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Archive for December, 2010
Dec. 31st 2010
Search engine marketing (SEM) is all about getting your website a top billing among the search engines. You would want people to find your website the first thing when they type the keywords related to your website content. People love updated content and they love content that is of some use to them. Hence, it may not be a useful strategy to be a jack of all trades. Instead, focus on mastering a niche area (for example, organic food stores in Arizona) and give the customers value for the effort they are taking. Do not forget to ensure that the content complies with the search engine requirements.
Let us take a look at some of the tips to do well with Search engine marketing (SEM):
Keep the content updated: The target audience would always like to have updated and related content. If you happen to create content on a niche area (for example, organic food), do keep adding tips and tricks, expert opinion and knowledge. Keep in mind that the information must not be provided for the sake of information but must cater to the needs of the target audience.
Have a robust affiliate program: Affiliate programs, if implemented successfully, can really earn you a handsome income. The key to having successful affiliate programs is to recruit affiliates with good credentials. The affiliates must have good websites with good content and that will attract the intended target audience to the website. You must also have in place a sound agreement with the affiliates and must have payment systems like pay-per-click.
Develop an e-mail marketing strategy: E-mail marketing, if properly implemented, has the potential to attract a lot of people to your websites. However, before you launch an e-mail marketing campaign, you must ensure that you are soliciting permission from the intended audience explicitly. Promotional e-mails and newsletters with promotional content work best when the intended audience really wants them. Also, do not keep mailing promotional stuff, you must also send information that adds value. Newsletters that carry tips and tricks, expert opinion can send the message that you are sincere and care for the target audience.
Create and update blogs: Blogs can be a great way to attract target audience to your website. The first step to blogging is to identify a niche area that you think you are good at. You can regularly contribute posts to the blogs on the specific niche area. What is great about the blogs is that your target audience can post their opinions and comments on the blogs. You can accordingly respond to the posts by the audience. Also, you can frequently update your blog. Once you begin to find acceptance as a knowledge expert among the target audience, traffic will steadily and thickly start to flow into your website. The key is to give usable and valuable content to the visitors on a regular basis.
However, you must choose the technique purely based on the unique situation of your business. All of the above models are time tested and proven and you need to pick the most suitable one.
Dec. 30th 2010
Internet marketing has been one of the most dynamic business models. Business strategies have constantly evolved and reinvented themselves based on market dynamics and consumer preferences.
The entrepreneurs have to constantly be on their toes in order to keep up with the pace. Every year brings along certain trends in the business, and 2010 has not been any different. 2010 will see some traditional techniques making a strong comeback. Social media (also known as web 2.0) will get stronger and more comprehensive, and users will have the facility of conducting video search.
Let us examine some of the hottest Internet marketing trends in 2010:
E-mail marketing is back with a bang: Experts in 2009 believed that e-mail marketing was going to flop. On the contrary, it is back with a bang-rejuvenated and re-modeled. The entrepreneur, however, must change the traditional e-mail marketing techniques. Bulk promotional e-mails are passÄ and tend to irritate and turn customers away. Personalized e-mails are in, and the entrepreneur needs to lay more emphasis on knowing the precise requirements of each customer and giving them as much value as they can.
Widget marketing is in: Widgets are being increasingly used by blogs and websites all over the world not only because of their business development capabilities, but also because of their user-friendly nature. Widgets are liked because they do not impose themselves on the user and deliver information in an easy-to-understand format.
Many entrepreneurs are enhancing their Facebook profiles with widgets that are installed with the help of Sprout Builder. In fact, widgets are touted to go beyond 2010 as an effective marketing tool. Obviously, this currently features among the most prominent Internet marketing strategies.
Video search marketing will get more comprehensive: Till now, video search capabilities were limited to Meta tags, descriptions, and titles. For example, if a user typed ‘organic tea benefits’ in the search bar, the search engine would display all available videos related to organic tea. Some of these videos may even contain the procedure to prepare organic tea, which the user is not really looking for. Video search marketing will get more precise and be able to interpret user requirements and search for suitable videos.
