need to contain valuable, actionable content that will help your prospect solve her problems. In a couple of the emails, you can break up the content delivery by introducing your prospect to other resources you offer that will help them, as well. In my new mini-course, I simply re-purposed a number of articles I had already written, paring them down to 400-600 words each, in most cases.
4. Add your soft sell. Rather than hammering a prospect over the head with sales hype, I did three things in each of the followup emails. First, I included a resource box at the end of the email with a link to the call to action I want my prospect to take or a postscript (P.S.) that included a link to the call to action. Secondly, in the body of the email, I made a natural transition based on the content of the email to ask people to buy the product I wanted them to buy. Thirdly, at the end of each lesson, I added, “In our next lesson, we’ll talk about…” to keep the reader engaged and anxiously awaiting the next email.
5. Format and upload your ecourse. In order to best track your open rates of each segment of the ecourse, you’ll want to format each email as HTML. This means that you’ll want to have a header designed and template created so that you can simple copy and paste the content into a properly formatted HTML template. To increase the likelihood that your ecourse will reach its destination, also format a plain text version of each segment of the course, as well.
Next, create a catchy subject line to entice your reader to open that email. Lastly, copy your ecourse into your autoresponder system and create the followup sequence. Ideally, you want your prospect to receive one email from you for a 8-12 days.
6. Design your opt-in box. Your email marketing program should provide instructions on how to create an opt-in box for prospects to join your list. Typically, all that you want to request of your prospects is a first name, last name, and email address. Once you have created the opt-in box, copy the code you’ll need to add the opt-in box to your web site.
7. Create a graphic. To make your email mini-course more appealing, have a graphic designed that visually represents the ecourse. I simply had a spiral book cover designed that contained my name and the name of my ecourse.
8. Create your landing page. To entice prospects to sign up for your ecourse, you’ll want to create a landing page that “sells” the mini-course. In today’s world, you have to “sell” free just like you do something for a fee, so create a short list of the benefits that someone will receive by signing up for your course, and add the code for your opt-in box. Since anyone opting in for my ecourse is also added to my ezine list, I make sure that all prospects know this at the time they sign up.
9. Copy the course content to your web site. To prevent your prospects from emailing you that they are missing some number of lessons in the ecourse, copy the content to your web site. Then, at the bottom of each email lesson, you can add a note that if they have missed any of the lessons, they can read them on your site. You can create one page for each lesson, or a couple of pages containing a few lessons.
10. Track and measure. The only way to realize the success of your mini-course is to track and measure. Create a simple spreadsheet with the open rates of each email and the unsubscribe rates. If you notice over time that many prospects are unsubscribing from your list when they receive a certain lesson, you need to review the content of that lesson and change it until your unsubscribe rate diminishes. And, of course, you need to track how many sales result from your ecourse.
Create an email mini-course to help you establish a relationship with your prospects and lead them to taking the action you desire. You’ll discover that a mini-course is the most effective way to convert a prospect into a paying customer.
The Opportunity of Web eCommerce: Fact or Fiction?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
The Opportunity of Web eCommerce: Fact or Fiction?
If you own a bricks-and-mortar retail store, a distributorship, or a manufacturing facility, imagine the potential for increased sales if you offered your products to a global marketplace by simply setting up a website with your catalog on it. After installing an ecommerce shopping cart system and the ability to process payments online, some aspiring Internet moguls just sit back and wait for the orders to start flying in. The idea of suddenly having access to hundreds of millions of credit card wielding customers can certainly be intoxicating, but the reality of ecommerce success is that it’s not nearly that easy!
Maybe there’s some glamour associated with being a “renegade entrepreneur”, adopting a take-no-prisoners mentality and making up the rules as you go along. In some cases, being unconventional and aggressive can certainly help an online store stand out in the crowded Internet marketplace, but skipping steps and ignoring proven business principles is a guaranteed recipe for failure.
So if selling stuff on the Web represents a huge opportunity, but most people fail at it, then what does one have to do join the ranks of the successful “webpreneur”? While there are always risks inherent in starting any business, beginning your journey with an up-to-date “roadmap” (or virtual GPS) can help assure that you won’t get lost, miss an ‘exit’, or fail to reach your destination on your way to ecommerce success.
Imagine this scenario (and it happens all the time): An awesome-looking web site with marketable products and competitive prices goes online, but makes no sales or performs far below expectations. What happened? Well, there’s a veritable checklist of possibilities that could explain abysmal sales figures, but it often boils down to two things: a lack of attention to search engine optimization (SEO) and sales conversion factors.
The Essence of SEO and Online Sales Conversion Tactics
In a nutshell, search engine optimization means that steps have been taken to demonstrate to Google, Yahoo, and Bing that a web site is highly relevant for certain keywords, and that it deserves a top-10 ranking when searches are performed for those keywords. What a sizable portion of ecommerce website owners do not realize is that if their web site isn’t among the first dozen or so listings on the search engine results pages, then, for all intents and purposes, their web site is invisible to thousands of prospective customers.
To put things in perspective, millions of web pages are competing with each other for a top-10 Google ranking for most common keyword searches. So, to stand a chance of gaining any visibility in Google (the dominant search engine), an ecommerce site has to contain keyword combinations for which customers are actually searching. Not only that, but the phrases have to be strategically placed on the web page, and, ideally, the most important keyword phrase should be in the domain name and in links to your site from other web sites (that’s where it gets a bit tricky). Once all that has been accomplished, then your ecommerce web site is geared up to begin competing on a level playing field with other similar web sites trying to be found by customers on the Internet.
Another common ecommerce blunder is failing to make the most of sales conversion opportunities on a website, which can include everything from including trust-building factors and a hassle-free checkout process to offering easy site navigation features and plenty of clear “calls to action” — which refers to what you want the customer to do before leaving your web site (such as, call your toll-free number, leave their email address, or order a product). A good ‘rule of thumb’ in ecommerce, which also applies to do business off-line, is that “a confused customer is a lost customer”. So to maximize the sales conversion potential of your ecommerce online store, instill your visitors with a sense of trust, a clear path to placing an order or getting more information, and an incentive to take action now.
How To Have Great Results With Article Marketing?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
How To Have Great Results With Article Marketing?
Ever wonder how to get a virtual flood of FREE traffic to your websites? Yeah, me too! Then I discovered article marketing.
* What is Article Marketing?
Article Marketing is the art of the writing and distributing articles to article directories and blogs.
There are two main purposes of article marketing.
1.) To gain valuable backlinks from high page rank sites to your website or affiliate page
2.) To drive traffic to your website or affiliate page
* So how do you write good articles?
To start off with, the number one rule for writing articles is to provide value to the reader! This can be done by explaining a topic (like this article does) or by solving a problem the potential reader has. Providing Value is very important because if you are trying to get people to your website or affiliate page, what is the chance they are going to click through at the bottom of the article if you do not write a good article? Probably, no chance at all.
The 2nd rule when writing articles for maximum effect is to include a byline or signature that seems to be a natural extension of the article itself. There are far to many individuals who are not aware of this rule. What do I mean by this?
Well instead of writing an author’s signature like this (99% of people do this): Chris Gustafson is a expert in the field of search engine optimization.
Write something like this:
As you can see topic XYZ is not that hard to understand once you have it explained to you in plain English.
When you write a signature like the 2nd one your click through rate on your articles will go from 5% to above 20%.
Yes, it’s that big of difference!!!!
So there are your two golden rules that if followed will put you ahead of 99% of the other people out there who are using article marketing as a strategy. The next thing you need to know how to do is distribute your article. To do this you really have two options:
1.) Manually submit your article to all the top article directories
2.) Pay an article submission service to do this for you:
Option #1 is time consuming and get’s old real fast
Option #2 will cost you some money but may be worth it if you are in this for the long haul. To find article submission services it is as simple as Googling that term! There will be a ton of results; all you have to do is pick one. Make sure to do your homework first though.
In closing, I hope you enjoyed this article. I hope you learned something and it leads you to great article marketing success!
How Many Article Submission Sites Should I Submit To
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
How Many Article Submission Sites Should I Submit To
Here is an excellent question that I get sometimes: “Is it okay to submit the same article to multiple article submission sites?”
Sometimes people are afraid to do this, and that fear is completely unfounded. Let’s start by looking at the purpose of an article directory.
Article submission sites (aka article directories) are like libraries. They specialize in having content (free reprint articles) on all sorts of topics that can be “checked-out” for free, like in a library.
The difference is that with a library you need to bring the book back eventually, whereas the articles on directories do not need to be “returned”.
Publishers go to the article directories looking for content for their websites. They find an article that they like, and they may reprint that article for free, with the agreement that they will also republish the resource box with its link.
The purpose of an article submission site is to provide free reprint articles for publishers. Each article can be republished a limitless number of times–the more the better.
When you publish your article on a directory, you want it to be republished. That is how you build links, and building links impacts your search engine ranking, which in turn impacts the traffic you receive to your website.
So, article directories are never meant to be the end of the line–you do not publish there thinking that it will be the only place that your article will be published. That is not how article marketing works.
The power behind article marketing is in the republication of the articles.
You write one article, and it gets republished many times. You submit your article one time to a directory, and then let’s say 100 publishers find your article on that directory and put it on their site.
So, from one article submitted to one directory, you created 101 links–the first link came from the directory itself, when you submitted your article there. The other 100 links were the result of publishers finding your article on the directory and republishing it.
Let’s go back to the original question–is it alright to submit the same article to multiple article directories?
The answer is “yes”, and you will benefit greatly if you take the initiative to do that.
If you submit your article to one submission site, then you are totally dependent on the results that that one directory can bring. You do that one submission and you wait, and wait, and wait. Kind of passive, isn’t it?
But, if you submit your article to several directories, then you have helped your cause in two ways:
1 – You are automatically building more links by submitting to more sites. Submit your article to one directory, and you know for sure that you have build one backlink. Submit your article to ten directories, and you know for sure you have build ten new links.
2 – You multiply the opportunities for your article to be picked up for publication, which also multiplies your opportunities for building backlinks.
For example, submit your article to one directory, and then 100 publishers republish your article. That makes a total of 101 backlinks for you as a result of publishing that one article on that one directory.
Not bad, but what if you submitted your article to ten directories with the same result–101 backlinks build as a result of publishing on each site. That’s a big increase, isn’t it?
Would you rather have 101 new backlinks or 1,010?
When you submit your articles to more directories, you drastically increase the number of links that you can create.
Article directories are not expecting that they will be the only website that contains your article–the very purpose of an article submission site is to propagate the republication of articles.
Each article that you write should only be submitted one time to each directory, but you can submit that same article to as many directories as you like.
Good Conversation Topics Often Make Good Article Topics
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Good Conversation Topics Often Make Good Article Topics
Want to know how to get a quiet person to talk your ear off?
Ask them about something that they are passionate about– A hobby, their work, their favorite author or musician.
When you have the chance to speak about something that you are passionate about, you can talk for hours, and it feels like minutes.
I’ve noticed this with myself–some of my best articles about my niche are the products of spontaneous conversations I’ve had with people who innocently asked me something that I am very knowledgeable and passionate about.
Whenever I find myself in one of these conversations, I think “This would make a great article!”
When you are doing article marketing, you are always on the look out for new and compelling article ideas. The ideas listed below will help you generate more conversation oriented topics:
1 – Think of yourself as an ambassador for your niche
Wherever you go, no matter if you’re enjoying some leisure time or are officially “at work”, always be on the look out for someone who needs more information about your niche.
Even if you think that person will never become a customer or buy any of your products, still take the time to give them information that will help them succeed.
An ambassador lives to spread truth about his or her niche. This takes you out of the position as sales person (which can be a turn-off to others) and puts you into the amiable position of “the go-to expert”.
2 – Plan how you’ll answer this question, “What do you do for a living?”
This may be a very simple question for most humans, but for those of us who own internet businesses it can be a tricky question to answer outside of the context of the online world. Let’s say someone in the offline world asks you this question–what will you say? How can you explain what you do in a way that they will understand?
Here are some pointers I’ve developed:
* Instead of rattling off some obscure title or description that no one in the outside world would understand, talk about the type of people who you help and what you do to help them.
* Force yourself to avoid technical lingo–use language that your grandmother would understand.
* Speak about your general field, rather than about your specific business, at least at first. Remember, you don’t want to send any “I want to sell you something” vibes (because you really don’t want to sell anything–you’re just having a conversation).
As an example, I would say that I help business owners market their websites. That is something that someone from the offline world can sink their teeth into, and it will lead to other questions. Many of the conversations that you have about your niche with newbies or folks outside your field are excellent fodder for your articles.
If you are going through a writing slump or just want a fresh way to generate article ideas, I have an assignment for you:
Step 1:
Turn off your computer and go out where people are. Go to a party, a coffee shop, the gym, the grocery store–anywhere where you can encounter live humans.
Step 2:
Put on your ambassador hat. Smile at people, be open and friendly. Engage them in conversations. If someone talks to you, be interested in them and ask them questions. The point is to provide fertile ground for conversations to develop. No pressure here–just be yourself.
Step 3:
Did any article topics arise from your conversations? Sometimes you can take the simplest question that someone unfamiliar with your niche asks and turn it into a helpful article. No topic is too simple!
Do this, will you? What’s the worst that can happen?
At worst you will have enjoyed a break from sitting behind your keyboard and staring at your monitor. Sometimes that in itself is enough to jump start your creativity and inspire writing ideas.
My Secrets for Getting More Views and Clicks
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, March 5, 2011
My Secrets for Getting More Views and Clicks
When you are writing an article the reader should find it informative. If you are writing about the pros and cons of something then the reader should be able to identify with what you are saying. You need to come up with a solution to a given problem in the article. With this in mind, article writing can be easier than many of us think.
Here Are 5 Simple Tips On Writing Great Articles:
1. If the title of the article is ambiguous it should be simplified to make it more effective. The readers should find your writings both interesting and informative. You should know your target audience, before you start writing articles. This will help you write better. Make sure that your title is catchy. You will be up against thousands of articles so you want to be able to stand out from the crowd.
2. The success or failure of an article marketing campaign may rest on its use of keywords. They must be strategically placed. They should appear at least once in the title, opening and closing paragraphs. They should also appear in the middle. The rest should be sprinkled throughout the remainder of the piece. Keyword density should be about one to three percent.
3. Use conversational tone. Don’t even think about making your articles sound like novels or encyclopedia. To avoid alienating your readers, write as if you’re personally talking to them. Use first person pronouns when addressing them. Ask questions from time to time and find effective ways to engage them all the way.
4. Keep it short and scannable. As you might already know, online users are usually pressed for time. You can make your articles more attractive for these people if you make them relatively short and easy to skim through. Make sure that you will not use more than 500 words especially if you’re discussing very specific topics. Then, use subheadings, short paragraphs, and bullets lists as much as possible.
5. Use good grammar and proper spelling. This should go without saying. Yet some article writers/publishers seem to have a poor grasp on grammar and spelling. Even if your grammar and spelling are stellar, you should always run your articles through a spell/grammar check. This can help catch mistakes you might miss.
Writing a POWERFUL Resource Box
Never underestimate the power of the resource box. It may be small in size but they will provide a significant aid in driving traffic to your site. A boring resource box will never get the job done. Be fun and creative but at the same time show that you have a great deal to offer.
While the resource box encompasses only a small space, providing the right keywords and content will provide more prodding for the reader to go to your site. You do not need to give away everything in your article, but instead make your readers crave for more information. This will guide them to visit your website to get more details. You only get one chance to wow them and many other chances to repulse them.
Remembering these tips when you embark on creating an article marketing campaign will greatly increase your chances of success. Not only will it be great for business, you’ll undoubtedly come away with a tremendous sense of personal satisfaction.
Final Thoughts
What Article Marketing Lab taught me was how to write articles for certain products and how to use those articles to drive traffic to a simple landing page. The key to writing articles is target specific people looking for more information on my chosen topic and the landing page is there to deliver what my article readers are looking for. Pretty simple really once you know how.
I have been part of the buy everything going crowd and I have learned through this course that there is a way to succeed, there is a way forward and that is to stick to something that works. I have a lot to thank Team AML for opening my eyes to something that I know I can succeed in.
Article Marketing Is Still A Goldrush For Local Businesses
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, March 4, 2011
Article Marketing Is Still A Goldrush For Local Businesses
It’s no secret that the most competitive verticals online like Golf, Finance, Forex, Real Estate, Health and Internet Marketing are extremely competitive. That’s because these are known as Global Markets, which means people participate in these from all over the world. But what about Mary’s Hair Salon in Birmingham, AL or Grubby’s cafe in Oceanside, CA.? These are what they call local businesses, and to date very few of these types of businesses even have an SEO friendly website much less know what article marketing is or how to implement it.
Right now there are 8 major article repositories you can submit your articles to. They are Ezine Articles, GoArticles, Articles Base, Free Articles Zone, Article Alley, Articles Factory, Article Snatch and Article Dashboard. If you’re not familiar with these places just Google them and they’ll come right up. Each one requires you to sign up. They are all free to sign up for. Then you will have to spend a few minutes on each site uploading a photo of you or your business and filling out some author bio information.
Then you are ready to start writing and submitting articles. You can write articles for free on just about any subject there is. The key is to be an expert in what you are writing about. No one knows more about how to run your business than you do, so you should be the most qualified writer on your subject matter. The key is to write your articles and make them about 400-600 words each. Word Count Tool is a free tool you can use to check the word count of your articles before you submit them (Google it). I also use a free program called Note Tab Light which allows me to open up and edit multiple text files at once and is great for simple cut and paste operations.
Your goal should be to write at least 2 articles per day related to your niche subject. You would create an author biography that looks similar to the one you will see below. Take advantage of the 2 anchor text links for every author bio and use them in each article. You can even use the Google keyword tool which is free to collect a list of relevant keywords to your niche. Then start writing articles around these.
If you can type, or know someone who can there is nothing stopping you from becoming the dominator in your local market. The key is to just get out there and start writing and submitting articles every day. Even if you can only afford enough time to do one article per day that’s way better than doing nothing at all. Before you know it your website will start getting better Google rankings for all kinds of keywords related to your business. Of course you have to also pay attention to on-site optimization but that’s a topic for an entirely different article.
But right now article directories are hungry for your wisdom and knowledge about what you know about how your type of business is supposed to be run in your locale. Publish or perish couldn’t be more true. The first one out there with the content will be the supreme ruler in their local niche. I suggest you develop a sense of urgency soon and get out there with as much content as possible before your competition does.
Article Marketing And The Eye Of The Spider
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Article Marketing And The Eye Of The Spider
Ever wondered how internet marketing worked? How does anybody who is into internet marketing inform his potential customers that he exists? And how do customers who are looking for something specific, know where to look for it?
Given the sheer profusion of pages on the internet, this can be a herculean task for both the buyer as well as the seller.
Internet marketing is all about catching the ‘eye of the spider’. ‘Spiders’ are ingenious little devices that search all the pages of the World Wide Web looking for those pages that are most relevant to the search term that the internet user has entered. Not only do spiders find the appropriate pages, but they also rank these pages in order of relevance, making it easier for the user to find what he is looking for. Goes without saying, anybody looking for something would first click on the page that is right on top of the list. If he finds what he is looking for, that’s it- he looks no further. It is only if he does not find what he wants that he will then go down the list of pages that the spiders have ranked in decreasing order of relevance. The key then, is to make sure your website is ranked right up there above all others that have the same keyword.
Here are a few tips on how you can use article marketing to catch the eye of that all-important spider and get your website ranked right up there, where it can be seen by millions of users:
* Make sure your article content is original
Spiders never forget! They memorize every article they have ever crawled over. If they come across a similar article during subsequent searches they immediately pick it out as a plagiarized copy. Instead of the brownie points you would expect to win for featuring valuable content on your web site, your web site would get penalized for featuring copied content. It is critical to make sure that your article content is always original.
Post your original articles on your own website first
By posting your original content on your own website before distributing it to other sites, you stake a claim to your article, and prevent those spiders from penalizing it for duplication. Also, when the spider picks up your article during a search, if the article is posted on your website, it will lead the reader straight to your site circumventing the round-about route.
* Embed those keywords and keyword phrases
Using appropriate keywords and keyword phrases throughout your article while maintaining optimum keyword density, is critical. Proper keywords used correctly helps spiders index your website and leverages your search engine optimization. It is important to remember that proper usage of keywords and keyword phrases is critical. Keywords that are randomly placed throughout the article, known as keyword stuffing, will only help get your article disqualified and penalized by search engines. And if your article that is unintelligently keyword stuffed, does get past the search engines, your site visitors will be none too impressed with the quality of your articles and will almost certainly turn away. Once this happens, it is almost impossible to lure them back again.
* Increase your link popularity
Spiders determine the popularity and relevancy of your website by the quality and quantity of inbound hyperlinks from other websites to yours. Include an “About the Author” section with a link to your website in every author resource box at the end of your article. It is obligatory for other websites to include this section if they decide to publish your article on their site. This in itself will guarantee you unlimited free publicity. If your article is informative and interesting, and is placed on several sites, you would automatically get plenty of links pointing back to your site. This is guaranteed to catch the eye of the spider and increase your search engine ranking.
* Maximize your exposure through article distribution sites
By submitting your articles to large distributions sites such as GoArticles.com or eZine.com you increase the chances of your article being re-purposed by other webmasters who are continuously seeking quality content. This can have a kind of viral effect and send a continuous stream of significant traffic towards the direction of your articles.
* Persistence pays
Writing just one article, no matter how good, is not enough to get you the desired results. Catching the eye of the spider takes time. To reap the benefits of article marketing requires time and patience as well as the unswerving commitment to generate and disseminate good quality articles consistently. This is what will create a valuable footprint in your field of expertise and help increase the number of back-links to your site.
* Maintain that word count
Most websites will only accept and distribute articles that meet their specified article requirements with regard to minimum and maximum length. As a rule, articles should be no more than 500 words and no less than 300 words.
An Editor’s Take on Article Writing: The Submission Process
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
An Editor’s Take on Article Writing: The Submission Process
As an editor for an online newsletter, I receive dozens of articles via personal submissions and article directories throughout the week. Many of these articles are extremely well written, many are very good, but unfortunately, many are well below industry standards due to poorly written or structured content. So, what makes for a good article and one that will actually be picked by an editor for publication?
Understanding what elements a publisher is looking for to use in its newsletter or on its website should be a consideration of any author who wants to be published, as well as having a good grasp of the English language, (i.e. grammar and punctuation). The recent surge of new article directories on the Web has brought a deluge of so called authors who churn out article after article on a subject with little regard, or maybe I should say knowledge, on how they are being reviewed by publishers. A simple, but effective, fine-tuning of those articles for publication will be of benefit to both author and publisher.
* What is a Publisher Looking for in an Article?
1. Good Content
Content on a relevant topic within our specific industry is the biggest consideration when selecting a piece for our newsletter or website. (If the newsletter is for web-programmers or web-designers – relevant topics for submission should be within that scope and pertinent areas.) There has been an influx of articles recently on article marketing and affiliate marketing. These are both great topics, but what I see is the same information rewritten over and over. Once an article has been published on this topic, unless the new article is obviously providing a different take on the subject or has new information to share…it is old news.
Therefore, authors must be creative and take a new direction on the topic; writing something that hasn’t been rehashed over and over. Be controversial. Do some research on the topic that will add value to the article by providing statistics, history, a new point-of-view – anything that is relevant and new that readers will find of interest and not just of interest to you, the author.
Make sure your first few sentences or paragraphs provide enough interest to keep your audience’s attention. You will lose them otherwise. Most people scan an article and move on if it is not compelling enough. Add compelling content! Simply stated is fine – but your content must also be interesting, thought provoking, and of value to the reader.
In addition — Spell-check your work!! A poorly written article is not only difficult to read, but takes time for the editor to proof and edit. Your articles should be well written pieces with spelling and grammar checked before submitting to article directories or directly to a publisher. This is my pet-peeve. With all the tools available to assist in most programs (i.e. Word, Works, Mac Word, iWorks, etc.) there shouldn’t be spelling or grammatical errors. Take the time to check your work, it’s well worth the effort.
2. Give the Article a Catchy Title
This is another very important point I cannot stress enough. A boring or vague title will not prompt a reader to either open an email or click on a link to your article. If your article is about Google – use Google in the title. Think about the point you are trying to make or bring to the reader’s attention and use it in the title. Strong titled articles will get the attention of a publisher and your readers.
3. Making the Word Count
Taking the time to write an article is a task in itself. Unless you are making money at article writing – your time is valuable and you want to make the most of your article writing. Getting published is your reward! With that in mind….A well written article on a hot topic should have a substantial word count, and if less than 550 words – the article may not be picked up by a publisher of a newsletter as a featured article. A featured article has substance and should be at least 750 words or longer for consideration. Still, many publishers are looking for shorter articles for their websites and a well-written article with a shorter word count will suffice.
* Finally…
To be a successfully, published author you must hone in your skills. Providing good, relevant content in an article that is spell-checked and grammatically correct, with a catchy title will entice and grab the attention of publishers. Experienced authors get published more often as they become a trusted source by editors to provide a professional piece which has that added attention to detail we editors all strive for!
How to Write Google Ads that Get New Patients
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
How to Write Google Ads that Get New Patients
If you’re using Pay-Per-Click advertising to promote your plastic surgery marketing practice online or if you’re even thinking about using PPC then you need to read this article right away.
* Why?
Because you can’t just buy the first spot anymore! There’s something called a quality score that Google uses. And if Google doesn’t like your ad or website, it will punish you by lowering the rank of your ad burying it so very few prospects will see it. Now, if you don’t write your Google Ads the right way, you can be spending thousands of dollars and not get one single new patient.
Why Most Google Ads Fail to Bring In New Patients
Imagine you are seated in a room, shoulder to shoulder with your fiercest competitors.
In the middle is a prospective patient for your plastic surgery practice.
This asks, “Why should I choose YOUR PRACTICE in 15 words or less?”
* What would you say?
Would you waste any of the 15 words? Would you waste 3-6 of the words on saying your name once or TWICE???? Would you waste a few words on “Board Certified” or “Free Consultation” that everyone else offers?
Well, believe it or not, the scenario above is basically your Google ad. It’s a preliminary 15-word interview of you versus all of your competition. And, most people doing pay-per-click advertising online stumble by adding words that are a complete waste. People add words that do not make people want to click and visit their website. By not writing an effective Google ad, you can kiss tens of thousands of dollars in new patients goodbye.
* How to Write an Effective Google Ad That Brings In New
Each word in your Google ad must earn its spot. If there’s not a strong persuasive element to every word you select, then you are wasting space and missing out on new patients. And, this includes inserting your name and the practice’s name within the ad. In fact, this is the pay-per-click advertising mistake that is committed everyday. People are obliviously taking up precious Google ad real estate.
For example, look at these to ads under a search for “San Diego Plastic Surgeon”:
Ad #1:
Smith Cosmetic Surgery
Dr. Ray Smith offers cosmetic
procedures for body, breast & face
(URL was placed here)
(Actual ad but name was changed here)
Ad #2
Facial Plastic Surgery
“Only Face; Only Superior Results” San Diego
San Diego Plastic Surgeon (CA)
(URL was placed here)
* Notice the difference between the two ads?
The Difference Between a Good Google Ad and a Poor Google Ad
1. The first ad forgets that the most important part of the ad is the headline. Put your name there and you might as well leave it blank.
2. The first ad in contrast tells the prospective patient nothing about why they should choose or even consider Smith over every other plastic surgeon out there. Everyone else “offers procedures for body, breast & face.” He’s positioned him self as just like everyone body else.
3. The second ad tells people we only do face. This eliminates people they don’t want– so they’re only paying for clicks from their target customers. The general public has been taught that specialists are “better.”
4. The second ad confirmed they are in San Diego, in two different spots. This bolds “San Diego” in the ad and it makes the ad stand out from the rest. Plus it assures someone looking for a surgeon in San Diego that in fact this is in line with what they are looking for.
The only fault that I find on the second ad is the use of “Only Superior Results.” What does that really mean to a prospective patient? Not a whole lot. Every patient is expecting superior results. Some have expectations set more towards miracles then “superior.”
On your Google ad, you want to describe what a patient is after and hit on some emotion. You want to have some psychological or emotional trigger within your ad copy that grabs prospective patients by the eyeballs and pulls them to your website.
* Your Next Steps…
You can continue to do pay-per-click advertising your way and waste thousands of dollars or you can consistently beat your competitors and get new patients even in a recession. And, you can have Google think of you as a long-term business partner they can count on. They give their long-term partners preferential treatment like:
* Higher position with a LOWER cost. It is possible to get a #1 spot for #3 prices or less.
* Your ads will show more often
The end result is more new patients and a lower new patient generation cost.
For more information on plastic surgery marketing that generates a flood of new patients visit www.clicksandpatients.com for our free report: “Recession Proof Strategies That Are Bringing In Scores Of New Patients For Plastic Surgeons In The Most Fiercely Competitive Plastic Surgery Market In The World – Beverly Hills.”
When Is the Right Time to Start Marketing Your Book?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, February 28, 2011
When Is the Right Time to Start Marketing Your Book?
Almost every book author wants to know: When is a good time to start marketing a book? While still writing the book, while looking for an agent or publisher, while going through the self-publishing process? When the book is available on Amazon?
There are few certain replies to this question except for one: It’s rather late to start marketing your book when it is already out on Amazon.
So what’s the answer as to when is the best time to start marketing a book? It depends.
And what it depends on is a great number of variables, including is this your first book, do you already have an online reputation, are you a renown newspaper journalist who is about to write a first novel, and any other variable that you care to name. (Such as, do you have a famous last name, such as Mary Higgins Clark’s daughter had when she started writing mysteries?)
If we can agree that we can’t pinpoint an exact right time that applies to everyone, are there general guidelines that can help all authors?
Yes, I believe there are. First, if you’re interested in promoting online, the earlier you start establishing yourself online the better. And the first step is to decide on your brand as a book author.
What do I mean by brand? I mean how you plan to position yourself in your marketing and promotion. What is it that will make you stand out from other writers of non-fiction or similar fiction? What will make people interested in you (and hopefully want to buy your book)?
The strategizing of your brand definitely takes place as early as possible in the publication quest for your book. And as part of this brand strategy, it’s very important to consider the proposed title of your book. This is even more relevant if you’re going to self-publish. You should check out your title with others even if you love the title.
Does your book title “read” the way you think it does? Or does your proposed tile have a different meaning to some people? For example, today I saw someone’s proposed book title that will be very hard to remember, let along spell on Amazon or for a URL. This is probably not the best name for a book.
And does the title stand out? Does it create an image in a potential reader’s mind so he/she can remember the title? A generic title such as “A Good Trip” doesn’t create a specific image, whereas “Six Sunny Days in Paris” creates a strong sense memory.
Once you are clear about your brand and have a good “working” book title (it still may change), you can begin to add elements to your brand positioning.
You can, for example, have someone create short videos (less than three minutes) of you talking about the stages you’re going through in researching and writing your book. Then you can use software such as Sony Vegas Movie Studio to edit the video and to put text such as your name and, if you have a website, your website’s URL on the video.
And you can upload these short videos to YouTube and other video-sharing sites. Remember, it’s important to tag these videos with good keywords that relate to you and your brand so that people will have an easier time finding your videos.
You can start a blog, detailing the stages of your book’s process and sharing sample chapters with your blog readers. Getting feedback early on can help you refine your book. And you can offer to write guest posts for other people’s blogs, again staying true to your brand in what you offer to write about.
And then you’re ready for a website – a site that you can control yourself without waiting days for your web master to make one little change. That’s why I recommend having someone build you a website using WordPress.org. Once all the backend steps are done, you will have a website (and blog if you want) that is hosted on your own site and can be completely controlled (read “changed”) by you.
Finally, it’s time to establish a sincere presence on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn as well as various book sites and other social media sites. Gradually build up your presence on these sites by engaging in conversations with others, offering advice when you can, and establishing relationships that will come in handy when your book is published.
