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Use These 3 Tips so that Your Online Income Affiliate Business can Survive

By admin in Advertising

As an affiliate marketer who would like to not only survive but also generate a large income you will need to utilize these 3 tips given here and be prepared to work hard as there is not magical formula to success.

As an affiliate marketer using these 3 tips will help your chances of success with your online marketing business. Using these 3 tips will help your online business survive the competition that is found in an online based business environment.

1. Give your readers free reports.
Either place these reports where they can be easily seen near the top of your website or alternatively give them as an incentive to visitors who are will to give you their name and email address.

Use a unique squeeze page, in other words one that is different from what everyone else is using, to offer your reports in exchange for their email address and make sure that you have an opt in box on that squeeze page that goes to your auto-responder account.

It is a known fact that the majority of people will not purchase anything the first time they see it. Normally it will take a minimum of seven views for them to make the purchase. Keep in mind that usually people are more willing to spend money with a person that they believe is trustworthy and has taken the time to build a relationship with them, they need to know that they are not just dealing with some faceless website but a real person who is willing to help them.

If the only connection is the product on your website, not only will you not build a list, but chances are that even if someone is interested in the product you are selling they will move on and in the end buy it from someone else.

2. Promote each product on a separate web page.

If you use this method of marketing your products you will be keeping the reader focused on one thing at a time and they will become less distracted than if there were too many things on the one page.

Help the reader to make a decision on each product by having a review for each one on your website. This not only gives it a more personal touch but also helps to encourage a sale. If you are able to get some testimonials from any of your previous customers who have already tried the product then this is something that you can use to your advantage.

Just be sure that those customers are happy to allow you to use their name and if possible their photo.

3. Aim to generate a lot of targeted traffic to your website.

There is absolutely no point in getting people to visit your site who have no interest whatsoever in the products that you are promoting. Write articles and submit them to ezines and article directories and focus on the niche that you are promoting your products to. There is no point in spending your time promoting your affiliate internet business where no one is interested in what you are selling, but writing articles and publishing them in article directories is a great way to become known and brand yourself and your business and the best thing is that this type of advertising will not cost you any money.

If you want to benefit from marketing your online business by using article marketing you will need to write a minimum of 2 articles every week. If you continue to do this consistently you will see that over time your traffic will increase and it will be people who are interested in your products and what you have to say.

None of these tips are really difficult to follow and take action on it just needs some time and thought from you. Try using these tips for a few of your affiliate internet based business programs and see how they will help your opportunity to survive as an online affiliate marketer. Another great thing about this is the increase in the pay checks you will be receiving.

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Michelle Jayes invites your to visit her legitimate income opportunities website www.online-income-business for money making ideas and ways to improve and build an internet based business

Should the Print Newsletter Die – And Let Ezines Takeover?

By David Gruttadaurio in Advertising

“Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” Mark Twain said that back in 1897.

Print newsletters have been saying it for the past ten years.

Why? Because many business owners feel…

1. With the internet, all they have to do is post content online; everyone will flock to their site to read it. Plus it’s FREE!
2. Email is king! Just send an ezine. It’s FREE!
3. Postage keeps going up along with printing costs… but email is FREE!

There’s no question about it. Print newsletters should have died a long time ago.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the funeral. The print newsletter suddenly became Lazarus and a resurrection took place.

5 Reasons Why Print Newsletters Are Still Around

1. Printed mail gets delivered – It’s never blocked or caught in spam filters.
2. It is proven that the majority of people prefer to hold, touch and feel what they are reading.
3. Studies show online readers retain much less of what they read compared to those reading printed material. So, if you have an offer with a call to action, wouldn’t it be nice if it was remembered for more than 30 seconds?
4. Print newsletters have more perceived value. Think about it. How many companies are willing to do this? Your customers realize you’re spending money to do it.
5. Print newsletters are sticky. They have great ‘hang-time’. People keep print newsletters for further or future reading. Not only are they likely to be read from start to finish, they usually get passed around.

Email Newsletter Marketing Has Major Downsides

(By the way – for the record – I love the internet and I love my email. I can’t imagine life without it or remember life before it)

With that being said, email is NOT the ‘be all and end all’ of modern marketing.

Yes…email is fast, easy and cheap. But who cares about that if it’s not effective?

