Archive for September, 2006

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Marketing Secrets – Basic Marketing Principles: Don't Put Up Your Website Without Them

Saturday, September 30th, 2006

So you think you’ve created the perfect website. It looks great, loads fast, and you perform marketing and promotional duties on a regular schedule online and off. There seems to be only one problem….no one is buying your products. Did you rely on the essential rules in marketing when you you created your site? If not, you’re in real trouble.

1) Great Customer Service?

One thing that will drive your customers away faster than anything else is poor customer service. This ranges from taking an eternity to answer your email, to shipping delays. You need to respond quickly, especially when it comes to email. In our “hurry-hurry” society people will not wait to hear from you for very long before moving on to the next guy.

Do you have your email address on every page of your website? Nothing irks me more then having to dig through a site just to find an address to ask a question. Do you offer a toll free number so they can contact you? Easy to do and free with http://www.ureach.com How about real time communication on your website? Take a look at http://www.humanclick.com, which allows you to answer questions from your website guests as they browse your site.

The more ways you give people to communicate with you, the better. Many companies fail online due to shoddy customer service. Don’t be one of them. By offering excellent service you’ll stand out from the crowd and build better relationships with your clients. Remember it’s easier to re-sell to an existing customer than it is to find a new one.

2) Who Are You and What Do You Do?

Identify your company and your products on the home page. Don’t make people “dig” down into your site for the answer. They won’t; they’ll just leave.

Also, make sure you describe the benefits of your service or product right away. For example, will it save time or money? Make you thinner? Is it easy-to-use? People don’t care about you, they want to know “what’s in it for me?” Tell them and tell them fast, or risk losing them. Sales are generally made on emotions. If you don’t trigger any by giving them a good reason to buy from you, they won’t.

3) Are you Charging the Right Price?

If you charge too much, no one will buy. If you charge too little, people will think there’s no value or that there’s something wrong with your product or service. (And they still won’t buy.) Before you set your pricing, make sure you do a little research into your competitor’s backyard. That way, you’ll have a better idea of where to set your pricing.

Don’t forget about “perceived value.” Anything you can add on in the way of free bonuses or free shipping will go a long way in convincing folks to buy. With the enormous amount of freebies floating around online, it shouldn’t be too hard collecting a few that relate to what you’re selling that you can give away with every purchase.

4) Does your Copy Sell?

Make sure your text
helps motivate your customers to make a purchase. Sprinkle “powerful headlines,” “calls to action,” and plenty of testimonials from happy customers throughout your pages. Remember that people read differently online; they skim. Make it easy for them to catch the main points and benefits quickly.

Also, offer a few different payment options and make it easy to place an order. If they have to jump through hoops, you’ll lose the sale. Simple and Easy is the way to go.

5) Is your Site Designed with your Target Market in Mind?

Does the look of your website cater to your target market? You need to know demographics of your intended audience before you even begin the construction process. Know your market’s demographics such as age bracket, income, education, and whether they are mostly male or female. If your site is geared towards teenagers, it needs to look fun and hip (save the sophisticated look for their parents). If your audience is middle aged businessmen you’ll need a more corporate look.Make sure you keep your core audience in mind when choosing your fonts, site colors, and any graphics.

If you remember to incorporate these basic marketing principles into your website you’ll not only have a site that looks good, but actually does what you intended it to do all along: Sell!

Merle’s Cyber Promotions http://www.mcpromotions.com/ “Creating Visibility Online for Small Businesses” Subscribe to MC Promotions Press by sending mailto:subscribe@mcpromotions.com
New Service just added “Get Ready to Market Package” For details go to http://www.mcpromotions.com/getreadytomarket.htm To find out more about the products and services offered by MC Promotions send mailto:mcservices-ar@automagical.net

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Search Engine Marketing Secrets – What is Affiliate Marketing and How Do I Get Started?

Friday, September 29th, 2006

Definition of affiliate marketing:

Affiliate marketing is taking someone else’s product or service and advertising it using your own affiliate website or link in order to make money. The owner of the website/product/service will pay you a percentage of each sale generated through your unique affiliate link or website. Sounds a bit confusing, but in reality is a very simple process with a win/win situation for all parties involved and a fun way to make money online.

How to get started:

You have two options to consider when doing affiliate marketing, whether to have a website or to simply advertise using your unique affiliate link. Many affiliates will create an informational website to be used as a basis for related affiliate links. This can be a great option, due to the fact that you would only need to advertise one website in order to make money.

To go this route, think of something that you are passionate about or something that is a hot topic right now. Once you have determined your theme you need to decide on a website name. To find ideas and keywords to be used as a URL, or domain name, I would recommend using http://wordtracker.com to find appropriate popular keywords related to your theme. It is good to use a popular keyword as your website and domain name so that you will rank higher in search engines.

Once you have your theme and have chosen a name, you need to register your domain name and obtain website hosting. I recommend using Yahoo for your website hosting needs. They offer a free domain name and website builder that does not require knowledge of html when you purchase website hosting. They also allow you to pay monthly rather than having to pay a year in advance which helps you save with upfront costs.

Your next step would be to build your website and fill it to the brim with great information related to your theme. A great and easy way to do this is to get articles from free article websites like the ones listed below:

Then, once you have a great website full of information about your theme, your next step is to work on search engine optimization. Do a search on Google for SEO and you will find lots of free information on how to do this. You also need to offer a free newsletter so that you can establish repeat visitors.

When your informational website is complete and fully optimized, submit it to all of the major search engines. Google’s “submit a URL” can be found under “About” Google. This is the main one and the best place to start. Yahoo charges a fee to submit your website to them so this would be something you could do later.

