Money Making Webmaster Tools And Tips

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

2008-04-24T19:44:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-28T04:27:00.000-08:00

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?

2007-02-05T04:51:00.003-08:00

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

2007-01-01T07:46:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-21T04:06:00.000-08:00

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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Increase Sales With Top Search Engine Rankings

2006-12-10T06:54:00.000-08:00

By Calvin Leonard

It's no secret that Google gets most of the traffic on the internet, followed closely by Yahoo and MSN back in third place. So, if we're going to beat the next guy at getting some free search engine traffic, what is required and where would you start?

Well, first of all, you have to realise that you aren't likely to rank at the top of most keywords overnight. In fact, it can take months of hard work to rank for high traffic keywords, so the key here is to start with keywords you can target that don't have a lot of competition. This makes your job 50% easier before you even load a page to the internet.

Next, lets look at the specific engines. Google takes the longest to rank for out of the top 3, so I like to look closely at MSN search because my experience tells me that even though they don't get anywhere near the same amount of traffic, I can rank higher and faster here. So, my first port of call is to do keyword research specifically with MSN in mind. I use a few tools here, but by far, the easiest way to do this is to use the free keyword research tool at digitalpoint.com. Here you can check keyword patterns and traffic patterns for your desired keywords to see how many searches are performed in the major engines, and also find spin off keywords you probably wouldn't have considered before. You can also check both Overture and Wordtrackers results against each other to get a feel for how the traffic patterns are going to be for a top rank with your selected keyword.

A rule of thumb I use for MSN is that the traffic for any keyword I search in digital points tool is divided by approximately 3-4 to give me an idea of the traffic in MSN. So, if my desired keyword had 1000 searches per day, according to both Wordtracker and Overture, then I can confidently say a number 1 rank in MSN should provide about 300 searches. This doesn't mean you will get 300 hits. In fact, you may only get about half the searchers hit your site through MSN or any search engines for that matter, even if you rank #1.

So, now I can confidently say a top rank for that keyword will provide approximately 150 hits or visitors per day. Now that we have chosen a keyword that looks good, what's next?

Check out the competition on MSN. There's no point choosing words that you realistically will never rank for. The competition pays big money to rank at the top, so unless you have the same budget, stay away from that game. Those so called gurus of the internet will squash you. My recommendation is to rank for terms that have less traffic and will be easier to get to #1, especially in MSN.

So, what am I looking for when it comes to my competition? Well we all know that relevant, theme related, inbound, 1 way links from authority sites are the easiest way to rank #1 or in the top 10.

In fact, it doesn't take too many high quality inbound links to rank for thousands upon thousands of terms. So, here is where the fun begins. After you have uploaded your site and optimized the page with all the relevant html tags, etc., then gathering links to your page is the single most important task you can undertake to rank. I am not an authority on link gathering, but here are a few suggestions.

Write high quality articles about your chosen subject, or pay someone to write articles, then submit them to the free article directories. Your article will have the potential to be picked up by other webmasters and placed on their site with your link on them. This can create many, many 1 way links very quickly for your page.

Approach other webmasters in your chosen topic and request a link exchange (I personally don't do this, as it's boring and outdated and honestly is very time consuming).

Use social bookmark sites like http://del.icio.us/ to get your content out there and also to get you links from your tags. The search engines love social bookmark sites, I use about 25 of them and they always provide high quality 1 way links, and often with very high PR.

Write a blog about your site and link to it. You can then feed that blog using RSS or other syndication methods. This can also provide 1 way links and better results in the search engines.

Buy links. Yes buy them, a few high quality, related links with good Google Page Rank will help massively.

These few ideas I use every day, and many more, to get traffic and beat the next guy in the engines, especially MSN.

So, there you have it, a few small ideas to get you moving, so go forth and "make money."

So, the only thing left to do after you have achieved a top rank for a number of keyword terms is to make money from them. Here are my top two ideas for making money that I use everyday.

1) Google AdSense - Sign up free and place the ad code on your page. You will earn a share of each and every click visitors make from those ad blocks.

There are dozens of other places you can earn on a "pay per click" basis, but Google stands head and shoulders above the rest, in my opinion.

2) Affiliate marketing - If your site or page is about losing weight, then sign up free as an affiliate to any one of hundreds of sites that sell these type of products. Then place a link on your page, which has your personal code embedded into it, and if a visitor clicks on your link and decides to buy, you will receive a share of that sale. Sometimes as high 70% of the sale.

So, there you have it. Now go out there and make some money online, because if you don't, I will do it for you.

About the Author:

Calvin Leonard is experienced in the field of network marketing and internet marketing. His Main Business focus is to teach people how to http://www.wealthsuccess.usana.com through quality business.

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Internet Marketing On A Low Budget: An Open Letter

2006-11-18T06:07:00.000-08:00

By Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D. Copyright © 2006

Recently I was contacted by a client who was frustrated that her marketing efforts were not producing results like she expected. In an attempt to address her concerns, I realized how many other professionals are in the same boat. What follows is an open letter to professionals everywhere who are struggling to attract new clients and make money online.

Dear Entrepreneur and Professional:

First, let's address the issue of finances. I understand fully what it is like to invest in your own business, work hard, and see little income. Sometimes it seems as if you work for pleasure, and indeed there is much pleasure involved. It's not unusual for entrepreneurs to be passionate about their business and services and many would do what they love for free.

But it can't work that way, and you must see the money or your business will perish. Finally, after a couple of years of trickle income, we are now seeing results in our own online business, and are making a comfortable living solely from information and services sold on the Internet.

It takes time. And it involves having lots of digital information products people can buy and download instantly. In order to sell them, you have to have a powerful web presence and be easily findable to the millions of people who Google for solutions to their problems.

People can't find you with just a web site. You need a blog, and you need to write on it frequently - daily is best; two to three times per week is good. An electronic newsletter, or ezine, is also a great marketing tool, and it needs to be posted on the Web, or on your blog.

You need to write and submit articles to article directories so people can find you better. Your articles need to include contact information and links back to your website and products.

You need the infrastructure in place so you can follow up with automated email messages to people who contact you requesting information, purchase your products and register for your events.

It's a good idea to do teleclasses, some for free, so you build your list, connect with people and get them into your higher priced seminars.

There are other business models, and I am most familiar with what I have done myself, and helped other entrepreneurs to do.

When Denise and I joined Tom Antion's Mentee Program, it was a considerable financial commitment. We send him a check every month out of our earnings, which are steadily increasing thanks to his tutelage. It's worth it to learn and model what works from one who has been there and is a multi-millionaire.

As the saying goes, you can't get to Carnegie Hall without lots of practice, and that takes an investment of time, patience and money.

There are no easy solutions. Continue doing what works and invest in those areas of your business that provide the biggest payoff. Get training. Invest in the infrastructure and tools that allow you to save time and market effortlessly. Avoid overwhelm by implementing tools slowly, getting used to one and observing your results before going to the next step. Building a business on the Internet is not about getting rich quick. It's about hard work and persistent effort that will pay off in the long run.

About the Author:

For more leading edge Internet Marketing tips go to http://www.biztipsblog.com. Subscribe to The Blog Squad's ezine Savvy eBiz Tips at http://www.savvyebiztips.com.To learn about using Internet Marketing tools like blogs, go to http://www.buildabetterblog.com. Denise Wakeman & Patsi Krakoff are known as The Blog Squad.

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Essential Programs For Your Virtual Toolbox

2006-11-05T07:42:00.000-08:00

By Kim Roach Copyright © 2006

As an online marketer and webmaster, there are a number of tools that you will want in your virtual toolbox. To get you started, I have scoured the net to find some of the best programs to help webmasters improve their sites, their rankings, and their productivity. Best of all, each one of these tools is free. We'll start with one of my favorites.

Good Keywords
(http://www.goodkeywords.com)

Good Keywords is a program that allows you to quickly and easily create an extensive list of targeted keywords for your website using Yahoo, Ask, and Overture.

This free tool comes loaded with a link popularity meter, a keyword phrase builder, a misspelled word generator, and a web page explorer tool that will allow you to quickly see what keywords other sites are targeting.

Once you have found your desired keywords, you can group them into keyword sets, which can then be copied into your clipboard.

To find out more about this handy tool, go to http://www.goodkeywords.com.

BackLinks Master
(http://www.cleverstat.com/backlinks-software.htm)

It is a well-known fact that search engines use link popularity as one of their top ranking factors.

However, quality is much more important than quantity when obtaining inbound links. In addition, many of the search engines place importance on the use of relevant anchor text.

With a tool known as Backlinks Master, you can monitor your link popularity in Google, Yahoo, and MSN. This tool finds direct links, JavaScript links, and others. In addition, you will be shown the anchor text and link type that others have used to link to you.

To start taking control of your link popularity, go to http://www.cleverstat.com/backlinks-software.htm

SEOpen
(http://seopen.com/firefox-extension/index.php)

SEOpen is a Firefox extension that provides numerous SEO tools at the click of a mouse. All of its features can be easily accessed by right-clicking on a web page.

Using this tool, you can examine your competitors:

* Yahoo Backlinks
* Pages in Yahoo Index
* Google Backlinks
* Google Cache
* Pages in Google index
* Google Related
* PageRank Check
* MSN Backlinks
* Pages in MSN Index
* Alexa Overview
* Alexa Traffic
* Alexa Related
* Alexa Backlinks
* "Mass Check" multiple sources at once
* Check DMOZ Inclusion
* Keyword Density
* Page Size Checker
* HTML Validator
* Server Header Viewer
* Wayback Machine
* Check robots.txt
* Whois Info

To quickly and easily perform competitor analysis, check out http://seopen.com/firefox-extension/index.php

Active Web Reader Customizer
(http://www.deskshare.com/awrc.aspx)

RSS is becoming one of the best ways to increase your online exposure. With the upcoming release of Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7, RSS usage is expected to rise significantly. However, RSS is also new enough that you can use this technology to create an effective viral marketing campaign.

You can do this by distributing your own RSS aggregator. If your RSS aggregator becomes popular, your brand could become very well known on the Internet.

With the Active Web Reader Customizer, you can recommend and distribute an RSS reader that is preloaded with your feeds and web pages. By doing this, you are giving your visitor additional value and increasing your brand exposure at the same time.

Start creating your very own customized RSS reader at http://www.deskshare.com/awrc.aspx

RSS Wizard
(http://www.extralabs.net/rss-wizard.htm)

We've talked about the wonderful benefits of promoting an RSS feed, but how do you actually create one. Fortunately, you don't have to be a techie to create your very own RSS feed. All you need is a tool like RSS Wizard.

This tool will automatically convert almost any web page into an RSS feed. With the RSS Wizard, you can create, edit and publish an unlimited number of RSS channels.

To start creating your own RSS feeds, go to http://www.extralabs.net/rss-wizard.htm .

FeedDigest
(http://www.feeddigest.com)

Not only can you create RSS feeds for your own website, but you can also incorporate other peoples' RSS feeds into your site to increase your publishing power, deliver value to your readers, and ensure that your website is constantly up-to-date and changing.

In fact, with a tool called FeedDigest, you can mix multiple feeds into a single feed to post on your website.

By doing this, you will be able to deliver your visitors a unique mix of automatically updating content.

You could also create a news dashboard to syndicate the latest news on any topic. The possibilities are unlimited. You could create a feed that combined forum posts, news headlines, Ebay items, Digg posts, Flickr photos and even podcasts all rolled into one, constantly updating stream of related content.

To start creating your own customized RSS feeds, go to http://www.feeddigest.com.

MailWasher
(http://oss.firetrust.com/home/)

If you're like most online marketers, you are probably receiving a flood of spam in your inbox. Fortunately, there is a free tool that will help remedy your spam problems.

This software is known as MailWasher and it helps you eliminate your unwanted email, thus allowing you to have greater productivity. Best of all, this increased productivity ultimately leads to increased revenues.

Start increasing your own productivity at http://oss.firetrust.com/home/

Audacity
(http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)

Audacity is an open source program that allows you to record live audio, edit audio files, cut, copy, slice and mix sounds together.

Whether you are looking to record interviews, create your own podcasts, or edit your audio files, Audacity is a great solution.

Check it out at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

CamStudio
(http://www.camstudio.org)

CamStudio is a great piece of software for creating screen capture videos. This software records screen activity from the Windows desktop and then turns it into standard AVI movie files.

In fact, CamStudio can then convert these AVI files into bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash Videos (SWFs) with its built-in SWF Producer.

These are great for creating info products, video tutorials, and software demonstrations. In terms of quality and price, there is simply no better solution for Screen Cam software.

Try it out at http://www.camstudio.org

About the Author:

Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews (http://www.sitepronews.com) & SEO-News (http://www.seo-news.com) newsletters. You can also find additional tips and news on webmaster and SEO topics by Kim at the SiteProNews blog (http://blog.sitepronews.com/). Kim's email is: kim @ seo-news.com

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Why You Aren't Making The Money You Want To On The Internet And What To Do About It!

2006-10-22T06:15:00.000-07:00

By Quick Turn Marketing International, Ltd. Copyright © 2006

Many clients come to me with problems…

The most common problem I hear from people is they aren't making the kind of money they want to make with their Internet business. They don't know what the problem is and they want me to help.

I'll tell you what the problem is. Most of these people are what I like to call opportunity seekers. These are people that have too many sites and don't spend any time focusing on ONE business. They may have 20 or 30 websites, with each site only breaking even or making a few hundred dollars every month.

Most opportunity seekers are not making the money they want or achieving their financial goals. Why?

They are making a common mistake. They have too many sites, too many interests. This prevents them from focusing their efforts and creating the six figure income they dream of.

Focus Is The Key To Long-Term Success

If you want to succeed on the Internet, you are much better-off staying focused. That means starting off with one site or idea and perfecting it before moving on to the next Internet adventure. Far too many people have a get rich quick mind-set. In fact, I'd say almost all opportunity seekers have this mind-set.

They jump from one program to another hoping one of them will lead to success.

Opportunity seekers are always the first to jump on the next big moneymaking bandwagon. It may be one thing one month, another the next month.
They may try to concentrate on affiliate marketing then switch dramatically to e-book marketing the next.

Whatever seems to be working for others they jump into with wild abandon, without considering their true talents, abilities and interests.

These people are looking for some easy way to make money. They think they can make money with Google AdSense or just a web page, or even with a multilevel marketing program. This is NOT how an entrepreneur thinks! However, this is exactly how an opportunist thinks.

They always are looking for shortcuts, and then wonder why it isn't working.

It isn't working because you have no focus. You must have focus. You must think like an entrepreneur. Focus is one of the most vital aspects of your success. My advice to these newbies is shut down 29 of your sites and focus on one site, the one that best represents your interests.

Optimize it. Work on refining it. Refine your sales process and your back end on this single site and make it successful BEFORE you move on to the next site.

Yes, I have many sites. But I am Dan Lok. You're not there yet. Perfect your one site. THEN you can think about moving on to other moneymaking ventures.

Horizontal Vs. Vertical Business

Many people have what I call a horizontal business. A horizontal business has many sites in many different niches, like hobby niches.

People who own horizontal businesses have 20 or more separate business ventures. I recommend having a vertical business instead. A vertical business is a business that has depth and focus.

Having a vertical business means if you have a product in a particular niche, like stock trading, focus on selling products related to that and that only. Put all your eggs in one basket and create a funnel effect. This way you'll have one group of customers and you can become a big fish in a small pond.

You'll have all your eggs in one place yes… but you'll become an expert egg layer and watch all your eggs hatch with great success.

Make sense?

What is the problem with a horizontal business? You aren't specialized.

It's almost impossible to make a six-figure income with this kind of business because you don't spend enough time on any ONE business.

When you have a vertical business, you have fine-tuned your business so well competitors have a hard time keeping up with you. People can't compete. You also build a strong client base with satisfied customers.

Think Like An Entrepreneur

So, the biggest problem people have is they are opportunity seekers.

The key is thinking like a true Internet entrepreneur. Don't jump on the trend bandwagon. Don't ask what the shortcuts are. An entrepreneur has a long-term vision. You have to have a one-year, five year and ten year vision. Find out what you want your business to look like in the long-term.

Ask yourself, What do I want to accomplish ultimately? Then decide whether your activities fit with your goals. Stop jumping from one program to another. Focus on one program, one site, and one great idea. This is what you have to do if you want to make six figures. It has nothing to do with your knowledge, skill set experience etc. It has to do more with your focus.

Sit down. Think about it.

Stop jumping from one program to another and stop getting sucked into false moneymaking schemes. Find out what your goals are, what you want to accomplish.

This is a far superior approach. Yes, it takes a lot of energy. But its worth it. In the long-term it's much less tiring than diversifying your business.

Once you are an expert in your industry or niche, THEN you can think about diversifying your business.

About the Author:

A former college dropout, Dan Lok transformed himself from a grocery bagger in a local supermarket to a multi-millionaire. Today, Dan is one of the most sought-after business mentors on the Web, as well as a best-selling author. His reputation includes his title as the World's #1 Website Conversion Expert. To find out what Dan is up to now, visit him at: http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=wsce

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How To Write Google Adwords Ads That Get Clicks

2006-10-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

By Ryan Cole Copyright © 2006

A typical AdWords newbie is often guilty of several profit-squashing mistakes when setting up his first campaign. There are dozens of no-nos, but perhaps none so egregious as writing ineffective ads.

An effective AdWords ad is one that gets lots of clicks — that's the only thing you should be concerned about when writing your ads (except, of course, Google’s editorial policy). If you’ve done your keyword research, you’ll get impressions; if you’ve got a page that converts to sales, you’ll get a return on your investment. But getting people to your landing page is the ad’s job, and there are some things you can do to pump up your clickthrough rate (CTR), which will improve your ads' positioning and lower your click costs.

First, some ad basics. Each AdWords ad comprises four lines of text: the first is the headline, which can contain up to 25 characters including spaces; the next two are the ad copy, 35 characters each; and the last is your display URL, also 35 characters. (There is actually a fifth line — the destination URL — but that won't display with your ad and shouldn't affect your CTRs). Obviously, the headline is most important, because it’s usually the first thing a searcher sees. If you can make your headline jump out from the rest, your ad will be more visible. Fortunately, Google makes this pretty easy.

You may have noticed that, when searching on Google, your search query is bolded when it appears in any of the search results. The same thing goes for sponsored search results: if you include the keywords you’re bidding on in your ad text, specifically the headline, your ad will stand out.

But what if you’ve got hundreds or thousands of keywords? You can’t be expected to write a different ad for each keyword, right? Of course not — and you don’t have to. In AdWords, your keywords can be separated into groups, aptly dubbed "ad groups." Each ad group should contain a set of keywords and phrases that all have a common thread. For example, if you’re bidding on the term “widgets,” you should place each phrase containing that term into one ad group. You then write an ad whose title contains the word “widgets” — for example, “Get Your Widgets Here.” You can even repeat this for terms within ad groups. For example, in your “widgets” group, you might have the terms “red widgets” and “green widgets.” You can take these out and place each in its own ad group, along with any other similar phrases. Then your ads will be even more focused — for example, “Get Red Widgets Here.” The more keywords that appear in your ad, the more relevant your ad becomes.

Chris McNeeney, author of "AdWords Miracle," has some great copywriting tips. Chris used to write classified ads for a living, and his mastery of the art is evident in the techniques he outlines in his book. For example, he talks about a method called "stop them in their tracks." To stop potential customers in their tracks, you've got to come up with ad copy that tells customers to do the opposite of what they're trying to do. In keeping with the widgets theme, you could write an ad whose headline says, "Don't Buy Any Widgets!" Follow that up with some relevant ad text that entices people to buy your widgets rather than someone else's, by including the benefits your widgets offer; e.g., "Check out ours first. Better, cheaper, and guaranteed." This kind of ad will get people's attention right away, and getting their attention is all you need to do.

And now, an experiment. Pretend you want to buy something online. Head over to Google and do a search for whatever it is. See the sponsored links? Look at the headlines. Which one jumps out at you first? I’m betting it’s the one that seemed most relevant to your search because it contained the exact information you searched for. What’s the headline look like? I bet at least one of the words is bolded (if not all of them), and I’ll bet the rest of the ad lets you know exactly what you’ll get when you click on it. This is the best way to figure out how to write ads. Put yourself in the place of your target market, and then actually do some searches and check out the ads. Which one makes you want to click? Ask people you know to do searches and tell you which ads grab their attention. You’ll probably find it’s the same kind of ad every time.

About the Author:

Find more articles by Ryan Cole at http://www.theinternetmarketingblog.org. Read more about Chris McNeeney's http://www.theinternetmarketingblog.org/2006/08/30/chris-mcneeneys-adwords-miracle/

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Google AdWords Optimization: Why You Must Increase Your Keyword Relevancy

2006-07-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

By Simon Leung © 2006

Many Google AdWords advertisers are frustrated. Most are even confused.

Can you relate?

You've done your keyword research. You've compiled a long list of terms and implemented them into your AdWords account.

What happens next?

Half of the terms aren't even running. Why?

The AdWords system has given you a low quality score, which means that you don't have a very relevant keyword list.

What does the system want?

Answer: Improve your quality, or increase your bid.

Of course, you don't want to increase your bid. So, you must improve your quality score.

How? By increasing your keyword relevancy.

Indeed!

Keyword relevancy is the key to success with Google AdWords.

While it's tempting to include all the keywords you got your hands on, you should note that this is the #1 mistake advertisers make in their campaign.

Keyword relevancy qualifies the end user.

When this user searches on a relevant keyword term that activates your ad, you have qualified someone who is interested in your product/service.

For this reason, you need to increase your keyword relevancy as much as possible.

What is considered a relevant keyword?

The term must be exactly what you are advertising.

For example, if you are promoting AdWords tips, a relevant keyword list may be:

google adwords tips
google adwords help
google adwords advice

Although the following group of keywords is somewhat related, notice that they are targeting a totally different audience:

google adwords expert
google adwords consultant
google adwords professional

In the latter batch, AdWords will surely deem your keyword relevancy lower than former.

Even if you were to raise your bid so that you can appear on these terms, chances are that even if users do click on your ad, they will end up leaving your website without making a purchase.

Why?

The product/service you offer was not exactly what they were searching for.

This is precisely why keyword relevancy is so important.

You need to know who you are targeting, and your target audience needs to know how to find you.

Both sides of the fence are met when you find that relevant keyword term.

Follow these easy steps on keyword relevancy and you're on the road to AdWords success!

About the Author:

Simon Leung, AdWords Optimization Expert for Google, helps advertisers increase, improve, & expand results FAST! To get 10 of his most powerful strategies for explosive results & profits using AdWords for FREE, go to http://AdwordsOptimization.com

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Search Engine Marketing Ethics: Don't believe the hype

2006-06-11T18:56:00.000-07:00

By Mark Hochhaus © 2006

Getting to the top of the search engines, and staying there, is an ongoing process. This does not mean it is expensive to stay at the top. In fact, in most cases, it's rather affordable. But beware, there are pitfalls along the way to search engine Zen.

The old adage, "If it sounds too good to be true", applies to SEO (search engine optimization). There are many companies that will promise top results using less than ethical methods. Including slick salesmen that will convince you that all the top sites cheat the search engines in order to stay on top. You will run into web site owners that mask keywords to get top positions making it sound very tempting to follow in their foot steps.

Don't be fooled by such hype. These are short term solutions that can lead to a permanent ban in the top engines. Once you are banned in Google, Yahoo, MSN or ASK, you may as well dump your site and start over. If you're looking for long term success on the internet, don't cheat the search engines.

One of the cheats I have been seeing lately is masking content with "noscript tags." The noscript tags are used to define an alternate content (text) if a script is NOT executed. People have been taking advantage of this and filling it with content that visitors don't see, but the search engines do. While this does work, it is short term and believe me when I say, you will be caught. You will have no warning, no second chances. You will wake up one day and your site will not be found.

There is no phone number to call, your emails go unanswered, and traffic to your site drops off overnight. Your income dries up and it's all over. It can take six months or more to undo the damage and, in some cases, it's permanent. The major search engines are always on the lookout for new cheats. When found, they will program the search engines to drop the sites using these methods. Without warning, you're gone. Also, don't forget, your competition watches your site and is looking for ways to rank higher than you. Your competition may report your unethical methods to the search engines.

If you're planning to be around for the long haul and want some success on the internet, then you need to be ethical in your promotion. Unless you have daily time dedicated to studying SEO and making the needed changes, you should contract with a reputable SEO company. You need a company that studies the SEO industry on a daily basis to keep on top of what it takes to rank at the top for the long run. A company that is above cheats and quick fixes. A company that offers solid optimization that can keep you on top of the search engine results. A company that will take the time to target your specific audience to get you visitors that are interested in your product or service.

Many SEO companies will promise thousands of visitors a day. Unless those visitors are interested in what you have to offer or ended up at your site and did not find what they searched for, they will remember you. They will remember that you did not have what they wanted. They may leave disappointed and your good name will have a black mark next to it. Don't get sucked into damaging your image by slick salesmen.

When looking for a company to handle your SEO, first and foremost, be comfortable with the people you will be directly working with. They will need total access to your web site and server to make the needed changes. At times, the verbiage of your site may need minor changes. A word or two may need to be changed to improve keyword density. You need a company you can trust with your company's image.

In today's business world, you must have a web site. After all, your competition does. Your site must be marketed ethically and monitored daily. Changes must be made ASAP when conditions change. Hire a professional to handle SEO. When your business is booming, it's too easy to put SEO on the back burner. Before you know it, your rankings will have dropped from top to bottom, as well as your bottom line.

About the Author:
Mark Hochhaus co-owner of Technet ( http://www.increased-online-traffic.com ) has been developing web sites and optimizing for search engines since the early days of the Internet. To keep abreast of his lastest articles, visit: http://www.increased-online-traffic.com/seo-news.asp

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Declaring an Authentic Niche Market

2006-05-13T17:43:00.000-07:00

By Molly Gordon © 2006

niche...1. A recess in a wall, as for holding a statue. 2. A cranny, hollow, or crevice, as in a rock. 3. A situation or activity specially suited to a person's abilities or character. 4. Ecol. a. The set of functional relationships of an organism or population to the environment it occupies. b. The area within a habitat occupied by an organism.
The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition

For years I struggled with the concept of niche. I knew that choosing the right niche market was considered essential to business success, yet for me, as for many professionals, choosing a niche felt like the kiss of death.

When we dig in our heels against choosing a niche, we are probably responding to the first two definitions above. After all, who wants to do business in a hole in a wall or in a tiny, rocky place? If you believe that defining your niche market means choosing a hard, cramped, and confining space, no wonder you resist.

People who bring their heart and soul to their work will resist niche marketing that tells them they must restrict the ways in which they offer value to the world. The good news is that choosing your niche market will do exactly the opposite: it will free you to be the biggest, most authentic, and most complete offer possible.

Consider the third and fourth definitions of niche. When you look at niche in this light, you will see that your perfect niche market is that location or domain in which you are most readily accessible to the people who are most likely to benefit from (and thus value) the offer that you are and in which you are simultaneously most free to exercise your brilliance.

YOUR NICHE MARKET IS THE PLACE IN WHICH YOU HAVE A NATURAL COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE BECAUSE YOU OCCUPY THE RIGHT PLACE IN THE RIGHT ECOSYSTEM.

A good niche market is one in which:
• You are highly visible and easily accessible to the people who are most likely to benefit from your work, including prospective clients and customers, prospective collaborators and partners, and others with whom value-adding activities are most likely to be mutually beneficial.
• You can employ the widest range of your talents, skills, and training (your offer.)
There's a paradox in naming your niche market. When you give people a category to put your products or services in, it is easier for them to get a handle on what you do and to remember it. It's also much easier for them to appreciate how you differ from other professionals in that category. In other words, by putting yourself in a category, you can also make yourself stand out because you distinguish yourself from others in that category.

About the Author:
Molly Gordon, MCC is an acknowledged expert on small business marketing (see http://www.authenticpromotion.com/niche-marketing/ and http://www.authenticpromotion.com/self-promotion/). Join 12,000 readers of her Authentic Promotion® ezine, to grow your strong business while you feed your soul.

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Multiple Streams of Income - 5 Reasons Why You Absolutely Need it

2006-05-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

By Michele Pariza Wacek © 2006

I've become enamored with the word "multiple," especially when it pertains to business. I especially like the idea of harnessing the power of the multiple to grow your business multiple times over.

