Internet Marketing Success

2009-03-10T12:43:00.001-07:00

Come Up with the Best Brochure with Los Angeles Printing

by: Lala C. Ballatan

Business companies spend thousands – even millions of dollars to launch relentless marketing strategies. While many advertisement media has been introduced, traditional propaganda tools are still very much used like posters, flyers and brochures, to name a few. Los Angeles brochure printing service is one of the many companies that help businesses print out different kinds of brochures.

The purpose of brochures as marketing tool varies from business to business. Some are designed to showcase products and services. Other types focus more on selling an idea. Whatever the purpose, a brochure is still just a piece of paper. What can be done to a piece of paper in order to grab the target market’s attention, then? How could a brochure stand out from others?

The Los Angeles brochure printing knows that to make a brochure an effective marketing tool, it should be readable, intriguing and functional. Since it’s but a piece of paper that could be easily thrown away, it must grab the viewer’s attention and hold it long enough to get the pertinent information across. To accomplish this, the brochure should be professionally designed, written and printed.

The Los Angeles brochure printing comes up with the basics of coming up with the best brochures.

In brochures, easy-to-read and strong sentence structure that articulates the company’s message is needed – giving light to the fact that brochure relies heavily on Copy or Text to be very effective. Skilled copywriters have expertise regarding this.
A brochure with a headline on the front in the form of a question can easily catch a customer’s interest. This question catches the viewer’s initial interest making them want to open the brochure to learn more. Usually the question may focus on a problem that is most common in your target industry, tying up the solution the company provides to clients.
An overall brand image should be intact in a brochure. The colors to be applied for the brochure must be in tune with the company’s corporate colors.
Typography must be very accurate – it should also be relevant and thought out. The Los Angeles brochure printing is aware that type is so strong that it can make or break a brochure.
Too many pictures in a brochure that no longer help in articulating a message are not advisable. The brochure become ineffective once the message is clouded due to excessive pictures. There should be a limit in using a picture and must have relevance.

Of course, having company that is competent enough to do the printing of a brochure is a significant consideration. Ineffective and erroneous brochures lead business companies to spending more for redesigning. So, word of advice to all those businesses’ marketing in charge – make sure you have the right brochure the first time, the Los Angeles brochure printing could be a good choice! -30-

About The Author

Lala C. Ballatan is a 26 year-old Communication Arts graduate, with a major in Journalism. Right after graduating last 1999, she worked for one year as a clerk then became a Research, Publication and Documentation Program Director at a non-government organization, which focuses on the rights, interests and welfare of workers for about four years.

Book reading has always been her greatest passion -- mysteries, horrors, psycho-thrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

Her writing prowess began as early as she was 10 years old in girlish diaries. With writing, she felt freedom – to express her viewpoints and assert it, to bring out all concerns -- imagined and observed, to bear witness.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.losangelesprintingservice.com

admin@losangelesprintingservice.com

2009-03-10T12:42:00.004-07:00

An Often Overlooked Secret of Marketing and Negotiating for Real Estate Investors Looking for Deals

by: Jason Van Orden

When you call sellers, what do you say? When you sit down to write a marketing postcard to find deals, what do you write? When you go to negotiate price and terms, how do you present it?

These are scary situations and it is not unusual to be at a loss for words at such times. In fact, you may avoid these situations all together just so you don’t have to face the overwhelming fear.

I want to help you erase that fear and find the words that will give you confidence to call sellers, write advertising, and present offers. The concept I am about to present is fundamental in developing a successful marketing message.

Have you ever read an ad like this?

“The Braun® Multiquick Hand Blender offers a 200-watt motor, stainless steel shaft, five-blade chopper attachment, and aerator head.” (Karen Thackston 2004)

Why in the world would I buy the Braun® Multiquick Hand Blender after reading this description? Why should I care about a 200-watt motor or a stainless steel shaft? I am sure this is an accurate description of the product’s features, but why do I care? What if it read like this?

”The Braun® Multiquick Hand Blender is a priceless tool for any cook with a busy schedule. Its powerful motor enables you to chop, whip, puree and blend with lightning speed. Its stainless steel shaft holds up to years of use without bending or breaking. The Multiquick's five-blade attachment gives you the ability to finely chop or grate even the hardest cheeses and nuts with ease. And the specially designed aerator head incorporates air into the liquids and sauces you blend, making them light and fluffy. You'll create delicious meals with ease and be out of the kitchen in record time.” (Karen Thackston 2004)

OK. So if I want to blend at lightning speed and make my sauces light and fluffy or if I want to finely chop the hardest of nuts without breaking or bending my blender, then it sounds like this is the appliance for me.

What was different between these two descriptions? The first only listed features. The second communicated the benefits. The first is more about the product. The second is more about what is in it for me.

A feature is simply an attribute of a product or service. A benefit is what/how the feature adds value to the customer. Successful salesmanship communicates benefits.

Let me give you just a couple more examples.

“Open 24 Hours” is a feature.

A benefit that speaks value to your prospect is, “When your pregnant wife craves pickles and ice cream at 3 a.m., you know where to get it.”

Here is a real estate example:

“We buy houses subject-to” is meaningless. Try this: “I can take over your payments starting next month and help you avoid paying two house payments when you move.” That speaks to what the prospect wants & what keeps him up at night. Communicate your benefit in a way that brings emotion, fear and desire to the surface.

Now think about what you tell someone when they ask you what you do. Do you just say, “I buy houses”? Or do you say something like, “I buy houses in ten days or less without closing costs or cleanup for the seller.”

Do you see the difference? I often say that you are not in the business of buying and selling houses. When it comes to your customers/clients, when it comes to marketing, when it comes to negotiating, you are in the business of stress relief and solving impossible problems.

With that in mind, what are the specific benefits that you offer? Here are five types of benefits to consider:

Convenience: People love to save time, energy, and effort. Can you make someone’s life easier and more convenient?
Economy: People respond well to saving money or increasing how much money they have. Show them the money.
Peace of Mind: We all have a tendency to seek pleasure and avoid pain. People like to relax. Can you relieve their stress?
Ego: Can you appeal to the human desire for recognition or better image?
Fun: People need a break. People like to form memories. People don’t like to be bored or constantly work. Can you provide a diversion?

Think about each of these categories. What benefits can you offer a seller or buyer in each of these areas? Use meaningful specifics when you write benefits. Don’t just say that you can buy their house fast. How fast? How much money can you get them?

To take it one step further, which of the benefits that you offer are unique to you? The key to cracking the marketing code and attracting volumes of leads and deals is to answer this:

“Why should your prospect do business with you over any and every other option available to him/her?”

If you have a good answer to this question, your business, marketing, and negotiation will become tons easier and you will increase the stream of money into your bank account significantly. This is the message that you must communicate.

The answer to this question lies in the benefits that you offer that are unique to you. This answer to this question is what is called a Unique Selling Proposition.

By better understanding and communicating the benefits that you offer, you will become a powerful salesperson. You will find that your marketing and negotiating become significantly easier bringing massive returns in your investing.

About The Author

Jason Van Orden was the President of the Salt Lake Real Estate Investors Association in 2004. He also teaches investors marketing systems to find more deals and make more money with a minimum investment of their time and money. For more tips on how to market to get motivated sellers calling and begging to do business with you go to: http://www.find-real-estate-investing-deals.com.

2009-03-10T12:42:00.003-07:00

Increasing Short and Long Term Profits

by: Charlie Cook

"I was at your site for all of two minutes before I bought one of your manuals. I'm impressed!" I love to get emails like this one sent by Vicki from Tucson, Arizona. Marketing my business would be easy if every client bought my products within two minutes of seeing my marketing materials, or signed up for my coaching services after a few minutes on the phone with me.

Do you make most of your sales in 2 to 20 minutes from the time a prospect first reads your marketing copy, visits your web site or calls you?

Neither do I. I make approximately 10% of my sales at the time of first contact, but most prospects take weeks, months and, in some cases, years to become clients.

As I mentioned in my marketing blog, I track sales on the day I send out my marketing newsletter. Typically, orders for my books begin to come in within a couple of hours. Some will be from people who just found my web site and aren't even on my mailing list, others will be from prospects who signed up for my newsletter a couple of weeks ago, and still others will be from people who have been getting my marketing materials for a six months or even longer, sometimes as long as two years.

When Do People Buy?

Prospects buy from you when they know you exist, know which problems you solve, feel confident in your products or services and understand their value, and, most importantly, when they want to do something about their situation or are ready to solve a problem. Prospects looking for an immediate solution may buy your $149 product or $5000 service today, but most won't want to purchase it until next month or next year.

Increasing Profits

You need a marketing strategy that helps you increase immediate, short-term and long-term sales.

Does your current marketing strategy do this? Does it prompt people to buy from you the first time they visit your web site or call you, make a purchase a few weeks later and in some cases buy from you years after their first contact?

Would you like to improve your immediate, short-term and long-term sales? Below are marketing strategies you can use to accomplish this.

Making Immediate Sales

You want a prospect reading your marketing materials for the first time to immediately see you as an expert and understand the value of your products and services. Don't make the mistake of thinking the best way to do this is to describe products and services, credentials or list clients.

Introduce yourself with a marketing message that describes how you help your clients, phrased in terms of their concerns, not yours. Follow this with a few testimonials from clients that focus on the results you’ve generated.

Then describe the solution your product or service provides, again in terms of your prospect’s needs. Finally, ask for a commitment, an order or contact information.

Generating Short Term Sales

Not everyone arrives at your web site or at the other end of the phone line ready to make a decision. In fact, 80% of people spend two or more weeks researching their purchasing decisions. What can you do to keep these people interested?

First, get your prospect's contact information. Stay in touch and continue to demonstrate your expertise and the value of your products and services.

You may have an interested prospect, but the prospect isn't clear on why or when they should use your product or service. When you follow up a prospect's initial contact, give them useful ideas they can use related to your product or service, and take advantage of this opportunity to educate them about the problem or concern you can help them resolve.

Improving Long Term Conversion Rates

I had one prospect that I'd talked to three or four times on the phone over the course of two months. When they didn't respond to two follow up calls, I stopped calling. Two months later, that is, four months after our first conversation, they called me to say that after researching a dozen other consultants, they'd finally decided to use my services and at the same time had expanded the scope of the project and the price I'd be paid. You've probably had similar experiences.

Some prospects take even longer than four months to make a decision to buy. Why? Because people buy based on their own timetable, not yours. They buy when they have a need and when they want to act on that need. Even after deciding you want a new tax attorney or financial advisor, it might take you years to end your relationship with your existing advisor and place your trust in someone new.

Most people use contact management software to remind themselves to call or write prospects. This is a first step in keeping a potential sale alive, but a strategy of using only follow up phone calls can fall flat when prospects don't have any news about a project to report, haven't made a decision or just aren't ready to make a purchase.

One effective strategy for staying in the "front of mind" of your prospects is to use a newsletter or ezine to continually demonstrate your expertise and remind them of ways you can help them. Send it out biweekly or monthly, and they'll remember you when they are ready to make a decision or a purchase.

To make sales today, next week and in months to come, give your prospects the information they need and the solutions they want immediately and continuously. Have a plan in place to follow up with those who don't purchase your goods and services right away. Keep providing the information they need to make a decision, and you'll increase sales and profits today, tomorrow and in the coming years.

About The Author

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals and small business owners attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up for the Free Marketing Plan eBook, for small business owners and people responsible for marketing, '7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business' at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com

ccook@marketingforsuccess.com

2009-03-10T12:42:00.001-07:00

TiVo is just a DVR – How Direct TV and Others Packaged A Product for Success

by: Nick Smith

Studying the way Direct TV packaged and positioned TiVo for success in a competitive market can indicate principles for successful marketing for small or home businesses. This article looks at TiVo’s success and discusses the marketing principles that made it work.

TiVo, the poster child of technological advancement for companies like Direct TV, is really nothing more than a middle-aged woman in a designer dress – with plastic surgery. The technology behind TiVo is really just a tweaked DVR, or digital video recorder. Other companies have it; but no other company has built as successful marketing package around their product as has Direct TV with TiVo.

What is TiVo, um, I mean a Digital Video Recorder?

Digital Video Recorders capture video in a way similar to old video recorders, but they do it digitally. Watchers can “pause and rewind live TV” because the speed and response time of DVRs, like TiVo, provide for a virtually seamless transition from live TV to recorded material. Based on user settings, up to 80 hours of television can be recorded. This can include your favorite show each week, or you can record everything you watch to make sure you don’t miss anything. Remember, every DVR can do this, not just TiVo.

The difference is the way Direct TV has partnered with TiVo and positioned it for success in the highly competitive market of satellite television and accessories. The true success of TiVo’s marketing strategy lies in the fact that many people believe it is a unique product.

With product lines in competitive markets, positioning and packaging is king. Direct TV touts TiVo in nearly every major marketing campaign they put together. They offer discount TiVo technologies to new customers who are willing to commit to a one-year contract. My guess is that if you have ever heard of Direct TV and seen any advertisement they have produced, you have been exposed to the TiVo name and features.

Have You Ever Heard of Tevas?

The three strap sandals that have come in and out of fashion over the last few decades are now known almost universally as “Tevas.” Chalk up a point for the company Teva that created and marketed their sandals extremely successfully. When was the last time you had jello (actually a name brand of gelatin desert), or used a Kleenex (trademarked name for a tissue)? Do you ask for a “Coke” no matter what flavor of soda it is? The list goes on and on, including the most recent tendency to refer to all DVR technology as “TiVo.”

What are you going to do about it?

If you own a small business or operate one out of your home, you might not be running your own unique product line. But if you do, what are you doing to package it and position it for success? Consider doing the following:

• Name your product or service. It may sound silly, like naming your car “Betsy” or “Lechuga,” but a name is an essential part of successful repackaging. This is what TiVo did when they renamed their DVR technology. Rather than call it a car wash, try something like “Dirty Mike’s 15-Point SuperClean.” Maybe five years from now people will say they need a “superclean” instead of saying they need a “carwash.” Keep reading below for legal considerations.

• Before you start using a new slogan or title, double check to make sure another company does not already own the trademark or copyright. The last thing you want to do (or pay for) when you own a small business is a lengthy legal process over something you could have avoided had you done the research.

• Get legal protection for your products, names, and slogans. At the same time you are doing your research, register your trademarks, copyrights, and where appropriate your patents. Registering your intellectual property with the government will go a long way when it comes time to stop others from infringing on your company name or intellectual rights.

About The Author

Nick Smith is a client account specialist with http://www.10xmarketing.com – More Visitors. More Buyers. More Revenue. For more information about TiVo and DVRs, visit http://www.dishnetworkproducts.com/articles/tivo.php.

nick10x@yahoo.com

2009-03-10T12:41:00.003-07:00

Five Steps to Protecting Your Music and Your Money

by: Jeromie Frost

There are a lot of independent labels out there waiting to use a talented musician to make quick money. The offers may seem hard to refuse, especially if you are a struggling artist or band that has struggled to get a record deal. A little money and exposure may seem great for the moment, but you run a high risk of getting contractually bound to that record label for the rest of your life. If a better deal comes along later, you may not be able to accept it, or you may get robbed of your rightful percentages. All of this I learned the hard way. I was very fortunate to be able to get myself out of trouble and get a fresh start in the music business. I also took time to educate myself through books and the experiences of others, as well as my own, to conceive a plan on how to avoid a repeat of what happened once before. This plan I believe will be very helpful for you ambitious artists pursuing your dreams. It is put into five easy steps, but make sure to read the details listed within each step.

1. Copyright your music

This is one of the most important things you can do to protect your music. Take the time, fill out the forms. There have been many instances where a person wrote a song and nothing ever came of it. Years later a signed band steals their song and remakes it. The original artist had it copywritten and sues the other record label for thousands if not millions of dollars. Instant riches! Protect your tunes.

2. Understand what you really want from your music

Figure out whether you are looking to sell your songs to record companies, or be the band and artist who performs the songs. There is good money in just writing songs for other bands. Ask for a percentage if that is your decision, because that will generally make you much more money in the long run than an up front payment. The only thing you sacrifice by writing instead of performing is the fame and exposure. Also, determine how much you stand behind your music. Are you willing to allow the record company to make several changes to your songs and try to mold you into “their sound”? How much do you believe in your product?

3. Get a contract lawyer and agent

You need an agent to represent your band to the record labels. This person doesn’t need to be an established agent in the business. It can be a friend or relative if they can talk assertively and won’t make any quick decisions without consulting the band. The record companies only want to talk to one person, not three, four, or five members of a band. It gets too confusing for them and they don’t have the time. Make sure they are looking out for your best interests and not theirs. A contract lawyer is especially important. Just call around and find a local lawyer who specializes in contracts. When it comes time to sign the dotted line, make sure the lawyer is by your side. Don’t sign any contracts or documents until you and your lawyer have taken time to read them thoroughly and make a decision. If a record company is rushing you to sign any papers, walk away. Patience should be allowed to you if they are truly interested. If they rush you, they are planning to manipulate you.

4. Promote yourself tirelessly

Artists have been discovered a number of different ways. Every band has a different story. Use every media avenue you can to expose yourself nationally. Unless you live in L.A., New York, or Atlanta, local exposure isn’t going to be enough. Think big with your music!

5. When offers are made, research them well before committing

Don’t take the first offer made to you, only unless it’s a major record label and you researched what they offer very well. Signing bonuses are nice, but long term percentages are most important. Every artist gets a different percent with their label. The longer you have been in the business, the better your percents will get. Don’t get too greedy. Aim high and let them work you down. Twenty-five percent on the total profits on you album is very high. Most bands don’t get that. Remember, the suits and ties are the ones who make the big money. Without them, you are just selling CD’s out of the back of your trunk. If you don’t write your music, your percentages won’t be near twenty-five percent. Singer/songwriters make more money.

Good luck as you venture into the formidable music industry. There are several independent labels that are legit, but there are thousands of them that aren’t. Be careful and try to follow these steps listed above. I hope you can gain good fortune using these five steps.

About The Author

Jeromie Frost is a singer, songwriter and recording artist. His story and music can be accessed at http://www.jeromiefrost.com.

2009-03-10T12:41:00.001-07:00

Finding "Riches in Niches" by Streamlining Your Web Content

by: Jennifer Ryan

When marketing online it’s crucial to remember the old business adage, “There are riches in niches.” Niche marketing is the process of filling a small, distinguishable segment of the marketplace in a way competitors are not. Your business must have an edge—online and off. An effective web site should state it’s purpose immediately. Here’s why:

Web Usability, Your web visitors are zooming by at the same rate as drivers viewing a billboard at 70 mph. This is no Sunday stroll. Your visitors want facts, not whimsy. They want to know if they’ve found what they’re looking for. Give them what they want and tell them what your company is all about--quickly.
Search Engine Optimization. Your web site will not show up in search results unless your it has the words people use for searching. People look online specifically for what they want. Get into their heads. What keywords and phrases do people type in the search boxes when looking for businesses like yours? Use those words in your web content.
It’s Good Business. Every day breeds its own crop of great online business ideas, but that doesn’t mean we have to do them all. Trying to do too much could keep you from capitalizing on the economies of scale a focused business enjoys. Plus, a narrower focus helps keep your sanity.

Developing your web site should be an exercise in niche marketing. Every page should be specific, addressing one thing (if possible). Too many doodads vying for attention confuses visitors and waters-down the impact of your message. One idea communicated clearly and with personality will cause people to respond and register, download, call or buy. Best wishes finding the riches in your own niches.

About The Author

Jennifer Ryan of The Marketing Shop is a web promotions and sales expert. Having earned numerous awards, recognition and financial success in sales, Jennifer now sells online for businesses worldwide. Using a variety of tools--web design, copywriting, SEO, pay-per-click and web site conversion enhancement--she creates Websites that Produce. Visit http://www.the-marketing-shop.com today to sign up for her monthly newsletter (generous with free tips and advice!). Email her at Jennifer.Ryan@The-Marketing-Shop.com.

2009-03-10T12:40:00.003-07:00

Marketing vs Selling - Why There's A Difference

by: Candye Hinton

Marketing is something that we do to let people know what products we have to offer.

Selling is something that we do to show people that the products we have to offer are of value to them.

In the high tech world of today, much of what we consider marketing is very inconspicuous. Messages are moving at the speed of light, and we are hardly even aware of what we saw or heard that ever made us think eating fast food meant getting good food fast!

Marketing is all around us - from the letters that appear in our mind when our stomach hurts. Yes, we know what spells relief to the jingle in our head when we think of the first and second name we give the meat in our sandwich. We have all done it, ran into the store to buy something, and called it out by the brand...not by the actual product name.

When was the last time you were thinking of something, as simple as coffee, and “Starbucks” appeared in your mind? This, my friend, is what they call "savvy marketing" and it's as old as the day is long. The reason that marketing has been around for so long, is that for some odd reason, the more we keep something in the forefront of our mind, the more we inquire, the more we "Google" it, and the more we buy it - it is why we think that we're wearing Levi’s instead of jeans.

Marketing is what people do to get us interested in the “brand“ of their product. Marketing is what causes us to dream and imagine and wish. When someone markets a product or service to us, they are helping us to get more familiar with it. They are asking us to be really comfortable with hearing the brand, saying the brand, asking about the brand and eventually, leading us to a place where we find a NEED for just that brand.

Marketing is the first step to a long-term relationship with any product, and the more product a person has to sell - the longer we may find ourselves involved in the relationship. Marketing is the most thought out component of any large selling campaign, because without this one step - the marketing - no-one knows that we're even there.

The idea that once they know us and we know them (which seems like forever) is when we are able to like what we hear and trust what they have.

Selling usually comes in right about here...the point of purchase. This is where we are helped to find the best solution for us. Selling is fine tuning the brand / product / service to fit our needs exclusively, and this is where some people start to shy away. Selling isn’t always up close, but it IS personal. Selling, if done correctly, can create a lifetime of loyal product / service users, and should always be done with the utmost respect, trust and honor. Selling is what helps a consumer to decide if this product that has been marketed to them is really what they need AND if the pain they have is strong enough to get rid of, or if the pleasure is great enough to invest.

Selling is the next step to that wonderful place called referrals, and that can’t happen if we haven’t been able to deliver what we marketed our product to do. Our job when we market our product or service is to create for our client a reason to want to begin a relationship with us. They need to know. just by the sound of our brand, that we are worth pursuing. Not only do they need to be comfortable with what we are sharing, they also need to know that over and over again until they believe it for themselves.

So, as we look at the way we are creating relationships with our future clients, look at the process in having them trust us. If we are skipping step one in relationship building (the marketing) then step two (selling), will be much more difficult - and step three (referrals & word of mouth) is then almost impossible.

We may have the greatest product out on the market today, and it may very well be the one thing that solves all of the world's problems, BUT, if we haven’t figured out how to speak to people in a caring and comfortable way, they will never get the chance to know us, and people who don’t know us will not buy from us!

Marketing has to be the FIRST thing we do to make our product and relationship with our clients successful. My program “Get Clients Now” will help you to understand this process by consistently doing something every single day to ensure results. For more information and workshop times please visit: http://www.thekoach.com/business/getclients.html

About The Author

When you have a limited amount of time to make an unlimited amount of money...Every bit of your Effort should be Effective!

Candye Hinton is dedicated to helping other people give wings to their entrepreneurial dreams. She particularly enjoys mentoring coaches and home-based business owners by helping them to develop the habit of being successful. Candye has a thriving coaching practice that focuses on three key areas - business consulting, mentor coaching and personal development.

Effective Effort Coaching

[P] 1-810-225-4511

[w] www.thekoach.com

[e] thekoach@usa.net

2009-03-10T12:40:00.001-07:00

Three Faces of SPAM

by: Sandi Moses

Like everybody who will ever read this, I get spam in my e-mail. Mine seems to fall into one of three categories. The first is the Nigerian scam about helping some poor, pathetic soul collect megabucks, supposedly from someone who has died and left a fortune. I’m not sure what is worse: that there are people desperate enough to believe those messages, or that there are people despicable enough to prey on the desperate. The net result is the despicable con the desperate into sending money which the desperate will never see again.

The second type comes from people who sound innocent enough. They have a product or a business or a service or something else that is perfectly legitimate. They surf the web, find one of my sites, find the “contact us” link, and send me information about whatever they have to offer. I suppose, in their minds, it isn’t any different than walking down the street or going through the telephone book writing down addresses, and then sending out bulk business mail with the same offer. They could get the same information for more money and less time by buying a mailing list. THAT is perfectly legitimate. Harvesting e-mail addresses off of web sites is NOT. Spam is officially defined as “unsolicited commercial electronic mail.” The key word is “unsolicited.” If I didn’t ask for it and you send it anyway, it is unsolicited. When people harvest e-mail addresses off of web sites and then send commercial messages, that, by definition, is spam. I report them to my ISP and you should, too.

The third type isn’t so innocent. These people, like the second type of people already discussed, surf the web, find sites, and harvest the e-mail addresses from the “contact us” link. Instead of starting out by sending you what they have to offer, they get devious, sneaky, and just plain under-handed. They send you a message asking for more information about whatever you have to offer on your site. When you graciously respond, it turns out they couldn’t care less about what you have to offer. The ONLY thing they want is to confirm your e-mail address so they can start to dump offers on you, hoping you will buy something from them. Nasty trick.

Let me give you an example from one that once came across my screen. It seemed to be from a nice lady with homey graphics and nice colors in her e-mail. If my memory serves me well, she even stated that she was disabled and looking for ways to earn a living off the internet. In my mind, that’s a hard combination to resist. A great deal of effort was put into this to make it sound as if she had built an internet community around her site and services. Maybe she did; I don’t know. Anyway, I was naïve enough to respond with the information she had requested. Soon solicitations for this, that, and whatever business offer, etc. began arriving in my inbox. I finally put two and two together and realized that they were from her, but I was still reluctant to report it as spam, so her messages went quietly into the trash. I mean, she seemed SO NICE! Then I got this huffy message, apparently broadcast to her entire mailing list, about how if people didn’t want to receive her messages, why didn’t they just unsubscribe, etc. It seems quite a few people had reported her as a spammer and she was getting into trouble. It was time for me to respond, so I told her, bluntly, that what she was sending out WAS spam. It was unsolicited. I never signed up to be on her mailing list, and no doubt the people who had reported her never signed up to be on her mailing list, either. I only responded to a request FROM HER for information and that in no way implied that I wanted to be on her mailing list or that I wanted to receive her offers. She must have gotten the message because I have received nothing else from her.

So how about you? Are guilty of sending out e-mail to people who did not specifically request to receive offers from you or about a business that you represent? If you go around looking for e-mail addresses to harvest for your own purposes, you are guilty of sending SPAM. Instead, post your offers on your web site and market them legitimately. It’s the right thing to do. When people fill out your form, they are giving you permission to send them information. Keep a record so you can defend yourself if they ever forget what they did.

If you are on the receiving end of unsolicited offers, go ahead and report them as spam. Don’t feel guilty; you are not the guilty party. Just make sure you really didn’t sign up for a newsletter or something and then forgot! It is sooooooooooooooo not cool to report spam that really isn’t!

About The Author

Sandi Moses has been involved in internet marketing since November, 2003. Visit her sites at

http://www.123iwork4me.com

http://www.123-home-based-business-works-4-me.com

2009-03-10T12:39:00.002-07:00

Don’t Put All Of Your Eggs Into One Basket

by: Sandi Moses

I vaguely remember a particular story from my childhood. It had something to do with transporting eggs to market. The main character, a little girl who thought she knew more than she really did, put all of the day’s eggs into one basket, and when she tripped and fell on the way into town to sell the eggs, all of the eggs broke. It seems that her grandmother (the voice of experience and wisdom) tried to tell her not to do that, but she wouldn’t listen. If she had divided them up into several means of transportation some would have been lost, but not all of them. It was a difficult lesson to learn.

Everyone is familiar with this concept by the time we reach adulthood. It is most often brought up in the field of financial investing. You know, don’t invest all of your nest egg in Acme Widgets, because who knows how long there will be a market for widgets. And then where will you be? Or maybe you are told not to invest all of your nest egg in the stock market, but diversify into mutual funds or bonds or real estate or . . . Everybody from the little girl in to above story to your mother to your neighbor to who knows who else eventually comes to see the wisdom in that concept.

