In today’s health-conscious society, everyone has spent at least a couple minutes of their life thinking about (or purposely ignoring) their diet. Is this meal healthy? How many calories are in this? Does this bacon-wrapped butterball make my butt look fat? The theory and principles behind improving your health and getting better results can also be attributed to what you do or do not contribute to the health and welfare of your website’s SEO. Here are a few suggestions on how you can lose weight and improve your rankings at the same time.

1. Have A Measurable Goal

It may seem feasible to stare longingly at the slim thighs of fashion models and think that you can get there someday (if only you could keep your fingers out of that mayonnaise jar), but think about steps that are measurable and achievable. In that same vein, you may see a website that ranks amazingly well for single-word keywords, but if you don’t set yourself up for success with a committed strategy and follow through, you will spend months wondering why your efforts are not providing results. Those svelte upper-leg-areas don’t come easy, but by tracking your progress, you will see what is working, and why that mochachino addiction definitely isn’t.

2. Results Don’t Happen Overnight

Last night at dinner you gave up carbs entirely, but why isn’t that belly fat dissipating this morning when you went to button up your pants? That is because, like anything worth having, weight loss and kick-ass rankings do not happen right away. Best intentions aside, it takes hard work and patience to get where you want to be. Keep plugging away. Gradually you will see that all the tedious link building, onsite optimizations and Zumba at the YMCA are really paying off, both in results and attitude.

3. Find Credible Information

The skeletal lady behind the counter at the teashop may be an expert in all things “holistic” but she is probably not the best person to make judgment calls on healthy ways to lose weight. In that same fashion, you may not want to take the marketing advice of every Tom, Dick, and Harry that sends you emails about your meta descriptions. Popular SEO blogs tend to be a reflection of someone who knows what they are talking about, and has the support of other experts in the field. Check out multiple, highly regarded internet marketing blogs (ahem, like Web Talent Marketing, for example), and take the advice of industry leaders. If there is a consensus among the group, it usually becomes a best practice. Just like in weight loss, you’ll need to find a credible trainer who has the experience necessary to help you. It may seem like a great idea to use chili powder to cleanse your colon, but in the end it’s just a pain in the butt.

4. Commit To A Process

The guy that hosts the P90X+ videos is ripped, and when you use the program it probably garners amazing results. But is that a plan you can dedicate the time and up-chuck reflexes to on a daily and weekly basis? You may have 30 minutes a day P90X+ dreams, but your reality is probably closer to weekly Jazzercise on your VHS player. Whatever your process is, own it and commit to it. Don’t start and stop and then commiserate with your girlfriend’s low-fat yogurt about how its just not working for you and maybe you should just buy a pair of Spanx and forget about it. If you care enough about your website to complain, you should care enough to commit to a plan and follow through for the entire campaign. They say that weight loss is a lifestyle change so is effective online marketing. Commit, Commit, Commit!

5. Change It Up (When Needed)

Congratulations! You have found a plan that you aren’t mortified to tell people you use, and you have been consistently using it. You like your plan, but after a while you may not see the dramatic changes you have come to expect. Your website and your body may both be adjusting and adapting to the plan you gave yourself and a refresher course may be necessary to keep the spark and progress alive. Maybe you need to take a break from submitting to directories or guest blogging and spend some time creating assets or going after juicy links found in your competitor’s link profile. Is it time to take a look at your site and make a list of improvements to increase usability? Change up what you are doing to keep the motivation and success flowing. When you hit the plateau and the results drop off reinvent your process and keep up the momentum.

6. The More You Put Into It, The More You Get Out Of It

Your success is only as good as the effort that you put into it. If you are only barely making the minimum effort, you are going to get minimum, or perhaps no results. Swapping out meta tags and building a few low quality links are not going to get you where you need to be. This is the equivalent of only dieting on the weekends. If you are committed to a plan, make sure you are giving it your all to see the changes in your rankings (and muffin top) you would like.

7. Aggressive Tactics Can Be Hazardous

I don’t have to tell you that binging and purging is a dangerous habit to get into, so why would you do the same for your website? Don’t binge on easy SEO fixes like automated submissions or other gray (or lets face it, black) hat tactics just to get your rankings up quickly. The results may be quick, but you will just as quickly fall into disrepair when your website gets dinged by the search engines. Or, you know, the lining of your esophagus deteriorates into rice paper.

