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Affiliate Tracking Software: What to Watch Out For

By Omar Martin in Featured

A large number of business owners rely on their affiliate programs to help increase their sales and their profits. Personally, affiliate marketing and programs play a major roll in my earnings. If you are interested, you can also be one of those individuals. All online business owners can benefit from the use of an affiliate program, but there are some business owners who can benefit more than others. Those business owners run and operate businesses that either sells a product or a service. If you are one of those business owners and you would like to start an affiliate program, you will need to think about purchasing affiliate tracking software.

Affiliate tracking software is a unique program that is vital to the successful operation of an affiliate program. Without tracking software, you would be unable to determine whether or not one of your sales were generated with the assistance of an affiliate, let alone which affiliate it was. With affiliate tracking software, you can easily find out this important information. Therefore, this means that if you haven’t already purchased affiliate tracking software, you will need to do so right away.

When it comes to purchasing affiliate tracking software, you are first advised to familiarize yourself with all of your available options. This can easily be done by performing a standard internet search. Your search results are likely to include a number of different software sellers. Your first impulse may be to purchase the first affiliate tracking software program you come across, but you are advised against doing this. That is because these software programs come in a wide variety of different styles. Each program is likely to have its own unique services and features. You are encouraged to examine each of those services and features before making a decision.

If you are unfamiliar with affiliate marketing and affiliate tracking software, you may not know what you should be looking for. If this is the case, it may be easier to understand what you should watch out for. One of the many things that you should be concerned about is the software name or the name of the software seller.

Unfortunately, there are a number of different software sellers that will scam internet users; however, not all of them will. Before purchasing a particular affiliate tracking software program, you may want to perform a standard internet search on that program and the individual or company selling it. If you come across any warnings, you may want to stop and start searching for another software program.

It is also important to be on the lookout for affiliate tracking software that is being sold without information on the program. All legitimate software sellers should provide you with detailed information about their products, including affiliate tracking software. This information may include, but should not be limited to product descriptions, product services, and product features. Without this information, you will not know how an affiliate tracking software program works or how it can help you and your business. There are plenty of software sellers that will provide you with this information; you are encouraged to do business with them.

You will also want to watch out for affiliate tracking software that costs too much money. It is true that the more services and features you are provided with, the more the program will cost. However, that does not mean that you should have to pay an outrageous price. For an average cost of affiliate tracking software, you are advised to examine and then compare a number of different prices. If anything seems out of the ordinary, you are advised to move on and find software that is more affordable.

By knowing what to lookout for and avoid, you should be able to find an affiliate tracking software program that can give you exactly what you want and need. You should also be able to find that software at an affordable price.

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AffiliateDotCom gives you ready to use Affiliate Marketing secrets that you can put into place within your business to create more money and give you more time for the things you love to do! Just go to http://affiliatedotcom.info right now and grab it! To learn more about Omar Martin you can visit his blog at http://omar-martin.com

Building Brand Identity: How Wikipedia Defines Branding Success

By Enzo F. Cesario in Featured

It is instructive and inspiring to take a look at the people who have succeeded in your field. Whether it’s an attempt to learn from their mistakes and victories or just a pause to reflect on the admirable accomplishments of another, studying the work of those who’ve set the benchmark can inspire reflection and spur us on to greater heights.

The world of branding success stories is one of the most fickle, given the rise of the web. Every day, there is more new information generated and discarded than has existed for most of human history. Trends and fads come and go with ever-increasing speed, and things considered hilarious and exciting baffle people just a few months later. Then there are successes that fundamentally change the way the world sees things. They become so ingrained that everyone wonders where they’d been the whole time.

Wikipedia

There is not enough good in the world to say about the Wiki project. Those who would criticize it for lacking accuracy and scholarly rigor have totally missed the point. Wikipedia is the spirit of what the web is meant to be. It is cooperative, self-correcting, open to interpretation, controversial and dynamic. Ever changing and yet extremely distinct, it represents the purest expression of what the web can and is meant to do. People are talking about Web 2.0, but it’s honestly already here in the form of the Wiki.

