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  • Three Reasons Why You Suck at Internet Marketing

    If you spend any time browsing Internet marketing forums online you will see a disturbing pattern of people who call themselves Internet marketers. What they really do is give those of us who do the work of Internet marketing a bad name. I have come up with three things people do that will absolutely ruin their ability to make any money online.

    All you do is try to sell me crap.

    If all you do online is try to peddle products and offers, you might get some traffic and you may even make a sale or two but you will never succeed as an Internet marketer. You see the Internet as a big shopping mall. I see it as a virtual community.

    You would never do business with a real estate agent who was constantly asking you to sell your house even when you weren’t in the market. On the other hand if you knew a real estate agent who was a friend of yours, client, or trusted resource you would probably give your business to them. The most successful off-line business people make themselves available as speakers, as charity event coordinators etc.

    You think it’s all about Google.

    There is nothing worse than an Internet marketer who is just waiting for the next Google update. You might as well be playing the lottery. You can do all the hard work of search engine optimization and Link building, but if your content sucks you have a very slim chance of ranking well.

    One of the best lessons I learned in Internet marketing was to give up on Google and pretend they don’t exist. The funny thing is the more I do this the more they noticed me. Google doesn’t want you to try and game their system, they want you to provide value to the Internet community on the whole. Trust me they will reward you for it.

    You think communication can be automated.

    You’ve set up your auto responder, your drip feed, and probably some sales pitches to automatically be delivered to people who opt in to your list over a period of time. This is a very poor way to communicate with your list. There is nothing worse than getting an e-mail from someone where the message is clearly out of date. The only reason I get the letter is because it’s part of a chain of letters that will be sent to me automatically until I unsubscribe.

    If you are building an e-mail list you really need to consider how you will stay current. As a for instance I don’t use drip feeds or auto responders at all. That’s not to say I don’t do any e-mail marketing, I am building a list all the time. The difference is that I mail my list something that is current in the form of a newsletter which gets broadcast to everyone. If I sent a really good e-mail today and you join my list tomorrow, you will simply miss out on that e-mail.

  • Go offline to succeed Online!

    Many people will tell you that to get your web site noticed you need to ‘optimize’ your site for the search engines. You are then led up a path where you have to keep changing your web site as the search engines change their ways of listing things. As fast as you ‘optimize’ your site, Google and the others have moved the goalposts, meaning you have to keep optimizing over and over again.

    Now consider some facts. Most people in the world are not users of the Internet. Let’s repeat that. The vast majority of people who you want to reach don’t use the Internet. It doesn’t matter how well you optimize your web site, they simply will never find it.

    Here’s another fact. Some of the best Internet marketers make most of their sales ‘offline’. They sell their books, CD-ROMs and so on at seminars, workshops and conferences. Indeed, for many ‘Internet marketers’ these ‘offline’ sales represent the bulk of their income.

    So what do these facts tell us? They show us that ‘offline’ promotion is more important than online promotion. You may be able to optimize your web site to get high rankings in a search engine. But that doesn’t mean you’ll reach the vast majority of people who could buy your product or use your information.

    This was confirmed recently by one study that showed most people go to an Internet address (URL) after having read it in a newspaper or magazine, been given it by a friend or colleague, or having heard it being mentioned by someone speaking at a meeting or on TV. In other words, it seems that significant numbers of people who get to your web site will do so having heard the URL somewhere outside the Internet.

    You can get many people visiting your web site, even if you are not ranked highly by the search engines. You can do this in two main ways:

    1. Write articles for use in regular publications – newspapers, magazines and so on. Always include your URL in the article and you’ll get millions of people to notice your web site address.

    2. Speak at every opportunity. Make presentations to business clubs, chambers of commerce, local societies – you name it, you should speak at it. Every time you speak, announce or your web site address.

    Although these are the two principal ways of gaining offline publicity for your web site, don’t neglect your business stationery, posters, car stickers and so on. The more your web site address is visible outside the web, the more visitors you will get regardless of how kind the search engines are to you.

  • Improve Your Sales and Prospecting Skills

    Most people starting a business forget about the most important part. They spend loads of time picking just the right product or service to sell. They’ll carefully weigh the best kinds of office equipment to buy. They’ll even fuss endlessly over their workplace decor.

    But none of that holds a candle to what is most assuredly the core of any new business: you can’t succeed until you master prospecting and selling!

    “But I’m really good at what I do. Won’t word just get out and people will find me and want to buy?” you say.

    Don’t bet on it. We live in a busy, crowded world where thousands of businesses are shouting their marketing messages. If you don’t get in there and promote — and promote WELL — your customer base will resemble a trickle more than an avalanche.