So how come it is that we see over and over that people put all of their internet eggs into one basket? They have one product or one program on one website that they optimize for one search engine (probably Google) and if any link in that chain breaks, they are dead in the water. What could possibly go wrong? Glad you asked!

Demand for the product could wane. Maybe somebody comes up with a better one. I used to see a whole aisle - both sides - of garbage cans in my local Target Store. EVERYBODY needs garbage cans, right? I mean you gotta put the stuff out to be collected in SOMETHING! And then suddenly the company that collects the garbage began providing, at no charge to you, specialized containers designed to be picked up with a special mechanical arm on the truck and dumped right into the collection truck. The driver never gets out. There are three colors of cans; one for trash, one for recyclables and one for yard waste. One driver in each of three trucks instead of one driver and one collector per truck. The company paid for the specialized containers and truck modifications with the money they saved on injury compensation claims no longer being filed by the second person who had been lifting all those heavy garbage cans. Suddenly there is no market for regular old garbage cans and in my local Target Store there are very few to be found. I suspect those few are bought to hold sodas and ice at beach parties! Now if you had invested in the company that made and sold all those old garbage cans, you are out in the cold, and you never even saw it coming. Who would have ever thought there would be no more market for something that everybody needs? Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket.

I live in a part of the USA where there is a large military presence. Near one base in particular were located numerous fast food restaurants. I mean, talk about a gold mine! Young soldiers, mostly guys with huge appetites, plus families with small kids and it just seemed like an ideal combination. But the soldiers got sent to war and many of the families went “home” where there was moral support during a stressful time and the customer base was gone just like that. Many of the formerly prosperous fast food places went out of business. Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket.

Remember the dot com era? People invested in dot com companies, got amazingly high paying jobs at dot com companies, and bought great big beautiful houses and cars with the money they made from those dot com companies. When everything collapsed, those people found themselves making and selling coffee at Starbucks, living back at home with mom and dad, and trying to finish making the payments on those cars that now are a chore to keep running. Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket.

As I wander around the internet, I have run into more and more people who had been making decent money with one affiliate or marketing program or another, both online and offline. Then for whatever reason the program changed it’s compensation schedule and these people are left hanging out to dry. If this was all they had going for them, they were hurt big time. Only those who had other sources of income were able to make adjustments and keep going. Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket.

Many people spend an inordinate amount of time, effort, energy and money optimizing their website(s) for Google. They listen to this or that guru, buy this or that software, and do whatever it takes to get their site to number one on the first page for whatever search terms they are trying to target. As long as their methods are ethical, there is nothing wrong with doing this because they are earning an honest living with their marketing efforts. It only becomes a problem when Google changes the rules. And sooner or later, Google WILL change the rules. The internet is a very dynamic place and nothing stays the same for very long. See http://www.123iwork4me.com/article196.html and http://www.123iwork4me.com/article29.html. If the people to whom this happens have all of their eggs in that one Google-basket, they will have just had the rug pulled out from under their feet and will have gone from top dog to junk-yard dog in no time at all. If they have multiple sites using different marketing techniques promoting different programs and opportunities, they will be able to re-group and re-coup, recover and survive. You know what’s coming next. Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket.

About The Author

Sandi Moses has been involved in internet marketing since November, 2003. Visit her sites at

http://www.123iwork4me.com

http://www.123-home-based-business-works-4-me.com

2009-03-10T12:39:00.001-07:00

Branding: It's More Than a Logo

by: Julie Chance

How clear is your image in the minds of your potential customers? How can you bring that image into focus? Defining, developing and maintaining a brand identity is the key.

The word “branding” is frequently tossed about in the marketing and advertising world by marketing professionals and customers alike. Many times, what is being referred to as branding can be more accurately described as logo development or corporate identity programs at best. While a logo and corporate identity certainly are part of a branding program, they are only one piece of the puzzle. And when companies start their branding program with development of a logo or corporate identity package, they are getting the cart before the horse.

So what exactly is branding? In doing research for this article, I came to the conclusion that branding is very much like what has been said about pornography: “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.”

I define a brand image as being the picture that appears in a member of your target market’s mind when they see, hear or think about you, your company and your service. In this sense, your logo and print materials become the symbols representing everything you and your service stand for, much like the letters of the alphabet are symbols that when combined form words and sentences with a common meaning to everyone who understands the language.

We often think of branding as being something that only big corporations must attend to. However, a strong branding program is as critical to smaller businesses as it is to Fortune 500 companies. And smaller businesses are challenged with building our brands without the mega resources of the huge corporations. So how can a business with limited resources, develop an effective brand image? Here is a step by step guide to steer you through the process.

Step 1: Define your desired brand image. What is the picture you want your target market to develop in their minds when they see, hear or think about you, your company and your service? The more clearly you can see the image the better able you are to communicate it to your prospective clients. Start to define your brand by answering these questions in writing:

What do we stand for?
What are we passionate about?
How are we different from other businesses that provide the same or similar products or services?
What are our strengths?
What is our specialty?
What are our values?
What do our clients most value about what we provide?
What are we trying to accomplish?
What problems do we help our clients solve?
What do we want to be known for?
Do we have any “quirks” that we can incorporate into our brand image?

Step 2: Develop your logo. Only when you have the picture clearly in your own mind that you want your target market to have of you is it time to begin the process of logo development. And this is an area to invest in some professional help. Don’t use a clip art logo or down-load a free logo from the web. Answering the questions above in detail will make the logo development process not only more effective, but also more efficient from a cost perspective.

In developing your logo and designing your print materials, think about what lines, shapes, typestyles and colors represent the image you want your target market to develop. If you coach people in developing the leadership skills necessary to reach the executive suite, you probably don’t want to use primary colors in your logo. On the other hand, if you help people bring more joy into their lives by discovering their inner child, primary colors may be perfect. If you assist people to organize their lives, you would not want a cluttered business card. You would want a very clean and understated look. If you help people bring out their hidden creativity you could use a fancier, more elaborate typestyle and incorporate flowing lines or curly queues into the design.

Step 3: Begin communicating your brand identity to your target market. Everything you say and do -- from the way you answer your telephones to the specialty advertising or promotional items you give your prospective clients – should reinforce the brand image you want to develop. Use your logo and colors on everything. Develop a tag line that conveys your message and use it on all your printed materials from your letterhead to your invoices. Your website should have the same general look as your letterhead, business cards, e-mail newsletter, brochure, and direct mail pieces. Continuously look for ways to incorporate your logo, colors and tag line into everything. Be creative. I know business partners who drive bright yellow Volkswagen Beatles to match their corporate colors. Almost daily I find an opportunity I’ve been missing to incorporate my brand image into my materials – and I do this for a living!

Step 4: Maintain your brand identity. Once you have begun to develop your brand identity, resist the temptation to make major changes or to even do too much tinkering. About the time you start to become bored with your look, your target market is just beginning to recognize and identify with it. Consistency over time is critical. Not only does it build awareness, it also develops credibility. In this respect we need to learn from the masters. While Coca Cola® and Betty Crocker® have updated their looks many times over the past 100+ years the basic elements have remained consistent.

What picture develops in the mind of your target market when they see, hear or think about you and your service? Is it fuzzy and out of focus with pieces of the puzzle missing? Is it inconsistent and ever changing? Or is it crisp, clear and in living color?

About The Author

Julie Chance is a strategic marketing consultant who provides a unique combination of consulting, coaching and training to help clients improve the return on their investment in marketing and promotional activities. For more information call 972-701-9311 or visit our website at www.strategies-by-design.com. Be sure to sign up for our free newsletter and take our assessment to determine the strength of your marketing foundation while you’re there.

jchance@strategies-by-design.com

2009-03-10T12:38:00.004-07:00

Email Marketing Best Practices

by: Brandon Milford

Permission-based Email Marketing is one of the most powerful ways to build your business. As a business owner you realize the importance of staying in front of your customers and prospects. By deploying a timely e-newsletter to touch base with your customers and prospects, you stay fresh in their minds, build credibility, and keep the communication channel open by eliciting product and/or service enquiries from your recipients. This will lead to repeat purchases and higher conversions. Below are a few pointers in ensuring that your permission-based email marketing campaign is a true asset to your company.

Building Your Lists

There are a number of ways to build your opt-in list of subscribers. Below I have compiled a list to help you get started.

If your business has a physical location ask visitors to fill out a card giving you permission to contact them via email with product/service updates.
Include a sign up form on your website. Most permission-based email marketing software programs will include a tool allowing you to create a sign up form. This allows you to easily capture the email addresses (and any additional information) from your website’s visitors.
Always advertise your newsletter. For instance, include a short line on the back of your business card that reads “Receive Additional Tips and Industry News Each Month In Your Inbox. Sign up for our Newsletter at www.yourwebaddress.com “. This will lead people to your website and into becoming a subscriber to your newsletter.
The greatest way to build your list is by concentrating on the quality of your newsletter. By releasing an informative newsletter that people find valuable they will share this information and the source, further growing your list of subscribers.

Providing information about your e-newsletter

It is important to inform your potential subscribers on how often they can expect to receive emails from your company and what type of information they can expect from these emails.

Quality Over Quantity

By writing quality content your recipients will look forward to receiving your e-newsletters and will look to them for knowledge in your industry. This will build further credibility for your company and encourage the recipients to forward the message to a friend. Sending your e-newsletters too frequently will annoy your subscribers and can lessen your credibility. From a design aspect, be sure that the newsletter is reader-friendly. Do not use Flash, brightly colored text, extra large font, or all caps. For an HTML based newsletter, create a header that coincides with your company’s colors and/or message. Next, create a simple 1 or 2 pixel border along with a matching footer. As far as content, break down your message into nuggets of information. Remember, very few subscribers are going to read your newsletter if it is the length of a novel. Break down your message into short paragraphs and use bulleted items to condense and stress important points.

Keeping your message out of the SPAM folder

The following items are critical in preventing your message from being blocked by SPAM filters:

Try to use font sizes that are smaller than +2 or +3.
Bolded, red font will also add to the likelihood that your message could be considered SPAM.
Use a Permission-based email marketing software that allows the sending of multi-part MIME messages. Simply put, this will allow you to send out both an HTML and text-only version of your e-newsletter. The software will detect whether the email client can accept HTML based messages, if not, the email client will accept the text-only version.
Avoid using all caps; especially for words such as “FREE”
Do not type out any currency denominations in the millions. Example: $10,000,000.
Avoid using text such as “click below”, “click here”, “free money” etc…
Obviously, always be sure to include a Subject with your message as well. However, avoid using an exclamation mark or all caps in the subject.

Frequency of Sending

As a rule of thumb, always place yourself in your subscriber’s shoes. Don’t inundate them with so many newsletters that your message becomes “watered down” and loses all credibility. Again, always place quality over quantity.

I hope these tips help you in your permission-based email marketing efforts. There is no more powerful way to convey your message as a company and build credibility than with permission-based email marketing.

About The Author

Brandon Milford is the Director of Marketing for Broadwick Corporation, makers of IntelliContact Pro, an industry-leading permission based email marketing software. http://www.intellicontact.com.

brandon@broadwick.com

2009-03-10T12:38:00.003-07:00

How To Earn Money Without A Website

by: Edward Green

I will tell you right here and now you do not need to have a website to be successful in internet marketing.

There are some essential tools you will need, but a website needn’t be one of them.

Ok, a website is useful, even more so if you sell your own products. But if you are an affiliate salesperson, you don’t need your own site.

For affiliate marketing, there is in truth only one tool you need and that is an autoresponder. You need a great autoresponder that will allow you broadcast messages to the contact list that you will build. I have found that the free autoresponder programs will not let you do this, so you need to invest about $15 per month in a good autoresponder. Believe me this will be one of the best investments you ever make in your online business. And, since autoresponder programs are affiliate programs themselves, you can promote your autoresponder program and sooner or later have it pay for itself.

This is a straightforward marketing system that will promote your affiliate program without your own website:

1. The marketing system is to establish yourself as an expert on the products you are promoting. You wil do this by creating content: first, by posting in related content forums and submitting articles to article directories, secondly, by starting your own ezine or newsletter, and thirdly, by personally contacting ezine owners and offering your article for publication in their ezine. For a free list of article directories I submit to, send a blank email to directories@homebasedbusinesstraining.com

2. You MUST promote your affiliate product or program in the resource box at the end of your article. Write a brief description of who you are, what you do, and how readers can learn more. For more detail, see my resource box at the end of this article.

3. The secret to promoting your affiliate product is to promote it via your autoresponder. Since you have written an article about what you are selling, you will have the prospect looking for more information. If you wrote an article on dog training, write something like, “For more free tips on training your dog, send a blank email to info@yourautoresponderaddress.com”

4. In your autoresponder, write a series of short emails with a few tips in each email and most importantly a sentence that refers your readers to your sales product or affiliate program.

5. So, Not only have you been promoted your product for a very very low cost, the cost of your autoresponder, but you have been collecting names that you can offer more related products to again and again. The names also become your list for your newsletter and joint marketing ventures with other marketers.

6. Try to write a brand new article every week or at least every 2 weeks, and continue sending it to your list and article directories, and continue posting in forums. In no time you will have a nice list built. And this is all without your own website!

About The Author

Edward Green is the owner and operator of a successful online business. Ed has over 15 years in corporate business operations which include guerrilla marketing skills, customer service and Professional networking capabilities. http://www.lucygreen.com

You may publish this article in your ezine, newsletter on your web site as long as the byline is included and the article is included in it's entirety. I also ask that you activate any html links found in the article and in the byline. Please send a courtesy link or email where you publish to: support@lucygreen.com

2009-03-10T12:38:00.001-07:00

Virtual Interactivity vs. Actual Interactivity on the Web

by: Daniel Borel

Interactivity on the web generally works as sexuality on the web: virtually. In both cases, it is a bit frustrating.

Click the mouse, ask questions, navigate, write messages, up and download files, customize your web page according to your preferences… the site itself remains unflappably itself. One has no influence on the flesh and blood, no power to modify anything that is proposed.

That is Virtual Interactivity, just a false feeling of partnership. Just try and send an e-mail that goes out of the tracks planned by the Webmaster and you will see what it means. As the saying goes "- Is a human in there?"

To make the Actual Interactivity live one web site takes the gauntlet up. That is an e-commerce where suppliers suggest new items and visitors elect the new items they want. The limited stock – in range and quantity of items – plays the exclusivity and selectivity together with the suppliers and the customers. The site leaders are their go-betweens.

The business domain helps, of course: this is an exclusive art posters publisher called www.oneppm.com for "One Person Per Million".

About The Author

Daniel Borel is a marketing and communication man. He has been studying these fields since 1964 as manager of Atelier Synergétique SA, a Swiss Proficiencies Network which is oriented toward industry, high-tech and B2B services on export markets. That makes him acutely aware of a hard to manage happening: simply tell a Canadian and a Polynesian the word "tree", compare what they visualize and you understand what marketing communication implies.

contact@oneppm.com

2009-03-10T12:37:00.002-07:00

Direct Mail Advertising: A Key Ingredient For Successful Business Growth

by: Keturah Whitaker

Direct Mail Advertising: A Key Ingredient For Successful Business Growth By Keturah Whitaker

In today’s highly competitive economy, it is essential that you promote your business with marketing materials that strategically position your business for increased customer traffic, expansion and growth.

A highly effective marketing tool that will dynamically promote your business is direct mail advertising. The success of your direct mail advertising will be highly dependent upon the perceived quality of your business, the design, the message you’re conveying, and the special offer. The combination of these factors determines if your direct mail piece will influence your reader to contact you or get tossed aside. You have exactly 3 seconds to make a lasting impression.

Customer Mailing Lists

To get started, you will need to compile and develop a database for your customer mailing list. If you are targeting different customer segments, then you should have a separate database for each targeted market. Also, your direct mail offer should be designed specifically for each market. For example, if you are targeting age groups 15-20 and 50-65, your direct mail piece for your 15-20 target market must be designed differently than your 50-65 target market. The term for this aspect of marketing is called differentiated marketing.

There are multiple sources for locating potential customers for your direct mail campaign. Excellent sources to search for your potential customers are the yellow pages, white pages, newspapers, trade publications, the local Chamber of Commerce directory and you may want to consider contacting mailing list companies for list building. Before you develop your lists and leads, it is vital that you conduct research to “know” who your customers are; their needs and preferences.

Types of direct mail collateral to send to your targeted lists:

Postcards

Postcards are quick and easy because the message is short and simple and they are inexpensive to have printed. Postcards can immediately advertise new products and services and announce a new store location. Postcards achieve an almost 100% readership versus an envelope, as it doesn't have to be opened to read your special offer. Postcards can be converted into coupons for special customers or cross sell your other products and services.

Letter Mailing

This mailing consists of an introductory letter introducing your business or your offer and a flyer or sales brochure that will highlight your business services and products. This method is very effective. However, the costs involved with this type of mailing are more expensive than a post card.

Newsletters

Newsletters are the perfect way to notify your customers and potential customers of your current business news, introduce new services, promote new products, communicate special offerings, and demonstrate you are an established leader in your industry and community. Newsletters also make excellent handouts for business meetings, off site workshops, trade shows, networking seminars and community events.

Final thought: direct mail has always been a popular medium to advertise for any business, whether your business is home-based, a small business, a midsize business or a large business. Extraordinarily designed direct mail that communicates your business and introduces special offers, can open doors for excellent sales leads and contribute to your business bottom line: increased sales, capture market share, growth and expansion.

About The Author

Keturah Whitaker is the CEO/President of CoreNet Imaging Solutions®, an Atlanta based design firm that provides small business owners and non-profit organizations, with graphic design services for brochures, newsletters, newsletters, direct mail, flyers, pamphlets, business cards, business forms, and print media ads. She can be reached by calling 770-953-0252 or via email at kw@corenet-imaging.com.

solutions@corenet-imaging.com

2009-03-10T12:37:00.001-07:00

Start Blogging Now: 10 Reasons Why You Really Need a Blog for Your Business

by: Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman

1. It is perfect for creating a web presence for independent professionals who have something to say and who need people to get to know them and what they can do for them.

2. Having your own business blog gives you credibility and a forum where you can show your expertise.

3. Readers can comment directly onto your blog, creating interaction and interest.

4. No more waiting for your web designer to update your web site.

5. You can post to your blog yourself, about any issue, daily if you wish, and get it broadcast into the blogosphere instantly.

6. The search engines love blogs and will pick up your keywords easily, boosting your rankings, making it easier for people to find you on the web.

7. Customers are drawn to personality behind the business. Human voices convey intimacy beyond PR-babble. (To read about this topic read The Cluetrain Manifesto. The first chapter is available free online: http://cluetrain.com/apocalypso.html.)

8. You can network and build up a community of like-minded readers. You blog, people comment. Others blog, you comment. Before you know it, more people have heard of you and your business because the buzz gets passed around.

9. You can test out new ideas and get instant feedback. Get your customers and prospects in on the act now and let them help you help them - invite them to talk back! Let them see how you develop your products and services and they can show you how to best to serve them.

10. You can use your blog side-bars to promote your products, your affiliate products, run blog ads, sell books, and any other product or services you have. You don’t have to include this in the body or content of your article; therefore your posts - your writing - can remain content rich and free of promotional hype.

Finally, email marketing and electronic newsletters are struggling because of over-crowded inboxes, spam problems and filters.

On the average, 64.7% of the business e-mail you send is not even opened, let alone read. [source: Q3 2004 Email Trend Report, DoubleClick ]
E-mail marketers are seeing their open-rates range from only "mid-20s to just over 50 %" [source: ClickZ.com]
That means that you are losing at least 50% of your prospective buyers or readers. How much does that amount to in losses over the course of the next few years?
AOL receives roughly 2 billion e-mail messages a day, of which about 75 percent are blocked and another 4 to 7 percent are sent to the bulk folder. [source: ClickZ.com]

Sit up and pay attention. The time to start blogging for your business is now.

About The Author

Denise Wakeman of Next Level Partnership, and Patsi Krakoff of Customized Newsletter Services, have teamed up to create blogging classes and marketing services for independent professionals. You can read and subscribe to their blog at http://www.buildabetterblog.com.

dlwakeman@gmail.com

2009-03-10T12:36:00.004-07:00

Viral Marketing has Left the Building

by: David Badurina

Viral Marketing - as a forward-thinking "buzzword" - is missing. Gone are the days of catchy buzz-marketing that you could just let loose upon the world and watch take off. Now, with users getting more knowledgeable and opportunities getting slim, you need to take advantage of using your know-how as part of the reason Viral Marketing campaigns work.

Now, Viral Marketing is all about information, and the information has got to be good. One effect the Internet has had, is that it's teaching people how to be effective searchers, and savvy surfers. Just like coffee beans and oranges, information online has become a sort of commodity. One site may charge you for a piece of information that you could easily get elsewhere for free. This means that when it comes to your Viral Marketing campaign (or any marketing campaign) - the better the information you distribute to your users, subscribers, and website visitors, the better your chances for success.

Newsletters are a perfect example of informational marketing. You're giving something of value for nothing. That value could be hard-to-find knowledge, or it could be you - after all, individuality is something that can never be a commodity. Knowledge is power, and if it's free, well then it's free power and that's pretty darn cool. No matter what, You have to rely on what you have and what you know to move that Marketing Virus along!

Newsletters can be used as a Viral Marketing technique. Fill it up with great information - exceed expectations and deliver information that hooks onto a feeling like prestige or drive your hosts with something like a contest or giveaway. While the luxury of "online novelty" has worn thin and become very hard to find, you can still use certain traits of a good Viral Marketing campaign to move your message along. Generally, plain-text newsletters lack a significant amount of Charm, but if the information is truly stellar and you spell out a benefit to forwarding the email, it can work quite well. The main thing is to know who your target is. Is your target market largely impatient, no-nonsense business owners who want everything they look for immediately? Stick with plain text, cut the fluff, and give them what they want. Is your target market cross-stitching grannies who love cute little periwinkle bunny rabbits? What do you think would happen if you sent the granny newsletter to largely impatient, no-nonsense business owners? Now you're getting the idea ...

Viral Marketing has really taken a much different shape than what it used to consist of. It's much more "grassroots" now than it's ever been because delivery methods have changed and people have gotten accustomed to some of the standard formats. Always remember that it's your market that defines whether it's going to work or not. Know what they consider contagious, then your only task is to figure out a way to deliver it!

About The Author

David Badurina is President of http://www.ViralMarketingTool.com and the creator of VMT Viral Marketing Software. VMT is being used by more than 20,000 people in over 160 countries and is the premier Relationship-Building Viral Marketing Tool available online.

To sign up for The VMT-zine - A truly unconventional newsletter with equal parts humor, reality, and sound advice for your business, just visit: http://www.ViralMarketingTool.com/articles.html

2009-03-10T12:36:00.003-07:00

Captive Marketing - What Will They Think of Next?

by: David Badurina

Every once in awhile a light bulb goes off in someone's head and a new marketing concept is born. One of the more recent "opportunistic" marketing methods is marketing to you when you have no choice.

Imagine yourself in a very small metal room with 10 other people. The doors close and you have no way of escaping this room for a minute or two. While locked in with these strangers you are exposed to various commercials for different products appearing on a video screen right in front of you. The doors finally open, and you are allowed to leave.

Sound like a nightmare (or Marketing Executive's dream, perhaps)? Well, it's actually reality; it's your experience if you use an elevator in any one of a few hundred buildings across the United States.

Captivate Network has installed over 3,000 flat-panel video monitors in elevators across the country. Business professionals use these elevators every day and while in that big metal box with nothing to do, a video screen flashes to life and sales pitches fill the room. After all, what are they going to do? Haul up 60 flights of stairs? Likely not.

This mix of "marketing through a necessity" isn't restricted to affluent business-people inside of office towers, however. The television network Comedy Central has placed over 500 advertisements in bar bathrooms in order to promote one of their new shows. Talk about a captive audience! When nature calls, advertisers listen ...

Advertising above urinals might be a rare occurrence, but the trend of advertising and transportation is becoming more evident and technology is playing an ever-increasing role. If you've ever been on a subway or seen a bus, you've no doubt seen a billboard as well. Cars are often plastered with graphics for any given local company or even a simple bumper sticker with a website. And now, in over 400 taxicabs in New York City, the passengers are treated to a video monitor as the meter runs and they are transported to their destination.

Does the concept of captive marketing frustrate you almost as much as sinking a little white golf-ball into a tiny hole 400 yards away? Then you should avoid the nearly 25,000 golf carts across the United States outfitted with video monitors touting all sorts of products to help increase your frustration and mock your futility ENHANCE your game.

So how do you escape all of this advertising if you just can't take it? Next time you're golfing, just walk. Take the stairs instead of the elevator or ride a bike instead of taking a cab.

And if you're in a bar at 1:00AM and you've got to go?

Well, they pretty much got you on that one!

About The Author

To sign up for The VMT-zine - A truly unconventional newsletter with equal parts humor, reality, and sound advice for your business, just visit: http://www.ViralMarketingTool.com/articles.html

2009-03-10T12:36:00.001-07:00

Marketing Lessons from a Rabid Chipmunk

by: David Badurina

A relative of mine is a mail-carrier for the United States Post Office. Like any place of employment, there are all sorts of colorful characters working there. They're all very good people - friendly and enjoyable to chat with.

A gentleman working at the same post office as my relative is a happy, cheery kind of guy. I met him on a few occassions back when I was basically a rebellious high-school hoodlum. I noticed his pleasant demeanor. And that he was bald - much like I'll likely be in a matter of a few years. His co-workers had nicknamed him "Shiny".

Shiny was assigned a walking route most days. The neighborhood he traversed was quite nice - lined with tall, shady trees for those hot summer days in South New Jersey. When you think of suburbia, you can easily picture Shiny walking - bag in hand - delivering mail to the nice people on his route. Manicured lawns, nice cars, kids playing in the bright and toasty sunshine.

Shiny was happy. Until one day, when small, furry horror reigned ...

Shiny was doing what he does every day, walking his mail route. When suddenly an irrationally aggressive and perhaps slightly disturbed chipmunk sprung forth from one of the trees he was walking under and viciously attacked his head. Shiny did his best to quickly beat the fuzzy ferocious creature from atop his unprotected noggin. While no grave injury occurred during this incident, he did have quite a few scratches, needed some medical attention, and received a rabies shot.

This story actually teaches us many valuable lessons that we can use in life and in business.

Rabid Chipmunk Lesson #1: "Take Risks."

If the chipmunk had been able to pry off Shiny's head and stick it into the knot-hole of a tree, perhaps this would be a different story with a different lesson - such as, "STAY AWAY FROM CHIPMUNKS IN NEW JERSEY!" Thank goodness this wasn't the case, of course.

However, we cannot overlook this brave, furry, suburban-dwelling animal's actions. The pinnacle of chipmunk achievement was within it's grasp. Did it freeze, uncertain of what to do? Did it seek approval from other chipmunks? No. This scrappy little fellow risked bodily injury and flung himself toward the gargantuan and delectable nut below.

In business, we're often faced with similar choices. What do you do when opportunity arises? Are you a gambling chipmunk with an aggressive mean-streak, or are you the cautious kind? The cute little woodland creature that seems to miss many grand opportunities?

Rabid Chipmunk Lesson #2: "Things are not always what they seem."

I can imagine what went through his little chipmunk brain just before leaping. Before him was an acorn so huge that other chipmunks in the neighborhood would be talking about him as legend if he could obtain it. For years to come, as dusk fell in Southern New Jersey, knot-holes as far as the eyes could see would have wise old chipmunks telling the young ones of this most heroic feat. His name, forever etched in the annals of chipmunk warrior-dom. His story becoming fable over the years, with each retelling the size of the acorn grows until it's as if the chipmunk, lean muscles bulging, flew from the tallest tree in the land and swallowed whole an acorn the approximate size of a 1969 Volkswagon Bus and then went on to marry the most beautiful chipmunk queen on earth.

This lesson is important in every business decision you make - whether it's a piece of equipment you're purchasing ("A printer/fax/copier/cloning/time machine for only $89.99!"), or a joint venture opportunity you are approached about. Pay attention to your intuition, but balance that with a firm grip on reality.

Rabid Chipmunk Lesson #3: "Expect the Unexpected."

I would wager a fair amount of money that as Shiny was walking down the street, the last thing he expected was the Attack Chipmunk of Doom unleashing Furry Fury From Above. It's not unfathomable, really. Chipmunks climb trees. When you walk on a sidewalk, trees are there. Unexpected indeed.