There are a lot of things that can be multiple in a business, but in this article I'm focusing on multiple streams of income. In a nutshell, multiple streams of income means your business has more then one way to make money. For instance, you sell products and you sell services. Those are multiple streams of incomes. Why do you need them? Below are five reasons:

1. Make money while you sleep. This is a big one for those of us who sell our time (also known as providing services). The biggest drawback to selling time is when you aren't working, you aren't making money. So when you're on vacation, relaxing over the weekend or (gasp) sleeping, no money is coming into the business. But let's say you create a product or two to sell in addition to your services. Now you've just created a passive income stream (passive meaning it doesn't require yours or anyone else's time). So if you are taking a nap or out walking the dogs, money can still be coming into your business. (What a concept!)

2. Leverage your time. This is especially true with income streams that are passive. Basically you're making money without it taking any of your time. Therefore, you can spend your time doing something else and still enjoy money coming in from a passive income stream. This is a good way to use your time wisely. (Rather than work for an hour, get paid for an hour, you can be paid several times in several different ways during that same hour.)

3. Fill your pipeline. If all you sell is high-priced services, it can be difficult getting clients to hire you. After all, clients need to trust you and trust they're getting a good deal for their money. If you offer products or lower-priced services, you're giving those customers a chance to "try you out" before plunking down several thousand dollars for a major project or consulting work. Because your clients' initial investment is lower, you have a chance to lower their resistance to hiring you.

4. Catch a variety of clients. No matter what you offer, a part of your target market is not going to be interested in hiring you. Why? Because they'd rather do it themselves. Or maybe they don't have the money to hire you. Or maybe they do the same thing you do and would rather learn from you to better their own skills. By offering a product or a class or a group option, you're widening your net. Not only are you able to help more people, but you'll also be making more money doing it.

5. Diversify. The more income streams you have, the less devastating it will be to lose one. Not to be negative, but things happen. Industries change. Economies change. People want different things. If all you offer is services, and those services suddenly become obsolete, what happens to your business? Or, a more likely scenario, what if you lose your biggest client? Or a couple big clients at the same time? Sure, eventually you'll find other clients to make up the difference, but what happens in the meantime? What if it takes a month or two or six? Your bills certainly won't wait that long. But if you have other income streams, a dip in your services (or a dip in product income) is no longer so scary because you'll still have money coming in.

Creativity Exercise -- Find time to create multiple income streams

Probably the hardest part of creating multiple income streams is a lack of time, especially when your primary business is service based. So, now that you know how important it is, how are you going to find the time to start doing it?

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

* Hire a virtual assistant (VA) or bookkeeper to take care of some tasks you have no business doing anyway.
* Create systems in your business so you can complete business tasks faster and more efficiently.
* Raise your prices so you can take on fewer clients and make more money.
* Dedicate a Saturday or Sunday to working on your business. (Be careful with this one as you could very quickly end up burning yourself out.)

Get a pen and paper and do some brainstorming to see how you can find more time to start creating more income streams.

About the Author:
Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC, a copywriting, marketing communications and creativity agency. She helps people become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. To find out how she can help you take your business to the next level, visit her site at http://www.writingusa.com

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How To Make Quick Cash With Resell Rights

2006-04-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

By John Karnish © 2006

Today I'm going to talk to you about how to make some quick cash with resell right products. Resell Right products allow you to resell them and pocket 100% of the commissions. These are a big craze on the internet and you probably have some hiding somewhere on your hard drive.

The first thing to consider is what type of resell license you have. Usually this license will come with the product itself or in a "read me" file. I like to keep my products organized. I keep them organized in folders. I'll keep a main folder just called resell rights. Then I'll have in that folder another folder for "stand alone" products. I'll create another one for products that can be "bundled" or "used as bonuses." Then I'll create one more folder for products that can be "given away free."

How To Sell When You Have Competition

Resell Right Products are a great way to make money but you have to worry about your competition. One way to do this is to buy rights to a less competitive product. Someone might offer resale licenses to his product for only 100 people. By buying a license to a product like this, you know that you'll have far less competition. The disadvantage of this is that you'll often end up spending several hundred dollars.

For those that don't have the money to invest in limited resell right licenses, there's still hope. You just have to make your offer stand out from the crowd. The easiest way is to pile on the bonuses.

Remember earlier I had you create a folder called "bonuses." These are products that can be offered as bonuses or bundled with other products. Adding bonus products is the easiest and most lucrative way to get someone to buy the same product that is being marketed strongly by other resellers.

Besides bonuses you also can make your sales page seem different. One thing you can do is change your headline. Another thing you can do is change the graphics. People notice right away if they've seen the offer before by the graphics and the headline. If you're a good copywriter you can even change the entire sales letter. Make the site look completely new.

Limited Time Offers

In the resell right license, they'll usually tell you if a product is a stand alone product. This means that it can't be sold as a package or a collection of products. I usually like to sell these as they usually have more value and since they can't be bundled, they're not as widespread.

I think the best way to sell a product is by offering a limited time offer to your list. Find a great product and then find products that can be used as bonuses. Offer these extra products for a limited time. Be sure that you take your page down when you said that you would or you'll loose credibility.

One Time Offers

This is a great way to make some extra cash. Find as many products as you can that can be bundled together in a package. Offer them all for an incredible price to the people who just joined your mailing list. Make this a one time offer in that they'll only see the offer once.
You'll be surprised how many people will take you up on these one time offers and it's a great way to build some cash.

eCourses

eCourses are a great way to sell resell rights. The better products will come with an ecourse already. If you don't have one, don't worry. It's as easy as slapping some related articles into an autoresponder.

What you can do is promote the ecourse first and once the person subscribes forward them to the sales page for the resell right product. It takes the average person atleast 7xs to see an offer before they buy. Creating an ecourse is an excellent way to people to buy as you can keep reminding them about your product.

A Word About Freebies

I would stay away from products that say they can be sold or offered for free. You're going to have an upset customer if someone pays money for a product and then finds out that others are giving it away for free. I use these as subscriber bait. They sound impressive because they can be sold. So use them to get people to subscribe to your ezine or your ecourse for the product.

About the Author:
John Karnish gives away a free report that will show you how to build a 50K double opt in subscriber list in 90 Days. For more information visit http://explodeyourlist.optinincome.net

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5 Mistakes I made in 2005

2006-04-09T17:34:00.000-07:00

By Michele Pariza Wacek © 2006

Even though I'm pretty happy with how 2005 turned out, there are still some things I wish I had done differently. Here are 5 things I aim to change for 2006

1. Didn't take time out for me. I admit it, I have the typical entrepreneur bug. I spent way too much time working on my business and not nearly enough time on me. In 2006, I plan to take more breaks and schedule in some "me-time."

2. Wasn't as consistent with my own marketing. Much like not taking time out for me, I also struggled with not taking as much time as I should have for marketing my own business. (Remember the old adage of the shoemaker's children running around barefoot? Marketing my clients' businesses always came before my own.) Now, my business has grown rapidly, so although I'm not exactly complaining, I do wonder where I'd be if I had been more consistent about my own marketing.

3. Got distracted. One of my biggest problems is what my coach, Melanie Benson Strick, Success Connections, calls "bright shiny object syndrome." That's where you find yourself chasing all sorts of bright shiny objects (also known as "new" opportunities or "new" ideas) rather than focusing on your core business systems. What happens is you end up with a lot of half-finished or barely-started ideas and very few actually completed.

I unfortunately have this syndrome bad. Although I'm much better than I used to be, I still allowed myself to get distracted by a few half-baked plans in 2005.

Which leads me to #4

4. Didn't attain a couple of my business goals. Because I allowed myself to get distracted, I didn't meet a couple of business goals in 2005. Needless to say, this mistake is at the top of my list of issues to address in 2006. Now that I know how to eliminate the vast majority of distractions, I'm looking forward to getting even more tasks accomplished in 2006.

5. Waited too long to do the things I did right. Okay, I know this is the wrong thing to focus on, but I just have to say it and then I can move on. 2005 was such a banner year for me and a large reason for that was because of the 5 Things I Did Right (you can read that article on my blog, http://www.writingusa.com/blog). But unfortunately, I also can't help wondering where I would be if I hadn't waited so long to start doing those things.

Okay, I said it, and now I can move on. But please, if nothing else, don't make THIS same mistake - read my article on the 5 Things I Did Right and see if there are a few things you can implement in your business. That may be the ticket to turning 2006 into your best year ever.

About the Author:
Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC, a copywriting, marketing communications and creativity agency. She helps people become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. To find out how she can help you take your business to the next level, visit her site at http://www.writingusa.com. Copyright 2006 Michele Pariza Wacek.
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What I Have Learned So Far About Earning A Living Online

2006-03-29T18:58:00.000-08:00

By Terry Sparing © 2006

In my short time on the Internet, I have learned a few key lessons that might help you also in your quest to find the success you seek through your Internet connection.

1. Success Can Be Found In The Company You Keep

Finding and surrounding yourself with good people, who share common goals and a willingness to help one another, is important. We are all learning how to be successful, each and every day. And by working together, we can accelerate our knowledge to the benefit of all.

2. Selling Other People's Products Is The Easiest Way To Get Started

When people first come online, they know that they want to make money online, but they don't have the first idea of how they intend to accomplish their goal.

For those who are looking to get on the fast track of making money online, Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing was developed to help them to reach their goals more quickly.

Affiliate Marketing requires you to register with an Affiliate website to sell their products through your website or newsletter. The Affiliate website will give you a special Tracking URL to use in your advertising, and every time one of your reader's visit your Affiliate Tracking URL and buy a product or service, you will earn a commission.

Network Marketing or Multi-Level Marketing is a step up from Affiliate Marketing. Through Network Marketing, you can take the same approach as with Affiliate Marketing, except that you can develop a network of like-minded individuals who are interested in selling the same product or service as you, allowing you to make a tiered-commission from their sales in addition to any commissions that you can earn from your own sales.

Multiplication is the most important benefit of Network Marketing. It allows you to multiply your earning capability with the specific company, by multiplying the number of people who will contribute sales to your bottom line.

3. Multiple Streams of Income The Foundation for Our Long-Term Success

We should "never put all of our eggs in one basket." We should never put all of our energy into one company, product or service.

Not all products and services are created equal. Not all compensation plans are created equal. Additionally, some companies offer products and services that have seasonal selling cycles.

Multiple Streams of Income allow us to find a more even balance in our income levels, year-around.

4. It Takes Money To Make Money

It does not take a LOT of money, but it does take money. If you are afraid to spend money on your own business, why should people trust you enough to give you their money?

When you sign up as an Affiliate for a company or as a Network Marketing Associate, the company you are dealing with will always give you a special Tracking URL to refer your potential clients.

The reality is that you don't want to directly market your Tracking URL.

Some advertisers will not allow advertising to appear if it contains an Affiliate Tracking URL. If you use articles as I have done to promote your business, most article directory managers expressly forbid the use of Affiliate Tracking URL's inside the body of the article and in the About the Author information that follows the article.

When you advertise, you ALWAYS want to promote yourself and not someone else. Suppose for example that two years from now you decide that you don't want to promote a specific Affiliate Program anymore. If you have spent all of your energy promoting your Affiliate URL, then you will have nothing left to show for your time and efforts. On the other hand, if you have been promoting your own domain for the same length of time, changing affiliate programs mid-stream will not affect your bottom line. All of your link building will stay with you once you have made your decision to move on to another program.

For ten or twenty dollars a year, you can register your own domain name. For an extra five to ten dollars a month, you can get your own web hosting account for your domain. This $70 to $130 a year is really the only money that you HAVE to spend. All other expenses are optional.

At the end of the day, you should only be advertising your own domain, which can in turn redirect traffic to the Affiliate Programs, Network Marketing Programs, products or services that you want to recommend to others.

5. Sometimes It Makes A Lot Of Sense To Hire Out Third-Party Service Providers

Let's face it. All enterprise is a trade of "money for time" or "money for products".

Some people can do a job on your behalf for a specific rate, and that person can deliver superior results in much less time than it would take for you to do it yourself. Pay the expert to do his or her thing on your behalf, so that you can stay focused on the tasks that you can do economically.

In the end, I know your finances might be tight, but some people will be able to do things for you that you either cannot do on your own, or you cannot do in a reasonable amount of time.

Be willing to try a new task on your own, but if you find that you are not getting the results that you want, figure out how much time it will take you to do it on your own, and don't be afraid to multiply that number of hours by a minimum of $10 an hour to figure out what an equitable trade of money for time would be in your case.

6. Don't Forget To Tell Your Reader's What You Want Them To Do

Many new webmasters forget to tell their visitors what they would like for them to do. There is a reason why you have taken steps to bring people to your website. Don't be afraid to tell your readers what they should do and why they should do it.

It really is not enough to say, "Great new program, Click Here." You must tell your reader how they will BENEFIT from your recommendation. People make "buying decisions" based on what the product or service will do for them. You need to help your reader to make the decisions that you would like for them to make.

7. Promote Yourself Always

Set up your own domain and promote all of your programs through your domain. Once again, "don't put all of your eggs in one basket." Promote your domain through various methods. In time, you will learn that some methods generate better results than others, and you can start to trim your promotional activities to just a few systems, but never ever rest your laurels on one method of promotion. Always keep your eyes to the horizon to find other methods that will generate the kinds of results you are looking for. Don't be afraid to try new things… And don't forget to measure your costs versus your results.

Your customers have diverse interests and activities. Your goal is to get into their line of sight, so that you can attract them to your website. A certain percentage of your visitors will always buy what you are selling, so the secret to your success will be to put as many eyeballs on your website as you can, through whatever methods you can use to get them there.

8. Never Stop Learning

Having the knowledge to run a successful offline business does not necessarily translate into having the knowledge to run a successful online business. There is a lot to learn, and the best way to keep up and to succeed is to make the effort to learn as much as you can as often as you can.

You never know exactly where you will find your next gem of information that will help take you to the next level. The next article you read might be the one to give you the idea that will make you a millionaire.

Keep on reading, and never stop learning.

About the Author:

Terry Sparing works with a team of people who believe in helping others to develop their own successful online businesses. If you would like a coach and a mentor to help you to realize your own financial dreams, please visit Terry's website http://www.ExerciseYourFreeWill.com for more information. "Success Can Be Found In The Company You Keep."

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Ordinary people are making EXTRAORDINARY
money WORKING FROM HOME on the Internet!
Get FREE info by email. Send your request to:
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Cashing in on the Latest Technology Trends

2006-03-21T03:49:00.000-08:00

By Shelley Lowery © 2006

If you're marketing your products or services on the Internet, keeping up with the latest Internet technology is an important part of developing a successful Internet business. For this reason, this article will focus on some of the latest technology trends and how you can use them to market your products or services.

Blogs

If you've been on the Internet for any time at all, you have most-likely heard about blogs. A blog, which is short for web log, is a personal online journal that is open for public viewing.

The author of a blog, referred to as a blogger (web logger), usually makes entries to the blog on a very frequent basis. These entries usually contain commentary on specific issues, helpful tips and/or instructions with regard to the subject matter and recommended links to appropriate resources.

Blogs have the potential to create a wealth of repeat traffic to your web site, as if the subject is of interest to your target market, your readers will return each day to read your latest post. What's more, Search Engines love blogs, as they are loaded with content and updated frequently.

Visit Blogger to learn more and set up a free blog: http://www.blogger.com

Vlog

A vlog, which is short for video blog, is a personal online video journal that is open for public viewing and/or downloading. Vlogging can refer to either streaming video or downloadable videos within a web log.

To create a vlog, your first step will be to record a video and save the file on your computer. The following software programs will assist you in creating your video:

Windows Movie Maker

QuickTime Pro

iMovie (Mac users)

As there are many in-depth steps to creating a vlog, you may want visit a site, such as www.freevlog.org for a complete step by step tutorial.

Vlogs combine the power of text blogs with video and can be a very effective sales tool.

Podcasting

Podcasting is the distribution of audio files over the Internet, such as a radio broadcast. It is one of the hottest ideas to hit the Internet, as users can download the broadcast to their media player, such as an iPod or MP3 player, and listen at their leisure.

To create a Podcast, you will need to create an audio file and save it in MP3 format. You can then upload the file to your server, along with an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) file. Your listeners can then download your program using a special program that will enable them to retrieve your file automatically.

Once you have created your podcast, you can then register it at a podcast directory, such as www.podcast.net so that people can subscribe.

Although the most popular form of podcasts are audio files, you can also create a podcast that will transmit video, text, and image files to any capable media player.

Distributing your own podcast is a great way to market your products and/or services.

You can find a step by step guide to creating your own podcast here:
http://radio.about.com/od/podcastin1/a/aa030805a.htm

If you need assistance creating your podcast, Rick Beneteau, of Mentor Audio, will be happy to assist you: http://www.mentoraudio.com/podcast/

All of the above technology utilizes RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is an XML format specifically designed to share content. You can learn more about this powerful technology here: http://www.web-source.net/syndicate.htm

All of the above marketing tools provide a great way for you to reach your protential customers. As with most marketing techniques, it is best to provide your readers with quality information that teaches or informs with regard to the subject and simply recommend products or services to assist them. These recommendations may be your own products or services or those of an affiliate program you are promoting. It's a win - win proposition no matter how you look at it. Your reader is provided with the information they desire, and you make a sale.

With all of the latest technology, it has never been any easier to reach your potential customers. Use this technology to your fullest advantage.

Copyright © 2006 Shelley Lowery

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery. http://www.webdesignmastery.com And, eBook Starter -- Give your ebooks the look and feel of a REAL book. http://www.ebookstarter.com Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to eTips and receive a copy of Shelley's acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies." http://www.web-source.net

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How I Discovered The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy

2006-03-06T17:52:00.000-08:00

By Marlon Sanders © 2006

You think you have problems?

I remember when I had to buy deodorant with all pennies. And lived on minute 30 second State Fair corn dogs and 50 cent burritos.

But that was then.

Today, I woke up whenever I felt like it.

I did the same thing yesterday and the day before. I don't have an alarm clock anymore.

Back then, my car smoked when I picked up my hot date. And the guys in valet parking laughed. She was a real model and dressed quite lavishly. It was our one and only date.

Today, my status symbol is I don't wear a watch and don't need a cell phone. Those are my "freedom symbols."

See, a fancy car doesn't mean much to me. Nor a million dollars.

What matters to me is respect. Helping people. And most of all, freedom.

If you don't have freedom, then what good anything else you have?

Back then, my writing teacher in school made fun of my writing.

Later, I wrote letters that made more than she earned in a month -- and even all year.

On warm days, you'll usually find me sittin' outside drinking tea and reading or writing. Only because that's what I like to do.

What made the difference?

It's not brains. I have average intelligence.

It's not luck. I've had more than my fair share of difficult times.

It's not contacts. I'm a lousy networker.

No, the only thing I can attribute the freedom I have to is what I call "The Amazing Formula."

It all began in 1978 when I read an ad in a magazine for a book by Ben Suarez that would show me how to escape the "rat race," otherwise known as a job.

That ugly blue manual with press-on type for the title changed my life. Some days I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't bought that book? What if I saved the small cost of the book? Where would I be today?

It took me years later to stumble across what became famous around the world as "The Amazing Formula." There's almost no one in this business who hasn't heard of it.

One in every 102 people in the world who surf the web in English have been to one of my web sites.

What is the "Amazing Formula" and how can it help you?

That's more than I can tell you in this article. But I can tell you a few ways you can use it to turn your life around if you're in a hole like I was back then.

Every day almost there's a new product that comes out on how to market on the Internet. And a lot of those products are good.

The problem is, you've got 21 ways to build a web site, 33 steps to sales letters, 15 Google Adsense tricks, 8 methods of viral marketing, 33 steps to Google PPC profits.

But you don't know where to START. So you just keep studying and studying till you can't study any more.

I know. I've been there.

The best thing you can do for YOU today is to get started with the basics.

The hardest web site you'll ever put up is your FIRST one. The hardest letter you'll ever write is your first one. The hardest product you'll every create is your first one. And the hardest email you'll ever write is your first one.

Here is the BIG picture for you to keep in mind:

1. Get your own product to sell

My first version of "Amazing Formula" was HORRIBLY ugly. I wish you could SEE it. Then you might believe me.

It had a giant black margin that sucked all the ink out of people's ink jet printers.

It had typos all over the place I didn't fix for 3 years. But I got it going. That's the most important part.

I think it only took me a day or two to write the original version. After it started selling, I expanded and improved on it.

I teach my students to start with audio products. Actually, I've been teaching that for over 5 or 6 years now. I have products that took 3 hours to create that have brought in 20 G's or so. Not bad for 3 hours work. Beats a job.

2. Put a sales letter on a web page

You don't need a fancy page to start with. Later, if it sells, you can hire a designer.

To start, do something simple. Basic. The original "Amazing Formula" page was really ugly. It had this terrible gray background. But for many years it was one of the most copied designs on the Internet.

Mostly because it was simple.

Remember this: The thing that gets people to buy is your sales letter. Not your graphic design.

And the most important part of the sales letter is your headline.

3. Mail somethin' to people once a week

You need an "opt-in" on your web site so that you can email people an article or an offer once a week.

You gotta keep your name in front of people.

Articles are great. Terry Dean was the old master of those. I read his old articles and STILL think they're great.

Email isn't as easy as it used to be with the filters and all. But it's STILL the single most effective way to promote yourself without spending anything much.

4. Get and publish results

You need to get results from your customers and PUBLISH those results. People buy based on social proof. No doubt about it.

By the way, if you've had RESULTS with "The Amazing Formula" and would be willing to share those with others, just go to:

http://www.amazingformula.com/support

Tell us your story. I'd love to hear it.

5. Do what's right for your customers

I know that sounds terribly trite. But you know what? It's true. I don't endorse junk or the "hot product of the week" to my list.

Why?

Because a lot of it is junk. I just won't endorse trash to my list. Won't do it.

You know. It may be pollyanna but I believe that caring about people still works in the long term. Maybe not the short term. But the long term.

There's lots of promises and things others will say I don't. There's pressure sometimes because of what people will say to make a buck.

But if it ain't right, it ain't right.

Take care of your customers. And I have to believe that in the end, they'll take care of you.

6. Publish articles to get traffic

One of the best ways to get traffic is to take those articles you write for your customers and post them on article directories where they get posted on dozens or hundreds of web sites.

You get natural traffic, name recognition and a search engine boost from the inbound links. Plus, you can wrap 'em up and publish a bunch of articles in a viral ebook.

I taught that whole system in "Amazing Formula." And quite a few very successful businesses have been built off of it.

About the Author:

Marlon Sanders is the author of "The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy." If you'd like to get on his mailing list and receive tips, articles and information about online marketing, visit: http://www.amazingformula.com

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Duplicate Content Filters to Destroy Article Marketing? In a Word, No

2006-02-26T19:05:00.000-08:00

By Mike Banks Valentine © 2006

Rumors are circulating that recent search engine updates are threatening to penalize web sites carrying articles by niche industry experts due to wide distribution and use of those articles on multiple sites. Not so.

Duplicate content filtering confuses everyone. It is absolutely not new and has been in effect for years, but is constantly refined in search engine algorithms to filter out abuses. Any suggestion that article marketing is targeted by the search engines as duplicate content is an understandable misunderstanding. Duplicate content filters look for abuses, not legitimate multiple uses in appropriate forums.

Duplicate content filters were first employed when people began setting up precisely mirrored domains without variation on multiple domain names to increase visibility. That ridiculous method worked to increase ranking until the search engines began de-listing one of the duplicate sites of those employing this technique. Usually it was the older domain that stayed in the index and the newer mirrored site was de-listed.

About the same time, unethical thieves began outright stealing entire sites and placing them on new domains to rank equally as well as the original owner for competitive phrases. Once the traffic was there, they sent them to their own product or affiliate pages. That worked for awhile, but the duplicate content filters nixed that as well and protected the orginal site in rankings.

Then sites began putting up "landing pages" and "doorway pages" for SEO purposes with minor keyword variations in headlines and body text on multiple pages on one site with very closely related text with minor keyword swaps to rank well for blue widgets, red widgets, purple widgets. No text varied but the color or brand or, in the case of travel sites, city and resort names. So search engines extended the duplicate content filter to include that ruse and filter it out.

Continually refining these duplicate content filters is an ongoing effort meant only to beat search engine sp*mmers. Search engines don't set about penalizing legitimate uses of duplicate content - such as press releases distribution and reproduced articles by experts on specialized topics used widely on niche sites and blogs.

There are dozens of legitimate reasons to have the same article on multiple specialty sites and even some good reasons within a single domain. Blogging software actually creates a duplicate page for every post which is deposited in an archive. That blog contains duplicate content until each post rolls off the bottom of the main page. AP and Reuters news stories run on hundreds of news sites. Experts, pundits and commentators within niche industries legitimately syndicate their content to appear widely across dozens of niche sites within their industry.

Many sites now put up duplicate "printer friendly" versions of pages without penalty, but it's always a good idea on the same domain name to post robots metatags telling them not to index duplicate pages. Printing pages or variations on landing pages used for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising should each be tagged by < meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow"> so you needn't worry about being penalized.

Articles distributed for use by other sites appear on many sites with surrounding themed content, varied site navigation and differing internal links. Articles rank well if they match the theme of the site they are used on. The best ranked sites usually rank better for that article. There is currently no penalty for using articles which appear on several sites. If this were the case, hundreds of major industry portals would be severely penalized.

If you search for article titles in quotes, you'll see them repeated everywhere across the web. Try a search for "Blogging Chocolate Purses" and see the extensive use of that article. I first posted it on my blog and my blog post ranks just below a major search engine portal for that article title. No penalty there, Pandia.com is just better ranked overall than my blog and they are legitimately using that article with my permission.

Article marketing is something I recommend to ALL SEO clients to gain valuable one-way inbound links. How much better is an article - with 700 to 1200 words displaying your expertise than a so-called "reciprocal link" gained by begging for it by sp*mming, er I mean, sending mass unsolicited emails to unrelated sites? (I'm stunned that anyone still uses that technique as it seems to me to be the equivalent of begging for links on street corners.)

It is inconceivable that experts writing on specialized topics will ever be penalized by search engines because many niche sites reproduce their expert advice & commentary in newsletters, web sites and blogs. Search engines would face an insurmountable problem in flitering legitimate expertise and commentary simply because it is popular and made available for use on multiple industry blogs and niche sites.

Your articles are no less valuable to the web community because they are syndicated and that appreciation is displayed clearly when they are used extensively across multiple web sites. Write on article marketers.

About the Author:

Mike Banks Valentine blogs on Search Engine developments from http://RealitySEO.com and can be contacted for ethical SEO work at: http://www.seoptimism.com/SEO_Contact.htm He runs web content distribution site at: http://Publish101.com

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Build a Profitable Subscriber List

2006-02-24T20:32:00.000-08:00

By Kathleen Gage © 2006

Why is it some people are incredibly successful at utilizing the power of the Internet in their marketing while others can't seem to figure out the winning formula?

How often do entrepreneurs and salespeople look for that next magic formula to build their business and increasing revenues, never quite making any of it work? Many people make it much more difficult to succeed than it need be while others know exactly what to do … and they do it.

Ask anyone who has effectively integrated the use of the Internet into their overall marketing strategy and they will tell you success in building your business, both online and off, is about systems. Simple as that.

Developing and utilizing systems is nothing new. Yet, the great search for the pot-of-gold at the end of the rainbow and getting-rich- quick continues.

The place you'll find more gold than virtually anywhere else is in doing something many people just don't find appealing. It is in developing and maintaining a solid database. Unfortunately, many people don't find database management "sexy" enough. So they continually buy into that next "secret formula."

Fact is, with a well-groomed database you can increase your revenues and decrease your marketing costs. You can build customer relations and keep your name fresh in the minds of your market by keeping in touch. This establishes excellent position within your market.

Most people would be amazed at how simple it is to build an incredibly profitable database by applying a few simple strategies. Remember, simple is not always easy. It will take time, commitment and focus.

Bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to your database. Depending on your industry and what you sell you may be well served to focus on the few dozen or few hundred who want to buy from you rather than thousands who couldn't care less about what you offer.

On the other hand, there will be situations where building a massive list is exactly what you need to do. Especially if you have mass quantity products you are selling at a very low price. Then you may want to go for the numbers.

Driving traffic to your site is an ongoing process as is building and maintaining your database. If you are serious about using the Internet in your marketing you need to lay the groundwork to optimize your opportunities.

