My Buy Essay

Posts Tagged ‘internet’

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.

For realtors the Internet can no longer be ignored. Significant numbers of home buyers on going online to do their preliminary research for real estate and agents. Recent surveys suggest over 50%.

I personally know a number of local realtors, and it is interesting to see how some are easily adapting to this media, while others are sitting on the sidelines wondering why they are seeing a decrease in prospective buyers.

The Internet is not going away, and if someone plans to make real estate a viable career they must incorporate online marketing in order to not only succeed, but to survive. So how can realtors cost-effective connect with potential customers? In addition to MLS listings, they can reach a very targeted audience through search engine marketing. There are basically two forms of search marketing, organic and pay per click advertising.

Organic Search Marketing

Organic search marketing is about ranking at the top of the search results. It is accomplished through search engine optimization (SEO). The goal is to get your web pages at the top of the search results for targeted terms and phrases. For example, if you are a realtor in Boise it would be profitable to have your site rank at the top for terms phrases like “Boise Realtors” or “Boise Real Estate.”

How do you accomplish this mysterious feat? First, you have to optimize your web pages around certain phrases like “Boise Real Estate.” That term becomes the theme of the page, and there are certain techniques that let the search engines know it is the theme.

In addition to optimizing the page you have to convince the search engines that your site is important enough to deserve a prominent ranking. This is achieved by getting other web sites to link to your site. When a web site has a hyperlink to your site, the search engines consider this a vote of confidence. It is more complicated than just getting a bunch of links, since some links are considered more important than others. But in general, the combination of optimized pages and external links results in top rankings. SEO takes time and effort. If you are a new site, you may not see results for 6-9 months with Google.

Pay Per Click Advertising

In contrast to SEO, pay per click advertising (PPC) can provide instant gratification. With Google you can set-up a marketing campaign in less than an hour. With Yahoo it takes 24-48 hours to be approved.

PPC is where you pay to have your web site listed at the top of the search results for particular terms that are relevant to your business. There are basically two search engines where you want to pay to market, Yahoo and Google. PPC is based on an auction model, where you bid for the position of your ad. The ads appear above and to the right of the organic search listings. They are listed as “Sponsored Links.”

PPC advertising is based on an auction model. You bid for positioning on terms that are relevant to your business, just like how you would optimize your web pages for similar terms. Once again if you are a realtor in Boise, you would bid on terms that your prospects would use to find services in your area. The position of your ad depends on how much you bid in relation to your competitors.

The appeal of PPC advertising is you set the bids, you set a maximum daily expenditure and you can turn your campaign on or off at any moment. Even more important is the ability to track exactly how your advertising dollars are being spent. With with this information you can tweak your bids and your ads for maximum performance.

It important to note that buyers who search online tend to be better informed, spend significantly less time with their realtor, and preview fewer houses than traditional buyers. That is another reason why search engine marketing is becoming essential.

Time is running out to ignore the Internet. Either you are going to be a player or you will be cut from the squad.

To stay relevant or even solvent, a company must keep itself informed. That’s why research, of both the in-house and outsourced varieties, is essential. At ConductSearch.com keeping tabs on who’s doing what in the marketplace is key to our success, and it doesn’t matter whether our information comes via mailman or email – at the end of the day, it’s still content, right? Recently, I happened to come upon the work of a reliable investment banking firm that specializes in Chinese tech research, New York Global Securities. I learned that New York Global thinks as highly of search advertising’s positioning in China as I do of it was here in America. They initiated coverage of a major Chinese Search Engine, Baidu (which translates to “a hundred times”), with a “Buy” rating.

Funny enough, ConductSearch.com and Baidu, the Chinese search giant, have something in common. But what, you ask? Baidu is based in mainland China (we’re not quite there, yet) and has little American presence. Yet, both companies, one small, one large, and on opposite sides of the earth, share a sentiment associated with search advertising – a sentiment shared by search advertisers all over the earth &ndash namely, that there’s still brilliant opportunities in the field. As players in search advertising, no matter what the size or where we are, we must avail ourselves to these favorable conditions.

We’re no GE, but we’ve got exclusive search technology surpassed by none, while Baidu, an indexer of 700 million pages, is located in a country that didn’t even have Internet access only 7-8 years ago. Incredible, sure, but these are hardly unique success stories in the field.

