December 4, 2007

Internet Marketing: Internet Marketing for Products and Services

To sell a product or service these days, it has to have a web presence. If your item is largely being sold online, it’s essential to market it on the web. The best way to market your particular item greatly depends on what the item is and how saturated the market is for that item. But there are several general ways to market products and services online that can be adapted to different types of products.

Connecting With Customers

Making a connection with your future customers means getting the word out about your site or product. If you’re offering something that people want, viral marketing can be your best friend. Viral marketing can be started by offering something interesting that’s easy to pass along. If you offer an astonishing video clip, a page of jokes or other content that people will want to send to each other, the marketing virus soon rages out of control. As people email it to each other and post links to it on their sites, others see it and do the same thing. This has been shown to be extremely an effective marketing technique.

Email and blog marketing are other ways to connect directly with customers. Email marketing requires an email list of people who have chosen to receive the marketing messages. Many people do this by offering a free newsletter that will be packed with information- and your marketing message. Blog marketing can take the form of a blog you create market your item or paying others to blog about it. Keeping a blog as part of your website is a way to draw people into the site with new, fresh messages about what you have to offer. Paid messages placed on diverse blogs around the internet can create a strong presence that may even lead to viral marketing.

Search Engine Marketing

SEO techniques bring people into your site by matching their search requests. If you can arrange your site with enough words that people are looking for, they may find you through their own searches. This is an inexpensive way to market your item. It is usually used in conjunction with other marketing techniques. Using a marketing blog that has been search engine optimized gives the blog a better chance of being seen by your customers.

Buying Ads

Buying ads is a part of many successful internet businesses. Ads can be bought directly from popular websites, or they can be bought through search engines. Some pay per click ads are placed directly on the search engines. Other PPC ads are placed on individual websites that have similar content to your ad. You pay for the number of clicks your ad receives. PPC advertising has the reputation for being very expensive, but it also can be extremely effective.

To get larger ads on websites, you can contract with each website directly or you can go to a company that contracts with many site owners. Choosing either of these methods will get your site the extra exposure that can lead to more visitors and perhaps more sales.

Mark

Posted by Mark at 10:37 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

November 5, 2007

Internet Marketing: Using Press Releases to Compliment Your Internet Marketing Strategy

No matter how wonderful and unique your product or service may be, if you do not market it to its fullest extent, you will not be giving your business what it needs to thrive. After all, you need food to live, and your business is no different. Only its food is customers, and it needs to be fed regularly.

There are many different kinds of advertising available to internet marketers, however, the unfortunate truth is that many internet marketers continuously overlook one of the most direct and effective ways to spread the word: press releases.

The entire purpose of press releases is to share information about something you believe is worthwhile. By submitting your press release to different distribution companies - many of which are online and which function for free or almost free - you can spread your message across the internet very quickly.

Furthermore, press releases work fantastically with your search engine optimization efforts. Not only can you keyword optimize your press releases so that the right traffic is attracted by them, you can also include a link to your website within the contact information, ensuring an inbound link from every other site that picks up your press release from the distribution company. Moreover, press release distribution sites are crawled regularly by the main search engines - including Google - due to their ever-changing content. This means that any information that you include in a press release will become available through Google searches much more quickly than simply posting it on your own website, or submitting your website to the search engines for the first time.

The key is to make sure that your press releases are well written. Remember, it is not a sales page, but is an informational document that is meant to inform, not directly sell. If press release writing is not your forte, have a professional do it. A single page press release won't set you back too far at all.

Mark

Posted by Mark at 5:15 PM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

August 26, 2007

It’s the World Wide Web, Not the US Wide Web!

Excepting a very small number of web designers, writers, and journalists, it seems that nobody is all that interested in the growth of the World Wide Web. Why? Because it feels like the stating of the obvious. Today’s interest is taking advantage of what the internet has to offer – not examining what is already there! Global business is now seen as standard, so the marketplace of any given business is worldwide.

At least, this is the theory. Unfortunately, it hasn’t exactly become reality yet. A staggeringly high percentage of all of the websites selling products and services online have placed their entire marketing strategy on a US market focus. However, if you are trying to sell to the world, this is far from the most effective strategy that you can apply.

The trick is to overhaul your way of thinking about the world. Indeed, it has become a commonly accepted attitude that the business world centers in the United States, however, there are millions upon millions of very desirable customers out there who live beyond the borders of the US. Furthermore, these people cannot be marketed to in the same way as you would market to an American. Other cultures have different norms, different currencies, different languages, and different expectations.

Assuming that your main goal is indeed to sell your products and services, you will be opening a floodgate of new prospective customers by simply being practical and using common sense. And it doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive, either.

Perhaps you want to cater to your customers in their own currency – hooking up to an online currency converter is one of the most basic functions that you can add to your site. It is simple, inexpensive, and extremely practical. This tells your site visitors that you understand what the international marketplace is all about, and you know how to cater to it properly. This attitude sells!

Place the converter information right at the very top of each page that lists prices, as well as on the page that leads to the different pricing pages. Certainly, you can still make the US dollar your default price, but make sure that this is clearly marked so that you reduce possible confusion. Simply using the dollar sign doesn’t cut it, either, because there are many countries that use the “dollar”, even though it is not the US dollar; Canada and Australia for example.

Your web forms will also need to make sense to an international audience if you intend to make them your market. Many of the forms for sites that claim to be international don’t even allow a client to select their country, or fill it in themselves. Forms may also have drop-down menus that offer states to select from – and even if the user has opted for a country other than the United States, these forms frequently won’t allow users to submit without choosing a state – even though they don’t live in one. It is also frustrating to non-US users when they are asked for a ZIP code. This term does not exist outside the United States, and can create confusion for citizens of countries with Postal Codes, and other terms for regional coding. You’ll also need to ensure that your telephone number and fax field allows for more than ten digits. Essentially, go out of your way to make it easy for your prospective clients to buy from you. If they struggle, they’ll simply go elsewhere.

