by: Gerrick W
What is a landing page
It's the page your website visitor arrived at after clicking a link. The link could be on any page on your website or pay per click advertising or banner ads or keyword search.
The goal of landing page is to cause your visitors to take definite action. You don't want your visitors to leave until you get them to do what you want them to do. To click on the buy button, to sign up for an affiliate program, to download a free ebook or software, to sign up for a course, or to subscribe to your free newsletter.
The landing page is a direct marketing copy. Your visitors landed here through a link on your webpage, an ad, a keyword search, pay per click advertising, banner ads, and now you want to convert them.
Here are some tips to design a good landing page...
1. Content Relevance
Your landing page content must be relevant to what people were looking for when they applied the click through. The closer the match is the higher the chances of conversion.
2. Be Concise
Net writing is different than offline writing. Generally, when people surf the Internet they give short attention span to what they are reading. So be concise. When visitors arrive at your landing page they are already predisposed to buy, or they want to get more information of your product or service. By all means give them information but be concise. Don't use more than three sentences to communicate a point. Think through and concise what you want to say. Use bulleted list to communicate the benefits of your product or service.
3. Get straight to the point
The landing page is a highly customized marketing copy for your product or service or affiliate product or service. Don't distract your visitors with advertisements, links to other web pages. Don't let your visitors wade through a whole bunch of hosh posh before they get to want they want.
4. Focus
Dedicate one landing page to only one product or service. Don't try to promote multiple products (unless they are of the same product group)or services on one page. Create separate landing pages and campaigns if you have multiple products or services to promote. Focus on one product or one product group on each landing page.
5. Be Factual
Use facts and figures instead of generalities.
General: Prices Reduced
Factual: Prices Reduced by 20 percent
6. Clear Call to Action
Tell your visitors what you want them to do. Buy now, click here to download, fill in name and email address to subscribe or whatever. Keep all call to action text in bold.
7. Readable Text
Sure, there's nothing much to look at a page with white background and black fonts. But it's definitely easier to read the text than a red background with black fonts. Remember, it's the words that sell. Your website visitors must be able to read your text with ease.
8. Navigation Links
Not at all, if you could help it. The only link you want your website visitors to click on your landing page is the call to action link.
9. Graphics and Images
Keep visual effects to a minimum unless you are running an online audio or video business, real estate business, or selling holiday destinations. Keep in mind that for direct marketing it's the words that sell. Graphics and images serve only to enhance your text communication, not cloud it.
10. Grammatical and Spelling Errors
Check through your text and correct all grammatical and spelling errors. Otherwise it gives your website visitors a negative impression of you and the company you represent. Once visitors have a negative impression, it becomes difficult to convince them of the product or service that you are promoting. First impression counts a lot.
11. Make it personal
Make it personal to connect with your visitors. Use a lot of You and Your in your text.
12. Make your text clear and simple to understand
Avoid colloquialism or jargons. Use terms and phrases that people readily understood. Use short sentences, and phrase them in the active voice.
A good landing page will always sport good conversion rate as compared to a poor one. Take the time to think and rethink, work and rework your landing pages. Don't make the mistake of just optimizing for the search engines. You need to optimize your landing pages for humans too. Ultimately, it is humans that give you the sales.
Gerrick W – mailto:gw@1stinternetmarketingsolution.com
Information and Software Tools You Need to Effectively Promote Your Online Business.
Visit: http://www.1stinternetmarketingsolution.com
You may freely distribute this article or post it on your website. We only ask that the author’s resource box be kept intact and no changes to content be made.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
PPC Management Starts with A Great Keyword List
by: Darren Yates
Your keyword lists are the root of a good PPC campaign. You should properly research and source quality keywords. Create a good long list. Go deep and go wide, by this I mean investigate every avenue and every avenue off every avenue etc.
Here's a quick example of how to expand your lists by investigating related avenues. In this example I'll use mortgage as the base keyword.
Mortgage is a very competitive keyword on the Net simply because the commissions are so high. So how do you break into the market without paying over the odds?
Create your first list and think of different ways your prospect could interpret mortgage e.g. buy house, bad credit mortgage, best loan, house purchase finance, no status loan, home finance, etc. This really is only slightly removed from the base keyword, you should dig deeper still.
Next try expanding into types of mortgage – flexible, interest only etc. take these and mix them up with your first list, as you do this you’ll find avenues of keyword groups present themselves from single keywords e.g. interest only house loan, flexible home finance etc.
You could create an Ad group focused entirely on mortgage company names take that further still and add a .com to the name or a co.uk or your own country extension e.g. www.somemortgagecompany.com.au It doesn’t matter if this domain doesn’t exist, people type things like this into a search engine so it’s possible you can pick up low cost traffic with these keywords.
Avoid the general keywords and dig a little deeper to expand on related terms or, here’s a good one, rephrase those terms e.g. turn cheap mortgage around and use mortgage cheap too. Put yourself in your prospects shoes. What would they search for? How would they type it into Google? People don't always type a search phrase in a logical order.
For some quick avenues to explore check out these keyword goldmines –
Plurals, domain names, serial numbers, product numbers, spelling errors, no spaces between the phrase words e.g. buywidget. Add .com or .net or .info etc, company names, company domain names, domain names and variations e.g. mydomain.com www.mydomain etc. Add superlatives e.g. best, cheap, cheapest, best buy. Competition site names, foreign words, US or UK spelling, product names, typo’s, hyphens instead of spaces.
Be sure to separate out all these keywords in to different lists. You should be setting up different Ad groups for each. It's important to not just drop them all into one campaign together. Instead place all the typos in one Ad group all the plurals in another and so on. This will make for easietr targeting of your ad writing depending on your Ad groups keywords. Plus tracking results will be simpler.
Another great source for keywords are your site Log files trhey'll tell you exactly what keyphrase has been used to find your site by a visitor.
Search for your main keywords on the search engines and see what related terms pop up. Check the meta tags on your competitors site. Check the copy on your competitors site.
Do you see were this is going. I trust that gives you an idea of the power of going deep and wide on your keyword list building. Remember this is the first building block on which to lay down your PPC management.
Darren Yates is the creator of PPC Accelerator the shortcut to finding highly searched keywords and editing, formating and managing them in one place fast. Get your ppc mangement of to the best possible start. Watch the video demonstration - www.ppcaccelerator.com.
This article comes with reprint rights. You are free to reprint and distribute it as you like. All that we ask is that you do not make any changes, that this resource text is include, and that the link above is intact.
Your keyword lists are the root of a good PPC campaign. You should properly research and source quality keywords. Create a good long list. Go deep and go wide, by this I mean investigate every avenue and every avenue off every avenue etc.
Here's a quick example of how to expand your lists by investigating related avenues. In this example I'll use mortgage as the base keyword.
Mortgage is a very competitive keyword on the Net simply because the commissions are so high. So how do you break into the market without paying over the odds?
Create your first list and think of different ways your prospect could interpret mortgage e.g. buy house, bad credit mortgage, best loan, house purchase finance, no status loan, home finance, etc. This really is only slightly removed from the base keyword, you should dig deeper still.
Next try expanding into types of mortgage – flexible, interest only etc. take these and mix them up with your first list, as you do this you’ll find avenues of keyword groups present themselves from single keywords e.g. interest only house loan, flexible home finance etc.
You could create an Ad group focused entirely on mortgage company names take that further still and add a .com to the name or a co.uk or your own country extension e.g. www.somemortgagecompany.com.au It doesn’t matter if this domain doesn’t exist, people type things like this into a search engine so it’s possible you can pick up low cost traffic with these keywords.
Avoid the general keywords and dig a little deeper to expand on related terms or, here’s a good one, rephrase those terms e.g. turn cheap mortgage around and use mortgage cheap too. Put yourself in your prospects shoes. What would they search for? How would they type it into Google? People don't always type a search phrase in a logical order.
For some quick avenues to explore check out these keyword goldmines –
Plurals, domain names, serial numbers, product numbers, spelling errors, no spaces between the phrase words e.g. buywidget. Add .com or .net or .info etc, company names, company domain names, domain names and variations e.g. mydomain.com www.mydomain etc. Add superlatives e.g. best, cheap, cheapest, best buy. Competition site names, foreign words, US or UK spelling, product names, typo’s, hyphens instead of spaces.
Be sure to separate out all these keywords in to different lists. You should be setting up different Ad groups for each. It's important to not just drop them all into one campaign together. Instead place all the typos in one Ad group all the plurals in another and so on. This will make for easietr targeting of your ad writing depending on your Ad groups keywords. Plus tracking results will be simpler.
Another great source for keywords are your site Log files trhey'll tell you exactly what keyphrase has been used to find your site by a visitor.
Search for your main keywords on the search engines and see what related terms pop up. Check the meta tags on your competitors site. Check the copy on your competitors site.
Do you see were this is going. I trust that gives you an idea of the power of going deep and wide on your keyword list building. Remember this is the first building block on which to lay down your PPC management.
Darren Yates is the creator of PPC Accelerator the shortcut to finding highly searched keywords and editing, formating and managing them in one place fast. Get your ppc mangement of to the best possible start. Watch the video demonstration - www.ppcaccelerator.com.
This article comes with reprint rights. You are free to reprint and distribute it as you like. All that we ask is that you do not make any changes, that this resource text is include, and that the link above is intact.
Create Buzz for Your Business via a Contest!
by: Anthony Jewell
A very easy way to get more people to your site and also more interested in what you offer is to start your own online contest. It is something that is very easy to do. You probably can even get other companies to become sponsors in return for posting their logo and link to their website on your contest page. This will also help you bring in more viewers but if you get sponsors you will now have a wider selection of prizes to offer. Also see if the sponsor will post the contest link on their site as well.
It is actually an interesting thing that many other sites don't do it. Not only is it a good way to increase the amount of visitors to your website but it also rewards people for coming to your website. Running multiple contests every so often will keep visitors interested and coming back to visit your website to see if there are any new contests going on. It can help build your whole site up or specific part like your forum.
Not only will people come back to your site but after they enter into the contest they will tell other people about it so that they can enter as well. Then those people tell their friends and then they tell their friends and so on. So you can see how it can spread out. Also while visiting your website to enter the contest they will browse around to see what you are offering. This can lead to increased sales as well as an increase in the number of people who sign up on your forum and newsletter.
Prizes can range from cash prizes or to virtual products such as software, web design packages or web hosting packages. When you start your contest be sure to set a cut off date for entries, limit number of entries allowed and when the draw date will help. Have them either email you with a certain line in the subject header or enter via web form online. Then take all of the names and set them up so you can draw randomly(such as putting them in a hat). Then choose what prize you are drawing for and pull out a name.
So as you can see the benefits of a contest are not only for your site but for your visitors too. They will love you for it and will keep coming back for more. Plus it is easy and fun to do, so why not!
Anthony Jewell has over 6 Years experience in the Web & Graphics World. You can visit my business at http://www.logo2d.com
©Copyright 2005 Logo2D.com : Feel free to use this article freely but please keep in the copyright
A very easy way to get more people to your site and also more interested in what you offer is to start your own online contest. It is something that is very easy to do. You probably can even get other companies to become sponsors in return for posting their logo and link to their website on your contest page. This will also help you bring in more viewers but if you get sponsors you will now have a wider selection of prizes to offer. Also see if the sponsor will post the contest link on their site as well.
It is actually an interesting thing that many other sites don't do it. Not only is it a good way to increase the amount of visitors to your website but it also rewards people for coming to your website. Running multiple contests every so often will keep visitors interested and coming back to visit your website to see if there are any new contests going on. It can help build your whole site up or specific part like your forum.
Not only will people come back to your site but after they enter into the contest they will tell other people about it so that they can enter as well. Then those people tell their friends and then they tell their friends and so on. So you can see how it can spread out. Also while visiting your website to enter the contest they will browse around to see what you are offering. This can lead to increased sales as well as an increase in the number of people who sign up on your forum and newsletter.
Prizes can range from cash prizes or to virtual products such as software, web design packages or web hosting packages. When you start your contest be sure to set a cut off date for entries, limit number of entries allowed and when the draw date will help. Have them either email you with a certain line in the subject header or enter via web form online. Then take all of the names and set them up so you can draw randomly(such as putting them in a hat). Then choose what prize you are drawing for and pull out a name.
So as you can see the benefits of a contest are not only for your site but for your visitors too. They will love you for it and will keep coming back for more. Plus it is easy and fun to do, so why not!
Anthony Jewell has over 6 Years experience in the Web & Graphics World. You can visit my business at http://www.logo2d.com
©Copyright 2005 Logo2D.com : Feel free to use this article freely but please keep in the copyright
How to Select a Search Engine Optimization Company
by: Tom Bishop
A Search engine optimization company works on watching and optimizing the position of your search engine results. They can be a great asset to your company by providing their knowledge and expertise in this area. Before you hire a company, it's crucial to know what to look for.
One factor is the company's way of raising the popularity of your search engines. Any company that uses cloaked, doorway or bridge pages should not be used. This could lead to your website being removed from the index, or at least harshly fined as it greatly goes against most policies. A cloaked page is what it sounds like - a hidden page that comes up when a search engine spider finds it. A search engine spider is a program that detects and indexes pages on a search engine. If it finds the information it is looking for - legitimately or illegitimately - the pages ratings are boosted. Doorway and bridge pages are similar, but they are usually on a different server that sends visitors to one page and the spider to another.
Doorway or bridge pages are similar, but are found on a separate server. A cloaked page is one that is hidden from visitors to your site, and will recognize a search engine spider - a program that recognizes and indexes web pages. The spider goes to the hidden page, reading the information it needs and then falsely raising the position of the search engine. Companies like Google - one of the biggest search engines there is - removes any website from its index if they find out that cloaked pages are being used.
You need a written guarantee that the company will not work with other competitors, as occasionally some will sell their services to others based on the effectiveness of your optimization. This will only undermine the success of your campaign.
The most important thing to consider is the company's past. Check into their answers to verify their results. Get specific - which search engines have they optimized effectively? Get a report from previous clients. It should show good search engine positions on popular search engines with a variety of keywords. Another place to check is www.searchenginewatch.com/article.php/2156451. This rates the effectiveness of keywords on search engines, which is useful because the popularity can change depending on where you look on the Internet.
Let's face it - money is always a consideration. In this case it looking for a bargain shouldn't be the reason you choose a company. If your company doesn't have the funds, you should give it some time. It can sometimes be possible to find a more affordable company by looking at newer businesses, but get references from them too! Don't assume that it will be okay and jump in.
Contact any references you are given, and don't take on any company that makes an excuse about giving them out. Think of some questions ahead of time, and ask the previous clients about their reliability, dealings and overall experience. You can even ask about the changes they were advised to make to the site, and if these affected visitors to the site or profitability of the company. Remember - this is an integral part of your business, and choosing a company that's going to raise your search engine status and ultimately your profits is an important decision.
Keywords: selecting a search engine optimization company, marketing campaign, keywords, cloaking, doorway pages, bridge pages.
Article by Tom Bishop of Web Traffic Blaze. Your source for highly qualified low cost internet leads. Full details here: http://www.webtrafficblaze.com/
A Search engine optimization company works on watching and optimizing the position of your search engine results. They can be a great asset to your company by providing their knowledge and expertise in this area. Before you hire a company, it's crucial to know what to look for.
One factor is the company's way of raising the popularity of your search engines. Any company that uses cloaked, doorway or bridge pages should not be used. This could lead to your website being removed from the index, or at least harshly fined as it greatly goes against most policies. A cloaked page is what it sounds like - a hidden page that comes up when a search engine spider finds it. A search engine spider is a program that detects and indexes pages on a search engine. If it finds the information it is looking for - legitimately or illegitimately - the pages ratings are boosted. Doorway and bridge pages are similar, but they are usually on a different server that sends visitors to one page and the spider to another.
Doorway or bridge pages are similar, but are found on a separate server. A cloaked page is one that is hidden from visitors to your site, and will recognize a search engine spider - a program that recognizes and indexes web pages. The spider goes to the hidden page, reading the information it needs and then falsely raising the position of the search engine. Companies like Google - one of the biggest search engines there is - removes any website from its index if they find out that cloaked pages are being used.
You need a written guarantee that the company will not work with other competitors, as occasionally some will sell their services to others based on the effectiveness of your optimization. This will only undermine the success of your campaign.
The most important thing to consider is the company's past. Check into their answers to verify their results. Get specific - which search engines have they optimized effectively? Get a report from previous clients. It should show good search engine positions on popular search engines with a variety of keywords. Another place to check is www.searchenginewatch.com/article.php/2156451. This rates the effectiveness of keywords on search engines, which is useful because the popularity can change depending on where you look on the Internet.
Let's face it - money is always a consideration. In this case it looking for a bargain shouldn't be the reason you choose a company. If your company doesn't have the funds, you should give it some time. It can sometimes be possible to find a more affordable company by looking at newer businesses, but get references from them too! Don't assume that it will be okay and jump in.
Contact any references you are given, and don't take on any company that makes an excuse about giving them out. Think of some questions ahead of time, and ask the previous clients about their reliability, dealings and overall experience. You can even ask about the changes they were advised to make to the site, and if these affected visitors to the site or profitability of the company. Remember - this is an integral part of your business, and choosing a company that's going to raise your search engine status and ultimately your profits is an important decision.
Keywords: selecting a search engine optimization company, marketing campaign, keywords, cloaking, doorway pages, bridge pages.
Article by Tom Bishop of Web Traffic Blaze. Your source for highly qualified low cost internet leads. Full details here: http://www.webtrafficblaze.com/
Building An Explosive Mailing List
by: Joe Terceira
Building a mailing list is essential to any business regardless of how they operate. Both online and offline businesses strive to grow there customer lists as big as possible. You see, when you have a list you can easily sell new products all the time. It's as easy as sending out an email blast and just like that, you have potentially earned hundreds even thousands of dollars overnight.
