Monday, June 23, 2008

Viral marketing is a methods of list building

There are multiple methods of list building, and if you are just getting started, until you have gained mastery over one or two methods, it is advisable to use multiple methods of list building strategies. You’ll see every step of the process, no matter how small, in exacting detail so

The dollar is falling, oil is up, credit is more difficult to get and every time you turn on the TV, or go online you hear buzz about a pending recession. Sales and marketing managers are scratching their heads wondering how they will achieve budgeted sales figures.

Before you brush up on Brian Tracy personal selling techniques, look to how you are currently managing your existing resources. How are you currently allocating your marketing budget? What techniques are you using to gather lead generation? The scary question... gulp... when you gather a lead, do you know where it came from? Does your sales team follow up promptly? Do you let your leads go stall?

Before you look to readjust your sales figures, let's look at readjusting your current business practices and through the use of cost-effective SEM (search engine marketing) examine if a short-term focused pay per click (PPC) campaign can help.

1. What is a Conversion Worth?

Too often companies do not know how much a conversion is worth, or even how to define a conversion. If Internet marketing brings you a new customer and that new customer provide $X of incremental sales revenue, how much is it worth to acquire that sales lead? What percentage of sales leads convert to customers? How does this compare to other methods of lead generation?

Tip: In times of an economic slowdown, accountability is essential. It is important to know how much money a new customer is worth and how much it will cost to get that new customer. If a new customer provides $500 additional profit and it cost $200 to get that customer (cost per lead divided by call to action conversion rate), you would say that was a profitable venture.

2. Understand Web User Behavior.

What web analytics package are you currently using? When was the last time you sat down and reviewed you site's analytics? Understanding user behavior is critical. This is magnified in a short term sales cycle. What "call to actions" does your website hope to achieve from a user? How is this measured? For example, if your call to action is filling out a "contact us" form for example, how many individual users visited that form and what percentage filled out the form and arrived at a "thank you page?"

Tip: If you are not currently using an analytics page, Google offers a free program called Google Analytics. The analytics program is installed by adding a few lines of HTML script on your website's pages.

3. Where are your leads coming from?

Crazy as this may sound, many companies to this day do not fully grasp where a lead originated from. The most important part of web analytics is tracking and analyzing defined "call to action" situations. Advances in CRM systems have allowed the integration of defining a lead as coming from a particular Internet source (Salesforce.com does a good job of this integration)

4. PPC burst as a short term strategy.

Need a lot of visibility and are strapped for time? Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising should be on your list to things to do. Sites such as MSN, Yahoo!, Google and Business.com offer robust PPC packages that will help you target your audience and convert on your call to action requirements.

These campaigns function around bidding for a small text advertisement to display when a user types in a set of keywords. The concept is each time a user inputs a keyword phrase into a search engine he is looking to conduct business around that keyword. If a person is performing a search for the keyword "tax software," the implication is he is looking to potentially purchase a tax software solution.

5. Track PPC campaign.

Pay Per Click is one of the best short term strategies a company can use. PPC is something that needs to be monitored regularly by either by an in-house specialist or professional agency. The performance of your ads will help dictate how much you are willing to pay for a click. Tracking via web analytics can help ensure you are allocating enough resources to high performance keywords and not providing too many resources to keywords that are not producing a desirable conversion rate.

How does PPC fit into your overall marketing budget and strategy? It can become expensive long term, but as part of a balanced solution, PPC can provide the immediate results that you might not get through telesales, newsletters and tradeshows. A final consideration for companies looking to engage in a PPC campaign, test the usability of your website. Receiving double the traffic to your website is no different than becoming twice as efficient. In other words, your advertising dollar will go further when you direct users to pages that are easy to use, provide the information they are seeking and provide you with measurable call to action results.

Keith Hanks is an Account Manager at Atlanta search engine optimization agency TwentySix2 Marketing. He has a passion for Atlanta SEO agency services and Atlanta web design services.

Three Things You Must Do Before You Submit To Article Directories

To all writers and non-writers out there, now is the time to start digging up those creative writing skills.With modern communication technology comes the popularity of information-based marketing, which is one of the oldest and most effective techniques in getting targeted prospects to sites and converting them into buyers. This is

Today, just about any market segment on the internet is saturated to the limit. And under these circumstances, it's pertinent for any website that wishes to survive, let alone thrive, to figure amongst the top ranks in the search engines. It's no secret that Search engines provide the best way to direct the people you want to your website.

Most well-known search engines, for example; Google, Yahoo and MSN use something called the link popularity in their search formulas. So the main trick to get more and more visitors to visit your website is to have many links which point to your site from relevant, associated pages. As the number of links which lead to your site increase, so does your website's popularity.

But with the passage of time, search engines discard their old methods and change their methods to evolve new ones. Though, earlier, webmasters tried very hard to trade links, these reciprocal links often come across useless due to the continual changes made to search formulas. It is here that the more powerful and useful one-way link makes its entry into the scenario.

