Archive for July, 2007

A BRAND NEW [INTERNET] WORLD

July 19th, 2007

By Theresa Cahill

A while back I heard the statistic that every 20
minutes 400 people begin using the internet for the
very first time.

400 people every 20 minutes… wow.

For the veteran marketer beginning to feel like there
are no new frontiers to conquer, this should provide
hope :)

Granted, it takes a while for those with the
inclination to explore the possibilities of making a
living online to find our little niche on the net.

And for those of us who’ve been around for a while, it
may seem like we’ve talked to every potential
customer, client, and interested party.

But… 400 new people every 20 minutes…!

So it’s safe to assume… nothing.

For example, this morning my brother-in-law called
from Texas. Though not heavy internet users, he and
his wife have pre-existing experience on the net and
using email. My basic assumption was since they
already were using the net and their email, there
wasn’t a lot I could tell them.

I was wrong.

Recently they decided (rightly) that to do business
online they needed to get rid of their old dial-up and
switch to high-speed access (in their case, DSL). This
much-needed switch now allows them to talk on the
phone and walk perspective clients through the signup
process – in the moment. Very basic, very necessary.

They received their new isp’s information by mail, and
proceeded to follow what they thought would get them
up and rolling with their email. Unfortunately, this
wasn’t the case. What one reads and what one does can
most certainly be two different animals.

Thinking everything was set up correctly, and still not
being able to get their email, they assumed it was a
problem on their “old” end – the dial-up service. Yet,
they are surfing with their DSL, so in essence that
cannot be the problem (though making sure one isn’t
still being billed by the old company most definitely
requires follow up).

So we took a look via telephone conversation at their
outlook express account. Boy, what a mess – either the
directions they received were written totally wrong or
(much more likely) they did not understand or follow
said directions “to the T.”

After a bit of screen-by-screen, line-by-line input,
voila! outlook express stopped sending “wrong!”
alerts and seemed ready to use. However, when I sent
them a test email, within seconds I received a
nondeliverable message. The message stated,
“Username unknown.”

This, of course, indicates that their new isp hadn’t a
clue that suchnsuch@suchnsuch.net even existed. When I
last left them – going as far as I could over the
phone – they were going to place a phone call to their
new isp to get the information to gain access to the
isp’s member/client area. Inside there, one must first
create the email account in order to use the email
name to receive and send. Basic to most? Sure, but
again, not so basic to them.

The purpose to my not-so-short story? Never assume
anything!

I’ve two fre.e reports circulating that explain the
basics of both computer use (some not all) and ezine
a.dvertising. When I first put them together I
thought, “Geez, I hope people don’t think that…”
(fill in anything you’d like at this point, but be
kind please, *smile!*). I worried that I might insult
someone by leading them step-by-step through what I
perceived as “simple as pie” usage.

But it’s just not the case. These reports are
downloaded almost every day by those who need help.

From a marketing viewpoint?

Never assume when you make a contact or send
information or follow up on a lead that the person on
the receiving end has the computer and internet
knowledge sufficient TO follow up on your advice,
help, guidance. And, from their side of the fence,
not knowing means just that… they won’t and don’t
know enough to even be able to TELL YOU that they
don’t know.

It is your responsibility to “feel them out.” Ask
questions to assure yourself that they do in fact
have enough internet, marketing, and/or computer
savvy to take your program, product, or service and
run with it.

Ask them pointblank questions like, “Can you? Do you?
Will you?”

Honestly, it’s the little things that fall through the
cracks. Stuff as basic (to some of us) as email and
not-so-basic like research and marketing can be a full
and as-yet-unexplored plate for your lead. Just copying
and pasting one of your ads may be too big a task for
your brand new affiliate. Never assume!

Put your service, product, or program in their hands
and not follow up, and you’re sure to have one
frustrated, unhappy, and soon to quit individual.

