Event Marketing Five Ways To Psyche Yourself Up For A Blowout Mass Promotion On The Web

Writen by Dina M. Giolitto

So you'd like to run an online promotion, maybe a Carnival of Knowledge, Who's Who in the World of Esteemed Marketers, World Cuisine Day, or some other such blitz. The point of course, is to position yourself as someone of authority in your niche, and to appeal to those who fall into your category to join the fun and help promote the grand event. Your ultimate, though somewhat cloaked goal in all this: gain new subscribers, convert to paying customers.

As fun as "inventing a holiday or special occasion" sounds, the big, scary question looms: what if you can't persuade people to follow your lead? What if no one shows interest, no one cooperates, your perfectly planned promotion is an utter flop and you're the laughing stock of the web? Nonsense. Ordinary humans pull this type of thing off every day, and there's no reason why you can't be wildly successful at creating a hype and a big buzz for your biz just like they did!

Six ways to secure your confidence and your ultimate success:

1. Square your shoulders. The first step in all this is to resign yourself that you WILL make this happen, come hell or highwater. So you have to play some tricks on your own brain and stir up a sort of "delusions of grandeur" mentality. But it's not a delusion, your grandiose is real, darnit. YOU can do this, you have the power and skills to make a big splash in your niche and to guide others closer to this same success. You are trained, experienced, and you have the connections and tools to make it happen.

2. Set your goals. There are two types of goals you should isolate: the outcome of your actions, and the actions themselves. Meaning, you need to fathom the ultimate consequences of your plan before you can fashion the plan. If your "internal team goal" is to gain five hundred new email subscribers, then your obvious outward goal might be to develop multiple vehicles in your marketing that "carry" interested parties to your newsletter sign-up box and coax them to drop their name in the box. Sounds devious when I say it that way, but that's marketing and that's why we're here.

3. "Time the meal." Remember when you first began dabbling in meal preparation? Suddenly, mom's ability to time the carrots to finish cooking just as the roast was emerging from the oven and the potatoes were taking their last mash, was an amazing phenomenon. Much like the well-timed meal, you need to think ahead and determine exactly what needs to be done, how long it will take to execute each step, when it's time to move ahead with the next step, and how to "wrap it up" with finesse. Lay your plans carefully, and solicit the assistance of friends who will stick by you and see it through to completion. You can do it, I know you can!

4. Eliminate the negative. What if you reveal your plan to a friend and they put a crimp in your style with some nastiness, naysaying and general negativity? Move along, and leave this person in the dust. Whatever you firmly believe, you can will to be so... and if dreaming up an ingenious new holiday, occasion, festival, event, affair, congregation or other name for a group project holds promise for you, then you need to hang that wet blanket out to dry and set yourself to the task at hand. Anything is possible, just own your project and muster up the power of your own positive thinking.

5. Accentuate the positive. As you being to reveal your master agenda, you'll find that some folks just naturally fall in step with what you're doing, while others just ask entirely too many fishy questions and are full of pessimism, hesitation and reserve. Grab those enthusiastic supporters, and float them along with you on your journey, for these people are going to serve as your lifeline for the entire extravaganza. Leave the doubters in the dust, as they will drag you down with their waffling when what you must do right now is GO GO GO!

Get these five confidence boosters, and harness the power of your own effectiveness! This is the World Wide Web, and you have the freedom to choose your own actions and the drive to make it happen. Would you like to emerge as a leader in your industry this year? Then start planning today.

Want to witness event planning live in action? Please join me and my marketing friends for the First Annual Web Content Awareness Day, scheduled to launch on February 9, 2006 at http://WebContentAwarenessDay.com.

Sneak Peek: Visit the Countdown to Web Content Awareness Day Blog and learn how you can ride our wave of high web traffic!

Paste in this link:

http://wordfeeder.typepad.com/web_content_awareness_day/

Copyright 2006 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Liked this article? Have more of the same emailed to your inbox each month. Sign up for the Copywriting and Marketing Ezine from Dina at Wordfeeder.com and learn to write search engine friendly web copy and market your web based business for free.

Future For Internet Marketers

Writen by Jakob Jelling

Have you ever attended a class where the instructor followed the Socratic method of teaching? You remember, only questions, no direct answers. Some discussions lend themselves best to that format, and this look at some possible future trends in Internet marketing is one of them. Mainly because there are no answers at this point, only the questions we pose!

Internet marketers by and large are used to creating products for, and selling to, a predominantly western audience. Whether inside the marketing niche or not, today's web sites, autoresponder sequences, mailing lists, payment processing systems, and overall way of doing business have evolved around the needs and wants of target markets in the western world. And any experienced marketer knows it can be difficult. Despite popular notions that you can start an Internet business and watch the money roll in, the reality is that there is a lot of competition from other webmasters, regardless of the market or type of products you promote.

Looking ahead, have you considered the impact of even more competition - lots more? In Asia, in particular China and India, large, well-educated populations, a lower cost of living with much-improved standards, and more widely available Internet access may combine in the near future to create a lot more Internet marketers. Many are well-versed in technical aspects of the Internet, including programming and site development. In fact, if you've ever used any of the various freelance sites to outsource technical projects, you've seen that many of the bidders are from Asia.

With populations of one billion people and more in those two countries alone, the current generation is certainly well-attuned to the Internet, and being avid surfers, are no doubt aware of the commercial opportunities and worldwide reach available only on the net. It's likely only a matter of time before they begin marketing to western audiences themselves.

Whether through affiliate marketing, or by developing new products to sell on their own behalf, the prospect of increased competition for current Internet marketers is very real, and likely very near. The biggest hurdles will be language and market understanding. After all, it's difficult enough to write effective sales letters in ones native language, even if addressed to a market and culture you understand. Over time, even those barriers will fall - face it, just as programming can be outsourced, so can marketing and language assistance.

The potential competition can sound ominous. And depending on your outlook, it can be. For every new product that pays affiliate commissions, there soon could be lots more marketers trying to promote it to the same audience. And for every new product of your own you develop, similar products with more features and selling for a lower price could appear. That already happens now to an extent. What will it be like with even more marketers and developers competing?

But change can also be good news. You as an individual marketer can either complain about the unfairness of it all, or you can choose to adapt your business to the inevitable and prosper. As new marketers, and surfers in general, from China, India, and elsewhere come online, they will also create entirely new markets to sell to, markets that weren't there just a short time ago. After all, as marketers they will need the same types of products and services that western marketers need. And as surfers and eventual online buyers, their consumers will want not only western, but also regional and cultural goods, just as online shoppers in the western world do now. Of course, marketers in those regions will also compete in their local markets, as well as western ones.

The globalization of Internet marketing will continue rapidly, no doubt about it. To stay in the game, western marketers would be well-advised to begin their strategic planning for this trend now. New markets and new opportunities are forming - learn to spot them at a distance through global binoculars!

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.com. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.

Free Web Site Advertising

Writen by Eddie Tobey

While there are companies that charge from $13 to as much as $40 for web site advertising, there are some that provide services for free. If you are finding it hard and costly to pay for an excellent website advertising company to do the job of increasing your website's traffic, you can start your advertising campaign with the following:

Forums – A lot of people enter webmaster forums, and typically, these are people of with the same interests, needs and wants. Finding the right forum that matches your website and allows free posting of ads like links to your site or your newsletters can surely help you generate great traffic for your site.

In the forums, you can talk about the particular topic that interests you and others as well. It would be best if the topic is related to your site, so you can maximize probability of repeat visits from them.

