SiteProNews |
- Are You Sacrificing Your Long Term Internet Marketing Success For Short Term Profits?
- How To Design Website Graphics With Commercial Design Software
- Tips For Google Adwords
- Article Marketing And The Eye Of The Spider
- Social Media Marketing is Dying
| Are You Sacrificing Your Long Term Internet Marketing Success For Short Term Profits? Posted: 29 Sep 2010 02:00 AM PDT 
This isn’t a bad strategy when done correctly, but it will most likely mean that you’ll always be looking for the next sale instead leveraging the power that you have gained over time. Here’s a look at some of the potential trade-offs that are often made. PPC vs. SEO PPC is a very common short-term tactic which is one of the quickest ways to generate targeted traffic to your web pages. The key to effective PPC campaigns is a mix of bid management, effective ad creation and conversions. While this approach can be extremely successful, it also involves consistent monitoring. The skills involved also require some level of specialization and time. On the other hand, SEO has consistently proved that it’s the most effective way to ensure that your website has long-term visibility. While more work will be required at the outset to generate traffic, in the medium-long term, less and less time needs to be allocated to SEO. Plus, all of the work builds upon itself, so over time it will provide you with a large number of valuable assets that can be leveraged to promote new websites you may have in the future. The trade-off between PPC and SEO is twofold. The first is time. Putting emphasis on one almost requires focusing less on the other when there is only a limited amount of time and resources. While PPC marketing can generate short-term profits, you’ll need to monitor and tweak your strategy consistently. Plus, if you decide you no longer want to pay for anymore PPC ads, you’ll no longer get any traffic. On the other hand, if you stop doing SEO tactics, you’ll still be able to generate traffic based upon your past efforts. In most cases, people can set-up small websites, and once efficient enough, can be left to generate passive income without any additional work. Thanks to effective SEO, these websites can continue to generate profits for years after they are left alone. Possible Solutions There are ways that you can include both PPC and SEO into your short and long-term marketing strategies. Regarding PPC, make sure that your landing page is focused on generating opt-ins to your newsletter list rather than trying to directly sell a product. This will allow you to use PPC to feed your long-term traffic and marketing strategies. Also, if you’re currently only using PPC, then take 25% of your net profits and use them to start building your SEO efforts. Then, you’ll still be able to generate short-term profits from PPC but will also be able to invest time and money into creating and executing a long-term SEO strategy. You can now see that it can be tempting to put off generating long-term passive income for short-term profits. However, if you plan accordingly and make sure to focus on the end-goal, then you can easily maintain both short-term profits from PPC ads and your dedication to SEO tactics. By doing this, you’ll cut down the amount of work that needs to be done in the long-run, without giving up on generating a profit in the short-term. This is the key to Internet marketing success. David Hurley is an experienced Internet marketer who builds unique Free Business Websites and provides free training for his clients. Visit grasp-the-nettle.com to find out how David can help you get your business set up on the Internet, FAST and FREE. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources      |
| How To Design Website Graphics With Commercial Design Software Posted: 29 Sep 2010 02:00 AM PDT 
There is also inexpensive design software that is not nearly as functional as it needs to be to provide you with all the design tools that you need, and finally there is free software that offers about everything you will find on the most expensive. Which you choose to use is up to you, but it is likely worth testing the free software first before anything else. If that works for you then you need look no further and save yourself a fortune into the bargain. Good web graphics can be all that is needed to persuade visitors to stay and find out what else your website has to offer. The problem is that most people have no idea how to design them themselves and rely on free graphics images that are hardly unique. While you might want lovely website graphics on your webpage, there’s not a lot you can do without good graphic design software. What if you want a new purchase button, or a nice looking header and footer for each of your web pages? What about an eBook cover for your new product? You won’t get any change from $100 for a decent eBook cover, yet the software that will enable you to produce your own is available free online. Perhaps you use a clipart bank, but the problem with these is that you pay for the graphics, and if you do use free ones they usually have an advert watermarked into them. In any case, standard graphics are not always suitable for your site, and need some editing before they look good. Most clipart is no good for eBook or report covers, and you will struggle to find any that offer a decent website header. Most people believe the only solution to be expensive software, but there is a lot more out there than you might be aware of. You can join a graphics club, for example, where, for a monthly fee you are sent a whole host of graphics. However you will likely find that you don’t need most of it. Alternatively you can download graphics software that is available online at absolutely no cost whatsoever. As stated earlier, it’s your choice whether you want to use that or simply go straight to Photoshop or something similar. That might be the best option, for you at least, but you will never know if you have never tried something cheaper – or even free! What is it with some people that they look down on free software? They would rather pay $500 or more than use free software that offers them everything they are likely to ever need. Is it because they believe that a free version can’t be anything like as good as the real thing? In some cases the free version is the real thing, and the paid version simply a copy of it. There is a lot of Open Source software that has been hijacked, tarted up and sold in a fancy eBox under a