Internet Marketing - How To Start And Grow Your Internet Business - Online Marketing

The Importance of Search Engine Optimization /Search Engine Marketing for B2B Marketers – Part 1 of 2

2008-01-29T03:21:00.001-08:00

Is Search Engine Marketing cost effective enough to increase profits for B2B marketers? You bet, and here’s why. It’s always been conventional wisdom that the fastest and most efficient way to research products and pricing is on the Web. Now Enquiro has documented survey research on the role of search engines in B2B transactions.

As you know, B2B transactions differ from most consumer transactions because these decisions require coordination between a number of different personnel before the final transaction is made. Therefore, the process requires a period of time between researching the product and placing the order. It’s an ongoing rather than snap decision.

“The Role of Search in Business to Business Buying Decisions” is a well-designed study of approximately 1500 participants responding to a 40-question survey that was validated with pre-testing before implementation. You can download the entire report for free, and here are a few highlights:

When participants were asked to indicate how they would go about making a B2B purchase, 93.2 percent said they would research the purchase online.
When asked if they would use a search engine at some point in this task, 95.5 percent of participants indicated that they would.
When asked where they would start their search for information, 63.9 percent of participants chose a search engine over consumer review sites, e-commerce sites, manufacturer’s sites, and industry portals.
When taking budget into consideration, manufacturer’s sites and industry portals were the chosen starting place as budgets increased. However, 86.9 percent of participants said they would visit a search engine after visiting those sites.

The study is rich with too many details to cover in this article, but following are some important conclusions:

Search engines play a dominant role in B2B purchases.
Search engines are used in the early or mid research phase in the buying cycle.
Google is favored over other search engines.
Search engine research takes place at least one to two months before the buying decision.
Good balance between organic and paid search is necessary. Organic SEO gets over 70 percent of the clicks.
Position is a factor, with over 60 percent clicking on the top 3 listings.
Most users decide which listing to click on in seconds upon scanning the page.

With all this qualified traffic originating from search engines, it is more important than ever for B2B marketers, wholesalers, and B2B exchanges to ensure their Web sites are correctly optimized for good positioning in search results. There is also great value in SEO/SEM as a user-friendly marketing tool.

The Uniqueness of Search Engine Marketing

Search engine traffic is highly targeted. That's because potential buyers who find your B2B offerings through search engines are looking for your products and services on their own, so they are predisposed to hear your marketing message. You can’t find a more qualified prospect than that. Here’s what distinguishes search engine marketing from other types of advertising
:

Non-Intrusive: Search marketing is a non-intrusive marketing tool. Most advertising, both online and offline, interrupts consumer behavior. If a user goes to a web site for info, up pops an intrusive ad. Reading a newspaper? Ads dominate and force articles to be continued on another page. With search engine marketing, the user is actively seeking your products, services, and information. They are delighted to be driven to your site.

Voluntary: Search marketing is the result of user-originated behavior. Your visitors from search engines and directories have voluntarily clicked on your listing rather than any competitors, thus they are motivated to explore your offerings.

How good is the ROI? How effective is search engine marketing and optimization for B2B? What are the key-points to consider regarding a B2B search engine optimization and marketing plan? Please join me next month for Part 2 when we examine the answers to these questions.

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Search Engine Use Increases Sharply, Edging Towards Email as the Primary Internet Application

2008-01-28T05:02:00.000-08:00

Search engines have become an increasingly important part of the online experience of American internet users. The most recent findings from Pew Internet & American Life tracking surveys and consumer behavior trends from the comScore Media Metrix consumer panel show that about 60 million American adults are using search engines on a typical day.

These results from September 2005 represent a sharp increase from mid-2004. Pew Internet Project data from June 2004 show that use of search engines on a typical day has risen from 30% of the internet population to 41%. This means that the number of those using search engines on an average day jumped from roughly 38 million in June 2004 to about 59 million in September 2005 – an increase of about 55%.

comScore data show that from September 2004 to September 2005 the average daily use of search engines jumped from 49.3 million users to 60.7 million users – an increase of 23%.

This means that the use of search engines is edging up on email as a primary internet activity on any given day. The Pew Internet Project data show that on a typical day, email use is still the top internet activity. On any given day, about 52% of American internet users are sending and receiving email.

These findings have considerable consequences for the way people gather and use information online and the way e-commerce is conducted.

“Most people think of the internet as a vast library and they increasingly depend on search engines to help them find everything from information about the people who interest them, to transactions they want to conduct, organizations they need to deal with, and interesting factoids that help them settle bar bets and backyard arguments,” said Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet Project.

“The evolution of search engines as everyday consumer Web tools has made them a vital resource for marketers,” said James Lamberti, vice president of comScore Networks. “Search engines are obviously a critical vehicle in reaching consumers during the buy cycle, but they also offer a rich source for consumer profiling, segmentation, and measurement of product demand. To-date, we have only witnessed the preliminary impact of search engines on e-commerce.”

The latest data from comScore show that Google was the most heavily used search engine in October 2005 with 89.8 million unique visitors, followed by Yahoo! Search (68 million unique visitors), MSN Search (49.7 million unique visitors), Ask Jeeves (43.7 million unique visitors), and AOL Search (36.1 million unique visitors).

The Pew Internet Project findings cited in this report come from a nationally representative telephone survey of 2,251 American adults (age 18 and older), including 1,577 internet users, between September 13-October 14, 2005. The margin of error on the internet user portion of the survey is plus or minus 3%.

The comScore data cited in this report come from comScore Media Metrix, an internet audience measurement service that uses a massive cross-section of more than 1.5 million U.S. consumers who have given comScore explicit permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing.

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Pay For Action Adsense – A Fundamental Problem

2008-01-28T04:29:00.001-08:00

Ever inventive, Google has been sending out emails to select Adsense publishers regarding a new pay for action program. This is bad news for publishers promoting Adsense.

Pay For Action Adsense

If you are reading this, you probably know what Adsense is and are using it. If not, it is a program whereby Google allows sites to place ads from the Adwords program on their site. When a visitor to your site clicks one of the ads, you get a cut of the bid price from Google. It is a simple program that surprisingly generates a significant amount of revenue.

Google is now beta testing a new version of Adsense it is calling pay for action. While Google is not providing much information, the program apparently is an attempt to convert Adsense into one giant affiliate program. Instead of paying publishers for clicks on ads, the program will only pay a commission if a person clicks on one of the ads on your site and takes the relevant action on the advertiser’s site. In this case, it appears the action is buying whatever is offered or becoming a lead. In exchange for killing the click revenue aspect of Adsense, you apparently get a cut off the commission for whatever revenue is generated by the advertiser from your traffic.

There are a number of problems with this approach. First, Google offers no explanation of how it will account for sites that list phone numbers for orders, a method used by customers that Google can’t hope to track. Second, Google has offered no indication of how revenues will be generated from sites offering services such as lawyers, doctors and so on. A vast majority of people clicking onto these sites will telephone or email the business, which makes tracking a very difficult game. Admittedly, the program is in beta testing, so Google may come up with solutions for all of these issues. There is, however, a more fundamental problem.

The pay for action program contains one inherent flaw. It eliminates the motivation of the advertiser to have a good, fast site that converts and proper customer service. All indications are the advertisers will be able to use the platform for free and only pay commissions to Google which are split with us, the publishers. If so, what motivation does the advertiser have to improve their site? What motivation does the advertiser have to satisfy customers? In my honest opinion, the answer is very little. Yes, they want to get more sales, but what do they really care if they are getting a bunch of free traffic?

y for action program contains one inherent flaw. It eliminates the motivation of the advertiser to have a good, fast site that converts and proper customer service. All indications are the advertisers will be able to use the platform for free and only pay commissions to Google which are split with us, the publishers. If so, what motivation does the advertiser have to improve their site? What motivation does the advertiser have to satisfy customers? In my honest opinion, the answer is very little. Yes, they want to get more sales, but what do they really care if they are getting a bunch of free traffic?

If I told you I would send you 100,000 visitors a day and you had to pay me a commission only on sales, how much would you work to improve the site? Be honest. Perhaps you would work on it for a month or so, but after that human nature would take over. We all know of sites out there that haven’t been touched in years because they have so many affiliates producing tons of traffic that they can just kick back and collect cash.

I fully understand that Google is trying to deal with click fraud, click bots and so on. Perhaps the pay for action program will be the solution when it is ultimately finalized. Perhaps it will be the greatest thing since, well, Google. My experience, however, is that a majority of affiliate programs are iffy at best, otherwise I would be promoting them instead of Adsense!

Again, it is to early to draw any conclusions regarding Google’s move, but people with Adsense ads on their site should take notice. This is a fundamental change that redistributes the risks and benefits of the Adsense program. I bet Yahoo is salivating about the prospects for its Publisher Network if Google goes ahead. Personally, I planned to stay with Adsense for as long as it was offered, but have my doubts now. If I wanted to partner with other sites, I would have done it a long time ago.

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Beyond the 30 Second Spot: Marketers Adding Alternatives to Television Advertising

2008-01-28T04:24:00.001-08:00

Seventy-eight percent of marketers feel that TV advertising has become less effective in the past two years

New York, NY (March 22, 2006) - A new survey, released today by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR), found that 78% of advertisers feel that traditional television advertising has become less effective in the past two years. The survey also found that marketers are exploring emerging technologies to help bolster their television advertising spend.

The joint survey asked 133 national advertisers about their attitudes towards TV advertising and what impact new technologies, such as digital video recorders (DVRs) and video-on-demand, will have on their TV advertising budgets. Those surveyed represent more than $20 billion worth of advertising, including marketers from Charles Schwab, Colgate, Dunkin' Donuts, Johnson & Johnson, Mattel, Pfizer, and Verizon.

"As DVRs look to climb above 30 million households in the next three years, advertisers are finding themselves forced to reconsider their media mix," said Josh Bernoff, Vice President, Forrester Research, who presented the findings today at the ANA Television Advertising Forum in New York. "Television networks continue to publish research that traditional TV advertising is potent as ever, but national advertisers aren't buying it and are seeking alternatives to enhance their budgets and move them beyond the customary 30-second spot."

Key highlights of the ANA/Forrester survey include:

- Almost 70% of advertisers think that DVRs and video-on-demand will reduce or destroy the effectiveness of traditional 30-second commercials.

- When DVRs spread to 30 million homes, close to 60% of advertisers say that they will spend less on conventional TV advertising; of those, 24% will cut their TV budgets by at least 25%.

- While 55% say that their top executives are closely watching changes in TV advertising, most advertisers have not experimented with advertising on DVRs (49%) or video-on-demand (44%).

- Eighty percent of advertisers will spend more of their advertising budget on Web advertising and 68% of advertisers will look to search engine marketing.

- Advertisers are also looking at alternatives to traditional TV advertising and will spend more of their advertising budgets on: branded entertainment within TV programs (61%); TV program sponsorships (55%); interactive advertising during TV programs (48%); online video ads (45%); and product placement (44%).

- Ninety-seven percent of advertisers agree that the TV industry will need new audience metrics - other than reach and frequency - to report commercial ratings, not just program ratings to effectively measure TV advertising.

"The television industry as we have known it may be challenged on a number of fronts, but continues to attract a significant media investment by ANA marketers," said Bob Liodice, President and CEO of the ANA. "As new and traditional media alternatives compete more aggressively for a share of the media pie, and marketers look to improve consumer targeting, reduce costs and enhance accountability, television is aggressively responding. With technology-based advances in addressability, enhanced television options, Internet convergence (IPTV) and branded entertainment opportunities, television is likely to continue as the dominant part of the marketing mix."

A full report on the survey findings will be available in the near future through Forrester Research (www.forrester.com). This is the third ANA/Forrester Research survey of advertisers on this topic. Previous surveys were fielded in 2002 and 2004.

How Customer-Focused is Your Website? Stalking the Narcissistic Web

2008-01-17T23:42:00.001-08:00

You’re at a dinner reception. The stranger next to you strikes up a conversation.

It only takes a few minutes before you realize: “This guy’s completely self-absorbed.” No matter how hard you try, every topic leads back to him. Soon, you find yourself inching away.

Guess what? You can find the same thing on the web. Sites that are egocentric. More interested in talking about themselves than solving customer problems. However, unlike the dinner reception situation, your escape from a self-absorbed website is quick and painless.

(Although there are offenders across the board, the biggest culprits seem to be business-to-business companies and small- to mid-sized firms.)

To heck with product benefits or helping prospects and customers solve their problems – the narcissistic website dwells on the company’s spectacularly engineered offerings, their superior manufacturing techniques, the brilliance of their people, the company’s offices. Is there a place for bragging? Sure, but it’s secondary to the customer’s issues. Too many websites forget this.

When you consider that the average visitor has an attention span measured in seconds, and that he scans the web instead of reading every word, a narcissistic website has the same effect as a narcissistic tablemate: it turns people off.

In contrast, an intelligent website doesn’t leave a visitor stranded, searching for the customer benefits of the company’s products or services. It:

¨ Provides clear statements that are customer benefit oriented

¨ Supports its claims (often using customer and third party support)

¨ Proactively addresses potential objections

¨ Ushers the visitor into a dialogue

Let’s look at a very simple before-and-after example.

We’re at the website of a widget manufacturer. Their target market? Widget buyers from manufacturing firms.

The homepage leads off with:

"Since 1908, Acme Widget has precision-manufactured more than 10,000 varieties of widgets. What’s the Acme difference? State-of-the-art technology – including the latest laser manufacturing techniques – along with six sigma processes to ensure the highest quality."

Sound good to you? Where does the customer fit in?

While prospects and customers care a lot about the companies they deal with, they care first and foremost about their own needs. In this instance: “How will Acme Widget solve my problems?”

Here’s another take on the copy:

“Whether you are looking for red, green, purple or color matched widgets, no other company offers a wider selection, faster delivery or more production-friendly engineered designs than Acme Widget.

Independent tests show that using the Acme ViperWidget can result in improving your production speeds by as much as 35%, while significantly reducing defective rates over traditional widgets.

Great selection. Fast delivery. Increased production speeds and reduced defectives for lower overall manufacturing costs. One name. Acme.

Download our free white paper, ‘Increasing Your Production Speed while Lowering Defectives with Better Engineered Widgets,” highlighting the recent tests of more than five hundred widgets conducted by independent testing laboratory, International Widget Laboratories."

This time, the copy speaks to the interests of the customer. Customer problems – and Acme’s solution – stand front and center. Note, I still referred to the Acme's engineering abilities. The difference here is that the reference to engineering is now linked to customer benefits.

Imagine a widget buyer visiting two sites: one with the first copy, the other with the second.

¨ With the first site, the buyer learns a little about the company, but not enough to differentiate it from the competition. And not nearly enough to understand, and appreciate, the benefits of doing business with the firm.

¨ At the second site, the buyer learns about the company’s wide selection, fast delivery, exceptional production speeds and lower defect rates. All strengths she can quickly grasp. What’s more, the white paper provides third-party support – validation – for the company’s claims.

The underlying concept is simple and an underlying marketing communications truth. The most effective marketing communications puts your customers and prospects first, not your company. By focusing on customer and prospect needs, you are more likely to fulfill your company's needs.

As obvious as this statement would appear, it is similarly obvious that many marketers don't really follow it.

A Quick Check-up to Find if Your Company Website is a Narcissist

Pretend you are a customer visiting your company's website for the first time. Write down five key concerns you have related to purchasing these kinds of products or services or choosing a company that you feel (or marketing research indicates) reflects the key concerns of your target market when researching companies like yours. Spend up to one minute at your website. Close the browser. How many of your five key concerns were addressed? How well did they address your concerns? A brief amount of copy addressing a key concern and a link to more detail is fine; no mention of these concerns is not.

Did the web page copy get to the heart of your concern or was it focused on the itself instead of the prospects needs? Use what you have learned to further test your website in front of real prospects and customers. Find out their most important problems they are hoping your website will help them answer and re-design your website around helping them.

It’s your choice: propaganda that only ends up stroking your company's ego or profits.

Top Five Biggest Affiliate Program Mistakes

2007-12-29T03:12:00.000-08:00

In this article I will show affiliate managers the mistakes they should avoid if they want to build a successful affiliate program.

I felt compelled to write this article after seeing the same mistakes made by most of the hundreds of affiliate programs I have joined since I started promoting them in 1997. I have made a nice living from affiliate programs over the years, so I know a thing or two about them. I would dearly love to make more money with affiliate programs, but affiliate managers don't make it easy for us affiliates. So hopefully this article will do a bit for the cause.

Here are my top five biggest affiliate program mistakes that I find today:

1. Competing With Your Affiliates.

This is by far the worst mistake made by companies that offer affiliate programs. I often see companies for products I am trying to promote compete with me in the search engine rankings and pay per click advertising programs.

Why companies invest money and resources in competing with their affiliates is beyond me. By competing with me, you're trying to put me out of business. Have marketing directors ever thought of it in that way? Because if you succeed, you will no longer have an affiliate network to speak of.

