Sherpa Marketing

I wanted to share a site that has been extremely useful to me in marketing online.

Founded in January of 2002, Sherpa Marketing, Inc. is a consulting firm that provides useful news, case studies, and best practices data about internet and integrated marketing.

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/

Why Simple Landing Pages Work

By Bruce Alan

Are you just getting started in Internet Marketing and you want to sell something? Not having your own product, you decide to try affiliate marketing (selling someone else’s product). OK, great…but how do you do it?

You can buy hundreds of ebooks all with different “systems” or strategies and you can find lots of free information as well. Eventually though, you are going to realize that you will need to make some landing pages.

What are landing pages? Landing pages are where you want your visitor to ”land” and once there, you hope they click on your link to go to the sellers website where they will then buy the product.

Why not just link directly to the seller’s website? Why do you need a landing page at all? Well, it depends on how you are going to get your visitor to the seller’s site. A popular way is by writing articles, having them published, and having readers find those articles and click on the links inside them. The problem is that many article sites do not allow direct affiliate marketing links. They will allow links to your website or landing page but not directly to the seller.

You can learn a lot about landing pages by typing in “What are landing pages” in Google. You will find lots of useful information and tips galore on how to make great landing pages. But just like everything else on the Internet, after reading 10 or so different articles, you may be no closer to making one and confused about exactly what you should do.

I believe the best way to get started is by making simple landing pages that pretty much say to the viewer ‘here is the product and here is where you get it“. I don’t do a lot of “pre-selling” on my landing pages and many Internet marketers would disagree with that. The common consensus is that you should warm your visitor up to the sale by reviewing the item and/or telling them how great it is.

The problem with that is that it is difficult to write convincingly about something you know little about. Another problem for beginners is that their writing skills may not be up to par…at least not yet. That is why I recommend setting up something simple at first.

My opinion is that it is my job (or you might say the landing page’s job) to get the visitor to the seller’s website. It is the seller’s job from there to convert the sale. I sort of just open the door for customers to walk through and let the product and shopkeeper do the rest. If they can’t do their job, then I have to at some time move to another product.

I suggest opening a blogger.com account or Wordpress.com account (which are both free) and use those as your landing pages. Make your site as pretty and color coordinated as you can (some people will obviously be better at this than others) and do a lot of copying and pasting graphics and words from your sellers website.

Only use one link to the seller’s website though, as using free blogs for marketing is frowned on and if you overdo it they could suspend you. Ideally you should get your own domain and hosting but that can be done once you start making money. If you have a Wordpress blog you can even go to YouTube and perhaps find a video about the product you are selling and put that in your blog. Looks great and I’ve done it.

Basically you are making a big advertisement that says “This is where you get so and so product”. If the people you drive to your blog want that product, then they will click on the link to find out more. Once they do that, you have done your job. Making a landing page is the easy part…..getting targeted traffic to your website or blog is much harder.

Ten Low-Cost Ways to Promote Your Business

Here's a good article by Susan Ward over at About.com with 10 tips to promote your business. Some are common sense. Some you've heard before. But she does a nice job picking inexpensive tips that online store owners should be doing.

http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/a/bizpromotion.htm

32 Most Important SEO Tips

I found a good article by Edwin Reyes that will help you with SEO on your website:

1. Make sure your site is not under construction or incomplete with little or no unique content.

2. When your site is ready, submit it to Google, Yahoo, MSN and ASK.com. Consider also submitting to other search engines but most of them are powered by these four leading search engines. Also submít your site to reputable high PR web directories, open directories, yellow pages and social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us, furl, etc.

3. Submit your sitemap to Google, Yahoo, MSN and ASK.com (sitemap for search engines usually in XML format)

4. Offer a sitemap to your site visitors for easy page navigation. (sitemap for visitors in HTML format)

5. Create unique and rich content sites. Avoid duplicate content. Do not create multiple pages, sub-domains, domains, mirror sites or sites with different domain names but the same content.

6. Check your keywords and make sure they are relevant and actually are contained in your site. Avoid keyword stuffing.

7. Use text instead of images in your content, links and important subjects.
8. Make your TITLE and ALT tags descriptive, simple and keyword rich. Avoid irrelevant and repeated keywords.

9. Your Title tag should be 60-80 characters maximum length.

10. Your Meta tag description should be 160-180 characters, including spaces. (about 25-30 words)

11. The keywords Meta Tag must be 15-20 words maximum.

12. Optimize pages with Headings (H1, H2, H3..) containing your site's primary keywords.

13. Validate your CSS and HTML. Check for errors and broken links.

14. If your site contains dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a "?" character), make sure you use SEO friendly URLs. Search engine spiders have difficulty indexing dynamic pages.

15. Maximum links per page must be fewer than 100. Avoid the risk of being flagged as a link farm by search engines.

16. Use lynx.isc.org as text browser to check your site.

17. Allow search bots (good ones) to crawl your sites without session IDs or arguments that track their path through the site. Using these techniques may result in incomplete indexing of your site.