In business this is a rule to live by. Just when you need 200 copies of one of your brochures, the printer gags, chants backward in Latin, and projectile-vomits pea-green toner onto the wall as if it's possessed. Right when you're on the phone with an important client, your batteries run out. As business owners, we can't prepare for everything, but we can at least make a point of understanding that crazy things can - and do - happen. How you handle them is the difference between something unexpected being disastrous, or yet another obstacle you've overcome.

There are many more lessons we can learn from this story, but the most important lesson is this: Pay attention. Strange things happen in life and if you understand what's going on, you just might end up learning something very valuable from something that's ... well ... fairly ridiculous.

About The Author

To sign up for The VMT-zine - A truly unconventional newsletter with equal parts humor, reality, and sound advice for your business, just visit: http://www.ViralMarketingTool.com/articles.html

2009-03-10T12:35:00.004-07:00

Profiting With Blogs

by: Roger C. Parker

How to Profit From a Blog

Blogs permit you to quickly and easily communicate with your market at very low cost. A blog is a low cost tool that permits you to add, remove, and update online content without knowing anything about web programming or html.

Blogs complement, rather than replace, your website, e-mail, and One-Page Newsletter. You can use your blog to promote your other communications, and vice-versa.

Easy, fast, and cheap

Blogs are easy to update because you enter information in forms. These are automatically formatted as you upload them, saving time and effort.

Since blogs are easy to update and new information immediately appears, you don’t have to wait until your next e-mail or newsletter to update information or announce new website content.

Hosting for blogs is often free, or you can pay less than $15.00 a month for multiple blogs from a top provider.

Characteristics

A blog consists of numerous, short posts—or mini-articles—each containing as few as two or three sentences. Each post focuses on a single idea.

Links are an important part of blogs. Links permit readers to quickly access other locations for more information.

Blogs are interactive; most encourage readers to submit comments or alternate viewpoints on each post.

Readers can subscribe to RSS—Real Simple Syndication—which notifies them each time you post new information.

Tips for developing content

Blogs permit you to promote your expertise by relating it to current events and trends. This provides you with an opportunity to promote your knowledge of your field without “bragging.”

Other ways to profit from blogs include:

Drive web site traffic. Use blogs to point to updated web content. Otherwise, new content might only be seen by first-time visitors attracted by search engine marketing and optimization.
Promote existing content. Blogs permit you to comment on current events from the perspective of previous books, newsletters, or website content. This breathes new life into existing content.
Promote upcoming events. Blogs make it easy for those who don’t know html to easily update their event calender.
Frequent, non-intrusive updates. Blogs avoid many of the problems associated with e-mail, such as filled in-boxes and spam filters. Blogs make it possible to keep in touch without wearing out your welcome.
Learn from your market. Blogs invite reader comments. These permit you to “test-market” new products or find out what your market thinks about current products and services.

Getting started

The easiest way to get started is to visit www.blogger.com or www.typepad.com. Both contain a simple “3 steps to success” process that helps you publish your first blog within five or ten minutes after you arrive at either site.

Costs are surprisingly inexpensive. Blogger, a part of www.google.com, is a free service. Typepad is free for the first 30 days, less than $15.00 a month thereafter. Best of all, you usually don’t have to pay a penny for design or production costs. Both Blogger and Typepad offer dozens of templates, which you can customize by changing colors, layout, or type.

What about content?

Start by taking an inventory of currently available newsletters, special reports, and web site content. Look for content you can use to create an information archive blog, like www.rcpmarketing.info.

Can you extract tips from previous content, so you can create a tips blog, like www.rcpdesign.info or www.rcpwebblog.info? If you often speak at events, conduct workshops, or host teleseminars, create a calendar blog like www.rcpevents.info.

Why not create a commentary blog focusing on an single aspect of your expertise, like www.rcpnewsletters.info, or a book review blog?

Because they are so easy and inexpensive, you may want to consider multiple blogs for different markets you serve—or want to serve.

About The Author

Roger C. Parker knows the secrets to promoting your business one page at a time. Let Roger help you create and promote your blog. Visit www.OnePageNewsletters.com for your three free reports.

2009-03-10T12:35:00.003-07:00

6 Strong Reasons Why RSS Beats Email Marketing

by: Mustafa Khundmiri

A brand new marketing tool predicted to replace email is currently sweeping the World Wide Web like a storm.

The Internet is experiencing the so-called “orange” revolution and there’s no stopping to it. The online marketing world is rigorously seen chanting a 3-letter mantra, R-S-S.

Yes, RSS is here and it’s got substance, material, style, sophistication…

In a word, it’s got the ‘X’ factor.

RSS, which stands for “Really Simple Syndication”, is the newest and the fastest growing technology online. Many publishers, webmasters and marketers are adopting RSS. It has helped spam go down to a great extent and made bulk messages a thing of past.

No wonder spammers are shaking in their boots all over the web!

Here are 6 strong reasons why RSS beats email marketing to the core:

Kiss Spam Filters Goodbye - RSS can help you distribute your content directly to your subscribers, without any spam filters interfering. Your messages will never get blacklisted and blocked and will always be delivered promptly, unless and until your subscribers choose to end the relationship themselves.
Subscribing Is Easy - Your subscribers don't have to worry about giving out any of their personal details to subscribe and read your RSS feeds. All they need to do is, add your feed to their online or desktop RSS reader and that’s it. They are ready to receive and read content from you without any hassles.
Un-subscribing Is Easier - Removing your subscriber’s email from your email list automatically, has it’s own share of problems, and it doesn’t work all the time. However, when you talk about RSS, it’s easy for your subscribers to unsubscribe from your publication. They can stop receiving messages from you any time by simply deleting your feed from their RSS reader. Simple as that!
Get Your Message Out In An Instant - Whenever you have something new to publish, all you have to do is update your already published feed and your message gets updated everywhere it’s subscribed. No more worrying if your subscribers got your message or not.
Never Get Accused of Spam - It’s very easy to get accused of sending unsolicited mail nowadays since people forget they even gave you their email address. RSS solves this problem completely, as the messages which you send out, will appear directly in your subscribers RSS reader. So the question of contacting them illegally does not even arise.
Build Long Lasting Relationships - Not only RSS builds a strong relationship with your existing subscribers but also helps in attracting new potent subscribers who are interested in what you offer. People who subscribe to your feed want to receive content from you and hence, can be regarded as subscribers you can count on.

RSS can work like a charm for your business and help you gain thousands of quality subscribers and leads within a few weeks…

You just have to become a part of the orange revolution!

About The Author

Mustafa Khundmiri is the co-founder of http://www.rapidfeeds.com - A Free online service, which helps anyone, create, edit, publish and track RSS feeds online. Sign Up for your FREE account on his site and start publishing your own RSS feeds!

mustafa@rapidfeeds.com

2009-03-10T12:35:00.001-07:00

2009-03-10T12:34:00.004-07:00

Writing To Overpower Your Competition

by: Karon Thackston

"We don't have any competition. We're a truly a one-of-a-kind company." I've heard that line from clients for years. I wish it were true, but it's simply not. In fact, it wouldn’t matter if you held a monopoly on your particular product or service; you'd still have competition. How? Because your competition doesn't come from a singular source.

There may be no other businesses that sell the product or service you sell, but you still have competition. Once that's understood you have a greater advantage when it comes to copywriting. You can recognize the other options your customers have before them and can position yourself as the only logical choice.

Know Who Your Competition Is

Competition comes from a variety of sources. Yes, there are those who sell the same things you sell, but there competition comes in other forms, too.

The Same But Different

Charitable organizations are a good example of "same but different." Your group may be the only one raising funds to save the purple spotted toad of northern Antarctica but that doesn't mean you'll receive a flood of contributions from everyone you call. Why? Because there are a million and a half other charitable organizations out there all vying for the same money from the same people.

None of these other groups is trying to raise funds to save the purple spotted toad of northern Antarctica, but they are trying to get individuals to donate to their causes. That makes them all your competition.

How do you get around this problem? Assuming your traffic generating efforts or your mailing list is highly targeted, you'll want to make a strong case for this little toad. In your copy, let the readers know why the purple spotted toad is important to the environment (he's the only toad in existence that carries antibodies that can cure cancer). Tell them why the world would be a much sadder place without our bouncing little friend. (In addition to being the only purple toad in the world, this guy is the only food the frosty wilder beast will eat so he's vital to the food chain).

Just like with any other type of copywriting, list the benefits of the purple spotted toad. Why is he important to nature, how will the ecology suffer with his demise and what will happen to the rest of Antarctica if he becomes extinct? All of these are vital to convincing your audience that they should favor you with their contributions instead of some other organization.

Everyone In the Search Results

Go to your favorite search engine and type in "copywriting course" (without the quotes). What do you see? There are a lot of options listed on the search results page. Are all these products the same? By all means no!

Some are live workshops, others are e-courses, some focus strictly on one type of copywriting leaving all others by the wayside, some are correspondence courses while others are downloadable. But because they all appear in response to the query "copywriting course," they all have the potential to take sales away. Even if your site falls into the coveted #1 position, the others on the page could potentially grab some of your sales.

So how do you get surfers to click on your site's listing? Your title and description have to be first rate.

If your copywriting course has a specialty (sales letters, search engines, catalogs, etc.) say so. Choose the most powerful benefit and a way to set yourself apart (your USP) and use those in the tags for your search results along with your keyphrases. Simply having keywords in your title and description might get you ranked with the engine but it sure won't entice anybody to click to your site.

Other Options

There are options and substitutes for practically everything in the world. If people don't want to pay for a computer and Internet access so they can send email, they can write letters or call their friends and family. If customers decide the cost of groceries is out of control, they can plant a garden and eat a vegetarian diet. There are even alternatives to cars: taking a cab (as most do in New York), bicycling (very popular in London) or walking (great exercise). All of these alternatives can be competition for you.

To overcome the pull of other options, when you write copy be sure emphasize why those other options really aren't viable. The sheer act of writing letters takes time in and of itself. Then you have to mail the letter and wait. If the person wants to respond, they have to get motivated enough to sit down and write a reply and mail it. Then you wait again. The phone? Yes, people could use the phone to talk like they always have, but what about when you want to show the person you're talking with something? A picture of your new grandchild or your new car can't be shown over the phone. You get the idea.

Drop the egotistical viewpoint that you have no competition and take a good, hard look around. Once you've realized that there is always an alternative to buying what you offer, you'll be in a better mindset to write copy that outlines why yours is the only option the prospect should consider.

http://www.learn-copywriting.com

About The Author

Tired of endlessly searching the ‘Net in hopes of finding the latest copywriting techniques? Need an up-to-date directory filled with the best ways to learn copywriting? Visit http://www.learn-copywriting.com today for the widest collection of the most popular copywriting resources available.

IF PUBLISHING ON A WEBSITE, USE THIS RESOURCE BOX:

Tired of endlessly searching the ‘Net in hopes of finding the latest copywriting techniques? Need an up-to-date directory filled with the best ways to learn copywriting? Visit Learn Copywriting today for the widest collection of the most popular copywriting resources available.

2009-03-10T12:34:00.003-07:00

Your Book and a Great Website

by: Dr. Jamie Fettig

One of the most overlooked and easiest ways to get your book into the hands of the people you wrote it for, is having a great website.

Build a great Website. I can't state this often enough or strongly enough: you must have an attractive, easy to use Website that lets your visitors do four things:

Buy your book.
Register and download sample chapters or get your e-newsletter.
E-mail friends about your book.
Find out more about you.

Your Website should be ground zero for your book business, the place where everyone comes to buy copies, give you their contact information, communicate with you about media interviews or bulk orders, and just learn about your book and why they should buy it. It's the single most important aspect of your marketing plan.

Notice that I said, "great" Website. There are thousands of new books coming out every month, and many of them are amateurish at best. Having a sloppy, clunky, poorly written Website only makes your book look like one of those amateur-hour productions. Invest the money in a professional Web developer, someone who can design a classy, beautiful site, build your e-commerce system and give you the means to easily update your site's content at any time.

Good sites all make the books and their authors appear professional, legitimate, and smart. They're inviting information centers for people to come to and spend time getting to know both book and writer.

You should have your Website up and running before you begin any PR or sales activities, probably at least two months before your book hits the streets. Talk to several Web designers or get a referral from someone you trust. In any case, make sure your site has at least these features:

E-commerce so people can buy your book. (a great place –- http://www.bazuji.com/shopping)
A registration page that asks visitors to give you their contact information before they can download a sample chapter or get your e-newsletter.
A media section where members of the press can download your press kit as a PDF, read other media coverage, and contact you for interviews.
A contact page with all your contact information.
A bio page with your personal story.
A function that allows visitors to e-mail their friends from your site.

Sample your book in print and on the Internet.

If you have a Web site (and you should), it's simple. Just take a chapter from your book, paste it into its own file with the proper copyright information so it's a self-contained document, turn it into a PDF (Portable Document Format, a wonderful type of file created by Adobe), and place it on your Website for free downloading. Then send an e-mail to your entire list offering them an excerpt from your upcoming book free. A 10% or 20% response rate is not out of the question.

For print publications, it goes like this:

Pull together a list of target newspapers and magazines.
Contact the editors by e-mail asking if they would be interested in running your excerpt at no cost (editors love content they can get for free).
Send your chapter as a Word file to those who agree. Make sure it's completely clean and free of any typos or grammatical errors, and include an author bio at the end that lists your Web address.
Be sure to get reprints or a PDF of the printed article you can use for publicity purposes.

Start sending e-mails to editors several months before your book comes out. It usually takes a while to hear back, and even longer to actually get your sample in print.

About The Author

Dr. Jamie Fettig

Are you interested in the one seminar that has created more Best-Selling authors than any other seminar? A seminar put on by the guy who has sold more books than every other book in the history of the world except the bible? Then get yourself to the Mega Book Marketing Seminar and train yourself to be a mega-successful author and become a sought after speaker. Make the difference with your book that you want to make. To Register and for more information go to http://www.bazuji.com/book

For a great resource on easily creating an effective and cheap website for your book go to http://www.bazuji.com/tomantion.html

2009-03-10T12:34:00.001-07:00

How to Create a Media Frenzy for Your Book

by: Dr. Jamie Fettig

Learn to use the media to create free exposure for yourself and to sell your books. And most importantly, how to be a great guest once you get on the air.

Prepare talking points before making media appearances.

Many new authors spend so much time and energy trying to get in the newspaper or on radio that when they get there, they don't know what to say. But if you take an hour to prepare concise, compelling comments about your book, you'll come off as a real pro, increase sales, and maybe even be asked back!

The average radio interview lasts five minutes, of which three might be broadcast, and on average you might get six inches of coverage in your local newspaper. You don't have a lot of time to waste hemming and hawing about your book, and the journalist interviewing you doesn't want to waste his or her time either. So before you even start soliciting press coverage, write down and memorize your talking points.

You say you know your book? I'm sure you do. But when you're under the gun of a timed interview, or an interviewer hits you with a surprise question, it's easy to stammer or get confused. Talking points are your lifeline. I suggest preparing a list that looks like this:

a. What's the "elevator pitch" (a 10-second summary) of my book?

b. Who is my book targeted to?

c. How did I decide to write it?

d. What are three passages in my book that I want to quote?

e. What can people get out of my book?

f. Where can people buy my book?

Write those down on note cards and memorize them, but keep the cards with you when you do interviews, just in case. That way, you'll come off more professional and make the most of the time you get.

Focus heavily on PR.

If you don't believe in the power of public relations and the media to turn an unknown book into a bestseller, I have two words for you: Oprah Winfrey. Get your book 15 minutes on her show and you'll sell a million copies. That's the power of the media.

Of course, getting on Oprah is the Holy Grail of book marketing, and while you shouldn't NOT try to get on her show, you shouldn't focus only on that. PR is your most powerful tool for creating awareness and selling books. So early on, while you're still in final editing, start making lists of media outlets, cashing in on contacts, making calls and sending out e-mails.

PR works because it's got credibility. Instead of a paid ad, people see an objective journalist reviewing your book, or a talk show host who's chosen to have you on her show because she liked your book. Media exposure carries tremendous weight with book buyers. Ask your friends how many books they've bought after hearing about them on "Fresh Air" on National Public Radio.

These are some of the PR avenues you can pursue:

Reviews in any and all publications, print and online especially.
Features in print and online publications.
Radio interviews.
Television interviews.
A regular column in a magazine or newspaper or online.
Speaking engagements.
A role as an "expert source" for one or more journalists.
Creating press events.
Tying your book to a charity or cause.

It all begins with your press kit. That's a snazzy folder that contains the press release about your book's publication, a bio of you, a black and white photo of you (professionally done) and any press coverage you may have already received. Once you've identified your media list, send that kit to the key contacts at each paper, magazine, TV or radio station.

But don't stop there. PR is about relationships, and you've got to strike the right balance of "eager to help" and "respecting your time." Follow up your press kit with an e-mail in a week or so, and stay in touch. Offer story ideas or to be quoted for a feature. Make yourself an asset to journalists and editors and you'll be surprised at the results.

Two final tips:

Always include your Web address in your PR, stories, interviews, etc.
Always get reprints, videotapes, etc. of your press coverage to use later.

Learn to use the media to create free exposure for yourself and to sell your books. And most importantly, how to be a great guest once you get on the air.

Prepare talking points before making media appearances.

g. What's the "elevator pitch" (a 10-second summary) of my book?

h. Who is my book targeted to?

i. How did I decide to write it?

j. What are three passages in my book that I want to quote?

k. What can people get out of my book?

l. Where can people buy my book?

Write those down on note cards and memorize them, but keep the cards with you when you do interviews, just in case. That way, you'll come off more professional and make the most of the time you get.

Focus heavily on PR.

These are some of the PR avenues you can pursue:

Reviews in any and all publications, print and online especially.
Features in print and online publications.
Radio interviews.
Television interviews.
A regular column in a magazine or newspaper or online.
Speaking engagements.
A role as an "expert source" for one or more journalists.
Creating press events.
Tying your book to a charity or cause.

Two final tips:

Always include your Web address in your PR, stories, interviews, etc.
Always get reprints, videotapes, etc. of your press coverage to use later.

About The Author

Dr. Jamie Fettig

2009-03-10T12:33:00.001-07:00

Your Book Not in Book Stores? Don't Worry

by: Dr. Jamie Fettig

Trying to figure out how to get your self published books into book stores? Don't worry about it because you can get more book sales easier and with less effort elsewhere. Some useful tips for you and your book from Mark Victor Hansen, who has sold more than 100 million books so far.

Sure, we all want to look on the shelves at Barnes and Noble and see our books there. It's thrilling. But it's really not necessary. I see so many authors waste their time and money paying distributors and driving from store to store, delivering books when they should be selling directly to the public. The Internet makes it possible.

In fact, there are many good reasons NOT to be in bookstores:

You don't have to pay a distributor, who will take a cut of your profits.
You don't have to worry about shipping and returns.
You don't have to fight for shelf space.

In most cases, selling direct to the public, or through bulk sales to institutions, is a much better way to turn your book into a revenue stream. With the Internet, tradeshows and other events, and seminars, you have multiple ways to sell direct, pocket 100% of the profits, and save yourself the hassle of trying to get into Borders.

I also recommend selling on Amazon.com. They do take a substantial chunk of your sales price, but it's a wonderful way to generate buzz about your book. Otherwise, unless you can truly benefit from the prestige of being on the bookshelves, leave the bookstores to John Grisham and Stephen King.

Pursue bulk sales.

Ninety percent of new authors are only focused with getting people into bookstores to buy their book. And it's great if you can do that, but I give them all the same advice: do not overlook bulk sales. They can turn your book from a money-loser into a profit center in a few months. Bulk sales are a gold mine.

What do I mean by bulk sales? I mean selling your books in large quantities to an organization, which could mean anything from a corporation to a school district to a non-profit group to a church. You'll have to give the organization a price break for buying in bulk, but you'll get dozens, hundreds or even thousands of your books into people's hands, which dramatically increases your word-of-mouth and viral marketing.

Promoting bulk sales is a pretty straightforward deal. Simply look at your book and ask yourself what companies, organizations or affinity groups would be interested in the book for their employees or members. If you've written a book on corporate team building, make a list of corporations where you have personal contacts. If your book is about exercise for seniors, try contacting AARP. And so on. Marketing bulk sales is usually about personal contact, either by letter or direct mail.

When you're going after bulk sales, try to get to the "gatekeepers," the people who can make the decisions for a large organization. It makes much more sense to talk to 20 people who have the potential between them to order 10,000 books than to sell them one at a time. Even if you only get orders from three of those gatekeepers, you'll sell a few thousand books.

Be sure to offer a good bulk rate discount for your bulk buyers. The more books they buy, the bigger the price break. If they buy over 1,000, give them 50% off. You'll still make money and you'll start winning readers.

Always build your mailing and e-mail lists.

There are two kinds of lists: physical mailing address lists and e-mail lists, and you should always be building both. They are your promotional lifelines to your potential readers and customers, and everything you do to market your book should have some component that gathers contact information of prospective buyers.

The best way to build your list is quite simple: get people to come to your Website, offer them something of value, and require them to give you (at a minimum) their name and e-mail address to get it. The kinds of things you can offer:

Downloadable excerpts from your book.
A subscription to your e-newsletter.
An advance discount on your book.
An audio CD or other ancillary product.

Be creative. Is there something that pushes your target audience's buttons? Offer it to them. This kind of "opt-in" list, where people consent to receiving future information from you, is the gold standard of marketing.

Some other reputable ways you can build your list:

Take names or business cards at a tradeshow or conference.
Membership lists from organizations of which you are a member
Get respected colleagues to e-mail their lists asking their contacts to go to your site to find something of value to them.

But always, always be building your list. And make sure that your database software is solid, proven, regularly maintained, and backed up weekly.

About The Author

Dr. Jamie Fettig

2009-03-10T12:32:00.004-07:00

Goldmine of Wealth with 8 Internet Secrets

by: Dr. Jamie Fettig

Eight ideas that will change your life and a unique business idea you may never have thought of before:

1. The most important skill in Internet marketing is knowing how to find 'hot' markets - 'research.'

2. Research is like detective work. You look for evidence, follow the clues and draw conclusions.

3. As an Internet marketer, your first job is to find a 'hot' online market to sell to. Product selection and advertising come later.

4. A 'hot' online market is a market that is already actively buying products in a particular category.

For example:

Health 'nuts' actively buy vitamins.
Martial arts fanatics actively buy training videos.
Fishermen actively buy fishing gear and lures.
Golfers actively buy new equipment and instructional courses.
Brides-to-be actively buy all kinds of supplies and services for weddings.

There are literally hundreds of 'hot' markets online.

The trick to success is to pick the market that you're naturally excited about serving.

5. If you're not able to define a market and describe exactly how you will deliver your sales message to the people in it, then it's not a market.

6. The best places to find 'hot' markets are in the *obvious* places.

Do you want to sell downloadable eBooks?

Then the ClickBank catalog is the best research tool for you.

Do you want to sell 'real stuff?'

Then visit Yahoo Stores and see what product categories are producing the most action.

Another good market research technique is to think of some search terms you might use if you were looking for a particular product on your favorite search engine. Then see what comes up.

If you see a lot of action in a marketplace that's a good indication that demand is high.

If demand is high, then there is probably room for your business, especially if you offer something 'new.'

7. Once you've selected the market you want to sell to, now is the time to figure out what to sell.

Notice that this is the method every experienced Internet marketing pro I know uses to start new Internet-based businesses.

Market research first, then products.

Beginners often get hung up on the details of their product idea.

8. The most successful products are products of quality that bring something new to an existing marketplace.

"New" can mean many different things:

Sometimes "new" means a new product that no one has ever seen before.

"New" can also mean an improvement of an already well-known product.

"New" might even be an old product advertised in a new and imaginative way.

What this means is that you may not need to invent or create your own product in order to succeed on the Internet.

You can just as easily find an existing product, improve the way it's advertised and make your fortune that way.

--- The method no one talks about.

What would you say if I told you that not only do you not need to create your own product to succeed on the Internet, but that you could also succeed without any of the normal hassles of running a business.

I'm talking about having all the advantages of having a 'real' business - a customer list, a full blown product line, and all the employees you need - without any of the hassles or risks.

Instead of starting your own online business to sell information or physical products, you can choose to partner with *existing* real world businesses and help them with their Internet marketing in exchange for a piece of the online action.

Sounds incredible, doesn't it?

And it's completely real.

About The Author

Dr. Jamie Fettig

If you value entertainment over education… the system seminar is not for you.

But if you've got brains and guts and you sincerely want to be more than just another member of the 'mediocre Internet marketing majority,' take the FREE Pre-System Training. After just a few lessons you'll see right away if the System is for you or not. The Pre-System Training is a course that stands on its own and over the years, it's helped a lot of people make a lot of money. http://www.bazuji.com/system

2009-03-10T12:32:00.003-07:00

Blueprint of Online Success

by: Dr Jamie Fettig

I'm going to introduce you to what is potentially the most valuable strategy you're ever going to learn about Internet Marketing, or even business in general. Once you grasp this concept and make it your own, your marketing life will never be the same again.

And, you're going to wonder why this simple idea, which is so incredibly powerful and immediately useful, is not taught as part of every Internet seminar, home study course and e-Book.

--- What works and what doesn't

If you've been in the market for Internet advice and guidance for any length of time, you've probably noticed that things can get complicated and confusing quickly. Every 'guru' seems to have his own technique and says you have to buy *his* method and sign up for his software if you're going to succeed.

The truth is, if you bought every e-Book, attended every tele-seminar and bought every home study course, you'd never make any money because you'd be so tied up in knots trying to figure out which way to go, you'd have trouble picking a direction and getting started.

--- Building an income stream is like building a house... it starts with a blueprint.

Focus on what *matters*. Once you have the blueprint, the 'tools' part falls into place, but tools without a plan are useless.

Let's say you decided you want to go into the house building business. So, like any intelligent person, you decide to do some research. You buy some books and go to some courses. So far, so good.

But what would you think if you went to a course or bought a book and instead of learning how to actually build houses, you were given a 'rah rah' speech and pitched on saws and hammers and two-by-fours?

No instruction on what *matters* when it comes to building a house. Nothing about picking a good location, laying a solid foundation, nor designing the house correctly; Just a thinly disguised sales pitch for an overpriced hammer.

I'm sure you see the problem and yet what I just described is how most Internet marketing education works.

No insight, no real guidance. Just 'Do what I say, give me your money and everything will work out fine.'

There is a better way.

--- Products are EASY when you do it right

Here's the #1 most commonly asked question about Internet marketing.

"What should I sell online?"

This question is completely backwards. The most important question you need to ask about marketing anything on the Internet or elsewhere is not 'what' should I sell, but 'whom' should I sell to.

In other words, pick the market first.

Here's why this is so life-and-death important. Without a market in mind, it's practically impossible to create a product that will sell.

On the other hand, when you have a market in mind, coming up with product ideas is as easy as falling off a log. There's literally nothing to it.

Now, I ask you. What situation would you rather be in?

The person on the sidelines going round and round in circles trying to figure out what to sell and how to get started...Or the person who is in the game, putting points up on the scoreboard, and having fun. (Yes, business, when it is working right, is fun.)

About The Author

Dr. Jamie Fettig

If you value entertainment over education… the system seminar is not for you.

But if you've got brains and guts and you sincerely want to be more than just another member of the 'mediocre Internet marketing majority,' take the FREE Pre-System Training. After just a few lessons you'll see right away if the System is for you or not. The Pre-System Training is a course that stands on its own and over the years, it has helped a lot of people make a lot of money. http://www.bazuji.com/system

2009-03-10T12:32:00.001-07:00

An Often Overlooked Secret of Selling

by: Dr. Jamie Fettig

This could be the single most important secret you ever learn about marketing. I know it was for me. I probably heard this particular gem of wisdom a few dozen times over the course of several years before I really 'got' it. And when I did, it changed my life.

This one secret is at the root of *all* marketing success - and failure - whether online or offline. Grasping it will *greatly* accelerate your progress and improve your financial status fast. Ignoring it will guarantee that you stay stuck in a rut. It's that powerful.

It's not what you think. Most people who are attracted to marketing start out by focusing all their energy on learning *techniques*. There's nothing wrong with learning marketing techniques. I'm always looking for new ways to improve my own marketing and - if I'm convinced of the value - I think nothing of jumping on a plane and flying half way around the world just to pick up an extra 'edge' that I didn't have before.

