Exclusive Content

Do You Really Want Your Site on Page One of Google?

2009-12-16T07:45:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Paul Marshall

Do you really want your website on page one of Google for your chosen keyword phrase(s)? What do you want your online marketing campaign to accomplish for you?

I asked a potential new SEO Coaching client that first question last week. From my end of the phone call, it sounded as if he almost fell out of his chair!

I followed up by asking him if he could ever think of ANY reason for his website pages NOT to be found on page 1 in the Google SERPs (search engine results pages).

How 'bout you? Can you think of any reasons you'd NOT want your pages to be found for your targeted keyword phrases on page 1?

Keep in mind, I'm talking about your chosen keyword search phrases.

I can think of at least 3 reasons. Maybe you can come up with some of your own.

Is There Commercial Intent?

Let's say you have not just a page 1 Google result, but you're actually the first result. Here is an important question for you to ask yourself.

What is the commercial intent of this keyword phrase? Do the words contained in the keyword phrase give any indication of someone getting ready to spend money on a product or service like you offer?

For instance, compare these keyword phrases: Keyword Research, Keyword Research Specialist and Keyword Research Consultant. The latter 2 phrases give an indication of someone who is getting ready to spend money.

You can also Google the Microsoft Commercial Intent Tool and consider its' results when evaluating your keyword search phrase choices.

If you are targeting a keyword phrase that has questionable commercial intention at best, is there any reason to really be found on page 1? Wouldn't it be better to target more appropriate phrases instead?

If there's no commercial intent, how does that help your online marketing?

Can you see where I'm going?

How Much Traffic Really Matters

Now, I'm giving you a choice: you can have a first page result (with commercial intent) and your position number is 4.

Your other choice is a different keyword search phrase with a second page result, position number 12, also with commercial intent.

So, the choice is obvious?

Well, I forgot to give you the rest of the details.

The first page choice has monthly search queries for its' phrase of 3,240.

The second page result choice has monthly search queries for its' phrase of 22,167.

Do you still believe that the best choice in this example is the first page result?

According to numbers from Aaron Wall's site, approximately 6% of search users will click on that number 4 result in Google. That's 194 visitors in a month.

This is figuring average title and description tags of typical online marketing ability to convert to a click. "Your mileage may vary."

And for that second choice, the second page result? Over 1% should click on the search result, but let's use just 1%. That's 222 visitors per month.

Last time I checked, 222 is more than 194, so the second page result trumps the first page result, because the second page result has much more traffic than can convert to a transaction.

How Many Google AdWords Ads Show For Your Chosen Keyword?

If you don't see many AdWords ads, this should be a warning!

One of 2 problems exist (or both):

1. There isn't enough traffic for AdWords advertisers to target the phrase.

2. There isn't commercial viability for the phrase.

Either way, is a first page result going to help you? Probably not.

The Value Of A Committed Searcher

Want a recipe to waste your time (or your employees')?

Get a first page result in Google for your keyword search phrase and place your toll-free phone number in big numbers on the top right of each of your Web pages.

People clicking the first result in the SERPs are often less serious than those who go through the first few results or who continue searching onto the second page.

There may be something to be said for avoiding people who almost randomly click the first result and who may have impulse control "issues".

Now, if you have a large staff to answer your incoming phone calls AND if your conversion rate from those calls is strong, then the potential problem I described probably isn't a problem for your business.

On the other hand, if you are a solo professional, this strategy can be hazardous!

How are you going to perform your paid work when you get "Internet lookiloos" asking you questions they could get answered, if they would simply read a few words on your website?

Are these the best potential clients for your services or products and the best use of your time?

A second page result could bring you more serious potential customers, people who might be more likely to actually READ your website content, understand your products or services better and who might be more likely to convert to a transaction.

It's sure something to think about. :-)

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against first page rankings for your online marketing. I'm just for thinking a little further down the road than JUST first page rankings.

About the Author:
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He's a Marketing Consultant offering marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). You can learn more about Paul Marshall on his LinkedIn profile page and at Strategic Web Marketing.net.

Countdown To Google Page One and Search Engine Optimization Company Nightmares

2009-12-15T02:00:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Trey Pennewell

In August, Google announced the upcoming roll out of the Google Caffeine infrastructure. Google was quick to point out that they would not launch the new infrastructure until after the Christmas holiday shopping season -- giving many online retail stores confidence for the upcoming Christmas shopping season.

In the August announcement, Google described Caffeine this way:

"For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google's web search. It's the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits "under the hood" of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences..."

After Thanksgiving, Google said that they had taken Caffeine out of its "sandbox" phase, and that it launched Caffeine on only one of its Data Centers. Search Engine Land was able to confirm that Google had launched Caffeine on the IP address 209.85.225.103, and it was running on this IP address for at least half of its searches. However, the full roll out of Caffeine continues to remain in holding pattern, until after the Christmas season.

Analyzing Google's Search Engine Result Pages...

Several online publishers and SEO companies jumped into testing the Google Caffeine search results in August, when the original announcement was made public.

The results of testing were somewhat mixed...

Everyone pretty much agreed that the Caffeine infrastructure was faster than the original Google infrastructure, except for results that included Advanced Search queries, such as when you are using subtraction signs, quotes in query, etc. Mashable suggested that Google Caffeine actually doubled the speed of a Google search.

Google Caffeine tends to show a larger data set for the number of search results for a particular search.

The weighting of Video and Universal Search is scaled back in Caffeine.

A slight value increase to exact match domain names.

Google seems to be putting a little bit more emphasis on the age of a website.

An increased weight for domain authority and tag pages on authority websites.

A substantial increase in weight for social media websites. Currently FriendFeed seems to carry more weight than Twitter or FaceBook.

Google Caffeine has shown a tendency to put more weight on keyword phrases or keyword strings, as opposed to singular keywords.

Another major change, which is a reflection of how Google deals with breaking news stories, is that Google is willing to show the title and a description of a page, before it even caches the page in its index.

An interesting change in the Google Search Engine Results that I noted while doing the research for this article is that about half-way down the page, Google has added a real-time element to news items...

What they have done is to load a self-updating Iframe to the search results that shows updated news items on a topic as they become available. The image results are located just under this real-time news block. You can see it now, by doing a quick Google search for Barack Obama.

Also of interest about this real-time news window is that it is actually capturing some of its results from Twitter and other social media websites.

What This Means To Webmasters and SEO Providers...

If you have been relying upon video to push you to the top of Google's search results, this is no longer a sure-fire method of achieving top search placement quickly.

If you thought that Twitter and other social media websites were worthless to you in Google, then you might start taking a second look.

If you are not getting listings or mentions on authority websites, then you may be missing out on some SEO opportunities.

If you have a keyword-heavy domain name, then your investment may start to help you more going forward.

If you have focused on single keywords and bypassed keyword strings for optimization, you may begin paying heavily for that decision going forward.

Domain age will become more important after Caffeine is fully rolled out, so it is in our best interests to seek links from older websites and to put more emphasis on older sites in our domain portfolios.

Old Google vs New Google Comparisons

Some SEO Providers have noted major changes between the two search engines, although in my own experience, the placement for my target keywords has not suffered, but I have not made major gains either.

In the Old Google, I could put a search result on page one of Google in as little as 15 minutes. I hope that remains unchanged moving forward into the future. Of course my stuff isn't news, so I will be holding my breath that I can put a web page on page one of Google in only a few minutes -- going forward.

The main difference we are going to see going forward is the emphasis on keyword strings as opposed to keywords in the new Google Caffeine roll-out.

If you have been targeting single keywords for your website or the website's of your clients, be prepared to scramble to overcome your losses in Google's search rankings... But if you have been targeting those long-tail keywords for any length of time, then you will probably be dancing on the ceiling once Google Caffeine is live across all of its data centers.

In Conclusion...

We have seen a lot of testimony that Google will not change its appearance that much after the Google Caffeine roll-out...

But we have seen enough testimony to expect that some people will be crying rivers of tears, while others will be dancing the jig, after the Google Caffeine launch...

The only thing we can know for sure at this point, is that we really won't know the impact of Caffeine until after the roll-out as 2010 gets underway.

About the Author:
Trey Pennewell is a writer who has written about SEO and online business for a number of years. He encourages you to learn about and purchase the new SEO ebook titled, "Karma SEO and the Great Search Engine Ranking Dance" at http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com/

Starting Your Business Smaller Can Make Your Success Bigger

2009-12-07T16:30:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 K. MacKillop

For many people with a great business idea, the delay in taking the plunge into entrepreneurship is because of the lack of time or money to get their idea off the ground. In most cases, there are viable means to modifying the business idea into something that can be started part-time and with less capital than the original plan. Starting out smaller can be very advantageous, allowing you to keep your current job, bootstrap the startup to fit your out-of-pocket budget, learn more about the industry, and test the market for your product or service with limited risk.

There are very few business ideas that cannot be modified into a simpler, more niched startup. Sometimes, though, it is difficult to see or accept a smaller piece of an idea when you are certain your big idea is going to succeed! There are several ways to look at it -- for some, not being able to launch the whole plan at once seems futile and a waste of time. Some worry that starting out with a smaller idea will leave them stuck in that niche for the duration. But really, if you can't start up your original idea because of financial or other restraints, at least getting a smaller piece of it up and running puts you on the right road.

You can plan around the success of that smaller endeavor to get you where you want to go. If money is a problem, keep your day job and launch a part-time venture that will earn enough to eventually fund your grand plan. If you have several smaller ideas, launch all of them and work your plan to grow the pieces together into the company you want to run. If time is an issue, keep in mind that committing a mere three hours per week equals nearly a month of full-time work over a year! The time is going to pass whether you get started on your own business or not, but starting now will get you that much closer to working only for yourself. There are a million good reasons to get started sooner rather than later, but few good excuses to wait!

So, how do you miniaturize your business idea into something you can start on a smaller budget or part-time? First, consider all the components of your business idea. For example, if your dream business is to be a real estate developer, that venture can be divided into multiple steps, each of which offers several viable small businesses, such as:

Site Selection -- Write a how-to manual, offer consultant services

Site Inspection -- Obtain an inspection license for PT work, consult with property owners or other developers in preparing a site for inspection, manage

Tax Incentives -- Write informational product about how and where to find tax breaks on specific development projects, consult with developers to maximize tax benefits

Demolition -- Provide demolition services, site cleanup services,

Rehabilitation -- Provide any number of specific construction services, such as drywall, painting, floor installation, and the like; create a contractor review service, provide quality inspections; independent salesperson representing construction materials

Cost Management -- Provide consulting services as a CM (construction manager), consult for CM software

Filling the Space -- Get Real Estate license, broker's license; start property management firm

As you can see, a big dream like running a property development firm can provide dozens of smaller startup ideas that allow you to gain experience, knowledge, connections, and, most importantly, capital to eventually build your own development firm. This method can be used to break most big business ideas down into smaller opportunities that will get you on the right track to your entrepreneurial goals. Think about opportunities under various business models -- selling products, providing services, online-only, etc. -- and consider any "problem" areas that you could develop a solution for.

Another option is to start up any smaller idea you might have that will earn some capital to build up your resources for your big idea. Think about the work experience you have had or subjects that you are particularly knowledgeable about. One young entrepreneur started an online video game help service -- customers paid a small fee to receive hints and tips for conquering the newest video games -- and over one year saved enough of the profits to startup the mobile detailing business he wanted to own!

The most successful entrepreneurs tend to be very flexible and creative in getting where they want to go. Keep your eye on your ultimate goal, but be willing to modify and change directions as opportunities present themselves. Whatever you decide to do, get started on your planning as soon as possible!

About the Author:
K. MacKillop, a serial entrepreneur, is founder of LaunchX and authors a small business startup blog. The LaunchX System is designed to help entrepreneurs starting a business based on their business ideas. It is a complete business startup kit containing everything you need to turn your idea into a successful business. Visit http://www.LaunchX.com/ for a free Business Readiness Assessment and get on the road to starting a business today.

Read more of K. MacKillop's articles.

The Problem With Swiping Sales Copy

2009-12-04T02:00:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Scott Bywater

I was chatting with a client yesterday about his advertisement.

And when first looking at it, it appeared to be an okay advert to the untrained eye.

But then I asked him a question -

What's the most common question you get asked when you talk at seminars... when clients are interested in purchasing your product... etc?

He answered my question and a light bulb went off inside my head because I knew I had found the new angle.

And this is what people miss when they try to simply "swipe" sales copy from another advertisement.

They think they can just pull out a few words like:

Who else wants to

or...

WARNING

or...

They laughed when I

or whatever.

But if you get the angle wrong, then you are dead in the water.

For instance, let's say you are trying to sell aquariums - then you might think an ad in the paper which says:

Who else wants to buy an aquarium

or...

Warning: Don't buy an aquarium before you read this

... is going to be a winner, simply because you have seen these sort of ads somewhere else before.

But if I was to chat with you and dig a little deeper, we would discover...

- Who bought aquariums from you in the past (the 20% of your business that makes up 80% of your customers)

- What questions they generally ask

- Why they buy aquariums

etc. etc.

And let's say the answer was (and I am totally guessing) that most aquariums were bought for kids between 5-12 years old. And the number one priority was that they were easy to maintain.

If that was the case, then a "warning" style headline simply wouldn't cut it unless you were advertising to readers who were specifically looking for your product via a phone directory or internet search.

So what would cut it?

An advertisement which focused around making someone's child the happiest kid on the block. i.e.

Headline: How to make your child the happiest kid on the block this Christmas

Followed by a question about "how do you choose a present for your child and what to look for"

Followed by a story of just how an aquarium gave so much joy to a young child

Followed by taking away the objection of "high maintenance" and explaining how easy it is.

Remember, every product has an angle. The problem is just like I would have a problem trying to work out what was going on with my car by opening up the bonnet (as compared to a mechanic) it's very difficult for the untrained eye to spot.

And that's why I have finally opened the doors to my critique service - http://www.scottbywater.com/critique/ - where I tear your existing ad or sales letter to pieces and show you how to get it to start making money immediately.

About the Author:
Scott Bywater is a direct response copywriter with extensive experience in B2B and B2C writing. Mr Bywater is the author of Cash-Flow Advertising and More Customers Made Easy. You can gain access to his copywriting and marketing tips via his entertaining and eye opening "Copywriting Selling Secrets" newsletter available at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

Track And Measure Your Advertising, Customer Acquisition Costs, And The Lifetime Value Of A Customer

2009-11-30T12:00:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Hunter Waterhouse

As business owners and managers, we need to look at a variety of numbers to gain a better understanding of our businesses. In this article, we are going to consider two very important metrics in business marketing - Cost Of Customer Acquisition and Advertising ROI (Return On Investment).

One of the most important numbers we need to always be mindful of is the "Cost of a New Customer" or "Cost of Customer Acquisition".

Understanding Customer Acquisition Costs

If you are unfamiliar with this concept, let me give you a quick tutorial on this advertising metric.

===============================================================>

Suppose you run an advertisement in your local newspaper for your furniture store. Suppose for the sake of this example that you paid $1000 for your display ad in the newspaper.

Now, suppose your advertising brought 4 new customers into your store, who bought from you. Suppose also that the average spend for each customer was $1500.

With the example I am drawing, your $1000 display advertisement in the newspaper brought in 4 customers who spent a total of $6000 in your store.

I am going to keep this example simple, so that more people can keep up with the numbers.

On the basic premise of our example, you generated 4 customers after an outlay of $1000 in advertising. So your basic Cost Of Customer Acquisition was $250 per customer.

If your business received fewer customers, from your outlay of $1000 in advertising, then your Cost Of Customer Acquisition is more expensive.

But, if your business earned more customers who spent money, then your Cost Of Customer Acquisition would be much smaller.

===============================================================>

In its simplest form, the Cost Of Customer Acquisition is the money spent to get the customer to your store divided by the number of new customers acquired. We will look at this in more detail, later in this article.

The Best Way To Measure Sales And Marketing Performance

Entrepreneur Magazine in a 1999 article reflected on the Cost Of Customer Acquisition in the dot com world. The article suggested, "the cost of new customer acquisition is one of the best ways to measure sales and marketing performance."

In 1999, the Cost Of Customer Acquisition for the following companies were:

BarnesAndNoble.com - $42

Amazon.com - $27.60

Priceline - $32.30

Beyond.com - $29.30

On the surface, these numbers may seem small. But, Amazon's Average Sale is in the $17-range! This makes the challenge that Amazon and other major retailers face fairly transparent. If these retailers could only count on one purchase from the newly acquired customer, then these businesses would be losing money by the truckload.

Fortunately, Amazon continues to perform well in Repeat Business from a single customer. The following calculations reflect additional numbers that we business people should also factor into our Cost Of Acquisition metrics.

The Real Value Of A Customer

Amazon's first-sale may only be $17, but in 1999, Amazon's Average Sales Per Customer was $116, up $10 from the previous year. Unfortunately, Amazon isn't very forthcoming with these numbers, so after two hours research, I was unable to come up with more up-to-date numbers for you to consider.

The point of mentioning this is that it is important for business owners and managers to recognize that the Value Of A Customer is not how much sales revenue is derived from the initial purchase, but more importantly, from the Lifetime Value Of A Customer.

If we looked at Amazon's Cost Of Customer Acquisition only in terms of that first sale, then they will be losing money hand-over-fist. With a Cost Of Acquisition of $27.60 and the first sale of $17, Amazon could not stay in business long if they were continuously producing numbers at that level. However, once you factor in the Lifetime Value Of A Customer, then Amazon is spending $27.60 to acquire a customer that is worth $116 in sales for them. Therefore, by measuring the Lifetime Value of a Customer, Amazon is spending only 24% of their revenue in order to acquire one customer.

Few businesses invest 24% of their revenue in advertising, but Amazon hopes that the Lifetime Value of a Customer will eventually exceed the $116 value, known to have existed in FY2000.

As the Lifetime Value of a Customer increases, the overall Cost of Customer Acquisition will fall, as an overall percentage value of Cost Of Acquisition divided by the Lifetime Value of the customer.

The Compounding Lifetime Value Of A Customer

If you have a hair-cutting salon and your advertising budget for one month is $1000, and you get 30 new customers through the door, who will spend an average of $20 for a hair cut, then your basic Cost of Customer Acquisition is roughly $33.34 to gain $20 in new sales.

But if only half of your 30 new customers become regular clients, then you can anticipate 15 of those customers coming to your hair salon at least once a month for the remainder of the year. Therefore, the first 15 customers will be worth $20 each, and the next 15 customers will be worth $240 each over the course of one year ($20 x 12 months). All told, your first 15 customers will put $300 in your cash register, and the next 15 customers will put another $3600 in your cash register.

Thus, in the hair salon example, your $1000 in advertising could generate new customers that will generate $3900 in new sales. Once you start to consider the Lifetime Value of a Customer, within the Cost of Customer Acquisition, then you will realize that the Cost of Customer Acquisition - although it might be higher than the initial sale - holds out the possibility and promise reducing itself as the Lifetime Value of a Customer increases over time.

As the end of the year winds down, you will be able to see that a $1000 expenditure was turned into $3900 in new revenue. In essence, for every dollar you spent on advertising that month, your return value was $3.90 over the course of one year.

In the second year, if only half of the original 15 regular customers or roughly 8 people stay with you for the full course of the second year, then the $1920 in revenue (8 people X $20 each X 12 months) you can expect from those customers could almost be considered free money. Of course, you will still have service fulfillment costs, but that second year will give you nearly $2000 in revenue that you will not have to chase.

Even if half of the customers drop off during the following calendar years, then a 50% customer attrition rate will allow you to have customers that could stay with you up to five years. Calculated against a 50% decrease in customers over each calendar year, your $1000 investment in advertising may translate into $7500 in revenues over five years ($3900 + $1920 + $960 + $480 + $240 = $7500), from the initial investment of $1000 in advertising.

The interesting thing about this scenario is that it is based on an advertising budget of $1000 ONE TIME. But, most businesses will continue the advertising process every month in every year. Therefore, the above example could compound month-after-month. Every month should bring the same or similar results to your business for the month and year.

Advertising Is A Process, Not An Event

Many small business owners have a dire misunderstanding of the nature of advertising and the value to be received from the advertising.

When business owners or managers fail to track and measure the new business generated from the advertising, then the business owners and managers will fail to see that advertising is an expense that can return huge dividends to the business.

When businesses fail to track and measure advertising successes, people tend to only see the money leaving the business without every seeing the reward coming back into the business. As a result, many business managers will employ advertising for a short time, then cancel the advertising, under the false belief that the advertising was not returning value to the business.

When businesses fail to understand the Lifetime Value Of A Customer, it is hard to appreciate any advertising method that fails to pay for itself in its first cycle. If Amazon was to only look at the initial sale generated by a new customer, they would quickly cancel all of their advertising efforts. Fortunately for Amazon, its management understands that the initial $17 sale is not the measure to use to determine the value of Amazon's advertising efforts. Amazon's management understands that the true Cost of Customer Acquisition should not be measured by the initial sale, but by the Lifetime Value of a Customer. In doing so, Amazon has ensured that it will continue to be one of the largest and most successful retail outlets on the planet.

When business managers fail to understand the Lifetime Value of a Customer, it is hard for them to appreciate and understand the compounding nature of the revenue stream for a business. It is hard for them to understand that money invested into advertising today, can deliver huge rewards over the next several years.

A Wake Up Call For Small Business Owners

According to Scott Shane, author of "Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths that Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By", only 29-in-100 businesses will remain in business after ten years. That means that a full 71% of businesses started in any calendar year will be out of business in only ten years.

It is sad to say, but the reason most businesses fail is that business owners and managers fail to understand the nature of advertising, the importance of tracking and measuring advertising results, the Lifetime Value of a Customer, and the compounding nature of the revenue stream.

I don't want to see your business on the trash heap of yesteryear. So, it is my hope that you will take this article as a wake-up call, as to the importance of advertising and its potential to lift your business into profits.

About the Author:
Hunter Waterhouse has been helping business owners advertise their businesses online for nearly a decade. He is ready, willing, and able to put his experience to work for Main Street Businesses that seek to generate walk-in traffic to their stores, from the online exposure of their business. To learn more about how Hunter can help advertise your local business, visit: http://onlinemarketinglocal.com/

Zig When They Zag - And Stand Out

2009-11-24T02:00:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Scott Bywater

The internet has become all the rage these days.

Don't send a letter, pop it on an email.

Don't mail the customer anything, pop it in an email.

In fact, let's forget about letters altogether and do everything electronically.

I'm as guilty of this as the next person.

But recently I received a thank you card and it made me think a little differently.

You see, I receive (and appreciate) a bundle of emails every week thanking me for the emails I send out.

And nothing makes me feel better than knowing that as I write these emails from my lonely office, someone is reading them and hopefully applying them.

However a couple of weeks ago I received something in the mail which really stood out.

It was a thank you card from a guy called Greg Kumanovski from Global Pictures. All it said was...

"Thank you for your regular emails with all the helpful ideas. Have a great day"

But I've had that card sitting on my filing cabinet ever since he sent it to me.

And I think there's a lesson here for all of us.

Whether it's thank you cards or anything else, consider sending the hard copy version over the soft copy version.

In other words: when everyone else is zigging, why not zag and stand out from the crowd.

After all, mail order should be far more effective these days because nobody else is doing it.

For instance, yesterday I was chatting with a guy who sent out his proposals via email.

He was getting a lot of proposals requests coming in every week and would pretty much churn back a standard response with a quotation.

I suggested he set up a system where he could send them out via mail instead.

We worked out that all he would need to pay for the cost of the mail is a 1% increase in response.

My bet is that he would get it.

Especially when all of his competitors are probably doing everything via email as well.

So take a moment now to think of how you can do things differently... and use alternative strategies to stand out from your competition.

About the Author:
Scott Bywater is a direct response copywriter with extensive experience in B2B and B2C writing. Mr Bywater is the author of Cash-Flow Advertising and More Customers Made Easy. You can gain access to his copywriting and marketing tips via his entertaining and eye opening "Copywriting Selling Secrets" newsletter available at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

Article Marketing Advice: Increasing the Readability of Your Articles

2009-11-21T12:15:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008-2009 Hunter Waterhouse

When it comes to writing articles to promote your online business, it's important to consider more than just your marketing goals: it's essential that you also focus on writing articles that people will want to read. In other words, you don't just want to use words; and you don't want to market and sell your business directly. Instead, you want to make an effort to be engaging and influential.

The first tip that will help you to increase the readability of your articles is to write with the reader's concerns in mind. If you are unsure of exactly how to do that, you may want to look into article ghostwriters who understand article marketing and who only focus on writing articles for Internet audiences. When you work with article ghostwriters, you can focus more on your business and know that someone else is working hard on your behalf to write articles that will be read.

Getting The Best Results From Your Article Marketing Campaigns

Still, if you want to keep article writing within your company, rather than outsourcing it, here are some tips for getting more out of your article marketing campaigns:

1. Hook your readers from the start. Article writing is a lot more effective for marketing your business when people will actually read the articles. The best thing that you can do is to catch their interest right away. Your article title will determine if people will open your article, and the first paragraph will ensure that people keep reading the article.

2. Avoid the temptation to overwhelm your readers with a lot of information. Article writing is not about telling the reader everything that there is to know; it's about sticking with a central focus and giving your reader an introduction or overview of the information they want and need to solve their problems. In an article that probably won't be much more than one thousand words, you will never be able to tell the reader everything they need to know to solve a problem, but you can help put your reader on solid footing for moving forward towards a workable solution.

3. Break up information into digestible chunks. Writing articles is about expressing some key points. When it comes to writing articles for the internet, what you are going to find is that many readers skim rather than read your articles. Using numbered lists (like this one) will help you to present your information clearly, and let readers find what they are looking for quickly. Similarly, if you use bullet lists or break up your text with subheadings that are in a larger font and bolded, you can be sure that after reading your article, the article's key points will be easily recalled.

4. When it comes to article writing, particularly when you are working to establish yourself as an expert, it's important to show that you know what you're talking about. A great way of doing that - and to break up the text of your article - is to include quotes from more established experts. If you are writing articles and are more established, you too should quote other sources, possible letting the readers know why you disagree with another writer.

5. Focus on spelling and grammar. Just as someone who is hiring article ghostwriters should take the time to find ghost writing services that are well versed in your point of view, it's also important to be sure that you're writing in the native language of your target audience. American English is different from that spoken and written in England and India. Paying attention to your spelling and grammar shows that you care about what you are saying and that you are a professional.

A good example of the difference between the usage rules in British English and American English is the story of Paul Marshall from Dallas, Texas. When Paul was running his mortgage business, he had hired some Indian writers to develop content for his website. When he received the copy from his ghostwriters, the copy used the word "mortgage scheme" in the text eleven times. Paul was pissed, as you might well imagine. In British English, "scheme" does not carry any negative connotation. Yet, as you may well realize, "scheme" in American English is one of the most negative words that can be applied to any business model. It denotes "dishonesty" and "fraud" in American English. His Indian writers could not understand his anger with their choice of words, but you can understand his anger.

Professionalism In The Article Writing Process

Professionalism, unfortunately, is frequently overlooked when it comes to article writing. Great writing flows, not just for the writer whose aim is to get the words and message out, but also for the readers who are consuming the information.

Because of this, one key element of an effective article is not the writing itself: it is the readability of that article. Take the time to look at the articles that grab your attention and jot a few notes about each of them. Specifically, focus on the following:

How did the writer grab your attention (or, if you weren't interested in the first paragraph, what turned you off?

What sort of spacing did the writer use in the article?

What did you come away with after reading the article? In other words, what were the key points of the article?

Writing articles is neither purely science nor purely art at its best; it is a good combination of the two. A great article focuses on a key issue, isn't stuffed with keywords (you do want search engines to find the article, but too many keywords in an article takes away from readability), and is as easy to skim, as it is to read.

When all is said and done, an article that gets read in its entirety will carry the reader to the Author's Bio at the end of the article. Ideally, the reader will read the entire article and feel a desire to visit the author's website to learn more about the writer of the article. It is article marketing at its best, when the reader likes the article enough to click on the link in the Author's Bio and visit the author's website to learn more about what the author is offering.

About the Author:
Hunter Waterhouse has been ghostwriting and building websites since 1999. He is ready, willing, and able to put his experience to work for Main Street Businesses that seek to generate walk-in traffic to their stores, from the online exposure of their business. To learn more about how Hunter can help your offline business, visit Online Marketing Local at http://onlinemarketinglocal.com/local-services/

How Online Marketing Consultants Can Supercharge Your Sales

2009-11-18T18:00:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Paul Marshall

Starting out it can all be so overwhelming. But it doesn't need to be.

We have to get our products or services exactly right.

Then we have to figure out how to explain them to others through our website.

We understand the reasons people should buy what we are selling. But can we successfully explain that to our website visitors in convincing language they relate to, instead of jargon and lingo related to our industry?

Finally, we have to develop an action plan to market online and within our budget, which is often limited when first starting our business.

And how do we develop that marketing plan? Where do we get the information necessary to formulate marketing techniques that will actually work for us? The number of sources out there is simply overwhelming!

This is when getting feedback from a professional outside our own industry can be valuable. You can turn to an affordable Online Marketing Consultants who understands and specializes in small businesses and new business start-ups.

What about Getting Internet Traffic to Your Site?

Some start by using pay-per-click marketing, like Google AdWords. The trouble is that AdWords can get expensive quickly. And it takes a LOT of time to set up and manage over time.

Starting out it may make sense to use AdWords. Plus, it can be a great way to test your keyword search phrases to find out which ones convert best. You can use AdWords for this purpose before beginning search engine optimization (SEO).

But ultimately...sooner or later...most businesses need to optimize for the search engines (SEO).

SEO can provide you qualified Internet traffic without per-visitor costs. Think of it almost as free advertising...well, free after the SEO costs in either time, money or some of both.

You should also utilize article marketing, getting your message in front of article directory visitors and ezine newsletter subscribers. This can generate faster sales, while you're waiting on your SEO efforts to pay off.

Lastly, for most Internet businesses, they should use blog postings or opt-in email marketing to stay in touch with their prospective buyers, using a soft-sell method, over time. If ALL you focus on are people who make a buying decision the very first time they come to your site, you're missing out on the great majority of sales you can make!

How Much Traffic Do You Need?

Here are some questions you'll need to consider when making decisions about AdWords and SEO:

1. What is your monthly sales revenue goal from your website?

2. How much traffic to your website on a monthly basis will you need to meet your sales goals?

3. What is (or will be) your click-through rate, whether from AdWords impressions or organic SEO listings?

You need this number to determine the total number of monthly impressions or search queries you'll need (for your AdWords ads and your organic SEO listings to be seen by searchers), to arrive at the monthly traffic number you need to your website.

4. What is (or will be) your conversion sales rate from your traffic? Again, you need this number also to determine the amount of monthly impressions or search queries you'll need.

