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Liz Tomey is a successful Internet marketer who has produced several amazing products about creating an income online. If you’d like to get started with an internet marketing strategy, visit http://www.UndergroundMarketingStrategy.com.
February 7, 2008
Marketing on the internet requires a totally different thought process
in order to make more money. The key is not to work HARDER, but to work
smarter.
It’s all about finding something that works and then replicating it over
and over again.
Below you find some tips on how you can improve your sales dramatically
and ultimately your bottom line profits.
1.Start An Affiliate Program For Your Product!
One of the best ways to bring in targeted traffic to your website is to
implement an affiliate program. Why are affiliate programs a GREAT way to
increase your profits? Because you’re not paying a penny for the traffic
until you make a sale! Think about it - what other form of advertising do
you ONLY PAY FOR RESULTS?
2.Create Valued-Added ? One-Time-Offers ?
An easy way to boost your income substantially is to create highly tempting
? One-Time-Offers ? to sell to customers at the time they make
a purchase. There are several scripts out there that make this easy and
secure allowing you to show a very special offer to your customer BEFORE
they reach the download or thank you page.
3.Utilize ‘Managed Content‘ Areas
Instead of creating a product and simply redirecting your customers to a
standard ‘thank you ? page after their purchase, why not consider setting
up a ‘ managed content ‘ area? This is generally achieved by allowing a
customer to set-up a username and password to manage a protected
‘members’ area’ or issuing them with a username and password upon completion
of their purchase. The ‘perceived value’ is being a member of a particular
site is generally much higher using this method. It also means that you can
add additional relevant content at a later stage.
4.Promote ? Back-End Products ? To Previous Customers!
If you don’t have an effective backend sales strategy, then you’re missing
out on one of the most profitable and important aspects of marketing.
Your most responsive customers will nearly always be those who have previously
purchased from you and had a good experience. Therefore it makes sense to
create offers targeted towards these prospects.
5.Build Targeted Subscriber Lists Who Are Eager To Read Your Offers
Even if you are GIVING away a product, you can still make an incredible
amount of money .
If you can build a list of prospects who are interested in a particular
niche, topic or product then you can easily market other similar or
related products to them at a later date. This could be anything from
your own products, products or services that you’re an affiliate for.
Either way - just because they don’t buy from you the first time round,
doesn’t mean they won’t in the future.
So - if you’re not collecting the names and email addresses of your
previous customers then you’re missing out on some fantastic profits.
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Eugenijus Sakalauskas
is an established ezine publisherand
direct marketer on PNP.com
Subscribe to my FREE e-course
‘Power up Your Profits by Packing Your Email
Marketing With More Punch ‘
Send blank mailto:pnplistbuild@getresponse.com
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and get 18+ free bonuses
February 3, 2008
A little while back, a friend of mine asked me how to sell to his e-newsletter list without coming off as being pushy, obnoxious and caring only about extracting as much cash as possible from his customers.
I don’t blame him for being concerned, either.
People are unsubscribing left and right from e-newsletters and lists who do nothing but sell, sell, sell.
But here’s the thing…
All the ’selling’ isn’t the necessarily the problem.
The problem is usually what’s being sold and to who.
Let me explain what I mean:
Three days per week my wife and I like to make a brisk, ten mile bike ride.
Only problem is, I live in an area that, during the summer, is full of annoying little thorns that get lodged into your tires and cause slow leaks.
This happened a few times to me over the past summer.
The first time I changed the tube myself.
The second time (a couple weeks later) I took it to a local bike shop. The guy fixed it and we went our merry way.
The third time (just a few days later) it happened yet again…and I brought it to the shop again.
This time was actually a pain for me, because I had a lot of stuff to do that week, and didn’t want to mess around taking a bike to and from the shop.
Luckily, there was a different guy working that day.
And before he changed the tube he said, ‘We get a TON of tire repair jobs like this in the summer. Do you want me to put on a tube with a sealant inside? It’s a little more expensive, but when a thorn gets in there, the sealant fills up the hole and you won’t even know it happened.’
‘You’re kidding me, right?’ I asked. I had no idea this thing existed (shows how much I know about bikes).
