Marketing Bots

How to Become an Expert in Any Field

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:05:00 +0000

Did you know that you can become an expert in your field by mastering a few simple rules? Most people think that it takes years and years to master these rules and that they are very difficult and time consuming. If you will just devote some time and energy into something you are already passionate about, your level of expertise skyrockets faster than you ever could have ever imagined. Here are just several ways to become an expert in your field:

Study what others in your field have done: See exactly what they did to become successful and model them. Read their autobiography or if they have videos of themselves, study those. If they have written books, articles etc., read what they've written about. If they suggest a book, read that book. If they talk about their mentor or mentoring in general, study that. If you study several people, look for similarities. See if you contact an "expert" and learn from them or if they have mentoring programs.

Study the subject / field you want to become an expert in: Do this in great detail and take your time to learn it thoroughly. You want to know what you're talking about and you want to sound confident when speaking to others, especially if you want to be a consultant or coach. Find different methods and techniques that others may not have found or used, then expose those methods.

Do something to make yourself stand apart from others in your field: Let's say the "experts" in your field only use a certain method for bringing in people to a program. Just like what is stated above, can you use a different method and be just as successful? Could you tweak their method or use multiple methods at the same time? Find something you are comfortable doing that sets you apart from everyone else and do it.

Write or speak about your knowledge and expertise: You'll earn more respect and trust from people by doing this than just trying to sell them something. When you offer advice or help solve people's problems and do it with confidence, people will look at you as someone with authority and know how. Practice this method if needed, until you feel comfortable with it then it will come naturally.

Brand yourself as the expert: Be the goto guy or gal on your team or organization. When you know your "stuff" people will come to you. You no longer have to go out and try to bring people in. People will come to you and usually bring others. Let them know you can help them and that you are available to help whenever they need it.

You have just learn some simple and inexpensive ways in becoming an expert in your field. If you look closely at these methods you will find that most of what it takes to become an expert is only your time and your willingness to learn. By simply investing a mere 30 to 60 minutes a day, you can master these skills quickly and they will last you a lifetime.

About the Author

Carmen Stevenson is an author and a founding member of a brand new wealth building company, dedicated in helping people become successful. Get your FREE DVD That Reveals How You Can Become a Top Earner in YOUR Network Marketing or MLM Program. www.createarecruitingexpolsion.com

Ebay-Newbie: Selling Tips On How To Reap The Rewards

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:05:00 +0000

by Dave Sherva

Successful Ebay Sellers are reaping in the rewards and changing their lives for the better and it is all thanks to the Ebay business opportunity. This is a risk free opportunity given freely by the world`s biggest online market in helping people to make extra cash while servicing the needs of others at the same time. Have you finalized your plans on becoming and Ebay seller - is your mind made up to earn a steady income in your spare time or heaven forbid if it is to be a full time business endeavour then the rewards are greater than great.

If you are armed with the weapon of knowledge then you have a great chance in following in the footsteps of the already Successful Ebay Sellers. The secret weapon behind most successful stories on Ebay entrepreneurs is how they conducted their homework - where they found through research that the way to make money on Ebay was to know what product to sell.

Your Ebay selling business venture can be built to maximum heights just by knowing what to sell and the best way to sell them. If you have a passion about a project in a certain field then consider selling products relating to that line. This will go in your favour because of your experience on the product thus making sales a lot easier. Your passion towards whatever you are selling will shine through and come across to your customer that you know your onions. Because of your familiarity on the subject you can answer all questions from curious customers. Do your sums and check for product costs as in - initial layout prices for items, repair work - shipping and restoration?

If dealing in bulk then find a dry storage space to keep stock safe from accidental breakage, damp or damage. Remember when a sale has gone through and the customer is happy to make a purchase - recap on the expenses involved like postage and shipping if the item is to be sent further a field.

Study which product is ongoing in demand - remember some products may have a sell by date where the demand is not so popular after a certain period of time. Products which are replaced by newer versions should be given a lot of thought. More recent models leave whatever they replaced as old stock. (People still buy old stock)

Successful Ebay Sellers take into account seasonal items like clothing, e.g. winter months then it is fur coats and summer it could be a range of sun protection cream and beachwear. Ebay sellers starting out should spring clean the house - this may prove a likely source to find the best products to sell on eBay. Most Ebay sales people may have started this way by selling unwanted items in the home. What you may have thought was useless maybe sought after by others, remember ones mans trash is another mans treasure.

Buy yourself a little run a round van and go door to door asking for any unwanted items. This way you may pick up re-saleable goods while at the same time removed a person`s unwanted clutter. If this way of doing business is not your style then go through other channels like flea markets or garage sales.

Wholesalers will be crying out for entrepreneurs like yourself to move old stock or clearance items - do your home work and negotiate good prices. To be a success in any business venture you need the right information - wrong advice can cost you dearly. Tips for success in your Ebay business below. One of the best tips is to conduct your business and sell yourself in a proffessional manner and by doing this your customers will keep coming back.

About the Author

Selling Tips On How To Reap The Rewards!

7 Infallible Rules of Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:05:00 +0000

by Troy White

The other day here in Calgary where I live, I was out walking my dog and noticed a Parking Officer giving my neighbour a fine for having his camping trailer parked on the street. What was the mistake this friend of mine made?

Either he didn't know the laws around parking a trailer on the street for extended periods of time, or he was ignoring it.

While it only cost him $150 in fines, if you don't know the rules (or ignore them) in business it's far costlier. On the other hand, if you stick to the following basic rules of marketing, you'll avoid losing money, and instead be on the road to success.

Just follow these 7 rules of small business marketing:

1) It's not your brand or your logo that sells; it's solving a problem for your customer. Most small businesses invest thousands on their professional "look" without any thought (or investment) in how they can help solve their customers' problems. If you think about the WIIFM (what's in it for me) rule for marketing... you can see why a logo means little to your customers.

Help them solve a nagging problem... and you have a friend for life.

2) To get a prospect to become a buyer, use a compelling offer. The first thing you need is an in-depth understanding of what exactly your prospect wants. Guessing doesn't work in the marketing world. Then make sure the targeted offer is front and center in your promotions.

Headlines are perfect to show them you understand their innermost wants, needs and desires. Next, make sure you cover all the intimate details and benefits they get with their offer. Show them ample amounts of proof that you deliver what you promise, and that others in their shoes got the results you promise.

Give them a solid reason to act right now... and guarantee that your product or service will deliver. The longer the guarantee the more compelling the offer. Make it so compelling that there is literally no risk on their side, you carry the risk and must deliver or they get their money back.

3) Each marketing campaigns you launch needs a minimum of 3 steps to succeed. When communicating with your clients and prospects, you must send at least 3 different pieces to them in order to call it a properly designed campaign. In the day of email spam, deliverability issues, and the sheer volume of competition in your inbox (or mailbox)... you need to be consistent in your communication to get them to read it.

