Online Marketing Gold

By Roger Hall

In your ”mind’’s eye” I want you to visualize two business people who are advertising in Google PPC today.

One of the business people is a store owner who got ”lucky” and managed somehow to raise $2 Million from a group of fellow investors who were persuaded to help him go ”national.” So, he gathered all the cash together and got ready for a massive roll-out of Google PPC advertising. He also decided to use print and TV ”image” ads.

He won”t bother to learn about how to research and develop a winning Google PPC campaign and customized landing page for his site. Because he has one simple belief; he’’s got, ”enough cash to crush the competition …and money is what matters when it comes to winning in marketing.”

He believes there are so many terrific advertising opportunities! Like a kid in a candy store, he’’s ready to over-indulge. But if he says yes to every opportunity, he”ll spread resources thin. He”ll give a little to a variety of advertising outlets. But as a result, every marketing project will be cursed by insufficient resources.

The other guy? He’’s a great copywriter who has only $75,000. He doesn”t have any investor friends or anything like that. He doesn”t have anything whatsoever, except a place to live, a computer and $75,000.

But get this: This other guy has an ”A+ Google brain.” He knows what it takes to make Google PPC work for him in direct marketing. And what he doesn”t know, he’’s willing to learn.

Once again, using your mind’’s eye, I want to ”fast-forward” six years in the future and take another look at these two people. Where’’s the store owner - the one with the $2 Million? I bet he’’s bankrupt. Or has given up, after throwing tons of cash at Google and trying to make ”image” advertising work for him, in print and on TV.

Skeptical? Let’’s face it, when someone has a lot of cash to spend on almost any marketing project, they typically end-up blowing it on things that really don”t work. Why?

Because the pressure is on to get sales going as quickly as possible. Typically, they tear-through marketing dollars like wildfire through a tinder-dry forest. Time is rarely taken - and the effort barely made - to properly prepare, develop and test.

What happens when the store owner’’s $2 Million runs out? What does he do then? Go back to operating a small local store? I bet not. I”ll wager he wants to keep on operating in the ”big time.” But how can he? He’’s got a bunch of investors who want their money back. He’’s got no cash and no really valuable skills.

My guess? He”ll go bankrupt. Maybe even turn to crime, get caught and go to jail.

Now let’’s talk about the second guy. I”ll wager that when we meet him six years later…he truly has a good life. Probably a wonderful wife & kids plus all the possessions he wants.

What does this mean for you? It means having money does NOT mean having security. Neither does having investors, business ”connections” or longevity on the job. The only things which represent any type of security in today’’s world are…

- a Desire to Learn and Change
- a Reasonably Sharp Wit, and
- above all, the Ability to Execute!

These are exactly the skills the copywriter had. He knew how to put himself in his prospect’’s shoes…and to research, create and develop something others wanted. These truly are valuable skills in today’’s markets.

And others will pay you money - a LOT of money - to do this for THEM.

The copywriter prepared for Google advertising campaigns by;

- Starting fairly small
- Learning how to write copy that sells online
- Structuring Google ads for maximum impact
- Not going for the #1 PPC position in Google search (it’’s a waste of money)
- Split-testing by running Ad Variations at all times
- Grouping keywords tightly and having tailored ads for each group
- Placing search keywords in headlines and body text
- Learning bidding strategies that beat the competition
- Using proven, winning ad structures and phrases
- Taking customers to a tailored landing page, and never using their site’’s Home page
- Testing, testing, testing

Look, if someone knows what it takes to write Google PPC advertising and can produce web pages that sell, you can even do this to them; take away all his or her material possessions and all business contacts. Everything, except a computer and internet link (let’’s allow them to have something) !

Later, you can come back and visit them again in say, two years. Know what? That person will have rebuilt their life…just like it was just two years earlier when you”d taken away everything they had. Cash, investments, houses, autos, boats, business contacts.

Do you know why? Because what they”ve got between their ears is the most valuable money-making skill anyone can possibly have in today’’s world…

They Can Write A Google and Webpage Sales Message That Works! In other words, they”ve grown an A+ Google brain.