‘I’m serious. And if you really want to make sure this never happens again, we have special tires that are almost impossible for these little thorns to puncture…’
Long story short:
I bought both the tires and special sealant tubes on the spot, and have not had a problem since.
Now, here’s what’s important about this for you as an Internet marketer:
When I left the bike shop, I was actually mad the first guy didn’t try and sell me the special sealant tubes or puncture-proof tires.
If he had sold me on the tube and tires I wouldn’t have had the hole, and I wouldn’t have had to take another day to drop off and pick up my bike.
And that’s the point.
Are you selling your list things they want?
Things that will make their lives easier?
Things they may not even realize exist right now…but will be happy and thrilled to buy once you show them?
If not, then you should be worried people thinking you’re just another marketing ‘hawk’ only out for money.
Because you probably are annoying people, and you probably are one or two emails away from a bunch of potential buyers leaving you at any given time.
On the other hand…
If you simply discover what your list wants and aren’t getting…and if you simply offer those things to your list for now on…then you have nothing to worry about.
You’re not inconveniencing anyone and you’re not coming off as a greedy, money-hungry jerk, either.
Chances are you’re a bright spot in their day — even as they fork over their hard-earned money to you.
If you don’t believe me, think about the ads you buy from selling you things you really want that genuinely solve a problem in your life.
Don’t you feel almost a sense of…well…gratitude…towards the company that sells it to you?
I know I do.
I can’t help but think the guy who sold me the tires and tubes did me a huge favor. I’m always grateful whenever I see one of those stupid thorns on the bike path.
And if you simply sell your list the things they want like this…you won’t have to worry about mass number of people leaving.
People will be happy to hear from you…instead of being sick of hearing from you.
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Ben Settle is a direct response copywriter and author of ‘The Copywriting Grab Bag’. Although Ben rarely accepts clients, he freely shares his latest copywriting
secrets and tactics on his website at http://bensettle.com
February 2, 2008
OK, I?ll cut right to the chase. The most important and most overlooked key in a successful internet marketing campaign is?.
You!
If you are offended, quit reading now. I don?t care (you shouldn?t either).
Seriously, though, you are the most important and yet most overlooked element of your internet marketing experience.
You and your attitude. You and your willingness to do whatever it takes (or not).
You and your determination. You and your fortitude. In some way, it all is the same thing, isn?t it?
You see, you can buy as many books online as you want about how to make it online. You can read the first few pages, try the first few tricks, and decide that there is an easier way.
A month later, you buy another book. Same process.
What is the difference between the successful marketer and the unsuccessful? I argue it is determination, grit, an ?I will do it no matter what? attitude.
Sometimes that may mean 12 hour days. Maybe 12 hour days and 6 hour nights. 6 days a week. Absolute determination.
So often people quit at anything just before they are going to reach a breakthrough. Don?t do it! Keep going until the end.
You simply have to do whatever it takes to become successful online, just like you do offline.
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Sean Mize is a successful offline and online entrepreneur and marketer, and is the author of ?15 Steps to Internet Success?. To receive a free copy, simply follow this link: Search Engine Marketing
Are you interested in learning how to build a responsive mailing list? Click here: List Building
January 28, 2008
The internet is a fascinating but distracting medium. It is very easy to fritter away hours of your precious time if you are not fully aware of how you are spending every minute.
One of the essentials of time management is to make a list of exactly how you spend your time over a period of about a week. If you cannot bear to do this for a week, do it for a day or even just a few hours!
It is just as enlightening to see what you are not doing as what you are doing.
I waste a lot of time reading emails and then I waste a lot of money buying what the emails suggest that I buy. I must have been born with the word ’sucker’ imprinted on my forehead.
I cannot resist a well crafted email or sales page and the internet is flooded with them. Each one promises solutions to every kind of problem imaginable and, even though I may not be currently experiencing the problem, I can easily think of a time or situation when I will be desperate for the solution on offer.
The time I waste reading the email escalates to reading the sales page and then to buying the product and then to downloading. However, I seldom spend time on actually doing anything useful with the product once I have it on my hard disk.
I now have two hard disks with huge capacity to make room for all the products I download but do not use. Do not follow my example!