Web Directories – There are some online directories that accept submissions without charging anything. Although directories do not guarantee direct traffic, more directory listings can increase your search engine rankings.

For you to locate the top ranking directories where you can possibly place your site, just search for "directory," plus the particular specialty of your website, say "directory watches" if you are selling watches in your website.

Free link exchanges – Exchanging links with other related sites is another inexpensive yet efficient means of generating more traffic for your website. Chiefly, you gain direct traffic from the site, and you gain traffic from search engines since as you gain linking popularity, you also increase in search engine ranking.

Take note, however, that linking with non-related sites can also be detrimental to your ranking, so make sure that you swap links with related and high quality websites. Also, make your link titles attractive.

These three are only some of your options, you can also give testimonials in exchange of links to your site, write and submit newsletters and articles with links to your site or submit your site manually to some major search engines. Explore the Internet for many other options. If you don't succeed in the next few days or weeks, don't be discouraged. Success in every business, doesn't happen over night, it entails a lot of hard work and commitment.

Web Site Advertising provides detailed information on Web Site Advertising, Guaranteed Web Site Advertising, Cheap Web Site Advertising, Free Web Site Advertising and more. Web Site Advertising is affiliated with Web Site Promotion Software.

Measuring Key Performance Indicators

Writen by Manoj Jasra

This article is part 3 from a series of articles talking about Key Performance Indicators

In the previous segment in this series of articles, we talked about identifying the most important Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track, based on the type of website you have. We also touched on the notion that different roles with an organization will only want to see the KPIs that are important to them.

In this article I will illustrate how to accurately measure KPIs by using a fictional company called Jasra Corp., identifying the company's needs, and then accurately measuring specific KPIs to help to solve its needs.

I'll start with a brief background of our fictional company. Jasra Corp. is an online publishing company in the health care industry. It has loads of content, written by hundreds of industry experts on topics such as medicine, patient care, pharmaceuticals, etc...Their website receives 120,000 page views a month and their revenue model is advertising based. Their monthly online revenue is approximately $50,000.

Jasra Corp.'s stakeholders have little understanding of how their website is performing (in terms of the effectiveness of ad placement in driving leads to advertisers) and how they can show value to their advertisers (being able to bring business to them). Currently, Jasra Corp. does not have any web analytics implemented but are tracking page views and referrer data through log analysis.

Needs Identification

Our first step should always be to sit down with stakeholders and identify their needs. This is important because it will help us establish KPIs that matter to the client. I recommend that you narrow the list down to only 3 or 4 major metrics; otherwise tracking so many numbers becomes misleading, obscuring the few metrics that truly provide a clear picture of how the site is performing, based on the client's business model.

Jasra Corp. has 2 major needs:

• The ability to show their clients ROI
• Measuring the effectiveness of their Website to generate ad revenue.

After speaking with Jasra Corp.'s stakeholders, we determine that our KPIs will be:

• Ad signups - to measure the site's ability to generate revenue
• Time spent on site, Ad Impressions/Clicks - to show advertisers ROI
• Unique Visitors - to measure potential revenue and ROI (if these visitors were to convert)

Tracking KPIs

Anyone with an online business should have some form of analytics set up on their websites. Without analytics, it is very difficult to measure how effectively your website is at improving your business's bottom line. As mentioned in a previous article, "Analytics: you can't afford NOT to track", there is no need for business owners to make decisions blindly when they have the ability to make educated decisions using analytics.

In the case of Jasra Corp., my first recommendation is that they purchase some Web Analytics software that has the capabilities of tracking conversions and visitors paths. Major players such as SiteCatalyst, Web Trends, and HitBox all offer good solutions. There are also free solutions available through Google Analytics, StatCounter, and ClickTracks.

While implementing tracking, Jasra Corp. should make sure to set-up conversion triggers on the final page of the ad sign-up event; to accurately track ad sign-ups. It is also recommended that when implementing analytics code, they code the pages they're tracking using meaningful page names for each page. When they are reading their dashboard reports, these meaningful page names will make the reports more intuitive to understand.

Strategically using KPIs

After viewing our new Analytics reports we can begin to make some conclusions about current site performance, and confidently identify actionable items that will help us improve each KPI going forward. We can start by looking at the ad sign-up conversions reporting we've set-up. The reports will be able to tell us the exact number of sign-ups we had for any date range. If we dig a little deeper, we should be able to see the referring domains that helped drive the conversions, and if we drill even farther, we can begin to see where in the conversion process users abandoned the form. Some analytic tools allow users to create custom conversion funnel reports which immediately identify the rate of abandonment per conversion step.

The other two metrics, Time Spent and Unique visitors will be important to Jasra Corp. because they will help the stakeholders understand how engaging the website content is. These 2 metrics are also useful because they can act as marketable numbers in order to help entice future advertisers. Advertisers are more likely to purchase ad space from a website if it continually receives new visitors who are engaged longer than 30 seconds with the website.

Tracking ad impressions and clicks is the only way Jasra Corp. can show value to their advertisers, who will want to know if they are actually receiving any return on investment. Ad impressions and clicks can be tracked individually and can also be tacked to form a ratio of the number of times an ad was shown compared to the number of clicks. Jasra Corp can show their advertisers the click thru rates for their ads, which will help the advertisers determine how effective their campaigns are.

Jasra Corp. (as well as all other companies) should take their KPIs and set up dashboards to help them stay on top of the stats, in order to analyze trends and identify follow-up actions. This can be done manually by exporting numbers from the analytics into Excel, or if your analytics package offers it, customized dashboards within the software's reporting framework.

KPIs should be revisited and fine-tuned periodically because the needs of stakeholders and end users (in our example, advertisers) are ever-changing.

Manoj Jasra has been in the search marketing industry for 4 years working as team member with Enquiro Search Solutions. He started out a software developer but over the last couple years has shifted his focus to web analytics and providing strategies to help clients succeed in search. http://manojjasra.blogspot.com/

The Budget Webmasters Guide To Increased Credibility Part One

Writen by Tinu AbayomiPaul

Hey, I just noticed something. I've been sitting here filling out a bajillion forms, submitting my dang article 'til I'm blue in the face (Vent much? Why, yes and thanks for listening!), and I realized what makes me give out my real email address.

With the volume of mail I get as webmaster of several sites, even my hyper-organized Outlook Folder and Rules System is just not good enough to handle the volume of incoming email. So I have several accounts.

I have one free email account I NEVER open- anything that has spam potential goes to that address. I've got one I clear out once a month- I check some of the titles that look interesting, but they're mostly either junk, status reports or emails I need to look at once then throw out.

There's another I clear out once a week, there's semi-important stuff in there- information I can't keep track of, back ups of emails or attachments. Then there's the one I use ONLY for signing up for things. If I subscribed to your newsletter, that's probably where it'll end up.

But after a while, if I really like your ezine and you don't spam me, I'll also subscribe at one of my real email addresses.

One of my real email addresses is a personal one, that's the one for family and friends to send me personal stuff, where I get all my jokes and horoscopes and what not.

The other real email address is my premium support business email. It is a fortress against spam because no one who would spam me knows I have it. It's an important list to be on if you want access to me, and here's why.

I stay on a computer about ten hours a day. During those ten hours I leave this account open in my email client. If you're a client of mine, this is the email address you have to get directly in touch with me at any hour. And I realized today, that I let a few more people into one of those top three email boxes today- guess why? We'll get back to that in a minute.