But building a customer list takes a lot of work and persistence. It is not something that can be done overnight and sometimes takes even years. I have been operating an online business for over 3 years and just had my online email list reach 100,000 people. My offline list is in excess of over 2 million but once again that took me over 10 years to grow.
You also need a proven system or marketing plan that you can use to grow your lists. I spent 1 year setting up a system that now brings in over 10,000 new emails addresses every month. There are many other ways as well. You can host a FFA, join a free viral program, start a newsletter or ezine, give out a free ebook/free report, or even spend money for lists. The key is having a auto-responder or group mailer that has a easy import and unsubscribe feature. You should set this up with all your marketing tools this way your efforts aren't wasted.
Let me explain the ways above which are only a few methods out of thousands that you can use:
1) Hosting An FFA
FFA stands for Free For All. It is normally a links page where other business people post there websites in hopes of getting free advertising for there products or programs. I'm sure you have tried this as well. This has been proven time and time again to be a waste of time. The only guarantee you get is that your email box will be full of sales messages from the owners of these FFA's. That is the key. You need to own an FFA in order to see results and grow your lists. Every time someone posts there link to your FFA, they automatically receive your pre-written sales messages to the email address they provide. This is what we call reverse marketing and it is responsible for millions and millions of dollars, of products and services sold on the internet today. There are a few companies out there that you can join that allows you to send your messages to around 50,000 people a month. Just do a search!
2) Viral Program
A viral program is a marketing tool that encourages people to pass along a marketing message to as many people as possible. The definition of viral marketing is promoting information or products that other people are compelled to give to other friends, colleagues and family. By definition viral marketing is a way to promote a service or product successfully. When done effectively one person will pass it on to several people who in turn will pass it on to several other people. This is what makes viral marketing so effective. For example, let me use an e-book that I wrote. If I forward that e-book to 10 people, who in turn forwarded that e-book to another 10 people. One hundred people have read that e-book. Now if it's forwarded that same way just four more times ONE MILLION PEOPLE have now read that same e-book. There are millions of viral programs out there that can really help you in growing your lists.
3) Newsletter/Ezine
Starting a newsletter or ezine is a great idea as well. The only problem is you need good quality material to send to your clients. You need free tools, articles, reports, e-books, and anything else you can find that really promotes others to join your lists for free. If people feel like you can supply them with great quality material, they will join your lists guaranteed. You can also run feature articles on some of your members and there businesses this way they feel like they are getting free advertising. With an ezine, once you grow it big enough and establish a good relationship with your clients, you can even charge to run solo ads. This is another source of revenue. Some people make a living on the internet just operating there ezines. Takes a lot of work but well worth it!
4) Free E-book or Report
This is a fantastic way to grow your lists. By giving away something that's free that everyone has use for, you almost instantly ensure your success in growing your lists. There are hundreds of thousands of e-books and reports you can give out for free to all your website visitors in order to get them into your lists. This has been proven to be an incredible marketing tool and will consistently bring you new clients in the thousands every week. I have created an amazing report that you can use for free if you decide to. You can get more information below! Make sure you have this method integrated into all your marketing and advertising efforts.!
5) Spending money to buy lists is the easiest method but it can prove to be very costly. And being the easiest doesn't necessarily guarantee results either. I wouldn't advise this method only because there are so many ways you can build a huge list even for free. If you become that desperate I guess you can try this method. I have gotten mixed reactions from people I have spoken to about this method. Some people it works for and others it doesn't. So you assume all the risk if you decide to go this route!
Once again, the most important aspect to your business like any other business is growing a list. This is vital to your success both short and long term. Make sure your efforts revolve around this at all times. You don't want to lose any potential future customers.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this article. Hopefully you use this information to your advantage.
Publishing Permission Statement:
This article may be freely published in your newsletter, ezine, magazine, website, or in your e-Book, so long as you keep my byline and resource box intact with a clickable link back to http://www.freewebs.com/ferrari669/index.htm
Joe Terceira is the creator of "Secrets To Creating Wealth On The Internet" http://www.freewebs.com/ferrari669/index.htm.
It is a free Report designed to help all internet business people with there marketing, promotion, and advertising efforts online. "Secrets To Creating Wealth On The Internet" provides valuable information and techniques on how to generate over 1,000,000 website visitors and earn over $20,000/month while doing it all for free. You can also give the Report away for free to generate massive website visitors. Visit the website to get your free copy!
Building a mailing list is essential to any business regardless of how they operate. Both online and offline businesses strive to grow there customer lists as big as possible. You see, when you have a list you can easily sell new products all the time. It's as easy as sending out an email blast and just like that, you have potentially earned hundreds even thousands of dollars overnight.
But building a customer list takes a lot of work and persistence. It is not something that can be done overnight and sometimes takes even years. I have been operating an online business for over 3 years and just had my online email list reach 100,000 people. My offline list is in excess of over 2 million but once again that took me over 10 years to grow.
You also need a proven system or marketing plan that you can use to grow your lists. I spent 1 year setting up a system that now brings in over 10,000 new emails addresses every month. There are many other ways as well. You can host a FFA, join a free viral program, start a newsletter or ezine, give out a free ebook/free report, or even spend money for lists. The key is having a auto-responder or group mailer that has a easy import and unsubscribe feature. You should set this up with all your marketing tools this way your efforts aren't wasted.
Let me explain the ways above which are only a few methods out of thousands that you can use:
1) Hosting An FFA
FFA stands for Free For All. It is normally a links page where other business people post there websites in hopes of getting free advertising for there products or programs. I'm sure you have tried this as well. This has been proven time and time again to be a waste of time. The only guarantee you get is that your email box will be full of sales messages from the owners of these FFA's. That is the key. You need to own an FFA in order to see results and grow your lists. Every time someone posts there link to your FFA, they automatically receive your pre-written sales messages to the email address they provide. This is what we call reverse marketing and it is responsible for millions and millions of dollars, of products and services sold on the internet today. There are a few companies out there that you can join that allows you to send your messages to around 50,000 people a month. Just do a search!
2) Viral Program
A viral program is a marketing tool that encourages people to pass along a marketing message to as many people as possible. The definition of viral marketing is promoting information or products that other people are compelled to give to other friends, colleagues and family. By definition viral marketing is a way to promote a service or product successfully. When done effectively one person will pass it on to several people who in turn will pass it on to several other people. This is what makes viral marketing so effective. For example, let me use an e-book that I wrote. If I forward that e-book to 10 people, who in turn forwarded that e-book to another 10 people. One hundred people have read that e-book. Now if it's forwarded that same way just four more times ONE MILLION PEOPLE have now read that same e-book. There are millions of viral programs out there that can really help you in growing your lists.
3) Newsletter/Ezine
Starting a newsletter or ezine is a great idea as well. The only problem is you need good quality material to send to your clients. You need free tools, articles, reports, e-books, and anything else you can find that really promotes others to join your lists for free. If people feel like you can supply them with great quality material, they will join your lists guaranteed. You can also run feature articles on some of your members and there businesses this way they feel like they are getting free advertising. With an ezine, once you grow it big enough and establish a good relationship with your clients, you can even charge to run solo ads. This is another source of revenue. Some people make a living on the internet just operating there ezines. Takes a lot of work but well worth it!
4) Free E-book or Report
This is a fantastic way to grow your lists. By giving away something that's free that everyone has use for, you almost instantly ensure your success in growing your lists. There are hundreds of thousands of e-books and reports you can give out for free to all your website visitors in order to get them into your lists. This has been proven to be an incredible marketing tool and will consistently bring you new clients in the thousands every week. I have created an amazing report that you can use for free if you decide to. You can get more information below! Make sure you have this method integrated into all your marketing and advertising efforts.!
5) Spending money to buy lists is the easiest method but it can prove to be very costly. And being the easiest doesn't necessarily guarantee results either. I wouldn't advise this method only because there are so many ways you can build a huge list even for free. If you become that desperate I guess you can try this method. I have gotten mixed reactions from people I have spoken to about this method. Some people it works for and others it doesn't. So you assume all the risk if you decide to go this route!
Once again, the most important aspect to your business like any other business is growing a list. This is vital to your success both short and long term. Make sure your efforts revolve around this at all times. You don't want to lose any potential future customers.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this article. Hopefully you use this information to your advantage.
Publishing Permission Statement:
This article may be freely published in your newsletter, ezine, magazine, website, or in your e-Book, so long as you keep my byline and resource box intact with a clickable link back to http://www.freewebs.com/ferrari669/index.htm
Joe Terceira is the creator of "Secrets To Creating Wealth On The Internet" http://www.freewebs.com/ferrari669/index.htm.
It is a free Report designed to help all internet business people with there marketing, promotion, and advertising efforts online. "Secrets To Creating Wealth On The Internet" provides valuable information and techniques on how to generate over 1,000,000 website visitors and earn over $20,000/month while doing it all for free. You can also give the Report away for free to generate massive website visitors. Visit the website to get your free copy!
Resource Box Rules: Winning Tactics
by: Beth Scott
Let's face it people use articles to send traffic to their websites. But if their resource box is lousy and not worded right they will get minimal, if any traffic. Thats a fact.
“So,” you ask, “what kind of resource box do I need?”
You need a resource box that is attention grabbing, heart stopping, world jolting.... Okay, so maybe thats a wee bit of an exaggeration!
What you really need is a resource box that is short and snappy that asks or tells your prospective customer to take action.
You shouldn’t make your resource box (also called an Author’s Bio, About The Author, etc...) very long. You don’t want to bore your reader with all the details of your writing career.
Sorry to sound so harsh but on the internet people want to be entertained and enlightened. They will only read what interests them.
If your article is informative and page scrolling (as opposed to page turning) then you will get a lot of people to read it, but if you lose them at the start or halfway through your resource box, you won’t be able to convert them into traffic or buyers. Why??
Simply because they will never reach any link you provide them with, they will close the page and go on to read a different article.
You can’t afford to let this happen!
So here's what you do about it. You keep your resource box at a maximum of 5 lines long. You tell them to visit your site for more information on that subject or to opt in for their free newsletter or report.
You give them an action to take. Because as surely as you aren’t specific about what it is that you want them to do next, they definitely won’t do what you want them to.
So unless your resource box grabs them with the same intensity as your article you can kiss those prospective buyers goodbye!
Another common mistake made by newbie writers is to not make their website link an active one. This can happen when you just type www.mysite.com, instead of putting http://www.mysite.com, or whatever the full address is.
In most cases people are not going to bother to take the time to copy and paste an inactive link to visit your site.
So again make sure as much as you can that your link is working. It’s true that some article databases don’t provide this feature, but the majority of the article databases do.
Try going to the article site you posted your article on, as a browser instead of logging into your writer’s account. Find your article and test the link in your resource box to see if it works.
In conclusion I guess the best way to show you what I mean is to give an example. So be sure to read my resource box below ;-)
Beth Scott
For the best way to profit online and drive targeted cash-in-hand traffic to your website using articles go to http://apt-publishing.org/ArticleAnnouncer/. This method works like crazy! You’re reading this aren’t you?
BethScott@htcomp.net
Let's face it people use articles to send traffic to their websites. But if their resource box is lousy and not worded right they will get minimal, if any traffic. Thats a fact.
“So,” you ask, “what kind of resource box do I need?”
You need a resource box that is attention grabbing, heart stopping, world jolting.... Okay, so maybe thats a wee bit of an exaggeration!
What you really need is a resource box that is short and snappy that asks or tells your prospective customer to take action.
You shouldn’t make your resource box (also called an Author’s Bio, About The Author, etc...) very long. You don’t want to bore your reader with all the details of your writing career.
Sorry to sound so harsh but on the internet people want to be entertained and enlightened. They will only read what interests them.
If your article is informative and page scrolling (as opposed to page turning) then you will get a lot of people to read it, but if you lose them at the start or halfway through your resource box, you won’t be able to convert them into traffic or buyers. Why??
Simply because they will never reach any link you provide them with, they will close the page and go on to read a different article.
You can’t afford to let this happen!
So here's what you do about it. You keep your resource box at a maximum of 5 lines long. You tell them to visit your site for more information on that subject or to opt in for their free newsletter or report.
You give them an action to take. Because as surely as you aren’t specific about what it is that you want them to do next, they definitely won’t do what you want them to.
So unless your resource box grabs them with the same intensity as your article you can kiss those prospective buyers goodbye!
Another common mistake made by newbie writers is to not make their website link an active one. This can happen when you just type www.mysite.com, instead of putting http://www.mysite.com, or whatever the full address is.
In most cases people are not going to bother to take the time to copy and paste an inactive link to visit your site.
So again make sure as much as you can that your link is working. It’s true that some article databases don’t provide this feature, but the majority of the article databases do.
Try going to the article site you posted your article on, as a browser instead of logging into your writer’s account. Find your article and test the link in your resource box to see if it works.
In conclusion I guess the best way to show you what I mean is to give an example. So be sure to read my resource box below ;-)
Beth Scott
For the best way to profit online and drive targeted cash-in-hand traffic to your website using articles go to http://apt-publishing.org/ArticleAnnouncer/. This method works like crazy! You’re reading this aren’t you?
BethScott@htcomp.net
10 Things You Can Do To Sell (A Lot Of) Ads On Your Website
by: Andrew Wroblewski
Here are (10) easy to implement ideas to increase ad sales on your website:
1. Offer discounts to advertisers who spend more money or purchase a larger volume of ads.
2. Offer your advertisers a free incentive or bonus if they renew their ads. It might be something like "purchase 11 months
and get the 12th free. You could also offer them a copy of a product you might be selling if they renew their current contract term.
3. You just don't have to sell add space at the top or bottom of your pages or even in the left/right hand columns, you can sell space right smack dab in the middle of the page and have your page text "wrap around" the ad.
4. You can sell a lot more ads if you re-write some of the content of your pages to reference their particular product.
5. Offer potential ad customers free or additional listings on other parts of your site when they purchase regular ad space.
6. You can offer an honest endorsement of your advertisers product, if they would be willing to supply you a copy to try out.
7. In addition to #6, offer to place your personal review or testimonial near their advertisement. This always acts like a magnet to draw visitors to the actual ad.
8. Dust off the P.T. Barnum in you and try offer special deals like "pay for two months upfront and get a third month at no charge" or "buy one get one free" or something similar to that. Use you creative mind!
9. If you website sells products that would be of interest to your potential advertisers, offer them (your product) as "signing" bonuses for signing on as an advertiser on your site.
10. Give advertisers your personal guarantee that if they don't receive a certain amount of exposures, clicks etc., that you will give them another months worth of ad space for free.
When not on his soapbox, Andrew Wroblewski is doing battle with the thousands of spyware programs that can affect you via his ant-spyware and spyware removal website: http://spyware.pcwash.com where you can get a free spyware scan of your computer system.
Here are (10) easy to implement ideas to increase ad sales on your website:
1. Offer discounts to advertisers who spend more money or purchase a larger volume of ads.
2. Offer your advertisers a free incentive or bonus if they renew their ads. It might be something like "purchase 11 months
and get the 12th free. You could also offer them a copy of a product you might be selling if they renew their current contract term.
3. You just don't have to sell add space at the top or bottom of your pages or even in the left/right hand columns, you can sell space right smack dab in the middle of the page and have your page text "wrap around" the ad.
4. You can sell a lot more ads if you re-write some of the content of your pages to reference their particular product.
5. Offer potential ad customers free or additional listings on other parts of your site when they purchase regular ad space.
6. You can offer an honest endorsement of your advertisers product, if they would be willing to supply you a copy to try out.
7. In addition to #6, offer to place your personal review or testimonial near their advertisement. This always acts like a magnet to draw visitors to the actual ad.
8. Dust off the P.T. Barnum in you and try offer special deals like "pay for two months upfront and get a third month at no charge" or "buy one get one free" or something similar to that. Use you creative mind!
9. If you website sells products that would be of interest to your potential advertisers, offer them (your product) as "signing" bonuses for signing on as an advertiser on your site.
10. Give advertisers your personal guarantee that if they don't receive a certain amount of exposures, clicks etc., that you will give them another months worth of ad space for free.
When not on his soapbox, Andrew Wroblewski is doing battle with the thousands of spyware programs that can affect you via his ant-spyware and spyware removal website: http://spyware.pcwash.com where you can get a free spyware scan of your computer system.
10 Secret Ways Of Getting Your Website Listed on Google
by: William Nabaza
These ways of getting listed on google.com (tm) the quick and easy way are the fruits of my labor since I started way back in 1993 on the Internet. I should have sold these secrets to you and make a couple of bucks. But I value what God had said to me that if I give I will receive.. good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. So those are the terms when you use this article God will pay me for it.
So here are 10 secrets on how to get listed on google.com(tm). There's plenty of these secrets where they came from. http://www.nabaza.com/resources.htm
1. Visit http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ and add all your website sitemaps. Sitemap is like a building directory or content directory map of your website. In google sitemaps it works one directory at a time, without calling any outside urls other than your domain. You need to create separate sitemaps on each subdirectory, folder you have. Prioritize your root directory first. To be effective you need to have at least 100 .htm files on your root directory. Your sitemap must be in .xml (extended markup language)
2. Visit http://www.google.com/ig/ and add all your content, by clicking on "add content" on the top left. All content must be feeds in themselves and must be in .xml format too.
3. Visit http://www.google.com/addurl/ and add your url or websites addresses. Be sure it's a toplevel domain such as .COM, .NET, or .ORG If you're in a hurry I could sell to you U.S.$5.00 domain names, just go to http://domains.nabaza.net/ the process is all automatic it comes with webhosting paid separately.
4. Obtain a free orkut.com (tm) account. Orkut.com is free and can only be joined when you're invited by an already orkut member. Google.com (tm) scans and prioritizes contents coming from it's partner sites like in the case of orkut being it's partner when it comes to social networking community. Get a free invitation, all orkut.com needs is your first name, lastname and email address and email them to william@nabaza.com and I'll rush your free orkut.com invites. Once youre there and logged in, list your site and mention your urls as many times as relevant in your profiles and in your about area. Make friends invite as many as you can, to as many as 5 billion members and scribble in their scribble board and sign in their testimonials of all that you do pls bear in mind that you're not there to get a date but you're there on one mission to get listed so don't be sidetracked. Once you do scribbling and testimonial here and there always mention your url one liner will not hurt.