Having a website or at least a blog hosted on another site such as blogger.com provides you with your own arena of visibility when you set up your profiles on social media sites. By using your website URL or blog URL as part of who you are on the internet, you’re more firmly establishing an online foundation for your book’s publication and marketing.
5 Reasons To Use Squidoo
An affiliate marketer has to have certain things. I consider it very important to have a web page where you can put your offers and content.
Then you can just get down to driving traffic to your site, making sales, and earning money.
Still, the beginning affiliate marketer and perhaps even some intermediates, would like it to be low priced and more straightforward than the typical setup.
Take as an example the mass of web pages called Squidoo.
It’s really just another website except for it’s size and variety of content. It’s VERY well known at Google.
By the end of 2009 there were nearly a million individual pages on this huge website and those pages are called “lenses” by the “Squids.”
Here are 5 good reasons to use Squidoo as an affiliate marketer.
The first reason is your cost for the hosting space. It’s zero.
The second reason is the cost of registering a domain name. It’s zero too!
Squidoo loks good because it’s practically effortless, AND it’s very low cost, especially when compared to the typical cost of hosting and domain at about $100 to $130 per year.
That doesn’t sound like much, and it isn’t if your site is making money or if you just have plenty of it. But for affiliates who are just starting and a lot of intermediates too, it’s just perfect.
The third reason, and one of big importance to affiliates, is that it is relatively easy to get indexed by Google for your lens. Really it’s a web page. But Google seems to like them.
If you pick your domain name with a keyword relevant to your sites content, that you can easily rank for, and you put it at the beginning of your domain name, you will be on your way to good rankings.
Doing a good job optimizing your page (lens) for your relevant keyword, is the best way to get your site to come up on the search results page in Google. And Page One of Google for almost ANY keyword will result in some good traffic.
The fourth reason to use Squidoo is that there is on site help. There is lots of assistance.
This would have really helped me when I was getting started because it seemed like, for me, everything new wasn’t just new…it seemed wierd…alien even. I didn’t “get it.”
Squdoo helps you in a dozen ways and you can see for yourself by just going there and looking around.
In addition, there is a forum where you can go and ask questions and get answers. And maybe later you will even answer some questions.
The fifth reason to use these pages (lenses) is because they work!
By work I mean that you can make them look like a great web page. You can also set them up to get a good bit of traffic. And you can sell directly from them.
If you’d like a landing page, this is it!
And that’s not all. You will learn a lot!
Many of the stumbling blocks a typical newcomer or even intermediate affiliate marketer will run into are completely eliminated by this alternative. The first reason that comes to mind is the FREE domain name and hosting.
Go there, join up and start your first lens. Start fooling around with it. Learn how to do a few of the things you need to get a halfway decent site up. There’ll be plenty of help if you get stuck.
In a couple to three weeks you could have an affiliate site up, indexed, and getting traffic, and making sales.
Watch out because IF you do this, the next thing that will happen is that you will get a sale. A sale that didn’t cost you anything but your time and effort.
Only now you’ll know how to repeat it and increase your income.
3 Reasons Why Most Article Templates Do Not Help You Write Articles Fast
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, February 26, 2011
3 Reasons Why Most Article Templates Do Not Help You Write Articles Fast
Instant article writing templates such as those found at StartWritingArticlesFaster.com can help you overcome writer’s block. In many cases, with the right article templates, you can write your articles in 30 minutes or less.
Notice the keywords there – “with the right article templates.”
If you do a Google search for “instant article writing templates”, “instant article templates”, “article writing templates”, “free article templates” and “article templates”— underneath my websites and my articles you find hundreds of other resources. Some sites even give you free article templates.
Heck, I even give you 3 free article templates at http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com
Here’s the problem…most article templates are not designed to help you write better articles faster. Now, the creators of these article templates had good intentions. However, if you use the wrong article templates, you will find yourself even more confused.
The 3 Biggest Problems with Most Instant Article Writing Templates
1. Most article templates do not give you the structure and organization you need. In fact, here’s a sampling of what one article template provider offers…
Article Writing Template – What I Learned From….
This one is simply a bulleted list of what you have learned from any number of things or events such as what I learned from my parents, my sister, my brother, my son, my daughter, from my third grade teacher, from September 11th, from watching a TV show, etc.
Bullet 1-
Bullet 2-
Bullet 3-
And, so on…
Now, to me this is not a workable template. Templates are supposed to be worksheets that guide you throughout the process. For example, I put my “Instant Article Writing Templates” in MS Word format. 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.
2. Most article templates don’t keep you, the article writer, focused. If I don’t use my article templates, I find myself rambling, going from one topic to another. And, I’m the article writing and article marketing expert. When you have a workable template that provides you with structure and organization, your copy will automatically become more focused. It becomes an easier, better read for your readers. However, most templates like the example I showed you above do not give you a structure and organization to follow. And, they allow you to bounce from one idea to another without any kind of transition.
3. Most article template resources do not provide real article examples from a wide number of industries. If there are any article examples provided along with the article templates, you’ll just find articles that the creator wrote. So, you’ll just find Internet marketing articles that promote the creator’s other products and services. You want to look for article resources that provide actual article examples of those in your niche. For example, in my Instant Article Writing Templates Kit, I not only share with you some of my own articles, but I share with articles that are written by my clients who are authors, speakers and entrepreneurs dealing with a wide number of business, finance, relationship and parenting issues.
Again, I do not mean to mock or offend those in my industry. I just want to help you write your articles faster. Now, that you aware of the problems that most instant article writing templates have – you can choose wisely.
Use These 3 Tips so that Your Online Income Affiliate Business can Survive
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, February 24, 2011
As an affiliate marketer who would like to not only survive but also generate a large income you will need to utilize these 3 tips given here and be prepared to work hard as there is not magical formula to success.
As an affiliate marketer using these 3 tips will help your chances of success with your online marketing business. Using these 3 tips will help your online business survive the competition that is found in an online based business environment.
1. Give your readers free reports.
Either place these reports where they can be easily seen near the top of your website or alternatively give them as an incentive to visitors who are will to give you their name and email address.
Use a unique squeeze page, in other words one that is different from what everyone else is using, to offer your reports in exchange for their email address and make sure that you have an opt in box on that squeeze page that goes to your auto-responder account.
It is a known fact that the majority of people will not purchase anything the first time they see it. Normally it will take a minimum of seven views for them to make the purchase. Keep in mind that usually people are more willing to spend money with a person that they believe is trustworthy and has taken the time to build a relationship with them, they need to know that they are not just dealing with some faceless website but a real person who is willing to help them.
If the only connection is the product on your website, not only will you not build a list, but chances are that even if someone is interested in the product you are selling they will move on and in the end buy it from someone else.
2. Promote each product on a separate web page.
If you use this method of marketing your products you will be keeping the reader focused on one thing at a time and they will become less distracted than if there were too many things on the one page.
Help the reader to make a decision on each product by having a review for each one on your website. This not only gives it a more personal touch but also helps to encourage a sale. If you are able to get some testimonials from any of your previous customers who have already tried the product then this is something that you can use to your advantage.
Just be sure that those customers are happy to allow you to use their name and if possible their photo.
3. Aim to generate a lot of targeted traffic to your website.
There is absolutely no point in getting people to visit your site who have no interest whatsoever in the products that you are promoting. Write articles and submit them to ezines and article directories and focus on the niche that you are promoting your products to. There is no point in spending your time promoting your affiliate internet business where no one is interested in what you are selling, but writing articles and publishing them in article directories is a great way to become known and brand yourself and your business and the best thing is that this type of advertising will not cost you any money.
If you want to benefit from marketing your online business by using article marketing you will need to write a minimum of 2 articles every week. If you continue to do this consistently you will see that over time your traffic will increase and it will be people who are interested in your products and what you have to say.
None of these tips are really difficult to follow and take action on it just needs some time and thought from you. Try using these tips for a few of your affiliate internet based business programs and see how they will help your opportunity to survive as an online affiliate marketer. Another great thing about this is the increase in the pay checks you will be receiving.
What Benefits Your Online Business more Automating or Building a Relationship with Your List?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
What Benefits Your Online Business more Automating or Building a Relationship with Your List?
Anyone who has been involved in a legitimate online business for any length of time will have heard the statement “the money is in the list”. While this is true there is also another phrase that one hears repeatedly and that is “the importance of automating your business”.
Both these statements have a great deal of truth in them and using an auto-responder to collect names addresses and send out regular emails is an essential part of running a successful internet marketing campaign.
The point to consider though is whether you should rely on these pre-written automated newsletters alone or if you should also send broadcast messages to the subscribers on your email list keeping them abreast of up to the minute news and giving them information that can be of benefit to them.
Let’s face it, if you want to build a successful and profitable list of subscribers, it is important to remember that every time a newsletter gets sent out to an email address there is a real flesh and blood person at the receiving end who is going to be reading and responding in some way to that message.
It is very true that the money is in the list but you need to keep in mind when you have these pre-written newsletters that over a period of time they can become stale and outdated. So from time to time it is necessary to check them and see that the information you are sending out still applies and discard anything that becomes obsolete. A good idea would be to go through these letters every six months or so to be sure that what you are sending out is still relevant.
In addition send out a broadcast weekly or more often if you prefer, with topical information, and learn to build a relationship with your email subscribers if you want a responsive and profitable list. An automated emailing system has a lot of benefits and is well worth having so long as you don’t just rely on that entirely if you want your readers to remain on your list and become customers as well.
A simple method to use for building a list is to advertise with a squeeze page and every time anyone signs up for your newsletter through your squeeze page they will automatically be added to your mailing list by your auto-responder service and they will begin to receive your newsletters. If they enjoy what they read and like the products you are offering there is a good chance that they will purchase from you.
Then it is up to you to start building a relationship with them so that they can become regular customers as this is what will pay the bills for your legitimate online business.
Another way to keep your subscribers up to date and interested in what you do is to set up your auto-responder to notify them whenever you make a new post on your blog. In this way they will be receiving regular information from you and it doesn’t require any extra work.
Finally keep in mind that what matters most in making your online business successful is not so much the size of your list it is more the responsiveness and the amount of money that your subscribers are happy to spend with you.
How To Create Your First Info Product in 7 Easy Steps?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Monday, February 21, 2011
How To Create Your First Info Product in 7 Easy Steps?
Once you’ve mastered your online marketing system and you’re growing your list on a daily basis, this is a good time to then set about creating additional offerings for your subscribers. This is where you start to look at your Product & Marketing Funnel and see where the gaps are and where new products can fit.
If you’re like most solo service professionals you’ll have something at the top (i.e. the widest part) of your funnel, which is usually your free taste, and then you’ll have something at the bottom (i.e. the narrowest part) of your funnel, which is usually your most expensive one-on-one services, but you won’t have anything in-between.
This is where you need to create products at different price points so that your clients and customers can experience your services and expertise without having to invest in your top (most expensive) service, but they want more than you are offering at the ‘free’ level.
A great first info product to create is one that sits at the second level within your Product & Marketing Funnel; somewhere between $1 and $50.
So, here is the step-by-step guide on how to create that all-important first paid offering.
Step 1: Host a Free Teleclass
Not only is this a great way to build your list, but it also exposes your audience to your expertise. You get to interact with your target market via the teleclass and they are able to ask you questions right there on the call.
Step 2: Record Your Teleclass
In addition to this being a great incentive to getting more sign-ups (if a registrant is not able to make it to the live teleclass they know that they’ll be able to get hold of the information afterwards via the recording), but this is where you’ll turn your free teleclass into your first paid info product.
Step 3: Create an Accompanying Guide or Special Report
Using the notes you prepared for your teleclass, turn these into a guide to accompany your teleclass. Or turn your notes into a special report and sell the report as the paid product and offer the teleclass recording as a bonus.
Step 4: Create a Workbook
If you also provided instructions or how-to information as part of your free teleclass, take that information and create an additional workbook. A workbook is a simple document that will allow your customer/client to make notes, write down their ideas, or plan out how they’re going to implement the how-to information that you shared with them on the teleclass.
Step 5: Bundle It All Together
Now that you have your teleclass recording, and you’ve created an accompanying guide/ebook and/or workbook, bundle all this information together to offer as a paid product at the second level within your funnel i.e. between the $1 and $50 price range.
Step 6: Create a Sales Page and Shopping Cart Link
You now need to create a sales page for your product, and associated shopping cart link. It is also a great customer service feature to create an autoresponder so that you can follow-up with your customers to check that they are happy with their purchase and are implementing the information you shared with them.
Step 7: Promote to Your List
Once you have your product all set up (Step 5), and created the sales page (Step 6) it’s time to promote it to your list and make sales! This is the exciting part! Include some teaser information in your newsletter leading up to the launch of your product, and once you’re ready to take sales send a solo mailing announcing the launch of your product. A solo mailing is much more effective than including the announcement as part of your regular newsletter.
After the initial launch continue to promote your product through your newsletter; promote it on your blog; and tell all your social networks about your product.
How to Target your Website’s Visitors for Optimized Traffic
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, February 20, 2011
How to Target your Website’s Visitors for Optimized Traffic
Over the past decade, the web has grown to such a scale that there are websites covering every single topic under the sun. Due to the sheer scale of it, it is near impossible to pin point the exact number of websites which are on the web; however, statistics show that in February 2007 there were an estimated 29.7 billion pages on web. Taking into consideration the speed in which the web has grown since it’s beginnings in the 1990’s, it is safe to say that this number has increased greatly over the past three years. When it comes to using the internet in connection to our business, targeting the right customers can be hard due to the level of competition our website has. There are various methods in which we may attempt to attract the right visitors as a means to increase our traffic, but some of the most effective methods are in actual fact the cheapest and easiest methods.
Increasing your website’s traffic is all about making your presence known on the web. Marketing and advertising strategies are the main way in which to do this, but in terms of traditional business these can be costly and take sometime to be effective. However, the internet is a fast paced business which allows for your campaigns to be made live in a much shorter space of time, as well as lowering your costs to almost nothing. One of the best ways in which to target visitors is through the use of back links. These can be placed on a wide variety of sites which gain high traffic such as social networking websites and blog sites, but can also be placed on other sites which you can partner up with, exchanging links. When using back links, the first thing you must take into consideration is what your website/product is and what your target market is. In doing this, you will have a clearer idea of what the best sites will be for you to target as irrelevant sites or sites which receive a low level of traffic will be of no use to your website. If you are fortunate to have capital to use, you can also use the aid of Pay per Click schemes. Large search engine sites such as Google can offer this to you but before deciding on this as a means to help your traffic, think about how much you can honestly afford as not to risk a loss in profits.
As businesses look for cheap ways in which to promote their websites, there has been a great increase in the amount of blogs and article directory sites on the web. These allow you to promote your product or service, as well as providing a link back to your website all for the simple exchange of your content on the website. This is a great way in which to gain more back links to your website, as well as s great method of advertising and self promotion. Different websites will have their own guidelines in terms of what you may submit to their sites, but in most cases this is one of the easiest ways in which to promote your business for free. The more external websites you use, the more links you will accumulate on the web which will help your overall traffic level. However, ensure you submit content to reputable sites which have some kind of relevance to your website so that you are targeting the right visitors for your market.
Finally there is one of the most beneficial forms of advertisement- word of mouth marketing. This is not necessarily something which you can achieve yourself, but rather a method of marketing which is completed by your current customers and visitors for free. Word of mouth marketing works by users of your site adding their own back links on to websites in the form of link sharing. Many companies and websites have benefited from this increasing their traffic thanks to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The way in which you can help this become possible is by providing a website and service which is worth talking about. By doing your own part in terms of promoting your website and your own marketing strategies on sites such as these, they are more likely to be noticed by visitors who will then be motivated to visit them. If they like what they see, they can then use bookmarking and other back linking methods to share with other web users they know, thus providing you with free marketing.
Generating traffic to your site is simple when you take into consideration what is right for your website. By looking at the way in which other websites are using the web to promote themselves, you too will soon discover the benefits which come from using simple, yet effective marketing techniques and see your traffic levels soar.
3 Simple Tricks to Optimize Your Pay Per Click Advertising Efforts
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, February 19, 2011
3 Simple Tricks to Optimize Your Pay Per Click Advertising Efforts
While it is important to get your PPC ad seen and even more important to get visitors to click on your ad, those aims pale in comparison with your conversion rate. There are simple tricks that can be used to optimize your pay per click advertising efforts, but they are tricks that are often overlooked.
Running a PPC campaign can be an overwhelming task. There are so many things to do, that the details are often overlooked until it is too late. Here are a few tricks to help increase your conversion rate and optimize your pay per click advertising efforts.
1. Make Getting Conversions Easy
If you make your visitors take a multitude of steps in order to make a purchase, then it is more likely that your customers will get discouraged. While this may not be a problem if you are using pay per click advertising for list-building purposes, it is often a killer in regards to making a sale.
One of the easiest ways to increase your conversion rate (even when list-building) is to only collect the information that is absolutely necessary. Studies have shown that the best converting pages require customers to only enter an email address.
While it is nice to get someone’s name, address, phone number, etc it really isn’t critical information to have. If it is necessary, consider obtaining this information after you have already secured their email address.
2. Focus Your Landing Page
Once you decide what the goal of your landing page is, make sure that you do not distract viewers from it. Many people choose to simply use a page from their website as their landing page. Unfortunately, these pages often contain a jumble of additional ads, unrelated content, and links to other web pages. All of these things can either distract or overwhelm visitors, both of which lead to the customer leaving. It is essential to keep your landing pages as simple and succinct as possible to optimize your pay per click advertising efforts.
3. Include Critical Information in Your Ad Copy
Everyone knows that pay per click advertising is advantageous because it can drive highly targeted traffic to your landing page.
However, many people may still click on your ad that are not part of your target audience. This is because your ad copy does not include the right information.
For example, if you are selling a product that is similar or the same as your competitors, then the price is important to include in your ad copy. Many customers base their purchasing decision on price and if your product is out of their price range, there is no reason for them to click on your ad. By including the price in your ad, you can automatically filter out people who would not purchase your product anyways.
Pay per click advertising can be one of the most profitable and lucrative online advertising methods available. However, if steps are not taken to optimize every step of the sales process, money and opportunities will be lost and expenses will climb.
The more you can do to ensure that you target is highly optimized and that you landing page has the ability to create a maximum conversion rate, the more successful your pay per click advertising ventures will be.
Is it a Good Idea to Rebrand E-Books as an Online Business Building Tool?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, February 18, 2011
Is it a Good Idea to Rebrand E-Books as an Online Business Building Tool?
Many well known internet marketers recommend rebranding e-books when possible as a way to increase visitors to your website and build a successful online business income. Because re-branding e-books has proved to be profitable does this mean that it is actually the best strategy?
Like so many other things with internet marketing this question has both a for and against answer, and it basically needs to be looked at as a separate case in each instance.
1. Reasons why rebranding e-books is a good idea!
It is easy to do
Rebranding an e-book can take a very short period of time to do and can bring you extra income over a long period of time. These e-books can usually be offered as a free download as an incentive for someone to join your emailing list, which just requires them to fill in their name and email address in an optin box on your website and then they can download the book.
Alternatively you could add a free download section on your website where visitors would be able to download a variety of e-books. If they choose to purchase any of the products that are offered via an e-book that you have re-branded, you will get the benefit of earning a commission on that product.
An added advantage of using this method is that it does not involve you having to write anything, create any graphics or create a product. All that is required of you is to re-brand the book and share it with other people online.
If you are involved in any type of MLM affiliate program, by passing on a rebranded e-book you will not only make a direct profit, but will also benefit from any affiliates below you who may generate extra income for you as well.
2. Reasons why re-branding e-books may be a Bad Idea!
Inside every re-brandable e-book there are certain links that cannot be changed and these are links that generally belong to the person who created the book in the first place and they will also continue to benefit from the work that you do in sharing the e-book with others.
If this scenario does not appeal to you then you should think about writing an e-book that is perhaps similar to the one you were thinking of rebranding and then you could keep all the profits as all the ads will be your own.
Another disadvantage of a rebranded e-book is that if you find an affiliate product that you would like to sell and the creator of that product offers you an e-book that you can rebrand to get started, chances are if the product has been around for any length of time, that the e-book can already be found all over the internet and it will not attract many interested people.
With affiliate products it is important to have a unique selling point if you wish to be successful and if you have something that is already last weeks news it will not work for you. With a little extra work you could have a report that is unique and that no one else has seen yet and this will give you a much greater chance of being successful.
Rebranding e-books definitely has a place in marketing an online business opportunity and should not be judged too harshly. The secret is to look at each case individually and make a decision on what will work best for you. Depending on what you want to achieve and the quality of the book, you can then make an educated choice on what will work best for your online income business.
5 Secrets to Turbocharging Your Online Business with a Telesummit
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, February 17, 2011
5 Secrets to Turbocharging Your Online Business with a Telesummit
I’ve been listening to a number of list building and lead generation teleclasses lately, and many of them have been offered in the form of a telesummit. A telesummit is a virtual online conference that offers a line-up of varied speakers over a period of time, like a few days or over several weeks. The telesummit is usually organized by a theme, like outsourcing or lead generation, or for a particular target market, like the online telesummit for virtual assistants for which I was recently a guest speaker.
Participation in many of these telesummits requires you to pay a registration fee, but the model I’ve been seeing a great deal recently is the “free for live” model in which registrants can participate in the “live” version of the program, but if they’re not able to be on the call live, the only way that they can access the content is to pay a registration fee for the audio file and PDF transcripts.
What I love about telesummits is that they are perfect for a downturned economy. There’s no airline reservation to make, no hotel to book, no clothes to pack, no shuttle fees to pay, no bad hotel food to endure….it’s simply conducted from the convenience of your home, the home of your speakers, and the home of your participants. You offer high value with low cost — a great combination!
In my opinion, this type of event is a genius way to turbocharge your business.
Here are 5 secrets to turbocharging your online business with a telesummit:
1. Grows your list fast. Many telesummit hosts report that holding a telesummit has helped them grow their list from 2,000 to 10,000 or 15,000 or greater in a span of only a few weeks when the participants are required to give their name and email address to get the telesummit call-in information. Best of all, the additions to the host’s email list are perfect leads for their target market. How did this happen? Because the host carefully chose their speakers who market products and services to a similar target market and created a telesummit around an issue or theme important to their target market. And, in an ideal world, the speaker has a large list and agrees to help market the telesummit to that list.
2. Establishes you as the preeminent expert. When you hold an event featuring well-known speakers, you suddenly become the authority, or the expert in the field. After all, how else could you have attracted these experts if you were not an expert yourself?
3. Helps you open the door for valuable joint ventures (JVs) and strategic alliances. Once you’ve invited someone to be a guest on your telesummit, you have provided a great service to them by introducing them to others who may not have previously heard of them. And, if you offered some healthy affiliate commissions for telesummit upgrades, they love you because you’ve helped them make money without a lot of effort. Assuming that your event was a success and there were no major hiccups in the process, this success has paved the way for future joint ventures and strategic alliances with this person. This certainly beats cold-calling someone to try and speak to them to sell them on a JV proposal, doesn’t it?
4. Increases your credibility. Another key factor in hosting a telesummit is that the notoriety of your speakers rubs off on you as the host. One of the quickest ways to go from “no name” to “big name” in your industry is to invite the industry experts to speak at your telesummit. The fact that you now have a connection with the movers and shakers in your industry gives you a leg up boosting your own credibility and expertise in the industry.
5. Makes some cash in the process. In addition to the advantages listed previously, there are a number of ways to make a little money in this free telesummit model. First, you offer every participant the ability to “upgrade” to get all the recordings and transcripts of the telesummit. Creating a price increase deadline (before summit vs after summit pricing) may encourage more participants to buy. Secondly, once the telesummit is complete, you can go back to your speakers and offer to interview them a second time exclusively for members of their list. The upsell in this second interview is the complete telesummit recordings and transcripts, on which you pay them a healthy commission on all packages sold.
Examine your business model and see how well a telesummit fits into the mix. You’ll need to begin planning 8-10 weeks in advance, but once you see the results, you may want to make your telesummit an annual event.
9 Ways To Increase Your Email Clickthrough Rate
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
9 Ways To Increase Your Email Clickthrough Rate
Like all forms of marketing, an email marketing campaign usually has a single end goal: the conversion of non-buyers into buyers. Buying decisions tend not to be made all at once, but rather in a series of small steps toward a commitment.
For an email marketer, the first step toward conversion is signing up for your mailing list. After that, it’s the click-through. With each of these actions, the subscriber makes a small behavioral commitment to the idea that you are someone who provides value to them. Below, you’ll find 9 ways to help your email subscribers click through the links in your messages.
1. Segment your lists for maximum relevance
People just don’t have time for mailings that aren’t relevant to them. If you send them a few messages that they can’t use, they’re likely to get impatient with you and either unsubscribe or click the spam button. Even if only part of your message is relevant to them, they’ll be less likely to find it and cilck through if they have to wade through parts that they have no use for. Modern email list managers such as ActiveCampaign’s Email Marketing make it easy to split your mailing list into smaller segments and customize the content based on which segment it’s being delivered to. This boost in relevancy can have a dramatic effect on your reader response.
2. Use a simple template that’s easy to scan
Yes, your messages should be attractive, but they should also be clean and simple. Use a layout that lets the reader easily find what they’re looking for without the distraction of navigation links and multiple panels.
3. Tantalize your readers with article previews
If your newsletter includes informative articles, consider moving those articles onto your main web site and simply including a teaser in the body of your message. This not only wins you the emotional benefit of the clickthrough, it also makes your email easier to scan so that readers can focus on the content that matters most to them.
4. Put your main call to action above the fold
If you’re sending a message that has a main purpose, make sure that purpose is the most prominent thing in it. At least half of your readers will only ever look at your message in their preview pane. Make sure that your main proposition and call to action are visible in that limited space.
5. Make the benefits of clicking obvious
If you don’t describe in detail what the reader has to gain by clicking on your link, they’re going to be a lot less likely to click on it. This is just plain common sense. Yet too often you’ll see email newsletters that offer up links without any clear description of what the reader has to gain by clicking them. Don’t just describe what the reader will find at the other end of your link, tell them what it will do for them.
6. Consistently deliver on your promises
An effective email campaign builds up a relationship with the subscriber. Over time, your readers should come to see you and your business as trustworthy and beneficial. You can build up that trust by simply delivering on any promises you make in your messages. Don’t promise a benefit unless you’re sure you can deliver it.
7. Set limitations to spur action
People naturally respond to scarcity and competition. You can put that to good use by limiting the offers you make to your subscribers. For example, you might make a special offer that is only valid for a day or two after your message goes out. You can also offer a special gift or a chance to win for the first 100 subscribers that respond.
8. Add a link in a P.S.
If someone makes it all the way through your message, they’re probably very interested in your work! But they may also have forgotten about an important call to action that occurred earlier in your message. It’s a good idea to add a “P.S.” after your signature line to remind your readers what you want them to do and why.
9. Split test!
Some tactics will work better than others depending on your industry and target demographics. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a mind-reader to figure out which work best. Simply write up a few different versions of your message, taking a different approach to inducing action in each version.
5 Ways Your Business Can Benefit
Internet business owners have found online article directories to be positive for their business. Here are five ways you can benefit from using article directories on the Internet to promote your business.
Before we get into the directories understand that article marketing is effective when you write keyword rich articles and include a resource box at the end of them. Think of the resource box as your classified ad and the more opportunities you give people to find you the better off you will be. That is the real power of online article directories.
1. Submit your articles to the top article directories only and concentrate on the quality of the article. This is one strategy you can use and it certainly takes some of the pressure off of writing high number of articles. The key to making this work is to develop unique versions of your article and submit them to only the top directories online.
2. Once you have submitted it to the top directories ezine publishers may find your article. This can lead to your article being published in newsletters on the Internet. It can also end up in the inbox of prospective customers. Many online ezines have a huge customer base you might not otherwise we reach. If the ezine is archived online this can give you long term exposure and backlinks.
3. Go for volume of articles and to submit to multiple directories by the hundreds or even thousands. Unless you use article rewriting software to make each article unique this is not a very effective strategy. Some Internet marketers prefer to play the numbers game and just get their articles out where they can be found.
4. Printed publications might pick up your articles from an online directory. These can be picked up by magazines giving you additional exposure. Again the point is to have a link in your resource box to get traffic from an off line reader to your online website.
5. Many online directories have links back to them placed on other Internet marketers websites and blogs. You see this in the form of text links or banner ads. Any directory that is getting traffic coming to it can potentially benefit you if your articles are being published by them.
There certainly are more ways you can benefit from online article directories. This is just a handful of them, but really shows the power of marketing with articles in directories on the Internet today.
Internet Marketing Via E-mail Promotion
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Internet Marketing Via E-mail Promotion
Marketing, as defined by the American Marketing Association, is any activity that involves the flow of services, products and/or goods starting from production until consumption. It involves various activities such as profiling, planning, pricing, promotion, and distribution of products and services.
Promotion is a crucial method that can make or break a market. Promotion stimulates demand and therefore increases profit from sales. It makes use of every media available that are accessible to potential customers.
Recently, promotion management of various companies opts for internet as the effective tool to increasing demands among customers.
Have you ever thought of this query to yourself, “What is the difference between internet marketing and e-mail marketing?”
Internet marketing is an advertisement method that makes use of search engines to promote websites using different strategies such as e-mail marketing. Currently, this provides all companies with the edge among competitors.
Internet is one medium that is sought by clients to promote their companies’ products and services. Moreover, they view internet marketing as a potential strategy to attain maximum return of investment or ROI. However, clients must be very critical in choosing the appropriate and effective advertising company.
These are the few things to remember about successful internet marketing:
1. The advertising company dealing with internet marketing must be abreast with pace and competition set by new products and services being introduced.
2. The advertising company must enable websites to be in the ranks of search engines for as many keywords as possible.
3. The advertising company must exhaust appropriate strategies to make the websites produce ranks in search engines.
4. The advertising company must assist their clients earn automatically within a few months.
5. The advertising company must help their clients receive their maximum return of investments of ROI.
Just what now is e-mail marketing?
E-mail marketing is an internet advertising tool that is cost effective to connect with existing and even potential customers. Moreover, this is about quality of the data the internet advertising company that can be sent to the addresses of potential and existing customers.
These are the things to be considered about successful e-mail marketing:
1. The best way to perform marketing with e-mail addresses is through cost per acquisition.
2. Companies must ensure that internet advertising service providers are allowed to give you e-mail addresses for corporations to contact.
3. E-mail designs must be simple yet elegant. Companies must avoid sensory overload. This can be done with the help of internet service providers.
Generally speaking, these are the things that are offered by internet service providers in e-mail marketing:
Services may include:
* Appropriate strategy for e-mail campaign
* Identification of opportunities for growth
* Maintenance and development of list of addresses
* List set-up for client’s email
* Sign-up form for client’s web site
* Importation or set-up database for client’s database
* Updates regarding client’s success and development of
Newsletter or HTML E-mail Development comprises:
* Newsletter or e-mail design
* Content formatting and developing
* Various integration with client’s website
* Programming compatibility and functionality
Sending e-mails employ the following actions:
* Set-up and sending of client’s account
* Cleaning and exportation of database
* Employing of Web Analytics to determine areas of successes and improvement
Business-minded people should be smart people. Investing a lot on an advertising company is not the turnkey strategy. Dealing with credible internet service provider is the effective step to make it big in the marketing industry.
What is Pay-Per-Click?
Basically there are search engines which offer a marketing option called “pay-per-click” to advertisers.
Most of the major search engines offer this type of service.
