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Most Recent Articles For: Internet Marketing

Written by Jodie Kastner on July 22nd, 2008
by Jodie Kastner

Every great copywriter knows that a testimonial can be one of your best selling tools. Unfortunately, you won’t always be handed a pile of powerfully worded testimonials. The good news is that you don’t have to settle for weak ones — even if that’s all you have to start out with.

By doing a little extra work, you can go out and get great ones. Testimonials that talk about specific benefits, and connect with your prospect because they are talking more than just “before and after” — they’re telling stories about real people. With testimonials like this, your copy becomes even more powerful.

Most customers give the same type of testimonial. I call it a Before and After testimonial. He tells you the problem he had, and how this product solved it. This type of testimonial is definitely better than just saying, “I loved your product!” but in today’s market you need to go one step further.

That’s because your prospect is getting use to seeing Before and After testimonials. Everyone is using them, and they just don’t have the same impact they use to have.

For great copy, you want to get richer, more powerful testimonials. The good news is it’s not that hard to do! In fact, with just a little work, you can have a pile of testimonials — each focusing on a different selling point. All you have to do is go out and get them!

The first step is to get the names and contact information of key customers. Call them up and arrange a time to “interview” them for 20-25 minutes. This will be your chance to uncover interesting, real-life stories your prospect can relate to.

When you’re finished, you are ready for the next step. This is where you take the information you just gathered and transform it into the strongest testimonial possible.

When you’re finished interviewing the customer, ask him if he’d be willing to let you use what he said as a testimonial. If he says yes, offer to type one up for him based on the conversation you just had. When it’s written, you will send it to him for his approval. Surprisingly, most people will jump at this suggestion!

Once the customer gives you the go-ahead, your job is to take what you have and turn it into the most powerful testimonial you can. If the interview has gone well and you’ve asked the right questions, you will have a lot of great material to choose from.

Start by reviewing your interview notes and asking yourself a few questions:

* Which angle should I take?

* Which key selling points do I need to reinforce?

* Which one is best supported by this person’s story?

* What is the best way to use or position this story?

* What parts will make my prospect think, “Hey, that guy is just like me!”

Just imagine how much more powerful and effective these type of testimonials will be. All of the different angles you can take and the great real-life tidbits that you can weave through your sales copy.

The truth is, there’s no better way to get these type of powerful testimonials. When you know how to guide the interview, you can uncover the “good stuff” quickly — every single time. Then all you need to do is take what you have and position it, and you’ve got a testimonial that will make selling your product that much easier.

You’ll have a testimonial that’s written from your customer’s own unique perspective. One that’s focused on the exact benefit you want to emphasize, and talks to your prospect’s real needs and desires. A powerful testimonial that’s written in your customer’s own word, only better!

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Written by Stuart Russell on July 21st, 2008
by Russell M. Stewart

The internet is brimming with web directories. These web directories belong to different subject matters, such as articles, business, web hosting, ebooks - the list goes on. For the most part, these web directories do what they are supposed to do. They provide a single online location to find various listings providing links to different sites on the internet. Their primary objective is to direct the readers to the exact thing they are looking for.

So, logically, it follows that business directories direct you to any business you are looking for. They are not exclusively online businesses, but also offline ones, as long as they have a page you can be directed to. More than individuals, other businesses find these directories useful, for services and for products they need, but of course, they help consumers directly, too.

There are several standards and guidelines pertaining to the presentation of business directories. If they are to be informative and useful for anyone, they should be available in a convenient form. There are no imposed standards on how a web business directory must be presented, but certain qualities are generally expected in them.

Organisation - A well-organised online business directory is easy for anyone to use. It must be categorised accordingly, showing main and sub classifications. Simple and user-friendly navigation, with properly categorised links in each section, is also necessary. A summarised, clean layout is also a sign of a good online business directory.

Content Updates - Keeping the directory updated frequently brings in a lot of web traffic and if a directory lacks content changes, such as new links, it can be considered as dead. A high-quality business directory is constantly updated, because there’s always lots of traffic and many businesses take the time to submit their own sites.