But technique alone is not enough. Not by a long shot.

You can buy every e-Book, purchase every home study course, attend every seminar, fill your home with books, hire the best consultants and coaches, but it's all for nothing if you ignore 'the secret.' In fact, knowing a lot of marketing techniques and not knowing 'the secret' can be downright dangerous to your financial, not to mention your mental, health.

Are your curious yet what 'the secret' is? Good!

Here it is and I hope you burn it into your brain because it will serve you over and over for the rest of your life and it very well could burst the seams of your bank account some day...The most important decision you'll ever make when starting a new business is not what product to sell, not what headline to use, not which super-duper Internet marketing technique to employ...it's this:

"The battle is won or lost on day one...when you pick your MARKET."

Successful marketing is not so much about the WHAT you market or the HOW you market as it is about WHO you sell to. If you get the WHO right, everything else will fall into place. If you don't, not even the greatest marketing in the world will help you. The 'WHO' is the market you choose to sell to.

And here's the rest of 'the secret'... "Some markets are hard and some markets are easy. If you want to make maximum money in minimum time, go after 'easy' markets." What do I mean by an 'easy' market?

'Easy' markets have the following three characteristics.

Easy to reach.
Have a burning 'need' for what you've got.
Have demonstrated through their past behavior, an ability and willingness to spend money on the kinds of things you plan to sell.

The closer the market you choose corresponds to this description, the 'easier' your life will be.

The wrong way. Many entrepreneurs - beginners *and* experienced – get tripped up here. They create a product that they're sure the world will love. Or they hear that the Internet is a great marketing medium so invest in creating a super web site.

Both these approaches remind me of the old expression 'putting the cart before the horse.' The fanciest 'cart' on earth - the best product, the slickest web marketing campaign - won't get you anywhere without a good 'horse' to pull it. In contrast, with the right horse, you don't have to worry too much about the cart. Nature will take care of itself.

Richard Sears who started the famous Sears catalog and single-handedly kick-started the direct marketing and mail order industry over 100 years ago put it this way to a colleague once: "If it's the right offer to the right person at the right time, I can write it on the back of an old paper bag in crayon and it will sell."

That's how important picking the right market is. Now I'm not suggesting that you do your advertising on the back of old paper bags in crayon, but I am suggesting that you radically change your FOCUS.

By all means, continue to study marketing, but - starting right now, today - resolve to put at least half or more of your entrepreneurial time and energy into studying specific MARKETS. And while you're at it, look for 'easy' markets which means:

Groups of people who you can easily reach...who have a burning 'need' for what you sell...and who have already demonstrated the willingness and ability to buy the kinds of things you plan to sell to them.

I call it 'shooting fish in a barrel' marketing.

About The Author

Dr. Jamie Fettig

If you value entertainment over education… the system seminar is not for you.

2009-03-10T12:28:00.001-07:00

Infopreneur - Overlooked Golden Opportunity

by: Dr. Jamie Fettig

What it takes to be an infopreneur on the internet.

If you like to teach, enjoying writing and write well, and have or can get access to a body of knowledge that other people are willing to pay good money for, then you could be best served by getting into the information marketing business.

Notice the three qualities you need to have for the info marketing business to work for you:

Quality #1 - 'You like to teach'. This doesn't mean you have to have had formal, professional experience as a teacher, but it does mean that you're the kind of person who enjoys taking the time to break difficult information down so people who are new to the subject can learn it too.

Quality #2 - 'You enjoy writing and write well' the info marketing business is about generating words...lots and lots of words; content, ads, articles, reports, books, home study course, seminars.

You don't have to be Shakespeare and you don't have to write everything you need all at once, but to make the big bucks in info marketing, you have to be on a friendly basis with your word processor.

Quality #3 - 'You have or can get access to a body of knowledge that people are willing to pay good money for'.

The good news about being an info marketer is you don't need to be *the* ultimate expert on the information you sell.

You can always partner with another person who has the subject expertise. This can work very well if you pick the right partner. The thing you need to know is that partnerships are difficult at best. The right one can transform your destiny, but the wrong one can cause you endless headaches.

If you go the partner route, choose wisely.

The second part of this equation is you need 'a body of knowledge that other people are willing to pay good money for'

I'm talking here about making *real* money. If you just want to make a few hundred extra dollars a month selling an e-Book, fine. But if your goal is to end up with a *business* that pays your mortgage, makes the car payment, and puts the kids through school, and then you're going to want to take a more serious approach.

When it comes to making a living selling information, there are two things that matter: picking the right kind of 'deep pockets' market and serving the market you pick like crazy.

There are all kinds of info categories where people are willing to spend serious money...

And those are the kind of markets you want to go after.

But here's the price of admission. You have to be able to consistently produce serious, high quality content that's *worth* big money.

The 'smoke and mirrors' guys like to gloss over this reality. 'It's easy,' they say. 'Just put up any old e-Book and you'll be rolling in it.'

Wrong.

The reality is most e-Book publishers who are making real money sell a lot more than just e-Books. They sell home study courses, seminars, coaching programs, etc. And none of those things are cheap.

If writing, researching, teaching and high level promotion are your life passions, you can do this too, but if they're not, be easy on yourself and take a look at one of the two other paths to online success.

About The Author

Dr. Jamie Fettig

If you value entertainment over education… the system seminar is not for you.

2009-03-10T12:27:00.004-07:00

Filling Internet Potholes

by: Dr. Jamie Fettig

How do you find products that will make you successful online? Here are three simple steps to teach you how.

You can be the person in the game of making real money if you'll follow this simple method...The most successful marketers in the world are all good at one thing: observing the obvious.

In fact, coming up with winning product ideas is no more complicated than fixing holes in a road. Here's how road repair works...

You walk the road. Every time you find a hole, you fill it. 'The road' is the marketplace. It's where your customers are. 'Walking the road' is market research. It's about finding the holes, finding out what customers like and don't like. 'Filling the holes' is creating products that satisfy the specific needs of specific marketplaces.

If you want success on the Internet, focus on filling the holes in the road. In other words, focus on a specific market, find out what's missing and then develop a product that fills 'the hole.'

That way, instead of trying to create a product from thin air, your knowledge of the market and what's missing from it becomes a clear blueprint that tells you exactly what to build.

How do you find out what's missing? Simple. You listen. And then you fill the hole with exactly what is needed. --- A concrete example of the 'road repair' method at work.

A lot of people want to break into the Internet marketing seminar business. As markets go, it's one of the toughest ones on earth. The market is limited, there's a ton of competition, and many of the people in it have no problem making fake claims and offering false promises.

This is definitely not an easy market and under normal circumstances, it's one I'd stay far away from.

Step one for me was getting to know the marketplace. Yes, even though I've been around online marketing since the beginning, I still had to do my homework.

What did this 'homework' involve?

Nothing too complicated... I just walked the road and looked for holes. Specifically, I talked to lots of beginning and intermediate Internet marketers and asked them what they needed.

And here's the amazing thing. They told me :-)

Seriously, if you want to receive a flood of useful information, just talk to your prospects and listen to them. They will tell you everything you need to know.

They'll show you exactly where the holes are and once you see them, it's pretty obvious how to fill them.

Because I did my homework, when it came time to design the System training and the marketing for it, I was filling real holes in a real road and my customers experienced the difference between the System and other seminars right away.

Instead of hitting bump after bump, they had a smooth ride. Instead of spinning their wheels in potholes, they went out and built businesses and changed their lives.

Every successful business works this way.

There's an existing market, there's a lack in that market, and someone comes along and provides what's missing.

When these three elements are working for you everything falls into place and you get to declare yourself a 'marketing genius.'

About The Author

Dr. Jamie Fettig

If you value entertainment over education… the system seminar is not for you.

2009-03-10T12:27:00.003-07:00

Your Book is a Business

by: Dr. Jamie Fettig

Thinking of your book as a business will help you produce more sales. How do you do that?

Think like a businessperson, not an author.

Once the final draft is written, you're no longer an author. You're an entrepreneur with a product to sell, and it's critical that you start thinking that way. Instead of spending your time on editing and proofreading, you've got to invest your time in marketing activities. That means finding the answers to three critical questions:

Who is your audience?
What will compel them to buy your book?
What methods should you use to reach them?

At this stage, you need to think about capturing leads, producing sales material, getting testimonials and positive reviews, and arranging publicity events. Your focus should be on all the ways you can create awareness of your book.

The best way to get started in thinking like a businessperson is after your final draft is done but before you go to print, sit down and write out the answers to these questions:

What is my marketing budget?
What resources do I have in place already?
What people do I know who can help me?
What are my sales goals for the year?

Keep your expectations realistic.

The average self-published book sells only about 3,000 copies, and the average book issued by a publisher sells only a few thousand more. For every bestseller, there are hundreds of books that sell moderately and disappear. So you've got to keep your expectations realistic, or you'll set yourself up to get discouraged and quit trying to market your book.

Rather than worry about the overall number of copies sold, I recommend that people set their goals, especially for a first book, this way:

Monetary goals. For most authors, selling enough copies to break even is a very worthwhile goal. If you can do that, you've done great!
Career goals. Your book might give a big boost to your speaking career, medical practice or other endeavor.
Publicity goals. Your book could position you as an expert in your field, so that you get invited on radio programs, TV, speaking engagements, etc.
Publishing goals. Maybe your book will be noticed by a publisher who wants to re-release it, or you are offered a chance to write future books.
Networking goals. You meet agents, designers, journalists and others who could be wonderful contacts for the future.

Your expectations for your book should not be centered on copies sold. Instead, focus on developing and executing a brilliant marketing and PR plan, making key contacts, and finding ways to create value for readers, for the media and for organizations who might make bulk purchases. If you focus on those things, sales will take care of themselves.

Concentrate on meeting all 5 types of goals. That way, even if your sales are only moderate, but you do brilliantly in getting publicity and making contacts, you can consider your book a success.

Have a solid, long-term marketing plan.

Before you ever get close to even finishing your first draft, sit down and map out the basics of your marketing and promotional plan. The key questions you'll need to answer:

What is my marketing budget?
When should my book be ready?
Who is my audience and what need does this book meet?
What will my price point be?
How many copies do I need to sell to break even?
How many copies do I want to sell?
What marketing channels will I use to reach my readers?
What relationships can I leverage to make bulk sales?
What relationships can I leverage to get press coverage?
Who will design my Website?
Do I need a marketing staff?
Will I do an e-newsletter?
Will I hire a distributor or ship the books myself?
Do I want to be in the bookstores?
Will I do "guerilla" marketing?
What ancillary products can I produce (tapes, CDs, etc.)
How can my seminars/consulting/current business support this book?

That's a lot of material, but it's all important. Take a couple of months and figure it out. You can also cut some time off your learning curve by learning from others who have done it already.

About The Author

Dr. Jamie Fettig

2009-03-10T12:27:00.001-07:00

20 Sure-Fire Ways To Get People to Link to Your Web Site

by: Jonathan Bois

1. Offer other web sites free content to post on their web site. Include your link on all of your content. The content should related to your web site because it will be in front of your target audience.

2. When you visit a web site you've enjoyed a lot, write a review for the site. Write about the benefits you gain from the web site. Tell them they can publish it on their web site if they link to your web site.

3. Allow other people to publish your e-zine on their web site. Include your web site's ad and link in each issue you publish. This may also help you increase the number of people that subscribe to your e-zine.

4. Market your web site as a free web book. Design your web site with a title page, table of contents, chapters, etc. Just allow other people to give away the web book by linking to your web site.

5. Give your visitors an instant article directory. Tell your visitors they can instantly add a free article directory to their web site by linking to yours. Just place your ad or banner ad on top of the article directory for your main web site.

6. Allow other web sites to use your discussion board for their web site visitors. Just have them link directly to the discussion board. Include your web sites ad or banner ad at the top of the discussion board.

7. Start a members only web site. Tell visitors what's in your members only site and what it costs to gain access. Offer them a free membership if, in exchange, they link to your web site.

8. Offer your visitors a free sign up to your affiliate program. Pay them commission to sell your products or services. Just give them an affiliate link to track their sales. People will link to your web site to make extra money.

9. Create your own award site for other web sites. Give the winners a graphic or text link to place on their web site when they win. This will link your web site to theirs and draw more traffic to your web site.

10. Are you an expert on a particular subject? Offer people free consulting via e-mail if, in exchange, they either link to your site. People will consider this a huge value because consulting fees can be very expensive.

11. When you purchase a product and it exceeds your expectations e-mail the business a testimonial. Make sure your statement is detailed. Give them permission to publish it on their web site if they link to your site.

12. Create a directory of web sites on a specific topic. Give people the option of adding the directory to their web site by linking to it. Put your business ad at the top of the directory's home page.

13. Exchange content with other web sites. You could trade articles, top ten lists, etc. Both parties could include a resource box at the end of the content.

14. Allow people to download software at no charge from your web site, if they link to your web site. The software could be freeware, shareware or demos.

15. Trade other forms of advertising to people that link to your web site. You could trade e-zine ads, print ads, autoresponder ads, classified ads, ebook ads, etc.

16. Give away web space to people for free. Since you are giving it away for free, request they link to your site by placing your ad or banner to the site.

17. Join or create a web ring. A web ring is a group of web sites on a similar subject agreeing to link together. To find a web ring to join type keywords "web rings" into your search engine of choice.

18. Create an online club or association. Tell your visitors what's included in the membership and what it costs to join. Offer them a free membership if, in exchange, they link to your web site.

19. Allow people to use an online service or utilities from your web site if, in exchange, they link to your web site. The online service could be an e-mail account, search engine submission, web page design, copywriting, proofreading, etc.

20. Offer a free e-book to your web site visitors. The ebook should be related to your target audience. Allow them to give the e-book to their own web site visitors by linking directly to your web site.

About The Author

Jonathan Bois

bois_28@hotmail.com

http://www.netprofitblueprint.com/index.php?ref=182

2009-03-10T12:26:00.000-07:00

Why We Hate to Promote Ourselves

by: Suzanne Falter-Barns

In the last week or so, I've begun enrolling people in the next session of my Platform Push Coaching Program on my other site, www.getknownnow.com. And boy, has that been interesting. In a few brief encounters, I've learned a lot about the power of permission.

The course is demanding; it requires these coaching students to really make a commitment to building their platform. Over six months they work on creating a brand phrase and identity, creating a branded website, setting up media kits, head shots, developing ezines and blogs, speaker materials and media mailings. The course requires a lot, but it promises a lot, too.

So I find myself speaking to many of my registrants as they make the decision whether or not to join the program. Some are on the fence for technical reasons that are hard to overcome, but many are simply on the fence. This is how these conversations go:

ME: "Hi, it's Suzanne calling about the Platform Push Coaching Program you were

interested in."

THEM: (Enthusiastically) Hi Suzanne!

ME: So how are your platform building efforts coming?

THEM: (Audible groan/sigh/exhalation of breath) Well... (another sigh) .... I

don't know.

That audible groan comes up in nearly every phone call. Nearly every one! Rare is the person who simply says, "I'm not interested in promoting at the moment," or even "I haven't made time to focus on it." Instead, there's just the groan.

What that groan says to me is that getting known by the public scares them. Even thinking about it makes them feel small and inadequate. And yet they know that they must if they want to reach the people they're meant to. So they feel both guilty and annoyed with themselves at the same time. (Sound familiar?)

I can relate to this completely, which is why I developed this work in the first place. It's hard to do this stuff -- not for technical reasons, but simply because of what it portends. 'They', the general public, may finally know us. They might love us. Or they could potentially kick sand in our faces. And that's scary.

Now, there are people out there who actually love promoting themselves, and God bless them. Most of us come from this small, shy place about blowing our own horn. That's why I almost always find myself giving the people I speak to permission to go big. Here's how that part goes:

ME: So what's holding you back from doing this work?

THEM: I don't have a website! I don't have anything! I feel like a rank beginner.

ME: That's why there's a course like this. So you don't have to create this thing

alone in a dark corner.

THEM: But can I really do it? I mean, you think I'd be able to?

ME: Sure! Why not?

THEM: Wow ... really?

This is the most starting revelation of all in this process. Many of the people I speak with seem to need permission to become bigger and better known. It's as if we're naturally programmed to stay small and circumspect. And yet, getting better known can only help our ability serve others and give us more credibility in the marketplace.

Of course, there are those who aren't quite ready yet to move into a bigger arena. They may not know yet whom they're supposed to work with or just what they're hereto accomplish. Yet, most of us are truly stuck just short of this hurdle, waiting for someone, anyone, to give us the courage to get going.

If that's you, may I urge you to take the first step and give yourself permission to go big. You have everything you need, right now, to move forward and serve others. And if you happen to be waiting for permission to move ahead, well ... here it is. Consider yourself booted ahead.

About The Author

The bi weekly ezine, The Joy Letter teaches anyone with a dream the secrets to living your joy. Sign up and receive our free report, "35 Guaranteed Time Savers" right now at http://www.howmuchjoy.com.

To reprint this article, please use with this bio box intact.

info@getknownnow.com

2009-03-10T12:25:00.002-07:00

Using a Marketing Calendar Template

by: Nick Smith

Owning a small business isn’t easy, especially if you are running it alone. Between moving products, taking orders, paying bills, and taking care of family, it is easy to lose track of everything you need to do. Using a calendar template to organize and manage your marketing strategy will ensure you don’t drop the ball with one of the most important parts of your business.

Developing a Marketing Strategy

First, research and identify who your target clientele is, and what characteristics they share that make them valuable to you. If you have developed software that organizes and manages an online calendar, you probably will not want to target 14-year-old skateboarders. But it is not enough just to identify an age category or an activity your target market shares – you need to consider socio-economic status, buying habits, and potential for up-selling. I may be in Porsche’s target age group, but I am definitely not in their target tax bracket!

Second, after identifying who you will be targeting, research and explore venues for your advertising message. The demographics of your desired customers will play a key role in deciding which venues to pursue, so don’t forget about them. Examples of marketing venues available to you include newspaper ads, bus stop banners, sports team sponsorships, online marketing (including pay-per-click campaigns and search engine optimization), local television spots, and, if you’re feeling extra ambitious, the Super Bowl.

Finally, after identifying your desired customers and selecting which marketing venues you will pursue, create a marketing calendar. Calendar templates are available online for download and use. A calendar template typically divides time into weeks, providing a space each week to record what event or marketing method you are focusing on; how much money has been and will be spent on the activity; deadlines, contacts, and important notes; and what the results of the marketing ploy were. Once you have these three facets in place, you are ready to invest some real money into promoting your company.

Implementing a Marketing Campaign

With your marketing calendar template in hand and wallet in pocket, you are ready to invest in the marketing campaign you have designed. The nice thing about using a marketing calendar is that it takes what could be the impossible task of keeping track of and following up on all your marketing endeavors, and it breaks it up into one week chunks. This feature allows you to focus on each marketing activity and the results it produces.

The prospect of launching an online marketing campaign, billboard and bus stop banners, and newspaper advertisements all at the same time is formidable at best and impossible at worst! Unless you absolutely cannot afford to wait one more week to launch them all, try phasing them in one at a time. The marketing calendar template will help you keep track of what is going on, and where you need to turn your attention next.

Evaluating Your Campaign

During and after every marketing endeavor you perform each week, fill out the important spaces on your calendar template. When you receive the results of that specific campaign (i.e. more visitors to your site or more customers purchasing the advertised product, etc.), compare it to other advertisement venues or practices you have tried. Was it more or less successful? Did it produce the desired result? What was your return on investment for this particular campaign? Did it improve your bottom line? Without keeping careful track of each activity and its results it would be difficult to answer these questions. And if you can’t answer these questions you’ll never know if you’re throwing money away each month, or under-investing in advertising that could be giving you a huge ROI.

In addition to constantly evaluating the specific advertisements and marketing campaigns you run, it will be helpful to systematically reevaluate your target audience. As your business grows and develops throughout the years, the products you sell or the services you provide may evolve from one demographic to another. Never get too comfortable with your marketing strategy – be alert of changes in technology and techniques that can benefit you and your company and take advantage of those resources.

Launching a successful marketing campaign for your small and home business can be difficult, but it is not impossible. Properly creating, implementing, and evaluating your marketing strategy may be the last three steps you need to take to move into Porsche’s target demographic.

About The Author

Nick Smith is a client account specialist with http://www.10xmarketing.com – More Visitors. More Buyers. More Revenue. For organizational software that includes a calendar template, check out http://www.gobinder.com/calendar-template.aspx.

nick10x@yahoo.com

2009-03-10T12:25:00.001-07:00

Sell Advertising on Your Web Site

by: Hollis Thomases

The number of sites on the Web today is almost infinite, with new ones popping up every day. There are multiple types of sites: portals, "brochureware," content sites, directories, search engines, and ecommerce sites, to name a few. Those that do not sell product or services directly or indirectly on their site often rely on advertising revenue to support operations. So how does one get started getting companies to advertise on a site? Here's a quick primer to getting out of the gate.

Google AdSense

Probably one of the most simplistic ways to place advertising on your site is to sign up with Google as one of its AdSense Publishers. The Adsense program displays text ads rather than images on your site. Google then serves ads based on the content on on the page containing their ad code. For example, if we post a tip on our site about email marketing, Google ads will likely deal with email marketing services or products (see our archived tip, How Email Formats May Affect Response Rates, as an example).

Just in case any of your competitors show up in these text ads, you have the option to pre-block them with an ad filter. Google pays a percentage of the revenue it earns (it does not disclose exactly what that percentage is) and sends checks to publishers monthly, provided that the publisher has generated at least $100 in ad revenue.

Affiliate Programs

The next easiest way to get advertising on your site is to sign up with an affiliate program (or multiple ones) as a publisher. You will then have access to listings of hundreds of merchants (a.k.a. advertisers) who offer a financial incentive for you to promote their products. Though typically you only get paid when there is an actual sale (versus getting paid just to display their ad), all you have to do is place the ad on your site or in your newsletter, etc., and the affiliate program will take care of the rest.

Some of the most reputable and well-known affiliate programs are:

Commission Junction
LinkShare
Affiliate Shop
Commission Soup
DarkBlue
Amazon Associates
Primary Ads
Affiliate Fuel

Ad Networks

An ad network is essentially one centralized re-seller of advertising space which brokers sales for its network of publishers at mass or liquidated pricing in exchange for a percentage of the ad buy.

There are various ad networks out there and joining them is rather easy, but before you do so you should ensure that your site is up to date and meets the criteria of the network. Typical criteria include:

Minimum page views or visitors per month - Some networks require little or none while others want anywhere from 3,000 to 250,000 page views a month or thousands of visitors per month
Content - Your site content should be relevant and regularly updated
Targeting
Residing on own top-level domain - Your site should not be hosted on free providers
No excessive amount of advertising - A site cannot be all advertisements because that won't appeal to anyone

As a publisher, you just don't want to "give away the shop" and sell your soul for a bit of advertising revenue. Here are some particulars to be aware of:

Percentage of revenue - Legitimate networks should give the publisher the lion's share of the advertising revenue; somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 to 70 percent of revenues generated by the site is common
Exclusivity - Avoid ad networks that do not allow you to serve ads from any other network
Payment terms - Many times you will not be sent your check until 30 to 90 days AFTER the month in which your balance has reached a pre-determined amount. * Dependability - As with anyone else you might be hiring, contact some other sites
Publisher veto power - Like Google AdSense, does your ad network give you the power to reject specific campaigns or ads shown on your site?

Feel you are ready to accept network advertising but don't know where to start? Here's a list of some small to mid-sized ad networks to contact:

Search Feed
Adtegrity
BlogAds --specifically for blogs
Burst Media
Fastclick
ValueClick
x10 Networks
Clicksor

For sites attracting visitors on a larger scale, some networks for you to also consider include:

Blue Lithium
AzoogleAds
Advertising.com
MaxOnline
24/7 Real Media
Ad-Up

After you have met the requirements needed for a particular ad network and have decided to sign up, you may also want to keep a few things in mind. Without a doubt you should read the contract word for word and make sure you comprehend all of the information. Then take into consideration the ad rates, types and formats. Would you like to offer targeted or non-targeted advertisements or both? Just don't throw caution to the wind for a quick buck. Be sure to retain the upperhand when dealing with any kind of advertiser or advertising network. It is, after all, YOUR site.

About The Author

Hollis Thomases is the President of Web Ad.vantage, Inc., an online marketing firm specializing in search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, and online media buying. The Web Ad.vantage Inc. site was named by Forbes magazine one of its "Best of B2B Sites" for media and advertising. An award-winning entrepreneur, Hollis Thomases has been honored by CNN and is also a contributing writer to ClickZ.

webadvantage.net

marketing@webadvantage.net

2009-03-10T12:24:00.001-07:00

Go Ahead, Judge That Book By Its Cover

by: Jay Nagdeman

In this age of myriad financial products, voluminous financial services marketing communications and fierce competition, naming a new venture, product or service can be one of the single most important financial marketing decisions that an organization makes.

A name, the initial impression made on the prospect’s mind, is the first step in the brand marketing process. With marginal differences in financial services offerings, a better name can mean a significant difference in acceptance and, hence, in the success of financial services sales and marketing initiatives. Conversely, when a name is bad, it can turn away prospects before they learn anything about the product or service. Now, with increased importance being placed on finding the right name, financial marketing practitioners are using varying approaches. We will explore a few.

A current product branding fad is to develop contrived names. For instance, Verizon combines the Latin word veritas, meaning truth, with horizon, while Lucent means “marked by clarity.” Other contrived names such as Accenture and Agilent remind us that another essential criterion for any good name should be pronounceability. None of these names give any clue to the businesses they represent or the benefits the companies offer. And, truthfully, most of us don’t know or care about the esoteric origins of names. Brand identity depends on recognition and association, not the cleverness of an esoteric name.

It is obvious that the creators of contrived names are betting that a substantial (and expensive) brand marketing campaign will generate the familiarity needed for success. Every contrived name starts life as an empty vessel waiting to be filled with positive perceptions. We believe, however, that a mean-nothing name is a luxury that only a genuinely unique new product or service can afford.

Some firms use initials as their name, hoping to emulate some of the richest and most famous corporations. What these upstarts quickly learn, however, is that while the successful use of initials can validate an established brand identity, they are seldom a strong foundation for establishing a new brand marketing campaign. Think of how this works in our everyday lives. When the headline reads “W Declares War,” there is no ambiguity. Companies spend years on brand marketing and advertising to help create visibility and shape perceptions before recasting themselves with their monograms of marketplace success. Just think of GE, PPG or IBM.

Near our office is Joe’s Wine & Liquor Store. While it would be difficult to think of a more pedestrian moniker, customers know what they can buy there and who to speak with if they have a problem. While the larger AAA Liquors further down the road probably appeals to Joe as the size of store that he aspires to own, its name offers little appeal for customers. Still further along thoroughfare is a brightly-lit, inviting store with attractive displays called THIRD BASE—Last Stop Before Home! Now that’s a name that gets attention from passers-by and the name’s very suggestion undoubtedly contributes to revenues.

The latter illustrates an important principle for building successful brand identity and product sales campaigns. A brand name that is appropriately non-traditional for its industry, product or service category will stand out in the marketplace and reduce the cost of marketing, sales and promotion. Distinctive names can contribute to the success of marketing promotion and brand identity initiatives because they are more apt to be remembered. Further, a distinctive name creates the perception of a distinctive product or service, while an ordinary name implies that you’re just another competitor. For successful brand marketing, it’s important to be distinctive—and sound it!

Naming a new product presents a variety of traps to be avoided. Many firms add the corporate name or an umbrella name from a successful sister offering to gain quicker market acceptance. Our experience suggests that borrowing whole or half names almost always creates unnecessary baggage. New products and services are handicapped from inception if they don’t have the benefit of a name that helps them to create a differentiated brand identity and also alters prospects’ perceptions of competitive products. A new product or service deserves its own name—one that will enhance its advertising, public relations and other marketing communications efforts.

Politicians are very canny about leveraging the power of a good name. Legislators routinely give their bills names such as “Fair Trade Act” or the “Clean Air Bill” to minimize opposition. Special interest groups like “Right to Life” or “Mothers Against Drunk Driving” use their names to rally support. If you don’t create a name that works for your organization or its products or services, you might have to emulate AFLAC and invest millions by putting an educated duck on TV to build brand identity.

