My Buy Essay

Archive for December, 2008

What is the one thing webmasters the world over wants for their websites? They want their websites to be visible on the net! And what better way to do this than to have their websites included in site listings and search engines.

Most search engines only list websites depending on the key words or Meta tags you put on your site. But then there are sites that go further and categorize the listings that make it easy for most to find the sites they are looking for, if the site is list within the site listing or search engine.

With a category listing, imagine how much easier it is to find what you want and other sites of similar categories. You could be looking for PDA (personal digital assistant) and click on the category PDA and instantly get a listing of websites that sell, review, or support personal digital assistants.

Or how about when you want to have a few laughs? There are thousands upon thousands of joke and comedy sites out there but how do you find them? This is where site listings and search engines come in handy.

Site listing is mostly a free service offered by many search engines. Most sites ask you to fill in a form, asks you for Meta tags for easy searching, and you will be required to wait for at least 24 hours for your site to appear in their search engine. However, there is also such a thing as a “premiere listing”. This means that the webmaster will be charged a fee (anywhere from $2 up) to have his website listed on the first page when the searcher inputs his keywords.

One premiere feature is called “feature listing”. A featured site appears not only in the regular listing, but also in a special section, often at the top or the right margin of the screen. For example, you might type “spam blockers” and when you look at the listed results, you may see recipes for Spam luncheon meat in the feature boxes. This means SPAM paid for this feature listing.

Oftentimes, these websites ask for a feature called a “link exchange”. As you submit your site to them for inclusion in their website, a script is provided to you for inclusion in your site. This often manifests as either a text link or a banner or button, which, upon clicking, will bring you to their website. This link exchange also helps them in monitoring the incoming traffic of your website. Some sites offer daily web statistics, while others only give them to you upon your request.

Don’t just sit on your hands and hope someone finds your website. Submit the URL of your website to site listing and be seen. Key in the appropriate key words and Meta tags or categorize your website properly to increase your visibility on the net.

Site listings and search engines work. Do a “web search” on anything, test their features, and be one of many who has submitted their websites for inclusion. I know I have.

Everyone’s looking for: the new angle, the undeveloped niche, the ‘vein of gold’ just waiting to be mined. Anything seems possible if we just work harder, better, faster than the next marketer waiting to capitalize on an opening.

You know you can do it but you feel you need that extra effort, greater insight, that flash of inspiration to just show you how. What if you could just do a little more, a little faster, a little better ….

This is the mindset we have been programmed to accept. One of ‘more effort = greater reward’. We believe that with constant effort and determination, we will naturally attain our goals.

But this is only half the truth and, on its own, is a recipe for ultimate failure. Sounds harsh? Well it should! That’s how we’ve been taught to react.

We strive forward, working ever harder, searching ever deeper and pushing ourselves, both physically and mentally, to an ever-increasing extent. We stay that little longer at the PC, do that little bit more research, read that extra report, filling ourselves with information, searching for new ideas.

The result of all this unrealized pressure is ‘STRESS’.

Now, I hear you shouting at the screen, “I’m not stressed! I can work hours without getting uptight and still perform. Who does this guy think he is?”

Please allow me a moment to explain what I mean.

It is very true that we all need a certain amount of stress in order to become motivated and grow; so what is the problem? We all have internal stress coping-mechanisms that were originally developed to cope with potentially life-threatening situations, the so called “fight or flight” response.

However, these biochemical changes are all too frequently brought into play by other factors nowadays, from meeting deadlines or receiving bills to worrying about the solution to a new project. When this occurs and the body is placed in an almost constant state of alert, the adrenal glands become depleted and we become tense, tired, irritable, even depressed and especially unfocused and so less productive.

Almost all of our bodily functions can be affected. This includes: digestive disorders, weakened immune system and a whole host of other physical problems.

We thought we were just working harder but in reality, when we reach this point and are not releasing this tension, we are achieving less – and that’s never a good state of play.

By allowing yourself the time, and I’m talking about just a few minutes here, to stop, breathe deeply and relax effectively, you can soon reap the rewards. You become more focused, more inspired, more effective and more motivated.

Time is a commodity that is in short supply &ndash use it effectively. Make a powerful investment today – stop, relax and prosper.

Like a regular store or business, a home based internet marketing business sells a product or service with the goal of making a profit. The product or service is the target; the Internet aspect is the means of reaching out to customers. With home based internet marketing business, the sale of products and services can now be directed at the global market, instead of being limited to the scope of postal services, broadcast radio & television, newspapers and word of mouth.

