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By Enzo F. Cesario in Featured

seoIf you have a business, there are lots of different ways to promote it and make sure you get customers. Having a website is of utmost importance, and by using some of the many online marketing methods available, like blog marketing and article marketing, you can be sure to get a lot of visitors coming to your website. Having the right mix of marketing tactics can eventually lead to increased sales and to the success of your business venture. Here are some of the best online marketing strategies you can use:

By Peter Nisbet in Featured

If your Facebook or Friendster login has been refused then you will need a Friendster or Facebook proxy to get you into the site. The same is true of MySpace and YouTube. Why is it that so many people are seeking proxies for these social networking sites?

Not so long ago, as employers took on younger people, they also appear to take on their habits. Many young employees believed (still do) that when they start to work for an employer they can take their surfing habits with them. At every opportunity they would use the company computer to access their Friendster account, login to Facebook or find what the latest big video was on YouTube. Obviously, their employers did not like this.

The result was that employers blocked certain URLs. This wasn’t difficult because the vast majority of companies use an intranet system, so all they had to do was block the server from accessing these websites. As company networks became more sophisticated it was even possible to identify the computer from which the Friendster login attempt originated.

Universities and colleges soon followed, and it finally became obvious that private computers, or at least those operated by private concerns such as educational and government establishments, and businesses, were no longer willing to tolerate their staff using their computers or terminals to access social networking sites. Friendster login was refused, and those of other social networking sites.

This seemed unfair to many, and still does, because such sites are a means of communication just as cell phones are, and many use Twitter for example to send small messages to their friends. So what was the answer?

Simple when you think of it. The colleges and employers and whoever else blocks the URLs you visit, can only see one deep. So, if you visit a website that is not blocked, your company’s server won’t block you. You can log on to that site. Now, take it a step further. If you now use that website to log on to another website, your firm or college’s spying software can’t see that. It still thinks you are on the original innocuous website. Nobody except you knows that you are actually logged on to Friendster.

In basic terms, when it is used to log on to Facebook it is known as a Facebook proxy, and it can also be used as a Friendster login. A search box on another website can be used as a proxy to enable you to access any other website at all. It need not be YouTube, Friendster or, but any URL you want to access.

The problem with proxy sites is that once they have been used for a period of time, they are found, and that URL is then added to the list of banned sites. “Banned” does not mean that you should not access them: it means that you CANNOT access them. They too are blocked from you in the same way that a Friendster login is blocked.

That is why you need a regular source of proxy sites – finding one by accident seems great because you can log on to Friendster, and that Facebook proxy is allowing you to contact your buddies from work, but it won’t last. Once it has been blocked then what do you do?

Better by far to find a website that offers a free Friendster login or a Facebook proxy that you can rely upon. Such sites will carry out checks on the proxies they offer, and change them when they have been found out. You will always have a tried and tested proxy that works.

For more information on Friendster login and Facebook proxies, visit Pete’s web page Friendster Login where you will also find great info on Twitter, MySpace and blogging.

By admin in Featured

Did you know that submitting an inexpensive iPhone app will get your website or blog top quality one way links from Apple and over 100 other websites?

Did you know that by making an iPhone app to give away that promotes your company can reach hundreds to thousands of high value potential customers month after month.

Build one iPhone app and submit it to iTunes and you can develop some powerful one way links to your website along with exposing your company to thousands of new people. It is not hard to do and it can cost less than $500.

How do you build your own iPhone app?

You’ve probably heard how expensive they are to make. There is one type of app that is more about the content than the code. Of the Day Apps. You can create a tip of the day, quote of the day or even coupon of the day relatively easily and have it made in to an iPhone app for under $500. There are a million ideas for what you could offer.

The materials needed are the text and some images. In fact, you can use minimal graphics by using the same background image for all text. Making an of the day app is not too difficult and just about anyone can do it. If you need graphic help, you might consider using www.99Designs.com and making your app graphics a contest. Once you find an artist you like, you may be able to develop a long term relationship.

Choose an idea that supports your business and make it fun and valuable.

Make it worthwhile and brand it well. The app needs to have value for customers and most of your customers will not appreciate “over branding”. You need to get your message across but your app’s first priority should be its value to the customer.

However, there are some nice branding opportunities that are not too obtrusive. First, when the app loads, there is a splash page that shows for a few seconds. It should have the app title and some info about the app but it can also serve as a quick branding message with a company logo. The main homepage is the tip of the day screen. This changes every day, of course. The screen here is usually an image with text on the top of it but it can also be a pure html page. This is where you give your customer what they want “subtly” branded. Then there is the About Us page. This is all yours to say and show what you want. So, it’s not very hard to make an app of value that can be a great branding tool as well.

