Internet Marketing - How Important Is Web 2.0 To Your Business?

By Tellman H. Knudson Copyright © 2008

Have you ever heard the word "folksonomie"? It's a combination of the words folks and taxonomy, and it's another word for tagging or social bookmarking. Sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, and Propeller are only three of the many dozens of sites popping up all over the Internet. There are sites for tagging almost any type of content, too, such as video, audio, graphic, or written. And unlike traditional search, where you get comprehensive results back for terms, social bookmarking sites give you results based on what people have tagged and made popular with their votes.

The bookmarking and social interaction sites are labeled "Web 2.0," and they also include video sites, podcasting sites, wikis, and every blog on the planet. What makes the sites in Web 2.0 different from the rest of the Web is that the content in them is all user generated. Think of My Space, Facebook, and Flickr. When You Tube was sold to Google last year for more than $1.6 million, people started paying closer attention.

You can tag blog posts, web pages, and other written content at places like del.icio.us, BlinkList, or Scuttle. Share photos at sites like Flickr, and videos at Google Video or You Tube. There are Web 2.0 sites for every type of medium. Here's how it works: You see a great blog entry here, for example. You can go down to the bottom of the post, and click one of the bookmarking buttons for Netscape (now Propeller), Furl, or Ma.gnolia. When you're taken to those sites, assuming you're a member, you'll fill in a description of the post and you'll tag it using appropriate keywords. So, for this post, you might choose the tags, Internet marketing, Web 2.0, and social bookmarking. What makes this so cool is that your tags are open to the public, unless you specify that you don't want them to be, so that other taggers can see them.

Think of tagging as being related to search. It's just a natural complement. You get some pretty great results from Google, but they won't necessarily be the sites that people are enjoying the most, though they may be the most relevant. Social bookmarking allows you to see popular pages.

Web 2.0 is a great viral marketing technique for your Internet marketing business, too, if you go about tagging your own posts and the posts of others. Just be sure that you're transparent about what you're doing, and avoid spamming. If a site forbids tagging your own material, then don't do it. You could be banned for life from the site, and you don't know how important to your Internet marketing business it might become in the future. I doubt that anyone suspected that Google would be tops in search way back in 1998 when it was just starting.

You won't always find what you're looking for when you search the tagging sites, but you should be in there getting familiar with the territory for the sake of your Internet marketing business. Subscribe to several sites and notice how people are tagging your products and services. What makes this great is that you can use the taggers as a control group and it won't cost you a single dime. Internet marketing businesses who aren't using Web 2.0 to some degree are really missing the boat. Be sure yours isn't one of them.

About the Author:

Tellman Knudson is CEO of http://OvercomeEverything.com and a master of list building. Get Your Free List Building CD, a month Free in Tellman's List Building Club, and a Free consultation with one of our List Building experts... Now at http://listbuildingpower.net

The 4 Step Plan To Harnessing Youtube As A Marketing Channel

By David Bain Copyright © 2007

You may have heard of YouTube and how it can help you in your business endeavors. Read on and find out how and why. This article discusses YouTube and how it can help you market your business through the internet.

The recent purchase of YouTube by Google was big news. Yet, people seem not to be surprised by Google's move. After all, YouTube is a very promising video blogging site that is inviting more and more viewers by the minute. In the following years, YouTube definitely promises to attract more and more people and thereby become even more attractive to internet marketers and online businessmen.

You may know by now that YouTube is not only for personal, casual and out-of-this-world videos anymore. The business industry has found a new business partner in the internet and specifically in online video blogging. Do you want to get the word out about your business online? Here's how you can do it through YouTube and other video blogging sites like it.

--- Getting Into the Tube

1. Prepare your business plan and identify your target market.

In your business plan, you must set out your objectives or what you wish to accomplish through YouTube. You may set a particular number of people becoming your subscribers in a day as your internet marketing objective. It can also be the number of people following the link to your home page and becoming your customers. It can also take the form of the number of people who reposts your video in their own blogs. It is important to set out a plan (objectives and the way to achieve them) so you will always be clear on what constitutes internet marketing success and how you can attain this success.

It is also important to identify your target market before launching an internet marketing campaign so you can be sure that YouTube is the site for you. YouTube has been mostly for teenagers and the younger set, but this is rapidly changing and young professionals and middle-age people have now found their way to YouTube. If your products or services have a wide market base, then you can definitely use YouTube.