18. Check your web server/host if it supports the If-Modified-Since HTTP header. It tells search engines whether your content has changed since your site was last crawled. It will save you bandwidth, resources and avoid server overload.

19. Use a Robots.txt file to manage and control search engine spiders that index your site. You can allow and disallow spiders and choose directories you want to be crawled and indexed. With bad bots or spam bots you need to modify your HTACCESS file to properly and effectively manage bots or spiders.

20. Do not attempt to present different content to search engines than what you show to your site visitors.

21. Avoid dirty tricks and exploiting loop holes to improve search engine ranking.

22. Avoid links to bad neighborhoods such as web spammer, link farm, phishing, hacker, crack, gambling, pörn and scam sites. Linking to them will greatly affect your search engine rankings.

23. Do not attempt to join in link schemes, excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging and link exchange web rings.

24. Do not use unauthorized programs or online tools to submit your site, check page rankings or perform other automated queries. Avoid the risk of being flagged as a spammer.

25. Do not use hidden text and links. Show the search engines what you show to your vistors. It will greatly affect your site's reputation.

26. Do not attempt to create pages that contain phishing, scam, virus, trojan, backdoor, spyware, adware or other malicious programs.

27. Make your site useful and informative.

28. Improve your link building. Link to high PR websites. Quality of relevant links is far more important than quantity. Links will greatly improve your site's visibility, popularity and ranking. Search engines consider links as votes to your site.

29. Check your page link structure. Every page should be reachable by a single static text link.

30. Be extra careful in purchasing SEO services. Some use illegal and questionable methods to improve rankings.

31. Do not buy or sell links.

32. Do not create sites that contain purely affiliate links and no valuable content that is useful to users.

I hope these tips will add more popularity and visibility to your site. Enjoy!

About The Author
Edwin Reyes is a Web Developer and the Webmaster of Findmesoftware.com, a Philippine based website that provides free software downloads, tools, reviews, online tips, blogging resources, tutorials and Free SEO Tools and Software Download.

Christmas is coming. Is Your Online Store Ready?

Do you have a plan to woo holiday shoppers looking for gifts online?

Millions of people are about to descend on the Internet, and competition for their dollars will be tough this year, with money tighter amid a weak economy. You need an online-marketing plan to help you make the most of the season.

Feel overwhelmed? Don't. There are many easy, yet high-impact, things you can do in the next few weeks that will improve your results once the bustle begins. Here are some of the top tips from Riva Richmond.

Click here to read.

101 Free Offers and Coupons to Advertise Your New Site

Here are 101 Web sites that offer budget-conscious business owners the tools they need to publicize their company without going broke.

http://www.insidecrm.com/features/marketing-startup-budget-051208/

How to boost sales by Internet Marketing

Day797
Internet Marketing, also known as Online Marketing, Online Advertising or Internet Advertising, is the promotion of products and services over the Internet. Internet Marketing, in fact, aims to create a better business opportunity for an organization by promoting its products or services using online media; hence, businesses - both online and off line - are increasingly making use of Internet Advertising as part of their marketing strategy.

Initially, Internet Marketing was all about building a website or putting up banner/display ads on other websites. A website with appropriate text content, image inclusions and audio/video features is indeed an excellent option of reaching out to global audience and informing them about a company's products/services, their features, et al. The website remains the basic building block of Internet Marketing even today; however, it is now being blended with key web site promotion techniques in order to achieve the advertising goals.

Internet Marketing Key Techniques

Search Engine Marketing Search Engine Marketing or SEM is the process of marketing or advertising a website via search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and others. Two totally different approaches are followed for Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization and Pay per click Advertising.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a web site promotion technique that improves the site's organic ranking in searches based on select keywords/phrases and attracts more web traffic. If you have an Internet Business, SEO is something you cannot simply do without.

Pay per click or PPC Advertising which appear as links next to the organic results on search engine result pages involves listing a website by bidding on keywords. PPC calls for methodical keyword selection/optimization so that the keywords match with the search terms used by target segment of users and capably increase web site traffic.

Pay for inclusion (PFI) listing in website directories is another popular SEM technique.

Email Marketing Email Marketing is the method of conveying information about a product or service through email. After the initial glitch (on account of spamming), email marketing has been effectively used for web site promotion. These days, of course, it is permission based email marketing that is being practiced and internet businesses are using the opt in lists, giving the customers the right to refuse further communication.

Mass mailing and e commerce newsletters are two popular e-mail marketing tools.
Banner Advertising Banner Advertising is an Internet business marketing technique, which revolves round placing dynamic graphic ad links in others sites. Users require clicking these links to open your website.

Online Promotion Techniques Different online promotion techniques or Social Media Marketing Methods, like posting blogs, comments and opinions as also press releases (related to the product or service) in a discussion forum are also effective Online Advertising processes. Article Marketing involves listing articles in article directories, article repositories and/or article banks.

