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Any one of the seven website copywriting secrets I’m about to reveal can increase your conversion rate by itself. But use ALL of them together and you’ll create an unstoppable online salesperson that will sell your product or service 24/7!

1. Write to a Targeted Audience

Know EXACTLY who your niche market is.  Then target your sales copy to precisely what they’re looking for.

You can learn about your site visitors by looking at your server logs. 

• What’s your most popular page?
• Where do visitors stay for the longest time?
• Where do people most often click away?
• When do most people visit?

Also consider the questions or comments you get from customers after a sale.

Armed with hard information, you can write sales letter and website copy that addresses their specific needs. And you can answer any questions or objections they might have, just the way a sales rep would in person.

2. Create an attention-grabbing headline

A winning sales letter headline gets straight to the point and promises an answer to the problem your visitor is trying to solve.
Here’s an example of a sales-winning online sales letter headline:
Now, In Just 9 Easy Steps, You Can Transform Ordinary Fabric Into a Handmade Quilt That Your Family and Friends Will Love, Admire and Cherish –Even If You Have Never Made a Quilt Before!

Notice how the headline addresses precisely what the target web site visitor is looking for. If you keep your headline highly relevant, simple, and specific, your reader will read on.

3. Establish Credibility

Your visitors are just two clicks away from dozens or even hundreds of other websites similar to yours. Why should they believe what you have to say? You have to prove what you’re about to tell them can be trusted. So:

• Give your credentials
• Tell a story
• Feature testimonials
• Add a strong guarantee

4. Talk About Benefits, Not Just Features

Your potential customers want to know how your product or service will make THEIR lives easier. Drive this home by focusing on benefits and answering the question, “What’s in it for me?”

Here’s an example:
Feature: “The Grade A Gardening Shovel is ergonomically designed to remove weeds more efficiently than traditional shovels.”

Benefit: “Get your weeding done in half the time AND reduce wrist soreness!”

5. Add a Sense of Urgency to Your Online Sales Letter for Immediate Sales

You need to give your prospects a good reason to buy NOW rather than later.

Here are 4 urgency-builders to nudge prospects into pulling out their credit cards:

• Only a limited number available
• Available for a limited time only
• Limited-time coupons or discounts
• Special bonus in limited quantities

6. Format for Easy Scanning

People scan online rather than reading word by word. To keep your readers’ attention you must break up your website sales copy text. Here’s how…

• Use bulleted lists and subheads
• Make short, chunky paragraphs of one to four lines — and mix them up
• Emphasize important points with bolding, highlighting, or italics
• Use a plain font like Arial or Verdana
• Use only relevant graphics and images
• Put your text on a plain white or light background

7. Ask for the Order

Once you’ve drawn your readers through the sales process by explaining the features and benefits of your product or service, you need to spell out EXACTLY what you want your reader to do.
For instance:

• To order now and receive your copy within minutes, click here!”
• “Click here to take advantage of this limited time offer!”
• “To get your widget — backed by our 100% risk-free guarantee — click here now!”

If you don’t make the next step absolutely crystal clear for your readers, there’s no telling how many sales might slip through your fingers.

When it comes to your online business, your website and online sales copy is your one and only chance to communicate directly with your potential customers and tell them WHY they should buy from you. So use these seven online copywriting techniques wisely to make sure your online sales copy actually sells.

Author:  CEO of Internet Marketing Center, Derek Gehl educates over 1.8 million Internet business owners per month on how to create incomes of $100,000 to $2.5 MILLION or more per year online. Now you can discover the powerful and proven copywriting and Internet Marketing strategies Derek uses to Quickly, Easily And Automatically make $10.42 for every $1 he invests in online marketing! Get it now at: http://www.marketingtips.com/tipsltr.html

These days, it’s hard to walk down the street without seeing some sort of news headline or hearing about the latest story. With instant messaging, internet on our phones, and simply talking to our friends, we are constantly bombarded with the latest updates. However, when it comes to your website, you need to act in the same way. Though you might not be able to report on anything catastrophic on your website, in order to be memorable, you do need to start looking at ways to keep your customers informed.

Mailing Lists Do Work

Though many websites have eschewed the use of mailing lists to inform their customers, when done right, these are highly effective reminders for customers. The key to doing these mailing lists well is to get the mailing lists on your own - don’t buy them from marketing groups. While it’s true you will get longer lists from the marketing groups, you might also be getting a lot of negative feedback from people who didn’t want to receive your information in the first place.

On your website, create a way for interested visitors to sign up for a weekly email from you. All they should need to do is to give you their email address and their first name and they can find out what’s new with your site each week. This email shouldn’t be a sales letter, but more of a note about what’s going on and what people might want to stop by your site to see.

eZines are Still Going Out to Customers

To extend on the idea of a mass email list, you might want to look into making a magazine for your mailing list, or an ezine. This piece of information should be longer than your weekly email, but it should also contain some sales language about things that are coming up for your business.