Wikipedia is a simple idea, one so straightforward that it could be imagined it shouldn’t work – an encyclopedia free of charge, open for anyone in the world to edit. It shouldn’t continue to exist, by all logic. The internet is full of trolls who will eagerly fax sheets of black paper to people they’re displeased with, over and over until the receiving machine runs out of ink and seizes up. What in the world is to stop them from vandalizing the heck out of every Wiki page they come across, a fate that many other Wikis indeed have succumbed to?

The answer is that Wiki has taken its audience seriously, appealing to its sense of pride and self-interest.

For every troll who hops onto a Wikipedia or Wikiquote article and scrawls quotes calling the moral and social behaviors of the editors into question, there is someone else who is incredibly well-informed about that page, backed up by both a number of authoritative sources and a deep pride in their work. Vandalism is steadily defeated through pride and reversion, and the sheer scale of people who want a good, quality resource.

In allowing anyone to edit, and treating those edits as matters worth discussing on cooperative terms, the Wiki project has ignited a sense of pride in people. Now they want the articles to succeed; they want to see their hard work displayed on the front page as a featured article.

Additionally, the Wiki project chose an iconic visual aesthetic for itself: White background, clean lines, plain text and simple images. Yes, anyone can edit a page as they like, but the project rewards pages that comply with its style guides and presentational standards. So whenever someone says “Wiki,” people imagine that little puzzle-globe logo, the way a page is set up and the little blue edit tabs in the corner.

Of course, one of the best ways to judge the success of a project is to judge that of its emulators. So for comparison’s sake, let us consider a relative newcomer even to the open-source editing style: TV Tropes.

TV Tropes

A trope is a rhetorical device. The damsel in distress is a trope, as is the idea of having just one bullet left in the final sequence of an action film. They aren’t exactly clichés, though they can become so. Rather, they are patterns that people have learned to recognize in conversation, argument and entertainment that form the basis of all communication.

TV Tropes is a website based on two ideas: First, tropes are awesome things that deserve discussion, admiration and study, and second, everyone has something to contribute. The site does not use the Wiki format, but does have an open policy on allowing people to comment and post about the tropes they find interesting.

Pages on the TV Tropes site range from those discussing a specific trope to those showing a film or book and listing the tropes present in it. All are freely editable.

The success of the TV Tropes project may not be measurable monetarily like Wikipedia’s or other more commercial ventures. However, the project has become intensely popular all the same. It has the same “well, I’ll click one more link” popularity that Wikipedia had cornered for itself, and the same “I can talk about what I like here and be taken seriously” appeal as all open source projects. People reference tropes in casual conversation on message boards, and it’s creating a communal language.

That really is the key behind these two projects – brain extension. They’ve taken a good idea and brought it into the common discourse, allowing people to communicate with each other. People can discuss differing myths from literature, and realize they’re talking about the same trope, even if it’s not the same story. People automatically click to Wiki for information if they need some quick discussion material. For those who want to take a lesson from the Wiki style of success, remember that it emphasizes not the product, but the way the audience is using and sharing words, language and information.

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Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the “voice” of our client’s brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to www.BrandSplat.com or visit our blog at www.iBrandCasting.com.

Using RSS Feeds to Increase Website Traffic – Guaranteed Results!

By Louis Ng in Featured

RSS (real simple syndication) feeds provide online business owners, bloggers, and marketers the opportunity to connect with members of their target market in an ‘ongoing fashion’. While it is still essential for a website to feature valuable content which interests others to be successful, RSS has the ability for a site owner or blogger to send out notification of new content or promotions to interested subscribers. Thus, allowing them to stay in contact with previous visitors like never before.

Visitors who find a site or blog useful and entertaining could easily subscribe to the RSS feed and receive notification and have and easy access to any future site updates. This adds to an advantage of being able to keep in touch with past visitors, and in this way, would increase repeat business for a site. There are a couple other reasons why businesses are now embracing the use of RSS feeds:

1.Feeds increase your chances of others linking to your content, mentioning your site, and spreading your business around by word of mouth.

