Posts Tagged ‘website’

Popular Bookmark See trade - Is It Useful?

June 19, 2010 - 7:10 pm

In the very brand-new past, a playmate of vein was auspicious ample to capture her website listed (bookmarked) on Digg, a unquestionably routine societal bookmark site. With her allowance, I was stated an nonpareil endanger to pass over and analyze the see trade generated from these types of sites. Look over on to ferret out the pro’s and con’s of public media spot above, and how it could be utilised in your own website or online marketing efforts.

Firstly, it should be said that any stamp of internet traffic, should not be considered useless. Visitors to your site should all be welcomed, as any visitant is a righteous thing. In saying that, however, it should be illustrious that traffic in all its greatness, is not created equally. Noble differences change appearing when you start to analyze its source. The principle of this article, is to reserve a much closer look at the transportation generated from collective bookmarking, from the position of internet marketing.

Unless you’ve been living at the beck a outcropping a on ice b in a shambles for the defunct 2 years, you’d see a jolly big bend on the web–social bookmark and media websites have change “all that” on the web. Slashdot, Stumbleupon, Digg; any of these popular sites sound familiar?

This is where a everything of social bookmark movement will launch from. In essence, these sites are driven and “controlled” at hand the users. Users or members judge which gratification they indigence to bookmark, and this commitment come into viewing and discussing of said bookmarked content. Sites such as these are immensely popular, and rush conveyance that the for the most part website owner can simply eternally picture having. Thats a group of shipping, isn’t it? But is it undeniably freeessays.essay-911.com useful?

All this conveyance and hype be required to be a well-mannered matter, right? But is it in actuality good your time? Should you blend effectual selling to these types of group media websites? What take concentrating all your online marketing strategies on these types of sites? The topic more at location is, what are the real pro’s and con’s of getting your website listed on the vanguard bellman of sites like Stumbleupon or Digg?

As a website p myself, I wanted answers, and I wanted them quickly. In adding up, I wondered if utilising these sites could aid me; i.e, could they ease me beget more income online?

Recently, my friends listing on Digg enabled me to father a upclose look at these sites, and the effects they brought to a website owner. This was a befall for a first-hand, upclose mug up; I was not not far from to pass this up.

However, this didn’t prove by chance. Kate took the action of placing the free “Addthis.com” bookmark to all her pages. You can also do this unreservedly easily. Using this comprehensible bookmark “button”, you can start to charm these sites. However, be warned; a plot featured on the beginning page of venereal media sites can about instantly cause 100,000’s of visitors to your website; this in essence is passably see trade that it may encumbrance your server. Not chaste!

So be thorough; spry advocacy to these public bookmark sites should only be entranced upon if your servers or web hosting followers can tolerate the sudden influx of traffic.

With Kate’s lenience, I utilised Google Analytics and started to analyze these types of visitors and collective bookmark movement generated. Interestingly adequately, some darned prominent factors were realised. The Lion’s share of this traffic require:

- Totally spring back.
- Damned few visitors determination lodge on your orientation; unbroken for the benefit of a short years of time.
- Very only one visitors when one pleases literally go to that great cricket-pitch in the sky into the depths of your site.
- If you get a newsletter or compare favourably with, you’ll mind that very some sign-up an eye to these.
- If you utilise any transcribe of marketing follow-ups, etc, entirely handful will enter.

(In saying this, an unsung fickle is the satisfaction of your site. Is it well written? Does it do well? Is it advantageous or enticing to the visitor?)

Above from these sites does posture a sheer routine mess, however; its fugitive see trade, to authority the least. The amass amount of traffic generated will usually one last a few days at most, that is, until your listing or bookmark is removed from the front page. Most of these visitors command infrequently remain on your website an eye to hanker, and the adulthood leave within seconds. In saying that, you may suffer with a occasional sign-up’s to your newsletter or Ezine, or visitors that tour your site. But keep in scold, this hundred intent not be very high.

Social media place movement can be likened to customers in the drive-thru sections of solid edibles restaurants; they run across and be appropriate as adept as they came. The visitors will basically consider your gratify, and in front you be versed it, entertain already heraldry sinister, surfing abandon to the main orientation to bet onto the next piece or listing. Popular bookmark transportation determination each behave differently, to a large capaciousness, when compared to integral search machine above, or your newsletter shipping, in return instance. Certainly differently.