This is the perfect way for you to update and inform your visitors about your market, while also showing that you are knowledgeable about your chosen business. Try talking about new findings in your market, for example, if you are selling nutritional products. Think about ways to give your site visitors something that they might not have learned on their own.

Daily Blogging is a Fun Avenue

Of course, if your business is a little less formal, you might want to opt for a business blog. This can be from the point of view of yourself or perhaps a fictional worker in your company. By simply talking about the latest news and what it means for the site visitor, you can create a modern dialogue that allows you to show your casual side, while still being informative.

You can also talk about loyal customers or about new innovations to products that are in the works.

Try Sending Out a Press Release

If all else fails, the press release is still the best way to rest the maximum amount of potential visitors that want to see your site. However, since these releases are generally send to a larger audience, it’s harder to target the customers you really want to target. If you can, you might want to try to submit the press release to publications that your target audience will be looking at as well as posting it on your website to help spread the word about a new product or service.

When it comes to informing your customers, you need to make sure you explore as many possibilities for doing this as possible. While you don’t want to be the only thing on your customer’s mind, you do want to be one fo the top ten.

Author:  Scott Oliver offers free video coaching to help you build a profitable home business FAST. Get an hour of “Website Traffic Secrets” and “Minisite Creation Tactics” for FREE — immediate access here: http://www.InstantWebsiteBusiness.com

Not all landing pages are created equal. How well they convert rests solely on how well you engineer them. Lets discuss thought, design, engineering, and how they make a difference.

Smarter landing pages are ‘human friendly.’ They’re based on what is known about people and what people like and don’t like. And that knowledge isn’t arbitrary. It’s based on research, marketing testing…facts.

In a certain sense your landing pages should be unobtrusive. Your potential customer should feel so relaxed and satisfied with the ‘overall’ that she just naturally wants to know more and clicks through to your vendor’s site.

What elements comprise a smart landing page?

Numerous factors influence what people find appealing. Similarly, there are many ways to subtly influence desired responses in people. Colors, for example. It’s known that people tend to respond to different colors in certain ways.

Dark blue tends to evoke feelings of trust. Brighter shades of red are associated with aggression and energy. Shades of gray and darker shades of red are associated more with a sense of ‘establishment,’ like an established bank.

Carefully consider your target market and who you’re sending to your landing pages.

Your copy needs to reflect the appropriate information people need to make a positive decision in your favor. And your copy needs to be in the appropriate amount based on your target market.

Some examples…

Sidebar: The ‘need of your reader’ refers to what is necessary to make a positive decision. Your landing page should provide enough to satisfy while creating a desire for more, thus producing a click-through.

If you’re promoting music, ask yourself what people ‘need’ and look for when shopping for music, or a music-related service. People looking for mp3’s to download, or a download service, need much less copy than people searching for SEO software.

Mp3 downloader’s want a good selection of music. They want to know the benefits a particular service offers. Can the service be trusted? How can you let them know if a service can be trusted? Simple. Show them awards and reviews from media like newspapers or magazines. Of course shoppers are always price-conscious. So you could offer them a comparison of different providers.

All that information can be conveyed with a short amount of copy. They don’t need to wade through 400 words of copy to make a decision. If you try to force that on them you risk exceeding the bounds of their patience.

SEO software shoppers, for example, are different and need more information.

In this case, more copy is beneficial if it provides detailed information about the software. Tech specs, comparisons with other popular s/w programs, customer support issues and availability, upgrades, etc. There’s a great deal more information that, when properly expressed in terms of benefits, will help push your searcher toward a vendor’s page or your own site.

On the other hand, you have to find a good balance between presentations.

You want to avoid having all the information from your destination page on your landing page. Putting too much info on your landing page results in significant duplication and will annoy your reader. There’ll be a feeling of wasted time. Not good!

So you need to have the right amount of quality information, in terms of benefits, that will ‘compel’ your reader to desire more and click through.

Landing page layout certainly influences your conversions.

You want clean, simple, smooth, easy to understand pages that minimize effort. I’ve found having deep links to relevant destination pages dramatically increase conversions through my landing pages. But make your deep links well-thought out. Get inside the mind of your market.

Another copy technique that’s very useful is the appropriate use of bullet points.

These devices are great on landing pages. Bullet points are little benefit headlines. Maximum useful information that’s easily digested by the reader. They make for very quick understanding, quick scanning, and minimize decision-making time. Your readers will respond better if your bullets talk in terms of benefits, and not features.