5. Obtain a gmail.com (tm) account. Like orkut.com (tm) it is free 2.8gb (at the time of writing) and it will benefit you most. You can only get this account when someone invites you in. So just give me your email address and email to william@nabaza.com and I'll rush in your gmail account invite. Once you're logged in there, add your urls in your email signature, to your profile and whenever you email add it to your subject, body and mention it as often as possible when you send your email. Google.com scans it's gmail.com email messages for content for proper delivery of adsense on it. Once it scans your url on it, it lists it.
6. Obtain a free blog account on www.blogger.com and your web address on it will be something like http://weblord.blogspot.com/ Once you're there mention your urls on your profile, your blog entries, whenever possible and modify the template on it and put in the urls near the comment box, so everytime you have an entry it will act like a email signature containing your urls. Describe your site's capabilities and also yours. YOu are selling yourself but not hard sell make it like you're telling an emotional story in the form of diary entries.
7. Obtain a yahoo.com account and login here http://my.yahoo.com make sure you add all your content in .xml format. If you have already an account on blogspot/blogger.com you will automatically have .xml format content, if for example your url there is http://nabaza.blogspot.com your .xml content will be http://nabaza.blogspot.com/atom.xml that's the one you submit to yahoo.com with your url on it of course. Usually google.com prioritizes contents from their partner sites, huge sites and yahoo.com is a huge site, so when it the googlebot (tm) (googles automated site crawler) sees your urls on yahoo.com it eats it and lists it. Make sure your profiles contains as many urls as relevant as you can list them, on the aboue me, on the hobbies, etc. http://profiles.yahoo.com/ and also when you're there upgrade for free your profiles on yahoo.com login here http://360.yahoo.com/ and enabled your profile should integrate with 360.yahoo.com. There you go you are now listed on yahoo.com, if the googlebot scans yahoo.com for contents and sees a new url on it, it eats it, and lists it on google.com
8. Visit google.com and make a search about "google" and take note of the search results there. As much as possible your creativity is needed here, among the results, try to get in touch with the webmasters and arrange for a link exchange or link trading system with them. Webmasters respond fast and they talk straight so be sure to study very well their site content before blurting it out with them.
9. Get a free googlegroups.com (tm) account and create as many mailing list or google groups that's relevant for your website. Make sure on the url or webaddress area of each googlegroup account you open you mention something about your site. This one's accepted: http://www.nabaza.com/freebies.htm but this one gets better listing Freebies I hope you getting the point
10. If your site is selling tangible products and you have set up your very own ecommerce payment system or are enjoying third party merchant account providers, you can list your site for free at http://www.froogle.com/ - ecommer shopping directory of google.com
If everything's work perfectly as planned, here's the result of your listing: william@nabaza.com" target=new>http://www.google.com.ph/search?q=nabaza&sourceid=william@nabaza.com
To send me an email, email it to william@nabaza.com and with Subject:"10 Secret Ways - Google" and that's how I respond the fastest. I can also do a free google seo consultation for free just once, to avail it, join here http://www.nabaza.com/w/pmsg.php and talk with me privately.
William Nabaza of http://www.Nabaza.com specializes in domains, webhosting, webmaster's tools, netpreneur's articles and resources. Stands out as a freebie provider, business opportunity provider and the like. Visit his site at http://www.nabaza.com or contact him directly at william@nabaza.com
http://www.nabaza.com/resources.htm - more articles here
These ways of getting listed on google.com (tm) the quick and easy way are the fruits of my labor since I started way back in 1993 on the Internet. I should have sold these secrets to you and make a couple of bucks. But I value what God had said to me that if I give I will receive.. good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. So those are the terms when you use this article God will pay me for it.
So here are 10 secrets on how to get listed on google.com(tm). There's plenty of these secrets where they came from. http://www.nabaza.com/resources.htm
1. Visit http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ and add all your website sitemaps. Sitemap is like a building directory or content directory map of your website. In google sitemaps it works one directory at a time, without calling any outside urls other than your domain. You need to create separate sitemaps on each subdirectory, folder you have. Prioritize your root directory first. To be effective you need to have at least 100 .htm files on your root directory. Your sitemap must be in .xml (extended markup language)
2. Visit http://www.google.com/ig/ and add all your content, by clicking on "add content" on the top left. All content must be feeds in themselves and must be in .xml format too.
3. Visit http://www.google.com/addurl/ and add your url or websites addresses. Be sure it's a toplevel domain such as .COM, .NET, or .ORG If you're in a hurry I could sell to you U.S.$5.00 domain names, just go to http://domains.nabaza.net/ the process is all automatic it comes with webhosting paid separately.
4. Obtain a free orkut.com (tm) account. Orkut.com is free and can only be joined when you're invited by an already orkut member. Google.com (tm) scans and prioritizes contents coming from it's partner sites like in the case of orkut being it's partner when it comes to social networking community. Get a free invitation, all orkut.com needs is your first name, lastname and email address and email them to william@nabaza.com and I'll rush your free orkut.com invites. Once youre there and logged in, list your site and mention your urls as many times as relevant in your profiles and in your about area. Make friends invite as many as you can, to as many as 5 billion members and scribble in their scribble board and sign in their testimonials of all that you do pls bear in mind that you're not there to get a date but you're there on one mission to get listed so don't be sidetracked. Once you do scribbling and testimonial here and there always mention your url one liner will not hurt.
5. Obtain a gmail.com (tm) account. Like orkut.com (tm) it is free 2.8gb (at the time of writing) and it will benefit you most. You can only get this account when someone invites you in. So just give me your email address and email to william@nabaza.com and I'll rush in your gmail account invite. Once you're logged in there, add your urls in your email signature, to your profile and whenever you email add it to your subject, body and mention it as often as possible when you send your email. Google.com scans it's gmail.com email messages for content for proper delivery of adsense on it. Once it scans your url on it, it lists it.
6. Obtain a free blog account on www.blogger.com and your web address on it will be something like http://weblord.blogspot.com/ Once you're there mention your urls on your profile, your blog entries, whenever possible and modify the template on it and put in the urls near the comment box, so everytime you have an entry it will act like a email signature containing your urls. Describe your site's capabilities and also yours. YOu are selling yourself but not hard sell make it like you're telling an emotional story in the form of diary entries.
7. Obtain a yahoo.com account and login here http://my.yahoo.com make sure you add all your content in .xml format. If you have already an account on blogspot/blogger.com you will automatically have .xml format content, if for example your url there is http://nabaza.blogspot.com your .xml content will be http://nabaza.blogspot.com/atom.xml that's the one you submit to yahoo.com with your url on it of course. Usually google.com prioritizes contents from their partner sites, huge sites and yahoo.com is a huge site, so when it the googlebot (tm) (googles automated site crawler) sees your urls on yahoo.com it eats it and lists it. Make sure your profiles contains as many urls as relevant as you can list them, on the aboue me, on the hobbies, etc. http://profiles.yahoo.com/ and also when you're there upgrade for free your profiles on yahoo.com login here http://360.yahoo.com/ and enabled your profile should integrate with 360.yahoo.com. There you go you are now listed on yahoo.com, if the googlebot scans yahoo.com for contents and sees a new url on it, it eats it, and lists it on google.com
8. Visit google.com and make a search about "google" and take note of the search results there. As much as possible your creativity is needed here, among the results, try to get in touch with the webmasters and arrange for a link exchange or link trading system with them. Webmasters respond fast and they talk straight so be sure to study very well their site content before blurting it out with them.
9. Get a free googlegroups.com (tm) account and create as many mailing list or google groups that's relevant for your website. Make sure on the url or webaddress area of each googlegroup account you open you mention something about your site. This one's accepted: http://www.nabaza.com/freebies.htm but this one gets better listing Freebies I hope you getting the point
10. If your site is selling tangible products and you have set up your very own ecommerce payment system or are enjoying third party merchant account providers, you can list your site for free at http://www.froogle.com/ - ecommer shopping directory of google.com
If everything's work perfectly as planned, here's the result of your listing: william@nabaza.com" target=new>http://www.google.com.ph/search?q=nabaza&sourceid=william@nabaza.com
To send me an email, email it to william@nabaza.com and with Subject:"10 Secret Ways - Google" and that's how I respond the fastest. I can also do a free google seo consultation for free just once, to avail it, join here http://www.nabaza.com/w/pmsg.php and talk with me privately.
William Nabaza of http://www.Nabaza.com specializes in domains, webhosting, webmaster's tools, netpreneur's articles and resources. Stands out as a freebie provider, business opportunity provider and the like. Visit his site at http://www.nabaza.com or contact him directly at william@nabaza.com
http://www.nabaza.com/resources.htm - more articles here
11 Reasons to Submit This Article to an Ezine
by: Hans Hasselfors
What's an article anyway, and why would I want to submit one to an ezine? That was a two-fold question and will require two answers.
An ezine article is usually composed of approximately 500 words on a single subject that would be of interest to your target market. At the end of the article, you should include a "resource box." This box should provide such things as your name, the name of your company, your web site address, email address, and a small blurb about your product/service.
Writing an article is not hard work. All it requires is some research and note taking. Use any of multiple sources to find information about the topic that you choose to write about. Then write your article in your own words using the notes that you took during your research. It's not difficult and it's something that you learned to do early in school (grade school probably). Write in a conversational tone. Write like you are talking to your best friend.
Now, I'll answer the second question. The reasons to submit this article to an ezine are varied, but not difficult to understand. They all boost your bottom line.
1. The submission of the article will help identify your business (web site) in the Internet marketplace. This is normally called "branding."
2. Article submission provides publicity, virtually free.
3. Someone may like your writing style and hire you to write articles or ebooks for them.
4. The published article will drive traffic to your web site.
5. If the publisher of the ezine that you submit your article to maintains an archive, your article may be read many months later. Traffic may still be driven to your site this way.
6. People will come to know you as an expert on your subject.
7. You might get your article published in free ebooks that are distributed all over the web. This will drive more traffic to your web site.
8. This will help you become a trusted vendor of information.
9. If you allow anyone to publish your article or email it to a friend, you will gain further exposure for free.
10. Webmasters may read your article and display it on their web site. You get additional free exposure.
11. If you send out an ezine, you could offer to swap articles with other ezine publishers for free. This provides more publicity without expense.
So, there are quite a few benefits that you could receive from publishing small articles like this one. If that isn't enough reasons for publishing your own articles, I don't know what else you'd need. Don't forget to provide enough valuable information. The more knowledge you supply, the more valuable you become. Provide real value and you will always have people clamoring for more.
This Article Was Published By Hans Hasselfors, from The Business Professional. Get the net working for you. Join a community of like-minded entrepreneurs and make your living online. Become a member of The Business Professional network: http://www.internet-marketing-experts-online.com.
What's an article anyway, and why would I want to submit one to an ezine? That was a two-fold question and will require two answers.
An ezine article is usually composed of approximately 500 words on a single subject that would be of interest to your target market. At the end of the article, you should include a "resource box." This box should provide such things as your name, the name of your company, your web site address, email address, and a small blurb about your product/service.
Writing an article is not hard work. All it requires is some research and note taking. Use any of multiple sources to find information about the topic that you choose to write about. Then write your article in your own words using the notes that you took during your research. It's not difficult and it's something that you learned to do early in school (grade school probably). Write in a conversational tone. Write like you are talking to your best friend.
Now, I'll answer the second question. The reasons to submit this article to an ezine are varied, but not difficult to understand. They all boost your bottom line.
1. The submission of the article will help identify your business (web site) in the Internet marketplace. This is normally called "branding."
2. Article submission provides publicity, virtually free.
3. Someone may like your writing style and hire you to write articles or ebooks for them.
4. The published article will drive traffic to your web site.
5. If the publisher of the ezine that you submit your article to maintains an archive, your article may be read many months later. Traffic may still be driven to your site this way.
6. People will come to know you as an expert on your subject.
7. You might get your article published in free ebooks that are distributed all over the web. This will drive more traffic to your web site.
8. This will help you become a trusted vendor of information.
9. If you allow anyone to publish your article or email it to a friend, you will gain further exposure for free.
10. Webmasters may read your article and display it on their web site. You get additional free exposure.
11. If you send out an ezine, you could offer to swap articles with other ezine publishers for free. This provides more publicity without expense.
So, there are quite a few benefits that you could receive from publishing small articles like this one. If that isn't enough reasons for publishing your own articles, I don't know what else you'd need. Don't forget to provide enough valuable information. The more knowledge you supply, the more valuable you become. Provide real value and you will always have people clamoring for more.
This Article Was Published By Hans Hasselfors, from The Business Professional. Get the net working for you. Join a community of like-minded entrepreneurs and make your living online. Become a member of The Business Professional network: http://www.internet-marketing-experts-online.com.
Future Search Opportunities
by: Rob Sullivan
Search, both organic and paid, continue to evolve and mature. No longer is it a matter of tweaking meta tags to get top listings. In many cases it can take months or years to achieve top positions in competitive keyphrase markets. However, there are some future considerations one must be aware of with search so that they can take advantage of them. This article outlines some of the future innovations I see coming.
Some of those innovations are right around the corner. In fact some sites are doing them now very well. I’m referring to feeds.
Feeds are ways of syndicating your content to the world. Rather than a visitor having to find your site through a search engine, you can syndicate your content through a feed search engine and have it served to searchers that way.
In fact, the site you are reading this article on has a feed. That way, rather than coming to this site on a daily basis to see what’s new, you can subscribe to the site’s feed and find out without even coming to the site.
There are many feed readers out there. My personal favorite is called Sage – it’s a FireFox browser extension that lets me download and scan my favorite feeds and only read the posts I find interesting.
I find feed reading is an exceptional time saver because I can visit dozens of sites via their feeds, and scan them all in about 1/10 of the time it would have taken me to go to the site and browse the new links.
Of course that means I have more time to subscribe to even more feeds. So using those feed engines I mentioned above, I can find more feeds on the topics I am interested in.
Some of the more popular feed engines include Technorati, Bloglines and Feedster to name just a few. There are in truth about 2 dozen such feed engines.
The way feeds work is that when you update your site with new content, you let the engine know that there’s been an update to your site via a ping. You ping their site, and they register the IP and domain name of the ping and come get the new post. It’s a very efficient system as they don’t need crawlers out there actively crawling the web like Yahoo! Google or MSN. They only crawl the sites from which they receive a ping.
And like anything on the web there is an emerging money making opportunity with feeds.
As you may have already guessed, a person doesn’t have to come to a site if they don’t want to. Therefore, if you rely on visits to make money, you could essentially be losing money because of your feed.
But, there are ways to recoup some of that cost. By inserting advertising on you feed you can still attempt to recover some of that potential lost income.
Now don’t forget, if someone has subscribed to your feed it is because they are interested in what you talk about on your site. Therefore the hard part – convincing them that your site is an authority – is pretty much done.
So if you place the ads within your feed as they relate to your product or service, you could increase your sales potential.
Of course the major engines also realize the earning potential of feeds, so they too are developing feed based advertising. I recently received an email from Google AdSense asking me if I’d like to apply for their new program – AdSense for Feeds. Of course I did. AdSense is a great way for my site to make money and all I have to do is insert some code into my feed.
And, as I touched on briefly above, by having a feed, you are helping build your credibility in the industry as well as your brand. As people revisit your feed posts, they become more comfortable with your business. They may even begin to refer others to your feed because of the quality of information found there.
This all goes towards reinforcing your brand in their eyes. Even if you can’t compete organically, or can’t afford an expensive PPC campaign, you are still high ranking in their eyes. They may even bypass a search engine altogether and go to your site to purchase without doing the typical comparison shopping they are used to simply because they trust you through your feed. I’d say that’s a pretty powerful tool.
Now feeds are just beginning to gain momentum with more traditional online advertisers. Sure feeds have been around a while, but many companies still don’t utilize them. But they are beginning to see the benefits of them now. I think over the next year you will see an explosion in feeds, and the advertising opportunities associated with them.
Let’s explore a little further out, time wise, to get some ideas as to what I see in the future.
Not too far down the road from now – say 2-4 years out – all our portable devices will be location aware. That is they will know, via GPS and other ways, where they physically are. This holds huge potential for advertisers.
But before I get into the advertising potential, let’s look at the potential for the owner of that device.
With a location aware device, no longer will you have to build complex search queries on that little keypad to find something close to you – the cell phone or PDA or other hand held device will already know the location. If it’s lunch time and you want pizza, then all you will have to do is enter “pizza” and the device will know to order them how you prefer – by geography, by price, or by rating. It can then show you, via the screen, where each is in relation to you, as well as provide detailed instructions on how to get there.
But wait, lets take this a step further. As we become more reliant on our portable devices they will begin to take some of the mundane tasks on. Your spouse can send you a shopping list of items to pick up after work, and your device will remind you. And as you pass the grocery store it will remind you again. It could even have the ability to go out and do price comparisons of the list with local stores to find out which would give you the best deal, and then map your route to that store, taking into account real time traffic reports, to find you the quickest route there and home.
Once at the store, the device will download a store map and plot the location of each item on the shopping list, planning the quickest route through the store to get everything on the list, and then find the cashier with the shortest line up. It could even have the ability to take you to the checkout with no cashier – it could communicate with the register – letting it know what you purchased, and it could even authorize the bank withdrawal. You don’t have to do anything except ensure you have the device with you.
Here’s another scenario: Let’s say that every Wednesday night you go out for dinner. The device could be surfing the web in your location, finding the restaurants, reading their reviews and specials and storing them, so that at dinner time you pick the type of food you want (such as Chinese, Indian, or just a cheese burger) and it will find you the best restaurant based on reviews and pricing, and plot your course there – again avoiding traffic problems. It could even forward your choice to other personal devices (such as your spouses or children’s phones) and they could meet you there, as their devices will also plot a course to the location for them.