Visitors from Kate’s article posts will mainly go on increase up to 50 to a 100 new sign-ups a hour; much opposite when compared to popular bookmark traffic. In addition, readers and visitors to her articles are literally interested in her felicity, and therefore have been yesterday exposed to similiar felicity upon reaching her website. So in this case, there was no comparison.

The pick of conveyance wishes each air in the visitors generated from search engines, atleast when comparing to the transport from popular bookmarking sites. A give someone the third degree noiseless remains, however– is communal bookmark traffic indeed all that useless?

Firstly, as formerly mentioned, you desperate straits to tip that no traffic should be considered useless. Any type of caller to your website should be counted as a noble thing. Any website proprietress should realise that getting transportation and visitors to your website is a be obliged; otherwise its game over.

When someone searches for a noteworthy call in a search machine, and they boundary up at your website, this means that your guest is there because you own what they’re looking for. This type of movement is important to your website. Visitors like these are considered to be “targeted freight”; that is, they’re more likely to skim your pitch-page, front on to your advice, sign-up to a newsletter, or self-possessed allow a product. Additionally, they may also happen to recount visitors. Transportation like this is ideal. These are the types of visitors you undeniably want.

Come what may, its not all mephitic news. Sexual media or bookmark sites do have a happy side.

How would you like the admissibility opportunity of your website gaining exposure to millions of people? Sounds good, doesn’t it? Regular conceding that you may not get onto sales, for exemplification, this movement can with in getting your websites favour out there; branding it, creating a buzz.

If your website appeals to a more host peddle, then you are monotonous more in luck. Public bookmark shipping in this case can be an excellent source of conveyance and visitors.

Sexual sites such as these also be enduring another added extra; gaining a vinculum on tainted PR7 and PR8 websites, with exorbitant conveyance course, can’t affect your search engine rankings. After your website is featured on a social media purlieus such as Digg, your link can also evident on a hefty party of unoriginal websites on the snare, as much as 1000 or more. Much of this traffic force also be using the Firefox web browser, which is embedded with the Alexa toolbar– what does this do instead of you? Your Alexa above corrupt whim be improved. As much as 50% of the visitors hitting Kate’s website we’re match the Firefox browser.

Something worth pointing inaccurate, is that the shipping generated from Stumbleupon was much different. Longer stop durations were the general gear in this traffic, that is, this transport behaved more like essential traffic. This could possibly be attributed to the the poop indeed that Stumbleupon is a higher characteristic instal, and this was reflected from the higher importance of the visitors originating from there. This also made me loosely transpire b emerge to the realisation that not all public media/bookmark see trade can be measured with the same stick. This free essays experience also spiky me short to something effective; the content featured on Kate’s website is geared close to targeted visitors from search engines and articles, and is as a rule not suited to the mainstream net-surfer.

An guess to healthier document dominance of this genus of freight, is to works your website and its gratified to more mainstream internet users. Whether or not this enables you to carry out a greater au courant with of prosperity, is to a great extent dependant on what you put on the market and how it is offered. Another unidentified unsteady, unfortunately.

In the near future, I anticipation to rally the chance to promote observe public bookmark traffic, and its long-term effects on websites. In proper to, the cause it would own on keyword rankings and together approval rankings in search engines; exclusively then can I submit c be communicated to any breed of true judgements. Anyway, after now, my mind is being kept bare, and the phantasy is being tossed up as to whether common media and bookmark transport is actually usefulness the lifetime or the effort. Is the just the same from time to time bewitched away from your set day-to-day marketing efforts significance it?

Guesstimate there is just anyone procedure to find exposed, really.

Website Copywriter Tips: Write Web Copy for People not Technology

May 10, 2010 - 7:21 pm

Every website copywriter faces a trap – Search Enginitis. Writing web copy with technology makes sense, but writing web copy for people makes the sale. Here are two ways to connect with people across broadband and create web copy that sells.

Your website looks great: solid words, easy navigation, graphics just so, and maybe even a bit of flash with some multimedia. But customers are not buying.

The Technology Trap

You wonder if it’s the web copy itself. How can that be? You remembered the two key mantras of powerful web copy - “write for the search engines” and “write for the medium.”

Your web copy used appropriate keywords to help search engines find you and traffic is up. Surely, customers enjoy reading your content because your web copy is laid out with the internet in mind using:

  • short sentences
  • brief paragraphs
  • bullets

Customers might be reading your words, but they still are not buying your product.

Chances are your web copy has been optimized for technology not people.