The naming process provides an excellent opportunity to put the power of marketing to work for your products and services. For financial services marketing practitioners, naming can be the important first step in the development of financial marketing communications and sales initiatives that build sustainable brand identity and competitive advantage. The right name serves as the springboard for the implementation of effective financial promotion, advertising and branding strategies. The better the name, the more potential it offers for effective, lower-cost financial services marketing solutions that can help achieve marketplace success.

For additional information, please visit us online at http://www.suasionresources.com.

About The Author

Mr. Jay Nagdeman, the Founder and President of Suasion Resources, has recently been identified as "One of the financial industry's most innovative marketing minds” by Research Magazine. Mr. Nagdeman previously served as Director of Marketing in financial services firms and as a contributing editor for Barron’s. Prior to that, he taught at the business school of the University of Chicago.

inquiries@suasion.com

2009-03-10T12:23:00.002-07:00

6 Things I Know About Postcards That You Don’t

by: Joy Gendusa

In my plethora of experience tucked away between these ears, I have managed to cull out for you what I consider the “best of the best” – in other words, I took the most proven details about postcards that were significant to you starting a postcard campaign and really winning at it. So here goes the most incisive higlights about postcards.

1) I know that a postcard is better than something in an envelope.

For many reasons, the main one being, in an envelope you can’t make your potential customer see your message.

People are fast. We see and read very quickly – actually much more quickly than we even realize.. Think about yourself – how fast do you go through your mail and process out what you want to keep and what you don’t want to keep? Pretty darn fast. It takes fractions of seconds to go through and process in your mind “bill, bill, advertisement, bill, advertisement, letter…” And it also takes fractions of seconds to decide whether you are even going to bother giving more attention to the pieces that you designated as advertisements.

With a postcard, even if they throw it away, they already saw your message regardless of whether they think they did or not. They saw it enough to throw it away, didn’t they?

And the next time they get that same postcard in the mail, they see it again as they throw it in the trash.

Let’s face it - junk mail gets thrown away. And postcards are junk mail to a lot of people.

Although they may be junk mail, postcards get read no matter what – even if thrown away without reading them, they get seen. It’s like the phoenix rising up from the ashes.

2) I know that if you are not doing repeat mail with your postcards you are flushing your money down the toilet.

Repeat mailings cannot be repeated enough. DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! A one shot in the dark postcard mailing is not going to change your business, your bottom line, your life or your anything.

The long and the short of it is, if you are not up to confronting that you need to do a campaign then don’t bother being in business. Sorry if I sound a bit harsh!

3) I know that the best price is not best necessarily the best postcard.

The cheapest is not necessarily the best. The old adage “you get what you pay for” applies here. Get whatever potential postcard company you interview to send you samples. Make sure the postcard is a very good, quality, stiff card that catches your attention. Get them to give you customer references. Call those references and find out what they think of that company’s service, product, etc.

There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into getting your postcard done right. If they screw up printing, if they don’t get your mailing out on deadline, etc. – doing it dirt cheap might not mean getting the quality service you need or want.

4) I know that although most people, if surveyed, say they like full color on both sides, the truth is black on white on the back of the postcard gets a better response. Why? Because full color on both sides is confusing. On the other hand, if you have a very aesthetic, pleasing-to-the-eye front - with a great headline - you just want to turn that postcard over and simply get the message on the back. You want good eye trail.

Eye trail is where your eye goes when you look at the postcard. You can have good eye trail with full color on both sides – but it has to be done correctly. Usually when you give people a choice to do full color on both sides they go overboard and the creative juices start flying, not flowing, flying with, “WOW!!! full color on both sides?!!” And they make it too busy. You don’t want it to be dispersing – you want it to go like a trail. Have a start, a middle and an end.

Example:

Did YOU Notice this Postcard?

Your Customers Will Notice Yours Too!

5000 Full Color

Super-glossy postcards

for only

$389

Look at it from the customer viewpoint – really look at it from their viewpoint and you can see what I mean by eye trail.

5) I know that you should promote only one thing at a time on your postcard.

Even if you sell lots of different products, you only promote one of them. It is fine to mention them on the back of the postcard bullet pointed. But your main focus on the front of your postcard needs to be one product, service, item, what have you – just one thing.

Say you have a flooring store and a furniture showroom in the back. Your postcard should only talk about flooring. It is not that people who are looking for flooring are not also looking for furniture – it’s just too much information on the front of postcard.

The purpose of a postcard is to get your prospect interested with one thing. You can put on the back as just a mention: “We also have a giant showroom full of furniture.”

But on the front – one item! ONE ITEM!

If a company sells hot tubs, above-ground pools and jungle gyms they need to pick the one that gives them the most income and make their postcard about that.

6) And I know that a person could grow a company with no other marketing media.

With postcards alone, one could take a company from zero to over a million bucks in revenue or more. How do I know? Because I did it.

We mailed postcards every single week, and the more postcards we mailed out, the more we grew. Yes, it is good to diversify and as we grew and became more successful and had more money to try other media, we did. Some we kept and some we nixed. Postcards are a staple that works no matter what.

These six points of postcard marketing data are proven techniques of making your postcards WOW your prospective clients while at the same time being faithful to the time-honored methods that have proven to get more bang for your buck. These tips are what will put your postcard in a class all by itself.

About The Author

Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a computer and a phone. In 2004 the company did close to $9 million in sales and employs over 60 persons. She knows so much about postcards because that is the only marketing medium she used to grow her company in its first few years. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she’s sharing her marketing secrets with others. For more free marketing advice, visit her website at www.postcardmania.com

2009-03-10T12:23:00.001-07:00

Winning at Business With Your Marketing Game Plan

by: Charlie Cook

Stuart from Colorado had talked to a number of marketing firms and gotten estimates for designing and printing his marketing materials and building a web site for his business producing promotional cds. One firm quoted $100,000 to build his web site alone. He sensed something was missing or wrong, but couldn't put his finger on it, so he called me.

I asked Stuart how the various marketing pieces and activities were going to work together to help him generate leads. I asked him what his marketing strategy was. He drew a blank. The marketing firms he had talked to had provided detailed information on what they were going to produce for him, but none had discussed a coordinated plan to generate leads and sales.

Marketing without an integrated strategy is like playing poker, tennis or football without knowing the rules, keeping score or having a game plan. You could put in a lot of time, energy, and capital, and still end up losing the game. Has this happened to you?

W.inning at business is the same as any other game, whether your objective is to beat the competition or just to be the best in your industry. To be successful, you need to know the rules of the game, have a clear strategy and track your progress.

The Rules for Winning at Marketing and Sales

Here are some of the most essential rules to follow to succeed at marketing your business.

1. Written goals are motivating and can help you succeed.

Define your objectives for revenue, lead generation and conversion rates for the year and then break those down for each quarter. Commit them to writing. Next list the weekly and daily tasks you and/or your employees need to accomplish in order to reach your goals.

2. The more qualified prospects you can attract, the more clients you'll have. A clearly defined lead generation strategy will bring in the new prospects you need to be profitable.

3. It's easier to convert prospects to clients when they are looking to solve a problem. It's much harder to convert people who don't have a current need or concern, even if they are members of your target market. Instead of seeking prospects, prompt prospects to look for you.

4. You'll get a better response from marketing messages that are focused on client problems and concerns, not on your credentials or descriptions of products and processes. If you're not getting the response you'd like from your mailings, ads or web site, take a second look at your marketing message. A few changes in your marketing copy can increase response by factors of ten or more.

5. Integrate your tactics and message across your marketing materials, ads, and web site to prompt people to seek you out and contact you. Trying to generate leads without an integrated strategy is like playing football without a set of plays for the quarterback to use with the team. He'd end up throwing the ball only to find the receiver had gone the other direction or go for a field goal on the first down.

6. The purpose of having a web site is to generate leads.

Once you have a lead you can use it to generate sales. Once you get prospects to your web site or reading your marketing materials, make sure you prompt them to contact you.

7. Most sales are the result of a relationship based on your credibility and the value of your products or services. Developing these relationships can take weeks or months to build. Your marketing strategy should facilitate this process of building relationships over time, with multiple opportunities for contacting prospects.

8. The easiest people to sell to are past customers. Prompt first time clients to buy from you again and again.

Keeping Score

In order to know if your marketing is working you need ways of keeping score. Which marketing results are you tracking?

Which additional ones should you define each month and quarter to track?

Keep track of these important 'scores' to evaluate your marketing:

1. How many prospects seek your firm out each month? Is this number growing each month by five to ten percent?

2. What percentage of people who are exposed to your ads, your web site and other marketing materials give you their contact information so you can stay in touch with them?

3. How many people are on your house list of qualified prospects? How fast is this list growing each month?

4. How many people buy from you each week? What is the dollar volume of each sale?

5. How many sales come from repeat customers?

Whether we're talking poker, tennis, or marketing your small business, the objective is to improve your performance and succeed more often. When you have a game plan, know the rules and track your scores, you can continually find ways to improve your marketing and be more successful.

About The Author

ccook@marketingforsuccess.com

2009-03-10T12:22:00.002-07:00

PR Tips - Should We Issue a Press Release?

by: Jo Chipchase

Question: Why should your business issue a press release? Answer: because you have something to say, you want to say it in public and a press release encourages the press to say it for you. And because you want to show your business in a favourable light from the outset and begin the longer-term process of building awareness and understanding of your product or service.

There’s plenty of research to show that young companies – weighed down by the business of simply running a new business – pay scant attention to PR, yet that’s exactly what they should be doing from the very start to get their names and products known. For most businesses, PR isn’t about spin or the abstract maintaining of “good relations” with the press and public; it’s simply about telling people that you and your products or services are there and letting them know why they should be interested. It’s about getting column inches in newspapers and magazines and fulfilling the adage that an inch of good editorial is worth a page of advertising. It’s about making your sales easier.

Issuing press releases is a mainstay of basic PR. It’s how you start the ball rolling with the press. The good news is, if approached in the right way (whether you do it yourself or use an affordable professional, this activity need not cost the earth).

But do remember that you’re presenting your business to the public. A release that’s poorly written, with grammatical or spelling mistakes, or full of jargon, or long-winded and unfocused, can do you more harm than good. Given the importance of PR, there’s something to be said in favour of paying for professional writing skills. PR writers don’t just turn out good English: they know how to structure a press release and present facts in a way that appeals to busy journalists and grabs their attention.

The next question is: “When should I issue a press release?” Certainly, issuing releases willy-nilly, at whim, is no good. The time to make a business announcement is when you have something topical and newsworthy to say (but remember: what you consider topical might not be of interest to the wider world or to journalists). All releases need a strong ‘hook’ – in other words, an angle that will appeal to editors and give your story a good chance of gaining coverage.

So, what would be considered newsworthy? For starters, perhaps you’re launching a new product or service? Or opening a new branch? Or you’re launching a spin-off venture from scratch? Whatever it is, it should be presented as offering something reasonably new and interesting, not just as a “me too”.

Hopefully, your product or service has particular benefits and applications that will appeal to your market segment and generate interest. If whatever you’re launching is technically innovative or it’s being marketed in an unusual or high profile way, you could have the basis of a release. In this case, make sure you don’t fill your release with unnecessary jargon or marketing-speak that could alienate journalists, such as “the cost effective, integrated, seamless, one-stop-shop solution to meet all your business needs.” Tell people what it is you’re actually offering. The above example is full of hype but what’s the product? An accountancy service? A stationers? An abattoir?

Other company activities could be newsworthy. Have you appointed any new members of senior staff who have a reputation in your industry? Won a large contract or client? Become involved in a sponsorship deal? Have you received an accolade or won an industry award? If so, the trade press might be interested.

Forthcoming events can provide ideal material for announcements. Are you holding any open days, speakers’ panels, rallies or debates? Charity events or donations from your organisation to good causes are worth highlighting, as are initiatives that benefit the wider community. If celebrities or public figures are involved, your newsworthiness will increase. The level of interest will relate to the stature of your company and the nature of your event. If a famous chocolate factory held an open day with lots of freebies, it would be of national press interest. If Bloggs the Grocers held a similar event, the local paper would be the main target.

When you’re seeking newsworthy stories, don’t forget one of your best assets – your personnel. Have any employees been recognised for outstanding achievements? Do they have unusual hobbies? Have they received any unusual requests or orders from customers that your company has fulfilled? The local press might opt for a quirky human-interest story.

Whatever the reason for your announcement, remember this rule of thumb: yet another pizzeria on a high street full of pizzerias will not gain many column inches, no matter how good the pizzas. But a pizzeria offering the hottest jalapenos in the UK, singing waiters, Italian cocktails with every meal or three for the price of two (or something!) just might. Sometimes it’s even worth coming up with an offer of some sort (particularly in retailing) simply to garner press interest.

Remember to monitor the news for events to hook into. Can you associate your company with upcoming holidays, public projects, or fads? Statements that might seem controversial, such as stating your organisation's stance on a volatile public issue, might gain coverage. Have you conducted research that gives you statistics you could release?

Finally, if you’re targeting different press sectors with the same story, write multiple releases rather than issuing one generic release. An announcement focusing on the metallurgy used to create your new range of stainless steel cooking pans would be of interest to the trade press. However, it wouldn’t be considered too thrilling by the lifestyle press and women’s magazines.

You need to think carefully about what you’re announcing and who it’s aimed at, rather than using the ‘scattergun’ approach and sending untargeted releases to whichever journalists you happen to find. Professional PR distributors retain up-to-date lists of all the journalists in each industrial sector and geographical region, and take a great deal of care to target the right journalists with the right releases. If you’re distributing your release yourself, a few hours’ homework can pay enormous dividends.

About The Author

Jo Chipchase

Editorial director

Press Dispensary (http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk/).

A UK-based press release writing and distribution service.

2009-03-10T12:22:00.001-07:00

PR Tips - Should We Issue a Press Release?

by: Jo Chipchase

About The Author

Jo Chipchase

Editorial director

Press Dispensary (http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk/).

A UK-based press release writing and distribution service.

2009-03-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

Make More Money with Marketing Metrics

by: Jeremy Cohen

Do you measure the results of your marketing tactcis? You should. Knowing which marketing endeavors pay dividends will save you time, money and effort by allowing you to focus your marketing budget on tactics that work. Learn how to measure the effect of your marketing efforts to make more money.

Do you know how effective each of your individual marketing tactics is? Many small business owners market in a vacuum. They spend money on brochures, advertisements and web sites with no real way to tie specific results to specific endeavors.

If you are unable to associate leads and sales with the specific marketing efforts that generate them you have no way of knowing what is working as an effective marketing mechanism and what is not.

The money you invest in marketing your company is precious. In order for you to maximize your marketing dollars you need to know the results individual marketing efforts generate. When you know the results of your marketing tactics you can make intelligent decisions about how to better allocate your marketing budget.

For instance, if you concurrently run a direct mail campaign, a search engine advertising campaign and weekly ads in industry periodicals without some method to discern results you will not know which effort generates the lions share of any new business.

If you don’t know that your direct mail campaign yielded 90% of your revenue with a 2% response rate, you are powerless to make the wise decision to reinvest in the direct mail campaign and make changes to or drop entirely the other campaigns. What’s more, if you can figure out how to double the response rate of your mail campaign, you can nearly double the revenue your marketing campaign without spending money on search engine marketing and periodical advertisements.

Measuring your marketing results will help you save money by allowing you to eliminate unproductive marketing tactics and at the same time, will help you make more money by allowing you to reinvest in productive marketing tactics.

Do you have a method for measuring the effect of your marketing?

Here are four tips for gathering the information you need to make wise marketing investment decisions.

Use a Database

Start by designing a database to keep track of individual marketing efforts and the leads and sales they generate. Make sure you include fields to track the dates of your campaigns, campaign descriptions, the number of leads generated and sales made. Once you have a central storage location for this information you will be able to make queries to glean the information you need to make wise marketing decisions.

Ask Questions

When you or your staff speaks with a prospect on the phone make sure you ask how they heard of your business; was it a referral or an ad in the local newspaper? It’s such simple way to gather valuable information many small business owners overlook it.

Be sure to ask your prospects how they heard of your business.

Make It Easy for Your Prospect to Help You

Make it easy for your prospects to properly identify the marketing piece to which they respond. If you have multiple phone lines into your office you can easily accomplish this by assigning a unique phone number to individual marketing efforts. This way, you or a staff member can ask what number your prospect dialed or, if you have the right phone system you can look at the phone to see which line the call is on.

Data Entry Should Be Easy Too

Once you or a staff member have garnered the information you seek from your prospect, make it as easy as possible to have this information to be entered into your database system. If you employ a staff, make certain everyone is up to speed on your latest systems. Training is a must.

Move Your Marketing Forward

The idea is to gather as much information as you can about which marketing mechanisms generate the best (and worst) response, who is responding and why they chose to respond.

Once you have this information you will be better able to think like a future client, cater your marketing material to their needs and generate more leads and sales.

What are some other steps you can take to measure the effect of your marketing efforts?

About The Author

Marketing Coach, Jeremy Cohen, helps small business owners and professional service providers attract more clients, grow their business and be more successful with his marketing and web site enhancement service and his marketing guides. Get his free marketing guide: Jumpstart Marketing: More Profits, Clients and Success at: http://www.bettermarketingresults.com/y.asp

jcohen@bettermarketingresults.com

2009-03-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

A Simple 8 Step Formula For Testing Your Headlines

by: Edward Green

I am going to let you in on a secret? The successful entrepreneurs are not successful because they know things that you don’t know. They are successful because they TEST every advertising campaign they embark on first before they start spending "big" money on effective forms of newsletter and ezine ads.

Ezine Ads

Placing ezine ads is one of the most effective form of advertising on the Internet today purely because you can advertise/market exactly to your target groups.

But if you don't know which of your headlines, your benefits and your offers are the ones that will make you money, you will probably not even be able to get the money back that you have to spend on your ezine ads.

8 Easy Steps To More Effective Headlines

To be capable of determining the most effective adverts, you need a system. I will show you one system how it can be easily done. Of course, there are literally thousands of different systems that could do the task as well. But if you want to analysis without spending too much money, then my way of testing will be an invaluable help for you.

The structure Consists Of 8 Easy Steps :

1.) Write down the benefits of your product and contemplate the advantages for your target group, not yourself. A bit of brainstorming is required here to see which ones immediately come to mind.

2.) Turn them into a set of 10 different headlines. If you sell an e-book about Dog Training and one of your ebooks benefits is that even first time dog owners can understand how to do it, then tell them about it in the headline

e.g. :

"A Step-By-Step Guide Teaches You Everything You Need To Know About Training Your Dog - If You Can Read, You Can Implement A Quick and Easy Dog Training Routine ! "

3.) Write 2-3 different versions of your ad copy. Focus on one or two other essential benefits. Get the reader curious and excited about your offer. Your aim is to make the prospect click on your link !

4.) Create a few different tracking links (that lead to your sales letter) for each ezine you want to submit your ad to. You must be able to decide exactly which ads and more importantly headlines are successful, and where the responses are coming from or you will be shooting in the dark.

You can use these 2 free services for this : http://www.hyperlinktracker.com/ and http://www.linkcounter.com/ they are both outstanding free services.

5.) Use one and the same headline for all your free ezine ad sub- missions and send out your free ezine ads to at least 10 ezines.

There are plenty of free well established ezines which give you free subscriber ads if you join their mailing list. You need publications with at least 1000 subscribers for a decent test of your ad.

6.) Look for the ezines with the most number of clicks. Only choose the most successful ezines. Now send 10 different headlines to be published in the next issue and one and the same ad copy to these ezines.

7.) By now, you should be familiar with which headlines work and you can change over to paid forms of ezine advertising in the knowledge that the ad you use with give it your best shot. Order Top Sponsor Ads and Solos in ezines with high circulation 10000 + subscribers.

If you get an acceptable amount of clicks but little sales, try changing your copy in the body of the ad and maybe your price as well. Is it too cheap or too expensive. Selling cheap don’t work.

You can find out if you :

8.) TEST, TEST and, you guessed it : TEST...!

About The Author

http://www.lucygreen.com

2009-03-10T12:15:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing

by: David Kunstek

Is internet marketing something for you? Do you dream about working at home where your kids are, where you feel you should be? Internet marketing can promise this and so much more. But, tread lightly and do your research before jumping into the world of Internet marketing.

While many people feel that internet marketing is all a scam, simply stated, this is false. There are quality companies and quality business plans that are proven. Likewise, there are just as many and even more that are not worth your time or the expense. To understand the differences you need to take the time to research and then decide if the company is right for you. First, you should understand that in most internet marketing endeavors, you will own your own business. You are not working for someone else, which is a nice bonus, but it can be a downfall to many. There are extra expenses that you personally need to take on. You need to keep yourself motivated to do a good job on a daily basis.

If you believe you can handle these simple things in internet marketing, then you can start your search for a company to work with. There are many. It will take you a good amount of time to decide which one is right for you. Do you want to sell products? Do you know enough to sell software? Can you see yourself promoting your business online, over the phone, in your neighborhood, and to your family and friends? Look into the business's history. Do they have a long background with a proven track record? If it's a ground floor opportunity, can you trust and believe in it enough to make it successful? Is the business a member of the Better Business Bureau? What about others who have done the business, what do they have to say? Will they provide training, materials, or anything else that is needed?

Once you combine all of this information, it is only then that you can and should decide on an Internet marketing company. While there are definitely advantages to working an internet marketing business from home, never kid yourself that it won't be hard work all the way. But, by doing this basic amount of research and gathering this information, you can trust that the internet marketing business you take on is the right one for you.

About The Author

Written by David Kunstek, webmaster and author of http://www.marketing-man.us. This article may be reproduced as long as a Live link back to http://www.marketing-man.us is present.

admin@marketing-man.us

2009-03-10T12:14:00.002-07:00

Secrets to Writing Powerful Press Releases

by: Ted Kushner

Using press releases for marketing purposes has become increasingly popular lately.

There has been an increase of firms springing up online offering optimized press release services for individuals or firms wanting to get the word out about their web sites, newsletters, products or services.

Using press releases can be a very effective marketing tool if constructed properly. Learning to write a powerful optimized press release can often drive tons of targeted traffic to your web site.

The real secret behind writing any effective press release is to plan your release out carefully before publishing it.

A poorly constructed or planned press release is just a waste of your time and resources. You want to target the message of your press release for the purpose it was meant for.

So, the first thing you must do before writing your press release is to figure out just what do you want to accomplish with it?

Do you want to create some brand awareness for your site or products?
Do you want to add additional subscribers to your newsletter or ezine?
Or are you trying to promote a new product or service you have developed or are marketing?

Once you've decided what the most compelling reason is for your press release, you can then get down to the business of writing it.

The first thing you may want to do is sketch out a rough draft of your press release to see how it flows. Does it provide the needed information to get the word out and has it been properly formatted?

Most press releases have a certain format that they follow. If you're unsure of how to format your press release correctly you can view a sample press release template here at http://www.prweb.com/pressreleasetips.php#template.

The number one most important aspect of your press release is your headline.

Get it wrong and you will limit the effectiveness of your release.

Your headline is what the search engines are going to pick up on first. So make sure you use it advantageously. List any key points here, using your keywords or a catchy headline so that it will grab your reader's attention.

Again planning is essential. If promoting a new site include the URL in the headline. If promoting a product or service then include some keywords in the headline.

Some press release services use a summary box. I normally write a catchy one-paragraph recap of my press release using some of my targeted keywords.

Without being spammy, I will normally optimize my press release by using some of my targeted keywords in the first and last paragraph. I will also include some of them throughout the release for a keyword exposure of approximately 2-3% saturation.

Tip: if you're promoting a web site, I will normally mention my URL around three times within the release for the maximum benefit.

One of the first questions I had when I first started writing press releases was what was considered a great release? What did it consist of and how was it constructed?

Being curious, I emailed my contact at http://www.prweb.com/ and asked them if they could show me a few press releases that they considered as excellent examples.

These releases have received their editorial scores of 5 on their scale of 1 to 5; with five being the highest.

They sent me three of them for review and you can see each one of them here:

Study each one of these against the press release template to see what is required for an effective release.

Note: to get additional exposure for your press release via www.emediawire.com you have to have an editorial score of 4 or higher. So it is to your benefit to write the best release you can the first time around.

Once you have studied the examples and want to try submitting you own press release you need to know which ones are the most popular ones being used.

Here are some of the press release services I have used and found to be effective:

With most of press release services you can submit your press release for free or via paid inclusion. Paying for inclusion gives you the benefit of faster indexing into the search engine news services and natural search engine result pages.

Normally your release will be picked up by Google news within a few hours after its release. From there it will normally show up in the natural search results within a few days or a week.

I have used both of these services in the past but have found that paying them at least the minimum amount allows me to view my stats online. It also allows me to choose different categories for my press release to be displayed in, giving my release a chance for wider coverage.

So using press releases can and is a very effective marketing tool that you can use for promoting your web site or affiliate products if done correctly.

By using press releases, I have been able to create a steady flow of targeted visitors to my web site and affiliate programs while generating dozens of back links to my web site.

Even though the effects of each individual press release may be short lived, they still have provided me with both free and inexpensive ways for getting hundreds of new visitors to my site and quite a few top ten positions in Google for my targeted keywords.

So get to it and write a few press releases your self and see what they can do for you!

About The Author

Ted Kushner of AffiliateRevenueSources.com can show you the powerful benefits of writing press releases for promoting any product, service or affiliate program. Learn how you too can get multiple top ten positions in Google using press releases at: http://www.affiliaterevenuesources.com/powerful-press-releases.htm.

2009-03-10T12:14:00.001-07:00

Marketing In A Virtual World

by: Steven Van Yoder

Before the Internet, small business owners like yourself were usually limited to a local market -resorting to expensive advertising and brochures, direct mail, cold-calling, networking at the local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary. You hoped customers found you through word- of- mouth or a Yellow Pages ad.

Today, you can work with a consultant, a financial planner, or a business coach across the country as easily as someone across town. In the Internet age, prospects often find you (instead of the other way around).

This is the age of the virtual customer. Yet, although the Internet has made it perfectly reasonable to land a major client you've never met in-person, it has also created new expectations among consumers.

Prospects now "Google" around to find someone with your skills. They expect you to make a good virtual "case" for yourself. If you don't pass the test, or make a bad impression, or appear lackluster compared to your competitors, you will lose the potential client.

The only way to be truly successful in business is by establishing a good reputation. And understanding the way business has shifted in the Internet age can help you bring the potential of marketing your business into the virtual world.

The Virtual First Impression

The Internet has increased the expectation among consumers that businesses will have a credible online presence.

Many of us now form "first impressions" of people and companies via our Internet browsers. From the moment your name and business appear in a Web browser to the moment your Web site loads, your first impression often means the difference between a shot at your prospect's business, or being shut out.

Think about it. You have probably used the Internet to research a company or a person you're considering doing business with. Certainly potential clients and customers are checking you out online, too.

Prospects you've never met are forming opinions about your business at the click of a mouse. Internet first impressions are not just influenced by how your Web site looks, but also by how often your business appears or how high it ranks in a web browser.

Become an Online Center of Influence

We all know people who command rapt attention whenever they speak. Others want to listen to, learn from, and emulate them. They are centers of influence, a distinction you can pursue online by developing the following qualities:

Share inside knowledge with your target market;
Participate, listen, contemplate, and offer thoughtful responses;
Be willing to voice an opinion;
Assume leadership positions in your industry

Certainly, experience counts. But this is not the only prerequisite to becoming an online center of influence that will earn you the distinction of 'trusted advisor' within your target market.

Start by making your Web site a resource for your industry. Feature lots of useful information, including articles, links, downloadable files, customer resources, and anything else of use to your target market. Be generous and give, give, give!

Create a Virtual Podium with Teleclasses

Teleclasses are a great way for businesses to develop a virtual reputation. They can be promoted easily by email, and provide information to prospects, clients, and customers all over the world, with minimal cost and effort.

Business coach and teleclass leader Michael Losier set up a teleclass about exhibiting at trade shows: 'I had 60 students in my first class, which was very profitable, and many later hired me as a consultant."

Also, it may be just as effective and less effort to participate as a guest lecturer in another professional's class rather than producing your own teleclass.

Placing Articles Online

Online articles draw upon your expertise by providing useful information that Web site visitors are actively seeking out. Online articles position you as an expert in your field and convey a level of authority that establishes trust and sets the stage for sales.