And vice versa of course! Help them to be able to help
themselves and you’ve not only gained a friend for
life, but have ensured that – with work – they, too,
become marketing pros :)

======================================
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Theresa Cahill is the owner of
http://www.mywizardads.com and invites you to take a
look at the services of MWA and download fr.ee helpful
information and more at
http://www.mywizardads.com/sitemap.html

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Posted in Internet Marketing, News

Do You Market To These Emotions Online?

July 18th, 2007

By Daniel Levis

What can Mother Theresa and Charles Schwab teach you about marketing online.

Certainly these two historical figures saw two vastly different worlds in their lifetimes. Mother Theresa spent hers with the poorest of the poor, while Charles Schwab spent his with the richest of the rich.

But look at these two famous quotes.

“There is more hunger in this world for love and appreciation than for bread” Mother Teresa

“I have yet to find a man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.” Charles Schwab

Do you see the underlying thread?

Regardless of who you are selling to, from one end of the social spectrum to the other, and everywhere in between, human beings are looking for appreciation, and approval, above all else.

Show your customers how the use of your product yields a sense of importance, and recognition, or how it helps them avoid embarrassment and indifference, and you will make many more sales than if you simply describe the qualities of your product.

But it takes a certain kind of selling to pull this off.

While your advertising can speak directly about the features of your product, and explain what those features do for your customer, it is much more difficult to transfer emotional meaning with the same directness.

Yet it is the emotions that trigger desire in the buyer. As an advertiser, it is your job to bring those desires that already exist in the buyers mind to the fore. To stir them to life, so to speak. And the best way to do that is through indirection.

By wrapping your sales message up in a story, you give your prospect permission to imagine. You’re not telling them how they should feel. They instinctively project themselves into the tale. They can’t help themselves. It’s what we all learnt to do as little children.

Remember this. Without imagination, there is no desire, and without desire, there is no action.

When someone comes to your website and reads your copy, do they see themselves using your product? Do they see themselves living the results of using it? Even more importantly, do they see others approving of them, and appreciating them for having done so?

That may sound like a strange way of thinking about a product, but let me give you an example of what I’m talking about.

Let’s say you’re selling a diet plan. How do you use indirection and storytelling to trigger your prospect’s desire for it?

You might talk to your overweight potential client like this… —————————————————————————————- Imagine yourself walking briskly along a hot, sandy, sun drenched beach. An azure haze hangs over the skyline as the warm wind caresses your bare skin.

As you stride confidently to your favorite spot, your breathing is normal, and your body relaxed. You smile to yourself, knowing you could walk for miles like this without becoming fatigued.

The beach is busy, and as you glance around you catch the eye of someone of the opposite sex. They smile at you, and you smile back. You walk assuredly into the water, and swim a couple of hundred yards out and back with ease. Lying back on your towel you can’t help but think…

‘Life Has Never Been So Good’

OK, now stop dreaming, and answer this question. Did you have a little trouble seeing yourself in that picture? If so, then take heart.

A slim, sexy figure and abundant self-esteem can now be yours, thanks to the amazingly simple and easy to follow…

——————————————————————————————

Do you see how indirection works? You don’t have to come right out and tell your potential client people will appreciate them, and approve of them as a result of what your product can do. You don’t have to tell them they’ll no longer feel embarrassed by their weight in social situations.

The story does it for you. Now you’ve got their undivided attention, and a real chance to prove your product is unique and that it works.

Copyright 2005 Daniel Levis

Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto Canada. Recently, Daniel & world-renowned publicist & copywriter Joe Vitale teamed up to co author “Million Dollar Online Advertising Strategies – From The Greatest Letter Writer Of The 20th Century!”, a tribute to the late, great Robert Collier.

Let the legendary Robert Collier show you how to write words that sell…Visit the below site & get 3 FREE Chapters! http://www.Advertising-Online-Strategies.com/ad-strategies.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Daniel_Levis

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Posted in Internet Marketing

7 Ways To Get One-way Links To Your Site

July 18th, 2007

By Stephanie Hetu

One way links will help you gain better rankings in the major search engines. Here are 7 ways to get them :

1. Write articles
Writing articles alone won’t get you one way links, but if you submit it to articles database online, you will gain many one way links. The article database site will give you a link back AND the webmasters who reprint your article on their site will also give you a link back! If you write and article with a catchy title or in-demand content, you can get published hundreds of times online, which will give you tons of backlinks.