Develop a fully operational web site

Have a way to capture contact information such as a sign up form

Give people a reason for leaving their contact information such as an Ezine, free report or ebook, an article of interest to your target market or anything that is of benefit to the reader

Develop a series of content driven messages that address your customers' needs

Keep your name in front of your market consistently without being annoying

Write and distribute articles to various online resources pertinent to your market

Create a resource box containing your web address

Do not make the articles a hard sell. Rather, provide information that positions you as a resource before you are a vendor

Develop a list of forums and discussion groups you can participate in

Commit to the long-term

By focusing on developing a solid database and providing incredible value to your market you can and will achieve success in your business. Guaranteed!

About the Author:

Kathleen Gage is one of the top rated business owners for 2004 in Utah. Gage is an award winning keynote speaker and author. Access her FREE eBook Street Smarts eMarketing Tips Guaranteed to Jump Start Your Internet Presence to Put You Miles Ahead of the Competition at http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/free-ebook.htm

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Marketing

2006-02-13T17:25:00.000-08:00

By Scott F. Geld © 2006

Marketing and sales are two different things and one should not be confused for the other. Marketing covers various aspects of business including advertising, public relations, sales, and promotions. Marketing will involve all the activities related to getting your product or service into the market, promoting it through advertisements, influencing customer behavior, and encouraging and increasing sales to increase profits of the business. Sales refer to the actual transaction of handing over the product/service to the customer for a price.

The present day marketing strategies are very different from those that existed 20 years ago, since Conrad Levinson introduced the concept of Guerrilla marketing. The radical tactics that were brought then are in fact today considered quite basic and ordinary. Since today customers have access to such a huge variety of products, with advertising messages about each one of them, how will your product or message about your product be noticed by the customer. To survive in this kind of scenario the marketers have to be creative to get their messages noticed by the customer.

A well placed marketing strategy and a detailed plan are essential for survival of companies in the competitive market environment. Those companies that are product centric and insensitive to the needs, desires and expectations of their customers are on the path to destruction. It is important for the company to know and exceed the perceived expectations of the customer as this is the key to success. It is necessary to pay attention to the customer lest he walks away and takes the business elsewhere.

Marketing is not an exercise that can be evaluated in definite terms. The returns are not tangible and apparent to the naked eye. Many managers opine that their staff waste scarce dollars on marketing plans that do not work. Little do they realize that this is an investment that comes back to you many times over. Not all campaigns are star performers. While some may yield mediocre returns, others may zoom past the expectations.

Because marketing can sometimes be seen as a vague term, some people who work outside of the industry have a view that it's "easy" and that anyone can do it. If you take this view then stop do not undertake marketing with out enlisting the help of a competent marketing agency or an independent consultant, who will oversee your marketing efforts.

An outside agency or an independent consultant is a professional that adds a lot of value to the entire campaign. Not only does he come with years of experience and knowledge but also with a package that understands the needs of the industry. An outsider is oblivious to your internal politics and skirmishes and focuses on his core competence to oversee your marketing plan.

About the Author:

Scott F. Geld is the Senior Executive and C.F.O. of Marketing Blaster, a Pay-Per-Click traffic source that continually beats the competition in Conversion Ratios and ROI. Start your campaign at: www.marketingblaster.com

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Copywriting Makeover: Subtle Changes Make A Noticeable Difference Part 2 of 2

2006-02-07T16:34:00.000-08:00

By Karon Thackston © 2006

In part 1 of this series, we were introduced to Kneelsit.com, an Australian manufacturer of ergonomic computer chairs who was in search of a high conversion rate. After spotting several trouble areas within Kneelsit's original copy, I set out to rewrite the home page with specific goals in mind.

The Rewrite

I really felt for the users of these chairs. They had back problems and medical issues, trying desperately to find relief. I can only imagine how it must feel to sit in pain all day, every day. And, after seeing so many false claims for other chairs, I could understand how they might be skeptical. So, after reading the new home page copy, I wanted the site visitors to have confidence, to see the difference in the Kneelsit chair and to understand the benefits this chair would offer.

Of course, those in chronic pain were not the only visitors to the Kneelsit site. While they were the primary segment, the audience also consisted of those with mild back pain, those with inconsistent problems or simple fatigue, and those who simply wanted a comfortable chair that wouldn't contribute to any future back problems. The copy also needed to meet their needs and provide the information they were seeking.

You can see the revised copy here: http://www.copywritingcourse.com/kneelsit-home-new.pdf

The Headline

The original headline did, in fact, list benefits. It stated:

Superb Comfort, Perfect Posture, Gentle Movement, Natural Balance

However, only one of those benefits spoke to audience members… Superb Comfort. While posture may have been a secondary thought, gentle movement and natural balance didn't strike a chord simply because of a lack of knowledge. As it happens, these two benefits are important, but the general population doesn't understand what they mean. It would require educating the site visitors about these two before they would grasp their full meaning. That education couldn't take place within the headline (not enough room!), so those two benefits needed to be removed.

The headline needed to evoke feelings of trust for the skeptical and a sense of stability for the hesitant. It also needed to provide an obvious benefit - one that would catch the reader's attention.

Also, because it made sense to do so, I included one keyphrase in the headline. The new headline read:

Ergonomic Chair Design Based On Years Of Research Lets You Sit For Hours With No Back Pain

The Opening Paragraph

The original copy started out just fine by naming some important benefits, but it didn't back them up. After pointing out the relief of stress and pain, it went directly into an explanation about the chair's patent.

The new copy took a cleaner path. It started by pointing out that others (users and professionals) liked the chair, and then it proceeded (in the next section) to explain why.

The original copy tried to educate readers about the importance of continuous movement and natural balance. There is nothing wrong with educating your customers; however, you need to give ample space to do that. Because the visitors had limited information about these two benefits on the home page, they may have been confused or - at the least - unpersuaded.

The new copy held firm on one feature: the swivel axel mechanism. It explained how this helped with customization of settings to fit every body type and more. With minimal education needed, the customer was able to understand that this one, patented feature offered multiple benefits.

Rather than simply listing shipping details for the close of the copy, the new version of the home page pointed out some additional benefits pertaining to quality and stylishness.

As I wrote, I looked for places to use the keyphrases chosen for this page. This was absolutely not a numbers game. My goal was not to use the keyphrases as often as I possibly could. That approach is not SEO copywriting, in my book.

Basing your copywriting strategy simply on the sheer volume of times you can include keyphrases makes the copy sound forced and ridiculous. In fact, on this home page, the keyphrases were only used a total of four or five times. Yet, to the amazement of some, the home page ranks in the top 10 (and often top five) for its chosen key terms.

The Results

Did it work? Did the changes bring out the results we wanted? They sure did! When asked about improved conversions, the owner of Kneelsit.com had this to say, "Our conversion rate has definitely improved since the rewrite… probably by around 35-40%!"

Sometimes, even though you may have included important information in your copy, it just doesn't do what you hoped it would. Take the time to explore, experiment and test. Replace a headline. Rephrase a paragraph. Subtle changes can often make noticeable improvements in conversions and other areas of business.

About the Author:

Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to also check out Karon's latest e-report "How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)" at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

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What Is Pay-Per-Click? When To Use It - And When Not To

2006-01-27T14:44:00.000-08:00

By Robert Fuess © 2006

The only way to really guarantee top placement is to use pay-per- click advertising. (This is an advertising mechanism in which you pay for every click of a potential customer.) Most search engines offer this on a bidding basis, and if it generates more money than you spend on it, it can be sound business advise. In most cases, you would DO THIS LAST - after you optimize your web site and implement other promotional techniques. If you do an effective job with your website optimization and promotion, you may already come up top naturally and not have to use pay-per- click for several keywords. (This is especially true for MSN or Yahoo.) Or if you choose to make a big (temporary) advertising campaign while you are optimizing (and have the money for this), then you may consider this.

Some keywords will cost more than others, depending on competition. Some will generate more paying customers than others. Do the math as you go along. Figure out the return on investment. This is seldom a one shot deal and often takes a few months of tweaking to get the optimum pay-per-click bid amount for the different keywords.

YOU WILL FIND SEO COMPANIES THAT GUARANTEE YOU TOP PLACEMENT FOR YOUR FAVORITE KEYWORDS. THIS IS HOW THEY DO IT. They use pay-per- click as part of the package and point to the pay-per-click listing, showing you your top placement. The natural links are normally much cheaper in the long run, since once you achieved a top ranking without pay-per-click you will have a steady stream of customers without having this kind of per-click fee.

Google is, of course, an exception. For the first year you will not likely rank for most of your desired keywords despite any valiant efforts on your part. During this period, I would encourage using Google's pay-per-click (AdWords). Although Google is the slowest to recognize your natural ranking - it will give the greatest return in the long run. While you do this - use the information they give you while you manage your pay-per-click keywords. See what is used most often - and what gives you the most sales (conversions). They have tools to help you with that.

ANY SEO FIRM that promises or guarantees top placement for competitive keywords is either selling you pay-per-click or is being boastful. Be wary with your money. You don't need an SEO expert to sign up for pay-per-click. You may use one to help you find the right keywords or perhaps to handle optimization techniques. If they are selling you a package, pay-per-click is often a justifiable part of it. However, don't let such a promise be a decision factor in selecting an SEO expert.

About the Author:

Robert Fuess is a veteran website designer who specializes in making dynamic search engine optimized websites. http://www.SpiderwebLogic.com | http://www.SchoolAndTeacher.com

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3 Secrets to Increasing Traffic in the New Year

2006-01-10T18:49:00.000-08:00

By Scott J. Patterson © 2005

Now that 2006 has arrived, it is the habit of many people to make a resolution for the New Year. While many people focus on self-improvement, some opt to make resolutions about their business. Usually this involves a resolution to increase their revenue for their online business.

But did you know that it is actually quite easy to increase your online revenue?

The trick is to drive more traffic to your Internet business(es). As you know by now, more traffic generally means more money.

No matter what type of site you have, your success hinges on getting as much traffic as possible. But like many online business owners, you have probably exhausted many sources for increasing traffic.

Recently I have found three incredible ways to drive more traffic to your site. The good news is that all these methods are not being done by many webmasters.

So if you want to increase traffic for 2006, be sure to use each of the following three traffic-building mechanisms:

1- Data Feeds

Do you like the idea of creating hundreds, even thousand of pages of legitimate content?

With a data feed, this is possible.

Many online businesses utilize data feeds as a way to help their affiliates. If you are not familiar with this concept, a data feed is file that contains a list of products, descriptions and prices for individual items that are sold by a company.

With a data feed, you can create a specific content page for each product. So if an affiliate program has thousands of products, then you can create thousands of pages of quality content. As you probably know, the more content usually leads to more traffic.

Data feeds are great for getting natural search engine traffic because they list specific products that people are looking for. If you can find a data feed that is related to your specific website, then you can easily generate more natural traffic for your online business.

2- Viral eBooks

Another tool that can dramatically increase your website traffic is a viral ebook or report. Most of the time, a viral ebook is a PDF that people send to their contacts, which contains your marketing message. It is called viral because every person that receives the ebook is given a reason to pass along your material.

Before starting a viral marketing campaign, it is important to create a reason why people will want to pass along your marketing message. Some of the best reasons can include simple greed or a desire to provide entertaining information to their friends. If you can develop a hook that will take advantage of either of these, then it will be easy to create a successful viral marketing campaign.

What I usually do is create a special 5 to 10 page report on a specific topic. Then I find an affiliate program that is related to the topic. Then I create a mechanism where people can easily brand this ebook with their own affiliate link.

This type of viral ebook is valuable because you can place a mini advertisement or sponsorship on every copy. In addition, you can let the reader know that he or she can make money by offering this viral ebook. As a result, there is a chance that every person that reads the book will click over to your site.

3-Blogs

By now, you have probably heard about the power of blogs. If you haven’t created one, then you should use the New Year to take advantage of this traffic pulling tool

With blogs, you are providing your audience with fresh new content about your topic. People love to read them, because most blogs contain new information in an entertaining and easy-to-read format.

The best part about blogs is how much they are valued by search engines. The majority of search engines consider any information on a blog to be important current news, so they pay special attention to articles listed there. As a result, you can use blogs to drive a larger portion of traffic to your Internet business.

For 2006 you should make a resolution to get more traffic to your site. By implementing these three tools into your marketing mix, you will discover that your web traffic (and income) will dramatically increase.

About the Author:

Scott J. Patterson is a self proclaimed Dunce, yet in a recent month he earned $12,124 from one of his online businesses. To find out how YOU can do the same, download his free ebook - A Secret-Guide to Online Businesses: http://www.duncemoney.com/new-year.html

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Yahoo Publisher Network: Another Way to Have Your Website Earn Its Keep

2006-01-07T08:01:00.000-08:00

By Merle © 2005

Have you ever wished for someone to come along and compete with "Google's Adsense Program?" With the launch of "Yahoo's Publisher Network"(YPN) you could say that some wishes really do come true.

If you're not familiar with Adsense or YPN, both programs allow you to add specialized coding to your website pages and then display text-based ads which are related to the content on the page. For example, if you have a sports related website theme, then ads would be shown for sporting goods and services.

Google had this market cornered for a long time, but with YPN there's now some "friendly competition" -- which is a good thing for everyone involved.

Yahoo's Publisher Network (YPN) is currently in beta and only available to publishers in the United States. You can apply for the program at http://publisher.yahoo.com. Word on the "Internet Street" is that Yahoo hopes to be out of beta by the end of the year and has plans for offering additional services as well.

Once accepted into the program (which they're calling "Content Match"), you'll need to log into the YPN control panel to select your ad formats and colors. There are 10 different ad unit sizes to choose from. For example: Square 250X250, Large Rectangle 336X280, Small Rectangle 180X150, Banner 468X60, and so on. Most of the sizes offered are similar to those you'll find on Google's Adsense.

Customized color schemes can be created for your ad lay-out, or you can go with any of the standard ad colors. You can set background color, text and link colors.

YPN offers full reporting and tracking capabilities. You can track up to 50 channels to find out which pages and ads are your top performers.

Once the code is in place on your pages, Yahoo will crawl your site's content to ensure that relevant ads appear. If no targeted ads are available, public service ads will be shown.

YPN gives you a bit of control over competitors' ads showing up on your site, with the option of blocking up to 200 of them.

In their efforts to differentiate themselves from Adsense, YPN is also offering something called "Ad Targeting." This allows you to choose up to two ad categories for your entire site, or just for specific pages. This is done in order to target your visitors with ads based on their specific interests. This in no way guarantees that only ads from those categories will be shown; it just gives Yahoo a better idea of what types of ads you'd like to see appear on your site.

You can choose up to two categories per targeted URL, to a maximum of 50. If you don't see a category that fits your pages you can always suggest it be added. There are currently 20 categories to choose from. For example "automotive, B2B, computing," with 109 sub categories.

If you've been showing Google ads on your site for some time now and are thinking about adding YPN's to increase your revenue, keep in mind it is against Yahoo's terms of service to display any other contextual ads on the same pages as theirs. So if you want to run both programs on your site you'll have to put one on each page, or get your hands on a rotation script that will rotate both ad types, one at a time, on all pages of your site. One such script can be found at Shoemoney http://tinyurl.com/bg3kf

Another really nice feature that Google is lacking is Yahoo's "Balance Transfer Option." If you also use Yahoo's Search Marketing Program for your pay per click advertising and you use the same user name and password for both, you can transfer money from your publisher network account at YPN to your sponsored search account. There are no minimum amounts for transfers and you'll need to manually make the request in order to move the funds, but this is a handy feature. When it comes to payday and any earnings you may have coming to you, there is a minimum payout of $100.00 before Yahoo will cut you a check. Checks are sent 45 days after the close of the calendar month. For example, any earnings made in September will be paid to you by November 15th. I'd like to see them shorten up the pay cycles in the future, as most small entrepreneurs generally need cash sooner rather than later.

It's going to be interesting to watch this new race heat up between Google and Yahoo. Competition is always a good motivator and who knows, it may encourage Google to offer new features as well knowing they don't have the corner on the contextual market.

Keep your eyes peeled for future changes and enhancements and may the best man win!

About the Author:

"Must Have Marketing Resources" Ebook by Merle is loaded with VALUABLE online resources you need to know about, when it comes to running your web business. Get your copy now at ... http://mcebook.mcpromotions.com

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A Simple Way To Create 7 Effective Autoresponder Messages

2005-12-26T07:11:00.000-08:00

By Kevin Nunley © 2005

Email is the Net's most powerful marketing tool. And autoresponders are the best idea yet for marketing with email.

There is an old saying that the first ad rarely sells. You have to put your product, service, or idea in front of a prospect several times before she buys.

Autoresponders are designed specifically to get your message back to the same prospect over and over. That's why most autoresponder packages come in groups of 7 messages--from the 7 message marketing rule that has been the rule in advertising since our grandparents were in diapers.

But what do you say in your 7 messages? We've written autoresponder series for hundreds of customers. Here is one method that always works.

This method is called REMIND 'EM. People don't read your sales letter as carefully as you think. They tend to skim. They read the first message, but miss the second and third message. The prospect may not tune in again until message five. It's so easy for people to completely miss your main points intended to lead to a sale.

It's important to *repeat* your main message over and over. Say it once, twice, three times in your first message. Say your main message in a different way in the second message. Re-cap your main point again in the third message. That way, people who aren't paying attention still get your important ideas.

Here's an example of how the "remind 'em" formula works for a 7 letter series promoting personal security products.

Message (1) The world is a dangerous place. You need new innovative security products to insure your protection.

Message (2) More details on how and why the world is a dangerous place. List places or situations that are especially threatening.

Message (3) Recap how the world is a dangerous place. Give more details on the key new security products that have come out.

Now start the middle section of messages. Note how they become more instructional telling people how to use the products.

Message (4) Protect yourself from the dangerous world with Product A. Here's how to use Product A. Here's why you would use it.
Here's where to use it.

Message (5) Protect yourself with Product B. Here's how to use it. Here's what happy customers say about it. Tell a hair raising story of how Product B saved a customer's life.

Now comes the wrap-up and reminder, especially important for people who never got around to reading your earlier messages.

Message (6) Go back to your main sales letter used in numbers 1 and 2. Start all over reviewing your main points and highlighting your most popular products.

Message (7) This is the final follow-up email. I usually have it come two weeks to one month after message 6. It's designed to scoop up all the people who weren't ready to buy in the beginning, but may be ready to buy now.

It can start with "For the past few weeks I've been sending you important information about how to protect yourself in threatening situations. I know you are busy and may not have had time to consider how these products could improve your life and confidence." At that point, you again review your main points.

Repetition is the key to advertising success. Find creative ways to keep the main message going week after week and you will have as many customers as you can handle. Busy prospects simply need time for your message to sink in. As we used to say when I worked in media, it's just when you and your staff are sick to death of a commercial that the audience is just beginning to notice it.

About the Author:

Kevin Nunley writes autoresponder messages that get results. See his quality, affordable writing packages at http://DrNunley.com Reach Kevin at mailto:kevin@drnunley.com

Get Affordable--even FREE--Targeted Advertising in Magazines

2005-12-12T13:51:00.000-08:00

By John Frazier © 2005

By now most of us have tried just about every advertising method available. From ads on Google to website banners. And even though you may have found an advertising method that works, you're probably still looking for more.

I'm often surprised by how many home-based business owners and opportunity seekers have never thought of advertising in magazines. Magazines are the original targeted media. While TV shows and newspapers may try to appeal to a very wide audience featuring many different kinds of people, magazines have always focused their efforts on a tightly defined audience.

For example, look through the magazine rack the next time you're at the grocery store and you will see dozens of different magazines focusing on everything from cars, fishing, crafts, home decorating, relationships, and business. All these magazines cater to a different audience with different tastes and buying habits.

By choosing magazines that focus on your best potential customers, you almost guarantee your ads will be successful. It's an old rule in marketing that getting your ad in a magazine that intensely appeals to your best customers will get you ten times the results than advertising in a famous mass appeal publication like Business Week, Time, or Newsweek.

That's right, advertising your home-based business in Home Business Magazine will most likely get you far more response than getting your name in Newsweek.

And this is REALLY good news for those of us working from home. Smaller, more tightly-focused magazines almost always offer very affordable ads, usually in the back of the magazine. While full and half-page ads can cost hundreds or thousands, you can advertise in the back for about the same cost as putting a classified ad in your local paper. Then, as very few people know, there are also ways to get FREE ads in big magazines. Either way, it's cheap, targeted, and it could be your best path to new profits.

And don't let that "back of the magazine" position discourage you. More than half of people read magazines from back to front. Businesses advertising in the back actually have the most visible spot in the magazine.

The weeks ahead are traditionally a time when magazines drop their advertising rates. Place your ads NOW to take advantage of low rates early in the year which, incidentally, is the time of year when the most people are interested in joining a business opportunity.

About the Author:

John Frazier is the author of the industry's highly acclaimed mail order marketing course 'Magazine Millionaire.' He is also an internationally known speaker and consultant. For a limited time, get a special FREE Report on how to create lifetime wealth using 100% FREE-to-run magazine advertising by visiting http://www.MagazineMillionaire.com or by calling 1-800-657-1320

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How To Succeed With E-mail Marketing

2005-12-09T16:13:00.000-08:00

By Desmond Mantor © 2005

In recent years, e-mail marketing has received some bad press with many considering all efforts to be little more than "spam." To stop the delivery of marketing e-mails, firewalls have been erected and filters set in place.

However, it must be said that e-mail marketing is one of the cheapest methods of marketing any business online. Not only is e-mail marketing incredibly cost-effective, the market is absolutely huge since there are nearly a billion people connected to the Internet and millions more users are being added every month.

For anyone who has a valid product or service to offer, but with limited funds to set aside for advertising, e-mail marketing is probably the best option for a growing business. Now, here are a few tips which will help you reach that vast audience using e-mail marketing.

Personalize your greeting. People do not appreciate being thought of as just some number or e-mail address out there in cyberspace. They are savvy enough to recognize that an e-mail without a personalized greeting has simply been generated by software and are far more likely to dump it in the trash bin than a message that actually uses their name.

While it does take more time, you will likely see a far better response rate if you personalize the subject lines. Also, avoid using gimmicks like $$$ in the subject heading or an excessive amount of exclamation marks.

To be successful, the email must contain a very clear call to action. There is little point in stimulating reader interest and then not telling them how to proceed in using your product or service.

Most successful e-mail marketers will use links to direct the reader to a web site where they may sign-up for further information or to actually receive the product or service being advertised.

Ultimately, there must be a clear route for people to take once they have decided to purchase. It doesn't matter if this is a web link or a telephone number, the principle is the same.

It would be fair to say that the most important e-mail marketing tip is to test, test and test again. Don't just create one email and consider it your very best effort.

Write 2 or even 3 different versions of the very same offer. Then, try sending them to a section of your subscribers, maybe around a 100 emails each. You may wish to test 3 variables. These could be, the subject line, the link placement and the ad copy itself.

Go ahead and make one change at a time. First try the link placement variables\and see which is most effective. Then try 3 different subject line versions, and so on. Now this does take time and effort but it will be worth it since your end result will be a finely tuned email that has been proved to generate the results that need.

E-mail marketing may have a bad reputation, but this does not mean it is ineffective. If this was so, we would be seeing fewer and fewer commercial emails flying into our inboxes. In fact, the opposite is the case, e-mail marketing is growing. So as long as you remember to personalize, experiment and include a clear call to action, then your subscriber list will bring you the profits that you are looking for.

About the Author:

Desmond Mantor is the Marketing Manager for Have Traffic - a company specializing in producing highly targeted website traffic for commercial websites. Visit http://www.havetraffic.com for information about their revolutionary web site promotion service.

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Proven Fast and Easy Traffic Generation Methods

2005-11-28T17:15:00.000-08:00

By Willie Crawford © 2005

One of the most perplexing questions faced by webmasters, especially those with new sites, is "How do I get traffic to my site?" Here are a few easy, inexpensive, and relatively fast methods I use to generate traffic.

1) Write and distribute ezine articles. This article you're reading right now will send visitors to the site mentioned in my resource box at the end of the article. You can do the same thing. Write articles on topics that you KNOW your target market is interested in, and then distribute them to ezine publisher and websites that publish others’ content. People will read your articles, and if the articles provides value to them, they will visit your site to learn more. It's that simple.

The key to getting your articles published is to write something that provides genuine value to your readers. Actually teach them something. Potential publishers will see the value, and know that their readers will appreciate the articles...so they’ll publish them.

The key to getting your articles READ is writing about something people want to know more about. For example, this article is about generating more traffic. Monitor any online marketing discussion forum, or email discussion list, and you'll see that EVERY webmaster is interested in getting more traffic. So, I know that this article will be read.

Writing articles that will be published is both an art and a science. However, you can become proficient at it fairly quickly. I've written over 350 articles in the past 4 years, so it's not that hard. The best system I've encountered recently on how to write and distribute effective articles is called Article Announcer. You'll find it at: http://TheRealSecrets.com/article-announcer/

2) Posting others’ related articles on content sites. You can create a website around a very focused niche topic, and then post others’ articles on that site. You can search article directories such as ArticleCity.com or IdeaMarketers.com and find thousands of articles others have written and give permission for you to use. Usually, article writers do this in hopes of generating traffic and sales from their articles.

You can search through these sites and find articles on your topic. Then you simply copy and paste them into your website template to create a site that will rank well in the search engines because the site is focused.

When I personally create these content sites, I use software to both locate appropriate articles, and to turn those articles into webpages. I have templates that are in my basic site layout. The software that I use can find dozens, or even hundreds, of articles and automatically insert these articles into the correct place on the page. It can even break up the articles, adding comments or AdSense ads in the middle.4

An example of one such site that I've created is at: http://cheapest-merchantaccounts.com On that site's homepage is a link to "Articles." Following that link will take you to literally over 100 articles related to merchant accounts and ecommerce. ALL of those pages were created in less than 5 minutes. I used a piece of software called Content SiteBuilder, found at a site called Content Desk. Basically I set up a template (inserting things such as my AdSense code, and links to affiliate products) and then I told the software where to put the articles. In a snap it output the article pages. Then I merely had to upload the pages to my server and link to them from my homepage.

"But does this generate traffic?" you ask. If you search on the term "cheapest merchant accounts" at Yahoo.com you'll see that this site ranks number 5 out of over 1 million pages targeting that term. If you continued digging, you'd discover that the number 1 site for that term is a blog that I own, and the number 2 site also belongs to me... it needs lots of work. All of these sites generate traffic... people looking for the lowest priced merchant account. So yes it does work. These visitors earn me revenue by either applying for the merchant account I recommend or by clicking on AdSense ads.

A key element in the success of the sites above is that I got them indexed quickly by linking to them from sites that were already indexed, and that were frequently visited by the search engines. I also didn't put a lot of time into building any of these site because of the Content Desk software. You can find out more about that software at: http://TheRealSecrets.com/content-desk/

3) I like free traffic, but often when a site is first erected, you need to use pay-per-clicks to get that initial surge of traffic. Articles and the other methods I use are SO effective that I'll only use pay-per-clicks if I'm in a hurry to refine the conversion rate. With pay-per-click traffic, since they are all responding to the same ad(s) you get more homogenous traffic. So it's easier to separate elements in your testing and determine what's effective. After refining the conversion process, whether or not I continue with pay-per-clicks often depends upon return-on-investment. I don’t like to put a lot of time into managing a site!

4) Create viral tools. Rebrandable PDF special reports work well, especially if you have an affiliate program. If you don't have an affiliate program, you can create these same reports on hot topics, and s-e-l-l or give, the reprint rights to others. In these reports you include links to your "backend" products, or to websites you want to generate traffic to.

Key to the success of getting others to spread your viral tools is incentivizing them. Structuring your PDF document so that publishers and webmasters can profit from distributing it is the easiest way to do that. Money is a great incentive In fact, you can even structure your articles so that publishers profit from distributing them. The way to do that is simply to allow affiliates to substitute their affiliate url for yours in the articles.

If you don't run an affiliate program, you can even write articles for programs that you are an affiliate for. Then contact the affiliate program manager and offer to allow them to provide the articles to their affiliates. Since you are allowing their affiliates to change the url for that product (to their affiliate url), you need to have a link somewhere in each article that points back to your site too. Most affiliate won't have a problem with this if it's a good article. It's a win-win situation.

5) Just as you use PDF’s to generate viral traffic, you can do the same thing with Camtasia videos. You can create short videos demonstrating how to do something, and then you make these available to publishers. Camtasia has a feature that allows you to automatically redirect the viewer to a specified webpage at the end of the video. You can either send them to your website, or you can create special videos for your affiliates that take the viewer to that affiliates url. The possibilities are endless.