When high-traffic, high-credibility Web sites and newsletters publish your articles, you ride on the coattails of their loyal relationships with readers. Your articles are seen by visitors as referrals from trusted friends.

Some of the most prime "real estate" in the world these days is at the top of the search engine listings. The most widely used search engines rank Web sites by the quantity of other Web sites that link to them. This means that every article you publish that links to your Web site can improve your search engine rankings.

To find out about a new program that can help you quickly publish articles about your business on web sites that reach your target market, please visit: http://www.getslightlyfamous.com/services/article-placement.html

Build Online Relationships

Most business networking used to happen when we recommended an associate, swapped business cards, or connected with colleagues over lunch. But increasingly, social networking is migrating to the Internet.

Through social networking Web sites and online discussion lists, entrepreneurs can access virtual communities of prospects and associates while developing virtual "platforms" to generate leads and sales and establish themselves as recognized experts.

Marketing consultant Max Blumberg credits his involvement in Ecademy.com, a business networking Web site, with elevating his business profile and generating new clients. "When I first encountered Ecademy I'd never heard of online networking, but the benefits of a large community where I could share ideas and cultivate new relationships was very appealing."

Blumberg started by posting a profile about his business, then started sharing his knowledge with other Ecademists. "I set up a club where members could get help with common marketing challenges. Many of these people became clients and friends with whom I socialize. We reciprocally use each other's services," says Blumberg, whose Ecademy presence has even been noticed by large companies who are starting to contact him.

The key to building a niche community is identifying your ideal customers and the communities they belong to. By targeting the best, most favorably inclined prospects within a niche, you can become your target market's vendor of choice, and sell more with far less effort.

About The Author

Steven Van Yoder is the author of Get Slightly Famous: Become a Celebrity in Your Field and Attract More Business with Less Effort. Visit http://www.getslightlyfamous.com to read the book and learn about 'slightly' famous teleclasses, workshops, and marketing materials to help small businesses and solo professionals attract more business. Get Slightly Famous is a trademark of Steven Van Yoder.

contact@getslightlyfamous.com

2009-03-10T12:11:00.002-07:00

10 Way to Improve Your Sales

by: Robert Kempster

Note! This article may be republished in its entirety as long as the Toolbox information is not removed.

1. Determine your current situation. How are you currently positioned in the market? How do you compare to the competition? Where would you like to be in a Year or in five years and how would you like to get there? Or more appropriately how can you get there, as it is not always the way that you want that works. Planning requires that you understand how you currently stand.

2. Calculate your operational budget and determine how much you can afford to spend on an Ad campaign. Also, this is the stage to decide your campaign mediums and the effectiveness of different mediums of advertising as it applies to the specific nature of your product and or services. It also helps to retain a percentage of your earnings towards future Ad campaign on an ongoing basis.

3. Since customers are the life-blood of any business, be sure to develop a good rapport with your customers. To keep your customers visiting, buying and begging for more; let them know how much you appreciate their business. Do not spare any personal touch you can invest in the relationship. It will pay for your time and effort tenfold. Create an Ezine to communicate with your customers and to generate new leads. This can be achieved by offering an opportunity to your visitors to subscribe to your ezine from your website or purchasing leads from a leads company.

4. Now, depending on your current position, you may not even have customers yet. If you are starting from scratch, your first order of business would be to start growing a customer base within your budget of course. Create or have a Strong Sales Copy done for your promotions. Consider targeted Ad campaigns through Google or other search engines. You may also consider some of the other ‘Viral’ marketing Traffic Exchanges out there. Online campaigns consist of generating traffic to your website as this would improve your ranking with the traffic exchanges. Your ultimate goal is to generate free traffic which comes from a high ranking in the traffic exchanges. In other words, you need to generate traffic first and then you can work on converting the traffic into buying customers or better yet, return customers.

5. Hire, rent, or buy a coach/mentor; and if you can not afford one, get some of the informative ebooks and magazines out there. Your decision making prowess would be much better with this kind of backbone. Take note that even with all the information you may acquire from books and magazines, nothing compares to experience. Now, if you have to go on your experience then you are setting yourself up to learn the hard and costly way.

6. I hope you are getting warmed up by now. This one is a must-do for all Internet marketers. I am talking about Forum participation and membership. In fact, this whole article could have been written around link promotion, and only one other means compares to Forums when it comes to promoting your link/website and increasing your ranking. Join a Forum that concerns your line of business. The Forum would promote your link as a result of your participation in discussions and postings. The flip side is that it also provides you for free, knowledge base that compares to hiring a mentor.

7. Position your business to benefit from other webmasters traffic. There are several ways to achieve this. The most prominent is link exchanges with other websites that are similar or complementary in nature to your business. You can do this by writing to the owner or webmaster of other sites, you can buy a link exchange program or join a link exchange. Most are free to join and some charge very minimal fees.

8. As your customer base grows and you start to reap the benefits of your actions. Be sure to acquire an Auto-responder to manage email campaigns and Ezine delivery. By now, your actions should start to show returns and you can complement your campaigns by purchasing a leads building campaign if you do not have one in place from the start. It is common knowledge among the big hitters that a lot of sales come from email campaigns. Use your Sales copy Ad to develop an email campaign, and stay in touch with your existing customers. This can also be used to sell new subscribers you generated using step#3.

9. Is your head spinning yet? Well if it is, you are on the right track for success and should now learn to relax and balance work and social responsibilities. This is a very crucial step to achieving anything in life. We all need to step back a little, so we can see more, refresh and increase performance. Everything contained here would be useless if you can not find balance. As you find relaxation, in whatever way you choose, remember to build a support system and share your experiences with acquaintances. You just might increase your network while doing something that relaxes you. The country club offers recreation and relaxation but, it also comes with networking opportunities.

10. At this point you should evaluate your performance and how much you are on Target or off. Go back to step #1 and reinvent the wheel again. By now you have some experience with your business and know what works best for your business. If at any point you find yourself too comfortable, go over your business plans with a fine toothcomb until you experience a little discomfort. This step would always keep you sharp, focused, and abreast of what needs improvement and adjustment. Remember, your goal is to increase sales and not to get too comfortable. Stay motivated and fairly dissatisfied.

About The Author

Robert Kempster is a fairly recent entrant into the Internet Home biz Club. Background spans Computer Programming, Real Estate (former COO), and an incomplete EMBA. A regular person.

6 Figure Income on a $79.90 shoe-string budget

http://www.ProfitCentral.biz http://www.KemptechDomains.com

support@profitcentral.biz

2009-03-10T12:11:00.001-07:00

Is Procrastination Holding You Back?

by: C.J. Hayden

When you look at your marketing to-do list, do many of the items on it look all too familiar? Have entries like "call Donna Sanchez" and "follow up with Floyd Corp." been copied from a previous week? Putting off unappealing tasks may be human nature, but for an entrepreneur, procrastination can be deadly.

Delays in contacting a prospect can lose the business to the competition. Failing to get the word out about an upcoming event may forfeit dozens of opportunities. Wasted marketing time can never be recovered. By the time you realize you might not make your goal for the month, quarter, or year, it may already be too late.

Finding tasks on your to-do list week after week is a clear sign you are procrastinating, but it's not always this obvious. Can you identify with any of these situations?

1. Feelings of overwhelm. You have a backlog of work that seems insurmountable. You wake up in the morning already thinking about everything you must accomplish that day. It seems impossible to get it all done. If you are routinely unable to complete what's on your list in the time available, you may be creating the problem yourself by putting tasks off week after week.

2. Making excuses. You find yourself constantly having to make excuses to your business buddies, referral partners, potential clients, or even your coach about why you never followed up on that great referral, that important sales call wasn't made, the marketing package wasn't sent, or the proposal wasn't written. After a while, the excuses begin to sound flimsy, even to you.

3. Trivial pursuits. You notice that you are doing unimportant chores -- rearranging your desk drawers, filing old business cards, shopping for just the right desk, surfing the Net -- while neglecting crucial marketing activities.

4. Overflowing pipeline. A form of procrastination unique to entrepreneurs and salespeople is continuing to develop new leads instead of contacting the prospects you already have. If you are spending more time attending networking events or reviewing lists of names than getting on the phone, putting your fingers to the keyboard, or driving to appointments, this problem may be yours.

If you ARE procrastinating, what then? Begin to change this habit by getting in touch with your motivation to do better. What rewards, tangible and intangible, do you get from your work? Remind yourself of that payoff on a daily basis. Post a picture or note that represents those rewards to you on your calendar, phone, or dashboard.

Break down each of the activities you are having trouble with into small steps. Pick what seems like the easiest place to start, and block out time on your calendar to make a beginning. You may find that once you are taking action, the rest seems much less difficult than you had feared.

If you find that you really do have too much on your plate to have enough time for marketing, it's essential that you cut back on some of your other activities immediately. A business without marketing isn't a business; it's a hobby.

Create more accountability for yourself by telling a buddy, support group, or coach exactly what you plan to get done each week. Ask them not to accept any excuses from you, and to remind you why you said you were doing all this in the first place. You can partner in this way with a colleague by setting up a weekly check-in where each of you reports to the other.

It may take time to break the procrastination habit, so give yourself permission to fail a few times. Remember that even a small amount of progress may be allowing you to achieve more than you ever have before.

About The Author

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients NOW! Thousands of business owners and salespeople have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of "Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You'll Ever Need" at http://www.getclientsnow.com.

info@getclientsnow.com

2009-03-10T12:09:00.000-07:00

When to Get a Print Broker?

by: Granny's Mettle

Wouldn't it be nice if someone could do the job of buying printing materials and equipment for you? Instead of spending your time looking for the best deals, and afterwards haggling for the cheapest price, wouldn't it be better if you could spend that time working on plans and strategies to keep your business afloat.

This is the time to hire a print broker. A print broker does all this things and more. He can help with researching print production materials or the procurement of electronic equipment and devices, leaving you with much more time for other critical business concerns.

So what does a print broker do exactly? A print broker provides you with many printing services to suit your needs while reducing radically the inefficiencies of dealing with so many vendors. It is his job to look for the right suppliers and to supervise later on to make sure that your requirement is delivered as ordered. And what's more, a print broker will do all that for less than what it would cost you to do it yourself.

Here are a few other reasons you should get a print broker:

When you need someone who knows the ins and outs of the printing and graphics business- A reliable print broker would have been around the industry for quite some time. He should be well versed and connected in all areas of the Graphic Arts. And these days, it's not enough to get someone who only knows one particular area in the industry. The line between each area has become grayer everyday that you need someone who knows a whole lot more.

When you need someone to sit down with suppliers- An experience print broker knows when he needs to sit down with the client to properly assess the requirements and specifications for the project at hand.

When you need someone to help you with the process- A print broker determines which process method of production will best fit the customer's needs on budget, timing, material, etc.

When you need someone to look for first rate suppliers- You don’t have the time to go through so many suppliers in the yellow pages. Oftentimes, business owners just pick whoever is lucky enough to be near his finger at the moment. Experienced print brokers source the job through his network of first rate suppliers, which, by the way, he got from his years in dealing with so many clients and diverse specifications.

When you need someone to become the Project Manager- A print broker does all the above and becomes the Project Manager in the process. He takes ownership of the project and keeps clients updates every step of the way. When the job is finished according to the client's requirements, that's the only time when he himself takes his much needed rest.

Finally, you need a print broker because suppliers like the fact they are dealing with a pro- someone who knows what he is talking about.

About The Author

Granny's Mettle is a 30-something, professional web content writer. She has created various web content on a diverse range of topics, which includes digital printing topics, medical news, as well as legal issues. Her articles are composed of reviews, suggestions, tips and more for the printing and designing industry.

Her thoughts on writing: "Writing gives me pleasure… pleasure and excitement that you have created something to share with others. And with the wide world of the Internet, it gives me great satisfaction that my articles reach more people in the quickest time you could imagine."

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

articles@ucreative.com

Learn The Five Key Steps To Getting Free Publicity

2009-03-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

Learn The Five Key Steps To Getting Free Publicity

by: Dianne Beiermann

For many of us, the idea of getting free publicity can be a confusing and daunting task. So why do it? Because free publicity really works and if you are looking for ways to attract new customers to your internet business, free publicity is by far one of the best ways to do it. I am going to share with you five key steps to getting free publicity for your products. They go as follows:

1) Website Focus: Make sure your site is focused on a specific category of products. I cannot stress this enough. The editors will often check to see if your site features products that are in the same category as your product press release. This is one of the key ways you can get free publicity for your products. Because when you send out a press release on a new product, the editors will check your site to make sure that you offer similar products. Once they see that you offer a wide range of products in this same category, you will greatly improve your chances for getting free publicity for your products and website.

2) Target the right magazines for your products: I have talked to many people who are tempted to send out their press releases to every magazine available. I strongly advise against doing this. It is simply not effective and can even upset the editors when you send them information not related to their audience. It also reduces your chances of getting in the magazines if you are sending out press releases to every magazine category. The key is to stick with the most targeted magazines for your products and only email them with your product announcements.

3) Be consistent and patient while emailing the editors: it is very important to be consistent when you email the editors. Try to introduce a new product on a monthly to bi-monthly basis to the editors of the magazines. If you do it on a consistent basis before you know it, one of your products could be picked up in one of the magazines. It is also important to be patient with the process. You may not here anything for a few months and then all of a sudden you will find out that a magazine picked up your press release and is running it. On average it takes print magazines a month to three months to print your press release. For online magazines you could have your press release picked up within days or weeks. That is why it is important to target both.

4) Be prompt to an editor’s request: Be prepared when the editors contact you. Many times an editor will want to contact you and ask some basic questions about your company. Another reason they might contact you would be to include your product in their next issue.

When this happens the editor will ask you for a 300 dpi photo of your product to be e-mailed to them so they can put it in the magazine. Through the years of doing e-mail press releases, I have learned to contact my suppliers before I send out a press release and ask them for a 300 dpi photo. I keep the photo(s) on file in a computer file folder marked “editor’s photos.” They are easy to retrieve, and since I already requested the picture ahead of time, I can just retrieve it from my file and send it to the editor within minutes of the request.

5) Personalize the Press Release: Whenever possible find ways to personalize the press release. Here is a simple technique you can use: Address the e-mail to the specific editor of the magazine. Instead of writing: "To the editors of the magazine" Take the extra step of searching the magazine’s website for the name of the editor and address them accordingly. To find out more about getting free publicity for your products and site visit http://www.productpressrelease.com

About The Author

Dianne Beiermann is a results-driven internet marketer and online business owner. Dianne Beiermann is one of the leading experts in press release marketing for online businesses. Productpressrelease.com specializes in assisting individuals and businesses with obtaining free publicity for their products and website. You can visit their site at http://www.productpressrelease.com or call 1-800-371-3945.

A Novel Free-For All Idea

2008-05-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

A Novel Free-For All Idea

by: Terence Tan

Almost anyone who has tried submitting to free-for-all sites will say that they are no longer worth the effort as a traffic generating tool.

Automated FFA submissions to "millions" of sites are also not that useful as most of these sites are only ever "visited" by automated submission scripts and not by human eyes. The only thing these auto submission tools achieve is to get your e-mail address bombarded with "confirmation" e-mail from the FFA page owners.

Many unsuspecting users who submitted their personal e-mail address to these submission tools have suffered incredible frustrations because of the "spam" they receive. (Technically they are confirmatory e-mail that the submitters agreed to receive.)

However. one previous "victim" of confirmatory "spam" managed to turn the tables around with a very ingenious twist to the process.

He basically submitted his web site using the FFA auto submission tools and agreed to get the "millions" of confirmatory email...but submitted an e-mail address that led to an autoresponder that replied back to these emails with a "thank you for your offer which I'm considering...please have a look at my web site in the meantime" type e-mail.

Incidentally, Outlook Express also has message rule function which we can use to achieve a similar effect. Simply click on "tools", "message rules", "mail", "mail rules", "new", "where the message is from the specified account"(the e-mail account you intend to receive confirmatory "spam" with), and "reply with message", then specify the message you want to reply with.

Don't forget to also freely distribute your e-mail address to multiple mailing lists, classified ads sites, and anywhere that is likely to get your address "spammed" The best part is when "spambots", and bulk e-mail address harvesters etc. pick up your e-mail address and it gets included in those "e-mail 100000 prospects for $49.95" offers, you'll be promoting your site to many people with absolutely no effort on your part at all!

Have fun with this one.

About The Author

Terence Tan is the founder of HugeAffiliates.com, a website dedicated towards the development of Multi Level Affiliate Programs as an alternative system of business. Visit http://hugeaffiliates.com to learn how MLAPs can multiply your affiliate referral commissions.

(Please feel free to to freely reproduce and distribute this article, so long as it is reproduced in full, including the hyperlinks, and no modification is made).

terence@hugevoice.com

Get Traffic Using The Power Of Multilevel Marketing

2008-05-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

Get Traffic Using The Power Of Multilevel Marketing

by: Terence Tan

Ever received one of those irritating chain letter scams where they asked you to place your name at the bottom of 10 names and remove the top one?Next you are supposed to send a buck to the top name?

Then you are supposed to forward the e-mail with your name at the bottom to 10 other friends who are supposed to do the same.The idea is that for a small investment of a buck, when your name rises to the top of the list, millions of people will be sending you a buck?

Pretty scammy, possibly might work (never tried it myself) but probably illegal in many countries!

Anyway, if we take out the money bit, it does seem to be a possible way to get your ad out to a lot of people. If instead of ten names, we have ten ads for web sites, the potential for getting some serious web site traffic is undeniable.

I'm experimenting with this technique and so far the results have been quite impressive. I've found a site that pretty much automates the process for us.

Check it out to see if it increases your web site traffic and help me promote HugeAffiliates.com at the same time.

Here is the link:

http://www.myviral.com/join.php?id=539

About The Author

Terence Tan is the founder of HugeAffiliates.com, a website dedicated towards the development of Multi Level Affiliate Programs as an alternative system of business. Visit http://hugeaffiliates.com to learn how MLAPs can multiply your affiliate referral commissions.

(Please feel free to to freely reproduce and distribute this article, so long as it is reproduced in full, including the hyperlinks, and no modification is made).

terence@hugevoice.com

A New Twist To The Signature File Idea

2008-05-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

A New Twist To The Signature File Idea

by: Terence Tan

After the incredible success of Hotmail.com, the use of signature files on all outgoing e-mail accounts has been a common method of web promotion.

The limitation that most people face is that there is a limit to how much "legitimate" e-mail they can send everyday.

A key but often overlooked characteristic of the Hotmail campaign that made it wildly successful is that every user of Hotmail was actually part of its campaign. Rather than sending signature file ads from only one e-mail account, Hotmail had a virtual army of people promoting their service.

One way we can boost the number of mails carrying our signature files is to offer free e-mail accounts to people and attach OUR signature files to their outgoing email.While it is now harder to give out free e-mail accounts than when Hotmail first started out, even a small handful of active users of your free service can dramatically increase the number of your signature files being displayed.

Everyone.net offers a cheap Group Mail account that lets us offer free e-mail accounts to 100 people, at $9.99 a month.

For less than 10 cents each, you'll get an large group of people pushing your advertisement every time they send out an e-mail message.

There are probably other companies offering to let you provide free e-mail to others (the key point being they must allow you to attach YOUR signature file to each outgoing e-mail), but Everyone.net does seem to be very user friendly, easy to set- up( no setup cost), and cheapest.

They also offer to give you a free domain name of your choice when you sign up.

If you already own XYZ.com, you could take advantage of their offer by also getting XYZ.net for free.

For sites with large and dedicated North American audiences, there is even a Sponsored Mail solution where they essentially offer their service for FREE!

This is certainly a proven, low cost strategy to use, especially if you are looking for some "free stuff" to offer your web site visitors, gaining their goodwill and turning them into your "evangelists" at the same time.

About The Author

Terence Tan is the founder of HugeAffiliates.com, a website dedicated towards the development of Multi Level Affiliate Programs as an alternative system of business. Visit http://hugeaffiliates.com to learn how MLAPs can multiply your affiliate referral commissions.

(Please feel free to to freely reproduce and distribute this article, so long as it is reproduced in full, including the hyperlinks, and no modification is made).

terence@hugevoice.com

Marketing Articles: Promoting Your Site Twice!

2008-05-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

Marketing Articles: Promoting Your Site Twice!

by: Martin Lemieux

I recently became aware that promoting your web site in Search Engines can instantly be double within Google! That's right, you can instantly promote your site 2 times at once!

So how do you Market Your Site twice?

Simple...

Most of us typically promote www.yoursite.com. But what you need to realize is that most sites can be found on search engines simply by entering... http://yoursite.com - without the www.

Try it for a second, lets go to google and type in your url with the www. and then without the www.

So for me it would be:

www.smartads.info

http://smartads.info

The same will apply for sub-domains as well. A sub-domain is a section of your site dedicated to something you create but instead of residing within your normal directory, it resides within it's own directory,like I've illustrated below...

Normal:

www.yoursite.com

Sub-Domain:

www.sub-domain.yoursite.com

And with that again, you can promote your sub-domain twice in Search Engines like so...

www.sub-domain.yoursite.com

http://sub-domain.yousite.com

So in turn, I've just showed you how you can promote 4 sites with all the same goal in mind, yours of course!

How to utilize your new found knowledge:

Hopefully, you are all aware of how important it is to create a link exchange program for your business? Well, what you simply want to do is to mix up your links when submitting to other companies for a listing within their site.

In other words...

Lets say I just found 4 sites that I want to exchange links with, I would do something like this...

Site #1: I would submit (www.yoursite.com)

Site #2: I would submit (http://yoursite.com)

Site #3: I would submit (www.sub-domain.yoursite.com)

Site #4: I would submit (http://sub-domain.yoursite.com)

Now I'm promoting my site with 4 times the power than before!

But don't stop there...

Do you write articles? How about committing 2 of your links to every article. Change them up with each article.

Ex:

Article #1 (How to Submit Your Site to Search Engines)

Try adding

www.yoursite.com

www.sub-domain.yoursite.com

Article #2 (How to Market Your Site Twice)

Try adding

http://yoursite.com &

http://sub-domain.yoursite.com

I hope this small timbit of knowledge gives you the edge you need to put your business ahead of the game!

Best of luck to you!

About The Author

Martin Lemieux

Smartads - President

http://www.smartads.info

Affordable web site design

http://smartads.info

Marketing Articles & Web Site Marketing Tactics

Manipulate Your Visitors With Reverse Psychology

2008-05-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

Manipulate Your Visitors With Reverse Psychology

by: Rich Hamilton, Jr

Many people say that it is easy to write a sales copy and that there is really nothing to it. Well, all I can say is they are wrong! For many, writing your sales copy is difficult. Having the ability to write sales copy is an attribute that not many people have. When writing a sales copy you need to realize that there are a lot of psychological principles that are involved in the process. Reverse psychology on the other hand, is even more powerful when it is used properly.

In this article I am going to go over how reverse psychology works, how to apply it to a sales copy and when the best and effective time to use it is.

How Reverse Psychology Works

Reverse psychology is nothing more than a mind game you play and the object of the game is to confuse and distort the minds of others. I know it may sound complicated, but really it's not. In fact, you've probably used it and don't even realize it. Let me give you an example of how it works, so that you can fully comprehend it.

If you have children, you can probably relate to this. When you tell children not to do something, what's the first thing they do? They get into whatever it is that you just told them not to, why? Because you have accelerated their curiosity and desire to see what you have. If you were to apply reverse psychology, you would tell the child that they could have it. It wouldn't be fun anymore, you've taken away their desire to have it and as a result, they wouldn't want it. Moreover, you have accelerated the need to know why. Why are you giving it to them?

This does not only apply to children, this also applies to adults and they will react in the same way. If you were to apply the same scenario to an adult, they would react in the same manner as the child did.

Applying To Sales Copy

When is the best and most effective time to apply reverse psychology to your sales copy, it is in your opening statement, when establishing your credibility, and in your guarantee. These are just a few important elements of your sales copy that are the most effective areas to use reverse psychology on your visitors.

Not many people use an opening statement in their sales copy. The opening statement is a only a couple of sentences that are before your attention grabbing headline. The opening statement is used to set the stage for your attention grabbing headline.

One of the first opening statements I used in my sales copy was: Before you think about listening to another so-called expert, you need to read this first... It seemed like everyone was using this opening statement, so I used reverse psychology and came up with: The so-called experts are getting nervous.... This made my conservation rate triple, because people wanted to know why the experts were getting nervous.

When you are establishing your credibility, every sales letter always talks about how successful they are and not how they got there. People are reactive towards realistic situations, in my sales copy I talked about how in debt I used to be and how I had no money to market with. This insured my visitor that I knew how they felt. I've been there and you can promote your web site without paying a cent for advertising, because I did it.

Other people would rather brag how much money they are making, people don't react well to braggers. Just because someone makes a lot of money, doesn't mean they know what your talking about, or doing for that matter. People love stories, it pulls them right in, especially if it's a story they can relate to.

Another area where reverse psychology works great, is in your guarantee. Having a strong guarantee is the most important element of your sales copy, without it no one will buy from you, period. When you are presenting your guarantee, make it risk free and reverse the risk.

Comfort your visitor by reversing the risk, insure them that you have more to lose out of the deal than they do. How? Well, you are the product creator, your name and reputaion are on the line. If you create a poor product, then it will reflect on your credibility.

About The Author

Rich Hamilton, Jr is the CEO/President of www.ElitesMarketing.com and the Author of Inside Internet Marketing www.InsideNetMarketing.com. Stay up to date with the internet marketing world by subscribing to our free newsletter, The Elite - The Internet Marketing Edge, www.ElitesMarketing.com/subscribe.html

How To Screen Your Visitors When Using Pay Per Click Advertising

2008-05-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

How To Screen Your Visitors When Using Pay Per Click Advertising

by: Rich Hamilton, Jr

If you are using pay per click advertising, I don't need to tell you that it can get very expensive if you have a lot of unnecessary click throughs. In this article I will explain how to screen your visitors and how to apply it to your pay per click advertising campaign, so that you can screen your visitors before they click through.

How It Works

To minimize the amount of unnecessary click throughs, we are going to talk about a screening technique that is used in copywriting. A good copywriter has the ablity to screen the serious individuals from the test pilots, before the sale is initially made.

By using this screening technique you will dramatically decrease the amount of refunds that you could be receiving. In this case, you need to be specific about your product or service without giving too many details, this will eliminate unnecessary click throughs.

When it comes time to develop an ad that best describes your offer, you need to use precise wording. If you use any ambiguous words, phrases or statements in your ads, you will confuse the viewer, making them either click through or leave. You need to keep in mind that every click through is costing you money, so you need to make sure that you are targeting your market and that each of your visitors are qualified.

Applying The Headline

When placing a pay per click advertisement there are two things that you need to pay attention to, the headline and the description. The headline is used to grab their attention, build their curiousity and force them to read on. The difficult part is that the pay per click ads only allow you a limited amount of characters, usually up to 50. Your attention grabbing headline will end up being only three or four words. You need to make your headline jump out at the viewer, but at the same time, you need to be specific.

One of the biggest mistakes I often see, is that people use their business name for the headline of their pay per click advertisement. A business name is not going to grab their attention or motivate them to read the description. For example, let me ask you which headline would grab your attention and motivate you to read the description, "Elites Marketing" or "Earn $47 - $270 Per Sale". Do you see the difference between the two headlines and how specific the second one was?

Applying The Description

As far as the description goes, you have a little more to work with, unless you are using Google's Adwords. Google's Adwords gives you two lines and each line only allows up to 35 characters. You will need to be as specific and descriptive as you can. The description is very crucial, and it will determine whether or not your visitor will initially click through.

Let me give you another example, now which description is precise in wording and is descriptive enough to screen your visitor, "You can join our Two Tier Associate Program at no cost or obligation", or "Snowball in cash by promoting info-marketing products. Join for Free!" I hope you picked the second description!

The first description, "You can join our Two Tier Associate Program at no cost or obligation" is vague and wide open. This description does not describe what kind of product or service they would be promoting or kind of associate program I am offering is, pay per lead, pay per click, pay per sale, or two tier. You don't want to use a description that is too vague, that is how you get a lot of unnecessary click throughs.