PageRank - Google and other search engines provide web pages with ranks. These ranks are based on how popular a page is. While it’s different from the search engine’s organic results, having a high PageRank boosts the site’s ability drive traffic through its links.

Correct Keywords - A good online business directory must concentrate on providing traffic to their listed businesses, so using the right keywords to direct various visitors is imperative. By providing keyword-based search facility, web business directories are able to help users find the right businesses without a hassle.

These key attributes can help anyone decide if an online business directory is good and efficient. Choosing the best quality directory is easier this way, whether you want to find a business reliably or post your own links.

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Written by Shawn Stanley on July 20th, 2008
by Bryan Hollis

If you need a lot of exposure for your website, you should consider using guaranteed links. These guaranteed links will let so many more people see your site, and see it within a shorter amount of time than the time that you have to wait for other advertising strategies to show a result. Help your website succeed with guaranteed links.

Back links are what you need, and if you check out major search engines, such as Google or Yahoo, you will find that they get picky when they want to present which back links they think are important. In order to take care of this problem, you can get your website onto guaranteed links. All links go to free directories, and the links from directories are never ignored by the search engines. Make sure that your permanent links will always show up.

Guaranteed links are really the only way you can make a serious effort in getting you site noticed on the internet in order to make it a success. There is a difference between free directory submissions and guaranteed links, so you will want to check out both systems. Guaranteed links are submitted to directories that will promise you’re the returns that you need, while free submissions may give you permanent links in return, but there’s no way to promise the number that you will get back.

Another difference is that guaranteed links will be given to your from paid directories from all over the internet and not the free directories that are controlled by various webmasters. This ensures that you’ll be able to reach out to a lot more people than you could with smaller, individually owned directories.

Make sure to avoid all of those companies that try old SEO tricks on you. Don’t let them put out temporary links just for a little bit of higher page ranks. This will end up hurting your website in the end. A good service will provide you with guaranteed links that you can actually use, and that are a part of various types of websites.

Up to 500 web directories are at your disposal with guaranteed links. These can all be used in order to get the most exposure for your website. With prices being very low per guaranteed link, you can choose how many links you want to put out and when. The service you work with should be able to provide you with a report that tells you how your guaranteed links are working for you.

If you want high quality links on all different kinds of websites, you will want to get guaranteed links. This will open up the whole internet to you and your website so that you can be successful selling your products or services.

What is best about the guaranteed links service is that you can choose how many links that you want to purchase. You can build your traffic base with a lot of guaranteed links right away, but for SEO purposes it is highly recommended to build it slowly with a few links a week. Either way, you will get great results.

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Written by Maxine Stirling on July 19th, 2008
by Maxine Stirling

Managing a Google AdWords campaign can be tricky, but there are some fundamental tips that you can use in order to increase your chances of success. The following is a breakdown of a few of the tips you can use in order to maximize your Google AdWords pay per click campaign efforts.

The first Google AdWords campaign management strategy you should incorporate is keyword optimization. Make sure you do your research and are very selective with your keyword choices. This should also include screening out searches that have a low conversion rate by making use of the negative keywords feature of AdWords. This can be done right from the keyword toolbar.

Depending on the goals of your campaign, it may be cost efficient to utilize a cost-per-impression strategy instead of just a cost per click one. This is a way to create brand awareness for a cheaper price. Basically, your ads appear on relevant websites instead of just SERPs (search engine results pages). This is a way to reach a wider potential audience without having to pay a high price. It is also a way to put your ad in front of people who may be interested but had not thought to search for your specific term.

Another strategy you can employ is maximizing your keywords. When you do this, you are essentially trying to catch as many potential customers as possible. Add plural versions of singular keywords, and vice versa. Consider adding typos or keywords with switched letters. Basically, you goal is to cast a wider net. Of course, you should only do this if you are confident that you can covert these clicks into sales once a customer reaches your website. There is no point casting a wider net if you don’t convert your prospects.

One other thing you may want to consider is putting a spending cap on your budget. You can do this either by the day, week, or month, and this will help you learn to maximize the efficiency of your campaign. If you don’t do this, your Google AdWords campaign can quickly drain your online advertising budget. Remember that you should never have to increase your spending if you aren’t getting clicks. If you aren’t getting clicks, there is likely a larger problem, such as a poorly written ad or a non-targeted campaign.