Social networking is going to get stronger: As tools like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace continue to make themselves more comprehensive and add more features, a great deal of Internet marketing efforts are going to get diverted toward social media. In fact, many freelancers all over the world have already been using social media to promote their businesses.
The key to doing well is to keep your Internet advertising strategies updated with current trends. Keep an eye on how the trends in 2010 do when the year 2011 comes by. Usually, some current trends get stronger and evolve, while others make way for new methods.
Dec. 29th 2010
Popunder ads, as empirical observations will testify, have been doing their bit to improve the business of big, mid-sized, and smaller entrepreneurs. Popunder advertisements are a popular promotional tool, and that is evident from its extensive use by reputed firms like Yahoo and New York Times.
The question is- can the popularity of this tool continue, or will it be taken over by something else in the dynamic and ever-changing world of the worldwide web?
The answer seems to lie in how well the technology evolves in the future to fulfill the demands of entrepreneurs via constant evolution and improvement.
To find a possible answer to the question of whether popunder ads have a future, it may be useful to examine the trends of various Internet marketing techniques. As pointed out earlier, the Internet is in a state of flux, and only the best technology survives.
The history of the worldwide web shows that many marketing techniques were introduced, and while some did exceptionally well, others either faded into oblivion or attained only partial success. What was so brilliant about the success stories, and what was so ordinary about the failures?
The programs that were immensely successful had a few common characteristics: firstly, these programs were backed by a sound business strategy; they had a revenue model, a detailed analysis of the target audience, alternative plans in case of original plan failures, and a deep understanding of the Internet.
Secondly, these programs had foreseen how the worldwide web was going to behave in the coming future, and had equipped entrepreneurs to such situations well. In other words, the basics were firmly in place.
On the other hand, the programs that failed showcased ordinary business plans of those who only wanted to get rich quickly. These programs were ill equipped to handle the dynamics of the Internet. These programs met with some early success, but their efforts fell flat in the long run.
Popunder marketing has done well with some big companies and has played a big role in increasing the profits of midsized and smaller entrepreneurs. This tool is already believed to be less intrusive and less aggressive than banners and pop-ups, and thus have a big role to play in directing traffic to merchant websites.
However, as stated earlier, the key would be to constantly evolve and build upon such tools, and most importantly, to fulfill the needs of entrepreneurs creatively in these changing times.
Dec. 28th 2010
The types of websites you choose for sending links to your website plays a critical role in determining how successful will your goal be-that of driving traffic to your website. There are millions of websites, and many will probably be happy to carry links to your website, but as an entrepreneur, you need to know whether links from the selected sites will serve your purpose.
When it comes to link building, there are multiple factors that you need to take care of. Traffic depends on the reputation of a website, because people instinctively rely more on reputed websites. As such, you need to be careful in selecting websites.
The following factors need to be taken into account while you are selecting websites for sending links:
Website relevance: You cannot select a website that gives information on sports equipments if your website gives information on heart diseases. You must choose websites that give information that is closely related to the content of your website. People will always consider these links as a conveyer of additional information and value. Thus, high intensity traffic is very likely.
Website reputation: As stated earlier, people instinctively rely more on reputed and established websites. Such websites must have a proven record of giving value to the target audience. These websites are sure to record substantial hits every day. People are most probably going to treat an additional link on these sites as an additional value giver.
Additionally, you can employ the following techniques to select the most appropriate website for sending links:
* Think of a few keywords that search engines may use to find and list your website. For example, if you own a sports equipment business, you could probably choose a keyword like ‘motorized treadmill’.
* Type the keywords on the search engine and see the kinds of websites that appear as search results. Obviously, the searched websites will be relevant to your website in terms of products and services.
* Think of these websites as your partners, and not competitors. Think that these websites could help you build links to your website.
* Visit the sites and see how they can provide links to your website.
* If you think that these sites can provide links, you must first ensure that they are not competitors. In fact, these sites must be carrying information that is closely related to your website content.