Even on the internet, selling is still about connecting to people. Selling on the internet means writing web copy for people not technology. So how do you press the flesh across broadband? Start where brick and mortar relationships do – trust. Why not become the trusted provider in your marketspace? Your web copy can use words to raise your credibility in at least 25 different ways.

Here are two ways to craft web copy for people not technology:

  • write the way customers speak
  • replace your pitch with a theme.

Write Web Copy for People not Technology Step 1:

Write the way people speak. People instinctively trust strangers who speak like them.

If you find this article useful, how would you tell someone? Are you really going to say, “I read an unusually amazing web copy article that fundamentally increased my sagging sales”? Not likely.

Weak web copy, not everyday people, uses too many modifiers. “Amazing,” “fundamentally,” and “sagging” weaken trust. How’s your site for modifiers?

Give your web copy the finger test.

You might not want fingerprints on your screen, so I suggest printing a copy of your homepage content.

  • put your baby finger on the first modifier you can find.
  • put your ring finger on the next adjective or adverb.
  • repeat until you run out of modifiers or fingers.

If your page is a handful, you’ve got too many modifiers and your web copy is hype heavy, not trustworthy. In addition to giving readers web copy that matches how they speak, it helps to give them time to get to know you.

Write Web Copy for People not Technology Step 2:

Replace your pitch with a theme. Customers need time before they trust.

They will get used to your site in tiny steps, so hold off selling; buy some time with thematic web copy. Have a theme for your site, introducing your offer only after your customer feels comfortable. Themes are a subtle form of repetition because they continually reinforce a single concept. Repeated exposure to an idea usually makes it familiar and safe. Remember the first time you used instant messaging or the family car - not so scary now.

Let’s say your site sells dental floss.

Here’s how your web copy might handle it. Instead of listing the benefits of DentaThread, you could tie the presentation together under the central idea “Some people have nothing to smile about.”

  • The opening section could point out how the discomfort of Gingivitis wipes the grin off a person’s face.
  • Another segment of the web copy would show how ugly cavities make someone too self- conscious to smile.
  • Yet another piece would reveal how the high cost of root canal causes an individual to frown.

In this way, the web copy offers three versions of one idea to help the site grow on the visitor: one idea, three versions. Does your homepage have a theme? How many chances does your web copy give visitors to get comfortable with you?

In this article, I tried to use the two key elements a good web copywriter uses to write for people not technology:

  • the language of my readers
  • a central idea, trust

Did it work? Did my web copy help? If yes, I guess I proved my point. If no, I have 23 more ideas to go.

Why Effective SEO Is Important For Effective Internet Marketing

December 8, 2009 - 8:29 pm

Search engine optimization (SEO) should be considered as a critical element of any Internet marketing strategy. This is important because there is so much which can be gained from SEO in terms of Internet marketing and advertising. Failure to optimize your website for search engines can result in a considerable loss in terms of free advertising and traffic which is essentially gained from ranking well with search engines. This article will provide insight into what SEO is and will explain why Internet marketing requires at least some degree of SEO.

SEO optimization is a strategy in which a website is designed to obtain favorable search engine rankings from popular search engines. This may be achieved in a variety of different ways and optimal SEO strategies combine a variety of different strategies to complete one well orchestrated SEO campaign. There are several elements to consider when attempting to optimize your website for search engines. This may include keyword density, prominence, META tags, titles and inbound links. Keyword density is one of the most common SEO strategies and essentially involves using relevant keywords often in the content of a website to demonstrate the relevance of these keywords to the website. This is important because search engines are likely to reward websites with optimal keyword densities with favorable search engine rankings in an effort to provide Internet users with the most relevant websites for particular search terms.

The prominence of keywords should also be considered. This includes how close the keywords are placed to the beginning of the website. The common mistake with this strategy is to believe the first opportunity to incorporate keywords is in the first line of visible text on the webpage. This is not true because search engines crawl the code of a website as opposed to the visible content on the website. This means there are multiple opportunities to incorporate relevant keywords long before the actual visible content on the website. This might include the code for the title as well as the META tags. Business owners who realize the potential for incorporating keyword into the code gain an advantage over competitors who only incorporate keywords into the content on their website.

Another area of concern which is very important for those who are interested in SEO is inbound links. Inbound links are essentially links which reside on other websites and direct traffic to your website. These links are considered important because many search engines place a value on inbound links because they are essentially an example of one website recommending another website. However, when obtaining inbound links it is important to do so from other websites which rank well with search engines because many search engines consider the rank of the original website when determining the value of the inbound link.