Here’s the ugly truth: The vast majority of email lies unopened and untouched in the dark nothingness of cyberspace. Emails are routinely wiped out by the dozen in one fell swoop with the simple push of the delete key.

Even if your name is recognized, you still risk being deleted. Maybe your email got caught in a large chunk of junk mail. Or… maybe they’re just having a bad day.

See, today everyone is bombarded by email overload. Spam accounts for about 90% of it. That means 9 out of every 10 emails in your in box is junk. Do you REALLY think your ezine is being read?

And, if your newsletter gets read, how much attention do you think it gets? A Nielsen Norman Group Report revealed the typical email newsletter gets 51 seconds of your reader’s time. That was four years ago. Today, many say its less than 30 seconds.

So, Which One Should You Do: A Print Newsletter or an Ezine?

Now, I’m not suggesting that you stop your email marketing and newsletters.

You may want to do both. Send an email newsletter on a weekly basis. But, send a monthly print newsletter, too.

There is a gold standard to determine which one is best for you.

Simply ask your clients. Survey them to see which one THEY prefer. After all… isn’t it all about what our customer wants?

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When Print Newsletter Expert David Gruttadaurio discovered the power of consistently writing and distributing print newsletters to attract and retain clients, he instantly tripled the sales of his business. Now he reveals his bullet-proof plan to thrive in the new, emerging economy at his Profit Exploding Newsletter Secrets Website: http://www.NewslettersMadeForYou.com. Go there to claim your 3 FREE Real Gifts NOW!

Instant Article Templates – 3 Reasons Why MOST Article Templates Do Not Help You Write Articles Fast

By Eric Gruber in Advertising

Instant article writing templates such as those found at StartWritingArticlesFaster.com can help you overcome writer’s block. In many cases, with the right article templates, you can write your articles in 30 minutes or less.

Notice the keywords there – “with the right article templates.”

If you do a Google search for “instant article writing templates”, “instant article templates”, “article writing templates”, “free article templates” and “article templates”— underneath my websites and my articles you find hundreds of other resources. Some sites even give you free article templates.

Heck, I even give you 3 free article templates at http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com

Here’s the problem…most article templates are not designed to help you write better articles faster. Now, the creators of these article templates had good intentions. However, if you use the wrong article templates, you will find yourself even more confused.

The 3 Biggest Problems with Most Instant Article Writing Templates

1. Most article templates do not give you the structure and organization you need. In fact, here’s a sampling of what one article template provider offers…

Article Writing Template – What I Learned From….

This one is simply a bulleted list of what you have learned from any number of things or events such as what I learned from my parents, my sister, my brother, my son, my daughter, from my third grade teacher, from September 11^th, from watching a TV show, etc.

Bullet 1-

Bullet 2-

Bullet 3-

And, so on…

Now, to me this is not a workable template. Templates are supposed to be worksheets that guide you throughout the process. For example, I put my “Instant Article Writing Templates” in MS Word format. Each template is in chart format. All you have to do is put the information that’s in your head and put it exactly where I ask you to. Once the template is complete, all you have to do is copy each section and paste it into a new document – and you’ll have a finished article.

2. Most article templates don’t keep you, the article writer, focused. If I don’t use my article templates, I find myself rambling, going from one topic to another. And, I’m the article writing and article marketing expert. When you have a workable template that provides you with structure and organization, your copy will automatically become more focused. It becomes an easier, better read for your readers. However, most templates like the example I showed you above do not give you a structure and organization to follow. And, they allow you to bounce from one idea to another without any kind of transition.

3. Most article template resources do not provide real article examples from a wide number of industries. If there are any article examples provided along with the article templates, you’ll just find articles that the creator wrote. So, you’ll just find Internet marketing articles that promote the creator’s other products and services. You want to look for article resources that provide actual article examples of those in your niche. For example, in my Instant Article Writing Templates Kit, I not only share with you some of my own articles, but I share with articles that are written by my clients who are authors, speakers and entrepreneurs dealing with a wide number of business, finance, relationship and parenting issues.

Again, I do not mean to mock or offend those in my industry. I just want to help you write your articles faster. Now, that you aware of the problems that most instant article writing templates have – you can choose wisely.