The money would be better spent on supporting your affiliate network by creating a better product, providing more referral statistics, higher commission payouts, faster support, and more, fresh promotional creatives.

So if you're an affiliate manager reading this article, tell your affiliate director at your next meeting to STOP competing with your affiliates, and support them instead!

2. Not Providing Your Affiliates With Useful, Real-Time Statistics.

All marketers rely on statistics to measure the effectiveness of any marketing campaign. Yet most affiliate programs only provide their affiliates with basic statistics such as number of visitors sent, number of sales, and commission earned. These statistics aren't much help to affiliates who want to measure the effectiveness of a particular pay per click campaign.

Affiliate managers - please consider providing these useful statistics so that I can market your products effectively:

Archive of daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly statistics and by date range.
Commission earned, broken down by product or service, and how the customer was referred to the site.

Daily email update of all affiliate statistics.

Instant email notification of a new affiliate.

Instant email notification of a new free trial sign up.

Instant email notification of a new sale and all relevant statistics. I love getting new sales notification emails!

Number of free trial downloads or subscriptions.

Number of returns and all relevant statistics.

Affiliate links with trackable IDs, so that affiliates can tell exactly which site, or ad campaign is sending the referrals and sales.

Unique clicks - which refers to the unique number of visitors referred - in addition to raw clicks - which refers to the total number of click throughs.

A list of top performing affiliate statistics, so that affiliates can compare how they're doing and which areas they can improve on.

Include the most important statistics at the top of the email and subject line. There's nothing worse than having to scroll down to see what the referral purchased or how much commission I have made.

The following only apply if the affiliate program offers more than one level of commissions.

Commission earned as a result of referrals sent by 2nd-tier affiliates.

Commission earned, broken down by commission level.

Number of 2nd-tier affiliates referred.

I've been promoting products and services via affiliate programs since 1997 and I have yet to come across an affiliate program that provides anything close to these statistics.

3. Not Compensating Your Affiliates Fairly For Their Hard Work.

The #1 incentive for any affiliate is cold hard cash. Money sells! So tell your marketing director to fire the search engine optimization firm and advertising department, and redirect the resources to paying your affiliates a higher commission rate.

Another thing I hate is seeing my commissions go down the drain because someone I had referred signs up to the affiliate program and purchases the product via their affiliate link. It almost feels like I'm being robbed blind! I highly recommend affiliate managers deter this practice by making it harder for affiliates to pocket the commission from their own purchases, at least the initial one.

4. Not Providing Enough Fresh Promotional Creatives.

Most affiliate managers seem to give their promotional creatives little thought. All they offer is a handful of 468x60 banners, buttons and text links. What happens is that affiliates end up using the same ads on hundreds, even thousands of web sites.

Affiliate managers - what about these promotional creatives?

Articles and tips with embedded affiliate links

Classified ads

Customer testimonials

Direct email ads

Email signatures

Newsletter ads

pay per click ads

Pop-up/under ads

Product photographs

Product reviews

Product screenshots

Rich-media ads

Skyscrapers

Staff interviews

Listen up! Different ads perform better on different sites. And ads generally have a life span of a carton of milk. So offer your affiliates a greater variety of ads, more often.

5. Not Providing Fast, Quality Support For Your Affiliates.

This is the 21st century. Don't make your affiliates wait longer for an email reply than it takes to send a letter by snail-mail post.
Don't outsource your affiliate support work. If you have to, then at least train your support staff so that they understand the ins and outs of your products and affiliate program. I'm often dumbfounded by affiliate support staff who can't give me answers to simple questions.

Well there you have it - my five biggest complaints about affiliate programs today. I hope affiliate managers take note and take strides to better support their affiliates, because if you don't, affiliates will find other ways to make money on their site.

Streamline Your Business & Increase Your Profits with Autoresponders

2007-11-27T00:20:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it’s tough to keep up with all your leads and customers. The great news is, there is a not-so-secret weapon that successful netpreneurs use..and you can use it too. Autoresponders not only make you efficient, they can also help you increase your recruiting rate and sales with constant follow-up.

What is an Autoresponder?

Simply put, an Autoresponder sends an automated response when someone sends a message to your email address. It can be just one message or it can trigger a series of email messages. Autoresponders can be personalized with people’s names and other information unique to that individual.

Autoresponders do not have to be impersonal, so banish that thought from your mind. You are likely a sole proprietor; think of autoresponders as your assistant that works for next to nothing.
How to Use Autoresponders in Your Online Business
-> Customer Follow-Up: When a customer makes a purchase through an online source, it’s easy to send an auto-reply that thanks them for their order.

But you can get more advanced than that and automate most of your customer service requirements. You can set up a whole series of follow up messages that show your customer that you are concerned with their satisfaction and even pave the way to further sales.
For example, send a thank you immediately after the sale, a day or two later to say the item was shipped and then a week later to ensure the item arrived in good condition. You can also send tips on how to use the product and subtly let them know about your complimentary products (more sales!).

Many Autoresponders are sophisticated enough that you can insert your customer’s name, what she bought and other information unique to that customer.

-> Support eMail Autoresponse: Many times people will email you to ask a question already found on your FAQ page, right? Include some of your frequently asked questions and answers automatically when someone tries to reach your support email. Often, her question will be answered before you even get a chance to look at the support request.

-> eCourses: Offer ecourses via email autoresponder. For example, set up an informative course on how to run a home business or how to create a baby scrapbook. Each day or each week (you decide frequency), your prospect receives a new informative lesson and is reminded of the business opportunity you have available.

You can put a sign up box on your website, offer the course in your email signature line or recommend that your downline sign up for the course. The possibilities are endless.

-> Potential Recruit Follow-up: When somebody requests more information from you about your business opportunity or affiliate program, what do you do? Call them, email them once and maybe follow up a few days later…if you remember? You can actually do better than that. Set up a whole series of messages to be delivered every few days for a couple of weeks giving your potential recruit more great information about your opportunity.

Your potential recruit is likely investigating a number of opportunities, make sure yours is always on her mind.

-> Automated Newsletter: When someone signs up for your mailing list, you can set them up to receive a series of pre-written emails. This means that "subscriber A" can sign up today and start receiving emails from the beginning of your series, while "subscriber B" and "subscriber C" can be elsewhere in the series.

By pre-writing your newsletter, you always have material to offer new subscribers and you can ensure all subscribers receive all of your great issues. Your newsletter doesn't need to be complicated, just some nice, short, sweet and to-the-point emails packed with some great tips (and of course topped off with some promotion of your company’s products) will do. When you have a sale or special announcement, you can easily send out special notices to your mailing list too.

How to Find a Good Autoresponder

Check with your company’s website hosting provider. They may already have some simple autoresponders available. Usually, these will allow you to send out a single autoresponse to incoming emails.
There are a number of good autoresponder products on the market that allow for sophisticated contact management and follow up. You can read autoreponder reviews on Internet Based Moms.

How To Setup A Successful Online Business In 7 Easy Steps

2007-11-13T01:58:00.001-08:00

Do you want your own online business? No more than ever it is possible to start a business quickly and inexpensively. Below are seven steps you can follow that will help you start off in the right direction every time.

1. Find a product to sell. You can create the product yourself. You can sell an affiliate product on a commission basis, or you can find a private label rights product that allows you to edit and resell as your own product. The product can be an ebook in a pdf format, or audio format. Video or software could be the product as well. If you are enthusiastic about the product and believe in it, you will have an easier time selling it.

2. Register a domain name that fits your product. If at all possible, include the key words that relate to the product in the domain name. Since domain names are not very expensive these days register several similar names. The content would be basically the same in each one.

3. Find a web host that is reliable and affordable. Make sure the web host has an easy to use control panel so you can upload your web pages yourself. Many of the most popular hosts use CPanel which is very easy for you to master quickly.

4. Create a small website or have someone create it for you. Some websites are only one page long, although it's a very long one page. Others are only three or four pages of content. There are free website sales page templates you can search for and use in your site. When writing the content for the sales page stress the attributes of your product. Make sure your headline grabs the visitors attention and pulls them into the copy. If you include endorsements or testimonials make sure they are from real people. Ask for the sale more than once and include a link to the order page.

5. Set up a payment processor. PayPal is quick, free and easy to set up. There is a fee to process the transactions. This fee is taken right out of each sale so you do not need to keep records. Tell your visitors they do not have to have a PayPal account to use PayPal, they can use their credit card. You have access to your money and can withdraw the money nearly immediately.

Clickbank is another alternative. Clickbank takes longer to get your account approved and there is a fee to set up the account. Like Paypal, there is a fee per transaction and a percentage based on the price of the product sold through Clickbank.

6. Be sure to set up product delivery as instant and automatic. Doing this serves your best interest as you do not waste a lot of time emailing the product or download link to the customer after they have paid. And it serves your customer's best interest since they do not have to wait to download their product.

7. Drive targeted traffic to your website. You can use search engine optimization and keywords research. One fantastic approach is article placement in ezine directories. You can participate in discussion forums. And one of the newer marketing methods is social bookmarking.

True these seven steps do not go into any great technical, this is because to much detail would only slow you down in the beginning. There will be plenty of time later to learn the technical side of everything. For now, just get started.

New Internet Marketing Opportunities Through RSS

2007-11-05T21:28:00.000-08:00

When it comes to new internet marketing opportunities for your business, RSS just might be the answer you were looking for. Here are just some of the new opportunities it can provide you with ?

1. Podcasting and Videocasting

Podcasting (delivering internet audio content) and Videocasting (delivering internet video content) allow you to communicate via rich media messages, not only making your content more attractive and powerful, but also enabling a more personal ?conversation? with your audiences.

Up until know, the internet was predominantly a textual channel. Adding audio and video to the mix, delivering both via RSS, goes beyond the basic capabilities provided by ?traditional? internet content delivery channels.
Rich media personalizes the internet experience and gives your company a distinguishable face, while at the same time providing you with a media platform to convey your message so that it is easier to understand, see and feel.

Think about ...

Delivering press releases in audio or video
Sending your customers a personal video message from the CEO
Doing audio interviews to expand your reach and provide more content to your visitors
Delivering video demonstrations of your products
Using video and audio to demonstrate how your customers and readers can easily resolve various issues that you are helping them with
Delivering important messages to your readers, customers and business partners via a more personal audio experience, instead of using impersonal e-mail communications
And so on ...

In addition, Podcasting and Videocasting form the basis of new business models, giving you the opportunity to expand your product base to include these formats with higher perceived value.

Customer education & support are improved as well, since you can now demonstrate key product usage points via online video  providing customer support content in a format, which can easily demonstrate everything you need to convey to your customers.

2. High Frequency Content Updates

High frequency content updates, even on a daily or hourly basis, are now finally possible with RSS. No more need to hold on your important messages, news and other content for a week or even a month to include it in your e-zine --- with RSS you can update your content as often as you want/need, and your subscribers won't mind.

3. Appcasting

Appcasting goes one step further, giving you the ability to deliver critical software updates and patches to your existing clients, without them having to visit your web site every week to see if the much needed update is already available or not.

4. Product News, Releases And Updates

Product news, releases and updates are now finally possible in an easy-to-consume way. Using RSS, you can provide your customers or prospects with simple tools to create their own ?product feeds?, through which they'll be immediately notified when new products that precisely match their interests are available.

As soon as your product portfolio changes, so does the content in the RSS feeds that your customers are subscribed to.

Just think of the following possibilities ...

--> The search tool is one of the most often used in larger web stores, giving your visitors an easy way to find the products they are interested. But the same search results can be delivered via RSS as well. Imagine your customer doing a search for one of your product categories, and then also receiving a link to the RSS feed for those very same search results, to find out immediately when a new product matching his terms is released or available for order.

--> This works for complex searches as well. If your customers are in the habit of searching for specific product categories, but only in a specific price range, you can deliver those very same results to them via RSS, but with a small twist ---> as soon as a new product matching their terms, including the desired price, is launched, they are notified about it via RSS instantly. No need to visit your site again to do the time-consuming search; the release comes directly to them.

--> Of course, the same approach that many are already using for e-mail alerts can be used for RSS. Give your visitors a simple form using which they enter their criteria, and then give them access to an RSS feed bringing them product updates based exactly on their criteria. Why not just use e-mail? Because no one really wants more e-mail messages in their inboxes and no one wants to give away their personal information, while RSS is anonymous, doesn't require an e-mail address and is read when the customer decides he has the time.

5. Personalized Content Services

Personalized/customized database listings are quite similar to product updates, but relate to any kind of complex information you provide to your visitors, such as ?

Job listings
Dating
Real estate
Etc.

Using RSS, your visitors can decide exactly what kind of ?content? (in this case, an individual content item could be a new job listing) they are looking for and then have that content delivered directly to them, via their own personalized RSS feed.

And yet, all of these are just some examples of what you can do with RSS. The possibilities for new content delivery & business development models are quite endless.

For example, some companies are already giving their visitors the opportunity to track their FedEx, UPS and other packages via RSS feeds. Yet others are creating new services that allow you to receive critical information from an RSS feed to your mobile phone via SMS (such as getting an SMS notifying you that a new job matching your criteria is available). Yet again other sites enable you to keep track of when you need to return your library material, and even when your holds are ready and when they are about to expire, all this using RSS.

All of these are new business opportunities made possible with RSS, and each of them in a way improves lives of end-users, without placing a larger burden (more e-mail messages) on them.

How to Get E-zine Subscribers

2007-10-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

Forward: The e-zine related question I hear most often is "How do I build an email mailing list if I cannot email people first?"

I suggest several tactics, including putting an invitation to join on all invoices and in your email sig line. Here, Alexandria Brown suggests some others. Enjoy. - Bobette Kyle, Publisher and Author of the marketing plan and Web promotion book "How Much for Just the Spider? Strategic Web Site Marketing".

While I run my business completely online, I really enjoy attending in-person events and seminars here in Los Angeles and around the country. I'm sure you find these events valuable too. The problem most of us have with networking, however, is following up with the people we meet.

An easy way to follow-up powerfully and automatically is to turn these folks into e-zine subscribers. This ensures that you'll have the chance to repeatedly teach them how great your products/services are while building their trust in you.

But how do you "capture" people in person? Remember, you can NEVER sign someone up unless they specifically ask you to be signed up — it's unethical.

So you need to encourage people you meet in person to join your list, and make it easy for them. And I have three successful strategies to share with you.

1) Advertise Your E-zine on Your Business Card (or Brochure)

Nothing gets passed around at a networking event more than the good old business card. But what's on the BACK of your cards?

Nothing?

Well, from now on you're going to use that valuable real estate. Next time you print new cards, use the flip side! Create a brief message that promotes your e-zine and gives information on how to subscribe. When someone you meet looks at your business card again when she's back at the office, she'll be much more likely to subscribe when she sees the reminder on your card.

As an example, here's what I have on the back of my new cards:

"Promote your business with an e-zine! Sign up for FREE biweekly tips at www.EzineQueen.com."

BONUS: This strategy also gets these people to visit your Web site, which they may not have done otherwise.

If you aren't ready to print new cards for a while, use your computer to print your message onto labels, and affix them to the backs of your cards. Cheap and easy!

2) Follow Up With Each Person You Meet Via E-Mail

After each event I go to, I aim to follow up with every person I met with via e-mail within three days. In that e-mail, I remind the person that she can sign up for my FREE tips at my Web site. Here's an example of a note I sent out recently:

"Dear Margaret,

It was a pleasure to chat with you at [EVENT NAME HERE] last Thursday. I'd like to learn more about your business and how we can help each other. Perhaps we can meet for coffee next week?

In the meantime, you may enjoy my FREE weekly e-zine "Straight Shooter Marketing" that gives tips on how to market yourself online. I write it for small business owners just like you! You can learn more and sign up at www.EzineQueen.com

Take care and let's stay in touch.

Best, Alexandria K. Brown, 'The E-zine Queen'"

Once again, this strategy also gets these people to visit your Web site, which they may not have done otherwise. (Very cool, yes?)

3) Are you the Speaker? Pass Around a Signup Sheet or Collect Cards

Whenever I'm the featured speaker at an event, I make sure to give the audience members an easy way to sign up for my e-zine. I either pass around a signup sheet to collect their names and e-mail addresses, OR I collect business cards when I draw a winner for a free book.

If you use the business card method, tell the audience to write an "E" for e-zine on their card — this lets you know they want to be signed up for your newsletter. Some speakers do the opposite, and tell the audience that if they do NOT want to be subscribed to their e-zine, to put a "NO" on their card, but I'm more comfortable with the former method.

Remember, Your List Is Your Goldmine!

People you meet in person will be very valuable subscribers, because they've already met you. And we're all more likely to buy from others whom we know, like, and trust.

Your in-person meeting will start that process, and your e-zine will follow-through for you, automatically!

(c) 2003 Alexandria K. Brown

About the Author
Alexandria K. Brown, “The E-zine Queen,” is author of the award-winning manual, “Boost Business With Your Own E-zine.” To learn more about her book and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at http://www.ezinequeen.com.