8. Ignore Tempting Quick Fixes

You may be in awe of the waist-to-rump ratio of the Kardashian sisters, but buying their diet pills will only result in a mild heart murmur and a deep hole in your bank account. You may feel energized for a short period of time, but after a little bit you will be back to normal and you may as well roll those twenty dollar bills into little balls and swallow them whole. The same theory applies to the sneaky tricks, excessive paid linking tactics and black hat schemes available online. You may see a push in the beginning, but in the end it is never worth the time or money.

9. Keep a Balance

Effective SEO takes a balance of both diet, in the form of tried-and-true Search Engine Optimization best practices, and exercise by way of ongoing link building. Doing just one or the other will only take you so far. An effective SEO campaign should look at all aspects of SEO including conversion, usability, analytics, keyword research, competitive analysis as well as onsite SEO techniques and link building tactics. Make sure to keep a healthy balance between them and not give anyone more importance than others, they all play a role in your website’s success.

10. Do What Works For You

What works for that skinny girl next door may not always work for you. Just because she lost 2 pounds in a day doing a pilates-ballet-shakeweight combo class at her boutique gym doesn’t mean you will see those same results. Check out all your options and don’t jump on one thing and beat it like a dead horse. Genetics versus Culture is equivalent to Business Model versus the Online Economy. You may be predisposed to wear Apple-Bottom Jeans, just like your business may be less predisposed to convert into online sales than ones in other verticals. Like exercise, SEO results may vary depending you industry and some are much more competitive than others and will take time. Let us not forget that SEO only brings in qualified consumers to your site, it doesn’t convert them. You’ll need to do competitive research before starting your campaign to make sure you are setup for success.

Like weight loss, the results and benefits of ongoing healthy online dieting and web marketing work are invaluable to your business. In the long run you will add years to your average business lifespan and general well-being. You will be happier as a marketer and more secure in yourself and the services you offer. The end result? You will then pay less to your overpriced therapist to listen to you complain about your stress level. So strap on those leg warmers, tell yourself you’re a maniac on the dance floor and practice your quickstep because you have some hard work to do, but it is totally worth it!

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Beef Up Your Internet Marketing and Your Body At The Same Time!

The three major components of inbound marketing are social media marketing, content marketing and SEO. Each of those campaigns requires hours of planning and implementation, constant monitoring and consistent progress. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of work that goes into a strong inbound marketing campaign, but that doesn’t mean you have to struggle to keep your head above the water. Here are 7 tips for keeping your inbound marketing campaign from running away from you:

Think twice before you post/tweet/update/share.

Nothing published on the Internet can ever really be deleted. Even supposedly private communications like internal emails can end up published somewhere. Before you share/post/tweet something take a few seconds and think about how it could potentially impact your brand. The beauty (and danger) of social networking sites is that a piece of information can travel around the world in less than a second, so your words/actions can’t be easily hidden or taken back. You might think a comment is funny, but sarcasm doesn’t really read well over the Internet, and someone might take offense. Think before you speak to avoid any nasty reputation management scenarios!

Create an editorial calendar and stick to it.

It’s too easy to push blogging to the back burner when your plate gets full. In order to make sure you are fulfilling your guest blogging agreements (you never want to burn those bridges!) create an editorial calendar for yourself each month and stick to it. Where do you contribute monthly as a guest author? When do those sites expect to see an article from you? Do you need to allow time for revisions? You can also build in time for your own business blogging efforts to ensure a steady stream of new content for your own content marketing strategy.

Develop a link building strategy.

The search engines like to see a slow and diversified approach to link building. While it may look great to your manager to show that you created 1,500 new links this month you have to remember it may raise a red flag with the search engines. In order to keep yourself from going overboard with your link building (and make sure you are building a diverse portfolio with numerous link sources) create a 12 month link building strategy before you begin your offsite SEO. This will help you stay focused and on track throughout your SEO campaign.

Minimize number of active profiles on social networking sites.

You do not need @CompanyCEO, @CompanyVP, @CompanyMarketing, @CompanySales, @CompanyEmployee23 (and so forth) to have a strong social media marketing campaign. Remember, every social profile you create for your brand is one more that you have to maintain and actively use to benefit from. The fewer social profiles you have the more consolidated your brand messaging will be and the easier it will be to connect with your target audience. If your company’s marketing director wants their own Twitter handle, let them create a personal profile and promote your content through it (in addition to whatever else they want to help build their own reputation), but keep the branded profiles to a minimum.