A more recent timewaster is the huge number of giveaways now available on the internet. These giveaways are a cunning way for shrewd marketers to build their email opt in lists by giving away products to those who sign up to their lists.
As you might guess, I spend hours at these giveaway sites signing up and downloading vast amounts of products. Then even more emails start pouring in.
However, I am now becoming more ruthless with my emails. I rapidly delete large numbers of them without reading them. I don’t have the heart to unsubscribe from too many of them. After all, they have just given me a free ebook or useful piece of software. Deleting emails can be done very quickly so unsubscribing is not essential.
If I do not have time to read what looks like an informative and useful email, I file it where it can be consulted later. I even have the will power to file away the sales pages of products that I am very keen to buy. Almost always, I forget about these products after a few days and don’t seem to miss them at all.
The sales page of most products warn you that the price will be going up but almost always the price eventually goes down or a cheaper and even a better alternative emerges or you realize that you don’t really need that product after all.
My advice, born of bitter experience, is not to read your emails for at least an hour at the start of the day. It might even be a wise move not to read them until the evening when you have finished the important work.
Instead, work on something that will make you money rather than cost you money. Write an article with a resource box or an ad or an email for your list instead. You could spend an hour improving your html or your knowledge of what your autoresponder can do for you.
You will then feel a sense of energy and power that will permeate the rest of your activities and help you have a far more productive day.
Time management is all about priorities. Decide before you go to bed what your priorities are for tomorrow and make a list of 3-6 things you need to do in order of importance.
Make sure you start on the first thing next day even if you only work on it for five minutes. The five minutes will usually escalate into an hour or two. Try to stay with that task until you finish it.
Great marketers are quite often great time managers. They believe that consistent, relevant action to achieve their goals is far more important than pursuing the latest smart strategy or reading the emails and chatting on the forums.
Most marketers agree that building your list should be a priority. You could spend the first hour of the day working on an email or ezine to send to your list.
As you may, like me, have more than one list, you may need to spend several hours crafting messages to each list. Sometimes the subject matter will overlap and you can send the same email to all your lists.
Occasionally you will get a grateful comment from someone on your list which will make you realize that your efforts are being appreciated and you are not wasting your time. Even better, someone will actually buy something you have recommended
Remember these key points:
Don’t follow my bad example of reading too many persuasive emails and, as a result wasting too much time and money on products which you don’t really need.
Make a list of priorities and work on them first thing in the morning even before you have your early morning cup of tea or coffee or your first glass of fruit juice.
Make building your opt in list one of your key priorities and do something daily to build it or maintain it.
If you are not sure what your priorities should be, it might just be time to sign up with a mentor who will give you assignments which allow you to follow the steps they took when they achieved success. I definitely recommend doing this. You are almost certain to learn and achieve something.
Above all, don’t give up even if there are no apparent results. Results may be on their way.
It is easy to be discouraged especially in the summer months when the harvest you are expecting has not arrived.
A good time management plan will keep you working and sowing the seed through the bad times until the blackberries begin to show up on the brambles and you begin to reap the rewards of your efforts.
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John Watson runs a website about internet marketing which provides information about affiliate marketing, reseller marketing and selling your own products. His website is http://www.johnwatsonpublishing.com
You can also read about all these aspects of internet marketing at his blog at http://www.johnwatsonpublishing.com/wordpress
You are welcome to publish this article but please include the resource box.
January 24, 2008
What happens when your Internet marketing empire doesn’t take off that quickly or isn’t that profitable? Yyou feel like a miserable failure. So, then you invest more time and money to get more information, with similar results. Who really gets rich here? The people selling the information on how to get rich. It begins to feel like a hamster wheel in which you run and run and run but never get anywhere.
I’ve had a virtual online business since 1999, and it’s neither quick nor easy. What I’ve discovered is that some people can exploit a particular strategy for a short time until someone or something shuts them down, and then they’re on to exploiting the next newest strategy until it no longer works, and then they move to yet another new strategy. It’s tiring just to write about this process!
