Web Promotion Articles

Internet Marketing Success Requires a Business Plan (Part II)

Formal business planning is a process that takes that “great idea” and subjects it to rigorous scrutiny. It either validates your premise or else shows you where the idea falls apart. Business planning forces you to identify costs and develop a sensible marketing strategy before you start spending money. Having a solid business plan will also help you to acquire funding, if necessary.

So what should an Internet marketing business plan address? At minimum, it should be a written document that covers:

Add comment September 6th, 2006

Offline Network Marketing Recruiting; Vital For An Online Business

I have become involved with many network marketing companies the last year.

All are based on the internet and this is the big difference than when I last had a go at it about 10 years ago. Back then it was all phone calls, letters, group presentations and one on one coffee shop presentations. After a while of almost making it work I gave up. It just had enough of all that and ran out of a warm market. I should say they ran away from me when they saw me coming. Haha.

Add comment September 6th, 2006

7 Tips for Choosing the Right Blog Software for Your New Blog

Choosing the right blog software for your new blog requires that you ask yourself some questions and make a list of all of the features and tools you need as well as your budget. Once you have this information written down you will be prepared to start shopping for blog software. However, keep in mind the following seven tips for choosing the best software for you.

Tip #1 Ping Updates

Add comment September 6th, 2006

Got Traffic?

Here’s what your website must have to get lots of traffic - links pointing to your site. The more you have, the more traffic you get.

But how do you get links pointing to your site? Well you could email webmasters and ask them to put a link on their site (reciprocal links). But that’s rather slow. You need something that will get other people link to your site.

How do you get other people linking to your site? Here are some ideas:

Add comment September 6th, 2006

Search Engine Optimization’s a Fertile Field

Search Engine Optimization’s a Fertile Field

 by: Mark Nenadic

Search engine optimization is a phrase that is bandied about every day on the Internet. In the decade since the Internet superhighway began to generate as much if not more business than hanging out a shingle, search engine optimization has become a vital and growing field.

So how does one make a web page compliant with search engine optimization? One method is search engine copywriting. The copy is generated based on the idea that it reads well for someone surfing the web. By reading well, it means the text reads enough to keep the reader scanning and clicking on the page.

Is there a downside to search engine optimization? An ethical SEO company will be straight about the following ups and downs in the search engine optimization business. The first downside of search engine optimization is related to the differences in search engines.

Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alta Vista, Starware and many more utilize different algorithms to produce their page rankings. In the early days of the Internet, Meta tags were the ideal behind search engine optimization. The Meta tags were embedded in the web design html, listing the ‘searchable’ terms that the web page was keyed to. For example, a web page on pets may have had cats, kitty, kittens, dogs, puppies, and litter in their Meta tags. Those words were the searchable terms that the page referred to.

Meta Tags were great, make no mistake, but they were infinitely abused. A designer could plop down any terms they wanted into the Meta tags and the search engines could deliver the page no matter the content. The sophisticated algorithms of today are designed to avoid those pitfalls and traps. Instead, by building the design and the content around search engine optimization, when a search engine delivers a page: it usually contains information that the searcher was looking for.

However, there is a cost and limitation to using copywriting for search engine optimization. First of all, it is very time consuming. Yes, anyone can just sit down and generate a page of copy. The average copywriter can probably type up 350 words in less than an hour. They can likely layer the search engine optimization terms in during that initial draft, no problem.

What happens when optimizing a site requires 100 pages of text? 800 pages? 1000 pages? That one-hour can become literally hundreds of hours of time and energy. Professional copywriters have made a science out of generating good, clean copy, but they are not cheap. The average copywriter will charge by the word, not the page. A lot of companies would prefer to pay by the page.

In most businesses, the higher the quantity would generate a lower price. However in search engine optimization copywriting, the larger the quantity, the more the work. Generating ten to twenty pages of copy surrounding similar search terms without plagiarizing or creating repetitive text is not only difficult, it’s mind-numbing.

Quality counts and quality copywriters will generate quality search engine optimization text. When it comes to building a website based on search engine optimization and quality content, the professional copywriter is an invaluable resource. Be prepared for the investment. Be prepared for the day when the search engines alter their algorithms to tweak them and this process is repeated.

