Archive for August 27th, 2006
Why do we buy things? Well, some thing are out of necessity; we need food and water to survive. But which food do we buy? You see we do have a choice, which means we make decisions to buy one kind of food against another. That means our choice can be influenced - even for ‘essentials’. So even though a principle reason for buying something is ‘out of necessity’ the chances are you didn’t HAVE to but ‘that one’. You made a choice, conscious or otherwise.
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August 27th, 2006
There are more than 105 million of them in the United States. Worldwide, there could be at least 250 million of them. Them, according to statistics from the Nielsen/Net Ratings service, is the number of active Web surfers. 250 million in the whole world? The figure is more than the populations of Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and a few non-English speaking countries combined. That’s a lot of them!
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August 27th, 2006
When people think of search engine optimization, they immediately think of time consuming very tedious tasks that are way beyond their capabilities. That might be true if they put no time and effort into it. I do agree that improving search engine rankings in competitive niche markets require a good deal of knowledge and expertise. It’s TIME to learn the basics of how to improve your search engine rankings. There is huge need for search engine optimization experts, but most websites don’t find themselves in a very competitive niche market. Many websites can achieve top rankings by applying my optimization basics. All you have to do is put in the time learning and applying them.
(973 words, estimated reading time: 3:54 ) read the full post...
August 27th, 2006
Are You in for a Safe Landing? - PPC Landing Pages
by: Shawn Campbell
You’ve paid for your ticket and your ads are up on Google AdWords and Yahoo’s Overture, but have you set up a safe landing for your clients?
Run a test landing. Do a search and find your Pay Per Click (PPC) ad in Yahoo or Google. Click on it. Where does it bring you? Your home page? I hope not. You should create a specific landing page for your PPC ads. A landing page is the page you create to convert your PPC traffic into sales. This page should get your potential customers (that you have already paid for!) to go exactly where you think they want to go.
Here are some tips to create a good landing page:
1) Focus! Focus! Focus!
The landing page should be about your product or service. No links to other sites, no advertisements, no “how do you do”. When people arrive at your landing page, they should already be predisposed to buy (since you wrote such an excellent ad to get them here in the first place) and are trying to either: a) Get more information about your product or service b) Find the “Buy now” button Use the search term on the page, because searchers will key into the section of the page with their search term. If the search term is “buy skidoo” then have a button that says “Buy Skidoos Here”. Don’t distract them - give them what they want.
2) Customize your landing page
Use a different landing page for each group of keyphrases. If you sell seadoos and skidoos, don’t use the same landing page for each. Create a new landing page for each product (or each group of products) and send the clients directly to the page they are interested in.
3) Give them information
If they are not yet sold on your product or service, then they are going to be looking for more detailed information when they arrive at your landing page. Give it to them. You have to convince them that you have the perfect product or service to solve their problem. If they run out of information before they make a commitment to buy, then you have lost them. Nobody will spend money until they are convinced that your product or service is the right choice for them. So prove it.
4) Tell the reader what you want them to do
Use calls-to-action. If you want them to buy your product, than tell them often how to do it (”Click here to buy”). If you want them to call you, post the number up with instructions (”Call us now at 1-877-717-3667″). Repeat it throughout the text, then again in big and bold at the end.
5) Use graphics
Use pictures to sell your product or service. Pictures of the product or pictures of satisfied customers sell. Use them - and use them often.
6) Run tests
Set up two landing pages to see which one converts better. Set up two identical ads and send one to each landing page, then compare conversion rates for each page. Figure out why one converts better and try to improve the other one. Then, run more tests until you are completely satisfied with the results.
Set up your landing pages so that your potential customers arrive for a safe landing. If all goes well, they will step out of the plane with their credit cards already in hand - and their money almost in your pocket.
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About The Author
Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce marketplace, and co-founded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc. He has been researching and developing marketing strategies to achieve more prominent listings in search engine results since 1998. Shawn is one of the earliest pioneers in the search engine optimization field.
shawn@redcarpetweb.com
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August 27th, 2006
1. Ask visitors to subscribe to your e-zine. It’s a good idea to also give them a freebie when they subscribe.
2. Have them sign-up to get access to download a free ebook. The subject of the ebook should be related to your target audience.
3. Give your visitors a free membership inside your member’s only web site. Have them sign-up to receive a user name and password.
(355 words, estimated reading time: 1:25 ) read the full post...
August 27th, 2006
Niche marketing is hot these days. Membership sites pop up everywhere inviting you to make tons of money. All you have to do is find or buy the highest paying Adsense ads and add them to your pages filled with automatically generated content.
That’s NOT niche marketing, that’s Adsense marketing. It’s a numbers game and it’s dangerous. I’ll explain that below.
How did this so called Niche Marketing develop? Solid niche marketing advice already existed for some time. Very often you were advised to follow your passion or expertise and set up a site for that.
(1414 words, estimated reading time: 5:39 ) read the full post...
August 27th, 2006
Do you remember as a child having to do something you really didn’t want to do because it was difficult?
Was it music lessons? Or dancing? Or some kind of sporting activity? I am sure you can remember something that your parents really wanted you to do, but you rebelled against!
With almost everyone there is something they tried, and failed to do as a child.
(1036 words, estimated reading time: 4:09 ) read the full post...
August 27th, 2006
Are you new to RSS? If so here is a introduction to what RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is and how your website will benefit from offering an RSS feed to your visitor’s.
(799 words, estimated reading time: 3:12 ) read the full post...
August 27th, 2006
Many Internet marketers wonder how they spend less time marketing their website so they can focus on delighting their clients and developing better marketing strategies to improve sales.
They often ask:
How can I be efficient as possible so that I don’t waste time and money?
How can I spend less time on activities so that I don’t like (e.g. marketing and sales) and more time on activities I love. (e,g. delighting customers, improving sales materials and products)?
(729 words, estimated reading time: 2:55 ) read the full post...
August 27th, 2006
There are many ways to make money on the internet. All methods however, come with a price-tag. For starters, you will probably need to purchase basic business software and relevant learning materials. Planning and developing your ideas will definitely require dedication and perseverance all along the way.
One of the best methods for getting started is to partner with other marketers so that you can reach larger target audiences.
(478 words, estimated reading time: 1:55 ) read the full post...
August 27th, 2006
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