About the Author:

Article Marketing Expert Eric Gruber uses the power of articles to create online opportunities for Internet marketers, small business owners, authors, entrepreneurs and speakers who want more publicity, prospects and profits. Now, you can get 3 of his favorite his instant article writing templates that will help you overcome writer’s block and write your articles in 30 minutes or less. Get your free article templates now: http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com

Affiliate Marketing – 5 Reasons To Use Squidoo

By Riley West in Advertising

An affiliate marketer has to have certain things. I consider it very important to have a web page where you can put your offers and content.

Then you can just get down to driving traffic to your site, making sales, and earning money.

Still, the beginning affiliate marketer and perhaps even some intermediates, would like it to be low priced and more straightforward than the typical setup.

Take as an example the mass of web pages called Squidoo.

It’s really just another website except for it’s size and variety of content. It’s VERY well known at Google.

By the end of 2009 there were nearly a million individual pages on this huge website and those pages are called “lenses” by the “Squids.”

Here are 5 good reasons to use Squidoo as an affiliate marketer.

The first reason is your cost for the hosting space. It’s zero.

The second reason is the cost of registering a domain name. It’s zero too!

Squidoo loks good because it’s practically effortless, AND it’s very low cost, especially when compared to the typical cost of hosting and domain at about $100 to $130 per year.

That doesn’t sound like much, and it isn’t if your site is making money or if you just have plenty of it. But for affiliates who are just starting and a lot of intermediates too, it’s just perfect.

The third reason, and one of big importance to affiliates, is that it is relatively easy to get indexed by Google for your lens. Really it’s a web page. But Google seems to like them.

If you pick your domain name with a keyword relevant to your sites content, that you can easily rank for, and you put it at the beginning of your domain name, you will be on your way to good rankings.

Doing a good job optimizing your page (lens) for your relevant keyword, is the best way to get your site to come up on the search results page in Google. And Page One of Google for almost ANY keyword will result in some good traffic.

The fourth reason to use Squidoo is that there is on site help. There is lots of assistance.

This would have really helped me when I was getting started because it seemed like, for me, everything new wasn’t just new…it seemed wierd…alien even. I didn’t “get it.”

Squdoo helps you in a dozen ways and you can see for yourself by just going there and looking around.

In addition, there is a forum where you can go and ask questions and get answers. And maybe later you will even answer some questions.

The fifth reason to use these pages (lenses) is because they work!

By work I mean that you can make them look like a great web page. You can also set them up to get a good bit of traffic. And you can sell directly from them.

If you’d like a landing page, this is it!

And that’s not all. You will learn a lot!

Many of the stumbling blocks a typical newcomer or even intermediate affiliate marketer will run into are completely eliminated by this alternative. The first reason that comes to mind is the FREE domain name and hosting.

Go there, join up and start your first lens. Start fooling around with it. Learn how to do a few of the things you need to get a halfway decent site up. There’ll be plenty of help if you get stuck.

In a couple to three weeks you could have an affiliate site up, indexed, and getting traffic, and making sales.

Watch out because IF you do this, the next thing that will happen is that you will get a sale. A sale that didn’t cost you anything but your time and effort.

Only now you’ll know how to repeat it and increase your income.

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For a couple of years now, Riley West has been putting out the idea of Simplified Affiliate Marketing, and he intends to continue. The formula is Webpage + Offer + Traffic = Sales. See this explained at Targeted Traffic , and, while you are there, don’t miss out on the sure-fire, simplified affiliate marketing plan at One Week Marketing.

5 Secrets to Turbocharging Your Online Business with a Telesummit, Today!

By Donna Gunter in Advertising

I’ve been listening to a number of list building and lead generation teleclasses lately, and many of them have been offered in the form of a telesummit. A telesummit is a virtual online conference that offers a line-up of varied speakers over a period of time, like a few days or over several weeks.  The telesummit is usually organized by a theme, like outsourcing or lead generation, or for a particular target market, like the online telesummit for virtual assistants for which I was recently a guest speaker.

Participation in many of these telesummits requires you to pay a registration fee, but the model I’ve been seeing a great deal recently is the “free for live” model in which registrants can participate in the “live” version of the program, but if they’re not able to be on the call live, the only way that they can access the content is to pay a registration fee for the audio file and PDF transcripts.