Keeping the surfer engaged is great, that is only part of the purpose of writing that is part of search engine optimization. The second, primary part of these types of articles is to target specific search terms. By building the articles around these specific types of terms, it is possible to elevate the page rank of the particular page and overall site in a search engine.

The nature of a search engine’s algorithm is a zealously guarded secret. Search engine optimization copywriting works because it creates genuine content versus nonsense information interspersed by searchable terms. Building around these terms sounds simple, but the elements of the page are as important as the content itself.

Developing the copy for search engine optimization can often require a professional copywriter. They possess the skills to write interest-generating content that can be layered around searchable terms. The content that works best often features more than just one set of searchable phrases. By strategically placing searchable terms within the content, the copywriter will provide the website with page ranking on those key terms.

Ultimately, search engine optimization works because the number of searchable terms on the Internet is huge. However, search engine optimization works because while it may improve rankings on one search engine it does not work as well across all search engines. As the search engines tune their algorithms, so page ranks shift. This is a constant, evolving business and competitiveness involved in search engine optimization continues to grow.

Copyright 2006 Mark Nenadic

Add comment September 6th, 2006

The Best Way To Promote Your Website

Everyone would like an increase in traffic to their website or an increase in their PR rating. There are many companies and websites offering promotion and optimisation services, however how much should you spend?

I have found two ways; which have had a huge impact in the amount of visitors I have to my websites and of which has pushed up the PR ratings of my sites.

Add comment September 6th, 2006

Three Ways on How Content Can Attract Free, Long Term, Targeted Traffic to Your Website

Three Ways on How Content Can Attract Free, Long Term, Targeted Traffic to Your Website

 by: Mohamad Zaki Hussein

Many people out there said that “content is king” when it comes to web traffic generation. Even though, IMHO, content is not the only king, I tend to agree with them. If done properly, content can attract free, long term, targeted traffic to your website.

Here’re three ways on how content can attract free, long term, targeted traffic to your website:

1. Content attracts free search engine traffic

It has been well-known that the search engines love content. The more content you have in your website, the more keywords you can rank for, and thus the more traffic you can get from the search engines.

However, not every content can do well in the search engines. The search engines have sets of rules (also known as algorithms) to rank websites in their indexes and some of these rules go beyond content (off-page factors). You need to “optimize your site” to meet these rules if you want to rank well in the search engines.

The problem, though, is that there are differing opinions about these rules and it seems that no one can give exact answers about them. Also, these rules often change, which makes them quite difficult to be followed.

That’s why I usually only do little optimization, sometimes as little as putting one keyword in the title tag and getting links. I stopped paying attention to the details because they wasted my time more then they gave me results.

2. Content attracts links from other websites

There are two benefits of having incoming links pointing to your site. First, you can get direct traffic from people who click through the links. And second, incoming links can increase your search engine ranking. In general, the search engines count incoming links as votes to your website.

Now how can content attract links to your website? Well, there are various scenarios on how content can attract links to your websites. But since I only have limited space and time here, let me just tell you the two popular scenarios.

First, you can write articles with link in your resource box and submit them to article directories and relevant websites that accept article submission. Many web publishers out there have a “content deficit” problem, and they’re hungry for your content. You can get your links spread out fast around the Internet by using this method.

Second, if your website contains “linkworthy” content, then other webmasters might voluntarily link to your content or website. However, this is a passive method, and you may not want to rely on this method and wait for someone to link to you.

3. Content attracts viral traffic

Viral marketing works by encouraging other people to transmit your marketing message to the others. If done properly, it can spread your marketing message around the Internet just like a contagious virus spreads around a society.

There are various motivations that can encourage other people to spread your marketing message. One of them is the “desire to obtain material possession.” You’ve probably seen the tactic of giving people incentive to spread a marketing message.

However, not all people are moved by the “desire to obtain material possession.” Many people are moved by mere excitement or other non-selfish motivations.

This is where content can attract viral traffic. If your content (that is part of your website or contains link to your website), is extremely useful, informative, or just downright funny as hell that people will say “Wow!” when they see it, then people might spread or tell others about your content.

You can also try to increase the viral effect of your content by making it easy for people to spread or tell others about your content, for example by using a tell-a-friend script.

Add comment September 6th, 2006

The Power of Topic Specific Search

What are Topical Search Engines?

Simply put, topical search engines are search engines focused on a specific industry, sector or topic.