Find a niche and dominate it.

When it comes to SEO, you have to be honest with yourself. A small e-commerce site is not really competing with Amazon for business, even though you both sell similar products. Chances are your company just doesn’t have the money or the manpower to take on mega brands and rank first for broad keywords, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find and dominate your own niche. What unique value does your company offer that you can leverage to earn a bigger piece of the online market share? What targeted consumer can you reach better than everyone else? Don’t waste your time fighting an uphill battle you’re never going to win and focus on the real SEO progress your site can make.

Publish content consistently.

Publishing 4 blog posts today, three next week, and then nothing for a month and suddenly 6 posts all at once is not the best way to run a content marketing campaign. The key to a great content marketing campaign is consistency. You have to create a content marketing schedule for yourself that you can keep. Maybe that only means one blog post a week, maybe it means two a day—it’s whatever you can consistently stick to. The content you create is going to fuel your social media marketing strategy, as well as help you build a stronger online brand presence. The more consistent you can create that content the easier it is to keep everything else moving.

Limit who has access to social accounts.

In order to ensure brand and messaging consistency, it’s important to assign one person (or a small team) as the social media “voice” for your company. When too many people have access to your social accounts is easy to lose track of what is being published. You want to make sure that the tone and messaging of each social update is consistent across all social profiles. You also don’t want the wrong person sending out an inappropriate reply to something because they don’t know how they are supposed to respond.
These are just seven easy ways that marketers can keep their inbound marketing under control. The best inbound marketing campaigns incorporate all three elements equally, and you don’t want to forget about one because you are so focused on the other two.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

7 Ways to Keep Your Inbound Marketing in Check – A SPN Exclusive Article

When the World Wide Web began about 20 years ago, it opened up an amazing world of opportunity for people to make their own success and realize their dreams. More people than ever were able to start their own home business. Unfortunately, about 95% of the people who start their own online business will fail. People are led to believe all they have to do is throw up a website and the money will start pouring in. This is definitely not true!

Building a website now is much easier than it was 20 years ago but you still need to know how to make your website efficient and profitable. The following quick tips will help you streamline your website and hopefully make it more productive.

1. Call-to-Action – To substantially increase your number of sales, your site will need a call to action. This is when you tell people what to do next. For example: Order Now, Supplies Limited or Click Here for Special Offer, Today Only.

2. Annoying Features – Leave out intrusive music, flashing lights, animated banners, slow-loading pages and other annoying features. These things do not say welcome!

3. Add a Blog – Blogs are extremely popular and search engine friendly so if you don’t already have a blog you definitely want to start one.

4. Site Search – Be sure to provide your visitors with a site search box. You can get one for free at Google Site Search.

5. Interactive – Make your site interactive by adding message boards, surveys, comments. This will bring your visitors back for more.

6. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – Do some research and make your site search engine ready. Add relevant keywords, get as many backlinks as possible, add content, etc.

7. Site Map – Having a site map on your site can help you with the search engines and it will help your visitors find things on your site as well. You can make one for free with GSiteCrawler.

8. Analyze Your Traffic – Be sure to study your site stats so you can find out when you get the most visitors, where you get the most visitors, how long they are staying, what pages they are visiting the most and so on. This can help you tweak your site for maximum performance. If your host does not provide your stats you can use Google Analytics.

9. Content – Always be adding new and relevant content to your site to keep your visitors interested and the search engines as well.

10. Trust – You must build trust and credibility with your visitors. You can do this by using testimonials, posting any rewards you may have received and letting people know of important clients you have had.

11. Affiliate Programs – Adding good solid affiliate programs to your site can help raise your profits. Be sure to check out the programs before you join and if possible, personally recommend the products and/or services.

12. User-Friendly – You want your site to be easy to navigate; not like a maze for your visitors to try to find their way. Make all pages the same basic layout.

13. Collect eMail Addresses – Building an email mailing list is very crucial for keeping in contact with your visitors and building the foundation of trust. Be sure to put a sign-up form on all your webpages and put it on top for easy visibility and access.

14. Sell Advertising – Don’t overdo but selling a few choice spots on your website for advertising can raise your profitability.