What I love about telesummits is that they are perfect for a downturned economy.  There’s no airline reservation to make, no hotel to book, no clothes to pack, no shuttle fees to pay, no bad hotel food to endure….it’s simply conducted from the convenience of your home, the home of your speakers, and the home of your participants.  You offer high value with low cost — a great combination!

In my opinion, this type of event is a genius way to turbocharge your business.

Here are 5 secrets to turbocharging your online business with a telesummit:

1. Grows your list fast.  Many telesummit hosts report that holding a telesummit has helped them grow their list from 2,000 to 10,000 or 15,000 or greater in a span of only a few weeks when the participants are required to give their name and email address to get the telesummit call-in information.  Best of all, the additions to the host’s email list are perfect leads for their target market. How did this happen?  Because the host carefully chose their speakers who market products and services to a similar target market and created a telesummit around an issue or theme important to their target market.  And, in an ideal world, the speaker has a large list and agrees to help market the telesummit to that list.
2. Establishes you as the preeminent expert. When you hold an event featuring well-known speakers, you suddenly become the authority, or the expert in the field.  After all, how else could you have attracted these experts if you were not an expert yourself?
3. Helps you open the door for valuable joint ventures (JVs) and strategic alliances.  Once you’ve invited someone to be a guest on your telesummit, you have provided a great service to them by introducing them to others who may not have previously heard of them. And, if you offered some healthy affiliate commissions for telesummit upgrades, they love you because you’ve helped them make money without a lot of effort. Assuming that your event was a success and there were no major hiccups in the process, this success has paved the way for future joint ventures and strategic alliances with this person.  This certainly beats cold-calling someone to try and speak to them to sell them on a JV proposal, doesn’t it?
4. Increases your credibility.  Another key factor in hosting a telesummit is that the notoriety of your speakers rubs off on you as the host.  One of the quickest ways to go from “no name” to “big name” in your industry is to invite the industry experts to speak at your telesummit. The fact that you now have a connection with the movers and shakers in your industry gives you a leg up boosting your own credibility and expertise in the industry.
5. Makes some cash in the process.  In addition to the advantages listed previously, there are a number of ways to make a little money in this free telesummit model.  First, you offer every participant the ability to “upgrade” to get all the recordings and transcripts of the telesummit. Creating a price increase deadline (before summit vs after summit pricing) may encourage more participants to buy. Secondly, once the telesummit is complete, you can go back to your speakers and offer to interview them a second time exclusively for members of their list.  The upsell in this second interview is the complete telesummit recordings and transcripts, on which you pay them a healthy commission on all packages sold.

Examine your business model and see how well a telesummit fits into the mix.  You’ll need to begin planning 8-10 weeks in advance, but once you see the results, you may want to make your telesummit an annual event.

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Internet Marketing Automation Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

When Is the Right Time to Start Marketing Your Book?

By Phyllis Zimbler Miller in Advertising

Almost every book author wants to know: When is a good time to start marketing a book? While still writing the book, while looking for an agent or publisher, while going through the self-publishing process? When the book is available on Amazon?

There are few certain replies to this question except for one: It’s rather late to start marketing your book when it is already out on Amazon.

So what’s the answer as to when is the best time to start marketing a book? It depends.

And what it depends on is a great number of variables, including is this your first book, do you already have an online reputation, are you a renown newspaper journalist who is about to write a first novel, and any other variable that you care to name. (Such as, do you have a famous last name, such as Mary Higgins Clark’s daughter had when she started writing mysteries?)

If we can agree that we can’t pinpoint an exact right time that applies to everyone, are there general guidelines that can help all authors?

Yes, I believe there are. First, if you’re interested in promoting online, the earlier you start establishing yourself online the better. And the first step is to decide on your brand as a book author.

What do I mean by brand? I mean how you plan to position yourself in your marketing and promotion. What is it that will make you stand out from other writers of non-fiction or similar fiction? What will make people interested in you (and hopefully want to buy your book)?

The strategizing of your brand definitely takes place as early as possible in the publication quest for your book. And as part of this brand strategy, it’s very important to consider the proposed title of your book. This is even more relevant if you’re going to self-publish. You should check out your title with others even if you love the title.