2. Participate in forums
In forums, you can usually have a link in your signature. This used to work extremely well about a year ago. Today, it is not as efficient, but it can still be good to do it sometimes on highly popular forums.

3. Participate in blogs.
Blogs are similar to forums. They get spammed a lot, but if you take the time to write useful comments on some of them, you can get some good one way links out of it.

4. Ask for it!
Do some research online for sites in your industry with a high ranking in the search engines. Send an email to the webmaster and tell them you think your site could be of interest to their readers, and ask them to put a link up! This can be time consuming, but it can sometime get you link on very high ranking sites.

5. Submit to directories
Also a time consuming job, but manually submitting to directories will get you many owe way links because a lot of them don’t ask for a link back. Don’t use a software to automate the submission though, because you can actually hurt your ranking doing that.

6. Write useful content
If you have very interesting content, or a cool tool on your site, people will naturally link to it!

7. Give testimonials
If you use a product, or read a book, and really like it, send a nice testimonial to the website owner. Many will give you a link back on their sale page. This gives you a one way link and often, quite a bit of traffic because people are curious to find out more about the person who gave a testimonial!

Stephanie Hetu
Get one way links from directories with our top quality manual submission service at an affordable price.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stephanie_Hetu

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Posted in Getting Links

Undo That, Please

July 18th, 2007

Ever make a mistake when you’re typing, or when you’re working
in any program for that matter? Would you like to be able to go
back and redo it? If you would, all you have to do is hit Edit,
Undo.

Or, a quicker way click on Ctrl + Z on your keyboard. Clicking
Ctrl and Z at the same time will undo any changes you’ve made
(good or bad). Maybe you’ve done something and it’s not
necessarily a mistake, but you would like to redo it. Well, just
use Ctrl + Z and it will be taken away!

This undo shortcut works in pretty much any standard program
that you may use.

——————————————————-

Did you know that subscribers to Bob Osgoodby’s Free Ezine the “Tip of the Day” get a Free Ad for their Business at his Web Site? Great Business and Computer Tips – Monday. Wednesday. and Friday. Instructions on how to place an ad are in the Newsletter.

Subscribe at: http://adv-marketing.com/business/subscribe2.htm.

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Posted in Computer Tips

7 Formulas for Writing Articles That Get Read

July 18th, 2007

By Alexandria K. Brown

Many of us have been asked to write an article at one time or another. Maybe it’s a contribution to the company newsletter. Or a promotional article to gain publicity for ourselves or our companies. Some of us write articles regularly for clients.

No matter why you’re writing an article, it’s your responsibility to make it be interesting – otherwise no one will read it. (Except you.)

So how can you make your article interesting and engage your reader? It’s all about the ANGLE. First pick your topic. For example, let’s say your topic is something boring … “car wax.” Now, here’s where many people start writing.

Stop! You need an angle! What aspect of car wax do you want to write about? Is there anything new or sexy in the world of car wax that people are interested in? Some ideas: how the new generation of car waxes helps protect your paint job for twice as long, OR, an overview of the best five brands of car wax on the market, OR what the best type of wax is for your particular car. Get it? These are all angles. (By the way, I’ve never even waxed my car, so please take these ideas with a grain of salt!)

Ready to brainstorm your angles? Here are seven article “formulas” to get you started and get your juices flowing! Some elements of each may overlap with each other, but each formula is truly a distinct animal.

1. The How-To

People love how-to articles! They lead the reader step-by-step through how to reach an objective. They also sometimes offer resources the reader can contact for more information.

What expertise do *you* have to share? Turn that subject into an interesting how-to for readers. Examples: “How to Make Your Employees Stick Around Forever,” “How to Find the Best Dress for Your Figure,” and “How to Promote Your Business for Free.”