Finally, every marketing effort needs to be tested to maximize conversions and ROI. However if something isn’t broken, then by all means don’t try to fix it. And only you’ll know when you reach that point.

Author:  A former college dropout, Dan “The Man” Lok transformed himself from a grocery bagger in a local supermarket to an internet multi-millionaire. Discover how you can maximize your website profits in minimum time. For a limited time, you can test-drive Dan’s Insiders Club for 30-days Risk-Free and get $1,165 dollars worth of bonus gifts. Rush cover to: http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com/testdrive.html

When most people talk about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) they tend to talk about getting more traffic to their website. Everyone wants more traffic. Right?

If you are like most film and video distributors, you care less about volume of traffic and much more about quality of traffic. The goal is to get the right people visiting your site. Can SEO do that for you?

Search Engine Optimization is about helping people who want to find your site, find your site. Optimize your site properly, target keywords intimately related to your business, and the high quality traffic will come.

By making a few technical improvements to your site right now, you can help search engines like Google and Yahoo understand and ‘respect’ what your site offers and then pass the good word on to the thousands of film and video license buyers who use search engines every business day.

Maybe a buyer only remembers a few words about a title they saw on the back of one of your sell sheets. Good SEO practice makes it possible for license buyers to find you using even the sketchiest keywords.

We’ve put together a checklist of nine very basic things you can do today to make sure your website is search engine friendly. Give your site an SEO tune-up, work hard posting keyword rich content, and you will be amazed how fast you can ‘own’ a set of keywords related to a film/video content category or genre. This means that whenever, or wherever, a buyer searches for content related to your business, they’ll find their way to your website.

This checklist is just as essential for film and video distributors as it is for indie producers and film festivals wanting to boost their exposure. Everyone can benefit from these best practices.

9. Have you announced your site to the major search engines?

Search engines can’t find you if they don’t know about you. The first thing you need to do (once you finish reading this article) is to make sure your website is submitted to the major search engines.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you do this manually. We don’t recommend that you use auto-submitter websites that promise to do this for you. Get off on the right SEO foot and do the submitting yourself.

Check out the IPEX TV blog for an article about submitting your site to search engines.

8. Did you add your sitemap?

A sitemap is a simple document placed at the root directory of your site and informs search engines which pages on your site are available for searching. It’s like one of those big maps you see at audiovisual content tradeshows: but this one is for your website, and search engines love it.

7. Do all of your web pages have titles?

At the top of your browser window (on the same level as the close, maximize, and minimize buttons) you will find the title of the page you are viewing. This is some of the most valuable real estate on your site. If the only thing in this space is your company name (or worse, it just says “Untitled”), you’re wasting a great opportunity. Use this space to attract search engine attention to specific keywords by writing unique page titles for every page on your site. The trick is to write a page title that is keyword loaded, but still seems natural to your actual visitors. Don’t make these titles too long, but do make sure that the keywords you use in the title appear again in the body of the page. You’ll be amazed at what an improvement this can make to your search engine results.

6. Do you have your ‘alt’ attributes defined?

When a programmer adds an image to a website, he or she uses an HTML code called the ‘img’ tag.

< img src=”sell_sheet.jpg” alt=”Sell sheet, one sheet, cinefiche” / >

The ‘alt’ attribute (sometimes, mistakenly, called an ‘alt’ tag) allows you to specify some text that the browser will display in case your image is missing. In this example, an image of a sell sheet is ‘tagged’ with some words describing it (alt=”Sell Sheet, one sheet, cinefiche”). This may not seem like a big deal, but these ‘alternate’ labels are necessary to help search engines understand the content of your page. Search engines cannot read images, so it’s important that you help them out by specifying in the ‘alt’ attribute what the image contains.

5. Have you gotten your link out there?

Are you a contributing member of Wikipedia and/or the IMDb? Find places on these sites where it is appropriate to submit links. If these links make sense within the community, they offer better exposure than money can buy.

Add some of your best pages (not just your site) to social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, ma.gnolia.com, and myYahoo.

Get your friends involved. Link to their best pages, and ask them to link back to you.

4. Do you have any content?

Wooops. So, by now you should have a site that’s pretty well technically optimized and search engine friendly. But do you actually have content people are searching for? For film and video distributors, getting your catalogue titles and old sell sheets on your site is an excellent step to getting keyword-rich content online that will be relevant to a wide variety of film and video content license buyers googling for new titles.

3. Have you prepared a list of keywords you like?

Put yourself in the shoes of your audience for a moment, and imagine sitting down to your favourite search engine. What are the search terms your audience is most likely going to use? Will these search words lead them to your site? Now, imagine the search terms they might use to find your competitor’s web site. Make a master list of all these keywords, and decide which keywords you want to ‘own’. This list is going to be your guide to the search engine friendly content you create.