With the capabilities of new portable devices now and in the future, our lives can become a little easier, as we will begin to rely on them for some of the more mundane tasks.
And remember earlier when I said there are huge advertising opportunities out there? Well imagine this – it’s 2 in the afternoon and you are in an unfamiliar city. The temperature is hot. As you are walking past a convenience store, and ad appears on your display – ice cold coke - $1.00. Up until now, you haven’t realized how hot it was, or that you were thirsty, but the ad triggers something and you decide you have to have a coke – so of course you go into the store and purchase one. You didn’t think about it, and the store didn’t have to do too much to advertise it to you, but they made some money on an impulse purchase that you hadn’t even considered.
The same could hold true for almost any business. Again, when your wireless device knows your preferences, you could receive ads from Blockbuster advertising a new movie that fits your viewing preferences, or the local sporting goods store could serve you a an ad tailored to you based on the type of sports you like. So that in the fall, they would let you know when skis were on sale, and in the spring let you know when running shoes were on sale.
The great thing about these types of devices is that they will know what you like and don’t like (either by you letting them know, or by them learning based on your usage) and they will begin to refuse ads that don’t suit you. If you don’t want ads at all that’s fine too – just let the device know.
Really, with the advent of wireless broadband becoming a reality, and the increased potential of these types of wireless devices, this scenario will be likely in the near future. Right now you can browse the web and read your email via your phone. And newer phones today have increased memory capacity. Some even have hard drives in them. Before you know it, you too will have such a device. One that will make your life easier by helping you make some of the less important decisions such as where to buy your groceries or where to go for lunch. In fact, you will begin to wonder how you ever got along without such a device before.
As you can see, I’ve only touched on a couple of the opportunities out there in the near term and far term. I’m sure there will be more, but these are the 2 that I see as significant.
As our technology improves, and becomes more ingrained into our daily life, the web can help them make our lives much easier. And like I mentioned, for every way to make our lives easier, there is the potential to serve web based ads as well.
Rob Sullivan - SEO Specialist and Internet Marketing Consultant. Any reproduction of this article needs to have an html link pointing to http://www.textlinkbrokers.com.
Search, both organic and paid, continue to evolve and mature. No longer is it a matter of tweaking meta tags to get top listings. In many cases it can take months or years to achieve top positions in competitive keyphrase markets. However, there are some future considerations one must be aware of with search so that they can take advantage of them. This article outlines some of the future innovations I see coming.
Some of those innovations are right around the corner. In fact some sites are doing them now very well. I’m referring to feeds.
Feeds are ways of syndicating your content to the world. Rather than a visitor having to find your site through a search engine, you can syndicate your content through a feed search engine and have it served to searchers that way.
In fact, the site you are reading this article on has a feed. That way, rather than coming to this site on a daily basis to see what’s new, you can subscribe to the site’s feed and find out without even coming to the site.
There are many feed readers out there. My personal favorite is called Sage – it’s a FireFox browser extension that lets me download and scan my favorite feeds and only read the posts I find interesting.
I find feed reading is an exceptional time saver because I can visit dozens of sites via their feeds, and scan them all in about 1/10 of the time it would have taken me to go to the site and browse the new links.
Of course that means I have more time to subscribe to even more feeds. So using those feed engines I mentioned above, I can find more feeds on the topics I am interested in.
Some of the more popular feed engines include Technorati, Bloglines and Feedster to name just a few. There are in truth about 2 dozen such feed engines.
The way feeds work is that when you update your site with new content, you let the engine know that there’s been an update to your site via a ping. You ping their site, and they register the IP and domain name of the ping and come get the new post. It’s a very efficient system as they don’t need crawlers out there actively crawling the web like Yahoo! Google or MSN. They only crawl the sites from which they receive a ping.
And like anything on the web there is an emerging money making opportunity with feeds.
As you may have already guessed, a person doesn’t have to come to a site if they don’t want to. Therefore, if you rely on visits to make money, you could essentially be losing money because of your feed.
But, there are ways to recoup some of that cost. By inserting advertising on you feed you can still attempt to recover some of that potential lost income.
Now don’t forget, if someone has subscribed to your feed it is because they are interested in what you talk about on your site. Therefore the hard part – convincing them that your site is an authority – is pretty much done.
So if you place the ads within your feed as they relate to your product or service, you could increase your sales potential.
Of course the major engines also realize the earning potential of feeds, so they too are developing feed based advertising. I recently received an email from Google AdSense asking me if I’d like to apply for their new program – AdSense for Feeds. Of course I did. AdSense is a great way for my site to make money and all I have to do is insert some code into my feed.
And, as I touched on briefly above, by having a feed, you are helping build your credibility in the industry as well as your brand. As people revisit your feed posts, they become more comfortable with your business. They may even begin to refer others to your feed because of the quality of information found there.
This all goes towards reinforcing your brand in their eyes. Even if you can’t compete organically, or can’t afford an expensive PPC campaign, you are still high ranking in their eyes. They may even bypass a search engine altogether and go to your site to purchase without doing the typical comparison shopping they are used to simply because they trust you through your feed. I’d say that’s a pretty powerful tool.
Now feeds are just beginning to gain momentum with more traditional online advertisers. Sure feeds have been around a while, but many companies still don’t utilize them. But they are beginning to see the benefits of them now. I think over the next year you will see an explosion in feeds, and the advertising opportunities associated with them.
Let’s explore a little further out, time wise, to get some ideas as to what I see in the future.
Not too far down the road from now – say 2-4 years out – all our portable devices will be location aware. That is they will know, via GPS and other ways, where they physically are. This holds huge potential for advertisers.
But before I get into the advertising potential, let’s look at the potential for the owner of that device.
With a location aware device, no longer will you have to build complex search queries on that little keypad to find something close to you – the cell phone or PDA or other hand held device will already know the location. If it’s lunch time and you want pizza, then all you will have to do is enter “pizza” and the device will know to order them how you prefer – by geography, by price, or by rating. It can then show you, via the screen, where each is in relation to you, as well as provide detailed instructions on how to get there.
But wait, lets take this a step further. As we become more reliant on our portable devices they will begin to take some of the mundane tasks on. Your spouse can send you a shopping list of items to pick up after work, and your device will remind you. And as you pass the grocery store it will remind you again. It could even have the ability to go out and do price comparisons of the list with local stores to find out which would give you the best deal, and then map your route to that store, taking into account real time traffic reports, to find you the quickest route there and home.
Once at the store, the device will download a store map and plot the location of each item on the shopping list, planning the quickest route through the store to get everything on the list, and then find the cashier with the shortest line up. It could even have the ability to take you to the checkout with no cashier – it could communicate with the register – letting it know what you purchased, and it could even authorize the bank withdrawal. You don’t have to do anything except ensure you have the device with you.
Here’s another scenario: Let’s say that every Wednesday night you go out for dinner. The device could be surfing the web in your location, finding the restaurants, reading their reviews and specials and storing them, so that at dinner time you pick the type of food you want (such as Chinese, Indian, or just a cheese burger) and it will find you the best restaurant based on reviews and pricing, and plot your course there – again avoiding traffic problems. It could even forward your choice to other personal devices (such as your spouses or children’s phones) and they could meet you there, as their devices will also plot a course to the location for them.
With the capabilities of new portable devices now and in the future, our lives can become a little easier, as we will begin to rely on them for some of the more mundane tasks.
And remember earlier when I said there are huge advertising opportunities out there? Well imagine this – it’s 2 in the afternoon and you are in an unfamiliar city. The temperature is hot. As you are walking past a convenience store, and ad appears on your display – ice cold coke - $1.00. Up until now, you haven’t realized how hot it was, or that you were thirsty, but the ad triggers something and you decide you have to have a coke – so of course you go into the store and purchase one. You didn’t think about it, and the store didn’t have to do too much to advertise it to you, but they made some money on an impulse purchase that you hadn’t even considered.
The same could hold true for almost any business. Again, when your wireless device knows your preferences, you could receive ads from Blockbuster advertising a new movie that fits your viewing preferences, or the local sporting goods store could serve you a an ad tailored to you based on the type of sports you like. So that in the fall, they would let you know when skis were on sale, and in the spring let you know when running shoes were on sale.
The great thing about these types of devices is that they will know what you like and don’t like (either by you letting them know, or by them learning based on your usage) and they will begin to refuse ads that don’t suit you. If you don’t want ads at all that’s fine too – just let the device know.
Really, with the advent of wireless broadband becoming a reality, and the increased potential of these types of wireless devices, this scenario will be likely in the near future. Right now you can browse the web and read your email via your phone. And newer phones today have increased memory capacity. Some even have hard drives in them. Before you know it, you too will have such a device. One that will make your life easier by helping you make some of the less important decisions such as where to buy your groceries or where to go for lunch. In fact, you will begin to wonder how you ever got along without such a device before.
As you can see, I’ve only touched on a couple of the opportunities out there in the near term and far term. I’m sure there will be more, but these are the 2 that I see as significant.
As our technology improves, and becomes more ingrained into our daily life, the web can help them make our lives much easier. And like I mentioned, for every way to make our lives easier, there is the potential to serve web based ads as well.
Rob Sullivan - SEO Specialist and Internet Marketing Consultant. Any reproduction of this article needs to have an html link pointing to http://www.textlinkbrokers.com.
3 Ways to Effective Traffic Exchang
Many people will tell you that traffic exchanges are not effective. For some this may be true depending on the service or product you offer. I, however, have had several customers that found my services through my advertising on traffic exchanges. So I am gonna tell you the 3 ways to make this an effective advertising option for you.
First: You need to be sure your home page is effective at explaining what service or product you are offering. Traffic exchanges have a timer so the person viewing your site has the option to leave within a matter of seconds. So your main goal is to give them a reason to stay!!
Second: Only choose traffic exchanges that offer manual surfing. Most people do not even watch the window when an autosurf is running. If it is a manual surf exchange they have to physically watch the pages in order to go to the next site. This gives you the best opportunity for them to actually see your site and be drawn in by your content.
Third: Be prepared to work. In order to earn credits for people to view your site, you have to view other people's sites. That is why it is called a "Traffic Exchange". The more you view other sites, the more your site is viewed.
With these 3 steps you can use traffic exchanges as an effective advertising strategy. It takes planning and work to get results, but doesn't every advertising plan? I urge everyone new to advertising to do alot of research to find the plan that is best for you and your business.
Stacy Hensley designs websites, makes graphics, and also runs a Banner Exchange. http://jakscreations.thewireguy.org.
First: You need to be sure your home page is effective at explaining what service or product you are offering. Traffic exchanges have a timer so the person viewing your site has the option to leave within a matter of seconds. So your main goal is to give them a reason to stay!!
Second: Only choose traffic exchanges that offer manual surfing. Most people do not even watch the window when an autosurf is running. If it is a manual surf exchange they have to physically watch the pages in order to go to the next site. This gives you the best opportunity for them to actually see your site and be drawn in by your content.
Third: Be prepared to work. In order to earn credits for people to view your site, you have to view other people's sites. That is why it is called a "Traffic Exchange". The more you view other sites, the more your site is viewed.
With these 3 steps you can use traffic exchanges as an effective advertising strategy. It takes planning and work to get results, but doesn't every advertising plan? I urge everyone new to advertising to do alot of research to find the plan that is best for you and your business.
Stacy Hensley designs websites, makes graphics, and also runs a Banner Exchange. http://jakscreations.thewireguy.org.
How To Manage Directory Submissions
by: Mike Paolieri
'More than 80% of the traffic comes from the top ten search engines'.
You have probably read this statement many times and it's true at least for the majority of websites.
So how about web directories? Is submitting your site to them a waste of time?
Even if directories usually don't deliver a lot of traffic they contribute inbound links to your site increasing its link popularity a very important factor used by search engines to rank websites.
When someone queries a search engine using a keyword relevant to your site, higher is your site link popularity higher are its chances to come up near the top of the results.
Submitting your site to web directories will help you increase its visibility and attract more traffic from search engines.
However you need an overall strategy to successfully manage your directory submissions or you will only lose your time and energies.
Is your site ready?
You should never forget that directories don't exist to give away free links. Their purpose is to provide their visitors with good quality sites.
If you want some chances to get listed you need a well designed web site containing useful and original content or offering useful services.
Your site must also be complete without broken links or links to 'under construction' pages.
Other things that can cause a rejection of your submission are: too many ads (especially pop-ups and pop-unders), automatic redirections to another domain, having the same exact content of other sites (example: the 'self replicated' sites some companies provide to their affiliates).
Preparing your listing details
Open your favorite text editor and write down the following informations:
1) your web site URL.
2) your website Title. Some directories accept only the official site name as title, others allow some descriptive keywords, but in general stuffing a lot of keywords in your title is not acceptable. Write 2-3 different titles in compliance with these different rules.
3) your website description. Write what your site is about in a couple of sentences. Avoid superlatives, exclamation marks, excessive hype and generally everything that makes your description sound like an ad.
Description should be written in third person. Avoid expressions like 'we offer', 'we are ...'.
4) a set of search keywords related to your site. Separate the keywords with commas, then write down the same set of keywords this time separated by spaces. Some directories require the first format, others the second one.
5) your full name and email address.
Once you have done save the document. By copying and pasting these informations into the submissions forms you will save time and avoid errors.
Or you can utilize Clipboard Magic. This free software allows you to save multiple rows of data and load them into the Windows Clipboard simply with a click of the mouse. It's really useful when you need to fill in many online forms with the same informations.
Finding web directories
The next step is finding directories where you can submit your site.
You can use top directories to find minor and specialized directories
DMOZ: Top:Computers:Internet:Searching:Directories
Yahoo: Computers and Internet > Internet > World Wide Web > Searching the Web > Search Engines and Directories
Spend some time to determine how each directory is organized and find the most appropriate category for your site.
Submitting to the wrong category usually causes a rejection of your submission.
Compile a list of all directories where you have submitted your site indicating the date of your submission.
Verifying the results
Not all directories send you an email when your site is listed.
You should periodically visit your list of directories and make a search for your site title or url. Flag all directories where you find your site.
If your site has not been listed after about 2 months from the date of your first submission you can try to submit it again. My advice is to not resubmit more frequently.
You can also contact the directory owner and ask about the status of your submission, but if you don't receive a reply, don't insist. There may be many reasons why a directory doesn't list your site, simply accept the fact that not all submissions are successful.
Submitting your site to web directories is an essential part of your website promotion strategy. It's a time consuming task, but with the right planning you will be able to manage it successfully.
Mike Paolieri is webmaster and co-owner of WebmasterGate ( http://www.webmastergate.com ), a directory of articles, tools and resources of interest to webmasters and web developers.
This article can be freely republished on websites and email newsletters (opt-in only, no spam) provided no modifications are made and the resource box above is included.
If published on the web all the links within the article and the resource box must be made 'clickable'.
'More than 80% of the traffic comes from the top ten search engines'.
You have probably read this statement many times and it's true at least for the majority of websites.
So how about web directories? Is submitting your site to them a waste of time?
Even if directories usually don't deliver a lot of traffic they contribute inbound links to your site increasing its link popularity a very important factor used by search engines to rank websites.
When someone queries a search engine using a keyword relevant to your site, higher is your site link popularity higher are its chances to come up near the top of the results.
Submitting your site to web directories will help you increase its visibility and attract more traffic from search engines.
However you need an overall strategy to successfully manage your directory submissions or you will only lose your time and energies.
Is your site ready?
You should never forget that directories don't exist to give away free links. Their purpose is to provide their visitors with good quality sites.
If you want some chances to get listed you need a well designed web site containing useful and original content or offering useful services.
Your site must also be complete without broken links or links to 'under construction' pages.
Other things that can cause a rejection of your submission are: too many ads (especially pop-ups and pop-unders), automatic redirections to another domain, having the same exact content of other sites (example: the 'self replicated' sites some companies provide to their affiliates).
Preparing your listing details
Open your favorite text editor and write down the following informations:
1) your web site URL.
2) your website Title. Some directories accept only the official site name as title, others allow some descriptive keywords, but in general stuffing a lot of keywords in your title is not acceptable. Write 2-3 different titles in compliance with these different rules.
3) your website description. Write what your site is about in a couple of sentences. Avoid superlatives, exclamation marks, excessive hype and generally everything that makes your description sound like an ad.
Description should be written in third person. Avoid expressions like 'we offer', 'we are ...'.
4) a set of search keywords related to your site. Separate the keywords with commas, then write down the same set of keywords this time separated by spaces. Some directories require the first format, others the second one.
5) your full name and email address.
Once you have done save the document. By copying and pasting these informations into the submissions forms you will save time and avoid errors.
Or you can utilize Clipboard Magic. This free software allows you to save multiple rows of data and load them into the Windows Clipboard simply with a click of the mouse. It's really useful when you need to fill in many online forms with the same informations.
Finding web directories
The next step is finding directories where you can submit your site.
You can use top directories to find minor and specialized directories
DMOZ: Top:Computers:Internet:Searching:Directories
Yahoo: Computers and Internet > Internet > World Wide Web > Searching the Web > Search Engines and Directories
Spend some time to determine how each directory is organized and find the most appropriate category for your site.
Submitting to the wrong category usually causes a rejection of your submission.
Compile a list of all directories where you have submitted your site indicating the date of your submission.
Verifying the results
Not all directories send you an email when your site is listed.
You should periodically visit your list of directories and make a search for your site title or url. Flag all directories where you find your site.
If your site has not been listed after about 2 months from the date of your first submission you can try to submit it again. My advice is to not resubmit more frequently.
You can also contact the directory owner and ask about the status of your submission, but if you don't receive a reply, don't insist. There may be many reasons why a directory doesn't list your site, simply accept the fact that not all submissions are successful.
Submitting your site to web directories is an essential part of your website promotion strategy. It's a time consuming task, but with the right planning you will be able to manage it successfully.