Now, I'm sure all your clients aren't as crazy as I am with the spam-proof fortresses and the highly organized email system. But any savvy consumer on the Net learns eventually to have more than one email address, usually only two.

There's normally the ISP email address, the one they use for primary communication with family and friends, and for information that is near and dear to their hearts. This is where you want to be.

Most people who spend any significant amount of time online also have a second one -an email address they can dump if they feel their privacy is being violated. You never even want to be associated with this address.

And if they are fellow marketers, or small business owners, they will also either have additional addresses or some type of spam blocker.

I don't even have Spam Assassin, or any other spam filter, turned on for my private email. Why should I? No one who would spam me knows it exists. So again, why do you think I would let anyone get my one of my primary email addresses, since I guard it so closely?

They made me believe I could trust them with my information. How?

Privacy Policy.

They promised me no spam. Ever. No sharing. Ever. Never Ever EVER.

Value.

Something they were going to send me was as precious to my business as air is to me.

Reciprocation.

If I gave them my email address, they gave me something of theirs that I wanted.

Past Trust Lasts Unless It's Violated.

In the past I wasn't sure what they would do with my email address and something they did or said, or just my experiences with them earned them my trust. Once they earned it, they never violated it.

Disclosure.

They told me what they were going to use it for, when, how often, why and who would have access to it. Then they stuck to what they said, or at least notified me if it could potentially change

Personal relationship.

The person who contacted me at that email address didn't send me some generic blahblah form email, or stop with their smart auto-responder message. They reached out to me person to person and asked my opinion, offered their help, or wanted my advice. They gave me THEIR real email address and what else could I do but reciprocate?

Quality

There was so much great stuff going on at this site, such a great product that I wanted to consider for future purchase, so much information that was so frequently updated, that I wanted to make sure I came back. I figured any webmaster worth their salt would remind me on a weekly basis to return.

Which of these do you offer to your visitors? Is some version of your privacy policy, or a link to it, on every main page of your site? Do you offer value to your visitors, or are you recycling the same bonuses they can get anywhere? Does your site make your visitors want to come back? Do you remind them to?

Now, you and I both know that you have no intention of spamming anyone- if not on a question of ethics alone, you're just not stupid - it would to ruin your online reputation! Fast.

What I'm saying here is that perceptions speak louder than words.

Take another look at your site, or, better yet, get a fresh eye from another person in an online community you belong to. It may not be clear to your visitors that you are employing some of the techniques above.

Perhaps making your customers feel how I felt will get them to give you their real information and their Primary Email address. And, maybe that email address will one day lead to a lifelong customer.

Copyright 2004 Tinu AbayomiPaul

If you are having trouble getting subscribers to join, and you've been properly exposing your ezine, and packing it with value, maybe the issue is trust. We explore this issue of trust between you and your visitors more deeply in an upcoming issue of Free Traffic Secrets. Subscribe at http://www.freetrafficdirectory.com or ftdsecrets-topica.com

About The Author

Tinu is a free traffic FANATIC. She has been offered treatment for this condition but says it just saves her too much money!

Exploit Adsense Earnings

Writen by Lionel Estridge

Having the pages with the proper keywords is one thing, but motivating visitors to those pages is another matter and often that part that is lacking.

You need to optimize your site navigation.

Think about how visitors are using your website. After a visitor has landed on a certain page, they have the trend to click on another page that sounds appealing. They get there because of the other links that appears on a page that they initially landed on. It's all about enabling visitors to move about your site.

The typical website has menu links on each page. The wording on these links is what take hold of a visitor's attention and gets them to click on one of the links that will take them to another page of that website. Links that have "free" or "download" are good attention-grabbers.

There are some websites that are accomplishing a lot of traffic from search engines, but have low earnings. The trick is to try and use come cunning labelled links to get the visitors off that page and navigate them to the higher earning ones.

Before you begin testing, you need to have two things. Something to track and compare, and some high earning pages you want to funnel your site traffic to. An option is to select a few of your frequently visited pages. This is to guarantee fast result.

The next thing to do is think of ways to get visitors viewing a particular page to try and click on the link that will take them to your high earning pages. Come up with an appealing description for that link, and a likeable and unique description for the link. Think of something that people do not get to see everyday. That will trigger their curiosity enough to try and see what that was all about.

Use graphics to grab your readers' attention. Be creative. As far as many Adsense advertisers are concerned, there are no written and unwritten rule to follow regarding what they write. As long as you do not violate the guidelines of the search engines.

In addition, keep in mind that it is all about location. Once the attention grabbing description has been achieved, you have to identify the perfect spot on your page to position that descriptive link to your high paying page.

Another way of doing it is to try and use different texts on different pages. That way you will see the ones that work and what does not. Try to jumble things around also. Put links on top and sometimes on the bottom. This is how you test which ones are getting more clicks and which ones are being ignored.

Keep testing and tracking until you find the site navigation style that works best for you site.

Lionel Estridge is the publisher of Zero to Hero newsletter; to get tips and trick using Adsense and Ebay, just send a blank email to: ebay1@aweber.com or go to http://www.lionel1.com/

3 Essentials Before You Submit To Article Directories

Writen by Justin Brown

One of the oldest yet still more effective techniques in driving targeted prospects to sites and converting them into buyers is information-based marketing. This is why article writing, submissions and publications are at an all-time high.

There are many tools that you can use to make the process of distributing your articles easier. However, although this is invaluable in getting your article exposed to more sites, there are common mistakes that some people make before submitting their articles to directories.

Let us take a look at the more common mistakes made in 3 key areas:

1) Confusing the reason to promote articles with the reason to write them.

In article writing, the main benefits of you promoting them is branding, lead generation and promotion, which are all part of your optimization efforts.

However, there is one reason why you write articles, and that is to inform your audience about a subject. It is greatly important that your article is based upon this fact, or else you stand to fail in the promotional benefits as outlined above.

Of course, it is also highly important that you figure out how to get people to read you article, and then to click on your site link in the resource box. I have produced a couple of articles that cover these areas so please check them out :-).

2) Failing to realize and maximize the promotional opportunities of article marketing.

You will more than likely already know that your article can generate links back to your site from the article directories themselves, and also from any sites who publish your article from these directories. However, did you know that you can attract more visitors and better search engine results from the same article?

The first step to achieving this is to provide relevant keywords at strategic places in the article. However, do not overdo this. A good benchmark is to aim for between a ten to fifteen percent keyword density. I won't go further into this here as I've discussed this in other articles but if you would like to find out more, look out for more of my article marketing articles.

You shouldn't just aim for your article to be accepted by article directories, but should ultimately aim for it to be used by publishers who scour the directories for website content. You should not underestimate the potential that this can have on your promotional efforts, as many of these publishers may have hundreds or thousands of regular visitors who could then view your article.

Start out by having a plan of what you want achieved and make sure that you reach your targets. It is important to do this so that you can reap the maximum benefits of every article that you write.

3) Creating articles with content that does not help your readers.

Maybe your only plan is to create an article and get links back from article directories, and that any visitor that you may get from this is fine.

Well you may need to think again. Many article directoriesclamp down on the amount of articles that they accept that are simply not up to standard. And even if a poorly written, uninformative article does make it into the article sites, then the potential of being picked up by webmasters seeking quality content is certainly lost.

The benefits of one publisher with a hundred thousand website visitors picking up your article should be enough incentive for you to write an informative article. This is by no means impossible, and you may find that this value is conservative in what you may achieve from a number of publishers running your article on their site.