    Here are several proven methods for finding lots of new prospects and turning them into customers. Then I’ll show you an exceptionally EASY way to do all this on a shoestring.

    1) Get a web site, get it listed on search engines, and let your site grab prospects 24/7. By now you’ve surely seen scads of small businesses doing this. For those who do it right, the Net can pull in lots of new customers with very little effort. But remember, it’s not as easy as some make it look. Your site has to be good, your copy has to be right, and you must be visible in search engines to make the magic happen.

    2) Sell over the telephone. I love email, and face-to-face meetings will always have their place, but good ol’ telephone conversations are a top-notch selling strategy. Prospects feel like they’ve made a personal connection with you when you give them information over the phone.

    3) Finally, method number 3 is the one to use if you don’t want to or don’t know how to build your own professional web site, or can’t bear the idea of talking to hundreds of strangers on the phone.

    Frankly, this 3rd method has become the only method I truly recommend to small businesses and individuals: OUTSOURCING. These days, you can OUTSOURCE all your online promotion and selling to companies that specialize in doing the work for you.

    In the past, that would have meant spending tens of thousands per month to hire an outside selling team. Today, with online and telephone automation reaching new heights, you can have all the advertising, phone calls, and closing done for you by the pros for about what it costs to get a decent home office computer set-up.

    Don’t hesitate, do it! Getting a really good marketing, prospecting, and selling machine working for you is essential to your success!

  • Using Product Recommendations To Increase Your Bottom Line

    In affiliate marketing, there are many ways in which you can increase your earnings and maintain the account that you have worked so hard for already. Most of the techniques and tactics can be learned easily. No need to go anywhere and any further. They are available online, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

    One of the more important ways of increasing affiliate marketing bottom line and sale is through the use of product recommendations. Many marketers know that this is one of the most effective ways in promoting a certain product.

    If the customers or visitors trust you enough, then they will definitely trust your recommendations. Be very careful in using this approach, though. If you start promoting everything by recommendation, your credibility will actually wear thin. This is seen especially when recommendations are seemingly exaggerated and without much merit.

    Do not be afraid to mention things that you do not like about a given product or service. Rather than lose any points for you, this will make your recommendation more realistic and will tend to increase your credibility.

    Furthermore, if your visitors are really interested in what you are offering, they will be more than delighted to learn what is good about the product, what is not so good, and how the product will benefit them.

    When you are recommending a certain product, there are some things to remember on how to make it work effectively and for your advantage.

    Sound like the true and leading expert in your field.

    Remember this simple equation: Price resistance diminishes in direct proportion to trust. If your visitors feel and believe that you are an expert in your niche, they are more inclined to making that purchase. On the other hand, if you are not exuding any confidence and self-assurance in endorsing your products, they will probably feel that same way and will go in search of another product or service which is more believable.

    How do you establish this aura of expertise? By offering unique and new solutions they would not get anywhere else. Show proof that what you are promoting works as promised. Display prominent testimonials and endorsements from respected and known personalities, in related fields of course.

    Avoid hype at all costs. It is better to sound low key and confident, than to scream and seek attention. Besides, you would not want to sound unprofessional and have that thinking stick to your potential customers and clients, now would you? Best to appear cool and self-assured at the same time.

    And remember; prospects are not stupid. They are actually turning to experts and may already know the things that you know. If you back up your claims with hard facts and data, they would gladly put down hundreds, or even thousands worth of money to your promotions. But if you don’t, they are smart enough to try and look at your competitors and what they are offering.

    While recommending a product, it is also important that you give out promotional freebies. People are already familiar with the concept of offering freebies to promoting your won products. But very few people do this to promote affiliate products. Try to offer freebies that can promote or even have some information about your products or services.

    Before you add recommendations to you product, it is given that you should try and test the product and support. Do not run the risk of promoting junk products and services. Just think how long it took you to build credibility and trust among your visitors. All that will take to destroy it is one big mistake on your part.

    If possible, have recommendations of products that you have 100% confidence in. Test the product support before you begin to ensure that the people you are referring it to would not be left high and dry when a problem suddenly arouse.

    Have a look at your affiliate market and look at the strategies you are using. You may not be focusing on the recommendations that your products need to have. You plan of action is sometimes not the only thing that is making your program works.

    Try product recommendation and be among those few who have proven its worth.