Affiliate Marketing Affiliate marketing is a rather innovative and interesting form of Internet Marketing, wherein marketers promote and sell other products/services as part of a program planned by the product manufacturers and/or service providers. The affiliate is either awarded a flat fee or receives a good percentage of the sale proceeds.

The Social bookmarking sites are a great help for people with affiliate marketing programs because such sites are a free and effective way to get back links and drive traffic to websites and blogs.

These are some of the most effective Internet Marketing techniques that work on a personal level to promote a website, increase web site traffic and add to the profitability of the Internet Business. Of course, one does not need to follow all the techniques or strategies for a successful Internet Marketing campaign; instead, it is careful planning and meticulous execution that help achieve the goals of Internet Marketing or Online Advertising

Author: Dipti Pathak is a freelance writer. She has been writing online articles on various topics since 2003. She provides SEO consultancy to SwamiSEO.

16 Ways to Lure Traffic to Your Web Site

Here's an article I think is helpful by Marcia Yudkin of Creative Marketing Solutions
http://www.yudkin.com/index.htm

Building a web site and not promoting it is like posting a billboard in your basement. You're just not going to get a lot of traffic. To get your web site visited and appreciated, you need to let people know it exists. If your web site is lonely for visitors, try these often-overlooked ideas.

1. Use web address stickers. Not ready yet to reprint your stationery? Print small, coordinating labels that feature your online address and copy inviting people to visit. Stick them on outgoing envelopes, on seminar folders, on the backs of your business cards and more.

2. Put your URL in print ads. This extends the efficacy of a small print ad, since wired readers can get more details about your offerings instantly, 24 hours a day. But include your phone number and street address as well.

3. Include your URL in answering machine or voice-mail messages. For those who call your office outside of office hours, why not spell out your Web address in your message, so that they can immediately help themselves to the information they need?

4. Utilize your on-hold message as well. Similarly, instead of playing "Rhapsody in Blue" for customers while they wait on the line for a representative, you can tell them that if they're calling for directions, prices, return policies and such, they can click on over to your web site.

5. Post notices of your site's content on discussion boards. Whenever you add useful non-promotional content to your web site, such as a topical "Frequently Asked Questions" page, post notices to relevant newsgroups, forums, discussion boards and mailing lists. This usually not only increases traffic at your web site, but also prompts people to add links to your site.

6. Ask for links. Visit non-competing informational sites in your area of expertise and ask the owners to add links to your site. This works best when your site includes useful informational resources rather than strictly promotional material.

7. Exchange links. Before requesting links, add a section to your site that contains links to related businesses. Then contact the webmasters of those sites to request a return link. You'll find your initiative frequently reciprocated.

8. Start an email newsletter. Some say that showing up in your customers' mailboxes every week or month with updates, schedules, sale prices or industry news is even more valuable than the web site itself. Somewhere in the newsletter, tell readers to check out your web site for more information on related subjects.

9. Publicize your content. Add something to your site no one else in your industry has, then send a news release to industry trade magazines about your unique feature -, a top-ten list, a Scuba Diver's Joke of the Week.

10. Host a giveaway. Announce a drawing for a free something-or-other once a month. Those who sign the guest book during that period - and people can re-register every month - are eligible to win.

11. Create outdoor signage. Facing Route 128 in Massachusetts recently was this sign on a very traditional-looking restaurant: "pillarhouse.com." It let technically savvy commuters know they could make reservations and explore the menu through their computer.

12. Invent alternate domain names. If you started off as "pamsparties.com" and then discover that "balloons.com" is available, grab it and have it open up your same site. That's what Coca-Cola did when it registered for both www.cocacola.com and www.coke.com. The shorter and more memorable your domain names, the better.

13. Encourage people to bookmark your site. Obedient creatures that we humans are, making an explicit bookmark request either at the site or in advertising containing your URL increases the chances people file your address in their browser for a return visit.

14. Append a signature file. At the end of every e-mail message you send, append a file containing your contact information and a line about what's new at your web site. Change the "what's new" line frequently to tempt previous visitors to have another look.

15. Offer free classifieds. A Yahoo! search turned up thousands of sites offering free classified ads, some regional and others topic-specific - for bicycle stuff, crafts, computers and more. Post ads for products or services related to your business.

16. Print T-shirts. Order custom-made shirts and wear your web address on your back. For even more visibility with this method, sponsor a softball team who will wear them, or use them as giveaways for a promotional mailing.

Oh! And I just happen to know where you can get those t-shirts printed!Send your URL or logo to http://www.cafepress.com/givitup/1364950

How to Write Little Tiny AdWords That Bring Giant-Sized Profits

Day702
When you own an online store, you will not only write descriptions and copy, but lots of ads. This article tells how to write AdWords, but the principle applies to anything you write about your products.