2. Do you have a blog?

Getting your catalogue titles online is great, but it’s very important to have a site that is up-to-date. A lot of people in the film and video distribution industry see a corporate blog as more of a hassle than a help. But blogs are quite simply the easiest way to keep your site fresh, get lots of sexy text for search engines to search, and interact with your clients. Indie producers and film festivals have been quick to understand their value-learn from their example. The best blogs are an appealing mix of industry news and personal observations. Use your blog to keep your clients up to date on your company, showcase new titles, and share interesting ideas.

1. Have you started already?

The good news about SEO is that it’s never too early or too late to start. Don’t for a minute think that you need a checkmark beside all 9 of these items before you can release your site to the public. And there is no need to do them in order.

The web is dynamic and flexible. Try some things out, and check the results. Try Googling your site and see what comes up. Try again, and adjust as needed. A little bit at a time is all it takes to make big improvements. Consistency counts.

Author:  Daniel Lafleche is the COO of IPEX TV, the leading multiplatform B2B Film and Video online marketplace. IPEX TV specializes in helping film and video distributors take advantage of the web and reach out to international license buyers. You can learn more at http://www.ipextv.tv

Before we reveal some of the tricks of the trade, here are a few myths and fallacies that need to be cleared up first. Many of these marketing misconceptions could be an obstacle towards your profiting from your internet marketing business. Not a lot of people use email marketing correctly. But the simple fact is that email marketing is one of the most effective marketing methods there is simply because virtually almost everyone uses email.

If you check out the email fields or blanks required to be filled up on various forms used in processing different transactions, you will see a person without an email address is basically a person without an online home. Email marketing campaigns can sometimes offend some people. The simple way to get around this problem is through permission-based, or opt-in email.

So here’s the real story with building an opt-in mailing list. After clearing the fog regarding email marketing myths, here’s how one can benefit from utilizing the power of your email marketing campaigns - building your own opt-in list.

However, building an opt-in list is not all that easy, particularly for the newbie. Here are some valuable tips on how you can succeed in this kind of marketing environment.

1. Strategic Data Collection

Knowing the right information about your prospects will help you to lower your expenses and make sales jump through the roof. Design a tactic generation strategy that will make people voluntarily provide you the information you need to create higher conversion rate.

An overload of data is never good. Ask only people for the opt-in, with their first names and email addresses. Then you can always get the profiles later once they make a purchase from you.

2. Implementation

There is an age old adage that says it all - ‘action speaks louder than words’. This can easily relate to the problems you have with email marketing efforts. It’s a good idea to use various strategies and methods that are often low-cost, in building your opt-in database.

Tracking the results of your email marketing campaigns is the best possible thing you can do. There is plenty of low cost and even free technology that you can use to make this part of your marketing a lot easier..

Here are some of the most widely used methods to generate leads and get traffic without overspending:

1. Use lead capture or squeeze pages.

It is an excellent tool for data collation and providing you with relevant info regarding your email offers. Use opt-in forms that collect your visitor’s email address.

2. Use of print ads, brochures, TV, radio and direct mail.

These are the more popular ways of marketing aiming to lead traffic to your site. You may want to ask for sign ups for email services. Make your web site more visible through these media. Offering a free newsletter and or some other rewards like a free report works for getting people to opt-in.

3. Use Customer Service

Good customer service can help a lot and you will benefit more from your email marketing. Support people with proper education can assist you in this and contribute to higher ROI. Techniques like offering account updates and special programs through email can easily land you those lists of valuable visitors.

4. Make your point of sale work for you

Forms for signup located at cash registers and other high-traffic and highly visible spots can be very excellent venues for your business to collect email addresses. Notification of upcoming sales through their email addresses and names can coax them to supply you with the information you need.

5. Conferences and trade shows can work well

Giveaway offers and other promotions are great for opt-in to volunteer their contact details.

These tactics and strategies will help you gain the trust of your opt-in list members. Instead of simply collating data for your own benefit, offer something of value to your list members. Now armed with this information, you can’t go wrong with building your own opt-in list.

Wishing You The Best In Online Success!

Author:  Kaare Pedersen is an author, seminar speaker and Internet entrepreneur. Get your copy of my Free 14 day Internet Marketing course NOW! http://www.joecongoattraction.com

In a nut shell, this is what I’ve found that will help promote your website. These methods are very effective. Keep this blog post as a reference and make sure you are doing all these things. Ok here it goes:

1. Adwords (or any search engine ads at all)

Of course we all know that Google is the top dog but there are many other decent search engines that will get you the same good traffic. For $40 bucks a day I get over 100 unique hits on my website. Every little bit helps

2. Blogging

Even if hate to write, just post relevant information regarding your site just make sure you give credit to who wrote your blog post. Oh and link on your blog post like crazy. I didn’t believe in this method at first but trust me I have learned the ways of the blog.