Now that we have briefly explained some of the main concept of SEO, we will illustrate why it is important to optimize your website in the first place. SEO is so important because most Internet users highly value the results of search engines and are likely to only visit to ranking websites when they search for a particular keyword. Internet users trust search engines to serve the most relevant content first and are therefore not likely to visit websites which do not fall on the first or second page of search results. This means websites which rank well essentially are receiving a great deal of free advertising from search engines that place their website in a key position. Website owners who do not invest time into optimizing their websites miss out on a great deal of potential web traffic.

Understanding The Challenges Of The Link Building Game

April 1, 2009 - 6:23 pm

Many webmasters who have been following the discussions about Google’s dislike of paid links have been confused about what constitutes bad links and good links, in the eyes of the search engine companies. In this article, I will seek to answer many of the questions people have on this topic.

There are two kinds of links that you can pay to have made for you: rented or paid links, and permanent links.

Introduction To Paid Links, Or More Accurately Rented Links

With Rented links, you can generally make your purchase decision based on the PageRank of a page.

The downside with rented links is that Google has stated that they do not like links that are sold on the basis of PageRank, and they are trying to create systems to identify links rented for PageRank, for the purpose of discounting those links. While they may eventually be able to target and negate links developed by systems like Text-Link-Ads or TextLinkBrokers, they will never be able to completely identify and discount all links that are sold for the purposes of PageRank .

In the end, I suppose Google is not going to penalize the Source or Target websites for those links, but they will nullify the value of the individual links in the Google algorithms. Cutts suggested and implemented the “rel=nofollow” a while back as a tool webmasters could use for the purpose of identifying links for which the webmaster did not want to pass PageRank. The only thing that Google’s algorithm will actually do to links identified as rented or paid links is that it will treat those links as “rel=nofollow’s”. If Google succeeds in their quest, the webmaster buying the links will be throwing away his or her money, if they are buying placement on a webpage solely for the purpose of influencing PageRank.

The Story Of Permanent Links

The second kind of link is the permanent link. Permanent links come in many formats, and in most cases should generally be viewed as non-rental links. With rental links, you pay a fee for placement once a month, quarter or year.

Of course, the Yahoo directory is not viewed as a paid link by the Google engineers, because although you “pay” to get the link, Yahoo does not guarantee placement of your link in their directory. Instead, Yahoo says that we are paying them to “review our link.” This is why Google is not discounting links from the Yahoo directory. Those Yahoo links are nice to have, but they still do require a yearly review for commercial websites, which must be paid for on a yearly basis.

Permanent in all cases is in the eye of the beholder. Permanent as a rule in the Internet world means that you will not have to pay another fee later to keep that link on the page, where it will reside. In the context of links on the Internet, permanent actually means that the link will live at that location, until the webmaster who owns the website changes his or her website’s direction OR goes out of business.

In my experience, perhaps 10% of the website’s where we get links placed will go under within one year. Towards the end of the second year, webmasters will look at their Profit/Loss and make a determination whether their income level will justify shooting for a third year of operation. Another 20% will close their website at the end of the second year run. So, 30% will drop out of business, within their first two years. Of the remaining 70%, many of those websites will survive to the fifth year and beyond. I don’t know how long one will be able to count on a permanent link just yet, but links that I built for myself in 1999 continue to produce traffic for my websites today, and those links have sent me continuous traffic for years.

Permanent, One-Way Links

Many permanent one-way links can be acquired on pages that currently have PageRank on them. In those cases, it may simply be a matter of your link being added to a list of links already on someone’s web page.

However, any link created through a content development method, such as pay-per-post or article marketing, will be posted on a new page on the Internet. All new pages on the Internet begin life at PageRank Zero. It is like the birth of a baby. The baby begins small, but grows into a child, then a teen, and finally an adult. All article pages begin their lives at PageRank Zero, and most of those new pages will increase in PageRank as they age. Some web pages will never mature beyond PR1, but others can grow into pages that are as high as PR6 (at least that is the highest I have seen an article page to date).

If you trust Matt Cutts of Google, he has indicated that all new pages begin life at PageRank Zero and in the Supplemental Results. He also said that Supplementals are not the end of the road. Cutts stated that the only thing required to bring a web page out of the Supplemental Results is to have that web page gain PageRank. (For those curious why a page went from the Primary Results to Supplemental Results, the answer is that either Google began counting links differently OR the links that gave a web page PageRank no longer exist.)

Three Reasons Why Article Marketing Helps Link Building

My conclusion from this information, and I might be biased, is that the use of article marketing for link building is a positive in the Google algorithms.