To see an example of how I use Camtasia video to both educate and generate traffic, watch my video entitled "Secrets Of The Internet Marketing Titans." In this video I explain why top Internet marketers seem to have an "inner circle," and then explain how to break into that inner circle as a welcomed member. Because the video does educate, many ezine publishers are happy to tell their readers about it. You can view this video at: http://TheRealSecrets.com/titans/titans.html

6) Offer 5 to 20-part email courses to your website visitors. Often your website visitors who won't subscribe to an ezine will subscribe to a course. That's either because the course has a higher perceived value, or because the course covers a topic they're interested in more in-depth than an ezine would. In the course, you invite your readers back to your website for additional resources, to see how something is implemented, etc. This generates repeat visitors to your website and gives you many opportunities to convert that subscriber to a customer.

7) Publish an ezine or some type of list from your website. An ezine allows you to have repeated contact with a person who may otherwise never return to your site. As you build the relationship, you can offer them various reasons for returning to your site. As an example, I try to keep my ezine to a reasonable length. Things that I can't fit in my ezine - I post on my blog. So I invite my subscriber to return to my site to read those extra gems available only on the blog.

Publishing a list doesn't have to be hard work. For example, I publish a list from a cooking related site that is written entirely by my readers. It's a recipe exchange mailing list. Readers submit recipes or requests for recipes. These reader submissions are compiled into a twice daily digest that is edited for quality control and then sent out to the list. My editor inserts two sponsor ads in each issue. Those sponsor ads not only drive traffic to my site, they drive six-figure sales of a cookbook that I wrote.

The cooking list, written by the readers, creates such loyalty that if we ever miss a day of publishing, hundreds of readers write in to ask us to confirm that they haven't been dropped from the list. Some subscribers have been on this particular list for over 5 years. Aside from a little editing, the list is on almost total autopilot. You can check out how this list is set up by visiting my cooking site at: http://Chitterlings.com. You'll notice that the number one focus of the homepage is to build the list, so that we can generate the repeat traffic. It works beautifully!

So there you have seven ways to generate website traffic relatively fast, easy, and inexpensively. I even gave you examples that you can examine and model. Implement just a few of these ideas, and you'll get a nice steady flow of website visitors.

About the Author:

Willie Crawford has taught PROVEN Internet marketing techniques to thousands of successful Internet entrepreneurs since late-1996. Subscribe to his free, weekly ezine, which helps you cut through the clutter and time-wasting hype. Subscribe now by visiting: http://WillieCrawford.com

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Opt-In Marketing

2005-11-22T16:15:00.000-08:00

By Scott F. Geld © 2005

Almost a complete opposite to direct marketing, welcome marketing (or opt-in as it is often called) is where people have actually asked to be part of your marketing campaign. This is a relatively new, but highly effective marketing method.

People actually come to you; they tell you that they want to receive information by newsletter, email or possibly through phone calls. Think about it, how much time and money do you waste by sending information to people who are simply not interested?

With opt-in marketing or consensual marketing, you know that you are marketing to people who are interested in your product or the topic of your product. This makes your effort at marketing more worth it.

Another great benefit is that your customers can actually ask you for the information that they want to receive. A lot of marketing material is unnecessary or unwanted. By being directly linked to your customers you can make sure that you tell them exactly what they want to hear.

This direct link is a great way to make your customer feel wanted and important. There is nothing worse than receiving information that is totally irrelevant; this does nothing to build the reputation of your company. Target people and build the relationships you have if you want to see marketing success.

Opt-in marketing works exceptionally well with internet marketing. You can have potential customers sign up for emails, newsletters and more that will explain your product to them.

In a world where there is an excess of marketing, customers can be understandably cold. The constant bombardment of advertising can be frustrating and annoying. Direct marketing in particular has been known to have the complete opposite effect and actually to turn potential customers away.

By allowing customers to choose whether or not they receive information you are much more likely to get a warmer reception. Be sure that you stay around to help your customer after they have bought your product. This way they will remain interested in your marketing and will become repeat customers.

About the Author:

Scott F. Geld is the C.E.O. and Manager of Marketing Blaster, a Pay-Per-Click traffic source that repeatedly beats the major search engines in Conversion and ROI Ratios. Visit us online and see for yourself at: http://www.marketingblaster.com

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Creating A Search Engine Copywriting Plan

2005-11-14T15:57:00.000-08:00

By Karon Thackston © 2005

Search engine copywriting has become an extremely important part of the overall search engine optimization process. However, in addition, search engine copywriting has developed into a misunderstood craft.

Shoving keywords in anywhere they can possibly go is not considered search engine copywriting. The process is more defined than that. Successful SEO copywriting takes planning. Any half-hearted efforts at writing copy geared strictly toward the engines will usually result in a decline in your customer's experience at your site.

What's the best way to write SEO copy? Starting with a plan is always a good idea. Keep in mind, these are guidelines of techniques that can be used *IF* they make sense for your site visitors. I never recommend writing solely for the search engines. In the case of search engine copywriting, the customer is truly #1.

1) Use Three Keyphrases Per Page - Not a carved-in-stone rule, the guideline of three keyphrases per page gives good variety and helps keep the copy from sounding too repetitive. I always choose keyphrases first - before I write - because they can have a direct impact on the focus of the page.

2) Have 250 or More Words of Copy - The length of your copy depends on several things: Your target customer's preferred communication style, whether the product is new to the marketplace, if a detailed explanation needs to be given, site design and many other factors. However, the 250-word minimum gives enough room to get your message across and offer an effective level of keyword support. Remember though, it's all about the customer. If your target customers prefer longer copy, write longer copy. If they like shorter copy, write shorter copy.

3) Write In Natural Language - "Natural language" is a term popular in SEO copywriting. It means that the reader should not be able to (or should barely be able to) detect what keyphrases the page is being optimized for. The copy should flow as if it were not written with the search engines in mind. You don't want the copy to sound forced or stiff. When you generate ideas for the page copy, keep your keywords in mind. Ask yourself whether you can use them in the copy in such a way that they won't be obtrusive.

4) Use Keyword Phrases In Headlines and Sub-headlines - IF it makes sense to do so. You will not blow your rankings if you have no keyword-filled H1> or other H> tags. If your headline sounds stupid with keywords in it, don't use them. There are countless sites online that rank highly which have no keywords in the headline.

5) Use Keyword Phrases Once or Twice Per Paragraph - Again IF it makes sense. Remember what I keep repeating? None of these guidelines are carved in stone. Read your copy out loud. If it sounds stupid or forced, take out some keywords or find ways to rework them so they flow more naturally.

6) Use Keyword Phrases In Bold, Italic or Bulleted Lists - IF it makes sense to do so. Don't automatically bold or italicize every instance of your keywords. It will make your page look stupid, and your visitors will wonder what kind of drugs you've been doing!

7) Do NOT Use Keyword Phrases As Substitutes For Generic Terms - For example, do not replace every instance of the generic word "cruise" with the keyphrase "Mexico cruise vacation." Your copy will sound ridiculous.

We offer Mexico cruise vacation packages on the most popular Mexico cruise vacation ships to the most breathtaking Mexico cruise vacation destinations. Oh please!!

8) Use Keyword Phrases As Anchor Text In Links - This is certainly not always possible. If your primary keyphrase is "Mexico Cruise Vacation," you absolutely should not write every link to include that phrase. However, if you can include keywords in anchor text within body copy or in text navigation links, you might score a little extra credit.

9) Test and Track - Lastly, and above all, please remember, it may take some tweaking to get your page to convert the way you want it to. All customers are not the same, and all sites are not the same. All keyphrases are not the same. There is no magic bullet. You'll have to test and track and see what works best for you.

About the Author:

Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to check out Karon's latest e-report "How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)" at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

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Marketing Your Business Website On A Budget

2005-11-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

By Ken Shorey © 2005

Owners of home based businesses that are trying to make a living working from home know the problems encountered trying to get your website noticed in order to increase traffic and ultimately revenues. After all, if people don't know about your site, how will they find it among the millions of other sites.

Blindly paying a lot of money for advertising, or if you don’t have an advertising budget, not advertising at all, can both be detrimental to your business success. Getting your site noticed online doesn't have to be as difficult as many making it.

For instance, there are many ways to market your products and services inexpensively if not completely free, so spending a lot of money on it could be wasteful. If you have no money to spend, you should be diligent about searching out all the options for free advertising. If you don't, you're asking your business to fail.

When it comes to advertising, there are many options online and offline that will help you spread the word about your Website and help you drive traffic to it and in turn increasing and revenues.

First, check out offline venues for free advertisement like local newspapers, television stations, radio stations and the like. Often times these mediums are looking for new local businesses to highlight in their business sections and/or discussions. This is free advertisement and something you should take advantage of immediately.

Also, make sure your URL is on every piece of printed material you use in regard to your business whether it is stationary or free gifts. Having your URL out there will help brand your website and people will be more likely to check out what you have to offer.

Additionally, while you are making your URL well known, make sure your website appears professional and is easy for your visitors to use. If you accept payment online, make sure that the checkout process is easy and convenient as well as secure. Using payment systems like PayPal might be a good idea for you as well because it allows a variety of payment methods in many different currencies.

Advertising online also doesn't have to be expensive. Some free options are trading links with other relevant websites, submitting articles to online article directories and ezines with a resource box with your information, and joining relevant forums and posting helpful information with a link to your website in your signature.

Certainly, you can do banners and other advertising, but if you don’t have much of a budget try all of the free options before you start paying money you don't have. As your business grows, your advertising budget will grow as well and you can invest in paid advertising options.

Be creative and proactive in finding inexpensive and/or free advertising, your business will grow, your revenues will grow and you will not be spending much at all on advertising. Remember, the more people that are aware of your website the more traffic, referrals and ultimately purchases you'll get. Make sure your website's URL is visible to as many people as possible in as many places as possible.

About the Author:

Ken Shorey is owner/webmaster of http://ez-work-at-home.net your Work at Home Directory for legitimate online business programs and resources.

Visit my other websites
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Selecting a Quality Domain Name

2005-11-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

By Shelley Lowery © 2005

When you're ready to launch your web site and you're trying to select a good domain name, there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Select a Domain Name that Reflects Your Web Site

Above all else, your domain name should reflect what your web site is all about. For example, if your web site is about grooming a dog, you certainly wouldn't want to select a domain name like 'mybusinessname.com,' as this would have nothing to do with your web site's focus. You would want to select a domain name that tells the world what your web site is all about -- something like 'doggrooming.com.'

Select a Domain Name that Contains Your Web Site's Keywords

Another consideration of great importance are your keywords. Try to select a domain name that contains your most relevant keyword phrase, as some Search Engines place relevancy on them. A keyword phrase is two or more words that best describe your web page. If your web page is focusing on grooming a dog, your best keyword phrase will be "dog grooming."

Select a Domain Name that will be Easily Remembered

With millions of web sites accessible on the Internet, it is also very important to select a domain name that will be easily remembered. As in the 'doggrooming.com' example above, 'doggrooming.com' is very easily remembered, contains the most relevant keyword phrase and describes the web site in explicit detail. It is the 'perfect' domain name for this particular web site.

Select the Best Domain Extension

Another consideration of importance is the domain name extension. Although there are many new domain extensions available, dotcom is still the best choice. When typing in a web address, Internet users automatically want to type in a .com extension, as this is the extension that has been embedded into our brains from the start.

Avoid Using Numbers in Your Domain Name

Although you may be tempted to do so, avoid using numbers within your domain name. Including a number within your domain name can cause problems, as when you tell someone your web address, you will continually have to tell them it's a number and not the word. For example, if you selected a domain name like number1host.com, if you were to tell someone your web address, they may try to type it as 'numberonehost.com' instead of 'number1host.com.' This type of domain name would cause confusion.

Avoid using Dashes and Underscores in Your Domain Name

Although many people do it, don't make the same mistake I made when I first started out. Avoid using dashes, underscores or any other characters within your domain name that may cause confusion. When I registered my domain name, Web-Source.net, I actually wanted websource.com; however, it had already been registered. So, I settled for Web-Source.net. Now, when I tell someone my domain name, I have to say it like this: web dash source dot net.

Don't get me wrong, www.Web-Source.net is now a high traffic web site, but I can only imagine how much traffic I've lost over the years due to my domain name. I have received many emails over the years from visitors who had a hard time finding my site. They said they couldn't remember the domain name and kept wanting to type in websource.com.

Avoid using Abbreviations within Your Domain Name

Although well-known companies, such as IBM, can get away with using abbreviations within their domain name, most companies can't. As a rule, try to avoid using abbreviations or anything that will be difficult for your visitors to remember. Not only will this cause confusion, but it can also cause your potential visitors to make spelling mistakes when trying to type in your web address.

Avoid using Long Domain Names

Although you may now register long domain names, it's really not a good idea. I learned this lesson the hard way. I registered 'www.workfromhomebusinessguide.com' and the sad thing is ... I can't remember the domain name half the time. How can I expect my potential visitors to remember it? Try to keep your domain name as short as possible. The longer the domain name the harder it is to remember and the more apt your potential visitors are to make a typo when typing it into their browser.

Ensure Your Domain Name is Not a Trademark Infringement

Prior to registering a domain name, you may want to consider searching the Trademark Electronic Search System, http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm to ensure your potential domain name isn't infringing on any trademarks.

Please don't take this point lightly, as trademark infringement could cost you your entire business. It is your responsibility to ensure that your potential domain name doesn't infringe on any registered trademarks, as the trademark laws that apply in the hard copy world also apply on the Internet. Any company that registers a trademark has the right to protect their trademark and has the right to notify you that your domain name is infringing upon their trademark.

When you're ready to begin, create a list of a dozen or more potential domain names, as chances are, your first choice will already be taken. With any luck, one of the domain names on your list will be available.

Take your time and select a quality domain name that will grow with your business. It will be well-worth your time and effort in the long run.

You have permission to publish this article electronically (within your ezine, web site, ebook or blog) or in print, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.

You can find additional articles here: http://www.web-source.net/free_articles.htm

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery. http://www.webdesignmastery.com Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for your complimentary subscription to Etips and receive a copy of Shelley's acclaimed ebooks, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies" and "Work from Home: A Complete Guide..." http://www.web-source.net

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What Marketing Can't Do For You

2005-10-31T09:54:00.000-08:00

By Michele Pariza Wacek © 2005

I thought I would clear up some misconceptions about marketing in this two-part series: What Marketing Can Do For You and What Marketing Can't Do For You. This issue is about what marketing can’t do.

While there’s no question a solid marketing program can increase your business, it can’t fix everything. Below are 5 things marketing can’t do for you:

1. Marketing can’t make you an overnight success. Just because you start a marketing program doesn’t mean you’re immediately going to see your business explode. Marketing is about getting your name in front of your target market on a regular basis until they finally decide to give you a try.

On that note, if you’re in trouble right now – sales are down, a new business isn’t getting off the ground like you planned -- depending on how bad the trouble is a marketing program may not be enough to save you. A successful marketing program needs time to work and more likely than not, a little money as well. If you’re panicked about one (or more likely both) you may need to start looking at other options.

2. Marketing is not about doing something once and forgetting about it. The very best marketers test. And test. And test.

For instance, maybe your Web site isn’t converting visitors to customers as well as it should be. You could hire a copywriter to tweak it for you. You could test the different elements to see what raises your conversion level. That’s one way to use testing. You can also test different headlines, different offers, etc.

3. Marketing can’t fix a bad experience. This is a big one. If your customers have a lousy experience with your products or services or with your customer service reps or sales people, etc., that’s it. Worse yet, not only have you lost a customer for good, that customer will probably tell others about their bad experience. So now you’ve lost more potential customers as well.

Marketing can get people in the door, but it can’t ensure they’ll have an experience they’ll want to repeat. Before assuming more marketing is what you need, take a moment and make sure your current customers are truly satisfied with your business.

4. Marketing can’t fix a flawed business. Much like tip number 3, marketing can’t fix cash flow issues or staff problems.

Okay, I can hear all of you saying “Of course, marketing can’t fix cash flow problems. Do you think we’re stupid?” My answer is no, I don’t think you’re stupid at all. I think what happens is sometimes you get so caught up in the day-to-day challenges of running a business you can’t see the forest for the trees.

Let me explain. Let’s say you have a business that’s struggling with cash flow. The first thing that springs to mind may be revving up marketing. After all, the idea behind marketing is to increase revenue. On the surface that makes sense. However, if you look a little closer, what you might find are expenses that are out of whack or not getting invoices out in a timely manner. So what you should be fixing is your accounting problems rather than changing your marketing.

5. Marketing can’t make people buy things they either don’t want or can’t afford. It doesn’t matter how great your product or service is, if you’re selling to people who either don’t have the interest or the means to buy it, then your marketing is going to fail no matter how brilliant it may be.

So basically it all boils down to this, before you decide you need more marketing, take a few moments and make sure marketing is really the right solution for your business.

Creativity Exercise -- Reality Check

Before you launch into a new marketing program, take some time to analyze what’s really happening in your business. Do you really need a marketing program or is your problem:

You aren’t able to close the leads you have

You aren’t invoicing in a timely manner or following up with unpaid accounts

Your customers aren’t happy with the product or service

Your customers are having a bad experience with technical support or something else in the process isn’t working

Your target market isn’t right

You aren’t passionate about what you’re doing anymore

Your business has way too many expenses

And so on. Basically I just want you to make sure marketing really is your problem before you start fiddling with it.

If you want to grow your business, then you should be consistently marketing your business. But if you’re using marketing as a bandaid for some other problem, then you could be headed for trouble.

Copyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek

About the Author:

Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of "Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money." She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com

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What Marketing Can Do For You

2005-10-24T13:33:00.000-07:00

By Michele Pariza Wacek © 2005

I thought I would clear up some misconceptions about marketing in this two-part series: What Marketing Can Do For You and What Marketing Can't Do For You. We'll start with the positive.

Over the years, I've had dealings with some business owners who have a rather skewed perception of marketing. They think you throw a few ads out there, get a couple of press releases printed and voila! You’re a big success.

Oh, if it only were that easy. (Although if it were, I probably wouldn’t have a job.)

But there's no getting around that to have a successful business, you need a solid marketing plan.

So what CAN marketing do for you? Increase your business no question about it. You need to be marketing if you want to grow your business.

However (and this is a really big however) marketing is NOT going to result in overnight success. Marketing is about slow growth, building on last week's success and forgetting about last month's failures. (Or what you THINK are failures. It's not uncommon that a campaign you think is a dismal disappointment may be what caused the next campaign to take off.)

Marketing is about frequency -- about your target market seeing your offer over and over again until they're finally ready to buy. Without that very important frequency, your business will start to stagnate and eventually die.

Now that doesn't mean you won't have a major success with a campaign. Even a massive, amazing, unbelievable success. You'll run one ad or be featured in an article and wham! You end up with more orders than you know what to do with. While that's a great shot in the arm, it probably won't last unless you keep building upon it. Eventually the orders will dry up and you'll be back to where you were before.

Marketing is also about being consistent. This goes back to building on successes. Your customers need to see your message over and over again. This builds trust and credibility. Plus, your current customers will also respond to that frequency. Not only will they not "forget" about you and go to your competitor, but it will help build their trust in you as well.

Lastly, marketing is about working hard. There's no getting around it. To be successful means putting in the time and energy to continually market yourself. (You can also pay someone to help you with it, but basically it comes down to someone somewhere has to put in the time to continually market you.)

If you remember nothing else, remember this: If you don't implement your marketing strategies, nothing is going to happen.

That last sentence seems obvious, but again, I'm amazed at how many people I run into who aren't willing to do the work. They talk about it, but when it actually comes down to doing something, they somehow never seem to get around to it.

One way to overcome that is to plan on doing one task or a little marketing every day. Then it doesn't seem quite so overwhelming. Me, I make a commitment to do X number of marketing tasks a week, regardless of how much time that takes.

Marketing is a commitment. There's no getting around it. If you have a business, then you have no choice but to make a commitment to marketing on a consistent basis until the day comes when you decide you don't want a business anymore.

Creativity Exercise -- Make a Commitment

Since I'm interested in having all of you succeed, I want YOU to make a commitment right now to market your business on a regular basis.

Write this statement on a piece of paper, filling in your name in the proper place.

I, YOUR NAME, am making a commitment to market my business on a regular basis from now until I decide I don’t want to be in business any more.
Sign and date it.

I suggest posting it in a place where you can see it while you're working. Or, if you really want to add some accountability to your commitment, tell someone about it. You can even tell me about it -- just send me an e-mail at Michele@theartistsoul.com There's nothing like announcing your intention to keeping you honest.

Copyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek

About the Author:

Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of "Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money." She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com.

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Little Known Secrets About Credibility Marketing!

2005-10-18T03:54:00.000-07:00

By Glenn Dietzel © 2005

A key factor in successfully marketing your business is to establish credibility within your market. How, you might ask, is it possible to establish credibility quickly? This article is geared toward helping you understand the importance of enhancing your credibility and how to leverage it in the most efficient manner possible. This is somewhat of a contrarian view on how to utilize your credibility so that you can become a best selling author and make money quickly.

If you really want to leverage your expertise to build your credibility, you must understand the concept of leverage. The best way to leverage your credibility is for you to become an author. Don't let that scare you. Authoring simply means to create. You must create something that other people want, especially if you want to make money. And that is what every successful business is all about. Now, most people automatically think traditional publishing when they think of authoring. However, I am not an advocate of this at all for a number of reasons. The main reason is that it keeps you from receiving cash flow immediately.

My father taught me throughout my childhood that business cash flow is the overriding determinant of a successful business. And he is definitely correct! It does not matter how many assets that a company has, if it cannot produce a steady cash flow, the business will die. If you want to go the traditionally published route at the beginning, you will end up wasting too much time getting a book to market. Furthermore, in my experience, most people do not acquire the necessary sales and marketing skills to fully leverage the big publishing house model. From a business perspective, the traditionally published model of authoring does not make good business sense.

How do you explode into the market place? You create a best selling eBook or digital product which your target market wants! In fact never has it been easier to become a best selling author, and you can do it in an afternoon. There are a number of ways to create a product quickly. The best way is to put together a questionnaire on a topic that you are passionate about and that has a great demand in the market place. Read your outline or get someone else to interview you, and record this as an MP3 file. Then use a service like elance.com or idictate.com to transcribe it: e-publish it as an eBook using Adobe's free service and presto you are a published eBook author!

What makes this method so effective is that your product is digital, so you have instant access to a global market 24/7. No wonder Mark Victor Hansen, author of the hugely successful Chicken Soup series, recently stated, "The Internet is the best real estate today." According to a recent eMarketer report, almost 50% of what was purchased on the Internet in 2004 was purchased through this medium because this was the only place where the material could be purchased. And this trend is increasing consistently.

If you want to author by communicating through the written medium, it is imperative that you unlearn some rules about "successful" writing you were taught in school. For example, successful writing is not about doing all your research first and then spewing out a data dump. Successful writing on the Internet is about writing at a grade 6 or 7 level and communicating just the way you speak. Incomplete sentences are acceptable. Perfection is a liability. This is not to say you don't want to do a good job. But I want to underscore the fact that good writing is conversational in style, informal in demeanor and user friendly in its ability to help people solve their problems. If you can write a long email or hold a conversation, you can author a best selling eBook.

As a best selling author and infopreneur, you are not paid to deliver information. People from every disciple are drowning in this. What you are financially rewarded for is contextualizing knowledge (information filtered by your personal experiences) and delivering attitudes and skills to your target market so that they can advance themselves beyond their problems.

Another way to get published quickly through writing is by setting up a blog. A blog, or web blog, is a great tool to use to deliver valuable content to the Internet world. Because of its importance as a vehicle for content, blogging is an excellent way for you to gain credibility very quickly, in some cases almost overnight. What makes blogging so effective is that search engines love them. Blogs provide you access to the search engines if you format them correctly, using highly targeted key words. Blogs capitalize on the great affinity that search engines have for valuable content. In fact, the more you blog, the more frequently search engines will come to your website.

The posts that you create on a frequent basis, as well as the feedback and comments you get from others, can provide the foundation for your best selling eBook.

In summary, successful businesses are good at exchanging the value they create in the market place for cash flow. This allows companies to expand their influence as they solve the problems that their target market has. The amount of influence is in direct proportion to their cash flow. Authoring a digital product provides the greatest form of credibility which in turn allows individuals to leverage their expertise and reap financial rewards.

Never has it been easier to become a best selling author. What's holding you back from using the best form of credibility marketing?

About the Author:

Glenn Dietzel, a former Vice Principal with Two Post-Graduate Degrees, replaced his income and his wife's income in 127 days with a Proven, Breakthrough System. Glenn is an international speaker. He consults entrepreneurs and business owners globally with respect to digital product creation and sales and marketing. http://www.AwakenTheAuthorWithin.com

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How to Profit From Your Free Reprint Articles

2005-10-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

By Kalena Jordan © 2005

I came across a very clever tactic by an article author the other day. I was reading one of his free reprint articles and when I finished it, I realized just how smart he really was. Not simply for the content of the article, which contained very timely and useful information, but for the way he managed to hook the reader in and possibly profit from them. Let me explain:

Like me and other article writers, this author circulates his articles to hundreds of article distribution lists on a regular basis. His articles contain a link back to his web site, which is an ideal way to boost his site's link popularity on the search engines. Like other authors, he writes about hot topics and current events in his particular industry. Like most article authors, he writes in a casual, relaxed style that engages the reader quickly and earns their trust. BUT, (here comes the clever part), unlike most article marketers, this author always divides his articles into two or more parts.

The first part of the article is circulated as a stand-alone free reprint article via traditional distribution methods. But at the end of the article and in his Author Resource Box, he adds a link to invite the reader to view "a continuation of the article" on his web site. The link is described as either part two of the first article, or a related article with more detailed information or a specific tutorial on how to implement what was discussed in part one.

Why does he do this? Because most people reading the first article will naturally click on the link leading to the next. Once they are at his web site, he has much more control over how the rest of the article/tutorial is presented. If the article is a tutorial about an aspect of web design or search engine marketing, it generally includes software recommendations that integrate his affiliate links. He also manages to weave in Google AdSense ads at convenient points between the article paragraphs. And of course, by the time readers arrive at his site, he has engaged the reader and gained enough of their trust for them to take his recommendations and click on his affiliate and AdSense links so he earns commission from them. Very clever, don't you think?

You too can use this tactic to profit from your own free reprint articles, by doing the following:

1) Write articles that solve a problem for the reader, like a "how to" article or a basic tutorial.

2) Write about hot or new topics in your industry that people are likely to be searching for.

3) Write the article in two or more segments and save the key instructions for part two.

4) Design a landing page for the later part/s of your article that naturally weaves in your affiliate links and/or AdSense ads.

5) Create a text link "hook" to the continuation of your article, (your landing page), from the bottom of part one.

6) Make sure the first part of your article is well-written and contains useful information as a stand-alone article. The key is to provide a relevant, interesting article with a link to another relevant, interesting article. No-one wants to read a poorly-disguised ad for your affiliate products.

7) Submit part one of your article to free distribution lists.

8) Observe the increased link popularity your site attains and the resulting increase in search engine traffic.

9) Enjoy the benefits and potential profits from your article marketing efforts!

Copyright © 2005 by Kalena Jordan. All rights reserved under U.S. and international law.

About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan. As well as running her own SEO business Web Rank (www.webrank.biz), Kalena Jordan manages Search Engine College (www.searchenginecollege.com), an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing subjects.

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Opening A Hidden Niche

2005-10-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

By Riki Trafford © 2005

Everyone at some time has heard the phrase, "Jack of all trades and master of none." In marketing, this type of failure is often avoided by finding your Niche. Niche marketing means you don't have to sell everything like a peddler to a vast frontier; instead, you can select a product or service in a market that will be most profitable.

On the Internet, niche market is highly effective. Since billions of services and products are sold on the Internet, you want to identify a niche that allows you to position your business in a positive way to an already existing market. You don't have to be a big Internet business to make big profits through a niche. The truth is even a small Internet business can pull in big bucks provided that business attracts the right visitors.

The best way to approach finding a profitable niche is finding an un-met need, then filling it. Even if you believe you have the best product or service out there, it won't matter if you don't have a market that needs it. There are over 50 billion websites selling some product or service online, so finding an open niche isn't that easy. However, sometimes it's how you present the niche that can make a world of difference. The least frustrating way to approach selecting a profitable niche is inventorying your expertise. Even if tens of thousands others in your industry understand your area of expertise, perhaps you have a unique spin or position that will make you stand out and shine above the others.