Now you are ready to start adding affiliate links to your website so you can earn money! Sign up at these free websites and find appropriate websites to affiliate with:

Also, add Google Adsense to your website for added revenue. Advertise using Pay Per Click such as Google.com/Adwords and Overture.com. Continue to add a page of information to your website daily. The more information you have, the higher your chances of ranking with more keywords on the major search engines. Have fun maintaining your website and watching your traffic…and your revenue grow! Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money and your earning potential is almost endless. Affiliate marketing is something you can get started doing today to earn money online.

About The Author

Monica Faircloth is a freelance writer and work at home mentor, as well as the owner of:
http://www.TheMommySite.com
http://www.HomeBasedMommy.com
http://www.Work-Online.org

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Search Engine Secrets – The Power of Topical Search Engines

Thursday, September 28th, 2006

What are Topical Search Engines?
Simply put, topical search engines are search engines focused on a specific industry, sector or topic.

While many marketers are scrambling for links, any links, an area that is often overlooked is topic-specific search engines. What many don’t realize is that these engines do produce traffic, and they often contain traffic that is very targeted. Anyone who has taken the time to analyze weblogs and track sales sources will likely see that targeted traffic converts at a significantly higher rate than non-targeted traffic.

A savvy online marketer realizes that often, the quality of the visitor is far more important than the quantity of visitors. Web marketers should focus their energies on attracting targeted traffic whenever possible.

For example, if you sell saddles, advertising on a site related to horses or advertising on a topical search engine like http://www.horse-stall.net will bring significantly more sales than advertising on a generic web site or search engine.

Niche engines are considerably smaller than general search engines but they can still be quite lucrative. The small size of a niche or topic-specific engine ensures that the there are few competitors, and advertisers are generally willing to pay a little more for the focused traffic. Advertisers appreciate the unique benefit of reaching a very targeted audience who have a higher likelihood of purchasing their product or service. As a result, topic-specific search engines and directories are a burgeoning market. There is far less competition in niche directories and dominating a specific market segment and establishing brand recognition is significantly easier.

It is virtual suicide to attempt to compete with the behemoth search engines like Google. Web-surfers are interested in simplicity and efficiency, which translates to as few clicks as possible. This is an area where Google really cannot compete with a topic-specific search engine. Creating a simple, clear navigational structure of related content while cross-promoting related products or services will increase the site’s value.

Advertisers will also flock to search portals that are industry-specific, as they appreciate the unique benefit of reaching a very targeted audience who have a higher likelihood of purchasing their product or service.

Consider the niche search engine, Alarm Tools – http://www.alarm-tools.net . The traffic this portal attracts will be of significant interest to manufacturers of security equipment or emergency supplies. Imagine the targeted traffic that an alarm company could receive from a link in the above search directory.

Comtemplate the quality traffic a financial planner could glean from an RSS search directory focussed on finance and investing at http://www.finance-investing.com .

Locating topic-specific search engines is not all that difficult. Consider using the resources provided by Search Engine Watch, Web Search Engines, and Search Engine Guide to locate engines that are topic-specific:

Search Engine Watch – http://searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156351
Web Search Engines – http://www.web-search-engines.net/directory/topic-specific.html
Search Engine Guide – http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html

Qualified ‘clickers’ or interested buyers is what it is all about; whether you are selling a product or advertising, the more targeted the traffic the better the fit. As an advertiser, consider topic- specific search engines. As an online marketer, consider creating a niche search portal, as the market is ripe.

About the author:

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.comsoftware for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.neta wireless text messaging software company.

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Search Engine Optimization – Search Engine Optimization – Do-It-Yourself or Hiring Someone

Thursday, September 28th, 2006

Anyone who has had a website for any length of time has already come to the realization that to succeed, you need traffic, and to get traffic, unless you have some pretty deep pockets for more traditional forms of advertising, search engines are the most effective form of obtaining that traffic.

The next realization that comes is that simply being listed is not enough. To get traffic from the search engines, you must come up at or near the top of the results for those searches that relate to your site.

Some call it search engine optimization, others search engine placement, and others search engine promotion. Regardless of the name, it is all really the same thing. It is the art of getting traffic from the engines.

Search engine optimization is a big business, and understandably so, but the question is, “Is it worth paying a firm to promote your site or is it truly something you can do yourself?”

Unfortunately, there is no cut-and-dry answer to this question as it is going to differ from person to person. In some cases, it can be well worth the money to hire an outside firm for your optimization needs, in other cases, you may be better off doing it yourself.

First let me answer a few questions and dispel a few myths that some of the less reputable firms like to promote.

Q – Can I do the optimization myself? A – Yes, and in many cases be extremely successful.

Q – Is search engine optimization hard? A – Yes and no. As with any new skill, there is a learning curve involved, but unless you are in an extremely competitive area, just having an understanding of how the search engines work and rank pages, can be enough for you to design some good ranking pages.

Q – Do I need to have any expensive software or programming skills? A – No. Anything and everything can be done by hand. All you need to be able to do the optimization yourself is a basic understanding of HTML.

Q – Don’t I just need to put my keywords in the Title and Meta tags? A – Unfortunately, while this was true a couple of years ago, it is a bit more complicated than this now. Meta tags, play an extremely small role in optimization in todays search engines.

Now that we have a few of the most common questions out of the way, let’s take a deeper look at which option may be right for you.

First let’s start with hiring an optimization firm and look at the pro’s and con’s involved.

Pro’s

- Optimization firms will already be trained in getting your site to the top of the engines.

- The will know what is required and you will often see results fairly quickly and the results will often be better than if you were doing the optimization yourself.

- You will have the free time to devote to other aspects of your business.

Con’s

- Optimization firms can range from moderately expensive to extremely expensive depending on your target market and the number of search terms you want to target. This could mean you may initially spend anywhere from $1,000 up to $5,000-$10,000 to hire a good firm and then a maintenance fee of near that amount monthly to maintain the rankings.