It seems to be a phenomenon. You try AdWords, your ad gets “disapproved” by the powers that be at Google, you count your losses and give up. It doesn’t have to be that way. There are two primary factors to succeeding at Google AdWords and other types of PPC advertising. The first is getting the right keywords. The second is writing little tiny ads. That's what we'll cover in this article.

Mark Twain said it best. “If I would have had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter.” The point… it takes much more skill, and much more time to write short copy than long copy.

Let’s go through the process together and I’ll show you a few tricks of the trade that have brought me AdWords click through rates of 7.1%, 8.0%… even 25%.Step One – You would be very wise to either use a benefit or an end result in your headline. In order to do this, you’ll have to be aware of the difference between features and benefits. Start by making a list. I’ll use the example of an online shoe store.

Here are a few features:
· huge inventory
· wide selection of sizes
· discounted prices
· free shipping

And here are the benefits associated with those features:
· hundreds of styles to choose from
· hard-to-find sizes in stock
· save money
· free shipping (costs nothing extra)

Step Two – Know what your customers are looking for. YOU may feel that one benefit outweighs another. However, your customer might feel differently. Be sure you understand what is important to your customer before writing your headline and your ad. You have no room to waste so it is vital that you find a so-called nail and hit it right on the head.

Step Three – Work in your keywords. There tends to be a greater click through rate on search results that use the exact key phrase the surfer types in. The same holds true for Google’s AdWords program.

While the following have by no means been researched, we’ll assume that some optimum keywords for our shoe store are: women's shoes and sandals. We’ll want to include these in our ads.

Step Four – Start big and narrow it down. Begin by writing a few sentences or a paragraph about what you’d like your customer to know. Perhaps:

You’ll find everything you’re looking for in one place! Hundreds of styles to choose from including hard-to-find sizes in stock. You’ll save lots of money because our regular prices are far below that of other stores. Plus shipping is always free – regardless of the amount of your purchase. Check out our excellent selection of women's shoes and sandals.

Now, go back and take out every word that does not absolutely need to be there. You probably came up with something like this:

Everything in one place! Hundreds of styles, hard-to-find sizes. Prices far below other stores. Shipping free. Women's shoes and sandals.

That’s a LOT smaller and still gets the point across. However, it is still too long for AdWords. Your headline must be less than 25 characters (including spaces). Your copy can only be 35 characters per line. (You get two lines.) Now is the time to begin rearranging words to create an ad that will match Google’s guidelines, include your keywords, and draw a crowd to your site.

Here are a couple I came up with:

100s of Styles-Low Prices
Big savings on women's shoes. Plusfree shipping! All sizes in stock.

Discount Women's Sandals
Latest styles at deep discounts. All sizes in stock. Free Shipping!

Step Five – Test, test, test! Put them up and give them a go. See what happens. Believe me, Google will notify you quickly if your ads aren’t performing. Those that get lower than a .05% click through rate are immediately “disapproved.” You are notified that your ad has been pulled and that you need to make changes.

Use the information in the AdWords campaign section to track the results. I’ve heard countless tales of those who have changed one little word and gone from a .07% CTR to a 5.0% CTR. If your ad is pulled, make simple changes to start with. Swapping out the word “savings” for “discount” or “big” for “huge” can be all it takes to catapult you to the top of the list.

When you write extremely short copy, remember to stay focused. There is not enough room to sell the customer within your copy, but there IS enough room to pique their interests. Use the limited space you have to punch up the biggest benefits or end results your customers are looking for and you’ll see bigger returns on your AdWords investment.

About the Author: Discover the proven methods for writing powerful PPC ads with Karon's latest ebook How To Write Successful PPC Ads. This quick-read has easy, tested ways to create PPC ads fast that get higher click-through rates. Learn PPC copywriting today at http://www.writeppcads.com/. © 2004

Internet Home Business-Different Methods of Online Marketing

Day684
There are various approaches and method to online marketing. It is important to know about each method so that one can compare the results. This list sums up the online marketing methods.

Take a deep breath. This list is quite exhaustive!

Personal Marketing: This is marketing at personal level and includes telling your network and friends, making a business card, etc

Article Marketing: Article marketing implies writing articles and submitting them to web article directories. When you write article, you are allowed to put a backlink to your website in the author's bio box. People looking for information will come and read your article. If it interests them, they would visit your web site for more information. Article marketing is a very good method to build links for your site, enhance your website's search engine ranking and getting traffic. What is more, it is absolutely free until you wish to use paid services.

Bum marketing is a method of marketing using articles with a twist. Here, you search for potential keywords that can be dominated, write articles on those and submit them to article directories with an affiliate link to the product you want to promote.

Forum Marketing: A forum is a place where people gather and discuss their problems, strategies etc. There are many forums on the web that you can join and participate in discussion. Most of the forums allow a link back to your website in your signature text which would appear below the post you make. Again a good traffic builder.

Search Engine Marketing: This involves search engine optimization of your website design and content. Search engine use their algorithm to rank websites and when people search for something, these websites are displayed as the search engines would rank them. Search engine optimization or SEO are the methods by which you try to build your site and content so that it may please the search engines. You either learn SEO or use the paid services.