3. Mailing List

This is a tough area. Its like you need money to make money. But in this case you need email addresses to send emails. Do your best in trying to provoke your customers into signing up for your mailing list. Offer something for free (not a free newsletter) something legit. This will help you by encouraging repeat visits. Its better to keep the same visitor than trying to get new ones, plus it’s easier. Oh and it’s good for word of mouth (which is still the best way to advertise)

4. List, Register & Sign Up!

Spend at least one whole day signing up for every freaking search engine, directory and relevant search site you can. The more you name and website are out on the internet, the better you are ranked by the search engines

5. Links

Ok this is tricky, yes you want your link on as many websites as you can but even better than that is getting your website linked on a website that is really big. If you are officially linked to a big website that will look very good to search engines. Think of your link as a vote to get you to the top of the search engine. And think of a big website and your link like a campaign contribution. That’s right, get the big guys behind you and they’ll help you climb your way to the top. It’s all about who you know.

6. SEO

If you don’t know what this is, then learn. SEO (Search Engine optimization) is very important. The whole point to internet marketing is to get to the top or as high as you can on search engines. They are the number one way people find things on the internet. So in order to help your chances make sure you website is riddled with good keywords, relevant ones. If you are having a hard time with this, follow this logic: If you are online and you wanted to find a website like yours, what would you do? What would you type into a search engine. Ask yourself that question and then ask that question to everybody you know. That way you get a better understanding on what people are searching for.

Also add meta tags like keywords, descriptions and alt tags to all your pages. You can do this all at the end if you want.

7. The No Brainer

Just make sure your site looks good. If you have a crappy looking website then chances are no one will want to stay. For instance if you never cleaned your house do you think new guest will want to sleep over. Nope. And if you suck at making a website look awesome enlist a professional or someone with a clue to help.

8. The Little Things

Do these little things to your site: Add a “Tell A Friend About This Site” Button (For word of mouth, the best marketing), Add a “Bookmark Us” button to your site, give away free stuff, lure customers with contests, make jokes, get an RSS Feed (if you don’t know what that is, then learn, if you are a website designer then you should already know), put some fun things to do on your site to get people to stay. Case in point: Your having guest over for coffee but your TV is broke, all your board games are missing and you just recently started not talking to anyone, your guest will want to leave because it’s boring and it sucks.

9. Get On Myspace or Facebook

If your website is looking for a younger audience then get on anyone of these site and make friends will as many people as you can. Spend hours a day doing this. Make sure your page is chock full of ways to get to your site. This will boost traffic like nobody’s business.

10. Last But Not Least

Be consistent. If you want to have a high traffic website ,then you need to dedicate yourself to the cause. You need to be on the internet doing these things every single day. It’s just like exercising or dieting, if you don’t stick to it everyday, you will fail. But I have faith in you, do as the Romans do.

Author:  Matthew Giovanisci - Marketing Director For Niagara Pools & Spas http://www.niagarapool.com

One of the biggest challenges that most of us have, when it comes to performing keyword research, is that our mind is usually trying to offer us suggestions, that can actually prevent us from truly exploring new data. Many of us are consumed with our own Web site objectives rather than exploring and researching our customers real time search habits. Many of us use Wordtracker, a powerful research tool with a “keyword hunting” mindset. After all, is that not what it is all about? Finding important keywords that relate to our Web site that will also attract more traffic? Well, that is partially true. But in my short e-book Wordtracker Magic, I talk about the power of Wordtracker to explore “user search behavior,” too.

Quick Example of a dental related product or service:

A dentist who is selling a cosmetic tooth whitening service, may continually be coming up with words related to the product or the benefits of the product or service. But to widen our scope, why not try and research the “conditions” that exist in and around a customers life that cause them to search the Internet, the way they are searching. It’s about understanding all of the opportunities for keyword selection based upon the “searchers interests” not the sellers objective.

The natural “keyword hunt” mindset is where we begin guessing at important keywords. The only trouble is, usually they will be the same keywords that everyone else is guessing at. When it comes to search marketing, you want to eliminate the guessing game and perform solid research to discover actual evidence of the searcher behavior. In the example of the dentist above, the most natural guesses (terms that first come to mind) are going to usually be about the service itself. For example “Teeth whitening” or maybe “white teeth.”

“teeth whitening” currently has 2,810,000 competing pages on Google (at the time of this article)

“white teeth” currently has 1,900,000 competing pages.

