My Buy Essay

Posts Tagged ‘web’

In this age, where technology is continually evolving and affecting our live, there is no doubt that online advertising has become essential to the survival and growth of most businesses. Internet marketing has become beneficial to many businesses. But what is internet marketing? Internet marketing refers to a lot of areas such as search engine optimization, driving traffic to your website, e-mail marketing, and attracting visitors and making them stay in your site.

The next question would probably be why is internet marketing important? Internet today is an unstoppable trend. People usually search for products with the use of their computers instead of the yellow pages. If you market on the web you can maximize the potential of your business. Also, you can cut on operational and marketing cost as online advertising is cheap. An ad in an internet directory is generally free compared to advertising on a phonebook or newspaper. And because you have a search engine friendly website, your existing and potential customers can find out what they are looking for easily.

Likewise, you can reach a global audience with internet marketing. You don’t have to set up shops in various places. You can simply set up an online shop and sell to anyone in the world. This means bigger sales and profits for you.

All the same, there are negative sides to internet marketing. First of all, it is hard to tell whether people are lying. Since there is so much information on the web it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between crap and quality. Second, internet marketing can leave the businessman isolated. Because the web is faceless, it can leave you very inward and antisocial. And third, there could be information overload. There could be too much good information on the web that can get you confused on which company to choose.

In order to have a successful online business your internet marketing strategy should include both short-term and long term strategies. Short term strategies are those that bring you temporary boost in traffic. Such strategies include search engines, bulletin boards and purchasing advertising.

Long term marketing strategies, on the other hand, are those that bring you a steady stream of traffic over time. This strategy included content, freebies and opt-in lists. Creating and making use of both short term and long term strategies will drive a steady stream of traffic to your website.

By and large, internet marketing is important to businesses these days. If you want bigger profits then properly exploring the different areas of internet marketing is essential.

It is impressive to notice how fast, easy and cheap (free in many cases) it has become for everybody to communicate via the internet. Technolgy has changed the way we interact to each other and make business, and the developments are far from over. Here we review briefly the many possibilities.

Publishing your writings on a Blogger site is easy, very fast (in the order of minutes) and cheap (often free). Of course exposure is also limited, because at the beginning not many people will know about your blog site. You will be able to drive traffic to your site with a combination of quality content and web marketing techniques.

If you want to have a higher exposure immediately, you can write an article, and have it published through an article directory site, exactly like the one you are visiting now. Publishing articles has several benefits and I will not list them here, in this same article site you can find plenty of information about this.

Having an own web site expands your possibilities. You can write content, prepare audio and videoclips and make them available to the visitors of your site. Access can be free or for paying members only. Again, how large is your audience will depend on the contents and on your marketing abilities.

In order to offer and “object” that people can read without the need to be connected to your site, you can write an eBook and offer it to download on your website (there are also other possibilities for the distribution, but having an own web site is the best option in my opinion).

How can we make the communication a real double-way system ?

One obvious way is by means of email messages. We all know emails are a necessity and a great way to communicate, but sometimes they do not cover all our needs. Let’s see what else is there.

Blogs allow readers to leave a comment, but the level of interaction is limited.

A higher level of interaction is reacheable with a forum software. Several site offer this feature to members, who like to interact with each other and with the forum administrator.

A chatting service is also an option. With this one, visitors of a site can get an immediate answer to their questions. Moreover, they can get a transcript of the chat for their future referece.

Sometime there is need for the maximum level of interaction, and still we must rely on the “old” phone call. But the internet is coming fast also in this area. Phone calls through the internet are now a reality, and a fast-growing one. There are good reasons for this development. These calls are usually cheaper than traditional calls, especially the long-distance ones. Easily, a group of people all over the world can be connected to the same phone call. With a fast connection it is even possible to have a video communication.

With all these possibility, to make your “voice heard” on the internet is really fun and easy !

Best wishes,

Roberto Zarotti

If you’ve been trying to make a business online but had a few set backs you’ve probably asked yourself this question and the others I’ve listed below.

I also added the answers I use to keep going when I feel like just “Throwing in the towel”.

Don’t worry be happy! It’s easy to say but hard to do, without some kind of logical reasoning behind the positive affirmations.

Here’re the questions and the logical answers that I use to keep myself motivated and ensure that I achieve my potential.