Make Your iPhone App Inexpensively.

You have three options for creating an Of The day App. The first one is to buy a script and install it on your server. A good place to find a script is Hot Scripts. You’ll have to configure the script for mobile use but you can find a script for no cost and save some money.

The second approach is to use an Of the Day App service like OfTheDayApps.com. Here you can build a web app using an admin backend without any knowledge of html, css or php. For under $500, your web app can be made in to a native iPhone app and submitted to iTunes.

The third option is to hire an iPhone Application Developer. You can have your app made exactly the way you want it and you can have the coding and the graphic work done by professionals. This is, of course, a more expensive option starting in the two to three thousand dollar range.

Do the Apple Two Step.

Once you have your app ready to go, there are two things you can do to promote it.

Step One – Submit your web app to Apples Web App directory.

You can sign up for an account and submit your site quite easily. The only thing you’ll need extra is an icon for your site. This icon is for people saving your site to their desktop or phone screen.

Step Two – Make a Native iPhone app and submit it to iTunes App Store.

This is the big Kahuna. It will cost money but it will also get you incredible exposure. Not only will people see and download your app by the hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of times, you will also get a lot of one way links back to your main website. Check it out at iTunes. There is a link to every developer’s main site with their app. On top of that, as soon as you get accepted to iTunes, your app will begin to appear in the hundred or so app directories out there and almost all of them include the same type of homepage link.

Conclusion

Once you get your first app in the app store, you will probably be hooked. The traffic you will see coming to your site, the quality links and the panache of being an iPhone Application Developer are nearly intoxicating. You don’t usually have this much fun building links and driving traffic.

Finally, how many sites compete with you in Google? Where there may be over a million pages showing up for almost any competitive search these days, in iTunes, popular searches many times result in under a hundred results. Now is the time to act. The iTunes App Store is just over a year old and the opportunity is there if you take it. How long will it be a lucrative option? Who knows? But, right now, the opportunity is waiting for you.

Resources:

Bill Broadbent has been marketing online since 1998 and has sold millions of dollars in consumer goods since then. He has been mentioned and interviewed in many media outlets and publications from the NY Times, National Geographic, and USA Today to NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox News and even The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Lately, his interest has turned to the mobile revolution and he is developing mobile applications at http://www.AppPublishing.com.

By Kalena Jordan in Featured

Have you heard of Yahoo Meme? The new microblogging site was soft-launched in Portuguese in May by invitation only and according to TechCrunch, Yahoo has just launched a Spanish version.

Yahoo Meme is kind of like a Twitter / Facebook mashup. When you create an account, you are presented with an empty blog which you can template with your choice of avatar and background and populate with text posts, music, videos and pictures. You can also comment underneath any of your content. You can follow people and repost their content, similar to retweeting on Twitter. View a sample Meme profile to get a feel for it.

Meme’s mascot is a cartoon dog. Not quite as cute as the Twitter bird but close enough.

With Yahoo launching Meme to the Spanish speaking market, it seems they are getting closer to building a potential rival to Twitter.

By Rob Griffin in Featured

I recently wrote about how, in future, search could greatly benefit on-demand digital television, but the future of search doesn’t start there and isn’t even that futuristic. I think search is about to undergo a major evolutionary shift that will change the underpinnings of how search works, is used, and is defined.

Advertisers want to fish where the fish are, and the fish are very social these days. Social media sites are coming of age and Twitter search is all the rage. But if social is the new flavor of search, we need to break it down and understand the how and the why.

The first factor in this comes from a cautionary tail of jumping the shark. MySpace did not protect the sanctity of community, which is the single biggest value driver for social. As the community grew, everyone befriended everyone and thus the community lost its value. To avoid a similar fate, Facebook and Twitter must protect their community like the engines guard their algorithms to maintain relevance. At some point, these companies need to start taking some liberties to protect the community for us to ensure long-term value. Twitter, for example, needs to do some serious housekeeping, as there are too many accounts a tad on the shady side, to say the least. If Facebook and Twitter can avoid diluting the community and jumping the shark, they can change the game of search.

To understand how, lets look at why we search. I’m oversimplifying here, but there are three basic need states that dictate our search behavior that I will use to prove out my theory.