15. Stress Benefits – Be sure to let people know how they can benefit from your site. Let them know how you can solve their problems with your products/services.

16. Contact Info – ALWAYS have your contact info on every page of your site. If people don’t even know your name, there surely are not going to trust you.

17. Fresh and New – Always be adding new and updated content to your site. Keep up on SEO and always be tweaking your site for more ranking. Do not let your site get old and stale!

18. Professional Design – Your site should be clean, sharp and easy to read. Do not clutter it with junk. Make it look professional!

19. Color – The color of your website can be very important. Certain colors can trigger psychological responses and you want to be sure your site triggers the right one.

20. Social Networking – Be sure to add all your social links so people can connect with you on multiple levels. Social networking can do wonders for your website if used properly.

Developing a profitable website takes time, research and work but it certainly can be done. Don’t give up too easily. Put in the work and be committed. You CAN be a success!

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

20 Quick Tips for a More Profitable Website

If you’re into affiliate marketing or earning revenue from your site, it’s not so much the amount of traffic you get, but how well that traffic converts into a sale. Needless to say, as a full-time affiliate marketer, I am always looking for ways to get higher conversions.

Which led me directly to Amazon!

I have been a long-term associate for Amazon, as well as other major affiliate networks like Commission Junction, LinkShare, Google, Clickbank… but over the years, none of these ever converted like Amazon.

My Amazon links and clicks often get 5% to 10% conversion rates which means if I send 100 customers to Amazon – 5 to 10 of them will buy something. Usually, these Amazon customers buy more than one product and this varies somewhat depending on the season.

However, if you’re into any kind of selling on the web, those conversion numbers are huge. Most affiliate programs and networks have much lower conversion rates – unless it is some hyped up product launch by a major online marketer.

What is Amazon doing right?

First, I know one of the major reasons for Amazon’s success is its superior REPUTATION for offering a fast, reliable service with reasonable prices. It has earned so much customer loyalty and respect that buyers don’t hesitate when purchasing something online through Amazon.

In other words, repeat customers could be the major reason why Amazon conversion rates are so high.

However, if you stop there, you may be losing valuable pointers as to how Amazon is getting those higher conversion rates. Examining just how Amazon has designed its pages and presented its products will give everyone a better idea of how online marketing is really done.

A company like Amazon has tested every design, layout and color scheme you can imagine. They have done all the testing and they know which presentations offer the greatest conversions.

Some common elements on every Amazon page:

- Plenty of images of the product you’re buying

- Full accurate description of the product

- Customer Reviews are prominently featured

- Related products showing what customers also bought

- Easy to use search boxes

- Related products or accessories

- Solid money back return policy

- Price slashed and discount price presented

Looking a little deeper, don’t know about you, but when I shop Amazon (because of all the points listed above) I get the feeling that I KNOW everything about the product I am buying. I have all the information I need to make my purchase without worrying about my choice.

This psychological key may play a big role in Amazon’s higher conversion rates. Peace of mind and satisfaction with your buying choice could be the real clincher or closer.

However, we must not ignore some other simpler design elements which could also deliver the higher rates. Did you know that tests have shown that the color “orange” on call-to-action buttons or links will offer the highest rates or get the most attention.

Just look at how Amazon uses the color “orange” on all its pages? Look how it has used “blue” fonts… simple stuff but an online page and text which is very easy to read will obviously convert better.

So too, is the overall “look and feel” of your website, you must keep everything consistent and even throughout your site because you don’t want to confuse or lose your visitors. Obviously, the longer they stay on your page, the better your chances of getting a sale.

Lastly, the next time you’re on the Amazon site, put away your wallet and look at Amazon from a marketing perspective. Closely examine the layout and design, notice all the features which attract your attention or make you want to buy the product featured.

Take notes if you have to, but let Amazon show you how to get those higher conversion rates and it will make all the difference in the world.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

What Amazon Shows Us About Achieving Higher Conversion Rates

In today’s business community, there have been revolutionary steps made in strategies for marketing thanks to the internet, smart phones, and all the new gadgets and widgets that roll out each year. All these have made it much easier to implement a marketing strategy that allows small businesses to obtain the e-mail addresses and contact information for potential customers, also called leads, by offering what is often referred to as a “free giveaway.” Once you have leads in your database, you can follow up with them until they, either become customers or remove themselves from your mailing list.