There are people who would insist that there cannot possibly be any better search terms than this and while it is possible to optimize for the phrases, it is going to take some work and some time because of the competition. But let’s dip into Wordtracker and show you how you can find much better terms that are far less competitive and yet will definetly bring you better results (even just with mild optimization.)

Using Wordtracker Magic: I go into Wordtracker and very quickly discovered these phrases in less than 5 minutes

“teeth bleaching” is being searched for and it only has 162,000 competing pages.

“teeth whitening kits” is being searched for and it only has 52,900 competing pages.

“laser teeth bleaching” only has just 712 competing pages.

The point is that it is possible to find much less competitive phrases and find them very quickly by following the techniques I describe in Wordtracker Magic. Other interesting phrases that I just happen to notice along the way, are questions that people have about their dental condition. Could a dentist, (just as an example) find a way to answer these questions and satisfy the user search? Perhaps even sell them a solution or treatment through an affiliate program.

Why would someone be searching for this phrase?

Example: “bad taste in mouth after wisdom teeth extraction”

This exact phrase has been searched multiple times on the Internet and yet it only has 8 competing pages!

Natural thinking may suggest…but why would someone not ask their own dentist about this?

But the point is, people are researching lots and lots of information on the Internet so why not be the source that helps answer their questions. A good optimized page should be content rich and satisfy the reason why the searcher searched in the first place. I could share a lot more on the topic but let’s give you some more tips to expand your field of scope even further.

In our dental example, we still have not expanded our scope fully, because we are just getting started.

The real question is this:

What type of articles, information and other topical content would attract the right kind of audience in for a tooth whitening service or product? The more fresh, original and engaging content you have on your Web site, the more people will be able to find you for searched topics of importance to them. Far too many Web site don’t widen their scope any further than just touching on the benefits of their product. Good marketing to attract the right traffic means that you need to move beyond just talking about your product. It’s not about your product only, it’s about your readers lives.

But how about the impact that can be made on a persons personal life when, because of that fresh white smile, they begin to have new confidence. Could a more positive image contribute to actual changes in behavior on the job or in their everyday abilities to perform? Think about it and explore the conditions that exist before tooth whitening and after tooth whitening. We are not just expounding on the benefits, but I’ll bet if you talk to a real dental service that offers this, you’ll learn that this service has done some amazing things for changing how someone feels about their own self.

Could it mean a new job or a promotion or a new relationship for someone who had previously had low self esteem because of their appearance. Let’s think about this..could these also be the people who need to find your service in the first place?

But you see how examining something in depth can bring a whole range of topics and behaviors to explore inside Wordtracker.

The secret is really in our point of view and understanding what the world is searching for. Switch to your customers point of view instead of your own and you’ll begin to really discover what the world is searching for and even why they are searching for it.

A few more tips to consider in conclusion:

• Instead of just thinking about “keywords” learn how to explore the conditions in peoples lives that set the precedent for them doing a search on the Internet in the first place.
• Stop hunting for “keywords” and begin exploring your ideal buying audiences “topical interests.”
• Satisfy the reason why the user is searching by delivering up valuable content that meets their needs first. Who knows, they may just become a customer next.
• Continually work at adding fresh new topical content to your Web site consistently as possible.
• Expand your field of scope in understanding truths of importance from your customers point of view.
• How can you relate your customers “real life experiences” positive or negative into your behavioral research?
• Don’t let the natural tendency to “guess at keywords” stop you from exploring all of the hidden evidence that just needs a little practice to uncover.

Author:  John Alexander is Co-director of Training at offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses

So you finally started your website. You have updated it with some high quality, unique and relevant content to make your visitors stick around so now what? Now all you have to do is get those visitors to come. So let them know about your website by building links that point towards your website and gain some link popularity.

There are a couple different kinds of links you will be interested in. The first is one-way links and the second is reciprocal links.

One-way linking generally happens for websites that have a lot of quality and unique content on site and these are the type of links that search engines give more weight to. A good technique to build that content is to post relevant articles and information on your site that visitors will want to read.

You can also visit forums related to your niche. Become known there by offering and asking for advice. Make sure that anything you post is related to the topics being discussed. If you post off topic items just for the sake of advertisement you will likely earn a bad reputation there and have your posts deleted. Offer value in your posts and you will gain a good reputation and get free exposure for your website.

Online quality directories are a great source of one way relevant links for your site. Keep your submissions confined to those directories of high quality. Typically there is a review fee associated with being listed there. Yahoo directory has a good impact for the link, but charges $299 annually. Another excellent option for a significantly smaller fee is the Authority Directory.

There are many free directories on the internet also, but the quality of the link you get from free directories is typically not that good. For example the link from one quality directory typically will equal hundreds to thousands of free directory submissions.