Utilizing some or all of these Google AdWords campaign management strategies is a great way to maximize the potential of your pay per click campaign. And, they won’t break the bank. Think about the ultimate goal of your campaign, and then decide if these strategies are right for you.

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Written by Mike Spencer on July 18th, 2008
by Mike Spencer

New methods of getting traffic to your site are being devised constantly but article marketing is still the best way to drive visitors without having to pay anything out. The list of places articles can be placed is huge but the main purpose is to provide back links to the place where you actually want the visitor to go in your marketing campaign.

This is the benefit of using popular sites that have authority and providing they accept your contribution it will help you as well; trust is probably more important on the Internet because most people are faceless.

If you perform this article marketing and submission process on a regular basis, people will begin to search for your material and trust your work. This is why it is so important to show people that you know what you are talking about so they trust the content you provide in the area you write about.

The purpose of all this is to increase your credibility with the various search engines; by default this will increase the number of ‘organic’ visitors you receive that have searched for something your site has information on. If there are many websites which link with your website then it increases your website ranking which in turn boost up your traffic gaining. the greatest benefit of this is none of it is costing you a single dollar!

Article marketing not only allows links in the body text of the article but in the resource box at the foot of the page. The purpose of good articles is for people to use them on their site, with each having the links to your site contained in them which all helps the ranking.

It is not unusual for Google and other search engines to take months before they start to list a website. Although you cannot rush the search engines directly, submitting more articles and using the authority sites will help enormously.

The content on your website is what brings the search engines and hence visitors so therefore part of your article marketing campaign should be to continually add fresh content to your website. Don’t forget that many visitors to your site are not visiting to buy something. The more truthful you are about what you are doing, the more visitors will appreciate it providing the information you supply is relevant to their search.

This is the perfect opportunity to start pointing out the benefits of the product or service to the visitor. This approach is often overlooked and as a consequence visitors do not always understand what is being done. This helps with preventing the dreaded refund request that happen on occasion.

Article marketing this way will ensure you will always get new visitors and retain existing ones; do not think for one minute that this is will be a success if it is only done the once! Another benefit is quality websites (like yours will be) have other websites link to them and use their content as well; each time your article is duplicated on other sites it increases the number of people who can use it. There are no charges to article marketing and is still the number one way to get traffic to your site; all you need is to keep supplying them with the information they are looking for in the form of articles.

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Written by Stephen Beck on July 18th, 2008
by Stephen Beck

In my last article, I gave you some easy ideas to beef up your PDF ebook. Have you added a Table of Contents and a Resource Guide to your PDF e-books? If so, you are ready to finish adding bulk to your ebook which will increase your customer satisfaction and reduce refunds.

Make sure that all your text is 12-point - Times New Roman is a good choice for long blocks of text. Pictures and graphics should be enlarged so they can be easily read. Adding comics and other graphics will make your ebook more visually appealing. All these steps add bulk to your ebook, while increasing its value to your readers.

“Johnson boxes” are those little boxes which include an important point, separated from the rest of the text for added emphasis. Add them every two or three pages - that will add meat to your document, while cluing your reader in to the important points you are presenting.

Use your e-book to tell the readers about other products you offer. One of the biggest reasons to publish an ebook is to inform your audience about what you have to offer. Add a list of products, complete with clickable links, so your readers can find those products. Three-dimensional cover shots will add visual interest, bulk up your content, and increase sales. It’s easy to do - if you can’t do it, find someone who can.

Readers like cheat sheets and checklists, especially for technical subjects. If you are teaching them HOW to do something, and that task has more than two or three steps, you should create a checklist or cheat sheet, one that is a quick and easy reference. Remember, readers will read the text for the full list of instructions, so your checklist only needs to be a point-form summary of how to complete a task - converting a file into a PDF ebook; top ten interview tips; setting up your new software; home buyer’s checklist of things not to forget when inspecting a potential new home. All these topics and more can make an effective checklist or cheat sheet. And the best part? Readers love them!