Researching into a topic that is sought after is important. There may be many readers of this article who will feel that this information is all well and good but feel that they cannot write an article well, or may not know enough about a certain subject to write an article. This is by no means a dead-end. There are many places where you can research into a topic, or hiring a writer might be an option worth considering.

The choice really is yours on how dedicated you are in increasing the exposure of your article, and consequently your website. On a basic level you can choose to gain a few backlinks from article directories, or with a little more effort you can enjoy massive exposure from providing quality content.

Justin Brown maintains the website http://www.articleblotter.com and enjoys writing articles relating to article marketing. We encourage you to visit the site and submit articles if you choose to, or browse the many features that are already added to the site to help you online.

4 Steps To Laser Precise Ad Tracking Amp Budget Management

Writen by Ettione Stuckey

Tracking your ads is very critical to your success online. You must, you must, you must, track your ads. Ad tracking allows you to see where your traffic is coming from. Okay, let's say you've just found this killer promotion to get the word out about your product or service. You pay your fee, type in your URL, and upload your ad(s) or banner(s).

How will you know if this program really produces the traffic it claims? How will you know if this program sent you the traffic that you do get? How can you gauge whether your advertising dollars are paying off, ie, number of clickthroughs vs number of sales? How will you know what your ROI is? The fact is, you can't, and you don't - not without an effective tracking system! That's why you need a robust ad tracking system that lets you track your ads across multiple campaigns.

Use a Quality Service - Don't Settle For A Freebie Ad Tracker! The first thing I want you to do is to get yourself a first-rate ad tracker! Don't just settle for the freebie accounts that only let you track one little ad. That freebie account is just to give you a taste of what ad tracking can do for your business. The goal is to get you to upgrade your membership. That's where the real power comes in, especially if you have multiple programs, products, and/or services to promote. Some automated e-business systems even integrate the ad tracking right into the system. That way, you can track ads for each of your products, ad campaigns, newsletters, and anything else you want.

You can find Ad Tracker services all over the Internet. Just type ad tracker into your favorite search engine. However, if you have your own website and products/services, I recommend using an automated e-business system with integrated ad tracking. This gives you more control and versatility in your ad tracking, allowing you to track whatever you want, with no limit as to the number of trackers you can set up. some systems also let you track your expenses. That way you can quickly see the ROI of each of your promotions. See the end of this article for more information on that.

Label Your Ad Trackers For Lightning Fast Reference!

You must label each of your trackers for later quick reference, so you don't have to guess what campaign the tracker is for. This comes in handy when your viewing your trackers and you have several trackers for several campaigns displayed on your screen all at the same time. At a glance, you'll be able to tell which of your ad promotions is paying off, or which affiliates are performing well, and which ones need your help. You can also see which ezine promotions you would like to run again, and which ones you should scrap. Are you beginning to see the extreme edge you can gain by simply tracking your ads? I hope you do, 'cause this stuff is crucial to your business!

Use Ad Tracking to Rescue Your Ad Budget!

If the tracking service you choose permits you to enter your ad expense as well, then you've just stumbled upon a real Gem of a service. This is called expense tracking, and what this does is allow you to see what your Return On Investment (ROI) is for each of your ad campaigns. Inside your ad tracker's control panel you should be able to clearly see your visitors, your orders, you conversion percentage, your sales, your expenses, and your profit, all at a glance. If you cant' then what is that missing element worth to you? Using the information from each of the things I just listed, you should be able to get a firm grip on your advertising budget, as well as discern which advertising mediums produce the best results.

What Have You Learned?

You learned that you MUST track your ads. You learned that you should use a quality service, and dump the "Freebie" account. You learned that you should label your trackers for quick reference. You learned that you should use ad tracking to manage your ad budget, as well as to weed out the bad advertising mediums. Okay, now you've all got all the bases covered, now find you an ad tracking service, GET TO TRACKING!

Ettione, The Automation King, has combined ad tracking and e-business automation into a powerful all-in-one system called ProWebWare.

Learn about Ettione's amazing ad tracking system here: http://www.prowebware.com/ad_tracking.html

Advantages Of Viral Marketing Through Content Distribution

Writen by Gerrick W

The principle of viral marketing works very much like a computer virus. Left unchecked, a computer virus will affect one PC to the next. But unlike a computer virus, which is harmful, viral marketing is harnessed for good. It is very effective in spreading word about your business. The logic is very simple. Catch it, and then pass it on.

So, how does viral marketing fit with content distribution? I'm glad you asked. If you offer high quality articles, white papers, reports, ecourses or ebooks, you can be sure that they will be passed around to others, and others will pass them on to others and so on and so forth thus producing a 'viral' effect.

Unlike a computer virus, this kind of virus works for you and it harms no one. Soon you'll find your writings circulating around the Internet.

Drive targeted web traffic to your site

An effective way to introduce your website is through content distribution. Targeted visitors will arrive at your website when they click the links in your ebooks or resource box at the end of your articles. You stand to gain more website traffic through the 'viral' effect of content distribution.

Earn credibility

Writing quality articles, ezines, ecourses, ebooks, white papers and reports will quickly establish you as an expert in your field. You will earn credibility if the content you have written provides solutions to people's problems. That's the reason why 'How tos' articles and ebooks are popular and in great demand.

Increase link popularity

Another advantage of distributing free content is gathering inbound links. When people post your articles or distribute your ebooks on their website they are in essence providing one-way links to your website. If these one-way links originate from quality websites it will boost the pagerank of your web page. Writing and distributing quality articles or ebooks will increase your web page link popularity.

Make backend sales

The primary reason experienced marketers offer free content is to build their opt-in lists. They offered what they termed 'front end products' in the form of free content. Their strategy is to get people to their website to signup for their mailers. Eventually through the mailers they make 'backend sales'.

Make extra income through affiliate programs

Another added advantage of distributing free content via ebooks is the opportunity to make extra income through affiliate programs. You could easily insert affiliate links into your ebooks. Some words of caution here though...

1.You must insert affiliate links that are relevant to the content of your ebook.

2.Insert affiliate links strategically, discretely and sparingly. Don't turn your ebook into one mega sales promotion. Provide your readers with quality content, not sales pitch.

Most newbies to Internet marketing do not take advantage of the effectiveness of viral marketing to make profits and build their opt-in lists. Their hands are already full, learning how to start and run their online business, that they have no time to write quality content for distribution.

Any aspiring online marketer should invest time to research and write quality content for distribution or invest money to hire someone to do the job. After all, the Internet is about information. Majority of people surf the Net to harvest information first and foremost. So, quality content is in great demand now and will still be in the future.

Gerrick W – mailto:gw@1stinternetmarketingsolution.com Information and Software Tools You Need to Effectively Promote Your Online Business. Visit: http://www.1stinternetmarketingsolution.com

Overcoming The Fear Factor In Online Sales

Writen by Derrick Pizur

No I am not talking about the classic board game, that Aunt Hester bought you the past two years for your birthday! Risk is what first time visitors to your website views your product as. Before they spend their hard earned money they want to know that your product is worth it. Shoppers today see so many offers, so many sales pitches that they are trained to be skeptical about many products.

This is even more the case when selling over the internet because many of your potential customers do not know you. In the offline word they could walk into your store and talk to you, online you are just another person fighting to take their money.