Does your book title “read” the way you think it does? Or does your proposed tile have a different meaning to some people? For example, today I saw someone’s proposed book title that will be very hard to remember, let along spell on Amazon or for a URL. This is probably not the best name for a book.

And does the title stand out? Does it create an image in a potential reader’s mind so he/she can remember the title? A generic title such as “A Good Trip” doesn’t create a specific image, whereas “Six Sunny Days in Paris” creates a strong sense memory.

Once you are clear about your brand and have a good “working” book title (it still may change), you can begin to add elements to your brand positioning.

You can, for example, have someone create short videos (less than three minutes) of you talking about the stages you’re going through in researching and writing your book. Then you can use software such as Sony Vegas Movie Studio to edit the video and to put text such as your name and, if you have a website, your website’s URL on the video.

And you can upload these short videos to YouTube and other video-sharing sites. Remember, it’s important to tag these videos with good keywords that relate to you and your brand so that people will have an easier time finding your videos.

You can start a blog, detailing the stages of your book’s process and sharing sample chapters with your blog readers. Getting feedback early on can help you refine your book. And you can offer to write guest posts for other people’s blogs, again staying true to your brand in what you offer to write about.

And then you’re ready for a website – a site that you can control yourself without waiting days for your web master to make one little change. That’s why I recommend having someone build you a website using WordPress.org. Once all the backend steps are done, you will have a website (and blog if you want) that is hosted on your own site and can be completely controlled (read “changed”) by you.

Finally, it’s time to establish a sincere presence on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn as well as various book sites and other social media sites. Gradually build up your presence on these sites by engaging in conversations with others, offering advice when you can, and establishing relationships that will come in handy when your book is published.

Having a website or at least a blog hosted on another site such as blogger.com provides you with your own arena of visibility when you set up your profiles on social media sites. By using your website URL or blog URL as part of who you are on the internet, you’re more firmly establishing an online foundation for your book’s publication and marketing.

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Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is an Internet business consultant. If you liked this article, you’re going to love her free report on “The Top 3 Internet Marketing Elements” – download the report now from www.QueensofBookMarketing.com

Plastic Surgery Marketing Strategies – How to Write Google Ads that Get New Patients

By Paul Rakovich in Advertising

If you’re using Pay-Per-Click advertising to promote your plastic surgery marketing practice online or if you’re even thinking about using PPC then you need to read this article right away.

Why?

Because you can’t just buy the first spot anymore! There’s something called a quality score that Google uses.  And if Google doesn’t like your ad or website, it will punish you by lowering the rank of your ad burying it so very few prospects will see it.  Now, if you don’t write your Google Ads the right way, you can be spending thousands of dollars and not get one single new patient.

Why Most Google Ads Fail to Bring In New Patients

Imagine you are seated in a room, shoulder to shoulder with your fiercest competitors.
In the middle is a prospective patient for your plastic surgery practice.

This asks, “Why should I choose YOUR PRACTICE in 15 words or less?”

What would you say?

Would you waste any of the 15 words? Would you waste 3-6 of the words on saying your name once or TWICE???? Would you waste a few words on “Board Certified” or “Free Consultation” that everyone else offers?

Well, believe it or not, the scenario above is basically your Google ad. It’s a preliminary 15-word interview of you versus all of your competition. And, most people doing pay-per-click advertising online stumble by adding words that are a complete waste. People add words that do not make people want to click and visit their website. By not writing an effective Google ad, you can kiss tens of thousands of dollars in new patients goodbye.

How to Write an Effective Google Ad That Brings In New

Each word in your Google ad must earn its spot.  If there’s not a strong persuasive element to every word you select, then you are wasting space and missing out on new patients. And, this includes inserting your name and the practice’s name within the ad. In fact, this is the pay-per-click advertising mistake that is committed everyday. People are obliviously taking up precious Google ad real estate.

For example, look at these to ads under a search for “San Diego Plastic Surgeon”:

Ad #1:

Smith Cosmetic Surgery
Dr. Ray Smith offers cosmetic
procedures for body, breast & face
(URL was placed here)

(Actual ad but name was changed here)

Ad #2

Facial Plastic Surgery
“Only Face; Only Superior Results” San Diego
San Diego Plastic Surgeon (CA)
(URL was placed here)

Notice the difference between the two ads?