- As with all firms, some will be top-notch, and some will be less than stellar. You could easily end up paying a few thousand dollars with little or no results ever seen.

- No one will ever have the same enthusiasm for your site’s success as you do. Many of the less reputable companies will often use tactics that will work in the short-term, but may have some very negative long-term effects.

- Many optimization firms will create a new site that funnels traffic to your current site. The firm generally owns this site, which means, that you are trapped into paying this firm for your traffic. If you stop paying them, you stop receiving the traffic.

Now let’s look at the pro’s and con’s of doing it yourself.

Pro’s

- You will be saving yourself the cash outlay involved in hiring an outside firm (obviously one of the biggest benefits).

- Everything you do to promote your site is yours. It does not belong to someone else. You have complete control.

- Once you learn how search engine optimization works, you can create as many online businesses as you wish and be able to promote all of them without relying on, or paying, a third party.

Con’s

- An initial learning curve. It will take a while to get a good grasp of what you are doing and to begin to understand the game we call search engine optimization.

- If your in a competitive market, a good deal of your time could be spent promoting and optimizing your site.

- Your results may never be as good as if you hired a top-notch firm.

Well, there you have it. A good number of the pro’s and con’s involved in both avenues. When you get down to it, deciding whether to outsource your optimization needs, or keep it in house, really boils down to what you have more of…time, or money. If you have lots of money but little time, then hire a good firm. If you have lots of time but little funds, then you will be better off doing the work yourself.

If you decide to hire an optimization firm, be cautious with who you choose. Ask for testimonials from past clients. Find out if they offer any type of a guarantee. Do some research. Whatever you do, DON’T go on who is the cheapest. This is your success we’re talking about.

If you decide to do it yourself, there are also some things you should do. The best thing you can do for yourself is to do some research on search engine optimization. Find someone who has been doing it a while and see if you can learn anything from them. Read books on the subject (electronic or printed). Visit newsgroups and forums on search engines. If you spend some time learning about how search engines work and what they look for when ranking pages, you will quickly begin to understand what it takes to make a top ranking page.

John Buchanan is the author of the book “The Insider’s Guide to Dominating The Search Engines”, and publisher of “The Search Engine Bulletin”, a FREE monthly newsletter. Visit him at http://www.se-secrets.com for more information or to sign up for the newsletter.

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Marketing Secrets – 9 Tips for Marketing with Electronic Newsletters

Wednesday, September 27th, 2006

1. COMMIT TO CREATING YOUR NEWSLETTER

A Web site without a newsletter is like a car without a motor. It may look nice, but you’re not going to get very far.

In order to market your business effectively you need a system to attract prospects and then you need a system to follow up with those prospects repeatedly to convert them into customers. An electronic newsletter is an inexpensive and very effective way to do that.

2. TARGET A SPECIFIC GROUP OF PROSPECTS

You can’t be all things to all people. Select a specific group of prospects to write your newsletter to. When reading your newsletter, your prospects should say, ‘They’re talking about me and my concerns!’

3. DON’T SPAM PEOPLE WHO DON’T WANT YOUR NEWSLETTER

Your subscribers should voluntarily opt-in to receive your newsletter. Describe the benefits of your newsletter, and provide a simple way for people to subscribe to it.

Don’t just add people to your list without their permission or send it out to people who didn’t ask for it. That’s called spam, and you’ll be building a bad reputation if you resort to it.

4. GIVE YOUR SUBSCRIBERS AN EASY WAY TO UNSUBSCRIBE

When people don’t wish to receive your newsletter any longer, they should have an easy way to unsubscribe.

Provide the information your subscribers need to unsubscribe, if they want to, right in your newsletter.

5. FOCUS ON A SPECIFIC THEME

Your newsletter should be centered around a theme that relates to your products or services and is of high interest to your prospects and customers.

Our theme for this Give to Get Marketing newsletter is focused around tips to help you market your business more effectively. That ties in perfectly with what you want, and it ties in perfectly with the marketing products we offer.

Maria’s theme for her Get Organized Now! newsletter is focused around tips to help you get organized. Her products are organizing products — a perfect match.

Someone who sells cosmetics would create a newsletter theme that focuses on beauty and fashion tips.

Get the idea? What would your theme be?

6. 80% HELPFUL CONTENT, 20% PROMOTION

No one wants to receive and read a newsletter filled only with product promotions — and they won’t.

We teach the Give to Get Marketing philosophy — Give your prospects and customers what they want, and you’ll get what you want.

Fill your newsletter with helpful information that your prospects and customers would actually want to read, maybe even look forward to receiving

Of course, you also want to include information about your products and services, so be sure to provide one or two offers in each issue of your newsletter.

80% content, 20% promotion is a good mix.

7. DELIVER IT ON A REGULAR SCHEDULE

You can deliver your newsletter once a month, twice a month, or once a week.

The more frequently you can send out your newsletter to your prospect/customer list, the more effective it will be. You’ll have to decide how often you want to commit to this marketing effort. The important thing is to be consistent.

8. ASK YOUR READERS FOR FEEDBACK

Your newsletter should be written for your subscribers to address their interests — not yours.

To determine if you’re delivering what your subscribers want, ask them. Let them know that you want their feedback and suggestions on how you can improve your newsletter to make it a more valuable resource for them.

9. DIRECT YOUR READERS BACK TO YOUR WEB SITE

The point of all your effort of creating and sending out your newsletter, is to follow up with your prospects and customers to gain their trust and their business. Give to Get.

If your product or service information is on your Web site, then you must direct your subscribers to your Web site in each issue.

You can do that by directing them to an article on your Web site that they may find appealing, or you can guide them directly to your product information pages.

The last thing you want to do, is just send out a newsletter filled with terrific content, and then fail to get the kind of action you need to grow your business.