Mike Paolieri is webmaster and co-owner of WebmasterGate ( http://www.webmastergate.com ), a directory of articles, tools and resources of interest to webmasters and web developers.
This article can be freely republished on websites and email newsletters (opt-in only, no spam) provided no modifications are made and the resource box above is included.
If published on the web all the links within the article and the resource box must be made 'clickable'.
Why Do I Need Video and/or Audio On My Website?
by: Shane Kukec
Bottom Line: If your website and emails are silent, you're leaving money on the table! Its that simple.
More and more online marketers and business owners are seeing the light and recognizing the tremendous benefits of incorporating multimedia into their online marketing strategy. It's a proven fact that multimedia more easily and effectively captivates your audience and grab's the attention of your prospects, visitors, subscribers and customers. Time and time again research has shown that using multimedia in the form of video and/or audio advertisements increases conversation rates, buy rates as well as subscription rates for a product or service.
If studies consistently show the advantage of incorporating multimedia into your online marketing campaign, then those who have not yet added multimedia to their advertising need to seriously rethink and reinvent their marketing strategy.
"As traditional banner ads continue to decline in their effectiveness...leading companies..[will turn] to streaming media to juice up their online advertising. These initial trials are just the beginning of what industry experts believe will be a huge market...Streaming media has a 70% response rate for content, a 60% response rate for advertising information, and a 49% "buy" rate for online merchandise. (Source: Hostcentric Streaming Media: Industry Outlook)."
When you look at the above statistics put together by leading authorities, can you really afford not to jump at the chance to use Multimedia as an advertising strategy?
Look at it this way, without Video and/or Audio your site appears static to the visitor and after seeing hundreds of these types of sites, your customer becomes desensitized which is why sales conversion rates have systematically dropped over the last couple of years all over the Internet.
Savvy Internet Marketers know this and have already seen the light. You'll notice that many of these “Gurus” are lending voice to their sales copy in an effort to increase their conversion rate and many have incorporated video into their marketing. In essence, they are re-inventing themselves, recognizing the tremendous power and benefits inherent in multimedia and using it to captivate their intended audience and to convert prospects into subscribers and customers.
Think about it...you can convince your prospect to buy your product or service or subscribe to your ezine or newsletter much more easily with a 3 minute video as opposed to a long winded sales page that doesn't convey your passion for your product, service or publication. The human voice has the power to influence, motivate, and persuade prospects to take action with much less resistence and reluctance.
These days there are scams all over the Internet and as a result people are very skeptical of many sites and ultimately the "online" business owners behind these websites. By using multimedia in the form of video and audio messages, you leave visitors with the impression that you are a “real” business and someone they CAN trust.
By using multimedia, you can also communicate better with people, specifically prospective customers, allowing you to get your point across much easier which all leads to one end result- MORE SALES!
There are many others benefits to speak of which include the following:
1. Explain selling-points much more easily and clearly to captivate your potential buyer.
2. Describe your product or service and the benefits of using it clearly and concisely.
3. Video and Audio conveys PROFESSIONALISM and most importantly it provides you with something that is essential in any business- CREDIBILITY. With credibility, you can sell more of your product or service, build that sacred opt-in list much more quickly and convince visitors to click on a link to an affiliate program you are advertising.
Therefore, as an increasing number of online business owners and marketers recognize the competitive advantages of multimedia and its power as a communication vehicle, multimedia content will become an integral part of the web experience.
Again, the question asked is "Why do I need Video and Audio on my Website?"
The simple answer: Multimedia is quickly becoming a necessity to the sustainability and future of online businesses. Very soon, all online business owners and marketers without exception will need to incorporate multimedia into their marketing strategies to maintain the continued existence of their online presence.
Do advertisers on TV try to sell you their products and services by using written text?
I rest my case.
Shane Kukec is a Corporate President, Trainer and Publisher of a popular newsletter "The Intelligent Marketer" at http://www.theintelligentmarketer.com where he shows people how to generate a substantial income using simple and very powerful marketing strategies. Shane's also the developer of 2 revolutionary new products guaranteed to help explode any business quickly and easily: (http://www.jvmining.com) (http://www.videoaudiogenerator.com). You can reprint this article for free on your site or newsletter but the entire article, resource box and live links must remain intact.
Bottom Line: If your website and emails are silent, you're leaving money on the table! Its that simple.
More and more online marketers and business owners are seeing the light and recognizing the tremendous benefits of incorporating multimedia into their online marketing strategy. It's a proven fact that multimedia more easily and effectively captivates your audience and grab's the attention of your prospects, visitors, subscribers and customers. Time and time again research has shown that using multimedia in the form of video and/or audio advertisements increases conversation rates, buy rates as well as subscription rates for a product or service.
If studies consistently show the advantage of incorporating multimedia into your online marketing campaign, then those who have not yet added multimedia to their advertising need to seriously rethink and reinvent their marketing strategy.
"As traditional banner ads continue to decline in their effectiveness...leading companies..[will turn] to streaming media to juice up their online advertising. These initial trials are just the beginning of what industry experts believe will be a huge market...Streaming media has a 70% response rate for content, a 60% response rate for advertising information, and a 49% "buy" rate for online merchandise. (Source: Hostcentric Streaming Media: Industry Outlook)."
When you look at the above statistics put together by leading authorities, can you really afford not to jump at the chance to use Multimedia as an advertising strategy?
Look at it this way, without Video and/or Audio your site appears static to the visitor and after seeing hundreds of these types of sites, your customer becomes desensitized which is why sales conversion rates have systematically dropped over the last couple of years all over the Internet.
Savvy Internet Marketers know this and have already seen the light. You'll notice that many of these “Gurus” are lending voice to their sales copy in an effort to increase their conversion rate and many have incorporated video into their marketing. In essence, they are re-inventing themselves, recognizing the tremendous power and benefits inherent in multimedia and using it to captivate their intended audience and to convert prospects into subscribers and customers.
Think about it...you can convince your prospect to buy your product or service or subscribe to your ezine or newsletter much more easily with a 3 minute video as opposed to a long winded sales page that doesn't convey your passion for your product, service or publication. The human voice has the power to influence, motivate, and persuade prospects to take action with much less resistence and reluctance.
These days there are scams all over the Internet and as a result people are very skeptical of many sites and ultimately the "online" business owners behind these websites. By using multimedia in the form of video and audio messages, you leave visitors with the impression that you are a “real” business and someone they CAN trust.
By using multimedia, you can also communicate better with people, specifically prospective customers, allowing you to get your point across much easier which all leads to one end result- MORE SALES!
There are many others benefits to speak of which include the following:
1. Explain selling-points much more easily and clearly to captivate your potential buyer.
2. Describe your product or service and the benefits of using it clearly and concisely.
3. Video and Audio conveys PROFESSIONALISM and most importantly it provides you with something that is essential in any business- CREDIBILITY. With credibility, you can sell more of your product or service, build that sacred opt-in list much more quickly and convince visitors to click on a link to an affiliate program you are advertising.
Therefore, as an increasing number of online business owners and marketers recognize the competitive advantages of multimedia and its power as a communication vehicle, multimedia content will become an integral part of the web experience.
Again, the question asked is "Why do I need Video and Audio on my Website?"
The simple answer: Multimedia is quickly becoming a necessity to the sustainability and future of online businesses. Very soon, all online business owners and marketers without exception will need to incorporate multimedia into their marketing strategies to maintain the continued existence of their online presence.
Do advertisers on TV try to sell you their products and services by using written text?
I rest my case.
Shane Kukec is a Corporate President, Trainer and Publisher of a popular newsletter "The Intelligent Marketer" at http://www.theintelligentmarketer.com where he shows people how to generate a substantial income using simple and very powerful marketing strategies. Shane's also the developer of 2 revolutionary new products guaranteed to help explode any business quickly and easily: (http://www.jvmining.com) (http://www.videoaudiogenerator.com). You can reprint this article for free on your site or newsletter but the entire article, resource box and live links must remain intact.
Increased Link Popularity through Press Release Implementation Strategies
by: Hillary Lane
Link popularity is one of the most important aspects of ranking high in Google. As a result, website owners are trying a multitude of techniques in an effort to gain an increase in link popularity. Website owners in the past have tried reciprocal linking strategies, link form submissions, and a variety of time consuming and sometimes meaningless methods to increase their website’s online exposure. They spend countless hours sending e-mails to other website owners for links pointing back to their sites; usually they only see about a 2-3% return on investment for their efforts. This time could have been saved if they would have resorted to other forms of marketing with proven successful track records.
Press release submissions are a form of marketing that has been around for quite some time and doesn’t have any tricky aspects associated with it. This marketing method can generate a plethora of online exposure if you discuss newsworthy topics about your company and use the correct targeting methods. Submitting non-newsworthy company information in a press release will result in an ineffective marketing campaign because online consumers and journalists are only interested in targeted newsworthy stories.
In addition to submitting newsworthy company information, it is necessary to find out who your targeted consumer base is and then take the appropriate marketing measures to ensure greater marketing efficacy within your campaigns.
Your news can be anything from a new business venture, successful client case study, recent company new hire, etc. Give your readers something they can relate to; make them want to come to your website to find out the changes in your company and or industry. The key is to put yourself in you reader’s shoes in order to build a credible relationship with them.
Credibility is the central issue to be concerned with when trying to build link popularity online. One press release can generate between 200-500 back-links from credible web sites online in your industry. These back-links are only attained if the other website owners feel that your content is worth having on their own servers. Initially you will see an influx of 500-1000 links pop up in the first week; however, it will decline to about 200-300 solid links from credible sources after about two to three weeks. Most sites will host your content on their home page for a few days and then transfer your information to their archive.
Increased link popularity through the implementation of a credible company press release should not hurt your Google keyword rankings, due to a greater influx of back-links. This happens because your links are coming from industry hubs that are extremely credible online content providers. On the other hand, this can hurt your website if you get carried away with your press release submissions. Remember to take your time and submit valid industry news that relates to your website, company, or industry to stay on Google’s good graces.
Hillary Lane is an Internet Marketing Professional who specializes in press release and article distributiion services. My core competencies lie in link popularity strategies as well as acquiring new clients through the use of RSS technology. To view my website, go to http://www.engine-iuspressrelease.com.
Link popularity is one of the most important aspects of ranking high in Google. As a result, website owners are trying a multitude of techniques in an effort to gain an increase in link popularity. Website owners in the past have tried reciprocal linking strategies, link form submissions, and a variety of time consuming and sometimes meaningless methods to increase their website’s online exposure. They spend countless hours sending e-mails to other website owners for links pointing back to their sites; usually they only see about a 2-3% return on investment for their efforts. This time could have been saved if they would have resorted to other forms of marketing with proven successful track records.
Press release submissions are a form of marketing that has been around for quite some time and doesn’t have any tricky aspects associated with it. This marketing method can generate a plethora of online exposure if you discuss newsworthy topics about your company and use the correct targeting methods. Submitting non-newsworthy company information in a press release will result in an ineffective marketing campaign because online consumers and journalists are only interested in targeted newsworthy stories.
In addition to submitting newsworthy company information, it is necessary to find out who your targeted consumer base is and then take the appropriate marketing measures to ensure greater marketing efficacy within your campaigns.
Your news can be anything from a new business venture, successful client case study, recent company new hire, etc. Give your readers something they can relate to; make them want to come to your website to find out the changes in your company and or industry. The key is to put yourself in you reader’s shoes in order to build a credible relationship with them.
Credibility is the central issue to be concerned with when trying to build link popularity online. One press release can generate between 200-500 back-links from credible web sites online in your industry. These back-links are only attained if the other website owners feel that your content is worth having on their own servers. Initially you will see an influx of 500-1000 links pop up in the first week; however, it will decline to about 200-300 solid links from credible sources after about two to three weeks. Most sites will host your content on their home page for a few days and then transfer your information to their archive.
Increased link popularity through the implementation of a credible company press release should not hurt your Google keyword rankings, due to a greater influx of back-links. This happens because your links are coming from industry hubs that are extremely credible online content providers. On the other hand, this can hurt your website if you get carried away with your press release submissions. Remember to take your time and submit valid industry news that relates to your website, company, or industry to stay on Google’s good graces.
Hillary Lane is an Internet Marketing Professional who specializes in press release and article distributiion services. My core competencies lie in link popularity strategies as well as acquiring new clients through the use of RSS technology. To view my website, go to http://www.engine-iuspressrelease.com.
Understanding the Game of Search Engines
by: Raamakant S.
When I started my e-business, I ask my web-designer friend to make a site which is really brainstorming. He did me a great favor and really made an excellent site. My site's design is fabulous, it's graphics are mind blowing and coding is superb. But now what? What I seen in the coming days, I am not earning a single penny because no one is visiting my site.
I think for a while that why all this is happening, then I make a search on Yahoo and see the first site which is coming on the top. It doesn't have a good design like mine but still he is making good money. Then I came to know that the site's design is meaningless if site's ranking on search engines is not good.
When it comes to search engine every ear just not hears it but listens it's every aspect and try to locate it's presence in his site. Well why not it be done as it is the place from where all of us get our business.
Every search engine has it's own criterion of ranking and it's clear from the fact that when you do a search on Yahoo or Google or any other search engines there results vary. Here is the listing of some of the Top Search Engines and a few noteworthy points about all of them. Know which engines get you more bangs for the buck?
Google
Google has increased in popularity tenfold the past several years. They have gone from beta testing, to becoming the Internet's largest index of web pages in a very short time. Their spider, affectionately named "Googlebot", crawls the web and provides updates to Google's index about once a month.
Google.com began as an academic search engine. Google, by far, has a very good algorithm of ranking pages returned from a result, probably one of the main reasons it has become so popular over the years. Google has several methods which determine page rank in returned searches.
Yahoo
Yahoo! is one of the oldest web directories and portals on the Internet today, and the site went live in August of 1994. Yahoo! is a 100% human edited directory, and provides secondary search results using Google.
Yahoo! is also one of the largest traffic generators around, as far as web directories and search engines go. Unfortunately, however, it is also one of the most difficult to get listed in, unless of course you pay to submit your site. Even if you pay it doesn't guarantee you will get listed.
Either way, if you suggest a URL, it is "reviewed" by a Yahoo! editor, and if approved will appear in the next index update.
AltaVista
Many who have access to web logs may have seen a spider named 'scooter' accessing their pages. Scooter used to be AltaVista's robot. However, since the Feb 2001 site update, a newer form of Scooter is now crawling the web. Whichever spider AltaVista uses, it is one of the largest search engines on the net today, next to Google.
It will usually take several months for AltaVista to index your entire site, although the past few months scooter hasn't been deep crawling too well. Unlike Google, AltaVista will only crawl and index 1 link deep, so it takes a good amount of time to index your site depending on how large your site is.
AltaVista gets most of its results from its own index, however they do pull the top 5 results of each search from Overture (formerly Goto).
Inktomi
Inktomi's popularity grew several years ago as they powered the secondary search database that had driven Yahoo. Since then, Yahoo as switched to using Google as their secondary search and backend database, however Inktomi is just as popular now, as they were several years ago, if not more so.
Their spiders are named "Slurp", and different versions of Slurp crawls the web many different times throughout the month, as Inktomi powers many sites search results. There isn't much more to Inktomi then that. Slurp puts heavy weight on Title and description tags, and will rarely deep crawl a site. Slurp usually only spider’s pages that are submitted to its index.
Inktomi provides results to a number of sites. Some of these are America Online, MSN, Hotbot, Looksmart, About, Goto, CNet, Geocities, NBCi, ICQ and many more.
Lycos
Lycos is one of the oldest search engines on the Internet today, next to Altavista and Yahoo. Their spider, named "T-Rex", crawls the web and provides updates to the Lycos index from time to time. The FAST crawler provides results for Lycos in addition to its own database.
The Lycos crawler does not weigh META tags too heavily, instead it relies on its own ranking algorithm to rank pages returned in results. The URL, META title, text headings, and word frequency are just a few of the methods Lycos uses to rank pages. Lycos does support pages with Frame content. However, any page that isn't at least 75 words in content is not indexed.
Excite
Excite has been around the web for many years now. Much more of a portal than just simply a search engine, Excite used to be a fairly popular search engine, until companies such as Google seemed to have dominated the search engine market. As of recently, Excite no longer accepts submissions of URL's, and appears to no longer spider. To get into the Excite search results, you need to be either listed with Overture or Inktomi.
Looksmart
Getting a listed with Looksmart could mean getting a good amount of traffic to your site. Looksmart's results appear in many search engines, including AltaVista, MSN, CNN, and many others.
Looksmart has two options to submit your site. If your site is generally non-business related, you can submit your site to Zeal (Looksmart's sister site), or if you are a business, you can pay a fee to have your site listed. Either method will get you listed in Looksmart and its partner sites if you are approved.
Once you have submitted your site, and it is approved for listing it will take up to about 7 days for your site to be listed on Looksmart and its partner sites.
AOL Search
America Online signed a multiyear pact with Google for Web search results and accompanying ad-sponsored links, ending relationships with pay-for-performance service Overture Services and Inktomi, its algorithmic search provider of nearly three years.
Ok, now you have got a better understanding of search engine’s game and finally you come to know which search engine is best for you and which one is leading in today's Internet World. In nutshell, the thing which every e-entrepreneur wants is Top Search Engine Ranking. Isn't it right? So take some time to register with these search engines as soon as possible and watch the traffic grow.
Raamakant S. is Author of "The e Success Code". An "entire Internet Marketing Encyclopedia" covers almost every topic of Internet marketing. If you want to earn a real Income from the Internet, have a look at here: http://www.theesuccesscode.com
When I started my e-business, I ask my web-designer friend to make a site which is really brainstorming. He did me a great favor and really made an excellent site. My site's design is fabulous, it's graphics are mind blowing and coding is superb. But now what? What I seen in the coming days, I am not earning a single penny because no one is visiting my site.