Some of the many advantages of permanent one way links over reciprocal links are as follows:

1. The most important and useful feature of a one-way link is the fact that, being unidirectional, there is absolutely no way it can be linked back to any undesirable webpage. And so, there remains no chance of your link being associated with any "bad neighborhood". In other words, when you buy one-way links, you can be sure of an increase in your ranking in the search engines, without the additional worry of the problem of a bad link-back. This really helps when you are trying to add to the credibility of your site.

2. Another very good reason to consider one-way links as a viable option for your website is its known stability. A one-way link usually stays in its place for a very long period of time. When another webmaster looks through your website and finds content which is interesting enough, he wants his visitors to enjoy it as well. So then he proceeds to put up a link which directs his visitors to your website. This is why, most one way links are likely to be found on pages with the same or relevant topics of your website. As each amongst all these one-way-inbound links point out the importance of your website, the search engines act accordingly. To put it simply, permanent one way links not only boost your credibility but they also shoot up your site's rankings on the various search engines as well.

In conclusion, there can be no doubt to the fact that one-way links are the links of the new generation. They are more useful, powerful and convenient than the older ones. So, although you cannot completely disregard the importance of two way back-links it definitely makes more sense to purchase as many one-way links as possible in order to maximize the amount of traffic your website sees each day!

Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who represents many UK businesses. For Permanent One Way Links, he recommends Impact Media Ltd, one of the UK's leading specialists of Link Building Services.

Viral marketing is a methods of list building

There are multiple methods of list building, and if you are just getting started, until you have gained mastery over one or two methods, it is advisable to use multiple methods of list building strategies. You’ll see every step of the process, no matter how small, in exacting detail so

The use of business articles professionally designed by article writing personnel all over the world has been in existence for quite some time. However, the rising number of article writing firms and needs has given rise to advertising article marketing. Advertising article marketing chiefly helps put forwards one's talent in front of the business world thereby giving rise to a new horizon of opportunities. Advertising article marketing is developing at a fast pace giving new opportunities to the professional and quality writers.

One needs to understand the need of the advertising article marketing Services. Business enterprises of various types are available all over the world of internet. Similarly, advertising article marketing helps put forward your articles, for the world to see, therefore promoting your online article writing business. This helps open up a new big world of opportunities for your article writing business.

Advertising article marketing involves the usage of the websites for promotion of articles. A wide variety of online companies and websites are present which do host various articles of writers thus giving rise to a global world of opportunities. This is one of the easiest ways to make your article writing business's presence over the huge world of the internet.

The concept of advertising article marketing has been in existence for quite some time now. Strategic articles without copyright infringements used to be present in the age before the advent of the internet and in those days advertising article marketing used to be accomplished through the media and other ways of communications.

Article writing has emerged into a big business opportunity and therefore advertising article marketing over the internet has reached an advanced stage today. Article writing involves search engine optimization and writing promotional pieces for attracting clients from all over the world. The cycle truly remains incomplete without the presence of the advertising article marketing which brings the article writers in easy access of unbound opportunities over the internet.

ArticlesInMyInbox is the world's premier original content marketing articles service provider and your unfair advantage in creating original articles,search engine optimized for top placement in Google, in order to secure the search engine daily visits to your website as being listed #1 in your niche for all of your niche's most searched keyterms and phrases. Also, your customers will be pre-screened before coming to your website because they have just read an article that targets them to what you provide and have decided to click on the link in your resource box to take the next step. To make your next step the next level for your business by putting the professional team of writers at ArticlesInMyInbox to work for you, just email support@articlesinmyinbox.com

Three Things You Must Do Before You Submit To Article Directories

To all writers and non-writers out there, now is the time to start digging up those creative writing skills.With modern communication technology comes the popularity of information-based marketing, which is one of the oldest and most effective techniques in getting targeted prospects to sites and converting them into buyers. This is

Is your click through rate not impressive at all? Are you struggling to increase your conversation rate but can't seem to drive quality traffic to your website? Then, you need to energize your article marketing campaign. Here are the 3 huge secrets to help you do just that:

1. Improve your titles. If your articles are not being clicked on, there is a huge possibility that your titles are not that impressive because they are unable to stir attention from online users. To help you out, here are the elements of a great title: It must be keyword-rich, direct to the point, intriguing, and most importantly, it must communicate the benefits that it can offer to online users because people would like to know upfront what's in it for them.

2. Improve your content. If your click through rate is impressive but can't seem to convert readers to potential clients, I would say improve your content. They don't click on your resource box because they probably don't think that you are an expert on your field and have valuable information to share. Make your articles highly informative and targeted to the needs and demands of your online users. Make sure that your articles are well-written and your ideas must flow well so your readers can easily understand the points you are trying to get across.