2. The List

This is one of the most basic formulas and the easiest to write. Give a short one or two paragraph intro, then launch right into your list. Keep each item to a few sentences max. People love numbers, so number your list and give your total number in the title! Examples: “31 Ways to Organize Your Office,” “15 Tips for Pain-Free Feet,” “Five Reasons Management Won’t Be the Same in 2001″

3. The “Straw Man”

Here you set up a premise and knock it down, showing the benefits of your alternative view or approach. This is ideal to use when you’re discussing the drawbacks of a new practice or method that’s controversial right now. Here’s a great example we often see on the covers of health magazines: “Are High Protein Diets the Key to Fast Weight Loss?” You get all excited, thinking you’ve discovered an amazing dieting revelation. But the article reveals, point by point, that high protein diets are unsafe for the long term, and that of course the only reliable way to lose weight is through diet and exercise. Oh well! Back to the treadmill….

4. The Mini Case Study

Raise a provocative question and then answer it with three or four real-life examples. Example: For an article titled, “Should You Quit Your Job and Go Freelance?” you could begin with a few stats on how today’s workforce is leaving the corporate world in search of solo bliss. Then you could feature a few real cases, each with different outcomes to show all sides of the issue.

5. The Interview

Choose a credible expert to interview for your article. For example, if your topic is the latest trends in banking, you could interview a top banking industry analyst. Present it in either a traditional article format or do a Q&A format.

6. The Trend

Trends aren’t just for fashion! Whenever a trend sweeps a certain profession, you’ll suddenly see dozens of articles covering the topic. From the latest hairstyle to the latest tax shelter, people want to know all about these trends – their origins, benefits, and drawbacks.

7. The Study Finding

These articles report the results of a study or survey. If you do a bit of research, you can probably dig up a recent study on which you can base your article. Examples: “Blue Chip Companies Cutting Marketing Budgets Across the Board,” “Armadillos Now Deemed America’s Favorite Pet,” and “More 20-Somethings Finding Love Online.”

(c) 2002 – 2003 Alexandria K. Brown

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexandria K. Brown, “The E-zine Queen,” is author of the award-winning manual, “Boost Business With Your Own E-zine.” To learn more about her book and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at http://EzineQueenTutorial.com/‘; return true;” onMouseout=”window.status=”; return true;”>http://EzineQueenTutorial.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alexandria_K._Brown

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Posted in Article Writing

Video marketing your ticket to traffic

July 15th, 2007

by Theresa Cahill
Copyright 2007 – All Rights Reserved

Making a video is fun, but making a profitable video is
even better. Best of all, to make a profitable video, all
you need to do is create a video ‘how-to’ and provide links
to your website inside that video. As for subject matter?
That’s truly the very best part because it doesn’t matter
what your ‘how-to’ video covers.

Just be sure that as you create your new how to video that
your website url is:

* At best, displayed the whole time your video is running,
or

* At worse, displayed when the video first starts and right
before it ends.

Let’s face it, people love how-to’s… and they search for
them every day on a very large scale. As an example, a
friend of ours had this experience to share:

“Just a few days ago I was folding clothes, and on a whim I
went to google videos and typed in “how to fold a shirt”.
Sure enough there were a few videos there. I watched them
(and learned a very cool way to fold shirts), and it
impressed the kids too.”

She then told us, “So here’s the thing. I’m not a
professional shirt folder, I wasn’t checking out the
competition, I just did a search for something on a whim,
and then I watched a few videos.”

There’s the key phrase – “ON A WHIM”

Internet marketers often find themselves with tunnel
vision. They focus so intently on what they have to offer
that they miss the big wide world, and what that world is
doing while he or she is thinking exclusively about just
their own website.

Tunnel vision… if you have it (and we all get it, don’t
worry), you need to learn how to “Think Outside the Box!”