The advertiser places a small advertisement on the search results page based on a specific keyword or phrase. Although you don’t pay to place the advertisement, as such the search engine company makes their money by charging you for every time someone clicks on your advertisement. Hence the name “pay-per-click.” Note that this is different from organic (free) search engine optimization obtained through other methods of advertising. How pay-per-click operates is that when a person asks a question of the search engine e.g. “How does such and such work” or “how can I do…” then if the words used tally with your keyword/phrase then your advertisement appears. Should your advertisement appeal to the enquirer and they click onto it then you are charged by the search engine company. If your advertisement doesn’t ring any bells and is not clicked on then you will not have to pay any money. Bear in mind though that if your advert is clicked on and it is not of interest to the reader you will still be charged. So it is very important to ensure that your keywords are very specific to your targeted audience. Whilst this method of advertising seems fairly simple it is in fact one of the most feared by newbies and with good reason. If you don’t know what you are doing then you can very quickly lose all of your advertising budget.
On the other hand done correctly the rewards can be HUGE. It is very important that you have your website set up properly after due diligence before even considering pay-per-click. My advice would be that you shouldn’t use company replicated sites (unless brand new!) because everyone else is! You need to have set up your own branding pages, submitted articles etc first. Make sure that your foundations are secure before entering this field! Assuming you are now in a position to go ahead with pay-per-click then how do you pay?
You bid! Oh no I have to get in an auction? Basically yep!
In essence the greater the bid the higher your advertisement is placed on the search engine.
That is a rather simplified explanation so please study further so that you fully understand how to construct a suitable campaign.
Normally the bid price is in cents rather than dollars but can still work out very expensive unless you have suitable controls in place.
As with most things you have to educate yourself first.
You have probably gathered by now that pay-per-click requires a serious learning curve and plenty of patience if you wish to be successful advertising in this medium.
As with all things testing is paramount.
So, yes, pay-per-click is a mayor way of selling your product/service on the internet and should be included in your advertising campaigns.
Just be sure you know what you are doing before dipping your toe in the water as you are playing with the big boys here. To your success.
Is Direct Mail Really Dead
Even with sky high postage costs, a properly executed direct mail campaign still provides a solid ROI. What? You’ve bought into the myth that direct mail is dead?
You’re not alone. And while people are entitled to their own opinions about direct mail, they’re not entitled to their own facts. Here are the facts: According to an annual study from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), spending on direct mail marketing is expected to increase by more than $1 billion in 2010. Yes, that’s billion with a “B”. Hmmmm…it would appear that rumors of direct mail’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Don’t People Hate Junk Mail?
And if you’ve also bought into the myth that people hate junk mail (and that’s exactly what it is a myth), here are the myth-busting facts: According to the 2010 DMA Statistical Fact Book, 79% of households either read or skim junk mail advertising sent to their home.
That study is right in line with an International Communications Research survey commissioned by postal automation giant, Pitney Bowes. The survey found, despite the immense popularity, and widespread use of digital media, consumers still prefer mail over e-mail, as it relates to receiving new product announcements, as well as confidential business communications such as bank statements and other financial information.
Here’s how the numbers breakdown: 73 percent of consumers prefer mail for receiving new product announcements or offers from companies they do business with, as compared to 18 percent for e-mail.
For important and confidential communications such as bills, bank statements and other financial information, a huge majority of respondents (86 percent)preferred mail as their communication method of choice, as compared with 10 percent for e-mail.
But wait, the news gets even better: The survey also found that 31 percent of consumers are less likely to discard unopened mail – including new product announcements, coupons, brochures, catalogs, etc. – than they are to delete unsolicited e-mails (spam) regarding new product announcements (53.2 percent).
When consumers were asked what specific advantages they saw in junk mail versus unsolicited e-mail and telemarketing calls, 45.3 percent of respondents found mail to be, get this – less intrusive; (40.2) percent more convenient – can be saved and considered at leisure; (30.2) less high-pressured – lets you consider your decision; (22.7 percent)more descriptive – lets you picture the offer; and (12 percent)more persuasive – encourages you to respond. I don’t know about you, but those numbers definitely got my attention.
What is Cooperative Direct Mail?
If you haven’t considered trying direct mail, maybe you should. A properly executed direct mail campaign combined with online marketing methods could be an unbeatable combination. Don’t know where to start? No problem. Cooperative direct mail companies like Valpak and Clipper Magazine make launching a direct mail campaign easy and affordable, for even the most budget conscious small business.
So what exactly is cooperative direct mail? Cooperative direct mail simply means you share an envelope with other advertisers – mostly local merchants, but usually a couple of national companies as well. Sharing an envelope with other advertisers reduces your costs significantly.
For example, if you were to do a mailing on your own to 10,000 homes, it would cost you thousands of dollars – even at reduced bulk rate postage costs. However, that same mailing shared with other advertisers would only cost you a few hundred dollars. That’s a huge difference that allows you to free up valuable marketing dollars that can be used elsewhere.
And if you’re a “push the envelope” type of marketer and really want to take your direct mail campaign to the next level, a new company named Dukky (pronounced ducky) is merging “junk mail” with social marketing and web technology – creating an amazingly effective and powerful marketing combination. Dukky’s web address is www.dukky.com.
In closing, if you do decide to give direct mail a try, whatever you do, don’t approach the process blindly. In order to utilize direct mail to its optimum effectiveness, you need to know what you’re doing.
In that regard, I highly recommend you purchase the book Million Dollar Mailing$ by the undisputed King of direct mail, Denny Hatch.
Just remember:
“You will go only as far as the limits of your knowledge. If you want to go farther, increase your knowledge.” – David Jackson
Affiliate Tracking Software – What to Watch Out For
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Affiliate Tracking Software – What to Watch Out For
A large number of business owners rely on their affiliate programs to help increase their sales and their profits. Personally, affiliate marketing and programs play a major roll in my earnings. If you are interested, you can also be one of those individuals. All online business owners can benefit from the use of an affiliate program, but there are some business owners who can benefit more than others. Those business owners run and operate businesses that either sells a product or a service. If you are one of those business owners and you would like to start an affiliate program, you will need to think about purchasing affiliate tracking software.
Affiliate tracking software is a unique program that is vital to the successful operation of an affiliate program. Without tracking software, you would be unable to determine whether or not one of your sales were generated with the assistance of an affiliate, let alone which affiliate it was. With affiliate tracking software, you can easily find out this important information. Therefore, this means that if you haven’t already purchased affiliate tracking software, you will need to do so right away.
When it comes to purchasing affiliate tracking software, you are first advised to familiarize yourself with all of your available options. This can easily be done by performing a standard internet search. Your search results are likely to include a number of different software sellers. Your first impulse may be to purchase the first affiliate tracking software program you come across, but you are advised against doing this. That is because these software programs come in a wide variety of different styles. Each program is likely to have its own unique services and features. You are encouraged to examine each of those services and features before making a decision.
If you are unfamiliar with affiliate marketing and affiliate tracking software, you may not know what you should be looking for. If this is the case, it may be easier to understand what you should watch out for. One of the many things that you should be concerned about is the software name or the name of the software seller.
Unfortunately, there are a number of different software sellers that will scam internet users; however, not all of them will. Before purchasing a particular affiliate tracking software program, you may want to perform a standard internet search on that program and the individual or company selling it. If you come across any warnings, you may want to stop and start searching for another software program.
It is also important to be on the lookout for affiliate tracking software that is being sold without information on the program. All legitimate software sellers should provide you with detailed information about their products, including affiliate tracking software. This information may include, but should not be limited to product descriptions, product services, and product features. Without this information, you will not know how an affiliate tracking software program works or how it can help you and your business. There are plenty of software sellers that will provide you with this information; you are encouraged to do business with them.
You will also want to watch out for affiliate tracking software that costs too much money. It is true that the more services and features you are provided with, the more the program will cost. However, that does not mean that you should have to pay an outrageous price. For an average cost of affiliate tracking software, you are advised to examine and then compare a number of different prices. If anything seems out of the ordinary, you are advised to move on and find software that is more affordable.
By knowing what to lookout for and avoid, you should be able to find an affiliate tracking software program that can give you exactly what you want and need. You should also be able to find that software at an affordable price.
An Excellent Web Promotion is the key to success
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the internet and World Wide Web for the expressed purpose of delivering marketing messages to attract customers, this form of advertising is about getting your website in front of the people who are interested in your product
or service and for such all you have to do is find the best terms and phrases that people search for who would like to purchase exactly your goods and services.
The number of internet users is on a rapid rise worldwide and internet is used by people of all age and types, internet has become a major medium for communication, entertainment and is in the process of replacing the traditional entertainment and informative media such as
television, radio, newspaper, magazines etc. WebVisible offers a range of creative services like corporate communications, promotions and branding new media, logo design, exhibitions and events, advertising, direct mail and editorial design, they are an Advertising, Marketing &
Brand Consultancy firm and work with strategic creativity, they are amongst the world´s fewest advertising firms who offer a Pay-for-Performance model for the professional fees.
WebVisible has the ability to deliver guaranteed services is proven by the fact that they possess expertise across all media be it direct, broadcast, out of home or digital media, their ideas are led with passionate and driven by making businesses a success, as compared with offline advertising the main advantage of online advertising or marketing is the much affordable price when compared with the traditional advertising costs, with a much lesser cost you can advertise on the net for a wider range of audience and geographical locations.
It is an online advertising portal that gives your ads a wider coverage and this globally wider coverage helps in making your advertisements reach more audiences, which may ultimately help you in getting better results through your online advertising campaign with a measurability and
easiness to track the conversion that makes online advertising miles ahead on the traditional advertising methods, a lot of effective analytics tools are available to measure online advertising campaigns which helps in more improvisation of the ads.
Online advertising is much faster than offline advertising and you can start sending out your ads to a wider audience, the moment you start your advertising campaign you are able to convey more details about the advertisement to the audience and that too at relatively low cost.
How to Avoid Four Surefire Ways to Kill Your Brand
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, December 11, 2010
How to Avoid Four Surefire Ways to Kill Your Brand
There are no guarantees of success when developing a modern brand. There is no switch that will pour out money, there are no stunts that will automatically create attention, and there is no how-to manual that, if assiduously followed, will assure your brand’s place in the annals of the great Internet legends. Brands are driven as much by the customer as they are by the originator, and the customer doesn’t always want what’s being sold.
That said there are certain behaviors and practices that are guaranteed to kill a brand, virtually without fail. There are always exceptions to the rule, but by and large you can at least count on these ‘do nots’ as fairly ironclad rules. What follows are four ways you can miss the point, and some advice for avoiding them.
Misfire #1 – Number Chasing
This may feel like a complete turnaround from previous articles. After all, we’ve discussed metrics and their usefulness in measuring success, haven’t we? Surely the larger an audience the better a brand is doing.
The problem with this logic is that it confuses the goal with the measurement. Instead of focusing on satisfying customer demands for particular content or a certain product quality, the company focuses on making sure web traffic stays high. This kind of thinking disconnects you from the actual cause-and-effect of working on the product you’re pitching, and creates an artificial reality that will do your brand no good.
As a rule of thumb for avoiding this behavior, consider the way you set goals. If you find the goal focusing on increasing audience numbers or some abstract figure instead of refining your core product, it’s time to re-evaluate.
Misfire #2 – Going by Rote
Part of maintaining a modern brand is providing regular content. Updating frequently enough to maintain viewer interest is vital for any service, and making sure the physical product is advertised for the public’s awareness is equally important if sales are the goal.
That said, there is a problem inherent in a scheduled updating system that can sneak into the provider’s routine. Specifically we’re speaking of the tendency to update without purpose. You see it frequently on twitter or certain blogs, where the provider is strapped for ideas and just posts a bit of airy, fluffy filler because ‘it’s time to post.’ While this does meet the customer’s expectation, this can work against you, as it leaves a bit of the ‘what was the point?’ question in their minds.
Instead, consider missing out a day if you genuinely don’t have content to provide. It happens, there are slow days for everyone. Missing the routine for a day will give you time to pull up some new content, and when the audience chimes in and sees there isn’t an update, they’ll be curious and more likely to check back the next time.
Misfire #3 – Fadding Out
The difference between a movement and a fad is that a fad sits on the surface of things, changing very little; whereas a movement alters the very basics of how the world functions. ‘Virtual Reality’ was a fad. People hyped it up, but there was no way the majority of people were going to shell out thousands for VR systems and their ten-pound headsets. Twitter is a movement, having developed a broad appeal and fundamentally changed the way people think about spreading information.
We have spoken of the need for innovation and the ability to take risks in brand development, and these things are still true. However, how innovative is it to jump on board something someone else has created? Instead of following the trends, focus on what your brand needs and how it functions. If adding in an element makes sense, do so without hesitation. If you have to force it, forget it.
Misfire #4 – Losing Focus
At this point it’s virtually ancient history, but there is a lesson for modern brand development in the Video Game Crash of the 1980s. The short of it is that every single company worth mentioning decided video games were the future, and opened up a video game division. They launched these efforts without any serious dedication to the craft of game design, and some succeeded while others failed. The most bizarre entrant was Quaker Oats, the people that make oatmeal. The result was a complete disaster.
What business would an oatmeal company have making games? On the surface, any business they desired. Perhaps it was always their secret passion, who knows? However, they lacked any serious experience in the venture, and you probably can’t find ten people out of a thousand who remember what game or games they put out.
Focus on your message. This ties in with the idea of fads, but warrants its own point. If you have to stretch yourself or come up with a new department to accommodate a new idea, it’s time to sit down and decide just how essential this idea is to your core message.
9 Ways To Increase Your Email Clickthrough Rate
posted by Web_University @ 8:52 AM
Saturday, October 16, 2010
9 Ways To Increase Your Email Clickthrough Rate
Like all forms of marketing, an email marketing campaign usually has a single end goal: the conversion of non-buyers into buyers. Buying decisions tend not to be made all at once, but rather in a series of small steps toward a commitment.
For an email marketer, the first step toward conversion is signing up for your mailing list. After that, it’s the click-through. With each of these actions, the subscriber makes a small behavioral commitment to the idea that you are someone who provides value to them. Below, you’ll find 9 ways to help your email subscribers click through the links in your messages.
1. Segment your lists for maximum relevance
People just don’t have time for mailings that aren’t relevant to them. If you send them a few messages that they can’t use, they’re likely to get impatient with you and either unsubscribe or click the spam button. Even if only part of your message is relevant to them, they’ll be less likely to find it and cilck through if they have to wade through parts that they have no use for. Modern email list managers such as ActiveCampaign’s Email Marketing make it easy to split your mailing list into smaller segments and customize the content based on which segment it’s being delivered to. This boost in relevancy can have a dramatic effect on your reader response.
2. Use a simple template that’s easy to scan
Yes, your messages should be attractive, but they should also be clean and simple. Use a layout that lets the reader easily find what they’re looking for without the distraction of navigation links and multiple panels.
3. Tantalize your readers with article previews
If your newsletter includes informative articles, consider moving those articles onto your main web site and simply including a teaser in the body of your message. This not only wins you the emotional benefit of the clickthrough, it also makes your email easier to scan so that readers can focus on the content that matters most to them.
4. Put your main call to action above the fold
If you’re sending a message that has a main purpose, make sure that purpose is the most prominent thing in it. At least half of your readers will only ever look at your message in their preview pane. Make sure that your main proposition and call to action are visible in that limited space.
5. Make the benefits of clicking obvious
If you don’t describe in detail what the reader has to gain by clicking on your link, they’re going to be a lot less likely to click on it. This is just plain common sense. Yet too often you’ll see email newsletters that offer up links without any clear description of what the reader has to gain by clicking them. Don’t just describe what the reader will find at the other end of your link, tell them what it will do for them.
6. Consistently deliver on your promises
An effective email campaign builds up a relationship with the subscriber. Over time, your readers should come to see you and your business as trustworthy and beneficial. You can build up that trust by simply delivering on any promises you make in your messages. Don’t promise a benefit unless you’re sure you can deliver it.
7. Set limitations to spur action
People naturally respond to scarcity and competition. You can put that to good use by limiting the offers you make to your subscribers. For example, you might make a special offer that is only valid for a day or two after your message goes out. You can also offer a special gift or a chance to win for the first 100 subscribers that respond.
8. Add a link in a P.S.
If someone makes it all the way through your message, they’re probably very interested in your work! But they may also have forgotten about an important call to action that occurred earlier in your message. It’s a good idea to add a “P.S.” after your signature line to remind your readers what you want them to do and why.
9. Split test!
Some tactics will work better than others depending on your industry and target demographics. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a mind-reader to figure out which work best. Simply write up a few different versions of your message, taking a different approach to inducing action in each version.
Tips For Launching A Successful Email Marketing Campaign
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Tips For Launching A Successful Email Marketing Campaign
If you’ve ever considered launching an email marketing campaign, you probably very rapidly discovered that there are two main road-blocks between you and email marketing success. The first is the question of how to get your hands on an email subscriber list. And the second is once you have begun building your list, what should you send them? This article will focus on those two fundamental tasks of email marketing.
List-building is not as hard as you might imagine. All it really takes is the effort of asking people you are already coming into contact with to join your mailing list. You can do this in person if you run a restaurant, dealership, or other brick and mortar venue. At a retail store, the cash register is the best place to offer a free membership. If you are trying to convert your existing web traffic into email subscribers, you will want to create an attractive sign-up form and place it very prominently on your web site. You will also need to provide a good explanation of the value that people can expect to receive by being subscribes to your mailing list.
We all know that high quality content is not cheap. And when you’re dealing in email marketing, that is likely to be the primary expense related to your campaign. So you want to make that investment worthwhile by getting as many potential buyers as possible signed up for your mailing list. Take advantage of your existing web traffic by making your subscription form a central feature of your web site. It should almost always appear above the fold, and almost always on every page of your site. Keep in mind, email list subscribers convert much better than one-time web site visitors, so you should not be afraid to lose a sale or two in the short term in order to collect a large number of subscriptions that will become valued clients over the long term.
When you think about designing content for your email list, there is a very important question you should ask yourself: What will people in my target market be happy to receive? What value can I provide to them? Because the first task of an email list is to ingratiate you to your subscribers. If the list is ultimately going to convert into sales, then your subscribers must trust you and see you as someone who provides things that they value. Once you have developed the unique proposition for your mailing list, then you can begin developing content to fulfill that promise.
These two basic steps are all it really takes to build an effective list that you can continue to improve upon indefinitely. The list and the techniques that you use to market to the list will evolve over time along with your overall business strategy. But the long and the short of it is simply this: create a mailing list that offers a real value to your market, and then ask people to sign up for it. Everything else simply improves on this basic, winning formula.
10 Ways to Energize Your Email Marketing
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Friday, September 17, 2010
10 Ways to Energize Your Email Marketing
Email marketing has grown tremendously over the years and it can benefit your business substantially. As with any type of marketing, email marketing takes a great deal of time and effort to insure it is working effectively.
There are many types of email marketing such as sending out periodical newsletters/ezines, sending out promotional emails and product updates, tutorials, etc.
Regardless of which type of email marketing you utilize, one important thing you must do is continually evaluate the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign. Do not let your email marketing go stale. You need to keep it alive, fresh and energized.
Below are 10 ways you can help energize your email marketing campaign:
Fresh and Helpful Content – Always be sure to include good, solid content. Check the content to make sure it is reliable. You want to make sure you are providing true, helpful information for your mailing list. Offer good resources, tools, tips and other content that will actually help your subscribers. This will help in building the foundation of the essential trust relationship between you and your mailing list members.
Make it Personal – Making your email more personal will help build trust and your reputation. You need to connect with your list and by making your emails more personal, warm and friendly, you will accomplish this task.
Grab Their Interest with Your Subject Line – Grabbing the readers’ interest with the subject line can make all the difference as to whether they open the email or just delete it. Keep the subject line short and to the point. Use words that will pique the readers curiosity and make them want to know more. Use power and/or action words such as new, innovative, secret, reveal, etc.
Which email would you open?
How to Increase sales or
New, Innovative Sales Strategy Revealed…
Be Available for Your Readers – There is nothing worse than emailing questions to a company about their products/services and waiting days or longer to get an answer. Make it a point to answer questions and concerns as soon as possible. Be as helpful and responsive as possible. You will be amazed at the difference this will make in your business.
Be Consistent – I know some people that will send out an email here and an email there – sometimes with months in between. This will never bring you any results. Send out your emails on a regular basis using the same design, layout and format each time. Keep them neat, clean and free from a lot of clutter. You want your readers to become familiar with your mailings.
Add New Features – Always be thinking of new features to add to your mailings to keep it fresh and alive. Add a Q&A section or do interviews with your readers. Give your readers a weekly challenge to accomplish to help them obtain their goals.Publish success stories. The possibilities are endless!
Offer Subscriber Only Specials – Let your subscribers know they are appreciated by offering them deals and specials that you would not offer anyone else. Give them an extra percentage off the price or give them a free gift in your mailings. Doing little things like this can go a long way for your business.
Get Your Mailing List Involved – Encourage them to email you with ideas, suggestions and feedback. Let them know you are willing to consider all their suggestions. Ask them if you can use their feedback. Post their questions with the answers to help all your readers. Make them feel like they make a difference because THEY DO!
Contests and Competitions – Hold contests and competitions for your subscribers and offer prizes. For example: Each week in my newsletter I have a trivia challenge for free advertising and a movie quote contest for a free e-book. They are a lot of fun and my subscribers let me know how much they enjoy it.
Offer Referral Incentives – Let your mailing list members know that if they refer people to your mailing list, they will be rewarded. Have contests on who can get the most referrals for a grand prize.
Business owners who successfully implement an email marketing campaign are likely to gain a huge advantage over those who don’t. But you must keep your email marketing fresh, alive, consistent and reliable. Keeping in contact with your mailing list members and providing them with useful, helpful information and resources will help build a solid foundation of trust with which to grow your business!
7 Campaign Killing Affiliate Marketing Mistakes
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, September 16, 2010
7 Campaign Killing Affiliate Marketing Mistakes
Affiliate marketing is becoming more and more popular, especially with the current state of the economy. High unemployment rates have many people turning to the internet as a means of making ends meet.
It sounds great at first. You’re told all you have to do is start a free blog and write a few articles, and you can achieve wild riches. Many people buy into this myth, and are let down after weeks go by and they haven’t made a single dollar.
Believe it or not, more than ninety percent of internet entrepreneurs fold up shop within the first month. Once reality sets in, it’s easy to get discouraged. Affiliate marketing, like any other business, requires hard work and effort for success to become a reality.
In this article, we’re going to discuss seven of the worst mistakes that an affiliate marketer can make. If you can avoid these career killing pitfalls, you’ll have a good chance at becoming a successful affiliate marketer.
1. Using Free Services
The problem with many affiliate marketers is they don’t want to make an investment into their business. This is due in part to all of the tutorials available that instruct marketers to use free services. While there is nothing wrong with free services, the lack of imminent control over one’s content can be a problem. If the company providing the free service decided to delete your account, or went out of business, you could lose content that may have been making you some money.
2. Promoting The Wrong Product
Market research is especially important in affiliate marketing. Many affiliates promote products that have a very low demand, hence making it near impossible to succeed. Researching your chosen niche is crucial.
3. Promoting Too Many Products
It’s easy to lose focus. There are so many great products to promote that many affiliate marketers try to promote five or ten products at once. It’s not good to spread yourself so thin. Rather than promoting ten products and giving ten percent effort to each, it’s better to put one-hundred percent effort into promoting a single product.
4. Not Starting An Email List
Many affiliate marketers refuse to believe in the importance of email marketing. This is partly due to the wealth of information available about article marketing. Many are led to believe that article marketing is a miracle money maker. While it’s true that money can be made this way, it’s much better to establish a contact and build trust with a potential buyer through email.
5. Spamming
Spam is a gray area when it comes to affiliate marketing. Basically, spamming is blatantly promoting your products or services to those who didn’t ask for information. The worst kind of spam is email spam. Many affiliate marketers engage in this without even knowing. Spamming is a surefire way to ruin your reputation as a marketer.
6. Not Writing Unique Content
Affiliate marketing requires a lot of writing. It usually comes in the form of sales copy, classified ads, and articles. Since outsourcing the work is costly, many affiliate marketers turn to what’s known as private label rights, or “PLR” articles. These are articles that have been written specifically for the use of others. The problem is that they have been sold to many people. This means that they are no longer unique. Most marketers rewrite the content before publishing, but the general idea of the article remains the same. Content is king on the internet, and those that write fresh, exciting content will always have a leg up on the competition.
7. Not Using The Products They Promote
A great way to promote affiliate marketing products is by writing reviews. However, many affiliate marketers review products that they don’t own. If written properly, this can be effective. For the most part, though, readers can tell if the reviewer has actually tried the product. It’s not a good idea to recommend a product to anyone that you don’t like and use. If you don’t purchase the product, you can’t honestly know if you like it. If the product isn’t quality, and you continue to recommend it, you’ll quickly lose customers and tarnish your reputation.
Affiliate marketing is hard work. However, you shouldn’t get discouraged. The best advice I could give you is to avoid making the above mistakes, and NEVER, EVER give up! Persistence and knowledge are the two most important tools you could possess if you want to be a successful affiliate marketer.
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.
3. 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.
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.
What is the Difference Between Inbound and Outbound Marketing?
posted by Web_University @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Between Inbound and Outbound Marketing?
When it comes to marketing, you can go either inbound or outbound marketing. Most of us are familiar with outbound marketing. This type of marketing is a push strategy where you advertise to purchased leads, have a cold calling department, use telemarketing, and advertise through various channels. Inbound marketing is different in that it focuses on attracting people to your business.
Inbound marketing is where you focus on strategies to get the attention of prospects, industry leaders, and customers. An example of this is setting up a blog for your business where you attract subscribers and readers by posting valuable content. By focusing on quality content, you will start to establish yourself as an authority, gain credibility, and start a conversation in the community around your site.
An additional benefit of inbound strategies is that you will start to get traffic from the search engines because other websites start to naturally link to yours. You will also get traffic because the blogosphere is viral and loves to share great posts. Bloggers love to work together, share other valuable blogs, link to great resources, and are open to helping each other grow.
Another example of inbound marketing is email marketing. Many marketers use the Internet to deliver a regular newsletter to their subscribers. Through this newsletter and regular email communication, they are able to create relationships with prospects and customers. An email list also provides a great way to promote your latest product and services. Email campaigns have been known to generate big profits because of the fact that it is very affordable to use.
So should your business use inbound marketing or outbound marketing? It really depends on where you are and what direction you want to go. If you’re looking for quick results and have money to spend on advertising then outbound marketing may be a great way to grow your business. Most businesses depend on outbound marketing to bring in their profits.
However, if you’re on a limited budget and you have the time to spend on developing an authority site then inbound marketing may be the better choice. If you have the confidence to deliver something of value to your industry and community, then inbound marketing can really produce great results for you.
By establishing yourself in your market and industry, many people will choose you over competing businesses because they feel you’ve presented enough value, have established credibility, and also because they are more familiar with you as opposed to other businesses that don’t have a following behind them.
The difference between inbound and outbound marketing is that outbound marketing can help you get quick results and can give you a scientific way to measure your sales.
Inbound marketing is more about a long term strategy that will establish your business in the market and industry. It may be a great solution if outbound marketing channels are too crowded or expensive to compete in.
Many businesses that have used outbound marketing are also using inbound marketing to complement their business model. They are realizing that while maintaining cash flow with outbound marketing is important, they need to establish themselves in the marketplace and connect with people so that can ensure long term success.
Inbound marketing is still in its infancy and there is so much to learn about how to use it to its full capacity.
Many businesses are using multiple channels from blogs, email, Facebook, Twitter, to community forums. There are different ways to monetize these channels as well as rules that you need to follow when using them.
The best way to get the most out of inbound marketing is to focus on learning how to use one channel at a time and slowly integrating it into your overall strategy. There is a community of marketers devoted to learning how to use inbound marketing to grow their business and is worth your time to learn from them if you want to get the most out it.
In conclusion, there are big differences between inbound and outbound marketing. Some say that outbound marketing is the better choice while others think inbound marketing produces better results. It’s really up to you which strategy you go with as it will depend on your business model and also on what direction you want to lead your business towards.
Advertising is Dead – Long Live Advertising
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Advertising is Dead – Long Live Advertising
Brand leadership through social media
Not so long ago, the relationship that brands had with their
customers was a one-way street. The brand was the boss. They
told their customers what to like and how to like it. The only
say the customer had was the decision to buy. This is no longer
the case. Customers are very publicly talking back and it is
making the management teams of some brands very nervous.
Web-based social networking platforms give customers power never
seen before. Now one voice can be heard by thousands of people.
Brands need to learn to deal with this evolution, so here is a
primer.
First, some background on how the internet has altered consumer
behaviour. The internet, and particularly the rise of social
media, has allowed people with similar interests to connect.
This becomes obvious when one trawls through Twitter, where the
common social network model of simply connecting with people you
know tends to give way to people connecting in groups according
to interest. Indeed, people interested in any topic imaginable
from all areas of the world are connecting. It’s like
subject-based forums on steroids. People are forming tribes.
Humans have always formed tribes. Religion, family, sports and
fashion are all examples of tribal behaviour. The difference now
is that any interest group can form a tribe almost instantly.
Social media has allowed any fringe idea to become the basis of
a tribe and a movement. People want desperately to be connected,
but, even more importantly, they want to be led. We are in a
time of massive change, which is driven by everybody’s desire
to do things in a new way and to be heard.
Barack Obama’s recent landslide victory is a good example of
this. He promised change, he communicated differently and led
with integrity. He connected to his audience through social
media. He started a movement, formed a tribe and then he and his
followers charged to victory. What the world discovered is that
you can now make an ad campaign as slick as you want, but if the
product is poor then it simply doesn’t matter.
So “advertising is dead” in the sense the old methods don’t
work the same way they used to. Obama’s opponents didn’t fully
understand the impact that social networking has had on society.
They continued to use the old and trusted methods of marketing.
These apparently transparent methods are diminishing in
influence as social networking begins to infiltrate every media
touch-point. In two recent articles I wrote for Anthill I talked
about how this is already happening to television and how the
newspaper industry needs to change to avoid becoming
irrelevant.
Social media is much more than a passing phase. Human
civilisation is built around social interaction. It’s what the
people want and this new media is only going to get bigger. It
will eventually become part of everything. Individual social
media companies might fade away (MySpace seems to be in that
category) as better designed products come onto the market, but
the world has spoken and it wants to be connected. Brands that
don’t adapt to this reality will be left behind. They will
become the guy at the party that nobody wants to sit next to
because he just keeps talking about himself.
Tribal Behaviour
Blogs have become socially and commercially influential. From
what started out as individuals chatting on about their lives,
blogs have become business tools and money making ventures. They
influence groups, buying patterns and fashion. They are modern
tribal leaders.
Not so long ago commentators speculated that blogging was simply
a passing fad. What these commentators didn’t realise was that
it was yet to achieve maturation and once it had it would signal
big trouble for the large media organisations. Now anyone with a
camera or a desire to write is ‘the press’. This pattern is
being repeated for micro-blogging, a category in which Twitter
is the current market leader. Some commentators question the
relevance of utilising Twitter to listen to people “drone on
about their lives”. But Twitter, and other micro-blogs, are in
the early stages of their development. They too will mature,
most probably much quicker than the original blogs, and enable
much bigger tribes to develop around even more specific subject
matter.
The tribal leaders of these new social media can be reached and
persuaded to support you, no matter what platform they decide to
use. Unlike the old ‘one way’ approach however, they need to
be interacted with on their own terms. Provided they have a
group of true fans, they can influence hundreds of thousands of
people – in a matter of hours. This is what gives them such
power.
And this is what marketers in the current environment have to
understand. The ‘mass-market’ model is on the decline. What is
needed now is a pattern of marketing to the ‘early adopters’ -
the ones at the front of the bell curve who have a true interest
in what you have to offer – and form a base of evangelists that
will market for you. You no longer have to aim to connect with
everyone. This really leaves the field wide open for the smaller
brands to break through – the ones willing to challenge.
The Age of the Challenger
In marketing speak, a ‘challenger brand’ is code for ‘the
small brand’. A challenger brand is one that is meant to be
fast, flexible and innovative in its communications. But in my
view the word ‘challenger’ should instead be short-hand for
‘emerging leader’.