I think for a while that why all this is happening, then I make a search on Yahoo and see the first site which is coming on the top. It doesn't have a good design like mine but still he is making good money. Then I came to know that the site's design is meaningless if site's ranking on search engines is not good.
When it comes to search engine every ear just not hears it but listens it's every aspect and try to locate it's presence in his site. Well why not it be done as it is the place from where all of us get our business.
Every search engine has it's own criterion of ranking and it's clear from the fact that when you do a search on Yahoo or Google or any other search engines there results vary. Here is the listing of some of the Top Search Engines and a few noteworthy points about all of them. Know which engines get you more bangs for the buck?
Google has increased in popularity tenfold the past several years. They have gone from beta testing, to becoming the Internet's largest index of web pages in a very short time. Their spider, affectionately named "Googlebot", crawls the web and provides updates to Google's index about once a month.
Google.com began as an academic search engine. Google, by far, has a very good algorithm of ranking pages returned from a result, probably one of the main reasons it has become so popular over the years. Google has several methods which determine page rank in returned searches.
Yahoo
Yahoo! is one of the oldest web directories and portals on the Internet today, and the site went live in August of 1994. Yahoo! is a 100% human edited directory, and provides secondary search results using Google.
Yahoo! is also one of the largest traffic generators around, as far as web directories and search engines go. Unfortunately, however, it is also one of the most difficult to get listed in, unless of course you pay to submit your site. Even if you pay it doesn't guarantee you will get listed.
Either way, if you suggest a URL, it is "reviewed" by a Yahoo! editor, and if approved will appear in the next index update.
AltaVista
Many who have access to web logs may have seen a spider named 'scooter' accessing their pages. Scooter used to be AltaVista's robot. However, since the Feb 2001 site update, a newer form of Scooter is now crawling the web. Whichever spider AltaVista uses, it is one of the largest search engines on the net today, next to Google.
It will usually take several months for AltaVista to index your entire site, although the past few months scooter hasn't been deep crawling too well. Unlike Google, AltaVista will only crawl and index 1 link deep, so it takes a good amount of time to index your site depending on how large your site is.
AltaVista gets most of its results from its own index, however they do pull the top 5 results of each search from Overture (formerly Goto).
Inktomi
Inktomi's popularity grew several years ago as they powered the secondary search database that had driven Yahoo. Since then, Yahoo as switched to using Google as their secondary search and backend database, however Inktomi is just as popular now, as they were several years ago, if not more so.
Their spiders are named "Slurp", and different versions of Slurp crawls the web many different times throughout the month, as Inktomi powers many sites search results. There isn't much more to Inktomi then that. Slurp puts heavy weight on Title and description tags, and will rarely deep crawl a site. Slurp usually only spider’s pages that are submitted to its index.
Inktomi provides results to a number of sites. Some of these are America Online, MSN, Hotbot, Looksmart, About, Goto, CNet, Geocities, NBCi, ICQ and many more.
Lycos
Lycos is one of the oldest search engines on the Internet today, next to Altavista and Yahoo. Their spider, named "T-Rex", crawls the web and provides updates to the Lycos index from time to time. The FAST crawler provides results for Lycos in addition to its own database.
The Lycos crawler does not weigh META tags too heavily, instead it relies on its own ranking algorithm to rank pages returned in results. The URL, META title, text headings, and word frequency are just a few of the methods Lycos uses to rank pages. Lycos does support pages with Frame content. However, any page that isn't at least 75 words in content is not indexed.
Excite
Excite has been around the web for many years now. Much more of a portal than just simply a search engine, Excite used to be a fairly popular search engine, until companies such as Google seemed to have dominated the search engine market. As of recently, Excite no longer accepts submissions of URL's, and appears to no longer spider. To get into the Excite search results, you need to be either listed with Overture or Inktomi.
Looksmart
Getting a listed with Looksmart could mean getting a good amount of traffic to your site. Looksmart's results appear in many search engines, including AltaVista, MSN, CNN, and many others.
Looksmart has two options to submit your site. If your site is generally non-business related, you can submit your site to Zeal (Looksmart's sister site), or if you are a business, you can pay a fee to have your site listed. Either method will get you listed in Looksmart and its partner sites if you are approved.
Once you have submitted your site, and it is approved for listing it will take up to about 7 days for your site to be listed on Looksmart and its partner sites.
AOL Search
America Online signed a multiyear pact with Google for Web search results and accompanying ad-sponsored links, ending relationships with pay-for-performance service Overture Services and Inktomi, its algorithmic search provider of nearly three years.
Ok, now you have got a better understanding of search engine’s game and finally you come to know which search engine is best for you and which one is leading in today's Internet World. In nutshell, the thing which every e-entrepreneur wants is Top Search Engine Ranking. Isn't it right? So take some time to register with these search engines as soon as possible and watch the traffic grow.
Raamakant S. is Author of "The e Success Code". An "entire Internet Marketing Encyclopedia" covers almost every topic of Internet marketing. If you want to earn a real Income from the Internet, have a look at here: http://www.theesuccesscode.com
Creating a Buzz
by: Judy Williams
Were the coordination of event and conference management not enough, today’s organizers are generally expected to boost or promote attendance as well. Why? Because increased attendance means increased revenue.
Most savvy planners are aware of the tried and true marketing methods and event promotion methods such as blast e-mails, Web sites and direct mail. However, not all are aware of the marketing opportunities that can generate the very “buzz” you need to maximize attendance.
Before you start spending your marketing budget on the same old fare, consider that many other events are directly competing with your potential attendee’s time and money and for this reason, you must first determine what makes your event spectacular and the one to attend. If you can’t find a reason, it’s time to create one!
Location, Location, Location
In my twenty year planning career the buzz generated by Hawaii meetings far surpassed the sum total of every other location combined from the U.S., Canada and Europe. Instead of a general apathy about the next quarterly meeting, Hawaii meetings had the attendees asking for information several meetings ahead so they could make plans for a family holiday to piggy-back on the meeting dates, and other arrangements and activities. I also know from the admissions of some attendees who might not otherwise have attended that meeting, that they attended, in large part, because it was a Hawaii meeting.
Of course it’s not always geographically feasible or affordable to take our groups on to Maui but it’s very important to remember that when oft-jaded attendees are excited about a potential meeting site, they generate their own enthusiasm within themselves and among each other. Talk among themselves often results in others from their office attending the event who might not have otherwise. Attendees who have to push for permission to attend are often unusually creative in finding ways to convince management of the “vital importance” of this meeting.
Most every location has its redeeming virtues. Seek out what makes a location special and unique and then show your attendees the best your site has to offer. You can start by using color pictures, typically available from your CVB, depicting natural splendor, sports and activities to inspire your attendees imagination. In this case, a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.
Star Tripping
Never under-estimate the power of, well, power. Famous people not only act as a draw for increased attendance but their presence can add vitality and excitement to an event, leading to long term benefits for attendees and their organizations.
Obviously, bringing in a celebrity is generally not an inexpensive proposition, yet a “star” may bring you just the results you wish for your event. First, do your cost benefit analysis. Then determine whether you wish to hire a speaker who fires up and inspires the sales force, or someone who is a draw and will put people in chairs, such as a Donald Trump.
Once you determine which kind of star you want in your galaxy, work with one of the many specialized speaker’s bureaus who specialize in such bookings. They have the inside scoop on who’s hot and who’s not, prices and availability. Literal stars draw our eyes to the heavens; celebrity “stars” can draw both magic and more people to your event.
An Affair to Remember
If like many organizers, your budget and goals for your event include a grand soiree, make it one you pre-publicize. Why sink all that money into the exotic dinner cruise without giving your potential attendees an opportunity to get excited? Include a decent sized color photo of the potential boat (or other location provided by your supplier) on your web site and write some splashy copy to knock those perched on the fence over to your side. One example of a trick that I’ve seen generate much enthusiasm is to offer a free ticket or other such prize to every hundredth registrant, as one example. No, this likely won’t generate attendance from the ambivalent but it might entice a few still considering. What this will do is induce a certain enthusiasm and excitement among those planning to, or considering attending your event.
The Planner’s Best Friend
Many event and meeting organizers are unaware of how much the CVB can assist in your promotional efforts for event promotions and often at a minimal cost, or for no charge. The CVB has as much to gain from your group’s peak attendance as you do, so find out early in your promotional efforts just what is offered and at what cost. Don’t forget: Like any supplier, you can and should negotiate with the CVB for such event promotional assistance. Following are a few examples of what many CVB’s offer gratis, depending on the size of the group and its potential revenue to their city.
Full color visitor’s guides, local maps, pins, city fact sheets and area attractions brochures
Telemarketing to help build attendance
Pre-Promotion well in advance of your event. Pre-printed literature can be personalized with your own copy for your mailings
The CVB’s logo, event promotional video, color slides and digital images
Exhibit displays
Airport electronic message board
“Meet and Greet”
In truth, CVB’s are thrilled to help promote your event and since they all offer different services and products, just ask. I have never found a CVB that didn’t bend over backwards to help make our events a success.
Don’t Overlook the Small Stuff
Event organizers are typically within a dizzying whirl of conflicting demands and it’s all too easy to overlook some simple yet effective event promotion opportunities to promote your event. Here are a few:
Broadcast fax cover sheets
Letterhead
E-mail signatures
Announcements to trade press
Newsletters and magazines articles
Inserts in all outbound correspondence
Piggy-Back on Nearby Events
If an exciting, splashy event is scheduled in close proximity during your own event, let people know! Does your group have a group of golfers? If a major golf tournament is scheduled nearby, even immediately before or after your event, let members know. You might also consider offering transportation or something to assist those interested in attending the event.
Is Pavarotti performing nearby? To make your own performance sing, provide a means for attendees to get tickets and then promote the event in your promotional material about the conference location.
Press It
The press can not only give your event a subtle “plug” but this will be more likely if you have developed and maintain relationships with them. To cultivate such relationships, be accessible and if you find something that might be of interest to them that has nothing to do with you and your event, forward it to them. The press doesn’t forget favors and can be your best friend in getting the word out about your event.
Alas, desired conference attendance numbers are not as simple as, “If you plan it, they will come.” The most spectacular location and meticulous planning can be over-shadowed by reduced attendance but fortunately, there are many solutions, from the simple to the complex that will reap real benefits and bring real bodies to your event.
Judy Williams
This Article is Copyright protected. If you have comments; or would like to have this article republished free on your site, please contact the author here: articles@regonline.com. We just require all due credits carried; and text, hyperlinks and headers unaltered. This article must not be used in unsolicited mail.
Were the coordination of event and conference management not enough, today’s organizers are generally expected to boost or promote attendance as well. Why? Because increased attendance means increased revenue.
Most savvy planners are aware of the tried and true marketing methods and event promotion methods such as blast e-mails, Web sites and direct mail. However, not all are aware of the marketing opportunities that can generate the very “buzz” you need to maximize attendance.
Before you start spending your marketing budget on the same old fare, consider that many other events are directly competing with your potential attendee’s time and money and for this reason, you must first determine what makes your event spectacular and the one to attend. If you can’t find a reason, it’s time to create one!
Location, Location, Location
In my twenty year planning career the buzz generated by Hawaii meetings far surpassed the sum total of every other location combined from the U.S., Canada and Europe. Instead of a general apathy about the next quarterly meeting, Hawaii meetings had the attendees asking for information several meetings ahead so they could make plans for a family holiday to piggy-back on the meeting dates, and other arrangements and activities. I also know from the admissions of some attendees who might not otherwise have attended that meeting, that they attended, in large part, because it was a Hawaii meeting.
Of course it’s not always geographically feasible or affordable to take our groups on to Maui but it’s very important to remember that when oft-jaded attendees are excited about a potential meeting site, they generate their own enthusiasm within themselves and among each other. Talk among themselves often results in others from their office attending the event who might not have otherwise. Attendees who have to push for permission to attend are often unusually creative in finding ways to convince management of the “vital importance” of this meeting.
Most every location has its redeeming virtues. Seek out what makes a location special and unique and then show your attendees the best your site has to offer. You can start by using color pictures, typically available from your CVB, depicting natural splendor, sports and activities to inspire your attendees imagination. In this case, a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.
Star Tripping
Never under-estimate the power of, well, power. Famous people not only act as a draw for increased attendance but their presence can add vitality and excitement to an event, leading to long term benefits for attendees and their organizations.
Obviously, bringing in a celebrity is generally not an inexpensive proposition, yet a “star” may bring you just the results you wish for your event. First, do your cost benefit analysis. Then determine whether you wish to hire a speaker who fires up and inspires the sales force, or someone who is a draw and will put people in chairs, such as a Donald Trump.
Once you determine which kind of star you want in your galaxy, work with one of the many specialized speaker’s bureaus who specialize in such bookings. They have the inside scoop on who’s hot and who’s not, prices and availability. Literal stars draw our eyes to the heavens; celebrity “stars” can draw both magic and more people to your event.
An Affair to Remember
If like many organizers, your budget and goals for your event include a grand soiree, make it one you pre-publicize. Why sink all that money into the exotic dinner cruise without giving your potential attendees an opportunity to get excited? Include a decent sized color photo of the potential boat (or other location provided by your supplier) on your web site and write some splashy copy to knock those perched on the fence over to your side. One example of a trick that I’ve seen generate much enthusiasm is to offer a free ticket or other such prize to every hundredth registrant, as one example. No, this likely won’t generate attendance from the ambivalent but it might entice a few still considering. What this will do is induce a certain enthusiasm and excitement among those planning to, or considering attending your event.
The Planner’s Best Friend
Many event and meeting organizers are unaware of how much the CVB can assist in your promotional efforts for event promotions and often at a minimal cost, or for no charge. The CVB has as much to gain from your group’s peak attendance as you do, so find out early in your promotional efforts just what is offered and at what cost. Don’t forget: Like any supplier, you can and should negotiate with the CVB for such event promotional assistance. Following are a few examples of what many CVB’s offer gratis, depending on the size of the group and its potential revenue to their city.
Full color visitor’s guides, local maps, pins, city fact sheets and area attractions brochures
Telemarketing to help build attendance
Pre-Promotion well in advance of your event. Pre-printed literature can be personalized with your own copy for your mailings
The CVB’s logo, event promotional video, color slides and digital images
Exhibit displays
Airport electronic message board
“Meet and Greet”
In truth, CVB’s are thrilled to help promote your event and since they all offer different services and products, just ask. I have never found a CVB that didn’t bend over backwards to help make our events a success.
Don’t Overlook the Small Stuff
Event organizers are typically within a dizzying whirl of conflicting demands and it’s all too easy to overlook some simple yet effective event promotion opportunities to promote your event. Here are a few:
Broadcast fax cover sheets
Letterhead
E-mail signatures
Announcements to trade press
Newsletters and magazines articles
Inserts in all outbound correspondence
Piggy-Back on Nearby Events
If an exciting, splashy event is scheduled in close proximity during your own event, let people know! Does your group have a group of golfers? If a major golf tournament is scheduled nearby, even immediately before or after your event, let members know. You might also consider offering transportation or something to assist those interested in attending the event.
Is Pavarotti performing nearby? To make your own performance sing, provide a means for attendees to get tickets and then promote the event in your promotional material about the conference location.
Press It
The press can not only give your event a subtle “plug” but this will be more likely if you have developed and maintain relationships with them. To cultivate such relationships, be accessible and if you find something that might be of interest to them that has nothing to do with you and your event, forward it to them. The press doesn’t forget favors and can be your best friend in getting the word out about your event.
Alas, desired conference attendance numbers are not as simple as, “If you plan it, they will come.” The most spectacular location and meticulous planning can be over-shadowed by reduced attendance but fortunately, there are many solutions, from the simple to the complex that will reap real benefits and bring real bodies to your event.
Judy Williams
This Article is Copyright protected. If you have comments; or would like to have this article republished free on your site, please contact the author here: articles@regonline.com. We just require all due credits carried; and text, hyperlinks and headers unaltered. This article must not be used in unsolicited mail.
Optimum Utilisation Of Manual Traffic Exchanges In A Marketing Strategy
by: Jayadeep Rath
The advantage of gaining critical mass in a marketing plan can never be over- emphasised....and "Manual Traffic Exchanges" can be the critical element to keep the wheel of your marketing plan rolling.
It is happening with monotonous regularity that every newbie internet marketer wants results from "Day 1" and every pro marketer will vouch for the fact that they have undergone significant stresses and strains to reach where they have reached.
This prelude gives us an inkling of the position of manual traffic exchange users. A beginning is made with full gusto....and it is not long before the levels of motivation and enthusiasm come crashing down.
Here are some tips and tricks which will go a long way in making optimim utilisation of "Manual Traffic Exchanges" and bridging the gap between thory and practice.
1) Surf, surf and surf for at least a couple of months.Do not expect any results...because you seldom get them within two months.
2) Do not make the mistake of including the URL of your internet opportunity on each and every manual traffic exchange you are participating....instead...use some of your traffic exchange affiliate links to derive the benefits of residual traffic in the long run.
3) Refer, refer and refer by cross promoting your affiliate link in Traffic Exchange A with Traffic Exchange B and so on.
4)Use "Splash pages" for promoting in "Manual Traffic exchanges"
5) Do not....please do not use pop-ups and other distracting stuff to de-motivate your prospective downline in those precious 15-30 seconds he or she has a glimpse at your website. It's all to well to have them on the homepage of your website...but never put a pop-up on your splash pages...for all you know, the traffic exchange might reject your pop up splash page in the first place.
6) Use the magic of compounding which results in the power of residual traffic by building a good downline base.
7) Pick and choose your traffic exchanges and keep a note of the benefits offered. For example : a) Referral structure for earning downline credits b) Credits Ratio for own surfing c) Free credits and bonus for being an active member.d)Ongoing contests e) Read between the lines.A traffic exchange may give free bonus credits for reading emails sent to members or a traffic exchange may give bonus credits for surfing 25 websites daily. Just imagine the misfortune you are going through if you surf between 20-24 websites on that exchange everybody. Further, it is always better to actively refer members in those traffic exchanges offering at least 20% credits in two to three levels.