2007-10-11T16:51:00.000-07:00

Jill Whalen is well known for her search engine optimization talents. She’s equally well known for her ezine, High Rankings Advisor. From its inception in 2000 until today, she has built an exceptionally loyal subscriber base of over 15,000 that would literally follow her to the ends of the ‘Net and back. How did she do it? We’re about to find out!

Karon Thackston: Hi Jill… thanks for your time.

Jill Whalen: No problem, Karon.

Karon Thackston: Let me start with this…. many people decide to create an ezine simply because “everybody else has one.” Why did you choose to launch a newsletter?

Jill Whalen: Well, for years, I was a heavy poster to many email discussion lists, and I had lots of people asking me to do a newsletter. Since I was always giving out free advice anyway, it made sense to share it with more people. When I made the decision to give it a whirl back in 2000, I had a partner. Together we decided on a name, created a Web site for it, and figured out how to host it, etc.

Karon Thackston: Now, you told me that you split from your partner later on. When that happened, how did you handle the "conversion”?

Jill Whalen: When we decided to part ways, we had over 9,000 subscribers, and there was no way I was gonna start over from zero! We agreed to each get a copy of the subscriber list and go from there. We mentioned what was happening to the subscribers, and that we would now have two separate newsletters. Anyone who wanted them both didn't have to do anything, and from that point forward, anyone could separately unsubscribe or subscribe to either of them on our respective sites.

Karon Thackston: Seems pretty easy. So basically, except for having some subscribers, you really had to start all over again, didn’t you?

Jill Whalen: Well, the experience was there, too. I had been doing the list admin work for the other ezine for years, so it was easy for me to simply contact the list host and have them convert it over to the High Rankings Advisor. The hard part was coming up with the new name! When I did finally come up with the High Rankings Advisor name, I was happy with it. I think most people don't spend enough time thinking about their newsletter names. We see the same names recycled between different newsletter publishers. I really believe it's important to be original and creative. Newsletter names don't come easy. They take a lot of time and effort to really come up with one that's exactly right for your publication. Like everything else you do with your newsletter, you should never just rush it. Once you do think of a name, you should check around to make sure nobody beat you to it. I had one I thought was great, but when I checked, someone else in my "space" was using something very similar.

Karon Thackston: I agree. Since the launching of Business Essentials, I’ve found three or four other email newsletters that have very similar names. Now, you have way more than 9,000 subscribers today. How have you gone about getting them? Which way(s) work best? Which way(s) stink?

Jill Whalen: At first, I contacted everyone who ever emailed me over the years (yes, I had saved them all!). I created a list of a good three or four hundred names, and sent out a mass email telling them that I was creating a newsletter and how to subscribe. I would never, ever, ever just sign people up. Nothing irks me more then when people do that. Grrrr!

After that, I put a little something about signing up for the newsletter in my signature line when I posted to discussion groups. That also worked well and still does.

One of the things that work best is the Moreover news feeds. Having news organizations spider your site and archives for new articles brings incredible exposure. You just have to figure out how to set up your own feed. I recently had a guest article on how to do that, which you can read here. If you provide high-quality content, it's definitely worth the trouble to syndicate it.

I can't actually remember anything I tried that stunk at getting subscribers. I'm quite Internet savvy and very picky about the things I try. I can usually spot something that seems too good to be true and don't bother with it. Word-of-mouth works extremely well, too!

Karon Thackston: Now, I can attest from firsthand experience that you have one of the most loyal subscriber bases on the entire Web. Jill, what are you doing to keep your subscribers? What contributes to your extremely high subscriber loyalty?

Jill Whalen: Thanks, Karon. I'd have to say that the biggest thing would be just being myself. It's pretty obvious when reading my stuff that I y'am what I y'am. People learn quickly that I'm a straight shooter and tell it like it is. They don't always agree with me, but at least they know where I stand.

Also, I never try to trick people. I don't pretend that affiliate links are not affiliate links, and in fact probably go overboard by making sure that everyone knows it is indeed an affiliate link. Plus, I don't just put in affiliate links for the sake of having them there or for the sake of making money. However, there are some really good resources out there that cost money, but are worth every penny. When I find them, and believe my readers will benefit by them (like your Copywriting Course, for instance!), I will then promote the heck out of them. It's a win-win situation all around at that point. People learn about something that can greatly help them in their businesses, I make a little bit of extra money to pay for my list hosting and time spent on the newsletter, and the author of the great resource gets paid for his hard work.

Karon Thackston: Excellent points, Jill. (And thanks for the plug. ) So then, let me ask you this…what would you say is the most important factor of consistently delivering a quality ezine?

Jill Whalen: I'd say you have to like doing it, because it's definitely a chore. If you think you can just rush something out the door cuz you have to get something done, it will show in the lack of quality. You really have to set aside a certain amount of time to do it right. Plus, you gotta proof, proof, and then proof it again.

Karon Thackston: I agree 100%! Well, Jill, I’ve taken up enough of your time. I truly do appreciate you letting us in on your success secrets. : ) It’s always helpful to see how others work.

If you want to subscribe to Jill’s ezine, High Rankings Advisor, you can do it here. You can also find past issues online at her site. Good info, I can promise you! I subscribe myself.

Author Information
Want to learn exactly how to create a quality ezine and how to build your subscriber base? You can! Karon will take you step-by-step through the process and give you over 70 free places to promote your ezine. Get three FREE bonuses with your purchase, too! Get all the details today at http://www.creatingezines.com.

Way of indexing your Site in Almost Search Engines with DiscountClick.com

2007-10-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

Discount Click

For you all who are struggling to find a way to optimize your company site all over search engines and to be in top of the all your competitors, and also maybe you want your blog or your personal sites to be optimized in most search engines like Google, yahoo, msn and all other popular search engine, you don’t have to worry because DiscountClick.com will provide you with these valuable facilities in one site and all with quality assurance, which you can be in top of all.

In addition to that Discount Click will also provide for you with Affordable Search Engine Promotion with as low as $ 50 per month, and also they are providing for you with dedicated Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Consultants, Link Building Service, Search Engine Marketing, SEO tools which you can promote your site in search engines very easily with good result which you can then get unique visitors to your site more and more.

Moreover with their Search Engine Optimization they are offering the following other money valued services:

· Keyword Ranking Reports. Find out where your website currently stands in all the major search engines.
· Self Service Professional SEO tools, including a Keyword Density Analyzer, Traffic Metrics and both Organic and Pay per Click Traffic and Rank Reporting Utilities. Analyze dozens of URLs and perform effective on page seo optimization for your company site or your customers sites.
· PPC Setup, Tracking and Management Tools. Increase ROI, stay on target. Increase click through rates and have the online marketing industry work for your companies benefit. We can get your website ppc setup to produce targeted traffic to your site with pay per click sponsored listings.

And with some other services which you can look at them to www.DiscountClick.com , they got a good relationship with their partners which are include Yahoo Inc the most popular site into the internet which have more than a billion of visitors a day, the other partners are like FindWhat.com, Kanoodle, Inktomi and some other strong website.

Email Marketing Laws:

2007-10-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

01/21/04 Update: I just received an email from Anne Holland of MarketingSherpa. She spoke with the FTC lawyer who is responsible for coordinating the CAN-SPAM rule-making, Michael Goodman.

To many of us it appeared only government agencies could sue under the law. Not so. According to Goodman (in reference to the the clause allowing "providers of internet access services" to sue you, as quoted by Holland):
'…the definition is fairly broad and I think it could include a company that offers networking services to its employees.' Which is basically anybody with an IT department."
Read the whole article here, along with some more useful links on the subject. If you are not already on Anne's EmailSherpa list, you may want to join. She's top-notch when it comes to marketing issues. --Bobette Kyle
Original "Email Marketing Laws: Keeping Updated" article starts here:

If you are new to online marketing, you might equate direct email to direct postal mail. The concepts are very similar; in both you broadcast a standard message to a large number of individuals in hopes of receiving positive responses. To the uninitiated, it is logical to assume you can approach the two in the same way. It seems like the only difference is the means of communication. If you are thinking this way, STOP! STOP! STOP!
An unsolicited email advertisement has a different connotation to the recipient than junk mail from the postal service. Excessive email ties up resources. It uses storage space, slows down systems, and can crash equipment. For this reason and others, many abhor unsolicited emails.
Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Website hosting companies have long enforced policies against unsolicited email advertisements. Until recently, however, there have been no US Federal laws making these emails illegal.

Unsolicited Email Law
Several US states have passed laws that regulate email. According to the SpamCon Foundation Web site, there are currently twenty one states with anti-spam laws. Internationally, numerous countries have passed laws limiting email advertising. Many of these laws are now pre-empted by a new federal law.

Beginning January 1, 2004 CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003) went into effect. You can read the full bill and more information here: http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.html
What Does The US Law Mean to Emailers?
In a letter to publishers, Topica Email Publisher (http://www.email-publisher.com) summarized the law by noting four standards commercial emailers must adhere to:
Senders must include a postal address in emails
Removal requests must be acted upon within 10 days
Subjects and other headers must not be misleading
Unsolicited messages with sexual content must be labeled

Who Can Sue?
If you publish an email newsletter or send advertising to an opt-in list, you may be concerned that those who forgot they signed up (or have a vendetta against anything related to marketing) could file suit against you even if you do everything correctly.

You may also have been concerned that if a virus or spammer uses your email address in forged message headers (both of which are beyond your control) you could be held liable.
There appears to be no need for concern about either situation (01/21/04 UPDATE: See Note at top of page). My interpretation (and I'm not a lawyer, so don't take this as legal advice) is your neighbor cannot sue you because he got an emailed virus claiming to come from your email address. A competitor cannot sue you under this law out of spite. Under Section 7, CAN-SPAM limits those who can file suit. Generally, lawsuits can only be initiated by limited government departments and officials.

How to Stay Updated
There are several sites you can monitor for news on email marketing. These include the SpamCon Foundation Law Center (http://law.spamcon.org), the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE, http://www.cauce.org), and the spam section of The Open Directory Project (http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Abuse/Spam/).
Additionally, David E. Sorkin, Associate Professor of Law at the John Marshall Law School, writes and speaks extensively on the subject of Internet policy, http://www.sork.com.

For the honest marketer, the new law is a positive step toward improving email marketing.
About the AuthorBobette Kyle draws upon 12+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, Marketing MBA, and online marketing research in her writing. Bobette is proprietor of the Web Site Marketing Plan Network, http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com , and author of the marketing plan and Web promotion book "How Much For Just the Spider? Strategic Website Marketing For Small Budget Business,"

http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/MarketingBook/TOC.htm .
(Note: Small business management and marketing articles written by Bobette Kyle are generally available for reprint provided the byline and "About the Author" resource box remain intact. Please make at least one of the links in the "About the Author" resource section clickable. Also, your Web/publication must be non-offensive and appropriate as explained here and you may not charge a fee if allowing others to reprint the article.)

Increasing Conversions Through Action-Oriented Copywriting

2007-10-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Note from the Website publisher, Bobette Kyle: In this article, Karon explains a step-by-step process to increase conversion rates by improving your sales and marketing copy.)

I do site reviews. Needless to say, I see a lot of Web copy. One thing that always befuddles me is the lack of focus many site pages have. It's as if the writer assumes the site visitor will read the copy and automatically know what to do next. The fact is you have to know what action you want visitors to take before you get them to take that action. That means knowing what the preferred action you want visitors to take is, before you write the copy.

Think About It
Before you pen one word (for the Web or any other marketing medium), stop and think. "After reading this copy, what - specifically - do I want my site visitors to do?" Maybe you want them to click deeper into the site. Perhaps you want them to buy right then and there. It could be that you'd like them to call to discuss your product or service. Make a donation. Subscribe. Download. There are thousands of possible actions. Give some consideration to the question above and choose the action you most want your visitors to take.

Signposts Point the Way
The next step is to include signposts along the way so your visitors understand what they're supposed to do once they've read your copy. Leaving verbal clues helps prepare your visitors to take action once the time comes.

For instance, if you run a software site that offers a free trial download, you can prepare your visitors to get the trial version all throughout your copy by mentioning "free download" or "free trial." Your copy might read:

Email Lock software allows you to send emails and attachments securely through encrypted channels. With the free download, you'll discover just how easy it is to protect your messages and attachments from spying eyes. It's ultra-easy to use. You'll send emails just as you always have, and your recipients won't know anything has changed, either. The free trial version is fully functional and allows you to experience all the flexibility and simplicity of sending safe and encrypted emails and attachments.

What's happening as your site visitors read? They see phrases like, "With the free download, you'll discover…" OK, where's the download button? Then they read, "The free trial version is fully functional…" Wonderful! I want it! How do I download the free trial?

They begin looking for ways to take the action you want them to take. So tell them how!

Ready? And… Action!
Your job is just like a movie director's job. The director has to motivate and encourage his actors. He tells them why their characters are so important to the film. The director helps the actors understand the emotions involved with the parts they are playing. Then, once he has them all primed, he calls for action.

That's what you should do in your copy. Guide your visitors. Lead and nudge them in the right direction. Show them signposts that point to the action you want them to take. Then call for them to take that action.

Once you give your copy focus, once you define a goal for the copy and an action for your visitors, you'll find it easier to write copy that converts.

About the Author
Karon Thackston is a veteran copywriting pro who specializes in SEO copy. If your copy isn't getting results, let Karon teach you how to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to check out Karon’s latest ebook “How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)” at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

Generating Targeted Web Site Traffic.

2007-10-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

An important question to answer when creating or revising a Web site is "What are the goals of this site?" because the answer will drive your Web site design and marketing decisions.

In Part 1, Understand the Decision Making Process, I took a look at understanding your site visitors' decision making process and providing them with the right information, thus converting more visitors to purchasers.

Here in Part 2 I will present some tips for attracting targeted Web site traffic and ideas for profiting through information sites.

Attracting Targeted Traffic to a Sales Web Site
In Part 1, Karon Thackston explained the multi-step buying decision and why many of your visitors may not yet be ready to purchase. If you own a sales site, those early in the decision process are not likely to buy from you.

There are ways, however, you can attract better targeted visitors to your site (i.e. Web site traffic composed of more people approaching the purchase stage). One way is to have a presence on information sites that attract visitors in your targeted audience. This because on the information sites visitors are gathering information and evaluating options. In other words, they are preparing to make a purchase.

Michelle Horstman, owner of Choice Promotional Products, www.choicepromotionalproducts.com, says, "I do get hits from advertising on 'informative' sites such as www.barmitzvahfindit.com, where they have a vendor area."

For those on a limited budget, Michelle suggests purchasing advertising on sites that participate in pay-per-click programs like Overture or Google AdWords.

"When you list with Google and others on your own, you may have to pay more than your ROI would justify." She explains. "However, when you advertise with an informational site, that site can afford to pay more for the clicks, since they are supported by multiple vendors/advertisers. Ask the site if they'll offer a trial period so you can see how much traffic it is producing."

Targeted Web Site Traffic for Information Sites
If you run an information site, the majority of your Web site traffic will be interested in researching the subject, too early in the decision process to purchase. So how can you both attract targeted Web site traffic (i.e. visitors in the early decision stages) *and* earn revenue?

You can attract information seekers by structuring each page in your Web site so it gives information on a specific topic. This expands the list of key words through which searchers might find your site.

Other ways to earn revenue from traffic to an information Web site:

Initiate the two step process James Maduk explains in Part 1.
Participate in a few select affiliate programs, which you can promote on topic-specific pages in your Web site.

Join a targeted advertising network such as Google's AdSense.
Sell your own advertising space.
In any case, targeting Web site traffic in the "right" decision making stage creates a win-win situation. Your visitors find the information they need and you profit - through sales, advertising, or affiliate revenue - by meeting those needs.

About the Author
Bobette Kyle draws upon 12+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, Marketing MBA, and online marketing research in her writing. Bobette is proprietor of the Web Site Marketing Plan Network, http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com , and author of the marketing plan and Web promotion book "How Much For Just the Spider? Strategic Website Marketing For Small Budget Business," http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/MarketingBook/TOC.htm .
(Note: Small business management and marketing articles written by Bobette Kyle are generally available for reprint provided the byline and "About the Author" resource box remain intact. Please make at least one of the links in the "About the Author" resource section clickable. Also, your Web/publication must be non-offensive and appropriate as explained here and you may not charge a fee if allowing others to reprint the article.)

Start Your E-Mail Newsletter to Stay in Closer Touch with Customers

2007-09-27T23:40:00.000-07:00

Can you think of any more convenient, thoughtful and inexpensive way to demonstrate your expertise in your business to your customers, prospects, relevant reporters, staff, colleagues at the business and civic clubs? Without the costs of layout, printing and mailing, you can provide helpful advice, offers, other ways to show people why they should buy or continue to buy from you, pass your e-mail onto their colleagues who might buy and become familiar with you.