While many marketers are scrambling for links, any links, an area that is often overlooked is topic-specific search engines. What many don’t realize is that these engines do produce traffic, and they often contain traffic that is very targeted. Anyone who has taken the time to analyze weblogs and track sales sources will likely see that targeted traffic converts at a significantly higher rate than non-targeted traffic.

Add comment September 6th, 2006

The Importance of Email Marketing Metrics

The Importance of Email Marketing Metrics

 by: Ivana Giardi

One of the great benefits of email marketing is that it delivers measurable metrics. To run a successful email marketing campaign, you need to monitor and understand email statistics such as Open Rate, Click-Through Rate (CTR), Bounce Back rate etc. Understanding these metrics will allow you to improve your email marketing campaign and achieve better results.

1. Basic Email Metrics you should evaluate in each email campaign:

Open Rate - that is the total number of emails opened (in HTML format) divided by total emails delivered/distributed.

Click-Thru Rate (CTR) - calculated as the number of unique clicks on links in the email divided by the number of emails opened. It basically means how many people interacted with your email.

Bounce Rate - represents the total number of emails that were not delivered and bounced back. There are several reason why the email was rejected such as the email address is no longer valid, a server filtered the email out, or the recipient’s mailbox was full and over quota.

Based on your unique email marketing campaigns objectives, you can measure more advanced statistics such as:

- Number of Emails Open based on Region/Country

- Number of Click-Thru based on Region/Country

- Number of Sales based on Region/Country/referring URL

- Conversion (Click to Sales) Rate

- Total Revenue per campaign

- Return on Investment (ROI) per campaign

2. What metrics you should focus on?

Well, this really depends on your campaigns objectives. Open rate is a very important indicator to some extent however to get a better picture of your campaign performance, it should be analyzed in combination with other metrics - such as click through rate (CTR) and click to action rate (conversion rate).

Why is that? Because CTR and conversion rate are able to tell you how many recipients took an action you wanted them to take, such as purchased your product, signed up to your newsletter, downloaded the whitepaper etc. Whereas the open rate will only tell you how many people read your email. So in order to measure the effectiveness of your message, you need to go beyond the open rate down to the action level.

3. How to boost the Click-Through Rate (CTR)?

Savvy email marketers not only want to get the email opened and read but also want to know how many people clicked through (measured by CTR) and they want this number to be as high as possible. There are few key points in each email you should review because they critically influence the open rate and CTR. Those are:

Subject Line and Greeting:

Make you subject line attractive. Subject line is one of the most important factors that may affect your email campaign results. However, please do not over “optimize” your subject line otherwise it may look like spam email and the client could delete it without opening it. Keep the subject line short and specific, and if possible address the subscriber by his/her name.

Compelling Offer:

It should be obvious from the first paragraph what you offer as well as why the offer is important to the recipient and how he/she can benefit from it. The first paragraph should grab the attention so don’t write it too long. Include your offer on top of your email and make your offer attractive to the recipient (discount and free offers usually make users to click).

Call-for-action:

Always include “call-for-action” button or link to instruct the user to click for more details.

Spam issue:

“Spam” issue may affect your successful open rate tremendously. Most of the ISP and hosting companies have implemented the “spam filter” that can filter out suspected spam emails. Please try to avoid using any common suspected spam words such as “free offer”, “money”, “30 day guarantee”, “free trial”.

Message Design and Structure:

Use same colors and images in your emails; this will help people recognize your brand. When you have a lengthy message, try to include interactive links so people can access more information through your website. Also, very few people read the email word by word, most of readers just scanning the message to quickly find out what’s in it for them. Keep this in mind and structure your email - include headings to separate the message and use bullets so the reader can easily see listed features or benefits.

Today’s readers are busy people and it usually takes them just few seconds to decide whether to read your message or delete it. So construct your message carefully and monitor your email statistics to find out what works best for your business.

Add comment September 6th, 2006

Website Promotion: 10 Search Engine Optimization Blunders to Avoid

If you want to develop a successful search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, go out of your way to avoid blunders that limit rankings.

Here are 10 to keep in mind:

1. Don’t use frames.
Why would you want to use frames if SEO is important? Don’t risk confusing the search engine spiders. Sure, you might write some scripts or adjust the content to work with frames, but you have better things to do with that energy.

Add comment September 6th, 2006