1. Do you have what it takes to make money on the internet?

2. How do you know if you should to quit or not?

3. What does it take?

4. Why are some people successful and yet others aren’t?

5. Does what I do now effect my future?

Do you ever ask yourself these questions?

I do and I have the same answers every time!

Below are my self talk answers they help me stay on track.

The answers are listed in the same order as the questions.

1. Yes, I have a computer and usually have access to the internet.

2. Because I started I have to finish.

3. It takes perseverance, tenacity, faith, self belief; I have all of those qualities.

4. Some are successful because they are lucky, some because they are smart, some because they work hard, some because they never give up. I have a little of all those qualities.

5. Yes, if I sow a seed today I’ll reap a harvest tomorrow.

Please feel free to copy this and look at it every time you have any doubts. Also you can add some of your own positive self talk favorites.

I sincerely wish you good luck and happiness

Bill Boyd

It was only a matter of time before an effective tactic was developed to gain widespread competitive advantage from the increasing reliance placed upon links and link text by the major search engines.

Simplicity itself, the technique involves using a version of arelis ( .arelis.org/ ) in a radically new and different way.

The technique currently sweeping the market has gained proven competitor advantage and with the utlilization of existing technology in a clever and unique way, takes only minutes to perform. The danger lies in that its use may become so widespread that websites will no longer be obtaining a tactical advantage, they will require its use to exist in the world of free search engine traffic.

Arelis allows users to download pages of links, categorise these links, automatically produce link pages based upon them and provide webmasters with the contact address for each site on the link page.

This combination of features allows webmasters to download pages from link exchanges sites. The sites contained on these pages have already indicated their willingness to trade links by joining these link exchange sites.

Arelis automatically obtains link text and can easily be formatted to incorporate the look and feel of the site in question. Thus, in a few simple actions link pages are complete for the webmaster’s site.

The webmaster then uses the templates built into the system to mail the webmasters of the other sites. The mail is typically personalised to incorporate the webmaster name and the sites which are proposed to link. Again, the system inputs these details into the draft mail for you.

The mails are then sent. Some webmasters have reported huge increases in their acceptance rate within a week. Those sites that accept will thus have a reciprocal link in place without any further work required. The process takes minutes for potentially hundreds of reciprocal links and can be used time and again on the same or different sites.

In this way the wise webmasters are generating hundreds of reciprocal links within minutes.

Is the age of links dead? Not yet, the age of the reciprocal link delivering competitive advantage is still here, but soon it will be an essential weapon just to exist.

A free download version and detailed reciew of Arelis and other tools are available at Arelis

Joint ventures can turn your competition into your companion!

What are they and are they profitable?

You can benefit greatly from sharing the costs of your advertising and promotional campaigns, while doubling the size of your target market.

How can that be so? It’s simple! just look at it like this, you are in the coffee business, you have identified your major competitor, he/she is currently servicing a good portion of the customers you wish to attract. This competitor has been servicing these clients for many years and has built up a strong following. Do you think it would be easy for you to “take these clients away” from their trusted provider? Of course not.

What if you offered to give your competitor free access to your client base? Do you think he/she would like that? Or if your competitor offered to do the same for you, would you like that?

YES, YES, YES!

A joint venture is simply offering to promote your fellow business persons product or service to your client base and in return they do the same for you.

You can use tracking URLs to determine what sales are made and then split the profits or commissions in whatever way you both agree to.

Another advantage is that if you sell to one of your fellow business persons clients you will be able to add them to your mailing list. We all know how valuable that can be.

So next time you see a competitor, STOP and think of a way you can make him or her into your companion in success!

I sincerely wish you good luck and happiness

Bill Boyd

You have seen them all over the internet — blinking, flashing, animated and garish. You vow that you will not contribute to this internet graffiti. You feel smug with your decision because after all banner advertising is dead.

Wrong. Banner advertising is not dead — and in fact it is still an effective internet marketing tool. However banner advertising has evolved — or rather I should say successful banner advertising has evolved. Some of the horrible eye-damaging banner ads still exist but successful, knowledgable internet entrepreneurs have long abandoned those marketing efforts and instead concentrated on targeted, tasteful, and trim banner ads.

Banner ads have a bad reputation in part because of the proliferation of banner farms that killed all the banner swap programs (or at least made them completely ineffectual). Also we all have memories of those hideous banners flashing across the top of so many web sites.