  • The Importance Of Social Media For Offline Business

    There are literally thousands of articles online speaking about the importance of social media for online businesses. A simple Google search will likely turn up more information than anybody could want regarding how best to use Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook for the purpose of online business – and these social networking sites are merely the tip of the iceberg. There are several other, lesser-known social media sites that can factor into the game for online businesses, as well.

    It’s obvious why social media sites are important for online business. It’s a free, efficient way of marketing to the virtual crowd. After all, if your business is virtual, then it only makes sense that you should be advertising where the virtual populace goes to hang out and chat with friends. It’s the equal to putting up a sign at a baseball game or the mall. Online businesses must market to an online audience.

    However, many people mistakenly believe that social media need not factor much into the running of an offline business, and this is a serious mistake. Even if you own a store front with tangible products and physical shopping carts – and not a Café Press website with a “shopping cart” icon in the corner – you should still be meandering through the virtual crowd with the rest of the world.

    Why? Even though your business might be physical, chances are that your customers are spending a lot of time on these social networking sites. If your store exists in the real world as well, working both the social media angle and the traditional means of advertising can give you a double edge over the competition, and that’s not an advantage that should be glanced over lightly. Thousands of people do their shopping primarily online these days in the comfort of their homes – in order to have a chance of bringing some of that business through your physical door, you need to be working on the virtual side of things, as well.

    So when you sit down in your store in the real world, don’t forget to spend some time thinking about how you can promote your store in the virtual one. Most people have a foot in the physical and a foot in the virtual nowadays, and you have a serious advantage in being rooted in the physical world. Online businesses have no stake in the world outside of the Internet, but you can step into the virtual world with ease. Be sure to take advantage of this position you have as somebody who owns a physical store, and the benefits you’ll reap will be incredible!

  • Blog Writing Tips

    If you are looking for blog writing tips, then look no further. The following five tips will help you transform your blog from boring to brilliant!

    1. Write Like You Talk: This is not advice that you will hear in Journalism 101, but when it comes to blogging it is an entirely different story. If you write like you talk you can engage readers quickly, because they will feel connected with you. It also helps for editing purposes, when you read over your blog post, do it out loud and you can hear if it flows naturally.

    2. Edit, Edit, Edit: This goes well with the above point – read over your blog post at least three times before you publish. Yes, spellchecking software is great, but it won’t catch all the mistakes. It will miss grammar mistakes, punctuation and words that are spelled properly but used wrong. If you value your readers then you will want to make sure you present your best possible work.

    3. Avoid Overkill: For the most part, I don’t think people are into 9000 word blog posts. A lot of people will scan a blog post without really reading it, if your post is short and simple it is more likely to grab their attention.

    4. Don’t Be A Wimp: Do not be a wimp – stand up for what you believe in. Take a controversial stand or two, yes some people might get angry, but they also might send the link around in their anger. Getting people talking and engaging you (even negatively) can help your blog’s exposure. For every person you anger, there will be someone who agrees with you. Stick to your guns in comments as well. I used to dread negative comments, but now I view it as a way to interact with my readers.

    5. Your Work Isn’t Over When You Hit Publish: You can write as much as you want but if people don’t read it, who cares? Market your posts every time you make one. The average person has a couple hundred friends on Facebook so share it on there. Share it on Twitter if you use it. Email it to your friends if you don’t use social media. You can also send it out to bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit. None of these strategies cost you anything!

    Now that you have these five tips to work with you should be able to consistently create quality content. Remember to use each tip every time you write a post and you will undoubtedly notice your comments, traffic and opt-ins climb steadily!

  • Creating Targeted Facebook Advertisements

    In order to create the most compelling, responsive and profitable advertisements, you need to utilize Facebooks option to heavily target and tailor your advertisements based on your target market.

    With facebook, you can set your ads up so that they appear only to specific people, based on age, location, gender, interests, hobbies or even based on the groups they have joined within the Facebook community.

    You will want to conduct market research so that you can accurately define your target market and develop advertisements that target specific segments of your market.

    Facebook implores a quality control system to ensure that the advertisements that run throughout their community stay within their guidelines and do not offend or disrupt member activity or overall experience.  

    Use their quality control system to develop compelling advertisements that stand out in the marketplace, and capture the attention of potential buyers.

    Also keep in mind that Facebook advertising is based on display, rather than search. This means that your ads will be automatically triggered to appear based on your settings, rather than when a user conducts an on-site search.

    Users can also choose to rate advertisements, helping to retain quality throughout the community.

    Improve your Click Through Rate

    Your advertisements click through rate plays an integral role in saving you money while boosting exposure and reaching out to your target market.

    It’s important to keep a pulse on your click through rate so that you can correct any problems with your advertisement, or make adjustments to improve your overall CTR.