One great aspect of search is that as it evolves, advertisers grow increasingly aware of its effectiveness. This makes the task of selling the revolutionary concept much less difficult, and industry forecasts indicate this advertiser confidence with predictions of continued search advertising growth through at least 2010. Advertisers simply can’t get enough of measurable, targeted end-users.

According to Andrew Collier, New York Global’s analyst who’s recommending Baidu, the Chinese populace is even more receptive to Baidu’s relevant advertising than would be Westerners since existing Chinese advertising channels (that’s print, TV, and radio) are relatively weak.

So enticing is China’s advertising landscape for the accommodating platform of search, that Yahoo and, as of last January, Google, have launched Chinese versions of their popular search engines themselves. Baidu is sure to meet some stiff competition from Google.cn. Says New York Global’s Andrew Collier: “search is one of the best advertising models for the Chinese market because of its ability to target a specific customer base.” Do no evil and do much business, right Google?

In the meantime Baidu, with a 50% share of the Chinese search market, is reaching targeted customer bases within China. Search, by its flexible nature, adapts well to that frenzied economy. Massive ramp ups in Internet connectivity has been all the impetus needed. New York Global rates Baidu (BIDU) with a “buy” recommendation largely due to its positioning as a provider of this highly effective search advertising platform.

The deep reach that search advertising provides Baidu in connecting with Chinese Internet users contrasts greatly with the Chinese Internet Portals whose total end user numbers are still too small to deliver mass goods to large audiences through banner ads and the like. So, too, is this a problem with traditional media, where government ownership is essentially a monopoly, thus preventing a healthy advertising environment. In China, Internet search marketing shines brightest in a sky of less than stellar advertising opportunities.

Maybe I’m biased, but I believe it’s the best means here in America, too. Domestically, my company or yours might not have 50% of the search market, but, like any firm involved with search, we do have the same wind of opportunity blowing at our backs as Baidu.

Jeff Conduct

Director of Marketing

ConductSearch.com

.conductsearch.com

marketingconductsearch.com

I was at a meeting the other day when one member of the audience came up to chat to me after I had given my presentation. ‘I agree with what you told us,’ she said, ‘but it only applies to some people. After all in my business there’s nothing I can turn into an ebook.’ Within a minute of chatting to me she had developed two ideas for ebooks.

Now, I’m not saying I’m some kind of miracle worker. However, often I discover that many people who run their own business can’t see the wood for the trees. They are so tied up in delivering solutions to their existing customers, they can’t see what else might be possible. As an example, I was talking to a chap from the Midlands the other day who runs a plastic mouldings company. He said to me that my ideas for ebooks only work in the service industry and they they couldn’t possibly work within his sector.

A few minutes later we had developed an idea for an ebook which he is now going off to get written. As a search term, “plastic mouldings” gets around 45 searches a day in the UK. At the moment his web site gets almost none of those searches; instead his web site exists as a brochure to people in the know – largely existing customers. What this means is, his web site is missing important traffic that could provide business.

So, now he is writing an ebook on the theme of ‘how to use plastic and save the environment’. He will be making this available free of charge – but he could add future ebooks for which he will charge, such as ‘how to specif icy projects using plastic’. Now, he’s not going to become a millionaire selling such ebooks. But the free ebook will attract traffic he might otherwise have lost and the paid for ebook will finance his Google AdWords campaigns. The result will be much more traffic to his web site at no cost, perhaps even at a profit. Suddenly, my chap from the Midlands realised that the key to unlocking the future success of his company was selling information.

Like many people, he has begun to realise that Internet users are mostly searching for information. We sometimes forget that when the Internet really started to take off, just ten years ago, it was called ‘the Information Superhighway’. Nowadays, it is largely the ‘brochure superhighway’. Having a web site which is just a brochure for your business is only going to get you so far. To take that next step upwards to greater online success you need to be trading in information.

Much of the information you provide could be free; but it needs to be practical, useful information targeted specifically to particular groups of people. Some of the information you provide could be sold; that will provide you with an additional income stream you previously might not have thought about.