All too often a great niche is handled poorly or abandoned on the Internet. When you come across this, you should first research what caused this failure before you launch into the niche. Begin the research by testing keywords on the Internet. List keywords and synonyms that are closely tied to this niche and test these in search engines. Study the search results and note the listings on those results. Follow through to study the listing sites to see if these sites look old or deserted. Try to guess why these sites failed or are failing. Has the niche lost its appeal to its market or was the site poorly constructed and run?

When you discover a gap inside a niche site that isn't well represented, ask yourself if you could fill that gap in a way that would interest your market. Many of these gaps are found inside customer service. Could you prefer that service better for your customers than your competitors? Another type of gap involves keywords. Sometimes website owners overlook keywords that are frequently used by their market. You can mine for these keywords yourself by testing keywords in Google and studying the results or by using a free software such as Google Keywords by Softnik Technology to find out how many searches per month are requested for certain keywords along with the number of results that appear.

Why pursue a niche that's fully saturated or very well presented? In this case, you may want to pick an alternative niche. Entering a niche that's well covered requires lots of capital and a level of expertise that very few people can pull off. For instance, do you have the money and resources to compete with Amazon who's extremely on top of their game at this time?

The best part about niche marketing is it allows you to present your product or service to the right market and make a quick profit. By first testing your market and finding out if your market would be attracted to your product or service, you then can place your best foot forward and stand on solid ground.

Copyright 2005 Riki Trafford. All rights reserved.

About the Author:

Riki Trafford is the manager of Direct MO Marketing which offers low cost keyword-targetted web traffic. For more information visit his web site: http://www.1dmom.com/

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Do's and Don'ts of Emailing Press Releases From a Media Veteran

2005-09-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

By Kevin Nunley © 2005

I'm a big believer in EMAILING press releases. Not only is email dirt cheap, email can often get you in front of editors a lot faster than regular mail or fax.

Here's why. Media outlets like radio stations, TV stations, and newspapers get a TON of press releases. During my 20 years working in radio and TV, we got bag loads of mailed press releases every day.

Probably 90 percent of them came from politicians and local college athletic programs. Their publicity people are told to send out a release several times a week--whether they have any real news to tell or not. Consequently, media get a release every time a congress person helps someone or an athletic field house gets a new folding chair.

Are these mailed press releases ignored? You bet they are. Most go straight from the mail bag to the trash. Who has time to open 150 envelopes when most of them are pushing some story you will never be able to use? I know I'll get some notes from a media workers who will say "WE don't do it that way at our place." And you can be sure a few news rooms are very organized about opening, reading, filing, and using releases.

Faxed releases work better, but not that much better given the expense. I worked at one station where the manager got tired of the fax machine burning up cartridges printing releases. Faxed releases were routed to the receptionist's computer where she deleted them.

At another media outlet, faxes, ads, and all the other things that get faxed spilled out on the floor. Some were read, others were used for scratch paper, and most were trampled on until somebody bundled them into the trash.

But wait a minute! If nobody is reading press releases, why do studies claim that 75% of the stories you read in newspapers originate from press releases?

The answer lies in email. Email makes it easy to receive a release, forward it to the staff person who covers that particular topic, then store the release in an email "futures" file where it can be pulled up as needed.

It's incredibly easy for newspaper people to import the email release into their writing program, change the headline, tweak a few things, and run it as a story. Editors don't like to admit they do this, but we've seen big city newspapers run our releases as articles with very few changes.

You can't blame journalists for doing this. Media outlets have cut staffs over and over again during the past 15 years. One person now does the work of three staffers.

Here are some tips for making your emailed release the starting point for a media report:

1. Start your subject line with RELEASE. Then follow with the most newsworthy/titillating part of your story.

2. Make your headline the first thing in the body of your email. I like to use two headlines, the second adding more information the first didn't have room to mention. The media person should be able to tell what your release is about just by reading the headlines.

3. Include your contact information after the body of the release. This is becoming the standard way to do things on the Net. Journalists are now used to looking at the bottom for contact info.

4. Keep your release under 400 words. Make sure you have good information the media audience wants, otherwise you don't stand a chance of getting coverage.

5. Take time to send your release to your local media. They are more likely to use your story than out-of-town media. You can find their email addresses by searching for their sites on search engines.

6. Send your release to trade publications covering your field. Even small developments can be of big interest to others in your line of work. One photographer client sent her release to photographic magazines and got coverage in almost every one.

7. Go national. Get the Gebbie Media Guide at Gebbie.com. It's affordable and reliable.

About the Author:

Kevin Nunley writes and distributes press releases from http://DrNunley.com/release.asp He'll write and send your release nationwide for just $299. It's the best PR deal on the Net. Reach Kevin at mailto:kevin@drnunley.com or 603-249-9519.

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Profiting from Articles - A Step-by-step Guide

2005-09-19T20:01:00.000-07:00

By Rudi Ashdown © 2005

"Content is King" - that's a given, there's no debate. But how do you get content? Like most projects, breaking it into bite-size, easily digestible chunks makes the process realistically achievable. By creating articles, you build and develop that content.
So how do you profit from articles?

I, personally, find the best way to approach the 'process' of making mony from articles is to work backwards! That is, to determine what your ultimate goal is and then figure out each preceding step that leads to it.

Example:
Ultimate goal - sell an ebook
preceding step - subscriber reads recommendation in 5-part mini series
preceding step - article reader visits name squeeze page and signs up for mini series
preceding step - prospect reads your article on someone else's website/blog/ezine
preceding step - publisher picks up your article from directory
preceding step - article submitted to directory
preceding step - you produce article

And try to keep a single focus for each step. For example, you want people to sign up for the mini series -- then the email capture/name squeeze page should only give them that option! Don't put tons of other links on that webpage which would give the visitor alternatives to signing up for the mini series. Keep it tightly focused -- keep the objective in mind.

So the tasks would be (for the above example), in this order:

1] Create the ebook - research and write - or outsource it through elance.com, guru.com, etc. - your product to make money on. If you're not sure of how to write an ebook, just write it in MSWord or your wp of choice and convert it to a .pdf document with a password protection. Upload that to your web server.
2] Create a single webpage introducing, recommending and soliciting orders for your ebook. Include a PayPal, StormPay or some other shopping cart link to order the book.
3] Write 5 short emails as a mini series (which include a link to your ebook order page) and put them into an autoresponder.
4] Create the single webpage with a compelling copy for why the visitor should sign up for your 5-part mini series and include the webform which links to your autoresponder.
5] Having got those 3 things above in place, now you need to write the article(s) that include a link in the resource box to your name capture webpage.
6] Finally, use ArticleAnnouncer to submit your article to the directories (see resource box for link).

Important note: You do NOT need big, flashy, complex websites to profit from articles! A simple compelling page that directs them to an autoresponder. From the email messages in the autoresponder, you can send them to a simple order page for your own ebook or you can send them to an affiliate product page. Bottom line - Keep it simple!

If you're sending them straight to an affiliate page (I think capturing their email first is better but I include this as an option) from the article resource box, you won't need to do step 1, 2, 3 or 4 above.

If you're sending the reader to an affiliate page after capturing their email, leave out step 1 and 2. Step 3 could be a 5-part mini series, or you might just want to send them to an ezine you publish (which recommends your affiliate product) or send them to another great article (or part 2 of the article) stored in an autoresponder. But you'll need to give them some reason for them to give you their email address!

Articles are a very powerful method of attracting visitors to a webpage and ultimately to generating 'sales.' Readers of your article have already established a 'know, like and trust' relationship with you and are therefore much more predisposed to buying from you. They are the ultimate targeted traffic - and therefore the most profitable visitor! Get your articles out there and let them silently, effortlessly do their work.

About the Author:

Article written by Rudi Ashdown and first posted at http://www.whywebsiteswork.com .
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How Important is ALT Text In Search Engine Optimization?

2005-09-13T05:01:00.000-07:00

By Robin Nobles © 2005

For years, search engine optimizers have included their important keyword phrases in ALT text for images, feeling confident that many of the search engines considered the contents of ALT text when determining relevancy.

The big question is, has this changed?

Yes . . .

None of the Major Engines Considers ALT Text When Determining Relevancy

According to research by expert SEO researcher Jerry West of WebMarketingNow (http://www.webmarketingnow.com) and Search Engine Academy (http://www.searchengineacademy.com), at the present time, none of the “Big Three” search engines (Google, Yahoo!, nor MSN), considers ALT text when determining relevancy.

West explains, “Over the last six months, we have seen a trend on our testing servers that shows that using ALT text for SEO purposes has not only diminished, but adversely affects the rankings in the SERPs. It is clear that search engines continue to catch up to “SEO tricks” that are intended to improve search engine ranking while damaging the visitor experience. The American Disabilities Act (ADA) has strict guidelines as to what your site needs to contain in order to be ADA compliant. I guarantee you, they do not look favorably at ALT text that has been keyword stuffed.

“Have you ever witnessed a visually impaired individual use the Web? With a device which reads aloud the contents of a Web page, the impaired individual will be inundated with what I refer to is, ALT Text Spam. Sometimes the reader is stuck on one graphic for more than 40 seconds reading all of the keywords that have been stuffed.

“According to a Google engineer, what you should do it create an ALT tag that is relevant to the picture, so it gives the user a good experience, including the visually impaired. The ALT text is indexed, but it is down graded in the algorithm. The reason?

“‘We see ALT text as relevant as the Keyword Meta tag,’ said the engineer. That should say it all as Google has never used the Keyword Meta tag due to the high spam rate.

“How do we test? I have outlined our testing methodology below,” continues West.

Our Testing Setup:

* We have four servers (Two Apache servers, one Windows, one Sun Solaris);

* Each server is located in a different part of the United States;

* Each test sever has 16 test domains;

* Domains are matched in pairs for A/B testing;

* All domains are "dot com"; no testing is done with other extensions for the algorithms;

* The 8 pairs are configured as follows: 3 pages, 8 pages, 25 pages, 50 pages, 100 pages, 150 pages, 300 pages, 500 pages;

* When performing testing, one of the domains in the pair is tested while the other remains constant;

* Due to varying issues within the algorithms, it takes approximately six weeks to see consistent numbers in order to formulate accurate conclusions.

What Does This Mean to SEOs?

Search engine optimizers no longer need to use keyword phrases in the ALT text of images on their Web pages.

However, let’s look at a smarter approach.

I’ve been recommending to my online (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com) and offline (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com) SEO students for a long time that they needed to use ALT text in the manner in which it was designed to be used by the W3C: to describe the image. Then, they can include the keyword phrase in one or two images on the page, if appropriate.

Continuing with that strategy is still viable. The major engines don’t consider the contents of ALT text now, but that doesn’t mean they won’t six months from now. Always remembering the “basics” is one of the best strategies to follow.

Other ALT Text Tips . . .

1. Remember that the purpose of ALT text is to describe the image for the benefit of those who surf the Web with images turned off and for those who have the contents of Web pages read out loud to them. The WC3 highly recommends that Web site owners use ALT text to describe images.

2. Use your keyword phrase in one or two instances of ALT text on the page – no more. Use moderation in everything you do in search engine optimization.

3. Don’t use text that is non-relevant to the image. Don’t keyword stuff. Jerry West adds, “Give the visitor information that is worthwhile, especially for the visually impaired.”

4. “Consider using a description below the graphic. Based on recent test results, this is read often,” states West.

West continues, "Basically, remember to be compliant, not just with the W3C but also with the ADA. It all comes down to intent. If your intent is to fool the search engine into giving you a higher ranking, you are performing 'grey or black hat' strategies. Stay on the right side of the path and the engines will bless you.”:)

Remember . . . ALT Text is Just One “Piece of the Pie”

Relevancy and ranking are determined by over 100 different factors. ALT text was just one piece of that pie, a sliver at that.

Don’t ever focus on just one piece of the pie. Always remember the basics – the SEO foundation – and make sure it’s solid.

If you know you’re weak in one or two areas, you know you have to beef up on other pieces of the SEO pie.

We’ll talk more about the “SEO pie” in future articles. Or, attend our on-location workshops, where the SEO pie is always a topic of conversation.

About the Author:

Robin Nobles teaches 2-, 3-, and 5-day hands-on search engine marketing (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com) workshops in locations across the globe as well as online SEO training (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com) courses. They have recently launched localized SEO training (http://www.searchengineacademy.com) centers through Search Engine Academy.

View My Websites at
http://www.dswebservices.com
http://www.makewebcash.biz

The New Secrets of Guerrilla Marketing

2005-09-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

By Jay Conrad Levinson © 2005

The most important things you need to know about marketing are in this column. In the few minutes it takes you to read this, you'll learn more basic truths about marketing than you'd pick up with a score of MBA degrees under one arm and all the marketing books ever written, including mine, under the other.

As marketing continues to change, the secrets of guerrilla marketing continue to change. Originally, there were three secrets, then seven, then twelve. Now, I'm going to clue you in on the 16 secrets that guarantee you will exceed your most optimistic projections, however dreamy they may be.

MEMORIZE THESE 16 WORDS THEN LIVE BY THEM.

I'm giving you a memory crutch so that you'll never forget these words, each one representing a major guerrilla marketing secret. All 16 words end in the letters "ENT." Run your business by the guerrilla concepts they represent and your marketing dreams will come true.

1. COMMITMENT: You should know that a mediocre marketing program with commitment will always prove more profitable than a brilliant marketing program without commitment. Commitment makes it happen.

2. INVESTMENT: Marketing is not an expense, but an investment -- the best investment available in America today -- if you do it right. With the 15 secrets of guerrilla marketing to guide you, you'll be doing it right.

3. CONSISTENT: It takes a while for prospects to trust you and if you change your marketing, media, and identity, you're hard to trust. Restraint is a great ally of the guerrilla. Repetition is another.

4. CONFIDENT: In a nationwide test to determine why people buy, price came in fifth, selection fourth, service third, quality second, and, in first place -- people said they patronize businesses in which they are confident.

5. PATIENT: Unless the person running your marketing is patient, it will be difficult to practice commitment, view marketing as an investment, be consistent, and make prospects confident. Patience is a guerrilla virtue.

6. ASSORTMENT: Guerrillas know that individual marketing weapons rarely work on their own. But marketing combinations do work. A wide assortment of marketing tools is required to woo and win customers.

7. CONVENIENT: People now know that time is not money, but is far more valuable than money. Respect this by being easy to do business with and running your company for the convenience of your customers, not yourself.

8. SUBSEQUENT: The real profits come after you've made the sale, in the form of repeat and referral business. Non-guerrillas think marketing ends when they've made the sale. Guerrillas know that's when marketing begins.

9. AMAZEMENT: There are elements of your business that you take for granted, but prospects would be amazed if they knew the details. Be sure all of your marketing always reflects that amazement. It's always there.

10. MEASUREMENT: You can actually double your profits by measuring the results of your marketing. Some weapons hit bulls-eyes. Others miss the target. Unless you measure, you won't know which is which.

11. INVOLVEMENT: This describes the relationship between you and your customers -- and it is a relationship. You prove your involvement by following up; they prove theirs by patronizing and recommending you.

12. DEPENDENT: The guerrilla's job is not to compete but to cooperate with other businesses. Market them in return for them marketing you. Set up tie-ins with others. Become dependent to market more and invest less.

13. ARMAMENT: Armament is defined as “the equipment necessary to wage and win battles.” The armament of guerrillas is technology: computers, current software, cellphones, pagers, fax machines. If you’re technophobic, see a techno- shrink.

14. CONSENT: In an era of non-stop interruption marketing, the key to success is to first gain consent to receive your marketing materials, then market only to those who have given you that consent. Don’t waste money on people who don’t give it to you.

15. AUGMENT: To succeed online, augment your website with offline promotion, constant maintenance of your site, participation in newsgroups and forums, email, chatroom attendance, posting articles, hosting conferences and rapid follow-up.

16. CONTENT: Don’t believe that old adage, “Sell the sizzle not the steak.” Sophisticated consumers these days know the sizzle from the steak and prefer the steak every time. Your substance, not your style, will carry the day for you.

These 16 concepts are probably the reason that many start-up guerrillas now run highly successful companies. They are the cornerstone of guerrilla marketing, now the most popular marketing series in history, published in 39 languages, and required reading in many MBA programs worldwide. Just 16 words, but each one nuclear-powered and capable of propelling you into the land of your dreams.

About the Author:

Jay Conrad Levinson is the author of the "Guerrilla Marketing" series of books, the most popular marketing series in history with 14 million sold, now in 39 languages. At his new http://www.GuerrillaMarketingAssociation.com, you’ll find lots of profit-producing ideas plus a list of 100 marketing weapons. Join up for phone and online access to The Father of Guerrilla Marketing.

View My Websites
http://makewebcash.biz
http://dswebservices.com

How to Analyze your Visitors to Improve your Web Site

2005-08-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

By Michael Rock © 2005

This article is a detailed description on how to interpret your web hosting statistics software. Typically, the web hosting you have comes with its own web statistics program such as webalizer or awstats. There are also free traffic monitors such as servustats, web stats, and others. And for a nominal subscription of around $15-$35 a month you can get a more detailed analysis of your visitors with a paid program.

Why is it important to monitor your visitors?

You could gain a lot of traffic to your web site by simply looking at the number of visitors per month, but what do they do when they reach your site? Do they visit the pages you want? Do they leave shortly after arriving? What pages are they interested in? Etc. Armed with this important information you can tweak your web site to help achieve your goals. What good is it to have hundreds of visitors go to your site if all they do is leave right away or look at pages that are not important?

The Statistics Report

Since most statistics software don't have the same options I will use my paid subscription I use and go over the details provided by it. You will find that the free stat reports are limited to the information that you have, and after reading this article it will also help you decide whether you want an upgraded version of the statistics report. So let's begin!

Traffic

Page Views
Page views are the number of times HTML pages are loaded in your visitors' browsers.

"Page views measure the whole pages that are displayed to a viewer and do not include the supporting image files. Every time a complete page displays, it counts as one page view, even when the visitor just refreshes the page, or leaves it for a second and then comes back."

"This determines whether your web site is interesting enough to look further into it and explore more pages."

Repeat Visits
Users who browsed your site more than once during the selected time period.
"In other words, these are all visits minus the first visits (or unique visitors) in the selected period. The percentage of repeat visits to all visits will give you a good picture of how appealing the content of your Web site is."
"Do you give your visitors a reason to return to your site? Is your site updated frequently with articles and content?"

Activity

By Time Zone
"This report shows you what hour of the day they visited your site according to their time zone."

By Local Time
"This report shows you what hour of the day they visited your site according to your time zone."

Day of the Week
"What day of the week they visited. Was it during a weekend or weekday? You can determine the best days to update your site or send out important information to your customers with this report."

Work/Leisure Time
"Do people view your web site during typical business hours or do they visit after they have gone home?"

"What type of people visit your web site can be determined from this. Should you concentrate on business people or not."

Navigation

Navigation Paths
A navigation path is a sequence of pages that the visitor viewed from the moment he/she enters the site to the moment he/she leaves.
"From the marketing view, it is important to know the most common paths your visitors follow to get to the landing pages (that is the pages where the target events take place such as ordering, file downloading, form filling and submission, etc.). You will learn which of the navigation paths are the most effective."

"The frequent exit patterns will show where your site is underperforming. You will see where to improve the content of your site to make your visitors' experience perfect."

Entry Pages
The page that a visitor goes to when first visiting your web site.

"By setting your links to go to specific pages of your web site you can determine which referral links are working and which are not."

Exit Pages
The page that a visitor leaves your web site from.

"Do your exit pages match your entry pages? If so, then see what you can do to fix your entry page to keep visitors on your site. Is it a navigation problem? Content not good enough?"

Pages Viewed After Home Page
"The success of your web site depends on how short the way from your home page to your target page is."

"This also helps uncover any navigation problems or lack of interest in your web site."

Site Stickiness
These are visits grouped by the time that visitors stay.

"It is a sign of how well a site's content captures the visitor's attention. Do they leave a few seconds after entering? Or are they thoroughly interested in what you have to say on your web site?"

Visitors

Unique Visitors
Another measure of Visitor activity that counts only the first action of a visitor in a selected period of time.
"This measures what a visitor does on the first visit only in a selected period of time. The software will grab specifically where they came from so you can tell the actions of one person visiting your site. In other words if you have three unique visitors visit your site ten times each instead of having a counter of 30 visitors you'll see 3 visitors and what pages they visited."

"The number of unique visitors versus page views is an important indication of site performance. If you have a high unique visitor count, but relatively low page view count, this is a sign of low site attractiveness to visitors, so you should rewrite the site content. On the other hand, if you have a low visitor count and very high page view count, this shows that your site is stimulating people, however it needs more promotion."

New Visitors
This is a brand-new visitor, arriving at your site for the first time.

New visitors are always unique, although they are not the same as unique visitors. The number of new visitors will always be smaller than the number of unique visitors, because a unique visitor is one arriving for the first time in the selected period (so the system may identify the visitor as unique in the current period but it also knows that he/she has been before). A new visitor is one on his first visit.

"This will tell you if your web site is attracting new customers."

Frequent Visitors
"This report tells you how many times a certain visitor visits your site. Do they only visit your web site once? A few times a day? Once a week? Several times a week?"

"This analysis is important to find out if people view your site as something to come back to and let you know if you need to make changes to keep people coming back."

Motivated Visitors
If two or more pages are browsed during a visit, this will be counted in the Motivated Visits report.

"The ratio of visits when more than one page is viewed to all visits is a good sign of your site's attractiveness."

New Visitors' Second Visits
"This report lets you know how many of the new visitors returned to your site. Not to be confused with repeat visitors, because this one monitors only the new ones."

Visit Frequency
The number of return visits all of your visitors take.

"Do the highest percentage of all of your visitors visit only once? 2-4 visits? 5-10 visits? Or as much as 300 visits?"

Referrers

The reports here show you where your visitors came from.

Bookmarked Pages and Direct Typing
"Do people bookmark your web site to visit later?"

Search Engines
"What search engine did they use?"
"What keyword did they type in?"
"Which keywords are the most popular? Adjust your web site to the popular keywords."

Referring Pages (Links)
"What other web sites did your visitors come from? Concentrate on the higher traffic links."
"Do they come from directories that pay off or not?"

Pages

Popular Pages
"What area of the site are people most interested in?"

Unpopular Pages
"Are these pages to fix or delete?"

Views Per Visit
"How many pages are viewed during their visit?"

Views Per First Visit
"How many pages do first time visitors view?"

Page Stickiness
"How long do they stay on different pages. Should you fix or delete the pages people don't spend much time on?"

Systems

Browsers and Browser Versions
"It is a good idea to see what a majority of your visitors view your web site in. What does your web site look like in their browser? Try it, you may be surprised to find out that some content is not readable or supported. Or it may make your web site look awful."

Operating Systems
"Are your visitors using Windows, Macintosh, Linux, or WebTV?"

Windows Versions
"Are your visitors up to date, or are they still using Windows 95?"

Screen Resolutions
"What screen resolution do people view your site on? If a majority of people use 800 x 600 pixels do they have to scroll right and left to read the content on your site?"

Color Palettes
"What capability does your visitors computer have? Should you concentrate more on using 'web safe colors' in your design?"

Cookie and Java Support
"Do you use these scripts on your web site? If your visitors have these turned off they may not be able to view important parts of your web site. If a strong number of people have this support turned off consider using other options."

Demographics

Countries
"What countries are your visitors from? Does this pose as a problem?"

Languages
"What language do they use? If you see a growing number of a foreign language, consider making your site bi-lingual."

Time Zones
"What time zone are they coming from?"

Until the next article, have a great day!

Copyright © Michael Rock

About the Author:

The owner of this registered company has over twenty years experience with DOS, windows business applications, numerous programming languages, artistic development, and web design. Other areas of interest include web marketing, web promoting, and business marketing and development. After the persuasion of those praising his work, he decided to go into business himself and highly suggests everyone else to do the same. Visit Internet Presence: http://www.TheInternetPresence.com

http://dswebservices.com
http://makewebcash.biz

True Paid Inclusion Programs are a “Thing of the Past” ... Or Are They?

2005-08-22T10:26:00.000-07:00

By Robin Nobles © 2005

Most search engine optimizers get rather nostalgic when they remember the “good old days” of paid inclusion programs. Do you remember when we could submit a Web page for a one-time fee and get it spidered and indexed within 24 to 48 hours? The page would then be respidered every 48 hours for an entire year.

We could work on building our on-page and off-page factors while confidently knowing that the paid inclusion spider would be back to recrawl our page within that time frame. We didn’t have to pay any pay-per-click fees. For new pages or Web sites, or for pages that we had problems getting in the indexes, paid inclusion programs were ideal. We never minded spending the money at all.

These days, however, with the exception of a few directory submissions, true paid inclusion programs are a thing of the past . . . or are they?

Some Paid Inclusion Programs have Per-Click Fees Attached as Well

The paid inclusion programs of the past certainly didn’t come with pay-per-click fees attached, but some of them do now. Yes, the visibility can be impressive, but the programs come with definite disadvantages:

* You not only pay to submit the URL, you also pay a per-click fee, depending on what industry you’re in. So before you rush into these programs, it would be to your advantage to see how much you would pay to bid on your keywords through straight pay- per-click programs.

* It’s important to remember that with these paid inclusion/PPC programs, you’re simply “paying” to be “included.” You’re not “paying” for your “rankings.” Therefore, you’re in the rankings along with all of the free search engine listings, yet you’ve paid to be there and you’re paying per click through.

* Though I have known a few people who have stopped the paid inclusion listing (and the per-click fee) and have remained in the listings, most people totally drop out of the rankings. So if you get where you want to be, be prepared to pay to stay there.

A True Paid Inclusion Program With Listings Seen Over 120 Million Times a Month!

The Big Three aren’t the only engines on the block. At 120 million searches a month being conducted across 50 search engines and directories and through ABCSearch.com, ExactSeek.com’s Featured Listings are certainly an excellent deal.

The cost? $36 per URL for the first 5 URLs for a year, or $12 per URL for the first 5 URLs for 3 months. More good news: no pay-per-click fees and no bidding for keywords.

What search engines are covered?

ExactSeek.com, Aesop.com, OnSeek.com, MaxPromo.com, Best-SearchEngine.com, SitesOnDisplay.com. and MetaWebSearch.com. View the entire listing at http://www.exactseek.com/featured_listings.html.

These search engines and directories have formed the Independent Search Engine & Directory Network (ISEDN.org http://www.isedn.org/) for the purpose of providing Web site owners with affordable and effective search engine advertising.

In fact, the Featured Listings program not only gives you “paid inclusion,” but it also gives you “guaranteed top 10 exposure.” I asked Mel Strocen, CEO of Jayde Online to explain.

“The sale of any keyword term (word or phrase) is restricted to 30 buyers. So, for example, a phrase like ‘online games’ can only be purchased 30 times. This is to prevent over sale of a term. Since the maximum number of paid listing ad boxes that can appear on a SERP is 10 and 30 is the maximum that can be sold for any keyword term, we rotate ad boxes within the SERP and between SERPs for every search on a given term.

“If an advertiser buys a keyword term that has been previously purchased 10 or fewer times, then that advertiser's paid listing ad box will appear on the first page of search results every time the purchased keyword term is searched. If the keyword term has been purchased between 11 and 20 times, then the advertiser's PI ad box will appear on the first page of search results one of every 2 searches performed for that keyword term. And, if the keyword term has been purchased between 21 and 30 times, then the advertiser's PI ad box will appear on the first page of search results one of every 3 searches performed.

“This rotational system gives everyone who has purchased a keyword term equal exposure.”

According to Strocen, a number of engines and directories are poised to join the ISEDN, and they’re targeting for a membership of 100 engines and directories by year-end. This is serious visibility. Your listings will be added within 6-8 hours to all of the above search engines. Just like the good old days!

It’s important to note that paid listing results are served from a separate database. Having a paid listing does not mean you also have a regular, free listing. To get in their regular, free results, Webmasters still need to submit their URLs at http://www.exactseek.com/add.html.

For more information about their paid inclusion program, visit http://www.exactseek.com.

Paid Inclusion as an Alternative to PPC

With the rising costs of pay per clicks, when you can find a paid inclusion model as attractive as ExactSeek.com’s, it’s time to give it a try.

For example, at the time of writing this article, the top three bids for “life insurance quotes” at Yahoo!’s Sponsored Search were going for close to $6 a click through. If you have one of the top three pay-per-click ads, and if six people click on your ad, you’ll spend $36 a day.

You could spend the same amount of money one time at ExactSeek.com and get your URL seen over 120 million times a month for a solid year.

Isn’t it worth a try?