Especially when first starting up, finding this type of data, evaluating the accuracy of it and then implementing a plan can be very time-consuming and can almost drive a person crazy!

There are a lot of so-called experts you can follow. But how do you know if they know what they're talking about?

And without having these numbers (at least good estimates), starting AdWords or SEO is like throwing darts with a blindfold on!

Again, this is where talking with 1 or 2 Online Marketing Consultants can help light your path. Your result can be more sales, MUCH faster.

Which Keyword Search Phrases are Right for Your Business?

Think of keywords as the windows or doors to your website. Without using the right ones for YOUR business, your website is like a house without windows or doors -- no one is coming in. Kinda the opposite of what you're going for. :-)

What makes good keywords for your business?

My advice to clients I coach is your keywords should:

1. accurately match what the search engine users INTEND when they type in their keywords to the services or products you offer (get inside their heads);

2. bring you enough traffic to be worth the AdWords or SEO effort;

3. offer affordable enough AdWords bid prices, if you're using AdWords;

4. have obtainable first or second page SEO results;

5. contain words in the phrases that suggest a searcher who is ready to spend money (unless you're offering something that is truly free);

6. CONVERT directly to a sale, a sales lead, a sign-up...whatever your goal is.

Wrapping it Up

Be open to the value affordable Online Marketing Consultants offer you. Someone who has already gone down the road you're on can help you avoid the potholes along the way. And those potholes can be very expensive...

There are talented advisors out there who understand small businesses and new business start-ups. And they price their services for these businesses.

Using someone talented, you'll almost certainly make more sales, more quickly.

And following that advice and the other suggestions in this article, your Internet marketing plan should be off to a great start!

About the Author:
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He's an Online Marketing Consultants expert offering marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). You can learn more about Paul on his Search Engine Marketing LinkedIn profile and at Strategic Web Marketing.net.

Read more of Paul Marshall's articles.

10,000 Reasons Why You Should Do Your Homework Before Investing In An Online Business Opportunity

2009-11-13T20:30:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Bill Platt

I have been providing advertising services to online businesses since 2000. I have helped many people become successful online through the use of my services.

Too often, I only hear from people on the phone after they have lost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to launch their new online business ventures. They call me when they have just a few dollars left. I sometimes wish people would have found me first, so that I could have helped them find real success, instead of heartache.

Beware Of The Charlatans

Before you consider spending any large chunk of cash, please be aware of those who are preying upon the Internet newcomers.

I know companies selling cookie-cutter websites for tens of thousands of dollars, and those cookie-cutter websites have never helped anyone achieve any kind of success online.

If you are buying a website that is selling products available on thousands of websites, it will be extremely difficult for you to stand out among the crowd.

I know that these cookie-cutter sites are attractive, because they have the products, the shopping cart, and the fulfillment systems built in, but you are still one of thousands of sites displaying the exact same kind of products for the exact same prices. You are only one in a huge wilderness of sites that might look different, but are exactly the same under the hood.

In these cases, the only website owner who profits is the guy who is selling the cookie-cutter website and handling the product fulfillment for the customers.

The guy selling the site wins in three ways: 1. Selling the cookie-cutter website for 10 grand; 2. Filling the product orders and collecting his wholesale fees; and 3. He gets to capture the email and mailing addresses of people who buy products from the cookie-cutter sites.

Beware Of The Cost Cutters

If you are selling any kind of hard-product (a product that must be shipped to the customer), be aware of the price comparison websites, such as http://Nextag.com/ where consumers can find the product they want to buy, then compare prices on that particular product across hundreds of websites.

You might be the one providing the best information about the product, only to ensure that your lowest price competitor gets the sale.

It is tough selling hard products online for this very reason, unless you are an exclusive distributor of such a product or no other companies have shown an interest in selling that kind of product.

Beware Of Import/Export

Before diving off into buying products from China to resell in the United States, you need to be aware of the laws governing the importation of certain product types.

There are certain products that the Chinese Wholesale sites would be happy to sell to you. And at the same time, the U.S. Customs Office would be happy to seize those products at the border, due to import restrictions.

If the U.S. Customs seizes your shipment, your investment may be lost forever.

You should know what you can import and what you can export. Know the facts, before spending your money arranging large product shipments into the United States. http://Customs.gov/ is a good place to start to learn about importing products into the U.S.

Beware Of Bad Business Advice

If you have ever heard that online business is different than offline business, please take some time to understand what that actually means.

Primarily, it means that I do not have to have an office on Main Street USA in order to do business online. I can run my business out of my house, if I so desire.

Beyond that difference, both methods of doing business are exactly the same.

The rules that govern the profitability of a business are exactly the same.

You must earn more than you spend to make a profit, and what you pay yourself is an expense.

Beware of Those Who Are In The Business Of Selling Lies

There are tons of people online who prey on people like you.

The one that immediately comes to mind is the Internet Marketing guru who says that you can hire ghost writers for $5 an article, and that is all you should need to spend.

I provide ghost writing services, and I cannot get good content for anywhere near $5 per article.

What you usually get for $5 is stolen from someone else, or it looks like it was written by a second grader.

The thing that is so ironic about that claim is that the gurus saying that you should only pay $5 for an article are usually paying $250 to $500 to have their articles written. And they would never tell you WHO writes their articles, because finding and keeping good help is tough, even online.

I can get decent articles written for you, for well under $250, in fact, for under $100 and sometimes for under $50, depending on if I am doing the writing or my writers are doing the writing.

It is important for you to understand that awesome writers can typically earn you an awesome Return On Investment (ROI).

When you find those awesome writers, you need to pay them what they require to keep them on your payroll, and you certainly do not want to share their name with another, in the off-chance that they decide that they would prefer to work for the other guy instead of you.

It is just bizarre to me that the big Internet Marketing gurus are telling you that you should never pay more than $5 an article, when I know for a fact that many of them are paying $250 to $500 an article to have their own stuff written.

You know what this actually boils down to?

Those gurus are not telling you what you need to know. They are telling you what you want to know.

Shame on them.

Just Be Careful Out There

The Internet is full of fraudsters looking to get your money and steal your your dreams.

So be careful not to become a victim of the Internet Marketing dream.

Many of my customers have taken the time to learn how to be successful, and they are. I have several clients who earn 7-figures a year from their online marketing endeavors.

If you learn the necessary work processes that you will need to do, offer a product or service people actually want or need, and you follow through with good advertising and customer service, you can be successful too.

Unfortunately, most people will blow their bankroll, before they figure out what it was that they were doing wrong. And then it is too late, because they no longer have the resources to make anything happen.

About the Author:
Bill Platt has been providing article marketing services since 2001, including article ghost writing and article distribution services, through his website at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/ You can download Bill's free ebook titled, "Article Marketing: Beyond the Basics" on his blog. You can also listen to Article Marketing Tips and Tutorials at: http://ArticleMarketingConceptsRadio.com/

Follow Bill Platt on Twitter.

3 Key Points in Online Marketing to Avoid Tanking Your Results

2009-11-13T14:00:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Paul Marshall

With all the changes in Google AdWords and the increased competition these days, organic SEO looks more and more attractive to most of us.

The key is for your website optimization to out-perform your competition, without over spending with an online marketing consultant (or without taking up too much of your time if you're going the do-it-yourself route).

Remember, affordable Search Engine Optimization is about increasing quality traffic, then

converting

that traffic to a sale or a sales lead.

If you miss these points I describe below, your SEO goals of increased conversions will tank, even if you have a Number 1 Google Ranking.

I often notice these missed areas when I'm Coaching a business owner about their Web site and their need to increase sales and sales leads.

So, here are 3 points for you to review that I hope will help your SEO goals of increased conversions.

What's Above the Fold Counts Most, so Consider Monitor Resolutions

Living in the world of TV remote controls and browser back buttons, we have to capture our website visitors' attention ASAP. Our visitors aren't going to give us much time before making a decision to stay or to leave our website.

As much as this subject is discussed these days, it's amazing the number of sites I review that have critical information missing from "above the fold", in that area visible before your visitors scroll down.

This is the area to briefly summarize what people can do on your site and make your best case for your guests staying on your website and not clicking away. This may also be the area to place your contact information.

Keep in mind that what's above the fold on your monitor will likely be different from what's above the fold on the monitor for someone visiting your website. Browser resolution is set differently for various computers.

For instance, on my website, I know the top resolution of my visitors is 1280 by 1024 (53%) and the second most popular resolution is 1024 by 768 (37%). I get this information from my site's analytics script, although not all analytics programs provide this critical information.

Since I make sure my site looks great for these 90% of my visitors and make sure I communicate reasons to stay on my site above the fold (my value proposition), I draw more people into my site, encouraging them to scroll down.

Remember to cross test your site with recent versions of the most popular Web browsers: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and maybe even Google's new Chrome.

These steps raise my conversion rate and they will raise yours, too. And increasing traffic and conversions is the whole point of affordable search engine optimization, whether using an online marketing consultant or d-i-y, right?

So, don't miss this important step.

Carefully Select Your Type Size and Font and Remember that White Space is Your Friend

I'm astounded by the improper text choices made by so many website owners today. Is there really any good reason to make people squint at your website, struggling to get the information they need?

Consider reviewing The Easy to Read Standard at Information Architects (you can Google it). I would encourage you to review the size of your text, the white space between your letters and words and between your paragraphs and headings.

Designers often believe whitespace is your enemy; if you want people to understand your message and stay on your website, whitespace is in fact your friend. :-)

Also consider that fonts with serifs are easier to read than fonts without serifs.

If you want to successfully convey your message to as many of your site visitors as possible, then make it as easy for them as you can. When we're talking about increasing conversions, it's all about the numbers and appealing to the largest number of people possible.

Use Opt-in Email or Blog Postings to Maximize Your Sales

All website owners would like for people to buy from their website the first time they visit. But is that realistic?

Consider these statics from the National Sales Executive Association:

2% of sales are made on the 1st contact;

3% of sales are made on the 2nd contact;

5% of sales are made on the 3rd contact;

10% of sales are made on the 4th contact (and)

80% of sales are made on the 5th - 12th contact.

For most businesses, if you don't offer an opt-in contact, like a regular email newsletter or blog postings, you're missing out on most of your potential sales!

When setting up an opt-in Internet marketing campaign, you should offer incentives to subscribe. To entice people to opt-in, you can offer:

special pricing for email list members

a first look at new products

ability for customer to select subjects and emails they receive (controlling the frequency of contact by choosing which of your lists to be on)

promise not to share email or other personal info with other companies

Using opt-in contact allows you to significantly increase conversions by introducing yourself over time to your potential customers, in a soft-sell manner.

Website optimization is important; the goal is increased Internet traffic, sales and sales leads. But whether you've hired an online marketing consultant or you're doing the process yourself, Affordable search engine optimization by itself doesn't accomplish those last points of increased sales and sales leads.

You've got to remember to design your website to alleviate visitors natural apprehensions and make buying from you as easy as possible.

Properly mapping out the above the fold area of your Web pages, using appropriate size text, using adequate whitespace and offering an opt-in process to nurture your buyers will all help you accomplish the real goals you have with SEO and website optimization: increased sales and more sales leads.

About the Author:
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He's an Online Marketing Consultant and an Affordable Search Engine Optimization specialist offering marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). You can learn more about Paul on his LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/paulmarshallwebmarketing and at Strategic Web Marketing.net.

Santa Claus is Dead -- But Internet Marketing Get Rich Scams Aren't

2009-11-12T19:30:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Paul Marshall

Yes, Santa Claus IS really dead. Sorry for the news. And you might want to keep the kids from looking over your shoulder here for the next few minutes. :-)

As an Internet Marketing Coach, I hear all the time from new clients how they've wasted hundreds to thousands on Internet get-rich-quick schemes before coming to me.

Desperation and inexperience are the breading grounds that allow these scammers to prey.

Just this last week, one of my colleagues replied to a guy on a forum who wanted to start earning $5,000 each month -- oh, and within the next 30 days. And he had $80.00 to invest, a whole eighty dollars!

I'm sure the guy is nice, but he also sounds desperate. How is anyone going to start earning literally thousands of dollars a month within 30 days on just an $80.00 investment?

Isn't this scenario as realistic as saying ALL the employees at your local fast food restaurant earn $100,000 per year?

Yes, Saint Nick is gone and did I mention that The Tooth Fairly is on life support?

Let's get real.

Are You Real about Internet Earnings and the Business Costs Required?

Back to my big spender above who has just $80.00 to invest...where did he get the idea he could be a successful Internet marketer on an $80.00 investment?

My guess is he probably got that idea from some forum.

And that may bring up a good point: are you likely to get good advice going to forums?

Me personally, I'm too busy to participate in forums. Although to be fair, I do have successful SEO (search engine optimization) colleagues who do. But while you could encounter a talented person to give you -- free advice -- on a forum, my best advice to you is you are more likely to encounter people with -- free time.

If they have so much free time to participate in forums, how busy are they with paid work?

And about free advice...how many people do you personally know who work for free? How would they pay their bills?

Do YOU work for free now?

Are you going to be working for free with your online enterprise? If you're not, then why should someone else?

If you want to earn $100,000 per year form your Internet business, do you want your advice coming from someone offering free advice OR only charging $20.00 per hour?

OK, You've Got Some Money to Invest in Your Internet Business, What's Your Next Step?

Well, protect it and spend it carefully! Watch out for "blue sky" promises of anything that sounds too good to be true.

Compared to conventional advertising and marketing, you don't need that much money to market online. But you do need some.

You need money for a Web site and you need some for marketing, likely PPC (pay-per-click) and SEO.

The more cash you have to invest, the less time you have to invest. You can hire an Internet Marketing Company to perform much of the work for you.

OR, the less money you have, the more of your time that will be required. This can be a very good time to considering hiring an Internet Marketing Coach, to save you money and speed up the timetable for you to earn income.

The problem is the people with no money to invest OR with unrealistic expectations are the ones who fall prey to the Internet marketing scammers. Often, these are the same people who don't have the skills to do any of the work themselves or the desire to develop the required skills (sigh).

An Example of what To Do...and what NOT To Do

Consider another one of my clients who paid $1,000 for a well-known Internet marketing program. My client was told all sorts of inconsistent things, including that the course was for people new to online marketing, which that wasn't the case.

And he was told to market something online that he didn't know anything about or have any particular interest in.

Huh??

How does THAT make any sense?

But at that moment, that was what he wanted to hear, because it was easy and didn't require much effort or time from him.

Here's the real deal: there are dozens, hundreds or thousands of people and companies marketing the same or similar product or service to yours. You have to do it BETTER.

That requires time and effort. It requires making an effort and using one's brain.

And this is where a qualified Marketing Coach or a Search Engine Optimization Firm can help you.

If you select well, the money you spend you will more than save in increased profits, much faster and avoiding the potholes and pitfalls that come with Internet marketing. Those pitfalls can be very expensive (and time consuming).

And there are actually Internet Marketing Coaches you can begin with for only a few hundred dollars, which could be money very well spent. :-)

About the Author:
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He's a Marketing Coach expert offering marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). You can learn more about Paul on his Marketing Coach LinkedIn profile and at Strategic Web Marketing.net.

Read more of Paul Marshall's articles.

List Building - 9 Steps to Creating a High Converting Squeeze Page

2009-11-11T12:30:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Alan Cheng

With a high converting squeeze page, an online business will make more use of the traffic they drive to their website. With more email leads an online business can promote to, there are more chances of buyers for your products and services. Generating traffic is hard work so you want to capture as many of the visitors' emails as you can when they visit your website.

Here are 9 steps to creating a high converting squeeze page:

1. Determine Type Of Traffic

Decide what type of prospect you want to attract with your squeeze page. Then create your squeeze page to attract that particular type of prospect only. Don't create a squeeze page which caters for everyone. Your conversions of visitors to leads will suffer.

2. Professional Graphics

Create the best graphics you can for your squeeze page. Eye-grabbing graphics have proven in my tests to increase conversion rates. So hire a good graphics designer if you can't design good graphics yourself.

3. Keywords

Make sure your squeeze page shows the keywords which the visitor is looking for. If your ad promises that they will receive an insurance review report when they visit your squeeze page, make sure your squeeze page shows the words "insurance review".

This will confirm to the visitor that they are on the right page and they should find the information they are looking for.

4. Attention

Get your visitor's attention right away when they visit your website.

You can do this by showing a headline that raises curiosity and promises benefits.

Once you have their attention, they will read more of your squeeze page.

5. Benefits

With your squeeze page, explain the benefits for the visitor if they sign up to your list.

Explain the benefits using words or video. Make sure that when you read the message on the squeeze page, you actually emotionally feel how signing up will benefit your visitors.

6. Graphics - Video/Report

If you are offering a free report or video on your squeeze page, create a graphic (called an ecover) for it.

This will make your intangible product seem tangible. Visitors will want their hands on your free offer. It's all about packaging your offer.

7. Call To Action

In your squeeze page, make it very clear what you want the subscriber to do. Don't make them guess that they should enter their name and email address to sign up to your list. Tell them directly in simple terms. Command them on what they need to do.

People react to commands. Telling them to enter their name and email and then click on the submit button is needed. This may sound silly, but tests have shown this to increase response rates.

8. Split Testing

With every squeeze page you create, you need to create another one with a slight variation such as a different headline, different benefits or place your sign up box in another place.

All squeeze pages can be improved. Use the tool at http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer to test which 2 versions of your squeeze page has the better response rate.

Remove the low performing squeeze page and try to create another one to achieve better response rates. This is how you create squeeze pages that have 50% sign up rates.

9. Drive Traffic

At the end of the day, you need to drive traffic to the squeeze page and see what type of prospects react to your squeeze page. If you notice that a certain source of traffic has good sign up rates then market your squeeze page more in that area.

The more traffic you drive to your squeeze page, the quicker you will be able to create a high converting squeeze page.

All these steps are not rocket science, yet not many people follow them. Improve your squeeze page one step at a time following the advice above and you'll be able to convert a high percentage of your visitors to subscribers. This list building component of your online business is essential if you want to increase sales. If you want your online business to succeed, a high converting squeeze page is mandatory.

About the Author:
For more tips on how to promote your online business and increase sales, visit information product creation. To hire professionals to create your own best selling information products, visit http://www.eliteghostwriters.com/infoproducts.html - Alan Cheng, Elite Ghostwriters.

Read more Articles written by Alan Cheng.

How To Generate Free Website Traffic FAST

2009-11-09T22:15:00.000-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Willie Crawford

It goes without saying that if you don't have website traffic, the other components of your web business can't work very effectively. Without eyeballs on your sales letter, you won't make any sales!

There are many ways to generate fast free website traffic, but many of them aren't readily available to the average, lesser-known marketer.

Joint ventures are an excellent way to get tons of others to send you there traffic. However, joint ventures hinge upon relationships/connections, and many of the people with the most traffic have tons of their own products to promote. Those who own large lists are also approached about joint ventures so often that they may have commitments that extend out past six months.

If you do have a large list, getting immediate traffic to your website can be as simple as sending a compelling email. However, it takes time to build a quality list. It also takes time to build strong relationships and trust with your list members.

Another one of my favorite ways to generate lots of free traffic is by creating an inexpensive product and then allowing others to selling it and keep 100% of the profit. However, that does require a product on a really hot topic, and you still have to recruit affiliates.

You are also giving away 100% of the money on the sale (sacrificing early profits), and your goal there is not so much traffic but to build a list. I do often do this, using a script called Rapid Action Profits, which deposits proceed from the sale directly into my affiliates Paypal accounts while adding the new subscriber to my list automatically.

However, for generating traffic that is free, fast, and even long-term, I recommend creating lots of content and putting it in the path of the search engines. In fact, I often do this when I'm launching a new product, or even promoting a new affiliate product. Here are the down and dirty steps that I take:

1) Do your keyword research, striving to identify the "buying keywords" that your target customers are using. One easy way to do that is to use the "Google External Keyword Tool" to research which keywords get the most searches. This tool is free to use, and will also suggest related keywords to you.

What you are looking for is evidence that people are searching on a given phrase, and that those people are spending money. The Google External Keyword Tool will tell you this.

You can also enter a keyword phrase that you plan to target into the regular Google search box, and look at how many Google AdWords ads display on the right side of the page. These are people paying for each click from people who search on that term, and then click through to their sites. Presumably, they wouldn't pay for those clicks unless these customers were spending money.

2) Use your target keywords to craft titles for 20 articles. In addition to the keywords make sure that your title also promises some benefit. The article title is what's going to get you the most traction in the search engines.

3) Actually write those 20 articles. They can be as short as 400 words. If you have trouble writing, go to several of the bigger article directories and read what others have written on the topic. Also Google the keyword and look at what experts have had to say on the topic. Then write the articles.

If you are still stumped, simply plug your mike into your computer and then talk about the topic. Most of us are certainly good at talking. Record your thoughts then go back and organize them and you have an article (or several articles).

Add a resource box to the article that tells the reader to go to your site for more information, or resources (your product) on the topic. When linking back to your site, use your keyword as the anchor text where permitted.

4) Turn each article into a video. The simplest way to do this is probably to put your main points on PowerPoint slides. Then as you read your article, flip through the slides, and record it using Camtasia screen capture software. As easy as that, you have a movie.

5) Turn each article into a podcast (an MP3). Just read the article and record it using software built right into your computer. You can also download free recording software for tons of places on the internet. One of my favorites is Audacity.

6) Write several press releases using the article titles as your topic. Here you need to get a little creative, but as an example, for this article I would use, "Website Traffic Expert Reveals How To Generate Free website Traffic Fast."

These press releases are being written for SEO purposes, so the exact wording is not so critical. You are going to share several point in the press release and then you are going to link to one or two websites that you want to call attention to. Your links will use your keywords as the anchor text.

7) Submit these articles, videos, podcasts, and press releases to article directories, video sharing sites, podcast aggregators, and free press release sites. Since I do this for numerous products and projects, I use an automated submission site. Being a very prolific writer, I have weeks when I may do 20-40 articles (while still running my web business).

8) "Rinse and repeat!" What happens over time is that you'll soon have so much content in cyberspace that you'll achieve critical mass. At that point you'll rank for your most important keywords as well as lots of longtail keywords. At that point, you'll be amazed at the traffic.

To speed up the process you can also post your articles to an optimized WordPress blog that's been configured to "ping" RSS aggregators, social networking sites, and bookmarking sites each time that you post. If you don't know how to do that, it's beyond the scope of this article, but most webmasters familiar with WordPress can set that up quickly for you. WordPress is very simple, yet very powerful.

There you have it, "How to generate free website traffic fast!" Yes, there is work involved, but when you see the results, you'll know that it was well worth it.

About the Author:
Willie Crawford has been marketing online for 13 years, and used article marketing most of that time (writing over 1500 articles). His favorite tools for automatically distributing his articles, videos, podcasts, and press releases is the automated submission site: http://EasyPushButtonTraffic.com/

Follow @WillieCrawford on Twitter.

Social Media and SEO Myths

2009-11-09T13:45:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Scott Bywater

I was reading this book the other day about the death of advertising.

It was a book written by a web 2.0 search engine fan and he was saying there was going to be a death of advertising and everything would be done via search engines, social media, etc. going forward.

Now that's partly true.

Things have shifted.

Twenty years ago the media was dominated by television and newspapers.

And that was the only way to get your name out there on a mass level.

And that's certainly all changed.

But I was thinking the other day about some of my larger clients.

There's an 80 / 20 rule in business that... 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients.

Now I haven't crunched my numbers enough to know if this is absolutely true in my case, but here's what I've noticed about four of my top clients which generate a large percentage of my business.

One was generated by a referral.

And three were generated by picking up the phone or sending these guys letters / emails directly to get them on board.

And NOT because they suddenly fell across me online via search engines, blogs, social media, etc.

The message: Don't fall for all the hype.

If you know who your target market is then go after them.

Don't just rely on search.

Because with search you cannot control who you attract.

Sure, you can control via keyword.

But you cannot say I want a business who is turning over a minimum of a million dollars a year in the manufacturing industry for instance.

You can with direct mail.

Of course, you need to use the strategies you'll find in http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/cashflow to make sure you do it right and hit the nail on the head.

But once again, as with my last email you need to zig when they zag and not just follow along blindly according to what everyone else is saying and doing.

About the Author:
Scott Bywater is an advertising copywriting expert and the author of Cash-Flow Advertising. To gain access to all of his copywriting tips on how to get more customers via his eye opening "Copywriting Selling Secrets" newsletter, simply head on over to his web site at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

Follow @scottbywater on Twitter.

How Is Your Reputation Holding Up In Google's Search Results?

2009-11-08T04:45:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Bill Platt

You know, if there are listings in Google's search results that are hurting your business, you might think that there is nothing you can do about that. But let me assure you that given the will and the desire, there is plenty you can do about those search engine results that may be hurting your business.

So many people look at Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a game of influencing the keywords that are important to their business, but they don't realize that SEO can also be used to diminish the negatives in the search results.

Are You Losing Business As Result Of A Bad Review In Google?

Remember that guy who bought your product 3 years ago, and he did not follow the instructions for use, and then complained about how your product let him down? He could be hurting your business right now.

How do you measure the sales that your business is losing, because some guy complained on some website about how your product or service is "crap".

A Real World Example

Ah... I remember when I was selling TV's for a living.

There was this fellow who came into the store and bought a 52-inch projection screen TV. We had a bonded delivery crew on hand to help people get their purchases home, but although this guy had just spent $2400 on a television set, he decided that he did not want to pay $40 for delivery of his new TV set. I bet you can see where this story is going...

So, we loaded his new TV in the back of his pickup, and he proceeded to tie down his TV in the back of his pickup truck.

He thanked us for his TV and started the drive home.

45 minutes later, our most recent happy customer pulled into the parking lot, toting a big-screen TV box.

As we went to meet him at the door, we could hear the glass falling as the box moved across the floor.

He was pissed! And to our surprise, we were at fault!

You might be asking yourself why we were at fault. That is a good question, one I even posed at the time.

We were at fault, because we did not offer free delivery!

A gust of wind had caught his box, snapping the twine that he had used to tie it down, blowing his $2400 Phillips Big-Screen TV onto the highway.

He said it was our fault, because we should have given him free delivery. Never mind that we had already given him a $300 discount on the purchase of his TV.

We had offered him bonded delivery, but he refused, and now it was our fault that his TV was broken.

The store where we worked was one of those chains that keep all of the power to make things right at the home office. We could not simply exchange his TV, without permission from our superiors. If we had authorized the exchange with the guy, without the District Manager's permission, the company would have taken the cost of the Television out of the salesperson's and the manager's paycheck.

I was the assistant manager, and I was NOT going to pay for this guy's broken television. The company did not pay me enough to fix this problem for them, out of my own pocket.

We called the DM. Of course, even though we worked until 10 at night, the DM went home at 6pm. So, we kept dialing his cell phone number, until he answered the phone. ;-)

He was pissed, but that was okay. We were already dealing with "pissed", so we did not mind two people pissed at the same time.

Thank God I was not the manager in charge that night. Thank God for small favors...

Our District Manager said the guy was tough out of luck. I am glad I don't work for those clowns anymore.

I agree that it should not have been our responsibility, but surely we could find a solution for this guy. After all, he just spent $2400 with us.

Nope. The District Manager said No, then he said No, and he said No again.

So, the DM hung up telling us not to call him again that evening. And we were left with the poor guy who had just signed a two-year finance contract on a TV that was busted to hell.

Yes, I bet the guy pays for delivery next time. But the story does not end here...

It Wasn't Your Fault, But It Is Your Problem...

The story now moves online. It moves into the newspaper. It moves onto our sales floor for more than a week. It goes ballistic...

The customer went home that night, and turned to the power of the Internet with his complaint. A few days later, he followed his Internet complaints with a paid advert in the local newspaper. Our store was getting skewered.

The guy was in the store every day, throwing a tantrum. And he was spending his money and his time to skewer us for letting him make a foolish decision.

It just worked out well for him. On about his tenth trip to the store, throwing his daily tantrum in front of people who were looking to buy a TV, he just happened to arrive on a day that the DM was in the building. Ah... A new face behind the counter. The customer picked out the new face in the building as being someone over us. And wham, he let the District Manager have it, with both barrels...

Persistence paid off in this case.

He overwhelmed the District Manager with his complaints.

The District Manager broke down and did only what the District Manager could do for our customer. He used his privileged status to type in the appropriate commands into the computer and make things right for this guy.

In the end, we got him a new television for the price of delivery to his house.

The store ate the cost of the new television. (I ended up paying a portion of the TV anyway, because the bookkeeping department deducted the price of the television from the sales sheets for the month, so some of my monthly bonus was lost when that man's television was cut from the store's profits.)

The victory that we received was that the guy was not in the store every day scaring away our customers.

But that victory came only after we took a serious hit in our Reputation Management. Every person that guy talked to for the ten days after his purchase, up until he got his replacement, knew that he had a bad experience with us. What is more, everyone who read his paid advert in the newspaper knew that he had a problem with our store. Even more, who knows how long his complaint survived online...

You know what they say, "What is posted online, stays online."

I left my job at that store in 2005. That store closed in 2008.

I am not going to say that the store closed on account of that guy's complaints. But I am willing to say that the store was hurt by the guy's complaints. He did manage to drive a lot of prospective customers out of our store, during his daily rants. (I just checked and could not find his complaints online anymore.)

I am willing to bet that the store closed due to the recession. It closed about the same time that Circuit City bit the dust.

I think this story clearly illustrates that a problem does not have to be your fault, in order for your business to pay a high price, as a result of the problem.

Does Applebee's Really Suck?

To help illustrate the extent of this problem, I just typed into Google the name of my favorite restaurant, Applebee's, the name of my town, and the word "sucks".

I saw dozens of Google search results that were in effect saying that my favorite restaurant "sucks". Many of them went to describe this restaurant as having the "worst food ever."

Wow!

Now to be sure, restaurants everywhere suffer from this treatment. And the big name brand restaurants can survive, because their large customer base has a different opinion.

But what if you are a local restaurant or an obscure Internet company?

As an permanent online fixture, I tend to be jaded about the complaints I read about others. But I have to admit, while one or two complaints will not sway me, several complaints in the search results will even cause "me" to hesitate.

Can you afford for jaded internet marketers like myself to hesitate?

You can bet that if we "jaded internet marketers" are hesitating to purchase what you sell, those "who are not internet marketers by profession" are running away from you!

Fixing The Problem...

You are already aware that by utilizing SEO techniques that you can help your website rank better for some keywords in Google and the other search engines.

But did you know that you can also create a wealth of positive reviews for your business on a variety of web pages, and to get those positive reviews to rank higher in the search engines than the negative reviews?

This is how we help our customers.

We use our SEO expertise to get the positive reviews of our client's website to outrank the negative reviews of our client's website.