2. Accustom yourself with video making.

It is important that you know the technology behind video blogging so you can make videos that will stand out among the millions of videos in YouTube's repository.

3. Make your video. Keep it short and do not forget to indicate that it is a short video on your business product once you upload it.

Remember to specifically indicate your product's value to your target market. Have a catchy slogan at the end of your video, if possible. Don't forget to aid your audio narration with a few subtitles to make your business goals clear and understandable to anyone who watches your video. Make it more interesting with a soundtrack that is relevant to your marketing message and that has universal appeal.

4. Upload it on YouTube and wait for results.

As much as possible make the online audience aware of your video. Send notifications through e-mails, newsletters, online blogs, groups, social networks and more.

Remember that it is still up to you yourself to make your video's presence known on the internet. What YouTube has to offer is the possibility and opportunity for others to view your video and become aware of your business. So stop stalling and start video blogging at YouTube!

About the Author:
David Bain is an online videos marketing specialist. Visit http://freeiq.com/keywordresearch for a free demonstration of how to conduct your own keyword marketing research.

Top 10 Sources For Massive Web Site Traffic

By Titus Hoskins Copyright © 2007

Experienced webmasters know there are special sources or places on the web which will send massive amounts of traffic to your site. They also know, if harnessed properly, these mega traffic sites will supply any web site with a steady stream of visitors.

Perhaps the best source of web site traffic is Google. That's not exactly a Newsflash, but the key to getting massive amounts of traffic from Google is to go wide and long. With this strategy, instead of targeting highly popular keywords which may be too competitive for your site to win, you create a whole multitude of lesser known long tail keyword phrases to bring in the traffic.

This traffic takes longer to build but because very few webmasters bother with these longer phrases, your keywords will be more stable and secure. Develop a whole list of these traffic generating keyword phrases and Google will reward you with a whole flood of targeted visitors stemming from these thousands of small dribbles of long tail keyword traffic.

Turning these dribbles of traffic into massive amounts is not a difficult task. One very effective way to tap into the entire search engine source of traffic is to tag everything. Tags are just another name for keywords. As Web 2.0 or Social Bookmarking sites become more and more popular, tagging will become extremely important.

You must be especially careful of how you tag the content on your site or sites. If you're using a blogging system like WordPress, all your categories will be considered tags automatically. If you're creating URLs, be careful to place your keyword phrase in your links.

Another effective way to tap into the whole keyword traffic system is to include your keyword phrase or variations of it in your articles while promoting your site. Place your anchor text in your links in the resource box at the end of each article.

Over time, as these articles become distributed all over the web, they will create a steady stream of targeted visitors to your site. Simple, effective and very powerful.

You are probably tired of hearing about Web 2.0 and the new Social Bookmarking sites but they are some of the best places for massive traffic on the web. Any webmaster who has been Slashdotted already knows this fact all too well; if you get a listing on the homepage of Slashdot.com you will immediately start receiving thousands of visitors to your site. It can be somewhat scary.

A similar experience is getting one of your articles published in ezines run by Addme.com, SiteProNews.com, WebProNews.com, as well as others. These ezines go out to hundreds of thousands of readers and can produce massive traffic back to your site.

However, much of this sudden traffic is only temporary and most savvy webmasters know it would be wise to try and capture the contact information of these temporary visitors for follow-up targeting. Turn that temporary visitor into a patron of your site by offering a free ecourse or an email newsletter.

The same marketing technique should be applied to traffic coming from all these social media sites. Don't think of your traffic as just numbers in your website's stats, but rather as potential customers who will return to your site again and again.

Keep this strategy in mind as you target some of these Top Sources of massive traffic on the web:

1. Digg.com
2. Netscape.com
3. Ezinearticles.com
4. Del.icio.us
5. StumbleUpon.com
6. Reddit.com
7. Slashdot.org
8. BlinkList.com
9. Furl.net
10. Squidoo.com

You should be actively promoting these social bookmarking sites by allowing your visitors to easily bookmark your content. You should be creating your own content on sites like Squidoo and placing links back to your site.

Of course, there are countless other sources of massive traffic on the web. Press releases is another effective way of quickly drawing in massive traffic to your site. Sites like PRWeb.com can deliver targeted traffic very quickly and efficiently.