Do you understand what this means? The ability to write a profit-producing sales message in Google PPC, and the ability to follow-through on that ad with a matching sales message on a dedicated web page, is EASILY the most valuable money-making skill on the planet!

And it’’s going to be that way for a very long time to come.

About The Author

Roger Hall of BetterClix.com develops programs and pay-per-click ads to help you succeed in your business. Find out more today how to create Pay-Per-Click ads that work, with his popular FREE series of PPC Tips for advertisers. Available at: => http://www.betterclix.com/adwordsmyths.html

By Thien Kai Wei

Article marketing has become a valuable and essential resource in promoting an internet business. In fact, it has become the number one method of marketing used on the internet for many reasons such as low costs, easy to maintain, and easy to implement. However, if you are not using article marketing, you might find that your competitors bask in the glory you could have had. Keep reading to find out why article marketing is for you.

Cheap

Article marketing is one of the cheapest and generally free, ways of marketing on the internet. If you are on a tight budget or you simply have love to write, article marketing requires nothing more than just a few hours for you to write an article that can reach out to millions about your online business.

Well developed services out there

Article marketing has been around for quite some time, and numerous services have popped up to help make promoting your website through article marketing much easier. There are numerous ghostwriting services offered at websites such as www.elance.com, if you do not know what to write, simply do not have the time, or like many you do not believe you have the ability to write a good article. In addition, numerous automated article submission services distribute your article to more websites and directories than you can do on your own, with affordable prices to boot.

There are some article directories which even show you how your article is performing, which might include stats such as clicks or the number of ezines your article has been distributed, just to name a few. Great and easy for you to monitor if your article marketing campaign is effective or not, and make the necessary improvements when promoting your internet business.

Many areas to write about

The sky’’s the limit when comes to deciding what to write about. Write about your passion, your hobby, and your experiences are just a few ideas. Need more content? Go to the numerous article directories and read; you will certainly come up with ideas and content to write on.

Article marketing enables you to get highly targeted traffic, which helps with promoting Google Ranking as well. Readers only read what interest them, and publishing lots of articles related to your business will bring in readers who are already interested in the products or services you are selling, and so help with the turnover rates.

Viral Marketing

Viral Marketing is nothing more than getting the word out about what you have to offer. When one person tells another person who tells another person, who tells another person, well then you have viral marketing.

In article marketing, viral marketing works well. What happens is that you distribute your article to many different directories and ezines. Other webmasters, might have a use for your article, and place it on their website, which has the viral effect you are looking for. The more webmasters that place your article on their website and the more directories or ezines you publish on, the more exposure for your online business.

Do it right!

Having signatures or resource boxes with link backs to your website are essential, and if your articles are well-distributed through viral marketing, you get lots of backlinks to your website, increasing your website’’s PageRank and position in search engine result pages (SERPs).

Here are some things to consider when writing your signature or resource box:

Include your Name or Business Name - This is ultimately important to showing authority and experience in your field.

Include one offer - No more than one offer! Something like a free e-book, a special price, or any other type of offer that might appeal to your reader.

Include your link - The article is useless for marketing if you do not supply a link to your website. You want the link to be live. What this means is that the link should be able to simply have a click and they will arrive at your website. You do not want to make them copy and paste, this will take time, and most readers do not want to take that extra bit of time.

Give them a reason - To click! Make sure you are providing them with knowledge, service, and expertise in the field of the article. Use the appropriate keywords and make sure everything is well-written.

Conclusion

Essentially, article marketing is one of the best ways to advertise and obtain targeted traffic to your website and online business. Make sure that you keep it within reasons. Overdoing your submissions or spamming directories or articles will result in dismissal of your articles or even the directories banning you from using their services.

Make sure your articles provide a real answer to real problems and solid solution to solving those problems. This is the only way article marketing will work in promoting your internet business. Just remember, all over the internet other online businesses are trying to reach the same audience. It is up to you to give that audience a reason to come to your internet business over all of the other businesses on the internet.

About The Author

Kai Wei

Find out at OnlineSuccessBiz the SECRET he use to earn income online even while he learn at home, and receive a FREE ebook on achieving personal and financial success.