If you aren't comfortable writing the newsletter, get a freelancer to interview you or take your first draft to polish your words. Get another consultant to help you with the small details of online design of a newsletter, and/or mass e-mailing it. Still your costs will be considerably less than with a traditional mailed newsletter. You can "mail it" more often, offer a poll, lead them to a web site where they can learn more, link your web site with valuable business and non-profit partners whose sites also serve your kind of customer so you gain access to each other's customers . .the list of benefits goes on.

To jump-start the introduction of your newsletter, offer prizes for the names to be drawn of the people who submit their email address to you. Offer to maintain their privacy, indicating you won't trade or sell your list of names. Tell them about upcoming topics, offers, etc.
When you announce the introduction of your newsletter, also announce an online poll on a topic of interest to your customers -- and the media that your customers read (local and industry). Offer poll respondents first glimpse at a summary of poll results, and offer reporters an extensive description of poll results, thus positioning you as a subject matter expert, for them to also call upon whenever they come across a story that touches on your kind of business.
The frequency of your e-mail newsletter will depend on how much time you have to write or find useful info. Ideastation (http://www.ideastation.com/) and/or Kevin Nunley (http://www.DrNunley.com) are a few places that will provide articles for use in online newsletters and on web sites.

You can publish daily, weekly or monthly or spontaneously. You can distribute your e-mail newsletter by using your e-mail program (e.g., Pegasus Mail) or a service especially designed for this purpose called Majordomo Listbot. Read other e-zines to get a feel for the kind of content your target audience finds important. E-zine fall into many categories ranging from purely organizational with updates about a specific company to general tips for a specific target audience and classified ads ezine that direct readers to specific products and services. Remember to focus and communicate audience benefits, and through word of mouth your e-zine subscription size will expand.

Building your list
From your web site you can advertise the benefits of your newsletter. Following your benefits should be a box or an e-mail link for people to click on or enter their e-mail address for inclusion in your mailing list. If you or your employees already ask people for their name, company, industry, address, phone and fax information, you now need to ask them for their e-mail address. If following up and keeping in touch with customers or potential customers is important to you, then all employees must ask them for their e-mail address. In addition to their email address, ask them what information about your company is most important to them. Do they want to be notified of new and/or updated products or services you offer? You may also want to add a line on all written materials sent out requesting the e-mail address of people who want to be notified of your company's services or products through your mailing list.

Additional ways to get your list noticed
Include mention of your new newsletter on all current promotional material such as your business cards, stationery, magazine, yellow pages or newspaper ads, etc.
Team up with another online newsletter and swap advertising space. My client Ben Kersen & The Wonderdogs has teamed up with an editor of a magazine called The Pet Gazette. They both cooperate to provide helpful material to the same audience.
Participate on discussion boards that are related to the topic of your newsletter. Position yourself as a helpful person by offering your assistance and this characteristic will draw new subscribers to your mailing list.

The benefits

constant contact with a list of people who have given you permission to send them your information. Always give list members the option of receiving notifications of sales or new products.
very inexpensive. no expenses for printing, postage, long distance phone/fax calls, paper you mail or fax
your newsletter can be used to remind your prospects and customers of your products and services - or to visit your web site for more details on them.
you may want to profit by selling ad space in your ezine

Off Line Marketing for On Line Results

2007-09-26T08:06:00.001-07:00

So you’re all “Googled” out, are you? You’ve been working feverishly placing e-zine ads, paying for placement and position with search engines, buying online classifieds, and trying to optimize search engine rankings for your website. All of that effort and money may be paying off for you, or it may be your greatest source of frustration. Most new businesses on the Internet quickly discover that there is no magic formula to driving website traffic higher.
If you’re looking for innovative methods of marketing your on-line business, start thinking like an off-line marketer. The tried and true marketing practices employed by traditional businesses represent significant value to your on-line venture. Before placing your next bid with a Pay-per-click engine, consider some of these marketing initiatives:

Off-line Advertising
Yes, they still have advertising off-line, in things like newspapers and magazines. If you have an intriguing website name that is focused on one particular industry or profession, you have access to highly targeted publications that will do an excellent job of reaching your target market.
Imagine that you operate a website that sells an amazing new product aimed at the plumbing market. You can stretch your advertising dollars by placing ads that contain only your URL in recognized plumbing publications. An ad that reads www.besteverplumbinginvention.com would attract plenty of traffic from curious plumbers and industry suppliers.

While other companies are using their ad space to explain to plumbers why they should call them, you’ve provided a compelling reason (curiosity) for plumbers to hit your site. Since you only advertised the URL, you don’t require considerable space to explain your idea, hence the cost of your ad will be very reasonable.

Get Published
The mantra these days is to “get published” in various e-zines and e-newsletters by writing articles from your expert point of view and including your byline. The byline, or “resource box” acts as an ad for your company by providing your URL and e-mail address. Getting published is a highly effective, low cost method of promoting your on-line business. The question is: why stop at e-zines?

It seems everybody has forgotten the huge number of magazine and newspaper publications available in today’s marketplace. Getting published in print is just as effective, if not more effective, than on-line publication.

Let’s say that you offer a business to business service through your website. Almost every major city in the U.S. has a local business publication that discusses local business news and covers topics of interest to business owners. How many major cities are there in the U.S.? An informal analysis reveals that there are at least 50 (one for each state), plus many more….there are 5 in California alone!

Since you are on-line, geography is not an obstacle, so get your articles and news releases out to these publications no matter where they are published. There’s a magazine for just about everything these days, so whatever your area of expertise is, you’ll find an editor who might be interested in running your article.

Targeted Event Promotion
No matter who you are targeting, there is some type of annual event for them held somewhere in the U.S. From dental assistants to senior citizens to country music fans, there is a conference or convention that attracts thousands of them.

Promote your on-line business with an advertisement in the convention program, or better yet, distribute some promotional materials at the show, such as pens or note pads with your URL printed on them. If the event is out of town, don’t worry. Contact the facility where the event is being held. They will usually help out with this type of promotion for a small fee.
The on-line world is a tremendous place to market your products and services. But don’t forget about the rest of the world, or you’ll miss out on some tremendous marketing opportunities.

About the Author
Will Dylan is the Author of "Small Business Big Marketing" and owner of http://www.marketingyoursmallbusiness.com . Will also offers article and news release writing services through his website. You can contact Will at askwill@marketingyoursmallbusiness.com

Off Line Marketing for On Line Results

2007-09-26T08:06:00.000-07:00

Small Business Website Design: Your First Website

2007-09-23T06:28:00.001-07:00

You know you need a Website to help promote your small business, but don’t know the technical details to make it happen. Relax, creating a basic small business Website isn’t as mystical as it seems. There are four steps you’ll need to take in order to get a Website designed and "live" on the World Wide Web:

1. Register a Domain Name
2. Write and Develop Your Website Content
3. Hire a Website Designer or Developer
4. Sign Up for a Hosting Plan

Register a Domain Name
The domain name is the address you type into your browser: www.YourWebsite.com. There are several domain extensions to choose from. (.com, .us, .net, etc.) You will generally want to register one or more .com domains. Many businesses register versions of their own names (including common misspellings) as well as their brands.

You must go through a registrar (or one of a registrar’s affiliates) to register domain names. A domain costs from approximately $7 to $35 per year, depending on the registrar and current discounts. For a list of accredited domain registrars, type domain registrar into any search engine or visit: http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html

Once you’ve chosen a registrar, search to see if the names you want to register are available. If they are not, the registrar will often suggest alternatives. After deciding on your domain names, purchase them by following the on-screen instructions.

Write and Develop Your Website Content
You will be responsible for Your Website’s content -- the text, pictures and logos. You may hire one or more copywriters, editors or graphic designers to help with the work. But, you and others in your company are the ultimate experts on your business, so must be intimately involved with content development and design elements.

To generate ideas and get your "creative juices" flowing, start by exploring Websites of close competitors and other Websites you find appealing. Make note of features you’d like to include or offer on your own site.

Other things to consider when developing Website content:
- Overall structure (i.e. which pages you will have in your site and how they fit together): Structure will be driven primarily by your site objectives. A Website that sells a product, for example, may have these pages: About the Product (as home page), About Us, Contact, Purchase, and Privacy Policy - Text on each page: On the Web, short paragraphs read better than long ones. Experts typically recommend 250 - 1500 words per page. - Call-to-action: Know what you want to accomplish with your Website and what actions you want visitors to take (read about your product, buy it, contact your sales people, etc.). Encourage visitors to take action with links in the navigation, within text and near the top of pages.

Hire a Website Designer or Developer
Website design and development involve putting together your Website’s overall structure and artistic look. There are several ways to accomplish this. You may find, for example, that your registrar offers an inexpensive site builder program that allows you to build your own Website step-by-step online. Site builders, however, rarely live up to expectation and/or meet your needs. Some common issues: frequent "glitches," slow program response, minimal directions or customer support, poor search engine optimization features and inflexible or limited design options. I recommend you avoid these site builders. Instead, hire a Website design firm or individual developer to help with your Website.

For a higher-end site you may want to hire a firm to create and develop your Website around a custom design. A lower-budget alternative is to forego custom Website design and hire a developer to create your site around an existing Website template. Some Website developers offer their own pre-made templates as part of their development packages. Others develop around a purchased template.

Website Design and Development Costs
Design and development costs for your Website can run the gamut from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on Website features, quality, size and design. In general, the more pages and the more custom graphics and design in your site, the higher the cost.

Finding Developers and Templates
Many people find a Website designer or developer through word of mouth. There is also a list of some St. Louis area firms here: http://www.marketingtool.com/channel/webfirm/b.435.g.6579.html (Other metropolitan areas are likely to have similar lists. Type your city’s name and "Website Development" into any search engine to find developers/designers in your area. Also note that because of the nature of the work, your Website developer does not need to be located near you.)

If purchasing a template, expect to pay anywhere from zero (for a very basic, one-page design) to a couple hundred dollars (for a multi-page, high-end site design). Type Website template into any search engine to find a variety of template options.

Sign Up for a Hosting Plan
A Website host "rents" file storage space to you on a Web server, generally provides email services (so you can have "@MyWebsite.com" email addresses) and takes care of the technical aspects of making your Website visible on the World Wide Web.

After choosing your approach to Website development and working with your developer to decide features, you have enough information to look at Website hosting packages. Most hosts charge a monthly fee, which varies widely depending on features and account size. Your Website developer or designer can help you choose a host and plan that fit your needs. You can also research numerous hosts at www.websitehostdirectory.com.

You know you need a Website to help promote your business. Now you know how to get one!

About the Author
Bobette Kyle draws upon 15+ years of Marketing/Executive experience; online marketing and Web development experience; and a marketing MBA as inspiration for her writing and Website services. Bobette is also author of the marketing plan and Web promotion book "How Much For Just the Spider? Strategic Website Marketing For Small Budget Business." Additionally, she offers starter Website development services. For more information, visit:

http://afghan-host.com/

Small Business Website Design: Your First Website

2007-09-23T06:28:00.000-07:00

Motivating Your Web Site Visitors To Take Action: Personality Targeting

2007-09-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

The theory that I'm presenting in this article is a based on a variation of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Kiersey Temperament Sorters. The idea behind personality targeting is that people are generally motivated to different degrees by the following four qualities:
Power / StatusCompetition / Cutting EdgeConnectedness / CommunityMoney / Price
While some of the information you provide to each segment will be general and apply to everyone, other information will be specific to that particular segment.
So how do you decide which type to target? Well, you can either pick one type and go after those customers or try to cover all the bases in some way with your site. It's easier than you think.
Here's a rundown on the different personality types and some ideas on how to appeal to your specific audience.

Power / Status:
People who fall into this category want to be seen as important people. They look for products and services that reinforce that image. Targeting this group is great if you're selling high-value items. Try to position your product/service/message as an important, prestigious thing. Celebrity endorsements are given a lot of weight with this crowd. These people generally have newer computer equipment and run the latest operating system versions, so you have a little more leeway when using different technologies in your site design such as JavaScript and DHTML.
A website designed to appeal to the power/status segment should be very professional, and the copywriting should convey a tone of exclusiveness. Prices may not be published; after all, if you have to ask...! Examples would be high-end automobiles, wedding photographers, fundraising balls, etc.

Competition / Cutting Edge:
People in this group are fashion-forward dressers, video-gamers and technology enthusiasts. They seek challenge and creativity. High-ticket items are no problem for this crowd since they are willing to pay a premium to get what they want before the rest of the market. A sales message to these people should emphasize the latest, greatest, fastest and the most unique features of the offering.
This group also has newer equipment and the latest browser. Your website design might feature more "bells and whistles" such as flash animation, DHTML/JavaScript mouseovers, demos and movies. Colors and design may be slightly unsettling and cutting edge -- meant to be noticed. Customization, personalization and "skins" appeal to these customers. Examples of companies who would target this group would be electronics sites, website designers, art galleries, etc.

Connectedness / Community:
Those that fall into this group are the caretakers of the world. They worry about the environment, community issues, friends and family. They like familiar, accepted things. They are likely to wait until an item becomes a commodity that is in wide use before adopting it. Their browser and equipment are probably older, but still functional. A website catering to this crowd should emphasize content and advice and have simple navigation and a logical layout. The more information, the better. A comforting, simple color scheme is also important.
Recognition of events that affect our lives (e.g., 9-11, the Space Shuttle disaster) is appropriate and appreciated by this group. High-value items can be sold to this group if they are positioned correctly. They are glad to pay more for items that are environmentally-friendly or family-friendly, for example. This group likes it when you remember who they are the next time they visit, so website personalization can be helpful when targeting them. Some companies who would target this group might be "Made in the USA" products, Internet picture frame companies, chambers of commerce, etc.

Money / Price:
There are plenty of people in the world who shop by price alone, and for them you need to offer specials and discounts. Make it easy for them to buy so they don't wander off and find your products/services cheaper elsewhere. These people need to be grabbed and called to action when they first visit your site.
For the price-conscious, limited-time offers are a good motivator. A site design for them should make it easy for them to find what they're looking for, along with good information and prices. Be sure to include a site-search function and create the site so that it loads quickly and without gimmicks. Things like pop-up windows or slow-loading animations irritate this group and will make them leave. A huge plus for this group is a feature comparison chart. They also appreciate signing up for a newsletter that will notify them when items are on sale.
A fancy design could put this crowd off because they don't want to pay for *your* marketing. Bright, active colors work well. Examples of the type of sites that might target these people are software companies, printer ink sales, cell phones, etc.

It is easy to focus on one personality type with your design, layout and copy, but with a little creativity you can actually build a site that appeals to all four types. When outlining the content for any given page of your site, try writing a heading and a paragraph that would appeal to each type. Better yet, try linking to a page where you can write copy that specifically speaks to that particular personality type. This way, those interested can click to the exact information they're looking for!

About the Author
Scottie Claiborne is the owner of Right Click Web Services, a firm specializing in usability, search engine optimization, and internet marketing.

7 Things You Can Do to Improve

2007-09-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

Increasingly, online marketing is a crucial part of any marketing plan. Executing the programs in your plan, however, is just as critical. For many, finding the time is difficult. To make progress, you must set time aside each day (or other regular time period) for marketing online. To that end, take a moment right now to block out time for online marketing over the next six months, beginning today.

Use that time today and over the next six months to execute Internet- based programs in your plan. No plan yet? No problem. You will, of course, want to finish your marketing plan so you can refine your activities, but you can begin improving your online presence today by doing one or more of the following ideas:

Volunteer for Online Interviews
Podcasts, Webcasts, blogs, RSS feeds and newsletters (ezines) are all venues for online interviews or discussions. You'll want to approach publishers who regularly conduct interviews with guests of your caliber, so finding opportunities will take some research. Do this by searching general search engines (such as google.com) or directories. Some directories to get you started: podcast.net (podcasts), ezinehub.com (ezines), sydic8.com (RSS feeds/blogs)
Identify 10 Bloggers in Your Category
Then send them your product as a gift. The idea is to expose your product to influencers in your category by giving them an opportunity to try it free. If they like it, they may give it a mention in their blogs. Note that this is a subtle online marketing technique. The idea is NOT to advertise to them, ask a favor of them or ask them to blog about the product. Choosing to mention (or not mention) your product should be solely up to them.

You can find and read blogs by searching blogging directories such as technorati.com.
Join an Online Network
Online social networks allow you to set up a profile page and interact with others who have your same professional interests. Each caters to a different type of audience, and there are do's and don'ts, so you'll want to read about a network before joining, read some of the profiles and learn a particular site's rules before plunging in. Some networks to explore: linkedin.com, ryze.com, myspace.com, orkut.com, friendster.com, tribe.net

Draft a Press Release
First and foremost, the release must be something newsworthy to the media (if you need ideas, read the article here: http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/pr/NewsAngle.htm). Also, be sure to include a link to your Website or blog in the press release. Finally, distribute the release through an online press release service such as PRWeb.com.
Begin Surveying Your Website Visitors
Surveys can help you identify opportunities for improvement. Since online attention spans are very short, try asking a single two-part question such as Fred Reichhold's Ultimate Question: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend __________." Fill in the blank with your Website name (or other relevant product). To those who reply with a 6 or lower, ask why not. Most likely you will see a pattern in the comments that will point to ways of improving your Website. There are software packages to help you set up an online survey. Also, surveymonkey.com is a popular Web interface for producing online surveys.
Put Your Product's or Company's Creation Story Online
Or work on conveying one or more of Patrick Hanlon's 7 Primal Branding pieces online -- creed, icons, rituals, sacred words, nonbelievers and leaders. According to Hanlon, these seven pieces form belief systems that inherently attract people who want to believe in a product. Those people form the communities that surround successful products and services.
Study Your 5 Closest Competitors' Websites and Online Marketing Activities
Aside from gaining a better understanding of trends in your industry, you will also gain new insights into promotional strategies and tactics for your own business. As you research, brainstorm a list of ideas and use that list to plan a new online strategy or tactic for your own business.
There you have it - seven ideas for improving your online marketing presence. Choose one and get started today!