2. Having an RSS feed to your site aids in your ranking with search engines.

3. With RSS feeds, you could be able to get your content indexed with search engines much faster.

4. It is possible to attract traffic to your site which does not come from the search engines results pages, if you have RSS feeds installed on your site

5. Since your content is distributed to all subscribers, there are chances of your content catching on and “going viral” as it spreads from one person to another.

When you have RSS feeds operating with multiple sites, you could essentially get free marketing and traffic for your business! Some websites which operate RSS feed directories receive thousands upon thousands of visits every single day.So, you are listed with them, you get to benefit from this tremendous business exposure. The result is a constant flow of traffic which you do not have to pay for!

Most people do not realize how powerful RSS feeds can be, and are not using this tool to its greatest ability. They use it to some minor extent, but they do not understand or know how to get the back links that they should be receiving from the usage of RSS feeds. Most, as well, do not understand that RSS feeds can improve their page ranking. All in all, if you could grasp the concept and understand the application of RSS feeds, you could take a huge leap ahead of all your competition!

If you want to see substantial increases of traffic to your site and watch your business explode, you really can’t afford to pass up on RSS feeds.

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Louis Ng is a home-based Internet Business Specialist. If you are looking to start a successful online business and earn that extra income, you would want to start by downloading an exclusive free ebook created just for you. Please note that the free ebook is available for download for a time limited period only. So head down to >> www.homebizpassivewealth.com

Optimize Your Images On Search Engines

By Pilar Torres Wahlberg in Featured

Starting competitive advantages in the business is vital both in online and offline aspects. If you are a business organization, you need to distinguish your organization from the competition, especially if your business is not on commodity products. You can easily distinguish these advantages on the internet because of the already established fundamentals of the business.

For some companies, they get their edge from targeted advertising from high-traffic websites. For others, it is through social media marketing.

But one relatively easy way to drive relevant traffic to your website without too much effort is to optimize your images for search engines. Think of it as a tiny webpage within the website structure. It is recommended for you to include an anchor text, descriptive tagging, and URL structure to maximize results.

Search for the Right Image

Successful bloggers, writers, and website owners know the value of using the right image for their text content. It adds another dimension to articles and enables readers to appreciate their webpage even more. However, many fail to use images for search engine optimization purposes. It is in fact a good way to drive backlinks and visitors. There’s no need to upload your own pictures. A lot of stock photos are available from free from sites like Flickr and iStockPhoto among others. It is also a good idea to use Google Search to find good photos. Make sure that you are not violating any copyright if you do this (look for Creative Commons licensing).

Make Proper Use of Keywords

Keywords are an integral part of any search engine optimization effort. It is used to optimize all kinds of digital assets from videos to podcasts. You will really benefit if you use keywords wisely for your images. Rename the image because having “012345RR.jpg” as the file name isn’t going to help. It is a very simple step and can go a long way in helping your website rank better.

Use Descriptive Text

It is important to use descriptive tags, file names, and alt text for your images. This is because search engines cannot read images and would use its surrounding text as reference. Make use of this feature by adding keywords on the descriptive text, anchor text, and any other tags (related to the image). Bear in mind that anchor text is one of the most important elements to optimize your image effectively so take advantage of it.

As you can see, image SEO is a straight-forward process that provides tenfold benefit from your efforts. Follow the guidelines outlined above and you’ll see your more traffic coming in from image search soon.

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Pilar Torres – Access our Free Jargon Free Web Marketing Strategy videos aimed at beginners at www.pickaweb.co.uk. You can also visit our Professional Website Hosting Services website for more services. We also offer Reseller Hosting and other services such as Online Website Builder, Dedicated Servers, Domain Names, Data Backup, Web Design, Web Design Templates, Email Marketing, 0800 Numbers and VPS Hosting.

Bad Ads: Who Should be Responsible for Fraudulent and Deceptive Advertising?

By Pace Lattin in Featured

Until recently, it has been a legal standard that publications are not liable for the bad behavior of their advertisers. While some print publications do require that advertising conforms to certain standards or follows guidelines that they set, this is almost always based on community sensibility and the personal preferences of the publishers. When it comes to the content, the legitimacy of the claims being made by an advertiser; there usually is no responsibility for a publication in the United States to determine if the claims are true or valid. However, the relationships between the publisher, the advertising network, and the advertiser has changed enormously and everyone should be aware of what this means.