Having a passionate interest in something is often the best driving force for starting an internet business. In fact, many of today’s successful internet marketers started out by putting their hobby on the web. Along the way, something fired up and these hobbyists became convinced that home business internet income could be pulled off from their efforts by supplying the goods and services desired by other people. Passion turned their interest into a business and carried them over the barriers along the road to profitability and personal satisfaction of a home based internet marketing business.

You need a level of commitment and due diligence to be cut out for home based internet marketing business. Turning a hobby into an internet business is not without disappointments, challenges and temporary failures. If you’ve decide upon starting an internet business that doesn’t really interest you, you might very well quit when the going gets tough. Having motivation and long term view of a worthwhile dream or vision can carry a home based internet marketing business past barriers to long-term success.

Business planning itself is a separate subject. It’s not easy to make money online without a plan. If you want to turn that interest into a business, you should plan it and work it like a business to survive the transition. Changes come faster and faster with each new technology, innovation or social connection. Invest some of your time in participating in free and paid forums for discussion, groups of topic-specific memberships and the likes to keep track of the latest news and breakthroughs in internet marketing. Becoming skilled and knowledgeable in home based internet marketing business means committing yourself to continuous learning and adjustment. Here are a few internet business start up ideas you must learn in starting an internet business:

• Most people use the Internet to get information, not spend money.

• People who do want to spend money online know what they want in specific detail.

• Customers can be very self-centered – if you don’t have what they want, they’re gone in split-second. If they bought from you and are not satisfied, they’ll want an instant refund.

• If your online impression doesn’t seem reliable, practically nobody will trust you with his or her money.

• Every business, online or offline, has problems and challenges. You need patience, will power and persistence to follow such a path and not quit.

If you think you have what it takes to tackle such challenges in starting an internet business, with passion and commitment, you’ll be on your way on making money and success online while working at home!

In order to stimulate word of mouth marketing, there are many things that can be

done, but they must be instituted in a proper manner. In recent years, the concept

of Pay-Per-Lead has proliferated the internet and marketers have leveraged that to

generate leads. However, the approach can be as worthless as a 0.01% response rate

per 50,000.

This is why word of mouth marketing approaches must be far more targeted than CPA

programs, and far more dynamic than conventional and often simplistic permission

marketing approaches.

In my opinion, there are at least 2 ways you can immediately stimulate word-of-mouth

marketing right now.

Method 1: The Ethical Bribe.

This is a common method which you will want to use sparingly unless you know the

nature of your target market. Will they want what you are offering? Will you be able

to hit that raw nerve that will get them telling more people about your website or

service or product?

The ethical bribe when used can be very powerful. It’s simple to set up. Purchase an

email marketing software like the one at .IMSupportHub.com/ar and create

an additional campaign and an additional page every time you run an advertisement.

Always redirect your main opt-in to the tell-a-friend page and set up your new

opt-in codes on that page, always remembering to give them your ethical bribe.

The biggest drawback is that an ethical bribe does not guarantee that people will

definitely tell a friend. They will tell anyone! Thus, the set up of the ideal

tell-a-friend sequence is important. To tell an individual to bring another

individual to a website has constraints which need to be addressed, and probably

will not be as effective as it ought to be. Technology can catch up and software to

generate tell-a-friend campaigns could be a little more efficient, and possibly

offer a buffet spread of items that a friend could select to gift their friend.

Method 2: Social Proof

Social proof is a psychological mechanism that gets people to act. If one person has

been told that something is good, they won’t be able to say it’s good. They need to

see that there has been a fairly large quantity of people who say it’s good before

they jump without thinking.

Social proof does have its flaws and I do understand that there are people who feel

that it is ‘unethical’ to create a buzz. Still, the method will work if you have a

good product or service that adds value anyway. People are still communal in nature,

and they will always tell their friends or associates in the appropriate discussion

environment about things that will benefit them.

To find out more about word of mouth marketing methods, just go to

internetmarketingsingapore.com/blog/category/word-of-mouth/

How much time to you waste posting ads in groups and message boards that never get you anything? You know what I am talking about. All of those free classifieds, networking groups, spam groups & message boards. How much time do you spend a week? I’m sure there are some great groups that you are in where you get some good networking, help, advice and tips; as well as good advertising opportunities. But how many of them are just a dumping ground for ads that never get seen and are just piled in to all of the other members quick ad drops. Sometimes more is not better. Many people join these groups NOT to see your ad. The could care less about what you are offering. They just want you to buy what they are selling. There isn’t much you can do about it, but you can stop posting and visiting these groups/sites. If you are not getting useful information and sales from some of these groups, delete them. Why waste your time posting all over the place? Spend your time in less groups. Stay a part of the groups that are more rewarding. Get to know the group members better where you get the most help and support.