As I reflect on my 7 years in business, I really wish I’d known then what I know now. Since I get a number of questions and inquiries every week from ‘newbies’, or business owners new to the Internet marketing world, about how to get started in an online business, here’s my list of 10 things I wish I’d known about Internet marketing when I started my online business:
1. Niche your way to riches. Finding the exact market that needs what you have to offer is one of the primary keys to success in any business, but especially when you’re trying to do business online. Taking a shotgun approach and foolishly believing that ‘everyone’ needs your product or service is the quickest way to failure. You need to be able to identify and describe your niche market, from determining what problem the niche market is actively trying to solve and what they’ll pay for (as well as how much they will pay) to what publications they read, what groups/associations do they belong to, and where they hang out both on- and off-line. The more narrowly focused your niche, the better. So, owners of Golden Retrievers is a better defined niche than dog lovers, and executive female golfers is better than women athletes.
2. Acknowledge your expertise. One of the great difficulties of online business owners is their inability to acknowledge their expertise in an area. It took me years to realize that while others did have a higher level of expertise than me, there was a very large group of people who knew less than me — and it was to those people I could become an expert! And, better yet, they would pay me to learn it so they didn’t have to go through the same trial-and-error method I did.
3. Create a content-packed web site. Content relevant and useful to your target market, embedded with keywords that your target market might use to find you, are the magic wands that enable you to be found on search engines. For years, my web site was simply an online brochure with details of my service offerings. It was not until I regularly started writing articles for my target market and posting those to my web site and blog did I see a noticeable increase in both the amount of traffic to my web site as well as in my number of newsletter subscribers. If you’ve been in business for awhile, you’ve got a good idea of the problems that your customers face. Your articles can serve as the solution to the common problems and questions of your target market.
4. Build relationships online. Even though an online business is virtual and you meet few of your clients and prospective clients face-to-face, it is still possible to build trusting relationships online. The most important thing to remember is that your personality needs to shine throughout all of your online ventures. So whether you share personal stories about your life or business (these will be very popular with your visitors), or write articles or web site text in the same way you speak, you need to give visitors an experience of what it means to do business with you. You can also use audio and video on your web site as well as photos of you in action in your business. Remember, most people need to get to know, like and respect you before they’ll decide to buy what you have to offer.
5. Discover reputable sources of technical and Internet marketing ‘how-to’ information. Online technology and Internet marketing strategies change from moment to moment, and it’s tough to keep up with the latest and greatest innovation. You’ll need to read lots of ezines and visit lots of web sites each week just to stay on top of things.
6. Create several ’stay in touch’ devices. An ezine (email newsletter), blog (web log), and autoresponders (series of automated follow up emails) are the quickest and easiest ways to stay in touch with your current clients and to bring prospective clients into the fold. I think the most effective ezines are published weekly — it gives you one excuse every week to reach out to your contact database. Blogs tend to be attention hogs, so they are most effective as a marketing strategy when you post to them 3-4 times per week. Once you’ve written the content for a series of autoresponders, they can serve as a personal marketing arm for you, as they can be personalized and give prospective clients the impression that you’re writing a personal email just to them. The more ’stay in touch’ strategies you use, the quicker your prospective client base will get to know you and expect to regularly hear from you.
7. Provide a clear call to action. Web site visitors generally want some direction in what action they should take next. Whether they visit your web site, attend your speaking engagement, read an article you’ve written, or listen to one of your podcasts, they want to know what to do next to stay in touch with you. The call to action I always recommend is to get people subscribe to one of your ’stay in touch’ devices, whether that’s your ezine, an autoresponder series, or your blog. In most businesses, your contact database is the asset with the greatest value. It’s no different in an online businesses, where the the name and email address of your visitor is gold. Make it simple for someone to decide to initiate a business relationship with you — have your call to action in your brochure, on your business card, on every page of your web site or blog, and in the audio of your podcasts.
8. Immediately create information products. Creating information products, like ecourses, ebooks, CD or DVD series, workbooks, or audio downloads will help you immediately establish your expertise, create multiple revenue streams for your business, as well as give you a good understanding of the problems faced by your niche market. I’ve been quite slow to jump on the info product bandwagon, as I’ve just been unwilling to carve out the necessary time to create them. The creation process is time-consuming, but once something has been created, it can be a revenue stream for many years. In my early business years, I didn’t think I had any useful info to share with anyone, and now I realize that all the stuff I attributed to ‘common sense’ should have been packaged and sold as information products. So, what info do you think is common-sense in your industry? What format will be most attractive to your target market?