The relationship between the advertiser and the publication in all areas requires that the publisher be independent of any decisions regarding the claims and content of the advertising. Publishers, while they can obviously ask for changes based on esthetics, principles and general guidelines generally do not comment or ask for changes based on the legitimacy of the product.

If an advertiser claims that “this product will guarantee to make you lose 50 lbs a week,” it is never the responsibility of the publisher, to check this claim and ensure the legitimacy of it. The publication, whether it is print, internet or mobile is just taking the content and placing it within the publication. As Bennet G. Kelley of the Internet Law Center explained to in a brief conversation about this topic, once a publisher gets more involved “there is a potential for greater liability. The greater role one takes the greater risk they take.”

YouTube DMCA Ruling is Good News for Blog Sites

By Chip Cooper in Featured

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides a “safe harbor” from strict liability for copyright infringement to online service providers that satisfy its requirements.

A June, 2010 ruling by a U.S. District Court in New York in favor of YouTube established an important precedent for blog sites for avoiding strict liability for copyright infringement by blog posters.

The DMCA

Online service providers such as blog sites are vulnerable to claims for copyright infringement if visitors post infringing material on their websites, even if the service providers are unaware that the material is infringing. This unfortunate result – that’s often quite surprising to blog site webmasters who are unfamiliar with copyright law – is due to the strict liability principles of the U.S. Copyright Act.

Signed into law in 1998, the DMCA protects online service providers from strict liability for copyright infringement by their users if they:

* post a specific DMCA notice prominently on their websites,

* register with the US Copyright Office, and

* promptly block access to, or take down, allegedly infringing materials if they receive a notice from a copyright owner claiming infringement, or if the service provider has “actual knowledge” that it is hosting infringing material or if the service provider is aware of facts or circumstances that should make it “readily apparent” that there is infringing activity.

This protection by DMCA is known as a “safe harbor”; it completely protects the service provider from vicarious liability for copyright infringement.

The YouTube Case

YouTube’s online video sharing service permits users to post videos to the YouTube site which then can be accessed and viewed by anyone who visits the YouTube site.

Viacom International sued YouTube alleging that YouTube was liable for copyright infringement of numerous videos for which Viacom owned the copyrights. Viacom argued that YouTube was aware that some of its users posted infringing videos on the YouTube site and that this awareness disqualified YouTube from the safe harbor protection of DMCA.

The YouTube case involved the third bullet point above – whether YouTube’s general knowledge that some of its users post infringing content on the YouTube website can amount to either:

* “actual knowledge” of infringement, or

* qualify to make it “readily apparent” to YouTube that there was infringing material on the YouTube website.

The court rejected Viacom’s argument and ruled that YouTube was not disqualified from the DMCA safe harbor. Specifically, the court found that YouTube’s general awareness of infringing activity by some of its users did not rise to the level of “actual knowledge” or knowledge that would make it “readily apparent” which videos were infringing. The court noted that YouTube had removed allegedly infringing videos promptly after receipt of notice sufficient to identify specific infringing videos.

Finally, the court ruled that YouTube had no general obligation to police its website for infringing videos and to determine whether specific videos were infringing.

Conclusion

In general terms, the key rulings of interest to blog sites were that:

* YouTube had no general obligation to police its site for infringing videos, and

* that YouTube’s general knowledge of infringement, but not of specific infringing videos, was insufficient to disqualify YouTube from the DMCA safe harbor.

Blog site webmasters should be aware, however, that there are specific requirements that must be satisfied in order to take advantage of the DMCA safe harbor. It’s essential that these specific requirements be satisfied in order to qualify for DMCA?s valuable protections.

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Leading Internet, IP and software lawyer Chip Cooper has automated the process of drafting Website Legal Documents www.digicontracts.com/whichdocs/ for website legal compliance. Use his free online tool — Website Documents Determinator — to determine which documents your website really needs for website legal compliance. Discover how quick, easy, and cost-effective it is to draft your website legal forms at DigiContracts.com.

