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Archive for September, 2010
Sep. 30th 2010
In this post, we look at some evergreen website marketing tips that are likely to hold good and remain true, for an indefinite amount of time.
Besides your textual content, pay heed to the accompanying media as well
On our blogs, websites, etc. we often end up paying an enormous amount of time and attention to the textual content and yet end up ignoring the accompanying media. Bear in mind the fact that pictures that go along with your text have their own tags and meta tags that you can work with and modify, in order to align them with the SEO optimized content. Further, these pictures are also in turn indexed by the search engines, which also contribute towards better Page Ranking. Same is the case with videos, whether on your own website or blog, as well as on video sharing platforms such as YouTube. So make sure that you pay adequate heed and attention to these as well.
Be active!
An inactive Internet marketer is rarely a successful one! So make sure that you are active on the websites and other tools that you use to market your website. For instance, if you are using article marketing to market your website, make sure that you upload fresh content on article directories as well as your own website, on a frequent basis. In fact, the search engines just love fresh content! Further, if you use forums to market yourself and your wares, make sure that you are active on these forums, posting comments and other responses, every now and then.
Consider traditional media if budget permits
In the context of website marketing, you should never completely forgo traditional media. This is especially true if the scale of your venture is big, whether at a local, national or global level. Of course, you also need to consider budgetary constraints or limitations that you might be having to work within; that said, if they do permit, then definitely pay heed to the possibility of advertising and marketing on traditional media platforms such as television or print; remember that these platforms still command enormous viewership and readership respectively, an audience which you would not want to completely miss out on.
Together, these website marketing tips should work wonders for you in the long run; make sure you pay heed to them and implement them as often as possible.
Sep. 29th 2010
Redirected targeted traffic can be an excellent way to grow traffic to your website exponentially, without having to incur any major costs or efforts.
In case you are wondering what redirected targeted traffic really is, well it essentially refers to traffic which is actually meant for another website or websites, which is intuitively targeted towards your own website. Mind you, this is not a black hat SEO technique; it is perfectly legal and permissible, in fact to a large extent, advisable, wherever and whenever possible.
Numerous situations make the facet of redirected targeted traffic possible. Say for instance, there is an existing website whose name is eerily similar to yours, perhaps with a difference of just a character or two, or in another case where the other website and yours are both pronounced alike. In both these situations, you can actually have the website registrar to redirect traffic that is coming its way, on to your website of course for a fee, albeit small.
Another instance where traffic is redirected as mentioned above is when the original website is either defunct or the domain has changed; in a lot of such cases, the original website had been drawing significant traffic to it; this gives web registrars and other concerned entities the perfect opportunity to capitalize on the significant traffic that those sites had already been drawing, in order to redirect it towards sites such as yours. For instance, if you have a site where you are selling clothes for children and there is another website which also used to sell kids wear and had significant traffic coming to it, but somehow happens to be defunct now, then web registrars can successfully divert that traffic on to your website.
Such an action will only be a win-win situation for everyone; defunct sites that have been lying idle and adding no value, will suddenly emerge to be money spinners by themselves, without as much as being in existence! This point also clearly showcases the long term implications and importance of building traffic for your website; remember that once you are able to do so and establish a robust name for your web entity, it will continue to draw traffic to itself, even if it ceases to exist.
Clearly, redirected targeted traffic has huge implications for Internet marketers and thus, every one of their ilk should actively explore any and every such opportunity.
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Sep. 28th 2010
A link building service works towards maximizing the links of your business, on the Internet. By working intuitively and deploying a wide variety of tools and techniques, these link building firms are well entrenched to give you the large number of web links that you have been seeking for long, for your business.
That said, there are link building firms, dime a dozen. Some honest and scrupulous, majority not even close to being so. Thus, it becomes a clear case of you having the indefatigable power and ability to separate the wheat from the chaff, and contract top quality firms for your requirement.
In this regard, a lot of businesses have a tough time choosing between local and international providers of SEO services. And the primary reason for looking overseas is the cost factor, especially in the case of destinations such as India where you can obtain very high quality services, at a fraction of the cost that you would be paying domestic firms in the United States. That said, remember that a lot of these firms are run by individuals not very well fluent or conversant with the English language; communication with these entities could end up proving to be a challenge for you. At the same time, remember that this aspect is not always true; destinations such as India in fact have some of the finest speakers and proponents of the English language.