How much junk email are you getting from these groups? Probably a lot more from the useless groups than the groups that you actually benefit from. I’ll bet that you get a ton of emails, even if you are only signed up for daily digests. How much time do you spend just deleting the emails from the groups that you really don’t use anymore or rarely go to? Take the time to delete your memberships from these groups that are filling up your valuable time and email spots. If you are in some opt in mailing list groups that you are not getting anything out of, opt out. Those emails will have a opt out option at the bottom of the email.

So, go spring clean your memberships! Keep the good ones, and chunk out the useless ones! Get the most out of the memberships you keep. If you don’t use it, lose it!

When it comes to article marketing, we’re all searching for that perfect headline. It has to be something catchy. You want it to be unique. You want it to leave people wanting to read your article. After all, what good does your article do if people don’t pass it on with that almighty link attached at the bottom?

I’m constantly trying to come up with new and exciting takes on my areas of expertise, as well as, new headlines to get my articles passed along. I’m always observing. I watch the headlines on the news, in the paper, and on the homepages of MSN and Yahoo. Then, I examine the ones that really catch my interest.

Personally, I also feel the need to watch the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and such informative programs as “Best Week Ever” on VH1. I watch these solely for creative business ideas, really!

Well, maybe not solely for business! I have to admit I do have a bit of pop culture addiction. But, in my defense, you can learn a lot from pop culture.

Enter…”Snakes on a Plane.”

Have you ever heard something that draws you in more? It’s absolutely brilliant. They’ve done next to no marketing for this film. All we really have is “Snakes on a Plane” and Sam Jackson. Yet, here we have this huge cult hit even before it’s been released. Seriously, if you haven’t heard of this movie, trust me, you will soon!

I first saw a brief bit about this movie on “Best Week Ever” a few weeks ago, and now, it’s everywhere I turn on the internet.

So, what does this really have anything to do with article marketing or am I simply trying to get something with “Snakes on a Plane” attached to my links? Simply, the answer is both!

You have to realize that finding pop culture analogies to business principles you write about can boost your links enormously! People want to re-print and link to stories that catch their attention because those are the same stories that will get more traffic to their sites in return.

Now, I’m not advocating writing articles that have absolutely no content value or that are not helpful in some way to readers. Again, trust me, I run an article directory, and I can’t tell you how sick of the same keyword-saturated articles on acne, affiliate programs and whatever other keywords or money-making schemes are hot today.

The key is that you’ve got to actually take the time to find the analogies. Find how you can relate TomKat’s baby to your site…well, maybe that’s not an easy example, but you get my drift! You can churn out articles by the hundred that will get published across the net, but you won’t get the respect of the article directories, the higher page-ranked sites and most importantly potential clients/link-clickers if you aren’t putting out quality material.

Whether it’s “Snakes on a Plane” or TomKitten, whatever you want to use, be creative and take the time to write quality articles. In the long run, if you have to choose between having 1,000 blah articles out there with your name and links attached or 100 awesome, catchy articles out there that people are passing on and referring to others, you’ll want to have the 100 best on the net.

So, here’s your assignment, turn off CNN for a moment and put away your Wall Street Journal. You might just find that a few moments of Comedy Central or People magazine might be increasing your bottom line! If you still don’t believe me, look what you’ve spent the last few moments doing. You’ve just read this entire article. Thanks “Snakes on a Plane!”

It seems the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval has been replaced by Oprah Winfrey when it comes to a validation of credibility …

Having said that, if I’m not mistaken, all the former ever meant was that the product or service in question paid to advertise in Good Housekeeping magazine.

Still, in the vast anonymity of the cybermarket, a claim of credibility is vital to those who wish to convince us to send them money. Via her phenomenonally successful syndicated television show, Ms Winfrey’s excellence at accurately portraying causes, incidents and situations has earned her a lofty mantle as the Anointess of Authenticity.

We can even see this phenomenon at work on the Longer Life Group’s website that hosts my column, as there are products advertised which espouse her name. That’s fine, of course, as it’s easy for us to discern that the claims of these products are real in that respect (eg- Bob Greene really is her personal trainer). They are, no doubt, good products. If I ever feel the need to lose ten pounds in thirty days, I’ll give them a try.

However, in the wild world of cyber-commerce, it seems that some salesmen decided to take a shortcut in this process. They figured it was good enough to merely claim their product was featured on Oprah.