About the Author
Bobette Kyle draws upon 15+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, online marketing experience, and a marketing MBA as inspiration for her writing. Bobette is proprietor of the Web Site Marketing Plan Network (http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com). She is also author of the marketing plan and Web promotion book "How Much For Just the Spider? Strategic Website Marketing For Small Budget Business." You can search all articles on the network through the marketing directory by going here: http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/directory

8 Reasons To Get Your Local Business Online

2007-09-17T10:47:00.001-07:00

ay © Sharon Fling

If you're a local business owner, you've probably been wondering what to do about the Internet. Maybe you have already have a website, but it's taken more money out of your pocket than it's put in it.
You might be thinking you should get online...but you've heard it takes too much time and money. It's tempting to ignore the issue and hope it goes away, but there are some very good reasons to get moving - and here are 8 of them:

1. Geographic Targeting
The ability to target online users by geography has improved, and it's a lot cheaper now. Local advertisers can now be sure that only local eyeballs will see their ad. The targeting capabilities and options are endless. It's also become more affordable for small businesses.
For example, here's an offer from one of the geotargeting companies.
For less than $10 per day, you can drive traffic to your website and build leads for your business.

Target your campaign to local audiences or to our entire audience.
Pricing plans range from $304 per month to $2,535 per month.
Plan sizes range from 25,000 impressions per month to 200,000 impressions per month.

2. It's Practically Free
It's so cheap to have a website now, why wouldn't you? You can get a domain name for $10, get a build-it-yourself website (more about this later), and you're in business for as little as $19.95 a month. Compare that to the outrageous prices charged for yellow page ads, which can range in price from $1,000 to over $100,000 per year.

Combine this with the fact that a growing percentage of the population is turning to the web for information every day and you have a powerful marketing tool. And as I mentioned earlier, there are tools available now that will allow you to build your own website just by pointing and clicking. So you no longer have to pay a web developer hundreds or thousands of dollars to get a great looking website.

These aren't tacky looking cookie-cutter websites -- they're very professional looking, and actually look better than a lot of websites built by "professionals." And as your business grows, your website can too -- add new pages, a message board, email marketing, ecommerce capability and more. You can add any or all of these features quickly and easily...all at the click of a mouse.

3. It's a Great Communications Tool
The Internet is the ultimate communications tool - fast and cheap. You can use it to communicate with suppliers, resellers, and of course, your customers. Some uses include:
Send discount coupons by email, reducing direct mail costs
Get customer feedback through email or feedback form on website -- it's quick and it's easy, so you're more likely to get customers to participate
Send product information or announcements
Send periodic newsletters with useful information and special offers
Put your brochure or catalog online, reducing printing costs
For some businesses, simply putting their catalog online has saved them thousands of dollars a year in printing and mailing costs. Of course there will always be people who want printed catalogs, and not every customer will have email.

But in terms of cost, you simply cannot beat the economics. To follow up with 1,000 customers through direct mail will cost $340 or more just for the postage...but with email it's virtually free. And being able to interact directly with a customer on a regular basis is priceless.

4. To Make Conections
There are lots of business people online, including people from your local community. People from the same communities have a way of finding each other online... and as always, it's not what you know, but who. Just as you might pass out your card at a local chamber meeting, you can do the same thing online with your signature file - and a lot more people will see it.
It's also a lot more time-effective than face-to-face networking. Rather than driving somewhere and sitting through another boring chicken dinner, you can get online and meet prospects and colleagues at any time of the day or night.
And you can develop a reputation very quickly online, adding to your credibility and opening even more doors for yourself - all without setting foot outside the house.
5. To Serve Your Local Customers
A website can be a worthwhile investment even if it's just an electronic version of the Yellow Pages: street address, phone number, business hours, forms of payment accepted, contact information.

Except...what happens if you move, or your area code changes, or your hours, or anything else that's printed in the Yellow Pages? You know the answer to that one.
But a website is dynamic -- information can be updated at any time, plus you're not limited to 2 or 3 lines worth of information. Plus there are so many ways to interact with your customer, which is a lot more interesting for them and potentially very valuable to you. Here are some very low-tech examples, very easily added to your website:

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions or FAQ, is a popular term on the Internet. And in real life, there are always questions you hear over and over from your customers. These are the questions people have about doing business with you, and you certainly want to make it as easy as possible. Why not save everybody some time and post often asked questions - and their answers - on your website?

Visitor Polls - Invite your customers to give their opinion about something of interest. For example, a business that caters to parents who home school their children posed the question: "Which question are YOU asked the most about home schooling?" This question is relevant to the target market and something they most likely have experienced. It invites them to participate and along the way, give their opinion about something. But most important to the business owner, it can be a source of incredibly valuable information about the customer - and it's free. It also makes your website more interesting (as long as the poll changes often enough).
Discount Coupons - What better incentive for someone to visit your website than to save money? Customers love getting a bargain, and the great thing about coupons is the customer usually has to buy something to get whatever goodies the coupon offers. Your coupon will especially motivate the prospect that was already thinking of doing business with you. If you're using a website building tool, it can easily be added at the click of a mouse, and unlike a yellow page coupon, you can change it anytime. These are a few simple examples, and this list can easily be expanded: order status, press releases, product information, a searchable product database. Again, the possibilities are endless.

6. To Get Publicity
Every business needs exposure, and one of the best kinds is media attention. If your business is something new and different, send out a press release that includes your URL -- you could get written up in the local paper. Even an ordinary business can get media coverage if you can come up with the right angle - perhaps a follow-up to a previous article? A human interest story?
The media is always looking for interesting stories and if you're creative enough, maybe yours could be one of them. And what better place for the public to get more information than from your website?
Perhaps you could sponsor a local event, or do some volunteer work. Your business will get the credit, along with a mention of the website URL. The more places the public can find information about your company, the better off you'll be. In our increasingly wired society, having a website makes it easy for more people to get information about your company. And they can get it more quickly and easily online.

7. Because Your Customers are Online
Did you know that 40-48 million adults went online last year looking for local content? The average local user is college educated, makes good money, and likes shopping online. They are more likely to make purchases than non-users of local content, either online or offline.
This demographic market is every business owner's dream. As more local information becomes available online, people are starting to look at the Internet as something useful instead of a passing fad. Consumers are getting online in record numbers, resulting in a critical mass of local users in top markets, and spreading across communities of all sizes. Chances are a number of your local prospects and customers are part of this desirable demographic - and that number will only increase.

8. So Is Your Competition
Seventy-eight percent (78%) of all U.S. small businesses are connected to the Internet, and nearly 50% will continue to maintain active, purposeful Websites this year. Analysts at www.emarketer.com have predicted that 72% of small businesses will engage in e-commerce by 2002, racking up an impressive $230 billion in total revenues.
Maybe you think nobody in your industry is using the Internet. But I guarantee, whatever your business, one of your competitors is successfully using the Internet to promote their business...perhaps not locally yet, but it's just a matter of time. If your competition is there, you should be too.

So there you have it - 8 good reasons to get your local business on the Web. Notice I didn't include the reason "to sell something". Too many people have made that mistake - going online with the attitude of "if I build it, they will come" - slapping up a website and expecting the masses to beat a path to their door, credit cards in hand.
It doesn't work that way on the Web. A website is not like a Yellow Page ad, where just by having a listing, people will see it and show up.

Many small businesses have had problems adapting to the Web. Fear, confusion, and business pressures have kept many owners from embracing the Net. For those that have tried, failure to understand the culture of the Web has often led to disappointment at the lack of results. To make matters worse, aggressive marketing by big brands is steadily eroding small business market share across many industries.

If small business is to survive, business owners must learn to harness the power of the Internet...or risk losing their remaining market share to competitors that "get" technology. For those who choose to ignore the "elephant in the living room", hoping the Internet will go away, it's only going to get worse in the days ahead.
What's the answer?
Make the decision to get started, then start small. Use do-it-yourself tools to build a little website, then add on. Let it reflect your personality and creativity.
Use the kind of strategies you'll find in "How to Promote Your Local Business On The Internet" to reach out to your target market and build relationships. Network with other local business owners.
Do these things with confidence and excellence...and online success will be yours.

About the Author
Sharon Fling is the author of "How To Promote Your Local Business On the Internet" (available at http://as.localbizpromo.com), and publishes an electronic newsletter that gives business owners tips, tools and resources for targeting local customers. To join her mailing list, send a blank email to: subscribe@localbizpromo.com or visit http://www.geolocal.com/.

Defaulting on the Dot-Com Boom

2007-09-15T16:08:00.001-07:00

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz August 29, 2007

I know the taste of humble pie only too well. Now that leading financial media watchers such as Financial Times, CNN Money, and PaidContent.org are warning that the subprime meltdown may hurt the online-advertising market, you might expect to find me grabbing a fork and tying on a bib.

However, you'd be wrong.

Earlier this month, I argued that when it comes to stocks related to the Internet, "its biggest stars have been immune to the subprime epidemic." At the time, some of Wall Street's biggest daily gainers were pure dot-com plays such as The Knot (Nasdaq: KNOT), while iffy lenders were taking baby steps closer to extinction.

It's easy to see why some folks are worried these days. Stung lenders such as Countrywide (NYSE: CFC) or FICO feeders such as Experian are some of the Internet's most active advertisers. If loan providers duck and cover, there won't be a need -- or the funds to bankroll -- aggressive interactive marketing campaigns.

I see the logic, but I still can't spot humble pie on the menu. Our current situation is nothing like the dot-com bubble that left markets in a sudsy mess in 2001. I also don't see a problem with many key advertisers scaling back, since their cuts may well be offset by forward marches elsewhere.

Party like its 2001
The whole 1995-to-2001 span of the dot-com boom may seem like a blur to some, but I remember the carnage perfectly. Profitless e-commerce ventures such as Pets.com, Webvan, and Buy.com buckled, taking their online marketing budgets with them. More and more cash-burning companies searched in vain for a venture-capital spigot that had long since been shut off.

It's an entirely different world these days. Leading online retailers such as Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) are deliciously profitable. Real-world brands have migrated ad campaigns online, helping diversify the pool of sponsors.

This isn't the same sector that was weighed down by unsustainable models. The companies that rely on advertising today -- as well as the sponsors themselves -- are cut from much sturdier stock. In other words, today's dot-com generation is built to last.

Sponsor like a rock star
It's also important to take this calamity in stride. Stingier creditors are a given, but the demand is still there. You've probably read plenty about collapsing subprime lenders, or even cutbacks at the conventional borrowers. Are you even aware that companies such as IndyMac Bancorp (NYSE: IMB) are in a hiring frenzy, expanding their retail lending groups to make the most of the deluge of applications?

Maybe that's why a company such as Bankrate (Nasdaq: RATE), perhaps the planet's best gauge for financial-services advertising trends, stepped up two weeks ago to announce that it's comfortable with its 2007 outlook.

Think about that. Bankrate's business revolves mostly around selling online ads and having financial institutions pay to be linked from Bankrate's listings. If there were truly a pinch in this industry, Bankrate would be the first to scream "Ouch!"

Instead, the company's holding its own. Other lenders will step up to take the slots of the fallen. More importantly for the advertising market, a serious wave of defaults will offer new marketing opportunities for credit-repair specialists, aggressive payday-loan providers, and even residential relocation plays.

If this really were a disaster, wouldn't a personal-finance site such as TheStreet.com (Nasdaq: TSCM) should be breaking out in hives? The company posted a 48% surge in advertising growth in its latest quarter.

The Internet is here to stay. It didn't offer up exotic mortgages to consumers with risky credit histories. However, it will be there as a perfectly targeted platform for advertisers seeking to capitalize on the calamity.

If online-advertising feasters such as Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), TheStreet.com, and Bankrate aren't going hungry, I'll wrap up that piece of humble pie and save it for later. If I ever have to swallow my pride, perhaps it'll make a fitting follow-up.

Defaulting on the Dot-Com Boom

2007-09-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

Cost Per Impression

2007-09-14T08:02:00.001-07:00

Cost Per Impression is a phrase often used in online advertising and marketing related to web traffic. It is used for measuring the worth and cost of a specific e-marketing campaign. This technique is applied with web banners, text links, e-mail spam, and opt-in e-mail advertising, although opt-in e-mail advertising is more commonly charged on a Cost Per Action (CPA) basis.

The Cost Per Impression is often abbreviated to CPI
This type of advertising arrangement closely resembles Television and Print Advertising Methods for speculating the cost of an Advertisement. Often, industry agreed approximates are used. With Television the Nielsen Ratings are used and Print is based on the circulation a publication has.

For Online Advertising, the numbers of views can be a lot more precise. When a user requests a Web Page, the originating server creates a log entry. Also, a third party tracker can be placed in the web page to verify how many accesses that page had.

There are other advertising pricing structures. CPC - Cost Per Click Through, CPL - Cost Per Lead (lead usually meaning a free registration), CPS - Cost Per Sale. These structures are collectively referred to as CPA - Cost per Action.

CPI and/or Flat rate advertising deals are sometimes preferred by the Publisher/Webmaster because they will receive a more consistent fee proportional to the amount of traffic.
Today, it is very common for large publishers to charge for most of their advertising inventory on a CPM or Cost Per Time (CPT) basis.

A related term, eCPM or effective Cost Per Mille, is used to measure the effectiveness of advertising inventory sold (by the publisher) via a CPC, CPA, or CPT basis.

Cost Per Mille
The acronym CPM comes from the print world (and the Latin word mille), and stands for Cost Per Mille in the US or Cost Per M in the UK, with M representing the Roman numeral for thousand. When online advertising started gaining momentum, those in the industry used this term (rather than something like CPI) as a metric for describing the Cost Per Impression largely because advertisers were already familiar with the term CPM.
It is important to remember that when someone says something like, "our CPM is $5," this means that the Cost Per Impression is $0.005

Cost Per Impression

2007-09-14T08:02:00.000-07:00

Marketing vs. Advertising: What's the Difference?

2007-09-12T09:28:00.001-07:00

You will often find that many people confuse marketing with advertising or vice versa. While both components are important they are very different. Knowing the difference and doing your market research can put your company on the path to substantial growth.

Let's start off by reviewing the formal definitions of each and then I'll go into the explanation of how marketing and advertising differ from one another:
Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers.

Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.

After reading both of the definitions it is easy to understand how the difference can be confusing to the point that people think of them as one-in-the same, so lets break it down a bit.
Advertising is a single component of the marketing process.

It's the part that involves getting the word out concerning your business, product, or the services you are offering. It involves the process of developing strategies such as ad placement, frequency, etc. Advertising includes the placement of an ad in such mediums as newspapers, direct mail, billboards, television, radio, and of course the Internet. Advertising is the largest expense of most marketing plans, with public relations following in a close second and market research not falling far behind.

The best way to distinguish between advertising and marketing is to think of marketing as a pie, inside that pie you have slices of advertising, market research, media planning, public relations, product pricing, distribution, customer support, sales strategy, and community involvement. Advertising only equals one piece of the pie in the strategy. All of these elements must not only work independently but they also must work together towards the bigger goal. Marketing is a process that takes time and can involve hours of research for a marketing plan to be effective. Think of marketing as everything that an organization does to facilitate an exchange between company and consumer.

Marketing vs. Advertising: What's the Difference?

2007-09-12T09:28:00.000-07:00

Web 2.0 Marketing

2007-09-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

Web 2.0 MarketingBy Andrew GluckNearly everyone uses the Internet to find answers; it’s time for you to use the Web to supply your own. David Scott Meerman says the old rules of public relations and marketing are dead. In fact, he’s written a hot-selling book about the topic, The New Rules Of Marketing & PR (John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2007). Since he wrote the book, it’s been published in six other languages, he’s given speeches in 20 countries and the book is the No. 1 seller at Amazon among books about online marketing. Scott has very practical ideas about how you can use the Web to build your business. GLUCK: Why are the old rules of PR and marketing ineffective? SCOTT: The old rules are that you either have to pay the media to insert your advertising or beg your way in by trying to convince the media to write or broadcast about you. That’s still true for print and broadcast media. Those are the only two ways to get noticed. But the Web allows anybody to be a publisher and get noticed. You don’t have to go through somebody else’s site or media properties. You go direct. With a $300 digital camera and a YouTube account, or with your own blog, or by sending a news release that goes out and gets distributed via Google and Yahoo, you can create your own content to promote your business directly. GLUCK: Advisors often prefer static Web sites, brochure-ware. Is anything wrong with that? SCOTT: The plain and simple truth is that consumers don’t like to be advertised to.