Thus, it again boils down to a case of due diligence that you must indulge in, to the max. Remember that no generalities hold true in this space; a domestic firm might just prove to be cheaper than an international one; a domestic firm might prove to be poor in terms of the quality of output and the results achieved than an international one
and vice versa may be true just as well!
Ultimately, it would be about applying your common sense and choosing a vendor very carefully. In this regard, you might look at the credentials of the firm(s) you are actively considering, for prior link building service they have provided for other clients. This way, you will get a very good idea of their overall track record. Also, do consider some of the online platforms where you can post your requirement and have individuals and firms from around the world, bidding on the same. This large pool of talent can help you make the most informed choice.
Sep. 27th 2010
When it comes to advertising over email, businesses often face a difficult choice in terms of whether to painstakingly send out emails to individual recipients, one by one, or to send out a virtual blast of emails, using email blast advertising. While in the past, the latter approach was largely frowned upon since there was no degree of personalization in emails sent that way, whereby the responses to such emails also tended to be rather damp, todays smart email blasting software programs have ensured that emails sent by them are not necessarily perceived by recipients as spam; in fact, in a lot of cases, the recipients do not even come to know that the emails have come their way, by way of a virtual blast of mails sent out together.
Essentially, the choice between the two approaches has a lot to do with the size of the mailing list as well as the time and labor available at hand, versus the cost of deploying email blasting software. If your mailing list is virtually HUGE whereby it will probably take you weeks to send out emails to individual recipients one by one, then it makes a lot of sense that you deploy an email blasting platform that will send out all your emails in a short time frame.
In this regard, it is essential that you make your choice of email blasting program very wisely. Ideally, it should be one that is smart enough to not let recipients know that the emails they are receiving have actually been sent out to multiple recipients. This is usually done through robust mailing lists prepared in spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel whereby the email blasting software is able to pick out first names with ease and then send out every email even in a blast, with personalized salutations fort every recipient.
That said, if the cost of deploying the email blasting program is HUGE, or you do not have a very high volume of emails to be sent out, accompanied by the fact that you have adequate manpower for sending out emails individually, then you would probably be better off sending them one by one and not through a blasting program.
Finally, remember that if the blasting programs as deployed in various email blast advertising campaigns have smartened up, so have the email programs at the recipients end; they can easily detect any email that has come about as a result of a blast campaign, which in turn might lead to the mail being filtered off as spam and not being able to reach the recipient in the very first place. Thus in summation, unless really necessary, consider avoiding all email blast advertising campaigns.
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Sep. 24th 2010
Do you submit to Internet directories only because your next-door neighbor has recommended you to do so? Then this article is just right for you where we inform and advise you on the significance of Internet directory submission and how it can make a major, positive difference to your business.
The primary purpose of Internet directory submission is the acquisition of quality, in bound or back links to your website. Now, in case you are wondering as to why you need these back links in the very first place, well the reason is these back links improve the Page Rank of your website, which is reflected in the form of better rankings on search engines such as Google. In this regard, it is immensely important that you pay heed to the quality and type of Internet directories that you submit your website to. For instance, DMOZ and Yahoo! are widely regarded as high quality directories. While Google itself regards DMOZ very highly, the Yahoo! directory is in fact referred to by Yahoo! itself while throwing up its search results on a search query.
In addition to obtaining these back links which will heighten your ranking on the search engines, a presence on quality directories also ensures that the traffic to your site increases exponentially; as a result of visitors to these directories who look up your site there and then directly land up on your website. That is the reason you must not only have a presence on quality Internet directories like the aforementioned, the qualities/value adds of your business should clearly be spelt out there. For instance, if you know for certain that you own the best pizzeria in town which also happens to be the most popular, make sure this aspect is very well reflected in your listing on the directories. When visitors know that you are the best in business, when it comes to what they are looking for, naturally they would choose to come to you and not go to others.
With regard to the debate over free and paid Internet directory submission, it is actually a tough choice. For instance, a paid Yahoo! directory listing could set you back by as much as 300 dollars per annum and yet it will also get you immense benefits. Considering the cost though, you might want to explore other directories which charge considerably less and yet do a great job in terms of getting you a listing as well as proving to be a quality back link.