Banners have come along way since then and a cleverly designed banner can be a real asset to any advertising campaign. Also don’t forget that you don’t have to use one of those big giant banners that span the width of the screen. You can use smaller simple ads that can fit easily into the sidebar or special box on a web site so they can suit the design and work more effectively.

It is also important that you pay close attention to what sites you will choose for displaying your banner. IE. A site about web development for your web hosting service ad or a site about parenting for your ad promoting your potty training book.

Many text link and pay per click advertising vendors also offer the option of banner ads. Similarly many ezine and newsletter publishers sell space on their sites.

And savvy internet marketers are taking them up on these advertising opportunities.

WHY USE BANNER ADVERTISING?

Consumer research historically shows that most people see an ad several times before they take action. Banners allow you to display your ad over a period of time, increasing the chances that a prospect will see your ad and remember it.

Your banner ad can be targeted to specific audiences and displayed on internet pages and sites matched to that specific audience.

People seeing your advertisement can instantly click through to your web site store to to learn more or to make a purchase on the spot.

You can track your results and make adjustments to your campaigns based on response. Analyzing your results can help you finetune your banner, landing page, or target audience to improve your response and sales.

Banner advertising is really a buyers market, as there is always more banner spaces available than advertisers need or want, which means you can find many bargains available.

IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN PLANNING YOUR BANNER AD CAMPAIGN

There are several aspects to consider when planning out your banner advertising campaign.

The first consideration should be your ad graphic itself. These are usually animated GIF images but remember you want to attract customers — not simply attention — and remember the overall tone of your ad campaign when designing your graphic. Also keep in mind that many sites limit the file size of the graphic to somewhere between 12 and 16 KB.

Your banner can come in variety of sizes. The full banner size is 468 x 60 pixels. Some other standard banner sizes include:

Size(pixels).Type

468 x 60…..Full banner

234 x 60…..Half banner

392 x 72…..Full banner with vertical navigation bar

120 x 240….Vertical banner

125 x 125….Square button

120 x 90…..Button #1

120 x 60…..Button #2

88 x 31……Micro button

Your graphic will be hyperlinked to a target url of your choice so you may want to spend some time planning how you will track traffic and clicks. Some programs provide a tracking and statistics service for you but most individual sites can’t offer that information.

When selecting where to display your banner ad the first consideration should really be choosing a site offering information that appeals to your target audience. A high-traffic dating site isn’t going to be much good for advertising your maternity clothing line, for example.

Then you should look at traffic. When looking at site stats you want to make sure you focus on page views or page impressions rather than hits (which may count individually each graphic viewed). Depending on your banner and market you may be primarily concerned with unique page impressions.

Banner advertising is often sold by CPM (Cost Per Thousand displays, the Roman numeral “M” stands for one thousand). Many sites also offer a fixed rate price for a set period of time.

Many marketers do not concern themselves as much with click-through rates and instead see banner ads as “branding” tools. They create brand awareness and a brand image in the viewer’s mind. The hope is that when the viewer gets ready to make a purchase then your “brand” pops into their mind. Branding can also generate sales over the long-term. Branding is difficult to measure, but can be very powerful.

If you have a big advertising budget then you might want to consider an ad agency or media buyer. They can offer a lot of value for the dollar because they have the experience, knowledge, and contacts to make the most of your budget.

It is quite possible to be your own media buyer, if you are willing and able to handle the increased workload. The biggest difficulty is finding the right sites on which to advertise your product or service. Then after you find a site that might be a good match you need to negotiate the best possible deal. It is important you be as knowledgeable as possible as it is a buyer’s market and you don’t want to pay too much. Of course you also don’t want to alienate a web master whose site is a perfect match for you.

You also have the option to buy banner space on many search engines and directories. Often this option allows you to display your ad only to a targeted audience which can obviously increase your chances for a successful campaign but it can be a pricey option.

Banner ad networks are another targeted option that might be more affordable. Individual web site owners contract with a single company to serve their banner ads and handle ad sales for them. In turn, these networks divide their sites into categories and subcategories to allow advertisers to advertise on particular sites within the network that are the most highly targeted. They also offer very sophisticated tracking tools that give you lots of valuable information about who is visiting your site, and what actions they are taking.