Emerging leaders challenge the status quo, they challenge
themselves and they connect with others who have similar ideas -
those people who need a leader to show what to do and inspire
them. The market leader wants the status quo to remain just
that. They want to speak and be heard in a mass market. No
discussion thanks. The challenger realises that, in order to
create a movement there needs to be systems in place for
everybody in that tribe to be heard, and they commit to leading
that tribe with everything they’ve got.
Traditional advertising is not about interaction with the
individual. It is predominately a one-way conversation to a mass
audience. But nobody likes to be forced into making decisions.
This is why the traditional advertising model is beginning to
fail. It relies on mass media, and this media is itself being
transformed by social networks.
What can Social Networking do for Your Brand?
All of this may sound a bit scary for brand managers. It’s true
that it does take time and effort to build a community. And to
be truly effective, you have to obey some rules. Even so, it is
not a hard thing to do. It takes far more time and resources to
build that fan base with traditional advertising. Be honest, be
helpful and contribute to the community and you’ll get
supporters fast.
Social networking is far more than having a Facebook profile. It
is any platform that gives the end user an ability to
contribute. Many companies have realised that developing an
internal social media platform can aid in communication but have
yet to work out how it can help shape their brand personality.
A good social media strategy accepts that you can’t do
everything at once. A company can employ a social platform to
perform customer service, to connect directly with customers
(thereby humanising the brand), to obtain demographic
information on individuals to improve the effectiveness of
direct marketing or to harness a mass of surplus cognitive
resources to generate new ideas.
You can’t do everything with social media, but as long as you
are focused you will be able to do much more than you may
expect.
Where to Start
In the coming months, many companies will try to market through
social networks and many will fail. There are, of course, ways
of dramatically upping the chances of success, not least of
which is making sure you hire a company that knows the space
well. Making sure you know the fundamentals will help move
things along quickly.
The first thing any company moving into social networking should
decide is the overall goal. Knowing what you want to achieve and
why you are doing it may seem obvious but is something that is
easily overlooked if you rush into a project too quickly.
As with any good marketing activity, you need to know how your
customers think and behave. Unlike traditional advertising,
marketing online is very data-rich. It is possible to know
exactly what your customers are looking at, how long they spend
doing it and who they then talk to about the experience. Make
sure you know as much of this information as is possible before
you develop a strategy any further.
From there, deciding what channels you wish to utilise becomes a
very important choice. You should know where your target market
is by this stage, so deciding if Facebook, Twitter, Bebo or any
other platform is right should be easy. Deciding to create your
own platform is a bigger step but can be very rewarding if it is
done correctly. Again, make sure you are getting good advice and
a solid strategy and don’t just assume that if you make
something it will get used.
Measurement is important in all areas of business and social
networking is no exception. Developing good metric methods
should be an early priority. Remember that it is possible to
measure everything but not all information has value. Knowing
what you are looking at is vital. If you are hiring a marketing
firm to build you a social networking campaign, it makes sense
to have part of the payment tied to the performance of that
campaign. If you are building a network to get staff talking to
each other and your customers, the quality of the content will
go down if you assign KPIs to ‘platforms usage’ only.
Most importantly, make sure everyone involved knows what your
‘voice’ is. It is wise to develop a policy around social
networking usage, but if that policy is too tight you will lose
support. This is about people. Learn that it is OK to give up
control of your marketing message and become part of the
conversation. Be honest, be objective and be involved. And do
not leave your community. You have made a promise to these
people to listen to them. If you stop participating, they will
abandon you in an instant.
Start Lending
There is no better time to start developing social media
strategies. All market segments are spending a lot more time on
social networks (the time spent on Facebook grew by over 500
percent in the year Dec ’07 to Dec ’08) and in this time of
economic downturn it may be wise to attract new customers from
further afield. In the not-too-distant future, every company
will have a social networking policy, so getting in early will
give you an edge.
Marketing in social networks is not rocket science. It may
involve technology but, at its core, it is what human
civilisation is built upon. If you can hold a conversation you
can market in social media.
So get good advice and get moving. The world is changing and the
challengers are going to come out on top. They will create
movements and lead tribes. They will interact and not be afraid
of change. They will know how to listen and realise the greatest
power they have is to empower their customers.
If you understand that these networks have all been built
because it’s what your customers want, then the challenger, the
leader, can be you.
Google’s Local Business Center: A Major Update & A New Name – ‘Places’
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Friday, August 6, 2010
Google’s Local Business Center: A Major Update & A New Name – ‘Places’
If you have a brick and mortar store, and rely on walk-in
traffic for your survival, you may be wondering
what the Internet can do for your business. Believe
it or not, a lot – and you don’t even need a website.
In the “old days”, the bulk of businesses relied on
the Yellow Pages to get the phone ringing. The majority
of marketing dollars were spent getting listed in this
ten pound paperweight. With the popularity of the Net,
less people let “their fingers do the walking” when they
need something, and more are letting their mouse do
the talking.
Online search has gone mainstream when it comes to
searching for local businesses. Google states that
73% of searches are done for local content. Another
study by BIA/Kelsey and Constat report that 97% of
consumers use online resources when doing research
for products/services in their local area. See
http://www.kelseygroup.com/press/pr100310.asp
Google has always understood the power of local search,
and years ago launched its Local Business Center where
any business can get a listing for free. Recently,
they’ve done a major overhaul and have re-launched with a
new name of “Google Places”, showcasing a host of new features.
http://google.com/places . The name change was done
to tie in with Google’s Place Pages which were launched
over a year ago and include over 50 million places
worldwide. http://tinyurl.com/yc56vx9
If you want customers to be able to find you, and haven’t
listed your offline store here yet, you need to get with
the program. You are missing out on the opportunity to
reach millions of Google users, including Google Map users,
Google’s 800 Voice Directory Search and even Google Earth.
And all of this exposure won’t cost you a dime. It’s totally
free.
Now that I have your attention, let’s go over the steps
for inclusion. As with all things Google, you’ll need
to sign into Google Places with your Google Account.
Up to 100 single locations can be added but, if
you have more than ten to list you’ll need to use
their “Bulk Upload Tool”.
There is a verification process that must be done
to prove you’re the owner of the business being listed.
The choice is yours, it’s by phone or mail. Once
this is done, your listing goes live.
Now in case you’re thinking all that’s included in
a listing is an address and phone number, hold onto
your hat. Here are some of the listing options.
1) Show the geographic area you service.
2) Photos: Upload your own, up to ten images per
listing, in JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP. A professional
photo shoot can also be requested for your business.
3) Place Page Posts: You can post real time updates
here, up to 160 characters, announcing special sales,
events, and new products. One post appears at a time.
4) Custom QR Codes: For use with smart phones to
take users to your mobile website.
5) Advertise: They do have a “Tags Program” in
select cities for $25.00 a month where your business
will be highlighted on Google.com and Google Maps.
6) List your operating hours. Biz description
and even reviews.
7) Post Videos: Up to five videos can be posted,
but you’ll need to publish them to YouTube first,
then include the URL’s on your Place Page.
Payment Types Taken
9) Coupons: Create online coupons to give people
incentive to visit your site. There’s a separate
“coupon tab” that appears on your listing page.
10) Privacy: If you work from home and have no
storefront you can choose to make your address
private in your listing.
At this point you should be realizing how important
being listed in Google Places is to your business.
If you’d like to see what your listing looks like
to a searcher, log into Google Places and click on
“see your listing on Google Maps”.
Now remember, search results are based on relevance
and “geographic distance”, so you can’t buy your
way to the top of the list as with pay-per-click
advertising. As previously mentioned, the “tags
program”, if available in your area, can be utilized
for having your business show up highlighted for
$25.00 a month.
If you’re interested in paying for your links to show
up on the Google Maps search results page, if related
to the search terms and location searched, that can
be done using Google’s Adwords program with what’s
called “Local Targeted Ads”. http://google.com/adwords
By the way, Google also includes a “Reporting Dashboard”
that will tell you how people find you, and what keywords
they used to search. It’s powerful stuff that can also
be used in your local search engine optimization work.
Do yourself a favor – if you’re not listed with “Google
Places”, do it today. It’s targeted, free traffic. Now
where else can you say that when it comes to marketing
on the Internet. People are looking for your business
online and with Google Places you can make it easier
for them to find you. Website or not – it simply doesn’t
matter – but getting people in the door does, and Google is
there to help.
Web Marketing Ideas You Can Use
The Web is full of information, articles, videos, white papers,
e-books and all matter of research and information. Some of it
is very, very good, and some of it is misleading and irrelevant.
Somewhere in the middle, falling squarely in the category of
spectacularly mediocre, is the vast majority of the rest of it.
If you’re like me, always trying to improve, learn, and grow
your business, then you’ve probably been frustrated in your
search for truly useful information that you can actually use
to improve your marketing, branding, and sales efforts.
There seems to be a wide choice of articles dedicated to
surefire courses on do-it-yourself marketing that will make
you a Web-Media-Mogul overnight (usually available for a mere
three payments of twenty-nine, ninety-five) and of course,
there’s always lots of stuff on how you just got to get
onboard with the next big social networking fad. Excuse me
while I delete another email about an absolutely fabulous
linking strategy I just can’t live without.
It’s all too familiar and for the most part, a waste of time.
If this nonsense were really the answer to growing your
business, then you’d already be rich, sitting on some
Bora Bora beach sipping pina coladas, and not hunched over
your computer trying to find something useful that will
actually help.
In One Word Or Less
When it comes to marketing, it really doesn’t matter what
venue, method, or media you employ; marketing is simply a
matter of effective ‘communication,’ easy to say, not so
easy to do.
Your ability to communicate is the key to marketing success,
or conversely, your inability to communicate effectively
is what is holding you back. So the time has come to grapple
with the real problem, and that is, how do you communicate
your marketing message in the most effective manner to your
audience; how do you tell your brand story so people pay
attention, and care.
The first thing to understand about marketing communication
is that text messaging, Twitter and all other limited, one
dimensional solutions, stifle the very thing that’s necessary
to implement effective marketing communication: the nuance,
depth of understanding, and emotional value inherent in what
you offer – the very thing your audience needs to know about
what you sell. The key being ‘why they need what you
offer’ not ‘what.’
Communication Is A Complex Process
The second thing to understand about marketing communication
is that it involves five critical elements in order to be
effective: the Message, the Method, the Messenger, the
Audience, and the Venue.
Ask yourself, why are you on the Web at all? If it’s because
everyone else is on the Web, then you’re never going to have
the marketing breakthrough you crave; but if it’s because you
have something to say, a story to tell, a reason for people to
say, “I need some of that!” then it’s time to get serious about
developing the right message, delivered by the right messenger,
sent to the right audience, and employing the Web venue’s best
method of multidimensional communication – Video.
This is nothing new. Web Video is now accepted as the most
effective communication tool available to Web businesses, so
what is the difference between Web Videos that are an utter
waste of time, and worse, counter productive, and Web Videos
that turn companies into marketing phenoms?
Unlike one-dimensional forms of communication, Web Video
delivers your message by accessing multiple senses using visual
and auditory techniques. Just by adding a human being as
presenter goes a long way to making an impact.
Because video communicates by accessing multiple senses on both
a subliminal and direct level, it demands knowledge and
expertise in concept creation, writing, casting, graphic and
motion design, video production and editing, audio, music and
sound design, as well as the ability to get it all to work
together in an effective presentation delivered on time and for
an affordable investment.
But all of this expertise and skill can be wasted if your video
campaign lacks an identifiable emotionally relevant conceptual
design. One of the hardest marketing concepts for bottom-line
oriented business executives to accept is that the value of
their offering is found in the emotional satisfaction their
product or service provides. Telling people what a company
does alone is not marketing, telling them why they need what you
do is. Companies that focus on ‘the what’ turn their products
and services into commodities and products that are
indistinguishable from the competition, but companies that
focus on the emotional value they provide, deliver the answer
to the question, why people buy from one company and
not from another.
Effective Marketing Communication is Concept Based
All good marketing is based on an emotionally based concept.
This is especially true on the Web, where content and attention
span go hand-in-hand. If your Web marketing is not interesting,
informative, and entertaining, it will never be memorable; it
will never have the lasting impact you need to meet your sales
and marketing objectives. Effective marketing communication
starts with an emotionally charged concept, one that can be
spun-out into a long-term presentation strategy, a concept
with legs.
Coming up with an appropriate concept that will work for your
product or service takes a bit of creative thinking, but it
really isn’t as hard as you think. One caveat that often escapes
clients, when they come to us with their ideas is that the
concept must be executable for the available budget. Anybody
can come up with fantastic ideas that are impossible to
implement or cost prohibitive. The trick is to develop a
concept that can be implemented on time and on budget.
Executable Brand Video Campaign Concepts
One method we use to develop affordable brand video campaign
concepts for clients is to combine the emotional value
proposition the client offers with a recognizable presentation
trope.
Tropes are metaphorical expressions, or in this case,
storytelling-scenarios that audiences recognize and accept in
terms of their implied expectations and implications. Used
properly within the context of a Web Video presentation,
tropes can simplify and shorten a complex message, and provide
cover for what would otherwise be a boring, blatant sales pitch,
or desperate plea for business.
Human beings are all programmed for pattern recognition, it is
a basic skill needed for survival, and it’s been hardwired
into our DNA. Our very survival as a species is dependent on
our ability to recognize danger and opportunity. Business and
marketing is no different. And that is what makes communication
tropes effective. This intrinsic aspect of our nature allows
professional video marketing experts to tap into the
motivational triggers that govern our subliminal decision-making
responses, the kind of responses that get people to buy
what you sell.
Web Advertising’s Future Format: Branded Entertainment
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Web Advertising’s Future Format: Branded Entertainment
How do you deliver a marketing message to a Web-audience that
hates advertising? A few years back I proposed a solution based
on short-form television-style programs: the “120 Second
Solution,” two minute brand-story commercials formatted in a
mini three act Web-video presentation. Today this concept is
called Branded Entertainment: a two to seven minute commercial
that combines content, advertising, and entertainment in a brand
story format designed to attract and hold an audience’s
attention while delivering a memorable core marketing message.
The concept has been a hard sell as it flies in the face of a
lot of conventional wisdom about advertising formats, attention
spans, and content credibility. Like most good ideas it seems
that branded entertainment’s time has finally come. Various
marketing blogs are all a twitter about Orbit Gum’s new
campaign called “Dirty Shorts” featuring its first branded
entertainment effort, a 5:17 minute branded video from Jason
Bateman and Will Arnett. It seems these well-known actors have
enough faith in this advertising format that they’ve formed
DumbDumb, a branded video production company. Their first
effort, “The Prom Date,” was viewed 110,000 times in just
three days.
(http://videos.sitepronews.com/video/2278/The-Prom-Date)
Commitment To A Core Message
Of course not everyone has the deep pockets required to hire
Jason Bateman, but with proper planning and implementation a
branded entertainment video campaign is within reach of most
successful small and medium sized companies.
The single biggest obstacle in implementing this kind of
campaign is not the cost, but rather, the commitment to a style
and format most business owners find hard to swallow: the need
to focus on a single core reason why customers should buy your
product or service and to deliver that message in some bold or
offbeat manner.
All too often entrepreneurs think of advertising in conventional
terms like display, banner, and classified (e.g. Adwords). Even
Web video has been pushed, prodded and crammed into pre-roll and
post-roll television style spots. The Web isn’t television; it
requires a whole new way of thinking when it comes to marketing
presentations.
The Web is by nature an unconventional arena that demands bold
content. You can say and do a lot of things on the Web, but the
one thing that won’t be tolerated is boring your audience. Add
to that the fact that we live in a product placement world where
the line between advertising and content has been permanently
erased and you have an advertising environment that demands
something different.
You must stop thinking of your website as a digital brochure and
start thinking of it as a total immersive multimedia advertising
environment that connects to a target audience using standout,
break-through communication techniques. The goal is quality
engagements not shotgun traffic.
The Goal Is Quality Engagement NOT Traffic
For the average Web business it is important to remember that
huge viral numbers don’t come from clever campaigns alone, but
rather, are the result of great campaigns plus advertising
support, extensive PR, and paid-blog placement. That is not to
say that small and medium-sized companies shouldn’t pursue this
approach but rather, the goal of these campaigns should be
quality engagement not quantity traffic – a far more affordable
and productive objective.
How To Deliver Break-Through Advertising
There are various ways to achieve what ad agencies call
break-through advertising, but in every case those methods call
for content that stands out from the crowd, be it humorous,
offbeat, alarming or just plain entertaining, if it doesn’t
standout it won’t make a connection, and your website
presentation will be instantly forgotten.
The best and most complete example of branded entertainment that
I have seen was the brilliant Shredded Wheat “The Palace of
Light” campaign. It was very funny while delivering a powerful
marketing message. Unfortunately the campaign is no longer
running, but if you can find some of the videos on the Web, they
are definitely worth seeing. They are great examples of how to
turn advertising into content, and content into a memorable
experience.
In a speech about break-through advertising, Chuck Porter,
co-founder of Crispin Porter + Bogusky states the average person
sees conservatively 1600 to 3000 marketing messages a day.
That’s a lot of advertising. If your marketing communication
doesn’t standout in some way, you are probably wasting your
advertising budget.
Two Kinds of Advertising
In response to a question asking whether advertising was
technology and data driven, or creatively driven, Porter
explained that there are basically two types of advertising.
The tech-data driven ad is all about finding that person who
needs what you sell at a time when he or she wants to buy it and
then delivering the message to them. This is the reason why so
much of what you see, hear, and read in marketing journals and
blogs is filled with statistics and analysis of who is doing
what and where. All of which is perfectly fine if the only
customer you want is the one that needs what you sell instantly
or who is motivated by impulse.
This kind of advertising is all about immediacy; the customer
needs or impulsively wants what you offer right now. The key is
instant access. If customers don’t have instant access, chances
are the impulse to purchase will fade, or the prospect will find
it more convenient to get the product elsewhere. In this type of
advertising, timing and immediacy is paramount. The downside is
no long-term relationship is established.
Digital products that can be downloaded instantly seem to be
most appropriate for this approach, however that must be
qualified by the level of cost and sophistication associated
with the product or service: the higher the cost and the more
complex or advanced the offering, the less impulsive the
decision, and the more a client must be wooed. Advertising
theory commonly suggests it takes seven engagements in order to
win over a client.
The other kind of advertising is creative-based; it’s
advertising built around brand awareness and identity. This is
the kind of advertising that creates customers, and establishes
long-term loyalty. This is the kind of advertising that can
benefit from implementing a branded entertainment campaign.
Why Branded Entertainment Works
If branded entertainment is done right, it engages an audience,
it informs and enlightens, it entertains and amuses, it’s
meaningful and memorable and potentially viral. Branded
entertainment is more than advertising, it’s marketing, and it
is designed to influence attitudes, change perceptions, and
prompt action.
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!
“My mechanic told me, ‘He couldn’t repair my brakes, so he made my horn louder.’” – Comedian, Steven Wright
We all want our websites to be more effective, and if you’re like most business people you are constantly searching the Web for anything that will help. What you find is a cabal of experts armed with statistics, analysis, charts and graphs all pointing to how they can get you high-up on the search engines and drive more traffíc to your site. The problem is that like Steven Wright’s mechanic these guys are adjusting your horn when it’s your brakes that need fixing.
There is little point in attracting more visitors to your site if your site has little of interest to say. Even if your site is jammed packed with useful products, services and solutions if it doesn’t connect with your audience, they won’t ever invest the time necessary for you to make your case.
When websites fail it’s most often because they do not function effectively as your primary communication tool. The Web is overcrowded with options and unless you’re prepared to deliver a compelling differentiating presentation you will be quickly dismissed as irrelevant. Let’s face it; business is tough, probably tougher than it’s ever been before.
Something is Missing
You’ve done all the technical tweaks and responded to all the research and analytics. You’re blogging, micro-blogging, social networking, and search optimizing, but still something is not quite right, something is missing. What’s the missing ingredient? You know it’s out there, but you can’t for the life of you figure out what it is.
You know the Web offers the potential to access new markets, find new customers, and reach new heights, but with all that potential, the results always seem just out of reach. If research and analytics were the answer you’d already be rich. Of course it was an over-reliance on research that brought us the Edsel, New Coke, and that wonderful Wall Street goody called Derivatives, one of the greatest investment boondoggles of our time.
There is something artificially comforting about putting your faith in seemingly logical yet unfathomable solutions based on indecipherable scientific modeling and over-hyped research analysis, all brought to you by computer scientists and mathematicians who haven’t ever run a marketing department or launched a new product or business.
Business leaders have adopted the attitude that, “It must be right, because I sure as heck don’t understand it.” And when it all goes wrong, or results are anemic, well, “What are you going to do? It’s not my fault, it all looked good on paper.” Ad agencies and Wall Street have been getting away with this kind of bunkum for decades, and look at the mess they’ve made of things.
What’s It All About, Alfie?
Business success is all about your ability to engage your audience with a message that compels them to action. Simply put, your business relies on your ability to communicate. Eureka!
And your website is the best communication vehicle you have. The question is how do you use your website to communicate your marketing message in the most engaging, compelling, and memorable manner? What is the missing ingredient that will turn your scientifically sterile online cookie-cutter presentation into something that cuts through the massive sameness of Internet clutter, and makes a statement that your audience will respond to?
Finding Your Emotional and Psychological Value Proposition
One of the hardest things for tough-minded business people to accept is that sales and marketing success is based on the subconscious emotional and psychological appeal of a brand. That’s the reason, reliance on feature selling rarely works, and only tends to commoditize a product or service – the guy with the most bells and whistles for the least amount of money wins, and why would you want to play that game?
Even the most casual market observer must recognize that all leading brands have one thing in common, no matter what they sell: the promise of their brand is based on a concept that is established through an emotional or psychological appeal. Apple is about thinking and acting creatively without the worry of technical issues; Starbucks is about reconnecting to the original coffee break ideal of a relaxing oasis away from the hustle bustle of everyday life; and Ikea is about stylish living on a budget. Each concept appeals to the deep-seated desires of the targeted audience. It is this singular concept that makes each of these companies special and different from their competition; it is the message that all their marketing, advertising, and promotion is based upon, and it is the true value they provide their audience that attracts interest, holds attention, and delivers promise.
Implementing Your Emotional and Psychological Value Proposition
In order to implement a company’s emotional and psychological value proposition, we use a process called the ConceptCreator. It starts with various sales’ points that need to be covered. Based on the supplied information, we develop a focused marketing concept using the Law of Dissatisfaction that enables us to discover the experiential human subtext of why people will want what you sell. The presentation concept is boiled-down to a movie-style logline that states the brand story to be presented in the Web Video campaign.
How Much Is A Concept Worth?
“Wait a minute – did he say a movie-style logline? That sure doesn’t sound business-like, and I haven’t heard any corporate CEO or MBA talk about movie loglines.” Maybe so, but think about it. Hollywood studios spend enormous sums of money to produce a movie with the potential of making hundreds of millions of dollars, and each financial investment starts with someone coming up with a clever logline that captures the imagination. Television commercials can cost ten thousand dollars a second to produce and without a guiding conceptual premise they become DOA when implemented. So why wouldn’t you start your Web Video campaign using the same proven formula.
The logline, mission statement, or elevator pitch if you prefer needs to state the characters, goals, obstacles, differentiating factors, and resolution within the context of a story scenario.
For Instance…
If it works for the movie industry will it work for the advertising and marketing industry? Let’s take a look at one of the most successful, popular, iconic marketing campaigns of the last number of years, The MAC versus PC campaign.
Example Logline Concept: A stylish, pleasant, mild-mannered young man verbally spars with his geeky competitive opposite (characters) in a series of humorous, relatable incidents (story scenario) that illustrate the people-friendly advantages (resolution) of the brand compared to its rigid, unbending competitor (differentiating factor) whose sheer size dominates the market (obstacle) in an effort to win the hearts and minds of the computer buying audience (goal). – The MAC Versus PC Ad Campaign.
“The Time Has Come The Walrus Said…”
- Lewis Carroll from ‘Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There,’ 1892
The time has come to realize that Web Video is the best communication tactic available to deliver your marketing message to a worldwide audience; an audience that craves answers and resolution to their every need, concern and desire. It is not good enough to list a bunch of features and hackneyed bulleted points or even to dump pages and pages of search engine optimized hard-to-read text, especially when it’s aimed at an audience raised on television, movies, music and video games. We must learn to speak the language of the audience, and use the appropriate communication tools they can understand in a way that connects on a human level.
It all starts with finding the emotional and psychological value proposition your product or service promises. In a world of frustrated, cranky, attention deficit consumers, the onus is on you to present what you provide in a way that relates to the human elements that make your brand relevant.
There is always a big discussion when it comes to comparing two of the best ways to advertise online: PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising and article marketing, otherwise known as “organic” or “natural” search engine optimization. There is no denying that both methods can be effective. However, which method is better? Which gives you a bigger bang for your buck?
You may get varying statistics on this issue, depending on which website you visit for information. Oh yes, this matters, because you have to consider the source of the statistics and who is sponsoring the article. For example, two sources of information (respectively, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and ComScore) recently produced studies indicating that PPC advertising was more cost-effective on average. However, did the fact that Yahoo/Overture and Google were sponsoring this major study play any role in determining the final outcome? Of course it did – those are the two biggest PPC companies on the net!
In figuring out which of the two is better, you have to consider cost-effectiveness as well as click-through-rates and direct conversion from visiting user to paying customer. We are going to review some statistics a little bit later on. For now, let’s consider some logical points that illustrate how PPC and article marketing differ.
Search engine result pages display more listings than PPC results, which does have a psychological effect on the user. For some users seeing ten search results (each one relevant to the search) is enough to convince them that there is enough web information on the subject and that “fishing” PPC ads might not be necessary.
The catch is that in order to actually rank in the Top 10 SEO results for your keyword, you have to have relevant website content, not to mention technical prowess in HTML coding. Search engines will be focusing on their proprietary algorithms, or the most relevant websites based on the search term queried. There is no “bribery” here, whereas in PPC, it is quite the opposite: whoever bids highest for each word usually gets the top listing. A quality algorithm definitely plays a part in PPC, but in the end money talks. In article marketing, we haven’t quite come to the point where “money talks”. The best websites still win the search engine contest and that is an important factor to consider in your marketing campaign.
Even PPC proponents will admit that PPC is largely style over substance. With PPC advertising you are trying to grab attention in just a few loud and occasionally obnoxious words. You direct the user to a carefully crafted page that “sells” the idea. This operation contrasts with article marketing, which doesn’t necessarily sell an idea on a single page, nor does it grab attention with a few words. With article marketing, there is an entire article waiting for the visitor, which uses a methodical and “indirect” approach. Assuming you are listed in the Top #10, your listing means that the search engine agrees that your website is the best authority on the keyword subject – for the time being. People in a hurry or on a whim will probably click on PPC. People on a mission will be looking for relevant content on their chosen keyword.
Therefore, the question now becomes which methodology works better for your business? Are you appealing to the fast clicker or the thoughtful user? Let’s now consider two sources of statistics for a clearer view of the issue. First, one in favor of article marketing, the next in favor of PPC.
In Favor of Article Marketing
Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D. and principal founder of the Nielsen Norman Group researched the behavior of users who found search engine results pages and noticed some trends. Forty-two percent of users selected the #1 search listing for their result, leaving 58% that selected another Top 10 Result. The #1 site listed held the majority of clicks. This indicates that almost two thirds of Internet users were not content to choose even the #1 listing on a natural SEO search. That means that these users (and the majority of all users) are actually using independent judgment in deciding what links are most relevant to their needs.
Other related statistics (with sources from ComScore, Webxico, iProspect, SEOResearcher and Hotchkiss, Garrison, and Jensen) concluded that 77% of search users choose organic listings over PPC ads. There were also studies that suggested organic click-through generated 25% higher conversion rates than equivalent PPC click-through.
In Favor of PPC Advertising
Now to be fair, we have to consider some advantages that PPC advertising has. The best feature PPC has is that it gets instantaneous results. SEO advertising takes time, especially if you have a new website just submítted to the all of the major search engines. Yes, this can be frustrating. PPC brings you immediate traffic and sometimes brings in thousands of users. Seeing your Alexa ranking take a drastic jump certainly pumps up your adrenaline!
ComScore recently published statistics in favor of PPC, stating that their studied users had an 18.3% click-through-rate on “paid” search results versus a 4.3% click-through rate for organic search results. The conversion rate was also higher according to ComScore, stating that PPC had a 1.4% versus SEO’s 0.6%.
The Real Issue: Longevity
However, the downside here (even if you didn’t contest these suspicious results) is that instant and high volume traffic is, frankly, cheap and not as exciting as it first appears to be. Remember that when you use PPC ads you are making a pitch and capitalizing on your audience’s curiosity. When that curiosity fades, they forget your website – especially if it’s just a glorified advertisement. PPC campaigns can also be costly and time consuming when you consider your duties as a manager.
Another problematic scenario with PPC is that they have no staying power – unless of course you have thousands of dollars a month to blow in this recession. With article marketing you get more quality traffic, and perhaps more importantly to you, you earn customer trust over time. Internet users aren’t stupid, the popularity of Yahoo Answers notwithstanding. Most users know that PPC ads usually aren’t relevant to their search – they’re just there because someone is consistently paying to get noticed.
You can consider article marketing as an investment that continually pays all through the life of your company (or until you shut the website down) since it generates traffic forever. You can easily spend thousands a month on a brilliant PPC campaign and soon run out of money, meaning your ads go extinct. Therefore, we can conclude that article marketing does have specific advantages over PPC, which are intrinsic because of the differences in operation.
• Article marketing generates traffic forever
• Article marketing improves your natural SEO ranking and backlinks
• Article marketing establishes trust – you appear as a professional in your industry
• Article marketing doesn’t cost you extra on top of fees spent on websites, landing pages and superfluous domains
How About Return-On-Investment?
ROI is another key issue, as short-term and long-term profit must equal out. Article marketing, by some authorities appears to have a slower ROI -(especially if you make revenue on CTRs). However, studies suggest that organic ROI is more consistent than PPC. Consider some independent research conducted by popular blogger Gord Hotchkiss who explained the situation in crystal clear terms. Let’s say you have 50 high traffic search terms. Now for these 50 terms, there are 2.8 million searches being launched in a month. If statistics like ComScore’s are correct and unbiased, that translates to 456,000 visitors thanks to PPC and 153,000 visitors thanks to article marketing.
The total cost of those 456,000 PPC visitors would amount to over $500,000 with an average CPC of $1.18. Even if you work with an SEO company that charges top dollar ($10,000 a month, let’s say) you’re still paying $10,000 compared to half a million. That means article marketing’s virtual CPC amounts to $0.07. Even if you apply PPC’s higher conversion rate, 3,647 converted visitors, you are paying $147.08 for each individual person. Compare that to 611 visitors you earned through article marketing – you are paying $16.37 for each visitor. And in doing so, you are also earning a higher quality of customer and generating traffic until the end of days.
Does your final ROI number take into account your total expenses? Absolutely! While both methods of advertising have their place online, when it comes to earning quality traffic, article marketing gets the last word.
7 Tricks to Get a Goooooooooooogle of Links
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
SEO is a race. And in any race learning from your competitors makes you a better runner. Even when you’re running first it’s sometimes good to look back and check the runner-ups. And if you’re not the yellow jersey guy, you absolutely should examine the leaders: their gear, their training, their strategy. In SEO the most interesting thing about your competition are their links.
Whether you like it or not SEO is still pretty much about links. Good link profile can make up for almost any lack of optimized content and other onpage flaws. Love or hate, the best thing you can do about it is embrace the fact and run with it.
So let’s go through some tricks that will enable you to look deeper into your competition’s link profile granting you access to the restricted areas: their locker room, dirty laundry and even the briefing hall where they plan their link building strategies.