Lastly, it is important to recognize that just because you are an online business, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to cater to the whole world. In that case, it is important that you make this clear right up front. Nothing frustrates visitors more than filling up their carts with your wonderful items and deals, and then finding out that a site doesn’t ship to their country. It only takes a small note in your FAQ, and in the product description page template, and you’ll avoid this problem altogether.

When your business is online, the world is your oyster. Just make sure that you know how to cater to the world, and that you don’t assume that it is a uniform place.

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 8:04 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

July 17, 2007

Internet Marketing: Analyzing A Competitor’s Website to Protect Your Own

Competitor’s websites are among your best tools for perfecting your own website. They can provide you with lots of different kinds of information and techniques to draw targeted traffic to your site. The following are the best ways to use competitor websites to your best advantage.

Your first step is to choose the right websites to consider. You want to use the major players of your industry. Begin by using a search engine and finding the leading sites in your industry. Check them out and find what approaches they have to their new and existing products.

Your next step is to look very carefully at the top five or ten sites. You can learn an awful lot at them, just by analyzing certain points. Here’s what to look for:

- check out what products and services are being offered by your competitors, and take note of anything that is different from what you have to offer on your site.

- look for gaps in their offerings that you can fill.

- examine the style and functionality of their websites.

- look into any marketing campaigns they may be using.

- try to think about the sites from the perspective of a customer – what are the strengths and weaknesses?

- try to figure out their message and their strategy.

One of the best treasures that you can find through this technique is a new niche to either redefine or add to your present products or services. This can be found by identifying the strengths, vulnerabilities, and gaps in the websites of your competition.

Even though these top websites may be run by large organizations with huge marketing budgets, don’t get discouraged. Remember, you’re not there to copy what they’ve done. You’re there to find out what they haven’t done, but should have!

Mark

Posted by Mark at 11:47 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

June 28, 2007

Internet Marketing: Even Your Best Ad Copy Could Be Better!

Consider your ad copy as it stands right now. If you didn’t have any graphics at all in your ad copy, as it is written right now, without changing it at all, could you still sell your products and/or services? The answer: probably, but because the internet is such a highly visual place, the number of sales that you’d be able to generate without graphics would be staggeringly lower.

So how do you make sure that your ad copy is as effective as it can possibly be? Write copy that would be just as effective without the graphics as it is with the graphics backing it up. With ad copy that powerful, you’ll be certain to maximize the potential of any of your marketing efforts.

How? You ask? Good question. Follow these suggestions, and you’ll be well on the path to improving your odds:

- change the length of your ad copy, whether that means making it longer or making it shorter, so that it is long enough to sell the product, but not so long that your reader won’t finish it, or will give up and leave the site altogether.

- add sub-headings to your ad copy to break it up. Not only will this make the copy more interesting to read, as it will flow better on the computer screen, but it will also continually grab and re-grab the attention of the reader.

- ask questions to your ad copy’s reader. This is especially important at the beginning, so that they begin to answer the questions in their head and apply your product or service to their own situation. They’ll tell themselves how you can help them, and act on that answer.

- highlight the most important words and phrases that occur throughout your ad copy. Make sure that the words are attractive to your readers and done in a pleasant color.

- Use bullets and indentations to break up your ad copy. People don’t want to read huge blocks of ad copy. If it’s broken up and easier to see on the computer screen, they’ll be willing to read a lot more.

There are lots of other things that you can do, too, but these are a great way to start you on your way to really superior ad copy.

Mark

Posted by Mark at 12:42 PM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

June 21, 2007

Internet Marketing: It’s the ugly sites that get the sales!

Though it may seem that all of the sites you’ve been visiting lately are all about looks - with java, flash, and all of the bells and whistles - don’t for a moment allow yourself to be fooled into believing that these sites are the ones making the best sales.

True, these sites can be extremely attractive. Their graphics are very impressive, and they can be very entertaining to watch. However, the problem with this type of site is that after you’re done having a look at all of the flashy features, you leave.

In fact, though there seems to be a very serious trend among site owners to spend enormous amounts of money on web graphics, there hasn’t at all been an increase in sales as a result of these expenditures.

That’s right. As popular as graphic-laden sites have become, there is not a shred of evidence that proves that they help your sales in any way.

In fact, the sites that seem to be making the most money barely have anything to them at all. They may or may not have any additional graphics at all, the colors are very basic, and they’re most just text.

What does this mean? It certainly isn’t that the uglier your site is, the more it will sell, though that would be an easy first guess.

Instead, it means that the extremely fancy sites are deterring sales in some way. These have been identified as follows:

- the more graphics there are on a site, the longer it will take to load. Keep in mind that the majority of web users are still using dial-up, and will give up if they have to wait too long to see the actual “meat” of the site.

- the fascinating and impressive graphics distract the visitors to your site from your message, and from your call to action.

So the point to remember is that pretty sites don’t necessarily equal increased sales. Though this doesn’t mean that designing an ugly site will guarantee you better business, you may get your point across more effectively.

The key is to test your site over and over again as it evolves to ensure that any expensive changes that you wish to make are worth the money you’ll be spending.

Mark

Posted by Mark at 8:07 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

May 30, 2007

Internet Marketing: Do you bother to reply to customer enquirys!

Hi All

This past week I have been in the market for a complex piece of software that will allow me to use the Royal Mail Postzon data file. Anyway I sourced no less than 5 companies from Royal mail's own website and emailed them all to give me details on their product. To date after 4 days I have had NO replys at all from all 5!