If we get enough positive reviews to occupy the top of the search results for the target keywords, then those negative reviews of our client's website will be buried on page two, three, four, five or six of Google's search results.

If people will NEVER SEE the negative reviews of your website, product or service, then as far as most people are aware, there ARE NOT ANY negative reviews. If there are no negatives about your business, then everything must be positive.

You are in control of your business' reputation online, if only you are willing take the reins and force the negatives down in Google's search results.

We know that not everything in the search results is true or honest. After all, the guy with the broken TV was blaming us for his bad judgment. We know that you may not deserve what is in Google's search results that is affecting your online reputation in a negative way.

If you don't let us help you get the negatives out of the sight of your prospective customers, then do it yourself or hire another company to do it for you. Because as long as those negative reviews exist in Google's search results, there is a good chance that someone is going to let those negative comments prevent them from buying from you!

About the Author:
Bill Platt has provided SEO services since 2004. In 2009, he transformed his SEO service, into one that helps people defeat negative search results in Google. By improving the rank of positive website reviews in the search results, negative search listings begin to disappear from the public eye. If you would like to learn more about how Bill's Reputation Management SEO service can help your business, visit: http://911reputation.com/ Bill has also owned http://thePhantomWriters.com/ since 2001.

Visit Bill Platt's website.

Web Analytics and Your Website - What You Need to Know

2009-11-06T03:15:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

When it comes to the web, information is king. Indeed, the web itself is information, a massive collection of articles, videos, blogs, news stories and photographs trying to convey a message to various audiences scattered around the world. The big sensation over the last year has been Twitter, a system built around condensing information to a mere 140 characters and broadcasting it out to interested users with a minimum of frills and features.

YouTube, a site where literally anybody can upload their videos for the appreciation of others, became the fourth most popular site on the Internet in less than a year. Compare that to newspapers and television, which both have been experiencing decreasing viewership in recent years. People need, want, and will seek out every conceivable sort of information, and the Internet is the place to find it.

Who Wants To Know?

Information isn't just of use to the casual browser or dedicated auction enthusiast, however. Equally and increasingly interested are the very people posting content to the many pages on the web. Who is visiting which pages? How much traffic is your site getting, and how does it measure up against traffic going to similar sites? What has changed since you put up the big new advertising system last year? Necessity being the mother of invention, this increasing craving for varied and precise forms of information has led to the steady growth of a field called Web Analytics.

What Are You Looking At?

Put simply, Web Analytics is a system of study dedicated to collecting, measuring, and reporting on web and Internet data. This general idea breaks down further into two broad disciplines. The first is on-site analytics, which concerns itself with the journey of each user to a website, and is of primary concern to the owners of that site. It records information ranging from a record of which pages are being visited to a comparison of which pages garner more purchases from visitors. Off-site analytics focuses on information on the Internet as a whole, such as what websites more people are visiting, and what sites are being talked about most frequently. Both methods seek to answer the key question for any website operator - what are people looking at?

But What Does It All Mean?

Proper Web Analytics goes a step further than simple data collection, however. It also concerns itself with interpretation of the data in a context that allows the site owner to take appropriate steps. Let's use the advertising campaign mentioned earlier as an example. Simple web measurement would be the collection of how many hits and purchases the site gathered before and after the campaign. A serious analytic comparison would explain how quickly purchases picked up after the change, what products and portions of the site drew more traffic as a result, and which pages remained unaffected. In short, web measurement is the gathering of the data; Web Analytics is the comparison and interpretation of that data.

The importance of the analytics field to the modern site owner can be observed in the sheer volume of material available on the subject. Sites offer free programs allowing users to set their own metrics, and others can be purchased, offering extra features and a professional interface. Hardcover and electronic format books have been published dealing with the material, and people have formed associations for the purpose of standardizing Web Analytics methodology and terms.

There is even a Web Analytics conference, the E-metrics summit, held in Santa Barbara, California and London, England each year. Going even further, there are listed job offerings in the field that offer salaries approaching $100,000 a year. Clearly this is not a passing fad, but a serious, vital step for any website interested not just in drawing an audience, but keeping it.

It's All About Information

Of course this all begs the question - how does a user get started. Moreover, to what degree should they seek to implement Web Analytic tools and techniques? Perhaps a bit counter-intuitively, the quest for information begins with information. Site owners know what they want to accomplish with their sites, be it promoting a specific product or generating an audience for geopolitical discussions in a casual atmosphere. This information is the best place to start because it allows the user to begin understanding what information will help them pursue their goal.

For example, if a page is intended to promote an e-book series, then the user wants to know what information will help them do that promotion. They can then look for analytic tools that will tell them what pages are more successful at selling e-books, and what techniques are less successful.

Taking the time to sit down and think through the purpose that analytic information is ultimately intended to accomplish will make the search easier, and more fruitful from the beginning. With this basic framework established, the next step is the web itself. A simple web search on 'Web Analytics' or 'Web Analytics for beginners' will return a substantial amount of information. From there users can locate articles, videos, and e-books that will help them make the decisions they need to make their websites successful.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/

Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

Don't Destroy Your Online Marketing Results with Bad Website Design

2009-11-04T12:15:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Paul Marshall

So, you've embarked on a search engine advertising program, maybe even SEO. Whether you're doing this on your own or using an online marketing consulting firm, there are key points to become aware of.

If you miss these, you won't increase conversions.

What good is a Number 1 organic search engine ranking or AdWords ad listing, if you don't have increased sales or if you don't generate more sales leads?

Too often, we get all focused about the Internet marketing -- the ads, the offer -- that we don't think the whole process through step-by-step and consider the experience our website visitors will be having.

If we did, we'd be thinking "big picture" and we would head off some of these potential problems before they occur.

Overcoming Your Website Visitors Anxiety

When people come to our website it's natural for them to feel anxiety. After all, look at all the cr*p on the Internet today, all the too-good-to-be-true products and services.

But when you and I offer REAL products or services, we have to overcome that concern, even if we're treating our site visitors fairly and not making outrageous claims.

So, how can you overcome these anxieties?

1. Offer more than a 1-page website. Credible companies have multi-page websites, including Privacy Policy, Terms of Use | Service and About Us pages.

They also have more than 1 page about their products or services.

I'm surprised by the number of 1-page websites I see from companies using infomercials to advertise their products. Often, they have the purchase form right on their home page, their only page (and often their page isn't secured for credit card ordering).

Websites that are only 1-page don't seem credible. And having the purchase form right on the home page comes across as very pushy!

Doesn't this type of site seem all about the company and NOT about their customers? Why would we want to buy from that type of company?

What kind of online marketing consulting firm did these companies use...or did they use any??

2. Next to any sign up or contact form buttons clearly state that you don't sell your customers' private information and link to your Privacy Policy page.

3. Effectively communicate what your Value Proposition is, also called your Unique Selling Proposition. If you don't know why someone should buy your product or service versus your competitors', now is the time to figure it out. (And by the way, based on my experience, if you don't know this, you're not alone, by any means.)

But our websites have to be about more than just us. They have to be about our visitors. What's in it for THEM, to do business with us? What unique voids in the marketplace can we fill?

As a Small Business Owner, Personally Relate to Your Site Visitors and Communicate Directly with Them

People don't buy from websites, they buy from people! So, how can you apply this to your own website?

1. For many small businesses and solo proprietorships, their website text should speak to your visitors directly in first person.

This should be written from the voice of the Owner or President. They shouldn't use third person, institutional-sounding language, getting rid of "we" and "our", using "I" instead, speaking first person, in an actual conversation. Don't try to sound like you're Microsoft!

And while your at it, be careful about overuse of words about you...whether "I", or those words, "we", "our" or "us".

Check out the WeWe calculator (Google: wewe calculator). Make sure to focus on customer-focused words and NOT on words about you or your company.

2. Include your picture on your Web pages.

For a larger small business trying to make that personal connection with their website visitors, try the idea used by the nutritional supplement company Lumina. (Google: Lumina Health Contact Us)

In this execution, notice how Lumina gets you to relate to their customer service department. I still remember it was John I spoke with and that's been over 1 year ago that I called them!

Again, people buy from other people, not from websites.

For us as small businesses, why should we sound large, pretending to be something we aren't? And why should we run from our advantage of being small: low overhead, friendly, personal service and accountability, among other advantages.

Make Each Step in Your Marketing a Smooth Handoff from One Step to Another

Whether you're using AdWords, SEO, or both, make sure your title and description matches the experience your website visitor will have when they come to your landing page.

Quite often when I'm Coaching my small business owner clients or performing online marketing consulting, I find the wording for their organic listing or AdWords ad says one thing and their landing page says something that doesn't sound the same.

This causes confusion is the best case scenario. In the worst case, it causes a lack of trust. Dangerous!

We should understand our products or services. And we know what we want our visitors to do on our site.

Our potential customers may not understand either. We need to think like them, when we explain what we have to offer them and how to use our website to take advantage of what we have to offer.

And when "shifting" from one page to another, we need to hand-off from one page to another naturally and smoothly, like a car with a smooth automatic transmission.

Don't advertise one offer in AdWords or organic search, only to have your landing page sound like it was written for another advertising offer. I see this problem a lot!

Often times, having an affordable online marketing consulting firm reviewing what you're doing can offer easy, inexpensive fixes that can yield big improvements in your search engine advertising and SEO conversions.

Your Action Plan

Let's review what we've talked about.

First, overcome visitors anxieties by offering a multi-page website which answers questions about your company and your services or products, while inspiring confidence in your company. Effectively communicate your Value Proposition.

Second, personally relate to your site visitors. Avoid using the wrong words that may put off your site visitors. Use your picture on your Web pages.

Third, hand-off from one page on your website and one step in your selling process to another smoothly and naturally. We should understand what we want our site visitors to do, but they won't unless we make the process really clear.

Whether your using an online marketing consulting firm or doing the work yourself, if you take these steps, your search engine optimization | advertising plan will convert at a MUCH higher rate, when you take these steps.

About the Author:
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He's an Online Marketing Consulting expert offering marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). You can learn more about Paul on his Internet Marketing LinkedIn profile and at Strategic Web Marketing.net.

Read more Articles written by Paul Marshall.

How A Blog Can Seriously Help Your Business

2009-11-03T20:30:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Jason OConnor

If your business website doesn't have a blog, get one. A blog, if done right, can act as a direct and indirect mechanism that brings large amounts of qualified visitors to your site, many of whom may become customers.

This is mostly related to the way blogs interact with search engines and the traffic I am speaking of will come from search engines, mostly Google.

Before I explain how you can do this to help your website, let me first give some background on how search engines work, Google in particular.

When it comes to optimizing your website (or blog for that matter) for search engines you must always keep in mind two things: on-page optimization and off-page optimization.

On-page optimization is the elements of a Web page that better optimizes it to be found and ranked well in the search engines. These elements can include on-page content such as the actual sentences and paragraphs on the page, the headlines (or headers or Hx tags), the links, the links' text, the title tag and much more.

Off-page optimization means the things that are done on sites besides your own, namely link-building. Off-page optimization is the process of creating links (or causing others to create links) on other websites that point to your site. Inbound links as these are often called have a major impact on how well you rank in search engines. Generally speaking, the more inbound links, the better. But the quality of the sites with these inbound links, or the way the search engines perceive the sites, is even more important.

To rank on the first couple of pages on the search engines requires work on both on-page and off-page optimization.

Two additional and important pieces of information that you'll need to understand are related to site content and internal links.

Search engines also very much love new, original and quality content, and they like to see your website regularly adding this kind of new content. You don't need to add pages every day, just add pages at the same rate over time. So if you add a page a week to your site, keep it at around that same pace, or increase or decrease gradually.

A website can be considered a living entity in a sense. It certainly shouldn't be static. It should grow over time. And the fantastic thing about content is that the more of it there is on your site, the more chances you have getting found in the search engines.

The idea that inbound links help your search engine rankings that I explained above can be extended to your own internal pages as well. In other words, the more links to a particular page coming from other pages within the same site will boost that page's rank as well.

Think of it this way. If you had a ten-page site, including a product page and every page on the site contained a link to your product page. If all other things were equal, your product page would rank higher than the rest of your site's pages (besides the home page which is given a little extra weight).

Now let's consider what would happen if there were only you and your competitor in your industry (only if that could be true!) and your site still had those ten pages while your competitor's site contained one hundred pages. Furthermore, your competitor set it up the same way as you where he added a link to every page on his site that pointed to his product page. If all other things were equal his product page would outrank your product page every time. Why? Because he had 100 internal links pointing to his product page and you only had 10.

If you put all these pieces together now, on-page optimization, off-page optimization or link building, content creation and internal linking, can you begin to see why a blog may be a good thing? A blog helps with all of these.

A blog that is regularly updated is providing a mechanism for adding fresh content on a regular basis. Plus, it's so easy to use a blog that anyone can use them, so even if you or your employees don't know a thing about Web pages and HTML, you'll still be able to add new content to your site.

Consider this. If you add fresh, quality content to your blog on a regular basis by writing posts, something the search engines love, and within each post you link to an important page within your site, let's say your product page for instance, you're now building links to help your rankings using your blog. With this additional link your product page gets that much more boost in the search engines.

Remember how I explained that links from within your own site help your rankings? Adding links within your blog posts pointing back to your other important pages of yours that you want to rank well is a great way to help your rankings.

And every time you publish a new post, you're giving the search engines one more entry point into your site. Your site will quickly get bigger, and with each new page your site gets more visible.

Keep in mind that the links you make within your blog posts should be relevant. Only link to your product page from a post that has to do with your products. And also, blog posts ought to be useful to your site visitors. The less you talk about your products and instead offer useful, free information that people can use, the more traffic and repeat visitors you'll get.

Remember that people really don't care about you, your website or your products, they only care about how you can help them. If you sell furniture, a blog post about how to find the best deals on furniture would be far better than a post about how your chairs are the best in the world.

One important thing to remember is that if you plan on creating a new blog for your business as a way to augment your website be sure you put the blog on your actual domain. This means that you would not use a remote service like Blogger.com. Instead, you must have the blog on your business website's address (or domain). For example, if your website address is http://www.yoursite.com/ then your blog should be located at http://www.yoursite.com/blog or http://blog.yoursite.com/

By adding a blog to your business website you are creating a way to get more traffic. You'll get direct traffic from your posts, which get indexed by the search engines and drive traffic to your site from searches. And you'll get indirect traffic from your other site's pages ranking well in the search engines because they have links pointing to them from your blog posts.

You'll be regularly adding fresh content to your site, which search engines love, thereby creating more ways to be found in the search engines at the same time. And each post provides a new opportunity to create a link or two to other pages and blog posts on your site, thereby boosting those pages' rankings.

Like I suggested at the beginning, if your business website doesn't have a blog, go get one.

Copyright 2009 TheNetGazette.net

About the Author:
Jason O'Connor is a Web business and marketing professional who produces The Net Gazette, a free online Web business and marketing periodical. The Net Gazette covers topics that range from blogging for business to Twitter. Read the September edition here or here: http://www.thenetgazette.net/

Read more of Jason OConnor's articles.

SEO Vs Pay Per Click Advertising

2009-11-02T21:45:00.001-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

In the world of modern business, the key to success is getting your product seen and understood by your target audience. Simple numbers don't always accomplish the goal - it doesn't matter how many millions of vegetarians see your commercial for Grade-A double-plus chuck steak, after all. The key is advertising to a targeted audience, the ones who need or at least want the goods or service being offered. The best way to accomplish this goal of course will vary among different media, however, having a target market strategy is a must on the Internet.

In particular, the Internet has embraced this truth and virtually exploded with a variety of means toward the end of successful, specific advertising. Internet advertising campaigns range from the obvious and the notorious (tasteful banner advertising versus badly-worded spam emails) to the clever and the outrageous (Amazon's 'Still not big enough' television campaign from the late 90s, and Halo 2's legendary 'I Heart Bees' viral marketing alternate reality game).

Obviously, some of these efforts are more successful than others, and some are successful in all the wrong ways. The exiled Nigerian prince who wants to share his vast wealth with lucky, lucky you has become a pop-culture meme and in-joke, practically an obligatory reference in any discussion of modern marketing or Internet spam.

However, a great deal of web advertising is quite a bit less flashy than the aforementioned efforts, yet is seen by every user who runs a request through a search engine. When engines return a search, they generally include two sections in the result. The first is the target of the search itself, which is the Organic SEO result, the second is a series of advertisements off to the side of or above the organic result, known as Pay Per Click advertisements.

SEO

For those who don't know what SEO is, this acronym stands for Search Engine Optimization. In short and simple terms, every search engine provides results based on a series of criteria, generally keyword and content related. The engine compares the search request to its index of websites and their descriptions, and provides the most relevant answers it can, ranked in order of precedence.

The first sites to come up are the most closely related to the search terms as the engine understands them. This is why different engines may rank sites differently - Yahoo, Google and Bing have different indexing and keyword criteria, so their responses to a particular search may vary. It is termed Organic SEO because the results are returned organically, or naturally - there is no external interference or override changing the results, they simply return per the standard operating practices of the search engine.

Organic SEO has the advantage of having no inherent costs associated with it. Proper search engines don't charge businesses for their ranking in the list, so the only required investment is building a noteworthy site that generates the traffic and keyword results that will bring a high ranking. The downside is that it requires a great deal of research to properly take advantage of this strategy. Craigslist alone abounds with writing jobs catering to experienced SEO writers, and entire websites exist discussing the ins and outs of the practice. In addition, it relies entirely on users searching for terms that relate to your site, leaving the situation far less in your business's hands than some owners may be comfortable with.

PPC

In pay per click advertising, businesses contact a search engine and bid on certain keywords they feel are particularly relevant to their website. For example, a company making horse saddles might bid on keywords pertaining to horses, riding events, and saddles. Then, when someone searches these terms, the search engine provides a link to this business in the form of a pay per click advertisement. The name pay per click comes from the fact that the company must pay the website a fee every time a user clicks the advertisement.

Pay per click advertising is attractive because it increases the odds of really snagging a targeted audience. Rather than having one result possibly come up in a search, there's another result just off to the side, increasing the chances of gaining user attention. On the flip side, PPC can quickly become a cost burden. Every single click must be paid for, and there's no guarantee that every click will result in a sale, meaning costs could skyrocket before a business is prepared to deal with them.

Making the Choice

Often times, the best choice is to strike a balanced approach between SEO and PPC style advertising. Just where that balance lies depends entirely on the business in question. The savvy web advertiser will carefully consider keyword popularity before choosing a PPC campaign, and perhaps even set aside an actual budget to account for those users who will click through but are not looking to buy.

Additionally, there are literally thousands of experienced SEO writers available for employ at inexpensive rates for short term work, meaning the organic SEO standing of a page can be improved with relatively little investment. As ever, the keys are research and understanding, both of the target audience and the means with which you intend to reach them.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/

Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

Top Ten Ways to Use Twitter for Marketing

2009-11-01T03:15:00.000-06:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Jason OConnor

Twitter is a micro-blogging site that asks you a basic question, "What are you doing?" It allows anyone with an account to write up to 140 characters in a text field as a means to update, comment, promote or communicate to others who are "following" you. When people follow you, they see what you've recently contributed when they login. They see your "tweets", which are the messages you leave.

And of course you can follow others who tweet about the things that interest you. As an Internet marketer you may want to follow other Internet marketers, for example.

Like anything, and this is especially true of working with social media, the more you give, the more you get. In other words, the more often you tweet the more activity you'll generate. Some suggest that you tweet a few times a day, every day. Not every tweet needs to be profound. But they should all be useful.

It's important that you don't abuse Twitter for marketing and promoting your products, services or affiliate links. Most of your tweets ought to be about offering your followers useful and valuable information. Only once in a while should you try to use Twitter to promote something. Otherwise you'll be perceived as a spammer, and no one wants that tag.

Imagine if you had a large number of people following your tweets? Some people have tens of thousands following them. If you had something to promote and you had a large following, you could quickly and efficiently alert a lot of people of your promotion. It acts sort of like an opt-in mass emailing blast to your house email list, but it's a heck of a lot easier and faster. This is the power of Twitter.

One thing that I've noticed with Twitter is that it can seem overwhelming at times. The sheer information on Twitter, the 'how-to's', tutorials and all the other ubiquitous advice on how to use and take advantage of it can seem hard to understand and implement. So here's an easy-to-understand list of the top ten ways in which you can use Twitter to market yourself, your business and your website.

The Top 10 Ways To Use Twitter for Marketing:

1. Use it to promote new pieces of content you or your company create to drive traffic to your site. From online articles to blog posts or from videos to webinars, each time you add something to the Web that is of value, tweet about it and include a link. (Most people on Twitter use www.TinyURL.com to take a long URL and make it short.)

2. Use it for learning new marketing ideas, strategies and techniques. If you follow the right people, and you have to be picky about who you follow, you'll get pointed to a good amount of useful tutorials, videos, e-zines and other things that teach you about marketing.

3. Use it to get new customers. Use Twitter's search to find people who may be interested in your product or service. There are many ingenious ways to search for people on Twitter. For example, if you sell red widgets you could go to http://search.twitter.com and find people who have tweeted specifically looking for red widgets. To do this, type the following into the search box: red widgets?

You'll notice a lot of the results will be of others selling red widgets. These ones will all obviously have links in them to direct people to the site they're selling red widgets on. To weed these people/tweets out, use the negative sign like this: -http red widgets?

Since every link has 'http' in it, using the negative sign in front of it will cause your search results to not include any tweets with links in them.

4. Use it to build your email list. Use Twitter's search to find people who may be interested in the monthly newsletter you send out to your opt-in house email list. Invite these people to join.

5. Utilize Twitter plugins or add-ons such as TweetMyBlog or The Twitter Updater, which both automatically make tweets of every new blog post you publish. Also check out TwitThis. When visitors to your website click on the TwitThis button or link, it takes the URL of the Web page and creates a shorter URL using TinyURL. Then visitors can send this shortened URL and a description of the web page to all of their followers on Twitter. Finally, look at TweetLater, a service that allows you to write lots of tweets at once and then schedule them to go out over time.

6. Use it to build buzz about an upcoming product or website launch.

7. Use it to better brand yourself or your business. Remember, when someone wants to learn more about you or your company, they are increasingly using sites like Twitter for research. You could easily use Twitter to establish yourself as an authority in your field.

8. Use it to update followers on breaking news regarding your company. If your company is mentioned in a new article, tweet about it and include a link to the article. Or if you're at a conference or trade show, you could tweet what you're doing and invite people to visit you in person.

9. Use it for business networking, master-mind groups (see Napoleon Hill), and getting yourself seen by high-profile people in your industry.

10. Use it as an instant messaging system to keep your and your team on the same page during projects. This is especially useful for those who work with teams spread out in different cities or countries.

You should note that this top 10 list is not in order of importance or in any particular order. I suggest that you give Twitter a try if you haven't already. See if you can apply a few of these techniques and tactics to help you take advantage of Twitter as a marketing tool.

And one more important thing to remember is that there is no silver bullet in marketing. You should always be trying and implementing numerous tactics when marketing your business. Don't only rely on Twitter or any other one thing. Instead, use Twitter (or any other Web 2.0 site) as simply one more tool in your entire social media and marketing toolbox.

Copyright 2009 TheNetGazette.net

About the Author:
Jason OConnor is an Web consultant, writes for The Net Gazette, a Web marketing newsletter, and owns Oak Web Works, LLC, a Web design and marketing company at http://www.oakwebworks.com/

Follow @joconnor888 on Twitter.

Government Grant Programs: Why You Need an Awesome Proposal

2009-10-29T16:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Brendon Turner

Government funded grants might sound too good to be true, but the fact of the matter is that there are vast numbers of government grant programs out there. There are also a lot of people looking for that grant money, so if you are going to be successful in your application, you need to know what you're doing.

Consider that there are a number of people applying for the exact same grant as you, possibly even thousands. While grant funding is available, often to more than just one startup or non-profit, you will still need to beat out a lot of other people. That means you need a really awesome proposal in order to get that money for your organization or business.

Writing a proposal for government funded grants might sound difficult, but if you know what you're doing, it doesn't have to be. There are a lot of factors to consider when writing the proposal, simply stating that you need the money isn't going to cut it. You'll need to include a project summary, mission and objectives, plans for managing the project, documenting it, timelines, and a number of other things that the government will want to know about before even considering giving you grant money.

You'll also be required to provide a budget and justify the items on it. If you don't know how to do this, it's very important to learn. Each section of the grant proposal is vital if you want to ensure a fighting chance at that money. Many people don't understand all the requirements or how to properly prepare a grant proposal and will miss out on a number of areas. That's actually to your advantage, if you are doing it all the right way! The more people mess up, the better your chances of being selected. You just need to ensure that everything is in order and that you can have presented your case clearly.

The best way to be sure that you have everything correctly prepared is to look at samples of successful grant proposals. Unfortunately, most people aren't willing to share much about how they got their grant funding, so you'll need to go to those who provide not only the samples, but information on how to apply for those government grants.

The last thing you want to do is give the decision makers who handle the grant funding a reason to turn you down. If you have a great business plan and prepare your proposal carefully, you eliminate those reasons and it is down to simply being better than the others who are also applying for the government grant programs.

About the Author:
Still confused about how to apply for government funded grants? Government Grants Source offers sample proposals, grant application tutorials and a database of government grants. Written by Brendon Turner for http://www.governmentgrantsource.net/

The Puppy Dog Close

2009-10-29T03:45:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Scott Bywater

On Friday, my three year old son's cubby house, slippery dip and sandpit arrived and was erected in our backyard.

The look on his face was one of absolute delight... surprise... shock and happiness all rolled into one.

All he wanted to do all weekend was hop on it.

And when his cousins came over to our place yesterday, they had the time of their life.

Now my wife and I ummed and aahed about whether or not to get this cubby house or not.

It was virtually double the price of the others we looked at. But it had other benefits such as being non-toxic and having aesthetic appeal.

Now after we received it, it got me thinking:

What would I do if I was selling these little cubby houses.

And the thought came to me: Is there any way in the world that I would send it back?

Obviously, the answer is no.

My son loves it. His friends love it. It looks great.

There's no way in the world it's going anywhere.

And I imagine the story is the same for everyone else who buys it.

And that's why if I was running a company like this, I would use a "puppy dog close" to secure the sale.

So how does a "puppy dog" close work.

It goes like this: take the puppy for a week. If you don't like it, send it back. If you like it, then pay me our agreed amount.

Makes sense, right.

I mean obviously you would need to ensure you were targeting the right market, do credit checks and ensure your potential client could afford the product.

But that's how I would close the sale on a product like that.

It wouldn't work in some industries.

But it would work for selling cars.

It would work for selling boats.

It would work for selling bikes.

Ask yourself: could it work for your business?

And if you answered yes, think of how you can apply this strategy today.

About the Author:
Scott Bywater is an advertising copywriting expert and the author of Cash-Flow Advertising. To gain access to all of his copywriting tips on how to get more customers via his eye opening "Copywriting Selling Secrets" newsletter, simply head on over to his web site at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

Follow @scottbywater on Twitter.

My Super-Effective Article Writing Formula

2009-10-28T22:15:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Willie Crawford

Here's the formula that I use to quickly write informative articles that get results. For many of the articles that I write my goal is to get visitors to a website where they take some action related to the topic of the article. Often the action that they take is to buy some product that I recommend.

Here is the formula that I use to write articles almost in an assembly line fashion. The reason that I write so many articles is that in some niches you need dozens, even hundreds of articles, to break through the clutter.

I begin with keyword research. You want to know what keyword phrases your ideal customers are using when searching online. They come online searching for solutions to their problems, and when they come across your articles offering a solution, they become raving fans.

To do keyword research, I often use the "Google External Keyword Tool." You can find it by googling that term. This tool shows you how many searches are made on a given term in a month, plus how many webpages there are out there already targeting that phrase. The tool also suggests related terms that you might want to target. You can use this tool to compile a list of suitable keywords and then download your research results in an Excel spreadsheet.

In looking at keywords, what you're trying to identify, in addition to search volume, is "What problems are these searchers try to solve." People come online looking for solutions to their problems. You identify those problems and then let them know (via your articles) that you have the perfect solution.

In crafting my article titles, I use my keywords but also work in a promised benefit. My titles promise to show them the solution to a nagging problem. When they see that title listed in the search engines, this is what entices them to click through to your target site.

In crafting the body of my articles, I use the "problem, agitate, solution" formula. I describe the problem to let the reader know that I understand their problems. I then go into excruciating details explaining the problem, and how it's not going to get any better unless they do something about it. Finally, I point out the obvious solution, which is my recommended product.

Sometimes I only point them to a website to read more about the problem. On that website, they'll also find my recommended solution. This is a less-threatening, soft-sell approach.

When I do my keyword research, I sometimes identify hundreds of related keywords that are being searched on a lot. At the same time, I identify several different painful problems (or variations of the same problem). This is what allows me to write articles in almost an assembly line fashion.

After the articles are written, I use an automated submission service to submit them to the top article directories. I use automated submissions because otherwise I'd spend countless hours submitting each article (not a very good use of our time).

In the resource box of these articles, I point readers to a target site. Where permitted I use anchor text in the links in these resource boxes. That anchor text is generally the keyword that I'm targeting (the same keyword that I used in my title).

I also post these articles to my blogs or maybe to a static page on one of my sites.

Since I like to leverage my time, I also turn many of my articles into videos, and podcasts. I generally create the videos by putting the main points of the articles on PowerPoint slides. Then I read the article as I go through the slides - recording then using Camtasia (screen capture software).

Alternatively, I sometimes simply turn the text of an article into a PDF. Then I scroll down my computer screen reading the article, and again, recording it using Camtasia.

To create the podcast you can use recording software probably already on your computer, or you can download one many free pieces of software such as Audacity. Simply read the article as you record it. I generally save it as an MP3.

Submit the videos to video sharing sites, and submit the audio to podcast sites. I use an automated submission service for this, submitting to numerous sites!

Here's one final tactic that I use to get my articles to rank higher for a target keyword and get noticed more readily in the search engines. I look for ways to create external links pointing to my article in one location - generally my main blog. I do this by bookmarking the blog post that contains the article. This is perhaps the easiest way to give the article a search engine boost.

There you have it, my super-effective article writing formula. It generates a steady stream of high quality website traffic for me, and a steady stream of orders too. Feel free to use it.

About the Author:
Willie Crawford has been marketing online for 13 years, and used article marketing most of that time (writing over 1500 articles). His favorite tools for automatically distributing his articles, videos, podcasts, and press releases is the automated submission site: http://EasyPushButtonTraffic.com/

Follow Willie Crawford on Twitter.

How Can Blogging Help My Company Grow?