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Sep. 23rd 2010
Have you ever wondered that even though the media in general has practically no dearth of press releases coming to it, eventually only a select few of those get published? What is in those shortlisted press releases that make them stand out whereby the media too deems them newsworthy and actually publishes them? Are there some thumb rules that one can keep in mind, while writing press releases, in order to assure better chances of publication and positive reception?
Indeed, there are.
To start with, let us consider the aspect of a press releases headline. Even though time and again, this aspect has been touched upon by numerous press release experts, when it comes to writing the same, businesses and PR agencies alike, often miss the mark by a fair margin. You only need to keep some basic guidelines in mind, which will ensure your press release has what is considered to be a strong headline:
* The headline MUST be attention grabbing. It must compel readers to read through the entire release or article. Headlines that assure significant benefits to readers or are in the form of listings such as Top 10 ways to
are usually great attention grabbers.
* The headline must very well sum up the contents of the press release. In a very few words, it must be able to mention all that the press release talks about.
* It must be brief. Long winding headings are neither desirable nor grab attention from readers.
* It must relate to the contents of the press release. This is obvious. Yet you would probably be shocked by the number of releases we have ourselves seen wherein the headline and the body of the release have virtually no connection with each other! Remember that this way, you might fool readers once or a couple of times, but eventually they will only be turned off by the information you are purporting to provide them and choose to completely ignore all future press releases from you.
Besides the heading itself, there are numerous other factors that go onto making what is considered an effective press release. For instance, the newsworthiness of a release is something that you too as its proponent, must think about. Remember that what is newsworthy to you, may not be newsworthy to the media. Also consider factors such as the timing of the release. As a hypothetical example, when the entire country is going through a national bereavement, perhaps as a result of a large-scale terrorist attack on it, it really isnt the best time for you to consider putting out a press release on something very cheerful, whatever it may be. These are subtle aspects that you may not find mentioned commonly in any guide on writing press releases, so remember that you read them here first!
Sep. 22nd 2010
While businesses today have adequately realized the vast benefits that blogs have to offer, a lot of them get intimidated by the aspect of blog creation. This is particularly true in the case of small businesses, especially the home based ones, which are either concerned about the costs of creating a blog or the efforts required in doing so. Among the various aspects involved, many businesses are especially concerned about the technical talent that they feel is essential to creating blogs one that they know they do not possess.
If you too are a business owner who is contemplating a blog for your business, then it is time you rid yourself of all concerns with regard to technical prowess, etc., as you really do not need any! Instead, you must consider looking up blogging platforms such as Googles Blogger or WordPress, which offer all the necessary inputs required to have a blog up and running, in minutes!
You really do not need any technical skills or knowhow at all. Fire up any of these sites Blogger.com or WordPress.com and you will find a plethora of readymade themes that you can choose for your blog. Once the structure and design of the blog is in place, it is simply about getting the content together and putting it all up on the blog.
Unfortunately, a lot of small businesses find the aspect of content creation for their blog, a major challenge as well. That is essentially because most of them do not have too many employees; in some instances, it is in fact a case of a one-man army!! Yet, there is little reason to fret in such a scenario as well. Today you have online platforms galore where you can hire a highly skilled, temporary worker on a contractual, freelance basis, to create the requisite content for you. While quality will never be an issue, provided you take utmost care in hiring the right candidate, you will get the work done in a jiffy, that too at abysmally low costs.
It is in the light of all these aspects that blog creation has simply ceased to be a cause for concern, for most businesses. If you too are contemplating a blog for your business, go ahead and make the most of the tools and platforms enlisted above; life would never have felt so truly beautiful!
Sep. 21st 2010
The fact that banner advertising on the Internet is rising by leaps and bounds is pretty much known to all those who spend even a little time in cyberspace. That said, there are banner ads that work, and those that dont; there are banner advertising campaigns that are a mega-success while there are others that are gigantic failures. Why this extreme nature of success or failure, as far as banner advertising is concerned? Are there some secrets to banner creation, which is not known to all?
Well, the fact is that banner advertising, like any other advertising, does involve adequate investment of the mental faculties. And the gargantuan failures as mentioned above are usually those who havent invested adequate thought to the way their banner ads are conceived and designed.
In this regard, this post delves with the aspect of a Call to Action which is often missing in numerous banner ads, which in turn results in the entire banner advertising campaign to end up being a complete failure.
What exactly are we referring to, when we say Call to Action?
It is basically an initiative that the viewer is expected to take upon seeing the banner ad. It could take just about any form, such as Click to know more or Rollover to read further or You are just a click away from
and so on.