Information marketing is an essential component of any business online these days. Without marketing information you will not gain as much success as you would do. Indeed, I spoke with one marketing guru the other day who has dramatically changed his business, based on just two months of testing online. He had one web site where he tweaked the keywords and did all the optimisation tricks he could. He had another web site which he didn’t optimise but for which he wrote several articles and got them published widely around the Internet. Guess what? The information won hands down against optimisation; more links, more clicks, higher ranking.

Providing information is essential online. Whether it’s in the form of ebooks, specialist web sites, email courses or traditional books and reports is neither here nor there. You need to be in the information business to attract interest in your main business.

The use of online news sites have been extremely popular in the way the average internet user is able to keep up with the news on the internet, without the hassle of having to buy a newspaper, turn on the television, or the radio.

It is perhaps the most convenient way an Internet user can get his/her news on the Internet. Most of the major news organizations have online versions of their news on the Internet.

The Washington Post and the New York Times has articles from their newspaper online. The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) radio has transcripts of their radio bulletins online and Channel Nine of Australia has collaborated with MSN to jointly put up articles on the web.

Internet users have become net savvy enough to scour the web for alternative news sources. The Arab media company, Al Jezeera, has plenty of hits on its English news site, even though; it was lauded as anti-American by the Bush administration.

These are just some examples on how the news which internet users read online, are mostly from media companies which have already had their hand in the production of other forms of more traditional media before venturing onto the Internet.

Yet, with this in mind, it is not surprising that much of the information that an internet user reads from online news sites is mainly recycled information from these media organizations.

Those with the resources to produce their news segments in other forms of media, would also have the resources to run an online news site. The Washington Post has started charging for their articles to be read online, so that they can garner some revenue from their Internet media business, whilst the New York Times require their readers to register before they are permitted to read their articles.

Hence with the way internet news sites are evolving, there is really becoming only one way where the consumer can get hold of news from these organizations and that is to pay.

In recent years, Asia has developed to become one of the foremost internet marketing

boom areas, particularly in Singapore and Malaysia. As more and more events take off

in this part of the world, outstanding internet marketers are starting to blaze the

trail and offer marketers in the USA, UK and Europe opportunities for joint ventures

and other work.

For instance, Vince Tan, a Malaysian, was previously unknown until the launch of

"Keyword Anywhere" tool that has caught the imagination of the internet

marketing community through its killer application. Vince works with a more

prominent internet strategist, Kelvin Hui.

Gobala Krishnan, another Malaysian, who was also formerly unknown until the

development of the Easy WordPress System that also proliferated the internet with

its step-by-step approach to blogging.

Joesph Then, a fairly experienced internet marketer, who has not yet been known in

Singapore but has a thriving business there, also runs several online businesses and

is armed with over 6 years of actual experience.

Jaz Lai is a new addition to the Singapore team of internet marketers. His claim to

fame is in network marketing online, and has fascinating ways to build a list

online.

These are five figure a month internet marketers, and it is likely that before the

end of this year, six-figure income marketers will be created in the heartlands of

Asia.

The community effort is now being forged at .IMAsiaHub.com and all

marketers are invited to beta test the platform. With more opportunities to network,

there will most definitely be a greater number of join ventures and more money to be

made.

To update the list of top internet marketers in Asia, please go to

internetmarketingsingapore.com/blog/category/internet-marketing-expert-series/

The Internet has been dubbed The Information Superhighway and it certainly lives up to the name. Everyday, millions of people use the Internet and the World Wide Web to seek out information; whether it’s reviews of a new dishwasher, cheapest deals on package holidays, what’s on at the local theatre or tracking down old friends. Chances are, if you’re looking for information, it can be found somewhere online.

Whilst the Internet is undoubtedly a rich sea of data, not all of it is useful information, relevant to the consumer. This, combined with the desire for instant gratification that the Internet instils in its users, builds up a demand for the right information – right NOW!

Despite the hype about making money quickly, easily, out of thin air or the dot com boom there is money to be made on the Internet. It’s a simplification of the process, but if you’re someone with the capability to meet some of this demand for information then you have an opportunity to make money online. As a supplier of information, you have the ability to help make the Internet more useful for the consumer by delivering what they want, when they want it. You can, of course, charge a fee for providing this convenience.