Each of the messages can and should cover one of the main benefits you are offering. Having multiple messages also allows you to cover off multiple objections you get from prospects. Last, people need reassurance and seeing different points of view on your offer if a great way to drop their buyers resistance that can cost you the sale.

4) Avoid cutesy sayings and vague one-liners that say and do nothing that take you closer to goal #1. Again, a cute radio ad is useless if it doesn't generate you leads or make you money. Sometimes people get lucky and find a great tag line, but that alone won't make you successful. You must back it up with solid marketing and exposure to those prospects that are most likely to buy.

5) Personal marketing is far more powerful than impersonal marketing. Don't hide the fact that you are a real live person, like most business owners do. They try and mask the size of their company... pretending to be a big corporate behemoth. Putting your face and personality front and center in all your marketing will do more for your sales than anything else you do.

6) Effective advertising is interruptive. It stops your ideal customer in their tracks and literally forces them to start reading your materials. Be realistic to yourself here... the ads you run, the website you have: do they stop your ideal prospect in their tracks and literally force them to read more on what you are doing?

7) Tracking your advertising campaigns is the only way to know whether it is working, or not. Most business owners do not understand where, exactly, their leads come from. Or at which point in the sales cycle does a prospect typically turn to a buyer. Or which ad version works best... or in which paper, on which site, etc. If you don't track your marketing effort you have no clue what is working or not... so how can you keep doing what is working and stop doing what isn't? You can't! Testing and measuring is the only way.

You know at least 7 rules to keep you safe and avoid expensive mistakes. Use the above 7 marketing rules to keep your business safe and headed where you want to go.

Troy White "Turning Your Words Into Wealth"

About the Author

Troy White, The Marketing Results Mentor and Expert Copywriter helps clients achieve HUGE growth surges in their business in very short periods of time. He is a very sought after marketer and advertising specialist who has helped launch some of the world's most profitable marketing systems. For more info visit White's site at http://www.SmallBusinessCopywriter.com or sign up for his Free Cash Flow Surge Newsletter at http://www.CashFlowSurges.com

3 Simple Ways to Increase Site Traffic

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:05:00 +0000

by Alex Marco

Are you working tirelessly to drive traffic to your site but still do not see any decent result? Frustrated and disappointed? Its understandable. Its' probably not your fault anyway. You most likely have been following the wrong approach all these while. Read on to find out what methods of traffic generation you should do to finally increase your site traffic today.

First, article marketing. Many people dismiss article marketing as no longer effective. Well the opposite is true. It continues to be one of the most effective traffic generation method today. The only situation when article marketing don't work is when you are spinning content and rewriting it haphazardly. As long as you continue to write quality content that is being addressed to a single reader, you will see result. Readers will be tempted to visit your site after reading your quality articles. The effect of this will soon multiply and so is the increase in your site traffic.

Secondly, have you considered using video marketing to generate traffic to your site? If you haven't then now is the time to do so. More and more internet users are flocking to video sites to catch their favorite videos nowadays. And these people could easily be your site visitors. You are simply losing too much if you are not taking advantage of video marketing today. In terms of technical aspect, you don't need to worry because there are many software around to help you create a video. As for ideas, simply head to popular sites like Youtube to get started. Make use of of videos and soon you will be attracting droves of visitors to your site.

And thirdly, you should use social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to drive traffic to your site. Why? This method may be slower in generating result but the benefits is profound. Not only will you attract people to your site but you are also able to increase your web presence and authority as well, if done right. Social networking also enables you to interact with your visitors and customers, further increasing trust and your accessibility to them. So why not use it?

So if you are still struggling to increase site traffic today, do these 3 traffic generation methods and do it well. Do not give up and I'm pretty sure you won't be struggling for long. Your site traffic will be something that you are proud of.

About the Author

Looking to find the best advice on how to increase site traffic? Then visit http://TrafficPullingTips.com today to obtain more than 100 proven time-tested tips on how to increase website traffic for you.

Earn More Money With Back-end Offers

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:05:00 +0000

by Gary David

There are many different ways to create a back-end system, from using private label content to develop high quality products that compliment your primary offer, to offering additional access to membership sites or service features that enhance a customer's purchase.

An upsell that could be offered before the payment would provide customers with the option of upgrading their initial purchase so that they could take advantage of the product's full benefits.

When you create your back-end products, it doesn't have to be difficult, just create a second product that compliments your first product. It will dramatically increase your online sales, considering the fact that creating your back-end funnel requires no further customer acquisition costs, as you are selling to the same customer base that has already purchased your product before.

Another easy way to create a back-end product for your upsell, is to aqcuire PLR or Private Label Rights content. You can do whatever you want to a PLR content, change the graphics, put your name as the author, edit some words to fit your writing style. By using PLR content, you can have your own product immediately, just make sure to deliver quality product and change some part of it so it will look like as your own product.

If you fail to develop your back-end system, you are leaving a lot of money on the table and a lot of lost sales. Regardless of what your niche market or the price of your info product, if don't take advantage of the opportunity to upsell or resell to an existing customer base, you are literally leaving money on the table.

Example:

If you are selling e-book via the Clickbank marketplace, and you priced your e-book at $17, and you advertised your e-book that costs you $100, which yielded 10 customers. Your gross profit would be $170 ($17 X 10 customers) - while your net profit would only be $70 ($100 in advertising), based on those 10 customers and the costs to actually acquire them (advertising). However, if you offer these 10 customers with a backend product or service, which sells for $97, and only 30% of these customers accept it, you will generate another $291($97 X 3 customers) in income.

If you did not apply the 'backend' concept, your net profit would only have been $70 for 10 customers. Even in small numbers, a backend system will dramatically increase your overall income.

The backend concept can really help you to explode your profit margin quickly and easily. All you have to do is to supply to your existing customers with additional product offers that are relevant to your primary product and make more money on a consistent basis from the same customer base. It's as simple as that.

About the Author

Discover how you can profit from PLR products, increase your online sales, explode your affiliate commissions, and create back-end products and unlimited number of products at www.PLRContentRiches.com.

Splash Page Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:05:00 +0000

by Maurice Petersen

Splash pages play are important in your affiliate marketing program. Anyone responding to an marketing message whether an email, pay per click or ezine ad etc. will normally be directed to a splash age. This concept started when marketers began building their mailing list. In an effort to maintain contact with a visitor for follow up messages a mailing list was essential.

Although the main use of a splash page is to capture names and email address some marketers are adding additional functionality to the page. The best way to get a feel of how splash pages can be used is to look closely at the splash pages used by the marketers in the ezine advertising or respond to some cpc ads. If I listed several URL,s to several splash pages it would be considered advertising and I probably could not get this article published.