Let’s Talk Competitive Link Research
Finding out where your competitors’ links come from is not all that hard. You just go to Yahoo! or Google and type in link:www.your-competitor.com to get a list of inbound links to the site.
Yahoo’s much better in that respect as it tends to give more extensive and accurate data. The problem here is that there’s a limit of 1,000 links per website which is often not enough as the fattest link sources get left behind the limit fence. Here’re some tips to break through to the other side.
Note: If you’re lazy like me skip to the end of the article where I’ll share a tool that does it all much quicker.
Trick 1: Search for Links to Particular Web Pages of a Competing Site
Alongside with link:www.your-competitor.com search for
link:www.your-competitor.com/products.html or
link:www.your-competitor.com/services.html
and so on.
Trick 2: Exclude Internal Links
You may examine the internal linking structure of your competition if you want to gain some insight on their navigation and marketing steps. But as we want to find more external links, let’s exclude the internal ones.
You can do this by adding -site:site.com operator to your search query. Type in:
link:http://www.your-competitor.com -site:your-competitor.com or
linkdomain:www.your-competitor.com -site:your-competitor.com
and you’ll get a list of external backlinks only.
There’s a dropdown option in Yahoo! site explorer that does the same.
Trick 3: Exclude Links Coming from Certain Domains
The -site: modifier lets you exclude links coming from specific sites. So, whenever you see a large chunk of links coming from the same domain add -site:thisdomain.com modifier to your query and the links from this site will get replaced with new ones.
You can add -site: multiple times in one query so that you have something like this:
link:http://www.cnn.com -site:cnn.com -site:en.wikipedia.org
Trick 4: Check Links Coming from Certain TLDs
This is a little known trick. The site: modifier actually lets you get a list of links coming from domains with certain TLDs: .com, .org, .edu, .co.uk and so on. Just type in
link:http://www.your-competitor.com site:.gov or
linkdomain:www.your-competitor.com site:.gov
and you’ll get a list of .gov sites linking to your rival.
Note: Do this in Yahoo! regular search, not site explorer
Trick 5: Exclude Links Coming from Certain TLDs
This is an even lesser known trick. You can exclude certain TLDs from the results with the -site:.tld modifier. Usually the biggest chunk of links comes from .com’s so add a -site.com modifier and you’ll get lots of new link data.
Trick 6: Use Different Combinations of the First 5 Tricks
Try link:http://www.your-competitor.com/page.html -site:your-competitor.com -site:.com
Or link:http://www.your-competitor.com site:.org -site:wikipedia.org
Give it a thought and I’m sure you’ll come up with lots of ideas. Feel free to share your findings in the comments.
Trick 7: Use the Above 6 Tricks in Different Search Engines
Don’t limit your searches to Yahoo! and Google, go to AltaVista, Alexa, (Bing doesn’t give you link data, so forget about it) but then there’re Exalead, Excite and tons of regional search engines. Search them, get rid of the the duplicates and you’ll have a goooooooooooooooogol of competitor’s links to study.
Note: Some search engines have a different set of operators so you’ll need to type domain: instead of link:.
Getting It All Done Fast
This sure seems like a lot of work and it is. Moreover, getting the links list is only the beginning and the easy part of competitive link research. Once you get the list you need to analyze each link, weed out poor quality sites and only leave the ones you can get a link from. Now THAT’s a lot of work.
I’m too lazy to do this all by hand, besides I value my time too much to waste it on such kind of work. That’s why I use SEO SpyGlass an advanced link analysis tool that employs all the tricks described in this article (plus some more advanced ones I don’t even know) to get up to 25,000 links per domain, which is much, much more than any other tool can get.
SEO SpyGlass also finds all the data I need to analyze the links:
• Google PR of the domain and linking page
• The URL and title of the linking page
• The anchor text and description
• Whether the link is still on the page (sometimes the link gets removed but search engines will
think it’s there till they reindex the page).
• Whether the link is no-follow or dofollow
• How many other links are on the page
• How much link value the link passes
• And some other data like TLDs, domain age, country, etc.
If you want to do competitive link research seriously, I’d strongly recommend trying SEO SpyGlass out. And of course you can always use my tricks whenever you want to run a quick background check on that new guy on your block.
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.
10 Best Strategies to Massively Increase Your Visibility Online
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Monday, March 22, 2010
Increasing online visibility is the goal of most online business owners. After all, without visibility, you have no traffic and thus no business. However, when you start to research how to improve your online visibility, you discover many options, but find that there is little time for research and implementation. Where does an online entrepreneur turn first to get the visibility (and traffic) to promote an online venture?
New tricks and gimmicks come out every day, but unfortunately, most of them are like so many recording artists and become one-hit wonders. In my business, I’ve discovered that there are a handful that are able to stand the test of time. Some have been around for as long as websites have been around, while others are newer kids on the block. Here are my 10 most effective strategies to massively boost your visibility online:
1. Press releases. Press releases are a well-known marketing strategy that have worked for years with print and broadcast media. In recent years they have found new life as an online visibility tool. Just like in the old days, your release should carry some newsworthy angle that has been optimized with a select few keywords by which you want your business to be found. Don’t waste your time submitting your release to the free press release sites — the release simply sits on the site and goes no where else. Instead, invest in a fee-based service (I prefer PRWeb.com), which will ensure your release gets the recognition it deserves.
2. Social Networking. A “johnny come lately” to the online visibility scene, social networking now ranks near the top in terms of attracting visibility to your business for a very low cost. If you don’t yet have accounts on the two most popular social networking platforms, Facebook and Twitter, today is the day to hop on board and begin to network. Choose 1-2 social networking platforms where your target market hangs out, and then begin to work it by making connections, joining groups or networks, sharing resources, and asking questions. Dedicate 15-30 minutes each day to your effort to begin to see results.
3. Article Marketing. Writing and submittíng articles to major article directories has definitely stood the test of time for online visibility. Article marketing will drive traffic to your site, establish you as an expert in your target market’s eyes, and give you valuable content to repurpose into information products. For maximum effectiveness, your article needs to contain a strong resource box (author’s bio) that drives traffic back to your site, needs to contain useful content that solves a problem of your target market, and be written in a tips-based fashion, like this one, since it is the easiest format for a website visitor to read and digest.
4. Blogging. Business blogs (a web log or journal), have gained popularity over the last few years as an online visibility tool. Blogs use RSS feed technology to immediately get new posts and updates out to your blog subscribers through a feed reader. Unlike ezines or traditional websites, search engines index blog posts almost immediately, which help you generate traffic to your website. To use effectively as an online visibility tool, you need to post 2-3 times per week to keep your readers interested and coming back.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Optimizing your site or your blog for organic (naturally-occurring) searches has been around from the beginning of Internet marketing. Use a keyword research tool and create a listing of keywords applicable to your business. Don’t forget to add things like “how to”, “tips”, or short descriptions of your target market’s problems to your research. Then, take a look at your page titles, page descriptions, page headlines, and formatted text on a page (bolding, italicizing, underlining) and include your keywords in those areas, as well as sprinkling 1-2 keywords throughout the content of your page. Make the SEO appear to be natural, not forced, and the search engines as well as your visitors will love you.
6. Email Newsletter (Ezine). Regular publication of an email newsletter (weekly is most effective) will enable your prospects to get to know, like and trust you and have you be top of mind when they are ready to solve the pressing problems that fall within your line of expertise. If you make opting into your ezine the primary call to action on your website, you continually build your list with prospective customers. Best of all, if they like what you write, they are more likely to pass along the issue to their contacts, thus increasing your visibility yet again.
7. Signature Teleseminar/Speech. Have you created your signature speech or teleseminar that you can present whenever you’re asked to speak to any type of group (face-to-face or virtual)? If not, design a signature speech or teleseminar that demonstrates your knowledge and expertise without giving away the store (focus on the what and the why but not the how) that compels your listeners to visit your website or request your client attraction device and get on your líst.
Then, begin to research groups that contain your target market both in your geographic area and online. Once you’ve landed a speaking gig, strategize your best call to action for the group — do you want participants to sign up for your ezine, purchase a product, or book a consultation? Add that call to action to your presentation.
8. Videos. With the popularity of broadband Internet connections, it’s much easier for almost anyone to view online video these days. And, with high-quality yet low-cost web cams, video cameras, and screen capture software readily available, anyone can make a video today. You might record a live Q&A session on UStream.com and post it on your site. Or, perhaps you want to record a “how to” tutorial using screenshots from your computer and upload that to your YouTube.com channel. Remember to include your call to action in your video so that you drive traffic back to your site. Just think — your video may cause you to become the next YouTube star!
9. Expert question sites. Most people conduct online searches to find free information that answers their questions. Many online entrepreneurs are registering as experts on an expert or answers site, like Yahoo Answers or AllExperts.com, in an effort to get visibility online. To be an effective expert on these sites, you need to seek out questions that you can knowledgeably answer as an expert. Your answer needs to be very detailed and as specific as possible. The more thorough your answer, the better chance you’ll have of getting chosen as the “favorite” answer, which is the one rated highest on the site and in the search engines.
10. Viral marketing. Viral marketing involves creating a marketing piece (ebook, video, software) that gets passed along free of charge from person to person. Publicity Hound Joan Stewart does this quite effectively each year when she compiles the best tips she’s written about in the previous year in a “best of” ebook compilation that she gives away free of charge on her site. She also encourages her líst and website visitors to “regift” it.
You’ve got two options when you try to get online visibility: the “steady and effective over time” method or the “quick and short and probably get banned” method. I prefer to use methods that have stood the test of time and won’t result in my site being removed from the search engines. Use one or more of these time-honored strategies to get you the visibility you deserve online.
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!
For many online marketers, conversions rates are a mere fraction of what they use to be. At the same time, there are a few marketers that I’ve chatted with who have experienced no significant drop in conversions. These are all marketers who have built incredible subscriber loyalty over the years.
For many online marketers, the biggest problem is email deliverability. Their email is simply not getting through. Email is being filtered so heavily today that often less than 20% of a large ezine mailing gets delivered.
There are things you can do to improve your email deliverability, such as run it through a spam checker prior to sending it out. Top mailing list management systems, such as ProfitAutomation.com, have built in systems that allow you to grade an email against the Spam Assassin database prior to sending it. If your email scores higher than a 2, I personally would revise it to lower the score.
I’ve talked to friends over a year ago, who often confided in me that they sometimes sent out emails and got absolutely NO response. They wondered if anyone even got the emails or read them.
Many savvy marketers also realized that a business totally dependent upon email was not a very solid business. They realized that what they really needed was a database that contained not only names and email addresses, but physical mailing addresses. That way, if something dramatic ever did happen in the world of email, they could just shift their marketing to direct maíl, and still be in business. This is one of the reasons that you started seeing some online marketers offering loss leaders on CD or DVD. It gave them the perfect tool (excuse) to build out their databases. They knew that email could someday go the way of fax broadcasts.
Some of my in-the-know friends have also shared with me that many ISP’s now monitor things such as email delivery rates, bounce rates, and open rates. They use readily available data, and if a given ISP or third party list host had a dismal record, they may block ALL email from that source.
That’s pretty scary. I was also told that a few well-known list management providers were having emails coming off their servers BLOCKED, or “black holed.”
If ISPs are tapping into databases that reveal which mail servers send out a lot of mail that has very low open rates, for example, and blocking email from those servers, that does very well spell the slow death of some email marketers… unless they move their list to other platforms.
Ok, so I just painted a pretty dismal picture for some marketers.
When I was in the military, my bosses always told me that they wanted the truth from me. They insisted that I not “sugar-coat” the facts. However, they also told me not to bring them problems, without also bringing them viable solutions.
Solutions to the email deliverability issue are out there. For example, paid “sender verification” is one that is often suggested.
One that I’ve looked at many times over the years is some type of direct-to-desktop solution. That’s one where your subscribers install tools that allow your communications to tap into technologies not even dependent upon email.
The objection always brought up when discussing direct-to- desktop applications, is that there’s only so much desktop real-estate, so a person can only subscribe to so many of these independent channels.
Another solution that I like very much is building your list on a hosted platform, so that communications take place within the system.
A good example of this can be seen on the social networking site Sokule, pronounced “so cool.” The Sokule community is built on a platform that looks and feels a lot like Twitter, except that it’s built for marketers, so you are encouraged to market on the platform. In fact, there are several built-in features that allow members to monetize their community membership.
While members of many social networking communities tend to de-emphasize getting lots of followers, Sokule is different. Sokule seems to encourage you to get as many followers (called “trackers”) as you can in two ways:
1) They have a quasi-currency, called “sokens” that you can provide to other members to reward them for following you. You earn these sokens, and then you provide them to community members as a reward for following you. In a way, you can buy followers.
2) They allow upgraded members to direct message ALL of their followers a maximum of once every three days. That means that in a very real way, when you build a following on Sokule, you ARE building a list.
When you set up your Sokule account, you enter three of your areas of interest. This allows others to search the database for members with like interests, whom they can then track (follow). In theory, this means that when you send out a direct message, your message should be going to people interested in the same topic.
Just as with an email list, you need to respect your trackers on Sokule, and provide genuine value to the relationship.
To check out Sokule, visit my profile page at: Sokule.com/postit/williec There you can see how you can personalize your profile and monetize it. The links that you’ll notice on the left side of the page are to five of my pet websites. There are also links on the left side of the page that promote Clickbank products. Those links are coded with MY Clickbank ID.
My old military bosses would be proud of me today. Yes, I came bearing bad news. Email marketíng as it once was is dying an agonizing death. However, I also did as my old bosses taught me and presented you with a viable, proven solution.
In future articles, I’ll share with you some more solutions to “the email problem.” For now, check out Sokule. Sign up for a free account and take it for a test drive. It’s quicker to do that at:” Sokule.com/williec . The key to survival in business, just as it was for me in the military is to be aware of, and adapt to, changing circumstances. That’s something you’re now ready to do.
Sincerity: The ‘Secret Sauce’ for Effective Marketing
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Thursday, March 11, 2010
A couple years ago, I was talking with someone who was, for me, a very challenging client. I’m all about cultivating relationships that result in opportunities to sell.
This particular client seemed allergic to cultivating relationships for reasons I didn’t ever really understand.
I remember one such meeting, I was trying to explain to my client the wisdom of first creating trust and credibility before trying to get a sale. And my client was blocking me at every turn with reasons why relationship development would not work for their business.
It was maddening.
Finally, I cried with exasperation, “Well, why the heck do you want to keep working with me since my approach doesn’t work for you?”
“Because you’re sincere,” the client replied.
“Who cares” I thought to myself since it didn’t seem to be to helping my client grow their business.
Since that time I’ve changed my mind about the quality of sincerity. I think it’s impossible to have sustainably effective marketing without sincerity.
The Importance of Being Sincere
The word, “sincere” is derived from the Latin word, “sincerus,” meaning whole, pure, genuine.
When you think about today’s business climate, sincerity isn’t a quality that comes to mind. But it’s a quality human beings need to perceive to be willing and able to buy.
The Place of Sincerity in Your Marketing
First, it’s important to remember the real role of marketing in your business.
Marketing is NOT about making a sale. Marketing is about creating a relationship based in trust and safety so that a sale can occur.
Regardless of public sentiment towards business, people and companies still have problems that need to be solved and stuff that has to get done. Your prospective customers still need to buy stuff.
They want to be able to trust you because they need to buy what you sell.
The marketing you do is all about establishing visibility and credibility so that there’s enough trust for the purchase to happen.
For example, if you regularly keep in touch with prospects via an ezine, you’re not doing it to “bug” your customers. You’re sending out that ezine because:
• You can remind them that “Hey, I help people just like you solve these kinds of problems.”
• You can provide examples and helpful information about the kind of problems you solve (“Here’s an example of how I helped a customer”)
• Or you provide helpful information for your prospects to better understand what they need to do to improve their situation.
Once prospective customers feel accepted for where they’re at and trust you can actually help, they can then take the next step.
It’s About Sustainable, Effective Marketing
Now there are also some relatively good-hearted entrepreneurs out there who use hard-sell tactics in their marketing. You subscribe to their ezine and get barraged with multiple emails every day telling you about some incredible program you “just gotta check out.”
Here’s what’s important: there is no rest with this kind of marketing. You must work very, very hard to generate this level of noise.
And if you’re spending so much time and energy with your marketing, it’s tough to put much time or effort into where–in my opinion–we should be making the difference: helping clients and customers get results.
That, to me, is why hype-centered marketing with or without a good heart fails. If you want to market your business in a way that brings in a steady stream of ideal customers without burning yourself into a crispy critter, sincere, heart-centered marketing is the way to go.
Keys to Developing Sincere, Effective, Sustainable Marketing
#1. Ask yourself, “what’s my highest intention for my business?”
What’s the best possible outcome for you, for your business, and for your customer?
Example: the highest intention for Highly Contagious Marketing is when we help clients create marketing that grows their client base and their bottom line.
When that happens, satisfied clients send us referrals which helps Highly Contagious Marketing succeed financially and there are more successful businesses in the world making a positive difference.
#2. Look at how your intention is reflected in your marketing?
Thinking of the many different ways you market your business, how is your intention showing up?
Example: In all the activities to promote Highly Contagious Marketing, I want to:
(1.) Provide information, a how-to, or a resource that gives the person who gets the marketing a little added value.
(2.) Provide an offer and a clear call to action for anyone wanting to take the next step and get more help from us.
#3. Ask what one change can you make to your marketing to express your sincere desire to serve customers and make a difference?
Some specific actions you can take to show more sincerity in your marketing include:
(1.) Make your marketing message truly focused on your customer and their current problem. The first half of your message should be about your customer and their situation. If you’re talking about yourself–your solutions and qualifications, your marketing is not focused on the customer.
(2.) Look for ways to leave anyone who encounters your marketing a little better off than they were before the encounter. Marketing that informs, coaches, inspires, even entertains all leave recipients a little better off.
(3.) Make sure your marketing reflects your values and if not, make changes. If you loathe hype in other marketing but use hype because “that’s what everybody says I have to do,” stop using hype. Create marketing that gets results without making you feel like you sold your soul.
Bottom Line
Remember, marketing is all about cultivating trust-based relationships so prospects can buy. And sincerity is a critical factor which enables trust to grow.
Can you market your products and services without sincerity? Sure. But you will have to work a lot harder to sustain sales because you won’t be creating the quality relationships that give your marketing real momentum.
To create marketing in which sincerity shines through, take some time to remember what your business is in service for and take action so that your marketing better reflects what matters to you.
How To Think About Webmedia
We’ve all seen Web video campaigns and television commercials that we actually enjoyed watching, not once, but over and over again. Whether it’s the Mac Versus PC ads or the thoroughly entertaining Visa Pizza Twirling Commercial, great campaigns are as memorable as great movies or television shows. When commercial presentations meet that standard, they transcend mere commercial status, and reach the level of Experiences.
Killer Campaigns is all about marketing campaigns that are memorable experiences, but why is that important; why should you care? Well if you want to grow your business, create, establish, or enhance a brand, or just plain sell more stuff on the Web, then you have to learn how to turn “advertising into content and content into an experience.”
What We’ll Show You
Each segment will feature an example of what we consider a great campaign that achieves memorable experience status. It may be a television commercial, a YouTube video, or even a video microsite, but whatever form it takes it will be worth watching, or more to the point, worth experiencing.
But just watching excellent advertising is not enough to understand why and how it works. You have to understand the technique used, and why it is effective. In some cases we may even show you failed examples of the same technique used, and explain why one campaign worked and one didn’t.
Our Perspective
We start with a particular point-of-view. You may agree with it or you may not, but by the time you’ve been through several segments of The Killer Campaign series you will at least understand how to think about great marketing concepts, and you will watch webmedia from a whole new frame-of-reference, and with a more critical eye.
Our perspective is deceivingly simple: we create marketing communication, that’s video campaigns, websites, and video microsites based on the notion that Web traffic is an audience, not prospects, clients, or potential suckers, but an audience.
The Technique and Why It Worked
The analysis we use to evaluate the effectiveness of these techniques is based on the preceding perspective of treating website traffic like an audience. Why you may ask don’t we do what everybody else does, and look at the numbers? And the answer is simple: numbers lie. Numbers themselves don’t tell you the whole story.
An effective campaign may fail because of poor implementation or faulty targeting, or any number of other reasons that don’t speak to the creation and effectiveness of the media itself. After all, one of the greatest commercials ever made, the introduction of the Macintosh computer, hardly ever got shown because certain members of the board of directors got cold feet.
Killer Campaigns: Words & Music
As powerful and important as visual communication is, without finely crafted, supportive words and music, the visuals will fall flat; they will lack the emotional impact that connects you the advertiser, with them, the audience.
The Visa Pizza Twirler Commercial with the Morgan Freeman voice-over is a tour-de-force of commercial communication. Take a look and listen:
Visa Pizza Twirler Video with Sound
But what would this presentation be like without words and music? Here’s a video of the filming of the pizza-tossing scene without any voice-over or music. The pizza-chef is brilliant but without the words and music it’s merely a pleasant distraction without emotional or commercial relevance.
Visa Pizza Twirler Video – No Words and Music
The Web and television are both multimedia communication venues that rely on visual impact and sound design combined with the element of performance, but at least one major difference makes commercial presentation on the Web a more difficult challenge: television watching is a passive exercise, while Web surfing is a proactive activity. You’ll suffer through bad television commercials to watch your favorite program but on the Web, people won’t tolerate it. That said, there are some great commercials that do get it right.
HTC You Campaign
The HTC You Campaign hits the proverbial marketing nail right on the head. This is a company that communicates the right message in the right way, because the message is not about the phone, it’s about what you need in a phone. Just listen to the tag line: “you don’t need to get a phone, you need a phone that gets you, and you, and you, and we are HTC.”
This is a presentation that transcends commercial status. At the heart of the video are words and music that form a hypnotizing poetic social commentary on our over-stimulated hectic lives, and it provides a human solution, not a technical one. The concept is brilliant: this is not a product, it’s a life enabler, and who couldn’t use one of those. There is no discussion of features or price. It’s not even about the phone; it’s about making life easier for you, and it does it with a brilliant script and a hypnotic musical score.
HTC You Campaign Video
Conclusion
In order for a commercial, a website, or a webmedia campaign to attain the level of an effective content experience, it must connect with an audience on an emotional level, the level at which decisions are made, and actions approved.
The HTC You Campaign illustrates how poetic words, delivered in an inspiring voice-over, supported by a hypnotic musical score, with associated images, turn advertising into content and content into an experience.
Does your website presentation or webmedia marketing strike this kind of cord with your audience, or are you still trying to win the hearts and minds of your audience with just another feature or price adjustment?
The Web is a different kind of communication venue. The old broadcast scenario of repeat, repeat, repeat, until they say your brand name in their sleep, just won’t work on the Web. You may only get one shot at any individual audience member, don’t screw it up.
Link Building Best Practices – A Guide to Effective Link Building Methods
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Just to cover the ground, lets go over what link building is quickly. Link building is the process of building backlinks to your site. The more backlinks (links from other sites to your site) a site has, the higher it ranks on the search engines. Link building therefore is a mission of all money makíng webmasters.
Link building methods have changed from time to time and a specific method that worked yesterday may not work today. This is due to changes in the industry over time and in some cases extreme abuse. If a specific link building method has been abused too much, then that method will not work anymore.
It is therefore very important to know which link building method works today so that you can spend your time in a most productive way.
There are many link building methods out there today that work with some working better than others. Below are some of the today’s popular links building methods:
Article Submission
If you are reading this article, then you know that you can publish your article in article directories. Not only do you gain backlinks to your site from your published articles (see bottom of this article), you will get some traffic as a bonus. Think of you reading this article. There might be many reading your published articles as well.
Article submission is a great way of building backlinks as it provides you with 100% relevant contextual backlinks that Google loves.
Directory submission used to work lot better before, but it is still a popular link building method that still works if done properly. How many directories are out there as of this date is anyone’s guess but one thing is certain: that most of the directories aren’t worth submitting to.
Google considers a Yahoo Directory link as a quality backlink so if you can afford and justify the cost, it is worth submítting to Yahoo Directory. Yahoo charges $300 for a yearly submission and there is no assurance that your site will be approved!
Directory Submission
DMOZ is another directory that is worth submitting to and can provide great benefit in your SEO campaign. It may take months to get the approval from DMOZ and the chance of getting approved is pretty slim. A lot of small directories use the DMOZ directory categories so getting listed with DMOZ would mean getting bonus listings on many other web directories.
Another good directory to submit to is the BOTW dírectory that costs $99 for a yearly submission and $299 for a permanent listing.
Other than the above, you should look for quality directories where you can submit your site. You can judge the quality of the directories by analyzing the number of sites listed, number of backlinks the directory has, PR, age of the directory, etc.
Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking worked like charm only a few months ago. If bookmarked on authority and quality bookmarking sites like Digg, Mixx, Propeller, etc, then you can still make good use of social bookmarking. Other than backlinks, social bookmarking also offers you some bonus traffic depending on where you submit to. If you can manage to put together or collect a good bookmarking site líst, then social bookmarking can still be a useful link building method.
Blog Commenting
This is a link building method where lots of spamming has already been done so to make the best of it, you need to work a little harder here. It is best to find quality blogs related to your category and make on-topic relevant comments. Not only do your comments add value to the blogpost, you now have a greater chance of getting your comment approved and your comments have greater chance of staying on those blogposts.
Press Releases
Submitting to press release sites can get you some backlinks as well. It is however hard to put together a líst of good press release sites that are worth submitting to. If a good líst can be managed, then this method can give some quality relevant backlinks as well.
Social Media and Web 2.0 Pages
There are a lot of quality social media and Web 2.0 sites where you can publish your articles for backlinks. You should write articles that are relevant to your site and publish them on these social media and Web 2.0 sites with your keywords hyperlinked to your site. Some of the authority sites are Squidoo, Hubpages, Blogger, WordPress.com, etc.
Social media and Web 2.0 links are very popular these days because they work great. They give quality, relevant contextual backlinks that Google and other major search engines love. There are lots of other link building methods out there, but if you can utilize the above ones to their fullest potential, there is no need for any other methods.
Ten Top Tips for Video Marketing Your Online Business
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Nearly all internet marketing professionals use video as one of the core methods for marketing their business. These ten tips aim to help you get started creating short, attractive, effective videos based on solid keywords that convert and that stand the test of time.
Video grabs people’s attention far more quickly and effectively than text, audio or photographs. Making a short video can capture a thousand words and pictures and helps to get across your personal brand and lifestyle.
It’s important to stand out in the crowd on video channels and search engines. Aim your headlines at capturing the imagination regarding your topic. So don’t be dull – test out curiosity, shock or fun tactics for getting those download clícks.
First of all, get set up.
When you’re starting out, it’s ok to just use your webcam. It will give you the chance to practice while you’re honing your presentation skills before you fork out for a camcorder. When you’re ready, you can purchase an inexpensive digital video recorder, like say the Flip and a tripod.
Make sure you take your videos in well-lit conditions. Inside your office you’ll need decent lighting, or you can whip out your camera when you’re out and about. It makes for a much more interesting back drop.
OK. So now let’s go through each of my TOP 10 TIPS for creating and using videos to market your business.
#1: Keep Your Videos Short
Whether you’re loading videos on YouTube or just putting them up on your website or blog, it’s really important to keep to just 5 or 6 minutes.
If needed, you can of course break longer topics up into a series of smaller videos, which you could market as a series (see tip 10).
#2: Post Videos on Your Sales PagesM
You can use video on your sales page to introduce the main benefits of your product or business opportuníty. How about placing a video on your sales page or sign up pages.
This helps to orientate visitors and to highlight the main points of your regular, written sales letter.
#3: Choose Your Keywords Carefully
This is really an important tip, because it will affect how your video gets picked up by the search engines and other internet ‘bots’ that seek out content.
Research your top keyword phrases. Pick keywords that will attract the right kind of traffic and leads – research like crazy to find out what your prospects are looking for – and be sure to include your keywords in headings and tags and description boxes.
Doing this research and tracking clíck thrus (CTR) and conversions will help you secure your most cost-effective keywords and keyword phrases.
#4: Have a Clear Purpose & Structure
Your keywords will help make sure you target your video on the right purpose before you start. Does your video answer the questions your visitors have in their heads when they’re searching for solutions. Make things crystal clear.
Stay on topic and give added value – unique value if possible – and your videos will convert much better for you. Write down a structure – a set of headings – for what you’re going to cover. Have a script if necessary.
You can mention any links that you have to another video specifically on that related topic.
#5: Look at the Camera
The aim here is to connect with your audience, both in the topic you choose and the content as well as in your communication style. Remember you are talking to people – real live people. What are their needs and wants, hopes and fears.
With regards to presentation, stick your líst of headings right next to the camera so you stay looking in the camera at all times, rather than looking away at a screen or down at your notes.
An authentic and honest video is far more valuable than a glossy TV like broadcast. So don’t worry if you’re not up to TV presenter standards. Just be yourself and enjoy the opportuníty to reach out to people in a different way than using text copy.
#6: Create a Clear Call to Action
You should create one very clear service and call to action. It’s very important that people know exactly what to do as a result of watching your video.
What is your most wanted response (MWR)? Don’t confuse visitors with lots of options and different offers. Focus on the single most wanted response.
Alternatively, you can put your video up next to a sign up box – linked to your emaíl marketing – and clearly ask them to opt ín, more than once. Provide an incentive, such as a free report or further video coaching resources.
#7: Encourage Comments on Your Video
One of the best things about video is that it’s a very personal, social medium. The more people that are talking about your video and passing it on, the more buzz you’ll create.
Visitors may return to your page to see who has commented since their last comment. There may accumulate a whole líst of tips that have been created by your niche community, prompted by your initial video post.
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.
Pay Per Click Marketing vs Facebook Advertising
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Monday, March 1, 2010
Pay Per Click Marketing vs Facebook Advertising
Google is the Bad Egg of Internet Marketing & MLM. With so
many accounts slapped and closed down for good, Top Gurus
are turning to Facebook Advertising as a far superior
option for cheap targeted traffic.
Don’t Put your Eggs in One Marketing Basket
Savvy Pro marketers like our members aren’t panicking -
we’ve always had a back up plan on the go. Our advice has
been simple – don’t put all your eggs in one basket -
especially Google’s! If you’re using Pay Per Click
Advertising, then make sure you also have some SEO going on
- to generate organic traffic.
It takes a lot of hard work to get your site ranked
through organic traffic – writing articles, forum posts,
blogs, squidoo lenses, hub pages, video marketing – to
build up your online presence and expertise for your chosen
niche keywords.
Organic takes time. So if you don’t have the patience and
want to generate lots of traffic fast, PPC is a good to
have as part of your marketing model.
But internet marketers and PPC experts are absolutely fed
up with the arrogance of Google. So if we’re not doing
Google Adwords for our marketing, where do we get the
masses of traffic we are still able to generate on a daily
basis?
Adding Content Rich Social Marketing into the Mix
If you want free traffic, you usually have to spend masses
of your time with manually writing copy and creating
podcasts and video marketing. So really it’s not free at
all – time is money and all that. Hiring a copy writing
group to create niche content can become quite expensive.
So all this organic SEO friendly traffic takes time to
build up and requires consistent daily effort. This is good
to add to your marketing mix but won’t give you fast
traffic.
What’s super important too is that organic SEO content is
ultimately still controlled by the search engines, so
Google still has power over how you get seen by your
prospects.
How hard is it these days to do enough clever keyword
research to get your unique niche and rank on page one of
Google. Almost impossible – especially if you’re one newbie
trying to compete with the big gurus in internet marketing
or MLM network marketing arena.
What Marketing Strategies to Use that Beat Google Adwords
Fair and Square?
What company is fair and sane, loves affiliates and direct
marketers? What company attracts nearly 40 billion views a
month and the traffic is uber quality and dirt cheap? Who
is this company? Well, it’s your friendly neighbourhood….
Facebook!
Facebook is the only company that Google actually
acknowledges is a real competitor to them. Facebook is
currently showing up as having four hundred million active
members – that makes it 5 times the size of Google!!!