So here I am with credit card in hand begging to give one of them my money and getting zero response :(

I have to say this happens an awful lot when I email companies on the net and got me to wondering why this could be. I think (I might be wrong) that it is because although companies have gone with the flow and created a web presense they have not gone with the flow with regards to their mindset, in such that they still regard phone enquirys as real sales enquirys and emails as not. I might be wrong here and it might just be that the person whose email box these messages go to just can't be bothered to do their job :)

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 7:43 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

May 20, 2007

Internet Marketing – Bring Sales to Your Website With Methods Other Than Search Engines

Imagine that all of the search engines weren’t working one day – not that this will happen, so don’t start panicking or anything – and you need to market your website somehow without them. How would you manage that? If you haven’t thought of this question before, you have not considered all of your options for marketing your website and bringing in the largest number of sales.

The reality is that when you are promoting your website, most of the time you should be doing so with a search-engine free mentality. Indeed, it would be ideal if you could achieve top ranking search engine results for all of your best keywords, but until that happens, you will need to find other methods for making sure that you continue moving your products and services. After all, didn’t your mother ever tell you not to put all of your eggs into one basket?

So what are these mysterious methods that you can use, other than search engines, to get buying customers to your website? They may not be as uncommon as you think, but you may just never have thought of them. They include:

- Press Releases
- Listing with Directories
- Article submissions to different article and subject/topic sites
- Newsletters and e-zines
- Blogs and RSS Feeds

True enough, it is likely very safe to believe that search engines will always be around for finding what we need on the internet. However, basing your entire marketing strategy on search engine optimizing is limiting yourself dramatically. You are ignoring many of the most cost-effective and results producing methods out there.

Just remember to keep the right mentality that you need to market from various different places, and not just on those ever-changing search engines.

Mark

Posted by Mark at 8:48 AM | Comments (2) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

March 13, 2007

Internet Marketing: Managing Your Online Marketing Strategy Time

The most valuable thing that you have when you’re marketing online is your time. Every second that passes means money that you have either made, or let go by. When it comes to marketing on the internet, no matter how good your product is, and how spectacularly you present it, if it isn’t seen by anyone, it will all be for naught. Therefore, everybody who intends to achieve success online must therefore become somewhat of an online marketing expert.

Keep in mind that not only is your time valuable, it is also limited. Therefore, since you’re already spending a good deal of your time actually doing the job that you are offering, such as completing sales orders, or performing some kind of service, you have only so much time that you can spare to start spreading the word.

This can be very challenging because when it comes to marketing, especially on the internet, the list of things that you can do to get your name out there can seem practically endless.

The trick is to keep in mind that your time is best spent coming up with a clear and concise promotional strategy that can be put directly into action than working for ages on something long and developed. It is only once you begin to see results from your first wave of simpler promotions that you might think about building things up a bit further.

By doing it this way, you not only save a great deal of your time, but you also allow yourself the opportunity to observe the difference in reaction from your customers when different marketing elements are added to your overall strategy.

Understanding the importance of your time, especially when it comes to internet marketing, is crucial to maximizing your potential.

Mark

Posted by Mark at 7:33 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

October 23, 2006

Internet Marketing: Stomper Net

HI All

Well i joined that elite bunch over at Stomper Net :) At $795 a month membership not for the faint hearted I know but hey they are an elite bunch and ive already started to reap benefits from my membership. Looking forwards to sepnding the year with Brad and Andy :)

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 7:20 AM | Comments (2) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

October 12, 2006

Internet Marketing: What is Social Networking and How Can it Work for You in Business?

Social networking is that common technique that so many of us use at dinner parties, neighborhood bake sales and garage sales, local baseball games, and in other social places where we use a perfectly casual, innocent, non-business related event in the hopes of making a sale or two.

Now this is not at all to say that you should bring a PowerPoint® presentation and a laser pointer to every t-ball game you attend. What it does mean is that you should not exclude all situations just because they are considered social, and not business events.

The trick is to know when it is appropriate to make a little pitch, and to know how to do it so that it doesn’t feel as though you’re aggressively marketing products to everyone around you.

Simply make sure that you have business cards with you no matter where you go, and listen carefully to what people around you are saying. Suppose you’re at a dinner party, and someone mentions that they are having trouble with, or are in need of something offered by your business. In this case, it is considered perfectly acceptable to jump in to the conversation and briefly – that is, very briefly at first – mention what solution you could offer to this problem.

If the person seems interested, feel free to speak further about it. However, don’t go for a hard sell in a situation like this. When you are at a social event, there is nothing more unappealing than having a product you don’t want jammed down your throat.

Similarly, you should be careful about the times when you choose to talk about your product or service. Don’t just start offering it out of the blue without a segue in the conversation. It will feel as though the social event has become a television sitcom that has just gone into commercial break.

If it doesn’t look like there is anybody who is interested, and you’d really like to practice your skills, try mingling. Meet somebody you don’t really know at the event or occasion, and introduce yourself. When you get to the “what do you do” question, feel free to state your position in the company, and then expand on the product or services that are offered in an attempt to explain what you do. This is very effective in peaking people’s interest about a product or service.

Again, the key is not to ever use a social event as a time for a hard sell. Instead, you should keep you eyes and ears open for someone who may in fact be looking for you.

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 1:01 PM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

October 8, 2006

Internet Marketing: Managing Your Online Marketing Strategy Time

The most valuable thing that you have when you’re marketing online is your time. Every second that passes means money that you have either made, or let go by. When it comes to marketing on the internet, no matter how good your product is, and how spectacularly you present it, if it isn’t seen by anyone, it will all be for naught. Therefore, everybody who intends to achieve success online must therefore become somewhat of an online marketing expert.