An Editor’s Take on Article Writing – The Submission Process

By Lyn Miles in Featured

As an editor for an online newsletter, I receive dozens of articles via personal submissions and article directories throughout the week. Many of these articles are extremely well written, many are very good, but unfortunately, many are well below industry standards due to poorly written or structured content. So, what makes for a good article and one that will actually be picked by an editor for publication?

Understanding what elements a publisher is looking for to use in its newsletter or on its website should be a consideration of any author who wants to be published, as well as having a good grasp of the English language, (i.e. grammar and punctuation). The recent surge of new article directories on the Web has brought a deluge of so called authors who churn out article after article on a subject with little regard, or maybe I should say knowledge, on how they are being reviewed by publishers. A simple, but effective, fine-tuning of those articles for publication will be of benefit to both author and publisher.

What is a Publisher Looking for in an Article?

1. Good Content

Content on a relevant topic within our specific industry is the biggest consideration when selecting a piece for our newsletter or website. (If the newsletter is for web-programmers or web-designers – relevant topics for submission should be within that scope and pertinent areas.) There has been an influx of articles recently on article marketing and affiliate marketing. These are both great topics, but what I see is the same information rewritten over and over. Once an article has been published on this topic, unless the new article is obviously providing a different take on the subject or has new information to share…it is old news.

Therefore, authors must be creative and take a new direction on the topic; writing something that hasn’t been rehashed over and over. Be controversial. Do some research on the topic that will add value to the article by providing statistics, history, a new point-of-view – anything that is relevant and new that readers will find of interest and not just of interest to you, the author.

Make sure your first few sentences or paragraphs provide enough interest to keep your audience’s attention. You will lose them otherwise. Most people scan an article and move on if it is not compelling enough. Add compelling content! Simply stated is fine – but your content must also be interesting, thought provoking, and of value to the reader.

In addition — Spell-check your work!! A poorly written article is not only difficult to read, but takes time for the editor to proof and edit. Your articles should be well written pieces with spelling and grammar checked before submitting to article directories or directly to a publisher. This is my pet-peeve. With all the tools available to assist in most programs (i.e. Word, Works, Mac Word, iWorks, etc.) there shouldn’t be spelling or grammatical errors. Take the time to check your work, it’s well worth the effort.

2. Give the Article a Catchy Title

This is another very important point I cannot stress enough. A boring or vague title will not prompt a reader to either open an email or click on a link to your article. If your article is about Google – use Google in the title. Think about the point you are trying to make or bring to the reader’s attention and use it in the title. Strong titled articles will get the attention of a publisher and your readers.

3. Making the Word Count

Taking the time to write an article is a task in itself. Unless you are making money at article writing – your time is valuable and you want to make the most of your article writing. Getting published is your reward! With that in mind….A well written article on a hot topic should have a substantial word count, and if less than 550 words – the article may not be picked up by a publisher of a newsletter as a featured article. A featured article has substance and should be at least 750 words or longer for consideration. Still, many publishers are looking for shorter articles for their websites and a well-written article with a shorter word count will suffice.

Finally…

To be a successfully, published author you must hone in your skills. Providing good, relevant content in an article that is spell-checked and grammatically correct, with a catchy title will entice and grab the attention of publishers. Experienced authors get published more often as they become a trusted source by editors to provide a professional piece which has that added attention to detail we editors all strive for!

How to Navigate Online Marketing’s Slippery Path

By Mike Murray in Featured

It’s not an easy task to be successful at online marketing. One slip and you can practically watch your leads and sales roll down a hill and end up with some other company.

Here are 10 key tips and suggestions to keep in mind as you make your way along online marketing routes.

1. Grow thick skin.
Encourage your staff or consultants to tell you the plain truth instead of going out of their way not to offend or upset you.

If your website design has serious issues, own up to them so the rest of your campaign can really pay off. In other words, if you invest in getting more traffic and visitors give up on your website, then you’ve failed.

2. Pick the right keywords for search engine optimization (SEO).
It’s not about just researching keywords. It’s about selecting keywords. You need to think about site age, keywords in the domain, competition, current rankings, existing content, planned content, page headers, keywords in URLs and more.