The Difference Between a Good Google Ad and a Poor Google Ad

1. The first ad forgets that the most important part of the ad is the headline. Put your name there and you might as well leave it blank.
2. The first ad in contrast tells the prospective patient nothing about why they should choose or even consider Smith over every other plastic surgeon out there.  Everyone else “offers procedures for body, breast & face.”  He’s positioned him self as just like everyone body else.
3. The second ad tells people we only do face. This eliminates people they don’t want– so they’re only paying for clicks from their target customers.  The general public has been taught that specialists are “better.”
4. The second ad confirmed they are in San Diego, in two different spots. This bolds “San Diego” in the ad and it makes the ad stand out from the rest.  Plus it assures someone looking for a surgeon in San Diego that in fact this is in line with what they are looking for.

The only fault that I find on the second ad is the use of “Only Superior Results.” What does that really mean to a prospective patient? Not a whole lot. Every patient is expecting superior results.   Some have expectations set more towards miracles then “superior.”

On your Google ad, you want to describe what a patient is after and hit on some emotion. You want to have some psychological or emotional trigger within your ad copy that grabs prospective patients by the eyeballs and pulls them to your website.

Your Next Steps…

You can continue to do pay-per-click advertising your way and waste thousands of dollars or you can consistently beat your competitors and get new patients even in a recession. And, you can have Google think of you as a long-term business partner they can count on. They give their long-term partners preferential treatment like:

• Higher position with a LOWER cost. It is possible to get a #1 spot for #3 prices or less.
• Your ads will show more often.

The end result is more new patients and a lower new patient generation cost.

For more information on plastic surgery marketing that generates a flood of new patients visit www.clicksandpatients.com for our free report: “Recession Proof Strategies That Are Bringing In Scores Of New Patients For Plastic Surgeons In The Most Fiercely Competitive Plastic Surgery Market In The World – Beverly Hills.”

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Paul Rakovich helps aesthetic practices get more new patients by focusing on the entire online patient generation process from website design, website usability, traffic generation and phone call conversion. This allows his clients to bring in new patients while cutting out poor and non-performing advertising that can save them thousands of dollars per month.  Visit www.clicksandpatients.com to learn how with his free plastic surgery marketing report now.

The REAL Death Of Email Marketing

By Willie Crawford in Advertising

For online marketers who have been around for a while, it’s no secret that email marketing “is not what it use to be!”

For many online marketers, conversions rates are a mere fraction of what they use to be. At the same time, there are a few marketers that I’ve chatted with who have experienced no significant drop in conversions. These are all marketers who have built incredible subscriber loyalty over the years.

For many online marketers, the biggest problem is email deliverability. Their email is simply not getting through. Email is being filtered so heavily today that often less than 20% of a large ezine mailing gets delivered.

There are things you can do to improve your email deliverability, such as run it through a spam checker prior to sending it out. Top mailing list management systems, such as http://ProfitAutomation.com , have built in systems that allow you to grade an email against the Spam Assassin database prior to sending it. If your email scores higher than a 2, I personally would revise it to lower the score.

I’ve talked to friends over a year ago, who often confided in me that they sometimes sent out emails and got absolutely NO response. They wondered if anyone even received the emails or read them.

Many savvy marketers also realized that a business totally dependent upon email was not a very solid business. They realized that what they really needed was a database that contained not only names and email addresses, but physical mailing addresses. That way, if something dramatic ever did happen in the world of email, they could just shift their marketing to direct mail, and still be in business. This is one of the reasons that you started seeing some online marketers offering loss leaders on CD or DVD. It gave them the perfect tool (excuse) to build out their databases. They knew that email could someday go the way of fax broadcasts.

Some of my in-the-know friends have also shared with me that many ISP’s now monitor things such as email delivery rates, bounce rates, and open rates. They use readily available data, and if a given ISP or third party list host had a dismal record, they may block ALL email from that source.

That’s pretty scary. I was also told that a few well-known list management providers were having emails coming off their servers BLOCKED, or “black holed.”

If ISPs are tapping into database that reveal which mail servers send out a lot of mail that has very low open rates, for example, and blocking email from those servers, that does very well spell the slow death of some email marketers… unless they move their list to other platforms.

Ok, so I just painted a pretty dismal picture for some marketers.