Some networks offer pay-per-click advertising which only charges you when someone clicks on your banner and comes to your site. However, this approach is subject to fraud by unscrupulous site owners.

A pay-per-sale network, otherwise known as an affiliate program, only charges the advertiser when a purchase is actually made. The advertiser pays both the affiliate and the network but only when there is a sale. Of course the competition to attract quality affiliates is high so while this can be effective it shouldn’t be the only method of banner advertising you use.

And some final banner advertising tips:

* Keep your message brief, direct and simple.

* Attract more attention using words such as “free” and “now”.

* Put “click here” somewhere on the banner.

* Create different versions of the banner.

* Animate your banner but only if it improves it.

* Keep the file size as small as possible.

The World Wide Web has captivated my attention ever since I was introduced to it by my mother (another WWW freak!). That was about 10 years ago and ever since that time, my interest about all the different things that can be done through the internet has continued to grow.

For the last couple of years, I have been grappling with the idea of making money online. Although I searched and found a lot of information, but most of it was vague and did not give me any concrete answer to the most important question: what to actually DO to make some money on the internet.

During my quest of getting answers, I came across a very informative video on the internet which gave me a lot of information about internet marketing and gave me some pretty good food for thought. The video talked about “Niche Markets”; what they are and why they are important to any person who would like to make money on the internet by selling a product or service. In fact, the concept of Niche Markets is applicable to any business or service provider, whether they operate on the internet or otherwise.

If you look it up in the dictionary, the word “Niche” means “A situation or activity specially suited to a person’s interests, abilities, or nature”.

A “Niche Market” is a group of people with a common interest or ability or nature, who would all be interested in a common product or service. The common interest of these people can be any thing ranging from a common hobby, a common problem, a common cultural background, to any common desire they might have. Let me explain this to you with a few examples:

1) A niche market of people who have a hobby of scrapbooking

2) A niche market of people who have common problem of lower backache

3) A niche market of people who are all Hispanics

4) A niche market of people who have a common desire of learning plumbing

People with common interests tend to cluster and you can easily find pockets of such people online; in forums and groups or visiting websites of their interest.

It is best to direct your marketing to select niche audiences for maximum benefit to you and to them. It is always a waste of time, effort and resources to market your product or service to a niche audience which is not interested in what you are selling. For example, if you try to sell scrapbooking materials to a niche audience who wants to learn plumbing, you will not get any customers. Granted that you will find a rare plumber who also likes to maintain his scrapbook, but you will not make a profit! Similarly, marketing a new and effective acne product to a group of people with lower backache will only lead you to lose the money you spent on marketing your innovative acne solution to them.

Niche Marketing is very cost effective and powerful; the world’s most successful businesses use this concept to maximize their profits. Therefore, if you have a certain product or service that you want to sell, concentrate your marketing efforts to the Niche Market that it caters too. Conversely, if you do not have a specific product in mind that you want to sell online, it is advisable that you seek out large Niche Markets and then think about what they would be interested in buying and then provide them with that particular solution/product/service.

I wish you great achievements and prosperity in all your endeavors.

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Most business owners fully understand that not advertising is the surest way to kill your business.

However they are also bombarded by so much information and so many choices they quickly lose track of what options are available to them.

There are a number of cheap and easy online advertising options available to you.

1. Ezine Advertising

Ezine advertising is one of the best ways to reach your future customers because it is often inexpensive and flexible as well as offering you the option to match the ezine audience with your product and ad. It also often offers a double benefit–your initial ad plus longevity in the ezine archives.

2. Text Links

This simple tool is often overlooked by many. It is simply one of the least expensive and yet most powerful advertising option available. You can often buy text links for under $10 and the link will not only promote the specific site or page you choose but also connect it with the specific key words that will benefit you the most.

Text links also provide a double bonus. You can attract immediate traffic from the host site as well as achieve better search engine ranking which will further increase traffic.

3. Pay per click advertising

Just like it sounds pay per click advertising is simply paying for specifically targeted traffic. You can monitor and control these advertising programs very closely and tweak your ad copy and the key words that you are sponsoring. This can be a very expensive option but doesn’t have to be if you plan carefully and watch closely.