Pay Per Click Advertising: This is a paid service where you pay the service provider every time your link is clicked. This kind of marketing is quite popular with internet marketers. Apart from Google and Yahoo there are many other pay per click services available

Link Exchange: In this a website places a link for another website in exchange for its link on that site. Earlier it was also used for SEO purpose but a change in search engine algorithm has stripped that advantage. But it is still it is a powerful method for traffic generation.

Link Purchase: You can purchase placement of your website link on other website. This is very commonly done for SEO as one way incoming backlinks are used to rank your website by search engines. This method also brings in traffic if the site that you purchased link placement from is heavily visited website.

Classified Advertising: You can advertise your website on Classifieds websites on the web like Craigslist.com and USfreeads.com. Both paid and free services are available.

Ezine Marketing: This refers to email marketing. You can start your own newsletter or ezine or electronic magazine, which your subscribers can choose to receive. Creating an ezine is an integral part of your internet business.
You can also choose to purchase an advertising space in the ezines that are already running successfully. Your website gets exposed to targeted readers who may like to become your customers.

List Building: This refers to building a subscribers database who are entered into the list of that database when they opt in for your ezine or agree to a free download against providing you their email address. You can contact these subscribers with your offers and promos.

Lead Purchase: There are some paid services, which will provide you with the names and email addresses of the people or leads against a payment. This method is called lead generation. This is done by them by placing your opt-in form (Form which a visitor fills in order to subscribe) on heavily visited websites, a process that you can do on your site also. Normally you are charged per lead.

Viral Marketing: Here, you make a useful product like an ebook or software and allow people to pass it on freely. This helps in spreading your website links and branding your site. Apart from ebook or software, you can also build some humorous video or funny email. Build anything that people would like to pass on and share.

Press Releases: Here, you build a press release for your website and submit it to one or more press release sites like prweb.com. Press releases are done to create awareness among the web visitors and are displayed on various news channels or sites on the net. Also builds increased back links. Both free and paid submissions are available.

Joint Ventures: Here two or more marketers come together and promote a product or service in a way that it will benefit them all. Joint ventures are a great way to build your business because the marketing efforts are combined and results are always more than individual efforts.

Affiliate Program: You can launch your own affiliate program where people can join. Then they would advertise your product with their affiliate link. When a sale is made, they get a preset commission. You will need an affiliate program manager to do this. Clickbank.com offers an easy alternative.

Resell Rights Marketing: You can offer resell rights to your product where people would be able to sell it and keep all the money. It increases your product value and helps in building a name because more sales are made than when you sell it just on your own. Helps in branding too.

RSS Marketing: RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it may be difficult to conceptualize in the beginning. RSS works by RSS feeds which needs to be generated by a website. People can subscribe to these RSS feeds and can view the content of the website via their RSS reader. By this people are enabled to receive the content directly on their desktop. This method is quite new as compared to others and has become really popular following spam issues in email marketing.

Blog Marketing: Blog is an online journal, which you can update on regular basis. You need a blogging platform like Wordpress or Blogger etc and you can publish at their site or host on your own. Blogs are immensely popular with marketers and are very much loved by search engines. A must for your business.

Social Bookmarking: This is latest marketing buzz. There are online bookmarking sites available, which people can use to bookmark the places on the web they like. You can display these bookmarking buttons on your site or blog and people may submit the link for bookmarking if they like your site. Generates good traffic.

Video Marketing: This is even newer. You can upload a video on the sites that allow. People would watch and then visit your site. Theory is similar to article marketing but media used is different. A popular website that allows video upload is Youtube.com.

About the Author: Arun Pal Singh is an internet marketing consultant and web author who runs website http://www.homeforprofits.com to help budding online entrepreneurs with information and ready made products. Visit http://www.homeforprofits.com to find how his ebooks, softwares, audios, website building material, traffic strategies and training videos and information can provide the leverage that your business needs to grow and expand.

Viral Marketing Tactics

Day683
Truly there is no trick to viral marketing, no strange equations such as those found in SEO strategies. All that is necessary is to get people talking about your website, emailing about your website and just generally creating a buzz.

Every website owner should certainly include one or more of the following in his or her own e-commerce game plan.

1. Email Signature

This is certainly the quickest and most simple method of ‘infecting’ the e-world with your message. Attach a message both intriguing and explanatory, with perhaps a touch of humor if it fits your niche. Then, just get into contact with others; compliment other website owners on their site design, offer advice or opinions, or ask a question.

The key is to make your email memorable or valuable, so as that the receiver of the email may pass it on to a friend or business contact. One gold nugget of advice here is to build a list of business contacts. Such a list is easy to build via the usage of forums or online communities. From there, just keep your eye open for tools or articles, which you feel, may interest your contacts.

Don’t spam your contacts! Just offer them value and a neat little signature back to your website!