Perhaps you do get the drift
Surprisingly, a lot of advertisers out there simply do not!!
So, what they create are banner ads that are not only static in terms of their visual appeal, they are completely nonchalant as far as evoking a reaction from the viewer is concerned. In fact, viewers are often left confused about the very purpose of the ad that they are witnessing and therefore, obviously do not take any action which the advertiser may otherwise have conjured up in his or her mind.
Now that we have forewarned you about this phenomenon, as an Internet advertiser, make sure you do not make the same mistake. Else, you too will land up in the undesirable Hall of Shame that saw Internet advertisers first invest hundreds and thousands of dollars into their banner advertising campaign, without any serious thought being given to intelligent banner creation, only to find themselves biting the dust!
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Sep. 20th 2010
While article marketing by itself is certainly not passé; in fact on the contrary, it is pretty much the in thing, a new fad that is fast catching up as well as surely here to stay, is video article marketing. Wait a minute
isnt an article textual communication while a video is representative of audio visual communication? Undoubtedly that is true, but it is also true that the twain can in fact meet!
Essentially, in the case of video article marketing, you take an article and create a video out of it that transforms its impact 360 degrees in the affirmative direction! And while it may seem to you that technical prowess is a must for creating videos based on articles; that really arent true at all.
Try it for yourself and you will see firsthand how easy it is to make videos based on articles.
Essentially, what you can do is once you have written out the article, rehearse it thoroughly in your mind and then record yourself on a video (your computers webcam will work just fine for the job!) wherein you are spelling out the succinct points of the article. That done, you can simply upload the finished product on to video sharing sites such as YouTube
and let the magic of explosive traffic unfurl!
There are various other ways in which you can indulge in video article marketing as well. For instance, you can choose to record only an audio rendering of the article and then have it play in the background, while you run visuals in the foreground that spell out all that you are talking about. Say for instance, you have written an article on the steps to writing an effective press release. Once written, you could record the audio of your narration of the article. Then you could have visuals play out those very steps that you have enlisted in your article. In this endeavor, software such as Camtasia come truly handy; they showcase your screen very effectively and also capture the movements of your mouse pointer in such a manner that viewers can follow all that is happening on-screen, without a hitch.
In case you are wondering, why videos in the very first place, well it is simply because they witness explosive traffic to themselves. If you think about it from a common sense perspective, it is much easier on the eyes and on the mind to view a video than to read through an article. No wonder, online videos manage to notch up humungous viewership numbers for themselves. Now, wouldnt you want such a scenario, for your own articles, by deploying video article marketing?
Sep. 17th 2010
When businesses look to market themselves online for the first time, often they make the rather costly mistake of focusing on a singular or very few online marketing tools and platforms. By doing so, the results of their efforts, also turn out to be sketchy. That is the reason; it is always advised to broaden ones horizon in favour of diverse online marketing tools and platforms.
Take for instance, the Internet advertising technique of PPC or Pay-Per-Click wherein you pay for every click visitors make on the links through which you have advertised your business. While PPC remains one of the best online marketing tools, that gets the desired results within a reasonably short time frame, remember that every click costs you. Thus when the clicks are plenty, your outflows also increase significantly. Considering the fact that there are numerous online promotion techniques whereby you can actually promote your business on the Internet for FREE, PPC does turn out to be a significantly expensive proposition.
At another extreme, you might have businesses that focus on article marketing alone, for promoting themselves; by doing so, these businesses are focusing solely on readers of articles on niche topics which members of the general public may have no interest for. Thus, these businesses would end up failing to make an impression with the wider audience. It is for this reason that if you are looking to establish a broad based presence on the Internet, you cannot afford to rely on article marketing alone, for promotional purposes.
Yet another promotional tool that has caught on in a big way in recent years is that of social marketing networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Agreed that these sites witness enormous amount of traffic; yet, if you are to solely rely on these platforms for marketing your business, you would again be restricting the overall populace to which your business could be showcased.
Therefore, in conclusion, what we find is that focusing on just one or a few online marketing tools and platforms can only prove detrimental to the overall promotional prospects that you are hoping to gain out of your efforts. So, if you are out to capture ever growing numbers of visitors to your website as well as higher rankings on the search engines, then do consider multiple online marketing tools and platforms. This is one mix you would certainly not want to miss!
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