In Conclusion

Thank goodness, the days of true paid inclusion programs aren’t over. ExactSeek has a very attractive program with excellent visibility . . . just waiting to be tested. Remember: in the search engine game, testing is the best way to see if something works. Now, get busy!

About the Author:

Robin Nobles teaches 2-, 3-, and 5-day hands-on search engine marketing (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com) workshops in locations across the globe as well as online SEO training (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com) courses. They have recently launched localized SEO training (http://www.searchengineacademy.com) centers through Search Engine Academy.

Fueling the Ideal - Marketing with Articles

2005-08-15T06:22:00.000-07:00

By Bonnie Jo Davis © 2005

It's that time of year again ... pages of backpacks, notebooks and back-to-school clothing fill every circular that hits your mailbox. And you're off to the races ... the races being the mall, plus every other store in between.

You're in the same spot you were last year this time, getting ready to head off to work while your kids head off to school. Back to hugging them goodbye in the morning and seeing them just long enough in the evening to say I love you and tuck them in.

Wouldn't it be fantastic if the easier schedule of the summer lasted all year long? No more spending all your hours away from your kids just to earn enough money to cover the essentials and pay daycare?

Take it from someone who knows both sides of the deal here and believe that there's no time like right now to make the transition from the regular grind to working from home. As the proud Mom of a 2005 honors graduate who's heading off to college soon, I know first hand what a major impact working from home has had on his success.

When my son was very young, I worked a full-time job away from home, plus at least one part-time job on weekends. This meant that my son was in daycare while I worked. As a single parent who didn't receive child support (for years) though, I had no other choice.

A few years later in the 1990's, I decided there had to be a better way so I started a part-time medical billing service from my home. This allowed me to give up the outside part-time job and gave me the practical means of earning the much-needed income. Best of all, it gave me the priceless opportunity to take care of my son while I worked. I quickly saw that I was onto something great here ... what a concept!

I moved from the east coast to California with my son in 1995 where my first full-time job was with a consulting firm co-owned by a professional speaker. After some negotiations with my boss, we entered into an agreement by which I would work mornings in the office, leave to pick up my son from school in the afternoons and work from home the rest of the day. It worked out incredibly well ... so well in fact, that in 2000, I decided to leave the consulting firm and start my own full-time home based virtual assistant business.

Starting from scratch, I knew that gaining exposure for my business was essential if I wanted to be successful in my new venture. I also knew that traditional forms of marketing are very expensive and quickly gobble up the profits, particularly in the early stages. However, I also remembered a technique that I used successfully for my former employer.

Besides being a consultant and professional speaker, he was also an author, so his goals included increasing his number of speaking engagements and selling more copies of his books. He hoped to accomplish these goals by establishing himself as an expert in his industry, which meant having his work published by every major magazine in his field.

Committed to accomplishing his goals, he gave me a list of those publications, so I drafted a query letter based on one of his story ideas and e-mailed it to the editor of one of the magazines. The editor responded in short notice and offered my employer an article assignment. They published my boss's article soon afterwards and featured it on the cover of the magazine, producing an onslaught of calls to the office!

Writing and submitting that one article produced several paid speaking engagements. This new marketing intrigue fascinated me, so I fine-tuned my article submission process creating logs and checklists, and within a few months, my boss had accomplished his goal of publication in every magazine on his list!

Even online and in-print publications we hadn't contacted began calling and e-mailing in request of articles. The results of writing and submitting articles was so successful that we put other major marketing techniques on hold so my boss could travel to his paid speaking engagements.

As my interest and experience grew in this area of marketing, I knew that if it worked for my boss that it would work for other professionals as well. Soon, I was earning over half my income handling article submissions for other professionals.

Then I realized that if this technique worked for other professionals that it would work for me too in building my own business. And it has worked for me!

This same marketing technique, which I call marketing with articles, has been the success behind my own business. I've used it to expand my client base and build my virtual assistance business into a solid income-generating company, which has allowed me to work full-time at home for the past five years. As my son is getting ready to leave for college, my personal goal now is to help other parents be successful in achieving their career goals while living the dream of staying home with their children.

The concept of marketing with articles does not require a professional writer. Anyone can be successful in building their business and gaining credibility as an expert in their industry or area of expertise by writing and submitting free reprint articles to online and in-print publications. The key to success is in reaching your target audience with resourceful information that is valuable to them.

Editors of both online and in-print publications are in constant demand of quality content for their readers. They have a continuing need to publish content that appeals directly to their target audience, which is where you come in. By writing and submitting free reprint articles to publications that reach readers in your market, you have the opportunity to establish yourself as an expert and gain a generous amount of exposure for your business.

True, you aren't earning money for actually writing the articles, but you are earning a huge payoff here. Not only do you establish your credibility as an expert in your industry or area of expertise, but you earn significant exposure for yourself and your business. Most editors will include your byline with your articles, which gives you the opportunity to include your name and contact information, plus the URL of your web site. Readers come to recognize your name and relate it with certain topics. The more articles you write and submit, the more exposure you gain!

The marketing with articles technique helped turn my dream of working from home full-time into a precious reality that has made a positive impact for both my son and me. As he goes off to college, he'll be leaving with all the benefits of having had a mom who found a way to support him financially without the high cost of being away from him all day. Me, I'll have the benefit of knowing that the bittersweet wind I'm putting beneath his wings comes from my deepest desires for his complete success!

(c) 2005, Davis Virtual Assistance.

About the Author:

Bonnie Jo Davis is a full-time work-from-home mom who built her business on the concept of marketing with articles. An accomplished writer and marketing strategist, she offers over ten years of success in writing and submitting articles for gaining exposure and growing your business. Visit http://www.ArticleSubmissionSites.com to learn how her technique offers the means for success in starting and/or growing your own business

http://www.dswebservices.com
http://www.makewebcash.biz

Easy Clickbank Management with the Right Tools

2005-08-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

Easy Clickbank Management with the Right Tools

By Merle © 2005

Clickbank has been around for years and has earned an excellent reputation online. They make it easy for anyone to be able to take credit card payments from their websites without the hassle of obtaining a merchant account. It also has a built in affiliate program. For their trouble they take a small percentage of each transaction plus a 1.00 service fee.

The problem with Clickbank is they're lacking in the "user interface" department. They have a simple log in that will show you your sales but as far as powerful options to analyze and manipulate your data, they have none.

Lucky for you other software developers have stepped up to the plate and come up with some pretty cool options to enhance your life as an online Clickbank merchant.

1) CBExtract: http://CBExtract.com

A powerful piece of software that gives you several ways to manage and manipulate your sales data. You can analyze sales trends for a specific time period, details of profits for the fiscal year, even send an email to all of your clients. CBExtract can manage multiple Clickbank accounts and even shows you who your top affiliates are.

2) ClickSalez: http://Clicksalez.com

Another powerful option but at this time not taking on any new customers.

3) EasyClickMate: http://EasyClickMate.com

A Clickbank tool that helps you to manage your army of affiliates. Some of what it does; allows you to give your affiliates unique url's for each different product that you sell. All of the unique url's will link to your domain, not Clickbank's which will increase your link popularity which is excellent for your search engine ranking.

This product also will give you marketing statistics such as click throughs, sales and conversion ratios for all of your affiliates and show you who your top sellers are. It sends out automatic emails to each of your affiliates every time they make a sale. The cost is only 67.00.

"Completely Automate Your Internet Sales" Accept Credit Cards Without a Merchant Account Today

ClickBank is an outstanding company that will enable you to not only accept credit cards without a merchant account, but they'll also run your affiliate program. They charge a one- time $49.95 activation fee, and a $1 + 7.5% fee per sale. There are no monthly fees. Get set up today and completely automate your Internet sales.

http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=cb

4) CBCourier: http://CBCourier.com

A free product which is useful for a Clickbank Affiliates and Merchants to automatically receive sales notifications and associated data straight to your desktop 24/7 365 days a year. This software is courtesy of JoePro.com and sits in your window system tray and it flashes every time you make a sale.

Merchants can see at a glance who their best affiliates are and affiliates can watch their own progress and keep track of what they've sold. This software also has the ability to change skins and rebranding is available to merchants for a small fee.

If you'd like to stay on top of the latest ClickBank developments or you have questions about ClickBank I highly recommend this forum at http://www.ClickBankSuccessForum.com run by Harvey Segal.

If you're worried about your ClickBank "Thank You" pages being passed around the Net and others downloading your products without having paid for them, there's a no cost PHP script that will help you with security http://www.jumpx.com/tutorials/clickbank

By utilizing 3rd party software with your ClickBank data, you can take a "plain jane" system and turn it into a powerful workhorse that will help you in your day to day business decisions as an online entrepreneur.

About the Author:

By Merle- Want to Know the SECRETS of Article Promotion? Discover everything you need to know in this brand New Ebook, "How to Use Articles to Drive Website Traffic." Get your F-r-e-e Copy now at http://articleannouncer.mcpromotions.com

How Keyword Density, Frequency, Prominence And Proximity Affects Search Engine Rankings

2005-08-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

By Michael Wong © 2005

In this article, I explain the difference between keyword density, frequency, prominence and proximity, and how they affect search engine rankings.

Keyword Density

Keyword density refers to the ratio (percentage) of keywords contained within the total number of indexable words within a web page.

The preferred keyword density ratio varies from search engine to search engine. In general, I recommend using a keyword density ratio in the range of 2-8%.

You may like to use this real-time keyword analysis tool to help you optimize a web page's keyword density ratio.

Keyword Frequency

Keyword frequency refers to the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase appears within a web page.

The theory is that the more times a keyword or keyword phrase appears within a web page, the more relevance a search engine is likely to give the page for a search with those keywords.

In general, I recommend that you ensure that the most important keyword or keyword phrase is the most frequently use keywords in a web page.

But be careful not to abuse the system by repeating the same keyword or keyword phrases over and over again.

Keyword Prominence

Keyword prominence refers to how prominent keywords are within a web page.

The general recommendation is to place important keywords at, or near, the start of a web page, sentence, TITLE or META tag.

Keyword Proximity

Keyword proximity refers to the closeness between two or more keywords. In general, the closer the keywords are, the better.

For example:

How Keyword Density Affects Search Engine Rankings

How Keyword Density Affects Rankings In Search Engine

Using the example above, if someone searched for "search engine rankings," a web page containing the first sentence is more likely to rank higher than the second.

The reason is because the keywords are placed closer together. This is assuming that everything else is equal, of course.

You may like to read my article, "How To Find Out What Keywords Your Customers Are Searching With." In this article I show you how to capture your most targeted visitors with the search engines by discovering what keywords they search with.

About the Author:

Michael Wong is an internationally recognized internet marketing expert, and the author of a leading SEO book, numerous marketing tips, and reviews of marketing tools and ecommerce software. Visit his web site at http://www.Mikes-Marketing-Tools.com

How to Build Massive Keyword Lists

2005-08-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

By Rob Taylor © 2005

As keyword marketing becomes more and more expensive and competitive, it has become essential when building your lists to focus on the maximum number of phrases and their variations that a surfer might enter into the search engines.

Why?

Because according to Amit Singhal, principal scientist at Google, a guy who really should know what he's talking about, over 50% of the 200 million searches performed a day have never been searched before. He also said: "When performing a search most surfers give a 2-4 word query."

So here are my top 18 recommended ways to build massive keyword lists:

1. Visit your competitor's web pages and look in the title and meta tags.

2. Search for brand names in Google's Sandbox. This will return additional keywords that searchers entered when using the brand name. You can also enter regular keyword phrases and get related keyword phrases that have been searched on Google. Link: https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox

3. Look over your past customer testimonials, and see if there are any keywords you can use. This strategy lets you get inside your customer's mind to produce more market centric keywords.

4. Consider synonyms. A synonym is a word having the same or nearly the same meaning as another word or other words in the language. Enter your keywords into Roget's Theasaurus for a list of related synonyms. Also visit LexFN.

Links: http://thesaurus.reference.com & http://www.lexfn.com

5. Think of singular and plurals keywords.

6. What about verbs? Example: Ride, rode, ridden, ridding, rides.

7. Use hyphenation and variations. Example: off-shore, offshore, off shore.

8. Consider domain names. Many people enter domain names into the search engines rather than their browser address bar. Example: cnn.com. In June 2005 cnn.com was searched 843,256 times on Overture.com.

9. Get books on your subject and use the terms in the index and glossaries to grow your keyword lists.

10. Download a free copy of Weblog Expert Lite. Then ask your web host how to download your raw stats files. Run them through the software and you will then discover every possible keyword combination that surfers have used to find your website.

Link: http://www.megastep.com/wle

11. Use Wordtracker. What does Wordtracker do? "... helps you find all keyword combinations that bear any relation to your business or service - many of which you might never have considered." Wordtracker is an essential tool to use.

Link: http://www.keywordlistbuilder.co.uk

12. Then go to the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool. Enter in a keyword and Overture returns all the prior month's searches that include your phrase. The problem with the Overture tool is that it doesn't give you the exact way that the search was entered. This is why it is essential to use a tool like Keyword Tumbler (see # 18) to generate the maximum possible number of keyword combinations that a user might enter a search phrase into the engines.

Link: http://inventory.overture.com

13. Use abbreviations and misspellings. A good misspelling tool is Search Spell. Search Spell uses actual misspellings entered into the search engines. Misspelled Keywords is another software tool that will literally create thousands of misspellings for any given keyword phrase you enter into it.

Link: http://www.searchspell.com/typo & http://www.misspelledkeywords.co.uk

14. Use acronyms. An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of a name. Example: due diligence becomes DD. A good acronym generator is Acronym Finder. Link: http://www.acronymfinder.com

15. Combine your keyword phrase into one word. Example: strawbale houses => strawbalehouses.

16. Use "space" and "+" with keywords. Example:
- strawbale+houses
- strawbale +houses

17. Visit Crossword Compiler and download their demo software. Plug in your keywords and discover a multitude of additional words.

Link: http://www.crossword-compiler.com

18. Once you have your list compiled visit Keyword Tumbler and download the free software. Put your keywords into a text file and then let Keyword Tumbler generate multiple variations of each keyword phrase you have... instantly!

Link: http://www.keywordtumbler.com

It does this simply by mixing the words in each phrase around. Example: "horses for sale" generates a list like this...

horses for sale
horses sale for
for horses sale
for sale horses
sale horses for
sale for horses

As Perry Marshall, author of the Definitive Guide to Google AdWords said at a recent seminar: "Every combination of keywords that somebody could conceivably type in on Google is a market."

Link: http://www.megastep.com/pm

I hope you have found this advice useful? It's the exact same procedure I use everyday when fighting the pay-per-click wars.

(c) 2005 Megastep International - All Rights Reserved

About the Author:

Rob Taylor has been marketing online since 1996. Take advantage of his battle tested marketing strategies that could quietly make you five figure cash profits every month. Subscribe free to his high content newsletter at http://www.megastep.com

The What, How, And Why Of Keyword Densities

2005-07-26T11:30:00.000-07:00

By Matthew Rotterman © 2005

Keyword density is an important concept for website owners to understand. Keyword density, in today's Internet, is what will ultimately improve your search engine optimization (SEO) ranking. The importance of having a high SEO rating is absolutely critical if you wish to have high volumes of traffic to your website.

Let's talk first about SEO and what it does. If you type a search into google, yahoo, MSN, or any other major search engine there are likely to be thousands to hundreds of thousands of results come up on the search engine. So let us imagine that you sell ceramic dolls on your website. Now someone types "ceramic dolls" into a search engine, where in those thousands of website results does your website fall? Does your website rank on the first page? If you are like most websites, your ranking is probably somewhere in the depths of the results ranking well over number 1,000. Imagine a customer seeking what you sell, but not being able to find your business. Do you really think that someone is going to sift through the first 1,000 results to find yours?

Search engine optimization (SEO) simply means that you are going to employ methods that will move your website up in the search engines results for "ceramic dolls" or your own personal keywords. Research and common sense tells us that if a potential website visitor/customer does not find your website within the first 20 results, he or she will move on and try a new search or simply use one of the first 20 websites that he or she has found. This is where keyword density comes into play.

In years past I can remember finding web pages that had hundreds of words listed at the bottom of the page, this was a common practice. The reason for this was so that the search engines would place this website on the results page if a web surfer typed in any of those hundreds of words. Times have changed and so have search engines. Today the search engines are much more sophisticated in how they locate websites to list in their results.

Keyword articles (adhering to certain keyword densities) dramatically improve a websites SEO ranking. Going back to our ceramic dolls example, this site would want a keyword article written with the keywords "ceramic dolls" inside the article. This way when a web surfer types in "ceramic dolls," the site will come up much higher in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERP's).

The search engines use certain algorithms that "read" these keywords for the surfer. If you go and type in any phrase into a search engine you will notice that the results show those keywords highlighted in bold. They show you how the keywords are listed in those web pages. Placing articles on your website that contain the keywords your customers are looking for will help your search engine ranking for these specific keywords.

Now, you cannot simply type the "ceramic dolls" over and over again on the same web page. With the sophistication of today's search engines, doing that would actually harm your search engine ranking. You need to provide articles that not only contain the keywords, but articles that also contain some relevant information as well.

There is great debate over what density to use in a keyword article. Suppose you want a 500-word article written on ceramic dolls. What percentage of the time (density) should the phrase "ceramic dolls" be used? Should it be in there 4% (20 times) of the time, 7%, or 12%? You must be careful because using the keywords too often hurts your rankings, while using too little doesn't improve your ranking enough. So what is the answer? The answer is that only those that develop the algorithms for the search engine companies actually know.........and they aren't talking. Most people use anywhere from 3%- 15% keyword densities. Some people believe that having the keyword phrase in the title and as the first word of every paragraph helps. Some believe that using "dolls that are ceramic" 18 times and "ceramic dolls" 2 times in a 500-word article with 4% density will work.

Here is what everyone does know, if you are not utilizing keyword rich articles on your website (regardless of the density you choose) you will not be very highly ranked in any of the search engines. Keyword rich articles are one of the best ways to advertise your site. If you want more visitors to your website, who translate into more customers, you must utilize keyword articles to improve your search engine rankings so that people can find your website.

About the Author:
Matthew Rotterman is a writer and editor at: KeywordText.com. "Keyword Text" managed to bring together several writers and editors to provide a few low-cost writing services for those who are working hard to become more profitable. They offer Content Creation Services which include: Exclusive WebPage Content, Reprint Articles, and Newsletter Creation and Development services. Volume Discounts. Compare us to our competition, you will be surprised. http://keywordtext.com/dir.pl/ktc/index.html

Google Sitemaps Explained

2005-07-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

By Titus Hoskins © 2005

Three Ways To Index Your Site With Google Sitemaps [Difficult, Hard, And Easy]

Google has recently implemented a program where any webmaster can create a Sitemap of their site and submit it for indexing by Google. It is a quick and easy way for you to keep your site constantly indexed and updated in Google.

The program is appropriately called Google Sitemaps.

In order for you to best use Sitemaps, you must have an XML generated file on your site that will transmit or send any updates, changes, and data to Google. XML (Extensible Markup Language)is everywhere these days, you have probably seen the orange XML icon on many web sites and its often associated with Blogging because Blogs use XML/RSS feeds to syndicate their content.

Today RSS is known mostly as 'Really Simple Syndication' but its original acronym stood for 'Rich Site Summary'. XML is only simple code like HTML and it is used to syndicate your content to all interested parties.

And the interested party in this case is Google. By creating Sitemaps, Google is really asking webmasters to take charge of the indexing and updating of their sites. Basically, doing the Googlebot's job!

This is a 'Good' thing! With the steady influx of new web sites growing rapidly, indexing all this material will become a challenge, even with the resources of Google. With Sitemaps, websmasters can now take charge and make sure their site is crawled and indexed.

Please note, indexing your site with Sitemaps WON'T improve your rankings in Google. You will still be competing with the other sites in Google for top positions. But with Sitemaps you can make sure all your pages are crawled and indexed quickly by Google.

There are some other big advantages of using Google's Sitemaps - mainly you have control over a few key variables, attributes or tags. To explain this as simply as possible, your XML powered sitemap file will have this simple code for each page of your site:

< url>
< loc>http://www.yoursite.com/ < /loc>
< priority>1.0 < /priority>
< lastmod>2005-07-03T16:18:09+00:00 < /lastmod>
< changefreq>daily < /changefreq>
< /url>

Along with 'urlset' tags at the beginning and end of your code, and an XML version indication - that's basically your XML file! File size will depend on the number of webpages you have.

Taking a closer look at this XML file:

location - http://www.yoursite.com - name of your webpage

priority - you set the priority you want Google to place on that page in your site. You can prioritize your pages: 0.0 being the least, 1.0 being the highest, 0.5 is in the middle. This is ONLY relative to your site. It will not affect your rankings. Why is this important? You have certain pages on your site that are more important than others, (home page, high profit page, opt-in page, etc.) by placing high priority on these pages, you will increase their importance in Google.

last modified - when you last modified that page, this timestamp allows crawlers to avoid recrawling pages that haven't changed.

change frequency - you can tell Google how often you change that particular page. Never, weekly, daily, hourly, and so on - if you frequently update your page this could be extremely important.

Why do I need a XML Generator?

In order for this XML sitemap file on your site to be constantly updated, you need a Generator that will spider your site, list all the urls and automatically feed them to Google. Thus constantly updating your site in Google's massive index or database. Keep in mind, Google also gives you the option of submitting a simple text file with all your URLs.

Now there is already a flood of these generators popping up! Different ways of generating your XML powered sitemap file. More are probably appearing as you read this. For your convenience, three ways to generate your XML Sitemaps file are listed below:

Difficult - Google's Python Generator

That's a relative term, if you know your server like the back of your hand and installing scripts doesn't scare the bejesus out of you, you're probably smiling at the word difficult. Google supplies a link to a generator which you can download and set up on your server. It will cough up your sitemap XML file and automatically feed it to Google.

Google XML Generator
https://google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/sitemap-generator.html

In order for this Generator to work, Python version 2.2 must be installed on your web server - many servers don't have this. If you know what you're doing, this will probably be a good choice.

You don't need a Google Account to use Sitemaps but it's encouraged because you can track your sitemap's progress and view diagnostic information. If you already have another Google Account gmail, Google Alerts, etc. just use that one to sign in and follow directions from there.

To submit your Sitemap using an HTTP request, issue your request to the following URL:

www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=sitemap_url

Hard - A PHP Code Generator

This is a php generator that you can place on your server. This generator will spider your site, and produce your XML sitemap file. Download the phpSitemapNG and upload it to your server. Run the generator to get your XML sitemap file and send it to Google.

PHP Generator
http://enarion.net/google/

Again, this is only hard to do if you don't know your way around PHP files or scripts.

Easy - Free Online Generator

These Generators are popping up everywhere, and Google now keeps a list of these 'third party suppliers' of generators on their site. Find them here:

Google's List of Third Party Generators
http://code.google.com/sm_thirdparty.html

One of the easiest to use is www.xm-sitemaps.com, and you can index up to 500 pages with this online Generator very quickly and it will give you the sitemap XML file Google needs to index your site.

It will go into your site, spider it and index all your pages into an XML sitemap of your site. You can download this file, Compressed or Non- compressed and make minor changes such as setting the priority, changing frequency, etc.

Then upload this file to your site as sitemap.xml to the root directory of your server i.e. where you have your homepage. Then notify Google Sitemaps of your XML file and you're in business.

Of course, the only drawback, if you constantly add pages to your site you will need to also add these pages to your XML sitemap file. This won't be much of a problem unless you're daily adding pages to your site - then you will need something like the PHP or Python generator to do all this for you automatically.

Google is still the major search engine on the web so getting your pages indexed and updated quickly is the major reason to use Google Sitemaps. If you want your site to remain competitive it's probably the wisest route to take.

About the Author:
To learn more about the different Services and Programs offered by Google click here: Google Adsense & Google Adwords:http://www.bizwaremagic.com/Google_Cash_File.htm Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins of www.bizwaremagic.com

A Simple Secret to Seducing The Search Engines

2005-07-08T10:01:00.000-07:00

By Jason Potash © 2005

In the Internet Marketing community, "traffic" and search engine mastery are hot topics these days...

People will do almost ANYTHING just to get their site indexed by Google faster... to boost their Page Rank quicker... to drive more traffic immediately... and to get a ton of incoming links to their website right away...

Yes, even if it involves handing over $137 for the latest push-button traffic software or search engine trick.

Why all the fuss?

In this article, I'm going to reveal to you a simple, no cost way to make the search engines crawl all over your website like ants on a melted popsicle.

PLUS... you will start to get laser-targeted traffic and boost your search engine rankings almost instantly. Not to mention, you'll have (at least) 100 quality links back to your website within a week.

And this doesn't involve any SEO hocus-pocus, buying into some new "killer" traffic booster software, or trying out the latest scheme to fool Google, Yahoo, or MSN.

Nope. This stuff is 100% legit, above-board, and has already worked for years.

Let me give you a quick example. Recently I created a little "test" website.

The search engines didn't know about it. It had no incoming links. No traffic. No SE rankings...ZIP!

Fast forward 7 days... My website was indexed by Google, Yahoo and MSN, it got well over 200 incoming links and started to generate traffic... shortly thereafter, Google granted my site a Page Rank 3.

Again, this did not cost a penny, just a few hours of my time. I created a play-by-play video that shows the website and how I did it (see the weblink below).

Here's another example: An "average guy" decided to try this same strategy. He now has #1-#8 rankings on all the major search engines. You can listen to him explain how de did it during a recent audio interview:

http://wetrack.it/eza/af.cgi?aid=4351&ent=28

(Note: After you click above, look under the "June 20th" post and click the MP3 audio button and video button on the site)

So, how can you get these same kind of results?

I wish I could make this sound more complicated but, all that you need to do is simply submit one article to a handful of Article Directories.

Writing and submitting articles has long been a proven, time-tested strategy for increasing traffic, subscribers and sales.

But now in 2005, articles have re-emerged in a BIG way, thanks to recent information leaked by Google within their US Patent Application 20050071741.

We now know that quality content and incoming links are essential (now, more than ever) to the survival of your websites within the search engines.

Bottom line. You need to start creating and submitting articles to get all the benefits I just outlined above.

In fact, Google is practically telling you to do so!

But, where do you start? Where should you submit your articles?

Here's a blueprint that outlines the 7 keys to writing successful articles.

Follow these 7 keys and you are guaranteed to get more traffic, more incoming links and higher search engine rankings and page rank, by simply distributing your articles across the Internet.

Let's get started.

Key #1: Choose a HOT Topic

You'll need to do a little research on this one. If you are already familiar with the target market for your article, this should come easy. Research, spy, observe. Do whatever it takes to understand your target market. What issues are hot? What topics currently appear within top ezines, messageboards, ebooks? What keywords are they using to search online?

It's also a good idea to frequently visit article directories and content sites. These sites contain current articles on a variety of popular topics. Often, you can view the most popular article topics (or clicks) as well.

Here's a short list of article directories:

http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.certificate.net/wwio
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.netterweb.com
http://www.jogena.com

Key #2: Choose a "Magnetic" Title

Magnetic title? That's right. Your article title is your headline. If it doesn't pull the reader into the article, nothing will. Just think ... what if I called this article:

"Get More Traffic In The Search Engines", "Easy Search Engine Tips", or "Free Traffic Generation Strategies".

BLAH! See what I mean? These don't pack much "punch", do they?

Your title is just like a classified ad. Look at it this way. If your article title is crowded on a webpage with 100 others, what will make it jump off the page?

Key #3: Use The AIDA Principle

Attention Interest Desire Action

This universal formula applies to your articles as well. Once you've enticed your reader to read your article (via a great title), you need to keep them reading.

The first paragraph of your article is critical. If it's dull, boring and lifeless, your reader will surely bail out. You must keep their interest right from the start. Try using short paragraphs, sentences and words. This will keep the tempo upbeat and make your article much easier to read (or skim, as most do online).

Key #4: Create Several Sub-Headings

To better organize your thoughts, divide your article into sub-headings. At times, writing a 500-700 word article can seem insurmountable. Sub-headings make things easier. Instead of tackling the entire article at once, try writing one paragraph at a time.

Key #5: "Close The Sale" With A Resource Box

One of the worst things you can do is to leave your reader hanging. They've just read your great article, now what? A resource box appears at the very end of your article. It's the last line that your reader sees. It's your chance to set the next step.

Make sure that your resource box is compelling. Make the reader jump over to your website, sign up for your ezine, download your latest ebook, claim their free gift -- get creative!