2. Offer Something For Free

One of the most searched for words on the internet today is: Free.
Every second website we encounter offers us something for free because that little four letter word is what catches the prey. Free newsletters are abounding, to the point where we now hate to subscribe; we would actually need to be paid to subscribe at times.

If from your website you can offer something of great value to your visitors, for free, you can set the virus free quite efficiently. Think ebook, ezine, member-only resource center, screensaver and desktop downloads. Find a way, always, to imbed a link, or preferably many links, to your website within whatever you are offering.

3. Article Writing

Writing articles and posting them on article distribution sites is actually a form of viral marketing. Why? Because if you have a good article, it will eventually end up distributed all around the net, all after you spending an hour writing and posting the article. Simple!

The process is simple: Write an excellent article, full of profitable keywords and post it to numerous article distribution sites. Slowly, as people find and republish your articles, the number of links pointing into your site will grow, as will your most important brand; your name.

Click on the following link to discover how to: Write Effective Web Content.

4. Affiliate Programs

So, can you pay to have other people ‘viralize’ your marketing? Yes.
This blessing comes in the name of Affiliate Programs. The wonderful part of it, of course, is that you only pay if it works!

Of course, you need a product to sell, as the method of payment to your affiliate is offered in the form of a percentage of the sale, which they have created. Ergo, you need a product or service to sell.

5. Make it easy for visitors to bookmark and recommend your site

This is also a very simple tactic to use and implement. It may not get you amazing results as it is a very passive form of marketing. However, it is good to make bookmarking and recommending your site as easy as possible for your visitor.

In closing, it should be noted that the benefits of a viral marketing campaign cannot be reaped straight away; patience is required. Those who are patient, and keep slowly working away on their plan, will realize just how powerful a good viral marketing campaign can be.

About the Author: Ciara Carruthers is a professional website content writer, specializing in the creation of ‘Information Centers’.
Discover the Viral Marketing Principles: The Basics, on her website, “Website Copywriter”.

Search Engine Optimization for the Small Business Owner

Day472
I wanted to share a great article by Gary Hughes. It will be helpful to every small business owner. Please read his bio at the end for information on his website.

You've worked hard to design and develop a website that will promote your products and services to the world. You've spent hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars to get your site online. But where are the visitors? I mean, you've always heard, "If you build it, they will come."

Why Aren't Customers Lining Up To buy?

That's the largest problem faced by small businesses attempting to do business on the internet. Larger companies have the resources to pay for traffic. They can advertise on the busiest sites on the net to attract potential customers. They can promote their sites through multiple channels including radio, television, and event sponsorships.

How Can a Small Business with Limited Resources Compete in
This Arena?

The best way to drive traffic to your new website is through the use of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. Traffic from search engines will usually yield higher conversion rates due to its targeted nature. Individuals performing a search for a
particular product or service have already demonstrated their motivation to obtain what you have to sell. You just want to be sure you're optimizing for the correct search terms and that you're following all the rules.

Liberal Use of Keywords

You may have heard that on the internet "content is king." This is because search engines can only determine the value of a site based on the textual content within the pages of that site. Search engines can't see pictures or video. (There are methods to assist them to do so, but that's beyond the scope of this article.) To rank highly in the search engines for a particular word or phrase, your selected target phrase should be used throughout the content on your site.

How Often Should You Repeat Your Keywords?

The various search engines operate slightly different in this regard, so it's a little tricky. Here are a few general recommendations to get you started on the right path:

1. Use your selected keyword or phrase near the top of the page. Search engines assume that a site that includes content that begins with a specific keyword should probably rank highly for that term.

2. Use your keyword or phrase in a headline tag (H1, H2 HTML tags). If you aren't familiar with HTML tags, do a web search for HTML tutorials or pick up a book on HTML. Most website editors will allow you to easily define headings. The key here
is to use the keyword in a heading to emphasize the fact that your site is targeting that subject. Just be sure not to overdo it. If the word or phrase is repeated too often, some search engines will consider this "keyword stuffing" and penalize or ban your site. You want to be sure to avoid this.

3. Repeat your keyword or phrase within the content of your site. Again, you want to demonstrate that your site is a good resource for the selected topic. You don't want to go overboard. Search engines may think your site content is keyword spam and ban you from their listings. A general rule is to maintain a keyword density of around five percent. Keyword density is the term used to refer to the ratio of keywords to total words on a page. For example, if your content was 100 words in length, you would want to have your keyword repeated five times throughout the page. Keep in mind that many search engines can now determine word or phrase variations. To keep your site content
interesting, you should probably try to use variations of your keyword. This may actually help to boost your results since your content is less likely to be considered spam.

4. Use your keyword or phrase in hyperlinks. Another way to add your chosen keywords to your content is to include them in the links on your page. This includes both inbound (links to other pages within your site) and outbound (links to external sites)
links. Using your selected keywords in inbound links helps to emphasize the relationship of your site to your chosen keywords. That's because a link that includes your keywords demonstrates relevance of the site content to the chosen topic.