2009-10-23T14:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

It is an indisputable fact that the world's economy is moving more toward the online model of exchange. Amazon and Google stand as icons of companies that began as small projects, only to grow into massive successes, largely due to the successful marketing of their services. The question then arises, how can a small business take advantage of the opportunities presented by the Web in order to make a profit?

Same as it Ever Was

At its core, online marketing follows the same principles as any other means of marketing - a provider has a product or service they wish to sell, so they advertise in order to draw potential customers' attention to the information they've put together. Just like television commercials, online marketing has to be creative and informative to truly catch the attention of the discerning customer. We've all heard of popup and banner ads that do nothing but hog resources and annoy potential customers rather than attract them to the product, and that result is hardly healthy for any business.

And Now for Something Completely Different

One method that sidesteps the click-away tendency is the use of a blog to market the product. Blog is a shorthand term for web log, and refers to a serial, online journal or record intended for regular viewing. Examples of blogs include noncommercial ventures such as personal diaries posted to Livejournal, the daily record of campaign events for the more tech-savvy politicians, and 'hobby' blogs that cover an activity such as cooking or model airplanes. However, they can also include outright commercial ventures, such as a blog intended to promote a new product, consisting solely of video posts explaining the various advantages to the new product.

It's Easier Than Herding Cats

Some blogs strike a balance between these two extremes. Consider the highly successful LoLCats website. This site began solely as a hobby, posting humorous images of cats. However, due to effective word of mouth promotion among people with similar interests, the site grew quickly, spinning off additional sites and generating an extraordinary amount of advertising revenue. The site has grown so much that Time magazine reported the company was purchased for two million dollars in 2007.

Now, this result is obviously not the norm. For every cheezburger success story, there are thousands of blogs that toil on in obscurity, accomplishing nothing at all. The differences can be many, but they can be boiled down to concerns relating to effective marketing.

Give it the Old College Try

Let's say that a user named Ron has a passion for low budget college cooking, and wishes to make money writing about it. Ron starts a small blog, using the popular Wordpress blogging system, and begins posting two or three times a day. He posts recipes, money saving ideas, and 'bet you didn't know' material, building a decent sized archive. To get an audience, Ron begins visiting and participating in cooking and college related forums, mentioning his blog and its goals to his audience, gathering new users with patient, active efforts.

Eventually, Ron takes two steps toward commercial success when he monetizes the blog through an advertising revenue program (such as Google's AdSense), and by using the blog to promote his new eBook, "Collegiate Cuisine". To hook readers, he promises not only recipes he's already included on the site, but special tips on inexpensive ways to get cooking tools and a few new recipes he hasn't shared yet.

Will this model work? Perhaps. If Ron is too pushy, he might turn people off to his product before they ever come to his site. If he's too timid, his message will get lost in the tide of the Internet. If he chooses poorly in the ads he allows on his site, users won't click and the ads will generate no money. So the second key is research and careful attention. Ron and other blogging marketers have to study the market, pay attention to peoples' needs and input, and adjust their presentation accordingly.

But is There Any Money in it?

To return to the point that there is money to be made in blogging, one would be remiss not to pay attention to the successful Problogger. In the classic 'make money teaching others to make money,' tradition, this is a blog that makes its revenue by teaching users how to make money through professional blogging. Many other sites, such as FreelanceWritingGigs, swear to Problogger's integrity and efficacy and the site does provide a great deal of information. So there clearly IS money to be made in the blogging-as-marketing world.

Back to the Basics

The key to blog marketing is the same key to any business venture, appropriateness. The savvy businessman will evaluate their entire business, and do the research to determine if blogging is a vital addition to what they're trying to accomplish. Blogging allows for a wider audience than local advertising, which could lead to expanding into nearby cities, or shipping to distant locales. It is an option that should seriously be examined, and approached with the same degree of research and caution as any business venture or proposal.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/

The Difference Between SubDomains And Add-On Domain Names Basics

2009-10-19T21:30:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

Let us assume that you have a very good domain name with you. Did you ever know that you could add and compliment another domain in addition to your existing domain name? These domain names are known by the names like sub domains or add-on domains. However, they are almost like slaves to the main domains and they at under the command of the main domain name. These domains are simply the sub directories designed and added to the main domain name at the time of hosting them. This is because they do not posses their own control panels. However, such domains will have their personal index files and CGI Bin folders to help them make unique and special for your web site.

Before you create one of these sub domains and ass-on domain names, you may wish to understand the main differences between them. In fact, the only thing that is common to them is that you can add them to your main domain. They are the additional domain names that can act as subordinate to the main domain name. With an add-on domain name, it will have its own stand-alone URL after its creation. On the other hand, a sub domain is a simple URL that creates a link to the mother domain name.

Example: Add-on domain: www.orchidflowersinthewild.com Sub domain: www.blog. orchidflowersinthewild.com Another significant difference is the cost involved in creating these domains. Add-on domain always comes with a fee attached to it while sub domains are free and you can create as many sub domains as possible with your web-hosting package. You will need to pay an annual fee to register and use an add-on domain name. Add-on domains always share your resources from your existing web-hosting package. It means that you will get additional features from an add-on domain name just like your domain name. It will also possess its own FTP link and other related utilities.

Procedure to add an add-on domain name: Initially, search for a domain name and register when you find it. Once you buy that, you can link its DNS to your web-hosting server. Once you add it to the server, log on to your account and check for its listing in the control panel. Now, fill the name of the domain and install it in the main directory. Wait until you complete the installation process.

On the other hand, you can easily create a sub domain within the main domain name directory. Sub domains are very useful if you are planning to add more web pages within the parent directory. For example, if you want to add a blog to your web site, then you can create a sub domain like www.blog.orchidflowersinthewild.com You can place a link on the main page of your web site and when a user clicks on the link, he or she will navigate to the blog page. Almost all web-hosting packages provide unlimited numbers of sub domains with the purchased hosting package.

About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.

Read more of John Khu's articles.

The Heart-Centered Product That Created a Billion Dollar Industry

2009-10-01T17:30:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Judy Murdoch

As I wrote this article, the film, "Julie and Julia," has so far, been a quite the summer hit.

"Julie and Julia is a light drama that tells the story of New Yorker, Julie Powell who challenged herself to cook every recipe in Julia Child's famous cookbook: "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" within one year.

In a parallel plot, the film covers Julia Child's early years in France which inspired her to write the cookbook.

The film's popularity has inspired a renewed interest in the Julia Child and the fascinating story about how "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" came to be.

================================
The Story Behind the Bestseller
================================

It wasn't very long ago when a typical American dinner was meatloaf, canned peas, and mashed potatoes. Maybe a salad made with iceberg lettuce, grated carrot and 1000 island dressing. And Jell-O for dessert.

You couldn't go out for Mexican food unless you lived in Southern California or Texas. Chinese food was chop suey and egg rolls. And Italian was pizza or spaghetti and meatballs.

The choices we now have at the grocery store, when we go out to eat, and the cook books and cooking shows are in part thanks to Julia Child's desire to prepare dishes she loved and to teach others to prepare those dishes as well.

When it was published in 1961, Mastering the Art of French Cooking became a "must-have" for many aspiring young wives.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking and the following it inspired made it possible for the hundreds of Italian, Mexican, and Asian foods now common in American grocery stores. It opened up possibilities for the extraordinary range of cuisines we can find in restaurants, not to mention the billion dollar business in cookbooks, cooking shows, and other media.

================================
Product Development Lessons á la Julia Child
================================

You may be thinking, "nice story but what does it have to do with me and my business and creating information products."

Here are the points I think are important:

#1 You Gotta Love It

Mastering the Art of French Cooking was the result of Julia Child's love of French cuisine. She didn't set out to make millions or to revolutionize how middle-class Americans thought about food.

She discovered something wonderful and amazing and wanted others to have that experience too.

The importance of love is that when you have that level of enthusiasm for something, you'll put up with a lot of crap.

Writing the book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," was not all Crêpes Suzette and champagne.

"Mastering the Art of French Cooking" began as a very different kind of book: it was a cookbook written by two French women who were fellow Cordon Bleu graduates. The cookbook was being published by an American publisher and Julia to provide an American perspective and review the recipes.

But as Julia reviewed the recipes she realized that they would be very difficult for American cooks to follow. Because many of the French ingredients, tools, and traditions simply didn't exist in the United States, American cooks would end up with dishes that simply didn't taste like the delicious French cuisine Julia had fallen in love with.

So Child decided to rework and rewrite the book and create foolproof recipes for classic French dishes that Americans could create in American kitchens with American ingredients.

Completely rewriting those recipes was not a small task. But Julia was determined to make it possible for Americans to prepare and enjoy the food she had fallen in love with.

Lesson: Make sure your product or service is based on something that energizes and inspires you. Otherwise, no amount of money will make up for the inevitable obstacles and frustrations that come up along the way.

#2 Love Trumps Market Need

Whoa, sacrilege at the altar of marketing!

It's a fine line for me to be suggesting sometimes the fact that you have a deep love or passion in your heart for something should be a reason for you to create a product or service. Especially when you have little solid evidence supporting you.

What if no one buys your product? What if everyone thinks it's stupid?

Lots and lots of "what ifs."

The world was not throwing money at Julia Child to write her cookbook so that they could cook Duck a l'Orange.

In fact the majority of publishers saw absolutely no commercial value in her project believing that American women were interested only in convenience: packaged mixes, canned and frozen vegetables, and TV dinners.

They couldn't imagine why anyone would want to take on the arduous task of preparing dishes from recipes with multiple steps, many of which involved creating something from scratch!

But she had a strong conviction that French food was something wonderful more people should experience and kept going despite rejection letter after rejection letter.

Lesson: I'm not suggesting you ditch everything and devote all your time, effort, and money into creating a love child product. No no no!

But I DO think if you have a product or service that is an expression of something you sincerely love, you need to take action towards creating that product or service.

Do not allow it to languish.

#3. Use Market Trends to Guide Your Marketing

Although you don't need to let apparent market needs dictate what you can and cannot do, it helps to offer a product that is in sync with trends that affect how your customers spend.

One of the reasons "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" became such a monster success was its publishing occurred during a time when Americans were beginning to look outward.

After World War II the United States was enjoying a period of unprecedented prosperity. When John F. Kennedy became president in 1960, first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy brought in a French chef and began serving fine French food and wines at White House functions.

An entire generation of young American women were fascinated by Jackie Kennedy's sophisticated style and imitated her way of dressing, her hair styles, and her interest in French food.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking was published in 1961 coinciding perfectly with the growing interest in culture and fine arts.

Lesson: Looking at the product or service you're developing, how do they fit into the trends which are shaping your customer's values, needs, and spending patterns.

#4. You Need a Few Others Who Love What You're Doing

No matter how deeply you care; no matter how in sync you are with current trends, you cannot do it alone.

We all need at least one cheerleader.

Julia Child was a maverick. As the daughter of well-to-do parents, she was expected to marry someone from a "good" family, have children, and spend her days doing what other well-to-do young wives did: play golf and tennis, have lunch at the club, volunteer at charitable events, and so on.

When she did marry instead of settling down and having babies she decided to go to cooking school and learn to cook classic French cuisine! Other Americans in the diplomatic services who were living in France at the time thought she was nuts. Why was she pursuing cooking: something typically left to housekeepers and other domestic workers?

But Julia's husband, Paul, who was himself, a decidedly unconventional type, encouraged her to pursue her passion. In fact he was actively involved in creating her book, helping her edit the massive 700+ page manuscript that would become "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

Julia also had an editor, Judith Jones at Knopf, who, unlike her peers in the publishing world, immediately 'got' "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

It was Jones who championed "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and who was instrumental in getting first edition to press.

Lesson: If you are a small business owner who wants to make a real difference and wants to create a product that will help you, you need at least one devoted fan to help you get there.

===================================
Bottom Line
===================================

If you care deeply about leaving the world a little better off and have an idea for a product or service that will make a difference, I encourage you to follow Julia Child's example and to make a commitment to creating your product and bringing it to the marketplace.

There's no guarantee that you'll have a monster hit on your hands but one thing I know for certain:

You can't make a difference if your idea never sees the light of day

You can't make a difference creating products and services that your heart just isn't into.

If you are a small business owner and you have a choice between creating another crappy e-book and an e-book on something you genuinely care about at that your customers care about why not make a little extra effort and put something out into the world that puts a little more love out there?

About the Author:
Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com

Follow @judymurdoch on Twitter.

Beware Of Magic Beans - A Warning To Newbie Internet Marketers

2009-09-27T07:45:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008-2009 Bill Platt

John (and other newbie online marketers),

Let me ask you a question. Why would you ever send out an email that destroys your own credibility? Credibility is absolutely essential to the success of any company on the Internet. And yet, you lied to me in your email, multiple times.

Lies? Yes, that is a strong word. Would you prefer me to suggest that you exhibited "extreme ignorance"?

I know that you likely have some very clever software that you are using to construct and mail your sales offers to folks.

Your only salvation here is that I know you likely made only one mistake. You trusted your handy-dandy software package to take good care of your business interests.

But your software has failed you.

The first problem in your mailing appears in the first and second paragraphs.

"I was recently reviewing automobiles ezine sites in some of the major search engines and I came across your web site: www.thephantomwriters.com."

"After reviewing your site I found that we are both targeting the exact same market, though we are not in competition with each other."

It is obvious that you really did not review my website, or you would not have written your sales message as you did. But then again, I also know that your nifty little software package wrote the actual sales script for you.

Later in your message, you also said,

"I offer this partnership very selectively, so please do act fast if you wish to go ahead with this."

Here is another lie that your software's nifty little sales script tagged to "your reputation". If you were selective about who you offered this too, you would never have contacted me. After all, I only have about 20 pages related to the automotive industry - in more than 6000 pages on The Phantom Writers website.

The truth is that ThePhantomWriters.com is not an automotive website!!! It does not even have its own ezine!!!

But, you know what? I decided to check out your offer anyway, because I actually do own an automotive website at a different URL. I am always on the search for monetization offers for my various websites, so I gave you a shot.

At the beginning and end of your message, you referred to my "automotive website", and you offered an affiliate program to enable my "automotive ezine" to earn money.

The biggest disappointment I found in your message is that your affiliate program has absolutely nothing to do with automobiles or the automotive industry. Nope. You are soliciting me to sign up for an affiliate program, to sell web hosting services to my visitors!!! Yes, it is true that most website owners own cars, but not all car owners own websites!

John H. (last name withheld for obvious reasons), I have news for you. My company specializes in the creation of informational and tutorial-style articles and in the distribution of those articles to publishers on the World Wide Web, for the purpose of promoting my clients' websites.

You know what else John? In responding to your email, I just wrote my newest article. The good news is that you are going to be famous!!! The bad news is that you are going to be famous for all of the wrong reasons...

About the Author:
Bill Platt has owned and operated http://thePhantomWriters.com/ since 2001. If you would like to learn more about his article distribution service, visit his website. To read 100's of Bill's Tweet-sized tips for article marketing, SEO, and more, visit: http://thePhantomWriters.com/tips/index.php Bill is also active on Twitter @contentmanager

Follow Bill Platt on Twitter.

Important Issues to Remember Before Buying an Expired Domain Name

2009-09-25T22:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

Buying expired domains is a tricky topic! You will need to be very careful while buying an expired domain because many of these domains may have some problems associated with their registration. There have been instances when the previous owner decided to approach the legal authorities to reclaim their expired domains. While you need to be very careful in your dealings, you may also need to consider the following issues before buying domains that are expiring.

The issue of domain trademark: Make sure that the domain that you buy does not have any trademark associated with it. You will need to be very careful in dealing with domains that have trademarks against their URL. You could even land in potential legal hassles when you buy such domains. You may wish to conduct a detailed research to check whether the domain expired has any trademark. Use one of the web sites that provide information on trademarks.

The issue of corporate expired domain names: Many domain names have a close relation with corporate businesses. If a company or a business firm owns the domain names, you may even forfeit such domain names. In some instances, companies may simply forget to renew some of their domain names.

Tip: It is almost difficult to find out who is the real owner of a domain name before it expired. However, you can still find out more about a particular expired domain name.

To find out more about expired domains and their previous ownership, use these tools to conduct a detailed research:

a) Go to www.alexa.com that maintains a big database of millions of web sites. You can find out details like link popularity, ownership, traffic, ratings or rankings etc in this exhaustive web site. Just use the following URL to check the previous history of the web domain: (http://xslt.alexa.com/data?cli=100&url=DOMAIN.COM). Some times, you may never find any information on some of the domain names.

b) Go to www.google.com to check the cache status of the expired domain names. Google always maintains a cache directory of web sites by using its spider technology. It is possible to visit a cached online copy of a web domain, including expired ones. With this tool, you can find out if the expired domain you want to buy had any trademark associated with it. Type the URL of the expired domain into the Google search engine box and make sure that you are checking the cache copy of the expired web domain.

c) Use link popularity checking tools: You can find out more about previously owned expired domains. Choose any of the link popularity checking web sites and enter the URL of the expired domain to check the links against the name. This gives you a fair estimate of the number of online references related to the domains. Zero values mean that the domain expired did not have any activity while higher values signify that the domain was very active in its previous avatar. However, the downside of this method is that you may find it very difficult to find the quality of these links. Some domains may have just a few links associated with it. However, these links may be very good in that they came from high quality web sites. On the other hand, an expired domain may have lot of links that came from insignificant web domains. Making a comparison just on the number of links may be quite premature and improper.

By using the above mentioned tools, you can find out minute and precise information about your expired domain. However, use these tools with utmost caution and without any prejudice as some of the data extracted could be misleading.

About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.

Read more of John Khu's articles.

Article Marketing -- Building Links to Your Business

2009-09-22T22:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

Online marketing has been a vast and rapidly growing outlet over the past decade. Obviously, there are many approaches to online marketing, but very few that come close to the effectiveness of article marketing. Article Marketing has provided a large portion of the visitors for some of the web's most successful businesses and it has proven to be one of the most cost effective marketing techniques today.

What is Article Marketing and How Does it Work?

Article Marketing is the publication of written content on websites other than your own. Sometimes these websites may have similar content or products as your business. Sound like helping your competition? Here's the catch. Your article includes a backlink - a link that leads to your own website. Simply put, you provide an article on other people's websites that ends with a link back to your own website. The idea is that for those sites using your article, they must include the link back to your site.

The quality of your article's content is a deciding factor in how many people will publish it on their sites. This is why it is very important that your articles be well written, purposeful, and relevant to the subject. If you don't or can't write the articles yourself, you might want to consider paying for someone to write for you. In the long run it will be worth it.

Is Article Marketing Effective

Article Marketing has become extremely popular because of the way search engines do their searching. There was a time when the number of visitors to a site was a critical factor in its listings with search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Today, however, the key determinant is the number of backlinks: pointers from other sites to yours. To understand how the backlinks work in relevancy to your page listing, you must first understand the search engine process.

Your page's popularity, known as the page rank, is judged by two factors: how many backlinks there are to your site; and the popularity of the sites that those backlinks are on. For example, let's say you have two backlinks to your site listed on two different websites. One of those sites, say Microsoft.com, has a very high page rank. The other, BobsDoItYourselfComputerRepair.com, has a pretty low page rank. Your site will receive more notice from the search engines because of the link on the more popular site. So, backlinks on high-profile sites will inevitably raise your page ranking.

Creating and Submitting Articles

When creating your articles, remember that quality is of utmost importance. People are looking for information, and a well-written, relevant article will position you as someone who knows what they are talking about in a reader's mind. If you don't think you can write your own articles, there are many online outlets for finding writers.

Once the article is written, add a link to your site along with your by-line. This is called a resource box and can include a little bit about you and your business as well as the link to your website.

Next, you will need to get your article submitted to other sites. You don't have to do this yourself. There are literally thousands of article marketing source sites on the Internet that can do it for you. However, the more popular ones are those that produce the most effective traffic. Among these are EzineArticles.com, ArticleDashboard.Com, and GoArticles.Com. Each of these will provide excellent sources for backlinks, but be prepared to submit only well-written articles, as they tend to be quite thorough in their screening process.

Check Your Article Marketing Campaign

Once you have submitted your article, give it a few weeks to make its way out onto the World Wide Web. Then, use one of the many backlink-checking tools available on the net. Most are free and can be found by doing a simple web search. Domain-Pop.com and IWebTool.com provide some of the more popular tools. The larger search engines (i.e. Google.com) provide backlink-checking tools also. These programs are usually easy to use and require no download. Simply go to the site, put the web address of your site into the appropriate space, and hit enter. In a few seconds you will be able to see how many backlinks your site has and, in most cases, exactly what sites those backlinks are listed on.

Article Marketing is not only one of the most effective techniques for building your page rank and popularity, but is also one of the most simple and most inexpensive, particularly if you have good writing skills of your own. Remember to keep your article content similar to the content of your site. People surfing for the information in your articles will only click on the link in your resource box if it is relevant to their own personal interests. Also remember that article marketing takes time and effort. It doesn't happen overnight. With every article you put out onto the web, you are putting out another way for potential visitors to find you. Over time, this will increase the traffic to your website and will eventually increase your sales.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/

Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

A Comparison of Paid Search Advertising Models

2009-09-21T14:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2006-2009 Bill Platt

As webmasters, we are all chasing customers. We are looking for human visitors to come to our websites and to buy what we are selling.

To serve our needs for targeted traffic --- potential customers --- the search companies have begun to offer us a share of their significant traffic through many paid advertising methods.

The most common advertising offer at the search engines is the PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising model. There are also other search advertising models such as CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) and Featured Listings.

In this article, we will look at the advantages and disadvantages of each advertising method.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Advertising Model

By far, PPC is currently the most popular advertising model. From the buyer's perspective, it is usually the most expensive type of advertising and the one that generates the most fear of fraud. In fact, many experts suggest that click-fraud might be as high as 20 to 25% of all click-traffic.

Pay-Per-Click is exactly what it sounds like. The advertiser bids on keywords and tells the advertising company that they will pay X number of cents or dollars for every click that they receive to their website through the PPC-provider's website.

Advertisers compete for position within the search results with the highest bidder getting the best advertising spot at the top of the results. The second highest bidder gets the #2 spot, etc.

Generally, Pay-Per-Click providers serve three listings on the first page of search results. Only when there is strong competition for a particular keyword term and a number of advertisers vying for placement, will the PPC-provider show results with more than three advertisers.

If you bid the minimum five cents per click (the standard for most PPC systems), then it is possible that you might not see your listing on page one or page two of the search results. Let's face it; PPC providers are interested in making the most money they can from the traffic they send to people. So, if one advertiser is paying a dollar per click and you are only bidding five cents a click, who do you think will receive the best placement? Yep, the one-dollar per click advertiser will get the most attention and the best placement, even if it requires pushing your placement back to page three of the search results.

The top two PPC-providers are:

http://adwords.google.com/
http://www.content.overture.com/d/ - Now owned by Yahoo!

Other not-so-well-known providers of PPC traffic, in alphabetical order, include:

http://www.411web.com/
http://www.7search.com/
http://www.abcsearch.com/
http://www.adbrite.com/
http://www.ask.com/
http://www.brainfox.com/
http://www.enhance.com/
http://www.kanoodle.com/
http://search.looksmart.com/
http://www.lycos.com/
http://www.miva.com/ - Formerly FindWhat.com
http://www.search123.com/
http://www.searchfeed.com/
http://turbo10.com/

The biggest advantage to these systems is that they serve large pools of consumers online, and they let you target specific search keywords.

The disadvantages are numerous. Those most often cited include: the high cost of bids for certain keywords, poor conversion rates on purchased clicks, and click fraud (generally regarded as people clicking your link just so they can get paid for it).

Personally, I have paid as high as a dollar per-click for a service that sells for $35, and $20 in volume. I have spoken to others who operate for-profit websites and have paid as much as $2.50 per click on an average keyword. In some really competitive markets, people pay as much as $30 per click.

If you use the Web-Professor bid tool to check keywords at Overture ( http://web-professor.net/tools/bidstats/ ) and you type in the keyword "mesothelioma", you'll find 30 bidders vying for that term and a maximum bid of $29.88 per click! If the maximum bidder converts traffic to sales at the national average of 3%, then he or she is paying an average of $900 to get one client! Insane, but true.

CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) Advertising Model

CPM advertising is most often associated with banner advertising, but can now be purchased for text ads as well. This type of advertising is available from many sources, including:

http://adwords.google.com/
http://www.realtechnetwork.com/
http://www.joetec.net/

CPM advertising can be cheaper than PPC, but it fails to address the effectiveness of your advertising copy. Before undertaking a large CPM campaign, you need to be confident your advertising copy will deliver results.

As with any other type of advertising, you need to track click- through and conversion rates to determine the advertising copy that is most effective for your business.

You also need to have a solid understanding of how many impressions it will take to generate a visitor, and how many visitors you will need to generate one sale. And, on the backside, you will need to know what the average earnings from your sales will be. With these stats in hand, you'll know how much you can afford to pay for CPM advertising or any other type of advertising.

Using Google Adwords, you can buy CPM advertising for as little as $2 per thousand impressions. The one time I went that route, thinking my advertising might be cheaper, I ended up dropping $180 in three days with only one sale to show for my investment - -- utilizing the exact same ad that generated a 4% click-through rate (CTR) in Google's PPC advertising system.

The major appeal of CPM advertising is its perceived low-cost, with rates ranging between $2 - $3 per thousand impressions.

The major disadvantage to this type of advertising is that you need a good handle on how well your advertising is performing. Your advertising copy can make or break you. Additionally, you need to keep an eye on your advertising budget. From first hand experience, I can tell you that although CPM advertising can appear inexpensive, it can in short order surpass the costs of PPC advertising.

Featured Listing Advertising Model

Featured listings differ from the other two advertising models in that you do not pay for "ad clicks" or "ad impressions". With featured listings, your advertisement appears in the purchased location for 30 days, 90 days, or one year.

Featured listings can be bought on individual websites and even on networks of websites. Below are a few examples of advertising networks that offer featured listings:

Geek Files ( http://www.geekfiles.com/advertising/ )

Geek Files offers various Featured Listing placement options with ad rates ranging from $19 to $179 per month. You get two months free if you buy advertising for a full year.

Aardvark Travel ( http://www.aardvarktravel.net/featured/ )

Aardvark Travel is a travel search engine. Featured listings appear in a colored box between the top five listings and the bottom five listings in the travel-related search results. There is a $50 setup fee for each Featured Listing and a $10 per month recurring charge for as long as you keep your listing active. Aardvark claims featured listings generate 40 times more clicks than any other listings on their pages.

The Independent Search Engine and Directory Network ( http://www.isedn.org/ )

The ISEDN offers a program that allows you to purchase Top Ten exposure for your website(s) across their network of 200 plus member websites.

The network is comprised of specialized search engines, search directories, and article directories. Featured Listing placements for specific keywords are displayed across the entire ISEDN system.

The cost of a keyword term (the word or phrase associated with the listing) is $12 for three months or $36 for 12 months. The price drops for each additional 5 listings you purchase. If you are buying in volume, discounts can be significant. For example, the cost for 16 to 100 listings is $6 per listing for 3 months and $18 per listing for 12 months.

The main drawback to the ISEDN program is that the network, although large, does not yet have the traffic volume of the major engines.

The major benefit, of course, is that you can buy a lot more bang for your advertising dollars. Additionally, you can see your ads appearing on pages in a position that will attract more attention and click-through traffic to your website.

Which Advertising Model Is Right For You?

It really depends on your business model. More so, it depends on your absolute click-through averages and your website conversion rates.

Your advertising needs to cost you no more than what it earns for you. Ideally, your advertising will cost less than it earns for you.

Some businesses trade on the lifetime value of customers and are willing to pay more to get customers than what they earn on their first sale, but not all of us can afford to build a customer base in the same way that Amazon built theirs.

If your advertising budget is small, your goal should be to make every advertising dollar count. Grow your business to the point where you might be able to afford some of the more expensive advertising solutions. But then, if the lower-cost solutions generate sales for you, why would you want to pay more?

About the Author:
Bill Platt has owned and operated http://thePhantomWriters.com/ since 2001. If you would like to learn more about his article distribution service, visit his website. To read 100's of Bill's Tweet-sized tips for article marketing, SEO, and more, visit: http://thePhantomWriters.com/tips/index.php Bill is also active on Twitter @contentmanager

Follow Bill Platt on Twitter.

The Importance Of Creating Resistance In Your Copy

2009-09-18T18:45:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Bill Platt

"Creating Resistance in Your Copy" is an idea that is alien to most online marketers. After all, online marketers want to believe that everyone should buy their products and services, because the more people buying what is being sold, the more money the marketer will inevitably earn.

Alien Marketing Concept

This concept is so alien that most Internet marketers who see this article will react as if they are "deer in the headlights". If you are looking at this article with a blank stare - completely bewildered about my suggestion - then you are likely one of many, who are reacting the same way.

Just the other day, I had this conversation with a small businessperson. The person with whom I was speaking was clearly bewildered at the suggestion, and she asked me, "What exactly do you mean by 'create resistance'?"

I told her that "creating resistance" is the concept of eliminating some of your prospects, before they reach the sales page.

Taking a step back, she said, "What? Why would you want to do that?"

I explained to her what I am ready to explain to you now.

In her case, by the time I finished explaining the idea to her, she realized that she was already doing that - albeit, unconsciously.

Why Would Anyone Want To Create Resistance In Sales Copy?

When you are writing sales copy for a product, there is seldom a need to create resistance in your sales copy. In fact, when selling a product, the need is more often to wipe out, eliminate, diminish or neutralize consumer resistance in your sales copy.

Unless you are creating a product that sells for high dollar and you intend to offer it exclusively to a select number of people, the necessity of creating resistance in product sales copy is almost non-existent.

However, if you are selling a service, the reasons for creating resistance in your sales copy are endless.

For example:

One company we work with is an Internet marketing consulting company. The company provides its services to other businesses based on the billable hour or specific service.

In the case of this company, it does not make sense to talk to customers who cannot spend a minimum of $300 per month with them. As a result, they have created resistance in their sales copy to eliminate the broke, do-it-yourself, home business owner from their list of prospects. As a small consulting firm, it is essential for them to separate the wheat from the chaff quickly.

By requiring an appointment for a free consultation, they direct prospects to a form to be filled out. In that form, they require phone numbers and email addresses, and they request the prospect to be as detailed as possible so that the free consultation will be meaningful.

Another company we work with is a Virtual Assistant Agency. Once again, it is a matter of finding the customers who can actually afford the service. By telling prospects in advance that the minimum billing per month is $1000, the company is able to ensure that the only companies contacting them are those who seriously need virtual assistant(s) to help complete work.

By signing the contract, the customer acknowledges in advance that they should send enough work to the virtual assistant to ensure that the $1000 per month minimum will not go to waste.

Consumers Have A Natural Resistance To Sales Copy

All of the great sales copywriting teachers speak to the notion of "sales resistance" - the natural roadblocks in the mind of the consumer that holds the consumer back from making a purchase.