Also, the resource box allows you to include a direct link back to your website. Sit back and watch your link popularity soar!

Key #6: Poofread Your Work

Did you catch that? It should have read, "Proofread". Nothing hollers out amateur, newbie, or just plain unprofessional than an article filled with typos and bad grammar. If you don't have an English major in the family, hire a proofreader. Their rates are reasonable and they can save you from damaging your reputation online.

Key #7 - Promote, promote, promote

Let's make one thing clear. Without key #7, keys 1-6 are a waste of time. Bottom line, no one will read your article if you keep it stored on a floppy disk in your desk.

You've got to promote it!How can you promote your article? There are close to 90 article directories, article banks, free content sites, article announcement lists, and article syndication services out there. And the best part is ... 95% of them are FREE!

Plus, there are thousands of ezines, websites and blogs that are looking for article submissions. Develop a list of contacts in your target market. Next, e-mail each ezine publisher, blog owner, or webmaster a copy of your latest article. There are countless stories of individuals who have succeeded using this exact same approach.

Wouldn't you like to get your next article picked up by an ezine with 32,000 subscribers or have 8,000 websites visitors view your article tomorrow?

Now go on, and get writing!

About the Author:
Jason Potash makes it easy to create and blast out your articles all over the Internet using his ingenious new ArticleAnnouncer Article Marketing System.
http://wetrack.it/eza/af.cgi?aid=4351&ent=26

Tips for Successful Pay-Per Click Campains

2005-07-01T15:09:00.000-07:00

By Eddie Machaalani © 2005

Introduction

Pay per click (PPC) is by far one of the easiest and quickest methods of driving targeted, consistent traffic to your website. While this may seem like a daunting method of advertising for some, it's actually quite easy and can end up becoming that one marketing method that you can't live without.

What I'd like to do today is provide some tips and techniques that I personally use when creating and monitoring PPC ad's. Hopefully these tips will help you in your future marketing endeavors.

Experimenting With Different Search Engines

There are many PPC search engines, with some being better than others. The top two are Google and Yahoo, which was previously known as Overture. It's a good idea to start your PPC campaigns with a small budget, spreading it out over a few different search engines to experiment and see where your target market may be lurking.

Generally speaking, I've found Google Adwords is better for more technically orientated products or services, including software, hardware, web design etc. Yahoo, on the other hand, is better for general consumer products, including insurance, toys, music etc.

What I wrote in the previous paragraph is very general, and you should analyze your campaigns carefully to see where they are performing their best. We'll discuss this in detail a little later in the article.

Selecting the Right Keywords

The keyword selection process is probably the most important of all when it comes to creating your PPC ad's. You'll need to select keywords that are specific to your product or service offering, but you need to be careful not to select keywords that are extremely popular, as this may deplete your PPC funds sooner than expected.

The keyword selection process begins by asking yourself just one question:

"If I was searching for a product just like mine, which words or phrases would I search for?

"Using your answer(s) to this question as your base, you can then use a thesaurus and common sense to start building your keyword list with plurals, synonyms, similar words, etc.

To see which keywords your competitors are using, simply try searching for them. If you see a PPC ad along the side for your competitor, then note that keyword down and add it to your list.

Another way of coming up with great keywords is to use the overture search suggestion tool: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Type in a set of keywords and it will list similar keywords, including the number of times that keyword has been searched for on Overture (Yahoo) in the last month!

There's often a fine line between selecting keywords that are either too specific or keywords that are too general. Try to keep away from these, as they can often result in wasted PCP funds.

A typical example of this would be an ad that I created recently for our latest product, TrackPoint, which -- not coincidently -- is an internet marketing return on investment (ROI) tracking tool. Although the product is heavily geared towards internet marketing, using such a broad term would have made it virtually impossible to compete with the other advertisers.

The term "internet marketing" is searched for 825,674 times per month on Overture alone. Combined with the huge number of different advertisers that target this keyword, the top bid for "internet marketing" on Google AdWords is $13.84 per click! With an average of 240 clicks per day, a single day of advertising alone would cost $505!

Now, unless you have an extremely high conversion rate of visitors to sales, or you're selling a high priced item that usually has a high customer acquisition cost, I suggest targeting more specific keywords. Not only will this decrease your overall competition with other advertisers, but it will also increase the chances of turning your newly found web site visitors into customers.

Back to my earlier example, I chose to be specific with my keywords. One keyword was "ROI tracking", which is searched for 1,828 times per month on Overture and has a much cheaper top bid. This keyword is also more targeted to the product I was marketing, meaning that a large percentage of people clicking on my ad should turn into customers.

It's also helpful to note that taking the top bid is not always necessary, and anywhere in the top 5-10 can generate great leads. This really does come down to budget and analysis.

Attracting People to Your Ad

Now that we've selected our keywords, we need to get those searching to click on our ad, which in turn will result in them clicking through to our web site and potentially purchasing our product.

One of the simplest ways to get peoples attention is to use their search keywords in the title of your PPC ad. This has been proven to increase click-thru rates on ad's by over 50%.

Why? Simple. If the potential customer is searching for "ROI Tracking" and the title of a PCP ad begins with "ROI Tracking", then their attention will be grabbed instantly. He or she doesn't need to know much else, other than that the PPC ad is catered specifically for him or her.

One thing to keep in mind is that you can sometimes create a more relevant title by combining your different keywords into one PPC ad. For example, I could have easily used something like "ROI Tracking PHP Script" as the title of my ad, which effectively would have decreased my click-thru rate, but definitely caters my ad more to a specific audience. Once again, this comes down to analysis and adjustment.

Another important technique to attract attention to your ad is to differentiate yourself from your competitors. In our particular case, the majority of our competition offer hosted solutions, whereby they manage the software on their servers in return for monthly or per traffic fees.

Our product caters to a different audience, those that want more control over their software, as well as those not wanting to pay monthly fees. So, in this example, I would make the title of my ad "Pay no monthly or per traffic fees".

Next -- and this is where experimentation is extremely important -- we need to create a description for our PPC ad that will attract the potential customer and let them know that our product is exactly what they are searching for. To do this, I start my ad's description with "Track PPC, campaigns & search".

Finally, it's good practice to add a "Call to action" at the bottom of your ad. If you're not familiar with this term, its usually an instruction to tell the person to do something, such as "Click here to view a demo", "Download Now", etc.

Marketing experts seem to agree that the average human needs to be prompted to click on an ad or take action, so we'll add this line to the end of our PPC ad's description:"

Track PPC, campaigns & search. Try demo!"

Reducing Click-Thru's

Sometimes it's important to reduce the number of clicks your PPC ad is receiving. This could be because you are attracting people who are only after free products/services, or even the wrong target market.

The two quickest ways to reduce click-thru's are to make the description of your ad more targeted and to add the price of the product to the ad.

Making the description more targeted (as I've discussed above) can reduce your overall click-thru rate, but potentially increase the likelihood of a click resulting in a purchase.

In my earlier example, by adding the words "PHP script" to the description, we are effectively filtering out those looking for a hosted solution, downloadable software or even those with a server that isn't capable of running PHP scripts.

We also increase the targeting of our ad because we now know that the majority of those clicking on the ad are looking for a PHP script, which is exactly what our product is.

Secondly, by adding the price of the product you are selling to the end of the ad, you instantly eliminate those looking for free products, and target those willing to purchase your product or service.

Tracking Your Clicks and Conversions

The fundamental core of a successful advertising campaign -- whether it be a PPC ad, banner ad or even newspaper ad -- is knowing whether or not your ad's are actually converting into sales or not.

If your ads aren't making you m-o-n-e-y then you're more than likely better off saving your advertising dollars and adjusting your ad's or using your marketing budget elsewhere in your company.

Both Google and Overture have built in tracking and conversion tools that you can use to get a holistic view of your current PPC ad campaigns. You can even use external tools which let you add conversion code to your website to tell you exactly which of your ad's are converting into sales and which aren't. This is often referred to as knowing your ROI or Return on Investment.

We need to know exactly how much m-o-n-e-y we are making per dollar spent on every PPC ad. If the ROI is positive and we are making more m-o-n-e-y than we are spending, then the ad is working and we can use this knowledge to further improve our other ad's or increase ad spending for that particular ad/set of keywords.

If, however, our ad's are costing us more than they are returning, then we can reduce our spend, change our approach, or remove these ad's altogether. It's a rather simple formula, but frustratingly ignored by many advertisers.

You must track your ads if you want to succeed with any form of Internet advertising. You should also constantly monitor and adjust your ads according to how they are performing, your return on investment, etc.

Conclusion

Hopefully I've provided you with a clear insight into PPC advertising and techniques that you can use to improve your advertising campaigns. It pays -- pun intended -- to do your research and understand your target market, because the rewards can sometimes be much more than you expected.

Copyright © 2005, Interspire, Eddie Machaalani

About the Author:

Eddie Machaalani is the Interspire marketing and project manager. He's most recently been kept busy helping out with the interface design for Interspire's ROI and Conversion Tracking Application, TrackPoint. To see how TrackPoint can help boost your revenue, go here: http://www.interspire.com/trackpoint

Beginner’s Guide to Pay Per Click Search Engines (Part 2)

2005-06-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

By Kalena Jordan © 2005

In Part 1 of this article, we looked at the various pay for performance advertising models offered by Yahoo! Search Marketing. In this article, we will look at the remaining pay for performance search engine models on our list, starting with Google AdWords.

Google AdWords™

Similar to Yahoo! Sponsored Search, Google AdWords https://adwords.google.com/ gives web site owners the ability to promote their site when particular keyword or key phrase searches are conducted at Google and their partner sites.

Your ads usually appear on the right side of results pages in a “call out” box under the heading “Sponsored Links”. Your AdWords text or image ads appear on search result pages for the keywords you buy, and can be targeted by language and country.

With Google AdWords' cost-per-click (CPC) pricing, you pay only when a customer clicks on your ad, regardless of how many times it's shown. Google adjusts your bids automatically to keep you ahead of your competition at the lowest possible price. Google Adwords results appear on Google search results pages, Google’s distribution partner sites, Google Gmail, and numerous content sites which are syndicated through the Google Adsense program.

For more information on Google AdWords, Click Here: https://adwords.google.com/.

Google AdSense™

Google AdSense is a way for webmasters to generate income from their sites by displaying text or image advertisements from companies participating in the Google AdWords program.

You can display targeted advertising for your content pages or you can add a Google search box to your site and show targeted ads on search results pages. When visitors click on these ads, Google pays you a fee. The ads are targeted to the content already on your page so they are not as intrusive to your visitors.

For more information on Google AdSense, Click Here:
https://www.google.com/adsense/.

LookSmart LookListings™

The LookSmart Directory http://www.looksmart.com/ originally offered a Paid Submission model and then transformed it into a Pay For Performance model, removing their Express Submit directory submission service and receiving a lot of criticism in the process.

To have your site included in LookSmart.com, you must pay a per click fee when visitors click on your listing, similar to the Yahoo! Search Submit Express model. The "relevancy keywords", title and description chosen during the set up of your listing determine when your site appears for searches.

There is no free submission option to Looksmart and the only way to get your site into their directory is to either pay for their LookListings or submit your site via the Zeal directory http://www.zeal.com, which is only an option available to non-profit sites.

LookSmart LookListings work like this:

1) Create Your Listing which includes:

- site description & title
- relevancy keywords (for keyword targeted listings)
- directory category

2) Set Your Monthly Budget:

- set your maximum monthly budget
- set your maximum click rates for each URL (for keyword targeted listings)
- your account is debited USD 0.15 per click (for inclusion-targeted listings)
- minimum account deposit totaling your maximum monthly budget
- each campaign has a minimum monthly budget of USD 15

3) Account Management

- traffic reporting
- automatic monthly account refills (from your nominated credit card)
- adjust your budget
- update description, title and relevancy keywords
- bids monitored automatically (for keyword targeted listings)

LookListings appear on sites across the LookSmart Network including LookSmart, Lycos, Mamma.com and CNET Search

.For more information on LookSmart LookListings, Click Here: http://listings.looksmart.com/help/faq.jhtml?showFaq=new.

Other Pay-Per-Click ProvidersApart from the big players, there are a large number of other medium-sized search providers selling pay-per-click search advertising. These include:

- FindWhat http://www.findwhat.com/

- Enhance (formerly ah-ha) http://www.enhance.com/

- Kanoodle http://www.kanoodle.com/

- Espotting http://www.espotting.com/

- 7Search http://www.7search.com/

- GoClick http://www.goclick.com/

- ePilot.com http://www.epilot.com/

- Lycos Insite AdBuyer http://insite.lycos.com/

- Mirago http://www.mirago.com/

- Search123 http://search123.com/

Of course there are hundreds more PPC engines, many of which can be found via the sites listed in our Further Reading section below.

Don’t be afraid to set-up some test pay per click campaigns to dip your toes into the paid advertising waters. You don’t have to have a large budget to reap rewards, just a willingness to experiment and apply what you learn to improve your campaigns. What you do with all your extra traffic is up to you!

Further Reading

Pay Per Click Search Engines (CPC / PPC)http://searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156291

Pay Per Click Search Engines on Pandiahttp://www.pandia.com/optimization/ppc.html

Pay Per Click Search Engines on Search Engine Guide
http://www.searchengineguide.com/payperclick.html

PayPerClickSearchEngines.com
http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com/other-pay-per-click-search-engines.shtml

Buying Your Way In: Search Engine Advertising Chart
http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/article.php/2167941

Pay Per Click Analyst http://www.payperclickanalyst.com/

Pay Per Click Guide http://www.payperclickguide.com/

About the Author:
Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running her own SEO business Web Rank www.webrank.biz, Kalena manages Search Engine College www.searchenginecollege.com, an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing subjects.

Beginner’s Guide to Pay Per Click Search Engines (Part 1)

2005-06-07T16:24:00.000-07:00

By Kalena Jordan © 2005

Pay per click (PPC) advertising via search engines has become extremely popular with businesses of all sizes, due to the booming search market and the massive growth in online sales over the past few years.

According to ComScore Networks http://www.comscore.com/, online consumer spending for the 2004/5 financial year is expected to top USD 66 billion dollars, up 25% on the previous year. That’s right, 66 BILLION dollars! A large chunk of that expenditure will come from leads generated via pay per click search engines.

If you’ve been thinking about trying out PPC engines but are confused about the different models available and the costs involved, this article will shed some light. I will also explain the newly launched PPC products offered by Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly operating under the Overture brand).

Below is a current list of the most popular pay for performance search engine advertising models:

• Yahoo! Sponsored Search Pay Per Click
• Yahoo! Content Match Pay Per Click
• Yahoo! Local Sponsored Search Pay Per Click
• Yahoo! Search Submit Express - Paid Inclusion
• Yahoo! Search Submit Pro - Hybrid Paid Inclusion / Pay Per Click
• Google AdWords - Pay Per Click
• Google AdSense Pay Per Click affiliate program
• Looksmart LookListings - Pay Per Click

You will find that some of these will provide better results than others. I’m not going to recommend one over another here because results vary widely and really depend on your site content, your market and your budget. But below is a brief description of each product offering and the minimum cost involved.

Yahoo! Sponsored Search™

Yahoo! Sponsored Search is the new name for what was recently called Overture Precision Match. Sponsored Search prominently displays your business in search results on some of the top U.S. search properties.

With Sponsored Search, you set the price you're willing to pay for each customer who clicks on your listing.

If you create a keyword campaign and your bid buys their "premium listings" (top 3 positions) for particular keywords or search phrases, your bid buys you top listings on Yahoo's partner sites http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srch/srch_affnw.php?mkt=us (Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista, InfoSpace, Excite, AllTheWeb and a range of news and content portals, such as CNN).

For example, go to AllTheWeb at http://www.alltheweb.com and type in a search for “used cars”. Take note of the top 3 spots. Now go to MSN Search at http://search.msn.com/ and type in a search for “used cars”. You'll see that the "Sponsored Sites" listings in the green box at the top (and/or the text ads to the right) contain the same top 3 listings from AllTheWeb. The regular MSN directory listings follow underneath the green box. So basically, purchasing PPC listings on Yahoo! can give you top billing on other major search engines too.

For a monthly fee, listings can be automatically monitored using the Yahoo! Search Optimizer http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/mt/so.php?tile=1 to ensure bid amounts are consistent to attain target positions without going over budget. Volume levels are determined by your budget, as you only pay for the traffic delivered.

How much you pay depends on the keyword or phrase you are bidding on and what position you want to purchase. Each account has a USD20 minimum monthly spend and a USD30 non-refundable initial deposit is required to open the account (which is applied to click-throughs). There is a minimum bid requirement of USD 0.10 per click through and you pay the bid price EACH TIME somebody clicks your ad from Yahoo! and their partner listings.

With the large traffic numbers driven to your site via Yahoo! Sponsored Search, the costs of keyword bid campaigns can quickly add up, so I highly recommend deciding on a total budget so that you can develop a cost effective keyword bid allocation and maintenance plan combining both premium (top 3) and other listings.

Yahoo! provides detailed reporting tools to help you track the performance of the PPC campaign and traffic generated. Yahoo! also offers a special Keyword Selector Tool http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ to assist in the selection of your keywords, a View Bids Tool http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/search/tools/bidtool/, where you can see the current maximum bids and listings for the top 3 advertisers on any search term, a PPC ROI Calculator http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/tools/roic.php and a CPM ROI Calculator http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/tools/roasc.php.

Yahoo! offers two sign-up plans, Fast Track™ http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srch/choose.php? or Self Serve, giving you the choice of expert assistance or starting out on your own. With Fast Track™, Yahoo! experts research your website and recommend effective search terms based on the content of your site and Yahoo!'s editorial guidelines. They also create customized ad titles and descriptions based on those search terms. Fast Track™ has a one time service fee of USD199, while Self Serve is free.

For more information on Yahoo! Sponsored Search, Click Here: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srch/index.php.

Yahoo! Content Match™

Content Match works on the same principle Yahoo! Sponsored Search, but offers advertisers access to more targeted customers on a pay-per-click basis by displaying their site listings alongside related articles, product reviews and other information on the Content Match partner network.

This network includes sites like Yahoo!, MSN.com, CNN.com and ESPN.com. Yahoo! Content Match complements Sponsored Search™ while offering separate pricing.

Yahoo! Content Match™ works like this:

1) When you sign up for Sponsored Search, your Yahoo! account will be set up to automatically receive Content Match traffic, and your listings are automatically re-purposed for Content Match.

2) When a web user goes to a Yahoo! and views content pages (such as articles), Yahoo! provides one or more relevant ad listings on the same page.

3) Users may also be targeted based on their interests and actions. For example, a user who demonstrates an interest in photography-related topics on one site may be provided with photography-related Content Match listings on that site or on other Content Match publisher sites such as CNN and ESPN.

4) Minimum bids start at USD 0.10, and you pay only when a user clicks on your listing.

5) You can manage and track the performance of your Content Match listings from the "Manage Content Match" pages in your Sponsored Search Account once you have completed the Sponsored Search advertiser sign-up process.

6) Separate campaign management, including bidding, ad listing and tracking, lets you adjust your bids and measure performance independent of Sponsored Search to achieve maximum ROI.

7) You can control your advertising spend across your Content Match campaigns with Yahoo!'s Budgeting feature.

For more information on Yahoo! Content Match, Click Here: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srch/cm.php.

Yahoo! Local Sponsored Search™

Yahoo! also offers a regionally-focused pay-per-click advertising option. Yahoo! Local Sponsored Search™ enables both online and offline businesses to potentially increase sales by precisely targeting customers in a specific geographic region.

Local Sponsored Search works best for businesses that are targeting customers in their neighborhood seeking to purchase local products and services via a web site or physical store location.

Local Sponsored Search features a Locator page, which provides prospects with information about your business, including address, phone number, store hours and a map of your location. In addition, if your business has a Web site, your main Web page will be displayed along with the Locator page.

Yahoo! Local Sponsored Search™ works like this:

1) You select keywords you wish to bid on that best describe your business, products or services. Write listings and choose a geographic range (0.5 to 100 mile radius around your location) from which you want to draw customers.

2) When a customer interested in your area goes to a search site such as Yahoo! and searches for a product or service you sell, your listing appears.

3) When the customer clicks on your listing, they see your Locator page and a link to your Web site, if you have a site.

4) Just like your Yahoo! Local Sponsored Search™ listing, you only pay your bidded amount when a customer clicks on your listing and there is no monthly minimum.

For more information on Yahoo! Local Sponsored Search™, Click Here: http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ays/lm_faq.jhtml.

Yahoo Search Submit Express™

Through Search Submit Express you can submit one or more web pages for consideration to appear in the algorithmic search results powered by the Yahoo! search engine. This is what is known in the search industry as a paid inclusion model.

Search Submit Express offers a single point of submission for your web pages into Yahoo!, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, and other search portals.

If you have content that has just changed or is updated frequently (such as pricing information or product items), Search Submit Express ensures the most up-to-date content is available to search users by refreshing your URLs every 48 hours.

The program provides detailed reporting and data designed to help you improve your pages, optimize program performance and generate more leads.

Search Submit Express works like this:

1) Submit your URLs for review and pay an annual fee for quality review of your submitted pages. Make sure your pages follow Yahoo’s Quality Guidelines: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srchsb/sse_gl.php.

2) Once reviewed and accepted into the program, your pages are added to a database of sites that powers search results for major web portals such as Yahoo!, Alta Vista, AlltheWeb and others.

3) Submitted URLs are presented in search results based on relevance to search terms.

4) When a user clicks your Search Submit Express listing in search results, you pay a cost-per-click fee for that lead. You must maintain a positive balance in your account for your pages to remain active in the program.

5) Your URLs are refreshed (re-crawled) every 48 hours to ensure that the most up-to-date content is available to search users.

6) At the end of one year, you can renew your annual subscription or let it lapse.

Submissions to Search Submit Express consist of a review fee and a CPC (Cost per click) component. Billing, reporting and account management for Search Submit Express listings is provided by Yahoo! or one of their reseller partners.

Search Submit Express annual review fees consist of:

Price Structure (effective 30 April 05)

Price per domain (USD):
1st URL $49.00 each
URLs 2-10 $29.00 each
URLs 11-1,000 $10.00 each

In addition to the review fee, there is also a per click fee of either $0.15 or $0.30, depending on the category of the content. The complete list of categories is listed here: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srchsb/sse_pr.php.

For more information on Search Submit Express, Click Here: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srchsb/sse_hiw.php.

Yahoo Search Submit Pro™

Yahoo! Search Submit Pro is the same paid inclusion program as Search Submit Express, but with more features for larger advertisers. Search Submit Pro is designed for companies wanting to submit Web pages that might otherwise be excluded from algorithmic search results (as long as they still meet Yahoo’s Content Quality Guidelines). Examples include sites that require cookies or session IDs, sites with Flash content and information stored in content management systems, or sites that aren't well crawled because of Web site design.

Search Submit Pro is typically for customers with search marketing budgets of USD 5,000 per month or more, or advertisers who submit more than 1,000 Web pages to the program. A dedicated account manager is available to answer any questions, provide technical support, and help you manage your Search Submit Pro program.

Search Submit Pro lets you create titles and descriptions that are displayed as algorithmic search result listings. The program can automatically generate result listings that best match user queries. You can update the information frequently, independent of changes to your Web site. Search Submit Pro works like this:

1) You provide an XML feed of your URLs.

2) Once reviewed and accepted into the program, your pages are added to a database of sites that powers search results for major web portals such as Yahoo!, Alta Vista, AlltheWeb and others.

3) When Internet users visit the Search Submit Pro partner sites and enter keyword searches, your listings may appear within the search results based on their relevance to the user's search request.

4) Your URLs are refreshed (re-crawled) every 48 hours to ensure that the most up-to-date content is available to search users.

Pricing for Search Submit Pro is based on cost per click - customers are charged each time a user clicks on one of the customer's search listings. The specific cost is based on the type and category of content provided for inclusion in the algorithmic search results and is obtainable from a Yahoo! Account Manager.

For more information on Search Submit Pro, Click Here: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srchsb/ssp.php?.

In Part 2 of this article, we will look at the remaining pay for performance search engine models on our list, starting with Google AdWords.

About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running her own SEO business Web Rank www.webrank.biz, Kalena manages Search Engine College www.searchenginecollege.com, an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing subjects

Get the Most Leverage out of Your Articles...Compliments of Yahoo!

2005-05-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

By Robin Nobles © 2005

I've long been an advocate of a form of online marketing that I personally call "article marketing." Yahoo! has recently added a layer to article marketing which is extremely exciting, and any one who uses the power of articles needs to take notice.

Introducing Yahoo!'s Creative Commons Search in Beta http://search.yahoo.com/cc

Here's what it says as means of explanation at the site:

"This Yahoo! Search service finds content across the Web that has a Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/) license. While most stuff you find on the web has a full copyright, this search helps you find content published by authors who want you to share or reuse it, under certain conditions."

Obviously, if you're not a writer and are in need of content on your site, this is a great place to go. You can find content through Yahoo!'s Creative Commons search that you can use for commercial purposes, and you can also find content that you can modify, adapt, and build upon.

What forward thinking on Yahoo!'s part!

Now, let's talk about forward thinking on your part.

Why is this Important to Article Writers?

Let's think about it for a minute. The links pointing back to your Web site from your articles and the relevant link text in the bio are extremely important to a savvy article writer. By allowing other Web sites, e-zines, online publications, and print publications to publish your articles, you're widening the scope of your visibility.

And in walks a powerhouse like Yahoo! with their new Creative Commons Search.

Wouldn't you like your articles to be available in a select search on Yahoo!?

Do you have to think twice? (Or even once?)

How About an Example?

Disclaimer: It's rather dangerous to give an example in print. As soon as you do, your example could slip in rankings. Forgive me if that happens here.

Please go to:

http://search.yahoo.com/cc

Click on "Find content I can use for commercial purposes."

Type "seo articles" (without quotes) in the search box.

Click Search CC.

The #1 page at the time of this writing is:
http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles.html

Click on the link, then scroll to the bottom of the page. You'll see the Creative Commons License that says "Some Rights Reserved."

It says, "This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License."

Click on the link. You'll see the actual license and what rights are available under the license as well as what conditions have to be met.

So, if you want your articles to be available through a Yahoo! Creative Commons Search, you simply allow it to be licensed out through Creative Commons.

How Can Article Writers Take Advantage of Yahoo!'s Creative Commons Search?

Follow these easy steps:

1. Go to Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/

2. Click on the Publish graphic at the top of the page on the right.

3. Answer the questions: Allow commercial uses of your work? Allow modifications of your work? Jurisdiction of your license? Format of your work (such as text)?

4. You can also click to add more information about your work. If you're only going to create a license for one article, you can get very specific about your article.

5. Click on Select a License. You'll see how the license will look on your page. You can then copy and paste the text to your Web site.

You can even add a Creative Commons License to your blog!

How Long Does it Take for Yahoo!'s Crawler to Find the CC License?

After I put the licenses up on our Web pages, our pages were found in a Yahoo! Creative Commons Search within two weeks.

What about All of the Typical SEO Ramifications?

Does the same Yahoo! crawler crawl Creative Commons licenses? (To my knowledge, there isn't a different crawler.)

Will having a Creative Commons license get your pages into Yahoo! faster? (I haven't done any testing on this yet to see if new pages will get into the regular index as well as Creative Commons, but it's an interesting concept.)

What about a brand new Web site with an articles directory? (You need to have a link from another Web site, because of your site isn't indexed at all, you can't expect Yahoo! to find and spider those article pages quickly.)

Does having a Creative Commons license on your articles affect your regular Yahoo! rankings? (I've seen no evidence of this to date.)

What about Relevancy of Search Results?

That's an interesting question. Let's look at another example.

Again, go to:

http://search.yahoo.com/cc

Choose "Find content I can use for commercial purposes."

Type in "wordtracker." Click on Search CC.

The #1 result is our articles page again:

Marketing on Internet Search Engines - articles by Robin Nobles and John Alexander
www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles.html

"Wordtracker" is being used 11 times on the page, since we've written several articles about Wordtracker. It's not being used in the title, description, etc. This page is not focused on Wordtracker at all. However, this page definitely has a higher link popularity than our other pages.

We have several Wordtracker articles in those same results, yet our articles page is #1. I'll let you study the rest of the results yourself.

Some of the Search Results Aren't Exactly "High Quality"

We have seen some SERPs that aren't exactly high quality. Will your results float to the top? We'd like to think so.

Will Yahoo! or Creative Commons find a way to police the results that are less than quality? After all, this fabulous tool definitely has potential for abuse if not policed in some manner.