You can even provide sample forms, contracts, spread sheets, etc. for your customers. Why make them re-invent the wheel? Think about this when writing a ebook.

These simple tips will add meat to your e-book. By adding value to your product, you will have happier customers, healthy sales, and fewer returns. To your customers, it’s all about the value - give ‘em what they want, and your product will be a success.

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Written by Stephen Beck on July 17th, 2008
by Stephen Beck

While you are creating e-books, it’s important to write a quality e-book. Thin, skimpy e-books aren’t effective - you want something meaty to offer your readers. A truly great e-book is filled with information, with enough bulk to keep your audience satisfied.

Those skinny e-books with poor content leave readers unsatisfied. Unhappy customers often return those “defective” products, demanding refunds and destroying profits. Unhappy customers are never customers who return for a purchase. To succeed, your with PDF e-books must contain loads of great content, which translates to great value for your readers. Here are a few ways of adding content to your e-books.

First, add a table of contents. I am always surprised at the number of ebooks that don’t have a simple table of contents. Not only will it help your customer find his way around, it also adds about 2-3 pages to your ebook!

At the back of your book, include a list of valuable resources. Since you wrote the book, you are the expert (at least in the eyes of your audience). You’ve researched tons of information, but not all of it will fit in your book. Give your readers the chance to delve into a topic further - include links to web sites and blogs, as well as a list of books in print which you used to write your e-book. This is a valuable service for your readers, one that shouldn’t be left out.

For your readers, I suggest you include a list of:

- Books in print;

- List of magazines on your topic

- List on videos form YouTube on your topic

- Web sites;

- List of blogs, Yahoo groups and forums on your topic

For each link, include a short description of the resource to help your readers further. Tell them what information they can find using that link, and how it can help them. This adds more value than a simple list of links, with no rhyme or reason.

In my next article I will give you three more strategies to adding bulk to your ebook so you satisfy your customers and reduce your refund rate. publishing ebooks with true value and lots of content is quite easy when you follow these strategies.

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Written by Kirt Christensen on July 17th, 2008
by Kirt Christensen

Most online businesses should pay more attention to their e-commerce solution needs. When starting out most businesses do not make much of a profit, and their e-commerce system can be responsible for allowing the company to sink or swim. Before buying an e-commerce system, ask your self “What are 7 needs for my E-commerce system?”

Any e-commerce system you choose has multiple parts for you to take into consideration. When opening the online business, there are many elements that are significant to include in your e-commerce solution that you may not have taken into consideration.

Need number one is scalability. The system must be able to grow along with your increase in customers visiting and buying from the site which increses the amount of business being done. You cannot allow your company to grow larger than you e-commerce system can accomidate.

Need number two is that your e-commerce system must be able to interface with other systems that you business may employ or that you user may have. Incompatibility will create problems with your expansion or the amount of business you can do if the systems cannot be used together.

A third e-commerce system need for many online businesses is simple management of content of your website. Good e-commerce software can address the management of content properly, and larger online businesses need content management to mesh well with their operations. Proper management can differentiate a well developed, informative site and a complex, mismanaged page that can be difficult to navigate and may have a lot of misinformation.

A fourth e-commerce system need is a good system of security for information, particularly that of your customers. Recent security issues at major retailers in their e-commerce systems only under scores the need for a business to have good security for their information. Poor security can result in compromised customer or business information, which could cause a different set of problems for your firm.

Need number 5 is a checkout that is user friendly. This will help you gain repeat business from your clients. There are many internet vendors offering easy to use checkout systems for your site to purchase and use, making it one of the most simple needs to solve.

The sixth essential is customer service to you from the e-commerce system company. Contact information and service call capability are extremely important. General knowledge of the software is not your only concern, but they must have solutions to minimize interruptions in your service.

The seventh and final essential is the insertion of analytical systems into your e-commerce solution. Systems must track demographics of clients, and what the market is for your products. This will allow you to adjust the site to be more productive.

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Written by Theo McLanahan on July 17th, 2008
by Theo McLanahan

In the past several years, small businesses have frequently produced items that have gone on to become tremendously popular nationwide. Your business can accomplish similar things if you and your workers are ready to combine all your efforts, putting them together in order to accomplish great things.