What Are Some Other Search Engine Optimization Strategies?

Beyond the use of keywords within the content of your site, there are a few other things that must be done to rank highly in search engine results. The most important is to increase the number of sites linking into yours. Why is this important?
Search engines assume that a site with a higher number of links into it will likely include content of interest to their users.

There several methods for increasing the number of links into your site:

1. You can locate and join forums that are relevant to the content of your site. These forums will usually allow you to sign your entries with your name and website address. This will be counted as a link into your site. Be careful to read the rules of each forum before posting because they are often different. Also be sure to make your postings relevant to the discussion of the forum. Don't sacrifice your online reputation
by becoming known for spamming forums. Using this method correctly can actually position you to be viewed as an expert in your chosen field.

2. You can seek out sites with complimentary content and offer to exchange links. This is usually a win-win situation because both sites will benefit from an increased number of links. The drawback is that you're giving up a link from your site. You really want to have more inbound links than outbound since search engines typically have a formula for determining site value that favors higher numbers of inbound links. Outbound
links count as deductions from the count of inbound links. They're good for another reason, though. The other site's visitors may locate your site on their links page. This will
increase traffic to your site in much the same way that search engines will. And again, these are targeted visitors since they arrived from a site that offers products or services that are similar to your own.

3. You can write articles and publish them to article distribution sites. This is a great way to increase traffic to your site. It can help to position you as an expert on a
particular subject, readers that have chosen to visit your site have already been partially qualified (they are interested in what you provide), and one article can potentially provide
multiple inbound links. This is because the article can be picked up by many others and used to increase content on their own sites. Since you are allowed to include a link to your site in the author details section of the article, your link will be maintained as it is distributed.

4. Another good way to increase links into your site is to produce content that visitors will want to share with others. This may include funny stories, comics, funny or informative videos, etc. If you include a way for site visitors to easily link to your site content, they very often will. This is a great way to get large numbers of inbound links quickly. You will also have the positive side effect of increased traffic from word of
mouth that doesn't even depend on the search engines.

As you can see, getting visitors to your site requires some effort. But it is definitely well worth it. Global Internet traffic is growing rapidly and will probably continue to do so
for the foreseeable future. Doing a little extra work now to secure your place in this marketplace will be very rewarding for many years to come.

Gary Hughes is president of Imparadise LLC, a software
development company that specializes in developing custom
business software to improve organizational efficiency. He also
provides instruction for small business owners to assist them in
promoting their products and services on the internet.

Small Business Web Solutions (http://www.completesolutions.com)

10 things you can do today that will improve your Internet Marketing

Day453

I’m still reading MarketingExperiments.com. There is so much information! All important to online storeowners too. The site has a blog and I am including a link to ”10 things you can do TODAY that will improve your Internet Marketing” by Jimmy Ellis:

http://www.marketingexperimentsblog.com/

MarketingExperiments.com

Day449
I’ve recently come across a website that is just fascinating. It is incredibly useful for any business owner, especially an online business owner.

MarketingExperiments.com is a member of the MEC Labs Group who has the following mission statement, “To discover what really works.”

The Lab tests every conceivable marketing method on the internet and publishes the results in The Marketing Experiments Journal. Their experiments run 3 to 18 months with budgets between $4500 and $100,000.

Since I write press releases for businesses the experiment where they compared pay per click and press releases was of special interest to me. See if you don’t find it eye-opening: http://www.marketingexperiments.com/internet-online-advertising/press-release-tested.html

And if it makes you want to start sending out press releases and you aren’t a writer, feel free to contact me!

10 ways to market your site

Day183
This article by my internet consultant husband strikes home a little because I feel like I haven’t been putting as much time into my business this summer!

10 Ways to Market Your Site and Keep Your Business Cooking This Summer

During this season with the kids home, vacations to take, cookouts to have or attend, and all the other good things going on, it’s easy to put some of our more important business routines on hold, to include marketing. We continue to deliver our goods and services, pay our bills, and collect our due, but things like marketing, well it can wait…or so the temptation exists. Well here are 10 things you can do which don’t take much time, and cost little to nothing to accomplish that will help keep your business visible even if you take it easy a little this summer.

Luckily the internet doesn’t sleep. If you have a website, it is out there and visible 24/7. Lets look at a few simple ways to use that to your advantage.