Generally the splash page will offer some kind of incentive in exchange for your contact information. People are becoming increasingly reluctant to turn loose of their contact information and incentives of high perceived value in some cases become quite compelling. In fact incentives to make the incentive offered more attractive are at times used. Often time restraints are placed on the incentive like -be sure and obtain your free ebook by May 1st -. This encourages us not think about it for a period of time,but, to act now. Maybe you will see -don't miss out I only have 75 of these available-. This introduces the concept of scarcity which motivates us to take action before it is to late.

Some marketers use a splash page to promote other offers or other sites. In my way of thinking another offer or another URL could cause people to click away from your splash page and significantly reduce the chance of capturing their contact information. Once the contact information is captured then other offers and sites can be introduced. Another way to introduce another offer is direct them to another offer site or A One Time Offer Site when the submit button is clicked on the splash page. The main consideration is to obtain mailing list information.

A nice looking and well presented splash page is a plus. Don't clutter up the page with several graphics. It's a good idea to show an image of the ebook, report or soft ware being used as an incentive. Keep the content form as the central focus of the page. If your discussion regarding the incentive offered is lengthy place the contact form in more than one location. Maybe place it at the top and middle or middle and end.

A splash page can be designed to be used with several different promotions. This simplifies the marketing effort and minimizes splash page creation. Having a separate splash page for each promotion has advantages over the one page fits all. They can be customized to bring out the benefits of how this incentive enhances the product or opportunity being presented. Possibly even a bigger reason in using a dedicated splash page is a separate splash pages simplifies tracking to see where the hits came from.

About the Author

Maurice Petersen is an affiliate marketer and writes articles on various topics for affiliate marketing. For more interesting articles on affiliate marketing visit my blog and signup for a free report: 3 Keys To Creating Big-Time Commission Checks. Visit: http://www.stayhomeandworkonline.com

Ebay-Newbie: Selling Tips On How To Reap The Rewards

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:05:00 +0000

About the Author

Selling Tips On How To Reap The Rewards!

3 Traffic Generation Secrets

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:05:00 +0000

A location is nothing without website traffic it is usually the vivacity giving force to ones business online. Obtaining it is going to be typically something the new web marketers appear to have a downside by means of}. This is every now and then the miss guided notion that if you design it they can come perspective that a ton of folks hold been led to believe.

The important truth is usually that you may need to drive website traffic to an individual's spot to succeed on-line in whatever business you make a decision to accomplish. This text will make known three secrets to getting traffic to ones place into an endless stream.

The initial step to getting website traffic is going to be by using keyword rich pages of content on an individual's site. Keywords are a very important part of obtaining the proper kind of traffic to a person's place. It is usually an area that you'll want to pay the foremost of your time researching. If you don't target the right keywords your site will be the internet equivalent of a ghost city and an individual's profits can never show.,
You need an informative and fascinating site. Designing your website is usually finished by means of keeping the search engines and ones human visitors in thought. Ones site does not need to be a labor of art to obtain site traffic, but it will need to be SEO optimized and packed by way of enough helpful stuff to acquire individuals to want to return back.
The third object you want to accomplish is usually to get back links plus secondary traffic to your site. I notice that the greatest doable means to get that is by the method of article promotion. Submitting ones articles to the article directories will profit you by more than one way. It builds a person's reliability by revealing you as a professional in an individual's field in addition it drives site traffic to your website through one way links in the bio of your articles. And it builds abundant required back links to a person's site from the directories and from the websites of webmasters who choose to place a person's content in support of their sites which helps fuel an individual's rise straight to the top of the search engines.

About the Author

Jo uses articles as his first advertising source with awesome success in all his websites. Including his latest site at http://diningroomlightfixtures.org that covers modern light fixtures that will be sure to give your space a complete new appearance.

Six Sources of Residual Traffic

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:05:00 +0000

When it comes to on line business, there is only one thing that you need above all else; traffic.

Traffic equates to customers and without these prospects, there is no income, no profit, and no success.

You need a quality traffic system in place that works for you around the clock and converts at the highest ratio possible.

Thankfully with a little work and organization there are many ways to generate prime, targeted traffic to your web site absolutely free.

Known in most circles as "Bum Marketing", these 6 common web site traffic generation strategies are often the highest converting, most targeted traffic that you can get, which is why, aside from the no cost factor, is why so many people are interested in learning exactly how it's done.

Free Traffic Strategies - these traffic generation tactics range from SEO to article marketing, all very important methods of luring in organic traffic that has been "pre-screened" and far more likely to purchase whatever it is that you are selling.

Social Marketing Traffic - Learning how to research and leverage the social media space is an important part of setting up your traffic system.

Article Marketing Traffic - The concept of article marketing is a simple one: Write high quality content and distribute it amongst the most popular article databases and directories on line, generating traffic from the back links in the attached resource box. However, make sure you insert critical elements that will make your articles stand out from the crowd. They must be highly targeted and based on your knowledge of the niche you are writing about.

Forum Marketing: Quick Back Link Strategy - Forum marketing is one of the easiest ways to generate back links to your web site, as well as potential subscribers and customers. But again there is a proper way to do this. Research into proper forum etiquette is a must.

Viral Marketing: Spread it like wild fire - Including a viral marketing campaign, into your traffic system, is nowhere near as difficult as most people believe, and can yield an impressive return on investment if done correctly.

Press Releases: Quick Traffic Bursts - Press Releases are one of the easiest methods of introducing your web site and spreading your message in front of thousands of prospects in your niche market, as well as picking up affiliates and potential joint venture partners.

Setting up your traffic system using these 6 common web site traffic generation strategies and essentially swiping traffic from free on line resources (including competing web sites), takes a bit of time and effort, but once it's done, you'll benefit from the longevity of a system that is designed to work quickly, work efficiently, and work steadily.

About the Author

Turn these 6 common web site traffic generation strategies
into ==> "Underground Traffic Generation Strategies"
that will funnel in as much free targeted traffic as
your server can handle. Breakthrough information.
Debbie Ducker's Traffic Heist Guide

Top 5 Sources of Free Traffic

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:05:00 +0000

by GAb Emman

Putting up a profitable website would of course require a lot of things, to be factual, you will need capital. It takes money to make money. But of course, with the flexibility the internet offers, you can find many low cost or even costless ways to maximize the potentials of your web business in generating traffic..

Like many other site owners, you may not have the required resources to jumpstart your business traffic. Well, am glad to say from personal experience that you don't have to spend a cent; all you need is the proper mindset and a lot of eagerness it s all about having the drive and perseverance to work hard and research to generate more traffic for your site.