* I conclude this because links developed through article marketing begin on pages that have a PR Zero. So, we are obviously not getting links placed on websites for the sole purpose of acquiring PageRank, not directly anyway. We are placing links for the sake of having links, but with good luck, many of those links will gain PageRank over the long haul.

* By the very nature of article marketing, we can ensure that the links we develop for our websites reside on web pages that are tightly focused and targeted to the content of our websites.

* Most websites that post articles do so through a process of moderation, meaning that all article placements have been human reviewed. That human review process at the other end of the transaction puts most article websites on par with Yahoo’s human-reviewed directory.

When we can get our keywords embedded into the link pointing to our websites, then that is always a much better deal. But, that outcome will be affected by the webmaster at the other end of the process. Each webmaster has his or her own rules for article placement, and some of those folks simply do not permit embedded keywords in our links, either in the body of the article or in the about the author information. A plain text link is better than no link at all, although we always strive to get embedded keywords in our links.

Final Thoughts

When you write a great article people will link to it, no matter where it may reside. So in time, the pages that house your article will gain PageRank.

As the article’s author, you will are in total control of the relevance of the web page linking to your website.

Just as you are in control of relevance, you are also in control of whether people will choose to reprint your article. Write a good article, and people will use it.

Tips To Get Top Ranking In Google

March 11, 2009 - 4:33 pm

When you’re disagreeable to intend ranks into the crowning 10 of the wager engines and more especially into the crowning spot, you’ll requirement as whatever germane instruction backwards to your place as you crapper mayhap get.

When the wager engines watch in what visit to surpass websites, they do this supported on the noesis of the place as substantially as instruction pointing backwards to the place and also the interior scheme of the instruction within the site. All of these factors become into endeavor when determining what visit the wager engines distribute to websites for keywords.

Of instruction this formula is such more complicated than I’ve described here, but effort your website submitted to directories is a enthusiastic artefact to verify whatever of those ever essential links.

I’ve seen costs attendant with a assist same this for as such as $1 per directory, so for a itemize of 300 directories, you haw clear as such as $300. If you countenance into whatever places online that substance this service, you haw wager this for as lowercase as $100 or so for 1000 directories.

I commonly dissect this as a outlay goodness status and also verify into kindness the instance continuance of money when I opt what makes significance as farther as expenses.

I’ve timed most how daylong it takes me to accede to 5 directories and it is correct around 4-5 transactions per directory, so in most 20 minutes, I’ll hit most 4-5 directories done.

If I’m feat for 300 directories, modify at a pace of 10 directories every 20 transactions or most 30 per hour, I’m ease hunting at most 10 hours of my instance for 300 directories.

Take this into consideration, but if you poverty to intend started sight most how daylong this would take, study a directory of directories that lists directories by tender rank. The website I’m conversation most is addurl.nu and crapper be accessed online.

There are individual instances where you’ll be healthy to only do wager on Google or character and become up with a aggregation of directories to itemize to and if or when possible, intend your website traded in directories that are limited to your niche.

If you are attempting to intend a website for “mountain biking” hierarchical in the wager engines, ideally you’ll wager for and encounter “biking” directories or modify elevation biking directories that module unification backwards to your site. This is essential as the wager engines, especially Google move relevancy. The more germane or attendant the pages are that unification to your content, the more continuance those instruction are appointed and the easier it module be to intend your website broad rankings for the wager cost you’re feat for. As such as it strength hit whatever value, I wouldn’t be nearly as convergent on effort my elevation biking website traded in a wood-working directory for example.

Directories are an superior artefact to intend instruction backwards to your place and wherever it makes significance from a time-value-of-money perspective, you should be outsourcing this work. Many honored sources module do this impact for you for inferior than $100. Good phenomenon and go intend those rankings!

Tips For Online Products Promotion

March 7, 2009 - 3:12 pm

In this communication era, to promote for any kinds of products efficiently, a businessperson must think about looking for help from the Internet. These are some tips to have a successful online promotion.

First, you have to build up a good website to introduce about your company, advertise for your products, bring up promotional programs and contact with your clients worldwide. With just one click, potential customers can be on your site and make any deals they wish. Therefore, you have to update your web pages frequently for both content and design that will attract viewers’ attention.

Tips for building a good website:

- Content: List out focused keywords and tailor your web pages with them.

- Design: Make some banners that CATCH viewers’ eyes. Animated banners tend to attract people better than static ones.