Article publishing is another option. You can write and publish unique articles related to your niche with a link back to your website. This is not a one and done option though. If you are pursuing this you must consistently write and publish articles for it to be effective.

Blogging can also be a way of building links to your site. By creating a separate blog and linking to your directory from within the posts you can create a few relevant links to your site.

Using reciprocal linking is another method of building relevant links to your website. To effectively do this you must find other websites within your niche and request link exchanges with the webmasters there. One thing to note is that the search engines have begun to discount the value of reciprocal linking.

Don’t discount link popularity. It is a very important part of building a website that is optimized for search engines. Just know that link building is not a one and done proposition. You must consistently build links over time for it to be effective for the long term. As your links increase so shall your search engine rankings and then your traffic.

Author:  Increase your Websites online presence today by getting listed on The Authority Business Directory. Plus, don’t forget to submit link for inclusion while you are visiting.

Facebook. All the cool kids are doing it. Are you?

For advertisers, it’s a hard market to pass up. So many people in one place at one time. Marketers see something like this and it’s as if their dreams have come true. It’s got that glowing, shiny exterior that seems to say: come to us. We have numbers.

Numbers are important in a marketing campaign. You can’t manage what you can’t measure. However, in the Facebook world some of those numbers have gotten them in trouble. The reason being that in recent times Facebook introduced a new advertising platform. A platform that gathered numbers that not everyone was comfortable parting with.

Numbers and demographics. Demographics tell advertisers who and where their potential customers are. When millions upon millions of users register their personal information on a social site, all of the sudden demographic research becomes far easier than it has ever been before.

But fail to notify your users or give them an opportunity to completely opt out of the platform, and there will be a huge backlash of opinion. In the space of a month the site can go from “have you tried that out yet” to “remember when everyone liked it?”.

Online advertising propels online development. We all understand this, and, to a point, we all we’ve come to accept this. So much so that we barely even notice it anymore.

Here’s a quick thought experiment. Did you check your email this morning? Do you check it everyday? It’s a fairly common practice. Were you aware that there were advertisements all around your message? We all know they’re there. Flashing, pretty colors or creative titles in bold text. They’re always nearby… just in the periphery of our vision.

Now, do you remember a single one? Do you even remember what they were selling?

My guess is that you probably don’t.

Online advertising is the epitome of the in-the-moment selling. If the pretty colors or particular text catch your eye then and there, you might just click on it. But that means the truth is there’s as much reliance on pure impulse as there is on demographics.

Facebook is the latest in a line of platforms that are trying to deliver the opportunity to receive targeted advertising. Isn’t that nice of them? We’re going to use your personal information to deliver targeted advertising, because we have to advertise, so it might as well be for things you’ve given us hints that you actually like. Oh, and we might sell your information to others, so they can share in this opportunity.

But at least we’ve been given the opportunity to receive ads we want to see.

Wait. Ads we want to see?

Personal information being used to determine out likes and dislikes?

Let’s face it. No one wants advertisements. And rolling out an advertising platform and touting it as something beneficial to a user base isn’t fooling anyone. And in the wake of the backlash from this platform, Facebook has changed some of its policies and made it easier to opt in or out of the program.

So what about regular online advertising in social mediums like this? Is it effective? Do the demographics reduce the dependence on impulse? Or are the users of social sites so intent on the content that advertising doesn’t even register with them?

Studies have shown that the tendencies of the common user lean toward that last option. Click rates per page views on Facebook (and other social sites) are extremely low.

It seems people are too busy with socializing to even give into impulse clicks.

Does that mean you don’t need to consider social media in your online advertising campaign?

Not at all. While there are arguments flying around about the staying power of Web 2.0 applications and whether we’re on the verge of another bubble bursting, that is irrelevant to the current discussion.

In the here and now community works. Advertisements may not, but advertising isn’t your only option on these networks.

Community works because users feel like you have their interests in mind, rather than just your own. Community is about communication, and that might be the best advertising you could hope for.

Author:  Andy Eliason is a writer at Main10, an Internet marketing and development firm. His company works with online advertising to develop strategic marketing solutions.

The canvas I have outlined for successful web marketing is taking shape. The first article looked at the necessary stages we need to develop. We started with market research and analysis of our competitors and now armed with this information we can proceed to perhaps the most critical component of all, developing our keyword targets and creating supporting text for them.

What’s In a Word?

It has been often said that content is king. The choice and expression of these words is what makes the connection to the visitors and helps determine user behaviour. If the message is clear the visitor will know if they are at the website they want (or need) to be at and start the exploring process. Visitor attraction is influenced by a myriad of aspects such as site design, choice of colour, and ease of navigation. Visitor confidence is bolstered in large part through your use of words. Similarly much the same can be said for the search engine spiders; the higher their confidence rating of your website the higher your visibility in their index. And this rating of confidence all begins with how you choose your keyword targets.