Offering a free giveaway to the group of people who you hope will buy your products or utilize your services is a quality list building technique to put you in touch with prospective clients. And a free giveaway provides them with an easy way to become familiar with your company and through which to preferably begin building a long-term relationship.

Free Giveaway Strategy #1: Give them a taste of what you offer

Ideally, you will use your free giveaway to not only attract clients who are new to you but to also set yourself apart from the competition. One of the best (and easiest) ways to do this is to choose a gift that is a representative example of what you supply, such as a limited-use software download (with the ability to pay if customers want more features or functions), or a free smart phone app (if you have an online app store). Coaches or consultants may offer a complimentary consultation to give potential clients a taste, if you will, of what working with you will be like.

Free Giveaway Strategy #2: Become a welcome presence in their everyday lives

Another great marketing strategy for list-building purposes is to give away something that your prospective customers can use often – therefore keeping your company in their mind of a regular basis. If you give away something useful, like a yearly calendar branded with your company’s name and logo, for example, there’s a good chance that your prospects will hang that calendar in their home or office, and they’ll think of you (even if it’s on a subconscious level) every time they see it. You’ll inadvertently become a trusted (and welcome) presence in their lives. Other examples of daily-use gifts are mousepads, bookmarks, pens, etc., all branded with your company’s logo so that you stay top of mind whenever they need what you offer. If you don’t have the budget right now to mail out such giveaways to everyone who becomes a lead, consider running a monthly contest, where one lucky winner each month will receive a mousepad/ bookmark/etc. To enter, people need to provide their name and email addresses which enters them into your mailing database for future follow-up.

Even if your giveaway is merely a small sample of the services you provide, your prospective customers will feel like they are considered important enough to get a glimpse of what you have to offer, and it shows them you are confident enough in your products and services to know that a small sample will give them reason to return. The challenge, however, comes in creating a marketing strategy that will cause your customers to take notice, so get creative with your free giveaway idea. And then trust that what begins as a simple free gift can end with a customer who will return for a lifetime.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

2 Quick & Easy Marketing Strategies for Creating a Memorable Free Giveaway

“I hate to market myself” is a very common complaint I hear from many of my clients. Some are introverts, who are naturally averse to self-promotion, while others just don’t realize that they also wear the hat of Marketing Director when they start their own business and unhappily discover that they are responsible for getting their own clients and customers. Trust me, it’s imperative that you get over this stigma (or move beyond it), for without marketing, nothing happens.

What are the best ways for introverts to promote themselves in a way that doesn’t feel overly promotional? Here are 6 proven strategies to help introverts easily and effortlessly market themselves:

1. Stepping into the Shoes of Your Ideal Client and Target Market

Do you understand what your target market needs and what their problems are? What about the biggest pain or complaint of your ideal client? Being able to accurately describe both your target market and your ideal client will help you greatly in understanding them. Take 30 minutes and jot down some notes about both and see if you can craft your target market profile and ideal client profile. Once you have created these, your copywriting for your web site, your ezine, and your emails becomes so much easier, because you can create each piece of your marketing content as though you’re sitting down and having a one-on-one conversation with a specific ideal client or member of your target market. What you have to say then feels authentic and not salesy at all.

2. Discover and Use Your “Profitable Essence”

I borrowed this term from visibility expert Nancy Marmolejo. By this I mean discovering what you’re brilliant at doing and getting recognition (and money) to do what you do best. Once you figure out what makes you unique, the notion of selling yourself dissipates, as you then find yourself effortlessly doing what comes naturally to you.

3. Share Your Knowledge

Introverts often value knowledge over people, and so what someone knows becomes more important than who someone knows. Because introverts enjoy research and amassing knowledge, it becomes very easy for introverts to share what they know. How can you do this online? Easy. By writing a new article every week that is published online. Or, by publishing a weekly email newsletter. Perhaps you
offer a value-packed giveaway from your web site that entices visitors to sign up on your list. Or, you offer much of what you know about a topic on your authority web site.

4. Teach What You Know

Introverts may not realize that the skills that they have are unique to themselves and aren’t a skillset that everyone possesses. Once realizing their uniqueness, many introverts like to teach others about what they know. This might mean delivering your signature speech at in-person association meetings, or perhaps holding a teleseminar or webinar and presenting your information online. Or, perhaps you seek
out opportunities to be interviewed where you set the tone of the interview by providing a list of questions to be asked.