They like to do business with people who start a conversation with them, and the conversation can be started online easily using content. If an individual has $10,000 kicking around or a daughter six years away from college, he wants to know what to do. That’s the kind of thing that should be communicated to people through a great, content-rich site. Good information on a Web site introduces your company to existing customers or potential new customers. But it is very different from just creating a brochure that says, “Here’s what we do.” In any business, you are likely to be more successful by starting a conversation with people and providing information that helps them understand your organization than if you just create slogans and messages in the form of an online brochure. GLUCK: You believe in creating what you call personas. Explain that. SCOTT: Ultimately the best way to do marketing is to understand the people that you’re trying to attract. The way to do that is through what I call buyer personas. A financial planner might have three buyer personas he or she is trying to attract. One might be a 30-year-old professional, who may or may not be married and who has a pretty high income and wants to begin investing. Another might be a 40-year-old married couple with children, who are worried about funding their kids’ college education. And a third buyer persona might be a 50-year-old married couple whose children have left home and who are worried about retirement. The way that you would market to those three individual buyer personas is different. Having a clear understanding of who your buyers are, their needs and how one buyer’s persona differs from another’s can help you create individualized content and information for each different group. You will use different words and phrases to communicate with each of them. You will use different content and images on your Web site for each of them.

This way, when people arrive on your site, they don’t just see, “Hi, we’re financial planners and we’d do a really good job, so give us a call.” They instead see, “Here’s what you need to know if you’re a 40-something-year-old married couple who’s worried about college funding. That’s a really different way of marketing than saying, “We’re a good financial planner. Give us a call.”

GLUCK: You want to see a site’s content address solving problems of buyer personas. Right? SCOTT: Absolutely. I want any company that is doing any kind of online marketing to start first with an understanding of their buyers. What are their problems? Why are those buyers looking for a solution? That’s where you start.

GLUCK: How do you do that? SCOTT: You interview them. You actually go out and talk to people who are representative of your buyer persona groups. So if you are a financial planner, you talk to people who are in that situation, a young couple just getting started and a couple with kids nearing college age. And you ask, “What are your problems?” You want to know how they describe their goals and aspirations for their financial future. You want, literally, to know the phrases that they use to describe what they’re thinking and what they’re going through.

Then you want to use those words and that information on your Web site so that the language on your site is representative of those buyers— as opposed to what you think they want to hear, which is often wrong.

GLUCK: And those phrases are really important, aren’t they?

SCOTT: Yes, for search engines. Let me give you an example of why it is important to capture the exact phrases used by buyer personas. A financial planner might use a term like “college savings plan” or “529 savings plan” on his Web site, but buyers might use the phrase, “save for college.” Advisors would naturally tend to use gobbledygook phrases that don’t mean anything to a buyer. So a buyer thinks, “I want to save for college,” and the financial planner in his mind uses jargon like “college savings plans.” And there’s a disconnect. The potential customer is going to say, “I’m leaving this Web site because these guys don’t know anything about saving for college. They’re all about this college savings plan stuff, which doesn’t make any sense to me.”

The other reason it is critical to know the phrases your buyers use is because they will use search engines using their phrases and not your industry gobbledygook.

GLUCK: So they get stuck on jargon, but need to get off that.

SCOTT: Yes, and the only way to get off the jargon is to build a site designed specifically for the people that you’re trying to reach. The way that you can do that is by understanding those people really, really well. And the only way to do that is to literally get into their heads by having conversations with them, and understanding who they are. GLUCK: But if you know your clients and you’re an experienced practitioner, you may not even need to do that.

SCOTT: That can be true, and I don’t dismiss that there are people who do know their potential markets well. But in every single industry and practically every Web site I’ve ever seen, there’s a focus on an egotistical perspective, around what the company does as opposed to what it is that buyers are looking for. GLUCK: Talk about news releases—how to write them.

SCOTT: Literally tens of millions of people every single day are going to Google News and Yahoo News and other news search engines and vertical market sites. If buyers or potential buyers go to Yahoo! or Google and click on the “News” link, they see all the stories that are coming out from all the online sources. So CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fortune and others all are coming through those services. But the really cool thing is that you can also send a press release directly to those services through one of the press release distribution companies like PRWeb, PR News and Business Wire, and your news release will appear instantly on Google News and Yahoo News and all those other places. You can create your own piece of news that will be seen by anybody going to those sites and your news release can show up when people search using key words and phrases in your news release. So, again, back to the example we were talking about. If I’m looking for information about saving for my daughter’s college education, I might enter the phrase, “save for college” into Google News.

I’ll then see a story that came out from the Boston Globe, and another story that came out from CNN. But if there’s a smart financial planner, who just issued a news release with the phrase, “Save For College,” in it, I’ll also see that. And that can very well be someone who will then become a client for that investment planner. GLUCK: When you use a service like PR Newswire, what is the charge?

SCOTT: There are some free services out there, but the one that I usually recommend that people go to is PRWeb. It charges $80 for one release.

GLUCK: And you mentioned in the book that, as long as you buy the basic service from one of these services, you’ll get picked up by all the search engines.

SCOTT: Yes, you only have to buy the basic press release distribution package for your specific region. You don’t have to buy all the bells and whistles that they’ll try to sell you. You’ll still get picked up by all the search engines.

GLUCK: What’s the value of this? Here I am, a financial advisor with a $500,000 or $1 million minimum investment. Will wealthy people actually find a financial planner on the Web—somebody they’re going to trust with their money?

SCOTT: Just from a press release? No. But if the planner has an intriguing news release and within the news release there’s a URL that goes back to a site, and on the site there’s lots of information designed especially for that type of buyer, the buyer might then say, “OK, the press release and the site are valuable, and I’ve learned something. Maybe I’ll take the next step and subscribe to this advisor’s newsletter. Maybe I’ll even give him a call or send him an e-mail.”

And that begins a more traditional sort of dialogue. So it’s not like the news release leads directly to sending a check for $500,000. But it starts that online conversation, where that financial planner is beginning to develop a relationship as a trusted resource online, which can then translate to a trusted resource with my money.

GLUCK: What you describe is totally different from the traditional use of a press release. SCOTT: It used to be that the press release was just to deliver information to the press.

But press releases now are available to anybody with an Internet connection. And therefore advisors should be thinking about the news release as a vehicle to actually create news and get it into the marketplace. It works. GLUCK: Advisors aren’t writers. So when you talk about things like creating news releases or blogging, is it realistic? Will a small financial advisory firm with three or five or maybe ten employees do it? SCOTT: The average advisor will never do it.

No matter how much you write in this magazine, the average financial advisor is never going to do this stuff. But there’s going to be a percentage who embraces this approach. And maybe they’re not great writers, but they can pick it up and they can get comfortable with writing.

Or maybe, if it’s a ten-person firm, they might decide to hire a freelance writer for three days a month to come in and write for them. What saddens me is when you’ve got companies spending $50,000 or $100,000 or more on traditional marketing and they don’t try to understand how they can market on the Web, which doesn’t require the same amount of investment.

GLUCK: Your book talks about a blogging lawyer. Tell us that story.

SCOTT: So Grant Griffith is a family lawyer in Kansas. He used to get all of his business through the Yellow Pages, which is not inexpensive. Grant decided one day he would start a blog, called the Kansas Family Law Blog. Now, literally all of his business comes from his blog. The guy is amazing. There’s also a dentist in the Boston area who started a podcast called Successful Smiles. Every couple of weeks she uploads an audio about root canal, or whatever a dentist talks about. In every single industry, there are examples like this. Let’s say there are 100,000 independent financial advisors and almost all of them are using traditional marketing only. Well, then I know what I want to be doing. I want to be the guy who experiments by blogging, sending news releases and maybe creating a YouTube video. People ask why I don’t do readings at bookstores. My answer: There are too many books in bookstores! I want my book to be where there aren’t other books!

GLUCK: Just to connect the dots, by writing his blog focusing on Kansas law problems, what happened with Grant?

SCOTT: He’s a smart guy and writes blog posts about different areas of Kansas family law and each one of the posts—just because it’s such a niche market—has key words that the search engines pick up. If somebody who has a particular problem is looking for a lawyer, Grant’s bound to have a post with the words and phrases that people search with. He is now ranked No. 1 by search engines for most of the phrases that people enter when they need to find a family lawyer in Kansas. You can’t buy that kind of exposure.

It can literally be worth millions of dollars to him. So what should a financial planner do? Well, concentrate on a very distinct geographical area and a very distinct buyer persona, like “wealthy retiree in Boston.” Use words and phrases in your content where you can become a micro-niche. This way, if anybody enters the terms describing your niche into search engines, you’re bound to come up near the top.

GLUCK: What you’re getting at though is that these highly refined niches are perhaps where the greatest opportunity exists for online marketing.

SCOTT: Yes, because that’s how the best search engine strategies work.

GLUCK: Like stock option planning for telecommunications executives?

SCOTT: Thank you for that great example. That’s perfect. That’s an ideal example of what we’re talking about, because you know the average financial planner is not going to be focused on that very small niche.

GLUCK: You can even name a company in your blog or online brochure, something like, “employees of Autodesk with stock options.” Then, that search term will rank high when an employee of Autodesk searches for help with his stock options. SCOTT: Absolutely. Because I don’t know the advisory business well, I’m not able to come up with the examples like you just did. But those are perfect examples of what we’re talking about. So all of a sudden your business can be seen as No. 1 in a very small but lucrative niche. I’d rather be the No. 1 entry in a search engine result in a small but lucrative niche than the No. 500 result of a search in a huge market where I just get lost.

GLUCK: A lot of financial advisors have tried to use pay-per-click search engine marketing by buying search terms, for instance.

SCOTT: Financial planning?

GLUCK: Yes, exactly.

SCOTT: And you’re competing against everyone else who’s trying to buy that term using Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing.

But “financial planning for employees of Autodesk who have stock options” is an incredibly narrow niche that you can own without having to buy your way in. You just need to create good content addressing that market and then you can get to the top of search engines for free, for people interested in that topic.

GLUCK: How about RSS feeds? How can a small financial advisory firm use RSS feeds in their marketing effort?

SCOTT: RSS, Really Simple Syndication, is great when there is traffic already going to a site and you want people to be able to see new content anytime you update it. If you don’t have any traffic to begin with, however, you’re not going to be able to get people signing up for your RSS feed. But if you have a reasonable amount of people visiting your site or you’re creating a blog, which by definition automatically creates an RSS feed, then your RSS feeds will show up on search engines.

GLUCK: Forums where clients and others comment on your blog is another idea that you like. But many advisors are scared about letting clients talk to each other, post comments in a forum or post comments on their blog. They’re scared the comments could be less than flattering sometimes. Maybe a client that was unhappy is going to go and comment and then everybody’s going to see it.

SCOTT: If you have an online forum or a blog on your site that allows comments, then yes, you’re putting yourself out there a little bit. But if you’ve been an active participant in the discussion, even if somebody does say something negative, very often other people will jump to your defense. And that may indeed work ultimately to your advantage. Clients and prospects know you are not perfect and want you to be open and honest with them.

GLUCK: Are wealthy people going to use the Web this way, and will it bring advisors new clients?

SCOTT: Yes. It works.

GLUCK: Advisors like measurable results—like portfolio returns. When you tell them that their Web site and blog and other online efforts won’t bring them clients and only offers indirect help in getting clients, they may feel that is not enough; that it’s too squishy.

SCOTT: It is a little squishy. Content probably won’t show you a return for a couple of months or maybe even six months, because you have to build that content before the search engines start to index it. And all of these things are not a replacement for running the rest of your business well. It’s not a replacement for word of mouth. It’s not a replacement for referrals. It’s not a replacement for being a smart salesperson, and it’s not a replacement for marketing and PR that you’re already doing. It’s not going to magically replace everything else, unless you’re looking to do what Grant Griffith did. The truth is that everybody is on the Internet now.

The last statistics I saw were that three-quarters of the population uses search engines on a regular basis. That means everybody—the rich included—uses the Internet on a regular basis to find answers to their problems. Now, is every rich person out there entering search terms about managing money and planning for financial goals? No. But on any given day there’s hundreds or even thousands of rich people doing so. So understanding the people you’re trying to reach is the way that you’ll be successful, to start the conversation. And understanding what it is people are looking for will be the way to get great content out there. Andrew Gluck, a longtime writer and journalist, is CEO of Advisor Products Inc., a Westbury, N.Y., marketing company serving 1,800 advisory firms.

Five Ways to Mark Up the Web

2007-09-04T01:46:00.000-07:00

In 1999, Eng-Sion Tan and two friends launched Third Voice, a browser plugin that would let anyone make annotations on webpages. The intent was to encourage freer speech on the internet, but many slammed it as “Web Graffiti.” The company eventually shut down.

The idea of web page annotation didn’t die with Third Voice, though. New services, each with unique features, have carried on.

Diigo

A must have for researchers
Diigo is a research tool that lets you share bookmarks and annotations on web pages using a browser plugin or bookmarklet. Notes are anchored to highlighted text and bookmarks save a cached copy of the site. Diigo will also let you save to multiple other bookmarking services (all the big ones) and email your annotated pages to friends who don’t have the plugin. We covered Diigo earlier.

Diigo has some advanced search functionality built in as well. With Diigo, you can search for the highlighted words on the web with any of four search engines, social bookmarking systems, on blogs, within the current site, amongst inbound links, and seven different content verticals (TV, stock sites, etc.). Diigo also lets you post links to your blog through posts, or a “linkroll” widget listing your most recent annotations.

Fleck

Bare bones
Fleck is the most basic of the annotation services, letting you simply post public or private text notes on a page. Notes can be posted by using a browser plugin or by ajax when Fleck feeds web pages through its servers and adds the necessary annotation code. Permalinks to annotated pages can be emailed to friends and posted to blogs. We covered their launch previously and expect the company to be rolling out more features.

ShiftSpace

Have your way with any webpage
ShiftSpace is an opensource browser plugin (FF only) being developed by NYU’s Interactive Telecommunication Program and is pretty close to internet graffiti. The plugin allows their users to annotate and remix a website saving it as a communally editable alternate version revealed in your browser by pressing Shift + Space. ShiftSpace allows users to leave notes, highlight text, change images, and edit the page source. It kind of reminds me of the web page analysis plugin Firebug, which allows you to carry out live edits of any web page. For web surfers with the plugin, modified pages are marked with a small ShiftSpace icon (§) in the bottom left side of the screen.

Modified pages are called “shifts”, and if made public, are shared on the ShiftSpace website. Users can subscribe to the shifts of users they like via RSS. The ShiftSpace team also plans to implement “trails”, which are hyperlinked collections of related shifts.

Stickis

Subscribe to only the annotations you want
Stickis is a web page annotation service that lets you subscribe to content “channels” from your friends and the community via a browser plugin. We previously covered their launch. You can also view notes without the plugin when they are served by proxy through Stickis’ website. Channels can consist of text and image sticky notes, RSS feeds (blogs), and even specialized data channels for web services such as OpenTable or Yelp. Every note you make is also stored on your personal Stickis blog, which leaves a trackback to itself if you annotate a blog.

When you subscribe to a channel, it stays with you while surfing the web in a collapsible sidebar, suggesting content based on what page you’re on. Specialized channels, like OpenTable or Yelp, pop up reservation options and restaurant reviews when you visit a page linking to a restaurant. Other content channels populate the tray with notes based on an analysis of a the URL and the note’s tags. When you click on a note, it brings up the notes on the page along with comments on the note made by your friends.

Stickis parent company, Activeweave, also recently announced BlogRovR, a simpler version of Stickis that feeds you blog content from your favorite bloggers as you search surf the web.

Trailfire

Create and share tours of the web
We covered Trailfire’s launch last August. Since then, the social website annotation service has developed considerably, recently announcing some more of the social features it originally promised.

Trailfire is an IE and Firefox plugin that lets you post notes (called marks) right on top of a webpage and string them together with hyperlinks (making “trails”). The plugin consists of a note button for leaving marks and a sidebar for managing your trails. When you arrive at a page you’re interested in marking up, you click the mark button, which pops up a little ajax balloon with a text editor inside that you can position anywhere on the page. In the editor, you can compose a message out of text, images, and hyperlinks. You then title the mark and select which trail (group of notes) it belongs to. Trails can be posted public or private and commented on. When a trail is posted, you follow it by just clicking next

The new version of the service will now include the ability to make friends and share with them, follow all the trails made by a user, gather your friends into groups, and allow trails to be edited together by multiple users (wiki trails).