Let’s continue looking at the shirt folding scenario:

What if one of the shirt folding videos that was watched
had had a url displaying your website? Well, for openers,
you could have had a visitor (traffic) to your website.
And, ideally, you may have had a buyer and long-term
client. People are curious animals. If your video was
creative enough, it most definitely can, and most likely
will, generate a visit to your website.

The reality is that millions and millions of people are
watching tons of videos every day on every topic you could
ever possibly imagine.

That’s worth repeating, “…on every topic you could ever
possibly imagine.”

So if you’re thinking, “Shouldn’t I create a video related
to what I am selling?” the answer is…. sure, if you have
that ability, go for it. But the truth is it doesn’t matter
if you do it on topic to the product you are selling or
not…. the big thing is to make as many videos as you can
about as many things as you can and post them to all of the
top video feed sites.

The second most important thing to remember is that as you
post them, keyword them to terms related to your video.
Check sites like www.wordtracker.com and make sure the
keywords you are allowed to enter in connection with your
video are ones people are searching for! Keyword-driven,
video-related quality traffic and buyers… make that your
goal!

Also keep in mind that you aren’t creating feature length
films here. Your videos can be anywhere from 1 minute to
10-15 minutes or any length in between.

Quiet on the set… Cameras rolling… Action!

==================================================

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Theresa Cahill invites you to further explore the unique
qualities of how to video marketing and for even more ideas on effective
internet marketing see what Molten Marketing
can do for your website today!

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Posted in Traffic Generation

Hits To Your Web Site Don’t Really Count

July 14th, 2007

By Bob Osgoodby

Writing ads is a skill you must master if you wish your online business to prosper. There has been a lot written about writing effective ads. Sometimes what might be considered a bad ad by the pros is one that actually works. Why you might ask?
Different styles appeal to different people, and you have to realize, that while the web might provide a level playing field for entrepreneurs, the likes and dislikes of potential customers vary widely.

While “Glitz”, and exaggerated earnings claims might appeal to some, to others it is a turn off. Wild claims about earnings potential might gather some prospects, but will be an automatic “click away” for others who prefer a low key approach. You must experiment with different ad copy, and keep records of what is drawing.

There are many ways to do this, and some suggest that you have multiple web sites geared towards ads that are running. In your ads, you point your visitors to different sites and by keeping statistics, you can see which ads are working.

But here is the dilemma. Depending on any number of factors, visitors could be coming from places other than your ads, and the results might be misleading. If, for example, a search engine picks up one site and not the other, you will obviously
have more visitors to the site that has been indexed.

Bluntly, hits to your web site don’t really count – sales do.
Your first job however, is to get visitors to your site. This is done through a variety of methods, including advertising, the use of search engines and email. Once you get them there, you must then sell them on your product.

On our web sites, we have an “after sale” questionnaire and we simply ask them how they found us. Now these people have decided to do business with us, and their answers will most likely be truthful. We then log this information, which helps us determine what advertising is working.

Ads that don’t appear to be pulling, we modify until we start seeing positive results. One of the best places to test your ads is in ezine publications that are highly targeted toward your potential customers. I don’t recommend ads in publications that are not targeted to your prospects. Unless you have a very generalized product, the return you get in these will most likely be minimal. More importantly, you won’t get sufficient information to determine if the actual copy is working.

Many people have been advertising in the same ezines for years.
Remember that there is some “thrashing” that occurs, and some people drop off the subscription list for the publication, but others are added. This gives you a constant new group of people who will read your ad every time it is published.

Experienced online entrepreneurs will even keep the same copy year after year if it is pulling. It usually takes 5 to 7 exposures anyway until they receive “brand identification”. When someone is willing to “bite”, if they have the proper ad, they
will remember them.
—————————-

Did you know that subscribers to Bob Osgoodby’s Free Ezine “Tip of the Day” get a Free Ad for their Business on his Web Page?
Subscribe at: http://adv-marketing.com/business/subscribe2.htm
Great Business and Computer Tips Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Instructions to place your ad are in the Newsletter.

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Posted in Traffic Generation