9. Develop a marketing funnel. Creating a marketing funnel of products and services priced from free to expensive, as well as a way to get visitors through that funnel via a marketing plan will give many more people access to your expertise at different price points. Many business owners make the mistake of offering just one thing — their service — and miss out on other ways to sell to and educate prospective customers. Brainstorm on other ways you might deliver your expertise to prospective clients — an ecourse, ebooks, teaching workshops, holding teleclasses, sponsoring mentor groups, etc.
10. Don’t expect overnight success. Despite what the television ads might state or what the information products might claim, success in the online world doesn’t happen overnight. There will be a few who will spot a profitable trend before anyone else does, but eventually the income will fizzle and they’ll have to find another profitable trend. Just like any other business, an online business takes a great deal of time and attention. Some of the tasks can be automated, but you still have to pay attention to what’s happening so that you can effectively create your marketing and promotion strategy.
It is possible to make a decent living from online sources. However, to be successful, you’ll need to do your research, be willing to invest your time, and persevere when the going gets tough.
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter
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Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed service professionals learn how to get more clients online at http://www.OnlineBizCoachingCompany.com . To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.GetMoreClientsOnline.com Read about running an online biz at our blog,
http://www.getmoreclientsonlineblog.com
January 20, 2008
The beauty of e-commerce is that you don?t have to pound the pavement in search of buyers?they are already pounding the cyber sidewalk looking for sellers. However, you must still help your market find you amongst the billions of web pages competing for its attention. Strategically selected keywords can be your best friends in attracting niche traffic that is willing to spend.
If you are an Internet entrepreneur, a reliable strategy for building profits is to define the narrowest niche possible without squeezing your target market size out of substantiation. There are millions of people surfing the web with a few bucks to spend on a good fix, and if you can articulate the right fix to the right prospect, you?re in business. Anyone who says that niching will exclude too many potential buyers doesn?t know why he is in business in the first place. Moreover, a prospect pool with no common reason to buy from you is a headache that will cost time, money, and more patience than your sanity can afford. Get over your desire to be popular with the whole wide world and instead choose a niche.
Now that we?ve got your ego out of the way, let?s talk about what it takes to implement a keyword strategy that attracts highly targeted, qualified leads to your website.
If you know not only who your customer is (demographics) but how he thinks and feels (values, needs, and desires), you can select keywords that will lead prospects straight to your front door with cash in hand. Start by brainstorming a keyword ?seed list.? (If your SEO consultant doesn?t ask for this, take your money and run.) Resist the urge to think in terms of product or service naming conventions, although you may end up using some. People in your target audience may not be aware of such terms, but especially if you provide a niche product or service that has not yet been commoditized in the marketplace. Instead, think in terms of ?answers??answers to your audience?s most burning questions. Answers are what your best (read: loyal) customers will pay for. And if the answers (read: solutions) you provide are not easily duplicated elsewhere, they will pay handsomely.
As you brainstorm the seed list, be sure to cover a range of investigative thought processes. For example, if I am an online shopper looking for a way to protect my old hardwood floors, I am going to search on terms like ?antique hardwood floor cleaners,? not ?Joe?s Super Sonic Latex Shield for Veneer.? This is an admittedly silly example, but it illustrates the ridiculousness of trying to attract quality traffic by grandstanding, beating your chest, and yakking on in a language that only you, the seller, can understand.
Once you have established a seed list of about thirty to fifty terms, your SEO consultant can then begin the research process, usually with the help of a keyword tool such as Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com). Here we find out what people are actually searching on. This is the exciting part (okay, maybe ?exciting? is a stretch). Numerous phrases you had not thought of will reveal themselves?an excellent opportunity to brainstorm new content for your site.