Another very effective and high converting venue you should try is Yahoo! Answers http://answers.yahoo.com, a simple process where users post a question and other members/experts offer answers. Used correctly this can be a good source of targeted traffic.

Don't forget other important search engines such as MSN Live, traffic from MSN has earned a solid reputation for converting very well. So optimize your web pages for MSN Live Search and you will probably see an increase in your sales as well as your traffic.

Always keep in mind, the underlying key factor running through all these sources of massive traffic is unique quality content. You must create good original content on your sites as well as in your articles and posts. Your content must be informative, useful or entertaining. For in the end, it is this quality content that will create the interest, the links and the massive traffic to your site.

Don't ignore this factor or your quest for massive web site traffic will be extremely difficult, if not impossible to achieve.

About the Author:
The author is a full-time online marketer. For the most effective web marketing software try: http://www.bizwaremagic.com/bestsoft.htm Want more traffic? Why not try these excellent free training manuals and videos: http://www.marketingtoolguide.com/free_marketing_tools.htm

Advertising In A Nutshell

By Kurt Mortensen

The bottom line of all advertising efforts is an obvious one: to attract customers and bolster sales. But often, small business advertising is wasted on a shotgun approach that doesn’t focus on the company’s best prospects: those who are ready, willing and able to purchase the product or service. In an attempt to reach “everybody,” these advertisers either miss their true market or spend far more than necessary to reach it.

Once you’ve targeted your market and know exactly who and where your prospects are, it’s important to clearly identify what you want your advertising to accomplish. Specific advertising objectives include:
• Creating new customers
• Increasing usage
• Increasing order size
• Promoting replacement of functional but outdated products with technologically superior ones
• Improving brand name recognition
• Generating customer inquiries
• Creating sales leads through the use of response ads, coupons or toll free “800” numbers
• Promoting special events such as sales, business openings or the introduction of new products or services
• Enhancing the overall image of the business

Generally, the most effective ads focus on customer needs or wants and emphasize the most desirable benefits of the product or service, such as convenience, style or durability. Other tactics include comparisons with competitive products, two for one sales, special one day discounts and offers of free information.

The techniques you choose in your advertising will help determine the media you select and the exact message you communicate. One of the best ways to become familiar with the tactics in your field is to collect your competitors’ advertising materials and use them to stimulate your thinking.

The most important things to take into consideration in any ad are the audience and the offer. Who is the ad trying to reach? If the ad isn’t presented to the right audience and addressed to them in their own language, then it isn’t going to get noticed. And if the offer isn’t something that interests them and gets them excited, then they’re not going to take any action even if they do notice it.

Finally, make it easy for customers to respond to your ad. Tell them what action to take and include (depending on the advertising medium) coupons, an “800” number or business reply envelopes. And be sure to stand behind what you sell.

About the Author:

Kurt Mortensen’s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; you should attract customers, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. Claim your success and learn what only the ultra-prosperous know by going to http://prewealth.com/mistakestoavoid/index.php?wsnet and get my free report "10 Mistakes that Cost You Thousands."

How Can I Increase Traffic to My Website?

By DLPerry Copyright © 2006

This is a question that I see daily. While each website is different, and will require different solutions for specific situations, there are many things that can be applied to virtually ANY website that will boost traffic to the site.

Below are some of the most useful and recommended things that can be done to increase traffic, as well as help target traffic.


Create and submit a proprietary Google Sitemap and siteindex file -- In addition to being an excellent way to keep Google up to date on your sites activity, this will also provide access to Googles' stats, diagnostics and tools to help you increase visibility. Google also accepts standard RSS feed submissions through your domains Google Sitemap account.


Create and selectively submit RSS feeds. These standard xml feeds should include a Sitemap feed as well as targeted topic feeds. One example might be a targeted feed containing links to your "Products" data sheets. If you’re the DIY type, a Free RSS Sitemap Template is available here.


Join and actively but intelligently participate in related forums. Avoid submitting posts 'just to get your name on the board,' but DO actively monitor a select few forums and submit useful, appropriate posts, responses, articles, etc. - carefully following individual forum rules.


Implement responsible, targeted 'Social Bookmarking' at services such as del.icio.us, digg and furl.