Secondly, you should think of direct marketing via emails. Every week, every month or every special occasion, send newsletters to your customers to inform your promotional program or just give them some gifts. This activity must be repeated to remind customers about your company products and encourage them to come back to your website.

Thirdly, you can use referral links to advertise on other sites. Posting an article or a press release, you should give out links to your company web pages directly or indirectly, which can improve your website traffic. I do not want to mention about the content of your articles or press releases, but the titles of them. Currently, there are millions of articles and press releases on PR websites. Thus, to catch readers’ eyes, your titles must be attractive, unique and interesting, for example, “Advertising - Friend, not Foe”, “Rock DJ”, “Writing Killer Sales Letter”, “Pro and Profitable website”, etc.

Finally yet importantly, that is advertising on online magazines. You might think that it is a costly way, or might you not? However, there are some ways, that do not influence money in your pocket much, and sometimes they promote your selling very well. If you are a software producer, you should contact with some editors of international IT magazines who find companies and request free softwares to include in their CD/ DVD cover mount. During the discussion, you can persuade editors to get one of your softwares and make the branding for the software you wish. For example, you offer free full version of Voice Changer Software and then advertise for Voice Changer Software Diamond 4.0. Moreover, you can improve your selling by providing some coupons for readers to buy latest version of your software. For instance, readers of XYZ magazine can use the coupon of $30 to buy Music Morpher Gold 3.0 at the price of $69.95 instead of $99.95. With these ways, you can encourage your website traffic as well as opportunities to get more orders from readers worldwide.

Well-prepared promotional projects can help you to advertise your products, popularize your brand name, and draw more potential customers. Remember that do make use of the Internet to perfect your online promotional plans.

Author:

Jenny Le who is interested in Marketing and Advertising categories is now working for Audio4fun Media. Contact her at mediaaudio4fun.com

The 12 Things All New Internet Marketers Should Know

December 30, 2008 - 7:26 am

The author gives an easy to follow 12-point guide and advice to all new Internet marketers and online business owners to help them excel in this very interesting, exciting, rewarding and yet challenging business venture.

1) It has been reported that there are about 600,000,000 people on the Net world wide at the moment. And the annual growth of the number of surfers is exponential! You can imagine the potential market for Internet business is immensely huge. The chances of your success in the business online are tremendous. Your journey towards that would be a very exciting and rewarding one indeed.

2) Plan your work and work your plan. Like any other forms of work, you must have a plan for your Internet business. Set an achievable short term, medium term and long term objectives, prepare a budget and stick to them as far as possible. Carry out periodical checking to determine any deviations from the plan and take the necessary remedial actions.

3) Do not ever try to spam i.e. sending unsolicited e-mails to unexpected recipients under any circumstances. I get very annoyed when I find chunks of unwanted e-mails plugging my mailbox resulting in the e-mails from my friends and business associates being “lost” in the midst of these junks mails. The frustrating process of deleting them is enough to drive me through the roof! If you insisted on “spamming”, you’d very likely have your name terminated by the server. It is therefore not worth the while because eventually your business would suffer.

4) Do not try to be a Jack of all trades. Choose only a niche product or service or something where your own expertise lies in. Then consolidate your business by focusing on what you do best. Many Internet marketers have developed very enterprising, lucrative and rewarding online businesses doing what they enjoy and love best i.e. hobbies.

5) Respect, understand and always keep abreast with the advance of technology because it could help you achieve your business vision and personal goals. The ever changing technology provides us with countless tools with which we could use to enhance our businesses. A very good example is the advent of BLOGs. The software used for this today is so simple and friendly that old hats with rusty and somewhat retarded brains like me very often find the process of blogging as enjoyable and relaxing as a breezy walk in the park!

6) Design your webpage or blogs with quality content that would exert yourself and your business as an authority in your field. You should have a content that is not only attractive but also informative to advise especially the first-time visitors what benefits they would enjoy from your products or services. It should be able to persuade customers to keep coming back to your website to repeat their orders and convert casual visitors to prospects and prospects to customers.

7) You’d be tempted with countless of seemingly very attractive offers and promises from the Web to help improve your business. Do not fall into the trap of some of these promises. Just stay with a handful of strategies that work and stick with them.

For example, if you’re submitting articles to drive free traffic to your sites and it’s showing positive dividends, stick to it and continue with this strategy while improving and fine-tuning others.