    If your advertisements CTR drops too low, it could be automatically paused or removed by Facebook, so you really want to pay attention to how well it’s converting.  

    Typically, your ads should never fall below a 2% conversion rate.

    One of the easiest ways of increasing your CTR is by creating a highly targeted advertisement.

    You want your ad to appear only to those who are within your target demographic, while making sure that your advertisements text or any images used speak directly to your customer base.

    Consider split testing various advertisements within the Facebook community to determine what works best, based on your industry or niche market.

    You should also pay attention to the times of day that your ads appear. You can choose to either run your ads consistently throughout the day, or have them only appear at specific times (or even specific dates).  

    Keep in mind the time zone of your target market, so that your ads are running based on the most active time of day or night.

    Stay Within Facebook Guidelines

    It’s important to understand how Facebook advertising channels work, and what is permitted as well as what is not allowed within the marketplace.  

    Facebook is very flexible with the types of advertisements that are allowed to be displayed within their community, however they do not allow images or text that may be considered offensive.

    Setting Your Maximum Daily Bid

    One of the most important aspects of setting up an effective Facebook advertisement is in the maximum daily bid that you are willing to pay.  The higher your daily bid, the more exposure your ad will receive.

    You want to start off with a lower bid if you are just getting used to advertising with Facebook, and increase your maximum daily bid as you fine-tune your advertisements for maximum results.  

    It’s important to always keep a pulse on how well your advertisement is converting, so that you can improve click through rates and overall response.

    When you create an advertisement with Facebook, they will suggest a maximum bid based on your advertisements focus and target market (based on your personal configuration and preferences).  

    You can start off by setting your maximum daily bid slightly lower than what’s suggested and increase it as you improve your advertisements conversion rates so that you are getting the most bang for your buck!

    CPC Versus Impression Based Ads

    With Facebook, you can develop advertisements where you either pay for impressions or based on the number of clicks your ad receives.

    If you are just getting started with Facebook advertising, I recommend choosing cost per click (CPC), so that you can accurately test your advertisements, while paying only for responses rather than just views.

    You can always change your advertisement format to ‘impression based’ later on in the event you wish to test out alternative options.

  • Writing Free Ebooks – Tips and Tricks

    Writing a free ebook is a great way to sell more affiliate products. The ebook can work for you in two different ways and I encourage you to use both methods in each free ebook you write.

    The first way is to promote affiliate links directly in your ebook where appropriate. You can casually mention a product in the body of a particular chapter, review a product as part of your ebook, or add an “Additional Resources” section to the end of the book.

    The second way is to link to your content site from your ebook. You can offer additional information on the site or link to a review page. By sending your readers to your website you get the chance to expose them to additional affiliate products and have the opportunity to get them on your newsletter list.

    Let’s take a look at how you can get started on your first ebook.

    Find a topic that you are fairly knowledgeable about and come up with an overall theme for the book. What are people looking for on the particular topic? For example, parents of infants will be interested in tips and strategies to get their baby to sleep through the night. A mom looking for a work at home job may be interested in how to spot a work at home scam and where to look for legitimate jobs.

    Come up with an outline, or group some related articles you have written on a particular topic. Now all you have to do is flesh it out a little bit and of course incorporate your affiliate links.

    An ebook typically consists of at least 25 pages. That may sound like a lot, but you should keep your font size fairly large to make it easier to read on a computer screen.

    Let’s talk about format for a moment. You can purchase software to create an ebook, or you can make it a PDF document. PDF documents will work on just about any computer and people are comfortable downloading them.

    I usually write my ebooks in Microsoft Word, format it in there, add any pictures or graphics and then turn it into a PFD. You can either do this with Microsoft Acrobat, or use one of the free PDF creation services on the web.

    Your next step will be to get the ebook circulating. After all you are not going to make any affiliate sales if no one reads your book. You can offer it as a free download on your site or give it away as a bonus for subscribing to your newsletter. I also like to add a note in the footer of each page that the reader is welcome to pass the book along to others who might be interested in the topic.

    Offer the ebook as a free giveaway to other website owners and post it on the free ebook directories. Then sit back and watch the book do the work for you. After a few weeks you should see the affiliate sales come in. Time to move on to another book.

  • How to Create a Profitable PPC Campaign Management

    Certain keywords or phrases that people type into a search engine lead to hundreds and hundreds of search results that pertain to that specific keyword. Businesses that want to advertise on the net using a PPC campaign have to come up with a plethora of keywords that is associated to the business that they are running; so when potential customers type in these keywords, it will lead them to their business site.