During this research stage the important thing to focus on is specificity, perhaps the most overlooked tactic for attracting web traffic that will convert into sales or inquiries. This is as opposed to choosing sweeping or irrelevant descriptors that say nothing about your site?s offerings, product benefits, or how those things relate to the desires of your target market. In short, optimizing for non-descript or one-word terms being searched on by non-descript, aimless surfers is the equivalent of jumping into an SEO abyss. And if a fly-by-night SEO has promised you the ever-elusive top ten ranking, your site is about to be optimized for keywords that no one within a thousand miles of your target market has ever searched on let alone heard of.
Once your keyword list has been finalized, your SEO consultant will map two to three key phrases to each page of your website. At this point, the work of page optimization begins, a process that involves HTML editing, copy editing, page rewrites, and sometimes a total content overhaul. The resulting page copy should flow well and not actually ?look? like it has been optimized. If it sounds stiff or silly on account of lame keyword integration, get another SEO. Search engines don?t appreciate this kind of content any more than your visitors will.
A true niche marketing strategy for keyword selection is unapologetic. It zeroes in on the desires of your target audience and doesn?t flinch because of the traffic it leaves behind. If you have a good copywriter on board, keyword niching also creates a website that conveys visitor relevance and stimulates a desire to act. Remember, the goal of Internet marketing is not to generate boatloads of traffic but to increase conversions. Niche boldly, know your audience intimately, and give visitors the specific keyword-rich content they are looking for. Anything more is superfluous and will dilute campaign impact. If you stick to your guns as a niche marketer, you?ll be famous with the people that matter and generate the ?specific? ROI you have been aiming for.
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Karri Flatla is a business graduate of the University of Lethbridge and principal of snap! virtual assistance inc., a small business consulting firm providing business communications and Internet marketing services to solo professionals. Karri also produces Outsmart, the email newsletter for small business with big purpose. Visit http://www.snap-va.com for more information.
A few days ago I saw something really interesting while analyzing one of my clients’ sales figures.
When I looked at the names of the buyers and compared them to when they bought in the auto-responder sequence, I noticed people were buying anywhere from the first or second follow-up message…to the 11th, 12th and even 25th follow-up messages.
Some of them didn’t buy until they were even deeper in the sequence than that.
And it occurred to me just how much money we would have lost if we did what the vast majority of Internet marketers do…and stopped at 5 or 7 or 10 follow ups.
What’s my point?
Simply this:
If you’re not relentlessly following up with your leads 10, 15, 25, even 50 times or more — then you’re leaving money on the table.
Probably a lot of money.
In fact, if you don’t have at least 50 ‘evergreen’ messages dripping on your leads regularly, you could be flushing hundreds — even thousands — of dollars down the toilet…and not even know it.
Does 50 follow-up messages sound like a lot?
Maybe it is.
But think about it:
If you have only 50 messages in your sequence, with one going out each week, then that means you have almost a full year’s worth of follow-ups in the ‘hopper.’
Now I know what you’re thinking. Easier said than done, right?
Who has the time, energy and discipline to write that many messages?
Hey, it’s not nearly as hard as you may think.
Just make it easy on yourself.
If you write just one per day, five days a week, you’re done in two months.
If you write two per day, five days per week, you’re done in a little over one month.
If you’re really on fire and write two per day, seven days per week, you’re done in two weeks.
See? No problem.
If you have trouble getting started, use the ‘Ann Coulter’ copywriting secret and pretend you’re writing an email to a friend — informal, personal, easy-to-read.
Look at your product from every different ‘angle’ you can, and talk about it.
Make things dramatic, fun and interesting.
Keep their enthusiasm for what you’re selling high and that fire stoked. Every week provide yet another ?excuse? to look at what you have.
Give a few mini-lessons, tell a few stories about how you or a customer used your product, do some Q&A’s. Say things that make people say, ‘That’s incredible…I didn’t know that!’
The secret is to make them inherently valuable with a ’soft sell’ at the end.
You can do a few blatant sales pitches now and then. But don’t overdo it. And if you do send a blatant pitch, still say something interesting and useful — yet achingly incomplete (so they have to buy your product to get the full secret).
If you get stuck for ideas go through your product and look for interesting facts. Or use the stuff you had to cut out of your ad you really wanted to keep in, but couldn’t. You can also get ideas reading magazines, books, and Internet forums (they’re gold mines of ideas).