Joe Gracia – Give to Get Marketing http://www.givetogetmarketing.com

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Search Engine Marketing Secrets – Why Most Marketing Videos Dont Work

Tuesday, September 26th, 2006

Every now and then I will meet someone who has commissioned a marketing video that did not work for their company. It is a sad state of affairs and it is avoidable.

Over the years, I have been given many failed corporate communications videos to watch and have found that they all suffer from one or more of the following problems.

1. A poorly written script

This would have to be one of the most common problems. The script provides the backbone to any video project and it must be perfect. It needs to be to the point, clear and interesting.

Often scripts get written in-house resulting in wordy and highly detailed pieces of prose that do not translate well onto the screen. Quite frankly, they are boring. Unfortunately, pretty shots and expert editing cannot hide a tedious narrative.

Worse still, is when the script goes back and forth and the content is played out in an illogical sequence. This results in no viewer being able to quickly understand your core marketing messages, if they can understand it at all.

Ideally, a script conveys the most important pieces of information that your target market wants to know and is written with an objective in mind.

2. The video is too long

In this day and age of high speed broadband and other time-saving devices, very few of us have attention spans that can handle information for more than a few minutes.

Any video over 10 minutes is destined to lose viewers after the first few minutes.

Yet, surprisingly there are many marketing videos today that are well over 12 minutes in length.

The best marketing videos are short and succinct. Yet, it is far easier to cram everything into a video than to make a short and concise one. In the words of Blaise Pascal, The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.

3. The look mum Im on TV scenario

While some of us may cringe at the thought of a camera placed in front of us, there are many people who relish the opportunity to show their face on television.

This can result in corporate heads droning on incessantly about how wonderful their company is (and what a great job they are doing). Sadly, this does nothing else but soothe corporate egos and turn viewers away.

Few people realise that talking to a camera in an appealingly manner is a skill in itself. Having a CEO spieling boring corporate fluff while looking dumbstruck and awkward in front of the camera does not a good video make.

However, a charismatic business leader who uses short, punchy (and rehearsed) sentences can add tremendous impact and clout to a marketing video.

4. Poor production values

While watching your corporate video, your customers will be left with an impression of what type of business you are and what to expect when doing business with you.

A fast way to subconsciously get across the wrong image to your viewer is to have grainy pictures, poorly framed shots and sloppy editing.

A well thought out and professionally created television program will create a positive impression in the minds of your prospects. After all, we all watch television and we are used to broadcast quality productions, not wobbly and unfocused shots that scream amateurish.

To produce a good quality television program, it must be made using an experienced A-grade cameraman, a broadcast quality camera and a fully trained editor

5. Target audience is too diverse

Many marketing videos often try to get as many messages out to a diverse audience.

It is very difficult to produce a video that is all things to all people. After all, communicating to primary school students, overseas buyers and consumers all in the one video is an extremely difficult feat to pull.

Research has found that advertising that targets a number of market segments results in higher profits than advertising that sells to a mass market.

Likewise, marketing videos that target a small audience are more successful than those aimed at a large audience. It is often wise to produce several television programs for different audiences, rather than cram all of your messages into one confusing video.

6. Lets do a video, just because we can!

It might seem far-fetched but there are companies that embark on commissioning a marketing video without really assessing if they need one.

This can be due to a number of reasons such as using up available budgets, satisfying corporate egos and employees creating work for themselves.

You are probably wondering why a video communication producer would even complain about this situation. The answer is simple.

A marketing video is an effective tool to increase sales in a company. It is actually painful and embarrassing to watch a video that is a shameless waste of company money.

Poorly produced videos might line the pockets of some video producers, but they do little to convince future clients that they are worthwhile.

If you are in the market for a marketing video, make sure you follow these simple guidelines to ensure your project is a success, rather than destined for the rubbish bin.

Marie-Claire Ross 2004. All rights reserved.

About The Author

Marie-Claire Ross is one of the partners of Digicast. Digicast works with organisations who are not satisfied that their marketing and training materials are helping their business grow. She can be contacted on 0500 800 234 (Australia wide) or at mc@digcast.com.au. The website is at www.digicast.com.au.

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Search Engine Optimization – The Search Engine Optimization Secret That Everybody Ignores

Tuesday, September 26th, 2006

Search engine optimization is a very critical task in the success of any website. In recent times search engines seem to have complicated this task further by their frequent changes in rules. This has caused lots of anxiety as some of these changes have seen some sites lose virtually all their regular traffic instantly as their rankings have tumbled.

This has further added to the confusion amongst webmasters about search engines and their motivations. But no matter how mad one gets at the search engines, there is little that they can do to change the statistics which clearly indicate that well over 75 per cent of the traffic that most sites receive comes directly from search engines.

However, there is a secret that an increasing number of webmasters have discovered and are putting to good use. Whatever regular changes search engines instigate, their motivation remains the same. Most webmasters forget that there is currently very stiff competition between the leading search engines. More so because it has become abundantly clear that none of the top search engines are interested in the runners up position.

The Search Engine Motivation

This stiff competition between search engines is focused on the customer, that is the person who uses search engines to find information online. The preferred search engine and therefore the top one will always be the one that most satisfies the needs of that customer.

So whatever changes search engines make they will always be focused on improving the search engine experience for surfers. It is not too difficult to figure out what those who use search engines want, or even more important, what they do not want. Anybody using a search engine wants to be able to find what they are looking for quickly. Most will be looking for the most detailed quality content on the subject or information that they seek.

This simply means that any website that places its’ focus on the end consumer using search engines, rather than on the search engines themselves is guaranteed to retain their high ranking whatever changes search engines keep on making.

Can You Dare Assume That Search Engines Do Not Exist?

So the most effective way to ensure that a website owner focuses on the surfers is for them to direct their focus on them, just like search engines are. It would help tremendously for them to start operating as if search engines did not exist and fully concentrate on ensuring that their sites have quality detailed content.