It can be wonderful to have more traffic for your site without spending a single cent. Now it's a sure thing that many sites have articles that offer tips and guidelines in how to generate traffic using only free methods. You can get such free invaluable resource from trafficmaster.tk. Because it is possible, you don't need to speed a single cent, it may take time, to say honestly, I'm not going to beat around the bush with you. Though paying for your sites traffic affords you a better chance, but at least you get a fighting chance with some of these free methods I'm about to expose

1. Online forums and online communities. The very interesting thing about forums and online communities is that they are highly targeted. You can get a group that fits into the certain demographic that you are looking for. You can discuss about lots of things about the niche that you represent or offer. Another great advantage is that you know what you are getting into and you will be prepared.

With online communities and forums you can build a reputation for your business. You can showcase your expertise and entice them into your knowledge base, with that you can build a reputation and build trust with the people in your expertise and knowledge.

2. Make use of newsletters. A list of your products and interesting and entertaining articles should be made available to people. If they are really mouthwatering and entertaining, you will more people will sign up for your newsletter and recommend it to other people. The more people you get into your newsletter your newsletter, the more people there will be that will go to your site increasing your traffic.

3. Trading links with other sites. Here you don't have to spend a cent. You just have to reach agreement with other webmasters. With exchanging links, the efforts both sites do will benefit both sites. Every traffic that goes to the site could potentially click on the link of your site and visit your site as well. This works most when both sites are in the same product niche.

4. Write articles that could attracts and arrests the attention of people that have interest in your product. Try writing articles that will provide tips and guides to other aficionados. Writing articles that provide good information and knowledge to other people would provide the necessary traffic you need.

Many sites offer free submission and posting of your articles. When people develop interest in your articles they have a good chance of following the track by finding out where the article originated. Include a link or a brief description of your business with the article and there's a great probability that they will go to your site.

5. Write good content for your site. Many search engines track down the keywords and keyword phrases your site uses and how they are used. It is not mandatory that the content should be done by a professional content writer. You can do your s but you have to make content for your site that is entertaining as well as informational. It should provide certain requirements as well as great quality. Generally, internet users make use of search engines to find what they are looking for. Search engines also use keyword searching in aiding their search results. With the right keywords, you could get high rankings in search engine results without the costs.

Effective use of all these free methods will definitely get you hordes of free traffic. All it takes is a bit of effort and extended man hours. Master all you can about the methods discussed here and you will soon have a site with a great traffic flow without necessarily spending the usual costs that come with it.

About the Author

Gab Emman Is an internet affilate marketer of five year experience. HE is often refered to by friends as free advert strategists. You can get ihis FREE Massive Traffic Report Today @ http://www.trafficmaster.tk

Forums + Know How = Traffic

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:05:00 +0000

by Arvind Sharma

Now every website owner is looking for the huge traffic in the digital marketing. It is written on the sky that there are two ways to create traffic. These two ways are through organic search or through paid campaign. As organic search campaign aka SEO is a time consuming but long term beneficial way to create the targeted and genuine traffic.

SEO and forums equally play a significant role in bringing more traffic at your website. However, surveys have proven that forum visitors are generally pro-active information seekers as well as engaged users. Hence, forum visitors coming to your site are worth more than average visitors.

Here we would like to share some common but important rules which is helpful in starting your forums campaign and creating huge traffic through it

Build a solid profile: A solid profile is a must to invite more and more visitors at your site. While registering try o fill up accurate information about yourself. This will help when people want to know more about you and befriend you. Maintain a clean and clear message about what you do and what your web site is all about. Putting avatars also helps out since it can help you from differentiating easily. Also put on a strong and influencing signature.

Stick to rules: Read and study the rules of the forum and always stick to the same.

Be pro-active and responsive: Conversations, communities etc are the main features of forums. So, try to be as much pro-active and responsive so that you gain your own recognition.

Don't provide half-baked response: Who loves eating a half baked cake? If you are responding then make sure you are providing relevant, immediate and useful information.

Never copy-cat: Always stick to your original ideas and opinions. Never copy cat what has been already opined by someone.

Contribute your know-how: Forum is a good medium to exhibit and contribute your know-how so, don't miss out any opportunity to do so.

Never self-promote: Beating your own trumpet in any forum is a strict no no. So, make sure that you don't post any information about your own web site and products unless there is a compelling situation that involves the same.

Stick to a crispy self introduction: While introducing yourself stick to a crispy and crunchy content in order to catch attention of everyone

Intelligent and correct write up: Revise, review, and re-evaluate whatever you have written. Proof read everything before you post anything. Use spell check if you are not so sure of your spellings.

Say no to negativity: Never use negative thought or vocabulary while posting a forum.

About the Author

Author has vast experience in the digital marketing strategy planning and management. He is currently associated with the premier full service corporate communication agency that combines a strategic brand consulting and design expertise of a complete new media digital agency in India.

Only Write High Quality Articles for Article Directories

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:05:00 +0000

by Raj Krishnaswamy

Web site promotion by way of article writing and submitting them to article directories comes highly recommended by search engine optimization experts and web marketing gurus. But the question as to who reads these articles in article directories has plagued many an author time and again. In this article, we will hope to answer that question.

Want to promote your website; then write articles and submit them to article directories is what we hear over and over again by experts in search engine optimization and link building arenas. Because most article directories allow the author to put in one or two links in the author resource box associated with each article, this allows for several links to point to your site thereby increasing its link popularity.

Additionally, when an ezine publisher decides to take a copy of your article and put it up on his site or blog, then he is required to keep all links intact. This means that a link pointing to your site will also exist in his web site or blog thereby giving more links pointing to your site. As an added incentive, when there is an active link in your resource box, prospective readers of your article can simply click on the link and visit to your site. But then again, the question that plagues many authors and article marketers is who is going to read these articles anyway.

Well, the answer is no one is going to read your articles if they provide no useful information. No one wants to waste their time reading a random collection of useless thoughts and senseless data. People go to search engines looking for information and if the information they are looking for is not found in the articles you submit, then no one is going to read them and your article writing efforts are all wasted away. Also, if your article is simply a duplicate of what you submitted to a hundred other sites, then search engines will simply throw them in to the supplemental index and again your efforts are of no use. Your articles need to be unique, well thought out, full of information, rich in language, correct in grammar and spelling and provide data useful to society and readers will come lining up not only to read your articles and visit your site but also want to refer to it in their own sites and provide you with viral marketing effects.

So the conclusion is that lots of people read articles from article directories, but only those articles that are of a high quality. The useless ones get left behind.

About the Author

Increase your web site exposure by submitting articles to Article Wonders Free Article Directory today!

Four Tips for Blog Commenting Success

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:05:00 +0000

by Juhani Tontti

The reason, why guest blogging or writing blog comments, is a great way to make money on the internet, is that it creates much needed backlinks from other related blogs. These links are valuable business contacts and will form a circle of interactive blogs.

To be able to make the guest posts to make money you need a plan, a strategy. All guest posts you write will build your brand image, good or bad. In a way they are like short articles, which must be planned. Here also the content is king.