5. Seek Out 1:1 Opportunities

Introverts function much better in small groups or 1:1 than they do in crowds. So, seek out opportunities to speak 1:1 with someone. Perhaps you answer questions on an online forum or ask others to submit questions to you. Or, you request prospects to set up 20-minute strategy sessions with you so that you can get a feel for what they might need and you can demonstrate to them what you can offer to
them.

6. Network Selectively

Yes, you can network as an introvert, but not all networking opportunities are created equal. The key here is finding groups in which you feel comfortable.

One of my favorite networking groups held monthly meetings where there was a guest speaker on a relevant topic. Part of the meeting entailed being seated with 7 other women where each of us got to deliver a 60-second elevator speech to the others seated at the table. If we wanted to know more, we passed our business cards with a note on the back to a particular speaker to follow up after the meeting
or at a later time. Each meeting typically involved 2-3 rounds like this, so at the end of a meeting, each of us had a list of people who were eager and willing to hear from us. I loved this group because it structured my networking for me and I didn’t have to make idle chit-chat
with people I didn’t know.

Another option is to participate in an online social network, like Facebook or Twitter, which gives you the ideal opportunity to connect with like-minded people 1:1 virtually.

Marketing isn’t an evil part of business for the introvert. Think of marketing as an extension of sharing yourself and your expertise with others who desperately need what you have to offer. These 6 strategies will help you successfully market yourself without sacrificing your
natural introverted tendencies.

You’ll get 7 proven internet marketing strategies that separate the top 1% of online businesses from the rest.

From Donna Gunter, the Internet Marketing Coach for Introverts.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

6 Proven Strategies in Helping Introverts Easily and Effortlessly Market Themselves

Online marketing requires considerable planning, especially to those promoting a service. Service business owners and independent professionals face multiple challenges of promoting themselves as well as communicating the value of their services.

Therefore service business owners often question whether they are ready to launch a full-scale online marketing effort. Almost always, the question can best be answered by the copywriter – the resource charged with creating and implementing the business’s message strategy.

Copywriting as a Litmus Test

The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines a litmus test as, “a test in which a single factor (as an attitude, event, or fact) is decisive.” They give an example of a political party using gun control as a test for a candidate’s acceptability for office.

Over the years, I’ve become convinced that copywriting is the litmus test of an online service business owner’s marketing readiness. For example:

A few years ago I got a call from someone I’ll call Jeanne. She wanted me to write a sales letter for her new high-end coaching program. She had spent a few thousand dollars with a marketing coach who was helping her schedule the launch, with dates for preview calls, letters and joint venture partners. Now she wanted me to work on the copy for the sales letter.

“Terrific!” I said. “I’ll just need some information.”

Jeanne was scheduling a 6-month program. What topics would be covered each month? She didn’t know and she wasn’t planning to decide right away.

Now I was hearing alarm bells. I asked Jeanne for some testimonials from previous clients. She didn’t have any. She had just left her corporate job. She wanted to begin a high-end program, working with a 12-person group over 6 months.

“Okay,” I said. “Maybe your corporate background qualifies you for coaching. Let’s see how we can present your experience.”

Jeanne’s life history was extremely colorful. She had come through some challenges and overcome setbacks. She could have published a memoir. But, she warned me, “You can’t use this in the copy! It’s all private. I just wanted you to have some background.”

In the end, I couldn’t do anything for Jeanne. She just wasn’t ready for copywriting. But the truth is, she wasn’t ready to open the doors for her business. And, like many business owners, she didn’t realize I could have helped her develop a product strategy and brand so she could avoid arriving at a dead end in this way. Sadly, from what I can find online, she’s given up the business and returned to the corporate world.

Copywriting Creates Action

When we start to write copy, that’s where the rubber meets the road. The gaps show up immediately. Even if you’ve worked with half a dozen other consultants, you often won’t know what you need till you start to write. That’s because copywriting requires you to answer questions like

What are you offering?
Who is going to benefit?
Why will they benefit?
Why will they care?
Why are you qualified to deliver those benefits?
How can you make them believe you are qualified?

Once you answer these questions, you know you are ready to share your service with the world. You have a solid offering that prospects can evaluate. Now you can begin creating your actual sales letter – your online advertisement – and get ready to enjoy the rewards.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Why Copywriting is the Litmus Test of Your Online Marketing Readiness

Viral marketing is still one of the most prolific marketing tools you can use to grow your business. If you employ it in the correct manner, it has the power to take you from obscurity to the “talk of the town” in a matter of days. If you are not sure what viral marketing means, it is a real simple concept.