3. Improve your resource box. To increase your conversation rate, make sure that your resource box is compelling, powerful, and extremely enticing. Make use of persuasive words that can easily move your readers to check on your website. Don't forget to include your name, your areas of interest, the problems you solve, and the link to your website. I also suggest using anchor texts instead of absolute URLs because they are far more effective.

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Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.

Making Money with Your Blog!

A place for finding the Nuts and Bolts for Making Money Online with Affiliate Marketing Business Opportunity!

I'll start by saying that I'm a member of Wealthy Affiliate.

I'll give you the details here, and you can decide for yourself if you think it's worthwhile.

Wealthy Affiliate teaches you everything you need to know to reach these goals and start working online full time, or perhaps just working part time creating a second stream of income. Whatever you want to do, Wealthy Affiliate will help you get there.

Lets get started

Now, let's get one thing out of the way. WA is in no way a scam or a get rich quick scheme. If you had your doubts, fear no more, WA is the anti-scam in the fact you get everything you pay for, plus some.

What is Wealthy Affiliate?

For those that don't know, WA is an online community for aspiring and professional internet marketers of all backgrounds. Whether you're rich or poor, a pro or a newbie, there is something at Wealthy Affiliate to help you grow. The information provided will help you get started or start making better conversions, and the community we've established is priceless.

On the forum, there are some experts, some intermediates, and plenty of newbies. There are places for people to ask any types of questions for any issues they have, and they'll be answered quickly. There are thousands of members, so it's never quiet. There are lots of questions asked and answered, and there's also an area for people to talk about if they're having success.

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Making Money with Your Blog!

A place for finding the Nuts and Bolts for Making Money Online with Affiliate Marketing Business Opportunity!

Getting traffic to your website or blog is the only way to make it pay, but not everyone who launches a website or blog has the money to spend on promotion. Good news. There's a promotional method that really works for attracting site or blog traffic and it's free, free, free. It's called article marketing and it is a sure way of raising a site's profile.

Step 1: Find An Article Directory

To get started, find a suitable article directory. Article directories are sites that have hundreds and thousands of articles and there are new ones emerging every day. Some are all-purpose, covering everything from family issues to healthcare, while others have a niche, such as computer advice or art. All of them are hungry for content.

With so many to pick from, choosing an article directory can be a minefield. To make it easier, look at the directory to see:

  • how many authors there are - if only a handful, forget it and move on.
  • how many articles there are - ditto; come back when they've got some content
  • can the site be found on Google, Yahoo or MSN - if you can't find many links to the site, then no-one will find your articles either.
One of the best and most effective article directories I have used is EzineArticles.com. EzineArticles is easy to use and articles published on the site appear in the search engines very quickly.

Step 2: Start Writing

Once you've decided on the right article directory or directories, write an article. Bloggers will find that blog posts are a good starting point for a web article. If you're not a writer, there are plenty of writers who will whip up an article for a few dollars. Some will even help you get it published. The article you write or commission can be about almost anything related to the site, blog or business you are promoting. The ideal article should be short (say 300-600 words) and error-free, so remember to proofread and spell check.

Many article directories vet articles before publishing. Stick to the guidelines that are published on every site and approval should be a formality. Most article directories prohibit self-promotion in the body of the article. Direct promotion of a site, blog or business is reserved for the resource box.

Step 3: Work That Resource Box

The resource box is where article writers can put all the self-promotional information. Readers who have found the article useful are likely to click on the links to see what else a site, blog or business has to offer. Article directories typically allow up to three links in the resource box. A good resource box has the name of the writer or the person being promoted, the name of the business and the keywords that the site or business owner would like to promote. See the resource box at the end of this article for an example. Other resource boxes may link to a sales letter page (with the product name highlighted) and include a short elevator pitch and call to action.

Step 4: Submit Like Crazy

Once the article has been submitted to the directories the site owner has chosen, it's time to move the strategy to the next level. Article submission services extend the potential reach of an article, giving another opportunity to boost traffic. Like many article directories, article submission services allow people to upload articles for approval. Once the articles are approved, these services send them out to article directories, article groups, ezine publishers and website owners to be considered for publication. Two options for article submission are Article Marketer, which has free and paid options and Isnare, which is a paid service. There are also free and commercial programs to automate article submission.

Pros And Cons Of Article Marketing

The big question, of course, is whether submitting articles to hundreds of directories counts as duplicate content. It's hard to tell. Some of them end up in the sandbox after a while; others don't. Staggering submissions is a good way to avoid this. However, in my opinion, the advantages outweigh the potential disadvantages. With article marketing, sites can receive hundreds of inbound links in only a few days or weeks and thousands of people will be visiting the site that's being promoted. That can't be bad, can it?

Sharon Hurley Hall is a freelance writer, ghostwriter and editor, who has seen article marketing work for her. Sharon is a freelance writer, ghostwriter and editor who writes on freelance writing skills and writer promotion for InspiredAuthor.com. For more information or to contact Sharon, visit doublehdesign.com.