Offer an informative email newsletter. This newsletter can contain items such as; an informative weekly/monthly/quarterly article on a specific relevant topic; detailed information on and links to a featured product or service. Include links and verbiage from your website in this newsletter. Recipients for your newsletter will include:
Anyone who has contacted the website and/or requested additional information
Direct Subscription Requests via a secure (anti-spam) online, double opt-in Subscription form.
** IMPORTANT** This newsletter MUST include active and functional one-click un-subscribe capabilities, and ALL un-subscribes should be automatic, immediate, and strictly honored.

Syndicate your content. Anything on your website that is of informational value to visitors looking for your product, information, advice and/or services could be syndicated. This can be done manually, or via software such as Master Syndicator and Master Syndication Gateway - designed to manage multiple syndicated items. A good DIY article is available here -->“Roll Your Own” Content Syndication


Review, rework and refresh your keywords/phrases. Take an honest look at your targeted keywords/phrase(s). Do they accurately reflect what a real-life searcher would type into a search engine in order to locate products or services such as yours?


Review, rework and refresh your content. Be sure to intersperse targeted keywords and phrases in the content of each page. Optimize content to ensure your targeted keyphrase(s) are the first thing a bot sees. You can check your current site here -->http://www.dlperry.com/what_search_engine_spiders_see.html


Review, rework and refresh your tags. Go over your site and source code with a fine-toothed comb to insure your site is making optimum use of tags. Be sure ALL your images have relevant and appropriate names and tags. All tags should also be appropriate and relevant. Comments within the source code should be limited or non-existent. If comments are necessary, avoid placing them at the beginning of a page or paragraph as much as possible, and avoid using targeted keywords/phrases in the comments themselves.


Of course, anything you can implement that facilitates easy, open communication between you and your site visitors is always recommended. A simple, basic 'Contact Us' form may be all that you will need, and MasterFeedback is a great free formhandler for that purpose. However, frequently a more robust solution is desired -- , and MasterFormV4 is the answer. This popular form handing software can perform a multitude of tasks and functions - it is the most versatile multi-function Form Handler on the internet today.


Take a look at some of the software, scripts and tools available for information and ideas that will apply to your website --> http://www.dlperry.com/enhance_website.html and http://www.dlperry.com/professional_cgi_scripts.html

This is not an all-inclusive list, but it's a good start. Each of these suggestions can be implemented individually, however some perform best when used in conjunction with each other.

I hope this helps.

About the author:

DLPerry is a Freelance Internet Website Professional offering high quality, affordable Website Design; Site Enhancement, Interactivity and Functionality Tools; Site Management; and SEO Services Since 1998. Her years of internet and industry experience and commitment to website function, navigation and usability have earned the reputation as one of the best in website services. To discover how she can help you with your internet website project, visit her site at: http://www.dlperry.com

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How Article Marketing Is Helpful In Search Engine Marketing

By Jonathan White Copyright © 2006

Article Marketing has a whole range of benefits that can transform the fate of a website from pauper to prince. First and foremost, it is a great strategy to invite qualified net traffic without having to beg or nudge. The whole idea is very logical. The website submits informative article across free of cost forums, blogs, ezines et al, which in turn may further change hands with other websites out of interest or a nominal amount of fee. Thus by submitting the article to some hundreds or even thousands of websites, the website establishes its web presence. And from there on the article does the rest.

When readers seeking information go through these articles, they esteem the embedded link high as they look up at the website as an expert in the field. In other words, the website has a boosted creditability.

Enthused by the resourcefulness of the article, the readers helplessly click on the link and bookmark the website. Thus, the website receives quality and qualified leads, as the readers are usually inclined to sign up for newsletter or send a query. The leads are highly qualified or potential business simply because of the nature of how they found out the website.

The website experiences surge in traffic to the website, as the articles are highly circulated and read. The website receives plethora of potential and genuine inbound links. These inbound links being received from outside the website, expansively scattered on web, are enumerated as “votes” of confidence by the search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN et al. In direct consequence, the web page of the site containing the link starts topping the SERPs. As it is a well-known fact that more than 80% of the net users rely on the search engines to reach their desired websites, the ranking immensely upturns the web traffic to the website.