When I was in the military, my bosses always told me that they wanted the truth from me. They insisted that I not “sugar-coat” the facts. However, they also told me not to bring them problems, without also bringing them viable solutions.

Solutions to the email deliverability issue are out there. For example, paid “sender verification” is one that is often suggested.

One that I’ve looked at many times over the years is some type of direct-to-desktop solution. That’s one where your subscribers install tools that allow your communications to tap into technologies not even dependent upon email.

The objection always brought up when discussing direct-to- desktop applications, is that there’s only so much desktop real-estate, so a person can only subscribe to so many of these independent channels.

Another solution that I like very much is building your list on a hosted platform, so that communications take place within the system.

A good example of this can be seen on the social networking site Sokule, pronounced “so cool.” The Sokule community is built on a platform that looks and feels a lot like Twitter, except that it’s built for marketers, so you are encouraged to market on the platform. In fact, there are several built-in features that allow members to monetize their community membership.

While members of many social networking communities tend to de-emphasize getting lots of followers, Sokule is different. Sokule seems to encourage you to get as many followers (called “trackers”) as you can in two ways:

1. They have a quasi-currency, called “sokens” that you can offer to other members to reward them for following you. You earn these sokens, and then you offer them to community members as a reward for following you. In a way, you can buy followers.
2. They allow upgraded members to direct message ALL of their followers a maximum of once every three day. That means that in a very real way, when you build a following on Sokule, you ARE building a list.

When you set up your Sokule account, you enter three of your areas of interest. This allows others to search the database for members with like interest, whom they can then track (follow). In theory, this means that when you send out a direct message, your message should be going to people interested in the same topic.

Just as with an email list, you need to respect your trackers on Sokule, and provide genuine value to the relationship.

To check out Sokule, visit my profile page at: http://Sokule.com/postit/williec

There you can see how you can personalize your profile and monetize it. The links that you’ll notice on the left side of the page are to five of my pet websites. There are also links on the left side of the page that promote Clickbank products. Those links are coded with MY Clickbank ID.

My old military bosses would be proud of me today. Yes, I came bearing bad news. Email marketing as it once was is dying an agonizing death. However, I also did as my old bosses taught me and presented you with a viable, proven solution.

In future articles, I’ll share with you some more solutions to “the email problem.” For now, check out Sokule. Sign up for a free account and take it for a test drive. It’s quicker to do that at:” http://Sokule.com/williec The key to survival in business, just as it was for me in the military is to be aware of and adapt to changing circumstances. That’s something you’re now ready to do.

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

HOW to build a responsive list (and WHY you must to it now)

By Adam Urbanski in Advertising

Some people think that building a following on social networking sites eliminates the need for building their own email list. I say they are fools!

With the massive amount of information we are bombarded with, getting and keeping the “email attention” of potential and current clients, is something every business owner should be very concerned about.

In fact, when you see or hear case studies of people who go from zero to tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits in only weeks, you can be sure those people have invested time and effort to build their own list first!

Having your own responsive email list has many benefits no social media or social networking site can replace.

Consider these 5:

1. YOU ARE IN CONTROL! With your own list you control who you communicate with, how often you contact them, and what format you send your content in.
2. GENERATE IMMEDIATE SALES! With your own RESPONSIVE list you can generate immediate demand when you develop new products and services.
3. ATTRACT MORE AND BETTER CLIENTS! Having your own list gives you an opportunity to create a low-risk point of entry for new potential customers. And your messages educate them about your services and allow you to invite them to work with you when YOU want to!
4. GET MORE REFERRALS AUTOMATICALLY! When you send out good information your subscribers will naturally forward it to some of their friends – creating more visibility for you in a very natural way (and without you ever having to ask for it!)
5. INCREASE YOUR PROFITS. Turn subscribers into buyers and one time customers into life-long clients – largely on autopilot when you understand how to properly communicate with your fans!

And building a list is actually quite easy. Making sure it is targeted, and that it remains responsive, that’s a little more difficult, but something everyone can easily learn.

Here is a simple five step process to get you started:

1. Plan Ahead! Consider how building and using your own database of fans will fit into your overall marketing activities.

At the very least give some thought to things like the subscriber and broadcast management tools you will be using, the type of content you will be sharing, the format and frequency of your messages.