different name. People will pay $199 for that, yet refuse to download the same thing free, and the only difference is the fancy box and fancy name. You can use the same Open Source software by downloading it free without the fancy box or fancy name. You can use it to design your own website graphics, your own headers and footers, buttons, bullet graphics, eBook covers and even use it to edit your photographs. Others believe that there must be a catch and that once you download it you will find that it isn’t much use without this enhancement or that plugin that you have to purchase. Not so. Nothing else is needed to design your first web page. Maybe you have heard about free software being associated with Adware and Spyware. Now that is true, but only if downloaded from dodgy sites and the better free stuff is guaranteed free of this sort of malware. It is your choice, though those have tried various types of Open Source software have been delighted with the results. So if you want to design website graphics, then there are free commercial software packages out there just waiting for you to try. To download the Gimp and its manual free of charge, and learn more about using it, visit Pete’s website at www.onlinenetincome.com/gimp-download.html. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources    |
| Posted: 29 Sep 2010 02:00 AM PDT 
Pay Per click (PPC) can work exceptionally well at getting hordes of very targeted traffic to your website virtually instantly. Of course, you may be asking, if it’s so good, why doesn’t everyone use it? That is the crux of the matter. PPC is not an easy thing to learn how to do. It will take time and you need to be willing to invest not only the time but the money too. You will need to carefully test and track various elements of each ad that you place. In the start you will spend way more money than you will earn. Another challenge is that Google isn’t really worried to much about you or your advertising budget, they are more concerned that their searchers get what they are looking for. The searchers on any of the search engines are the real customers and if they don’t find what they want they’ll go elsewhere. That is why Google wants to make sure to keep them happy by providing them with just what they’re looking for. To do this, Google will periodically change the way they do things. They will rewrite an algorithm or make other changes and if you’re not right on top of those changes you can find that the ad that once made you a lot of money is now costing you a lot of money. Here are a few tips that you can use to optimize your PPC campaigns: 1. Find a course or a mentor who can teach you the ins and outs of PPC advertising. If you try to just jump in and figure it all out on your own you had better make sure you have a lot of time and very deep pockets. 2. Carefully choose the keywords you use. Don’t even try to compete for the one or two word keywords since they will almost always have so much competition you’ll be spending way too much per click. Instead focus on the keyword phrases that have 3, 4, or 5 words in them. These ‘long tailed keywords’ can fly under the radar yet still get you some decent click through rates (CTR’s). 3. Always test your ads. You can do this by having several versions of each ad running at the same time. Find out which headlines get the most clicks. Which body text gets the most clicks, etc. Keep testing until you’ve got a winning ad. When testing make sure you only change one element at a time otherwise you won’t know which change really made the difference. Out of all the Google Adwords tips I can give you the one I think is the most important is to find someone to show you the ropes. PPC is effective if you know how to do it right, but if not it can very quickly become a money pit. Get more traffic tips at TrafficAttractionFormula.org Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources    |
| Article Marketing And The Eye Of The Spider Posted: 29 Sep 2010 02:00 AM PDT 
Given the sheer profusion of pages on the internet, this can be a herculean task for both the buyer as well as the seller. Internet marketing is all about catching the ‘eye of the spider’. ‘Spiders’ are ingenious little devices that search all the pages of the World Wide Web looking for those pages that are most relevant to the search term that the internet user has entered. Not only do spiders find the appropriate pages, but they also rank these pages in order of relevance, making it easier for the user to find what he is looking for. Goes without saying, anybody looking for something would first click on the page that is right on top of the list. If he finds what he is looking for, that’s it- he looks no further. It is only if he does not find what he wants that he will then go down the list of pages that the spiders have ranked in decreasing order of relevance. The key then, is to make sure your website is ranked right up there above all others that have the same keyword. Here are a few tips on how you can use article marketing to catch the eye of that all-important spider and get your website ranked right up there, where it can be seen by millions of users. Make sure your article content is original Spiders never forget! They memorize every article they have ever crawled over. If they come across a similar article during subsequent searches they immediately pick it out as a plagiarized copy. Instead of the brownie points you would expect to win for featuring valuable content on your web site, your web site would get penalized for featuring copied content. It is critical to make sure that your article content is always original. Post your original articles on your own website first By posting your original content on your own website before distributing it to other sites, you stake a claim to your article, and prevent those spiders from penalizing it for duplication. Also, when the spider picks up your article during a search, if the article is posted on your website, it will lead the reader straight to your site circumventing the round-about route. Embed those keywords and keyword phrases Using appropriate keywords and keyword phrases throughout your article while maintaining optimum keyword density, is critical. Proper keywords used correctly helps spiders index your website and leverages your search engine optimization. It is important to remember that proper usage of keywords and keyword phrases is critical. Keywords that are randomly placed throughout the article, known