1. Select Only Related, High Authority Blogs.

The search engines value links from high traffic and related blogs. If the linking blog is updated regularly, almost daily, the better, because then you can write several posts and to get needed backlinks and reader traffic.

Normally these blogs have comment writers, who share very useful and proven information simply, because they want to get useful tips for themselves. They know, that they have to give, before they can get and that the high quality authority blogs are the best places to meet and to discuss with other high quality marketers. Actually they work like online marketing forums.

2. Check The Quality Of Other Guest Post Writers.

If you find out that several authority writers are making comments regularly, your chances to make money are bigger. Actually this leads to the situation, where you can concentrate on a few blogs only.

When you check that a blog uses a sidebar top commentator list, just make sure your name is among the top 10, because the list is on every page of the blog. Now, if the blog has hundreds of pages, your link gets hundreds of new backlinks.

3. Create Your Own Opinion Of The Topic.

It is useless to repeat, what others have said in the previous posts. Only original and useful opinions matter, so it is wise to create an added value to the content. You see, blog comments are an important part of the blog content, which can bring a lot of added value.

This opinion comes from the fact, that there is no truth in the online marketing tips. We all have our own truths and that is the reason, why your opinion is as important as some others. But it is wise to test your opinion every now and then just to see, if others have some useful tip to you.

4. You Can Refer To Your Own Blog Page.

When you have created your own comment content, you can deepen the information by referring to your own blog posts, in your own blog, just to give a better information about the topic and to build more traffic to your blog. It also shows that you are deeply and more interested about the topic and really want to share your valuable information.

Guest post writing is not an easy part of your communication strategy. You may think that to write a blog comment goes quickly and easily, but it is not the truth. You have to plan it and it needs some work daily, so make sure it will fit to you.

About the Author

Juhani Tontti, B.Sc., Marketing. One Way To Make Residual Income Is To Write Blog Comments. What A Great Way To Make Money On The Internet. Visit: Make Money

Top 3 Methods to Get High Google Rankings

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:05:00 +0000

by Alain van Heerden

If you are a website owner you will know how important it is to have a high rank in various search engines to get targeted traffic to your site.

If you don't get visitors to your website you won't be able to make sales or get subscribers, depending on the product or service you offer.

Website ranking is vital to obtaining quality traffic and learning the simple steps to improving your website ranking is key to your success. Here are the simple steps:

1. Link Building

Search engines tend to rank websites higher up in their index if they have quality backlinks. If you are not familiar with what link building is, it is basically when other relevant websites link back to your website.

Thus they tell google or other search engines that your website would be valuable to visitors or that it is important.

Therefore each link back to your site shows up as a vote, so the more you get the better your web raking will be, if the links are relevant to your site.

Web rankings here's how to build links

a) Article Marketing. Every time you write an article you add a link back to your website in the author or resource box, which is a good thing for your rankings. Be sure to always give the reader helpful information.

You'll benefit in two ways: First you'll get more traffic when the reader of the article clicks on the link to your site, and secondly the more articles you write and submit, the more links back to your website, which increases your ranking.

- Blog Posting Create a blog and optimize for your targeted keywords. Be sure to update the blog regularly with new information and ping it.

Then update with fresh content regularly and be sure to ping your blog. Search engines like blogs because they usually provide fresh content. They also get ranked fairly high when kept up to date.

Forum linking These can be used as another way to gain good page ranks for your website. Search for related forums and sign up for an account.

As soon as you're approved add a link to your site in your signature and start posting comments and replies. Every forum will give you a good quality link to your website.

2. Keywords

Search engines look at the keywords in your website to discern what your site is about. If somebody searches for a word, and your site has the relevant keyword the searcher is looking for, your website will be shown in the results.

To get the maximum traffic to your site, you need to optimize it with the right keywords in the right places. First you need to have it in your title, then in the first paragraph, in the body and in the summary for the best optimization.

3. Content

You have to include quality content on your website. The search engines will look for new and original content. You need to ensure that the visitor will find the content informative and that it makes your website attractive to keep getting visitors back.

Following these steps to improve search engine ranking will allow you to drive targeted traffic to your website.

Whether your website is for making money, gaining subscriptions or just providing useful information to your readers, ranking high in search engines is the guaranteed way to get the traffic you need.

About the Author

To find out exactly what to and how to improve your website ranking

Some Tips to Help Build Your Mailing List

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:00:00 +0000

by Guido Nussbaum

Gone are those old days when you had to keep a dozen pigeons at home to send your messages flying out to people you wanted to contact. And gone are those days when you sent out a letter and had to wait for at least a month for a response to come your way. This is a new era of the Internet, whereby emails are the best technique that we have to send out and receive messages in seconds!

Emails are used not only to connect with friends and families, but they can also be used as a portal to reach all those people whom you want to sell your products to and promote to them even via viral marketing. In other words, online marketing has turned simpler and easier with the help of the email connections and its benefits. If you want to advertise or sell your products online, you can create a mailing list database of your own so that your potential customers will be only a click away! The send viral communications so they'll get pass along, inviting others to be added to your lists, too.

History of Email Marketing

Earlier, many companies went crazy with happiness to find an excellent opportunity to double their sales and more. They kept on sending unsolicited emails to all and sundry, and people's accounts were inevitably flooded with unnecessary mails that they did not want. However, unhappy recipients took the matter to the courts, and the companies were penalized for using wrong methods of creating databases of emails.

Finally, ethical online marketers opted for something more convenient and safer. They went for the permission marketing whereby the online customers would register to receive emails and subscription offers at different sites, otherwise the companies would never crack open their email ids and send them messages that they did not choose. This facility can be seen in some online services like Yahoo! and Gmail.

However, there are some illegal methods that are still being used by certain companies to send unsolicited emails to people. One of them is the email leeching software that is used to extract the email ids of people which have been already registered. The second way is to buy up email ids from the other companies to fulfill one's own online marketing needs.

However, there are ways in which you can go for online marketing without having to step outside the law. Here are some methods that you can follow easily to create mailing list database.

* Offer something for free. This is the easiest way to lure the customers right into your net. You can offer a free e-Book or software and in return ask them for their email ids that could be added to your mailing list so that they could be notified about any future free offers.

* If your website includes a content of good quality, you will definitely have people reading them. Offer them the choice of registering so that they could receive newsletters. But make sure that what you send them is short and simple.

* You can start up an online seminar or contest in your website that will draw in huge crowds online. This way, they will have to register, but they will not mind providing you their email ids when they know that you can offer them something worthwhile.

* You can use the contact us form that needs to be included in every website. Here, in the "enter email" box, you can ask the people to offer their email ids so that you can contact them later.

* You can also put in the option to provide you with feedbacks, but while the people do that, make sure that you make it mandatory for them to enter their email addresses.