For example, if your website is on health equipments, then a site that gives information on losing weight will be relevant for your kind of website. The best part with this strategy is that the sites will probably be willing to provide links to your website, because that also adds value to their website. People are more likely to visit their sites when they know that a website offering information on sports equipments also points to a site that offers weight loss solutions.
The above methods of site selection may enable you save some effort on search engine optimization (SEO). Instead of spending time and money on search engine optimization (SEO), this could be an effective way of adding links to your site.
Dec. 27th 2010
Advertisement executives and entrepreneurs all over the world have been heaping praises on email marketing. Surveys point to the fact that this technique has been yielding one of the best returns on investment (ROI) to businesses and saving costs too.
In lieu of this observation, it is important to examine a few facts and figures related to email marketing and find out how effective it is as a promotional technique.
Hurwitz found out in a survey in 2009 that 46% of all small businesses in North America used email marketing, while 36% were keen on starting an email marketing campaign the following year. This proves the popularity of the technique with business houses that do not have a lot of capital.
Various surveys point to the fact that the popularity of the technique is not a flash in the pan, and that it is expected to grow bigger in the coming years. Veronis Suhler Stevenson’s annual survey in 2009 revealed that the business of email marketing will grow to $27.8 billion in 2013 from $11.9 billion in 2009. Also, other surveys point out that many smaller and medium sized firms are increasingly and aggressively planning to invest in this promotional medium.
Email marketing has been a great favorite among entrepreneurs during the recession- a time when cost cutting ruled the roost and entrepreneurs were looking to expand their businesses the cheaper way. A survey conducted in 2009 found that 58.5% of all entrepreneurs planned to increase their investment in email marketing during recession.
The technique has emerged as the top favorite of many entrepreneurs and other business houses because of its returns and effectiveness. The Marketing Outlook report of the CMO Council in 2009 observed that email marketing was among the top choices of entrepreneurs as a marketing strategy.
Entrepreneurs who were interviewed in this survey revealed that they planned to step up investments for email promotions. This is evident from the fact that spending for this medium is going to increase from $600 million to $700 million this year in the United States alone.
Obviously, email marketing is here to stay. However, entrepreneurs have got to constantly do their research and build upon this technique as online trends change and the business world evolves as well. Constant evolution and improvement is essential to overcome the inevitable challenges of newer technologies and ideas.
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Dec. 24th 2010
One of the principal goals of search engine optimization is top placement in the search engines, preferably #1. Getting it is not that easy, but one technique that provides a serious impact on your results is web directory submissions.
How can submitting your site to web directories get you a high page rank in the search engines? Let’s take a look…
Unlike search engines, directories organize links under categories and sub-categories. Today, most people use search engines to find the links they’re looking for, but the search engines use the web directories as essential referral systems, and here’s why.
There are two extremely important web directories, Yahoo! and DMOZ. When you submit to these directories, among others, a human reviewer actually visits your link and makes an assessment. When your link is approved and listed in the directory, search engines consider it an authoritative validation of your site and they add more value to your site.
When search engine spiders or robots crawl the Internet to obtain information, they start with web directories and then crawl all of the links in the directories first. As you can see, if you submit to the directories, the search engines will index your site much faster and place importance on your site that would take you so much longer had you not taken this step!
Here are a few more reasons to use web directory submissions as one of your SEO techniques:
One-way links: Search engines place importance on the number of inbound links to your site. With web directories you receive one-way inbound links – the most coveted of all links.
Targeted traffic: Web directories organize their links by topic, meaning that the traffic you receive from a directory is looking for exactly what you have to offer. Even if you inadvertently place your submission under the wrong category, chances are the human editor will correct your mistake.
Anchor text: When submitting to directories you are allowed to enter a site title that can contain your keywords. This generates SEO anchor text that assists in improving your search engine rankings.
Free listings: Most web directories offer free submissions. There are some that charge a high premium for adding your links but the majority are free.