According to Keyword Discovery over 80% of all online transactions begin with a keyword search. In a spreadsheet write down all choices of words you think your prospects will type into the search bar. It is important to consider not what you would type in but rather what your prospect will. Next you need to determine which search terms will be the most effective for your site and which you need to be found under. Two variables must be considered: the search frequency of a keyword phrase and its competitiveness on the net. This is to say, how many times is a particular keyword phrase being typed into a search bar and how many web pages are competing for that particular phrase.

The number of searches will indicate the amount of traffic you will get from top placement. Generally speaking, any phrase with more than 100 – 150 searches per day is considered relatively highly searched. That said, one must also consider how targeted a phrase is. An untargeted or general phrase with 200 searches per day may be less valuable than a targeted phrase with only 30 searches per day. Armed with this information we must then look at the competition. If a phrase with 150 searches per day has a very high competition level but a phrase with only 10 searches per day has a low competition it will be less costly to target the less competitive phrase and MAY produce a better return on investment.

To determine keyword search frequency select one of the following Keyword Research Tools listed on the StepForth site and put in your keywords. Enter the resultant search values on the spreadsheet. Take this opportunity to look for other keyword targets that the software will present in addition to your search term. Can these other keyword targets be of benefit to you? Next enter each term in the Google search bar and enter the number of pages competing for that term. The number of competing pages shows in the upper right corner of the screen.

From this data one can determine a universe of potential keyword phrases. Discard phrases that have a low search frequency; why bother spending time and effort for terms that people are not typing in or searching for.

Determine your list of words that offer a reasonable number of searches and have lower number of web pages competing for that term. Establish your primary and secondary phrases and it is this list from which you can create or modify your web pages and write textual support for these keywords. The primary phrase is the one that gets threaded throughout the whole site and the secondary ones are those that are category or page specific. Keeping a focus on the primary and secondary targets is critical. Tile tag and unique page descriptions, as well as keyword enriched internal links can be developed from this list. Consider using keywords with descriptive or geographic modifiers.

The importance of relevant text cannot be overestimated. Oftentimes additional body text content is necessary for the search engine spiders to obtain a qualitative snapshot of the topical content of the individual documents within your site and in order to make an overall assessment of what the site is about.

One simple way to keep spiders happy is to provide them with great ‘food’. Relevant, keyword enriched content will substantially increase the prospect of the site achieving better placements. For example, text used in the Home or Index page should be very descriptive of the business and its products or services. A paragraph or two (100 – 250 words) using keyword enhanced wording would be sufficient. On each page the message must be relevant to the overall theme of the site. Refine what message each and every page is to project, and write your content in the same manner you would speak it. Remember to keep the language simple. As Einstein wisely stated,

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

As search engine spiders can only read text with 100% efficiency and tend to miss important information phrased in images, java scripts and Flash, the body text of the website is by far the most important element examined by a search engine. Further, keep in mind that search engine spiders cannot read the text within images or frames. This would include text in graphic menus, company logos, Flash animations, as well as what is in most header and footer sections.

Web Design and SEO

Now that you have looked at your competition, chosen your keyword targets and written your content it is time to give thought to the best way to present it visually. Key considerations for a search friendly web design include: an easy to read menu structure that remains consistent throughout the site and a nicely weighted balance of text to images. The navigation format should be textual and no more than a few levels deep. Spiders value the content more highly if it is placed in the higher directory levels. If you have an image based menu ensure you make a footer section on each page that is textual so search engines can read it. Avoid full pages composed of graphics or flash. Your web design should offer the ability to create unique title and description tags. Check for possible broken links and repair or delete them, and add a sitemap as well as an XML sitemap. For information on creating an XML sitemap see our XML Sitemap Creation Tools article.

Avoid having a Splash page at the beginning of the site as search engine spiders can not read the information. The Home (or Index page) is the most important page in the site for spiders to read, record, and index. As well the use of pop-ups in place of internal pages should be avoided as search spiders will not read information contained in pop-ups.

Some worthwhile reading suggestions follow. To decide if you are in need of a website redesign read our SEO Friendly Redesign article. If you are still unsure if your web design is SEO friendly consider investing in a few hours of consulting time. Also, I highly recommend looking over Correcting Common Usability Mistakes . These observations and suggestions can save you time and money.

The stage is now set. Market research and competitor analysis have given way to keyword identification, textual creation and a search friendly web design. The next phase to be discussed in our online marketing campaign is search engine optimization techniques.

Author:  Bill Stroll is a sales and marketing manager at StepForth Web Marketing Inc.