* You can also go for online surveys, because people feel the need to know a lot about the products that you are selling. For seeing the survey, make it necessary for the customers to provide their email ids.

These quick steps will help to create mailing list database without violating rules. This way, you will be able to increase your connections in the internet, and make more money from online email marketing.

About the Author

Discover more strategies to increase website traffic for free at: http://www.giveaway-list.com/blog . Find out about: social marketing and how it can help your internet marketing, too!

Some Blog Promotion and Management Basics

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:05:00 +0000

by John Vespasian

Blogging is taking over the world in terms of activity and influence. Starting up a blog is easy and anyone can get it running in about half an hour. Nobody knows exactly how many active blogs are on the internet. My guess is that today, in June 2009, there must be around 20 million that post new material daily.

Writing original material everyday is a different game. Many are able to begin a blog and publish text during the initial weeks, but taking the venture further is not for the faint of heart. Focused writing requires tremendous discipline and generating fresh ideas everyday is tough.

Six months later, the 20 million blogs that were started get reduced, I estimate, to about 1 million. Of course, in the meantime, another 19 million blogs have made their appearance on the web. This new influx of players re-establishes the market to its former size until the the next round of pruning takes place.

Promoting a blog is not much different from other forms of internet marketing. What is difficult is choosing the way of promotion that matches best your objectives. Are you writing about a popular subject or is it highly specialized? Will you be addressing controversial issues? Here are some ideas:

* GOOGLE ADS: You can purchase ads from Google by bidding for a certain word or group of words. People who search for those words, will click on them, and be directed to your blog. Your cost per click will vary according to the word you choose and how many people are bidding for it at a given time. If you sell high-margin items, this is an alternative that you should definitely explore.

* PURSUING THIRD-PARTY LINKS: If you are a writer, you will most likely be using your blog to promote your current and future books. In that case, you might wish to devote part of your time to pursue third-party links. If you are featured by a major website in your field, the number of visitors to your blog is sure to increase. Introduce yourself and inquire if that website publishes articles by guest writers. Usually, the answer will be negative. Don't be discouraged, move to the next site, and keep trying.

* USING RSS FEEDERS: This approach needs lots of patience, but in the long-term, is by far the most solid. RSS feeders are automatic distribution systems that disseminate the content of your blog to those who wish to receive it. Install one in your blog, so that your audience can subscribe to your posts. Some readers will try it only for a while and that is perfectly fine. Those who really like what you write will stay and allow you to grow.

Your expectations for your blog should be in line with your long-term goals. By posting shocking material, you might attract hundreds of one-time readers, but those are not worth much. What you want is to attract people who move in the same direction as you do.

Typing your name on Google and Yahoo remains the best way to measure how fast your influence is spreading. If you begin your blog from scratch, from absolutely zero, what sort of expectations should you have? How do you know if you are progressing at a good speed?

If you do not have an advertising budget and are not building on previous celebrity status, you would be doing well if you manage to accumulate a few hundred readers or third-party links after six months. If that is the case, congratulations, you are doing great. Your blog belongs to those who stay.

About the Author

JOHN VESPASIAN writes about rational living. He has resided in New York, Madrid, Paris, and Munich. His stories reflect the values of entrepreneurship, tolerance, and self-reliance. See John Vespasian's blog about rational living.

http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com

Number of Businesses Using Network Marketing Continues to Increase

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:05:00 +0000

by George Wakeham

Network marketing holds an important place in a country's economy.

According to statistics published by the Direct Selling Association (DSA) in the year 2000, additional income was the main reason for Americans choosing this line of home based business. Worldwide statistics of the DSA show that the number of people who have opted for this line of business has increased from 58 million in 2006 to 62 million in 2007, underlining the importance of network marketing as an effective income source.

Network marketing and direct sales assumed great significance during the recent recession when lay-offs became the order of the day. One should keep in mind that profits from network marketing do not start pouring in from day one. However, network marketing is a high paying business option provided a good compensation scheme has been selected.

Network marketing home businesses are the ideal solution for corporates that have closed down their marketing sectors. The companies need to sell their products or face a loss. Since there is no better sales network that they can turn to for a job that cannot be outsourced - networking marketing online enterprises will have plenty of business to look forward to.

The uniqueness of multi-level marketing which is a form of network marketing is that an affiliate spends the time and effort to train and motivate those he introduces down the chain. This results in creating leaders, entrepreneurs and a skilled sales force in the unorganized sector. The multi-level marketing structure also helps an online business to introduce its products to customers and locations that it may not have been able to reach out to on its own.

The affiliates of multi-level marketing programs are on the frontline and feel the pulse of the customer. They are extremely well placed to provide inputs about customer likes, dislikes and usage patterns which are beneficial for market research and constant innovation.

Theoretically, when an online business opts for a multi-level marketing model of business, it can shift its focus from selling and stocking to improving product quality.

Information technology has indirectly benefited from this form of marketing with more people opting to use network marketing to generate leads online. The Networking marketing industry has created a demand for web designers, developers, content providers, SEO experts, telemarketing service providers and web hosting companies. In the process, networking marketing improves the technical skills of the pursuers of this line of business, making them more IT savvy.

About the Author

George Wakeham is a business coach and mentor that assists serious entrepreneurs in building a profitable online business with multiple incomes streams. George and his team have assisted hundreds of people in generating profits that exceed $250K or more in their first year. For more information and to contact George, visit: http://NETWORKINGOPPORTUNITIESFORWEALTH.COM

How to Make Search Engine Spiders Improve Your Rankings

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:05:00 +0000

by Eric Johnson

When it comes to getting your website listed at the top of the search engines keyword search rankings, it is essential for you to gain a deeper understanding of the search engine spiders that crawl over your website. After all, it is the spiders that determine the relevance of your website and decide where your site will land in the search engine results page. Therefore, by learning how to control the direction of the spiders, you can be certain your website will rise in rankings.

Gaining Control with the Help of Robots.txt

You may think that gaining control of search engine spiders is an impossible task, but it is actually easier than you might think when you take advantage of a handy little tool called the robots.txt file. With the robots.txt file, you can give the spiders the direction they need to locate the most important pages on your website while preventing them from wasting time on the more obscure pages such as your About Us and Privacy Policy pages. After all, these pages won't do much to increase your search engine ranking and won't help your target market find your website, so why should the spiders waste their time exploring these pages when ranking your site?

Another positive aspect to using a robot.txt file is the fact that it prevents the spiders from indexing duplicate pages. This is beneficial because having duplicate content can actually reduce your search engine ranking. So, while you are making changes to your website or working on an area that isn't fully developed yet, you can instruct the spiders to leave those pages alone until you are ready for them to be crawled. The same is true if you have a blog on your website, as a blog post created in WordPress will show up in the main post page, in an archive page, in a category page and as a tag page. With the help of the robots.txt tool, you can instruct the spiders to look only at the main post page.