The dangers and harmful effects of webmasters focusing on search engines are very evident. We have sites that use keywords so heavily that it affects the quality of writing on their sites. Some sites have even done worse, leaving their quality content intact but creating keywords that are hidden to the human eye but visible to search engines.

In fact there are a whole lot of schemes on the net created to fool search engines, which have no regard for the surfer or what information they are looking for. For instance there is plenty of software on sale online whose promoters bluntly state is designed to fool search engines.

These are the sort of schemes that are causing so many constant changes in the rules of leading search engines as they seek for ways to combat any tricks that would favor undeserving sites in their rankings.

Content Will Always Be King

What all this means is that content remains the most important search engine optimization tool. Just take a closer look at all the leading google websites and try and trace a common thread running through them all. You will quickly discover that the quality of writing and content in these sites is extremely high.

This means that any webmaster that makes an effort to provide quality, relevant and detailed content on their site with the experience of the surfer as their central focus will be using an extremely powerful search engine optimization tool.

If your content is good, then you can post it at other websites complete with a detailed resource box that directs traffic to your website. Quality articles will usually end up being re-posted all over the net in an endless viral effect that will create quality links back to your site. Search engines still rank websites based on the links from other sites leading to it so quality content has a double advantage.

You will of course need to do a thorough job of posting your articles to various article directories, ezine publishers and announcement lists.

About the author:
Article By David Callan. David is an Internet Marketing
professional and webmaster of http://www.akamarketing.com
Visit his website for articles and tutorials on Internet
Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.

searchEstate provides Free Advertising, Free Web Sites and Free Web Traffic…Michael A Fowler, M.B.A.searchEstate provides free advertising and free web traffic via its revolutionary new search engine affiliate scheme. Complete with free web sites and Internet tracking tools to track your advertisements and adjust as required.

searchEstate has launched a new dimension in free advertising The one and only search engine that is allied to the affiliate marketer. While Yahoo, Google and others charge for their advertising, this concept pays the affiliated advertiser and owner.

Exposure to the main business interests of the affiliate are to the fore, via an affiliate page where they can all be listed. That page is under the affiliates control and it also introduces searchEstate to its highly targeted visitors. As search engines provide 46% of all web traffic to web sites, this free advertising concept seems incredible.

Comparing that to just 1.2% of website visitors arriving by e-mail advertising and it starts you thinking about search engine advertising in a different light.

Providing the free web traffic via the free web sites and the free viral advertising component, searchEstate targets true interest via its web searching facility. This facility is integrated with all the major search engines, like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Quote:
“I have been in several ad co-ops to advertise my business opportunities and I must say, this one has far exceeded my expectations! Not only am I getting sign-ups for searchEstate, but the way they do it is to advertise ALL my business opportunities at the same time. It is like 2 for the price of 1. This advertising method is nothing short of brilliant.”

The claim that searchEstate is the fastest growing search engine in Internet history, would be of no surprise. Every marketer, affiliate, retailer and reseller can now grow their own piece of Internet advertising Real-Estate and benefit in several different ways.

When that Real-Estate is big enough, the advertising space can be sold as pay-per-click ads to other advertisers. This gives the Pro affiliate member an ongoing stream of residual income from his/her own free advertising network, while free members enjoy free web traffic to their main business sites.

Free web traffic is hard to find, especially the genuine kind of targeted visitors that make sales. This looks a very well thought out plan and is providing many people with the sort of advertising they both want and need, at a cost which is very affordable, or even free.

There is also a Pro version of the searchEstate model, which is relatively inexpensive for the benefits it provides. In todays marketplace, the same sum could be spent within minutes on advertising that bears no fruit.

The free affiliate web site provided is not replicated. It has keywords and can be adjusted and optimised by the affiliate and indexed by the major search engines.
The Video Presentation is first class and explains the benefits in full. There are also lead capture and Invitation pages.
/>Going behind the scenes, we find tracking facilities for the advertisements and a complete score of impressions. This allows adjustments to ads that are not performing well. Banners, hosted and provided, are also available for placements upon other sites and in exchanges… More free advertising and web site traffic?

searchEstate stand-alone search boxes are appearing all over the Internet. They even provide an e-mail version of their Internet search! It seems no stone has been left unturned, in the bid to serve the affiliate with an above-average way of advertising their main business, alongside the searchEstate model.

Under current development is the brand new toolbar, which will be freely available to anyone. Incorporating many more features than any of its rivals, it will serve as a great introduction to the searchEstate way of advertising.

Main focus is given to the search results pages, which are far more prominent than the major rivals and enhanced to their fullest extent. Product quality is extremely high on the list of priorities to searchEstate customers.

You have to admire a program that gives so much to its affiliates and end users.

A real chance to forever nullify advertising costs and provide a healthy income via its pay per click module, searchEstate will make a huge impact in the world of search engine advertising and marketing.

If this program can allow even the smallest of distributors or retailers to compete with the giants, then it is surely destined to become the ultimate internet advertising solution for every Networker, retailer and marketer.

– Michael A Fowler, M.B.A. 2005 searchEstate provides Free Advertising, Free Web Sites and Free Web Traffic…

About the author:
Michael A Fowler, M.B.A.
Creator and Author of ‘The MBA Way’
International Group Trainer and Business Coach – Helping others to enjoy online success since 1998
http://www.the-mba-way.com/freewebadvertising.htm

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Search Engine Secrets – Fooling the Search Engines

Tuesday, September 26th, 2006

Writing articles is all the rage these days on the web. Or should I say getting other people to write articles for you, joining membership sites that provide “private label” rights — that is all the rage.

And the reason? You get all the benefits of a well-written article without the work! Someone has to write the articles of course, and if you have writing skills theres plenty of opportunity for you.