On the other hand, the second description, "Snowball in cash by promoting marketing info-products. Join for Free!" is very clear and concise. Even though the description did not say what kind of associate program it was, in the headline it was clear. It said, "Earn $47 - $270 Per Sale." Moreover, I was able to tell my visitor that they'd be promoting information marketing products and was free to participate. I was also able to hit them with a couple psychological triggers, "Snowball" and "Cash".

To screen your visitors more effectively, you need to choose keywords that are relevant to your product or service and that target your market. If you select keywords or phrases that are too general, you will still have a lot of unnecessary click throughs. You can only screen so much, so don't select inappropriate keywords or phrases when starting your pay per click advertisement campaign. Take your time and brainstorm for the appropriate keywords and phrases that best desribes your product or service.

About The Author

Rich Hamilton, Jr is the CEO/President of http://www.ElitesMarketing.com. You can start earning cash today by joining our FREE Two Tier Associate Program and make $45 - $270 per sale http://www.ElitesMarketing.com/assoc/.

Is Adsense Going To Turn Associate Programs Obsolete

2008-05-14T11:36:00.001-07:00

Is Adsense Going To Turn Associate Programs Obsolete

by: Rich Hamilton, Jr

When Google introduced their new Adsense revenue sharing program, people began to wonder if things would change. Certain questions have been burning in people's mind like: what's going to happen to Associate Programs, how do they compare against Google's Adsense and will Adsense cause Associate Programs to be obsolete?

Well, that really depends on a number of things, which I will go over. In this article I am only going to cover a few advantages and disadvantages of using Google's Adsense vs Associate Programs and which Associate Programs will prevail.

In case you are not familiar with Google's Adsense, Adsense is a new service provided by Google. This service allows you to have text based advertisements on your web site, known as Google Adwords. In return, you will receive a share of revenue based on a pay per click arrangement.

How Does Adsense's Advantages Compare To Associate Programs

Adsense and Associate Programs share some of the same advantages such as, Adsense is free to join and so are most other Associate Programs. Making them both easy to start and suitable for you whether you are a beginner or an experienced marketer.

Another advantage with Adsense, is that you never have to search for advertisers. Google supplies you with the advertisements by using highly relevant content targeted ads. This will insure that only precisely relevant advertisements are displayed on your web site. As for Associate Programs, you will have to search for quality programs and the relevancy of the program will depend on the one you select.

Adsense enables you to filter out up to 200 urls, so you don't have inappropriate ads or display advertisements of your competition. The last thing you want is to send traffic to your indirect competition. No one in their right mind would do that, right! Moreover, with Associate Programs you can select which ones you want to promote, instead of worrying about advertising your indirect competition.

How Does Adsense's Disadvantages Compare To Associate Programs

One of the biggest disadvantages of Adsense, is that they never really tell you what percentage you will receive. I don't know about you, but wouldn't it be nice to know what percentage of revenue you will receive. If an Associate Program was to do that, they would have absolutely no one participating in their program, but somehow Google can manage to get away with that. With associate programs, you immediately know what your commission percentage is going to be before you sign up.

Even though you can filter certian urls, you will still receive inappropriate advertisements. The advertisements are only as good as the person who wrote them and if they select keywords or phrases that are too general, this will result in inappropriate advertisements appearring on your web site. Most Associate Programs enable you to write your own promotional advertisements, giving you a little more freedom.

Adsense does not rotate their advertisements, so eventually your click through ratio will decrease, as repeat visitors are less likely to click through them. Eventually, I'm sure Google will improve the way it does it's content targeting and start rotating their advertisements. By promoting an Associate Program you can simply change the wording of the advertisement, but with Adsense you can't do that, you have your hands tied behind your back.

Adsense's stats are terrible, they don't tell you which advertisements your visitors are clicking through or which keywords are involved. Google supplies Adwords users with the adequate stats, you would think that they would do the same for their Adsense partners.

You should keep in mind that any advertisement that is on your web site, is portrayed to be your recommendation. If you are advertising a poor product or service on your web site, it will reflect on your credibility. Any product or service that you promote, should be a reliable one. Otherwise people will assume that you have poor judgement and it will hurt your credibility. By promoting Associate Programs, you can pick and choose quality products or services to promote, giving you full control, without damaging your credibility.

Which Associate Programs Will Prevail

Even though Adsense has a substantial amount of disadvantages, it will still have a major affect on a lot of Associate Programs that are currently operating today. In fact, you could say it's a wake up call for many merchants, especially for the ones who operate a poor Associate Program. So if you operate your own Associate Program, that has a low commission percentage and/or has a poor conservation rate, now might be a good time to start thinking seriously about improving your Associate Program.

As to which Associate Programs will survive and prevail over Google's Adsense, it will be determined by a number of things. In order for Associate Programs to prevail, they will need to offer a high commission percentage of 40% or higher, have a high conservation rate of 1% or higher, and be a breeze to promote.

In the end, Google's Adsense is merely just another avenue of generating profits on your web site. Associate Programs will not become obsolete. Moreover, they will filter out the good Associate Programs from those that are bad, and only the quality ones will prevail.

Moreover, you can expect that Google will improve their Adsense campaign overtime, proving that they are a worthy adversary to the Associate Program industry. You must be able to adapt and improve as changes occur.

About The Author

Rich Hamilton, Jr is the CEO/President of http://www.ElitesMarketing.com. You can start earning cash today by joining our FREE Two Tier Associate Program and make $45 - $270 per sale http://www.ElitesMarketing.com/assoc/.

Is Adsense Going To Turn Associate Programs Obsolete

2008-05-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

Dramatically Boost Your Exposure With A Press Release

2008-05-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

Dramatically Boost Your Exposure With A Press Release

by: Shawn Edwards

Do you have a website but seem puzzled to how you can drive in traffic? Or are you a brick and mortar business owner looking to bring in new customers? Either way, a press release may be just the answer you need to solve this dilemma.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when writing a press release.

1) ALWAYS target your press releases to the appropriate media. Take your time to research the different forms of media available in your particular market niche. Don't try sell or advertise. Failure to do this will have your press release in the trash somewhere. Working with the editor by providing newsworthy information to provide his/her readers will provide the editor with the incentive to work with you.

2) Take your time when writing your press release. Don't just brag about your product or service - editors could care less how great you think your products are. Make sure that you slant your press release to be NEWSWORTHY! Think of ways how you can fulfill your readers' needs! Focus first on what that need or problem is and then write the press release from that perspective of the readers' benefits. This way your release will get much more attention. If you have a website then your release is a powerful tool to gain some traffic.

Remember, driving traffic to your web site isn't easy. With so many different promotional options like search engines, e-zines, banner swaps and bulk email campaigns it's easy to forget the fact that the PRESS RELEASE is the single most important method for generating publicity to your business website.

Think of an effectively written Press Release as being complimentary Advertising! Any article written about your product, company, event, or promotion, and published by an independent third party, will almost certainly deliver a sense of credibility and an implied endorsement that PAID advertisements just can't bring.

Keep your release short and informative. It should contain no more than 500 words and no more than two pages.

Be sure to include your contact information. Write a release that includes contact name, company name, full address, phone number, email address, and Web site URL. The contact name should be someone who's available and capable of answering questions.

A Press Release is simply the most powerful form of advertising there is!

About The Author

Shawn Edwards is the CEO of http://www.nonimanltd.com a.k.a Noni Man LTD., and publishes "Marketing Maniac", a weekly newsletter dedicated to showing you how you can earn multiple streams of income: For more information please email us at sales@nonimanltd.com

FFA/Reversed Marketing

2008-05-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

FFA/Reversed Marketing

by: Thomas Grodem

Have you ever submitted your ad to an FFA page? most likely you have. Did you get any results from it or did you just get a ton of emails in your inbox?

FFA pages are gaining popularity popping like bombs everywhere!

What is an FFA page? It is a free for all page.

How it works is quite simple: you place a line of text on the FFA site for free...like thousands of other advertisers each day.

The problem with FFA pages is that everybody is submitting their ad to it. So each time a new ad is submitted, all the other ads roll down one rank and the oldest ad is dropped of. What originally gave an exposure of days per submission, today only gives you about 30 minutes. This means you have to submit at least 3 times a day. You can do this automatically by using an auto submitter, which claims to submit your ad to a zillion websites. You must understand that this is not regular websites, but search engines, Directories and FFA pages.Still it is a lot of ads, and someone might see it.

The lack of results from these ads is because:

your ad is mixed in with hundreds of other ads

Have you ever visited an FFA page and looked at the ads? Today most people use automated submission tools, so they never visits the site.

If someone does visit the page, your ad could be gone within a few hours or less.

Fore those of you that has submitted your ads to FFA pages, you must have noticed all the emails you receive back.

How would you like to be the one sending out those emails?

What i am saying is that you shouldn’t POST to FFA pages... You should HOST your own FFA page!

There is several ways to approach hosting your own FFA page.

You could create it yourself if you know how. Or, there is someone willing to help you for free. Go to http://ratesaver.com.au/lp.htm

The next step you have to do is notifying URL submission services.

The manual way: use search engines like google to find URL submission services and notify them of your links page

The automatic way: go to http://ratesaver.com.au/tsalintro.htm

Enter your links page title and address. Press submit and you will notify over 140 URL submission services about your page.

This service costs us$19.95.

Now you are the one sending out all those emails with your info in them. It’s called "Reversed advertising". And it’s the most effective way to market yourself on the internet today!

About The Author

Thomas Grodem publishes Home Business Tips, a fresh and informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people like YOU! If you’re looking for the best rated home business opportunities, the latest time saving tools and helpful support from an honest friend in the business come by and grab a F-R-E-E subscription today at: http://prosperconnection.com

grodem@prosperconnection.com

Super Affiliate Strategies To Boost Your Click Through Rates

2008-05-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

Super Affiliate Strategies To Boost Your Click Through Rates

by: Rich Hamilton, Jr

If you are an affiliate I don't need to tell you that it's not easy, especially if your promoting a product or service that is a large program with a lot of affiliates. Every single affiliate in that program is in indirect competition with you, even though it's not your product or service.

You have thousands of other affiliates that are promoting the same product or service, targeting the same market, and using the same ads as you. Traditionally a real good associate program would provide you with tested and proven ads to maximize your click throughs. Today you just can't put a link on your web site and use the ads they provide you. You have thousands of other affiliates out there competing with you using the same ads you are, which makes it even more difficult to make money.

At this point you need to ask yourself, why should my visitor buy it from me, when they can buy it from thousands of other affiliates? How can I increase my click throughs to boost my affiliate sales?

These are some of the issues we are going to cover in this article. It's bad enough that most affiliates struggle to make their first sale, let alone make a commission every month. But if you want to make real money promoting your associate program you need to work smarter, not harder.

If you want people to buy it from you than you need to come up with your own ads, that will give you an advantage over the rest of your affiliates.

Personal Recommendation

A personal recommendation is a very powerful tool and can skyrocket your affiliate click through rates. Writing a personal recommendation for a product or service that you are promoting is a way to tell the world that you have evaluated the product's or service's quality and approve it. You should also discuss any experiences that you've had with the product or service, people want to hear your testimonial, so give it to them in your own words.

I need to warn you though, if you start recommending anything and everything, eventually your personal recommendations will lose face value. Not only that, if you start recommending poor products or services, your recommendation will reflect on your credibility.

Just to give you an example, I am very stringent about my recommendations. The only time I recommend a product or service is if I use it everyday or have used it in the past. I don't recommend any product or service that I have not been in indirect experience with.

Write A Teaser

Instead of using the same ads that other affiliates use, be different and get creative by writing a teaser. Writing your own teaser is another way to boost your affiliate click through rate.

Teasers set the stage for your affiliate product or service, by accelerating your visitor's impulse. This enables them to have a sneak peek at what they can expect from the product or service you are promoting before they even realize that you're selling them something. Using the teaser approach is a sure way to boost your marketing efforts and increase your affiliate revenue.

When writing a teaser don't try to sell it, or reveal any prices, that's the sales copy's job. You need to keep in mind that the teaser's job is only to motivate your visitor to click through your advertisement.

Screen Your Visitors

Screening your visitors is a technique that is used in copywriting that enables you to control and screen the serious individuals from the test pilots. When applying this technique to a sales copy, it will eliminate the amount of refunds you may recieve. In this case, you need to be specific about the product or service without giving too many details, this will eliminate unnecessary click throughs.

This technique is perfect, if you are using any type of pay per click advertising. By screening people in advance you will improve your click through rate and save yourself a lot of money in your pay per click advertising campaign.

Mask Your Affiliate Urls

These days people are very leery about clicking through affiliate urls, because they know when they see it that you are trying to sell them something. If you want to really boost your affiliate sales then you should mask your affiliate urls. By masking your url, your visitor will never see your affiliate url in the browser window making it more invitable to them, more click throughs means more sales. You will see a significant increase in your click throughs when you mask the url.

For those who don't know how to mask your affiliate url, here is what you need:

To mask your affiliate urls there are two areas we need to address, one is [affiliate_url], replace it with your affiliate url. The second is click here to view, which is what will appear in your visitor's browser window. If you want to display something different in the browser's window, then change the click here to view to what you want to display.

These were just some of the ways to improve your click through rate. After you have applied these techniques you will notice a substantial increase in click throughs and sales.

About The Author

Rich Hamilton, Jr is the CEO/President of http://www.ElitesMarketing.com a.k.a. Elites Marketing, Inc and the Author of "Inside Internet Marketing". Unlock the absolute truth to promoting your web site without ever paying a cent for advertising.

http://www.InsideNetMarketing.com

How To Write A Profit Pulling Article

2008-05-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

How To Write A Profit Pulling Article

by: Rich Hamilton, Jr

Having an article published is one of the fastest and easiest ways to build your credibility as an industry expert. At the end of the each article you are given the opportunity to gain free exposure for your online business or affiliate program.

As more and more people realize the true power of having your article published, the Internet has become saturated with them. Everywhere you turn there are plenty of articles to choose from, making it tougher to get yours noticed, let alone read.

If you can't get your article noticed, then it won't be read, therefore, no free exposure or profits. But getting your article noticed is only the beginning, you also need to hold your reader's attention with good quality content.

In this article we are going to go over the key elements of writing a succesful article and how to get them noticed. We will also go over how to turn an article into an unstoppable profit generator, even if you don't have your own product or service. That's right, you don't need your own product or service to take advantage of this golden opportunity.

Research Before Choosing A Topic

When most writers write their articles, they only write about what they want to write about. This is not an effective way to write an article. The most effective and recommended way to write an article, is to write one on a topic that your targeted market is already interested in. To find out what kind of article your targeted market is interested in, will require some research.

You should always do the research before you actually pick a topic to write about. When researching for your article you should try going to forums that cover your targeted market. Observe to see what they are talking about and even looking for. The best approach to use, is to find a problem, then write an article that resolves the problem.

By using this approach you are showing your dedication as a problem solver. When you help people resolve their problems and/or endeavors, you will strengthen your credibility and then the profits will soon follow.

Article Title

Choosing the title of your article will be one of the most important decisions you will make and will determine whether or not it will be read. You need to take your time, when it comes time for you to select an article title and it will require you to do some brainstorming.

Your article title should reach out and grab the reader's attention and compell them to want to read it immediately. The best thing to do when trying to come up with an article title is to write the biggest benefit that your reader will receive while they are reading it. The biggest benefit may not be the exact article title, but it is a good place to start.

When I choose a title for an article I write down several before I intially select a one. So don't choose just one title, write down several different ones, get the feel of the word variations, and tweak the weak areas.

Content

Most of the articles out there are nothing more than an abstracted sales pitch or material that does not contain any valuable information, therefore is useless to the reader. The best way to get your article read, is to educate the reader. Any good article will be educational to their readers and have some sort of value. If you can't sell your article, than don't publish it.

If you publish a poorly written article, then people will not read it. This will have an impact on your credibility and on any future articles you publish, so do it right the first time by educating them.

Promote

If you want to make some cash with your article, then at the end of it, will be the time to promote your product, service, or affiliate program. Make sure that the product, service, or affiliate program is relevant to the article, you'd be suprised at how many people get this wrong.

Not sure, let me give you an example, I previously wrote an article that was entitled "The Wrong Email Format Can Destroy Your Offer". In this particular article I discussed the advantages and disadvantages of text and html email formats. At the end of the article I presented an autoresponder that is capable of performing both formats.

If you promote a product, service, or affiliate program that corresponds with the article, your chances of getting a click through is very high. If you don't have a product or service that corresponds with the article, then I recommend finding an affiliate program that does.

About The Author

Rich Hamilton, Jr is the CEO/President of www.ElitesMarketing.com a.k.a. Elites Marketing, Inc and the Author of "Inside Internet Marketing". Unlock the absolute truth internet marketing without ever paying a cent for advertising. www.InsideNetMarketing.com

Cheap Advertising Methods That Work!

2008-05-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

Cheap Advertising Methods That Work!

by: BB Lee

Advertising is necessary to get name recognition for your business and attract customers. But, what steps can you take to advertise your business if your promotion budget is limited?

Plenty!

The following methods are some of the best and cheapest ways to promote your business online.

-Start An Ezine That's right! Start your very own ezine. This is an excellent way to get immediate recognition for your business without spending a dime. It's easy to start a special interest ezine on the Internet. Several free list hosting services will handle all the emailing duties and subscribers. Here's one source below:

http://www.topica.com

-Ad Swaps...Once you have an ezine start swapping ads with other ezine owners. You will score big time if you swap ads with a major player.

-Trade Links..trade links with similar sites. Your search engine rank will increase if your site links with many sites. Leading to more website visitors.

-Search Engine Submission. Submit your site to the top search engines. Pay close attention to meta tags and headings to get a higher listing. Sprinkle a few keywords in your web page copy. Here's a few sources to automatically submit your website to search engines.

http://www.addpro.com

http://www.urlsubmitter.com

-Write Articles. Compose articles on popular topics. Submit your work to online article directories. If your articles are popular, you will get immediate free promotion, and recognition as an expert in your field. Here's a good guide to writing articles for the Internet.

Confessions Of An Ezine Writer:

http://hop.clickbank.net/?xy123/johncolanz

-Write An Ebook! Great free promo idea. Need I say more? Write an ebook on a unique topic and give it away to website visitors. Encourage them to distribute to online associates. Include links in the ebook leading to your website.

How to Write your own eBook in 7 Days! http://hop.clickbank.net/?xy123/7dayebook> Click Here

-Signature Files! This is your opportunity to promote your business or affiliate links. Include them in all your emails. Example Follows:

----------------------------------------------------------------
BB Lee is the editor and publisher of SmallBizBits Newsletter.
Visit: http://www.angelfire.com/zine/smallbiz
----------------------------------------------------------------

-Free Classifieds are more important than you think. They give you experience writing copy before you plunk down hard cash on more extravagant ads. Many marketers still manually post their ads and browse the free classified afterwards. A few interested readers will visit your site.

-FFA Links are important too. When you submit to the ffa pages your website's search engine position increases because it links to more sites. (Although it is temporary and you'll have submit on a regular daily basis.) This will circulate your name to a wider Internet market. And before submitting to the ffa pages, get a free email account to receive the multitude of ffa responses. You certainly don't want these responses mixed with your regular email account.

That's it! Experiment with the methods above! And have fun learning what works for you!

About The Author

BB Lee is the editor and publisher of SmallBizBits Newsletter.

Join SmallBizBits Today And Receive Your 5 ebook bonus package.

To Subscribe!...mailto:Smallbiz-subscribe@topica.com

Visit: http://www.angelfire.com/zine/smallbiz

Contact BB... mailto:smallbiz@angelfire.com

Having The Right Attitude And Start Becoming A Problem Solver

2008-05-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

Having The Right Attitude And Start Becoming A Problem Solver

by: Rich Hamilton, Jr

Do you really want to make money online?

Do you want to develop a business which can make money for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week almost automatically?

Of course you do!

Why else wouldn't you be reading this ebook right now.

Many others have created full-time incomes while only working part-time online. It is within your grasp. Plus, many of them, including myself have started with little or no money!

The down side to this is, many of you will need a change of attitude before you will be able to reach your goals.

Even with the right information and the right foundation, many people have still failed in their online ventures just because they did not develop the right attitude. Your attitude is essential when achieving success and your dreams. Which brings me to an old statement "Your Attitude determines your Altitude," pretty much says it all!

If your psychological mindset is poor, than your outlook in general will always be poor. The negativity will show in everything you do. No matter what you are doing, your results will be poor and your business will do poor.

Having a positive mentality about yourself and about your business is a part of having the right attitude, but that is not what I want to focus on in this section. I want to focus on your reasons and vision for your business.

If your vision for your business is to just make enough money for a little extra income or to just produce a full-time income for yourself. You are severely limiting yourself to the real possibilites. If this is you, you need a change of attitude. Don't limit yourself! On the Internet, "The only limitation is your imagination"!

The most successful people in business are the ones who look for problems and develop solutions to cure their problems. They have a vision which is bigger than just to make a little money. They have a vision to solve problems for others.

You need to learn about powerful internet marketing strategies to expose your product to hungry visitors and learn how to write killer sales copy. Yes, that is what you need to know how, if you want to produce sales. You need to ask yourself a few questions.

What is it that I'm selling?

Are you selling just another product?

Are you selling a solution to people's problems?

Are you just in business to make a little money or do you honestly care about helping other people with their problems?

Now you are probably wondering where a good place to search for problems is. Well there are many places to do your research such as forums, discussion boards, newsgroups, and even eBay.

When you get to these places to do your research, here are just a handful of some of todays problems to give you an idea:

People are frustrated with the amount of traffic on their web site!

People are frustrated with the amount of time they spend with their family or friends!

People are frustrated with learning how to submit to the Search Engines!

People are frustrated with learning how to use certain software!

People are frustrated with not being able to produce affiliate sales!

People are frustrated with not being able to produce sales!

People are frustrated with weight loss!

People are frustrated with health problems!

Look for these types of problems and frustrations and develop or find products which have the answers. In other words, don't just try to think of new ways to make money. Think of ways to solve more problems for more people! Once you've learned the marketing side of the equation, the money will start coming in.

The best part about it is that all you have to do is change your attitude and start being a problem solver. What problems are still out there in your specific market? What problems do people have when they order from your competition? What can you do to make your product or service a better answer to people's needs?

When you ask yourself these types of questions you are often taking the first step to success. Once you have recognized the problem and developed the right attitude, you can start looking for or creating the solution. You have the question, it's time to develop the answers.

About The Author

Rich Hamilton, Jr is the CEO/President of www.ElitesMarketing.com a.k.a. Elites Marketing, Inc and the Author of: "Inside Internet Marketing" www.InsideNetMarketing.com.

Reciprocal Linking Techniques

2008-05-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

Reciprocal Linking Techniques

by: Rick Rouse

Building a successful web site is a process that works best when done in a deliberate, logical step-by-step manner. The first step is to build a top quality web site that is packed with interesting and useful content.

Next, you need to submit your site to the major directories and begin a well thought out advertising campaign.

But the single most important step is getting a top ranking in the major search engines, most notably Google and MSN.

When ranking the sites in their index, Google places a very high importance on "link popularity", that is the sites that have the most high-quality incoming links generally rank higher in Google. Getting links to your site from other sites is an absolute must for a top ranking in Google and the other top search engines (top 10 at a minimum).

The question that you may be asking is "How do I get these links?". There are many ways to attain links to your web site, but it can be very difficult for new sites to get other sites to link to them.

There's a simple way to jump-start the process however. It's called "reciprocal linking". This is how it works: You search for sites that are in the same general topic area as yours (but not sites that compete directly). After you find a list of suitable link exchange partners, you place a link to their site on your site. Then you email the webmasters of the other sites and ask for a link exchange.

Do not send generic copies of the same email to each webmaster however. Rather, take a few minutes to browse each site. Then write a personalized email to the webmaster explaining what you liked about the site (be specific) and why you think a link exchange would benefit both parties.

Be sure to address the webmaster by name if at all possible. Also, be sure to give him your link exchange information. This should include the title of your site, a short description, and the URL that you want his site to link to (this doesn't have to be the home page). And be sure to include the URL of the page that already has his reciprocal link on it.

After you have sent the emails, expect a few rejections for various reasons. This is normal and expected so don't be at all discouraged. You will also quickly get a few emails from webmasters accepting your offer. Verify that your reciprocal link is in fact on their sites and then send a "thank you" email.

A great way to find potential link partners is to do a Google search on one of your main keywords or phrases. You will most likely have many pages of sites listed in the search results.

Here is a simple way to find out which of these sites actively exchange links: Go to the bottom of the Google search results page. Click on "Search within results". In the text box type in "Add URL". This will return only the sites in your original search results listings that have an "Add URL" link on their web site. You can also do a search for "link exchange".

If you aggressively pursue link exchanges on a regular basis, within a few short months you'll have built up good rankings in the search engines with a steady flow of targeted traffic to your web site!

About The Author

Rick Rouse is the owner of RLROUSE Webmaster Resources and the author of "Super Webmaster SEO Toolkit" which gives step by-step instructions for getting a top 10 listing in Google & Yahoo. Visit his web site: http://www.rlrouse.com/SEO.html

The Wrong Email Format Can Destroy Your Offer

2008-05-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

The Wrong Email Format Can Destroy Your Offer

by: Rich Hamilton, Jr

Which email format is more effective to use, Text or HTML?

A good question, many experts have been debating over for awhile now, is which email format is more effective. It all depends on who you ask, many people prefer the text format over the HTML format. There are also many people who would rather use HTML over the text format. You can pretty much draw a line right down the middle between the text users and the HTML users, it's that close.

The truth of the matter is that the most effective format to use for your email really depends on the offer you're presenting.

Both text and HTML email formats have their advantages and disadvantages. In this article I am going to go over the advantages and disadvantages of text and HTML email formats. Let's jump right in and start with the format text.

Text

Obviously the real advantage to using a text format is that you have a white background with black font making it very easy to read. The text format loads fast, no matter what size the email is.

If the email loads fast and is easy to read how can text formats have a disadvantage?

Easy!

The real disadvantage of using text format is when you are using email as a source of marketing. To effectively use email marketing you need to use some sort of tracking software. Without tracking you will never know if the subject line and/or email offer needs work.

The point I am trying to make is that people are very cautious about clicking on tracking and affiliate links. As soon as they see a lengthy url, they get the impression that you are trying to sell them something and immediately delete the email. With a text formatted email you cannot hide long tracking urls from the recipient. With an HTML format you won't run into this problem, which brings us to...

HTML

The biggest advantage of using HTML is that you can hide your tracking urls from the viewer. Instead of having a long url in your email offer, you can use a simple "click here". Not only can you hide your tracking url, but you can also mask it from appearing in the browser window.

Moreover, HTML has a lot of disadvantages. For instance, some people can't view HTML email, while others can view it with a limited amount of space. HTML email files can be sizable and take up a lot of space. Most people who use HTML formatted email use a lot of images and other graphics to make their email have a professional appearence. But they don't stop and think about the size of the email that they are sending, and whether or not their recipients may have limited space.

Sending large email files is a sure way to get your recipients upset. You don't want to strike out before you have the chance to swing!

You can see that both email formats have their advantages, as well as their disadvantages. As for which format is the right one for you, it all depends on your offer.

If you are sending an email offer that doesn't require any lengthy tracking urls or has no affiliate urls, then text should be your format of choice.

Moreover, if you do have tracking or affiliate urls in your email offer, then HTML is the way to go. When using an HTML format be conservative, not everyone has broadband, you'll find that a lot of people are still using 28.8k modems for their Internet connection.

When sending out an HTML email offer it should have a solid white background with black text, and absolutely no images or graphics. This way the email offer appears to be text and loads fast, when it's actually HTML. Your viewer won't be able to see your long tracking or affiliate url which will increase your click through ratio and that means more sales.

Most autoresponders and email softwares have the ability to send email in both formats, but not all of them. There are still some that don't.

Rich Hamilton, Jr is the CEO/President of www.ElitesMarketing.com a.k.a. Elites Marketing, Inc and the Author of: "Inside Internet Marketing" http://www.InsideNetMarketing.com

About The Author

Rich Hamilton, Jr is the CEO/President of www.ElitesMarketing.com a.k.a. Elites Marketing, Inc and the Author of: "Inside Internet Marketing" www.InsideNetMarketing.com.

Site Maps: Let Search Egines Find Your Pages

2008-05-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

Site Maps: Let Search Engines Find Your Pages

by: Mario Sanchez

With 40 million websites in existence, and more than 3 billion web pages indexed by Google at the time of this writing (July 2003), it’s no wonder that more and more people are relying on search engines to find their way through the unruly world that the web has become.