I actually found it quite interesting in that while researching this article, I could NOT find anyone talking about "creating resistance" in sales copy. The guru's are only talking about how to "eliminate" or "melt away sales resistance".

Now, one might argue that the reason no one is discussing the creation of resistance in sales copy is because one should not do it. But I have had this discussion with a lot of people. Although no one is talking about doing it, service providers who have been in business for a number of years tend to deliberately build "sales resistance" into their sales presentations!

Identifying And Eliminating Time Wasters

Once a service business has been in operation a number of years, the owners / managers of those businesses tend to start seeing patterns that frequently cause financial losses to the company.

When as a business owner / manager, you discover that certain customers cost more money than they generate for your business, you will seek ways to remedy that problem. Often times, it makes far more sense not to sell to certain people - the people who have exhibited certain traits that will lead to nothing but lost productivity for the service provider.

If you operate a service business, you will likely have seen similar patterns yourself. In my case, there are certain behaviors that some prospects exhibit that set off red flags for me. I used to ignore those "red flag" moments, but I always regretted doing so later.

The number one red flag for me in my business is the "carrot on the stick" approach offered by some prospects. It goes something like this: "I am going to try this once, and if it works out, I will send you tons of business."

When I was in college, I used to wait tables in a restaurant. I saw the same behavior even then. People would come in and make grandiose promises at the beginning of the meal, "If you give us great service, we tip really well."

Don't believe it for a moment! It is a lie, usually designed to get something for nothing or to encourage you to discount your services, "just for them".

When I was waiting tables, it did not matter how good of service you gave those guys. You could ignore every other table in the restaurant to give them better service and the tip never exceeded two pennies!

In my business, if you bite the bait, they will take their discount this "one time", and then they are gone... forever... I know their disappearance is not because my service is less than worthy... I have too many customers who have been with me for years; to believe that my service was the reason those people never came back.

I have learned that the "carrot on the stick" approach is designed to take advantage of people - to take advantage of me.

Once a prospect raises this red flag for me, I kill the free advice and the extra attention that I give to their job. I do the job and let the chips fall where they may - my basic service will stand on its own, without any effort to help the customer get more out of it. I will not let this person waste any more of my time, period. Unless this person comes back for additional service, I no longer spend extra time with them.

Eliminating Time Wasters Is Easy If You Create Resistance In Your Copy

As a service provider, you DO want to eliminate "sales resistance" in your basic sales copy. Once you have tweaked your copy to help the majority of your prospects to overcome their natural resistance to your sales message, then it is time to add some resistance back into your copy.

You want as many people to buy your service as possible, but you also want to discourage those that you know will be a waste of your time and resources.

My friend who has the consulting business allows people an initial consultation to help him and the customer to determine if they will be able to work together and if his consulting company will be able to add value to the prospects business. In his sales copy, he points out that after the initial consultation, all hours will be billable hours. Because he makes his prospects jump through hoops to get the free consultation, he is assured that he is only going to have real prospects at the other end of the phone line during a free consultation. And because his prospects understand that all work beyond the initial free consultation is billable work, they don't waste his limited time.

The Virtual Assistant does not need to layer on the resistance at the same level. By clearly explaining what one should expect in terms of the service within the first thirty days of the agreement, it becomes self-evident to the prospect that the service is not for the faint at heart. Investing in a virtual assistant can be a bit expensive, but the payoff can also be quite large. By laying out a map of what one can expect from the service, it clearly defines to the prospect what the cost of such a service could be. And as such, it quickly filters out those people who are not a good fit for the Virtual Assistant's company.

In my case, I don't provide much sales resistance in my sales copy to my prospective customers. In fact, the only sales resistance in my copy is my prices.

The companies that call me a competitor have lower prices than I do - much lower prices. Although they refer to me as one of THEIR competitors, I really don't consider them to be mine. My service is so much different from theirs that I find it very difficult to think of them as "MY competition".

For people who take the time to get educated about my service or to take it for a real spin around the block with a full ten article distributions, my higher prices are often considered a great investment of resources. With the built-in sales resistance in the form of a higher price, my customers ensure that I always serve higher-quality authors - authors who understand that the power of article marketing is in the strength of the content.

I Might Be Going Out On A Limb With This Article...

The fact that I could not find anyone else discussing the value of "adding sales resistance to sales copy" may suggest that I am just a total goof. But I do know for a fact that small business owners in the service industry do deliberately create sales resistance in their copy.

In the conversation that I mentioned in the beginning of this article - the one where I was discussing this idea with a small businessperson, who had her "deer in the headlights" moment - the lady I was speaking with said to me after I explained the concept to her, "Oh, you mean like when I tell my customers that we provide 'quality' over 'quantity'?"

Indeed! Telling your prospects that you provide 'quality' over 'quantity' automatically tells your prospects that your services may be a bit more expensive, but the quality of the work will more than make up for the difference in pricing.

I know that many small business owners do deliberately build sales resistance into their sales copy, and I cannot blame them for doing so.

I also know that my pricing is a disincentive to some people to use my services. But that is okay too. The publishers who receive articles from me know that I distribute a higher quality article. They may not realize that it is because of the pricing resistance on my site, but they do know that we typically distribute some of the best-written articles available online, from some of the biggest names in their industries.

At the end of a ten-article cycle, most of my customers find that their articles have found publication on websites that have a much higher perceived value in the Internet marketplace. In fact, it is not at all uncommon for me to hear from clients who are happy to share that they have generated several thousand dollars in new sales as a result of an article I distributed for them. Now that is music to my ears...

About the Author:
Bill Platt has owned and operated http://thePhantomWriters.com/ since 2001. If you would like to learn more about his article distribution service, visit his website. To read 100's of Bill's Tweet-sized tips for article marketing, SEO, and more, visit: http://thePhantomWriters.com/tips/index.php Bill is also active on Twitter @contentmanager

Follow @contentmanager on Twitter.

Article Marketing - Writing for the Internet

2009-09-16T08:15:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

Article marketing incorporates writing carefully and concisely for a target audience on the Internet. While all writing begins with good grammar, accurate spelling and compelling content, there are several differences between print writing and online writing in both structure and purpose. Online articles tend to be shorter than printed text, as do the individual sentences that make up the text. Readers usually skim what they see online, so articles are not only shorter, but often broken up into small sections rather than presented as a large block of text.

Writing online articles for the purpose of article marketing involves targeting a specific audience and providing them with relevant content that is usually intended to drive them to another resource by way of a link.

Internet Writing and SEO

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a strategy for increasing traffic to a website using organic search engine results. In terms of article marketing, this means creating an article that is targeted around keywords readers might use to search for your content in the search engines. In order to drive targeted traffic to the content of the article, the article will need to rank high in the search engines. To do this, your desired keywords must be sprinkled generously throughout the text in a natural way that doesn't make the content seem like a sales pitch.

Search engines use programs that scan the content of a website by sending "spiders" to crawl every bit of information on the site. The most widely-used search engines place a great deal of importance on backlinks, or links to a site from other websites. Article marketing helps to get these links because you have inserted them in the author's bio at the end of the article. They point to your site for readers interested in your content as well as spiders crawling the web searching for relevant linked-up websites.

An Emphasis on Quality

Quality content is one of the most important aspects of successful article marketing. Providing your readers with relevant information that delivers what they are searching for will drive not just traffic to your site, but targeted, trusting readers who respect what you have to offer. Furthermore, many article directories have quality control measures that protect against low quality articles. Misinformation or invalid content often will not be listed on these directories, let alone indexed by the search engines.

The Importance of Effective Titles

The title of an online article is essential to the success of the marketing campaign. A title that contains targeted keywords not only helps readers find the content they need, but also boosts the article's search engine rankings. Choosing the title of an online article is a balancing act that involves drawing in potential readers with clever catchiness but also satisfying the search engines' ranking system.

Straightforward and Uncluttered

Online readers tend to scan what they read online and need their text broken up into small logically flowing chunks. As a result, the body of the text may be divided by headlines or broken up into short paragraphs. Using sub-headings, lists, bullet points and bold key phrases are effective ways to create an article that is easy enough to read so that you will not lose your audience. The importance of keyword usage still remains, but splitting up the text into snackable chunks can hook readers and ease them from the first word to the last.

Get Grammar Guidance

Writing effective articles for the Internet takes time, research and practice to become an expert. Here are a few tips:

When writing to your audience, write using the active voice to make your words more direct, clear and concise.

Always use proper grammar and avoid slang.

Always run your text through a spell-checker to avoid simple but glaring errors.

If your text includes any specialized terms, define them for your audience so their read is easy and enjoyable.

Do not, under any circumstances, copy text from another source. This is not only wrong, it will make your article plummet in the search engine rankings due to duplicate content.

If you want to learn more about writing there are many good books available. A great one to start with is William Zinsser's On Writing Well: the Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction.

Outsourcing

If you don't feel that you can produce high-quality articles yourself, one solution is to outsource the work to freelance writers. While this can be an efficient way to get your articles written, you must make sure to find trustworthy writers who can produce content at the level of quality you desire. Outsourcing can work only if you identify a resource or company that provides writers at a cost effective rate with consistent and reliable delivery of high quality content.

Article marketing can be a powerful strategy for generating targeted traffic and backlinks to your site. It can increase both your credibility and your search engine rankings. But to be successful, you need to employ the unique style of writing specific to the Internet. Online writing is different from print writing in structure and content, but successful online writing is guaranteed to help your business's bottom line.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/

Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

What's Your Excuse For Still Not Having A List?

2009-09-16T02:15:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Willie Crawford

One of the excuses we hear most often from struggling online marketers is that they don't make more sales because they don't have a list. We even hear that excuse from marketers who have been online three, or even five years.

My question to them is always, "What are you waiting for?" "Why not start a massive list-building effort today?"

When I look at how I built my database, I used only a few primary methods. Here are the most effective ones that I used:

1) On many of my content websites, in many niches, I simply have an opt-in form in a prominent location on practically every page. That opt-in form is usually in the upper right corner of the page. I typically offer the potential subscribers a gift as an enticement to join my list -- perhaps a PDF special report or an audio recording.

I also assure the potential subscriber that I will protect their data and only send them appropriate email. I also tell them that there is a handy one-click link in every email that I send that makes it super easy for them to remove themselves from my list if they ever get tired of my communications.

This has worked beautifully for me for more than a dozen year, and steadily grows my lists.

2) I have numerous affiliate programs. Many of these affiliate programs sell inexpensive products and pay the affiliates 100% commission on the front end product. The real purpose of those affiliate programs is to build a list of proven buyers interested in a specific topic. The commissions incentivize others to go out and send me traffic AND build my lists.

I most often use a script called Rapid Action Profits, which allows me to pay affiliate instantly, depositing the payments directly into their PayPal accounts. This is so powerful because affiliates often need the funds TODAY, and don't want to wait 30 - 60 days for their commissions. When they can sell one of my inexpensive products, that are almost impulse buys for their customers, and get those funds instantly, they trip over themselves sending me customer... and building my lists.

3) I often participate in quality list-building giveaways. In these events, numerous marketers ban together to drive traffic to a centralize website where gifts from each of the marketers are listed. In order to download a specific gift, the website visitor must typically visit the site of the marketer offering the gift and join his list.

If you offer truly useful gifts, thousands of new subscribers can sometimes be gained from just one of these free giveaways. I usually offer PDF ebooks (transcripts from interviews that I conduct), MP3's or inexpensive but useful software.

I often announce free giveaways that are looking for contributors on my blog, and to my Twitter followers.

4) Software that displays your subscribe box on other's site, and automatically builds your list for you. There is software that allows you to participate in a cooperative effort, where partners display the boxes on each others' webpages. This is a good way to share the wealth since your website visitors are joining others' lists anyway. You may as well send your traffic to someone who is reciprocating.

There is also newer software that allows you to display your subscribe box superimposed on affiliate websites, social networking sites, etc. You still tell your visitors to go to sites such as YouTube, Clickbank, Amazon or Ebay, but the software shows them a subscribe box and asks them to join your list BEFORE doing anything else. This is very powerful, and is largely hands free.

For example, I can mention affiliate sites, or perhaps my profile page on one of the social networking sites, and build a list in the process of just spreading the word.

With so many easy ways to grow your list, there really is no excuse for anyone who's been online for more than a few months not to be aggressively building a list. You do need that list to inexpensively spread the word about your business.

Now that you see how REALLY simple and easy it is, get started building your list today!

About the Author:
Willie Crawford has been teaching online marketers to build their email lists since 1996. Since that time he has built a database of over 800,000. One of his favorite list-building tools allows you to automatically build a list from traffic visiting someone else's domain. Get this amazing software at: http://AutomaticallyBuildYourList.com

Follow Willie Crawford on Twitter.

The Secret to Starting a Successful Online Business

2009-09-15T20:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Ruth Barringham

It goes without saying that everyone who starts up an online business wants to be successful. Having an online business means you can "retire" and work online. With your own successful online business you quit your day job. No more commuting. No more boss. No more 9-to-5 drudgery.

But how do you set up an online business if you don't know where to start?

There is a secret to setting up a successful online business that no one ever wants to talk about. The so-called internet "gurus" don't talk about it because they want to sell you their product that they claim will make you instantly rich. Some of them will even offer to give you a free money-making web site. But why would anyone give away a web site that makes lots of money? Because these sites are designed to make them rich; not you.

There are lots of money-making scams on the internet and they are easy to spot because they are full of hype and promises that you can "get-rich-quick!"

None of this is true. Any logical person knows that it's impossible to go to bed poor and wake up rich (unless you win the lotto while you're asleep).

The real secret to a successful online business is just four small letters. W-O-R-K. And that really is all there is to it.

But because the word "work" conjures up mental images of toil and sweat, no one wants to talk about it. But it's worth doing if your goal is to have financial freedom and the luxury of working from home.

The way to create your own online business is to first build a web site from scratch and work your way up. This means knowing how to write HTML code which is the cornerstone of all web sites.

HTML code isn't difficult to understand once you know what you're doing. Even if you only understand basic HTML, you'll have a firm foundation to grow your business from. Web designers will try and tell you that building web sites is difficult and is best left the professionals (meaning them). But they only say that to serve their own interests because if you build your own web site, they're out of a job.

Understanding how to write HTML code is also handy if you do hire a professional web designer in the future because you'll understand their jargon and know if they're trying to over-charge you.

But ultimately being able to write HTML code and build all your own web sites gives you the freedom to design your sites exactly as you want them and it puts you more in control of your online business.

But before you build your first web site you need to know what niche you want to work in.You can have a web site in any niche (subject) you want but it needs to be something that you're really interested in so that you can stay enthusiastic about your site. If you can't get enthusiastic about your niche topic, it will show in your web site and ultimately your income will suffer.

Once you know what you want to make your web site about then you should start small with just a simple site that has only a few pages. A site that's too big too soon will quickly become too much.

You can place a few PPC (Pay Per Click) advertisements on your site by simply copying and pasting a small script onto your web pages. Ads are then displayed automatically and whenever a visitor clicks on an ad, you earn money. These ads vary in payment from only a few cents per click, up to several dollars. So you can imagine how quickly that adds up day after day.

Next you need to find a few affiliate products to sell. There are plenty of companies on the internet that use affiliate programs to boost sales. There are also quite a few giant affiliate directories where you can find hundreds of products from lots of different companies. You just join an affiliate program for free, place ads for the products on your web site, and whenever someone clicks on one of your ads and makes a purchase, you earn a commission. And some of the commissions pay as high as 75%.

Affiliate sales are a great way to generate income if you don't have a product of your own to sell. Some people earn their whole online income this way with some affilaites earning in excess of $200,000 a year. And it's easy to see how.

Say you have a web site that advertises exercise equipment and someone clicks through one of your links and buys a treadmill. You could earn over $600 from a sale like that by doing nothing more than placing a small advertisement on your site. Of course not all commissions are that high. But even if you're only making $20 a time from selling e-books, you only need to make a few sales every day to earn a full-time income.

Eventually you may even consider selling your own products online. Most people start by selling small information products such as e-books because there's no expensive production required and no shipping costs.

Of course, just because you have a web site doesn't mean that you'll get a lot of visitors. So you also need to do some online marketing to drive visitors (called "traffic") to your site.

Marketing can be done for free. You can market by writing articles and uploading them to the online article directories. You can give away free things such as short reports. Or you can market your site using free videos and audio pod casts.

But whichever method you use to drive traffic to your web site, you have to make sure that once your visitors get there, your web page content is appealing, informative and compelling enough to make them want to stay awhile and click on your PPC ads or make a purchase through one of your affiliate links.

Of course, these are not the only ways to build a profitable web site. But they are a great way to start. And once you know what works for your site and what doesn't, you can add more pages and make it as big as you want, or you can build more sites and create what is known as VRE (Virtual Real-Estate). And as you can probably imagine, more sites, means more sales and more PPC ads which all adds up to more money.

So although building your own successful online business might seem like W-O-R-K in the beginning, the quicker you can grow your site the quicker you will profit from it. So working 8 hours a day on your web site will build it quicker than working only 1-2 hours.

Just start with the basics; learn HTML code, learn how to write compelling web page content and learn the simplest ways to start making money online. Doing it this way will give you complete control over your online business.

And you'll find that running your own online business is not only interesting and fun but it's also extremely profitable.

And if that's what you really want, then you need to stop dreaming about it and get to work right now.

As the old saying goes; be a doer, not a gunner.

About the Author:
Written by: Ruth Barringham. Imagine how great it would be if you could live the life you've always desired by working from home running your own online business. If this is something you've always dreamed of doing, don't put if off any longer. Find out how how simple it is to start your own online business at http://www.newonlinecourse.net/

Read more of Ruth Barringham's articles.

How Do I Use An Online Fax Service?

2009-09-15T17:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Titus Hoskins

Online or Internet fax has become an extremely popular service on the web. It is being used by more and more businesses and individuals who want a more mobile and a more secure way of faxing. Yet, many people still don't know exactly how online faxing actually works.

Like anything that is relatively new, it will probably take a while before this convenient service is widely known in the general population. Perhaps, the greatest stumbling block is that most people are so familiar with faxing via the old facsimile machine in the office; getting their heads around using the web for faxing will take some time.

However, just like email revolutionized how we send and receive our mail, so too has online fax revolutionized how we send and receive our faxes. Internet faxing is simply the more modern way to fax.

Actually, these two new communication methods are closely intertwined since online fax is basically using your email system and your Internet connection to do all your faxing. You send and receive your faxes as email attachments usually in TIFF or PDF format.

Remember, in order to use online fax you have to sign-up to an Internet fax service provider who will act as your intermediary to handle all your faxing. You will receive a local or Toll-Free number which you can give out to all your contacts. There is no need for an extra fax phone line. You will also receive an online site (account) where you can logon and do your faxing. Your faxes are also stored in this online account.

However, what confuses many people is the fact that you can send/receive your online faxes in many different ways including through the old traditional office machine. Your fax service will act as your intermediary to intercept your faxes coming from an ordinary fax machine and direct them to your online fax account.

You can also get desktop applications which will allow you to directly fax from your desktop. Most services will work with Windows Outlook and Windows Office. Finally, most services will let you send a fax by just sending an email, i.e. destination number(at)yourfaxservice.com - It doesn't get any easier than this.

Each fax service has slightly different procedures and methods so you have to become familiar with your chosen service. Also, each service will have different faxing rates and monthly fees, but most charge around $10 a month. There are less expensive services out there so it pays to shop around, especially when you consider this is a long term ongoing business expense.

The main reason why email or online faxing has become so popular is the total freedom it gives you. Since it is web based, you can send and receive a fax anywhere, anytime, as long as you have Internet access. You can use any mobile device such as a cell phone or laptop to do all your faxing. It totally frees you from being tied down to the old fax machine in the office.

Plus, your faxes can be encrypted so it is much more secure than the traditional way of faxing. And no one but you has to see your faxes since you have your own private access to your account. This is important if you have faxes of a sensitive nature which you want to keep private.

Lastly, another major reason online fax has become so popular, most faxing services are completely scalable for businesses. You can upsize or downsize depending on your company's requirements or needs. In this uncertain economy, having this flexibility is a major plus.

If you're not using an online fax service you may just be losing out on one of the most convenient ways of doing business. You really do need it if your business depends heavily on faxing for bringing in new sales and clients; besides you may be falling behind your competition who are probably already using this new more mobile way of faxing. Can you afford not to use Internet fax?

It's your call?

About the Author:
For more information on Internet Fax Services use this handy online Comparison Guide to get your own: online fax Or if you want more detailed information on Internet Faxing try here: internet fax services.

Copyright (c) 2009 Titus Hoskins. http://www.bizwaremagic.com This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Selling Your Expired Domains - Unexplained Secrets and Tips (Part II)

2009-09-15T06:30:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

Selling your expired domains on auction sites is quite easy provided you learn and master the fundamental aspects of auction process. Quite a few number of auction sites allow you to sell your expired domains for a low set up and auction fee. Good domains can sell like hot cakes on these sites while the profit made by selling such domains could be very worthwhile as well.

Afternic.com, dnjournal.com, namedrive.com sedo.com and ebay.com are some of the web portals that help you to auction your web sites. However, EBay seems to be the best web portals for auctioning purposes because of the factor of flexibility and ease of selling. This web portal comes to you with an immense reputation of being the best auction site in the world.

Most auction sites provide a number of user-friendly features that will help you sell you domain names with considerable ease. Some of the most popular options provided by these sites are:

Auction Registrar: An auction registrar has the ability to register expired domains on behalf of those who show an interest in buying the names. ICAAN accredited registrars can help you sell the domain names to your customers.

Auction types - Almost all auction houses provide different auctioning procedures to make the process easier. Some of the most popular auction processes are:

Public auctions: By far, this is the most common type of auction process. You can set your own price for your expired domains on which a potential buyer can bid for the highest price. The highest bidder will win the expired domain. You can even set a reserve price for your domain when you perceive that the anticipated price is too low, below your actual price. You can set your own time to finish the auction process; usually, auctioneers set a period of around 7 days.

Buy It Now Auctions: You can suggest a special Buy it now price for those potential buyers who want to buy your expired domains almost immediately. Once your buyer confirms the buying intention, he or she will have to pay the set amount and purchase the domain name.

Reverse Auctions: Also called Dutch auctions, you can use these auctions when you auction your domains at the exact price that you want to receive. The only downside of this process is that the price of the domain may drop with each day. Price will fall continuously until a potential buyer chooses to the buy the names.

More tips to sell your domain names:

a) Make sure that you provide a free expired domain appraisal report so that the potential buyer can study the viability of buying them.

b) Ensure that the domain names you want sell offer a decent value to your clients.

c) If you feel that you have trouble in selling a particular expired domain name, use an extended auction feature with promotional tool like bold or highlighted listing.

d) Make sure that you complete the ownership transfer as soon as possible.

e) You can even create a small brochure to highlight all positive features of the expired domain names like incoming links, current traffic and Page Rank if any.

f) Relist the auction as and when necessary. Ensure that you offer lower price if the domain name does not sell even after an extended listing period.

g) If you are selling a premium domain name, you can consider giving a free domain as an incentive. Bundled offers are very common in any auction process.

About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.

Read more Articles written by John Khu.

4 Keys to a Free Product That Grows Your Mailing List

2009-09-13T21:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Judy Murdoch

If you are selling products and services on the Internet you are probably very aware of how valuable a list of subscribers is.

Periodic, relevant information is the main way to build the trust and credibility needed for customers and prospects to take action:

to click the Buy Now button

to pick up the phone to schedule an appointment

to complete an application

etc.

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of creating trust-based relationships in business. This is what periodic emails to your list allow you to do.

If your business is relatively new to online marketing, building a subscription list can feel pretty daunting. I've had many conversations with small business owners who are love the idea of email marketing and inevitably the question, "How do you get all these subscribers anyway?"

And that is the question I'm going to answer in this article.

=============================================
Why Building Your List Can Be a Struggle
=============================================

I know when I began my ezine, after the initial signups by folks in my immediate circle, adding new subscribers was a painfully slow process.

I received some glowing complements from subscribers and a couple marketing experts whose opinion I valued. And everything I read insisted that content is the most important component to succeeding in the online marketing game.

So I had good content; where was the rush of subscribers?

Simple: I was competing with thousands of other requests to subscribe.

People need a good reason to subscribe to your ezine. Why they should choose your ezine rather than the hundred other on the same topic.

One way to make your ezine the best choice is to give your subscribers something they can immediately use and get value from.

This is why a free product you give people when they subscribe to your ezine is so important.

=============================================
Providing Some Relief
=============================================

A lesson I learned from my coach, Mark Silver, is the importance of providing prospects some relief from a problem they're struggling with.

After all that's why most people are at your website to begin with yes? They have some sort of question or problem and they're looking for help. Whether they found your website doing a Google search or through a link on someone's blog, they're wanting help and they're hoping you'll provide it.

Free products that they can quickly download from your website are ideal for meeting this need.

In addition, when they use your free product and get some relief there is no better way to build your credibility! People are far more likely to purchase from you when they've already gotten a demonstration of the difference you make.

=============================================
What's the Best Free Product to Offer?
=============================================

The one question that comes up more than any other around the free give-away is "what should my give-away be?"

=============================================
4 Keys to Choosing a Free Product (with Subscription)
=============================================

Key #1 Easy to Get Online

Remember whatever it is you offer, you want to make it very easy for your prospect to get online.

Fortunately, it's cheap and simple to create a product that is easy to download. I recommend:

An article, report, or how-to guide people can download as an Adobe Acrobat file (.pdf)

An audio recording they can listen to on the Internet (mp3 is currently the most popular format)

A video they can watch from your website (many computers now have a built-in camera making it easy to create short videos)

Key #2 Solves a Problem Most of Your Ideal Customers Struggle With

When I was trying to decide what free product would be best to offer with my ezine, I initially chose a report on getting more referrals from customers.

How to get referrals is a hugely popular topic among small business owners for very good reasons. But there were a couple drawbacks to this product:

(1.) You need a few satisfied customers who will refer you to others. This can be difficult for many new businesses.

(2.) Referrals are largely an in-person phenomenon. Referral programs work best when you offer local, in-person services. This isn't to say that an online business can't leverage referrals but it takes a lot longer because you don't have the non-verbal cues that naturally come from live contact.

Instead I decided to offer a how-to workbook showing business owners how to create an "audio-logo"--a simple, conversational introduction they could use in situations in which they might be meeting prospective customers.

Most business owners I know struggle with introducing themselves in a way that tells the other person "this is who I help" without sounding like they're reading their "elevator" script.

Voilla, this is how my free workbook came about.

Key #3. Is a first Step (Not the Entire Solution)

It's important to offer a solution that is appropriate to the level of trust and commitment your intended user has with your business. It's meant to be an appetizer; not a meal

One of my clients offers money management services for people working in the arts many of whom find the topic of money boring, painful, and distasteful.

Rather than immediately ask them to get into the numbers, she created a fun, easy to do Money Beliefs Assessment. The assessment is light-hearted and empathetic AND anyone who takes the assessment will learn something important about how their money beliefs may be getting in the way of their success.

Key #4. Easy to Use So People Get Results

The reason you want to offer a first step to solving a common problem is you want to give your client an easy win.

Remember, the purpose of your product is to provide relief. If it doesn't help the person get some relief you hurt your credibility.

A product that gets used and produces results is more valuable than any claim you could make in your advertising.

When they get results what happens? They come back for more. They begin to trust you to help with their more complex problems. They feel safe to invest more time, effort, and money to work with you.

=============================================
Bottom Line
=============================================

If you are trying to build your email list, offering a free product with the subscription will help you attract subscribers faster than if you were offering the subscription alone.

The best product to give away with your subscription is one that:

is easy to get online

solves a problem that is common to most of your clients

addresses the first step to solving that problem

and is likely to produce a positive result

About the Author:
Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com

Follow Judy Murdoch on Twitter.

Answering the Question: What Makes You So Great?

2009-09-11T21:30:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Judy Murdoch

The other day I was discussing marketing options with a client and she said something which took me completely by surprise.

"Well, I guess I could be shameless and promote myself more when I'm doing a presentation but it's not like I have anything special or interesting to say..."

I was surprised because this woman has singlehandedly built a very successful consulting practice and works with an impressive roster of Fortune 100 companies.

She also has two large binders stuffed with classes, workshops, and other intellectual property she's developed over the years.

Yet, she's asking me "what's the big deal?"

==========================================
How Do You Define "Big Deal"?
==========================================

When I asked her to clarify what she meant by "big deal", my client went on to tell me that, in her mind, "special and interesting" means you've done something truly exceptional and ground-breaking.

==========================================
Modesty is Not Always a Virtue
==========================================

If you're asking yourself "what's the big deal" or "who am I to...?" you are not only doing yourself a disservice--you are doing a grave disservice to the many people and organizations that NEED your services and products.

Plus, you're sabotaging your marketing because you're broadcasting a mixed message to your audience (My service will help even though it's not all that great).

For tips on getting clear about "why you" and how to use this information in your marketing without sounding like a jerk, read on.

==========================================
So, Why You?
==========================================

I didn't start my business, Highly Contagious Marketing, because there was a shortage of marketing consultants in the world.

The last time I looked, there were about 1.6 million businesses offering marketing support services on Google.

And if you prefer getting marketing advice from books, you can find more than 15,000 on Amazon.com. Those are just the ones that are still in print.

I have plenty of company.

Yet, with so much help and support available, lots of small business owners struggle every day with their marketing, with getting the word out, with getting more customers.

There are a number of reasons for this disconnect between the available solutions and problems that remained unsolved:

- solution providers charge too much

- their solutions take too long to implement or are too complex

- they lack expertise in a field or method,

Just to name a few.

==========================================
A Question of Fit
==========================================

The one relevant here is what I'm going to call "lack of fit."

Sometimes, with all other factors being equal, the reason we choose to work with another business is because their approach, style, way of explaining things, etc., perfectly fit our needs.

When the fit is right, we "get it" faster, we apply solutions faster, and we get results faster. There's a fun, effortless quality to work when the fit is right.

When the fit isn't right, it's the opposite. You feel like you're struggling and somehow, you're just not learning what you need to know.

Using Highly Contagious Marketing as an example: a percentage of small business owners like the way I explain marketing concepts; they feel like I understand their business and what's special about their products and services.

My services aren't for everyone, but when there's a good fit between what the client needs and what I can do for them, the results are great.

The exact same logic holds for you. You don't have to be a leading edge thinker in your field, a Nobel prize winner, or a PhD to have something valuable and unique to offer.

You just need to understand what it is that you do that makes a positive difference to your ideal customers and clients.

No matter how many companies "out there" seem to be offering the exact same thing as you, there are more than enough prospective customers for whom you are the BEST choice.

For them, who you are, what you do, and how you do it is a "big deal."