In Conclusion . . .

Article writers, if you don't mind others using your content on their sites, be sure to visit Creative Commons and add the CC licenses to your articles. How easy can increasing your online visibility get?!

But don't abuse the system. If the beta tool gets abused, it may never make it to the full version, which will be a shame for us all.

For those of you who are looking for valuable content to add to your sites, be sure to visit Yahoo!'s Creative Commons Search. This is an ideal spot for finding relevant content that's available to be used on your site.

Just remember that the #1 ranked result may not be the best article for you, so do your research.

About the Author:

Robin Nobles teaches 2-, 3-, and 5-day hands-on search engine marketing (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com) workshops in locations across the globe as well as online SEO training (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com) courses. They have recently launched localized SEO training (http://www.searchengineacademy.com) centers through Search Engine Academy

RSS vs Email: It's Not An Either-Or Question

2005-05-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

By Priya Shah © 2005

If you've been getting caught up in all this talk of RSS versus email, its time to stop wondering.

Marketing Sherpa just posted a new report that stirred up the old RSS vs Email debate again. http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2988

The report starts out by stating, "It chills our blood when we hear email marketers and publishers blithely state, "I'm thinking about switching over to RSS entirely!" Oh no. Please don't. RSS is worthy of testing, but it's not an email replacement and it never will be."

A report in Jupitermedia titled "E-Mail Marketing: Alive and Well" notes, "RSS won't be immediately effective as an alternative to e-mail marketing. (But) for some companies (primarily publishers who cater to a technical audience), it's sensible to press forward with RSS now as a supplement to e-mail marketing."
http://www.jupiterresearch.com/bin/item.pl/research:concept/1103/id=96103/

A lot of people think this debate has been going on for long enough. RSS is NOT a replacement for email. It does not (and may never) rival the marketing reach and immediacy of an email message.

Those who've been mourning the death of email marketing don't seem to "get" the fact that RSS hasn't reached the tipping point yet. More people read email than RSS feeds - many more.

I believe that a smart publisher or marketer must use both - Email and RSS. Its not an either/or question.

I know for a fact that my blogs get read more when I send out an email with a "blog post roundup." I personally prefer email and tend to read those blogs more frequently that use email notification.

But the news is not all good for email marketing. According to DoubleClick, 64.7% of all legitimate email being sent (based on their own customers' stats) is never opened. Email delivery is cited as the #1 email marketing headache.

The good news is that email marketing has a terrific Return on Investment (ROI) bringing in $15.50 per dollar spent on a campaign according a report in Email Sherpa. http://www.emailsherpa.com/emailblog.cfm?ID=360

That $15.50 per email-marketing dollar spent is roughly 17% more than in direct-mail campaigns and 73% more than telemarketing campaigns.

eMarketer reports that email is still a powerful marketing tool if used well in a new report, "Email Marketing: How to Improve ROI."
http://www.emarketer.com/article.aspx?1003369

Some points it notes:

· 71 percent of US online advertisers used email marketing in 2004, while 77 percent using paid search.
· Despite spam and email overload 45 percent see email as a good way for companies to stay in touch with customers.
· Customer retention and increased loyalty is the main objective for email marketing among 63 percent of surveyed marketers
· 62 percent also see email as a way to acquire new customers.
· Email volume in the US is expected to rise from over 2 trillion message this year to nearly 2.7 trillion by 2007.

Even though both email spam and email delivery are on the rise, end-users are getting used to spam and it's bothering them less than it used to.

The Marketing Sherpa report also notes that 91% of US Internet users use email on a regular basis, while roughly 4% use RSS feeds on any sort of basis at all.

It suggests that publishers do test RSS, but recommends that they not treat RSS as "shovelware for email content" because it is a new medium.

Other disadvantages it notes for RSS publishers is the challenge of metrics.

"No deliverability, open rates, hard vs soft bounces. No a/b tests, no usability tests, no offer tests, no recency/frequency tests, and multivariable testing."

"The kind of data that marketers and publishers rely on to make business, content, and marketing decisions for email campaigns is almost entirely lacking for RSS at this time," says the report.

So if you're wondering what you should publish - a blog or an email newsletter - I suggest you do both.

Or at least publish a blog with email notification built in. Remember, your list is still your most valuable asset online.

Keep either Email or RSS out of your marketing toolbox and you're losing out on a significant portion of your audience.

RSS has other advantages that email does not have - like being able to syndicate your content across the web. It can be a very useful tool for building link popularity - if you do it right.

As a marketer you do need to start brushing up on your knowledge of RSS and a good place to start is here: http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/rss-blogging.htm

About the Author:

Priya Shah is the CEO of eBrand360 http://www.ebrand360.com She writes the Marketing Slave blog http://marketingslave.com and publishes an internet marketing newsletter http://www.ebizwhiz.biz.

The ONE Thing That Keeps Most People From Becoming Rich and Famous - and How YOU Can Grab That Crucial Advantage for Yourself!

2005-05-11T18:04:00.000-07:00

By Kevin Nunley © 2005

What's the one thing that keeps people from achieving the wealth and fame they probably deserve? It's so simple, yet almost nobody knows how to do it. Without this one thing, you might achieve a little and do okay, but getting rich and famous will be far, far out of your reach. So, what is this one crucial ingredient for the ultimate success? Blow your own horn!

That's right--most people don't know how to blow their own horn. They don't know how to QUICKLY IMPRESS you with how much they know, how helpful they can be, how much they have achieved, how fast they can get new information, AND - most importantly - how they can help YOU get what you want.

Promoting yourself is absolutely crucial to becoming a well- known, trusted figure in your field. And mark my word, once you become "famous" earning a fat paycheck is not far behind. Doors will open. People with healthy bank accounts and wallets fat with credit cards will practically INVENT ways to give you money. All it takes is a deep breath and a little know-how.

So let's start promoting you. Here's how:

1. Write down a list of every cool thing you have ever done. Make note of all the fun, interesting, complicated, or action- filled experiences of your life. Try to slant your list toward experiences that could show how you can help somebody else in your field.

For example's sake, let's say your list includes:

Took a lifeguard course--learned CPR and how to keep cool in emergency situations.

Worked your way up to assistant manager at a donut shop where you were in charge of arranging work schedules and ordering new inventory.

Spent a couple of years going to college where you took English composition, physical science, two business management courses, and financial accounting.

Now you read the boss's copy of the Wall Street Journal every day, and spent last Saturday at the library sitting in a comfy chair reading through all the latest popular business books.

Now let's BLOW YOUR HORN. Granted, there are millions of people who have experience very much like yours, but there is no reason we have to make you sound ordinary.

2. Write a paragraph that briefly shows how your life experience qualifies you to be a big help to someone in your field. Let's say you want to consult over-worked managers like your boss. Your paragraph might be:

I learned how to think clearly and act fast in crucial situations while training to be a life guard. Later I mastered managing people and materials while working in management and inventory control for a busy mid-sized business. That experience, in addition to my university training in management, analytical thinking, and concise communication, have given me a sharp mind and a cool head. Now I stay abreast of cutting-edge trends through industry periodicals and books by important thinkers.

Wow! You sound pretty impressive, don't you? A boss in sore need of clear thinking and new ideas (and what manager isn't?) would welcome having a person like you sitting in her office tossing out thoughts and ideas. And it's all because you learned how to blow your own horn.

3. Now get covered by media. Mass media has mass audiences. It is the instant way to become famous. Start by dong something that gives media a reason to feature you. You can:

Crate something big and important

Stage an event that is visual, unusual, or downright crazy

Comment publicly on a current controversy

Write an article for trade publications or ezines

Write a short book and publish it yourself, then send copies to local radio, TV, and newspapers.

4. Repeat the process as often as you can. Keep adding your accomplishments to your "Blow Your Horn" paragraph. When you create a new event, tell about it in a press release, including your "Blow Your Horn" paragraph at the bottom. Send the release to local media, trade publications, and businesses you might want to work with.

If you get nothing else from this article, get this: Don't keep your greatness a secret. YOU ARE GOOD AT SEVERAL THINGS. Tell the world!

About the Author:

Kevin Nunley learned how to help promote himself while working as a radio DJ (nobody blows their own horn like a radio station). Now Kevin writes web copy, sales letters, and press releases. See all his writing and promotion deals, plus thousands of business tips just like this one at http://DrNunley.com Reach him at mailto:kevin@drnunley.com

PayPal: the Grand Daddy of Online Sales Transactions

2005-05-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

By Merle © 2005

I love PayPal. They've been doing business online almost as long as I have, and they're constantly improving and adding new features to their service.

According to their website ( http://PayPal.com ), they have over 56 million accounts and more than 53,000 people who sign up for new access every day. They deal in transactions totaling over $48 million per day.

PayPal makes it easy for anyone to take payments over the Net with no need for a merchant account. What that means to you is lower fees and a level playing field. If you've been hesitant to start your online business because you thought you couldn't afford your own merchant account, PayPal is all you really need.

There are three types of accounts:

Personal: For your personal shopping use. You cannot accept debit or credit card payments, but sending and receiving money is free.

Premier: For buying and selling under your own name. Send payments for free, with low fees for accepting money.

Business: This is perfect for your online business. Add your own name to be included on your customer's credit card statements. Sending money is free, but you are charged small fees to accept payments.

There are no set up fees and the fee you pay PayPal when accepting cash is based on your sales volume for the month.

Standard Rate: $0 to $3,000 - pay 2.9% and .30 per transaction Merchant Rate: $3,000 to $10,000 - 2.5% and .30 per trans $100,000 and up - 1.9% and .30 per trans.

To apply for the merchant rate, you'll have to have one month of sales that meet the ranges above and fill out a short application to get approved.

Many of the options I'm going to point out to you are for "business accounts" only, so you'll want to go that route when registering or upgrade your current account to that level.

Paypal has added so many new features over the years, it's hard to keep up with just how powerful it is. I'm amazed every day at the variety of features that can make your life as an online entrepreneur run as smooth as silk.

Let's take a look at some of these options:

1) Shopping Carts: If you sell multiple items on your site, PayPal has a built in shopping cart. Just copy and paste their buttons for an instant store front. No third party software needed.

2) Subscriptions/Recurring Payments: If you sell a service that needs to be paid for monthly, you can set up this type of payment option on your site. This is great for trial periods and membership sites.

3) Donations: Maybe you don't sell anything, but you have a very informative site or newsletter. A PayPal button suggesting your readers make a donation is one way to help defray your costs.

4) Optional PayPal Accounts: One of the drawbacks to using PayPal used to be your buyer had to register for their own PayPal account. This is no longer true and you can select in your control panel to make it optional, not mandatory.

5) Customized Payment Pages: You can add your website colors and logo to PayPal's payment pages. You can create and save up to three different page styles for a seamless check out process.

6) Logo Center: If you accept PayPal on your site you'll want to add logos to your website letting the world know. You'll find many shapes and sizes to use.

7) Invoicing: Send your customers detailed invoices via email. You can include detailed line items, descriptions, tax and more. You can save up to 10 customized invoices for later billing purposes.

8) Payment Request Wizard: Did you know you can add payment buttons to your Outlook and Outlook Express messages? This is a quick and easy way to get paid faster.

9) PayPal Debit Card: If you have a PayPal account you'll want to get a debit card to go with it so you can easily access your funds at at any ATM. The card has a Mastercard logo so you can go shopping and the money will come out of your PayPal balance. You can also use it to draw out cash from your account up to $400.00 per day. You'll also earn 1.5% cashback on your purchase.

10) Refunds: Anytime you receive a payment, you can easily refund it by clicking a button up to 60 days after the sale.

11) Mass Pay: Easily send payments to large groups of people. This would be an easy way to pay your affiliates if you run your own affiliate program.

12) Packing Slips: If you sell hard goods you can create packing slips for your shipments.

13) Shipping Calculator: Easily add shipping costs for your "buy it now" buttons or your PayPal shopping cart items.

14) Seller Protection Policy: If you meet their guidelines you can protect yourself from liability and PayPal will absorb the chargeback at no cost to you. Covers up to $5,000 on any fraudulent transaction and is for tangible goods only.

15) Auto Return: You set the url for your buyers to come back to after they make their payments. Great for setting up your download page for what they purchased and makes for instant delivery.

Since eBay also owns PayPal, they've also integrated some pretty cool tools for eBay Sellers:

1) End of Auction Emails: When your auction ends, wouldn't it be nice if you could send a customized email with all of the details included automatically? Now you can. This is great for putting nervous buyers at ease when they are waiting to hear from you.

2) Auction Logos: If you want to offer an option in your eBay listings so buyers can pay you directly you can manually add a PayPal logo to do so.

3) Post Sale Manager: If you sell many items on eBay it can be a full time job tracking it all. With PayPal Post Sale Manager you can easily manage invoices, shipments, and feedback on everything you sell.

4) Shipping Center: USPS and UPS have teamed up with PayPal to offer you integrated service in one location. Calculate shipping costs, print shipping labels, track shipments and much more.

5) Buyer Financing: Add promotional financing to your "big ticket" items so your eBay buyers can more easily afford to purchase with monthly payments. Buyers are approved within 30 seconds and you get paid your full price immediately.

6) eBay Gift Certificates: Send eBay Gift certificates to your friends and family so they can buy anything on eBay as long as the seller accepts PayPal.

As you can see, PayPal is all you need to run your online business. If you thought all you could do was accept or send payments, you're missing out on the powerful features that makes PayPal the perfect business partner for any entrepreneur. And as partners go, that's one thing you can both agree on.

About the Author:

"Must Have Marketing Resources" Ebook by Merle is loaded with VALUABLE online resources you need to know about, when it comes to running your web business. Get your copy now at ... http://mcebook.mcpromotions.com

Blogs and Networking

2005-04-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

By Kevin Eikenberry © 2005

In the middle 1990’s everyone started talking about needing a website. Now, the new “must have” is a web log or blog. While blogs can come in all shapes and sizes, a blog is just a very simple way to publish a journal, record of events, thoughts, ideas or whatever the author wants to write about. A blog sits on a website – whether that site is run by you or managed by a company that will “host” your blog.

Blogs started coming into the general public’s awareness with a large number of political blogs written during the 2004 U.S. Presidential election campaign. Because of this, you may think blogging is part journalism and part political commentary, and therefore not of interest to you or the advancement of your business.

Blogs can be journalism. They can be political commentary. They can be personal diaries or journals. They can also be way for you to show your uniqueness and build a conversation around your business and professional interests. That is how I use mine.

Technically Speaking

Because blogs are designed to be easily updated and are already on a website (don’t worry you don’t need to know ANYTHING about websites or web design to start one), you may find a blog could replace or supplement an email newsletter. They are easier to do, easier to update, and you don’t have to worry about emails getting delivered!

If you already have a website, adding a blog can help you get more visitors who are interested in you because you will be writing about your area of expertise. And since the search engines love websites that are tightly focused and updated often, your site can move up quickly in the search rankings.

There are plenty of places to learn much more about the technical aspects of blogs and blogging. Just do your own search on Google (or your favorite search engine) to get the latest information.
How You Can Benefit

Let’s say you are an insurance agent. You have expertise in life insurance and a specific set of benefits you bring to your Clients. A blog gives you a platform to talk about the latest ideas related to life insurance and life planning. You can give Clients (and potential Clients) tips and checklists. You can give them new ideas. You can relate the latest news to your products and services. The ideas are endless; these are just meant to be a start.

Of course, if you aren’t in life insurance you change the topics – but the premise and the benefits remain the same. While there are many, here are three specific benefits you will find:

Getting to know you. The blog becomes a part of how you brand yourself. If people read it, they should feel like they are getting to know you and getting to know what your beliefs and values are. Imagine your best referral sources sending potential referrals to your blog as a way to help them get to know you deeper, faster. In this way your blog can be leverage – people are even more qualified if they call you or may already “know” you when you they make the referral call.

Making it easier. Have Clients that love you but have trouble knowing what to say about you? Encourage them to send their friends and colleagues to your blog as a way to make the connection. That way they don’t have to feel like they have to say the perfect words about your business in order to give the referral.

Keeps you “on top” of your game. By writing about your work and the benefits of your products and services often, you will stay current and fresh. This will help in all phases of your business, but it will also help you in networking situations by giving you something fresh and new to talk about when having conversations with possible Clients and new referrals. It also gives you new ideas to share with potential Clients as you build your relationship with them.

How It Has Helped Me

I started blogging in March of 2004. I have certainly gained the benefits described above. Beyond those, I have made new connections with potential colleagues and collaborators who have found my blog and sent me comments, feedback or questions.

By writing regularly (my goal is 4 entries or “posts” per week), seldom does a week go by that I don’t add someone to my network or use what I am writing to make a new connection with an existing or potential Client.

How to Get Started

Lots more can be said about blogging and how it might help you build your network, but this should give you some initial ideas. Hopefully after reading this you are intrigued by the possibilities and would like to learn more.

Here are the first four things I recommend that you do:

1. Start reading some blogs. Do a search in Google for blogs. If you are a chiropractor, search on chiropractic blogs. If you are a graphic designer, search on graphic design blogs. You get the idea. Read what others are doing and writing about. Email them and build your network with these people. Chances are they aren’t your competitors and they might be very willing to help you and perhaps even collaborate with you.

2. Learn About RSS. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is one way to “publish” your blog to the world. There are many free RSS readers that you can use to keep track of the blogs you are starting to read. Pick one (there are many) by searching for “Free RSS Reader” in your favorite search engine.

3. Read Debbie Weil. Debbie is an expert on blogging for business and she will be a good connection for you. You can find her (and her blog) at http://debbieweil.com/.

4. Start one! You can (and will want to) build a strategy and a plan later, but if you see value for you, jump in! Go to http://blogger.com (what I use) and get started in less than five minutes for free.

About the Author:
©Kevin Eikenberry 2005. Kevin is Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (http://KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company that helps Clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services. To read his blog go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/blogs/index.asp or contact him directly at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.

Using an Ebook as a Viral Marketing Tool

2005-04-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

By Shelley Lowery © 2005

If you're looking for a simple way to put a portion of your promotions on autopilot, creating a 'viral' ebook may be your answer.

Ebooks are one of the most popular products online, as they are not only very cheap and easy to create, but they also provide people with instant gratification. Once they complete their purchase, they can download their ebook in a matter of minutes.

Putting Your Promotions on Autopilot

Ebooks are not only the 'perfect' online product, but they're also the 'perfect' viral marketing tool. The term 'viral marketing' refers to a virus -- not a computer virus, but a marketing strategy that spreads like a virus, which can produce results.

When doing business on the Internet, in order to be successful, you must continually promote your products and services -- ebooks provide the perfect solution.

Ebooks will enable you to promote your products and/or services automatically without any cost or effort on your part.

Spreading the Marketing 'Virus'

If you've been on the Internet for a while, you have probably been to some web sites that have given you a free ebook. The ebook usually contains some helpful information with regard to the subject and provides information about the web site's products or services.

These sites aren't giving away this information just to be kind to their visitors. They are giving it away to significantly increase their sales.

The key to using an ebook as a viral marketing tool is to write a short information packed ebook that identifies a specific problem, provides some basic information to assist your readers, and promotes your products and/or services as the solution.

Although giving your visitors your promotional ebook is a great start, that's not exactly going to provide you with a wealth of free promotion. You need to take your strategy one step further.

Encouraging Distribution

The key to using this technique successfully is to allow your ebook to be freely distributed. In other words, you give the ebook to your visitors and allow them to give it to their visitors.

Although this will provide you with some additional promotion, if you really want to create a viral marketing machine, you need to give your visitors a reason to want to distribute your ebook.

How? By enabling your readers to customize portions of your ebook with their own information.

Here's how...

There are special software programs that will enable you to create fields within your ebooks that may be customized by your readers. This technology can be used in a number of ways, including...

• Create a 'teaser' version of an ebook you're selling that will encourage your reader to purchase the full version. Create customizable affiliate links the reader can click on to purchase your ebook. Allow your affiliates to freely distribute it and earn commissions simply by giving your ebook away.

• Create a catalog ebook that includes images and descriptions of all of your products. Create customizable affiliate links the reader can click on to purchase your products. Or, include a purchase form that includes a customizable field for your affiliates to place their ID and enable your readers to purchase right through your ebook.

• Create a content rich ebook that will be used to generate traffic to your web site. Your ebook should relate to your web site and provide information about your site with links throughout. Create special fields that will enable your readers to customize your ebook with their company name, linked web address, etc., and allow them to freely distribute it.

• Create a 'how-to' ebook you can use as an incentive to gain new subscribers. In order for your visitors to get a copy of your ebook, they must subscribe to your publication. Once they have subscribed, you can send them download instructions within their welcome message. Create special fields that will enable your readers to customize your ebook with their company name, linked web address, etc., and allow them to freely distribute it.

Selecting the 'Right' Ebook Software

Although there are many HTML compilers on the Internet, not all will enable you to create customizable fields within your ebooks. However, eBook Starter will.

eBook Starter uses a powerful branding system called, variables. Variables are powerful little codes that can be used within your eBooks for customization purposes. They provide you with the ability to create customizable fields within your ebooks that may be specified by your readers.

Creating customizable ebooks is a great way to encourage your visitors and/or affiliates to distribute your ebooks. Why? Because there's something in it for them...

• They can make money by including their affiliate link within the ebook
• They can increase traffic to their site by including their web address within the ebook
• They can increase brand awareness by including their company name

When you create your customizable ebooks with your visitors and affiliates in mind, it's a win-win proposition that will increase your ebook's distribution considerably.

Think about the possibilities...

10 of your visitors download your ebook
Your 10 visitors each give away 10 ebooks - 100
Those 100 each give away 10 ebooks - 1000
Those 1000 each give away 10 ebooks - 10,000
Those 10,000 each give away 10 ebooks - 100,000
Those 100,000 each give away 10 ebooks - 1,000,000

This is just a small example of how powerful your viral free ebook can be. Your ebook will continue to work for you even years down the road! Now that's viral marketing.

Copyright © 2005 Shelley Lowery

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of eBook Starter. Create your ebooks quickly and easily with the first and only ebook software that is an actual WYSIWYG ebook editor. Give your ebooks the look and feel of a real book, notebook, manual or report in just a few simple steps.

Visit eBook Starter to download your free demo today...
http://www.ebookstarter.com

Affiliate Product Landing Pages - Three Tactics That Sell

2005-04-04T01:42:00.000-07:00

By Dan B. Cauthron © 2005

As competition within the online affiliate sales arena rises to a fierce boil, affiliate sellers expecting any degree of success must first find effective methods to set themselves apart from the crowd.

An uninitiated affiliate may expect to make sales simply by placing a referral link on his website, or by distributing the link in an email. On the other hand, a seasoned affiliate seller knows that a unique marketing twist of one sort or another must be built into the campaign for a satisfying profit to be realized.

One tested and proven method is to develop a unique landing webpage for each and every affiliate campaign engaged.

A landing page is nothing more than a proprietary webpage owned by the affiliate seller, hosted on his website, and and located at a URL within that domain. A well developed landing page will not only contain the actual affiliate referral link, but will also serve as an introduction to the product or service being offered, and will warm the customer prior to directing her to the main sales page.

Here we present three types of affiliate landing pages that have been proven effective in promoting a broad range of products and services.

However, the reader should note that no particular order of effectiveness is presented here. Determining the best type of landing page for a particular affiliate campaign will be a matter of careful consideration and diligent testing.

Landing Page #1 - The Product Review

This style of page takes the form of a factual and objective report, and should be completely free of any wording that attempts to sell. Direct experience with the product is a must, as the writer will be providing her or his own first hand observations regarding the benefits and problems that arise while actually putting the product or service to use.

Typically, a single product is reviewed for the sake of simplicity. Yet some successful landing pages do feature reviews of multiple products within a given category. In this case, each individual product should be rated by means of an easy to understand system, ie. one to five "stars."

For the sake of credibility, the product review must reveal both positive and negative product attributes. Still, the positive factors should firmly overshadow the negative in a realistic and honest sense. If not, look for a different product to promote.

Landing Page #2 - The Pre-Sell

This tactic has also been referred to as the "soft sell." The content here can borrow some of the effects of the product review method, but should be more directed overall toward defining a problem and offering the product or service as a solution.

It is advisable to carefully examine the main seller's page to discover and capitalize on overlooked product benefits or hooks. It is also acceptable to use highlighted or bolded words and phrases to a degree, providing they will enhance the reader's understanding.

A strong headline may be used, and bulleted lists may also be inserted to clearly illustrate product features and benefits. But keep in mind this is a "soft sell" page. The purpose is only to warm the reader, and there should be no hard sell or call to action other than asking her to "Click This Link to Learn More."

Landing Page #3 - The Forced Opt-In

This type of page typically consists of nothing more than a strong headline, a problem reinforcement, an offer to solve the problem, and an autoresponder opt-in box. The prospect can be redirected to the main salespage after she signs up.

Experienced affiliate marketers have varying opinions as to the effectiveness of this landing page, especially when used behind a paid advertising campaign. There is some conjecture that too many prospects are lost when they fail to opt-in.

Another viewpoint is that this tactic produces a high quality list of action-taking prospects with a proven degree of interest. Given these two viewpoints, it may be wise to perform a split testing action, using the forced opt-in page and at least one other landing page configuration.

Regardless of either view, the forced opt-in tactic will enable the affiliate to capture a unique and highly targeted mailing list, a valuable asset in and of itself.

About the Author:

No Hype - No Bull - No Pie In The Sky! Dan B. Cauthron tells it like it really is, and shares 30+ years of direct marketing wisdom. Entrance to his member's only website will never cost you a penny. ==> http://DanBCauthron.com

How to Create a Favicon for Your Web Site

2005-03-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

By Kalena Jordan © 2005

Ever see those little custom icons next to a web site listing in your favorites folder or on your browser address bar? Have you ever wondered how to create one for your own site? Well I'm going to teach you in this article.

The icons are called "favicons," a contraction of the phrase "favorite icons." To see an example, go to www.searchenginecollege.com and bookmark the site (or add to your "favorites" list). Now close your browser window and open a new one. Click on your bookmarked sites or favorites list and find the site you just bookmarked. See the tiny mortarboard graphic next to the listing? That's a favicon. It makes the site stand out from all the others in your favorites list. If you click on that site, the favicon will even load next to the URL in your browser address bar from now on.

Cool huh? Like to create a favicon for your own site? It's easier than you think. Here's what you do:

1) Choose an image or symbol that you would like to use to represent your web site. This could be a tiny version of your logo, a graphic or perhaps a stylized version of your company initials. A famous example of this is the "Y!" favicon used by Yahoo! A favicon is meant to reflect the look and feel of a web site or a company logo. Remember it needs to be simple and clear enough to have visual impact when converted to 16 x 16 pixels.

2) Take a high quality version of your chosen image in .JPG or .GIF format and if it isn't already, convert your image to the 256 color Web Safe Palette or the Windows 16 color format (the fewer colors the better).

3) Using your favorite graphics package or image manipulation software, reduce the image down to 16 pixels wide by 16 pixels high, being careful to preserve the image resolution. This is the tricky bit, because you might find your chosen image looks fantastic at the original size and downright silly at 16 x 16 pixels! Keep experimenting until you are happy with the finished icon. If you can't seem to make it work or you're short on time, you can use a free icon converter like Image Icon Converter http://www.popularshareware.com/Image-Icon-Converter-download-11313.html to convert your graphic to an icon or use an icon editor such as ImageAuthor http://imageauthor.com/ to build your icon from scratch.

4) You're nearly done! Now, take your completed icon and save it as "favicon.ico". This is the default icon name that web browsers like Internet Explorer and Netscape look for. If you want to be really clever, you can even create a customized icon for each page on your site - instructions for this can be found at www.favicon.com.

5) Take your .ico file and copy it into the root directory of your web site (the main directory that contains all your HTML pages). Now every time a visitor bookmarks your site, your icon is copied into their cache file and displays whenever that visitor returns.

6) To test your finished favicon, get a friend or colleague to bookmark your site and then open a new browser window. You can bookmark your own site but you generally only get one attempt at this so it's best to save it for when you are sure you're happy with your finished favicon. Alternatively, dump your cache and open a new browser window between tries. If you did it correctly, you should see your shiny new favicon appear in your favorites list next to your site listing and also next to your URL in the address field of your browser.

That's it, you're done! You now have an eye-catching icon representing your web site in the favorites list of all your visitors. A professional impact for very little effort.

About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running her own SEO business Web Rank (www.webrank.biz), Kalena manages Search Engine College (www.searchenginecollege.com), an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing subjects.