Make sure your site is registered with the major search engines. This can be done for free at Google, Yahoo and MSN as well as other specialty directories. Typing in “Suggest Site” or “Suggest URL” in your browser search bar will get you to the right places. Submit to each independently rather than to a so-called listing agent who does mass submissions. Include dmoz.org.
Review your affiliations with trade/industry organizations, and go to their sites or your membership information and see what internet linking services they provide you as part of your association with them. These are excellent ways to gain exposure and credibility, but be conscious of the fact many will be listing your competitors as well so approach this with thought.
Look through your website and make sure it is saying what you want it to say. Is it current? Is it aimed at the audience you wish to have for customers? Do you include words and phrases that are focused on what it is you are trying to get across? Make a list of these words and phrases, and then use them in your content as well as website metatags. (talk to a website professional regarding effective integration of these into your site for search engine use)
Set a schedule on your calendar for refreshing your website content to ensure it stays fresh. When visitors return to a site and see nothing new, statistics say that it will be very likely be their last time to visit, and they will go on to another site offering similar products, services, or information.
Set up a formal system for collecting customer contact information and USE IT. Front desk registration, web form, telephone question, giveaway registration, there are many simple ways to gather data. Include e-mail address so you can keep in touch in a variety of simple and even automatic ways for virtually free. Making telephone calls one by one can be a daunting task, and direct mail expensive, but e-mail is quick, easy and cost effective.
Say thanks! Send a card, send an e-mail, put a note on your invoices; just make sure you thank your customers for their business. They have a choice and want to feel appreciated, don’t you?
Stay in touch. Don’t let final payment end your relationship. It costs several times the amount to acquire a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. Let them know what you are up to, that you enjoy what you do, that you are good at it and stand ready to help them at any time in the future. Remind them of why they chose you in the past. Reinforce their good judgment!
Do something new once in a while. Don’t lose sight of your niche, but refresh your business in your customer’s eyes once in a while and let them know about it.
Most of us have at least thought about submitting a press release to the local newspaper when we have something worthy to mention, but you may not know about the various facilities online to do the same. A simple notice of a new product or service can be easily submitted to any number of online agencies such as PRWeb, PR Leap, and others for free release all over the country or specific locations. Free classified ads can be placed as well on sites such as Craigslist.
Organize a simple e-mail marketing strategy and periodically let folks know what you are up to. Yes there are spam filters, black lists, white lists, and all sorts of tools to keep unsolicited e-mail from bothering the recipient, but if you provide something of value, and follow simple rules of courtesy, your e-mail marketing can be quite effective, not to mention traceable, measurable, and essentially free.

In response to a recent marketing survey, 52% of over 220 manufacturing company
executives consider their website to be their most valuable marketing tool. Considering just the small sampling of easy to implement tips above, it’s no wonder.

Yes, the hazy lazy days of summer are here, but the internet can provide ways our business can enjoy sustained marketing presence even while we kick back a bit and have our minds occasionally somewhere else.

John Geiger, owner of Webmasters ICE, has over five years experience helping small and medium-sized companies and organizations capitalize on the power of the internet through consulting, education, and supporting products and services. His focus and passion is the use of the internet in providing more effective overall marketing strategies and highly measurable levels of marketing success. http://www.webmastersice.com/

How to select the right media

Day47
We are actually getting snow today! And my daughter came home from college for the weekend with 5 loads of laundry!! So between loads I’ve been re-reading some of the marketing information I collect to spark ideas.

One of my favorites is from Guerilla Marketing. In fact reading some of their books a couple years ago had a great impact on me and is one of the reasons I’m working online now!

HOW TO SELECT THE RIGHT MEDIA
By Jay Conrad Levinson
Some media are apples and others are oranges. What
works in one medium may not work in another. Guerrillas
have insight into the powers of each medium. They tap those
strengths to use the medium to its greatest advantages.
Here's what they know about media power:
1. The power of newspapers is news. Marketing that is
newsy gets noticed because news is on the forefront of
readers' minds.
2. The power of magazines is credibility. Readers
unconsciously attach to the advertiser the same credibility
that they associate with the magazine.
3. The power of radio is intimacy. Usually radio is a one-
on-one situation allowing for a close an intimate connection
between listener and marketer.
4. The power of direct mail is urgency. Time-dated offers
that might expire before the recipient can act often motivates
them to act now.
5. The power of telemarketing is rapport. Few media allow
you to establish contact in a give-and-take situation as
adroitly as the telephone.
6. The power of brochures is the ability to give details. Few
media allow you the time and space to expand on your
benefits as much as a brochure.
7. The power of classified ads is information. Nobody in their
right mind actually reads the classified ads except for those in
a quest for data.
8. The power of the yellow pages is even more information.
Here, prospects get a line on the entire competitive situation
and can compare.
9. The power of television is the ability to demonstrate.
No other media lets you show your product or service in
use along with the benefits it. offers. TV is still the
undisputed heavyweight champ of marketing.
10. The power of the internet is interactivity. You can
flag a person's attention, inform them, answer their
questions and take their orders.
11. The power of signs is impulse reactions. Signs motivate
people to buy when they are in a buying mood and in a
buying arena. Signs either trigger an impulse remind
people of your other marketing or both.
12. The power of fliers is economy. They can be created,
produced and distributed for very little and can even bring
about instant results
13. The power of billboards is to remind. They rarely do
the whole selling job but they're great at jostling people's
memories of your other efforts.