Keep in mind that not only is your time valuable, it is also limited. Therefore, since you’re already spending a good deal of your time actually doing the job that you are offering, such as completing sales orders, or performing some kind of service, you have only so much time that you can spare to start spreading the word.

This can be very challenging because when it comes to marketing, especially on the internet, the list of things that you can do to get your name out there can seem practically endless.

The trick is to keep in mind that your time is best spent coming up with a clear and concise promotional strategy that can be put directly into action than working for ages on something long and developed. It is only once you begin to see results from your first wave of simpler promotions that you might think about building things up a bit further.

By doing it this way, you not only save a great deal of your time, but you also allow yourself the opportunity to observe the difference in reaction from your customers when different marketing elements are added to your overall strategy.

Understanding the importance of your time, especially when it comes to internet marketing, is crucial to maximizing your potential.

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 11:41 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

October 3, 2006

Internet Marketing: What Will Searching Look Like in the Future?

Since its inception, not so very long ago, the internet has evolved to a point where it is virtually unrecognizable from its original form. The same can be said for the search engine technology that has been available. It is continuously improving, becoming faster, and incredibly more accurate to the needs of the person performing the search. Few things seem so magical and “science fiction-like” than the technology employed to make search engines the accurate and swift things that they are.

In this effort to always refine and perfect the results that they achieve for any given user search, studies are constantly being made, and the latest techniques and technologies continue to be employed. This includes not only technology in terms of fast computers, but also in semantic research.

Search engines apply all of the latest semantic advances in order to make certain that the text of a web page and ads that are used deliver specifically to the right audience.

Perfection is far from having been achieved, but we are advancing in leaps and bounds. In that vein, software that recognizes speech appears to be the next wave of thinking.

Voice activated searches seem to be the next big “thing” for search engines. What is stunning is that there has actually already been a great deal of effort made along this line.

After that, who knows what will be possible; it is thought that perhaps a search engine-style device will be developed where even speech is not necessary. The software will simply “know” what the user will want to look for. Such experiments have indeed already begun.

This does a great deal for accessibility to the internet for people with disabilities, impairments, and poor vision. With such alternative devices, the internet becomes a much greater opportunity for everyone.

With this in mind, there will also always be different efforts for web site design being developed in order to keep up with these new technologies. Consider how long it took for search engines to truly become what they are today. Thirty years?

Are you and your site ready for the next major development? It may be coming sooner than you think!

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 6:55 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

September 26, 2006

Internet Marketing: Adsense is Dead! Or is it?

I had to jump on this bandwagon started of by Scott Boulch :) If you have not seen it or indeed read it you can get it here

http://www.thedeathofadsense.com/

It's a very interesting report to be honest and a GREAT example of good viral marketing! But is it true what he says? Yes and No is what I would say :) And no that's not a copout Its just that it makes me smile that only in this GAME do people spend so much time and effort on what other people are saying and or doing and not enough time and effort on doing themselves! let me give you an example.

A good mate of mine owns a decorating suppliers. he supplies paint and supplies for decorating to industry and also to the public from his warehouse. He makes LOTS of profit. He works hard everday on his business. What he does not do is run around reading articles posted by other decorating store owners on how they are running their business! He does not even talk to them much to be honest. He does'nt need to because he KNOWS his game. Now dont get me wrong here there is LOTS of good infomation out there on the internet presented by the GURUS! You know them, that rare breed that seem to know everything :) But you must understand that they are trying to sell you something! Thats their GAME and they know it well :) But I digress :)

So is Adsense dead? Well why dont you try and find out for yourself for once! Do your own testing, setup your own sites and get your own results and then you will know for sure huh :) Alternativly you could always run your business based on what other people tell you!

I also find it intersting that most if not all of the gurus actually have real business models. Look at Brad Fallon with myweddingfavors! He is selling a real product not a click or and idea! Mike Filsaime is selling real products and scripts! Brad Callon is selling real products and scripts! I myself have a Horse site a House site (in developement) a links site and sites selling real courses Hmmm see them theme emerging here? I hope so.

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 9:11 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

September 11, 2006

Internet Marketing: It Takes Only 24 Hours to Get Listed in Google – When You Know How

There is little that is more frustrating as a webmaster than waiting for Google to list your site. When you have your site up and running, it usually means that you’re all set to bring in the clients and have the money start rolling in. To do this, you will most certainly need Google’s help, as it is the current leader – by far – of the search engine world.

Unfortunately, the current wait time is typically between six and nine months for the listing of any given site. That’s just the indexing itself, and doesn’t even include the ranking process.

If you are like most webmasters, the odds are that this is far too long for your marketing strategy and business plan.

Certainly, it is possible to pay a search engine for a faster listing, but why would you fork over a relatively large sum of money, when you can achieve the same results for free?

Indeed, you did not read wrong. There is a perfectly legal, simple way to achieve a listing with Google within twenty four hours that involves neither complex programming nor substantial quantities of your time.

The trick is as follows. Begin by finding websites in your search engine category, at least one of which has obtained a ranking of PR 5 or higher. Exchange links with these sites. That’s it!

This technique works every single time, not only with brand new sites, but also with sites that have been live for quite some time but that have not yet been indexed.

To discover the sites in your category, simply use Google’s search engine for one of your keywords. The list that is produced is the list that you will want to work with for exchanging links.

For even better results, combine this technique with the submission of your site to several good directories. There are many good, free directories available. You could also consider submissions to paid directorys also especially the ones with high PR themselves.

It’s easy, and it works every single time!

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 6:58 AM | Comments (1) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

August 25, 2006

Internet Marketing: Preventing Web Theft and Copyright Violation of Your Business Information

When you are serious about making your web marketing strategy work for you (I hope you are)! A great deal of your time, effort, and money is usually involved in its application. Therefore, one of the last things that you want to have happen is to discover that someone else has been stealing your business information and marketing copy.