As you’ve maneuvered through the spam and detritus of cyberspace, it’s odds-on you’ve seen this headline:

‘As Seen On Oprah! Teenager Makes $71,000 by Mailing a Simple Letter!’

The sales pitch relates the tale of a kid who diligently sent God-knows-how-many chain letters and wound up with a closetful of $10 bills, or something like that. The pitch goes on to state that this story was also featured on an American newsmagazine, 20/20, and featured in the Wall Street Journal. However, those outlets are merely there for support. It’s Oprah that gives this story ‘legs,’ as they say in the movie business.

The object of the exercise is to induce you to buy into the chain by sending money to one or more of the names on a five-deep list, then removing the top name and adding your name to the bottom, so you can take your turn at collecting all that cash. You’re surely aware of the drill.

In theory, this works to an exponential level. Then again, in theory, so does communism in mass society.

Need I say more?

From my research, it’s false. Untrue. Never happened.

I went straight to the source and posed the question to the staff of Oprah, asking if any teenager ever appeared on the show and told how his chain letter made him $71,000 or more. Here’s the e-mail I received:

“Date: 10 Oct 09:04

“Dear Viewer,

“We don’t find any Oprah Show that talked about anyone making a fortune on a chain letter. References to chain letters include the cabbage soup diet, Mrs. Fields cookies and the Angel Network.”

“Thank you,

“Oprah Tapes and Transcripts”

While I do admit a temptation to start a chain letter in hopes of receiving sackfuls of Mrs Fields’ cookies by associating it with a real e-mail from Oprah’s staff — after which I would click on that ad featuring Bob Greene so I could buy his weight-loss program — my common sense tells me that it just wouldn’t work.

Still, the purpose of making such claims is to attempt to override your common sense, to get you to think that if Oprah gave credence to the story, then perhaps there is something to it. So, when the ‘target’ amount they want you to pay is set at the price of a couple of beers or a handful of lottery tickets, the hook is well and truly baited.

What a logical way for you to lose a few bucks! And you will. Whether you send out letters or e-mail, you will lose your money and look silly to your recipients while doing it. Again, we’ll discuss that next time.

For now, suffice it to say that as far as this story goes, I’m convinced that Oprah never aired it. The only reference we’ll confirm is that Aretha Franklin sang it.

‘Chain of Fools.’

It doesn’t matter if running an eBiz is old hat for you or if you’re just getting started: advertising is always going to be a key element of your business strategy. Search engine marketing is probably the biggest tool you have available for promoting your web store, so you need to stay on top of the trends in that area to be competitive.

1. Blogging for Profit

One of the hottest trends on the internet right now is blogging. What started as informal personal journaling has become a great way to boost your website’s traffic. Adding a blog to your website gives it a personal face, thereby increasing the quality of your site and giving your customers a reason to come back. If your eBiz specializes in chocolates, you can blog your favorite recipe for chocolate fudge brownies or an article highlighting the benefits of eating chocolate.

Blogging about topics related to the product or service you offer is also a way to get ahead in search engines’ natural listings. And there are several reasons for that:

• You’re constantly adding fresh, relevant content which is exactly what search engines are looking for.

• You’re constantly adding keywords in those blogs.

• Blogs are getting preference in search engine rankings right now. This is especially true of Google&ndasheven more so if you use Google’s blogging service, blogger.com.

2. Results You Can See

Internet marketing expert Derek Gehl, of marketingtips.com, shares how an increased demand for trackable results in paid advertising in the last few years is working to your advantage. When you run a pay per click advertising campaign, search engine companies actually give you the tools to monitor the visitors each keyword brings to your site. Gehl recommends running a keyword campaign to track which keywords bring in sales conversions as opposed to those that only bring in traffic.

According to Gehl, it’s a good idea to “start with…anywhere from 250 to 500 keywords and keyphrases targeted to your specific market…That’s considered a good test.” Don’t bid too much; you can still get a lot of words for 10 and 15 cents. From there, you can gauge what direction will be the most advantageous for you to take.

3. You’ve Got Mail&ndashRunning a Smart Email Campaign

If your business has conducted any email campaigns of late, you have probably been affected by the new changes in spamming laws. The recent crackdown on spammers has made it increasingly difficult for legitimate business’ mailers to reach their customers’ inboxes. But what most eBiz owners don’t know is that the big email service providers (Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, etc.) have what are called “white lists.” Gehl counsels, “If you go to those websites, if you’re a legitimate email marketer, you can go through a process with each of those websites to get white listed. And once you’re on that white list your email automatically goes to that inbox.”