As you can see, including web directory submissions as part of your SEO techniques can have a serious impact on your search engine results. The only downside is that they do take time – but the results are well worth your time and effort.
Dec. 23rd 2010
Writing press releases to many marketers is much the same as having a tooth pulled. They know it’s good for them, something they should do, but they just don’t want to.
Actually, press releases are a very beneficial marketing tool that and drive traffic to your website and assists with search engine optimization. Done properly, press releases can generate publicity that could equate to thousands of dollars in advertising costs.
Here are 10 powerful tips to make your press release stand out and bring you the recognition that will help your business:
1. Start With a Strong Headline: A compelling headline should make people take notice and encourage them to click through to read your release. You’ll have much more success if your headline conveys the overall message of the press release. Always include your keywords in the headline.
2. Present Your Hook: Your first paragraph is the “hook” that will secure the attention of the reader. Choose a few very important details and present your “news angle”. You can fill in supporting details later on in the release.
3. Newsworthy: A press releases should be a newsworthy item written as an announcement, not an advertisement.
4. Create an Inverted Pyramid; Contents of your release should be an inverted pyramid. The most important item should be first with each succeeding paragraph containing supporting information.
5. Don’t Lose Your Objectivity: Press releases are designed to be objective. They should be written in the third person and retain their objective point of view throughout.
6. Benefits Not Features: It is important that you stress benefits of your product or service not features. Provide concrete explanations, stressing time saved, money saved, etc.
7. Just the Facts: Avoid fluff and marketing messages. Focus on the facts. Your press release should present a news item in a factual way. You can, however, use quotations to convey promotional messages.
8. Use Targeted Keywords: Your content needs to be written for readers, but for SEO purposes, well placed keywords will assist in gaining higher search engine ranking.
9. Contact Details: Be sure to include your contact details in case the media wants to obtain additional details or has a question.
10. No Errors Please: It’s not a good thing when a reporter finds a factual or grammatical error. And it is definitely not professional. Be sure to dot your I’s and cross your T’s before sending in your news story.
Consider making press releases a part of your marketing plan to increase product exposure without incurring significant expense.
Dec. 21st 2010
What is Banner Marketing? You’ve seen all those banners of different shapes and sizes as you surf the net. They’re not there to spruce up web page; they are there specifically to get you to do something.
They all say, “click here”. Did you ever click on one? If you did you know the banner owners have an offer they want you to purchase. This is banner marketing in action.
When you click on a banner ad, it’s because a topic or offer intrigues you, and you become a “targeted customer”. That means that you are one of the most likely people to purchase a product. Why? Because you’re not there by chance, but because you are already interested.
Why would you use Banner Ads?
The main objective of banner marketing is to bring in traffic to the host website – and not just any traffic, but targeted traffic. One banner ad will display your advertisement on other websites thousands of times to targeted visitors.
Banner ads have been an effective form of Internet marketing since 1994, and are considered an excellent way to increase traffic, promote brand awareness, and generate sales.
How does it work?
An ad campaign is purchased on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) or on a cost per click (CPC) basis. Generally a CPC option is the best choice for someone with no previous experience in banner marketing. CPC enables you to have a fixed budget for a guaranteed number of clicks.
For more experienced marketers that have achieved a high click through rate in previous campaigns, CPM might be a more cost effective approach.
You can set up your campaign to target specific counties or regions, or to fit a targeted audience for specific products or services. There are many publishing networks available to choose from and each offers several levels of targeting.
What determines a successful Campaign?
Banner advertising success is determined by the click-through, rate of click-through, page views and cost per sale. It’s easy to measure these actions with generated reports provided by your network. This information can help keep you on track and is a valuable tool for future campaigns.
The key to an effective campaign is to take the time to research well and to plan carefully.
Banner marketing remains one of the Internet’s best marketing tools and offers a quick, cost effective way to impact a large audience – and it’s a perfect marketing vehicle for advertising any product or service.