Such unethical activities decrease the value of your own efforts, by taking away its uniqueness as well as making some search engines question your originality, wondering if it is only spam.

The good news is that you can indeed protect the text, graphics, and HTML code of your web pages. For one thing, by creating these elements of your website, they are protected by international copyright laws. However, this still doesn’t mean that people won’t break those laws and use them anyway.

To help discourage people from taking it in the first place, don’t forget to place a copyright statement on each of your web pages, showing that you and you alone own the content of the site, and that it is not to be used without your written permission.

Therefore, you need to take additional steps to prevent that your work isn’t being ripped off. This can include using different copyright scan programs to check the internet and make certain that there isn’t a copy of your material located anywhere else on the internet.

If you should discover that someone else is indeed using your site material, there are some actions that you can take to resolve the situation. You don’t necessarily need to get a lawyer and try to seek them out in court. Usually, a strongly, yet professionally worded email to the webmaster is all that is needed to have your copy removed.

If not, your next step is to contact the violator’s website host and internet service provider (ISP). An email to them will frequently get things moving to have the material removed from the website.

Remember, if you aren’t protecting your internet business materials, they could easily be used by other parties, decreasing the uniqueness and value of your own copy.

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 7:57 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

August 15, 2006

Internet Marketing: Adwords Click Fraud!

Hi All

I have been running and testing a new campaign for my Adwords-Masterclass course and thought I would show you what classic click fraud looks like :)

As you can see if we look at the image below, at first glance not a BAD campaign. We have over 600 clicks and a 4% CTR. On this I would be looking to improve with tweaking but not a bad start to the campaign!

However from all that not one sale :( So lets look a little further into the stats.

Now we can see that the majority of the visitors stayed less than 8 seconds! Now that looks suspicious. Ok lets dig a little further into some stats.

Oh look most of the visits come from India! What a shock huh :) Anyway I reported it as click fraud but as of yet (5 days) not a peep from Google!

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 6:24 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

August 2, 2006

Internet Marketing – Which are Better: Blogs or Articles?

Though articles have held the traditional place among internet marketers for building credibility, site content, and creating a place in which to insert search engine optimization keywords, blogs are quickly catching up in usage. But are they all they’re cracked up to be? Which technique is better for your internet marketing: blogs or articles?

Blogs, the newcomer, allow you to provide the same information that you’d give in an article, but on a much more personal level. Articles, on the other hand, are considered to be quite accurate, detailed, and informative. Search engines consider them both to be great sources of information. So which one comes up with the better results – especially for internet ranking?

Blogs keep a site fresh and timely. Articles do give an authoritative edge. Unless you already have a very highly ranked blog, articles will generally achieve better internet exposure, since there are so many more opportunities to present your articles to people. There are many different sites online that allow you to submit your articles so that they can be posted here and there. This same opportunity is not available for blogs.

From a more professional point of view, articles can also help to re-enforce statements you are trying to make about what you are selling. By using an article technique instead of a blog, the perception is that you have taken more care in your writing, and therefore the content is taken more seriously.

However, people understand that blogs are more personal, and whether the author is saying something good about something or bad about something, they are found to be interesting and often trustworthy.

What does this mean for your internet marketing strategy? It’s simple. If you want to promote a product or service, write an article. If you want to make a statement about something, write a blog. Though both are very effective, they have their own best uses.

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 7:40 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

July 24, 2006

Internet Marketing: Why You Will fail!

I was having an intersting chat with a very WELL known guru today. I won't mention any names but he is probably the most famous, at least I think so :) Anyway we were talking about success on the internet with different ventures and this is what he said...

90% of the people won't do anything with what we show, 5% will try and then despair, another 5% will succeed!! From the 5% who will succeed half will create their own system and will even succeed more.

That's it isnt it! he has summed it up in a nutshell in those two simple lines.

You see the information is there it's just that most people either dont know how to follow it, or they cant be bothered, or they get distracted! I think the worst of these crimes is distraction. The way to overcome that is to follow a well defined plan of daily tasks. If you nibble a bit each day at a very large biscuit sooner or later you wont have any biscuit left will you :)

Mark.

PS
Dont get distracted

Posted by Mark at 1:12 PM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

July 21, 2006

Internet Marketing – A Killer Ad is All About the Customer

Even the kindest, most selfless customer is best impacted by an ad that is all about him or her. The world has an “it’s gotta be about me” attitude about products and services that they buy. I know I do :)

This means that when they shop, ads, and other marketing strategies have to speak directly to the customer. You have to let them know exactly how your product or service will benefit them, and you have to do it fast, or you won’t have any affect at all. This is especially so with this internet of ours!

It’s just that easy.

This is, in fact, now considered to be the very heart of internet marketing strategies. It is a mad race to show the world that you will be giving its shoppers exactly what they want, and telling them why they need it so badly. Techniques include ads not only online, but now also in the mobile phone industry to boot!

Since text messages, music, and television are all available on cellular phones, it is easy to have ads that would usually be sent to email, sent instead directly to the cell phone user, right at the time that they’re most interested in buying.

Cell phone giants have studied the way that internet marketing works and are quickly applying it to cellular phone advertising – an industry quickly making millions of dollars.

The funny thing is that it actually relates to the internet’s SEO – Search engine optimization. This is because of the keywording patterns that are used. Since you need to know precisely what phrase you are targeting, what keywords will make the user most likely to head to your site, store, or other location, you will need to have experience on your side.

SEO has been doing this for years, in an attempt to find the best search words for search engines.

So today, when you want to create the best ad, remember that it’s all about the customer.