Yet Facebook ads represent just 5% of the advertising done
on Google.
Now don’t be thinking Facebook is just for youngsters!
Insidefacebook.com published its statistics and show that
only 11% of users are aged 13-17. While 33% are 18-25s, a
whopping 18% are aged between 35 and 44. That’s 100 million
people! And a further 9% are aged 45-54 and 4% 55-65.
Don’t spend another cent with Google till you’ve checked
out Facebook Advertising.
Why Facebook is the New Face of Paid Advertising
Facebook is pretty much untapped compared to PPC
advertising on Google, Yahoo or Bing.
It’s truly a “sleeping giant”, an ingenious source of
traffic that is…
- much bigger than PPC
- less competitive than PPC
- more targeted than PPC
- less expensive than PPC
And what’s more, Facebook’s integrated personal profiles
mean you can hone in on exactly the demographic you are
trying to target – not just on keyword phrases, you can
also target only Facebook members who are in particular age
groups, regions and/or have specifically stated certain
interest areas – it’s simply awesome how deep you can get
into Facebook – giving you massive choice and combinations.
Because of this, Facebook allows you to use the same ad in
many different ways so you can really hit the hot spots of
your users and their interests. Imagine being able to
target by age, gender, film interests, AND keywords… you
can really hit your message home.
So what this means in practice is that the clicks you get
on your Facebook ad are immensely more targeted and convert
far better and cost far less than what you’d achieve on
Google Adwords.
If all that targeting isn’t enough to convince you, here
are some more benefits of using Facebook advertising:
- Facebook is also great for newbies. It’s really easy to
use and to set up your campaigns. If you can send an
email, you can do Facebook ads.
- Facebook ads work in any market and will give a far
better ROI than PPC, even for affiliate marketing.
- Facebook advertiser competition is minimal right now,
so now is the time to tap into this massive source of
traffic.
- Your ad in Facebook can include not only titles and
descriptions but also images, which you can’t do with
PPC ads.
- Facebook ads leave little wastage because you can seek
out ultra targeted members who are likely to respond to
your offer.
Following the Facebook Rules
There is a downside.
Facebook is hugely protective of its users. So you have to
really study and follow their rules. And this will take you
some time.
The general rule of thumb stems from what is called
“permission marketing”. So make sure you check this out so
you don’t get your account cancelled.
Five Simple but Powerful Ways to Use Google Analytics
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:00 AM
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Five Simple but Powerful Ways to Use Google Analytics
If you haven’t started using Google Analytics on your website(s) or blogs, I highly highly recommend it. If you’ve set up an account but rarely look at it – I recommend you start looking.
First of all – what is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a free analysis tool which gives you information on where your website visitors are coming from, which pages they visit, how long they stay, and a lot more. There are plenty of paid stat counters available which present data in different ways, but Google Analytics is one of the best, and it’s free.
One can over-analyze or under-analyze any website. Some people spend too much time checking stats, analyzing, and planning, and don’t spend enough time writing good content and getting new readers to their blogs.
On the other side of the pendulum, you could go on week after week, blindly publishing content and flailing along with offsite promotíon, without seeing what results your campaigns are getting, which type of content is the most popular for your visitors, and which traffic-generation techniques are getting the best results.
The first is like tuning your car’s engine every day without ever turning on the ignition, the second is like driving in the dark.
In between, we have a happy balance.
I find that the best times to check stats are when I don’t have a lot of time to do a more intense project, or when I am a bit too tired to do anything more “heavy.” Sometimes just before I go to bed at night is a good time to check into what has been happening between my visitors and my websites’ pages. I can browse and poke around in my Analytics account and learn quite a lot – even with minimal energy.
Here are five simple and powerful ways to use Google Analytics:
1. Find out which of your website’s pages are getting the most traffic, and optimize those pages.
If you are running ads on the pages, make sure they are properly placed and updated. If you are linking to affiliate products, make sure your links are up-to-date and that you aren’t missing any links, or new products which should be there. If you are using that page for some other purpose, such as to generate subscriptions or whatever the case may be, make sure that the page is laid out as well as possible. This can be helpful if you have a large website which has a long “to do” list and many things to optimize or tweak. By just starting with the most heavily-trafficked pages, you will get the maximum results from your efforts and also know where to start.
2. Find out which referrers are generating the most traffic, and continue any actions you have been taking to generate traffic from those referrers.
For example, if you see that Twitter is generating a large amount of targeted traffíc, you can expand your activity on Twitter. If you see that your article submissions are getting new visitors from article directories, you can make a note not to drop those out – or possibly step them up. Conversely, if you see that you have been spending time/money on a traffic-generation method which is not getting very far, you can stop wasting your time on it (presuming you have given it time to take effect).
3. Find out which keywords you are ranking the best for, and see which ones you can “push to the top.”
If you had a website on dogs, for example, and found that you were ranking at #30-#40 on Google for many keywords, but ranking #11 for, lets say, “dog chew toys,” you might want to work on increasing your rankings on dog chew toys and focus more of your SEO efforts on this term (of course there are other factors you would consider as well, such as the searches and competition for this term). Climbing from position #31 to #20 will generally not get you a huge improvement in traffic. But climbing from position #11 to position #3 almost certainly will. Focus first on keywords or key phrases that have the best chance of ranking high in the near future, and then move on to the others.
4. Find out which pages keep your visitors’ attention for the longest.
If the average visitor on Page A stays for 5 seconds, while the average visitor to Page B stays for 150 seconds, the likelihood is that your visitors find Page B’s content more interesting than Page A’s.
5. Look at the graph of your bounce rate.
This tells you how many people left your site without visiting a second page. Depending on the website and the page, this may be a good or bad thing. But if you have a blog or a content site, it is usually a good sign when people stick around to view more of your posts and content before they leave. If your bounce rate increased or decreased after you made a certain change, you can opt to revert that change (if bounce rate increased) or keep it (if bounce rate decreased). For example, if I changed the theme of my WordPress blog and then noticed a date-co-incident jump in my bounce rate, I might consider changing it back 
This statistic can be used in many ways – it will depend on the nature of your blog.
There are many, many other ways to use Google Analytics. The above are great ways to start, if you aren’t familiar with or used to using this tracking system. Google Analytics can give you a far greater understanding of what’s happening on your site and can guide you to continue on successful actions and drop the unsuccessful.
Putting SEO Under the Microscope
There is not a day that goes by that people recommending search engine optimization (SEO) don’t come up with yet another interesting idea or opinion on a topic in their field. They are all so focused on structures and procedures that they often forget that not every one agrees with their viewpoints and practices – that is, if their technical mumbo-jumbo can be understood.
The following are 5 SEO topics that are frequently discussed and disagreed upon:
1 – The Importance of Content Structure & Keywords
While keywords may add great value from a technical, algorithmic ranking perspective, their presence may not always entice the audience to explore the site they are visiting. The content may seem boring and unappealing, rather than grabbing and fascinating. In that case, the psychological triggers that will tell the reader to continue browsing will be missing, as will the desire to share the information with their friends and family.
SEO experts won’t ever agree on which is more important when it comes to keywords and compelling content. In the end, it will be up to the website owner or manager to decide what is more important to him: search engine rankings or sales.
2 – Pro or Con Reciprocal Link Exchange
A ‘reciprocal link exchange’ is an effective and efficient way of driving traffic to a website and improving the search engine placement of participating websites. At least, that is what some experts believe, while others are fearful and refuse to swap any kind of link that may refer to their business.
Artificially manipulating links may not be the best SEO idea on the market, but there is definitely nothing wrong with link trading programs that exchange links of companies endorsing a relationship, or business related directories.
If you do decide to participate in a link exchange, check the links regularly and report the dead ones to the webmaster so they can either be fixed or removed.
3 – Should the H1 Headline and Title Tag Match – or Not?
Many SEO consultants are skeptical when they notice sites whose H1 header is different from the title tag. One may wonder what the reasoning may be, because this action may confuse and upset the audience. Users click on a certain headline because they are interested in its content, yet when the search result is complete, and the header and title tag do not match, they may find themselves confronted with a completely different message, which may be something they are not interested in. That is very disappointing for the user, even if it may result in a higher ranking.
4 – The Relevance of a Website’s Age
Although many web designers believe that the age and history of a website are pertinent, it is not quite clear if search engines actually do use an ‘age’ or an ‘age of links’ metric to inflate incumbent rankings. Search engines check keywords, pay-per-click, link building and other SEO features and don’t necessarily verify when a website was built. All they care about is how user friendly and SEO strong the site is, which means that a younger, highly efficient site should absolutely be able to compete with more mature competitors.
5 – Reporting a Competitor’s Spam Activities
Spam is a reality and spammers should be reported. At least, that is what a number of SEO specialists would argue. Others may disagree and point out that those who are extremely vocal about competitors’ manipulative tactics to enhance search engine ranking are usually the ones abusing it the most. All they are trying to do is shift the focus away from them.
Anyone reporting spam should not publicly announce their actions because, even if spammers are breaking guidelines, the SEO community is vehement about socially shunning those violating the “code of silence”. As unethical as this blackmail may seem, it should not stop you from warning the search engines about illegal activities and, at the same time, reap some of the benefits associated with this. In the end, you will have to market and protect your site and business.
Here are several arguments in favor of spam reporting:
• Taking out spammers will improve the value of the Internet and help search engines provide more accurate search results.
• Your ranking may improve by eliminating a competitor.
• Removing manipulators will leave more room for your site to achieve better rankings, to boost visibility and to boost your sales.
• You can learn from researching spam activities and tactics. You will learn what is inappropriate, what the engines do/don’t tolerate and what penalties can be expected for which unlawful actions.
• As long as you are clean yourself, reporting spammers can gain you trust with the search engines.
These are a few reasons against it:
• If you are engaged in certain types of spam, or unknowingly benefit from it, you can accidentally hurt your website’s ranking.
• It is unethical to blow the whistle on and hurt other SEO specialists. People have been arguing about ethics for centuries and in the end it will be up to each individual to decide what is more important to them and to their website.
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.
Must-Try Marketing Maneuvers
MicroBilt, in Princeton, N.J., helps small companies gauge the creditworthiness of their clients–a business about as scintillating as a glass of warm skim milk.
To spice up its message, MicroBilt focused on marketing its clients–specifically, by creating edgy videos for them. For Red House Furniture, a retailer in High Point, N.C., that offers financing to customers with shaky credit, MicroBilt created a video featuring a jauntily irreverent song about how Red House sells to “black and white people.” CNN ran a light-hearted news segment about it in May. For MicroBilt, it’s a subtle sell: The company name doesn’t appear in the commercials, but in theory the more furniture Red House sells, the more demand it will have for MicroBilt’s services. “We thought it would generate more business for them in the downturn, and eventually for us, and it’s paid off,” says MicroBilt Chief Executive Walter Wojciechowski.
MicroBilt also produces videos that run in its quarterly digital magazine, SEE, covering everything from regulatory changes to general tips on running small businesses. Ahead of the Federal Trade Commission’s planned enforcement of its “Red Flags” laws that require any business that extends credit to implement internal checks for possible identity theft, MicroBilt created an educational video starring comedian Goremy as a suited FTC representative who raps the warning: “Personal info we’ve got to protect, because you know we don’t want identify theft.”
Six employees work part-time on SEE. As for the videos, each costs around $10,000 to produce, and MicroBilt has pumped out five in the last year. Smart investments all around, says Wojciechowski: In 2008 MicroBilt’s revenues grew 40%, to roughly $30 million, from the previous year, and are expected to jump at a “double-digit” rate in 2009. Demand for additional comfort in a recession, or bona fide marketing coup? “I think a significant amount of that increase is attributable to our brand enhancement [strategy],” avers Wojciechowski. “It’s a lot easier for our sales people who are cold calling on new customers because we’re now recognized in the marketplace.”
You can have the greatest new product or service in the world, but if no one knows about it, who cares? When cash is tight, marketing budgets suffer. (We know–we’re in publishing.) That’s why Forbes canvassed the entrepreneurial, consulting and academic ranks for go-to marketing techniques that even small businesses can afford. Here are but a few, and the estimated costs of each.
Stick to a Shtick
Some brands are so dialed in to a customer base–its history, interests and aspirations–that the marketing effort smacks more of a celebration. Jeremy Cowan, founder of Schmaltz Brewing Co., maker of He’Brew beer, builds all his events around Jewish themes. Each year, he hosts an anniversary party where he gives out yarmulkes and Hanukkah Gelt (kosher chocolate coins) with his brand on it. (Jewish DJs often work their magic for free beer.) Cowan also ran a contest asking for bat mitzvah photos to create a collage now used on his label and invites. “It’s not just weird,” he says. “It reinforces our message and our vision.” Cost: A few thousand bucks, depending on the extravagance of the events.
Turn Your Customers Into Stars
This is a less costly twist on MicroBilt’s make-a-video strategy, with a dash of social-networking spice thrown in. Talented or not, people want to share their art, stories, even their hopes and dreams. Give them an outlet in exchange for sampling your product or service. When skin care company Philosophy launched a new fragrance, Unconditional Love, just before Valentine’s Day this year, it put out a call for love stories to be posted on its Web site. It received 2,000 submissions. Each writer received samples of the perfume–and the company got their contact information. Cost: Beyond the free products, minimal.
Host a Virtual Trade Show
Traditional trade shows are a convention-center-sized hassle–and they cost a lot to boot. Add up booth rental and presentation time-slot fees, advertising, promotional doodads and travel expenses (never mind the lost time away from the office), and a company’s tab can rocket up to $100,000 per show. Hence the rise of virtual trade shows, designed to look and function like the real thing but that play out in real time in cyberspace. Entry fee: just $3,000 to $8,000. Better yet, you don’t need to be a computer wizard to participate. Here are nine steps for getting the most out of them.
Tweet (No, Really, We Mean It)
By now you’ve heard about Twitter–that curious, strangely addictive social-networking technology that facilitates the exchange of torrents of severely truncated messages (140 characters max) among millions of users. You may have read that it’s a waste of time–and in many respects, that’s true. What’s also true is that Twitter can be a powerful marketing tool. Here are 21 compelling ways to use it. Cost: your time–and not much of it.
Work the Press
Mentions in the news media offer what traditional marketing and advertising can’t: exposure with implied credibility. While PR is nothing new, plenty of companies (and PR agencies) still don’t get it. To get your foot in the door with journalists, first build trust and rapport by offering information on your industry without angling for a profile, or even a quote. Second, offer constructive feedback on important stories; most journalists’ e-mail addresses are online, so you can write to them directly. Third, remember that pain sells–in any economic environment. Cautionary tales that readers can learn from are inherently intriguing, so don’t be afraid to share. Cost: PR firms charge by the project or by monthly retainer (up to $15,000 a month). Tight on cash? Negotiate a pay-for-performance contract–based on press citations or other measurable metrics. To save more than a few bucks, check out “Making The Media Your Mates.”
Light Up Their In-boxes
E-mail marketing has been around for years, but the tricky part remains getting people to open the messages in the first place. Here are three handy tips, courtesy of Gene Marks, owner of the Marks Group, a technology consultancy to small businesses. First, avoid using generic addresses like sales@ or info@ in the “from” line; second, keep the “from” name consistent and recognizable in all e-mails; third, be clear and specific as to what’s being offered in the subject line (“Acme’s Weekly Newsletter” won’t cut it). Cost: Easy-to-use, database-driven tools–many customizable, down to the logos and graphics–cost around $100 per month to blast thousands of e-mails.
Wipe Off the Lens
If all else fails, take another hard look at the market and its willingness to pay for your product or service. Four years ago, Sarah Endline, a former Yahoo! product designer, hosted small focus groups to hit upon a new candy idea: pebble-sized cacao beans smothered in premium chocolate. In one effort, Endline invited 12 people to munch on everything from Gummi bears to organic chocolate bars; later she enlisted Harvard B-school students to host focus groups on campus. Result: a rocking little candy maker called Sweetriot in Manhattan’s trendy SoHo district. Cost: Market surveys can cost up to $10,000, but there are some cheaper online options. Zoomerang charges $600 for a year subscription to its surveys service; Survey Monkey offers subscriptions starting at around $20 per month or $200 a year. Focus groups? Perhaps $100 for food and drinks. (For more on conducting affordable market research, check out “Market Research On The Cheap.”)
Sitemaps and SEO
Creating an HTML sitemap and a XML sitemap for your website
could be the easiest thing you do to improve your exposure on
the web. For those of you who pay close attention to the search
engine optimization (SEO) of your site, this could be the one
thing that gets you onto the first page of Google’s results. For
those who don’t devote too much time on the SEO of their site -
this is a good place to start. By submitting a sitemap to
various search engines, you are telling them that you exist and
what pages your site has to offer the World Wide Web.
There are two types of sitemaps, HTML and XML. An HTML sitemap
provides a useful directory of all the pages that are in your
site. While XML sitemaps play an important role in helping the
search engine “crawl” the various pages of your site. This
Roadmap discusses the benefit of creating both an HTML sitemap
and XML sitemap, and how you can go about creating them using a
sitemap generator.
HTML Sitemaps
An HTML sitemap is a single HTML page that contains links to all
the pages of your website. Normally, this is accessible via a
link in your site footer, where it will be displayed on every
page. With large sites, it is easy to get lost and struggle to
find the page you are looking for. With a well organized HTML
sitemap, your site visitors will be able to use this to easily
find the page they are looking for.
From an SEO perspective, as the search engine’s robot (or
spider) crawls your site indexing pages, it may find some pages
on your site easier using this sitemap, rather than through the
general navigation. Therefore, sitemaps can benefit your site
visitors and even play a role in enhancing your exposure on the
web.
Take a look at WebAssist’s sitemap (http://www.webassist.com/
sitemap.php) to get an idea of what an HTML sitemap looks like.
Notice that each page on the WebAssist website contains a link
to this page in the footer.
XML Sitemaps
HTML sitemaps are designed to benefit your human site visitors,
whereas XML sitemaps are created specifically for the search
engines. All of the most popular search engines including
Google, Yahoo and Ask.com utilize XML sitemaps
(http://www.webassist.com/dreamweaver-extensions/surveyor/?WAAID=898)
as part of their process for indexing the pages of a website. A
good XML sitemap will tell the search engine what pages are in
your site, how often those pages are updated, and when they were
last modified. This way, the search engines know which pages to
revisit more regularly, and are likely to do a better job of
indexing them. Here’s an example of the XML you might include
in your XML sitemap:
Notice that for the index.htm page of this website, we have
provided details regarding the last modified date (
the frequency that this page is updated (
priority of this page in relation to the other pages of our site
(
possible to the search engine, they will be better equipped to
index your site, and give the correct pages the appropriate
attention.
TIP: Be honest about the information you provide in your
sitemap. If a search engine finds that you are not updating your
site as often as your sitemap suggests, they may come back less
often.
Creating both HTML and XML Sitemaps
Creating HTML sitemaps is as easy as creating a basic HTML page
that contains links to all the pages in your site. However, you
need to keep in mind that whenever you create new pages in your
site, you will want to add those links on the sitemap as
well.
Creating XML sitemaps manually can be quite a time consuming
process. However, there are many great sitemap generators out
there to help you automate this. If you Google “sitemap
generator” (http://www.webassist.com/dreamweaver-extensions/
surveyor/?WAAID=898) you will find that there are a number of
free and paid sitemap tools that you can use.
Here at WebAssist, we have developed Surveyor to help you create
both HTML sitemaps and XML sitemaps. Surveyor is a Dreamweaver
extension that you can use as part of your website development.
For Dreamweaver users, this is the easiest and most efficient
way to create sitemaps. Surveyor includes multiple step-by-step
interfaces that guide you through creating your sitemap with all
the necessary details, and then submits your sitemap to the five
most popular search engines on the web. Surveyor even includes a
reminder tool that you can schedule to alert you when it is time
to submit an updated sitemap.
How Often Should I Submit My Sitemap?
You should be in the habit of submitting a sitemap to search
engines a number of times a year. This allows you to update the
search engine on any new pages in your site. If you create new
pages on a regular basis, you may want to submit your sitemap
more frequently.
Conclusion
Both HTML sitemaps and XML sitemaps are a good step in the right
direction to improve your website’s exposure. You will most
likely find your search engine rankings climb after submitting a
sitemap for the first time. However, keep in mind that this is
only one part of search engine optimization, and there is a lot
more you can do to improve how search engines rank the pages on
your site and your website’s discoverability.
Writing for the Web
Content is one of the most valuable things you can focus on
during development of your website. Consider each page of your
website an opportunity to capture or lose your audience. If a
web page has paragraph after paragraph of text, many visitors
won’t bother to begin reading. There are various other things to
be leery of when writing for the web. This article covers eight
tips to help you succeed when writing content for your
website.
Entice with Communicative Headings
Visitors decide whether to invest their precious time reading
your content, typically after scanning a heading or two.
Consider which headline will receive more attention:
* PHP solutions (http://www.webassist.com/
php-scripts-and-solutions/?WAAID=898) for the Web
* Three eCommerce PHP Solutions for the Web
While both could be headings for the same content, the second
heading will attract more attention because it clearly denotes
what will follow. Additionally, it adds a level of expertise. It
is also important to keep your headings concise. When headings
wrap to multiple lines, they start becoming paragraph-like and
readers cannot scan them. Sub-headings are another way to make
your content easier for visitors to scan. Once readers have
decided your heading is worth investing more time in, they often
scan the sub-headings to jump to the section that is most
applicable to them.
Conclude Before You Expand
Every page of your website should cater to the most impatient
reader and clearly state what the page is about in the first few
lines. Most readers won’t want to read an entire page to get to
the point. Write an introductory paragraph that summarizes the
most important parts.
Many successful writers outline the points they want to get
across, fill in those points and only then do they write their
first paragraph. It is not necessary to write from top to bottom
and this method can help you write a stronger introduction.
Create Effective Lists
It is quicker to scroll down a web page than it is to read from
left to right and keep your eyes wrapping from line to line. For
this reason, readers appreciate lists. However, it is important
not to use overwhelmingly long lists. Studies have shown people
can remember 7 things at a time. A list of seven bulleted items
is digestible, while a list of 50 is intimidating. If it is
crucial for you to list 50 points, break up your lists with
sub-headings so readers are able to jump from section to section
efficiently.
Write Clearly and Succinctly
Whether your visitors are coming to gain information, make
buying decisions or simply be entertained, respect that they
don’t have all day to read your content. If you are wordy, you
can expect your visitors to drift to competitors’ websites.
However, don’t sacrifice clarity for brevity.
Similar to print writing, each paragraph should contain only one
idea. The attention span of a web reader is shorter than that of
a print reader though, which makes it important to trim your
paragraphs to a few sentences each.
Eliminate unnecessary words. For example, there is no need to
say, “at this point in time” when you can say “currently.” It is
useless to say “an awful tragedy” when tragedies are awful by
nature. Avoid describing an object as “round in shape” when you
can just say round.
Avoid the passive voice. For example, replace, “My life has been
made easier by templates” with “Templates simplified my
life.”
The above paragraph helps illustrate that examples are useful;
however, I should specify that repeating yourself is not. Do not
say the same thing in three different ways.
Use consistent language. Consider your audience when writing in
first, second or third person and be careful transitioning from
one to the next. Jumping from a formal paragraph to a first
person story sounds like two authors wrote the content.
Finally, read your content aloud and trust your first reaction.
If you have to re-read to put the emphasis in the correct part
of the sentence or to understand your own point, you can bet
that others will too.
More importantly, have someone else read your content -
preferably, your target audience, not your business partner. You
are too close to the ideas you want to communicate and others
may find ambiguities that you will certainly want to clarify.
Create Content Relative to Your Audience
Know your audience and speak to them, not at them. Whether your
objective is to sell toilet seats or convey a change in the
stock market, play to people’s emotions. Don’t use technical
terms for a less than savvy audience.
Don’t assume your readers have been to certain pages of your
website before others. With a growing dependence on search
engines, visitors often arrive at a website two tiers down from
the home page. Consider the visitor’s point of view: If I knew
nothing about this company or website, would I understand this
page?
Be cautious of tangents, information and links that will
distract a reader from the web page’s primary purpose.
Specify Links with Style and Language
Links are another way visitors can scan your web pages as they
stand out from normal text – or at least they should. Make sure
your links differ in color or style from other text on your
website. Using “click here to learn more” is a waste of space.
Instead, use “learn more.” Your links should tell readers where
they are going, but they shouldn’t be reminded they need their
mouse to get there.
Be specific with where the link is leading to. There are many
websites that break up articles into two or more pages. Readers
are more apt to click on a link that says, “Part 2: Mortgage
Lending” than they are to click on a link that says “next.”
Proofread – Forward and Backward
There are some people who are a magnetic force to typos and
grammatical blunders. While some will gloss over these errors,
the people who do notice are typically repelled. Websites with
typos look unprofessional – or worse – like the author didn’t
care enough about the reader to take the time to proofread.
Tips for proofreading:
* Use spell check and grammar check.
* Read backward. When we read forward, our eyes skip over
small words and miss mistakes.
* Have someone else proofread your content.
* If in doubt, look it up!
Trusting copy/paste is a common mistake; be sure to proofread
your content after it is on the web page.
Conclude with Action
Although many of your readers won’t make it to the end of your
content, it’s important to summarize for those who do. Include
your overall point, as well as where you would like to lead your
reader to next. If you are fortunate enough to have your readers
want more, don’t miss an opportunity to provide it!
For example, I would like to conclude by articulating that web
writing has similarities to print writing (entice and be
concise!) but differs in that readers are more impatient and can
easily “surf” elsewhere. The more you understand how people read
on the web in general and what your audience wants to know, the
more you will keep visitors coming back for more.
Killer Campaigns: Making Emotional Connections
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 10:28 AM
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Killer Campaigns: Making Emotional Connections
We live in an age of clones: somebody makes a very profitable
movie about vampires, and the next thing you know we’re all
inundated with movies, television shows, books, blogs, websites,
and every form of blood-sucking permutation you can imagine.
CSI begets CSI Miami, which begets CSI New York, which begets
NCIS, which begets NCIS Los Angeles, which is just about as much
as anyone can take. If something is successful, you can be sure
more of the same will follow.
Despite the occasional success story, most clones either fail
completely, or never live up to the success of their
groundbreaking predecessors.
Most of the copycats fail because the clone-masters behind them
don’t understand why the original worked, and as a consequence,
they clone all the wrong elements. This is as true of commercial
presentations as it is with broadcast programming.
Cloning a successful format is not the same as Slipstreaming.
Clone marketing is just rote copying of technical elements
without any reference to why the original worked, whereas
Slipstream marketing takes a familiar idea and plays off it like
a great jazz musician reinterprets an old standard.
Kleenex “Let It Out” Campaign:
Recognizing The Emotional Value Proposition
What is more generic than facial tissue? A consumable paper
product that you use once and discard; it is the very definition
of a commodity, and as we all know commodity-sales are primarily
based on price. Enter Kimberly Clark, one company that has
managed to turn their commodity product into the industry
standard to the extent that the commodity itself has become
known by Kimberly Clark’s designated brand name – Kleenex.
The Kleenex, “Let It Out” campaign is just one example of a
company that recognizes that in order to turn their commodity
product into something of higher value, they have to link it to
what we refer to as “an emotional value proposition:” the
implied psychological or emotional connection between the
product and the consumer.
The original series of Web videos was housed on a dedicated
video microsite. The series of videos showed a casually dressed
interviewer with an engaging personality asking people to sit
down on a couch in the middle of a busy street to chat about
some significant emotional moment in their lives. Some people
talked about their children; one woman even discussed Katrina
and the impact it had on her. People cried, and people laughed,
until tears came to their eyes, at which point, the interviewer
handed each person a Kleenex: Kleenex and emotions go
hand-in-hand. Let It Out, the concept was brilliant.
The following version was created for television; it is a
compendium of clips from various videos, and as good as it is,
it doesn’t have the same emotional power of the Web video
versions that concentrated on each person’s emotional response
to the interviewer’s questions. It’s good, but not as good,
but it does serve to illustrate the point. Unfortunately the
individual videos are no longer available.
Kleenex “Let It Out” TV Commercial
(http://videos.sitepronews.com/video/687/Kleenex-Let-It-Out-TV-Commercial)
Everything in the commercial works: the interviewer’s manner
and personality, the visual imagery of the couch in the street,
and the memorable music message. It’s all good, very, very
good.
On The Other Hand…
Rogers Communication Inc. is a large Canadian communication
company that provides digital cable TV, high speed Internet, and
mobile phone services. Their primary competition would be Bell
Canada.
In order to promote their new Home Phone service Rogers
initiated a series of commercials featuring a man on the street
interviewing people passing by, asking them to compare their
phone service to their competitors. They used a red and blue
couch in the street with the red side of the couch representing
Rogers and the blue side representing Bell. They handed each
person a blue phone and asked them to call a friend or relative;
then they handed the person a red phone representing Rogers, and
asked them to call the same person. Then the interviewer asked
them to compare the service, which according to the commercial
was the same. The difference of course was in the price.
Anyone who has seen both campaigns could come to only one
conclusion, and that is the Roger’s commercials were patterned
after the Kleenex, “Let It Out” campaign. Did it work? Take a
look.
Rogers Home Phone Campaign
(http://videos.sitepronews.com/video/688/Rogers-Home-Phone-Campaign)
On a very superficial level, the commercials are eerily the
same, both have a couch in the street, an interviewer, and a
passerby; but on an emotional and psychological level, they are
as far apart as you can get.
Kleenex tied the use of their product to people’s most personal
feelings, their response to emotional reminiscence, while Rogers
relied on price only. Their service isn’t better, it’s the
same; it’s just cheaper so the ad says. The Kleenex interviewer
is courteous, interested, and responsive, while the Rogers
representative is glib, and a bit smarmy.
The Technique and Why It Worked
The Kleenex campaign works for all kinds of reasons, the most
important of which is that it engages the audience with an
intriguing visual presentation that resonates on a psychological
level by providing an emotional value proposition associated
with their brand. On the other hand, Roger’s value proposition
is price.
You may say, price is important, but pricing tactics are a
dangerous game. Competitors aren’t just going to sit back and
let you drive them out of business. If you fire a price missile
across your competitor’s bow, you can bet they’ll respond, and
that’s exactly what Bell did.
Whoops!
By not understanding what Kleenex had done in their campaign,
and not following Kleenex’s precedent by associating their
brand with an emotionally resonant value proposition, they laid
themselves wide open to a slipstreamed response by their
competitors, who created a campaign that riffed on their
imagery, and one-upped them with an alternate price comparison.
Rogers Advertisement
(http://www.sitepronews.com/images3/rogerscouch.jpg)
Bell Advertisement
(http://www.sitepronews.com/images3/bellcouch.jpg)
Conclusion
If a commodity product like facial tissue can become a major
brand by employing marketing strategies that emphasize their
emotional value proposition, then so can your product or
service. Delivering a marketing message based on it’s
underlying emotional value is a better strategy than price and
feature selling, a tactic guaranteed to be short-lived. Features
are forever being added and prices are continually under
competitive pressure, but emotional relevance is sustainable.
For many companies, it is very difficult for them to see the
emotional value their offering brings to the table, but the
conceptual basis of any effective marketing campaign starts with
discovering that underlying human connection your product or
service has with its audience.
Website Traffic Generation Planning and Methodologies
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 10:23 AM
Friday, January 29, 2010
Website Traffic Generation Planning and Methodologies
Real Estate internet marketing is like any other kind of
marketing, you’re trying to reach a niche market and must
plan accordingly. You have to start by identifying your
target market in order to develop your message conveying
exactly the kind of high value business proposition which
your niche will respond to.
The first steps are to:
1) Identify your target market; start with geo targeting
and work with the demographics from there.
2) Decide how you want to be perceived by this target
market and decide how you’ll foster this perception.
3) Identify and refine your value proposition.