Why have articles become so popular? People surf the net looking for information — or “content” to use the buzz word of the moment. They’re not interested in adverts, or flashing banners — they just annoy people. If they search for bananas they want solid information about bananas, not a list of related banana links!

A good article will provide that content, or information.

A year or so ago webmasters thought they could profit by creating sites filled with ads and related keywords. This still works, but more people are moving away from this as it’s becoming harder to get indexed in the search engines, and to stay in the search engines. So, you don’t make the money you used to from this kind of site.

That’s why articles and content websites have grown in popularity. It’s a way to fool the search engines without fooling them, if you see what I mean. You give the SEs what they want, which is good quality content. You give your visitors what they want: solid information that helps them.

And you give yourself what you want: visitors that like your site, search engines that index you, and a growing income.

A well-planned article campaign with backlinks to your site can make a huge difference. This is just one aspect of good SEO, and it’s one that everyone can pursue for little cost.

About the author:
Matt Russells latest site provides great information on good SEO techniques at www.Eze-Seo-4u.info,and it’s all free. To keep in touch with his thoughts and other websites visit Thoughts on life & success

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Marketing Secrets – 30 Steps for E-Mail Marketing Success

Monday, September 25th, 2006

This article provides 30 well-described tips for writing effective e-mail copy. When you want to send e-mails or an e-zine that converts casual readers into loyal customers, you need to have strong, compelling copy. Learn these proven techniques.
30 STEPS FOR E-MAIL MARKETING SUCCESS

The response rate for Internet direct mail is typically somewhere between 1 and 20 percent. Your e-mail copy plays a huge role in where your e-marketing message ends up in that range. Here are 30 proven tips for converting the greatest number of e-mail recipients into customers or subscribers.

1. CHOOSE AN EFFECTIVE “FROM” E-MAIL ADDRESS. Some e-marketers think what it says in your “FROM” line is not important. Others think its critical. The bottom line is — EXPERIMENT! If your autoresponder allows you to specify a “FROM” address, try out different ones to see what the effect is on your response rate.

2.USE THE “4 Us” WHEN CREATING YOUR “SUBJECT” LINE. When prospects get your e-mail marketing message, they make a quick decision, usually in a couple of seconds, to open or delete it based largely on the subject line. Strong subject lines are URGENT, UNIQUE, ULTRA-SPECIFIC, & USEFUL. (For more on this topic, send for my f’ree article at subjectlines@royal-responder.com.) It can be a challenge to create a “SUBJECT” line that rates highly in all 4 Us AND that fits in the limited space allowed for display of subject lines in most email programs.But it can be done, if you keep working at it!

3. BE CAREFUL ABOUT USING THE WORD, “FR*EE”. It’s a proven fact that the word “f^ree” is a powerful response-booster in both traditional direct marketing, and on the Internet. Howevere, many spam filters today eliminate any incoming e-mail messages with F’REE in the subject line.

4. START OFF YOUR E-MAIL MESSAGE COPY WITH A KILLER HEADLINE OR LEAD-IN SENTENCE. You’ll want to put a terrific benefit right up front. Use the “4 U’s” principle here too.

5. IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH, DELIVER A MINI-VERSION OF YOUR COMPLETE MESSAGE. State the offer and provide an immediate response mechanism, such as clicking on a link connected to a Web page. This appeals to Internet prospects with short attention spans.

6. AFTER THE FIRST PARAGRAPH, PRESENT EXPANDED COPY. Your expanded copy should cover the features, benefits, proof, and other information the buyer needs to make a decision. This appeals to the prospect who needs more details than a short paragraph can provide.

7. STATE YOUR OFFER AND PROVIDE A RESPONSE LINK BOTH IN THE BEGINNING AND END OF YOUR MESSAGE.The offer and response link should be repeated in the close of the e-mail too. But when you include them in the very beginning, busy Internet users who dont have time to read and who give each e-mail only a second or two get the whole story.

8. LIMIT THE NUMBER OF CLICK-THROUGH LINKS IN YOUR E- MAIL TO THREE. 95 percent of click-through responses will come from the first two links. An exception would be an e-newsletter or e-zine that you’ve broken into five or six short items. In that case, each item is on a different subject, and therefore each has its own link.

9. FORMAT YOUR EMAIL USING A WIDE RIGHT MARGIN. You don’t want to have weird word wraps or breaks. Limit yourself to about 55 to 60 characters per line.

10. TAKE IT EASY ON THE ALL-CAPS. You can use words in all caps but do so carefully. They can be a little hard to read — and in the world of e- mail, all caps give the impression that you’re shouting.

11. IN GENERAL, SHORT IS BETTER. E-mail is a unique environment. Readers are quickly sorting through a bunch of messages and aren’t disposed to stick with you for a long time. Get to the point as quickly as you can. The key benefits and deal should be communicated in the first screen, or very soon afterward.

12. PROVIDE MORE INFORMATION THROUGH A LINK OR ATTACHMENT. If what you’re selling needs longer copy, then write your e-mail as a “pre-sell.” Your intent is not to sell with the e- mail. Rather, it is to get your reader to click through to a web page or to download a PDF or Word file with a longer sales pitch that will fully describe the product, its benefits, and your offer.

13. THE TONE IN YOUR WRITING SHOULD BE HELPFUL, FRIENDLY, INFORMATIVE, AND EDUCATIONAL. Avoid promotional or hard-sell copy. Joe Vitale says, “Information is the gold in cyberspace.” Trying to sell readers with a traditional hyped-up sales letter won’t work. People online want information and lots of it. You’ll have to add solid material to make it work online, Refrain from using empty, meaningless phrases. Be specific. And even though information is gold, readers don’t want to be bored. They seek, like all of us, excitement. Give it to them.