• How would he or she search for your service when using a search engine or directory on the internet?

• How would your target market identify your product or service?

• What are the greatest benefits of what you sell?

• Most importantly, what small phrase or short sentence would make them want to change what they’re doing right now, and head out to get your product or service right away?

It’s important to identify these elements so that you can spread your marketing campaign beyond the reaches of the usual internet, and into the world of cellular technology.

It’s what works with the customer, and when it comes to the customer, “it’s gotta be about me”.

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 7:25 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

July 17, 2006

Internet Marketing: Buying Text Links, Be Careful Where You Spend Your Money

Purchasing an ad on a webpage that links back to your site is a great way to advertise your website. This is especially true if you can advertise on popular websites that are frequently visited by your target audience. Search engines will not cause you any grief if you choose to market your site by purchasing text link ads, so there is no reason why you can’t use this method to boost targeted traffic.

Of course, not everyone purchases ads for the purpose of generating targeted traffic. Some choose to buy ads on websites to falsely increase the link popularity of the advertised site. This likely doesn’t come as much surprise to you, nor does it surprise the search engines. After all, if you can increase your popularity through website ads, regardless if they appeal to your target market or not, you’ll probably do it.

However, you shouldn’t forget that search engines have been designed to think that a link means an Internet user has found a useful site, and wants to inform others of its existence. While in the past links were used for this purpose, today the story is much different. Now links could be used as ads, trade between webmasters, or even as a vote opposing another website.

Moreover, webmasters currently have the ability to disable tracking codes on links, because their web analytics software no longer requires these codes to determine their investment return. Thus, search engines have no way of knowing the intention of a link.

Due to the fact that paid ads are creating chaos with search engine algorithms, search engines are constantly updating and conducting research to discover the intent of a link. How can they do this? Most text link advertisements and the websites that sell them, leave some type of coded trail behind. All the search engine needs to do, is investigate to discover what the last coded trails are, find all the pages that feature them, and no longer permit these pages to gain link popularity.

What does this mean for those who purchase ads? It means that if your site is dependent on paid link popularity, your rankings could take a dive. Understand, search engines aren’t trying to penalize anyone for purchasing ads, as search engines are also a type of advertising company themselves. The method they use to discover the legitimacy of text links, is simply a way for them to only count votes and not advertisements.

Therefore, if you are generating genuine traffic from the text links you buy, or are using your ads to boost your SEO campaign, you won’t have a problem developing a good ranking in search engines. Establishing a high ranking is only going to be a problem for those whose popularity depends on selling or buying text link advertisements in order to increase traffic.

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 5:40 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

July 16, 2006

Internet Marketing: Using Referral Marketing to Get Yourself in the Game

Referral marketing is one of those web marketing techniques that seems to be one of those techniques that people use either when they don’t really have much of a marketing strategy, or when they have let their current strategy slide a bit, and have to catch up. Fortunately, referral marketing has the power to bring a business back to its regular level success, and sometimes even exceed where it has ever been.

Look at what Microsoft did under Bill Gates. They set up Hotmail – a tremendous free email service – in order to make a mark on the web after previous failures. This strategy allowed them to quickly catch up to such internet superpowers as Yahoo! and see the successes that they knew were out there.

Similarly, Google has used this exact same strategy with their Gmail free email service launch.

In fact, many different companies owe the success of their ventures to referral marketing.

The secret to referral marketing is that it corrects the problem that is inherent to today’s free services. Since free services are now considered to be standard on the internet, with free samples, shareware, and services for which money is never required, people have come to expect that certain parts of the internet should be free to them.

However, when the market becomes saturated with free services and items that really aren’t needed, they tend to lose their value. This has become very true with online services, since they are considered the norm these days, and people expect nothing less.

However, when a service isn’t widely available, a free service becomes extremely valuable, especially when the only way to obtain it is through a referral. This was the difference in Google’s technique with Gmail.

They created a free email service – something quite common – and gave it a very large storage capacity, and made it so that only people who are referred can receive this service. This builds an enormous perception of value in the minds of the users. People actively sought out to refer or receive a referral for Gmail.

To use this technique yourself, you need to follow Gmail’s example. Find a free service that is relatively easy to provide, but build the perception of value through techniques such as referral marketing. Soon enough, this perception will transfer over to your entire business.

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 6:37 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

July 13, 2006

Internet Marketing: Starting a High-Traffic Blog Successfully

We all know Internet experts agree that blogs are among the most effective marketing tools currently available. In fact, it would not be overstepping reality to say that blogs are actually among the most powerful marketing strategies ever to have been invented.

However, just because you launch a blog, it doesn’t mean that you will be successful. In fact, it sounds quite daunting when you consider that it is estimated that there are 40, 000 new blogs launched every day. Unfortunately, a great number of these blogs failed, and only a small number of them actually reach their desired level of success.

So what does it take to be one of that tiny few who achieves that successful, high-traffic blog?

The first thing is to make sure that your blog, just like your business, has a niche of its own. If yours is only one of thousands, or even millions of other blogs written about the exact same topic, your odds of success are very slight. However, if you can find your own small, unique corner of the blog market, you’ll increase your odds exponentially.

Find out in advance how you’ll actually be building and maintaining your traffic. Don’t just assume that because you’ll have a blog, people will show up. You need to get the word out. To get people coming as soon as your blog gets started, you need to have a marketing plan for your blog. One of the techniques that you will want to employ is keywords. By using the right keywords in your blog posts, you’ll ensure that you’ll be receiving better search engine results. The higher your blog is ranked in search engines – especially Google – the more successful you will be.

Consider whether or not you will want to spend money on the marketing for your blog. If you will be putting a great deal of time and effort into your blog then you may find that spending a bit on marketing is a good investment. Google Adsense, for example, might be right up your alley, and within your budget. This can make all the difference when it comes down to whether or not the traffic will truly come in.