It is proven that if you alleviate the fear associated with making a first time purchase your initial sales will increase by 10% and these customers are more likely to purchase from you in the future. Why? Because you stand behind your product and they know if they are unhappy you will give them a full refund!

If you are confident in your product, show it to your customers by offering a strong guarantee that removes the risk associated with the purchase. If you can offer a lifetime no hassles, zero questions asked guarantee do so! I know you think this sounds risky, but it really is not.

How do I know this? I did an extensive test with very similar products offering different lengths of money back guarantees. I was surprised when I found out the longer the guarantee the less returns I received.

Having a short guarantee makes the customer rush through using your product, so if they are unhappy they can return it within the allotted time period. With a longer guarantee they can use your product at their own pace which will allow them to see the great results of owning your product.

So what is the absolute shortest guarantee I would offer? Well 30 days is too short, the bare minimum I would say is 90 days, but remember the longer the better!

Are you still scared about offering the longer guarantee? Shame on you! Not really, that is a valid concern. In general most customers use the guarantee as an additional reason to buy your product; it makes them feel safe and secure. Unless they simply hate your product or service people are usually too lazy to return it, or they put it off until tomorrow, which usually never comes. But just in case the guarantee is their shining like a big block of gold!

All in all, as long as your returns are under the 10% that you have increased you sales by (which any quality product should be) you have nothing to lose by offering a RISK FREE guarantee.

About The Author

Derrick Pizur runs ResellerEdge.com, a high quality multiple domain, user friendly, web hosting company that offers a 90 day money back guarantee on all hosting services. A truly risk free web host!

derrickp@gmail.com

Affiliate Marketing Know The Canspam Act

Writen by Daniel Detlaf

The amount of false information available about e-mail marketing on the net is staggering. If you are advertising your affiliate program through e-mail campaigns, make sure you know what your responsibilities are.

The lawless days of spam e-mail are over, at least for U.S.A. based advertisers. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) sets

As an affiliate marketer obviously you don't want to be on the wrong side of this law. Luckily, complying with the provisions in the law is fairly simple. Here is what it requires:

• No misleading or fake header information. This includes the "From:" and "To" fields.

• No deceptive subject lines. You want your customer to know what you're selling anyway, so this should be no problem.

• Messages must be labeled as advertising. Again, the moral is: no sneaky stuff.

• An "internet-based" opt-out method must be provided. You have 10 days to stop e-mailing a person once you have received their remove request.

• Messages must include your business (or home) physical address. This provides accountability and a way for the customer to verify that your business is real.

Breaking any of these rules could lead to a fine of up to $11,000 per violation! Honesty is now truly the best policy. You may be thinking: if this is such a big deal, why is my inbox flooded with spam every day?

It's not a perfect world, and the short answer is that many of those advertisers are breaking the law. Commonly they are outside the United States in areas where prosecution may be unrealistic. You, on the other hand, would probably be quite easy to catch.

Be sure to read the detailed requirements for yourself. You can find more information at the Federal Trade Commission's website, http://www.ftc.gov/spam

Daniel Detlaf is a lifelong student and one-time Day Trader with a few things to say about internet marketing. Visit the home of his ebook "Make An Honest Living" at http://www.makeanhonestliving.com.

The Evolution Of The Internet And Website Marketing

Writen by Leigh Burke

The internet itself has been around in one form or another since the late 70s. Originally it was designed by the military as a primitive way of sending encrypted messages intended only for their recipients. If you have ever used an electronic bulletin board, well this was similar, only networked.

Eventually, as most military applications do, the internet made its way into mainstream civilian application. The concept of the Internet, or the Web as it was sometimes also referred to as, didn't really take hold on the public psyche until the late 80s. That incarnation of the internet was somewhat slow, cumbersome and limited by both the number of sites available, and the cost of registering a domain name and hosting a site. With the advent of cheaper hosting and the reduction of the cost of registering domains, the popularity of the internet really started to take off in the early 90s. The media jumped on the bandwagon, and so ensued what was something of a mini cultural revolution.

Companies started registering domain names and setting up what were mainly informational web sites, or sales jargon online if you like. The real problem is that people only really knew about a website by reading the address from some offline source such as a sales brochure, business card or advertisement. When the consumer went to the site, they were presented with little more than they could get by reading the real world glossy paper brochure.

Along came the search engines to solve the problem of finding web sites amongst the vast majority of sites which were popping up on the internet all around the world. The original search engines were quite clunky, slow and easily manipulated. Various spamming methods were adopted by the less scrupulous web site owners to modify the results shown by the search engines. Tricks such as repeating the keyword name over and over again at the bottom of the html page, and then changing the font to white were often adopted, as well as copying the same page over and over again and linking them all together to boost a sites ranking.

Search engines soon cottoned on to these methods, and eventually the majority of them were filtered out. For the most part, databases were not very clean, and this combined with the suspect (but evolving) algorithms left the majority of the public disenchanted, and genuine website marketers scratching their heads at how to tweak their sites, and what to expect next. The searching public were yet to see a search algorithm that they were more than happy with.

Various companies such as yahoo.com and dmoz.org tried to circumvent the search conundrum by creating indexes of categorised, human approved web sites. For a while these proved quite popular, but were very difficult to get listed in, and required the directory companies to employ an army of developers, moderators and approvers to keep the directory running and clean. Of course, some of these were paid, but the majority were volunteers. So considering the limited results that could be obtained from a directory, the searching public seemed to employ a combination approach when conducting their searches, of both directories and search engines.

It was at this time, that search engine and directory companies started merging and acquiring competitors via takeover, as the forecasters must have seen the benefit of having a combination of both search and directory (and less competitors!) It was also around this time, that many engines and directories started charging for guaranteed paid inclusion. The future looked dim. It was at this time that a newcomer to the scene decided to take their chances with a newly created algorithm. Yes, google was here! To the rest of the world, this must have seemed like an insane time to be entering the market. And a free search engine at that, with free submission for your site! But once google started to increase in popularity, people saw the benefit of their superior algorithm and search results, nice uncluttered home page, and free submission, and hey, google just sounds so cool anyway! The term to "google it" is now commonly used in relation to doing a search, and it seems the public can't get enough. Google has been innovative in other areas of the industry also. They have several indexes based on different topics, and some news archive services. Another innovation google implemented was picture search. Google did go on to implement paid inclusion via AdWords and AdSense, but basic submission to the index has always been free. Google's spider also seems to be the most active, and often times linking to a new site from an older site which is already indexed will often get the new site indexed more quickly than if you submitted the site manually to google.

Recent happenings in the world of search include Microsoft's MSN search which has recently been released after an extended BETA testing stage. On initial testing of the service, it seems to be quite robust and give good output. Microsoft's foray into search was meant to cause great waves, and rumours were that google were dreading the day it was finally released. But in my opinion, unless they come up with something more innovative, such as google has and continues to do, at this point they are not much of a threat. The only threat I foresee in the future, is if Microsoft hard codes the search page into Internet Explorer, but I don't see this happening, as consumer groups and the government's anti-competition lawyers would be down on them in a flash. So in the search arena, I guess we'll just have to wait and see, but in the meantime, it is wise to be tweaked and indexed for both google and MSN search.

Google also recently shook up the free email market with their first offering called Gmail. Gmail is a free internet based email service offering users a 1GB account, and new search capabilities within the system itself. At the time of writing Gmail is still in beta testing stage, but with google's initial announcement, Microsoft and yahoo quickly countered and increased the limit of their previously measly offerings. Once again, I guess we'll have to watch this space.