    This is pretty much the whole concept that operates behind PPC. This is how a PPC campaign brings in traffic to your site, with the selection of the right keywords that people can search through the net.

    Some keywords tend to be more expensive than others, especially popular ones. It is vital to select the right keywords, in order to get your money’s worth. This is why it is important to manage you PPC campaign wisely. Sometimes you are better off opting for the less popular keywords that are not so expensive, especially if you have a limited budget. Some businesses even hire the help of a consultant to manage their PPC campaigns.

    There are a lot of experts that specialize in PPC campaign management. They come with strategic plans, and assess the need of their clients. They then come up with a PPC campaign that caters to their client’s specification.

    This is why big online businesses seek the expertise of a professional to run their PPC ad campaign, because the right set of plans, can potentially bring in a large amount of profits. The more keywords you have, the more you increase the chances of customers clicking these keywords that would lead them to your website. There are also some software you can purchase, such as GoToast, or Bid Rank. These software programs track down your keywords listing.

    If you are running a business online, and are planning to run a PPC campaign, it is advisable to purchase keywords that are extremely related to the theme of your business. This way, people know what they are getting, and don’t get confused about the content of your website. The secret is to use keywords or phrases that are searched frequently, but cost very little.

    The chances are, the longer people stay in your site, the likelihood of these potential customers making a transaction.

    But first thing’s first: you must lure them into your turf.

    This is why a lot of entrepreneurs spend a large amount of their budget on advertising, because they know that the right advertising campaign can start the ball rolling.

    Also, you should do some research before you start your PPC campaign. There are a lot of PPC search engines to choose from. Those who are less renowned charge less for the same keywords that you’d find in the bigger PPC search engines.

    The great thing about PPC campaigns is that you can reach a worldwide audience. Advertising online means global marketing.

    Most PPC search engines require a monthly payment in exchange for their services. But if you fail to make payments, they will automatically take your listings out of their search engines. So make sure that you pay your monthly bills, so all the efforts that you put into your PPC campaign don’t go to waste.

    The potential earnings that can be generated by starting a pay per click campaign is significant. That’s why a lot of online businesses now are trying to get in on the act. Now, with the right set of keywords, and a smart PPC campaign management plan, more than ever, online businesses are bringing in the big bucks.

  • 3 Plans to Expand Your Business That You Don’t Want to Miss Out On!

    1. Find Your Niche

    Chances are, you already have a target audience that you are marketing your products to.

    Let’s face it, you’re probably looking for ways to increase your market audience and profit…or you probably wouldn’t be reading this article. Here’s the real facts… you don’t have to find a wider audience to increase you sales.

    Have you noticed similar characteristics that groups within your target audience have in common?

    Maybe you have a group of businessmen, a group of young mothers, and a group of retirees that frequently make purchases. That is just the set-up I’m talking about.

    Pay attention to the individual characteristics of each group, and divide your advertising into similar segments, or niches. Focus on the specific needs of the group in the advertising products you put out. General advertisements are not as effective as more specific ads. Hey, we all sit up and pay attention to someone who recognizes our specific needs and desires!

    2. Create A Unique Selling Point

    Why should someone buy from you and not your competitor?

    I hate to deal a blow to your ego, but it really has nothing to do with you , your product, or your service. Yeah, its a little self-centered, but customers are attracted by offers that point out the things that benefit THEM.

    If you want to stand out from the crowd, create a unique selling proposition that stresses the benefits the customers will receive from doing business with you. Will they get faster service? Go ahead and dramatize it, but keep the customer at the focus…”Get free overnight delivery!” Hey, it tells the customer…you get quick service and a discount on shipping. Two definite benefits in one statement.

    Don’t go out on a limb to create new products and services to get attention. Just, add a special benefit to the ones you already have… maybe it’s quicker service. The most effective things to emphasize are benefits that your competition cannot or is not willing to give.

    3. Offer Your Way To Greater Profits

    How many times have you began manhunting?

    Sure, as a marketer you scrounge and search for brand new or ancient methods of drawing brand new faces to your place of business. The fact of the matter is that you don’t have to find new customers for your sales to grow.

    No, in fact you can take the current business you have and send your profits to the moon with one easy technique… make an offer.

    Greet every sale with an offer of an item that is related to the purchase. The offered product doesn’t even have to be yours.

    The Internet is wonderful for affiliate marketers who can make great profits selling the material of others.

    Making your business grow doesn’t have to be a stressful, backbreaking or frantic process. Simply implement these three strategies, and watch it boom!