Finally, the very best way to bring in traffic for your blog is to write articles, and get them out there on the internet. Submit them to lots of different article directories, and you’ll have a great deal of inbound links and keywords working in your favor.

Of course, even if you take these steps, there is no guarantee that you’ll be successful with your blog, however, you’ll be giving yourself a much better chance. Once you’ve got things going, keep an eye on your stats, and update your content regularly. From there, the sky’s the limit!

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 6:45 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

July 6, 2006

Internet Marketing: Understanding Your Website Traffic Analysis

Among the best ways to market your website is to understand how to analyze the traffic that already uses it. This way, you will get to know which people are using your website, and what they’re doing once they’re there. Once you know this, you’ll be able to better target your website to your users’ needs.

There are four primary ways in which you can perform a website traffic analysis. These are as follows:

• Use a counter on your web pages to count the number of visitors
• Take advantage of the statistics offered by your internet service provider (ISP) about your website’s traffic
• Buy a website traffic analysis program
• Hire an expert, either independent or in a firm, who can audit your website use

No matter what method you use, there are specific things that you should look for, which include:

• Which of your web pages are the most commonly visited and which ones are used the least frequently?
• Who are your visitors?
• Which browsers are used to visit your site? (so that you can optimize your site the best)
• Which search engines are bringing in the most traffic, and which ones are not performing much at all?
• Which ads (such as banners) are performing the best?
• Where are there bad links and errors within your site?

Essentially, by performing a quality analysis of the traffic that uses your website, you’ll be able to ask the correct questions and come up with the right solutions for polishing your web marketing strategy as a whole. Without using an analysis of your traffic, your entire internet marketing effort will basically be a shot in the dark. You may or may not receive results. You’ll be depending on luck. With the information on your side, you’ll be able to perform your marketing with perfect aim.

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 6:37 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

May 17, 2006

Internet Marketing: Search Engine Traffic is Your Key to Success

The fact is that the majority of internet marketing strategies out there are risky business. None can guarantee that you’ll achieve better traffic to your site, and more often than not, you’ll find that you can’t even measure the difference that these efforts have made.

There are tons of internet marketing companies that will try to sell you any number of different options from banner ads to mass email campaigns and popup ads. Though these may work on occasion, there is a tremendous risk in investing in them. In fact, most prospective customers will simply ignore them and consider them a nuisance than actually act on them. In this case, such a customer acquisition strategy can simply be considered a waste of your time and money.

If you are looking for something a bit more on the reliable side, then you’ll want to look into the single highest performer in internet marketing: search engines. Yes yes I know your going to no mark its Lists! And I agree but what if you dont have a list already?

By focusing your internet marketing strategy primarily on achieving the highest possible search engine rank, you’ll naturally bring growing numbers of TARGETED visitors directly to your website. You’ll bring prospective customers right to your site when they’re interested in your product or service and at the time that they’re most likely to make a purchase.

Furthermore, search engines are the gift that keeps on giving. When you achieve and maintain a strong search engine ranking, then you will continue building your traffic indefinitely. This is a vast improvement over other internet marketing efforts with a finite lifespan.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t make any other efforts to market your website, however, if you base your internet marketing strategy on search engines and consider the rest of your efforts to be peripherals, then you will be able to experience a much cheaper, more cost-effective method of traffic growth.

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 6:19 AM | Comments (1) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

May 5, 2006

Internet Marketing: It’s All About Time Management!

When you own a business, especially one that has features online, time is the most valuable thing you have. Therefore, if you want to make the most of your internet marketing strategy, then you’re going to need to make sure that you’re managing your time properly. So here’s how you can turn your process for earning money into one that uses your time to its fullest potential.

Internet income has three separate stages:

1. Acquiring your product - here is where you choose between your own product or a product from an affiliate company. This stage requires you to budget your time per product. Make sure that you are only looking into any given product for so long, otherwise, you will be wasting time that could be useful in a faster-moving opportunity.

2. Developing your product presentation – with your product chosen, it’s up to you to come up with its presentation. This includes your website, newsletter, and any autoresponder sequences you may have. The first step is always to begin with your website, then move on to the rest of your presentation. With your website up, you are able to move on to the next step – promotion – and then you can come back to your presentation and add to it. However, without your website up and ready, you won’t be prepared for your promotions. Therefore, it is important that you don’t let yourself get wrapped up in making every little detail perfect. Certainly you’ll want it to be good, but don’t spend too much time on your presentation before you are able to move on to promoting your product; the step that will actually be bringing in the paying customers.

3. Promoting your product – no matter how ideal your product choice or beautiful your presentation, if there isn’t anyone there to see it, then it isn’t worth any of the time you’ve spent on it. Therefore, it is vital that you put proper promotional efforts forward to make sure that you product is put in front of your target market. A good promotional strategy is born from good development and implementation. Once you have your strategy in place, you’ll need to spend your time monitoring and perfecting your efforts. While you wait for these results to come about, you can step back and perfect your presentation and add to your products.

By mastering these three stages with the right time management, you’ll always be a step ahead of the internet marketing game.

To be honest Im is NOT the easiest way to make money on the internet! So many people get into selling information products and IM related stuff when they are not suited to that field. If you want to make real money on the internet look for passive income stream opportunitys and then develop those! IM is VERY labour intensive!

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 9:29 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

April 2, 2006

Internet Marketing: Too much Information!

Yep im on holiday and I could'nt resist a blog post :) I might even take some pics and post them up too ha ha. Man Dubai is the biggest building site I have ever seen in my life. This place is amazing and will be even more so when it's finished! A veritable millionaires playground indeed.