By Michael Hehn

You should be able to find several indispensable facts about press relase, pr in the following paragraphs. If there’’s at least one fact you didn”t know before, imagine the difference it might make.

Does the thought of trying to get publicity for your business seem like something that you can”t do yourself, and would have to hire a professional for? Do you think that writing a press release is totally outside your ability to do? Does the thought of talking to the media about your business make your mouth go dry and your stomach clench? If so, take heart, because you”re about to learn how you can take care of your own publicity, simply and easily.

Getting publicity for your business can seem like an impossible task - something that only happens for bigger companies that can afford to hire publicists.

The reality is, getting free publicity for your business isn”t that difficult. Welcome to “Media Training 101 - The Secrets of Writing a Good Press Release”. By the time you finish reading this article, you”ll not only understand the basics, you”ll know what goes into the process, and what you have to do to get started writing your own press release.

First of all, let’’s go over some basic terminology you need to be familiar with.

Press Release: A statement with useful and relevant information that is written for distribution to the media.

Hook: The information or larger story that you can use to attach your press release to. Using the right “hook” in the right way can help you to get more publicity for your business.

Spin: Telling your story your way.

The good news about learning to write a Press Release is that there is an established format that you need to follow. And once you”ve learned the basics, writing a press release is a kind of “cookie cutter” process. Here are some basic ideas to keep in mind:

Make your news “newsworthy”. A press release is not a sales advertisement. A good press release answers all of the “W” questions (who, what, where, when and why), and sometimes “how”. Your purpose in writing it is twofold: to provide the media with useful and relevant information about your organization, product, service or event and to get your name out to your target market.

Begin with a strong headline. Your headline and first paragraph need to grab the reader’’s attention. Without being flowery or overly dramatic, you have only the first few seconds to grab your reader’’s attention and get them to read your story, and decide if it’’s worth running. So don”t blow it by being vague or weak. The rest of your press release can give them the nitty-gritty details.

Tailor your story to your Primary audience - the media. Your secondary audience is your target market, but if the media doesn”t decide that your story is newsworthy and runs it, your potential customers will never know about it!

If your press relase, pr facts are out-of-date, how will that affect your actions and decisions? Make certain you don”t let important press relase, pr information slip by you.

Pay attention to your writing. Sometimes, especially in rural areas and online, the media will run your press release in their publications with little or no modification, so make sure you have used your spelling and grammar check before sending it, and keep to the facts. Most of the time, journalists will use your press release as a stepping off place for a larger feature story, especially if you can show larger relevance to other current events. Always develop your story as you want to have it told and put your spin on it. Even if your story is not reprinted verbatim, always remember what your purpose is in writing it to provide exposure for you, and to help brand you as an expert in your field.

Not everything is news. Just because you are excited that you made your first big sale, or started a new product line, or wrote your first article, doesn”t necessarily mean that the press are going to think you have a newsworthy story. From the time you start your first draft, keep your audience in mind. Who will find your story interesting? Why are they going to find it interesting? How is it relevant to something else that’’s going on right now?

Identify a problem, and show how you are solving it. Use real life examples about how your company or organization solved or is solving a problem. Give examples of how your service or product fulfills needs or satisfies desires. What benefits can be expected? Use real life examples to powerfully communicate the benefits of using your product or service.

Stick to the facts. Always tell the truth. Avoid fluff, embellishments and exaggerations. It is part of a journalist’’s job to be skeptical. If you want to use publicity effectively, then you”re not looking for a one night stand. You want to gain the trust of the media, establish your credibility, and build an on-going relationship with your local media, so that you become a resource for them within your industry.

Find your hook. Try to make your press release timely. Keep informed about what is going on in your community, in your state, region, the country or the world. Is there a local, regional or national news story that somehow ties in to your industry or your business? If you can hook your press release to current events or social issues, you increase your chances of having it picked up. If not, then make sure your story is relevant to the needs, wants or problems of your community or target audience.