At the time when search engines were first being introduced to the internet, and the first primitive indexes, directories and listings compiled, a variety of internet marketing gurus started to appear on the scene. At first, the majority of these marketing experts were simply marketing people who had made their way from the real paper-based world to the electronic world of bits and bytes that is the internet. Marketing methods promoted often included a heavy slant towards sales copy, colours and formatting of your web site appearance, and then eventually submission to all the directories and search engines which started to appear around the net. These gurus also promoted the use metadata, keywords and other elements within the html. Eventually we were subjected to the unsightly and annoying barrage of spam email which internet marketers promoted. Fortunately for the internet marketing gurus, they also had the rights to distribute the software required for their clients to send mass email and make millions! (sic)

Finally we made it to where we are today.
But where are we? And where are we headed? Visit my website, and you'll find all my predictions for the future, and the most absolute up to date, complete list of tools, tips and resources that I think you should be using right now, today, to be successful.

About the author: Leigh Burke has over 7 years of solid website marketing experience and is the author of the best selling 'Guerilla Website Marketing'. He's been in the trenches, and knows what works! To find out more about Leigh's guerilla website marketing techniques, or to sign up for his free newsletter visit: http://www.WebsiteMarketingGuerilla.com

The World Of A Thousand Businesses The Secret To Being Seen On The Top Of The Mountain

Writen by Anthony Jewell

The market online for any business is usually so over-saturated with companies that the selection process for a future possible client is a very tough one. Just think if you were to go online and search at google for "web hosting". You will get around 265,000,000 results returned back to you and if your like me you just don't have that much time to search. Lets say out of these results that even 1/10000th or 26,500 are actually webhosting companies(probably far more). Do you think even if you were to review them all that you could make a clear decision? I don't think you could but what would help you make a decision is an attraction developed to some of the sites you've visited. This attraction was probably created by the brand and website design which left an image in your mind. This is another form of marketing that allows a company to stay in your mind even after you leave their site. This is the secret on how you can be seen on top of that huge mountain of companies!

Now that you figured out the secret you have to take the steps to using it to gain the edge on your competition and trust me you can. You goals for your company will start to become clearer at this point with you developing a marketing plan based around your website. It is a two step process. Step One(1) is to get people to your website. Step Two(2) is to have people remember you even after they exit your site. Especially having them bookmark you so that they can come back any time and never have to worry about forgetting your url. This is why it is important to have a book mark link on your website!

While developing your website so that it is memorable you also have to make sure that it is stimulating to the mind. That it what really makes visitors think and want to find out more about your company. Once you achieve this you have to combine the design with features that the user can enjoy as well as get use out of. This will be a two prong approach where your activate the mind by not only the design or colors but you also get the mind moving and stimulate it with great website features(actually workable elements such as a domain look up, site builder ect...).

Using this approach will leave a lasting impression on anyone who visits your website and will keep them coming back for more.

Anthony Jewell has over 6 Years experience in the Web & Graphics World. You can visit my business and join in conversation at our forum at http://www.logo2d.com/forum & http://www.logo2d.com

©Copyright 2005 Logo2D.com : Feel free to use this article freely but please keep in the copyright

Why Sell Information Products

Writen by Sorna Devadas

Firstly, They're free! You only need a brain and a computer which if you're reading this now, you meet the criteria. Time needs to be put in to do the required research and make sure that your information meets and exceeds the needs of your chosen market. When organized properly, your information becomes a positive cashflow asset. Robert Kiyosaki is a strong advocate of creating positive cashflow assets. Many people think of assets as those things that have value but a real asset puts money in your pocket on a daily basis. Examples of free content that became an asset is any musician that you know and love. The Righteous Brothers are a classic group that came up with a few chart-topping hits and assuming that they wrote the music themselves, created an asset that has continued to create revenue even decades later.

It's fast and easy to create info products. This article took me about an hour to create and as part of a series of articles could be sold as a ebook or mini-course that created cashflow. You can have unlimited inventory and instant access for your customers. A eliable webhosting account will only cost you about $20 per month and your digital asset can be sitting on the server, downloaded repeatedly and you'll never run out of inventory, it's fantastic! Stop thinking about physical products, focus on digital.

The profits from an online website are instant and automatic. Each time a consumer buys, your account is credited. No hassles, no paperwork, all profit! As you may be aware of, an exra talented person may be worth $100 per hour and have a capacity to earn 2 hundred thousand dollars per year. What if they want to earn more, they are limited to their earning capacity. You are well aware of the need for leverage hence you're reading this article. Online enterprises are one of the best forms of leverage. You can create a 24 hour money machine that never tires.

The types of info products you can create are ebooks or electronic books, where your information can be saved as a pdf or in a custom application.The next is an audio product where all you need is a decent microphone and earphones. Software can be downloaded for free or cheaply that will compress your audio into an appropriate format. The final type is video. Here again, there is free and cheap software available to make it happen. No special I.T. skills required.

Have a unique product with a unique selling proposition. You can surely think of at least 1 thing that differentiates your product from the rest in the market. The more content you create, the more money you can make from your website.

Hope you enjoyed this article. All the best with your online aspirations. Take action and make it happen.

To find out more about how to create a profitable website with an information product and for more powerful concepts, visit http://www.internetprofitmentor.com. Here I found a wealth of useful and free information with over 12 hours of video and a 120 page e-book.

Use Coregistration To Generate Quality Leads

Writen by Mitchel Harad

Co-registration, once a little-known Web marketing tool, continues to quickly garner widespread usage. First used by just a few of the largest online marketers, co-registration has gone mainstream as marketers discover that it is a simple and cost-effective way to quickly build a large mailing list of potential customers.

Co-registration leverages the online sign-up process. While it is most common on Web sites for Internet tools, like free email or file storage, it can be implemented on any site where users are required to register. Co-registration takes advantage of the information input by users in the registration form to sign them up for additional services, often by simply checking an opt in box at the end of the form. Nearly every Internet user has come across co-registration on Web sites such as Hotmail and Yahoo.

The benefit of co-registration is a tremendously high volume of leads from interested customers, generally on a return-on-investment-friendly cost per action (CPA) or cost per lead (CPL) basis. Opt in rates can be as high as 15 percent to 20 percent, resulting in thousands of new leads daily. This makes co-registration a highly effective tool to quickly build a large mailing list or recruit a potential customer base. Plus, with email list rental prices as high as 20 cents to 30 cents per name, co-registration can help you build and own a mailing list for about the same cost as just one or two list rentals.

Many Web sites have taken notice of this revenue opportunity, which has resulted in a rapid increase in the number of sites where co-registration is offered. With dozens of new outlets available, co-registration is a fit for many marketers' needs and budget.

Here are points to consider when creating a co-registration campaign:

Placement is everything. Partner with Web sites that have user base demographics similar to your own to produce the highest-quality results. Long-term co-registration partnerships will result in heavy overlap between your user base and your partners', so be sure to weigh that risk, especially when partnering with potential competitors. A small number of networks now offer co-registration services, thereby simplifying the site selection process.

Follow-up is key. Users obtained through co-registration have likely never been to your Web site and may quickly forget that they have signed up for it. Co-registration provides you with a steady stream of leads; it's up to you to convert them into customers. A thorough email follow-up plan designed to convert co-registration leads into active users yields the best results.