==========================================
Help with Who am I to-it is
==========================================

Next time you have an attack of "who am I to"-itis, I recommend the following:

(Note: I am indebted to the late Thomas J. Leonard from whom I learned this exercise).

Call 3-5 of your best clients or customers--your "raving fans" and ask them this question:

"What is the value that you are receiving from our work together?"

And listen.

If your customer answers primarily in generalities that could apply to anyone, press them for specifics by asking:

"I'm glad to hear that but I'm wondering if I'm providing value to you in surprising ways -- beyond my role as your _________."

And again, listen and take notes.

When you do this, you will get, in your client's own words, what makes you so special.

When clients do this exercise, we use the results in several ways:

1. I ask them to keep their notes within easy reach for times when they're feeling some self-doubt and wondering "why me?"

2. As testimonials for the clients marketing (this is, of course with the quoted person's permission.)

3. Any and all of their marketing messages. Nothing is more potent than using your customer's own words when crafting marketing copy.

==========================================
Bottom Line
==========================================

Asking "who am I to" may seem attractive and modest, even virtuous. But there's no virtue when you're not helping the people who could REALLY use your help.

Nor is there virtue in going out of business because you're not getting customers.

Next time you're struggling around whether you're fully qualified, ask a few of your raving fans what it is about working with you that they value.

Then listen to why they think you're such a big deal.

About the Author:
Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com

Follow @judymurdoch on Twitter.

Critical Steps to Successful Sales Lead Generation in Google

2009-09-11T21:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Paul Marshall

Some website owners are more frustrated about Google optimization than for other search engines. They feel it is harder to perform search engine optimization for Google.

Whether you are making direct sales from your website or sales lead generation (or both), optimizing for Google doesn't need to be that hard.

In fact, in time you may find it easier to perform SEO for Google than for other search engines.

Remember That Google Is Much Smarter Than The Other Search Engines

Since Google is more intelligent, you have to treat them differently.

If you're trying to spam them, their intelligence is going to be a problem for you. If you're playing by the rules and providing valuable content for searchers, then you should have no problem.

What Google wants is valuable content that satisfies their users' search queries. They want searchers to find what they're looking for, not clicking the back button quickly, but who stay on the sites they visit.

There are some in the SEO community who believe time your visitors spent on your site is one of the calculations Google uses right now in their algorithm to assign organic rankings.

Whether this is the case or not is really irrelevant: we should all want to deliver quality content that meets our searchers query, keeps them on our sites and that leads to a conversion, a sale or sales lead generation.

Are You Optimizing For Yahoo! Search And Bing, Too?

With Yahoo! Search and Bing (formerly Live Search and previously MSN) you need to have the keyword phrase you optimize for on the page. There may be some exceptions, but this is a solid rule to follow.

The order of the keywords makes a difference with them, too.

As an example, with Google, Blue Widget and Widget Blue are treated the same way. Not so with Yahoo! and Live, they are treated as completely different search phrases.

Given the very high market share that Google has, you may want to just optimize for Google and not Yahoo! or Live. After all, depending on whose numbers you're looking at, Google's market share is basically 60% to 70% of all U.S. searches!

(And there are hundreds of other much smaller search engines, with such small market shares that they aren't normally worth worrying about.)

But if you decide to also optimize for Yahoo! Search and for Live Search, then you will likely have to create more pages, to cover all your keyword phrases.

So, as you create more pages for your keywords, you clutter up the Internet, unless those pages are really unique, valuable content.

And then there is that duplicate content filter that Google has...you don't want to run afoul of that.

If you do optimize for the other engines, unless the additional content is very unique, you might be advised to keep Google out of those pages (using your robots.txt file).

Knowing That Google Is More Intelligent, How Do We Optimize Differently For Google?

With Google's use of LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing), your pages do NOT actually have to contain the keyword phrase(s) you're optimizing for. But your pages had better contain words strongly related to your chosen keyword phrases.

In fact, it is common to see high ranking pages where the keyword phrase isn't in any of the HTML tags and where it also isn't in the page text, either. Common keyword density numbers for top ranking pages in Google range from 30% all the way down to 0% keyword density.

Why is this and how do we benefit performing Google optimization?

Google is smart enough to understand similar words and phrases (now is when we get to use that word Synonym from English class). Thus, the actual keyword phrase doesn't have to be on the page. But words related to the same theme as your keyword phrases need to be on the page.

But if our keywords don't actually have to be on the page for Google to understand the page is about our subject (our keyword phrases), how does Google make that determination?

Off-Page SEO Is The Key To Your Google Optimization And To Your Sales Lead Generation

The links from other websites to your Web pages and what these links say about your pages is the KEY to optimizing for Google. Remember, links need to be pointed towards your interior pages, not just to your home page.

And those links need anchor text.

Anchor text is the wording that people click on to go to your Web page, when the actual link doesn't show your website url (and file name, if going to an interior page).

Anchor text tells Google (and to a lesser degree, other search engines) what your Web page is about.

Even if the actual keyword phrases aren't used on your page, the theme of the page text should match the anchor text pointed to that page. You want the wording to be compatible and complimentary.

You don't want to confuse Google as to your pages' themes. That can cause real problems.

Quantity Versus Quality

When considering links to your Web pages, quantity is important. You will have to research your competition to give you an idea as to the number of links you may need.

Two tools you can look into are SEO Elite and OptiLink. You can Google both.

But MUCH more important is the quality of your links. The better quality your links, the fewer you will need versus your competition.

Part of how you can evaluate quality of potential links to your site is that site's home page Google Page Rank.

Now, Google Page Rank is on a page-basis, not a site-wide basis. But the home page Page Rank can tell you if Google considers that site to be an "authority site".

You can install the free Google toolbar if you haven't already and activate the Page Rank feature. While the information is literally months old, it's the easiest way to view a page's Page Rank.

You want some links to your site from websites with a home page Google Page Rank of at least 5.

One thing you do want to watch: Don't have to high a percentage of your links containing the same anchor text. Aim for no more than 50% of your anchor text to any page being the same exact anchor text.

Wrapping It Up

For effective Google optimization, start by pointing enough quality links to your Web pages. One-way links are much more effective than reciprocal links, where you link back to the site that has linked to you.

Stay away from triangulated or 3-way links schemes. This is where site A links to site B which in turn links to site C. This is a "no-no" which Google can catch and will penalize for.

Use your keywords as anchor text for your links. Hold down the percentage...don't have 70% of your links to one page using the same exact anchor text!

Even if you don't have the keyword phrases on your page, you can still have top rankings, as long as your links' theme matches your Web page content those links are aimed at.

Following this strategy, you can also optimize your pages for more than one keyword phrase. And without creating dozens and dozens of junk pages, just to cover all your keywords.

You'll be able to increase your online sales and your sales lead generation, more easily.

About the Author:
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He's a Sales Lead Generation expert and an Affordable SEO Services specialist offering affordable marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). Receive your Free Introductory Consultation, just visit Strategic Web Marketing.net today!

Read more of Paul Marshall's articles.

Increase Your Sales With Blog Marketing

2009-09-07T18:30:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

A savvy and free way to increase your business sales is through blog marketing. No matter what business you're in, you can increase your business with a focused blog marketing campaign. You may shy away from blog marketing because you feel that you might not be a good writer, or simply don't like to write. This is understandable. But the truth is that many blog marketers nowadays don't even write their own content. They pay someone else to do it.

In fact, you can pay someone else to write dozens of articles to keep your blog going. You can come up with ideas if you want to, but you can just as easily give your writers a broad general topic idea and have them come up with streamlined topics for blog entries. The best course of action is truly up to you, but paying writers to craft your blog entries is not expensive and may save you trouble in the long run.

Once you've determined how your blog will be written, the next thing you must do is focus on the keywords that your blog will include. There is a lot of information out there on keyword research and niche marketing but, in essence, what you want to do is find keywords that are searched highly and don't have a lot of competition. Competition means that there are a lot of other pages that come up when you search under that keyword.

You want to have less than 30,000 pages of competition in the Google search results in order to determine that a keyword is viable. And you want to use a keyword tool like the one on Wordtracker to determine how many searches the term receives per day. Go for keywords that get close to or over 100,000 searches with very little competition. This way, you have a really good chance to get to the top of the search engines with your blog.

The reason blog marketing is so effective is because blog marketing allows you to provide the ultimate content that the search engine spiders are looking for when they crawl webpages. The search engine spiders are looking for pages that provide content which contains a fair number of the keywords that the Internet user is looking for, along with information that the user might find useful.

The search engines know that readers don't just want a blatant sales pitch all the time. They want the reader to get the most accurate information for his or her needs.

Blogs provide information about products and services that customers might enjoy. Some of them contain reviews, opinions or instructions. There are no hard and fast rules for blogging.

Blogs are not ecommerce sites and are, therefore, viewed favorably by many of the search engines. You want to make sure, however, that you don't have too much keyword-density and too little real content filling up your blog. You want to have truly useful articles that people will find interesting.

One of the wonderful things about the Internet is that it can provide people with informative content that makes an interesting read. If you can become an information resource in your field, people will be more likely to buy from you. Why? Because they will trust you. They might not buy from you right away, but they will probably patronize you at some point in time.

The audience you build with your blog can help you in a number of ways. Some people will, of course, purchase from you. Others may help build your business by telling a friend, mentioning you on their website, or promoting your products or services on their blog.

Another important step in blog marketing is determining where you want to host your blog. There are many options and some of them are free. If you like, you can also build your blog within your website, but then you won't be taking advantage of an external link that your blog could provide to your website.

After you set up your blog, make sure your blog meta tags and titles are optimized to the best of your ability, just like your website. You may also want to add media, like videos. This can make your content more diverse and interesting to the search engines, as well.

Submit your blog to social marketing sites every day and submit unique keyword optimized articles to some of the most popular article directories every week. Eventually people will begin to read your blog and if they find the information useful, they will want to know more about your business.

Blog marketing, used in conjunction with many of the other online marketing strategies, is a valuable way to increase the public's view of your brand, and hopefully your sales.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/

Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

5 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Telecom Consulting Firm

2009-09-06T18:30:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Nermine Shaker

With all the different aspects involved in telecommunications for today's businesses, hiring a telecom consultant firm is a necessity. With the advent of computers and high-speed Internet, there are many choices for a company's telecom needs. It is important not only to keep up to date on the latest telecom technology but also to do so in the most cost-effective way; otherwise, a company will lose out in today's competitive market.

Telecommunications consultants can help your company reduce expenses, update your services and also provide ongoing support. When looking for a telecom expense management company or a telecom consulting firm for a specific project, you should keep the following questions in mind.

How Long Have They Been In Business And How Big Is Their Company?

A good telecom consultant should be up to date on all the latest technology in order for you to make the best choices for your company. There are resources on the Internet to check on a consulting firm. The Better Business Bureau has a website that allows you to check companies that have had complaints or lawsuits against them. A consumer website called ripoffreport.com has search capabilities that allow you to look up a company that may have consumer complaints against it.

What Is Their Area Of Telecom Expertise?

When looking for the right telecom consulting firm, you will want to know what areas they specialize in. The subject of telecommunications covers a broad spectrum. Once you know what you're looking for - telecom auditing, expense management, possible migration to VoIP, upgrading equipment or services - you can look for a firm that specializes in that area.

Do They Have References Or Case Studies?

Testimonials from former clients as well as present ones are helpful. Knowing past and present clients helps you establish how much work the firm can handle and how it handles it. A number of customers who are pleased with a firm's work says a lot about a firm's character and the people who work there. Knowing who the firm's clients are on a continual basis is also helpful. If clients return for business, it shows the firm is reliable and has satisfied customers.

Do They Represent Any Vendors Or Sell Any Products?

You should ask the telecom consulting firm if they use specific products made by a particular seller or if they sell that seller's products. You should also ask them if they sell any of their own products. If a firm sells another vendor's products, they probably raise the price a little to build in a profit for themselves, much like mechanics who buy a part from an auto parts store. If the firm sells their own products, the prices will probably be more competitive; however, if you have the expertise, you might want to check into getting your own materials once you know what is needed and let the consulting firm do the installation.

In addition to possible price increases for profits, if you are quoted an inexpensive price, you might be getting involved with a company that receives commissions for products or services they recommend. Your telecom consulting firm should be unbiased and should be acting in your best interest - that means that they shouldn't be recommending their own carriers or services. That's why it's important to know if your telecom consultant represents any providers or vendors.

What Are Their Fees?

Once you decide who is taking care of the materials, the next step is to get the consulting firm's prices. There are a few ways that consulting firms collect fees - hourly or daily, by project or by contingency.

A project can be billed hourly or by the day and often includes consultants' expenses. A fee-based project is a set amount of money paid to do a set project. Contingency based means that the payment is based on savings to the client. For telecom auditing, this is the most popular - the consultants get a percentage of the money they save the client.

There are also some arrangements for consultants that stay on, working on a continuing basis to monitor equipment and allowing for continuous improvement. You would need to know their fees for this service if it's one you are interested in pursuing. You may want to be wary of a consultant who asks for a large upfront retainer or advance payments. Your consultant should want to work with your company for the best possible solution for you.

Before choosing a telecom-consulting firm, it is important to get all of these questions answered to your satisfaction. A good analysis of your own company including what your goals are would be of benefit to decide what type of telecom systems you need. For instance, whether your company provides products and/or services locally or globally would make a difference on what installations are required. If you are local and want to expand, that could affect the system used as well. You want to get a consulting firm that is expert in the goals you are trying to achieve; one that will save you money in the long run by helping you improve what you have, or establish a profitable system to start with. You will want to decide what services you need and find a reputable firm that provides those services.

About the Author:
Nermine Shaker is a Partner at THE SYGNAL GROUP, a telecom consulting firm that offers telecom expense management, telecom auditing and VoIP management to businesses of all sizes. Find out how to lower your telecom expenses at http://www.SygnalGroup.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.TelecomExpertise.com/

Read more of Nermine Shaker's articles.

Selling Your Expired Domains - Unexplained Secrets and Tips (Part I)

2009-09-06T03:15:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

When it comes to expired domain names business, you have a number of options of making money and gain in the process. Several methods and techniques allow you to create a constant stream of ongoing income that can take care of all domain maintenance costs. As a domain name trader, you may wish to know and where to sell your domains.

Here are some practical tips and techniques to help you sell your stock of expired domain names:

Three main selling activities are:

Listing the domain name on an auction site;

Selling the expired domain names on a site specified for domain trading;

Selling directly to a buyer;

Using auction sites: Many top end expired domain name traders use this channel to sell their domain names. Auctioning is a very profitable way of finding a customer. Auction houses provide a very good platform to sell expired domain names at very high profits. Two or three worded organic domain names can fetch very good prices on auction sites.

Advantages:

i) Very quick selling process;

ii) Very good exposure for your domains;

iii) You can host your domains on bidding or Buy Now or Best offer mode of selling options;

iv) You can accept popular payment methods;

v) The final selling price depends on the quality of domain names;

Disadvantages:

i) Auction fees to be payable;

ii) Very low profits on inferior domain names;

iii) More waiting period;

Using expired domain selling sites: These typical sites help you sell your domain at decent prices. If you have a very good domain, you may even get very good price with a potential to make very high profit.

Advantages:

Very high selling prices;

These sites are famous among expired domain traders;

These are exclusive web portals designed for the purpose of selling expired domain names;

Lot of interested buyers visit these sites;

Disadvantages:

Commission and fees payable;

The selling procedure is complex;

The entire process takes a long time from listing to selling;

Selling direct: This is a difficult and time-consuming method. You may have to find the buyer by using your personal contacts. Hard bargain will be the sole basis for selling your domains.

Advantages:

Good domains will attract potential buyers;

You can choose your own payment methods;

No fees payable to anyone;

You are the owner of all profits;

Disadvantages:

Very less exposure to potential buyers;

More marketing and advertising efforts needed;

More time need to sell the expired domain;

You will need to employ one or more of these methods to make enough money from your expired domain names. You may wish to divide and segregate your domain names according to their merits and later sell them by using one of the three methods. Good expired domains tend to sell very quickly on auction and selling sites. However, you will also advertise and promote your expired domains by using different virtual channels like forums and blogs.

About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.

Read more of John Khu's articles.

Tweak Your Landing Page Design, Supercharge Your Sales

2009-09-03T11:15:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Paul Marshall

One of the newest and most talked about Internet marketing strategies these days is Landing Page Optimization. Your Landing Page Design can make or break your conversion rate.

All the search engine optimization (SEO) Internet marketing and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising isn't going to create the sales you want with bad landing pages. You'd be just wasting your time and money.

And the truth is that almost EVERY page on your website is a landing page, except for your Privacy Policy, Terms of Use or Service, and possibly your About page.

I've seen websites more than DOUBLE their conversions with landing pages that are properly designed to convert traffic to conversions...those opt-in sign ups and direct sales.

Think about it -- doubling your sales without increasing your PPC advertising or without increasing your SEO efforts! How much money could that put in your pocket?

When you take advantage of strategies like that, that's when you start beating out your competition!

What's Landing Page Optimization All About?

When searchers come to our websites from the search engines, they are in a path from one website to another. We have to interrupt that process, drawing these searchers into our website and into our story. We must balance the connection with our visitors and make an emotional connection, while offering them real substance, as well.

We MUST answer these questions:

1. where am I?

2. what can I do here (what is your offer)?

3. Why should I look here and STAY rather than click away? This MUST be answered in the top 4 to 4/12 inches of your Web pages (above the fold)

How Do You Begin Optimizing Your Landing Page Design?

First, start by clearly explaining what you want your website visitors to do and WHY they should do it.

Why should they buy from you or opt-in for future contact? What's in it for them?

Why should they choose you over other websites they can visit? What separates you from your competition?

Essentially, what's your Value Proposition?

You should be able to clearly explain the advantage to your website visitors in 2 to 3 short sentences.

Right now, if you're not sure exactly how to describe your Value Proposition, you're surely NOT alone! The great majority of people I coach with their websites are in the same boat, when they start out.

My suggestion: Start brainstorming and making good notes. It also helps to have the input of a Internet marketing consulting coach outside your business, who can help you clearly define and explain what you offer your website visitors in a compelling manner, without using your industry jargon and lingo.

Reduce Anxiety From Your Purchase And Opt-In Processes

Anxiety can also be defined as fear or concern. Now, you can never have a anxiety-free website, if you sell a product or service or if you seek an opt-in email address.

Anxiety occurs in opt-in sign up processes, when providing an email address. When making a purchase, providing credit card information causes anxiety.

But how can you REDUCE the anxiety to the least level possible?

There are many techniques you can follow to accomplish this.

One of the best examples is to post your Privacy Policy page link right next to your sign up button, for your opt-in contact. This helps reassure your visitors you aren't selling their email address and will generate a higher opt-in conversion rate than not posting your privacy policy, all other things equal.

Other anxiety reducing techniques are:

1. emphasize credit card security when ordering 2. offer pricing guarantees 3. deal with product | service quality concerns with guarantees and third-party certifications, awards, etc.

These techniques must be used at the exact point where the anxiety occurs.

Next, Reducing Friction From Your Web Pages

Friction can also be defined as annoyance and irritation. To maximize your sales and opt-in conversion rate, you need to minimize the friction all across your website.

Friction occurs in the prospect's MIND, not really on the page.

It is a Psychological resistance to a given element in the sales process.

So, how can you reduce friction?

One way is to limit fields to the minimum number needed for both purchase and opt-in forms. Friction = Length and Difficulty.

While space here limits a complete discussion of all the techniques you can take advantage of, another way to limit friction is to make your landing page design take advantage of natural eye movement, working with it, rather than against it. You've got to be careful with multi-column designs.

Wrapping It Up

Consider the value to you of an Internet marketing consulting coach, who can help maximize your landing page design at an affordable cost.

Using Landing Page Optimization techniques will help you potentially DOUBLE your conversions...your direct sales and opt-in sign ups...without increasing your PPC advertising expenses and without requiring higher SEO rankings.

This is real money we're talking about. :-)

And there are even coaches out there who can train you to do the work yourself, without you having to pay full-service prices (and without you having to spend the money or the time to become fully trained and certified in Landing Page Optimization).

This could turn out to be the KEY element missing from your Internet marketing plan.

About the Author:
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He's a Internet Marketing Consulting expert and an Landing Page Designer offering affordable marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). Receive your Free Introductory Consultation, just visit Strategic Web Marketing.net today!

Read more of Paul Marshall's articles.

Hosted PBX - Is It Right For Your Company?

2009-09-02T05:30:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Nermine Shaker

Today there is a better alternative available to the traditional PBX phone. This alternative is hosted PBX systems. PBX stands for Private Branch eXchange. With traditional PBX, an incoming call can be routed through switchboard hardware to different extensions throughout the company. This hardware is usually kept somewhere on company premises.

When a call is placed to a company with a hosted PBX service, it goes to the carrier's central office, gets processed through the hardware at their site and then it's sent to your phone extensions. So, Hosted PBX is an IP-based PBX (Internet Protocol) service that is hosted by someone else and provides call routing for your company.

This means that hosted PBX customers don't buy, install or maintain any PBX equipment at their site. This can save a lot of time and money. Companies want to concentrate on their business and not on their telephone and email systems. And the expense for upgrading and maintaining these systems are huge and come with many IT challenges. Many small to mid-size companies can't spend the money for a call center, so a hosted PBX system might be the right choice for them.

Hosted PBX offers rich features, excellent quality and wide coverage. These features are more advanced than traditional PBX and they are easy to manage. This is because the hosted PBX services provide users with excellent web management. Most of the services provide a platform that makes it easy for users to create new accounts, make extensions and manage call queues with the web interface.

Other benefits of hosted PBX include managing incoming calls such as voicemail, faxes, automated messages, conferences, touchtone menus, call records and those phone calls that need to go to the next available person in a department.

It is relatively easy to manage voice mail with a hosted PBX system. With this service you can also utilize your current voice mail facility. If a call comes on your mobile phone and you don't answer it, it will automatically roll onto voice mail. Generally, hosted PBX services have better control over simple call transfers and they can also manage a higher number of phone calls.

The various ways to handle calls include forwarding them to voice mail, granting permissions from the attending person on the other end and automated voice mail recording. With busy lines and unanswered calls, voice mail can be easily setup and it performs well.

Besides all the great call routing functions, other great advantages attached to the hosted PBX systems are lower entry costs, support costs, reliability, improved scalability and flexibility. Hosted PBX also allows greater ease of management and it is better when you need flexibility with your telephony. Let's look at some of these advantages.

Lower Entry Costs

Since you are using the host's infrastructure, your start-up costs for a hosted PBX service will be lower than if you purchased your own phone system.

Lower Supporting Costs

You can manage some support yourself, like adding users or lines by either going online or making a phone call. For some of these operations, you don't have to wait for the phone guy to show up.

Reliability

With hosted PBX, there is usually round-the-clock support. Also, for disaster recovery, there is full data access and redundancy.

Improved Scalability

You can get the exact number of lines that you need for your company. It's easy to add and remove lines as your company grows or contracts.

Flexibility and Productivity

Hosted PBX system has an advantage over the traditional PBX systems in many ways. It provides features that traditional PBX doesn't have and there is more flexibility with it.

Routing calls to phones actually allow you to ring on any phone by calling the extension. Such calls can be made on the mobile phones of your employees who are traveling and cannot access their company phone. This keeps all the traveling employees in constant touch with the office and they can transfer calls as usual. If you have employees who travel a lot, then hosted PBX might be the best system for you.

The biggest considerations in company expenses are capital expenses and operating expenses. Employing a hosted PBX service eliminates most of the capital expenses and reduces operating expenses. Keeping your communication capabilities up to date without hampering your ability to focus on your business is vital. Hosted PBX will provide all of the technology, features and benefits found in expensive PBX systems at a much lower cost and might be a viable option for your business.

About the Author:
Nermine Shaker is a Partner at THE SYGNAL GROUP, a telecom consulting firm that offers telecom expense management, telecom auditing and VoIP management to businesses of all sizes. Find out how to lower your telecom expenses at http://www.SygnalGroup.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.TelecomExpertise.com/

Read more of Nermine Shaker's articles.

Frequent Mistake #3 While Naming a New Company or New Product

2009-09-01T05:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

"Your business name must be bold." Look around the Internet, and you'll often find this advice. Your business name must grab people's attention. Sometimes this is a valid guideline, especially if you are in the entertainment, gadget or fashion industries. Too often, however, I see this rule lead business owners to strain for an unusual name, just for the sake of attention. And the very unusualness of the name then becomes a serious liability.

More ordinary names can sometimes work out much better than far-fetched ones. Here are two examples of this phenomenon.

When Susan Friedmann of Lake Placid, New York went out on her own, she christened her new company Diadem Communications. "Diadem means crown - a fitting name for what I felt was a crowning achievement," she recalls.

Unfortunately, however, the name meant nothing to potential customers. Most were unfamiliar with the word diadem and did not ask what it meant. Many didn't know how to pronounce it. More importantly, it did not clue them in on Susan's specialty - helping companies get results from exhibiting at trade shows.

"Going by name alone, no one would be able to determine the least bit of information about me, my company or the services we offer," she says.

Susan's new company name, The Trade Show Coach, communicates her expertise instantly. "I knew I needed a name that said what I did without people having to try and work it out." No longer does she need to explain her business focus after introducing herself and her company.

Graphic designer/web designer Eileen Parzek also decided she had made a mistake by getting too creative in her business name. For years, she went by the company name SOHO It Goes. Her tag line: Helping Small Businesses Make a Big Impression.

"Since I live in New York State, people assumed I meant Soho, the neighborhood in New York City rather than Small Office/Home Office," she explains. "In addition, because I had to explain the name to everyone I met, that was an extra hurdle to being remembered."

She now does business under the name Business Design Studio. "Even though it's boring, I've gotten really good feedback so far on the new name. People understand it the first time they hear or see it," Eileen says. "And now when I leave a voice mail message or introduce myself, people 'get it.' What a joy!"

Before you reach deep for a highly original, offbeat name, consider whether something more straightforward can better help you reach your business goals. Sometimes, a name that is simple and clear is best.

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Create Information Products - Detailed Blueprint To Making A Fortune Selling Information Products

2009-08-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Alan Cheng

Create information products to solve people's problems is one of the most profitable and easiest online business to be in. It's much cheaper than setting up a traditional brick and mortar business, there's no inventory to keep and you make 100% of what you sell. Here's a business plan of how to get into this online business.

1. What Information Products To Sell?

Instead of creating information products to sell in different niches, you need to focus on one niche. Make a decision on what niche you want to build your business on before proceeding further.

For example, in the self-help niche, you can create information products on public speaking, self confidence, anxiety, anger control, build better relationships etc...

2. Getting the Ideas

Read and study your niche every chance you get. Go to forums and understand what problems people are having. Read magazines and newspapers see what topics are related to your niche.

Regularly make a list of ideas and choose the best one to start working on when it's time to create a new information product.

3. Create The Information Product

Buy an ebook from your competitors and see how it's laid out and the topics that are written.

Do some research and start writing your information product. Make it something you're proud to sell. You can hire a ghostwriter to do this task for you later on after you see how the business works.

Alternatively, you can hire a ghostwriter right away if you absolutely hate writing and don't have the time for it.

4. Packaging

This is what makes your information product sell since people buy based on the packaging. This means the design of your website needs to look professional and your sales copy needs to be convincing and mouth-watering.

If you have no experience in writing sales copy and if you're not good at creating graphics, get them outsourced. This is a must!

Some ghostwriters are experienced in creating information products online. Try to find one that will deliver a complete service which includes the sales letter and website design.

5. Getting Traffic

Once your product is ready, it's time to drive traffic to it. Here are 3 ways how you can drive traffic to your website to test the response.

1. Write articles

Write 10 good articles related to your information product. Again, if you don't like writing, you can outsource this to your ghostwriter. Submit these articles to article directories and ezines. Articles are excellent in increasing your exposure and improve your search engine rankings.

2. Blog and Forum Commenting

Make a list of blogs and forums which have good traffic and are related to your niche. Take time to comment on them regularly with a link to your website.

Offer valuable advice and don't advertise your information product with your comments. Just have a link to your website. This will enable you to "steal" some of the traffic from other websites.

3. Pay Per Click

Use pay per click advertising such as Google Adwords, Yahoo and MSN. Create some ads and drive traffic to your website. Monitor how well your information product sells.

Be careful and calculate how much you can afford to spend. If there are not many sales, then tweak your sales copy.

6. Create an Affiliate Program

Create an affiliate program for your information product either by submitting it to Clickbank or use PayDotCom. Let people know they can promote your information product for 50% commission.

7. Collect Your Contacts

Always collect email addresses with everyone who comes in contact with you which includes visitors to your website who signed up for your newsletter, your affiliates and of course your customers.

8. Repeat

Repeat the whole process with a new information product focusing on the same niche, for example "self help".

Once you've created the information product, you can now email your list. The prospects and customers will buy this product from you if the previous one was good. Affiliates will want to promote your new product to earn more commissions.

The more information products you create, the bigger your 3 lists will get. After launching several information products you'll find that you have a list of a few thousand.

Sending an email to your list telling them about your new information product could produce thousands of dollars immediately without doing any promotion of your own.

If you sold an information product for $37 and 1,000 members of your list bought from you, that's $37,000 you'll make instantly. Don't forget that your product will continue to sell as long as your website is online. The crucial success factor is the professional ghostwriter you chose to hire that can deliver quality and on time.

About the Author:
Download the report "Build Your Own Business Using Information Products" at create information products. Alan Cheng is a professional writer at http://www.bestinstantsites.com/ If you want to outsource your information product creation, hire a ghostwriter at Best Instant Sites.

Read more of Alan Cheng's articles.

Top 5 SEO Copywriting Mistakes That Will Cost You Money

2009-08-13T03:36:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

Just as there are different ways of writing for novels, for advertising and for films, there is a way to write for the Internet. To find content on the web we use search engines. To make sure the search engines find our content we optimize it. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) copywriting is writing content that the reader wants to read and will be easily found and rank well with search engines.

The object of writing for the Internet is to get the reader to use your content to click through to your website. If they don't get to your website, they can't look at your products or services and you will have lost a potential customer. Here are a few mistakes that you'll want to avoid.

MISTAKE #1 - Have a Boring Or Vague Title

This is a very important mistake not to make. If they don't even look at your article, all your time and effort are wasted. If you provide an attention grabbing title, one that makes them curious enough to open your article, you're halfway there.

Here are just a few ideas to get you thinking: Use titles that describe the content of your article but are short and concise; Use keywords in your title that people might be searching for; People can't resist articles with lists or tips such as, "Top 10 Copywriting Mistakes" or "Top Tips on Getting Your Articles Read"; and "How to" articles are popular as well.

The bottom line here is to put some thought into your title. Think about how to get a reader's attention.