Use an active, not passive, voice. Use strong verbs that will bring your press release to life. If there is controversy, describe it. There is an old adage in the news business: If it cries it flies, and if it bleeds, it leads (Not very nice, but it is often true.) So, while you may not be crying or bleeding, make what you are writing about stand out. Use active verbs. Write partnered rather than “entered into a partnership” or engaged rather than interested, etc. Writing in this manner will help guarantee that your press release will be read.

Use only enough words to tell your story. Avoid using unnecessary adjectives, flowery language, or redundant expressions such as “added bonus” or “first time ever”. Paint a strong, vivid picture in the minds of your audience by making each word count.

Use jargon sparingly. There are times that some jargon is required if your goal is to optimize your news release for online search engines, but whenever possible, speak plainly, using everyday language. Avoid words like “capacity planning techniques” and “extrapolate”.

Avoid hype. The exclamation point is your enemy. You will destroy your credibility by using hype. If you must use an exclamation point, use one. Never do this!

Get Permission. Most people and companies are very protective about their reputations. Be sure that you have written permission before including information or quotes from employees or affiliates of other companies or organizations. If there is a hint of a dispute in this area, chances are your press release will be tossed aside, and never used. And you will lose your credibility.

If you follow those simple rules, you”ll be able to put together a newsworthy story that will help you achieve your goals of getting the word out about your business.

Don”t limit yourself by refusing to learn the details about press relase, pr. The more you know, the easier it will be to focus on what’’s important.

About The Author

Michael Hehn writes articles about various topics.
Find out what he has to say about press releases at Press Release

By Michael Hehn

The best course of action to take sometimes isn”t clear until you”ve listed and considered your alternatives. The following paragraphs should help clue you in to what the experts think is significant.

If you have a website then you already know the importance of traffic. Traffic is to Internet marketing as location is to real estate. It’’s the only thing that really matters. If you cannot generate targeted visitors to your site, you will not make any sales.

Usually the owner or designer of the website is the person designated to drive traffic to the site. The chief ingredient in generating traffic is the search engine. Of coarse, you can use advertising, but it’’s going to cost you. Using the search engines to generate targeted (interested in your product) traffic is the least expensive method known.

Unfortunately, many website owners do not understand the importance of search engine visibility, which leads to traffic. They place more importance on producing a “pretty” website. Not that this is bad, but it is really secondary to search engine placement. Hopefully, the following list of common mistakes, made by many website owners, will help you generate more targeted traffic to your site…after all, isn”t that what you want.

1. Not using keywords effectively.
This is probably one of the most critical area of site design. Choose the right keywords and potential customers will find your site. Use the wrong ones and your site will see little, if any, traffic.

2. Repeating the same keywords.
When you use the same keywords over and over again (called keyword stacking) the search engines may downgrade (or skip) the page or site.

3. Robbing pages from other websites.
How many times have you heard or read that “this is the Internet and it’’s ok” to steal icons and text from websites to use on your site. Don”t do it. Its one thing to learn from others who have been there and another to outright copy their work. The search engines are very smart and usually detect page duplication. They may even prevent you from ever being listed by them.

4. Using keywords that are not related to your website.
Many unethical website owners try to gain search engine visibility by using keywords that have nothing at all to do with their website. They place unrelated keywords in a page (such as “sex”, the name of a known celebrity, the hot search topic of the day, etc.) inside a meta tag for a page. The keyword doesn”t have anything to do with the page topic. However, since the keyword is popular, they think this will boost their visibility. This technique is considered spam by the search engines and may cause the page (or sometimes the whole site) to be removed from the search engine listing.

5. Keyword stuffing.

Hopefully the information presented so far has been applicable. You might also want to consider the following:

Somewhat like keyword stacking listed above, this means to assign multiple keywords to the description of a graphic or layer that appears on your website by using the “alt=” HTML parameter. If the search engines find that this text does not really describe the graphic or layer it will be considered spam.

6. Relying on hidden text.
You might be inclined to think that if you cannot see it, it doesn”t hurt. Wrong…. Do not try to hide your keywords or keyword phrases by making them invisible. For example, some unethical designers my set the keywords to the same color as the background of the web page; thereby, making it invisible.