4. Email marketing

Despite ever-increasing vigilant attempts to stop spam, we all know that email marketing is still alive and well. While it is foolish in the extreme to risk your business, web host, or internet connection, by sending out spam you can still use email marketing as a way to reach out and touch your customers and your future customers.

You just need to make sure that no one receives mail except the people who ask for it. People are still willing to sign up for mailing lists–especially if you have something to offer them in return for sharing their email address. Sponsor a contest; give away an article, ebook, or tutorial; or offer a discount and you will have people sign up willingly.

Then if you don’t abuse the mailing list you will have the opportunity to reach them again and again!

5. Banner Ads

Banner ads have a bad reputation. In part because of the proliferation of banner farms that killed all the banner swap programs (or at least made them completely ineffectual). Also we all have memories of those hideous banners flashing across the top of so many web sites.

Banners have come along way since then and a cleverly designed banner can be a real asset to any advertising campaign. Also don’t forget that you don’t have to use one of those big giant banners that span the width of the screen. You can use smaller simple ads that can fit easily into the sidebar or special box on a web site so they can suit the design and work more effectively.

It is also important that you pay close attention to what sites you will choose for displaying your banner. IE. A site about web development for your web hosting service ad or a site about parenting for your ad promoting your potty training book.

Many text link and pay per click advertising vendors also offer the option of banner ads. Similarly many ezine and newsletter publishers sell space on their sites.

~~ Sell Your Knowledge ~~

These next five advertising methods are all free or relatively inexpensive because you are trading something of value — your knowledge and expertise — in return for advertising.

6. Publish a Newsletter

Creating your own regular newsletter or ezine offers you all the advantages of ezine advertising and email marketing offered above.

7. Publish a Blog and RSS Feed

While publishing a newsletter or ezine isn’t that difficult it is much easier to create a blog and make its content available via RSS feed. This can offer you the benefits of regularly updated material for your web site which will be attractive to visitors and search engines alike. It will also help establish you as an expert in your field.

I personally like using WordPress on your own site but many web hosts now offer blogging services and there are many free blogging sites around where you can create a blog on their site.

8. Write Articles

Take some of the material you have generated for your newsletter and/or blog and share it with others. Make it available in one of the many free content directories available on the web. This not only helps to establish your credibility but the contact info you provide in your resource box (which will run every time someone else publishes your material) will bring in both direct traffic as well as search engine attention.

9. Create an Ebook

Once you have enough material generated from your newsletter and blog then you can package it into a convenient Ebook and give it away. Make sure to collect names and email addresses and offer a coupon or discount to bring people back to your site!

10. Post in Forums

If you have the time you should start your own forum but even if you only have a few minutes a week to spare for this effort then it can be well worth the effort. Don’t offer blatant spam posts but find a forum where you have something to offer. Make sure that you include an appropriate url and description for your forum signature and you will attract the double benefit of traffic and search engine attention!

No successful advertising campaign embraces one single method of advertising and no single method of advertising works for everyone. Advertising cannot be treated as a one-size-fits all proposition. However you know what your business needs and can offer–mix and match methods and make sure to track your results–to optimize your choices.

I don’t know everything and if I have learned one thing about doing business on the Internet it is that the more you learn the more you don’t know. However, I have been doing business on the Internet since 1999 and I’ve managed to carve out a successful enterprise for myself with several profit streams. The largest percentage of my marketing and promotional efforts has been conducted through one simple method-Ezine Advertising.

These are the 8 important lessons I’ve learned regarding Ezine Advertising and Marketing Success:

A common mistake many advertisers make is to attempt to do too much, or rather sell too much, in one ad. Sure you have lots of great products but you can’t sell them all in a few lines-at least not individually. Instead focus on the benefit your customer can achieve from all your products and promote that! People are much more likely to click on a link that BENEFITS them than a link that promises to sell them something.

For example, “Help your child reach their maximum potential” instead of “Try our many reading, writing, math, shapes and colors programs”

More importantly, tell the customer “what your product or service is going to do for him.”

It is important that you identify your Unique Selling Proposition before you begin your advertising program. This will determine which Ezines (or markets) you target as well as what you should include in your ad copy. Who will be interested in your product and why? What benefits does your product offer them?