Nowadays, it is crucial to get your pages indexed by the most important search engines. To maximize traffic to your site, you must make sure that all your internal pages are indexed, not just your main page (homepage).

Fortunately, you don’t need to submit each of your pages manually. The most efficient way is to create a Site Map (a list of links to all the pages in your site) and link to it directly from your homepage.

How Will A Site Map Help Me?

Search engines find pages by “crawling” the web. They go through the code of all the pages in their database (also called index), following links to other pages and adding them to the database (in fact, more pages are added this way than by manual submission).

However, search engines have trouble following links from pages buried too deep within the directory structure of a site. A Site Map solves this problem by giving the engines access to the links to all your pages once they follow the Site Map link in your homepage. For more effectiveness, place your Site Map in your root directory (where your index page is).

Site Maps: Not Just for Search Engines

While some web users will find their way through your site by following navigation links or by using the search box, others will turn to your Site Map. If you design your Site Map carefully, it will not only be useful to the search engines, but to your human visitors as well.

Here are some pointers:

The Site Map should act pretty much like the table of contents of a book.

The Site Map must clearly show all the sections of your site, and the information contained in each of those sections.

Every item in your Site Map must be hyperlinked to its URL.

If it’s not too long or cumbersome, use each page’s TITLE as the link text, since this tends to increase the relevance of your site. Otherwise, use the word or the short phrase that best describes the content of the page.

Make sure that you place the link to your Site Map at a visible location in your homepage (users shouldn’t need a map to find your Site Map!).

Don’t get creative: simply call the link “Site Map”.

Make your Site Map a simple text link. If you use javascript the search engines will ignore it.

How can I check if my pages have been indexed?

Once you have created and uploaded your Site Map and placed a link to it in your homepage, submit both your homepage and your Site Map page to the search engines. You will then have to wait until the search engines do a web crawl. In the case of Google, the largest search engine, this happens approximately once a month.

To check if a page on your site has been picked-up and indexed by Google’s, go to www.google.com and use the “allinurl” command in the search box:

allinurl:yourdomain.com/yourpage.html

Where “yourdomain.com/yourpage.html” is the URL of the page you want to check.

To get a list of all the pages in your domain that have been indexed by Google, you’ll have to use the “site” command, followed by your domain name plus a word (or group of words) that you know appear in all your pages (for example, a copyright statement or some footer text):

site:yourdomain.com commonword

If after typing this command you get a list of all your pages (or at least a significant number of pages that weren’t in the index before), this will be a strong indication that your Site Map has been successful.

-----

You can freely reprint this article. Just include the following resource box at the end:

About The Author

Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net ), an online collection of web design and Internet marketing articles and resources. You can freely reprint his weekly articles in your website, ezine, newsletter or ebook.

How To Boost Your Keyword Density On Your Web Site To Gain Top Positions At The Search Engines

2008-05-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

How To Boost Your Keyword Density On Your Web Site To Gain Top Positions At The Search Engines

by: Rich Hamilton, Jr

Let's talk about what keyword density is and how to improve your keyword density on your web site. To improve your keyword density ratio there are three parts that we will need address.

Part 1: Content

When it comes to the Search Engines content is king! Yes king! Search Engines want web sites that are rich in content. Content is words that are embedded in text on your web site. Your keyword density ratio is one of the most important ingredients of getting good Search Engine rankings and influences the Search Engines on how to rank your web site accordingly.

For those of you who are not sure what keyword density is and how the Search Engines use it to configure their ranking structure, let me explain. Keyword density is the total number of times your keywords appear within the content of your web page, including text, hyper links, and the ALT tag of your images. I will explain each of them so you will have a clear understanding of the principles. Your keyword density is measured by a simple mathematical formula that is used to configure your keyword density ratio.

To configure your keyword density ratio you must take the number of times a keyword appears in the content of your web site, divide it by the total number of words and that's your keyword density ratio. I will give you a quick example of keyword "Marketing":

Example:

The keyword "Marketing appears 47 times in text on your web page and if you have 315 words on your web page, your keyword density ratio would then be 15%.

Obviously the higher your keyword density is, the greater influence you'll have getting the Search Engines to give you a better ranking. Becareful though, you don't want to over repeat the same combination of words and/or sentences just to increase your keyword density. Your website could end up looking like a broken record.

Part 2: Hyper Links

How many times have you seen links that say "Click Here"? A lot huh! If you are currently using this type of linking or going to be linking, then you want to pay attention, because this is really important to your keyword density ratio. I am going to use my web site for these examples so that you can understand clearly.

Example #1

Click Here For The Absolute Truth To Internet Marketing & The Secrets To Online Wealth

If you were to use this type of linking in Example #1. The Search Engines would pick all the "Click Here" hyper links and would think that the words "click here" are keywords that describe the content of your web site.

So remove all the "Click Here's" and replace them with keywords that describe your web site. That is the only way to increase your keyword density when you are using links. You should end up with something like this in Example #2:

Example #2

Inside Internet Marketing The Absolute Truth To Internet Marketing & The Secrets To Online Wealth.

Part 3: Images

First of all if you have images on your web site, the images don't mean squat to the Search Engines. When the Search Engines robots crawl your web site, those images are nothing more than blank spots. The same blank spots are shown to the surfers that have arrived on your web site with the images turned off. You'll find that many surfers surf the web with images turned off.

This is where the alternate tag (ALT Tag) comes into play. The ALT tag is used to describe your image to the surfers that surf the web with images off and most importantly, improves your keyword density. Here is an example of how to install the ALT tag in your images:

When describing the image you want to be very descriptive and use keywords. Most people don't install their ALT Tag properly, for instance, on their logo image they'll use "My Logo" in the ALT Tag. Which is the wrong way to effectively use the ALT Tag, there are no keywords in "My Logo".

About The Author

Rich Hamilton, Jr

Author Of: "Inside Internet Marketing"

http://www.InsideNetMarketing.com

Promote your Web Store

2008-05-14T11:17:00.002-07:00

Promote your Web Store

by: Nowshade Kabir

After spending substantial time and efforts the big day came when you finally published your website on the Internet. You are now ready to show your website to the world. But, with over a billion pages vying for traffic how do you make people visiting your site?

Web promotion is an on going process. There are many methods of promoting websites, but, the first and foremost step that you have to take to generate traffic for your website is to submit your site to major search engines and directories. For most of the sites search engines are the primary source of first time visitors.

How important are the search engines? Data show that more than 80% of Internet users find the sites they’re looking for through search engines. Over 57% of Internet users search the Internet everyday. Up to 450 Million searches take place in a day and most interestingly, 55% of all Internet purchases originate at a search engine.

Before you start submitting your website to the search engines, you have to understand that you want your prospective audience to find you when they search for a site similar to you using specific keywords. Now, you know that when a person runs a query on a search engine for a website, usually he looks no further then first three pages of relevant results. You have to figure out a way how to get within those three pages. Better even if you can get yourself within top ten search results. Considering that a query usually delivers millions of pages — this is not an easy task!

As the search engines want to deliver most relevant pages at the top, they use highly sophisticated and complex algorithms to rank websites. But the main aspects, that they consider in order to optimize your ranking position, are your targeted keywords, relevancy of the site contents and value of the links that are pointing to your site.

Keywords

Target the wrong keywords and either you don’t get any visitor or you get the visitors that you really don’t need. How can you figure out which are the right keywords for you?

If you are confused about the words that you should target to get the best result, start your search from one of your successful competitors’ website. Check the source codes of the Index page of the website. It should not be difficult for you to figure out what are the keywords that they are targeting. Since a broad keyword like computer, textile etc. generates millions of search results, you have to try to find words as specific and as segmented as possible.

For example: if you are a textile company that sells fabrics and one of the best selling items of yours is jeans fabrics let’s see what should be your targeted keyword. A query on Google shows that the word “fabric” brings 5,640,000 results. Way too much for you to even try get at the top! The next search of “jeans fabric” gets 148,000 results. Still a lot! If stonewashed jeans fabric is one of the items that you sell, let’s see what we get from a query on it. Just 602 results! Well, this is a number you can deal with! Now if you use a few proper optimization mechanisms, chances are there that in no times you may get yourself on the first ten of this search result.

If you know the broad keywords that you should target but don’t have any idea how to make it more specific, use this little tool from Overture to show you what queries people make relevant to this keyword. Click here for the tool.

Place keywords in right locations

For search engines the page title is the most important part of the page. Make sure that you use your targeted keyword over there. For the previous example your title may look like: ‘Supplier of Quality Stonewashed Jeans Fabric’.

Use your keywords in different forms in Meta tags and Description. Use singular and plural variations of the words. Since search engines also look at the content of your page, try using keywords in your headlines and don’t forget to mention them in the first paragraph of the page.

But do not over do it! If the search engines feel that you are over using a word to lift your ranking, they may consider it as spamming, and block your website from their listing.

Content is the king

According to research, the primary reason for people to be on the Internet is information. People want information, quality information, lots of it and in most of the cases for free! This is the reason why the search engine spiders are created to look for good, relevant textual contents. If you are looking for a top position on a specific search, your website must have quality relevant content.

If yours is a website that only sells product or services, you may ask, how can you possibly have enough content? Apart from detail description of the products or services that you provide, you should also emphasize on the benefits of the products. If you have related to your products articles, whitepapers etc. you must post them on your site as well. It’s important to post quality information related to your products or services as this also position your website as a knowledgeable leader in your respective industry and create interest among your audience to revisit the site.

Try renewing information on your site on a regular interval. This, as well, will increase repeat visits from people and the search engine spiders.

Submission to search engines

Once you are ready to submit your site to search engines, all you have to do is to go to the relevant search engine site, fill up the form there and submit. You can do it manually for each search engine separately or you can use programs to do it automatically. If you miss a search engine, you don’t have to worry about it much, as the search engine spiders or “Bots”, as they are also called, constantly look for new websites to index. However, it’s a good idea to submit to the major search engines and directories regularly. You should also resubmit your website to the search engines in order to expedite the process of indexing after each significant change you made to the site.

About The Author

Nowshade Kabir, Ph.D., is the founder, primary developer and present CEO, of Rusbiz.com, a global business to business e-commerce portal with feature like storefronts, aggregated catalog, e-marketplace, trade leads, internal messaging system supply chain solutions, etc. With a doctorate in Information Technology, Dr. Kabir has worked an advisor to government projects and has over 12 years experience in International Trade. An author of many B2B and business related articles; he publishes a bi-weekly E-zine for online business community. You can subscribe to his newsletter free of charge from http://www.rusbiz.com.

nowshade@rusbiz.com

Promote your Web Store

2008-05-14T11:17:00.001-07:00

Promote your Web Store

2008-05-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

Promote Your Website - Search Tools

2008-05-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

Promote Your Website - Search Tools

by: Nowshade Kabir

Many companies after spending a substantial amount of money on the development of their websites assume that once the website is published on the Internet, people will flock onto it and, therefore, do not take website promotion as seriously as the development part of it. Today, with millions of websites around, no matter how great your website is, if you don’t promote it effectively, you will not get the visibility that your site deserves.

Effective promotion of a website starts with submission of the site to various search tools available on the Internet. There are two different types of search tools – search engines and directories. Search engines index their listings based on the information retrieved by their spiders that crawl through the Internet following links constantly looking for new websites. The directory listings are compiled by human editors from the URLs submitted to the directory. If your website is listed in the directories you can be sure that the spiders of different search engines sooner or later will index your site. That’s why you should start submitting your website first from search directories.

Search Directories

Among all the search directories available on the Internet, Yahoo! and DMOZ are the most important ones.

Open Directory Project or DMOZ

DMOZ is the second largest human compiled search directory on the Internet after Yahoo! Open Directory Project is a huge web directory of Internet resources. All submission to the directory is evaluated by volunteer editors. There is no fee to be paid to get an inclusion in the directory. As a human edited directory it might take more than a month to get your site evaluated. Once you are listed in the DMOZ, within two weeks to two months your website will start appearing on search engines like AOL Search, Teoma, HotBot, Google, Lycos, AllTheWeb, Excite, Go2Net and a number of regional search engines. At present around 354 different search engines and portals use data from Open Directory Project. This is one of the main reasons why you must consider submitting your website to DMOZ.

Submitting your site to directories is a bit trickier then submitting to search engines.

Following rules are common for almost all directories:

Check to see if your website is already in the directory

Write an objective description of your website

Search out the specific subcategory from the directory hierarchy

Follow the rules of submission as specified

Make sure you follow these rules while adding your website in DMOZ. This will improve your chance to get your website accepted and reduce the processing time.

Yahoo!

Yahoo! is by far the number one destination for Internet surfers. Although the search results for Yahoo! is provided by Google, many people still prefer to browse through Yahoo! directory to find whatever they are looking for. This makes an inclusion to Yahoo! directory quite valuable for ecommerce sites. Yahoo! presently charges yearly fee of US $299 for each web site submitted. The fee is nonrefundable, which means if for some reasons Yahoo! declines to add your website in its directory you will not get your money back! The only thing Yahoo! guarantees is that the editors will look at your submission within seven days and send you an answer.

Should you consider submitting your site to Yahoo!? It all depends on the kind of business you are in. Some sites receive an overwhelming number of traffic from Yahoo!, others hardly receive anybody. My suggestion: list your website in Yahoo! directory for a year and see the outcome. If you feel comfortable with the result you are receiving – continue. If the result is not satisfactory you can always cancel their service after one year.

LookSmart

Although it is the third largest directory on the Internet as a search portal LookSmart is not that popular. However, it provides directory listings to MSN search, About.com, Infospace, Inktomi and others. It is probably still the best way to get high ranking in MSN search. LookSmart is a fee based service. You pay US $49 submission fee for the site review by their editors and 15 Cents for each click through. Pay per click minimum monthly payment is US $15.

For noncommercial sites LookSmart has a partner directory named “Zeal”. Zeal is a community directory for Internet surfers. To submit a site to Zeal you first have to become a member by passing a quiz test. The reason I am mentioning Zeal here is – you can actually submit noncommercial portion of your site to Zeal and receive an appearance in all of the places that LookSmart listings show up, without paying a pay-per-click fee.

Other Directories

Other small but notable directories that you should consider are joeAnt, GoGuides and Gimpsy. Don’t expect large traffics from these directories; however, they will help enhance your link popularity. Link popularity is a concept which means- how many sites have links pointed towards your website. Link popularity is important because your website’s rank in the search results depends on it in a big way.

Search Engines

Search engines use special programs to crawl the Internet and index web pages. These robot programs are called “Bot” or “Spider”. Spiders crawl up the Internet using links. That’s why it is so important to have back links to your website. When you make a search, the search engines show you the results that are retrieved from the servers, where all the indexed web pages are cached. Only when you click on a link from the search result you see the real web page.

The most important search engines are Google, Altavista, AllTheWeb, Teoma, Lycos and MSN, HotBot, AOL Search, etc.

Google

No doubt that Google is the best search engine available on the Internet today. According to Google, they have indexed over 3.5 billion pages up to now! More Internet surfers are prone to use Google because it has great search enhancing functions, and you can always expect relevant and quality search results.

You can submit your link using Google’s Add URL page located at http://www.google.com/addURL.html. However, if you have links pointing towards your site on other websites, you can be sure that Google’s spider, Googlebot will eventually come and index you site. Contrary to popular believe once your site is indexed, there is not need to resubmit your pages to Google, even if you updated the pages. If, although it is not necessary, you submit your website to Google, submit only the index page, it will find the rest of the pages using the links anyway.

Altavista

Once powerful, Altavista started to loose grounds to other search engines in a big way. Submitting to Altavista is fairly simple! From the home page click on the “Submit a Site” located at the bottom of the page. There are two choices for you: either you can choose the “Basic Submit” service, which is free or for an immediate inclusion, you can choose the “Express Inclusion” service.

To prevent automatic submission of URLs, on the submission page Altavista added submission code that has to be inserted manually along with the URL. The Express Inclusion service costs US $39 for the first URL for six months.

AllTheWeb

This search engine is becoming quite popular lately. It has a very large database. AllTheWeb has very sophisticated search functions like searches for pages linked to a given page, searches within URLs or page titles, and searches limited by page size. It provides search results and technology to Lycos and Ebay. Submission to AllTheWeb is quite easy. Use the following link page to submit your URL: http://www.alltheweb.com/add_URL.php If you need an express inclusion, you have to use “Lycos InSite“ service of Terra-Lycos. The rate is US $35 for a full year inclusion.

Teoma

If you care about Teoma, a much hyped search engine, which is actually an additional search engine of Ask Jeeves, you can use its paid inclusion program located at http://ask.ineedhits.com/sitesubmit.asp?id=30270. It charges US $30 per year for first URL and US $18 for additional each.

Inktomi

You may not heard about Inktomi, but many popular search engines use the results from Inktomi such as AOL, Excite, Go.com, HotBot, IWon, Overture to name a few. For secondary search result even MSN uses it! Yahoo! recently bought Inktomi. Which means that very soon even Yahoo! might give priority to the search results coming from it. Inktomi provides a paid inclusion service. Inktomi sells its inclusion service exclusively through its reseller partners. You can find them over here: http://www.inktomi.com/products/web_search/submit.html The fee is US $39 per URL for a year and US$25 for subsequent URLs.

About The Author

Nowshade Kabir, Ph.D., is the founder, primary developer and present CEO, of Rusbiz.com, a global business to business e-commerce portal with feature like storefronts, aggregated catalog, e-marketplace, trade leads, internal messaging system supply chain solutions, etc. With a doctorate in Information Technology, Dr. Kabir has worked an advisor to government projects and has over 12 years experience in International Trade. An author of many B2B and business related articles; he publishes a bi-weekly E-zine for online business community. You can subscribe to his newsletter free of charge from http://www.rusbiz.com.

nowshade@rusbiz.com

Promote Your Website - Link Popularity

2008-05-14T11:13:00.000-07:00

Promote Your Website - Link Popularity

by: Nowshade Kabir

What is link popularity?

The quantity of links in different websites pointing to your sites is called link popularity of your website. The more popular is your site the more links you get from other websites and vice versa.

Why is it so important?

Links from high traffic websites furnish you with constant stream of visitors. Other website marketing efforts i.e. email marketing, might give good influx of visitors while the campaign lasts but the quantity diminishes once the campaign is over. Links are a different story! Once a link is installed, it might start bringing a steady flow of visitors all the time, depending on the website where the link was placed.

Link popularity is also crucial to search engine ranking of your website. Search engines, especially Google, claim that link popularity is one of the key factors that they consider in their search algorithm while indexing a website. What would be the rank of a website in a search result depend on its link popularity in a very big way.

So, how can you conduct an effective link popularity development campaign and build traffic for your website?

Content is the king

Prior to start a link popularity campaign, you should seriously question yourself, what would be the reason for the other sites to post a link pointing to your website? Most high traffic sites are quite picky about putting links, and won’t do it without any apparent reason.

If your site boasts quality content that the visitors of other sites might find valuable, chances are there that those sites would be interested in posting a link of your site on their relevant web pages. High quality content that gets updated regularly will definitely help you getting more links and subsequently more visitors. If even you are just a web store, you can still add much sought-after content to your site, such as, detail product information, articles related to the specific products, comparison tables, etc.

If it is really difficult to get relevant content for your website, try getting a valuable tool that might be interesting for visitors and incorporate it to your website. You must have noticed that free search engine submission forms are common on Search Engine Optimization sites. Giveaways like e-books, white papers, articles and other freebies are also good for creating interest to a website.

Submit website to various directories

When your new website is up and running, first thing you should do is to submit your site to many search directories such as, Yahoo!, DMOZ etc. available on the Internet. Not only, this will help you get quality backward links to your site, this is also the fastest method for your site to get crawled by search engines spiders and get indexed by them.

Don’t underestimate the value of the many regional and industry specific directories. Try submitting your site as many as possible relevant local directories. Examples of these directories are municipal business directory, local chamber of commerce directory etc.

If you are a seller of, for example, metal related products; get your site enlisted in as many metal industry associated directories as you can manage.

Get reciprocal links

Since backward links are so important, building link popularity by exchanging links with other websites should be a priority in your online marketing effort.

Which are the websites that you should consider to get backward links to your website? Your objective should be – not just having any backward link from any site, the sites that you are getting reciprocal link has to be relevant to the content of your website as well. First of all, if you get a link from a website which has nothing in common with your site, you, most probably, will not receive any traffic from that site. The second and most important issue is – the search engines, while calculating your website’s rank in a specific keyword search result, consider, mainly, the backward links which are relevant to your site.

Search engine Google uses a unique Page rank system to determine how relevant your website is. Your site's Page Rank depends on backward links to your site. However, if the page from where your website gets the backward link has more outbound links then incoming ones, the value of this link gets reduced. A link to your site will have the biggest impact on your Page rank:

• If the page itself has a good page rank.

• There are very few outbound links from the page.

To check out your site's Page rank, download the Google Toolbar from http://toolbar.google.com/ and install. After that, go to your website. On the tool bar, you will see the rank of your index page in a scale of 0 to 10. The rating is considered good if it is five or more.

Make sure, while exchanging links you select the websites that have page rank no less than yours.

How to find the websites that you should swap links with?

The easiest way is to check out the backward links to the website of your most prominent Internet based competitor or industry leader of your field. Other option is to run a search based on the most relevant keywords to your website and check out backward links to the first ten websites.

In the search box of Google, Altavista and AllTheWeb type link: and then the URL of the site to view all the sites that have backward links to this site. Visit these sites to find the best one to exchange links and then contact them with a nice email.

I will also suggest you to check out the number of visitors the site receives before offering a link swap. The tool that will help you figuring out the quantity of traffic a site gets, you can download from http://download.alexa.com/ by clicking on the button “Free Tool Bar”. This is also a very good tool to analyze web traffic. The tool also shows which other similar sites people tend to visit alongside with the site that you are viewing now.

If a site gets significantly less visitors than yours, what is the point of having a link form that site?

While looking for websites to swap links, don’t forget about your partners, suppliers and buyers. These sites are capable of bringing major traffic and are indeed relevant to your site’s subject matter!

Your link popularity campaign should also include the following methods. However, mind it, these techniques require tedious work from your side.

Issue Press Releases

Press releases are a good way of exposing your website to mass and increase your link popularity. Whenever you are coming up with a new product or service, overhauling your website, adding new elements to your site or conducting a seminar, etc. you should issue a press release. It is also a very cost effective method of getting publicity for your site. To broadcast your press release you can use one of the free media release sites: http://www.prweb.com

Write Articles

If you are dedicated to popularize your website, you must have substantial knowledge of the subject related to your website. Why not, write articles on your subjects of expertise and circulate them on the Internet and post on your website? Apart from this will add good content to your website, if other websites and newsletters publish your articles, you will get free publicity and increase your link popularity.

Build an Affiliate Program

If you sell a product or service through your website, you should seriously consider developing an affiliate program for your site. An affiliate program is when a visitor from your affiliate’s site comes to your site using the link that you provided to the affiliate and buy something; the affiliate will get a commission from you. The affiliate program can expand your business substantially. Since your affiliates require posting your links on their sites, this increases your link popularity as well.

Participate in Discussion Groups and Forums

This is also a great way of increasing your link popularity. There are literally thousands of discussion groups and forums on every conceivable subject on the Internet. You should actively participate in some of them, those which are most relevant to your area of expertise. The signature along with your website address that you post there while asking a question or answering to a question also boosts your link popularity.

Link Exchange Programs

You can also participate one of the link swap programs available on the Internet. Unfortunately, most of the automated link exchange offers that you receive through them are random and irrelevant to your site. But, however, I would suggest you to give them a try, as chances are there that you still might receive some good offers. You can also actively search for sites to swap links in their directories.

Development of link popularity is an on going process. You have to work on this constantly. But, the outcome that you might achieve from your endeavor also could be significant.

About The Author

Nowshade Kabir, Ph.D., is the founder, primary developer and present CEO, of Rusbiz.com, a global business to business e-commerce portal with feature like storefronts, aggregated catalog, e-marketplace, trade leads, internal messaging system supply chain solutions, etc. With a doctorate in Information Technology, Dr. Kabir has worked an advisor to government projects and has over 12 years experience in International Trade. An author of many B2B and business related articles; he publishes a bi-weekly E-zine for online business community. You can subscribe to his newsletter free of charge from http://www.rusbiz.com.

nowshade@rusbiz.com

Identify your Target Market by Tracking and Exploiting Profitable Search Engine Keyword Phrases.

2008-05-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

Identify your Target Market by Tracking and Exploiting Profitable Search Engine Keyword Phrases.

by: Jhonny Papas

There's a very lucrative "marketing formula" to targeting prospects on the Internet with "laser-beam"-like precision.

Unlike savvy marketers, most Internet businesses focus on generic "single-word" keywords, other than keyword phrases (constituted by 2 or more words).

If you're not using a keyword tracking software to correlate your customers with the search engine keywords that motivated them to visit your web site, read your sales letter and submit an order, you're missing bits of very critical information.

One known method to track your referrals via search engines is by using a cgi/php script. All you need is to place a snippet of HTML, JavaScript or SSI code onto your web pages to track referrals and keywords. You also need to place a tracking code to the "Thank You" page to track the sale and identify the customer.

Most Internet customers use two or more keywords to find products / services on the Internet. Critical data can be extracted from keywords that your customers used to visit your web site...

How to make Best Use of Keywords to Improve your Sales Letters and Boost ROI...

Let's assume that you already have a database of customers and in a database-field (let's name it field "K"), the keywords (or keyword phrases) they used to order your product.

Now print the "K" field and start studying the keywords. Evaluate your web site and discern the strong points of your sales letter.

You can make appropriate adjustments in your sales copy by reinforcing the conceivable value of your product and using the "K" field as a compass.

You'll also discover that prospective customers use a variation of keyword combinations.

Once you discover your most profitable keywords that customers use via search engines to visit and order your goods, your promotions will start reaping more fruit.

Another technique you can use based on keyword metrics, is the addition of "alluring incentives" that compel prospects to take action now! It's almost like reading your prospects' mind! Can you see the power behind this methodology?

That's the focal "golden concept" to using the Internet as an Ultimate Sales Genie.

Hint: Some forceful marketers use Search Engine Keyword Tracking, to produce even more compelling infomercials on TV as well.

A Crucial Internet Keyword-Research Tool to Discover what your Prospective Customers are using Now, to Buy Products on the Internet...

Stop targeting the wrong keywords to promote your web site on search engines. There's a powerful keyword researching tool which is very accurate and immensely crucial for your online business.

Did you know that the "most popular keywords" are the ones that are will drain your budget on pay-per-click search engines? It is a statistical fact that popular searches are conducted by "freebie" hunters and accrue too much competition.

Here's where "Word Tracker" comes in to automate your researches for the most profitable keywords. You can use this tool to optimize your web site, discover "new buying trends" and even outperform your competition on the search engines.

Hint: Don't rely on Overture's keyword researching tool. It's often too bamboozled.

Here's the URL for Word Tracker : http://traffic-engine.net/keywords

If you were asked to describe your product with just one word, that wouldn't be feasible of course. A "description" is always constituted by a phrase and that's where your most profitable keywords originate (from a multi-word phrase).

On the contrary a single word cannot describe a product or service. For instance, if you were offering "car quotes" this keyword-phrase would characterize your online business (not just "cars", or "quotes" - but "car quotes", or "new car quotes"...etc).

Recapping the entire methodology to leverage your productivity and ROI (Return On Investment):

Use Referral Tracking Software to Target your Customers

Create a Database and match Referrer Sales Information with the correlated keywords to Optimize your Advertising Campaigns.

Automate your researches with keyword metrical tools (like Word Tracker).

Improve your sales copy and literature by succumbing emphasis on the most profitable keyword phrases entered in search engines by your customers.

Once you start implementing the "exposed" methodology you'll start harnessing biggest "bangs" on your advertising dollars... better ROI and high conversion ratios. More targeted traffic and highly-optimized marketing campaigns.

You can even match your optimum keywords with demographic variables using sophisticated databases. The Internet is fairly considered an "Unrivaled Weapon" in every marketing arsenal. Use it wisely and watch your customer base skyrocket!

About The Author

Jhonny Papas is the co-author of http://www.Traffic-Engine.NET and eCommerce Analyst.