8)Use the option to transfer credits to potential downline members if they join under you. Many traffic exchanges offer this option either through the traffic exchange or from the member's area.
9)Get into swap deals with other traffic exchange members. Statistics tell us that a majority of traffic exchange members join traffic exchanges directly from the homepage. Do not commit the same mistake. Let's assume you are a member of Traffic Exchange A and you want to join Traffic Exchange B. It would benefit you greatly if you can post an offer in a forum you participate in that you are willing to join Traffic Exchange B under anyone who is willing to join uder you for Traffic Exchange A. This is a win-win situation for both you and the person you are doing the swap deal with.
10) Do use an affiliate link cloaker to get better response rates whenever you prmote affiliate links.Use "Manual Traffic Exchanges" as a critical cog in the wheel of your marketing plan.Do not commit the mistake of assuming that it is the wheel itself. Integrate other promotion methods like forums, safelists, blogs, rss feeds, search engine optimisation techniques, ezine advertisements, joint venturing with other webmasters, etc. The possibilities are endless. Use "your brain" ...and...."your common-sense" to catapult yourself to the top of the ladder of success.
C U at the Top !!!
With best wishes......
Jayadeep Rath
Jayadeep Rath is the founder of a manual traffic exchange - http://www.eatsleeptraffic.com and believes strongly in the power of manual traffic exchanges to make your marketing plan go places. He has an RSS feed for sharing internet marketing ideas, innovations, strategies, and opportunities from his website. (This article can be reproduced on any website or blog only if the entire article along with live links are not changed and is not posted in any in-appropriate websites .)
The advantage of gaining critical mass in a marketing plan can never be over- emphasised....and "Manual Traffic Exchanges" can be the critical element to keep the wheel of your marketing plan rolling.
It is happening with monotonous regularity that every newbie internet marketer wants results from "Day 1" and every pro marketer will vouch for the fact that they have undergone significant stresses and strains to reach where they have reached.
This prelude gives us an inkling of the position of manual traffic exchange users. A beginning is made with full gusto....and it is not long before the levels of motivation and enthusiasm come crashing down.
Here are some tips and tricks which will go a long way in making optimim utilisation of "Manual Traffic Exchanges" and bridging the gap between thory and practice.
1) Surf, surf and surf for at least a couple of months.Do not expect any results...because you seldom get them within two months.
2) Do not make the mistake of including the URL of your internet opportunity on each and every manual traffic exchange you are participating....instead...use some of your traffic exchange affiliate links to derive the benefits of residual traffic in the long run.
3) Refer, refer and refer by cross promoting your affiliate link in Traffic Exchange A with Traffic Exchange B and so on.
4)Use "Splash pages" for promoting in "Manual Traffic exchanges"
5) Do not....please do not use pop-ups and other distracting stuff to de-motivate your prospective downline in those precious 15-30 seconds he or she has a glimpse at your website. It's all to well to have them on the homepage of your website...but never put a pop-up on your splash pages...for all you know, the traffic exchange might reject your pop up splash page in the first place.
6) Use the magic of compounding which results in the power of residual traffic by building a good downline base.
7) Pick and choose your traffic exchanges and keep a note of the benefits offered. For example : a) Referral structure for earning downline credits b) Credits Ratio for own surfing c) Free credits and bonus for being an active member.d)Ongoing contests e) Read between the lines.A traffic exchange may give free bonus credits for reading emails sent to members or a traffic exchange may give bonus credits for surfing 25 websites daily. Just imagine the misfortune you are going through if you surf between 20-24 websites on that exchange everybody. Further, it is always better to actively refer members in those traffic exchanges offering at least 20% credits in two to three levels.
8)Use the option to transfer credits to potential downline members if they join under you. Many traffic exchanges offer this option either through the traffic exchange or from the member's area.
9)Get into swap deals with other traffic exchange members. Statistics tell us that a majority of traffic exchange members join traffic exchanges directly from the homepage. Do not commit the same mistake. Let's assume you are a member of Traffic Exchange A and you want to join Traffic Exchange B. It would benefit you greatly if you can post an offer in a forum you participate in that you are willing to join Traffic Exchange B under anyone who is willing to join uder you for Traffic Exchange A. This is a win-win situation for both you and the person you are doing the swap deal with.
10) Do use an affiliate link cloaker to get better response rates whenever you prmote affiliate links.Use "Manual Traffic Exchanges" as a critical cog in the wheel of your marketing plan.Do not commit the mistake of assuming that it is the wheel itself. Integrate other promotion methods like forums, safelists, blogs, rss feeds, search engine optimisation techniques, ezine advertisements, joint venturing with other webmasters, etc. The possibilities are endless. Use "your brain" ...and...."your common-sense" to catapult yourself to the top of the ladder of success.
C U at the Top !!!
With best wishes......
Jayadeep Rath
Jayadeep Rath is the founder of a manual traffic exchange - http://www.eatsleeptraffic.com and believes strongly in the power of manual traffic exchanges to make your marketing plan go places. He has an RSS feed for sharing internet marketing ideas, innovations, strategies, and opportunities from his website. (This article can be reproduced on any website or blog only if the entire article along with live links are not changed and is not posted in any in-appropriate websites .)
A Website Is Not Enough
by: Shawn Hickman
Your small business needs an appealing and professional website but that is just the beginning. If no one visits your website and -- more importantly -- if it does not bring in new customers and allows you to sell more to your current customers, then your site is not effective. What do you need to improve your online marketing efforts?
The first step is to decide on a primary goal for your website. Is it to directly sell products or services through e-commerce? Or is the goal to capture leads so you can follow-up and make the sale by email and phone?
For e-commerce you need a website design with a shopping cart system, that encourages people to purchase products using the shopping cart. Both the design and written content should maintain this focus.
If your goal is to capture leads, the key is to have the content that provides initial information about your products and services that interests prospective customers. It should be easy for the prospective customer to fill out a contact form and hit the submit button or call your 800-number. The form should be submitted to a contact management system such as Salesforce or SugarCRM.
Getting it Done
Your business needs a professional website, which can cost between $2,000 -- $15,000 to design. This is not only more than most small businesses want to spend but also unnecessary to succeed on the Web.
For small business there is usually little need for an elaborate, expensive website. You can get an appealing and professional website design for as little as $250.
The key to a professional website design is to work with a good designer who takes the time to listen to you and translate your vision into an effective website. Your designer must be as skilled in listening as in design.
Once the site is completed there must be an easy way for you - or someone on your behalf -- to maintain the website. The designer should provide you with an easy-to-use content management system (CMS), enabling you to edit your website without having to contact your designer. This saves you money.
Once you have a professional website you have the foundation for marketing online. You can build on that foundation and use the Internet as an effective marketing tool.
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing can be divided into two main categories: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC).
Please do a Google search right now for something pretty popular (e.g., coffee). The results on the left side of the browser window that reach down to the bottom of the page are the organic search results. The top results are generally the more popular sites. The highest ranking sites are those sites that have the most links from other websites (especially other high ranking sites). In a sense, other people have voted for the high ranking sites by linking to them. Often, the high ranking sites are the most popular but there is also a lot of gaming of the system. You cannot, however, pay Google to increase your site's ranking.
On the right side of your search results and, sometimes, up at the top of the page are the "Sponsored Links." These links are paid advertising through a system called Google Adwords. Look for the "Sponsored Links" heading and compare how these links look with the non-sponsored organic links.
Search Engine Optimization
To increase your search rankings in Google (and other search engines), you can do a number of things. We will focus on Google because of its dominant position as a search engine.
The truth is that it is a crowded field out there for most keywords. Your best bet is to find some niche keywords and work on those. It would be very difficult to achieve a high ranking for the keyword "coffee" but if you have a more specific niche you have a better chance of succeeding.
For example - and this is just an example for illustration, not necessarily a good keyword combination - "Guatemalan shade grown coffee" would be an easier space in which to compete. You would have a chance of rising to the top or at least getting on the first page of results.
The primary way to increase your ranking is to have other high ranking sites establish links to your site and have those links associated with specific keywords - such as "Guatemalan shade grown coffee" as in our example. What follows is a few ideas on how to do that in an ethically and effective way. Don't be tempted by gimmicks because Google and other search engines are becoming more savvy, and can penalize sites that try to game the system too much.
First, submit your site to as many directories and other clearinghouse type sites in your industry as you can. That should probably be your first step in SEO. Again, use the keywords that you are most interested in associating with your site.
Submit your site to general directories that are organized by topic. Some sites charge money for fast consideration of your submission, and are probably worth it. For example, Yahoo Directory charges $300/year for expedited consideration of your submission. For other highly prized directories -- such as the Open Directory Project -- you just have to submit your site and hope it will be considered reasonably soon.
Next, talk to your vendors and people in related industries and see about arranging for link exchanges or perhaps even success stories that include a link. They link to you and, in exchange, you link to them.
Then start writing articles. The key to articles is to write about something you know and that has information that is genuinely interesting to your audience. Publish your article in publications that are related to your industry. If your article is published in web publications, you will not only get direct sales leads from your article but your article will also help your search engine position.
For example, our fictional coffee vendor could write an article on exactly why shade grown coffee is superior to non-shade grown coffee. Or, better yet, why "Guatemalan Shade Grown Coffee" is truly the best. The article would have to include facts to support this claim and not just fluff. Maybe the next article could be on how to make the perfect cup of coffee. I would be first in line to read that one.
The key thing to remember is that SEO is a long process. You rarely get instant results. It can take 8-12 months to see any significant progress. You have to keep at it.
Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising
There are a number of PPC providers but we will focus on Google Adwords as they are currently the dominant PPC system.
First, you decide on the goal (called a conversion) of your Adwords campaign. Is it a direct sign-up? Is it capturing sales leads?
A conversion when the goal is achieved and Google Adwords keeps a running tally of your conversions and the cost per conversion. You can see the cost of obtaining a lead or the cost of getting a customer. You can determine if Adwords is working for you, and whether you should make adjustments or discontinue it completely. Generally, it takes a bit of experimentation to get it right but it can be a steady source of business for you. It is worth some effort as once it is set up well it runs and can bring in a steady stream of business.
You set a daily budget (say $35) and a maximum bid on specific keywords (say $2.75). You only pay when someone clicks on your ad click. So if you are bidding $2.75 you might only pay an average of say $2.60 per click. It depends on the keywords and how much you want to bid. Spend some time choosing good keywords. Google Adwords has tools to help you choose the most powerful keywords. You will also need to embed some special code in your website to enable Google to track conversions.
Google Adwords really works. Try it and see if it will work for you. It does not require a big investment to get started. In fact, some web hosting and design companies offer a coupon so you can get started with Adwords for free. Google Adwords is easier to use than you might think.
Permission-Based E-mail Marketing
Spammers have given Email marketing a bad name in much the same way that unethical salespeople have given sales a bad name. This is unfortunate as a knowledgeable salesperson can be an essential part of making good buying decisions. The same is true of good email marketing.
With permission-based email marketing - as opposed to spam - the receiver of the email has expressed interest. Think of spam as the wily salesman in the polyester suit -- and think of permission-based email as the knowledgeable salesperson we respect.
For example, I am on an email list at a bookstore that I frequent. I look forward to the e-newsletters as they often have interesting content and good discounts. I enjoy receiving this e-newsletter and the bookstore gets more business from me as a result. I rarely go anywhere else to buy books. They have retained me as a customer and I buy more often at least in part because of their e-newsletter.
Email marketing can help you increase customer retention and help you earn more revenue from each customer by cross-selling and up-selling to your current customer base. It can also help you expand your client base.
Email marketing is becoming crucial to online marketing and - when done ethically and well -- can be extremely effective. Sign up for a free trial with an email marketing service and see if it works for you. If not, try another service. Find a service that meets your needs.
You can grow your own email newsletter list with a sign up form on your website, and by asking for opt-in in your sign-up and lead capture forms.
What to look for in an Email Marketing Provider
At a minimum an email marketing service should make it easy for you to create eye-catching emails, manage multiple email lists, and place newsletter sign-up forms on your website. There should be powerful list management, robust reporting, and reliability. Your provider must also have excellent customer service.
Your email marketing service should include an easy way to track the results of your email campaigns. Who opened your email, how many times, and when? Did they click on the link you provided? Did they purchase anything or submit a lead? The service should enable you to track message reads in real time, and read detailed reports online or export them to a spreadsheet.
In addition, your email marketing service should give you the ability to manage multiple lists and divide lists into multiple segments.
Conclusion
Obtaining a website and marketing your products or services online does not have to be expensive. An economical way to accomplish these goals is to hire a company to design your website and provide you with bundled web hosting and permission-based email marketing services. It would be an added bonus if they can get you started using Google Adwords with a free coupon.
Shawn Hickman
Neil Anuskiewicz is the Marketing Manager for EZ Publishing. Shawn Hickman is a SEO expert. He can take your site to the next level of online marketing and place you at the top of the search engine results. Visit www.4cornersflorida.com for more information.
Your small business needs an appealing and professional website but that is just the beginning. If no one visits your website and -- more importantly -- if it does not bring in new customers and allows you to sell more to your current customers, then your site is not effective. What do you need to improve your online marketing efforts?
The first step is to decide on a primary goal for your website. Is it to directly sell products or services through e-commerce? Or is the goal to capture leads so you can follow-up and make the sale by email and phone?
For e-commerce you need a website design with a shopping cart system, that encourages people to purchase products using the shopping cart. Both the design and written content should maintain this focus.
If your goal is to capture leads, the key is to have the content that provides initial information about your products and services that interests prospective customers. It should be easy for the prospective customer to fill out a contact form and hit the submit button or call your 800-number. The form should be submitted to a contact management system such as Salesforce or SugarCRM.
Getting it Done
Your business needs a professional website, which can cost between $2,000 -- $15,000 to design. This is not only more than most small businesses want to spend but also unnecessary to succeed on the Web.
For small business there is usually little need for an elaborate, expensive website. You can get an appealing and professional website design for as little as $250.
The key to a professional website design is to work with a good designer who takes the time to listen to you and translate your vision into an effective website. Your designer must be as skilled in listening as in design.
Once the site is completed there must be an easy way for you - or someone on your behalf -- to maintain the website. The designer should provide you with an easy-to-use content management system (CMS), enabling you to edit your website without having to contact your designer. This saves you money.
Once you have a professional website you have the foundation for marketing online. You can build on that foundation and use the Internet as an effective marketing tool.
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing can be divided into two main categories: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC).
Please do a Google search right now for something pretty popular (e.g., coffee). The results on the left side of the browser window that reach down to the bottom of the page are the organic search results. The top results are generally the more popular sites. The highest ranking sites are those sites that have the most links from other websites (especially other high ranking sites). In a sense, other people have voted for the high ranking sites by linking to them. Often, the high ranking sites are the most popular but there is also a lot of gaming of the system. You cannot, however, pay Google to increase your site's ranking.
On the right side of your search results and, sometimes, up at the top of the page are the "Sponsored Links." These links are paid advertising through a system called Google Adwords. Look for the "Sponsored Links" heading and compare how these links look with the non-sponsored organic links.
Search Engine Optimization
To increase your search rankings in Google (and other search engines), you can do a number of things. We will focus on Google because of its dominant position as a search engine.
The truth is that it is a crowded field out there for most keywords. Your best bet is to find some niche keywords and work on those. It would be very difficult to achieve a high ranking for the keyword "coffee" but if you have a more specific niche you have a better chance of succeeding.
For example - and this is just an example for illustration, not necessarily a good keyword combination - "Guatemalan shade grown coffee" would be an easier space in which to compete. You would have a chance of rising to the top or at least getting on the first page of results.
The primary way to increase your ranking is to have other high ranking sites establish links to your site and have those links associated with specific keywords - such as "Guatemalan shade grown coffee" as in our example. What follows is a few ideas on how to do that in an ethically and effective way. Don't be tempted by gimmicks because Google and other search engines are becoming more savvy, and can penalize sites that try to game the system too much.
First, submit your site to as many directories and other clearinghouse type sites in your industry as you can. That should probably be your first step in SEO. Again, use the keywords that you are most interested in associating with your site.
Submit your site to general directories that are organized by topic. Some sites charge money for fast consideration of your submission, and are probably worth it. For example, Yahoo Directory charges $300/year for expedited consideration of your submission. For other highly prized directories -- such as the Open Directory Project -- you just have to submit your site and hope it will be considered reasonably soon.
Next, talk to your vendors and people in related industries and see about arranging for link exchanges or perhaps even success stories that include a link. They link to you and, in exchange, you link to them.
Then start writing articles. The key to articles is to write about something you know and that has information that is genuinely interesting to your audience. Publish your article in publications that are related to your industry. If your article is published in web publications, you will not only get direct sales leads from your article but your article will also help your search engine position.
For example, our fictional coffee vendor could write an article on exactly why shade grown coffee is superior to non-shade grown coffee. Or, better yet, why "Guatemalan Shade Grown Coffee" is truly the best. The article would have to include facts to support this claim and not just fluff. Maybe the next article could be on how to make the perfect cup of coffee. I would be first in line to read that one.
The key thing to remember is that SEO is a long process. You rarely get instant results. It can take 8-12 months to see any significant progress. You have to keep at it.
Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising
There are a number of PPC providers but we will focus on Google Adwords as they are currently the dominant PPC system.
First, you decide on the goal (called a conversion) of your Adwords campaign. Is it a direct sign-up? Is it capturing sales leads?
A conversion when the goal is achieved and Google Adwords keeps a running tally of your conversions and the cost per conversion. You can see the cost of obtaining a lead or the cost of getting a customer. You can determine if Adwords is working for you, and whether you should make adjustments or discontinue it completely. Generally, it takes a bit of experimentation to get it right but it can be a steady source of business for you. It is worth some effort as once it is set up well it runs and can bring in a steady stream of business.