  1. Discovery – we search to find new things of interest.
  2. Information – we search to find specific information based on what we discover we like or want.
  3. Navigation – we search to get from point A to point B, because it’s the simplest way around the Web.

If I want to go on vacation, I’ll type in “vacation.” Once I learn a little, then I start searching for “cheap holidays to Spain” or “Bahamas cruises.” After I have compared prices, used multiple engines over multiple sessions, and I have decided what I want, I type in the company or brand that has it and I convert.

Why is this important? Because if community adds value, then some of the aforementioned search activity will start to shift to social areas. I would rather ask my close friends, family, coworkers, or anyone with a shared interest than hunt and peck my way through algorithmic search results. Not only does this have the potential to speed up a consumer’s search journey, but it also comes in the form of trusted sources in real time. You can never underestimate the power combination of immediacy and word of mouth. But given the nature of what social search can be, it will never add a lot of value navigationally — so I see that search activity staying at an engine.

This shift in behavior (if it plays out) has huge implications for our industry. When we do multiclick attribution analysis for our clients, we see about 50% of the value of a last click and conversion being re-attributed to early funnel keywords in the discovery and informational search phases, where the battle for awareness and interest is really occurring. This is because the vast majority of last clicks and one-click search journeys come from navigational searches. More often than not, this is your brand terms. Google right now owns navigational search because it owns the browser-based search box, so using last-click attribution, it gets all the glory. This was part of Yahoo’s search undoing – - our research indicates that Yahoo is typically used in early search phases with nonbranded keyword queries that don’t result in a direct click to conversion. When we changed our attribution weighting we saw that Yahoo received roughly 4% more credit for revenue generated.

If early funnel keyword activity increasingly happens within Twitter and/or Facebook versus at, dare I say, a traditional search engine, then the game has changed in two major ways. One, this shift in behavior represents a sizable amount of monetizable query volume for the social communities. Two, if we attribute roughly 50% of the value of the last click back to earlier exposures, then the price I am willing to pay for that click drops proportionally. Think about it — search under last-click attribution still runs on the 80/20 rule, meaning 80% of revenue comes from 20% of the keywords. So Bing and Yahoo risk a loss of volume and Google risks a drop in click value.

This bodes well for social communities trying to find revenue streams, because early funnel nonbranded keywords, which is where social search can add the most value, come with higher CPCs and scale. So maybe the Google killer is not one engine, but a collective change in behavior where a growing volume of search activity starts happening in social environments. There is a lot of revenue at stake here, especially as advertisers get savvy and move away from last-click attribution.
A change in tracking attribution combined with a more mature social experience is changing search. The questions become: Who buys Twitter, and can Facebook do this on its own?

Rob Griffin is Director of Search & Analytics at Media Contacts, the digital (that’s the frosted) side of Havas Media. Rob can always be reached on his Crackberry at rob.griffin@us.mediacontacts.com

By Willie Crawford in Featured

Everywhere you turn these days, you read about membership sites. You read how easy they are to set up, and how lucrative they can be. That should naturally lead you to the question, “Should I be operating my own membership site?” Are they really that easy to set up and maintain?

First of all, a membership site is nothing more than a system for password protecting some “content,” and a system for handling recurring billing of members. So they can be very simple, and in fact can be set up using all free resources.

You could even think of a membership site as another type of list, only one where you don’t have to contend with email filters. You communicate with your “list members” inside the site instead of via email.

In deciding to set up a membership site, the first question that you should answer is what niche or topic would the membership site be focused on. Are there enough people interested in that topic to make it profitable? Do people interested in that topic spend money on it?

The simplest way to answer the above questions is to ask yourself, “What phrases would people interested in my proposed topic type into a search engine?” Come up with a list of keywords they’d likely use.

Next, go to Google.com and enter those keyword phrases into their search box, and look at how many searches there are for those terms as well as how many webpages there are out there targeting those phrases. Look off to the right side of the page and see if there are “Google AdWords” ads displayed. If you see ads off to the right side of the page, that means that people are paying to advertise to people interested in that topic. That’s generally a strong indicator that people searching on those terms are also buying!

Your research shows you how many searches are done on your keywords each month, and indicates if there is a large pool of potential members for your new membership site. There is no hard and fast rule for how many searches there should be. This just gives you a feel for if this is a viable niche for a membership site.

How many members do you need for a successful membership site anyway? If you have a site that has 200 members each paying $20 per month, would you consider that a success? What if that site only took 2 hours per month to maintain?

The secret to making a site easy to maintain, by the way, is to have your members interact a lot with each other, and generate most of the content!