8) By all means, study your competitors, watch their activities and every move. But love thy competitors, not hate them. Do not “knock” them into oblivion. Unlike conventional business, you should always find ways to work along them if not with them. There are many online organizations, big and small, working very closely together even in the same product or service market sectors. Very good examples are the joint venture partnerships and link exchanges among the so-called competitors.

9) Do not be too “innovative” by creating and marketing new and unproven products or services that the market is not willing or ready to buy. Conduct a web research to identify products which command good market and offer them to the hungry and ready market. You could do some modification to improve it in order to have product differentiation and hence enjoying better comparative advantage over your competitors.

10) In Internet marketing, always remember three very important words. They’re…LIST, LIST and LIST. Also, do not forget the popular Internet adage “The Gold is in your LIST!” This means that a big chunk of your time, effort and concentration should be directed to getting the right strategy to drive traffic to your site. Advertising is therefore of utmost importance.

11) Although this is a home based business with all the freedom in the world, it’s prudent to have some form of discipline. Once you’ve decided to sit in front of the computer to start working online, you must stay focused and do not allow any distraction to affect your concentration. Treat it as your business and not a hobby. It would be nice to stick to a schedule which is also made known to other members of your family so that they’d know when to leave you alone. However do not get carried away and spend too much time in front of your PC because your loved ones, including your pets also deserve your attention and time.

12) Internet marketing is still one of the best businesses one could venture into especially when there is no demand for big capital outlay. With this huge and expanding audience coupled with the fact that marketing and advertising can be done on the Internet so easily and at only a fraction of the costs of traditional methods, we now have a fantastic opportunity to be successful in online business.

Many companies have now positioned themselves profitably with the Internet which has created many new paradigms in the past few years. Passive incomes are made available to people from all walks of life. You can now make money online with simple and proven formula used by many to earn multiple streams of residual income.

However, like any other conventional businesses, there would be times when you would encounter failures and disappointment. Do persevere as this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Time, effort and some financial input are necessary. It would take a while to see the fruit of your effort. Use any failures to your advantage by learning from them. See success in every failure and opportunity in every threat.

Secrets to Bringing Tons of Visitors to Your Website

November 28, 2008 - 5:34 pm

The Pay for Performance or P4P was originally invented by Overture. Overture observed that the internet was growing into a unique kind of shopping mall, where people could shop conveniently and easily and that advertising was gaining grounds on the internet. But now, Overture has been taken over by Yahoo and hence popularly known as Yahoo.

A visible and popular website attracts more and more people. It provides ads in other sites that link to a particular site can direct potential consumers and customers to that site thus increasing traffic and sales in that website. Yahoo provides a service using which it is possible to show ads kept in their websites when people input certain keywords.

Using Yahoo services, any willing website can have their traffic increased by utilizing the same. When more and more people become aware of your site, the traffic to your website would automatically increase. This in turn would increase the chance of people viewing your pages and products. Even if a small fraction of those people actually buy your products; that would still mean a substantial figure for you and your company.

It is the goal of every internet based company to get a high volume of potential consumers to their website. To accomplish this, the companies try a handful of methods to make their website more and more popular and make the people all over know about the existence of their services.

Yahoo/Overture is very similar to Google’s Adwords. Both of them use the same principle in showing ads according to keyword or keyword phrase searches. Whenever someone types in a phrase or a keyword in their search engine, the result page shows the usual results and along with it, shows the ads matching the search criteria on the right side of the same page. These ads in turn link to the websites of the respective companies.

As an example, let us consider that you run a car parts retail/wholesale site and you have chosen for Yahoo/Overture services, choosing some keywords that can trigger your ad to be displayed. Then, if somebody searches for Honda Accord, your ad might show up if you have designated that as one of your keywords. Using this system, you don’t even need to optimize your website with Search Engine Optimization methods and techniques.

With some labor and work, you can make your site one of the high ranking sites per keyword search and you would have the chance of your site being displayed on the top of the list or at least, on the first page of a search result, thus increasing your chance of people clicking on your links. This is a fast way to have traffic and visitors to your website.

However, remember that this service is not free. There are different ways in which Yahoo/Overture might charge you. They could charge in the number of keywords or keyword phrases your as uses or in the number of times your ad gets clicked on. Similar services might offer other features like having your ad show up on some third party sites, besides showing it on the search result page. You should look out for those.

Some third party supports placing ads that have similar content to that of the site. The more sites your ads are shown, the more is the chance of getting visitors to your site, especially, if the site where your ad is shown is a popular website.