Once you’ve done this, the next step is to develop and
distribute your value proposition, making sure that your
value proposition is perceived by your target market
exactly as intended. In marketing, shaping consumer
perception isn’t just the most important thing: it’s
everything.
You have to start by positioning yourself to be perceived
in a specific way; from here, you’ll need to maintain,
develop, grow or alter this market position as you deem
necessary.
The real challenge is putting these principles into action:
Driving Traffic
There are some important principles of traffic generation
you need to understand in order to be successful at
bringing visitors into your website.
There are both principles and rules of traffic generation;
principles have to do with your approach to the task and
the rules are the practical nuts and bolts of driving
traffic. You need to have an understanding of the larger
picture before you can successfully put the practical
techniques into action.
What you’ll usually see a lot of is the techniques alone.
While this is still valuable information, you probably
won’t get far with these techniques if you aren’t versed in
the underlying principles of traffic generation.
These are the most important principles of traffic
generation:
* Traffic generation isn’t a black art – it’s something
which largely relies on common sense and methods which
can be replicated with consistent results.
* The reason people usually fail in their traffic
generation efforts is that they don’t truly commit to
making traffic generation techniques a fully integrated
part of their business strategy.
* You need to create a plan for driving traffic. Think of
it as a road map; follow it, but remember that it’s not
carved in stone. Your plan can and should evolve to
reflect your real life experience and results.
* Continually test and track the results of your traffic
generation efforts – and adjust your plan accordingly.
* Set goals for yourself and as you meet them, raise the
bar; traffic generation is a process, not a single
objective.
* Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see results
immediately.
* Remember that driving traffic begins with building your
site – Why is this? Because your site should be built
from the ground up with visitors in mind. Look at other
sites in your industry to gain an understanding of
patterns of visitor behavior.
See what these other sites are doing; don’t hesitate to
take a page from your competition’s playbook if you see
something which is working for them.
This is where things can become challenging; it’s something
like standing in Grand Central Station at rush hour with a
megaphone, trying to be heard above the noise of the crowd.
The goal here is to get the attention of your target
market and get them to come to your site.
All business is arbitrage. You’re taking something which is
cheap (to you, at least) and exchanging it for something of
higher value – buy low, sell high.
For example, SEO and other free traffic generation
strategies essentially trade your time for traffic which is
of higher value to you; this value may be measured directly
in monetary terms or in other means (for instance, as
signups to a list). The same is true of paid methods of
driving traffic like PPC advertising; you’re paying what
you deem to be a small amount for something else which you
see as more valuable.
If you’ve been reading carefully so far, you may have
noticed that I haven’t said a word about being indexed by
the search engines; that’s because this falls under the
heading of techniques, not the principles of traffic
generation. While you do of course want to be indexed, this
isn’t your primary objective – and it’s something which
will happen naturally as you work to drive traffic using
other strategies.
Don’t lose sleep over the search engine crawlers; they will
come sooner or later. Remember that even once your site is
indexed, it’s no guarantee that visitors will follow.
Focusing on being indexed is losing sight of the forest for
the trees. This will happen anyway as a side effect of
using other traffic generation methods. What you should be
focused on is getting targeted traffic to your site. For
instance, if you exchange links with another site (or even
a directory) relevant to your industry, the search engine
crawlers will follow these links when indexing this other
site and voila! Your site will be indexed.
What you need to do is to let the web know that your site
is there while simultaneously driving targeted traffic. The
best way to do so is to create links to your site from
other sites; not only do these result in your site being
indexed, but back links are great SEO and of course, they
can generate traffic directly through visitor clicks.
Here are a few things you can do to start driving traffic
almost immediately:
* Whenever you add new content to your site or blog,
submit this content to the social bookmarking sites
(Digg, Technorati, etc.). Make an effort to give your
posts attention-getting titles so that people will be
interested in reading your content.
* Post comments on blogs which have a similar audience to
the one you’re trying to reach. Don’t post comment spam;
write real, thoughtful comments and include a link back
to your own site.
* Start contributing to forums and message boards relevant
to your industry.
* Create an RSS feed for your site or blog and submit this
feed to directories.
* Write articles on your niche topic and submit them to
article directories.
* Join link exchanges
* Build a linkwheel; create blogs and pages on platforms
like HubPages, Squidoo, Facebook, etc. and link them to
each other in a web ring-style structure. This helps
the search engines identify the topic of your site and
will improve your page rank as well.
These techniques can start driving traffic to your site
very quickly; if you implement all of these methods and
follow the basic principles of traffic generation, you
really can’t fail at bringing in targeted traffic.
So why do so many people fail at traffic generation?
Because they don’t stick with it and follow through; far
too many website owners give up after a few days or a few
weeks, saying that it’s just too much work for too little
result – instead of analyzing their efforts and figuring
out what is and isn’t working for them.
So how about search engine optimization (SEO)? Here’s what
you really need to know about:
1) Focusing on search engines rather than your potential
customers is always a losing bet. If you’re putting all of
your energy towards keeping up with the search engines and
their constantly evolving algorithms, you’re losing sight
of your visitors.
2) Optimizing your site for very competitive (i.e. popular)
keywords means fighting an uphill battle with no guarantee
of success.
3) Generally speaking, you’ll do best with long tail
keywords; these require far less work in terms of
optimizing your content. Long tail keywords are also very
effective at attracting targeted traffic. The effort you
put into optimizing your content for long tail keywords
will bring you much better results than the same amount of
time and effort spent optimizing your site for popular
keywords.
4) Offsite optimization is just as important (if not more
so) than on site SEO. Back links can do wonders for your
traffic; but remember to keep all of your efforts focused
on visitors, not search engines whether you’re working on
on-site or offsite SEO.
5) Base your traffic generation strategy on visitors and
the search engines will follow.
6) As you develop and implement SEO techniques, always keep
in mind how people actually look for information online -
that’s why long tail keywords are so important. It’s a lot
easier to rank high in the search results for long tail
keywords. Being in the top 10 on Google for several long
tail keywords will bring you a lot more traffic than being
on the 10th page of results for a highly competitive
keyword (which is where you’ll start out if you’re very
lucky if you choose to go this route).
Remember that it’s a long way to the top; be patient and
enjoy the view on your way up. Stick with it and you’ll
eventually have more traffic than you know what to do with!
10 Tips to Grow Your Business Using Online Video
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 10:15 AM
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Lacking any information to the contrary, many businesses still think that all they need to do to get new clients is to put their name and face in the Yellow Pages or online social directories, get some professional looking business cards, a website and Voila! It’s the old adage “build it and they will come”.
Trouble is, that’s what their competitors are doing also and in this day and age, it’s just not enough.
Does Your Business Stand Out Online?
Most advertising on the Web follows a time-honored format, although some might call it a time-worn format as it does little to differentiate itself. You can bet that a high percentage of this advertising will be ignored and the money spent on it will be wasted.
So how does a company stand out from the crowd online?
Thanks to an oversupply of similar text, claims, and presentation – coupled with a short 21st century attention span – your website has less than ten seconds to move a visitor to action. If it doesn’t, that visitor will click away to another site, and then another. Therefore, it’s critical that you find a way to break through the noise your competitors are making. But even that’s not enough.
Statistics show that even the best-looking websites generate conversion rates of under one percent, so for every 100 visitors you do manage to get, less than one will call or email you.
Sound bleak? Thinking of redirecting more of your advertising budget back to the Yellow Pages? Don’t. You’re on the right track – you just haven’t leveraged all the power available to you online.
One-to-Many Communication. One-on-One Feel.
Most websites are little more than electronic versions of Yellow Page advertising. For the most part, they don’t encourage interaction beyond the obligatory “Contact me for more information” plea. These sites don’t encourage trust any more than their print counterparts. They don’t give visitors the warm-and-fuzzy feeling that a face-to-face meeting would.
But they can.
Searching for a local service provider online can be a daunting prospect, but even more daunting than the search is deciding which provider to use once you get to the page, especially since most websites promise the standard good service, competitive pricing and high quality.
So how does a business differentiate itself from the sea of competition? Web video makes this possible on a grand scale.
Thanks to rapidly improving technology, it’s easier than ever to add that warm-and-fuzzy, face-to-face element to your site, replicate an in-person interview, and offer your visitors an opportunity to check you out before picking up the phone. With Web video, you can present an interview that addresses all the questions and concerns of potential clients. You can keep them on your site longer and give them insight into the “business behind the business.” In a way that wasn’t possible even a few years ago, business owners can now speak directly to their audiences and showcase their personalities and areas of expertise. This is especially helpful if you are a professional service provider.
Any business that relies on conveying trust-ability will benefit from this type of web marketing. Really, it’s one-to-many communication with a one-on-one feel. It’s the perfect ice breaker and an efficient means of generating the interest and trust needed to compel potential clients to make an appointment and do business.
A high-quality Web interview placed strategically on your site is a huge timesaver for you and prospective clients because you reach a wide audience in minimal time. Potential clients get the information they need to pre-qualify – and pre-sell – themselves before they call.
Online video delivers some of the best ROI of any advertising medium today and if set up properly, is actually ranks higher than text now by the major search engines like Google. Short of spending valuable face time with a potential client (often times a poorly qualified potential client) there is simply no better way to forge a personal connection with them. With that in mind, here are 10 tips to help you get the most of your online video marketing efforts.
10 Tips for making the most of Online Video
1. Make sure your video is professionally done.
This is an absolute must. The whole point here is to establish credibility and trust, but you’ll do the opposite with a poorly executed and produced video. Yes, many of the videos you find on sharing sites are mediocre at best, but that is changing rapidly as companies begin to see the value of promoting themselves in this manner. In fact, a recent Permission TV survey found that 67% of 400 hundred top executives intended to focus their online marketing efforts on video in 2009. The rush is coming – find a personable, engaging interviewer and a top notch production crew to really stand out.
2. Submit your video to as many outlets as possible.
While YouTube is the clear leader here, there are many other video sharing sites worthy of consideration. Here are some others you won’t want to pass up:
• Google Video, http://video.google.com
• Yahoo! Video, http://video.yahoo.com
• Daily Motion, http://www.dailymotion.com
• MySpaceTV, http://vids.myspace.com
• MetaCafe, http://www.metacafe.com
• Revver, http://www.revver.com
• Veoh, http://www.veoh.com
• Blinkx, http://www.blinkx.com
• Break, http://www.break.com
3. Embed your video on the front page of your site.
Don’t hide what’s going to become one of your most effective selling tools on a dusty inside page. Get it out front. Customers and search engines will love you for it.
4. Find out what search terms your potential clients are using and put them in your video’s title.
If you don’t know what words clients in need of your services are typing into Google and other search engines, get professional help or use some of the resources featured on this page. Once you’ve identified these terms, use the most popular in your video’s title.
5. Make your tags and descriptions SEO-friendly, too.
Most video sharing sites let you tag videos with keywords and post a short description, so get the most out of these by sprinkling in the search terms you’ve identified.
6. Don’t forget your thumbnail.
A thumbnail is a still shot from your video that appears along with search results. Don’t waste this opportunity to present yourself in the best light possible – choose a key moment from your video, preferably one where you’re smiling as you speak with your interviewer.
7. Link back to your site.
Put your URL near the top of your video’s description. You’ll get a higher search ranking and potential clients will quickly learn where to go for more information.
8. Interact with your viewers.
Most video sharing sites allow viewer comments. Use this opportunity to answer questions, respond to comments, and further promote your business.
9. Consider a pay-per-click campaign.
Natural search engine optimization, while effective, takes time to bear fruit. In the meantime, you might want to jump start the process with a pay-per-click campaign that gives you a sponsored search listing. You can learn more about PPC advertising at www.google.com/intl/en/ads, sem.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/searchenginemarketing, and http://advertising.microsoft.com/search-advertising.
10. Add new content often.
Search engines look for it and so do potential clients. Keep your content fresh and up-to-date and keep visitors coming back for more.
With an ever-increasing stream of competition, it’s more important than ever to stand out from the crowd. These days standing out means maximizing your online presence and leveraging the technology to present the unique advantages of you and your firm. There’s no better way for a growth-oriented business to build a solid and secure future than by using effective and affordable online video.
Use these free resources to get a handle on the terms that potential clients are using to search for you right now.
Wordtracker, http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
Google AdWords, http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Keyword Discovery, http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
KwMap, http://www.kwmap.net
Google Trends, htttp://www.google.com/trends
Marketing Results: 7 Crucial Stats You Need to Track Your Marketing Success
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 10:05 AM
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Marketing Results: 7 Crucial Stats You Need to Track Your Marketing Success
You may feel as though you’re on a hamster wheel when it comes to measuring your marketing. You run, run, and run some more, but don’t seem to be getting anywhere. That feeling is perfectly natural if you’re not measuring your ROI (Return on Investment) with your marketing. For years, I’ve been on this hamster wheel myself, without a system that I liked to help me measure my marketing results. Numbers and statistics have never been my strong suit, and even though I got A’s in most of my math classes, it took every brain cell I had to do so.
Late last year, I finally determined what was important for me to track in my marketing, and now have created a system so that I can track my marketing from week to week. Whether you set up your system in a document or spreadsheet, you’ll be amazed at the power that you feel when you view the numbers from week to week and can spot trends developing or problem spots that need a solution. I was amazed to discover that when I started paying attention to my weekly stats, I actually found myself engrossed, fascinated, and excited! Now that I am tracking these numbers, I know exactly where to spend my time and efforts to receive the highest and best rate of return.
Here are 7 statistics that I track in my weekly marketing tracking system:
1. Number of marketing activities. I now list by name and amount of the total number of marketing activities in which I engage each week. This number includes article submissions, direct mailings, direct contacts (in person or by phone), press releases, and programs given. I’ve noticed that the higher the number, the better the rest of my marketing results for the week.
2. Web site stats. I’m primarily seeking the number of unique visitors to my web site each week. However, it’s also important to know what keywords visitors used to land on your site as well as what sites referred the visitor to your site. I don’t keep a separate log of this info, but do have a weekly Google Analytics report emailed to me with this information. Google Analytics is a free web tracking program that’s easy to install on almost any site.
3. Blog stats. I want to know the number of people who read my blog this week. Now, this is a difficult stat to measure, as blog readers use any number of RSS readers to view blog posts or subscribe to my blog via email. So, I have also installed Google Analytics on my blog and look at those results to determine the number of unique visitors to my blog in any given week, which I interpret as number of blog readers.
4. Ezine stats. My weekly ezine serves as my primary connection to my list. I track how many new subscribers I gain each week on that list, my open rate for each issue of my ezine, the number of clickthroughs for each issue, and my total number of ezine subscribers.
5. Social networking connections. I’m not in a contest to acquire the most connections possible for all of my social networking sites. I believe it’s the quality of the connection (i.e. relevance to your target market) rather than the quantity of connections that will be most useful for you. What I’m primarily tracking here is that I’m making a slow and gradual increase in the number of my connections on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.
6. Product and service sales. I note how many product sales I have made each week as well as how much revenue I have earned in the services and consulting side of my business. Because my primary product is my membership site, I probably have many more product sales (i.e. memberships) than many of you who sell information products as an income stream in your business.
7. New clients. I get a number of requests from potential clients each week, but never tracked those in any meaningful way. Now I know how many inquiries have come in, how many have become new clients, and which inquiries need follow up at a later date. This system always keeps me in motion and in front of new client prospects.
Measuring the results of your marketing activities is crucial to your success, and anyone can do it. Start to evaluate your marketing activities to empower yourself to make those strategic decisions about how and where to focus your efforts going forward so that you can achieve the level of success you desire.
Internet Marketing – Misconceptions That You Must Consider
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 10:00 AM
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Internet Marketing – Misconceptions That You Must Consider
Internet marketing is seen as a get rich quick scheme by many newbie marketers because of the ease and convenience linked to the world-wide-web. This is however misleading, as the success that you achieve whether online or off line, is directly linked to what you put in.
It usually takes much time, tribulations, steep learning and also some failures before you will succeed in the internet marketing world. It is advisable to take heed of the following misconceptions.
Cash will flow in very quickly
Internet marketing takes a substantial amount of work. Spend lots of time learning the ropes, but do expect the odd failure along the way. Your success is entirely up to you and you usually reap what you sow.
You will not make any money
Life is an issue of balance, and your input towards any business venture, will determine the output. The supreme goal for internet marketing success will only be reached by consistently applying yourself in a disciplined manner. If you are prepared to learn and accept the occasional failure whilst learning from your mistakes and apply that knowledge, the money will come.
Anyone is suited for internet marketing
If you adopt the attitude of telling yourself there is nothing to this, you are already starting of on the wrong footing. A venture such as this takes a lot of discipline and you must be willing to learn. Have an open mind get rid of your preconceived ideas and be willing to embrace new thoughts as they come up.
It is too difficult
Have you ever taken a deep look within your self to discover where the true potential lies? Is there a potential internet marketing guru waiting to come out? What do others need that has not been created yet? The answers to these questions are only the beginnings of your ability to differentiate yourself from the crowd.
It will only require a few hours work a day
This is possible but in the beginning, long hours are not unheard of. You must be prepared to spend up to 18 hour days in front of your computer. The compensating factor however is that at some point in the future you will be able to automate most of your efforts.
It takes many years to learn online business
This is not true and if you apply yourself in a diligent and consistent manner, your learning can be accelerated without compromising on the quality. Study hard, read newsletters and articles, join online forums and listen to those who are already successful within the internet marketing field.
Internet marketing is a real and authentic business venture, but be prepared for the many skeptics and other people who will look at you in a funny way.
They react in this manner because of not seeing you leave your house at 8 in the morning and returning at 6 every evening. Remind them that you are just as exhausted from working and researching all day as they are from slogging in the workplace or office all day. If you work on your business model and ignore the misconceptions, then you will succeed.
10 Tips to Grow Your Business Using Online Video
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 1:23 PM
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
10 Tips to Grow Your Business Using Online Video
By Diana D’Itri (c) 2010
Lacking any information to the contrary, many businesses still
think that all they need to do to get new clients is to put
their name and face in the Yellow Pages or online social
directories, get some professional looking business cards, a
website and Voila! It’s the old adage “build it and they will
come”.
Trouble is, that’s what their competitors are doing also and in
this day and age, it’s just not enough.
Does Your Business Stand Out Online?
Most advertising on the Web follows a time-honored format,
although some might call it a time-worn format as it does little
to differentiate itself. You can bet that a high percentage of
this advertising will be ignored and the money spent on it will
be wasted.
So how does a company stand out from the crowd online?
Thanks to an oversupply of similar text, claims, and
presentation – coupled with a short 21st century attention span
- your website has less than ten seconds to move a visitor to
action. If it doesn’t, that visitor will click away to another
site, and then another. Therefore, it’s critical that you find a
way to break through the noise your competitors are making. But
even that’s not enough.
Statistics show that even the best-looking websites generate
conversion rates of under one percent, so for every 100 visitors
you do manage to get, less than one will call or email you.
Sound bleak? Thinking of redirecting more of your advertising
budget back to the Yellow Pages? Don’t. You’re on the right
track – you just haven’t leveraged all the power available to
you online.
One-to-Many Communication. On-on-One Feel.
Most websites are little more than electronic versions of Yellow
Page advertising. For the most part, they don’t encourage
interaction beyond the obligatory “Contact me for more
information” plea. These sites don’t encourage trust any more
than their print counterparts. They don’t give visitors the
warm-and-fuzzy feeling that a face-to-face meeting would.
But they can.
Searching for a local service provider online can be a daunting
prospect, but even more daunting than the search is deciding
which provider to use once you get to the page, especially since
most websites promise the standard good service, competitive
pricing and high quality.
So how does a business differentiate itself from the sea of
competition? Web video makes this possible on a grand scale.
Thanks to rapidly improving technology, it’s easier than ever to
add that warm-and-fuzzy, face-to-face element to your site,
replicate an in-person interview, and offer your visitors an
opportunity to check you out before picking up the phone. With
Web video, you can present an interview that addresses all the
questions and concerns of potential clients. You can keep them
on your site longer and give them insight into the “business
behind the business.” In a way that wasn’t possible even a few
years ago, business owners can now speak directly to their
audiences and showcase their personalities and areas of
expertise. This is especially helpful if you are a professional
service provider.
Any business that relies on conveying trust-ability will benefit
from this type of web marketing. Really, it’s one-to-many
communication with a one-on-one feel. It’s the perfect ice
breaker and an efficient means of generating the interest and
trust needed to compel potential clients to make an appointment
and do business.
A high-quality Web interview placed strategically on your site
is a huge timesaver for you and prospective clients because you
reach a wide audience in minimal time. Potential clients get the
information they need to pre-qualify – and pre-sell – themselves
before they call.
Online video delivers some of the best ROI of any advertising
medium today and if set up properly, actually ranks higher
than text now by the major search engines like Google. Short of
spending valuable face time with a potential client (often times
a poorly qualified potential client) there is simply no better
way to forge a personal connection with them. With that in mind,
here are 10 tips to help you get the most of your online video
marketing efforts.
10 Tips for Making the Most of Online Video
1. Make Sure Your Video is Professionally Done.
This is an absolute must. The whole point here is to establish
credibility and trust, but you’ll do the opposite with a poorly
executed and produced video. Yes, many of the videos you find on
sharing sites are mediocre at best, but that is changing rapidly
as companies begin to see the value of promoting themselves in
this manner. In fact, a recent Permission TV survey found that
67% of 400 hundred top executives intended to focus their online
marketing efforts on video in 2009. The rush is coming – find a
personable, engaging interviewer and a top notch production crew
to really stand out.
2. Submit Your Video to as Many Outlets as Possible.
While YouTube is the clear leader here, there are many other
video sharing sites worthy of consideration. Here are some
others you won’t want to pass up:
� Google Video: http://video.google.com
� Yahoo! Video: http://video.yahoo.com
� Daily Motion: http://www.dailymotion.com
� MySpaceTV: http://vids.myspace.com
� MetaCafe: http://www.metacafe.com
� Revver: http://www.revver.com
� Veoh: http://www.veoh.com
� Blinkx: http://www.blinkx.com
� Break: http://www.break.com
3. Embed Your Video on the Front Page of Your Site.
Don’t hide what’s going to become one of your most effective
selling tools on a dusty inside page. Get it out front.
Customers and search engines will love you for it.
4. Find Out What Search Terms Your Potential Clients are Using
and Put Them in Your Video’s Title.
If you don’t know what words clients in need of your services
are typing into Google and other search engines, get
professional help or use some of the resources featured on this
page. Once you’ve identified these terms, use the most popular
in your video’s title.
5. Make Your Tags and Descriptions SEO-friendly, too.
Most video sharing sites let you tag videos with keywords and
post a short description, so get the most out of these by
sprinkling in the search terms you’ve identified.
6. Don’t Forget Your Thumbnail.
A thumbnail is a still shot from your video that appears along
with search results. Don’t waste this opportunity to present
yourself in the best light possible – choose a key moment from
your video, preferably one where you’re smiling as you speak
with your interviewer.
7. Link Back to Your Site.
Put your URL near the top of your video’s description. You’ll
get a higher search ranking and potential clients will quickly
learn where to go for more information.
8. Interact With Your Viewers.
Most video sharing sites allow viewer comments. Use this
opportunity to answer questions, respond to comments, and
further promote your business.
9. Consider a Pay-Per-Click Campaign.
Natural search engine optimization, while effective, takes time
to bear fruit. In the meantime, you might want to jump start the
process with a pay-per-click campaign that gives you a sponsored
search listing. You can learn more about PPC advertising at:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/ads,
http://sem.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/searchenginemarketing, and
http://advertising.microsoft.com/search-advertising
10. Add New Content Often.
Search engines look for it and so do potential clients. Keep
your content fresh and up-to-date and keep visitors coming back
for more.
With an ever-increasing stream of competition, it’s more
important than ever to stand out from the crowd. These days
standing out means maximizing your online presence and
leveraging the technology to present the unique advantages of
you and your firm. There’s no better way for a growth-oriented
business to build a solid and secure future than by using
effective and affordable online video.
Use these free resources to get a handle on the terms that
potential clients are using to search for you right now.
Wordtracker: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
Google AdWords: http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Keyword Discovery: http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
KwMap: http://www.kwmap.net
Google Trends: http://www.google.com/trends
Any type of online business can grow through some basic solid SEO techniques. Here are some straight-forward answers to the most common SEO questions.
1. What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. A search engine is a tool many internet users use to find sites that are relevant to their needs. The three biggies when it comes to search engines are Google, Yahoo! and MSN (Bing). There are however, hundreds of search engines available to internet users. Search engines work by sending out spiders to crawl through the World Wide Web and gather information. If you have the information they’re looking for, in the places they are looking, they’ll find you and place you in their search engine results page.
The task of understanding what search engines are looking for and putting it in the right places on your website and in your content, is the essence of search engine optimization. So now you might be asking…what do search engines look for and where do they look for it? The answer is keywords and links. Keywords in your html coding, keywords on your webpage content, keywords in your content, and the number of incoming links you have to your website.
2. How important is SEO?
Let’s just put it this way. What’s better? a few visitors who stumble upon your website or hundreds of visitors that go to your website with the direct intention of learning more or making a purchase? With more and more people searching and shopping online, getting on the first page or two of the search engine results can mean the difference between keeping your day job and becoming an internet millionaire.
3. What are text links?
Links are just one of the tools you can use to increase your search engine optimization. The more quality links you have, the better your search engine ranking will be. Text links are links that contain only text. Wikipedia is a great place to examine internal text links. The links are contained within a sentence and when a reader clicks on them they are taken to a different page on the same website. The kind of text links you’re looking for will be text links that will take readers from your article, eBook, or web copy to your website.
An excellent tool to generate incoming links is to write copy for online audiences like article directories, blogs, and ezines and insert text links in the copy. Webmasters will link to the content and thus to your site. Additionally, when you allow free reprints of your copy provided the links are maintained, you’re encouraging links to your website.
4. What are link farms and link exchanges?
Search engines don’t accept just any old link. The link has to be from a relevant and quality company. This means you don’t want to participate in link farming. If a search engine suspects your links to be lacking, they’ll actually penalize you. Link farming or link exchanging is essentially the process of exchanging reciprocal links with Web sites in order to increase your search engine ranking. A link farm is a Web page that is nothing more than a page of links to other sites. Stay away from link farms. When you generate a link from another site, it had better be relevant and coming from a real web site.
5. What is duplicate content?
The definition of duplicate content is web pages that contain substantially the same content. Search engines will penalize you for this. How do you avoid duplicate content? Don’t publish the same article in several locations. There are many tools available online to help you re-write your content so that it is 30%, 40%, and even 50% different. However, the best way to avoid duplicate content is to simply write new content.
6. How do I find the right keywords?
There are several steps to finding the most profitable keywords. The first step is to generally do a bit of brainstorming and come up with a list of keywords you think people will use to find your products and services. The next step is to research supply and demand for those particular keywords. Supply means how many other websites are using those same keywords and demand is how many people are looking for those particular keywords. The key is to find keywords with high demand and relatively low supply. There are many effective and useful keyword tools to help you find this information and to generate keyword ideas. Once you decide on a few keywords, it may be useful to do a bit of testing before you commit to them.
7. How do I optimize my web pages?
Placing your keywords in the right location is a good start to optimizing your web pages. Search engines look to the headings, subheadings, domain name, and title of your website. They also look in the content on your page and primarily focus on the first paragraph. Try to get a domain name with your primary keyword included. When you include your keyword in your URL it tells the search engine spiders immediately what your site is about.
Title Tag: Your title tag is the line of text that appears on search engine results pages that acts as a link to your site. This is a crucial element of your webpage as it describes to your visitors what your page is about. If you view your source code, your title tag will look something like this: <TITLE>Search Engine Optimization Tips</TITLE>. Keep your title tags brief, descriptive, up to date, and keyword rich will help to increase the relevance of your site in the eyes of the search engines, as well as giving your potential visitors a good idea of what they can expect from your site.
Meta Tags: it is helpful to place your keywords in your Meta tags. In your source code they look something like this: <META NAME=”description”
8. Do I need to submit my site to the search engines?
Need? No, Should? Yes!. Search engine spiders are always out there doing their job and collecting information. Every time you update your website, add content, or change your keywords, the search engines capture the information and record it. However, if you want to be listed on a directory, like the DMOZ Open directory project, then you will need to submit to those. You can be reactive, but you should certainly be thinking with a more proactive approach; If you tell them (the search engines) what your links are, your links will be submitted a lot faster and no pages will be missed.
9. What are spiders?
Search engine spiders are also called web crawlers or bot. They’re basically automated programs which scan websites to provide information to search engines often for the purpose of indexing or ranking the pages found.
10. How does content help my SEO?
Content is one of the best tools to improve your search engine ranking. It is a great place to emphasize keywords, encourage linking to your site, and increase traffic. The key to content is to make sure you’re offering quality content and you’re updating your website and your content frequently. Content can be provided in many forms including:
· Blogs
· Forums and chat rooms
· Articles
· Reviews
· Case studies
· Reports
· How to guides
· Tutorials
· E-books
· And much more
Link Web Services: http://www.LinkWebServices.com
Web University: http://WebUniversity.LinkWebServices.com
The Web Store: http://www.LinkWebServices.com/mm5/merchant.mvc
Top 50 Video Sharing Sites
Top 50 Video Sharing Sites
Link Web Services: http://www.LinkWebServices.com
Web University: http://WebUniversity.LinkWebServices.com
The Web Store: http://www.LinkWebServices.com/mm5/merchant.mvc
The powerful capabilities of organic search engine optimization (SEO) are now a highly sought after marketing tool by many companies that want to alert customers to their products or services by focusing on certain keyphrases that highlight these offerings. And though SEO has embarked on a meteoric rise in the past few years, other non-traditional forms of marketing are now gaining a great deal of well-deserved credibility as well. More and more marketers are using paid ads to hone in on a potentially profitable client base, while other more traditional channels, such as PR and print ads, appear to be becoming somewhat less effective.
In a recent study (1), Forrester Research found that interactive marketing spending will reach nearly $55 billion by 2014, representing 21% of all marketing spend. And the fact of the matter is that marketers are continuing to place more stock in newer forms of marketing and social media, leaving many higher-ups to wonder if it is time for them to include these channels in their own marketing mixes. And with the help of your search engine optimization company, it’s possible to achieve outstanding rankings and results!
What follows are some common considerations that should be analyzed prior to the launch of an SEO campaign so that you will know what you are getting into, what you will need from your own team and your prospective search engine optimization company, and how to most effectively pursue this particular form of marketing.
Achieving Buy-in
Search engine optimization is unlike many traditional forms of marketing in that several departments must be involved in order for the SEO campaign to be successful. Apart from the obvious need to get buy-in from upper management (unless, of course, you are upper management), you will also need to get buy-in from your sales department and, very importantly, your IT department before pursuing the powerful capabilities your search engine optimization company can bring to the table.
Upper Management
While a well thought out, highly targeted SEO campaign is becoming an increasingly popular marketing tool, many “old school” bigwigs are uncomfortable pursuing something that is completely foreign to them. This is not an indictment of the individual – keep in mind that the traditional marketing methods that the company has likely relied upon (trade shows, direct mail, print advertising, etc.) have been relatively unchanged for decades.
While these traditional marketing channels may have remained relatively stagnant, the allocation of spend for them has not. According to a 2008 SEMPO report, more marketers are shifting their budgets to search rather than spending it on the more traditional channels of the past. Nearly 26% of advertisers shifted budget for print magazines to search; 23% from direct mail; 18% from print newspaper; 15% from website development; and 7% from email marketing.
One of the reasons for this is obviously the effectiveness of the channel. In the same study, SEMPO found that respondents viewed online marketing efforts as their strongest tactic or best ROI. 63% of respondents saw paid search as the best return on investment in terms of marketing or advertising efforts; 49% for organic SEO; 43% for email marketing; 12% for conferences and exhibitions; 11% for public relations; and 6% for print magazines.