Soon you’ll start cranking ‘em out left and right without batting an eye.
The key is to just start doing it.
One today, one tomorrow, one the next day.
Before you know it you’ll have 50, 60, 70 or more follow-ups. Instead of just fizzing away like everyone else…your marketing keeps working hard week after week after week to make the sale on your behalf.
Go ahead. Try it yourself.
What have you got to lose?
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Ben Settle is a direct response copywriter and author of ‘The Copywriting Grab Bag’. Although Ben rarely accepts clients, he freely shares his latest copywriting
secrets and tactics on his website at http://bensettle.com
January 12, 2008
Copyright 2006 Richard Grady
Before the Internet came along, if you wanted to set up your own business it took a lot of money and an unbelievable amount of hard work. You would have to give up nearly everything and live hand-to-mouth for months and work every single waking hour. You would never get a day off and eventually if luck was on your side, you would end up with a thriving business which generated a nice healthy income for you and your family. You would still have to work most days (if not all) and when your normal working day was complete, there would always be paperwork to do in the evening.
If you were fortunate enough to be able to go on holiday you would still have to ‘check in with the office’ - however good your staff were, you couldn’t possibly leave them on their own for more than a day or two without making sure everything was ok. Of course, you could close the business down while you were away but this would mean that you would be losing money everyday that you were lying by the pool (which might take the edge off the enjoyment slightly).
(I could go on but I won’t because the struggles involved in building an offline business aren’t the point of this article…..)
So then the Internet arrived. Suddenly you could set up your own business for next to nothing. All you needed to do was throw up a few web pages and a six figure income would flow from your computer directly to your bank account. It was quick, easy and anyone could do it with little training and little effort. Right?
Er, no actually - in fact, absolutely and completely WRONG!
I have said it countless times before, if you want to build a successful online business, it takes time and a lot of effort. You can do it on a budget but you still need to work very hard and really put the hours in. I won’t bore you with the details of how many hours a week I have worked in the past but believe me, it is more than I knew existed when I had a job!
Unfortunately these facts seem to have been missed by a large percentage of the online population. Over the past few months I have received more and more emails from people who clearly don’t want to do any work whatsoever but seem to expect money to just pump out of their computer as soon as they turn it on each morning. Not only that but they have this expectation that I and others owe it to them to help/guide/support them for free! Some lazy so and so’s have actually suggested that I do all the work in building their website business and then take a cut of future profits!! Why on earth would I want to do that? Why don’t I just build the business on my own and cut them out of the deal?
I received an email from someone this week complaining that after buying one of my wholesale guides, he had been unable to find what he was looking for at a decent wholesale price. The product he was trying to buy was incredibly competitive and has a very small profit margin anyway so the chances are that he was simply expecting to be able to buy it for an unrealistic price. Either that or he had only looked at wholesalers on the Internet because he couldn’t be bothered to move from his chair and actually visit the huge number of excellent suppliers who don’t advertise online (I am beginning to suspect that this is primarily because they don’t want to deal with characters like this!). Anyway, you know the funny part of this story? The guy bought my wholesale guide in 2004 - it had taken him two and a half years to write to me to complain! Does this sound like the kind of ‘go-getter’ who is going to put the required effort in and succeed in any kind of business?
No one is going to do the work for you and you really only have yourself to blame if your business is not working out the way you want it to. If something is wrong, change it. If something isn’t working, try doing it a different way. If you don’t enjoy what you are doing, find something else that you do enjoy.
Internet marketing isn’t for everyone and it isn’t a quick and easy route to easy money. I haven’t had a proper day off work for over five years (even when I am on holiday I usually spend an hour or so a day dealing with emails). Yes the money is good but if it is only the money that attracts you, believe me, you will soon get bored.
Internet marketing is a lifestyle - it can be a very good lifestyle but like any business, you need to be passionate about what you do if you really want to make a success of it.
If you don’t fall into this category then you could well find that your Internet business dream becomes just another JOB…..