14. INCLUDE A PROMINENT PRIVACY STATEMENT AND EASY OPT-OUT METHOD TO USE. Doing so can prevent flaming from recipients who feel they have been spammed by stating that your intention is to respect their privacy, and making it easy for them to prevent further promotional e-mails from being sent to them.

15. USE SHORT STATEMENTS THAT TEASE THE READER. Short statements are effective both in your SUBJECT line and in the body copy of your e-mail message. Example: “Advice from Bill Gates” is better than “Bill Gates on Innovation.”

16. OFFER A “BRIBE.” Offers that contain a “bribe” — a discount, f*ree gift, buy one and get one fre*e — work extremely well in e-mail marketing.

17. WEAVE IN A CONTEST OR OFFER OF F^REE MONEY. Fre’e money is a powerful offer and, given the dynamics of online buying and the lifetime value of an Internet customer, it can often be profitable.

18. WHEN YOU HAVE A STRONG OFFER, PUT IT IN THE SUBJECT LINE AND THE LEAD-IN SENTENCE OF YOUR E- MAIL. Do not bury it midway in the text.

19. ENCOURAGE VIRAL MARKETING. Do not make the offer exclusive to the recipient of your e-mail. Encourage the recipient to forward the e-mail — and the offer — to as many friends and colleagues as they want.

20. MAKE SURE PEOPLE CAN PURCHASE YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE THROUGH ONLINE METHODS. People on opt-in e-lists overwhelmingly prefer to respond to Internet direct mail online vs. calling a toll- free number or printing out a reply form that has to be faxed or mailed offline. That doesnt mean you shouldnt offer those other response options as an alternative. But you should always have a link to a Web-based response form embedded in your e-mail message.

21. MAKE SURE BOTH YOUR E-MAIL AND THE RESPONSE FORM YOU SEND THE READER TO WORK TOGETHER. Most people think of an e-mail marketing campaign as having only one part: the e-mail. But in reality it has two parts: The e-mail the prospect receives, plus the Web-based response form he or she goes to from the link embedded in the message. The headline and copy at the top of the response page should carry the theme of the e-mail and motivate the reader to complete and submit the form.

22. USE YOUR E-MAIL TO GET THE READER TO ACCEPT A F’REE TRIAL. Rather than having to pay a subscription fee up front, hook your reader with an offer of a f^ree trial. This is the “try before you buy” concept, and it can be very powerful. A series of conversion e-mails then gives compelling reasons for the recipient to convert to a paid subscription.

23. PERSONALIZE THE E-MAIL. One way to get your email noticed among all the others in a reader’s mailbox is through personalization: adding customized information based on the prospects personal data or previous buying habits.

24. MAKE IT EASY TO OPT-OUT OF FUTURE MAILINGS. Always include an opt-out statement that makes it easy for recipients to prevent further promotional e-mails from being sent to them. Example: “We respect your online time and privacy, and pledge not to abuse this medium. If you prefer not to receive further e- mails from us of this type, please reply to this e-mail and type Remove in the subject line.”

25. LIMIT THE FREQUENCY OF YOUR E-MAILS. When e- mailing to your list, an ideal frequency seems to be twice a month. Make one of these e-mails an informative e-zine (a brief online newsletter); the other can be a special offer or promotion. Space them 2 weeks apart.

26. MAKE SURE YOUR E-ZINE IS MORE INFORMATIONAL THAN PROMOTIONAL. E-zines should be at least 80% news and useful information, with perhaps 20% of the content promotional.

27. ONLY MARKET THROUGH E-MAIL TO PEOPLE WHO “KNOW YOU.” This works two ways. First, it’s important that you send e-mails only to people who have actually opted in to be on your mailing list. E- mailing to anyone who hasn’t opted in is considered spam. Secondly, once you’ve created an e-mail list, be sure you spend some time just communicating and informing your subscribers before you ever try to blatantly sell them something. Build the trust relationship first, and they’ll want to buy from you.

28. GET AND USE TESTIMONIALS FROM SUBSCRIBERS AND THE MEDIA. The best testimonials are specific rather than superlative, and support the key points you are making in your copy.

29. INJECT A LITTLE PERSONALITY INTO ALL OF YOUR E-MAILS. It’s a proven fact that people respond more positively to those they like and trust. It’s also a fact that e-mail is a rather impersonal communication medium, consisting as it does of mostly words. Still, it IS possible to inject some personality into your copy. Informal — but not unprofessional or disrespectful — language will help. Some light humor can disarm defenses. So can sharing your own personal story. Share with your readers how the product you’re trying to sell them has helped you personally. Or how you’ve used the product to build your business.

30. ACCEPT THAT E-MARKETING IS A CONSTANT LEARNING PROCESS. Pay attention to the tips you’ve read in this article. Incorporate as many as you can in your future e-marketing efforts. But recognize that not every method works in every instance or with every e-mail recipient. You’ll find the most success if you pay attention to your response rates, try different things at different times, and embrace the value of trial-and-error. To paraphrase a famous quote, e-mail marketing is a process and a journey, not a destination. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Kathi MacNaughton is a freelance writer and owner of HomeSweetBiz.com, a web-based tutorial site for new and aspiring web entrepreneurs. Kathi is also the publisher/editor of the Home Biz Reporter, a weekly e-zine filled with proven tips and ideas for succeeding in home business, product reviews, f’ree or inexpensive resources for home-based Internet business people, and more. You can subscribe to Home Biz Reporter by sending a blank e-mail to homebizreporter@royal-responder.com. If you’d like to visit HomeSweetBiz, the URL is www.homesweetbiz.com. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About the Author

Kathi MacNaughton has been writing for more than two decades, on a wide variety of topics. Currently, she specializes in web content development for her own home Iinternet businesses, as well as for a variety of clients. Check out her flagship home biz tutorial site at www.homesweetbiz.com. Subscribe to the weekly ezine, Home Biz Reporter at homebizreporter@royal-responder.com.