With the help of your robot.txt files, you can tell the search engine spiders which pages they should and should not search through and index. It is important to keep in mind, however, that the robots.txt tool is meant to be used to prevent search engine spiders from searching certain pages. Therefore, you will only need to use it on those pages you don't want the spiders to crawl.

Implementing the Robots.txt Tool

To successfully use the robots.txt tool, you first need to determine which pages you don't want the spiders to search. Then, slowly begin making the changes to your site. By using the tool on only one or two pages at a time, you will be better capable of identifying mistakes that you may have made during the process.

To make your changes, you will need to add the robots.txt file to the root directory of your domain or to your subdomains. Adding it to your subdirectories will not work. For example, you may add the robots.txt file to a url such as http://domain.com/robots.txt or to http://privacypolicy.domain.com/robots.txt. But, adding it to a subdirectory such as http://www.domain.com/privacypolicy/robots.text will not work. With just one robots.txt file within your root directory, you can manage your entire site. If you have subdomains, however, you will need a robots.txt file for each one that you need to manage. You will also need separate robots.txt files for your secure (https) and nonsecure (http) pages.

Creating a Robots.txt File

Creating a robots.txt file is a relatively simple process, as you only need to name your text file robots.txt within any text editor, such as Textpad, NotePad or Apple TextEdit. Your robots.txt file only needs to contain two lines in order to be effective. If you wanted to stop the spiders from searching the archives of the blog on your site, for example, you would add the following to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: * Disallow: /archives/

The "User-agent" line is used to define which search engine spiders you want to have blocked. By placing the asterisk (*) here, you are instructing all search engine spiders to avoid the specified pages. You can, however, target specific search engine spiders by replacing the asterisk with the following codes:

* Google - Googlebot

* Yahoo - Slurp

* Microsoft - msnbot

* Ask - Teoma

The "Disallow" line specifies which part of the site you want the spiders to ignore. So, if you want the spiders to ignore the categories portion of your blog, for example, you would replace "archives" with "category" and so on. If you wanted to instruct the spiders to ignore multiple sections, you would simply add a new "Disallow" line for each area you want to be ignored. Just as you can name specific areas that you want the spiders to avoid, you can also list specific areas that you want specific spiders to view. For example, while you may want most spiders to avoid a specific area, you may want the MSN mediabot, Google image bot or Google AdWords bot to visit those areas. In this case, you can use the asterisk to instruct all search engines to avoid the area while instructing a specific spider to allow the same area. If you want Google's Adsense bot to access a folder, for example, you would create the following command:

User-agent: * Disallow: /folder/

User-agent: Mediapartners-Google Allow: /folder/

You can also use your robots.txt files to prevent dynamic URLs from being indexed by the search engine spiders. You can accomplish this with the following template:

User-agent: * Disallow: /*&

With this command, you are instructing the spiders to index only one of the URLs that matches the parameters you have set. For example, if you had the following dynamic URLs:

* /greatcars/details.php?propcode=ANCHORS&SRCH=tr

* /greatcars/details.php?propcode=ANCHORS&vr=1

* /greatcars/details.php?propcode=ANCHORS

Your robots.txt instructions will tell the spiders to only list the third example because it will disallow any URLs that start with a forward slash (/) and contain the & symbol. You can use the same strategy to block any URLs containing a question mark by using the following:

User-agent: * Disallow: /*?

Or, you can block all directories that contain a specific word in the URL. For example, you might create a robots.txt file such as the following:

User-agent: * Disallow: /corvette*/

With this command, any page with a URL containing the word "Corvette" will not be crawled by the spiders. It is important to use caution when using these directives, however, as they will cause the spiders to avoid all pages containing the word you specify. As a result, you may accidentally block pages that you do want to be indexed. If you do want to block all but one or two pages with URLs containing a specific word, you can create a robots.txt file that specifically allows the page you still want to be indexed. In this case, your robots.txt file would look something like this:

User-agent: * Disallow: /corvette*/ Allow: /greatcards/corvettesandvipers/details.html

It is also possible for you to instruct the spiders to avoid an entire folder on your website while still allowing it to access specific pages within that folder. To do this, you would write something like:

User-agent: * Disallow: /category/ Allow: /category/just-this-page.html

It is important to note that the search engine spiders will ignore general directives if you have one that addresses a specific spider. For example, if you create the following robots.txt:

User-agent: * Disallow: /category/

User-agent: Googlebot Disallow: /archives/

The Google spider will still index the category page because you listed a directive that was specific to the Googlebot, which overrides the directive that addresses all search engine spiders. So, if you list a specific spider in your robots.txt, you need to individually list all of the things you want that spider to avoid. In this example, you would have to create the following robots.txt file to get Google to avoid the category and archives sections while telling all other spiders to avoid the category section:

User-agent: * Disallow: /category/

User-agent: Googlebot Disallow: /archives/ Disallow: /category/

If you want the spiders to avoid indexing certain types of files, you will need to use the dollar sign symbol. To instruct the spiders to avoid PDF files, for example, you would use the following:

User-agent: * Disallow: /*.pdf$

You would use the same patter for other types of files that you may want to be avoided by the spiders, such as .gif$, .jpg$ or .jpeg$.

Addressing Other Search Engine Concerns

In addition to blocking certain pages from being indexed by the search engines, there are a number of other concerns you may address with the robots.txt tool. For example, if the search engine spiders are downloading your pages too quickly and causing difficulties with your server, you can add a crawl-delay directive to your file that will tell the spider how long it should wait between downloads. In general, it is best to set this directive low, such as somewhere between 0.5 and 1, and then to increase it later if necessary. This robots.txt file would look something like:

User-agent: * Crawl-delay: 0.5

Google does not follow the crawl delay directive, however, and it generally isn't necessary to add this directive to your robots.txt file.

Another handy aspect of the robots.txt file is that it can help you create a path to your XML sitemap. By adding a line such as:

Sitemap: http://www.yoursitename.com/sitemap.xml

By using your robots.txt file in this way, you can submit your XML sitemap to search engines without registering with a variety of different Webmaster Tools programs. You can also store your XML sitemap anywhere you like with this tool, which can be helpful if you manage several sites and want to keep all of your XML sitemaps in one place.

Finally, it is important to realize that it is still possible for a search engine to index pages that you have included in your robots.txt file. There are a number of reasons why this may happen. For example, if someone created a link to the page, it will still get crawled through that link. To close this opening, you will need to unblock the page from your robots.txt file and then place a meta noindex tag on the page before you put the page back on your robots.txt file.

About the Author

Pls visit us for any kind of SEO help

A Sneak Peak at Web 3.0

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:05:00 +0000

by Kristie Lorette

Last week, I attended a webinar on the future of marketing. While you have to deal with what is going on in marketing in your daily business life, it's also important to know what you're working toward. You can't get somewhere without knowing where you're going so I thought it would be interesting to share some of this information with you.