Anyway talking of this post. I was scanning my drive for stuff to read on the beach and it amazes me how many products I have purchased with the INTENTION of reading them only to submit them to the depths of my hard drive! The problem is I am a sucker for a good sales letter (yes I admit it) I also dont like to miss out on information, as I have said before I am an info junky to say the least. I love learning and I LOVE reading.

BUT there is only so much learning you can do and only so much reading and to be honest neither of these are going to earn you any money UNLESS you APPLY one fo the ideas that you read!

Fortunately for me I have several ideas that tick over nicely thankyou. So find an idea and then concentrate on just that one thing until it's working, then and only then move onto the next idea. Oh yes and dont expect every idea to work either :( I have had literally hundreds of ideas that have failed! I have lost count of the sheep that have told me not to try and why am I wasting my time with that internet thing!

But then you only need one to work and you end up on a beach in dubai writing blog posts :) Where are those people now? Oh yes still stuck in their ruts doing the do, the same ol same ol. NEVER be discouraged in fact NEVER discuss with others what you're doing and then they can never discourage you in the first place :)

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 2:41 PM | Comments (2) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

March 17, 2006

Internet Marketing: The Great Secret!

Do you think the Gurus of internet marketing share their secrets with you? What do you think? Ok let me ask you this way. If you had a secret that was earning you millions or a secret that was adding thousands to your email lists would you tell others what it is? Perhaps you have a brand new product idea and after a bit of research you can see noone else has marketed it. Would you tell others about it before patenting it? Marketing it yourself perhaps!

Of course you would'nt!

The gurus tell you their secrets BUT only after they have milked them for all there worth. Usually the secret you get told has been flayed to the bones for about two years before you even hear about it! So what's my point here? Well perhaps it's this. Why not do your own testing and become your own guru. I mean that's ALL a guru is anyway. Just a normal guy who does lots of testing to see what works and what does'nt! You can do that for yourself you know and et voila next thing you know your name will be up in lights with Corey and Marlon ehhh :)

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 9:30 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

February 3, 2006

Internet Marketing: The Butterfly Effect!

Unless you live in a cave I guess you must have had at least one email from a GURU offering you endless bonuses if you buy Mike Filsaimes Butterfly Marketing course. I have had about 50 LOL and each one get's better. I am just waiting until I am offered someones wife and kids and then I might buy it ha ha.

I don't doubt it's an excellent course but sadly most 90% of the people who buy it wont use it :( This is the biggest secret in internet marketing and indeed in any venture be it online or in the real world.

"If you implement nothing then nothing will get done"

Remember the Butterfly actually had to flap it's wings!

Enjoy your weekend

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 10:06 AM | Comments (2) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

December 21, 2005

Internet Marketing: The Secret you ALL need.

I think I have just read the BEST post on Internet marketing I have ever read by far. You can read it Here

Oh so true!

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 1:33 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

December 20, 2005

Internet Marketing: What's the Most profitable Business to be in online?

I tell you it sure as hell is not internet marketing! Or SEO for that matter :) These guys have to work like hell for their $$$ Plus the competition is HUGE! Everyone wants to be a guru and have their name in lights it seems. Not many achieve that lofty status to be honest.

So what do you think the best, most profitable and easiest to run business is for an online venture? It's got to be membership or service based sites for my money. Yes of course you have got to perform SEO and IM on these sites but that's not the same as selling SEO and IM services! A service based business earns you money simply because people use its service. See if you can come up with some ideas for service based business models.

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 8:17 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

December 7, 2005

Internet Marketing: Just exactly where do you Start?

A total newbie to the internet asks you where to go to learn about internet marketing. Where would you send them first? What would you attempt to teach them? Would you send them Corey's way? Or maybe to Yanik? What about Ken Mcarthy over here?

It's a difficult one isnt it? For me I started with Coreys "Internet markeitng Secrets" course. What about you where would you send them?

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 9:53 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

December 5, 2005

Internet Marketing: I bet I can keep you on my site for more than ten seconds!

Most web surfers remain on your website for about 10 seconds before giving up! Did you now that? Here is a list of items that will distract (annoy) your customer for those ten seconds and help him to leave your site!

1. Animations
2. Fancy logos
3. Flash
4. Spinny gifs
5. Banners

Here is a list of items that will keep your potential customer with you for longer than 10 seconds

1. Content
2. Keyword rich articles that relate to what she/he is searching for and you are selling
3. keyword rich reports relating to what she/he is searching for and you are selling
4. Did I mention content
5. Keyword rich content the search engines love
6. An interesting regularly updated blog

Search engines catalogue CONTENT! Not flash, Not imagery (some exceptions), Not logos or spinny gifs either. They like text in the form of content because it tells them who you are and what you are and enables them to index you according to relevance.

Potential customers are generally looking for the same stuff the search engines are. Of course there are exceptions to this if say I am looking for images for design purposes.

So FORGET the fancy stuff until you are HUGE and need to establish brand recognition. Untill that time concentrate on content and on keeping your potential customers happy. How do you keep them happy? Simply give them what they want. And what do we all want?

Information (content) relating to what we are searching for which helps us solve our problems.

Mark.

PS

Did it take you more than ten seconds to read that? Thats what content does :)

Posted by Mark at 9:31 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

November 30, 2005

Internet Marketing: Google as Big brother?

Well I guess it had to happen sooner or later. This Report from Jason is a real eye opener.

Content is king!

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 11:09 AM | Comments (0) | Internet Marketing | TrackBack

November 25, 2005

Internet Marketing: Ho Ho Ho

I recieved an intersting email today from Sean D'Souza over at Psycho Tactics

You have got to Check this out it's a great read.

Mark.

Posted by Mark at 11:10 AM | Comments (0) |