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Richard Grady has been helping people earn online since 1998. To view Richard’s latest website, SimplyWholesale, visit http://www.simplywholesale.co.uk To subscribe to his bi-weekly newsletter, please visit: http://www.thetraderonline.com/newsletter.html
January 5, 2008
I recently started working as a consultant for MarketFinders, a Ventura County/ Santa Barbara marketing company in Southern California. Lynn Sarkany, founder and principal, communicated her interest in knowing more about web marketing as the interest in this ‘arcane art’ is exponentially growing.
I said ‘arcane art’ because, unlike conventional marketing, the approach can be quite different and unpredictable. In this article, I will review a few things that should or shouldn’t be done in order to improve your site’s prominence.
Let’s assume that you do not have a website. Your first task is to hire a professional designer. Why do you ask? You could use one of those great designing programs, right? Well, you may have heard this before and it’s not a myth: most of these programs generate unnecessary code that does not need to be there and may very well hurt your website. Search engines do prefer up-to-date clean code and a professional web designer is one of the most qualified people to do this. With a strong structure, your site will also be liked by spiders and bots (these are the programs gathering info for search engines) thus making it easier for it to be ranked at its value (given the algorithm used by the specific spider/bot). The higher the value and relevancy, the more likely others will view your site.
If you already have a website, several factors come into play, including age of site, website design, content dynamics, and any type of web marketing. A website professional should analyze your site, including its age, history, structure, and previous marketing attempts. From that point on, he/she should be in a position to tell you if your site needs structural work and how you should proceed to optimize your site.
Next, make sure search engines know who you are and where you are. In other words, make sure your contact information is complete with street address, phone number(s), fax (optional), and email address(es). Telling visitors who you are increases your site legitimacy and search engines, starting with Google, are starting to pay attention to that. The ?where? is also important since some search engines, and most directories, offer local searches and listings; some phonebooks even have online versions! Why pass on this opportunity for additional traffic?
The first step after a design, or redesign, is to submit your site to search engines and directories. Some people will tell you that it?s not necessary or that it could even hurt an existing site. Until I see concrete proof supporting these facts, I?d rather be safe than sorry and submit my sites! Furthermore, search engines, at least the major ones, will not penalize you for submitting your site after a redesign; how could they consider it spamming?
Linking (or getting other websites to point to your website) is an ongoing process. You need a consistent linking strategy where links are added progressively. Adding a few relevant links (for example, from MD sites if you?re a physician) regularly (weekly or monthly) will show your site is growing at a healthy pace, free of spam and unethical tactics.
In a similar fashion, ?black hat? tactics (things that some people do to trick search engines in order to achieve better rankings) should be avoided at all costs. Your site may end up being banned from search engines all together. I don?t think the long term consequences are worth the immediate profit.
These two points are quite important because algorithms will sniff out (hopefully sooner than later) sites who use link farms (large amount of links pointing to one site) for sheer ?unethical- profit and spamming, or sites that use ?black hat? tactics.
The same way you need to build inbound links (those coming to your site), you need to develop relevant content, which visitors should find of interest. When it comes to marketing your site, nothing is more true than ?Content is King.? Good, fresh, content will not only keep visitors coming back but search engines may very well index the corresponding pages.
If your content is newsworthy, or specific to an industry, you may consider doing a press release. This is a tool that may bring your site and your business great exposure.
You may also post on forums and blogs in your field of business but please, do not spam other websites and respect their posting rules and policies. The goal is to build relationships which could lead to more traffic and links.
Most strategies rely on several tools: Search Engine Optimization, forum posts/blogging, press releases, linking/tagging (where people eartag your site within a community), email newsletters and/or mass emails, MySpace account (or similar), online ads, and paid advertising.
Quite simply, the web is so large that you?d loose your marbles if you tried everything to market your site. My advice to you is start small and build up on your results. Above all, track the return on any strategy you may use and determine whether or not it is a viable option for your business. People like the idea of advertising on the web and get caught up in the frenzy but sometimes forget the essential: Did it get my business noticed? Was it worth my investment?
Feel free to email me at Stephan at www.hamptonswebsitedesign.com if you have any questions.
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Stephan Goutoulli is the owner of WebStudio, NY, and has been working as a designer, programmer, and webmaster for over 4 years.
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