MISTAKE #2 - Create Bland Content

From beginning to end - try to keep it interesting. Make reading your article a pleasurable experience for your reader. Here are a few suggestions.

Make it fun, relevant and grammatically correct. Nothing pulls the reader out of a story more than bad grammar and misspelled words.

Use short sentences and try to limit paragraphs to two or three lines. Concentrate on writing rich and appropriate copy rather than just practical words.

Have a sense of humor. This gives your articles personality. Don't give a sales pitch - use a call to action. The purpose of your article is to get your reader to get to your website. Your writing could include a reason for them to find more information, either from another article that you've written or from your website.

"Content is king". If you keep this in mind, you'll be ahead of the game. Search engines love well-written and useful content. So do readers.

MISTAKE #3 - Make Your Article As Hard To Read As Possible

Every post should be easy to scan. That means your reader should be able to easily scan your article and find headings that will tell them what the section is about. You can use numbered lists and bullets to organize your ideas so they are quickly read. If you italicize, bold or underline a word, the search engine assumes that it's a keyword. You can use this to your advantage. However, if you use these tags a lot or if you use them on non-keywords, you'll confuse the search engines and lose any advantage you would have gained.

The other thing that makes a page easy to scan is short paragraphs. When you look at your copy on the page, you should see a lot of white space. Looking at a page that's completely filled with words is intimidating to a reader. You want to make it as friendly and welcoming and as easy to read as possible.

MISTAKE #4 - Misuse Keywords

Keywords are at the core of writing for the web. You should research and know your keywords. Here are a few suggestions about keywords:

Target a set of keywords in every post but don't use them more than three or four times on a page. If you use the same keywords again and again, search engines can tell that the article isn't very useful.

Use a wide variety of words that pertain to your topic.

Use synonyms of your keywords in addition to the keywords.

Don't stick to a standard keyword density for every article or post. You want your words to flow naturally, and overuse of keywords makes your copy sound forced.

Review your keywords every so often. Sometimes your business changes and you want your articles to change also.

If you provide your reader with content that lets them learn or experience something, you'll have a happy reader. If you provide the search engines with good keywords and a variety of them, you'll have a happy search engine.

MISTAKE #5 - Try To Trick the Search Engines

Practicing questionable tactics like cloaking and using hidden text is a bad idea. The last thing you want is to get your site banned. These kinds of tricks will do it. So can using hidden links, link farms, linking to bad sites, distributing viruses and sending spam. Don't try to trick the search engines and don't work with any companies that use these techniques.

Overcoming these common mistakes can give you head start when creating effective content on the Internet. SEO copywriting requires effort. Putting content on your site and distributing it on the web takes time. If you work at it over time and create lots of valuable content, effectively "brandcasting" your site, you'll be rewarded with more traffic.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/

Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

How To Build A Profitable Twitter Profile

2009-08-11T10:12:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Harold Hemmings

Twitter is one of the fastest growing marketplaces on the Internet. The reason why so many people like Twitter is because it is actually the perfect communication tool for people who don't understand and don't want to learn about Internet technology and the technological geek-speak that goes along with it.

A few years back, I asked someone for his dad's email address. The son replied telling me that you just email his name. The son was clueless that there was an actual email address behind the shortcut for his dad's name. He did not understand email, and he did not care that he did not understand it. He was able to use it in a manner that was easy for him, and that is all that really mattered.

What makes Twitter so popular to the masses is that one does not have to be tech-savvy to use the service. The new user simply needs to locate the profile of the person he or she wants to follow, and then the user simply clicks "Follow". From that day forward, anytime the person "Followed" posts (tweets) new information to his or her micro-blog, Followers will be notified about the message in the Twitter Timeline.

The only thing that is really difficult about Twitter is that new people seldom understand that they must "Follow" someone, before they start to receive messages from others. But once someone has chosen to follow a few people, they get the idea behind Twitter very quickly.

With its' system of 140 character micro-posts (referred to as "tweets"), users are able to communicate information to other users. Sometimes the tweeted info is a random comment, but often the tweets mean something to somebody.

For the average consumer, they can log into Twitter to update grandma about the lives of the grandchildren and to provide links to family pictures.

Although the service has been available since 2006, the Internet marketing community was really slow to catch on to the value of the Twitter community. Most Internet marketers had never heard of Twitter until 2008. Even then, online marketers were slow to see any real value in the platform. But in 2009, Twitter finally hit its stride in getting the word out about its service, in large part due to the Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN Twitter Follower Challenge.

Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) challenged CNN (@cnnbrk) to a race to one million Twitter Followers. On April 17th, 2009, Ashton became the first Twitter user to reach one million followers. CNN passed the mark a few hours later, but Ashton won the race fair and square.

Understanding The Value Of The Twitter Community

In March of 2008, Twitter was estimated to have one million active users, according to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch (http://bit.ly/RICvf). But amazingly, over the course of the following year, Twitter was able to expand its user base by 32-37 times, according to which news source you trust for your data.

On July 30th 2009, the Philadelphia Enquirer reported that Twitter had "increased its user base by 37-fold to more than 32 million users worldwide, 18-20 million of whom reside in the United States" (http://bit.ly/dhAIE).

Now, the naysayers are fond of pointing out that Twitter's attrition rate is quite large, with 60% of new users disappearing after signing up for the service. But if the Philadelphia Enquirer's estimation is correct that "only 40 percent of first-timers become habitual visitors", then the remaining 12.8 million users still make a viable and vibrant Twitter community.

Each individual user inside the Twitter community is capable of building his or her own community of Followers.

As Ashton Kutcher has taught us, building a Follower list is fairly straight forward - when people are interested in you and what you have to say, they will follow you on Twitter to see what you have to say.

To date, nearly 3 million Twitter users have decided that they care enough about Kutcher's life to follow his personal tweets. Of course, I am sure it helps that he occasionally posts pictures of his wife, Demi Moore, in his tweets (http://twitter.com/aplusk/status/1366791709). Not only did Kutcher share a shot of his Demi's derriere, he also proved that rich people have ugly furniture too.

How Can One Benefit From A Large Twitter Following?

Some of Twitter's 12.8 million active users will benefit handsomely for building a larger Follower's list, while other people will not.

It is pointed out by @ web2marketer, "It's not about how many Twitter followers you have...the only thing that matters is - are they listening?" (http://twitter.com/web2marketer/status/2939696759)

This is the key, of course.

Some people build huge lists of Followers, but never say anything worthwhile or interesting. Some are only interested in building their Followers list for the sake of building Followers.

If no one wants to listen to what you have to say, it does not matter whether you have 1 Follower or 2.9 million Followers. If no one is "listening" to what you have to say, you will not make any money from your participation in Twitter.

On the other hand, if people are "listening" to what you have to say and "clicking" the links you tell them to click, then you have a good chance of earning real money as a result of your Twitter activities.

It has been said that the consumer needs to see or hear your name or your marketing message 7 times, before they will trust you enough to buy from you. Professionals in the direct marketing industry suggest that 82% of all consumers (business people or otherwise) will buy your products or services on the second to the ninth exposure to your marketing message.

Twitter allows you to carry a continuous dialog with those most likely to buy what you are selling - through the Public Timeline of the people following you in Twitter. Once people have started to pay attention to what you tell them, and once they start absorbing your marketing message, then gaining your Followers trust is made easier. Once people are listening to you, you can earn their trust fairly quickly.

An idea presented by @contentmanager is that television has had 80+ years to perfect its advertising model. Television seems committed to the concept of 42 minutes of content to anchor 18 minutes of advertising. These numbers translate into 70% content to provide an anchor for its 30% advertising. (http://twitter.com/contentmanager/status/3106295397) In context, he says that the 70% content is designed to attract attention and win trust, and then the 30% advertising is designed to earn profits and cover the costs of building content.

Understand That It Is A Numbers Game

As a successful Twitter marketer, your first goal is always to attract Followers (an audience). Your second goal is to win the trust of your Followers (your viewing audience). Only after you have won the trust of your Followers should you endeavor to advertise to your Twitter Followers list (to earn revenue). If you have earned the trust of your Twitter Followers, revenue is certain to follow.

But, as with anything in business, it is a numbers game. A certain percentage of the number of people exposed to your Twitter profile will become Followers. A certain percentage of those people following you, will actually read what you have to say. A certain percentage of those people will click your links. And if that link leads to a page where you can earn revenue, only a certain percentage of people will buy your offer.

For most people, the only certainty is that they need to grow their audience, and in the case of the Twitter community, they need to grow their list of Twitter Followers. In the numbers game, if you can increase your audience, you can increase your revenue. It is as simple as that.

If you visit our website shown below, we will show you how we can help you build your Followers' list. But after that, it is up to you. It is up to you to gain the interest and trust of your Followers. Once you have done that, then the only thing that will matter is - are they listening?

About the Author:
Harold Hemmings is the owner of a website dedicated to helping people grow their Twitter Followers List at an accelerated pace. Learn more about his inexpensive service at Buy Twitter Friends: http://buytwitterfriends.com/

Read more of Harold Hemmings's articles.

The 2 Most Common Mistake In Naming a New Company or New Product

2009-08-10T17:36:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

Most of the time, business owners and organizational marketers look for a new company name or new product name that seems to get the job done. That's unwise because they don't take the time to think about possible shortcomings of the name they settle on. Instead, those shortcomings emerge over time, costing them dearly in sales and opportunities. Sometimes the name problems require an expensive rebranding overhaul.

It's far more cost-effective to name your product or service properly in the first go. Use this checklist to identify hidden pitfalls of some names so they don't blindside you.

1. Are you using meaning elements that are obscure or unknown to your target market? For example, an Australian company hired my firm to rename their business communication product when they were expanding to the U.S. because the name they'd chosen wasn't familiar to American office workers. Words that are everyday terms in Great Britain and Australia but not in the U.S. include "whinge" (for whining) "redundant" (for unemployed) and "turnover" (for annual sales).

An unfortunate mismatch between meaning and market can also rear its head because business owners misjudge the level of sophistication of potential customers. A software company, for instance, was taken aback to learn that small businesses didn't generally know that the initials "CRM" in their product name stood for "customer relationship management." Likewise, a wine shop named Terroir to Taste, using a French term that wine aficionados know, didn't attract casual wine shoppers because they mistook "terroir" for "terror."

2. Is a name or part of it difficult to pronounce? In my childhood, I discovered that my last name, Yudkin, was hard to say for some people, but as an adult, I'm unendingly surprised how often my first name, Marcia, causes people to hesitate or stumble. According to HowManyOfMe.com, "Marcia" is the 433rd most popular first name in the United States, with 138,091 American residents having it. This shows that a word or name you believe is familiar to people may not be.

According to studies by researchers at the University of Michigan, when people have trouble pronouncing a product name or business name, they consider it to be risky. Researchers at Princeton University discovered that companies with hard-to-pronounce names even performed less well in the stock market than those that sat easily on the tongue. So try out your proposed new company or product name on a broad cross-section of people to make certain most can pronounce it easily.

3. Can your name pass the telephone test? By that I mean, if you answer the phone saying your company name, would a caller who didn't already know the name be able to hear it correctly? Some company names are so baffling out of context that people can't sort out the sounds into something that makes sense to them. Someone once told me that when I reeled off the name of my publicity book, they heard it as 6 Debts to Free Publicity instead of 6 Steps. I learned to pause an extra millisecond after "six" to get the name across, but many company names are not salvageable in that way.

Don't let your excitement about a new company or product name carry the day. Consider it from a variety of angles and get feedback from folks in your target audience before committing yourself to a name you're going to promote like crazy in the marketplace.

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.

When It Comes to Business Names, Acronyms Are FUBAR

2009-08-08T18:12:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

Maybe you'll read the following sentence as it was intended, but I sure didn't. It was the lead sentence in an article in my local business journal:

"CA is a fundamentally different company than it was when I arrived two years ago."

To me, "CA" means California, and that's how I read it. But when I reached the end of that sentence, that obviously did not make sense. Then I thought, "Must be a misprint - they left a letter out - but what?" Only in the fourth paragraph of the article did my bafflement clear up. "We simplified 'Computer Associates' to 'CA' and brought the 'C' and 'A' on our brand mark closer together."

"Oh my gosh, 'CA' is a company name?!" Too bad you couldn't see the expression on my face.

This illustrates one of the problems in creating a company name out of letters. With just about any combination of letters you choose, the acronym is probably already in use somewhere. Indeed, CA is also in use for Cocaine Anonymous, as well as an abbreviation for Canada. On the web, a new company name consisting of an acronym will be impossible for the average person to get useful results for from a search engine.

According to the Web Directory All Acronyms, the letters NSA stand for more than 100 different entities, including No Such Agency. Incorporating an acronym as part of a longer name doesn't resolve the issue of multiple meanings. For example, if you named your company SME Services, thinking of "Small and Medium-sized Enterprises," SME could still call up more than 60 other meanings in common usage, including Subject Matter Expertise and Solid Metal Embrittlement.

Second, because acronyms have no self-evident meaning, they require a very heavy investment of resources to become recognizable and memorable as a company name. True, the now-global fast-food company KFC has done well with its initials by trading on its previous incarnation as Kentucky Fried Chicken. But unless you're also serving more than a billion customers a year with a marketing budget to match, that shouldn't encourage you to follow their example.

And third, acronyms invite ridicule. There are scores of jokes purporting to explain what the letters in IBM really mean:

I've Been Moved (because of the company's relocation policy)

I've Been Misled

It's a Broken Machine

Immoral Brand and Management

I Blame Mathematics

Idiots Became Managers

Imbecilic Bad Micros

Invented By Murphy

and on and on.

Perhaps because we dislike how we tend to be treated by governmental and technical acronym-named organizations, many of us find acronyms geeky and off-putting rather than cuddly and comforting. "Acronyms tend to keep non-experts at arm's length," wrote language critic Amy Gahran in 2003. For example, "the original full name for RSS [which most people believe stands for Really Simple Syndication] is 'RDF Site Summary' - a nested acronym that requires two levels of decoding, and it gets geekier at the second level," Gahran noted.

Most of the time, keeping people at arm's length is not a desirable state of affairs or a goal for a new company name. So ditch the acronyms.

By the way, in case you're wondering what "FUBAR" means, since before World War Two it's been an American military expression for the more vulgar version of "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition."

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.

Have You Outgrown the Company Name You Started With? Renaming Tips

2009-08-07T13:12:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

Although the most common reason clients come to my company for a new business name is a stern warning letter they've received from a law firm charging trademark infringement, the second most common reason for renaming is that the company has outgrown its original name in some way. If this applies to you, here's how to proceed so you end up with a company name you can live and grow with for many years.

Perhaps you've outgrown your original name geographically. If you were River Valley Plumbing and now your service area extends far beyond River Valley in two directions, that is indeed a valid reason for finding a new name. Just remember that the new name does not also have to be a geographical name. Think about whether there's something you particularly want your company to be known for, such as environmentally friendly supplies or fast emergency service. If so, those can be the themes around which you build your new name.

Or perhaps you've outgrown the specialty indicated in your original company name. For instance, you launched the business as Senior At-Home Care, but now you serve all ages and run errands in addition to providing personal care assistance. Here too, don't assume your new name has to focus on exactly what your company does. Instead, you might look for a name that evokes the benefit of your work - that you eliminate the frustrations of daily life, that you promote independence for frail or disabled people, and so on.

To get started with your renaming, identify the business goals and objectives that you want the new name to meet. Who is the target market? How can you best position yourselves vis-à-vis present and future competitors? What qualities do your ideal customers tend to appreciate most when they find you? Are new clients typically looking for you in the Yellow Pages (where it would be good to be near the beginning of the alphabet), online (where you need a name that's easy to spell and remember), or through word of mouth (where memorability is most important)?

Second, what kind of statement do you want to make about your company? How do you want to be perceived? Would a cute name help or hinder you? Would a practical, matter-of-fact name be better than a humorous, attention-getting one?

Third, brainstorm a couple of dozen possible names. Along with this article, you'll find a link to a free brainstorming guide for company names. Keep the brainstorming going for several days, because each time you come back to your list after being away from it, you'll get additional ideas.

Fourth, go back to the business goals and objectives you identified and use them to screen your list of possible names. Cross off those that are off target, and highlight the ones that get across your desired message best. Select your top three company name candidates.

Last, perform a legal check with the assistance of an attorney to find out whether your top three choices are legally okay. Very often, this step reveals that one or more of the names you were excited about would make you legally vulnerable for one reason or another and have to be eliminated from your list.

Now you're in a position to make a final decision. Make sure the name you choose contains room for further growth, since that's the reason you were looking for a new company name to begin with!

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.

New Search Engines - Can Anyone Beat Google?

2009-08-06T15:06:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Titus Hoskins

Can any new search engine beat Google, probably not, mainly because Google isn't going anywhere but up. It is the dominant search engine with around 72 percent of U.S. online searches and its percentages are much higher in other parts of the world. (Source: Hitwise) However, there are some serious new competitors that may just take a bite out of Google's rosy search numbers. Never know, one or several of them, may just give Google a run for those all important search engine dollars.

Recently, there has been a whole army of new search engines debuting on the web. If you're a full-time online marketer like me, you really have to keep your eyes open to what is happening on the web, especially relating to search engines which deliver most of your quality traffic. Also keep in mind, this piece may be fairly biased since Google is directly or indirectly responsible for around 80% of my online revenue, so any opinions may be slanted in Google's favor, not that they need any favors from me or anyone.

But as an online marketer you have to try to remain objective and examine all angles in regards to these new search engines. Despite this, in marketing and webmaster circles, everyone will know even if you have the number one ranking for a certain keyword in all three major engines Google, Yahoo! and MSN - Google supplies the most traffic, hands down.

Despite its obvious dominance, Google is still basically the new kid on the block. We have to remember, there have been many search engines before Google and there will be many more search engines after Google. Every entity has its day and then hands the torch along to whatever comes next. It's one of those subtle facts of life we all learn eventually.

Everybody has their day - empires, countries, leaders, companies... or even search engines. Are Google's days as top dog really numbered? Probably not in the immediate future, but there are some new kids on the block that could definitely kick some sand in the face of Google and stir things up, we might even see a few serious squabbles here and there.

In a recent article on CNN, by John D. Sutter, entitled "New Search Engines Aspire To Supplement Google" the author examines some recent new search engines. The author discusses: Twine, Hakia, Searchme, Cuil, Kosmix, Wolfram Alpha, Topsy, TweetMeme and OneRiot. Each of these are different, making your web search more personal, more visual, or connecting your search to new social networks like FaceBook and Twitter.

Some experts say Wolfram Alpha is the most likely candidate to give Google some serious competition because Wolfram can do something Google can't; it can create information rather than just reading/presenting content already on the web. Will it present a solid threat to Google's dominance?

Perhaps, a more fitting sparring partner will come from an old rival with very deep, deep pockets. We are talking about the new search engine from Microsoft called Bing, which is very similar to Google in many ways, yet different. Bing's results are very similar to Google in a lot of ways, yet Bing serves up the results in a very pleasing arrangement, with a nice preview button for each listing and giving you related searches and your search history on the left hand side. Only time will tell if everyone would rather be binging instead of googling. To Bing or not to Bing, that is the question? There's a very informative article on Bing by Farhad Manjoo on Slate entitled: "Beware Google: Microsoft's New Search Engine Isn't Half-bad." Just Bing or Google to find it!

I personally like this search engine much better than MSN mainly because the home page of Bing is very appealing and only has the search box on it so you're not distracted with other news listings like on MSN and Yahoo! One of the main reasons for Google's success, besides the superior search results, has been its simplicity. Keep it simple and you may just be able to compete.

Then again, this is a bit of a biased judgment, since many of my own keywords and sites rank high in Bing; some even higher than they are listed in Google. I routinely monitor countless keyword phrases in all the search engines and lately Google has been favoring big Brand Name listings on their first page results. We are also seeing more Product Listings (Old Froogle), more video and more news listings... competition for Google's first page has become multi-layered and extremely competitive. What's a poor small online marketer to do when Google goes corporate?

Actually, Bing is not my favorite search engine of the new ones forcing their way into the spotlight.

For me, the one that shows the most promise and may give Google some competition is Searchme, which is a visual search (much like the iTunes interface) where you can shuffle through screenshots of webpages instead of a list of links. Searchme, which touts itself as the first multimedia search engine, has been around for a few years but is not widely known to web users. Performing a search on Searchme with a 24 inch monitor and 64-bit Windows is a hundred times more enjoyable than using Google Search or Bing for that matter. It is a hundred times faster than Google mainly because you can generally find your information without clicking through to the sites displayed.

Searchme is truly an eye opener but can it give Google some serious competition. The jury is still out, but I believe over time as web users upgrade their computers, operating systems, and their graphics... Searchme will be more accessible to more web users. Never know, with the right backing and marketing, any of these search engines, especially Searchme and Bing could blossom into a formidable opponent even for the mighty Google.

Here's why: Human Nature!

Whether we admit it or not, most of us (Humans) are lazy, we want the fastest and easiest route to solving any question or problem. Searchme gives us the answer much quicker than Google and in a much nicer way. Mainly because we are also visual creatures, given the choice between receiving pages of text and viewing images of sites/answers, most of us will take the visual route - we will choose TV over radio, music videos over records... video enhanced content over just plain static HTML. As the web turns into more of an interactive multimedia operation; visual search will always win out over text search any day of the year.

Most humans also have a need for speed, in our fast paced life styles, we all want a speedy solution to our problems. Search is no different, we want quick answers now, we want instant solutions and immediate gratification. Nature of the beast. If Searchme, Bing or any of the other search engines becomes faster than Google at giving the right answer, then it's a whole new ballgame.

Google must obviously know there are challenges to its search engine dominance. Otherwise, why would they be offering many new features in their SERPs; we are seeing more images and videos. Plus, Google has just introduced the "show options" link at the top of their SERPs, which presents their search results in many different ways. They even have introduced the "Wonder Wheel" as another viewing option, which gives a whole new way of using Google's search results.

Google's Achilles' Heel may just be the thing that gives it all its revenue: text ads. There may be a backlash on all those Google ads littered across the web, especially among the younger computer savvy crowd using such sites like the Google owned YouTube, where Google has nearly obliterated the videos with its ads. Everyone dislikes advertising, no matter what form it takes.

However, any news of Google's demise will be greatly exaggerated, because Google, like any smart company with tons of resources, has kept morphing and changing with the times, quickly adapting to new features as our usage of the web keeps changing. Google has perfected the art of staying one step ahead of the competition. This is one champion that won't go down without a fight to the finish. Top dogs rarely do.

If they ever present a serious challenge to Google, Searchme, Bing or any of the above search engines, will have a formidable opponent in the opposing corner, one that has gained almost insurmountable prestige and brand recognition around the world. Any major battle will instantly have a "David vs Goliath" scenario attached to it. And we all know how that one played out!

About the Author:
The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous niche sites. These 10 SEO Tactics Bring Me Over 2000 Visitors Daily: SEO Tips. To learn more Internet Marketing Tactics try: Marketing Tools. Copyright (c) 2009 Titus Hoskins. http://www.bizwaremagic.com This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Read more Articles written by Titus Hoskins.

Brand Awareness and the Fundamentals of Brandcasting

2009-08-03T08:30:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

For a company to become well known in the online world, you might think that they would have to spend a large amount of money. While marketing budgets of leading companies are extensive, many effective online branding strategies can easily be achieved with nothing more than creativity and determination.

You have a good brand if people can recall your product or service from memory. You want them to trust you and think of you and your website before they think about any competitors. Branding isnÕt just for big businesses; small businesses, especially those with an online presence, canÕt afford not to start some kind of brand awareness campaign.

There is no shortcut to branding success. If you take a look at some of the sales promises made today, you would think that all you need to do to make millions is to launch a website and use free search engine submission services. These kinds of tactics donÕt give you the whole truth.

Brand awareness, or brandcasting, is a strategy that will define a company, show how it is unique, while creating a comfort level in the potential customer. A large part of branding is being consistent in everything about your company. This includes the companyÕs message and vision, the website, the employees, and even the packaging. Who are you and what are your values? All this takes time and vision.

Before even starting to get your brand out there, you should develop a winning slogan and logo. These will be the first things remembered by the public. If you hear the word McDonaldÕs, you will see the Golden Arches in your mind; if you hear KFC, the Colonel will present himself, if MSN is mentioned, it is reasonable to see the fluttering of a butterfly. Defining a simple, two or three tone image that can be inexorably linked with your company can be extremely powerful.

While this is fundamental to both successful offline and online branding strategies, it is important not to forget the actual development of your brand. You might have an excellent logo, but consistent failure in delivery of customer service can take its toll. Your brand and your message should focus on your clients and not on you. Customer benefits that are consistent with your marketing message will get you increased sales.

Your website should be an integral part of your brand as well. It should incorporate the promise you are making to your customers. Remember that customers make their decisions to purchase based on friend and family recommendations,advertising and experience. Building a brand is like building a reputation. Companies interested in long-term success must invest in creating a targeted brand experience for their customers.

While providing great customer service will help your reputation, customer service does not always have to be in the form of responding well to queries. Be proactive; FAQs and well-targeted, well-researched help guides on your website are immensely powerful in garnering a strong reputation. Use article marketing to its fullest advantage to leverage your position as an expert in your field.

Beware of online gimmicks, though. Many companies have seen a surge in business through competitions and contests. But these numbers are impossible to maintain once the offer is over. Use them sparingly, and tie them in with press releases and long lasting deals.

Whether large or small, local or global, social networking can be your key to the successful implementation of online branding strategies. If you have something to say, be it a product launch or exciting development, put a teaser on your social page. People will take the bait.

In much the same way, you can create a blog for your company. Twitter can also be a great way to use a short, snappy sentence to announce a new online initiative.

Many companies have made the mistake of trying to differentiate between their online marketing campaigns, and their offline equivalents. This couldn't be more wrong. Your customers exist in the Real World. Use the reliable marketing double-hitter (where online and offline branding strategies are in complete unison). Indeed, offline advertising can drive your online commerce significantly, if tailored well.

Long before the economic crash of late 2008 hit us; competition in the world of e-commerce was becoming ever more ruthless. However, as a result of the global recession, many companies are looking to the net to not only push forward, but also to survive the storm. Online shopping is actually on the increase, as people rein themselves in and limit their impulse purchases. They do this by not visiting the malls, and keeping away from temptation. Take advantage of this by creating an online brandcasting strategy so you can see more traffic on your website.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/

Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

Twitter Marketing Explored

2009-08-02T18:18:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Trey Pennewell

Twitter is growing by leaps and bounds as people begin to appreciate its clean and easy-to-use interface. Twitter, at this point, does not look like one of the many flash-in-the-pan Internet applications that we have seen in times' past.

Twitter's 140 character micro-blogging platform has gained a lot of traction, as individuals and business people have learned to bring together their friends, family and customers under a communications platform that all users find useful.

Mom and dad find it easier to keep up with the lives of their grown children through Twitter. The fact that Twitter allows people to link to other web pages makes Twitter a simple platform to share thoughts, ideas, and links to stories and pictures. Grandma and granddad find it easy to check in on the kids' Twitter account and to maintain daily contact with those across town and around the world.

Friends can make plans and share common interests through the Twitter world. One can reply to a message publicly, or if the message is a bit more private, one can send a Direct Message (known as a DM) to anyone who has agreed to follow you also. Through the DM system, lovers can share flirts that no one else can see, but the persons intended to receive the message.

If you let your kids use Twitter, it may be best to set up their Twitter Account Settings to "Protect The Tweets". In the description of this feature, Twitter says, "Only let people whom I approve follow my tweets. If this is checked, you WILL NOT be on the public timeline."

The Public Timeline is the messages/tweets that everyone can see. Anything not on the Public Timeline is private, with restricted access.

Business People Are Working To Tap Into Twitter Marketplace

Twitter was born in March of 2006. But most of us never really heard of it or even understood it, until this last year (2008-2009). A few of the Internet gurus started talking about Twitter in 2008, and as 2009 got underway, more online marketers started talking about the Twitter community on a nearly daily basis.

We have accounts in Twitter that are a couple of years old, but we never got involved with Twitter really until about April of 2009. In April of 2009, we had 12 Twitter Followers.

In May 2009, there was not a single online business in the Top 100 of Twitter, but those numbers are starting to change. Through May of 2009, the Top 100 accounts on Twitter were dominated by TV and Movie celebrities, a few media companies such as @cnnbrk, politicians and sports figures.

Most online marketers had never given Twitter much thought until "The Great Ashton Kutcher vs CNN Twitter Race" that ended on April 17, 2009 with Ashton (@aplusk) getting the privilege to declare victory. (http://bit.ly/8Nx55) Even now, three months after the end of the race, Ashton is still the champion - #1 in the Twitter Follower counts with 2,975,032 Followers. Ashton is followed by @TheEllenShow - 2,610,357; @britneyspears - 2,553,668; @cnnbrk - 2,431,783; and @twitter - 1,930,821.

When the Great Twitter Race was concluded, I did a backlink check on Ashton's @aplusk account. Literally, Ashton had bought a ton of advertising on websites, blogs, forums, etc. Ashton was also getting tons of free press in print and online in the Great Twitter Race.

Of course, we marketers should not feel bad if we are getting on this bandwagon a little late in the game, because @google has only had their account since Jan 09. Google is currently the 23rd biggest Twitter account with 1,244,976 Followers.

A surprise for me was seeing @WholeFoods, an Austin Texas based grocery store, sitting at #38 with 1,094,093 Followers. According to TwitterCounter (http://twittercounter.com/WholeFoods/all), Whole Foods had only 322,820 Followers on April 4, 2009. A quick look at the Whole Foods profile (http://twitter.com/WholeFoods) indicates that they are using the account to share with their customers: company news, customer support, and available specials.

An honorable mention goes to @kevinrose, celebrity and founder of http://Digg.com. Kevin Rose is the 40th most popular person on Twitter, with 1,092,920 Followers.

Once you get into the Top 100 List below #40, you finally start to see a few online businesses in the mix. @zappos CEO is #45. @woot is #46. @TechCrunch is a web media site at #55. @dooce is at #60. To see the full Top 100 List, go here: http://twittercounter.com/pages/100

Who Is In Your Target Market and What Do They Want To Know?

As you look around at those people who are successful building their own little communities on Twitter, you will notice that each one gives people what their Followers want.

For example, @cussy is an online marketer, and he has nearly 10,000 Followers. His secret to growth: quotes. He gives his followers some of the best quotes about business and reaching goals of anyone on Twitter. I follow him and Retweet him often.

@dave_carpenter advertises himself as a Success Partner For High Achievers. Dave shares quotes and tips, and he retweets others who give good advice also. More importantly, Dave encourages the people he follows. He has nearly 9,000 Followers at this time.