3 ways Web 3.0 is changing the marketing landscape

1. Bye-bye keywords. While keywords will still play a role in search engine marketing, Web 3.0 is more than the keywords itself. Founder of Bintro.com claims that semantics will play more of a vital role than keywords. What he means by semantics is that he sees copy going away from keywords and more towards conversational sentences that make sense. We've seen some of this already with blogging. Blogs tend to have more of a conversational tone that readers on all levels can enjoy and learn from.

2. Going mobile. The United States has been a mobile society for quite some time now, but the future of mobile phone use across the globe is expected to increase. The widening reach of mobile phone use will be answered by Web 3.0 with more and more transactions taking place on mobile phones. It is expected that 50% of the world will be using a mobile phone by the end of 2010. Again, this is not in the United States. This is the world.

Think about what mobile phone transactions will do for business. Picture this. You're out to dinner with your spouse. While you're in the lobby waiting for your table, you strike up a conversation with the gentleman sitting next to you and learn he is the ideal client for your product or service. You hook him and he bites. He wants to buy. You pull out your cell phone and process his purchase with his credit card and your cell phone-all in the lobby of the restaurant. You can complete the transaction right now while the sale is hot, rather than having to send an invoice when you return to the office tomorrow or send them to your website and hope they make the purchase.

3. Videos marketing. We've seen the popularity of videos emerge online with the invention of sites such as YouTube. Web 3.0 is going to take the use of videos one step further when it comes to marketing. It'll be less about interrupting your customer's experience and more about creating an experience. Instead of buying a pop-up window ad that pops up when they type in a web address or land on a website, your video ad will be on the website they're visiting. Most Internet users realize that if they click on a banner ad, for example, that they will be directed away from the site they are on. With a video ad, however, when they are ready to hear and see what you have to say, they can hit the play button and watch the video without ever leaving the site they have come to visit. This enhances the customer's visit to the site rather than interrupting it.

Change is on the horizon in how you market and conduct business online. It may change the way you write your marketing copy, accept payments for your products and services, or the types of advertising you buy for your business. Web 2.0 changed the way we do everything online and Web 3.0 continues to alter our approach. Be aware of these changes and start to prepare your marketing efforts now so your business benefits from these changes in the future.

About the Author

Kristie Lorette is a freelance writer that specializes in helping businesses and entrepreneurs create copy that sizzles, motivates, and sells. She is also the editor of The Inky Dot, a bi-monthly e-newsletter that offers tips, tricks, and advice on writing and marketing tips for businesses. You can learn more about Kristie and subscribe to The Inky Dot at studiokwriting.com

What Highly-Successful Small Business Owners Are Doing that You Can Do Too

noreply@blogger.com (the webmaster) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:05:00 +0000

by Stacy Karacostas

I've talked to plenty of entrepreneurs who are just barely making by right now. One of the most common complaints I hear from long-time business owners is "referrals alone are just not enough anymore".

What's really interesting is that most of them aren't doing anything different to market and grow their businesses, even though the marketplace has clearly changed.

On the other hand, I know other small business owners who've experienced unprecedented growth this year. I'm talking growth that would be considered stellar in a good economy. Even my own revenues have almost doubled again this year.

So, what are successful entrepreneurs doing differently? Based on my experience and observations here's a list of 10 things successful small business owner are doing that you can do too...

1) Forget about the state of the economy.

Pay attention to how it changes your prospect's buying behavior, but don't let the gloom and doom get you down. If you sell products or services that are truly helpful or useful there will always be people willing to buy.

2) Offer something new.

If people aren't buying what you're currently selling, but they used to, that's a sign something needs to change. The knee jerk reaction is to simply cut prices. But that devalues what you offer.

Instead try adding value by creating new packages out of products and services you already have. Or updating a current offering. Even better, bring something completely new to the table...Hold a workshop, write an ebook, sell a new product or product bundle, offer training programs, delve deeper into a specific aspect of what you already offer.

3) Stop guessing.

Find out what your prospects, clients and customers want then give it to them. Do this by surveying your people in person, by using a short, written evaluation, or via email using a no-cost service like surveymonkey.com.

4) Embrace technology.

The World Wide Web is no longer the Wild, Wild West, but there's still plenty of room to make your mark. And all the social networking tools make it super cheap to market your business effectively. So get out there and give it a go. You'll expand your reach, get your wisdom further out into the world, and maybe even discover it's fun.

5) Build your list. Even before the Internet, business gurus said "The money is in the list". In other words, you need a list of past and current customers, as well as a list of prospects, that you keep in touch with. That way get to know, like, trust and remember you.

You can do this the old fashion way by collecting contact info over the phone or in your office or store, then sending out print materials. Or, you can do it the modern way by having an awesome offer and sign up system on your Website, then staying in touch via email. Or use a hybrid of the two.

6) Provide value.

The days of the pushy salesperson are going...going...gone. Nowadays people don't have extra cash burning a hole in their pocket. So they expect good value for their time AND money.

Focus less on selling your products and services and more on how you can be a helpful problem solver in all your marketing and you'll get better results.

7) Embrace mixed media marketing.

Silver bullets don't exist when it comes to marketing. Instead of focusing on one media or tactic, create a strategy and plan that uses as many as you can to reach your people.

For example, I send postcards, letters and gifts, write a weekly e-newsletter, host monthly teleseminars, post articles, audios and video online, write a blog, go to live networking events and more.

8) Keep learning.

Times and technology are changing fast. It's up to you to stay on top of what's new and what's working now. But you can't do that if you're always buried in your business.

So read a new book, attend teleseminars (I host a free one each month, for example), and get yourself out to at least one non-industry specific conference each year. I attended two this year and they were so valuable I plan to go to at least that many-if not more-next year.

9) Stop doing it all yourself.

This is a biggie. The people I know who have successful, growing businesses and fulfilling lives have figured this out. And it's even truer in the Internet age.

Face it, you don't have time to become skilled at doing everything it takes to market, grow and run your business-especially online. Eventually you'll hit a wall, business growth will stop, and you'll be exhausted and burned out.

The solution? Even if you don't have the money to hire an employee you CAN afford a Virtual Assistant. Get one now and have them help you revamp your Website, set up and manage your blog or email newsletter, handle your social networking, automate your marketing and much more.

About the Author

Practical Marketing Expert Stacy Karacostas-author of the 2-page marketing plan workbook "Putting Your Business on the Road to Success", and "The Small Business Website Bible"-specializes in taking the stress, struggle and confusion out of growing your small business. For more down-to-earth, business-building wisdom grab a copy of her free report "The 7 Deadliest Small Business Marketing Sins...Are You Guilty?" at http://www.7deadliestsins.com.