2. Create Subscriber Attraction Tools. It’s not enough to just say “subscribe to my newsletter.” You must give people a compelling reason WHY they should give you their contact information and pay attention to you.

3. Build a Subscriber Catcher. Every business should have at least one website devoted entirely to generating new subscriber opt-ins. And every page of all your websites should have an invitation to become a subscriber.

4. Generate Visibility and Traffic for Your Offer. Even your best “bait” and most effective opt-in page will be useless if no one can see them. You must attract TARGETED traffic.

Start with people you already have as your customers and prospects. Use social networking connections, free press releases, article submissions, special interest discussion groups, and commenting on industry blogs as a starting base.

And remember that quality subscribers are potential customers so don’t be afraid to invest a little to acquire them. Paid advertising methods like ezine ads or PPC (Pay Per Click) are good ways to start.

5. Deliver Value and Build Relationship. Never forget you are constantly competing for your subscribers attention, so send out information they consider relative and valuable.

Remember that you don’t communicate with the “list” but with one person at a time. And – this is a secret key to long term email marketing success – realize that people have more than enough information. What they really want is connection and guidance!

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The author, Adam Urbanski, teaches service professionals and business owners how to develop better marketing plan and strategies to increase sales and profits. His website offers more marketing how-to articles and free tips to create a winning marketing action plan at http://www.themarketingmentors.com

Advertising “Click Fraud” Rampant Online?

By Jim Edwards in Advertising

“Pay-per-click,” by far the most popular form of online advertising, recently came under fire as charges of rampant “click fraud” gather steam on the Web.

Google and Yahoo! earn the majority of their money through sales of advertising to tens-of-thousands of online merchants, companies, and professional.

In fact, some estimate that 99% of all Google’s revenue comes from advertising sales. Unfortunately, allegations of click fraud may well rain on Google’s otherwise sunny parade and cause a whole scale revamping of current online advertising practices.

Pay-per-click advertising does exactly what it sounds: advertisers pay for each click on their ad, usually mixed in among search engine results or displayed on relevant websites.

“Click fraud” occurs when, for whatever reason, an ad gets clicked by someone or something (usually an automated “bot” that simulates clicks) with no intention of ever buying anything from the advertiser.

The sole intention of click fraud is to simply drain an advertiser’s budget and leave them with nothing to show but an empty wallet.

Who commits click fraud?

Usually an unscrupulous competitor who wants to break a rival’s bank, online “vandals” who get their kicks causing other people grief, or search engine advertising affiliates who want to earn fat commissions by racking up piles of bogus clicks.

Regardless of who does it or why, click fraud appears to be a growing problem search engines hope stays under their advertising clients’ radar.

This problem isn’t exactly news to the search engine giants.

In fact, on page 60 of their 3rd quarter Report for 2004, Google admits that they have “regularly refunded revenue” to advertisers that was “attributed to click-through fraud.”

Google further states that if they don’t find a way to deal with this problem “these types of fraudulent activities could hurt our brand.”

Bottom line for Google and Yahoo! (which owns Overture, the Web’s largest pay-per-click search engine): as word of click fraud spreads across the Web, they must act quickly to calm the nerves of advertisers who could well abandon them over doubts about the veracity of their advertising charges.

The search engines all claim to carry measures that identify and detect click fraud, but details about how they do it and to what extent remain sketchy.

They claim revealing details about security would compromise their efforts and give the perpetrators a leg up on circumventing their defenses.

This sounds good, but affords little comfort to advertisers who feel caught between losing out on their best traffic sources and paying for advertising that won’t result in revenue.

One way to protect your business against click fraud is to closely monitor your website statistics.

Look for an unusually high number or regular pattern of clicks from the same IP address.

If you need help, enlist the aid of your hosting provider to aid you in spotting suspicious trends in your website traffic.

Also, a number of services have sprung up online to help advertisers spot and quickly analyze and compile the data necessary to effectively dispute fraudulent click charges with the search engines.

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Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and offers a FREE 90-Minute “Mini-Site Strategies” Webinar replay that explains step-by-step and click-by-click…”A Quick and Easy Way For YOU to Painlessly Set Up Your OWN Moneymaking ‘Mini’ Websites… Without Being a Computer Geek, Buying Expensive Software, or Paying Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!”

Click Here => http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com

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