Viral means that it is something that gets passed from person to person and that spreads very quickly, much like a cold virus. Instead of making everyone sick though, you get your product or service spreading out everywhere instead. One perfect example of this concept is YouTube. How many times have you shared a funny video with someone? Videos can become extremely viral very quickly, but other
types of information can go viral as well.

Here are a few different viral marketing tools I have used to grow my business:

* Viral Video and Audio * Viral eBooks * Viral Workshops, seminars or online courses * Viral Reports

In fact, you can make just about anything viral in nature, as long as the tools you create are made to accomplish a few things. Since viral means passed from person to person, you need to think about the reasons why people share information with their friends and colleagues. Think about why you shared a video or an article with someone recently. It was likely that the information you chose had one or all of the characteristics below:

It Was Valuable…

Even though people have the whole world at their fingertips these days with the Internet, they still look for and hold on to valuable content and well written pieces of information. If information is informative and is created with the end user in mind it will get passed around due to it’s high value.

It Was Entertaining…

We all know laughter is the best medicine. If you can make people laugh they will want others to laugh and feel good too. Humor is an excellent way to capture a market. Think of all the commercials you have seen that have made you laugh. Don’t you remember the funny ones? I have seen commercials on television that I later went on YouTube to find so I could watch them again, and then I shared the
videos with friends and business associates. If you can make people laugh, you make them feel good. If you can do that while marketing your product, they will start to feel good about your product too. This is the power of association, and if you do it right, it will go viral as
well.

It Was Controversial…

Shocking or thought-provoking material gets people talking. You have to be careful with this method though, as it is very powerful. Controversial subjects will always draw a lot of attention, but it brings both good and bad attention at the same time. This method can easily backfire on you too, and there are ample examples of companies having controversial ad campaigns backfiring on them. You
need to walk a fine line with this one.

Those are just 3 examples of the kind of content that you want to produce so that people will be more apt to share it with others. Still, this is only the first stage of a viral marketing buzz campaign. How do you use this viral product to promote your business?

Every ad medium is different, but the end result you are looking for is the same. For instance, with audio or video you will be able to market your product or service directly in your content. This can be your website, your company name or your logo. With print media it is the same story. With an ebook or report you will want to include a link to your website, and some information about you or your company. You could also include a separate or full page ad for a product or service in your content, as well as a resources page. The possibilities are endless and it is really up to you how you wish to promote yourself or your company. Just make sure you make it very clear where people can go to get more information should they wish too.

Capturing your markets attention via viral marketing buzz can be a very powerful method of building your business and brand. If you can get your viral information into the hands of your target market, amazing things can happen. Just make sure that your content is placed where your target market hangs out! With the social networking revolution going on you should have no trouble getting your viral content into the correct hands, and having it spread far and wide across the Internet. As long as your content is valuable and entertaining (with maybe a little controversy thrown in) and engages your readers, your content will work hard for you.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Viral Marketing Buzz: How to Capture Your Market Online

Oftentimes when marketing with articles, it’s easy to get the impression that you need to do something tricky or fancy to make your marketing efforts “work”.

In actual fact, getting a higher website ranking and the accompanying upsurge in visitors is really very simple:

1 – First, you have to focus on your website or blog.

Fill your site with lots of really interesting and helpful information for your viewers. It’s a great idea to have a website that is loaded with valuable content and that is updated with new information regularly.

Your first task is to make a website that is really pleasing to your viewers. If your viewers are happy, then Google will be too. Google’s goal is to please its search customers, so if its customers (who are also your viewers) are happy with what they find at your website, then Google is going to be delighted as well.

2 – Once you have produced a fantastic website you start to think about marketing it.

In the same way that a brick and mortar store has to market itself to attract customers, so you must also market your website.

Don’t forget that both you and Google have the same agenda – you want to please your customers and Google wants to please its customers. By delivering value to your customers via the content on your website, search engines will understand the value of your website and rank it accordingly.

It would be easy for you to get the impression from other website owners that Google and the other search engines are their enemy, something they feel they need to outwit and is a little scary. This is just not true – just like a travel agency can be an ally to a hotel that it refers to, so The search engines can and will be an ally to your website.