Price is fluctuating. With prices rapidly changing for most online marketing tools and limited history for co-registration, prices currently vary widely from 25 cents to 25 dollars per co-registration. Factors affecting price include the amount of information collected from each user, the quality of a partner's user base and negotiating skill. ROI calculations are key when determining price, based on conversion rate and customer acquisition cost. Avoid opportunities priced on an impression or click basis.

Keep it simple. Typically, co-registration offers users just a one- or two-sentence description of the service for which they are signing up. Gear copy and information requirements toward gaining qualified leads, not lifelong customers. Consider incorporating a promotion, such as a sweepstakes or free newsletter to increase opt in rates.

Never require an opt out. While most co-registration is done on an opt in basis, occasionally some programs are run on an opt out basis. With opt in rates frequently as high as they are, sacrificing quality to increase quantity via opt out is a poor trade-off.

This article comes with reprint rights. You are free to reprint and distribute it, as you like. All that we ask is that you do not make any changes, that this resource text is included, and that the links above is intact.

Mitchel Harad is a renouned expert in online marketing, who has founded, lead and sold two pioneering and successful companies. You can visit his blog Mess You Made for further insights on online marketing trends and strategies.

Are You A Bit Confused With This Whole Niche Marketing Craze

Writen by Ryan Blake

Well let me explain. Niche marketing is a process where you'll find small but potentially profitable market segments and designing custom-made products to fill them.

What is a Niche Product?

A Niche Product is the product that is specifically designed to meet the needs of that special segment. There are tons of eBooks which are related to "Creating Niche Products" or "Finding a Profitable Niche" In this Article we'll cover what to do with niche products with reseller rights. What you'll find out is "How to make them more profitable". There are many niche products online with reseller rights some of them are also rebrandable. But you have to understand that thousands of people have similar products and are trying to sell them online. That's why you have to make your version unique.

Here are some basic ideas you can use to make your product copy different and more profitable than the others.

1. Write A New Sales Copy

These niche products come with their sales pages most of the time and the other thousands of resellers are selling these products with the SAME SALES COPY.

If you want your own ebook copy to have a difference and stand out in the crowd you have to write a brand new sales page.

Most of the resellers do not have any idea what the product is all about. They buy it or download it somewhere and they do not even double-click and check the content of the ebook. If you double click and see what's in it you are one step away from thousands of resellers.

What you need to do is not really that dificult.

Just check out the ebook see what's in it for the reader. And write a sales copy and tell the target audience;

- what's it about
- what they will find in the product
- how they will benefit from this product
- what's in it for them
- how this product will change their lives
- what they should expect
- why they should buy this product

These are the main things a sales copy should include. You have to come up with a great headline first. Your headline should grab reader's attention in a split second. Did you know that just changing the headline can make your page more than 800% more profitable? If you can grab the attention then make them read through the sales page. You can do this with a sub headline And in the first paragraph of your sales page some copywriters use the "Stir Up The Pain" method. In your first paragraph you can talk about what problems these targeted individuals have. Unfortunately Copywriting is way too complicated to cover here.

2. Create new Graphics

I told you that there are thousands of people who are selling the same product that you have.

If you create a new sales page you have to create new graphics for this product to make it different than the others.

- Create new headline graphics
- Create new cover graphics
- Create new order buttons
- Create new background images

If you don't know how to do it just go and learn how to do it. Creating images is really really important and if you are serious about online marketing you're going to learn it somehow.

You can learn it free. There are bunch of free tools and tutorials online. t doesn't have to be free. You'll always get what you pay for. Once you learn how to create cover graphics or headline graphics you can apply your knowledge to everything you create or resell.

Best of luck with the future.
Regards Ryan Blake.

Well I hope that you gained some valuable tips from this Article and while you're here I would like to tell you about a wonderful place I discovered, where you can learn all you could ever want about Affiliate marketing and so make a success of your future campaigns. Here's a link to join their mailing list and receive cutting edge, up to date tips on how to make every campaign a success.

http://tinyurl.com/dt4rb

Bridging The Chasm Between It And Internet Marketing

Writen by Dana Vanden Heuvel

During the late 80's and early 90's, many companies, in an effort to facilitate the creation of their Internet presence, shifted control of the website and Internet technologies from their IT department to their marketing, or e-Commerce department. "They wanted us to be fast, nimble, and completely unencumbered by the bureaucratic processes that existed in the IT department," said one e-commerce director. Many executives were sold on the idea that current IT department procedures simply wouldn't fly in the Internet space – we needed to be much, much faster than that.

For many companies, this proved to be a great strategy. Nimble e-commerce groups created websites and strategies quickly and started producing almost immediate results. However, this approach has lost its luster over the past few years as IT departments are finding their budgets shrinking and staff stagnating. In some companies where the IT department has not had a significant hand in Internet strategy and web site development, a great deal of animosity has grown on the part of IT managers toward anything "Internet," including Internet marketing. Migrating from an exclusionary mindset to a collaborative mindset is not something that comes easily to some companies. Egos, politics, logistics, and relationships are usually altered in the process. Countless companies are still hobbled by the lack of communication between IT and marketing, inefficient vendor relationships, and archaic processes, all of which compromise customer service. Sure, there are positives to the aforementioned separatist strategy, but there are countless negatives, as many companies have recently discovered. The tide is slowly turning towards cooperation as marketers realize they cannot go it alone anymore in the Internet space, the customers and the technology simply move too fast.

Who's to blame for this? Both marketing leaders who do not understand the need for soliciting cross-functional support and IT leaders who fail to bridge communication gaps across functional teams play a role in creating the gap that separates IT from Marketing.

A new study recently done in the UK by CatchFIRE Systems reported that nearly three quarters of IT departments are not involved in the initial planning stages of online marketing campaigns, leading to 24% of UK organizations suffering from web overloads and site crashes. Sound familiar? It does to me, I can recall bringing down our web servers SEVERAL times when we began doing email marketing before I thought to involve the IT department.

The study goes on to indicate that almost 75% of those organizations surveyed admitted to not knowing how many users the corporate web site could support. Even worse, over 60% were unaware of how many users were leaving web sites with incomplete transactions, and barely 1 in 10 could put a figure on the consequent monetary losses to their organization. These statistics underscore the basic problem: how can we act as goodwill ambassadors to our customers when we do not have an adequate technical understanding of the tools that are at our disposal? Any good sales manager knows how many calls his sales staff can make in a day, week, or month. Yet, the average marketing manager hasn't taken the time to inquire about how many visitors her website can handle in a day. This status quo clearly indicates the need for increased contact between IT and Marketing.

Results and relations would improve appreciably if marketing were to send a representative to IT project meetings and IT were to assign a technical liaison to each marketing team. Even involving an IT developer in a weekly sales and marketing planning meeting will have a beneficial impact. While the developer may have little understanding of marketing concepts like CPM, CPA, ROMI, and what have you, at least he can give an honest answer on whether your current CRM technology can handle the sales management mandates or reporting requirements. The average IT person can also bring your meeting back to Earth in a hurry when you casually suggest launching your next product via a worldwide webcast of a real-time speech from your CEO and an exclusive Rolling Stones concert to millions of viewers.

At the end of the day, your sales and marketing team needs an embedded IT team member, especially if you are placing a great deal of emphasis on CRM, Internet marketing and your website to drive your sales numbers. Moreover, if you have designs on ANY integration of your CRM, ERP systems and your web presence, you're in a far better position with an IT person on board than if you try to go it alone or make that integration happen through the flavor-of-the-month vendor that you've hired for the job. If you're scratching your head on how to get more involved with IT, or what all the elements are in the equation, here are ten points to consider when engaging your IT department. 1. Treat IT like a partner. Your IT department is not a vendor that you can give orders to. Seek the department's input. An IT solution is a tool that requires technical input and information sharing.