The increased web traffic through SERPs and inbound links generated through the articles obviously attracts highly qualified traffic. These visitors to the site are seriously looking for the subject supported by the website. This also means that the visitors are most likely to translate into business. Hence, the website enjoys better business prospects and optimized turnover over time.

Article Marketing offers a website a more influential advertising strategy than regular advertising. The ‘expert’ status endears potential customers to the website before they even visit the website. This also implies a positive outlook when they browse through the website. Hence, a good website enjoys every chance of a better feedback than otherwise. Studies allege that Article Marketing is 7-10 times more effective a marketing strategy than regular advertising.

The e-zines, blogs and forums are free of cost web destinations that generously invite articles to promote their own business interests. The sites inviting submissions are further surfed by researchers and other e-zines in their quest for quality articles for their newsletters/ articles. Thus, the website gets further free ads in various newsletters, as they end up picking up the articles and reprint them to their newsletter base, which automatically distributes the content to their thousands or even more, permission-based members.

Article Marketing builds indispensable link popularity for the website as the circulated articles create more and more links to the website from other sites. An important SEO strategy, link popularity bestows higher rank to the website. Link popularity establishes net presence of a website in the true sense of the word as it also accumulates brand equity.

About the Author:

Jonathan White has been involved in article and other online marketing for over 4 years. He owns SimplySearch4It – Articles Marketing Directory & SimplySearch4it UK – Articles Directory http://articles.simplysearch4it.com

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The Basics Of Podcasting

By Madison Lockwood

Podcasting in its simplest form is the uploading of MP3 files to the internet, where they can be accessed by the majority of the online universe with little more than a modern browser. You might consider a podcast to be an audio blog, although podcasts are basically standalone units of communication and not limited solely to “audio.” The term is also applied to short video pieces that are uploaded for general consumption; that is becoming more common, but the term was born as a reference to the audio format. Although the term stems from Apple’s iPod line of products it is generic in nature and refers to any MP3 (and increasingly, video) file provided via one Internet channel or another.

To that end, the number of channels that are now using podcasts is nothing short of phenomenal. They are used in educational formats (distance learning programs) and by the mainstream media. Business Week Online is an example of excellent utilization of the format. They provide professionally conducted interviews with both newsmakers in the business world and with experts on topics like developing technology. It is both an extension of their current events function and the features section of the magazine that focuses on broader industry analysis.

Every major news outlet online ­ ABC, ESPN, Fox, CNN and so forth ­ use podcasts to augment their print-and-graphics webpage formats. You can find them on political websites and blogs, often carrying the candidate’s message but more often carrying the opponent’s gaffe. This particular phenomenon has led to the practice of campaigns hiring “trackers” to trail their opponent from public event to public event with a video camera, hoping to catch a misstatement, a contradiction or some sort of unfortunate occurrence that can be distributed via the assortment of political websites and blogs that clog the web today.

You can now “subscribe” to podcasts that are delivered via an RSS application automatically to your computer. “Podcasters” are individuals or information distributors of some sort that provide an ongoing series of podcasts. Podcasts very quickly found their way to the marketing and advertising industry, which has adopted them for widespread use on the Internet. Video podcasts in particular have become the most recent form of “popup” advertising on the web. You can be clicking through a commercial site and suddenly you are watching a commercial.

The proliferation of podcasts that are webcasts of mistakes, poor behavior or just plain foolishness began with people in the public eye but now extends well beyond the currently and formerly famous. Because these snippets of audio and video are so widespread and move across the digital network so quickly, one begins to feel uneasy. What if someone catches me falling off a bicycle and thinks it looks funny enough to share?

When email entered our society, it provided a screening device to communication that was somehow comforting. Podcasts and to some degree the whole social networking phenomenon create the opposite effect. It’s easy to feel exposed, regardless of the fact that you’re still one person using one computer.

For a technical explanation of the various methods of podcast delivery, take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting. They provide an excellent and extended explanation of the various software options and delivery choices that you can make in allowing podcasts into your life. For a fairly comprehensive directory of podcast feeds and sources, try http://www.podcast.net/. As a good resource for news in the podcast universe and also for a directory, there’s http://www.podcastingnews.com/

About the Author:

Madison Lockwood is a customer relations associate for http://www.apollohosting.com. She helps clients understand how a website may benefit them both personally and professionally. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, & VPS hosting to a wide range of customers.



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