Don’t go for the sale in your ad! You are at a disadvantage because you can’t list all your products’ wonderful benefits in the space allowed. Also, there is only a small percentage of any Ezine audience that is ready to buy your product at the exact moment they view your ad. Yes, maybe they should be, but most people today live in the moment and if this isn’t the time they want to buy then they aren’t going to buy, end of story.

But it doesn’t have to be the end of the story. If you go for the soft sell approach your target consumer is much more likely to click on your link and then you’ve got the chance to go for the hard sell-again and again!

Here’s an example. I’m selling a product called the Preschool Prep Power Pack. It’s an educational CD for preschoolers. Now I could go for the hard sell in my promotion and I would make some sales but a lot of people who really might be interested won’t even look at my site and product. However, I’ve chose to go the soft sell approach. Instead of selling my product in my ads, my ads offer two FREE items. I offer a free newsletter (Preschoolers Learn More) offering tips about preparing preschoolers for kindergarten. This is my target market for my product. The folks who subscribe also receive a free ABC-123 coloring book. Why wouldn’t the parent of a preschooler subscribe, right?

But what’s in it for me as a business person? A lot! Think about it. I now have the freely offered contact information for my target market. Now I can regularly email them information about my product. I’m confident they will buy eventually because my product provides a solution to something that concerns them-or they wouldn’t have subscribed in the first place!

Another common mistake is not giving your ad campaign enough time to work.

Studies show it takes prospects an average of seven exposures to your promotion before they take the bait. Even after they have clicked through to your site visitors may need to visit your site as many as three times before they buy from you. So make sure you keep that offer in front of them. That means it may well pay to take the long-term package versus a one-shot ad.

People run through their emails rapidly and delete things they wish they hadn’t. Make their wish come true! Give them a second, third, fourth chance. The formula is–when you’re sick and tired of it, the public is just beginning to hear it.

Just because you’ve bought ad space doesn’t mean you have to utilize every pixel or character-space. Short, punchy lines that do not use up every available space are more effective. Think about the reader scanning down the page or screen. What will catch their eye and make them stop scanning and actually read? White space is your friend so don’t squander it. Use it to set off your important message.

Make sure you apply the same principal to your urls and e-mail addresses as well. Nothing can make an ad look more cluttered than giant web addresses with a complicated string of numbers and letters. If you have to use an address like that (perhaps for your affiliate code, for example) then it might be wise to use a redirect. There are numerous free services out there (snipurl.com for exmple) although perhaps it might be a good idea to use a page from your own web site with a redirect programmed in

USE YOUR HEAD

Your headline is the most important part of your ad. This is usually the line that determines whether the skimming reader will stop or skip ahead.

Some of the proven headline formulas include:

1. Ask the reader a question: “Are you worried about filing your

tax return this year?”

2. Tell the reader how to do something: “How to buy a

car without getting a lemon.”

3. Provide a testimonial: “Big Al saved me $200 last month. Thanks, Cindy Lou from Paducah, Kentucky.”

4. Make a command. Turn your most important benefit into a commanding

headline. “Stop rushing through life.” “Make more money this month.” “Feel better about yourself.”

5. Important news makes a good headline. “Max Electronics just went international!”

6. Start the clock: “Buyers who act before midnight Tuesday will save an extra $50!”

7. Give the reader something free: “Free whatsit for the first 100 visitors!”

DON’T FORGET TO TELL THEM WHAT TO DO!

It sounds almost ridiculous, but simply giving clear, specific directions about what you want the reader to do can increase the response to your ads.

Click here to find out more: whatsit.com

Subscribe by emailing subscribewhatsit.com

Visit whatsit.com today to save!

SET YOUR BUDGET

One of the most difficult things to decide for any business person is how much money to spend on promotion. There really is one simple way to determine the answer. How much is a customer worth to you? That tells you a great deal about how much you can afford to spend on advertising.

The simple formula to calculate the net worth of a visitor is: Net Profit divided by Conversion Rate.

First, what is your net profit on an average sale? Let’s say $10 to make it easy. (Hey, I’m an English professor, I need to keep it simple!)

Then consider what your conversion rate is for visitors to become customers. Let’s say one visitor out of 50 becomes a customer. (This makes your conversion rate 50 as you need 50 customers to make a sale)

With this example, a visitor is worth $0.50 to you. ($10 divided by 50)

So if you spend $100 on an advertising campaign that draws in 1000 visitors then you made $400 on that campaign.