A business cannot reach a big goal without the help of everyone involved. Consider what it will take to accomplish your company’s goal and then make each person responsible for a small part of the overall goal. As the individuals complete their respective parts, you will come closer and closer to having success in reaching the big goal.

This goal setting should be done as a team. Each person should know who is responsible for the other parts of the goal. When everyone knows what is going on and how the project is shaping up, they can work on their piece of the project more efficiently. You can help your employees reach their goals by keeping them motivated, productive, and positive.

Keep morale high by challenging your employees with small side projects and rewarding them whenever the reach a stairstep goal.

Motivated workers are by nature productive workers too. Completely understanding the project at hand is one of the best ways to boost productivity. When employees have clearly placed personal goals, they are more likely to accomplish them quickly.

The attitude that the leader of the group has will naturally rub off on the others. So be sure that you come to work as positive and upbeat as possible, working hard to avoid acting angry, frustrated, or overly stressed while on the job. Attitudes are always contagious make sure your entire staff is infected with a positive one.

A small company can achieve many things. The leader is what determines how much will be accomplished. Try to lead by example, and show your employees first hand what you expect of them. If you are constantly missing deadlines, have a lackluster attitude and treat people negatively, you can’t expect anything different from anyone else.

Commending your employees whenever possible, maintaining a positive attitude, and having confidence in your business’s ability to reach its big goals will influence your workforce to do the same. Soon your small business will be realizing your dreams, doing big things.

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Written by Terry Stanfield on July 17th, 2008
by Terry Stanfield

Search Engines

Search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN are really just data bases. When you do a Google Search you are not searching the “world wide web” you are searching Google’s data base. There are two ways to get in to these databases. One is to submit your site to the different search engines. In about 6 to 9 weeks the search engine will index your site. They have software that comes to your site and index every page and adds it to the database. They come into your main web URL and follow the links to all the pages of your site. They capture key elements from the code on your page to the content. These are then stored in the data base. When someone puts a keyword in the search box the “algorithms” determine the best page or links to the best pages for your search.

The other way to get added to the search engines data base is to have the search engine software find you through a link to your site from another web site back to yours. The software, called “spiders” will periodically comeback and re crawl your site to see if you have updated it.

One important thing to know is that each page on your site is indexed individually and each page stands on its own. The ranking are based upon the combination of correct meta tags, relevant content to the keyword they are trying to get rankings for and link popularity. Mostly one way links back to their site from relevant sites.

As long as the search engine can index the site, clearly read the meta tags and content, the better. The big issues come when a site is built in flash with very little content (search engines cannot read or index “flash” sites. Also, if the bulk of the relevant content is in PDF format this is bad because the search engines cannot read PDF. If the search engines cannot index the relevant text there will be no rankings.

You all ready know this but “sites” are not ranked, individual pages are ranked for specific terms found in the content of that page as well as link popularity, (relevant links pointing back to that specific page) for the term that you are trying to get ranked on. This is why each page has to be giving very specific attention. Paid search

Paid search is when your ad shows up at the very top of a Google search or down the right hand side of the results page. These are called “sponsored ads”. You pay for those positions. When every you click on one of those ads the owner of the ad pays the search engine. This is also called “pay-per-click”. The amount you pay is determined by several factors including what you are willing to pay every time someone clicks on your ad.

Natural Search

Natural Search is when you type in a “keyword” and a link and a description shows up on left hand side of the search result page. The only way to get on the first page is to have very relevant content on your web site and links to your site from other relevant sites. This is a long process for people in it for the long haul. There are a lot of companies that claim to be able to get you on the first page of Google. That may be true if the “search term” is very specific and no one else would ever search for it but you or they are using a “black hat” method that could get you site banned from the search engine. Bottom line: Paid Search means you pay for your position. The benefit is, if you have the $$, you will get instant traffic. Stop paying and the traffic goes away. Natural search is free traffic but it is built over time. The advantage is, if done right, it can provide traffic for a long time.

Search traffic (paid or natural) is the BEST traffic to have because you are being found by folks who are specifically looking for what you have. It does not get any better than that.

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