3. Learn how paid search really works.
The primary pay-per-click tools are easy. You can have an ad up in no time. If you waste your money, it’s not Google’s fault. If you send your paid search visitors to your home page and can make a good profit, great. Odds are, you’re better off directing them to a specific interior page. In fact, you’d be wise to make some outstanding custom landing pages with clear Calls to Action and not a lot of distracting navigation.

4. Use paid search negative keywords.
Why should you pay for the wrong keywords? Think of all of the ways you don’t want to be found. Maybe you sell men’s jackets. You better rule out women’s jackets. Your options – broad, phrase and exact match can make a huge difference.

5. Use misspellings with paid search.
You can find different tools to generate misspellings, including one at SEO Chat.

Sure, these phrases won’t get a lot of traffic. But it could be worth while adding a number of them to your overall mix.

6. Write content – lots of content.
At least from an SEO perspective, tiny websites get what they support – tiny traffic. Whether you expand the website with a blog or regular pages following existing navigation, write more words. Yes, you may rank well for keywords on a single page. However, several pages with cross-linked pages can make a big impact on rankings.

7. Don’t bury your calls to action.
Too often, I see pages with 12 paragraphs followed by a phone number that’s probably going to be overlooked. Promote the phone number up high. Add a short form – you can easily see. Create an image that points visitors to case studies, white papers, demos, how-to guides, etc.

8. Track everything.
Are website analytics on every page? Did you set up your goals (Google Analytics makes it easy)? Are you using all of the right settings with your paid search? For example, are your ads running all of the time or just when you want them to appear? Are you favoring certain ads or giving all of your ads a shot?

9. Don’t ignore link building.
It takes time – a lot of time. Sure, you can register with hundreds of free directories. But what’s the impact? Make sure you get links from industry-related websites and credible directories with structures categories that relate to your services and products. Swap links with some other businesses (try to get them to include strategic keywords when they link to you). Create a blog and get involved in other blogs. If you participate, you’ll increase the odds that someone will link back to you. Share your knowledge – write articles for online publications (you always get a good link in your bio). Speak at conferences (you’ll get another link).

10. Test and measure everything.
If people get lost on your website, fix it. If your keywords don’t rank, change them. If no one is calling, stop hiding your phone number next to your outdated 2003 copyright notice. Make note of where people leave their shopping carts in your digital aisle. Shorten your long response forms. Seriously, do you really need their address, zip code, state in all cases? Look at your competition. Are you charging more than they are and can you defend your pricing? Add some testimonials – real ones (the fake variety turn me off).

Bonus Tip:
Don’t neglect e-mail marketing. You have e-mail addresses. Treat them like gold on a regular basis. Get a real designer to craft a professional message with great offers and brief introductions to your expert article (lead them to your website for all of the details and insights).

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Mike Murray is the Web Strategy Thought Leader for World Synergy, an interactive online marketing firm that focuses on website design, custom web applications and business infrastructure services and strategy. Mike has more than 13 years of experience with web site development and online marketing, frequently speaking at regional and national conferences, including Search Engine Strategies.

Is Direct Mail Really Dead?

By David Jackson in Featured

Even with sky high postage costs, a properly executed direct mail campaign still provides a solid ROI. What? You’ve bought into the myth that direct mail is dead?

You’re not alone. And while people are entitled to their own opinions about direct mail, they’re not entitled to their own facts. Here are the facts: According to an annual study from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), spending on direct mail marketing is expected to increase by more than $1 billion in 2010. Yes, that’s billion with a “B”. Hmmmm…it would appear that rumors of direct mail’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Don’t People Hate Junk Mail?

And if you’ve also bought into the myth that people hate junk mail (and that’s exactly what it is a myth), here are the myth-busting facts: According to the 2010 DMA Statistical Fact Book, 79% of households either read or skim junk mail advertising sent to their home.

That study is right in line with an International Communications Research survey commissioned by postal automation giant, Pitney Bowes. The survey found, despite the immense popularity, and widespread use of digital media, consumers still prefer mail over e-mail, as it relates to receiving new product announcements, as well as confidential business communications such as bank statements and other financial information.