Whether or not you actually make a sale is another matter. Just like most other purchasing decisions, if the consumer considers the value of your offer as being greater than its cost (or the pain of not purchasing) then you’re likely to make a sale. Get the balance wrong and they’ll likely move on.

Whilst a lot of information is freely available online, it’s widely accepted that the age of the commercial Internet has arrived. Some may argue that there shouldn’t be any cost associated with information and whilst you may be able to find the same information at no cost somewhere on the Internet, often the time saved and the convenience of getting exactly what you want is considered worthy of the expense. As an example, you could try and borrow someone’s copy of a newspaper or you could pay to access the latest breaking news from the comfort of your own desk. Unsurprisingly, a large number of people chose the latter when the New York Times switched to a subscription model back in 2003.

There’s a great demand for information online. If you’re one of the people who can supply to this demand, especially if the information is specialist or niche, then there’s little to stop you from charging for your services. With a suitable marketplace to pitch your offer, there’s nothing to hold you back from trying is there?

The home-based business and internet marketing world have exploded onto the cyber scene. Most entrepreneurs and business associates alike have become quite familiar with all of the benefits and disadvantages of the internet marketing realm. However, many have yet to discover the unknown marketing mysteries hidden deep within the World Wide Web.

Contrary to popular belief, web businesses are very inexpensive to start. The internet marketing aspect of the venture is also extremely low-cost. An average home business creation can cost a few thousand dollars at the very least to begin. And this does not even cover the promotion and advertising. You can start accumulating money through a web enterprise by simply joining and participating in the numerous free affiliate programs scattered across the net. Marketing through this avenue is normally free, or offered at a reasonable price.

Did you know that owning and operating a home business entitles you to tax cuts? Now there is a little known fact that many will find interesting! Taxes breaks are offered for a variety of home business costs including: travel costs, phone bills, legal services, professional expenses, and even office supplies. Better yet, internet marketing and advertising can also be written off as a business expenditure.

Developing and running a web-based business does not mean you have to create your own product or service. The internet is a huge place with tons of ideas, programs, and products that are already ready to sell. You can use these ready-made products to your advantage and distribute them through affiliate programs. There are several web sites across the internet that offer products solely for this purpose. If you are not interested in selling, you can also earn extra cash just by internet marketing for others.

One of the best things about operating a web-based business is that it is always open. Your business is making money for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Everything that composes your site is also working. This means your promotion, advertising, and marketing are constantly on the go.

Operating an internet business gives you both the time and freedom to do as you please. As the owner, you have the ability to create this business at your own speed. You also have the opportunity to choose the times and days you work each week, and what you want to accomplish on these days. This freedom and control are one reason that so many individuals have initially decided to create their own internet businesses.

As a local business owner you wear many hats and you have countless responsibilities. Consequently you’re not always able to follow-up on opportunities that could advance your business. It is the nature of running a business.

Once an awhile an opportunity comes along that you absolutely should not pass up. In this case it is a business listing on both Google and Yahoo local. Not only can it generate targeted traffic in your area, but the listing is FREE. And here is another reason why you need to jump on this, it doesn’t matter if you have a web site or not, you still qualify for the free listing.

Why would you want a free business listing with Google and Yahoo?

Because they are the two largest search resources online, and account for approximately 78% of the total search results. But even more important is the fact that your customers are searching for local products and services online in greater numbers. In some surveys it is suggest that as much as 25% of all Internet searches are local in nature.

Your customers are turning away from the cumbersome yellow pages. Instead their utilizing the content rich resources of the Internet. You have to ask yourself – if you competitors are listed and you are not, when a prospect searches online which business will most likely end up with a new customer?

How hard is it to list your business?

It can be done in less then an hour. Below are the two locations:

Local Business Center – https:.google.com/local/add/login?hl=en-US&gl=US

Yahoo Local – local.yahoo.com/ (Click on the “Add/Edit a Business “ link at the bottom of the page)

The Benefits of a Local Listing

Besides the excellent exposure, you get to list important details about your business, including:

In addition to company details, Google and Yahoo both provide an interactive map for locating your business. I’m sure most of you have utilized the mapping service of either of these search engines and know how convenient it makes finding a business. Not only can customers find out who you are, but they also can pinpoint where you are.