Within the world of search engines and website marketing, the main language is links. The links that are going to your website tell Google a lot about the topic and value of your website.

A link serves at least two main purposes on the internet:

* It’s a kind of transportation. By clicking on a link on one web page, you are “transported” to another web page.

* It communicates information to Google and the other search engines about your website’s topic and value.

It is possible for you to affect where your website sits in a search engine’s rankings by how consistently you market your website and the quality of the information on it.

Submitting articles is a fantastic way to promote your website. It achieves these goals:

1 - Marketing with articles builds good quality links to your website. Niche specific publishers are always on the lookout for good quality, relevant content, so there is a good chance that your article will be published on a site that is on a topic related to your own website.

Keyword terms can be utilised in your resource box to create the link back to your website. The words that form a link are called “anchor text”, and they also help Google and the other search engines to understand how to rank your website and what it is all about.

2 - Article marketing gets the word out about your website and drives traffic to it to it. Ezines and other websites can republish your articles. People who see you article either in an ezine or on a website simply click the link in your resource box and be taken to your site.

3 - Article Marketing grows client confidence. As soon as a potential customer of yours reads a well-written and very knowledgeable article they will think, “Do you know what, this person really does know what he is talking about, I am sure they can give me more excellent advice”. The more confidence that prospect has in you, the more likely that he will become a customer of yours.

The articles that you produce with article marketing are referred to as ‘free reprint articles’, this is because publishers are able to republish them online without any charge. The author benefits from the process through the 3 items above. The vehicle for receiving these benefits comes via the author resource box, which usually will include a link to your website, a brief description about you and your company and a good reason for the reader to visit your homepage.

Your Homework:

* Start creating articles that teach your readers something they need to know.

* Create a well thought through resource box designed to inspire readers to click the link to your site.

* Start submitting articles to publishers on the internet and article directories.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Producing A Marketing Campaign That Works With Google

In this fast paced world of ours, everyone is trying to gain a foothold on your business via e-mail. It is becoming more and more difficult to ensure that the e-mail from you is read and not tossed directly into the SPAM file or simply deleted. With the advent of social media sites, e-mails have become more prevalent and the practices have become trickier to get business owners to open them and read them. Here are a few tips that may help you improve your open rates in your email marketing program:

1. Subject Line – Imagination is the key here in getting someone to open your email based on the subject line. Often people make the subject so long that you get bored just reading it or it is too dull and lacks appeal. The trick is to use something unique that will stand out in a crowded inbox. The best approach is to be creative while maintaining relevancy to the content of your email.

2. Who It is From -For those with a name brand like Apple, you should use Apple in the From line rather than a person’s name that may be unknown to the email recipient. This is one of the most important aspects of getting your email opened. If someone doesn’t know the person that is sending the email, the chances of it being opened are much lower. Try something unusual or use your company name (unless your name is Steve Jobs – I imagine his emails get opened very frequently).

3. Less is Better -Don’t overflow with words that lose the recipient. Say it and get it over with. Less is always better. You can send another message later with more information. Remember the KISS approach (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

4. Images Turned Off -Often someone will not turn on images unless you have tweaked their interest. Therefore, make sure that the message will still be delivered without the images being turned on. This is usually a step in the review process if you use an email management system such as MailChimp. Don’t skip this step – make sure it works.

5. Provide the Ability to Control Frequency of Messages -If you grab the interest of a recipient, don’t spoil things by inundating them with messages every hour or every day. Give them a break and control the frequency and the types of messages so that they do not get upset and run to your competitor instead. This also lowers the risk of email recipients labeling your email as spam and reporting it as such. Send emails out just frequently enough that potential customers keep your name and products in mind; but don’t flood them with too many emails. Balance.

6. Personalization -Many times the personalization of the subject or even the body of the message generate more interest from the recipient.

7. Develop a Mobile Version – With the frequent use of Smartphones, you need to ensure that your message is viewable on a mobile device. Make sure folks can view your email properly from their smartphone or other portable Internet accessible devices. Email marketing has had ups and downs over the past few years. However, it’s an accepted method of marketing and will remain in use for many years to come. Hopefully these tips will help your email campaigns work their way through obstacles and help you get your emails opened and read.

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7 Tips for Better Email Marketing – A SPN Exclusive Article