@MattLevenhagen is a professional marketer. His 13,000 Followers follow because he runs a mix of marketing tips, links to great articles, and retweets for great advice. He even uses his Twitter account to give his customer's support.

@SocialMedia411 is a Social Media expert who offers social media tips, links to social media articles and news. With more than 56,000 Followers, you can bet that the advice given here is worthwhile to its audience.

When you learn to talk to the people most likely to buy from you, you have completed the first and most important step to enable you to develop strong Twitter Marketing habits.

Learn How Others Are Successful With Twitter

As always, when you want to learn to be successful, you should look to those who are already successful and try to reverse-engineer the steps that they used to become successful. Once you have taken the time to study many who have been successful in the way that you want to be successful, you may note that success comes from giving people what they want and doing it in such a way that you offer good value to your customers.

Those who have been successful with Twitter have done so, because they put the needs of their Followers ahead of a personal desire to be boring or silly.

The good news is that other business people have started to find success on Twitter and you can too. When you learn to provide the people in your target market with the information that they need and want, you will have started down the path to building a Twitter Follower list to envy.

About the Author:
Trey Pennewell works for http://www.thePhantomWriters.com/ article marketing service. If you write articles and need to distribute your articles to higher value audiences, you owe it to yourself to try The Phantom Writers' services. If you want to learn more about how to develop a large list of Twitter Followers, buy the ebook (under $10) at: http://twitusers.com/autopilot/index.php Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/contentmanager

Read more Articles written by Trey Pennewell.

Understanding Connotations in Tag Lines, Business Names and Monikers

2009-08-01T09:42:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

The following closer on an email was meant to clinch my interest in an information product, but it did the opposite:

"I would love for you to experience the same kind of worldwide notoriety my clients have enjoyed for years."

As a professional word person, I knew instantly that this expert had overlooked the negative meaning of "notoriety." But before jumping on her mistake, I checked my authoritative sources - dictionaries.

For "notorious," the American Heritage dictionary provides the definition "known widely and usually unfavorably," while the American College Dictionary has as a first definition "widely but unfavorably known." As synonyms for "notoriety," dictionary.com offers "disrepute, ill-repute, shame, infamy."

For certain audiences, especially those that are young, edgy or avant-garde, one can turn established meanings upside down to create a magnetic message. It's easy to imagine rock bands, movie stars or political activists for whom "notoriety" glitters as a goal.

But clearly this expert did not intend to claim that she helps her clients achieve an unfavorable worldwide reputation or to be held in widespread disrepute. And just as clearly, the fact that she misused this word implies she can't be trusted to formulate a winning message for someone seeking acclaim.

Blunders like this can turn up in company or product names, tag lines, monikers (clever nicknames) and in marketing copy.

Very often, people crafting a marketing piece get tired of using the obvious words for their situation and reach for synonyms. To avoid writing "fame" - a simple, direct and ordinary word - this expert used (actually, misused) the more complex word "notoriety." People also get tripped up by connotation when they fall in love with the way something sounds.

For instance, I once thought up the moniker "Grand Poohbah of Publicity. " I loved its combination of sounds. However, when I looked it up, I discovered definitions like this one, in the Free Online Dictionary: "A pompous ostentatious official, especially one who, holding many offices, fulfills none of them." "Poohbah" comes from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera, The Mikado, where Pooh-Bah was a haughty character who held the offices Lord Chief Justice, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Master of the Buckhounds, Lord High Auditor, Groom of the Back Stairs, and Lord High Everything Else. Oops, I certainly do not want to come across that way!

Whether you rely on memory or use a thesaurus to jog your consideration of related words, you must always, always take one more step and look up the official meaning of fancier or less common words. If you are aiming at a positive message and you see a negative connotation in any of the definitions, that indicates a high risk of an unintended negative message.

Even if several definitions are positive, one negative definition spoils the word's potential, the same way one rotten tomato mixed with fresh ones ruins a sauce.

The discipline of looking up words not only prevents communication disasters, over time it increases your command of the language. Instead of fighting what words mean to your audience, you increase your ability to nail a thought or idea in powerful names, sentences, nicknames or slogans.

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.

Avoid These Five Tragic Tag Line Misfires

2009-07-31T16:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

A tag line is the little slogan that follows a business name on a web site, in ads, on company stationery and elsewhere. A prime branding opportunity, it presents one of the biggest challenges in marketing. You want something that's catchy, appropriate, appealing and distinctive. The tag line should say something that encourages ideal customers to do business with you.

Be sure to generate a lot of possibilities, and eliminate any tag line candidates where you are forced to answer "yes" to any of the five questions below. While I'm illustrating these points using U.S. state slogans (For instance, "Delaware: Small Wonder"), the criteria apply as well to small businesses, medium-sized companies, large corporations, solopreneurs, ecommerce sites and nonprofit organizations anywhere in the world.

Five Common Tag Line Blunders

1. Does it flunk the uniqueness test? A tag line needs to single out your strengths. If your tag line could reasonably apply to your competitors, it doesn't drill down deeply enough to what makes you different. For example, which state would you match up with "More Than You Can Imagine"? You'd have as good a chance at getting this right by picking a state randomly as by trying to guess according to its intended meaning. This is a tag line used by Maryland, but it could equally apply to Nebraska, Idaho, Michigan or any other state with an unglamorous reputation.

Consider also the similarity between South Carolina's slogan, "Smiling Faces. Beautiful Places" and South Dakota's, "Great Faces. Great Places." The word "faces" in South Dakota's tag line probably refers to the presidential heads depicted on Mount Rushmore, and "great" appropriately applies to them. But this tag line is so close to South Carolina's wording that it's easy to see the South Dakota marketers didn't bring out the unique implications of those faces well enough in their tag line.

Some tag lines heavily suggest just one owner because of recognizable associations. Because of the popularity of the movie, The Wizard of Oz, for example, "There's No Place Like Home" evokes Kansas much more than any other state.

2. Is there a questionable double meaning? Not one but two slogans of Colorado become problematic because of this factor. "Rocky Mountain High" and "Enter a Higher State" both use the word "high" in a way that implies not only geographical elevation but also (at least to many in the Baby Boomer generation) marijuana intoxication.

Another state tag line with this weakness is "Oklahoma is OK." To many people, "OK" implies "just OK," which is such faint praise it lacks the power of invitation. Likewise, to someone who believes the American Midwest is boring, Illinois's "Mile After Magnificent Mile" evokes the idea of mile after mile after mile of sameness.

3. Emotionally, is it a clunker? "Utah! Where Ideas Connect" used to be that state's tourism slogan, and it's significant that they inserted an exclamation mark to try to generate some excitement, since the concept itself is flat and unemotional. A tag line should convey positive energy rather than simply state some facts.

Connecticut's slogan "Full of Surprises" doesn't score well on uniqueness, but it does have emotional oomph. Ditto for Maine's "The Way Life Should Be."

4. Does it have an inappropriate tone? "Say WA" (for Washington State) is a prime example of a slogan that sounds like chalk scratching on a blackboard to anyone older than a teenager. Remember that people with nothing better to do than to hang out at a street corner high-fiving their friends are not the logical target of a tourism campaign.

"Live Free or Die," which appears on New Hampshire's license plates, is a brilliant and highly emotional evocation of the no-sales-tax state that epitomizes Yankee independence and political autonomy. However, this slogan doesn't work well as a lure for tourists. Normally it doesn't make a pleasant impression to be reminding people of their mortality in the same breath as saying "Come visit!"

5. Are you junking the previous tag line for the wrong reasons? Simply being tired of it is the worst possible reason. Apparently weariness is why in 1985, Governor Anthony Earl decided that "America's Dairyland" would no longer do as Wisconsin's slogan. Very often, politicians or tourism officials decide to jettison something that's working, then spend a fortune hiring brand consultants to come up with something their constituents hate and that bombs in the marketplace. Don't you follow in their footsteps!

Coming up with a tag line that passes all of these elimination tests is not easy. If I had to select a winner from all the state slogans I've looked at, I'd award first prize to Mississippi's "The South's Warmest Welcome." Only a few other contenders could claim this applied to them, and it's unquestionably and strongly inviting. Second prize goes to Alaska's "Beyond Your Dreams. Within Your Reach." In a positive way, this counteracts the belief of so many in the other 49 states and abroad that they might not easily have the opportunity to experience its charms.

Good luck with your own tag line and branding!

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.

Does Your Proposed New Company Name Open the Door to Ridicule?

2009-07-31T14:12:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

People who intensely dislike your company or feel wronged by you will always find some way to complain. However, a lack of attention during the naming process can inadvertently make it easier for comedians, protesters and whiners to poke fun at your company.

Before finalizing your new company name, run it by these tests so you can tweak the name or reject it if necessary to avoid predictable problems. Also ask the funniest people you know whether they see an obvious (well, obvious to them, at least) way to make your firm a laughingstock.

1. What do the initials spell? One reason why National Skyway Freight changed its name to Flying Tigers is that "NSF" is a well-known abbreviation for "not sufficient funds." Likewise, you wouldn't want to discover after you'd already invested in and promoted your name that disgruntled customers were calling Condo Renovators United of Detroit, your company, "CRUD."

2. Does the name resemble or evoke a disreputable word? Marketers coined the name Allegis as an umbrella name for United Airlines, Hertz, Hilton and Westin Hotels. However, many people who looked at the first five letters thought about "allegedly" and "allegations" rather than "allegiance." That, together with the challenge of pronouncing it, led the corporation to abandon its $7.5 million investment in the name and go back to its previous name, UAL Corporation. Something similar happened to Allegheny Airlines, which got tagged with the nickname "Agony Airlines" until it renamed itself USAir.

3. Do the letters or anything about the way the name is spelled suggest anything negative? When Standard Oil (S.O.) of New Jersey morphed into Esso, then came in for criticism under the name Exxon, commentators sometimes latched onto the double "X" and called it the "Double Cross Company." Likewise, you might find it cute to call your café that's at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Route 66 "Café 666," but many people associate the number 666 with the devil, so this would be certain to generate notoriety - negative publicity.

4. Does the name suggest a catchy parody version? You can't prevent this kind of lampooning entirely, but you also don't want to make it easy for the public to make fun of you. The natural foods supermarket chain Whole Foods is often derisively called "Whole Paycheck" by those who find its prices high, and the elite department store Neiman Marcus has been dubbed Needless Markup. People who do not like the food at Applebees, a casual restaurant chain, call it "Crapplebees." Be forewarned about this move by asking your comedian friends how they'd twist your proposed name in a satire.

5. Does the name shorten into something you'd be embarrassed about? In New York City, the neighborhood South of Houston Street became known as "SoHo." Washington Mutual, a bank, similarly let its name get shortened into "WaMu." However, if your company was named "California Carriers," you would most definitely not want to be known as "CaCa."

Make sure these techniques don't turn you into a humor target! Be wise about selecting a name that is easier to keep reputable.

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.

For Snazzier New Product Names, Use Creative Naming Prompts

2009-07-24T07:54:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

Participants in my product development seminar recently asked me for a brainstorming session to help them come up with creative names for information product packages - multi-format products and services that might include a manual, CDs, coaching or consulting and other items.

Here are the questions I posed for this group, along with some examples illustrating product names developed from each idea.

1. What is the result your customers want?

Lose Weight Before Bikini Season

Finish Your First Marathon

The Fame and Fortune Program

Double Your Donor Base

2. Who are your customers?

Fun Fundraising for Museums

The Shy Person's Guide to Networking

Wanna Change the World? Social Entrepreneurship 101

3. What is the problem you solve?

Coach Kids' Soccer Even If You Never Played Yourself

Kicking Procrastination Out of Your Life

The "Home Depot's Coming to Town" Survival Guide for Hardware Stores

Home Study Challenges Solved

4. What do happy customers say?

"We Built a House Ourselves!" The 10-Month Action Plan

The "I Used to Be Fat" Course

The People-Recognize-Me-Everywhere Publicity Program

5. What does your product particularly have or not have?

The Lose Weight Eating Chocolate Plan

The Earth-Friendly Lawn Care Guide

The No-Discipline Method of Kicking Procrastination

No-Rules Parenting

6. What's the customer's fondest fantasy?

Getting Through Your Teen's Years Still Sane

The Tonight Show, Here You Come!

Build a Four-Generation Family Business Dynasty

Multi-millionaire by Your Tenth College Reunion

Whatever sort of product you are creating, these questions can help. Take a look at the words and ideas generated from each brainstorming prompt, then combine, recombine and tweak them further, looking for an appealing succession of words that clicks with you and has great potential to do so with customers as well.

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.

Free and Easy Link Building Tips

2009-07-23T00:48:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

Okay, you're the proud mama or papa to your brand new website. Now what? This isn't like the movies - just because you built it doesn't mean they'll come. The Internet is a huge limitless space with ever-growing numbers of websites. You are just one small website among millions. How will anybody ever find you? How do you become visible? Right now, you just exist out in the web, untethered. You need to become visible when someone searches for you and one way to become visible to people is to become visible to search engines. And one way to become visible to search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN is for your site to be tethered, or linked to other sites.

If you've spent any time reading Internet marketing blogs you know that link building is a huge part of a marketing campaign. Backlinks - links that point to your website - are a major factor in determining your popularity or ranking with the search engines. And of course, just like in high school, you want to be popular.

You can buy your way into links, but here we're talking about a few free and easy ways. An obvious and natural way to build links is through content. When you start a link-building campaign for your new website, focus on attracting links that will add value for your website visitors and best represent your most important keywords too. It is invaluable to have visitors go to your site and share your content.

Here are a few easy and mostly free ways to build links for your website.

Blog-Based Link Building

One way to get natural links back to your website is by setting up a blog for your company. Make sure you network online with other blogs that complement yours. If you share industry news and have useful and relevant content, you'll attract links. Reference other bloggers in your content and link to other blogs in your industry.

For blogs, content is extremely important. Every time you add words to your blog or website, you are presenting yourself to a potentially huge audience. How does your blog's content reflect your company? This content could be the page that carries your company's name around the Internet world. Cheap content is just that - cheap. Create content that people want to read and that will make them come back again and again.

Reviewing products and services and posting those reviews on other sites is another way to build links. Your honest evaluations and smart opinions can also build your reputation as an expert in your field.

Link Building with Social Media

Another way to build natural links to your website is through social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter. These sites allow you to set up a user profile where you can add information about you and your company including a link to your website.

Some sites, Facebook for example, also have a way to promote your business with a page, ad or group. Just keep in mind that there are good ways and bad ways to promote your business on social sites and you should observe proper etiquette when you do.

Link Building with Organizations and Directories

If your industry has professional organizations or associations that you belong to, check with them and see if they have an online directory with links to member sites. They may or may not charge a fee for this. If they do, it shouldn't be much.

Check with your local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau. Links from sites like these can be very helpful. Check with other local businesses and organizations that have lists of businesses and request links from them, too.

Online directories are another opportunity to look into. Yahoo! Directory is a good one. If your business is in a specific geographical area, you might also find some local directories to submit to that will boost your local visibility.

Links from Charities or Non-profits

If your company makes charitable donations to organizations and non-profits, see if they have a "donors" list on their website and ask if they will link to your website.

Links from Press Releases

Has your business just started or have you just launched a new product? A press release is a great idea to announce your news. There are quite a few press release distribution services available and some have a free first time offer.

Links from Partners

If your website offers information about other partner websites like business directories, you should make sure to use all your linking potential. You could have a badge that your partner could put on their site linking to you and one for your site that links to theirs.

If you have an RSS feed or a widget on your site that has good value to visitors, those can be taken from your website and displayed on another person's website, linking back to your site.

The Internet is constantly evolving and there are thousands of ways to build links. Look around at other websites and see what they have and how they work. Look at your business, think outside the box and you might come up with other ways to develop links. If it all seems like too much, there are many online consulting companies that can help with link building, SEO optimization and brandcasting.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. Learn more at: http://www.Brandsplat.com/

Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

Does Your Company Tag Line Pass These Five Crucial Tests?

2009-07-22T03:18:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

Judging from the many disastrous slogans that state tourism boards have happily paid tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for, even marketing professionals often use totally subjective criteria to select tag lines. Do we like it? Is it catchy and memorable? Does it make us feel good?

I suggest replacing the "feel-good" test with five much more grounded criteria. When you're trying to decide on the best tag line to accompany your organization's name on the web site, brochures, business cards, stationery, ads, mugs and mouse pads, make sure your winner passes these five tests.

1. Does it apply to you and not to competitors? Few people would match "Great Potatoes. Tasty Destinations." to any other state than Idaho. But there's nothing in "Worth a Visit, Worth a Lifetime" to indicate Maine any more than Minnesota, Michigan or Montana. If your tag line does not highlight something distinctive about your company, it's not making much of a difference to prospective customers, either.

2. Does it have nothing but positive connotations? I'm baffled about how "Seize the Day Off" is supposed to reflect well on Maryland. Are all the jobs in that state so horrible that everyone there lives for the weekend? Likewise, "Things Look Different Here" could equally be taken as a bad thing as a good thing about Oregon, which used that slogan for many years.

3. Does it have emotional oomph? "Greatest Snow on Earth" is certainly an energetic advertisement for Utah. Similarly, Kentucky's "Unbridled Spirit," which refers to its horse-related traditions, has emotional strength. Your tag line should convey energy rather than being flat and factual.

4. Are the tone and content appropriate for the target market? The District of Columbia has had "Taxation Without Representation" on its license plates, which functions well as an activist slogan for its own residents. But for tourists, that slogan would come across as bombastic and irrelevant. Always keep your target market firmly in mind when generating and screening tag lines. You are not writing it for yourselves but for those you want to attract.

5. Do you have good reasons for wanting to replace the previous tag line? Don't toss it in the trash just because you are tired of it. Remember that because you undoubtedly hear and see your own tag line much more than your target market does, you may get tired of it years sooner than they will. It's very rare for a state to keep a successful slogan alive for more than a decade because politicians and tourism officials get more and more itchy to put their mark on their entity's branding. That's a very bad reason to change. If the audience has stopped responding to it, or it has begun to be ridiculed - those are good reasons to look for a new tag line.

When you weigh your favorite tag lines with these five tests, you reduce the chances of choosing one that exposes your organization to ridicule. You boost the chances of coming out a winner.

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.

The Check Point Certified Security Administrator (CCSA) Certification Will Prove Your Worth

2009-07-21T17:48:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Frank Pines

Are you looking for a career in Information Technology? The Check Point Certified Security Administrator (CCSA) certification is a good choice to add to your credentials as a Network Security specialist.

The CCSA has not only become a highly recognized and sought after credential to help you get the job, it verifies your knowledge and improves your practical application skills to help you keep the job.

As a company, Check Point Software Technologies has become the de facto standard among corporate firewalls, security gateways, VPN appliances and software. There are no other security applications that are more widely used in Fortune 500 companies, medical, legal and government organizations.

Whether it is for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, HIPAA, or meeting the requirements for the PCI Data Security Standard, Check Point appliances and software consistently outperform the competition.

Obtaining CCSA certification is vital for network engineers, network security specialists, security administrators and anyone tasked with managing a Check Point device.

While the course outline indicates that no prior experience is required, a firm knowledge of operating systems, servers, network topologies and protocols will ensure your success in this course work.

Most experts will agree that the CompTIA A+ and Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) certifications are good starting points, but your choice of other certifications will depend on your career objectives.

During the CCSA training course you'll learn details about basic networking security including:

How to create a security policy and establish rules;

Network Address Translation;

How to use traffic monitoring tools, block attacks and audit reports;

Configuration of various authentication schemes;

LDAP Integration;

Establishing virtual private networks (VPN) between networks;

Backup and Restore of Check Point applications.

In addition you'll learn about a variety of Check Point products and how they can be used to secure a company's network, filter email, manage access to Internet content with URL filtering, and tune a network to handle Voice over IP (VoIP).

Common to all Check Point appliances is a powerful software operating system, which enables organizations to perform all aspects of security management via a single, unified console.

If you are already a highly skilled network specialist, or if you already have other industry certifications, you may require a week or two of concentrated study time. Others with basic computer and network skills will need at least 4 weeks to complete the CCSA study course.

Don't cheat yourself - the exam can be tricky. Take advantage of the practice exams and repeat them until you can pass at least three times before attempting the certification exam.

Once you have passed the CCSA exam don't expect to be an expert for long; technology changes and constant continuing education is critical. Keep your skills sharp, expand your library, and add other industry certifications to your portfolio.

Not only will you be able to proudly display your CCSA certificate, you'll have the knowledge and skills to increase your value to your employer, which as you know could potentially increase your salary as you prove your worth time and again.

About the Author:
Written by Frank Pines of CDI Communications Inc. - CDI Communications is a leader in implementation of instructional strategies for MCSE, AutoCAD, Sap, Skillsoft, CCNA, MCTS, Cisco, MCITP, MCTS, Microsoft Office, Oracle, Crystal Report, Knowledgenet, SAP, NetG and Check Point CCSA Certification. Visit CDI Communications Inc. at: http://www.netwind.com/ OR follow Frank on Twitter at: @cdicomp

Read more Articles written by Frank Pines.

Write a Book and Catapult Your Company to New Heights by Branding Yourself As an Expert

2009-07-21T15:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Charles Jacobs

Taming the recessionary tiger is not as difficult as you think. Forget the old patterns of spending big bucks to buy advertising or blast postal mailings to thousands of possible buyers. The dollars aren't there to spend in a broken economy. Today every penny has to count, and that happens only when you define your market exactingly and tailor a message that is meaningful to it.

We are in a world of specialization. People in every niche seek information both on and off line. You can be the person to whom they turn to find that information. There is a way to brand yourself as an expert and to make your business or professional office the place customers or clients think of first. When reporters need a quote or perhaps some background material for a story they're working on, make sure they turn to you, not to one of your competitors.

Raising Your Reputation

It is almost axiomatic that your reputation rises to new heights when you write and publish a book. And in today's world, for the first time it is easy, fast and inexpensive to turn your words into print.

New printing technology has give birth to a new generation of publishers. Publishing on Demand (POD) has swept through the industry, churning out thousands of books and boosting the reputations of their authors. With this process, books can be printed in any quantity you need to use as promotional tools. They can be rapid-reading booklets of 30 or 40 pages or they can be full blown books of anywhere from 75 to 200 or more pages.

Journalism today has moved strongly into specialization. You can send the book to members of the press and to broadcast journalists who write about topics related to your product. They may review your book or simply write a blurb about it, sending hundreds of readers to your web site, office or store.

Once recognized as a leader in your field, you may well be asked to speak at various functions, adding further to your reputation. All of these possibilities are part of the program of branding yourself...identifying yourself as an expert.

Getting Assistance

Perhaps you have a talented staff member who can write the book with you. Or even for you. You certainly have the option of turning to a professional writer to ghost write the book. It is done frequently. If you don't require that degree of assistance, contact a Book Coach to help you over the occasional bumps.

It is highly likely that your business is already represented by a web site on the Internet. Add a page to the site about yourself and about your book. What a wonderful opportunity to sell your book from the site and not have to pay commissions.

You may want to piggy back on the book and write articles for distribution throughout the Web. Hundreds of thousands of people will see your piece and hopefully a percentage will respond. You can distribute these articles at no cost by using online article distributors.

Once your book has been written, you can take portions of it and either rewrite them or run them as excerpts. In either case, your workload is minimal because you are drawing on something you have already written.

Writing for Trade Journals

You undoubtedly read some of the trade journals published in your field. Editors of these publications are hungry for informative, meaningful articles. They care far less about your writing style or ability than they do about the content you can provide. Their staffs can polish what you write and turn it into quality pieces, but they must first rely on you to supply the content.

Every article you write offers a perfect opportunity to attract business. The article itself must be informative. It can't be a press release or a selling tool for you or your product. But at the end, as you have seen so many times when you read, the bio box about the author becomes a free advertisement for you.

Fill the box with information that invites your reader to visit your web site or buy your product. Provide enough information to allow the reader to trust you because of your credentials. Never forget that trust is a major factor in attracting a potential and closing a sale.

By following this approach you quickly build confidence in your expertise and as a result in your product. Print and broadcast journalists today search the Web for likely stories and for experts who can be used in those stories. A few references to you or your business in print or on the air will raise your rate of sale to unexpected heights.

If you are running a practice or a business, you are a knowledgeable professional or an informed businessperson. Harness that unique background and turn it into one of the most inexpensive, but most effective methods of branding yourself as an expert and promoting your company as one of the leaders in its field. It is an ideal way to offset the depression blues.

About the Author:
If you need help writing your book, contact award winning author and book coach Charles Jacobs at coaching(at)wisewriter.net for a free consultation. His latest book, The Writer Within You, has been named one of the Best Books of the Year by seven organizations. Axiom awarded it a gold medal in the business category. It is available at all bookstores or on the Web at http://www.retireandwrite.com/

More new articles.

Create Information Products - Step by Step On Using Ghostwriting Services

2009-07-20T18:42:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Alan Cheng

Successful online marketers create information products that are in-demand and sell them online. It's one of the most popular and effective ways to make money on the internet. An information product, or an ebook requires no inventory and the profit margins are huge.

In this article, I'll summarize the crucial steps you need follow to create your own information product by outsourcing to respectable ghostwriting services...

The reasons you would want to outsource your information product creation are:

1. You have a phobia with writing, or you just don't like the task

2. You don't have enough time

3. You don't have the expertise to create information products

If any of the above applies to you, then you can consider using special ghostwriting services to create the information product for you. This is a fast and easy way to create a quality product to sell, while you can fully concentrate on just marketing the product.

Here are 5 steps on how to create information products by hiring a professional writer.

1. Choose Your Niche

To decide the topic for your ebook, you need to do some thorough online research. You should choose a niche which many people have an interest in, and who are willing to buy the information. It will be even better, if the niche is something which you're knowledgeable in.

Go to forums that are related to the niche, and view the posts. See if there is a lot of interest on certain problems which people want to know about.

Next you can search for magazines whether online or offline, and see if there's a magazine for the niche. This is proof that there is demand for the topic. Otherwise, people would not run a magazine on it.

Never, try to create an ebook on a topic which has never been done before. Chances are that it won't sell. Try to look for similar ebooks that are already selling well and create an information product which is better.

2. List Out The Problems

Once you've decided what your information product is about, you need to list out certain problems which the market is interested in. If the subject is about PC repair, then you need to list out the common problems people would want to know about repairing PCs.

Get this information from forums and from search engines. Consolidate the list of problems and choose the best ones which you think your prospects will be interested in.

3. Hire A Ghost Writer

Your next step is to hire a ghost writer, or ghostwriting company to write your information product. There are many professional writers which you can find online, but don't choose one based on the lowest price.

You need to hire a professional writer who has experience in creating information products for their clients. This includes the ebook, website, sales copy to sell the ebook, squeeze page to capture prospects' emails and a thank you page.

Some companies offer these ghostwriting services as a whole package, but there aren't many of them. An example of such a company is 'Best Instant Sites' which offers a complete solution for creating information products.

4. Discuss The Terms

With your chosen ghostwriter, you need to discuss the terms before giving payment. Tell them your idea of the information product you want and list the subjects you want written about, from what you gathered in your research.

Ask the professional writer to research the topic in more detail when writing the ebook. Then ask when the delivery date is. Never push the writer for an earlier deadline. You want the ebook to be written professionally. Rushing a writing project seldom creates quality.

For the design of your website, tell the ghostwriter what kind of look you're looking for and the words you want shown. Give examples of website designs that you like so that the professional writer knows your preference.

5. Following Up With The Progress

A few days before the deadline of your information product, contact the ghostwriter and ask him or her for the progress. He would either tell you everything is as planned or he would tell you that there is a possible delay.

The point of following up is to tell the writer that you care and it gives him a chance to ask you any questions he can think of. You can even ask for a draft of the website design to see if it matches what you want.

Good professional writers will always contact you a few days beforehand if there's a possible delay, but just in case you hired a not-so-professional writer, it will be wise if you followed up a few times before the deadline.

Following these steps, you can create an information product of your own and start making money online like the experts. The key to success is hiring the right professional writer. You need a writer that has experience in creating information products. And of course, you also need good marketing skills to sell your product online. Some ghostwriters offer advice on marketing online. You need to ask.

About the Author:
Download the report "Build Your Own Business Using Information Products" at create information products. Alan Cheng is a professional writer at http://www.bestinstantsites.com/ If you want to outsource your information product creation, visit professional writer at Best Instant Sites.

Read more Articles written by Alan Cheng.

The Mystique of Numbers in Company Names

2009-07-16T08:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

While visiting the House of the Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts two weeks ago, made famous in the 1851 book by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I mentally tried out other numbers to see if they would sound as spooky and portentous.

To my ear, House of the Five Gables sounds all too ordinary, while House of the Eight Gables lacks anything that would send a chill up someone's spine. Both the sound of "seven" and its properties as both odd and prime give it a reverberating ring.

I would go so far as to say that numbers have personalities that you need to be aware of when using them in company or product names.

Motel 6: Here, "six" comes across as routine and humdrum, very much like the rooms and prices in this chain.

Super 8: If this motel chain was trying to convey higher quality than Motel 6, it works. Note too that with two long and one short vowel sounds to its competitor's one long and two short ones, the name Super 8 commands more attention while taking up no more space.

Heinz 57: Company founder Henry John Heinz engineered the company's address at PO Box 57 in Pittsburgh in addition to using this number in the corporate slogan ("57 Varieties") and in the name of its steak sauce. I doubt it would have lasted since 1896 as Heinz 28 or Heinz 91 or even Heinz 37.

Note that you don't have to provide an explanation of a number you include in a business name. The Heinz company web site says only that the numbers "5" and "7" had a special significance for founder Henry John Heinz and his wife, not what that significance was. Likewise, the bottle of "Formula 3" shampoo that my hairdresser recently sold me says nothing about what the "3" means.

Just be mindful that certain numbers carry heavy baggage to members of some ethnic and religious groups. For instance, "four" is unlucky to many Chinese because in their language it's a homonym for death. And to Christians, the sequence "666" signifies the devil. "Thirteen" is shunned in many cultures for reasons unknown.

Be mindful also that for a local business, people don't know how to look up company names starting with numbers. If you heard the name "18 Candles" for a party products company, should you look it up in the telephone directory under "E" for "eighteen" or in the front of the book, before the A's? When the number comes after a regular word, as with Studio 54, you avoid this problem.

Finally, when it comes to web domains, most people hearing a company name with a number in it will assume it's written with the numeral rather than in words. They'd look up motel6.com rather than motelsix.com. Even so, you'd be smart to reserve both versions. Motel6.com indeed corresponds to the motel chain, but motelsix.com goes to a site for finding a cheap motel room. Likewise, the founder of fivethirtyeight.com, a political web site referring to the number of seats in the U.S. Congress, thought the written-out-words looked more elegant and neglected to reserve the domain 538.com.

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

More new articles.