As I mentioned, neither of these services require a web site, but when you combine your listing with a link to a killer web site you are in position to do so serious customer conversion. For those lacking a web site, Yahoo offers a free 5 page site. It allows you to get a basic web presence until you get the real thing up and running.

At this point few businesses are cashing in on local Internet marketing. For those that are the results show a higher ROI, and an improved customer conversion rate.

The future of your local business will depend on how effective you are in reaching your customers online. Getting a free listing on Google and Yahoo Local is an excellent start.

Since the product is so sound, it has withstood assaults by the scammers and marginal developers. It has reached maturity to the point that the major timeshare players from here on will be the Hiltons, Marriotts, Hyatts, etc. Timesharing works! Most people who own them love them. Not everyone, however, can keep them forever.

While the developers were pumping out virtually millions of new timeshares, no attention was paid to what happens when someone wants to or must resell them. Just now a method of resales is beginning to happen. Unfortunately it is way overdue. Prices fall in a market vacuum and when there was no system, people would try to sell their timeshares, fail, drop the price and fail again. What would stocks and bonds be worth if there were no New York Stock Exchange? The result was such that the pricing of timeshare resales fell to ridiculously low levels. Most resales now are priced at about a quarter of replacement value (75% off). Let’s face it. Timeshare resales represent one of the greatest consumer values anywhere today.

Does that mean that the public paid too much for the timeshares they bought from the developers? Not really. In my many years in the business there have been very few timeshare developers who really made a lot of money. Anyone developing a new project today must price it way up there just to recover his or her investment and hopefully make a reasonable profit. For one thing the cost of selling new product is very high. Remember all those free gifts you got when you went to the timeshare presentation? Guess what? They weren’t free. The cost was in the price. About half the price of new product went to sales and marketing costs. The second major factor was financing. The people who made the real money in timesharing were the lenders. The hotel chains do not have such high marketing costs due to economies of scale. Further, they in most cases do their own financing. If you have priced such product, you will find that it still goes for two to three times that of resales.

Unfortunately, some of the left over scammers from the original business saw another great opportunity, that of preying on the timeshare owners who needed to sell. The system was simple. They would call the owners of timeshares and say that they had their timeshares sold for a lot of money and would consummate the transaction as soon as they had received $350 or $500 or $3,000 up front. Needless to say, as soon as they had enough money, they would close down and move on to the next county where they would start the process over. They were hard to catch although some progress has been made recently and some of them (way too few) are now in prison. The simple solution for you to this problem is to just not pay front sales fees. You will be right most all of the time. The payment of nominal advertising fees is of course legitimate. Just as you would place an ad in the newspaper (doesn’t work for timeshare resales), some specialty advertising is necessary if you want to attempt to sell the timeshare yourself. Once you are over $100 for such services you are probably paying too much. As an example, one legitimate resale broker holds auctions. He charges up front for the auction hall and advertising because the auctioneer charges him those same fees.

People such as us saw a need to provide a legitimate method of resales. This timeshare sub-industry is just now in its infancy. So what will happen next? We have already seen it. As the resale industry becomes more efficient, it will exert more and more upward price pressure and the prices will go up! We have seen a major impact in the resorts in which we are involved. Most of the really low priced timeshares have already resold. It’s like harvesting apples. You shake the tree and pick up the apples. The next time you have to shake the tree harder. As the prices go up, two things will happen. The sellers will not have to take such a big loss and the buyers will not get such good deals. It seems that the public is starting to understand this. We have seen a great upsurge in the business in just the last few months.

As we tell potential sellers, as long as you are using the timeshare, renting it or otherwise achieving value out of it, there is no real downside to hanging on to it until the prices rise. On the other hand, if you are getting no use out of it, it’s like the retail business where the first markdown is the least costly. Whereas the price will go up, it’s highly unlikely it will go up faster than the buildup of homeowner’s dues and taxes. As a result, it’s better to just take your lumps and sell it as soon as you can.

On the other hand, if you are a potential buyer, don’t wait around! You can either obtain a timeshare now at these ridiculously low prices or you can wait and pay more later for the same thing. Your call.