Here’s how the numbers breakdown: 73 percent of consumers prefer mail for receiving new product announcements or offers from companies they do business with, as compared to 18 percent for e-mail.

For important and confidential communications such as bills, bank statements and other financial information, a huge majority of respondents (86 percent)preferred mail as their communication method of choice, as compared with 10 percent for e-mail.

But wait, the news gets even better: The survey also found that 31 percent of consumers are less likely to discard unopened mail – including new product announcements, coupons, brochures, catalogs, etc. – than they are to delete unsolicited e-mails (spam) regarding new product announcements (53.2 percent).

When consumers were asked what specific advantages they saw in junk mail versus unsolicited e-mail and telemarketing calls, 45.3 percent of respondents found mail to be, get this – less intrusive; (40.2) percent more convenient – can be saved and considered at leisure; (30.2) less high-pressured – lets you consider your decision; (22.7 percent)more descriptive – lets you picture the offer; and (12 percent)more persuasive – encourages you to respond. I don’t know about you, but those numbers definitely got my attention.

What is Cooperative Direct Mail?

If you haven’t considered trying direct mail, maybe you should. A properly executed direct mail campaign combined with online marketing methods could be an unbeatable combination. Don’t know where to start? No problem. Cooperative direct mail companies like Valpak and Clipper Magazine make launching a direct mail campaign easy and affordable, for even the most budget conscious small business.

So what exactly is cooperative direct mail? Cooperative direct mail simply means you share an envelope with other advertisers – mostly local merchants, but usually a couple of national companies as well. Sharing an envelope with other advertisers reduces your costs significantly.

For example, if you were to do a mailing on your own to 10,000 homes, it would cost you thousands of dollars – even at reduced bulk rate postage costs. However, that same mailing shared with other advertisers would only cost you a few hundred dollars. That’s a huge difference that allows you to free up valuable marketing dollars that can be used elsewhere.

And if you’re a “push the envelope” type of marketer and really want to take your direct mail campaign to the next level, a new company named Dukky (pronounced ducky) is merging “junk mail” with social marketing and web technology – creating an amazingly effective and powerful marketing combination. Dukky’s web address is www.dukky.com.

In closing, if you do decide to give direct mail a try, whatever you do, don’t approach the process blindly. In order to utilize direct mail to its optimum effectiveness, you need to know what you’re doing.

In that regard, I highly recommend you purchase the book Million Dollar Mailing$ by the undisputed King of direct mail, Denny Hatch.

Just remember:

“You will go only as far as the limits of your knowledge. If you want to go farther, increase your knowledge.” – David Jackson

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David Jackson is a marketing consultant, and the owner of Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com – Free, common sense marketing tips to help grow your business. free-marketing-tips-blog.com

Is Advertising Fraud Funding Terrorism?

By Pace Lattin in Featured

For those who aren’t aware of it, I have a background in Cybercrime and Law Enforcement – before even working in interactive advertising, there was a time where I was devoted to catching cybercriminals and kiddie porn traffickers.

There is still a part of me that always wants to catch the bad guy and put him in jail – and have even while working in this Industry been involved in catching fraudsters and criminals, and have put a few of them back in jail. However, it’s come to my attention that there might be something even more devious happening in the industry: the very real possibility that interactive advertising fraud is helping to fund terrorism.

During my time running a display ad network, there was a constant influx of people submitting websites to our reviewers that looked like legit websites. They would often copy websites, change a few things – many times it was obvious, sometimes it was pretty damn convincing. Using proxy servers, they’d apply using a US IP address and real postal address.

For those who weren’t trained in noticing “little problems” in the websites, it would easily seem that they were actually showing advertising on a legit, highly trafficked website. After a month or so, when the site was making money, they would often then change the pay information on the website to another address, or request a wire to an offshore bank account – hoping that some companies would be too busy to notice or even think twice about it. More than once during my time, the new address was in China, or worse in a country with extensive terrorist ties, including Pakistan, Libya or Syria. Every major network, whether it is display or affiliate based has similar stories.

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