Dec. 20th 2010
Many marketers shy away from writing articles because they don’t believe they write well enough or simply because they don’t have the time. And then there’s the problem of submitting them to directories. It’s just all so time consuming, so they wonder Is article submission really worth it? Will I lose out if I don’t do it?
The answer is yes!
Whether you write your own articles or have them ghostwritten, simply placing them on your website doesn’t give you much exposure unless you have a very high traffic site. And even then, getting outside exposure brings in more potential customers, and that’s what it’s all about.
Let’s take a look at what article submission can mean for your business…
Free Advertising: There are few things in business that you can do for free and get a large return from, and article marketing is one of them. When you submit articles to directories, feeds, other blogs, etc. you’re advertising yourself, your business and your products, all in one package.
Branding and Credibility: Providing needed information about your niche or niche products, brands you as an expert in your field. It boosts your credibility and builds trust with your readers.
Build Traffic: Article distribution will drive traffic to your website. Well-written articles will make readers want to learn more about your products and services.
Generate Sales: Using your informative article as a lead-in and your resource box as your call to action is an easy way to generate sales.
Backlinks: Article distribution will bring in the coveted backlinks from web owners who believe your information is worth telling their readers about.
Search Engine Ranking: Adding backlinks to your site via your articles will boost your search engine ranking. Not only that, if you’ve used your keywords properly the article itself will garner a high PR in the search engines.
Viral Marketing: Submitting to RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can bring you an amazing amount of traffic. The power of RSS can bring you a flood of site visitors in a heartbeat.
I’m sure you can see by now that article submission is really worth it! Your articles can easily be viewed by thousands on a continual basis. Most directories do not take down articles so they are they for all time!
If you still believe that it’s too much trouble for you to do yourself, there are many services across the Internet who will write and submit articles for you – so don’t pass this opportunity by.
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Dec. 17th 2010
Search engine marketing (SEM) is one of the most important milestones in the online marketing and has really re-defined the ways business is conducted all over the world. Search engine marketing (SEM) has in fact added another dimension or an option that is innovative and novel. The innovative concept has also given remarkable returns on investment (RoI) to business houses-big, medium and small all over the world. However, going by the basic rule of the World Wide Web, everything must change and Search engine marketing (SEM) will not be any different. The experts have done a lot of crystal ball gazing and have found that that beyond 2009, the world of Search engine marketing (SEM) will not really be the same anymore. The findings are mixed and let us take a look at the forecasts:
Search engine marketing (SEM), as the experts say, will continue to do well but may not be able to sustain the frenetic pace of the yesteryears. The experts happily found that the entrepreneurs and the advertisers have been busier than ever with the technology but the projected growth rate in revenue all over the world has been dipping just a bit. While the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization – SEMPO projected revenue of $15.7 million in 2008, the actual revenue was close to $11 million. In fact, 2008 could mark the time when Search engine marketing (SEM) started to slow down.
The Internet marketers all over the world will be in for a huge change in how they have been presenting content to the world. The immediate future is going to see a proliferation of different gadgets that will be used to access Internet. People will be moving to mobile phones and other kinds of devices a lot more than they did in the past and the advertisers will need to customize content presentation so that they are compatible with these gadgets. About 6.89 million iPhones were sold in the quarter 3 of 2008 and with the kind of power an iPhone packs; Internet marketer s will have their plates full in customizing the content.
Obviously, the trend is suggesting that while the past methods in Search engine marketing (SEM) may have done well, it may be the time when these methods gradually pave the way for other techniques. The experts have pointed out that while Search engine marketing (SEM) is going to be around for a long time, the business houses must bring in enough innovation and adapt with times to survive and thrive. The future depends on how well the Internet marketers are able to customize their content based on the various devices used to access Internet.
Obviously, Search engine marketing (SEM) has been following the traditional rule of the World Wide Web where change is the only constant. The search engine optimization and marketing is a concept that is inherently resilient. It will keep changing and adapting with changing customer preferences and will throw new challenges at the Internet marketer.
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