Compared with other annotation services, Trailfire has expanded in what I find to be a more effective way. Unlike services like Diigo, and Stickis, Trailfire has really helped its exposure by not requiring a sign-in or download to see annotations unlike Stickis and Diigo (to see notes). Fleck matches this simplicity. For people without the plugin, Trailfire serves the annotated sites through its servers, embedding ajax notes within the page. Trailfire will now also let you add notes to a page through their proxy by a newly released bookmarklet.

Secondly, Trailfire has implemented personal trail pages that consists of a numbered list of each of the links in the trail along with a thumbnail of the website. This has enabled search engines to index their pages and generate a fair amount of organic traffic. One such example was an April fools trail on the site, which received over 168,000 uniques on April 1st, due in large part to search engine traffic.

Search Engine Optimization Advice

2007-09-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

Search engine optimization refers to the technique of making your web pages search engine friendly so that search engines are more easy to understand and analyze your website. Consequently, your site has a better chance to gain high search engine ranking. This article describes some practical search engine optimization technqiues.

Search Engine Optimization Software can also offer you expert advice, and you can download it for a free trial.

Search Engine Optimization Techniques:

{title}...{/title}

This tag is to be a winner. This is a primary spot to include our keywords for SE spiders, bots or crawlers ("spider" hereafter). {title} tags are the best "dainty dish" for SE spiders. They "eat them as cakes", so make title tags to be "tasty" for them, about 65 characters long.

{meta name=description content="..."}

Important Meta tag. Very often the description you put will be shown at the SE searching results. To my personal opinion they have more important marketing role of attracting visitors than actual optimization. The SEs' trust in "description" tag as well as our next "keywords" tag has been greatly discriminated due to fraud and unfair competition. Make it no more than 250 characters long, including, of course, your targeted keywords as well.

{meta name=keywords content="..."}

Another advisable to use Meta tag should be included with all your targeted and untargeted, but related to the topic, key phases separated by commas. Note that highly popular and stand alone keywords like "web-site", "internet", "business" etc. will give you nothing more than increase the size of your web-page. I won't be mistaken if I say that about tens of billion of web-pages have them. Don't overuse your keywords as well, spiders don't like to be forced to eat what they don't want to.

{meta name=author content="..."}{meta name=copyright content="..."}{meta name=language content="..."} etc.

Subsidiary Meta tags used are more likely to satisfy webmasters' ego, rather than any real help in rankings.

{h1}...{/h1} {h2}...{/h2} {h3}...{/h3}

In contrary to the previous tags the importance of, let's call them, {body} tags have substantially risen for simple reason, they are readable by visitors and it is hardly to cheat SE with them than Meta description or keywords tags where any webmaster may put anything s/he wants. Given that these tags determine the headers of your web-page from the SE spiders' viewpoint, try to include your targeted keywords in them.

{img src=: alt="..."}

"Alt" is just a comment for every image you insert into the page. Use this knowledge at your advantage. Include your key phrases where possible and safe. By "safe" I mean common sense, don't input comment like "ebook package" into the image of the button that leads to your partner, say, "Pizza ordering" web-site. On the contrary, if your web-site has graphical menu and buttons, it is very wise to include "alt" comments according to directions they lead to, i.e. "Home", "Services", "About Us", "Contacts" etc. If for any reason visitors have their browser with images turned off, they won't see any menu if you haven't inserted "alt" comments.

Content

Your informational coverage should be keyword/phrase rich, the same way as headers. In general the more relevant key phrases your textual information will contain, the better your chances of being "remarked" by SE spider are.

HTML text format tags like bolding {b}, italic type {i} and underlining {u} may also have some weight in SEs placement.

Key word density and frequency are another indexes vastly used by SE to rank web-pages. Don't overuse them though.

Link popularity (page rank)

Another extremely important parameter for your listing position nowadays. In general the more links on third party web-sites point to your site the better. Although try to avoid "link farms" or other "clubs' the only aim of which is to artificially increase your link popularity. These tactics may simply result in penalization or banning of your web-site.

Link popularity without any doubt helps to increase the relevance of searched terms more often than it doesn't, but makes SEO even more far-reaching target, because establishing "incoming" links pointing to your site is beyond your direct power.

To be short, your task is to find web-sites that have highest SE listing positions and/or page rank (determined via Google Toolbar) and negotiate a link to your site in return for some service, product or solicit simple exchange of links. As you see these "manual" work is the most time-consuming, but it repays if you are focused to get as much relevant links as possible.

You may apply viral strategies by offering some free/paid service that implies putting a link back to your site.

Google has developed its own link popularity evaluation tool called Page Rank. It is calculated basing on consistently changing number rules: current rank of the site the link to your page is pointing from, its relevance to your web-site topic etc.

Fake tactics

They are what I call them and used by webmasters similar to ways some "marketers" use spam to promote their businesses. Unfortunately, usual internet users don't have ability to "ban" spammers the same way SEs penalize those "smart" webmasters. I don't recommend you to use any of these tactics, even on someone's "advice". They include excessive use or related and totally unrelated keywords, comment tags, hidden layers, text on the background of the same color, artificial link farms, numerous entry pages etc. This game simply won't be worth candles if your web-site is banned for good.

robots.txt file

Very important file every web-site should have but very little actually has. It allows you to literally rule or direct SE spider to the "proper" places, explaining what and where should be scanned, not just blind waiting of your lucky day. With its help you can also protect your confidential web-pages and or directories from scanning and showing at the SE searching results, very important feature many web-masters solve with "tons" of Java or even Perl coding instead of one line string in the robots.txt file that will forbid to scan "download", so-called "thank you" pages or anything you want! General rules of creating robots.txt file you can find here http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/robots.html

Design & Layout issues

Next point is to have a textual info. The simple declaration of content rich web-site is not enough, SEs need text to scan.

Clear to follow links. If you have Flash or Java applet navigation menu, make sure to duplicate somewhere and include HTML links as well. Most SE spiders cannot distinguish dynamically created web-pages with the help of ASP, Perl, PHP or other languages. It is also clear that all web-pages, access to which was forbidden (no matter how) by administrator, would also be left unnoticed. The same relates to HTML frame sites. What frames actually do is complicate the way web-site is being scanned, no more, no less. When I see web-site made of frames, it is like webmaster telling me: "I want lower SE position."

Because of the excessive work spiders have to do in order to scan as many pages as possible, their scanning "accuracy", if we can say so, have dropped, so they will hardly scan each and every of your pages from the very top to the bottom, it is more likely to be selective scanning, so, to ease this process you should try to arrange the most valuable info, including header tags and text at the very top of web-pages. Having "site map" page with all link connections of your site not only does it help your potential visitors, but SEs as well.

All link names, inside your informational content, are to contain your related keywords or phrases, not just "click here" or "download here".

Avoid a lot of javascripts, cascade style sheet tags or a lot of image tags at the top of the page that could occupy more than a page of HTML source code with almost no textual info. If you have java or .css coding save them as separate files and upload on request, leaving one string of code in your HTML document only. This tactic is also very smart considering general web-page optimization and space saving purposes.

Allow to the Internet market know your business better

Revenue sharing

2007-08-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

Revenue sharing is the splitting of operating profits and losses between the general partner(s) and limited partners in a limited partnership. More generally, the practice of sharing operating profits with a company's employees, or of sharing the revenues resulting between companies in an alliance.

Revenue sharing, as it pertains to the United States government, was in place from 1972-1987. Under this policy, Congress gave an annual share of the federal tax revenue to the states and their cities, counties, isthmuses and townships. Revenue sharing was extremely popular with state officials, but it lost federal support during the Reagan Administration. Revenue sharing was ended in 1987 to help narrow the national government's deficit. In 1987, revenue sharing was primarily replaced with block grants.[citation needed]

Revenue sharing, also known as cost per sale is with about 80%[1] the predominant compensation method used in affiliate marketing on the internet. A common scenario is an ecommerce web site operator who pays an affiliate a percentage of the order amounts (usually excluding tax, shipping and other 3rd party cost that are part of the customers order), generated by visitors of the ecommerce web site, that were referred by the affiliate via various different methods.

Pay per click (PPC)

2007-08-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising model used on websites, advertising networks, and search engines where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser's website. Advertisers bid on keywords they believe their target market would type in the search bar when they are looking for a product or service. When a user types a keyword query matching the advertiser's keyword list, the advertiser's ad may appear on the search results page. These ads are called a "Sponsored link" or "sponsored ads" and appear next to, and sometimes, above the natural or organic results on the page. The advertiser pays only when the user clicks on the ad. Pay per click advertising is a search engine marketing technique.

Pay per click ads may also appear on content network websites. In this case, ad networks such as Google Adsense and Yahoo! Publisher Network attempt to provide ads that are relevant to the content of the page where they appear, and no search function is involved.

While many companies exist in this space, Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and MSN adCenter are the largest network operators as of 2007. Depending on the search engine, minimum prices per click start at US$0.01 (up to US$0.50). Very popular search terms can cost much more on popular engines. Arguably this advertising model may be open to abuse through click fraud, although Google and other search engines have implemented automated systems to guard against this.
Contents

1 Categories
1.1 Keyword PPCs
1.2 Online Comparison Shopping Engines
1.3 Service PPCs
1.4 Pay per call
2 History
3 See also
4 External links
5 References

Categories
PPC engines can be categorized into two major categories "Keyword" or sponsored match and "Content Match". Sponsored match display your listing on the search engine itself whereas content match features ads on publisher sites and in newsletters and emails. [1]
There are other types of PPC engines that deal with Products and/or services. Search engine companies may fall into more than one category. More models are continually evolving. Pay per click programs do not generate any revenue solely from traffic for sites that display the ads. Revenue is generated only when a user clicks on the ad itself.

Keyword PPCs

Advertisers using these bid on "keywords", which can be words or phrases, and can include product model numbers. When a user searches for a particular word or phrase, the list of advertiser links appears in order of the amount bid. Keywords, also referred to as search terms, are the very heart of pay per click advertising. The terms are guarded as highly valued trade secrets by the advertisers, and many firms offer software or services to help advertisers develop keyword strategies. Content Match, will distribute the keyword ad to the search engine's partner sites and/or publishers that have distribution agreements with the search engine company.

As of 2007, notable PPC Keyword search engines include: Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, Ask, LookSmart, Miva, Kanoodle, Yandex and Baidu.

Online Comparison Shopping Engines

Product" engines let advertisers provide "feeds" of their product databases and when users search for a product, the links to the different advertisers for that particular product appear, giving more prominence to advertisers who pay more, but letting the user sort by price to see the lowest priced product and then click on it to buy. These engines are also called Product comparison engines or Price comparison engines.

Some Online Comparison Shopping engines such as Shopping.com use a PPC model and have a defined rate card. [2] whereas others such as Froogle (also know as Google Product Search) do not charge any type of fee for the listing but still require an active product feed to function.[3]
Noteworthy PPC Product search engines include: Shopzilla, NexTag, and Shopping.com.

Service PPCs
"Service" engines let advertisers provide feeds of their service databases and when users search for a service offering links to advertisers for that particular service appear, giving prominence to advertisers who pay more, but letting users sort their results by price or other methods. Some Product PPCs have expanded into the service space while other service engines operate in specific verticals.
Noteworthy PPC services include NexTag, SideStep, and TripAdvisor.

Pay per call

Similar to pay per click, pay per call is a business model for ad listings in search engines and directories that allows publishers to charge local advertisers on a per-call basis for each lead (call) they generate. The term "pay per call" is sometimes confused with "click to call"[1]. Click-to-call, along with call tracking, is a technology that enables the “pay-per-call” business model.
Pay-per-call is not just restricted to local advertisers. Many of the pay-per-call search engines allows advertisers with a national presence to create ads with local telephone numbers.
According to the Kelsey Group, the pay-per-phone-call market is expected to reach US$3.7 billion by 2010.

History

In February 1998, Jeffrey Brewer of Goto.com, a 25 employee startup company (later Overture, now part of Yahoo!), presented a PPC search engine proof-of-concept to the TED8 conference in California.[4] This and the events that followed created the PPC advertising system. Credit for the concept of the PPC model is generally given to the Idealab and Goto.com founder, Bill Gross.

Cost Per Action or CPA

2007-08-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

Cost Per Action or CPA (as it is often initialized to) is a phrase often used in online advertising and online marketing circles.
CPA is considered the optimal form of buying online advertising from a direct response advertiser's point of view. An advertiser only pays for the ad when an action has occurred. An action can be a product being purchased, a form being filled, etc. (The desired action to be performed is determined by the advertiser.) Google has incorporated this model into their Google AdSense [1] offering while eBay has recently announced a similar pricing called AdContext.
The CPA can be determined by different factors, depending where the online advertising inventory is being purchased.
Contents

1 CPA as "Cost Per Acquisition"
2 Effective cost per action
3 See also
4 References

CPA as "Cost Per Acquisition"
CPA is sometimes referred to as "Cost Per Acquisition", which has to do with the fact that most CPA offers by advertisers are about acquiring something (mostly new customers, prospects or leads). Using the term "Cost Per Acquisition" instead of "Cost Per Action" is not incorrect. It is actually more specific. "Cost Per Acquisition" is included in "Cost Per Action", but not all "Cost Per Action" offers can be referred to as "Cost Per Acquisition".

Effective cost per action
A related term, eCPA or effective Cost Per Action, is used to measure the effectiveness of advertising inventory purchased (by the advertiser) via a CPC, CPM, or CPT basis.
eCPA is used to measure the effectiveness of advertising inventory purchased (by the advertiser) via a CPC, CPM, or CPT basis. In other words, the eCPA tells the advertiser what they would have paid if they purchased the advertising inventory on a CPA basis (instead of a CPC, CPM, or CPT basis).

E-mail marketing

2007-08-10T03:39:00.000-07:00

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to:
Sending emails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or old customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.
Sending emails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing old customers to buy something immediately.
Adding advertisements in emails sent by other companies to their customers.
Emails that are being sent on the Internet (Email did and does exist outside the Internet, Network Email, FIDO etc.)
Researchers estimate that US firms alone spent $400 million on email marketing in 2006.[1]
Contents

1 Advantages
2 Disadvantages
3 CAN-SPAM compliance
4 Opt-in email advertising
5 Terms
6 See also
7 References

Advantages
Email marketing (on the Internet) is popular with companies because:
The advantage of a mailing list is clearly the ability to distribute information to a wide range of specific, potential customers at a relatively low cost.[2]
Compared to other media investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters, it is less expensive.

An exact Return on investment can be tracked ("track to basket") and has proven to be high when done properly. Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.[3]
It is instant, as opposed to a mailed advertisement, an email arrives in a few seconds or minutes.
It lets the advertiser "push" the message to its audience, as opposed to a website that waits for customers to come in.
It is easy to track. An advertiser can track users via web bugs, bounce messages, un-subscribes, read-receipts, click-throughs, etc. These can be used to measure open rates, positive or negative responses, correlate sales with marketing.
Advertisers can generate repeat business affordably and automatically
Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in (consented) to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them
Over half of Internet users check or send email on a typical day.[4]
Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other messages to be automatically delivered.

Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other events such as updating the profile of the recipient to indicate a specific interest category.
Green - email marketing is paper-free

Disadvantages
Many companies use email marketing to communicate with existing customers, but many other companies send unsolicited bulk email, also known as spam.

Illicit email marketing antedates legitimate email marketing, since on the early Internet (see Arpanet) it was not permitted to use the medium for commercial purposes. As a result, marketers attempting to establish themselves as legitimate businesses in email marketing have had an uphill battle, hampered also by criminal spam operations billing themselves as legitimate.

It is frequently difficult for observers to distinguish between legitimate and spam email marketing. First off, spammers attempt to represent themselves as legitimate operators, obfuscating the issue. Second, direct-marketing political groups such as the U.S. Direct Marketing Association (DMA) have pressured legislatures to legalize activities which many Internet operators consider to be spamming, such as the sending of "opt-out" unsolicited commercial email. Third, the sheer volume of spam email has led some users to mistake legitimate commercial email (for instance, a mailing list to which the user subscribed) for spam — especially when the two have a similar appearance, as when messages include HTML and flashy graphics.

Due to the volume of spam email on the Internet, spam filters are essential to most users. Some marketers report that legitimate commercial emails frequently get caught by filters, and hidden; however, it is somewhat less common for email users to complain that spam filters block legitimate mail.

Companies considering an email marketing program must make sure that their program does not violate spam laws such as the United States' CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act),[5] the European Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 or their Internet provider's acceptable use policy. Even if a company follows the law, if Internet mail administrators find that it is sending spam it is likely to be listed in blacklists such as SPEWS.

CAN-SPAM compliance
Because the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 authorizes a USD 11,000 penalty per violation for spamming each individual recipient, many commercial email marketers within the United States utilize a service or special software that helps ensure compliance with the Act. A variety of older systems exist which do not ensure compliance with the Act. To comply with the Act's regulation of commercial email, services typically: require users to authenticate their return address and include a valid physical address, provide a one-click unsubscribe feature, and prohibit importing lists of purchased addresses which may not have given valid permission.