You set a daily budget (say $35) and a maximum bid on specific keywords (say $2.75). You only pay when someone clicks on your ad click. So if you are bidding $2.75 you might only pay an average of say $2.60 per click. It depends on the keywords and how much you want to bid. Spend some time choosing good keywords. Google Adwords has tools to help you choose the most powerful keywords. You will also need to embed some special code in your website to enable Google to track conversions.
Google Adwords really works. Try it and see if it will work for you. It does not require a big investment to get started. In fact, some web hosting and design companies offer a coupon so you can get started with Adwords for free. Google Adwords is easier to use than you might think.
Permission-Based E-mail Marketing
Spammers have given Email marketing a bad name in much the same way that unethical salespeople have given sales a bad name. This is unfortunate as a knowledgeable salesperson can be an essential part of making good buying decisions. The same is true of good email marketing.
With permission-based email marketing - as opposed to spam - the receiver of the email has expressed interest. Think of spam as the wily salesman in the polyester suit -- and think of permission-based email as the knowledgeable salesperson we respect.
For example, I am on an email list at a bookstore that I frequent. I look forward to the e-newsletters as they often have interesting content and good discounts. I enjoy receiving this e-newsletter and the bookstore gets more business from me as a result. I rarely go anywhere else to buy books. They have retained me as a customer and I buy more often at least in part because of their e-newsletter.
Email marketing can help you increase customer retention and help you earn more revenue from each customer by cross-selling and up-selling to your current customer base. It can also help you expand your client base.
Email marketing is becoming crucial to online marketing and - when done ethically and well -- can be extremely effective. Sign up for a free trial with an email marketing service and see if it works for you. If not, try another service. Find a service that meets your needs.
You can grow your own email newsletter list with a sign up form on your website, and by asking for opt-in in your sign-up and lead capture forms.
What to look for in an Email Marketing Provider
At a minimum an email marketing service should make it easy for you to create eye-catching emails, manage multiple email lists, and place newsletter sign-up forms on your website. There should be powerful list management, robust reporting, and reliability. Your provider must also have excellent customer service.
Your email marketing service should include an easy way to track the results of your email campaigns. Who opened your email, how many times, and when? Did they click on the link you provided? Did they purchase anything or submit a lead? The service should enable you to track message reads in real time, and read detailed reports online or export them to a spreadsheet.
In addition, your email marketing service should give you the ability to manage multiple lists and divide lists into multiple segments.
Conclusion
Obtaining a website and marketing your products or services online does not have to be expensive. An economical way to accomplish these goals is to hire a company to design your website and provide you with bundled web hosting and permission-based email marketing services. It would be an added bonus if they can get you started using Google Adwords with a free coupon.
Shawn Hickman
Neil Anuskiewicz is the Marketing Manager for EZ Publishing. Shawn Hickman is a SEO expert. He can take your site to the next level of online marketing and place you at the top of the search engine results. Visit www.4cornersflorida.com for more information.
How to Grow Your Small Business
by: Ben Botes
Almost every business owner wants to see his/her business grow. If you are thinking about the future of your business you probably have more questions than answers. But making sure you ask the right questions in every area of your business should lead you towards solutions that can move your business forward positively.
These are all serious questions, which need addressing on a regular basis if your business is to continue on a pathway to success.
Once you have survived the start-up phase of your business, you may be wondering how to take the next step and grow your business beyond its current status.
Choosing the right way to grow and the right strategy to grow through will depend on the type of business you own, your available resources, and how much money, time and sweat equity you're willing to invest all over again. If you're ready to grow, we're ready to help.
Step 1
Decide if you really want to be bigger
Making a decision on growth is a huge decision. So, coming to a conclusion should be based on factors such as what you want the growth to accomplish, whether you will still have the control you want, if the growth will still allow you to deliver the service and quality that you built your business on? What are your goals? For me, at least at this stage, my goals revolve around making a decent income, to be in a reasonable semblance of control of my own destiny, and to work from home to at least be near my family as I pull long hours.
Talk to your peers: Talking with folks in the same position as you, or folks that have been in the same position, is a great way to help you in the decision of growing or not growing. Often these people have been through exactly what you are going through, and as the saying goes, it's always better to learn from someone else's mistakes! Ask questions about why they chose to expand, why they went the way they did, and most of all, what they wouldn't do again.
Look at the positives and the negatives: While it is easy to say that if you expand, you'll make more money, have more power, etc., don't forget the negatives. With growth comes increased costs, more responsibility, more risk, and, like they aren't already long, longer hours. Hiring more people doesn't necessarily mean you'll have more time—in fact, the opposite is often true.
Could your growth hurt your business? Now there's a thought! And that's what weighs heavily on me. Could my growth actually hurt my business? As a service-based business, virtually all of my work has come from word of mouth … folks that are happy with the work I have done and spread it around. So, if they hire my company to do work for them, at this stage, they are hiring me. Will bringing on a new hire and growing hurt that? It may.
Step 2
Hiring new employees - and good ones at that
Well, you've made the decision. You've weighed the options and you are going to grow.
The first thing you have to deal with is getting help and hiring the right people. Hiring employees is a huge step that can radically change how you work and how you feel about your business—both in positive and negative ways. Friends and Family: As the saying goes … "Better the devil you know." Your family knows you the best. You know them. But can you work with them? What sort of working relationship will there be? Can you be their boss and a sibling/spouse/best friend at the same time, or can you separate it? One advantage to family is that they may be a bit more understanding when it comes to issues such as late pay, family situations, etc. Of course, this could also be a disadvantage (you may also be expected to "excuse" family emergencies). Also, it can be difficult to speak to "employees" as "employees" when they are also loved ones, and this can cause problems—both professionally and personally. You must set clear ground rules in advance and remind people that work is work and personal is personal. This is much easier said than done!
Full-time or part-time? Just what do you need to grow? Do you need a full-time sales person or will a part-timer do nicely? Figuring out where you need the most help is very important. The other thing to think about, aside from the cost of full-time vs. part-time (benefits, taxes, etc.) is if you want/need these people as employees or contractors.
Employee or contractor? The big difference between the two really gets down to things such as taxation and benefits and payroll, etc. With an employee, you have to factor all of those things into the mix. But, if your job is retail or requires that someone be at your location of business, then you likely don't have much of a choice.
Local or remote? One distinct advantage for a business such as mine, or one that uses technology a lot, is that location isn't as important as it was just a few years ago. I have worked with subcontractors on projects that were not only out of my time zone, but in other countries as well. I am working on one project for which the client is in California, US, I am in London and the person running the backbend systems is in France … cool! This arrangement is also good as the remote person most likely has his or her own equipment (a great expense savings), so you don't need to open an office to "store" the person (see, more money saved), and you can still have your own mental space to work in. It also allows you to find the best people—not just the best people in your area.
Step 3
Overhead and additional costs
With growth comes additional costs and overhead. Being one who is rather frugal with my expenses, I try to look at as many options as possible. Here are a few to add to the mix.
Office space. First off, if you don't need the space, for example, if your small business is purely on-line or you don't ever have walk-in customers, why rent or lease space? Do you have space in your home to set aside as a location to run your business? I'm talking about a separate space. One away from your family and one that you can write off on your taxes? So you need some space—what about a business center/business incubation center? These are popping up everywhere. Basically, you rent out a small office within the center, but with that comes a front desk person to answer and route calls, access to equipment that you don't have to buy (fax, copier, etc.), a "prestigious" address, and access to things such as conference rooms that you may not be able to afford otherwise. This is a great way to start! One other option could be to share office space with another company. This is a great way to offset costs, but if you go that route, make sure you set some ground rules, in writing, first. It's always better to cover your assets!
Equipment: Another killer of expansion is equipment costs. Rule #1 seems to be that leasing is the best way to go. It is better for your cash flow, you can write virtually the entire lease amount off on your taxes (depends on where you live, of course), and, when it comes to computer equipment and given the nature of the advancements in technology, you won't be stuck with a useless techno-dinosaur. Time: Yes, that's right, time. Remember that it will take a fair bit of time to get your growth level into a mode you are comfortable with. It will take time to hire and train the right person, to set up your bigger office and to get your equipment together. This is an important factor.
Step 4
Raising Capital
To grow beyond the start-up and initial growth phases, you will need capital to inject into your business. Now this, unfortunately, is easier said than done. Banks can be leery of entrepreneurial ventures and venture capital is not easy to obtain. But, although obtaining borrowed capital is difficult, it is by no means impossible.
Here are the main sources of funds:
Banks
Cultivate a good relationship with your banker. The more he or she understands your business and knows you, the more likely it is that your application will be approved. And this means more than just fronting up when you need money. Keep your banker informed of all significant developments in your business and routinely provide copies of your annual business plans.
Be prepared to demonstrate that your business is capable of generating cash flow and think about what collateral you have available to put up if necessary.
Venture Capital
In addition to a solid business plan and track record, venture capital providers want to see that you understand your customers and how your business is a good fit with their needs. So arm yourself with competitive intelligence and satisfied customers as references. Also, be prepared to show you have access to experienced management staff. These individuals need not be on your payroll but you should expect to show that you have a depth of experience and talent available to you at least in an advisory capacity.
Revenue Stream
Instead of selling equity to raise capital, consider selling part of the revenue of the business. In other words, investors advance loan capital and get repaid by way of a percentage of the sales of the business. This preserves your equity in the business and is attractive to investors because they receive an immediate cash return.
This method has the considerable advantage of avoiding securities laws (it is a loan rather than a sale of securities) but it is only viable for businesses with high margins and strong sales.
Direct Public Offering
If your business has a strong relationship with its constituents (employees, customers, vendors and community), consider selling stock via a direct public offering.
Here are 10 popular growth strategies that can be used with great effect.
Open another location.
Offer your business as a franchise or business opportunity.
License your product.
Form an alliance.
Diversify.
Sell complementary products or services
Teach adult education or other types of classes
Import or export yours or others' products
Become a paid speaker or columnist
Target other markets.
Win a government contract.
Merge with or acquire another business.
Expand globally
Expand to the Internet.
Which ever growth strategy you choose, make sure you are ready, plan well and assess your options often.
Learn more at http://www.my1stbusiness.com/sales-letter/landing2.htm
Ben Botes MSc. MBA, is an Entrepreneur, Speaker, Writer, Coach and academic. He is the founder of My1stBusiness.com, South African Business Hubs
Join the My1stbusiness.com Reseller Program and earn 40% referral commission http://www.my1stbusiness.com/affiliate
Read Ben's Blog at http://www.my1stbusiness.com/weblog
Almost every business owner wants to see his/her business grow. If you are thinking about the future of your business you probably have more questions than answers. But making sure you ask the right questions in every area of your business should lead you towards solutions that can move your business forward positively.
These are all serious questions, which need addressing on a regular basis if your business is to continue on a pathway to success.
Once you have survived the start-up phase of your business, you may be wondering how to take the next step and grow your business beyond its current status.
Choosing the right way to grow and the right strategy to grow through will depend on the type of business you own, your available resources, and how much money, time and sweat equity you're willing to invest all over again. If you're ready to grow, we're ready to help.
Step 1
Decide if you really want to be bigger
Making a decision on growth is a huge decision. So, coming to a conclusion should be based on factors such as what you want the growth to accomplish, whether you will still have the control you want, if the growth will still allow you to deliver the service and quality that you built your business on? What are your goals? For me, at least at this stage, my goals revolve around making a decent income, to be in a reasonable semblance of control of my own destiny, and to work from home to at least be near my family as I pull long hours.
Talk to your peers: Talking with folks in the same position as you, or folks that have been in the same position, is a great way to help you in the decision of growing or not growing. Often these people have been through exactly what you are going through, and as the saying goes, it's always better to learn from someone else's mistakes! Ask questions about why they chose to expand, why they went the way they did, and most of all, what they wouldn't do again.
Look at the positives and the negatives: While it is easy to say that if you expand, you'll make more money, have more power, etc., don't forget the negatives. With growth comes increased costs, more responsibility, more risk, and, like they aren't already long, longer hours. Hiring more people doesn't necessarily mean you'll have more time—in fact, the opposite is often true.
Could your growth hurt your business? Now there's a thought! And that's what weighs heavily on me. Could my growth actually hurt my business? As a service-based business, virtually all of my work has come from word of mouth … folks that are happy with the work I have done and spread it around. So, if they hire my company to do work for them, at this stage, they are hiring me. Will bringing on a new hire and growing hurt that? It may.
Step 2
Hiring new employees - and good ones at that
Well, you've made the decision. You've weighed the options and you are going to grow.
The first thing you have to deal with is getting help and hiring the right people. Hiring employees is a huge step that can radically change how you work and how you feel about your business—both in positive and negative ways. Friends and Family: As the saying goes … "Better the devil you know." Your family knows you the best. You know them. But can you work with them? What sort of working relationship will there be? Can you be their boss and a sibling/spouse/best friend at the same time, or can you separate it? One advantage to family is that they may be a bit more understanding when it comes to issues such as late pay, family situations, etc. Of course, this could also be a disadvantage (you may also be expected to "excuse" family emergencies). Also, it can be difficult to speak to "employees" as "employees" when they are also loved ones, and this can cause problems—both professionally and personally. You must set clear ground rules in advance and remind people that work is work and personal is personal. This is much easier said than done!
Full-time or part-time? Just what do you need to grow? Do you need a full-time sales person or will a part-timer do nicely? Figuring out where you need the most help is very important. The other thing to think about, aside from the cost of full-time vs. part-time (benefits, taxes, etc.) is if you want/need these people as employees or contractors.
Employee or contractor? The big difference between the two really gets down to things such as taxation and benefits and payroll, etc. With an employee, you have to factor all of those things into the mix. But, if your job is retail or requires that someone be at your location of business, then you likely don't have much of a choice.
Local or remote? One distinct advantage for a business such as mine, or one that uses technology a lot, is that location isn't as important as it was just a few years ago. I have worked with subcontractors on projects that were not only out of my time zone, but in other countries as well. I am working on one project for which the client is in California, US, I am in London and the person running the backbend systems is in France … cool! This arrangement is also good as the remote person most likely has his or her own equipment (a great expense savings), so you don't need to open an office to "store" the person (see, more money saved), and you can still have your own mental space to work in. It also allows you to find the best people—not just the best people in your area.
Step 3
Overhead and additional costs
With growth comes additional costs and overhead. Being one who is rather frugal with my expenses, I try to look at as many options as possible. Here are a few to add to the mix.
Office space. First off, if you don't need the space, for example, if your small business is purely on-line or you don't ever have walk-in customers, why rent or lease space? Do you have space in your home to set aside as a location to run your business? I'm talking about a separate space. One away from your family and one that you can write off on your taxes? So you need some space—what about a business center/business incubation center? These are popping up everywhere. Basically, you rent out a small office within the center, but with that comes a front desk person to answer and route calls, access to equipment that you don't have to buy (fax, copier, etc.), a "prestigious" address, and access to things such as conference rooms that you may not be able to afford otherwise. This is a great way to start! One other option could be to share office space with another company. This is a great way to offset costs, but if you go that route, make sure you set some ground rules, in writing, first. It's always better to cover your assets!
Equipment: Another killer of expansion is equipment costs. Rule #1 seems to be that leasing is the best way to go. It is better for your cash flow, you can write virtually the entire lease amount off on your taxes (depends on where you live, of course), and, when it comes to computer equipment and given the nature of the advancements in technology, you won't be stuck with a useless techno-dinosaur. Time: Yes, that's right, time. Remember that it will take a fair bit of time to get your growth level into a mode you are comfortable with. It will take time to hire and train the right person, to set up your bigger office and to get your equipment together. This is an important factor.
Step 4
Raising Capital
To grow beyond the start-up and initial growth phases, you will need capital to inject into your business. Now this, unfortunately, is easier said than done. Banks can be leery of entrepreneurial ventures and venture capital is not easy to obtain. But, although obtaining borrowed capital is difficult, it is by no means impossible.
Here are the main sources of funds:
Banks
Cultivate a good relationship with your banker. The more he or she understands your business and knows you, the more likely it is that your application will be approved. And this means more than just fronting up when you need money. Keep your banker informed of all significant developments in your business and routinely provide copies of your annual business plans.
Be prepared to demonstrate that your business is capable of generating cash flow and think about what collateral you have available to put up if necessary.
Venture Capital
In addition to a solid business plan and track record, venture capital providers want to see that you understand your customers and how your business is a good fit with their needs. So arm yourself with competitive intelligence and satisfied customers as references. Also, be prepared to show you have access to experienced management staff. These individuals need not be on your payroll but you should expect to show that you have a depth of experience and talent available to you at least in an advisory capacity.
Revenue Stream
Instead of selling equity to raise capital, consider selling part of the revenue of the business. In other words, investors advance loan capital and get repaid by way of a percentage of the sales of the business. This preserves your equity in the business and is attractive to investors because they receive an immediate cash return.
This method has the considerable advantage of avoiding securities laws (it is a loan rather than a sale of securities) but it is only viable for businesses with high margins and strong sales.
Direct Public Offering
If your business has a strong relationship with its constituents (employees, customers, vendors and community), consider selling stock via a direct public offering.
Here are 10 popular growth strategies that can be used with great effect.
Open another location.
Offer your business as a franchise or business opportunity.
License your product.
Form an alliance.
Diversify.
Sell complementary products or services
Teach adult education or other types of classes
Import or export yours or others' products
Become a paid speaker or columnist
Target other markets.
Win a government contract.
Merge with or acquire another business.
Expand globally
Expand to the Internet.
Which ever growth strategy you choose, make sure you are ready, plan well and assess your options often.
Learn more at http://www.my1stbusiness.com/sales-letter/landing2.htm
Ben Botes MSc. MBA, is an Entrepreneur, Speaker, Writer, Coach and academic. He is the founder of My1stBusiness.com, South African Business Hubs
Join the My1stbusiness.com Reseller Program and earn 40% referral commission http://www.my1stbusiness.com/affiliate
Read Ben's Blog at http://www.my1stbusiness.com/weblog
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