7. Relying on tiny text.
This is another version of the item above (relying on hidden text). Do not try to hide your keywords or keyword phrases by making them tiny. Setting the text size of the keywords so small that it can barely be seen does this.

8. Assuming all search engines are the same.
Many people assume that each search engine plays by the same rules. This is not so. Each has their own rule base and is subject to change anytime they so desire. Make it a point to learn what each major search engine requires for high visibility.

9. Using free web hosting.
Do not use free web hosting if you are really serious about increasing site traffic via search engine visibility. Many times the search engines will eliminate content from these free hosts.

10. Forgetting to check for missing web page elements.
Make sure to check every page in your website for completeness, like missing links, graphics, etc. There are sites on the web that will do this for free.

This is just a few of the methods and techniques that you should avoid. Do not give in to the temptation that these methods will work for you. They will do more harm than good for your website.

Not only will you spend weeks of wasted effort, you may have your site banned from the search engines forever. Invest a little time to learn the proper techniques for increasing search engine visibility and your net traffic will increase.

Now that wasn”t hard at all, was it? And you”ve earned a wealth of knowledge, just from taking some time to study an expert’’s word on seacr engine, seo.

About The Author

Michael Hehn writes articles about various topics.
Find out what he has to say about seacrh engines at Search Engines

By Jim Pretin

If you have an online business but are not happy with the present level of income being generated by your website, then this article is for you. Most webmasters do not fully understand what it takes to close a sale, and as a result, they simply put up a website, post their products or information about their services, and expect their website to do the selling for them. However it often takes more than that to convert site visitors into buyers of your products or services.

The solution is to use autoresponders. An autoresponder is a program that sends a series of emails to someone after they have submitted their email address on an online form. Depending upon what you are pitching, you may need to send three, five, or even more emails in order to hook a certain customer and persuade them to make a purchase.

The best way to convince someone to submit their email address on your website is to basically compel them to do so in order to receive certain information. If you operate a website that provides internet marketing advice, then you should have a simple online form on your homepage. You should start off with a brief introduction as to what you are offering, and then you should make an enticing claim about your products or services, and then immediately after that there should be a short, simple form that requests that the visitor provide his or her name and email address in order to receive information about the claim you are making.

For example, if your website provides search engine marketing advice, then you might want to make a claim that you have put together a full-proof way to climb to the top of the search engines. You would then prompt the visitor to provide their name and email address on the online form so that the information can then be sent to that person via email.

Subsequent to their submission, the autoresponder, which you will need to install on your website with the help of a programmer, immediately sends out an email that provides some information and then offers a product or service related to the information, such as software or any sort of product that relates to the subject of the email.

Your autoresponder needs to be programmed to then send out another email to that same person after a certain amount of time has elapsed. Depending upon what you are selling, you may want to wait 24 hours before the next email is sent, or maybe longer. The autoresponder continues to follow up with the customer on a regular basis without you actually having to send additional emails on your own. If the emails are persuasive, you might eventually be able to close the sale.

In order to install an autresponder on your website, you will need to either hire a programmer who knows how to create the program, or you can pay for an outside service service such as AWeber or GetResponse. The outside service provides the form and collects and stores the email addresses for you, and sends out the emails for you. These sorts of services normally run between $15 to $30 per month.

I recommend that you hire a programmer to install an autoresponder directly on your website rather than using an outside service. Those email addresses are like currency; every time someone submits their email address to you, that email address should not only go into the autoresponder program, but it should also be stored in a separate database. Later on, after a succession of emails has been sent to a certain person through your autoresponder program, you can send offers for other products and services to all of the email addresses you have collected.

I hope the information presented here has convinced you to start using autoresponders. Just remember to make sure that the autoresponder you are using provides the person receiving the emails with a way to unsubscribe from your mailing list, otherwise you will be accused of sending spam. It is possible to build an entire business on using nothing but autoresponders to do the selling. Just make sure you use a persuasive subject for each email you send so that the recipient will be so enticed by the subject of the email that they will open the message rather than hastily deleting it from their inbox.

About The Author

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make free HTML forms.