In addition to satisfying legal requirements, service providers stepped in to help customers to set up and manage their own email marketing campaigns. The services provide email templates, automatically handle subscriptions and removals, and generate statistics on how many messages were received and openned, and whether the recipients clicked on any links within the messages.

Opt-in email advertising
Opt-in email advertising or permission marketing is a method of advertising by electronic mail wherein the recipient of the advertisement has consented to receive it. It is one of several ways developed by marketers to eliminate the disadvantages of email marketing.[6]
Email has become a very popular mode of communication across the world. It has also become extremely popular to advertise through. Some of the many advantages of advertising through email are the direct contact with the consumer and is “inexpensive, flexible, and simple to implement” (Fairhead, 2003). There are also disadvantages attached to email advertising such as, alienating the consumer because of overload to messages or the advertisement getting deleted without getting read.

Permission email marketing may evolve into a technology that uses a handshake protocol between sender and receiver (Fairhaed, 2003). This system is intended to eventually result in a high degree of satisfaction between consumers and marketers. If opt-in email advertising is used, the material that is emailed to consumers will be “anticipated.” It is assumed that the consumer wants to receive it, which makes it unlike unsolicited advertisements sent to the consumer (often referred to as spam). Ideally, opt-in email advertisements will be more personal and relevant to the consumer than untargetted advertisements.

A common example of permission marketing is a newsletter sent to a firm’s customers. Newsletters like this are a way to let customers know about upcoming events or promotions, or new products. In this type of advertising, a company that wants to send a newsletter to their customers may ask them at the point of purchase if they would like to receive this newsletter.
With a foundation of opted-in contact information stored in a database, marketers can automatically send out promotional materials. The marketers can also segment their promotions to specific market segments.

Terms
Auto-responders
Automatic replies sent by the email software of the recipient after receipt of an email.
Bounce messages
Email sent back to the server that originally sent the email. Returned by the sending server if a message cannot be delivered.
Bounce rate
Ratio of bounced emails to total emails sent.
Bulk, bulking
Terms used by spammers to refer to their line of work. Mostly synonymous with spam or UCE.
Call to action
Words in the email that entice recipients to do something.
Click-through
The action of clicking on a link.
Click-through rate (CTR)
Ratio of click-throughs to total emails sent.
Commercial email
Any email sent for commercial purpose; for instance, an advertisement to buy a product or service, an order confirmation from an online store, or a paid subscription periodical delivered by email. Commercial email is not synonymous with spam; see unsolicited commercial email below.
Cross-sell
Cross-sell is a practice of suggesting related products or services to a customer who is considering buying something. It is the most widely used term in relevance driven emarketing also known as behavioral emarketing.
Demographic
Characteristic of a group of email recipients.
Double opt-in
A new subscriber first gives his/her address to the list software (for instance, on a Web page) and then confirms subscription after receiving an email asking if it was really him/her. This ensures that no person can subscribe someone else out of malice or error. Claims of double opt-in are often made by spammers when they have not followed this process. Double opt-in may also be called confirmed subscription or closed-loop opt-in.
Double opt-out
Same as Opt-In, but the recipient unsubscribes instead of subscribes. Borderline spam operations frequently make it difficult to unsubscribe from lists, in order to keep their lists large. Hard-core spam operations make it impossible -- they treat opt-out requests as confirmations that the address works and is read.
Email Blast
An email sent to multiple recipients, intended to inform them of announcements, events or changes. A variety of methods can be used to send the same email to multiple recipients: for example: using options within an email program, using the mail merge option within a word processing program, or using a commercial email list programs.
Express consent
A recipient agrees actively to subscribe by checking a box on a web form, paper form or by telephone. A recipient not unchecking a box is not express consent.
False positives
Email that is not spam but is labeled spam by a spam filter of the recipient. Note that email marketers may have different opinions of what is "spam" than email recipients.
Format
Emails can be sent in plain text, HTML, text and HTML (MIME) or Microsoft's rich text format
Hard bounce
Bounced email that could never get through because the email address doesn't exist or the domain doesn't exist.
List broker
Reseller of lists of email addresses.
List building
Process of generating a list of email addresses for use in email campaigns.
List host
Web service that provides tools to manage large email address databases and to distribute large quantities of emails.
List manager
Owner or operator of opt-in email newsletters or databases. Also software used to maintain a mailing list.
Look and feel
Appearance, layout, design, functions & anything not directly related to the actual message on an email.
Open rate
Email open rate measures the ratio of emails "opened" to the number sent or "delivered." The ratio is calculated in various ways, the most popular is: emails delivered (sent - hard bounces) /unique opens.
Opt-in
The action of agreeing to receive emails from a particular company, group of companies or associated companies, by subscribing to an email list.
Opt-out
A mailing list which transmits emails to people who have not subscribed and lets them "opt-out" from the list. The subscribers' email addresses may be harvested from the web, USENET, or other mailing lists. ISP policies and some regions' laws consider this equivalent to spamming.
Personalization
The use of technology and customer information to tailor emails between a business and each individual customer. Using information previously obtained about the customer, the email is altered to fit that customer's stated needs as well as needs perceived by the business based on the available customer information, for the purpose of better serving the customer by anticipating needs, making the interaction efficient and satisfying for both parties and building a relationship that encourages the customer to return for subsequent purchases.
Privacy
The Privacy Act of 1974, Public Law 93-579, safeguards privacy through creating four procedural rights in personal data. It requires government agencies to show an individual any records kept on him/her; also requires agencies to follow "fair information practices" when gathering and handling personal data. It places restrictions on how agencies can share an individual's data with other people and agencies and also lets individuals sue the government for violating its provisions.
Rental list
A mailing list that can only be used once or for a limited time. The user of the list pays the owner of the list less money than if he/she would have bought the list outright. Note that this term is usually used for lists generated by address harvesting or other means; the investment made by the list creator does not correlate with the permission of the email recipients. Many firms who "rent" or "buy" a list face spam complaints afterward from persons who never subscribed.
Segmentation (or Targeting)
The use of previously gathered information to send emails of a particular offer to a subset of the list.
Soft bounce
A soft bounce is an email that gets as far as the recipient's mail server but is bounced back undelivered before it gets to the intended recipient. it might occur because the recipient's inbox is full. A soft bounce message may be deliverable at another time or may be forwarded manually by the network administrator in charge of redirecting mail on the recipient's domain. On the other hand, a hard bounce is an email message that has been returned to the sender because the recipient's address is invalid.
Spam or UBE (Unsolicited Bulk email)
From the sender's point-of-view, spam is a form of bulk mail, often sent to a list obtained by companies that specialize in creating email distribution lists. To the receiver, it usually seems like junk email. Spam is equivalent to unsolicited telemarketing calls except that the user pays for part of the message since everyone shares the cost of maintaining the Internet. Spammers typically send a piece of email to a distribution list in the millions, expecting that only a tiny number of readers will respond to their offer. The term spam is said to derive from a famous Monty Python sketch ("Well, we have Spam, tomato & Spam, egg & Spam, Egg, bacon & Spam...") that was current when spam first began arriving on the Internet. SPAM is a trademarked Hormel meat product that was well-known in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II.
Spam filter
Software that is usually installed in the users email client, with the purpose of avoiding spam email to get into the client's inbox or at least to be flagged as such.
Subject line
It is one of the most important issues in email marketing. The better the subject line of an email, the better probability of being opened by the recipient.
Targeting (or segmentation)
Sending emails to a subset of a mailing list based on a specific filter, trying to improve CTR and/or open ratios.
Tracking
The act of reporting CTR, open ratios, bounces, etc.
Trigger based messaging
Triggering a message based on an event or interaction with a previous message. Popular for customers who request more information
Unique click
During a particular period, a visitor to a website could click several times on a particular link, but during that period it is counted only as one and considered a unique visitor.
Unsolicited commercial email (UCE)
The subset of email spam that is also commercial, usually of an advertising nature, sent at the expense of the recipient without his or her permission. Sending UCE is an offense against all major ISPs' terms of service, and is a crime in some jurisdictions

Interactive Advertising

2007-08-10T03:38:00.000-07:00

Interactive Advertising the use of interactive media to promote and/or influence the buying decisions of the consumer in an online and offline environment. Interactive advertising can utilise media such as the Internet, interactive television, mobile devices (WAP and SMS), as well as kiosk-based terminals.

Interactive advertising affords the marketer the ability to engage the consumer in a direct and personal way, enabling a sophisticated and dimensional dialogue, which can affect a potential customer's buying decisions particularly in an e-commerce environment.
Perhaps one of the most effective implementations of interactive advertising is so-called Viral marketing. This technique uses images, texts, web links, Flash animations, audio/video clips etc., passed from user to user chain letter-style, via email. A notable example of this is the Subservient Chicken, a campaign by Burger King to promote their new line of chicken sandwiches and the "Have It Your Way" campaign.

Agencies and Designers
As the internet has expanded so has the interactive advertising industry, and most - if not all - of the major advertising players have a dedicated interactive business. These range from the global advertising powerhouses (AtmosphereBBDO, Ogilvy Interactive, Tribal DDB etc.) to smaller specialised 'boutiques' (Adrian Adams Inc., Danny Smith, Space 150, META Design, RED Interactive Agency, The Romann Group etc.), to great creative directors John Daylois, Gaby Castellanos, Danny Smith.

Display advertising

2007-08-10T03:37:00.000-07:00

Display advertising is a type of advertising that may, and most frequently does, contain graphic information beyond text such as logos, photographs or other pictures, location maps, and similar items. In periodicals it can appear on the same page with, or a page adjacent to, general editorial content; as opposed to classified advertising, which generally appears in a distinct section and was traditionally text-only in a limited selection of typefaces (although the latter distinction is no longer sharp).
Billboards are one example of a very common display ad.

Internet marketing

2007-08-10T03:30:00.001-07:00

Internet marketing, also referred to as Online Marketing, is Marketing that uses the Internet. The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing that include very low costs in distributing information and media to a global audience. However, the interactive nature of the media, both in terms of instant response, and in eliciting response at all, are both desirable qualities of internet marketing.
Internet marketing ties together both the creative and technical aspects of the internet, including design, development, advertising and sales. Internet Marketing methods include search engine marketing, display advertising, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, interactive advertising and viral marketing
Contents.

1 Definition and scope
2 Business models
2.1 Advantages
3 Limitations
4 Security concerns
5 Effects on industries
6 Recent issues
7 See Also
8 References
9 External Links

Definition and scope

Internet marketing is most commonly a component of electronic commerce, but Internet marketing campaigns are also used to drive a marketing message for services that cannot even be ordered online.
Internet marketing can sometimes include information management, public relations, customer service, market research, and sales. Electronic commerce and Internet marketing have become popular as Internet access is becoming more widely available and used. Well over one third of consumers who have Internet access in their homes report using the Internet to make purchases.(Devang, 2007)

Business models

Internet marketing is associated with several business models. The main models include business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C). B2B consists of companies doing business with each other, whereas B2C involves selling directly to the end consumer (see Malala, 2003)[1] When Internet marketing first began, the B2C model was first to emerge. B2B transactions were more complex and came about later. A third, less common business model is peer-to-peer (P2P), where individuals exchange goods between themselves. An example of P2P is Kazaa, which is built upon individuals sharing files.

Internet marketing can also be seen in various formats. One version is name-your-price (e.g. Priceline.com). With this format, customers are able to state what price range they wish to spend and then select from items at that price range. With find-the-best-price websites (e.g. Hotwire.com), Internet users can search for the lowest prices on items. A final format is online auctions (e.g. Ebay.com) where buyers bid on listed items.

It should be noted, however; as described above, under history, that current use of the term internet marketing commonly refers to the use of direct response marketing strategies, that were traditionally used in direct mail, radio, and TV infomercials, applied to the internet business space. When professionals and entrepreneurs commonly refer to "internet marketing" it is this model that they are often referring to.

Advantages

Some of the benefits associated with Internet marketing include the availability of information. Consumers can log onto the Internet and learn about products, as well as purchase them, at any hour. Companies that use Internet marketing can also save money because of a reduced need for a sales force. Overall, Internet marketing can help expand from a local market to both national and international market places. And, in a way, it levels the playing field for big and small players. Unlike traditional marketing media (like print, radio and TV), entry into the realm of Internet marketing can be a lot less expensive.

Furthermore, since exposure, response and overall efficiency of digital media is much easier to track than that of traditional "offline" media, Internet marketing offers a greater sense of accountability for advertisers.

Compared to other types of media marketing (i.e. print, radio and TV), Internet marketing is growing very fast. It's also gaining popularity among small businesses and even consumers when trying to monetize their blog or website. The measurability of the internet as a media makes it easier to experience innovative e-marketing tactics that will prove a better Cost of Acquisition than other media. However, in most developed countries, internet marketing and advertising spending is only around 5%, while TV, radio, and print are more.

Limitations
Limitations of Internet marketing create problems for both companies and consumers. Slow Internet connections can cause difficulties. If companies build overly large or complicated web pages, Internet users may struggle to download the information. Internet marketing does not allow shoppers to touch, smell, taste or try-on tangible goods before making an online purchase. Some e-commerce vendors have implemented liberal return policies to reassure customers.

Germany for example introduced a law in 2000 (Fernabsatzgesetz - later incorporated into the BGB), that allows any buyer of a new product over the internet to return the product on a no-questions-asked basis and get a full return. This is one of the main reasons why in Germany internet shopping became so popular. Another limiting factor, particularly with respect to actual buying and selling, is the adequate development (or lack thereof) of electronic payment methods like e-checks, credit cards, etc. Additionally, there is the need to drive people to the site.

Without other collateral such as print, television or radio (with print being the most effective due to the longevity of the piece compared to an ad on the radio or tv) it can often be difficult for the consumer or other businesses to find any specific address without prior knowledge.

Security concerns
For both companies and consumers that participate in online business, security concerns are very important. Many consumers are hesitant to buy items over the Internet because they do not trust that their personal information will remain private. Recently, some companies that do business online have been caught giving away or selling information about their customers. Several of these companies have guarantees on their websites, claiming customer information will be private. By selling customer information, these companies are breaking their own, publicized policy. Some companies that buy customer information offer the option for individuals to have their information removed from the database (known as opting out). However, many customers are unaware that their information is being shared and are unable to stop the transfer of their information between companies.

Security concerns are of great importance and online companies have been working hard to create solutions. Encryption is one of the main methods for dealing with privacy and security concerns on the Internet. Encryption is defined as the conversion of data into a form called a cipher. This cipher cannot be easily intercepted unless an individual is authorized by the program or company that completed the encryption. In general, the stronger the cipher, the better protected the data is. However, the stronger the cipher, the more expensive encryption becomes.

Effects on industries
Internet marketing has had a large impact on several industries including music, banking, and flea markets - not to mention the advertising industry itself.
In the music industry, many consumers have begun buying and downloading MP3s over the Internet instead of simply buying CDs. The debate over the legality of duplicating MP3s has become a major concern for those in the music industry.

Internet marketing has also affected the banking industry. More and more banks are offering the ability to perform banking tasks online. Online banking is believed to appeal to customers because it is more convenient than visiting bank branches. Currently, over 50 million U.S. adults now bank online. Online banking is now the fastest-growing Internet activity. The increasing speed of Internet connections is the main reason for the fast-growth. Of those individuals who use the Internet, 44% now perform banking activities over the Internet.

As Internet auctions have gained popularity, flea markets are struggling. Unique items that could previously be found at flea markets are being sold on eBay instead. eBay has also affected the prices in the industry. Buyers and sellers often look at prices on the website before going to flea markets and the eBay price often becomes what the item is sold for. More and more flea market sellers are putting their items up for sale online and running their business out of their homes.
The effect on the Ad industry itself has been profound. In just a few years, online advertising has grown to be worth tens of billions of dollars annually.[2][3][4] (2007-06-18) PricewaterhouseCoopers reported US Internet marketing spend totalled $16.9 billion in 2006.
As Advertisers increase and shift more of their budgets online, it is now overtaking radio in terms of market share

Recent issues
In November 2004, a lawsuit was filed against Bonzi Buddy software. The lawsuit alleged that Bonzi's banner ads were deceptive. These ads often looked like Microsoft Windows message boxes. Internet users would run across the ads and when they attempted to close the boxes, they found themselves redirected to a website determined by Bonzi.
On May 27, 2005, Bonzi Buddy agreed to change the format of its ads so they did not resemble Windows message boxes. The boxes will now contain the word "Advertisement" so computer users know what they are looking at. The boxes will also no longer carry buttons that do not perform the correct actions.

Sales tax issues have also recently become debated. In the USA, the current laws require that buyers of online products pay their state all due taxes on these goods at the end of the year, along with their other state taxes. However, most consumers do not appear to be making these payments. Thirteen states have now begun encouraging Internet businesses to collect sales tax on every sale. These states are currently not forcing the companies to collect the tax. However, it appears that if companies do not begin collecting the sales tax on their own, states will begin forcing the companies to do so. The states are claiming that each year they lose $15 billion in unpaid sales taxes associated with online purchases.

Internet marketing

2007-08-10T03:30:00.000-07:00