as keyword stuffing, will only help get your article disqualified and penalized by search engines. And if your article that is unintelligently keyword stuffed, does get past the search engines, your site visitors will be none too impressed with the quality of your articles and will almost certainly turn away. Once this happens, it is almost impossible to lure them back again. Increase your link popularity Spiders determine the popularity and relevancy of your website by the quality and quantity of inbound hyperlinks from other websites to yours. Include an “About the Author” section with a link to your website in every author resource box at the end of your article. It is obligatory for other websites to include this section if they decide to publish your article on their site. This in itself will guarantee you unlimited free publicity. If your article is informative and interesting, and is placed on several sites, you would automatically get plenty of links pointing back to your site. This is guaranteed to catch the eye of the spider and increase your search engine ranking. Maximize your exposure through article distribution sites By submitting your articles to large distributions sites such as GoArticles.com or eZine.com you increase the chances of your article being re-purposed by other webmasters who are continuously seeking quality content. This can have a kind of viral effect and send a continuous stream of significant traffic towards the direction of your articles. Persistence pays Writing just one article, no matter how good, is not enough to get you the desired results. Catching the eye of the spider takes time. To reap the benefits of article marketing requires time and patience as well as the unswerving commitment to generate and disseminate good quality articles consistently. This is what will create a valuable footprint in your field of expertise and help increase the number of back-links to your site. Maintain that word count Most websites will only accept and distribute articles that meet their specified article requirements with regard to minimum and maximum length. As a rule, articles should be no more than 500 words and no less than 300 words. John S Tucker is the founder of Think Ahead Marketing Limited, based in London. The company has recently released the Strategic Online Business Masters E-Course, covering all aspects of online business. This can be downloaded for free at internetbusinesscore.com/sobmasters.html. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources    |
| Social Media Marketing is Dying Posted: 28 Sep 2010 10:00 PM PDT 
What’s wrong with this picture? Could it be that the advertisements lack taste and real value, or could it be that the people who want your business care less about who you are and what you are interested in? What business entrepreneurs are forgetting is that they are on the other side of the fence of social media. They are on the advertising end, which means without a real connection to the “the people,” they are getting nowhere. At some point, a real connection needs to be established or otherwise all efforts to make a sale or spread the word are pointless. The truth? No one cares about you unless you care about them, particularly when it comes to social media. Let’s say that you’ve got an account with Facebook. Each day when you see those tiny red notifications, you’re dead sure that they signify a message from your friends or family. Unfortunately, you open your inbox and all you see are loud advertisements. What do you do? You delete them, and you do so automatically without any interest whatsoever about what they say. Advertising gurus are no longer “gurus,” they are simply annoying spammers who have no clue what they are doing. Business owners are missing the point. If their emails are getting read, it’s only by other advertisers just so they can compare tactics and techniques. Another sad part of it all is that no one is coming up with new techniques. Everyone is following someone who they think is successful, but in reality, no one is making any money because of their lack of effort and knowledge. If you haven’t noticed (and you most likely have), all online entrepreneurs go about advertising their businesses in the same way. First, they request you as a friend or become a follower (Twitter). Some of them may greet you with a “thanks for the request” or some other similar phrase, while others jump straight to the point and start bombarding you with their “winning” sales pitch. Who are you more likely to communicate with? Nothing screams “delete” louder and faster than a sales pitch. Some of the “thanks for the request” people might actually make it, as long as they don’t jump the gun too quickly. Unfortunately, the majority of them end it right there and automatically go on a link-posting frenzy, and immediately begin flooding your inbox with details about their products with no mention of how they might benefit you individually. It’s almost as if they are “demanding” that you purchase from them without any clear reason as to why. On the other hand, some people are making sales. They are the ones who take their time in getting to know people. They ask questions and take a true interest in their prospects. Developing customer relationships is the most important part of advertising on social media because in It helps to wear the shoe on the other foot. Picture walking into a store with workers that aren’t friendly and don’t seem to have your interest anywhere in their top priorities. They are anxious for you to buy something and that is it. They don’t care what you buy or why, they just want your money. When you leave, they want you to come back over and over, even if you’re not interested in what they’ve got. It’s a horrible experience for both you and them. When you look at it from a different perspective, it helps to see why social media is dying for your company. What people want is warmth and a display of interest in who they are, not lousy sales pitches. As soon as business professionals establish a connection, then they might have Former Software CEO turned Internet Marketer. Duncan Wierman shows you how to use creative marketing methods to create a full time income online. Duncan is the originalcreator of the software that finds business LEADS and converts them to income. Get a trial copy at: www.OnlineLeadFinder.com. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources    |
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