SET REALISTIC GOALS

This issue is really about control. Yes, if you could control things that you would have a high sell through but that isn’t always going to happen. In fact, for most advertisers that isn’t going to happen. However, if your goal is to capture customers then you are much more likely to match your goal or even exceed it. And in the end a customer is worth a lot more to you than a sale because a customer can represent many sales over years to come-sales that were fairly easy to achieve.

As frustrating as it may be, advertising is usually about long-term versus short-term benefits. Your ad simply serves as a lure to draw people into your site or long-term promotion. Once you’ve pulled them in then you need to sell them. So it is not really fair to judge an ad campaign on simple sales.

The success of an ad campaign should be measured by one or two elements only-first, how many people followed up on your offer (click-through rate) and second, how many of those visitors were you able to convert into customers (conversion rate).

Over time you will be able to judge where the weak link in your chain of customer creation exists and work to fix it.

Low click-through rate? Then it is probably your offer. You are not giving readers enough incentive to follow through. What is in it for them to click on your offer? Remember you are selling benefits!

Low conversion rate? Then perhaps you are not attracting the right sort of visitor. Target your incentive (the free offer, for example) to match your target audience. See my example in SOFT SELL.

Internet marketing is exciting, challenging, and confusing. It can make or break your internet business career and yet many people who depend on internet marketing don’t have a full grasp of the essentials involved in internet marketing.

In fact, many internet entrepreneurs waste a great deal of time, energy, and momentum because they do not fully understand internet marketing. Don’t let this lack of understanding undermine your income potential.

In order for you to better understand internet marketing and its impact on your internet business you must know the answers to these three key questions:

1. What Is Internet Marketing?

2. What Is The Cost Of Internet Marketing?

3. What Is The Benefit of Internet Marketing?

What Is Internet Marketing?

Marketing is actually rather simple. Marketing is communication about an idea, product, service, or organization. Marketing therefore encompasses advertising, promotion and sales as well as the various techniques and forms of communication used to advertise, promote and sell.

Marketing is broader than simple advertising or promotion in that it includes researching the market to learn what consumers want and then setting out to meet their needs with the appropriate product, price, and distribution method. Marketing includes market research, deciding on products and prices, advertising promoting distributing and selling.

Marketing also covers all the activities involved in moving products and services from the source to the end user including making customers aware of products and services, attracting new customers to a product or service, keeping existing customers interested in a product or service, and building and maintaining a customer base for a product or service.

Internet marketing includes these same activities but also pulls in various internet tools including web sites, email, ezines, banner advertising, blogging, RSS, text links, search engine optimization, affiliates, autoresponders, and other ecommerce applications.

What Is The Cost Of Internet Marketing?

The range of expenses for internet marketing is huge. There are a number of promotional and marketing ventures that can cost you nothing or only pennies a day while other advertising efforts can cost you thousands a day.

It is important to consider your goals — both long-term and short-term — as well as how much each prospective customer is worth to you. This will help you determine a workable budget for your internet marketing campaign.

Many internet promotions are free, you can set up a web site and/or blog for $250 a year, and you can buy text links for $10 a month. You could easily spend $25-50 a day for advertising but there are many cheaper ad options available.

The best program is to start small and cheap and slowly build as you test and learn what is successful for your market and product. There is no perfect acvertising solution that works wonders for everyone. Each marketer and each product has a different formula.

What Is The Benefit of Internet Marketing?

Internet marketing offers more benefits than many traditional marketing mediums. The very nature of web sites and blogs is that they continue working to promote and market your product long after your initial marketing effort is over. Similarly many advertising efforts, such as ezines, newsletters, banners, and text links also continue to increase in power over time.

Email marketing can be a tremendous surge in contacts and sales and offers the ability to personalize your message as well as reach a targeted audience so your chance for sales goes up exponentially.

The other tremendous benefit of internet marketing is that it offers convenience and immediate satisfaction. Your potential customer sees your marketing message when it is convenient for them — and often when they are seeking information about your specific topic. Then you offer them the ability to act on that interest right then. They can locate your product and buy in the time it would take to watch a commercial on television or turn a page in the newspaper. That is the power of internet marketing.

Now that you have the answers to these three key questions, you are ready to begin your own internet marketing campaign — and succeed with your internet venture.