There are many successful online entrepreneurs who have a dozen or more small, simple, memberships sites, each with only a few hundred members. Most of these sites don’t generate a fortune, but collectively they afford a very comfortable lifestyle.

There is no reason that you have to stop at one simple, easy to maintain, membership site. You could easily launch one a month, and in a year have a dozen. If each produced just that $4000 in our example above, that would be $48k per month.

If your goals aren’t that lofty, you could stop with just one simple membership site producing just that $4000, or you could go for a lot more members. If you set your site up properly, you’ll have to spend very little time actually maintaining it.

So, are you missing out by not having a membership site?

Probably.

Willie Crawford has been marketing goods and services on the internet since 1996. He operates numerous simple membership sites. To learn how you can set up your own membership site in under six minutes, using all completely free software, visit: http://YourNewMembershipSite.com

By Nelson Tan in Featured

twitterIt is a missed opportunity for businesses not to promote on the Internet. For those which are already doing it, it is another challenge to execute a geotargeted marketing campaign to accurately attract location-based leads. In this article I will write about the key steps and tools a webmaster must know in order to harness them for such a campaign creation. Google, being a global, multinational corporation, does not have just one search engine at google.com. There’s google.de in German, google.es in Spanish and so many other languages. To learn of all the available languages, visit Google’s Language Tools.

By Ross Dunn in Featured

googleOver the past 12 years consulting on web marketing I have answered countless questions but one question I receive often stands out from all; how to remove a Google penalty. The following is an example of a question I received in the past from a person named Patrick:

“PLEASE HELP! For the last 8 years we were #1 for a ton of search terms but then my site got penalized by Google because we had overused some keywords. We fixed the issue months ago but my top rankings are all still over the place. Sometimes we get back into the top 10 and we all breathe a sigh of relief, then just a few hours later we are on page 5. What is going on and how can I correct this? We are beyond frustrated!”

By Paul Marshall in Featured

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 Internet Marketing Consultant or an affordable SEO Consultant 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. It’s GREAT for sales lead generation.

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…you’ll need to optimize for the search engines (SEO).

Affordable SEO can provide you qualified Internet traffic without per-visitor costs. Think of it almost as free advertising.

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. Think sales lead generation versus an immediate direct sales, the first time someone comes to your website.

If all you focus on are people who make a buying decision they 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:

  • What is your monthly sales revenue goal from your website?
  • How much traffic to your website on a monthly basis will you need to meet your sales goals?
  • 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 you’ll need for your AdWords ads and your organic SEO listings, to arrive at the monthly traffic number you need to your website.
  • 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 you’ll need.

Especially when first starting up, finding this type of data, evaluating 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 affordable SEO is like throwing darts with a blindfold on!

Again, this is where talking with an SEO Consultant or Internet Marketing Consultant can help light your path. Your result can be more sales and better sales lead generation, 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:

  • 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);
  • bring you enough traffic to be worth the AdWords or SEO effort;
  • offer affordable enough AdWords bid prices, if you’re using AdWords;
  • have obtainable first or second page SEO results;
  • contain words in the phrases that suggest a searcher who is ready to spend money (unless you’re offering something that is truly free);
  • CONVERT directly to a sale, a sales lead, a sign-up…whatever your goal is.

Wrapping it Up

Be open to the value an affordable Internet Marketing Consultant or an SEO Consultant can 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!

Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He’s a Sales Lead Generation expert and a Affordable SEO specialist offering affordable marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). Receive your Free Introductory Consultation, just visit Strategic Web Marketing.net today!

By admin in Featured

businewssThe powerful capabilities of organic search engine optimization (SEO) are now a highly sought after marketing tool by many companies that want to alert customers to their products or services by focusing on certain keyphrases that highlight these offerings. And though SEO has embarked on a meteoric rise in the past few years, other non-traditional forms of marketing are now gaining a great deal of well-deserved credibility as well. More and more marketers are using paid ads to hone in on a potentially profitable client base, while other more traditional channels, such as PR and print ads, appear to be becoming somewhat less effective.

In a recent study (1), Forrester Research found that interactive marketing spending will reach nearly $55 billion by 2014, representing 21% of all marketing spend. And the fact of the matter is that marketers are continuing to place more stock in newer forms of marketing and social media, leaving many higher-ups to wonder if it is time for them to include these channels in their own marketing mixes. And with the help of your search engine optimization company, it’s possible to achieve outstanding rankings and results!

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