Another reason for the shift in marketing dollars, which can be used as ammunition when you are trying to convince your higher-ups to go with a search engine optimization company, is the ultimate accountability that goes along with online marketing: the data that indicates success or failure of your SEO campaign is of the black-or-white variety.
When describing the effectiveness of a company’s marketing strategy, there is often an old sentiment tossed around – “I know that half of my marketing is not working, just not which half.” Because of the analytics involved in search engine optimization, your company higher-ups can take comfort in the fact that this is not another marketing initiative that will self-perpetuate indefinitely – the metrics involved in your SEO campaign will demonstrate that it is working, justifying the continued expenditure.
When trying to get buy-in from upper management, you also have a formidable weapon in the actions, or inaction, of your competitors. If your hated rivals are actively embracing the tools offered by a search engine optimization company, there will be a tendency among upper management not to want to let them get too far ahead. If none of your top competitors appear to be actively pursuing this channel, your company can gain traction before your rivals do and thus gain the competitive edge. Whichever the case, it is now much easier to present a compelling argument to pursue an SEO campaign.
Sales Department
There is often a mutual suspicion and distrust between sales and marketing, but in order for your SEO campaign initiative to be as successful as possible, you should involve sales in the process of selecting a search engine optimization company as early as possible. Achieving buy-in from the salespeople is critical in making certain that the leads that are generated from the website are followed up on as diligently as they should be. By asking sales to assist in important areas of the SEO campaign, like creating an ideal prospect profile and helping to identify targeted keyphrases (after all, they talk to your prospects more often than anyone), you should be able to ensure that when the leads start coming in, your sales team will believe that leads from the website are high-quality and worthy of their immediate attention. After all, without increased revenues, the SEO campaign is not a success – and your salespeople will play a crucial role in determining this.
IT Department
This can be your most difficult challenge. Unlike most other forms of marketing, search engine optimization is a mixture of marketing and technology. Without achieving buy-in, or at least acceptance, from the IT team prior to the launch of an SEO campaign, you are likely to run into problems. IT teams can be particularly protective of their “turf” and may be reluctant to hand over information to your prospective search engine optimization company. This is not inherently bad (it obviously shows dedication to the job), but it can make things difficult when your search engine optimization company is requesting that changes be made to the company website or that analytics platforms be introduced (to name only two likely scenarios).
If you are not used to dealing with your IT department, it would probably serve you well to involve your prospective search engine optimization company in the process of achieving buy-in with them. After all, the vendor should have years of experience in approaching these situations without ruffling feathers. If you choose to approach IT yourself, make it a point to let them know that they will receive a fair share of credit for the success of the initiative and involve them in how you are defining success. This may be enough to win them over to your side.
Leveraging Your Assets
Search engine optimization is not something that should be done in a vacuum if you wish to achieve optimal results, nor is it a discipline in which it is necessary to start from scratch. Many of the pieces necessary for a successful SEO campaign are already in place – it is simply a matter of identifying them and using them (and your search engine optimization company) to their full potential.
Your People
While your search engine optimization company should take the time to understand everything that it possibly can about your business before embarking on your SEO campaign, nobody will ever understand your business better than you and your colleagues. This is why it is important for your search engine optimization company to help you to utilize key people that are vital to the success of the initiative, including people outside the marketing department.
Sales
Salespeople are the front line of your organization – the people who know how to talk to your prospects and understand what is involved in their decision making processes. When it comes to collaborating with your search engine optimization company on keyphrase selection (finding the phrases that will bring highly-motivated prospects to your site), your sales staff can be invaluable. Many companies have names for products or services that are very popular internally but very rarely used on the street, so targeting these phrases during your SEO campaign will not bring you the type of traffic that you seek. Your salespeople (at least the good ones) know how your prospects speak in the real world. A good search engine optimization company will help you to utilize your sales staff – and ensure they feel involved and enthusiastic about the SEO campaign in the process.
Customers
Customers can also be invaluable when it comes to selecting the keyphrases to target for your SEO campaign. Many companies are surprised when they enlist the help of a search engine optimization company to begin a campaign only to discover that their customers do not speak the same language that they do. This is common across just about every industry – most people are very intimately involved in their industries and use proprietary names, acronyms, and other verbiage that is, at the least, confusing to an outsider. Anyone who has ever been dragged along to a work function by a spouse can attest to this – it often sounds as though the employees are speaking animatedly in a foreign language, leaving the reluctant spouse to fend for him or herself. In short, talk to your best customers. Ask them what they would type into a search engine if they were looking for a company that provided what you offer. You will almost certainly be surprised by the responses.
Company Experts
Almost every company can boast that it has industry experts on staff – the ones who design products and services, the ones who implement them, etc. Yet very few companies take advantage of these experts to promote the company as a leader in their respective fields. Since search engines place a premium on valuable, educational content, leveraging your company experts to create articles and whitepapers for your SEO campaign is an excellent way to attain search engine rankings while also providing something of value to your site visitors. Adding this type of content throughout your SEO campaign also allows you the luxury of educating your prospects online so that they will be further down the line in the sales cycle when they eventually decide to make contact.
Your Content
Now that you have learned how to effectively make the best use out of your colleagues, it’s time to take an inventory of the content that is available to you for your SEO campaign initiatives. As mentioned previously, valuable content is held in high regard by engines and visitors alike. Often, however, much of this content never finds its way to the company website for whatever reason. Your search engine optimization company should help you to identify this content, which can include the following:
Whitepapers
Does your company have whitepapers that are used during presentations, at tradeshows, and in other areas but that are not available on your website? If so, you are missing out on a great opportunity to promote your expertise, educate your prospects, and impress the search engines. Most of these whitepapers can be optimized during the SEO campaign for maximum search engine benefit with minimal changes. Even older whitepapers can usually be dusted off by your search engine optimization company and brought up to date at a fraction of the effort that would be involved in creating a new one.
Articles
Similar to whitepapers but typically shorter, articles written by your company experts can be just as beneficial as whitepapers when added to the company site and for the same reason. Unless you have signed away the rights to any articles to the original publishing entity, there is no reason why your search engine optimization company cannot use them on your website for marketing purposes. Older articles, like older whitepapers, can typically be updated with minimal effort.
Press Releases
Your company press releases can also be optimized and utilized on your website. In fact, optimizing press releases prior to their distribution on the newswires is also a good idea. Unlike whitepapers and expert articles, it is usually unnecessary for your search engine optimization company to go back and update press releases during the SEO campaign, since they are historical in nature.
Offline Marketing
Almost every organization has offline marketing materials that are used at trade shows, in sales presentations, or in direct mail. Since this material has (usually) already been vetted by the marketing department, it is usually fit for consumption by the general public. Often, however, these materials are left to rot once they have served their offline purpose, when they could easily be repurposed by your search engine optimization company and used to great effect on the website. Of course, there may be good reasons for this – you may not want to give away your best sales pitch to your competitors by making it public.
Unique Challenges
Although it is wise to make the most out of your existing assets when you are launching an SEO campaign, you should also be aware of some of the unique challenges that are inherent to the online arena. Keeping these challenges in mind as you begin your SEO campaign can make a large difference in your results down the road.
Understanding Searcher Behavior
In marketing, it is accepted that one must grab the prospect’s attention with a compelling message in order to maintain his or her interest. On the Internet, this is paramount. People who are using search engines are, by definition, in a “searching” mode. While this is of course obvious, it is also important to remember that in no other form of marketing is it easier for the searcher to abandon your attempts to attract his or her attention and look elsewhere. Your competitors are a simple click of the ‘back’ button away. In fact, a recent study shows that the average visitor to a website stays for less than three minutes – hardly enough time for him or her to be sold.
Searchers have been conditioned, by the sheer amount of information available, to be impatient when they do not immediately find what it is they are seeking. What does this mean? It means that your pages should offer immediate insight on the common problems that your customers face. If you cannot communicate, within a few seconds, how you understand your prospect and how you are different from the myriad of other firms out there, you have lost them, perhaps forever. With help from your search engine optimization company, take a close look at every page of your website. Do you focus on the user, or do you focus on your company? Do you immediately engage your prospects with your knowledge of what particular business challenges they are facing? If not, it may be time to rethink the most prominent marketing message on your individual pages and devise a new action plan for your SEO campaign.
Redefining “Competition”
Almost every company has a list of four or five companies that it considers to be its primary competitors. These are generally the companies that it believes offer products and services most similar to its own. Often these companies steal employees from one another, and they seem forever concerned with what the other is doing.
On a search engine, however, your definition of competition should be broader. It should include any company that offers the same products or services as your company that outranks you for important terms. Whether or not these companies are on your immediate radar is immaterial – a searcher will not know the difference, nor will he or she care. The Internet is, by and large, a vast and level playing field. There are quite possibly companies that you have never heard of using the Internet almost exclusively to promote their brands. It is important to watch out for these competitors as well as the ones you and your search engine optimization company currently track.
The Role of Patience
Unlike with most marketing channels, search engine optimization has many variables that will be outside of your control and the benefits will not be immediate. Simply put, it takes time to properly optimize a website for optimal search engine performance, and there are no guarantees as to when the engines will re-visit your site and reward you for the efforts of your SEO campaign (although, if you select the right search engine optimization company and play your cards right, it will happen).
The obvious downside is that an SEO campaign can take time before you begin to see your ROI, and unlike most other forms of traditional marketing, the timing can vary greatly. The upside, which people who successfully engage in an SEO campaign realize, is that the ROI is typically much greater than other forms of marketing. It is also important to remember that working with a search engine optimization company is a longer-term investment, which, like other longer-term investments, takes time to mature. If you spend marketing dollars on a print ad, that ad will only be effective for as long as the publication is in the public eye. If you buy banner ads or use pay-per-click advertising, your presence will decline once you stop paying. But a website that’s been properly optimized by a competent, knowledgeable search engine optimization company will likely bring you traffic for years to come.
Works Cited
1. U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2009 – 2014
Your Website’s Missing Ingredient
“My mechanic told me, ‘He couldn’t repair my brakes, so he made my horn louder.’” – Comedian, Steven Wright
We all want our websites to be more effective, and if you’re like mo t business people you are constantly searching the Web for anything that will help. What you find is a cabal of experts armed with statistics, analysis, charts and graphs all pointing to how they can get you high-up on the search engines and drive more traffic to your site. The problem is that like Steven Wright’s mechanic these guys are adjusting your horn when it’s your brakes that need fixing.
There is little point in attracting more visitors to your site if your site has little of interest to say. Even if your site is jammed packed with useful products, services and solutions if it doesn’t connect with your audience, they will never invest the time necessary for you to make your case.
When websites fail it’s most often because they do not function effectively as your primary communication tool. The Web is overcrowded with options and unless you’re prepared to deliver a compelling differentiating presentation you will be quickly dismissed as irrelevant. Let’s face it; business is tough, probably tougher than it’s ever been before.
Something is Missing
You’ve done all the technical tweaks and responded to all the research and analytics. You’re blogging, micro-blogging, social networking, and search optimizing, but still something is not quite right, something is missing. What’s the missing ingredient? You know it’s out there, but you can’t for the life of you figure out what it is.
You know the Web offers the potential to access new markets, find new customers, and reach new heights, but with all that opportunity, the results always seem just out of reach. If research and analytics were the answer you’d already be rich. Of course it was an over-reliance on research that brought us the Edsel, New Coke, and that wonderful Wall Street goody called Derivatives, one of the greatest investment boondoggles of our time.
There is something artificially comforting about putting your faith in seemingly logical yet unfathomable solutions based on indecipherable scientific modeling and over-hyped research analysis, all brought to you by computer scientists and mathematicians who never ran a marketing department or launched a new product or business.
Business leaders have adopted the attitude that, “It must be right, because I sure as heck don’t understand it.” And when it all goes wrong, or results are anemic, well, “What are you going to do? It’s not my fault, it all looked good on paper.” Ad agencies and Wall Street have been getting away with this kind of bunkum for decades, and look at the mess they’ve made of things.
What’s It All About, Alfie?
Business success is all about your ability to engage your audience with a message that compels them to action. Simply put, your business relies on your ability to communicate. Eureka!
And your website is the best communication vehicle you have. The question is how do you use your website to communicate your marketing message in the most engaging, compelling, and memorable manner? What is the missing ingredient that will turn your scientifically sterile online cookie-cutter presentation into something that cuts through the massive sameness of Internet clutter, and makes a statement that your audience will respond to?
Finding Your Emotional and Psychological Value Proposition
One of the hardest things for tough-minded business people to accept is that sales and marketing success is based on the subconscious emotional and psychological appeal of a brand. That’s the reason, reliance on feature selling rarely works, and only tends to commoditize a product or service – the guy with the most bells and whistles for the least amount of money wins, and why would you want to play that game?
Even the most casual market observer must recognize that all leading brands have one thing in common, no matter what they sell: the promise of their brand is based on a concept that is established through an emotional or psychological appeal. Apple is about thinking and acting creatively without the worry of technical issues; Starbucks is about reconnecting to the original coffee break ideal of a relaxing oasis away from the hustle bustle of everyday life; and Ikea is about stylish living on a budget. Each concept appeals to the deep-seated desires of the targeted audience. It is this singular concept that makes each of these companies special and different from their competition; it is the message that all their marketing, advertising, and promotion is based upon, and it is the true value they offer their audience that attracts interest, holds attention, and delivers promise.
Implementing Your Emotional and Psychological Value Proposition
In order to implement a company’s emotional and psychological value proposition, we use a process called the ConceptCreator. It starts with various sales’ points that need to be covered. Based on the supplied information, we develop a focused marketing concept using the Law of Dissatisfaction that enables us to discover the experiential human subtext of why people will want what you sell. The presentation concept is boiled-down to a movie-style logline that states the brand story to be presented in the Web Video campaign.
How Much Is A Concept Worth?
“Wait a minute – did he say a movie-style logline? That sure doesn’t sound business-like, and I never heard any corporate CEO or MBA talk about movie loglines.” Maybe so, but think about it. Hollywood studios spend enormous sums of money to produce a movie with the potential of making hundreds of millions of dollars, and each financial investment starts with someone coming up with a clever logline that captures the imagination. Television commercials can cost ten thousand dollars a second to produce and without a guiding conceptual premise they become DOA when implemented. So why wouldn’t you start your Web Video campaign using the same proven formula.
The logline, mission statement, or elevator pitch if you prefer needs to state the characters, goals, obstacles, differentiating factors, and resolution within the context of a story scenario.
For Instance…
If it works for the movie industry will it work for the advertising and marketing industry? Let’s take a look at one of the most successful last number of years, The MAC versus PC campaign.
Example Logline Concept: A stylish, pleasant, mild-mannered young man verbally spars with his geeky competitive opposite (characters) in a series of humorous, relatable incidents (story scenario) that illustrate the people-friendly advantages (resolution) of the brand compared to its rigid, unbending competitor (differentiating factor) whose sheer size dominates the market (obstacle) in an effort to win the hearts and minds of the computer buying audience (goal). – The MAC Versus PC Ad Campaign.
“The Time Has Come The Walrus Said…”
- Lewis Carroll from ‘Through the Looking Glass and What Alice
Found There,’ 1892
The time has come to realize that Web Video is the best communication tactic available to deliver your marketing message to a worldwide audience; an audience that craves answers and resolution to their every need, concern and desire. It is not good enough to list a bunch of features and hackneyed bulleted points or even to dump pages and pages of search engine optimized hard-to-read text, especially when it’s aimed at an audience raised on television, movies, music and video games. We must learn to speak the language of the audience, and use the appropriate communication tools they can understand in a way that connects on a human level.
It all starts with finding the emotional and psychological value proposition your product or service promises. In a world of frustrated, cranky, attention deficit consumers, the onus is on you to present what you offer in a way that relates to the human elements that make your brand relevant.
Build Backlinks & Rank Higher: The Five Most Effective Strategies
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:28 AM
Friday, September 18, 2009
As the online market place continues to warm up to the idea of SEO, link building has become center stage as it tends to be the most time consuming and crucial part of any internet marketing strategy. Link building services are the most commonly outsourced aspect of SEO. This process involves finding qualified and thematically relevant one-way linking partners who will link back to your website.
At first glance this sounds easy and there are hundreds of automated products out there that claim to add thousands of back links overnight. The truth is there are no short cuts in cultivating authoritative back links for a site. Link building companies spend many hours link building by hand in order to get the best results. Spammy automated products often never cultivate valuable links and tend to do more harm than good. Here are a couple quick suggestions to help you get started.
1. Know What Keywords You’re Targeting
Link building strategies are an extension of your current SEO practice. You’ll want to reference the list of keywords you have selected to optimize your site. Make sure that the anchor text of the link has the keyword you are targeting. For example, if you’re targeting the keyword “baby names” you’ll want to place that keyword in the anchor text of the link. I’ve seen many companies go after links by using their company name. Although this does increase link popularity it fails to pass popularity for a specific keyword and can be seen as a failed attempt.
2. Develop a Link Building Strategy
There are many strategies link building companies use to source qualified back links to their clients. The most tedious but often most rewarding method is manual linking requests also known as “cherry picking”. This method allows you to obtain exceptionally qualified links which can really help boost your position in the search engine results page (SERPS). A good place to start with manual link building is to look at your suppliers, vendors, clients, related organizations associations and more.
Besides manual link requests other well known tactics include:
1. directory submission (Dmoz, Yahoo Directory, Joe Ant)
2. article submission (ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com)
3. optimized press releases (PRWeb.com)
4. social media outlets (FaceBook, Linked In)
5. bookmarking sites (Digg, Reddit, Furl)
6. Blogs (niche blogs)
7. Forums (niche forums)
8. Classifieds (niche classifieds)
3. Identify Thematically Relevant and Authoritative Linking Sources
Search engines see links as votes of confidence for your site. The more relevant and authoritative the site, the more consideration is given to the link and the subsequent keyword in the anchor text. It really pays off to focus on the quality of your links rather than the quantity. It is also important for your link building to look natural and not an attempt to deceive search engine spiders in search of links. Try looking for sites within your industry rather than general, unrelated sites to get links from.
A good example of this would be content creation and distribution. Try creating content on a relevant subject of which you can speak authoritatively. An example of this would be a SEO company writing a short article on 5 simple ways companies can start link building and placing it on an authoritative, industry relevant site like this one. Remember, before placing a link on a site (or making a request), ask yourself three questions:
1. Does a link to my website belong here (does it look natural)?
2. Is this site relevant and authoritative?
3. Is there any benefit to my potential customers?
4. Look for the onsite attributes of the linking site
4. Determine Where Your Link Will Reside
Once you’ve nailed down a potential linking partner that represents the overall quality and thematic authority that your site deserves you’ll need to see where your link will reside. Here are a couple guidelines that I look for when placing links on a site. I try to get my links no more than a few clicks away from the homepage. The page must be thematically relevant and recently cached by Google’s search engine (this lets me know that the page has been indexed by Google). I also take a look at the number of external (outbound) links leaving that page. I try to keep the number of external links below 50 as it will dilute the effect of the page. Lastly, I look at the page the link will be placed on. For some sites this is harder to control, but if you have the option you should know where the most valuable locations are. I always try to get my links in line with thematically relevant content, like an article or blog post. I’ve found this produces some of the best results. Try to avoid placing your links on a “sponsored” or advertisers section that runs throughout the entire site. Also avoid footer links as rumor has it Google has devalued links buried in the footer of the site. Links placed at the top of the page or inserted into the site’s navigation also tend to do quite well. Bottom line is that your links need to look like they belong and provide value to the user and the site it is published on.
5. Be Aware of “No-Follow” Links
Within the last 5 years Google developed the concept of the “no-follow” link. The “no-follow” code is inserted into your link and instructs the Google spider to ignore it. The “no-follow” link can be seen used most commonly in blog comments and forum posts. This initiative was set forth to combat spam and automated linking mechanisms that would throw links automatically on blog comments and forum posts.
There are a lot of SEO professionals that will only place a link if it is a “do-follow” link, meaning it doesn’t have the “no-follow” attribute. I tend to disagree with this notion especially when the link in question is on a highly trafficked authority site. If it makes sense for the link to be there, then add your link. Even though Google won’t give you any credit for it, it will be seen by thousands of people who may visit your site and link to you themselves because your site is highly relevant. I call this concept indirect link building. You are influencing and promoting your site to potential linking partners.
Link Building is a very time consuming process and link building companies spend a lot of time researching, testing and improving their techniques. Link building services are available for companies that don’t have the time to invest in manual link building. The bottom line is that with a little help anyone can link build and move their site up the SERPS.
SEO Google Commands
All Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Google Commands
On the Google Search Bar, enter one of the Google Commands below and replace www.LinkWebServices.com with your website information.
* cache:www.LinkWebServices.com
* link:www.LinkWebServices.com
* related:www.LinkWebServices.com
* info:www.LinkWebServices.com
* site:www.LinkWebServices.com
* allintitle:www.LinkWebServices.com
* intitle:www.LinkWebServices.com
* allinurl:www.LinkWebServices.com
* inurl:www.LinkWebServices.com
Google supports several commands which can help you if you do Search Engine optimization in Google. Typically these commands modify the search in some way or even tell Google to do a totally different type of search, “link:” is a special Google command, and the query
link:www.LinkWebServices.com doesn’t do a normal search but instead finds web pages that have links that point to www.LinkWebServices.com.
A several of other Google commands use punctuation instead of words or phrases. Below is a list of all the special SEO Google commands that Google supports:
cache:www.LinkWebServices.com Search Engine optimization
If you include other words or phrases in the query, Google will highlight those words within the cached document. For instance, cache:www.LinkWebServices.com Search Engine optimization will show the cached content with the word or phrase “Search Engine optimization” highlighted.
This functionality is also available by clicking on the “Cached” link on Google’s main search results pages, some SEO companies protect themselves by placing a Google robot text inside the <head> of the html code to not display the cached web page or content in Google’s search results.
This special html tag look like this: <META NAME=”GOOGLEBOT” CONTENT=”NOARCHIVE”/> try it and put it inside the <head> of your index page and you will notice that Google will not cache your index page anymore.
The command [cache:] will show the version of the web page that Google has in its cache after the crawler visited your site. For instance, cache:www.LinkWebServices.com will show Google’s cache of the LinWebServices.com’s homepage. Remember there can be no space between the “cache:” and the web page or domain url.
The cache command is very handy for people who do SEO, you can compare web sites and after the research you can make adjustments to the content or text. Just try it with your own web site!
link:www.LinkWebServices.com
The Google command [link:] will list web pages that have links to the specified web page. Example, link:www.LinkWebServices.com will list web pages that have links pointing to the SEO watch homepage. Remember there can be no space between the “link:” and the web page url or domain.
This is an very use full Google command for optimization companies that do link building.
site:www.LinkWebServices.com
If you include site: in your search, Google will give the results to those web sites in the given domain. Example,
site:www.LinkWebServices.com will find all pages from www.LinkWebServices.com. Remember there can be no space between the “site:” and the domain.
This google command is very help full if you update your site and would like to know which page Google included in the database of Google’s search results.
related:www.LinkWebServices.com
The google command [related:] will list web pages that are “similar” to a specified web page.
For instance: related:www.LinkWebServices.com will list web pages that are similar to the SEO watch homepage. Remember there can be no space between the “related:” and the web page url or domain.
Google Robots, Spyders and Website Crawling
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 9:28 AM
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Google Robots, Spyders and Website Crawling
Google’s Robots: All You Need to Know
What are Gooble Robots and Spyders?
Robots (a.k.a “spider” or a “bot”) are small programs which come to your site and crawl through your data and your links then send all the information back to the search engine database for indexing your site.
Google has three different known types of robots that crawl through your site:
Google Getting Freer With Sitelinks
Subdirectories appear to be getting some respect. Although there hasn’t been any sort of conclusive announcement, sitelinks – those nice little link collections that appear beneath some search results – are becoming more prevalent.
When Google’s search results provide more than one link to a certain site, the site looks authoritative. The presence of multiple links also makes it more likely that a searcher’s question will be answered, and even the least discerning searcher may just go to the site because all the links are easy to click.
This development could be rather important to some site owners, then. Matt Cutts, for example, tweeted, “Yay, I have sitelinks for the query [matt cutts] after 2+ years!”
Barry Schwartz then asked, “Why did it take Matt over two years to get Sitelinks for his domain when it is such an authoritative source? The answer might be that his content was on a sub-directory. Yes, right now, there is no substantial content on www.mattcutts.com, all or most the content is on www.mattcutts.com/blog/. And it seems like Google is now giving sub directories Sitelink love.”
Given the season we’re approaching, all this inclusiveness is nice. It isn’t bad considering the economic situation, either, if some site owners can now attract more traffic.
Google Analytics Gets A Handle On Flash
Track to your heart’s content
Flash content has long posed a lot of problems for the search and webmaster communities. Now Google – and more specifically, the newly introduced Google Analytics Tracking For Adobe Flash – intends to solve at least a few of them.
Will Personal Search Turn SEO On Its Ear?
Bruce Clay Talks Big Changes in Ranking Due to Personalization
At PubCon, Bruce Clay, Inc. President Bruce Clay presented at a session entitled “Top-Shelf Organic SEO” in which he discussed the approaching future of SEO as search engines evolve into more modern ranking methods through more personalized search results. Bruce was good enough to take the time to speak with our own Michael McDonald in a one-on-one interview about personal search, which can be viewed in the video below.
Matt Cutts on SEO 2009 & Google Talks AdSense
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 8:59 AM
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Matt Cutts on SEO 2009 & Google Talks AdSense
WebProNews’ Mike McDonald caught up with Matt Cutts of Google at the Hofbrau House in Las Vegas during PubCon to get his views on a number of topics.
Is Ranking Dead?
Cutts said, “I’m not sure I would say ranking is dead but it’s not as important as it used to be. The fact is the smart SEOs are not just necessarily looking at the rankings. They are looking at conversion, they are looking at their server log. It’s great if you’re ranking for a phrase but unless that leads to sales that doesn’t help you very much.”
There is one marketing truth you must understand: People buy when they are ready to buy, not when you are ready to sell. So, just because your lead is not ready to buy today, doesn’t mean they aren’t important. After all, today’s leads are tomorrow’s customers, or next month’s or next year’s.
How To Use Web Analytics To Grow Your Business
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 10:03 AM
Sunday, February 15, 2009
How To Use Web Analytics To Grow Your Business
By Mike Tekula (c) 2009
Got a website?
If you own a business, chances are you do. But don’t pat
yourself on the back too quickly.
By now it’s widely-accepted that if you have a business
card you should probably have a website. It doesn’t matter
what your company is selling – a website, however modest,
has become a standard.
Your starting to send emails as a way to marketing and communicate on a large scale. Creating winning email marketing messages is part art and part science, with a generous helping of innovation thrown in. The following elements are common to all aspects of email marketing, whether you are inviting customers back to buy again or seeking new customers.
Adding a little personalization and sincerity, that simple message can become a great way to build customer satisfaction. The idea is that, the more effort you put into making your messages to your customers personal and sincere, the more likely they will return to your site for shopping over and over.
Why success comes from goal-setting and persevering to the end.
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 1:16 PM
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
More than 5,000 years ago, in the ancient mystery schools of Egypt, the mental and spiritual laws and principles of success were taught to students who dedicated their entire lives to learning the “Esoteric Arts.”
One of these “secrets” was the Law of Attraction, which said that your mind is a magnet and that you invariably attract into your life people and circumstances in harmony with your dominant thoughts, especially those that are emotionalized.
Success comes from EDUCATION, REPETITION AND VARIETY
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 11:47 AM
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Just about every business on the planet does this. And it’s not bad… until you realize how much money you’re leaving on the table. The fact is, for every deal you close using this common process, there’s another 2 – 3 deals (or more!) you COULD close. Most small businesses market their products and services like this:
24 Ways To Provide Amazing Satisfaction To Online Shoppers Part 2
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 11:40 AM
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
I recently posted an article and reviewd how to find a need for the online shoppers. I even showed how there is a lot of ball-dropping. Fortunately, it can all be corrected to give yourself a leg up on the competition. Here are some more tips:
• Search is fundamental. Be there at every entry point possible.
• The landing page is crucial. You should have a landing page relevant to the search term.
24 Ways To Provide Amazing Satisfaction To Online Shoppers Part 1
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 11:37 AM
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Three-quarters of online shoppers surveyed said website content is insufficient to complete research or purchase a product online always, most, or some of the time. Nearly 80 percent rarely or never purchase a product without complete information, and 72 percent will take off to a competitor that does supply that information.
It seems that consumers really want to buy online, but retailers aren’t making it easy for them. Sometimes, it seems like retailers go out of their way to lose customers.
Since business may soon be tougher, it’s critical for entrepreneurs to take steps to up-end any damage that could happen as a result of a recession.
The secret to weathering a particularly nasty economy is to diversify your customer base, free up cash flow and cut costs where you can. Here are some steps for recession-proofing your business: If three employees are doing the job of one, you may need to make job cuts. Additionally, if you have two product lines and one is successful while the other one isn’t, consider selling off that division. When times are tough, it’s best to focus on core markets and spend money in those areas, not in areas that haven’t been more profitable.
Even though some may consider our current economic situation to be likened to The Great Depression, these online tactic can help. Some internet marketers probably wouldn’t even know there was a recession occurring.
WordPress is the most visible of the CMS’ “Content Management Systems” and performs to a SEO dream. Since WordPress 2.5, things have changed markedly.
Since version 2.5 there’s been a wealth of feature expansion in the core application, the availability of plugins, expanding core functionality, and the advent of professionally designed Themes that have taken WordPress to new heights. All of this has allowed WordPress to blossom into a fully-matured CMS with exceptional Search Engine Optimization features.
Here are 10 of the most prominent among the many opportunities to achieve this individualizing your pages:
The absolute best way I have found to make affiliate sales is to publish a review or recommendation specifically about that product or service.
Think about it – when you visit a web page, you are usually there for one of two reasons. You are either interested in the content on that page (the topic), or interested in the author of that page. Either way, your attention is usually focused on the main content area.
Landing Pages Don’t Need To Be Hard
posted by Luigi_M_Scollo @ 11:39 PM
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Landing pages are critical to converting clicks into leads. From the prospect’s perspective, clicking on your link is easy and doesn’t cost (them) anything. In contrast, converting and becoming a lead requires them to invest their time and energy to understand your offer and fill out your form, not to mention risk unwanted marketing since you require they share their contact information.
There are no tricks here, just a bit of work and some time. So let’s get started by reading the following list of SEO Techniques!
1. Domain & File Names: Choose your site domain name that contains words from your primary keyword phrase.
2. Keyword Phrases: Use keywords that are being searched for.
Still feeling a little frustrated getting started on E-Bay? Don’t feel too bad, recent changes like “Detailed Seller Ratings (DSR)” and “discounts for sellers,” have made it challenging for even the experienced sellers.
To some, the changes didn’t sound like anything to be concerned about, but some saw through the plan and noticed other phrases in there, like “removal of bad feedback for buyers” and saw the potential for smaller businesses to be shut out. This is a notion we are seeing proven accurate months later.
When you are looking to get better traffic from the local community, make sure they can find you easily. What businesses need to do to ensure their customers are finding them easily, is still to make sure they are listed in these local search results. For Google Maps, follow the following steps:
Today, I`m going to give you IRRESISTIBLE EMAIL SUBJECT LINES that have proven their ability to grab attention, and then transform attention into interest, and interest into desire.
You can copy some of them exactly and use others as
templates for your email marketing campaigns. If you`re
feel extra creative, you can use these tested subject lines to light the fire under of your email marketing campaigns.
Here are 8 points you NEED to know to have success in emailing campaigns.
Point 1, Know your audience
Before you sit down to write your email sales letter, you`ve got to determine exactly who your audience is. This is a
master key to getting results from email marketing, knowing what appeals to your target market.
Point 2, Get the emails opened with great subject lines
Before an email can generate results, recipients need to open it. But what can you do to spark their interest and get their interest “motor” revved up? The SUBJECT LINE.
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