In Web 1.0 world, we are using internet banner ads, text ads, email, newsletters as our internet marketing vehicles to drive our marketing message to our potential clients online. Today, internet had been transitioned to web 2.0, new internet marketing strategies are needed to continue be successful in internet world.

With Web 2.0, we need to consider not only the new means of reaching our online audience but also the new nature of the social Web. Weblogs, blogs, and other web 2.0 sites dabbling with social media tools such as wikis, podcasts, videocasting, photo sharing sites, social bookmarking are the key marketing vehicle to drive internet traffic to the targeted websites.

So, as an internet marketer for Web 2.0 world and to be successful in an era where customers are freely discuss your products and services, you should consider the 5 important marketing strategies below:

1. Learn about social media

Social media is one the most important "must know" knowledge in Web 2.0. Thus, the first and foremost, you should participate in and understand social media by learning about it. YouTube, del.icio.us, Flickr, digg, MySpace, and Technorati are examples of new engines that you need to understand in order to effectively use them to reach your markets.

2. Marketing Plan For Web 2.0

You should factor let your visitors to play a more important role in your new marketing plan for Web 2.0. Let your website visitors to create content on your site and pass it a long. You even can your passionate users to create promotional videos about your sites/products, then use them on your local TV channels and post them online everywhere to get maximum exposure.

3. Join & Participate In The Conversation

Social media applications are two-way streets that conversation happens between two or more parties. To get exposure, you can join and participate to these conversation groups. You can join as members to other social media groups of your niche marketing or you can add social tools and services (such as Weblogs, wikis, tagging, video blogs, etc.) to your library Web sites. Enable comments on blogs and allow users to contribute to wikis.

4. Be Remarkable

Social media is a form of viral marketing where interesting ideas and content get passed along rapidly. Hence, in Web 2.0 world, content is the king. You must have contents that attract your visitors that they can use, bookmark, share online / offline and get your content or message pass along.

5. Get Your Content Travel

Encourage visitors to bookmark and tag your content with a click of a button and allow users to repost booklists, book reviews, photos, podcasts, or videos on their own sites. Post your content on sites like Flickr and YouTube where it’s easy for users to find and share it. Make news feeds for new materials such as books, DVDs, talking books, and video feeds so that these materials can be shared by online users and get your contents spread to the internet world.

6. Be part of the multimedia wave In Web 2.0 world, images and static pictures no enough to attract internet users any more, video is the key driver for Web 2.0. Statistic shows that more than 100 million videos being download daily. So, the effective of video marketing must not be overlooked. Create short videos and post them to YouTube and other video-sharing sites.

In Summary

These are just a few strategies about marketing in a Web 2.0 world. There are still a lot of ideas for social media marketing where you can explore and integrate into your web 2.0 marketing plan.

The first step in getting your site noticed is to have a site that is designed in a way that is search engine friendly. That is called SEO (search engine optimized). This is mostly a web designing issue. We will assume that you are starting with an SEO optimized site. But that alone won’t give your site high rankings.

To get the search engines to notice you, you need to understand them. The search engines’ whole purpose is to find quality content– that is what the internet is all about. Information. And the more content (related to your site’s most important keywords) that you have, the more that search engines will like you. They like to see sites that grow with quality content at a steady rate. They also like to see a lot of quality links from other sites on the Internet going to your site.

This is where article marketing comes in. Let’s say you have a website that sells cameras. First you would want to expand your site beyond several pages. You could do that by adding lots of related products. Or you could review products. If you don’t want to do that yourself, look for free articles that review products for you. You could add other related free articles, such as how to use the product, where to display your photos, etc. Maybe start a blog on the topic. Blogs are great for promotion because they are constantly updated with fresh material.

Where do you get all this fresh material? From article directories and article list servers. Because of the rapidly growing need for people to find and submit articles, the number of article directories sites are increasing.

You can take advantage of this fact. You could write an article about you website’s subject (or take the material from what you have already written for your website). For example, how to find a quality camera or how to take great photos. Then you submit this article to article directories. I like to personally add my articles to a new directory every day. By doing this, you now have links all over the Internet leading to your site– links from the article directory, as well as links from everyone who publishes your article for free on their website, ezine or blog.

Article marketing is now considered the method of choice for web marketing. It is the best way to get top placement with the search engines and to drive traffic to your site.

It takes some time and effort to find and/or write and submit articles, but it is free. You can also pay a submission service to send your articles out to more directories than you would have time to do yourself. So, start thinking “content” if you want the search engines to notice you.

This article may be freely copied as long as it is not modified and the resource box accompanies the article, together with working hyperlinks.