“Free Press Release Submission Sources” – Get Free Publicity for your Product!Madhu Kumar

Entrepreneurs! You are trying several ways to reach people with your product. You might have tried free methods like free online & ezine ads, posting to FFAs, start page programs, banner exchanges and many more. But, are they much effective?
Entrepreneurs! You are trying several ways to reach people with your product. You might have tried free methods like free online & ezine ads, posting to FFAs, start page programs, banner exchanges and many more. But, are they much effective? No! You have spent hours and hours for that, but didn’t get good returns for your work. You can get good results by giving paid ads in ezines, using Pay per click search engines or publishing ads in printed news papers. But, these all need a good amount of money. How a new entrepreneur can afford this when he is in a tight budget? Then there is a good solution for this. It is ‘Press Release’ and Press Release submission is free!

For the publicity of your product, you can give ads in newspapers and magazines by spending hundreds or thousands of dollars. But those ads might not bring you many more customers because of lack of credibility. But a good Press Release can bring you heavy exposure! it gives more credibility to your product than an ad because it is recommended by an editor. The publishing of your Press Release even in a single media will bring 1000s of visitors to your website!

Now your problem is that how and where you can send your Press Release. Do a search in your favorite search engine for “Press Release”. In the search result, you will get many online PR services that will do the job for you for a fees ranging from $100 to $500. But, why pay them when you can do it for free? Here I am giving you some sources where you can post your PRs Free which will reach thousands of journalists and editors. Try them.

http://www.prweb.com/ PR Web is offering free online press release distribution services since 1997. Thousands of editors and journalists search their site. They get 2 million page views a month.

http://www.mrsmithmedia.com/ Here medias are listed in 12 categories. Send your PR to the editor directly from this site.

http://www.click2newsites.com/press.htm Announce your site and post your PR here.

http://www.webwire.com/ Submit your Press Release to the WebWire Community.

http://www.pr-scotland.com/ This site contains a free Press Release publishing service, a directory of PR Agencies and nationwide media contacts.

http://www.pressbox.co.uk/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi Submit your PR in the form given in this page.

http://www.kazor.com/BPR2002/newsPR.htm Submit your Business News or Press Release.

http://www.conservativeusa.org/megalink.htm Get email addresses of Talk Shows, Magazines, National Newspapers, Internet News Sites and TV Networks.

http://www.fair.org/media-contact-list.html Get email, phone number and contact addresses of Network & Cable Television, National Radio Programs, National Newspapers & Magazines and News Services.

http://www.mediapost.com/ Do a free registration here and get access to the media contact directory of 3,000 websites, 2,000 TV stations, 10,000 radio stations, 4,000 newspapers and 6,000 magazines.

Post your Press Release to all news papers in your country. The below given sites list all leading news papers in the world. Select your country and get email addresses of news papers by visiting each site. Then send your PR to them. http://www.onlinenewspapers.com http://www.newsdirectory.com http://www.allnewspapers.com

When you send a Press Release to an editor or journalist, it should be in a certain format. Otherwise the editors will trash your PR immediately. About ‘Press Release Writing’, in the next part.

About the Author

Madhu Kumar is the webmaster of AccurateFuturePrediction.com. Earn an amazing 50% commission through Clckbank by joining asa free affiliate. Predict your future using the eBook “The Secrets of I-Ching”.Now get 35% Discount. Also get Mega Bonuses. Visit: http://www.AccurateFuturePrediction.com

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Search Engine Marketing Secrets – The Modern Day Search Engine

Sunday, September 24th, 2006

The first task most netizens do when they log on to the internet is to visit their favorite search engine to find information on various topics. Over the past few years the search engine has evolved to do more than list available websites on an entered subject. The modern day search engine has tools to help the user accomplish a vast array of everyday task.

Search engine is a common term to describe a tool used to find relevant webpages on an entered subject. But, there are actually two types of search engines, the indexers like Google and Alta Vista that actually search the internet based on keywords, and the directories like Yahoo and Exactseek which provides a list of sites based on predefined categories. These two types of search engines provide the bulk of searches requested by users.

These engines help the user find everything from small sites like RecoveryPets.Com, who specialize in the global recovery of lost pets, located at http://www.recoverypets.com, or larger sites like WebMD who provide medical information for patients and doctors, and their website is http://www.webmd.com. But, these are just the basic services that these engines provide, and the everyday web surfer relies on the more advance features to successfully navigate the web.

Directories such as Yahoo that offer services for every age group of surfer, from chat groups to their find people services aimed at helping the surfer locate people they have not been in contact with for awhile. They also provide discussion groups to relate ideas with others that may share the surfers interest, and mail free mail services so that everyone on the internet can have a email address.

Indexers like Google provides their uses with a vast array of tools also, and the most used of these is their groups section that enable others to share ideas on different subjects and topics. The newest of these services offered by this indexer is Froogle, which is an online merchant center that allows users to find various products listed within their service, and finally is their images that allow you to enter a search term and view only the images of the term entered.

These search engines are user friendly so that the most novice of internet users can successfully navigate the web, and the most savvy internet surfers can use their advance features to accomplish the task they set out to do. Even though these are the most known search engines, there are thousands of smaller engines that are user specific on everything from family to travel planning, it is up to you to support these engines so that they can continue bring us the services we use.

Although this is just a small listing of the services provided by search engines, and every engine is different, we suggest that a wide variety of engines be visited to find out the services they provide. As is evident the modern day search engine has evolved greatly from just a site listing service, and with time they will be able to bring searchers more services that aid the everyday netizen in the quest to navigate the internet more efficiently.

About The Author

Thaddeus Collins is the owner of RecoveryPets.Com and they specialize in the global recovery of lost pets using a unique tracking number. For more information visit http://www.recoverypets.com.

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