With the internet being the largest network and still growing and which has shrunken the whole world into a global village, with online businesses mushrooming, it is high time to start advertising and surge ahead in this rat race of getting visitors to your site. Yahoo/Overture is a great place to make a start. There are many who have used Yahoo/Overture and have had great success. It is a market strategy which will direct swarming traffic to your site and that in turn will boost your sales and result in profit.

Often it is seen that to make money, you require money. But by using services like Yahoo/Overture and other such types of low cost or free market strategies, it is often possible to get overwhelming results faster and on a big scale. Many of the online companies have learned this fact the hard way. Your company should, however, not be one of them.

Outbound Stickiness

November 12, 2008 - 8:17 pm

Back in the late 1990s, “stickiness” was the big term; how to get web visitors to return to your site &ndash hopefully, again and again. Today, the strategy has evolved into “Outbound Stickiness” &ndash going out and pulling that visitor back in.

Going back in time, there were many sticky techniques including the hosting of tools, calculators, forums/bulletin boards, and of course &ndash my favorite &ndash “favorites”.

“Favorites” pre-dated good search engine results. Back then, you as a site owner would proffer your favorite links. Typically, they related to your industry and gave web visitors the opportunity to explore other related sites. Well, as the search engines of the day improved their results, the favorites section lost its favor.

It became very hard to become an authority site. Many a client of mine back then created a “lounge” or “portal” type of section on their site hoping to be the center of their respective universe. But web surfers soon preferred to get their informational direction from a Yahoo search.

Site stickiness never lost its allure. And now, new techniques have come into play in order to gain that coveted repeat visit. This time it’s an outbound effort. Content is created that travels out from the website to seek out users. It’s driven by RSS (Really Simple Syndication), and it’s used to distribute all kinds of information including news, blogs, and podcasts. We have evolved to Outbound Stickiness.

Currently, most blogs and podcasts revolve around time-sensitive events and writer opinion. However, they are just too darned valuable to be left to those noble endeavors. Businesses, big and small see (or will soon see), RSS and its related content as an opportunity to reach out and touch someone &ndash again and again.

This trend doesn’t bother me in the least. I’ve always gotten educated or stayed current on my industry by subscribing to informative newsletters, magazines, etc., be they of the printed or electronic variety. I even appreciate advertising as an information source in its own right. The difference is that now I have the convenience of having all of my sources being dropped into a central place for pickup. It’s on demand and I like many others are demanding it.

Outbound stickiness is going to include not only news of the day, but education on the tried and true.

In order to be credible, businesses are going to need to educate through these mediums as opposed to simply advertising or branding. If they want to keep you as a subscriber of their feed, value is going to need to be continually delivered. Something easier said than done.

This all presents opportunities and challenges on a variety of levels. First, there is creation of the content. Someone is going to have to acquire and consolidate the content. To get good traction with and grow a subscriber base, recycling someone else’s content will not do the trick for long (sorry, you can’t just steal it from the net).

Next, not all of us are writers or recording artists. Internal or outsourced resources will need to be hired to actually deliver the information in an effective style and format (e.g. blog writers, podcasters, video podcasters, etc.).

You’ll need information marketers to continually review the information that has been previously published for accuracy and relevancy. Because information created and distributed to the Internet is difficult to eradicate, it won’t be a matter of just deleting old files. New information will need to be created to supersede the old. And the whole cycle will begin again.

A credence of mine (that I obtained from somewhere now unknown), is “if you can’t get out of it &ndash get into it”. Let me tell you &ndash you can’t get out of this one.

If you don’t already have a strategy to deliver some Outbound Stickiness, get it going now. It’s just not for news-junkie/conservative/liberal/techie/egocentrics anymore.

My recommendation is to publish by series. If you sell paint, do a series of 5 blog entries, podcasts, etc., on color. Next, do a series on prep and application. Next, on design trends. You get the idea.

By publishing to a series you escape the pressure of continually coming up with and extending your subject. Also, if you need a break, take it between series’. Then you won’t look like you just jumped on the bandwagon, ran out of ideas, and fell off.

Additionally, mix time-specific information and opinion with tried and true educational content.

Good luck with it all! For some of you it will be liberating, for others it’s fingers on a chalkboard (by the way, we’re going to need to come up with a new idiom for that one &ndash who uses chalk boards anymore. Any suggestions &ndash email me).

If you want some advice or have any comments &ndash email me at jboulterbastioninternet.com or visit us at .bastioninternet.com. We’re a web marketing firm located in Southern California and are happy to help.

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August 19, 2008 - 7:00 pm

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C L Eldridge