2. Embed IT personnel into your team. If possible, have IT and marketing staffs sit nearby so they can get a sense of each other's day-to-day activities and concerns. Have an IT person go on several sales calls to get a better sense of a rep's daily needs.

3. Choose a project champion to lead both the IT and marketing aspects of a project, regardless of whether they are from the business or technical side. Also, get executive sponsors from both departments. Nothing kills an initiative faster than a lack of upper-management support.

4. Share funding between all departments that will realistically benefit from the IT project, rather than placing the financial burden on a single department.

5. Cross-train individuals on basic technology and marketing skills, or encourage the migration of tech-savvy marketers or business-savvy techies to the other side.

6. Develop shared metrics for IT and Internet marketing. IT is usually concerned about ROI and seeing projects implemented, while marketing wants leads, sales, and conversion. Develop metrics in tandem that apply equally to the objectives of each department.

7. Use collaborative knowledge management tools. By using a project extranet, shared MS project files, or a project weblog, members of both teams can be kept up to date on projects.

8. Build for CRM. Consider how you will be using the data that you will be collecting, and how it can be integrated with both existing, and future, systems, tools, processes, and initiatives. Don't collect information in a vacuum, even worse, miss opportunities to collect it.

9. Forge vendor relationships together. If marketing is going to be using an ASP for email marketing or web analytics, involve the IT folks in the decision and implementation to extract the most value from the tools.

10. Work out an SLA (service level agreement) between the parties. IT has many projects on its plate and marketers are almost never on time. Make sure the SLA requirements and expectations are clearly and unambiguously defined, along with measurement criteria, consequences, and performance monitoring contingencies. This will help keep things honest and serve to sustain consistent levels of expectation.

If you're a marketing consultant and you're reading this thinking, "Whew, glad I don't have to deal with that stuff," think again. If you're in a meeting with a client during the advanced stages of an Internet marketing campaign that will have a significant impact on site traffic or the IT infrastructure, you will need to make sure that your client has involved their IT partner in the planning of the initiative.

Are you ready to start working together with your IT department? It's amazing, how little it actually takes to build a strong bridge between your IT and marketing camps, when everyone is focused on the needs of the customer.

Links to article sources and additional resources on the web:
[1] Communication Chasm Between IT and Marketing to Blame URL: http://catchfs.com/News/2003nov18.htm
[2] Marketing campaigns 'can paralyze Web sites' URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39117987,00.htm
[3] MARKETING and IT don't talk URL: http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Nov/gee20031120022762.htm
[4] Bridging the Gap: Marketing Versus IT URL: http://www.clickz.com/em_mkt/em_mkt/article.php/844361
[5] The Weenies vs. the Geeks: Bridging the gap between Marketing and IT URL: http://www.myplanview.com/expert104.asp

Dana is a widely recognized expert on blogging, podcasting, RSS, Internet communities and interactive marketing trends and best practices and speaks regularly on these topics at industry events. Recently, Dana was a featured speaker at the American Marketing Association's Hot Topic series, "Blogs: Marketing Beyond the Website." He has also spoken at OMMA, PROMO, the Internet Retailer Conference, LesBlogs 2.0 in Paris, France and at dozens of other industry events. Dana is a regular contributor to a variety of industry publications and is often quoted on blogging, social media and Internet marketing trends in MarketingSherpa, Wisconsin Technology Network, Internet Retailer, Event Marketer, Sales and Marketing Management and other publications.

Dana's ruminations on Internet marketing and a wide range of other topics can be found on his blog at http://www.danavan.net.

Increasing Link Popularity

Writen by Zaak OConan

Search engines are the gateway to the Internet; they are the first tool that potential customers use to find the products and services they need. This is why link popularity is so imperative. If the customers do not find your website, you have no possibilities of making any sales.

You're probably wondering what the blazes is popular about a link! Well, in a word - plenty! Link popularity refers to the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines, and it determines the ranking your page gets when keywords are entered into a search engine. So, you're probably wondering, how do I make my link popular?

Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking to sites that have links to their pages from related, quality sites. It's a simple formula, but a very important one. Google created the system, and now virtually all the most popular search engines employ it to rank your web pages in their indexes.

The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly on any search engine. But don't be discouraged; there are tried and true ways of achieving link popularity using the most competitive keywords.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is that just linking up with a large number of other websites will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when pertaining to websites that are nothing more than "link farms" - pages containing line after line of indiscriminate links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against your website if you are associated with a link farm, so steer clear of them!

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site you are linking to. Never link to a page you have reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap. Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link popularity, if not completely destroy it.

So let's get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on all the popular search engines.

The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and despite the fact that it will cost you around $300 a year, it will be money well spent. If your site is non-commercial, the listing will be free, but it will take time and follow-up to actually get it listed. Open Directory is gives you a free listing whether you are business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make a lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site listed.

You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of appropriate category, and this just takes some common sense. For example, if your company ships Alpaca wool from an Alpaca farm located in the middle of Nowhere, Tiny State, do NOT submit your listing to "Retailers from Nowhere, Tiny State." BIG MISTAKE! All you have to do is look a little deeper - and submit your listing to the "Fine Alpaca Wool" category. You will not only associate yourself with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a national category.

The next step after you have attained directory listings is to locate other quality sites that will increase your link popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase, but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful to your site's visitors. Let's look at the Alpaca Wool site example. Linking up to a site that sells knitting supplies would be helpful to your visitors, and the chances of the knitting supply site wanting to link up to your site are also greater. By linking to a related site that will be relevant to your website's traffic, you are increasing both of your site's business prospects - and both of your sites' link popularity.

Not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have to do some research when you are looking for possible linking partners. Google is an excellent starting place for your search. Make sure you enter keywords that you think quality customers will also enter to find your own site. Remember, your criteria are quality, highly ranked, non-competing websites that have a links or resources page. Go to these sites and objectively assess them. Look at the quality of the product, the graphics, and the ease of use. Then check out the other sites they are linked to, and determine if your own site would fit in with the crowd.

When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must set out to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link on your own links page to their site. This is an essential first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added their link, you must contact the webmaster of their site. Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make sure it is immediately clear that your message is not junk mail. This requires that you tell them right off the bat that you have added a link to their page on your site. A hook like this almost always insures the reader will read on.

Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much you appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that you have actually visited their site, and that their site is not just a random pick. Give them the address of your links page, and ask them to check out the link for themselves. It's a good idea to mention that they will not only benefit from the increased traffic your website will direct their way, but you will also increase their link popularity. Briefly, explain why link popularity is so essential, but do this in a sentence or two so you don't sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on their own links page to your website.

Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as you can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant sites, be sure to check these website frequently to see if they have added a link to your page. Give it about a month, and if no link appears, try another charming email. Then give it another month, and if your site is still absent from their links page, it's time to remove their link from your own links page. The only time you want to pursue a link further than this is if you believe a site is crucial to your link popularity and your business needs. Just remember to keep all your communications complimentary and cordial.

Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search engines frequently to see if your link popularity has improved. This is not achievable in the blink of an eye. It will take some time and a good deal of work. There is no way around the labor-intensive quality of improving your link popularity, which is why search engines regard it with such importance.

By the way - make sure you have a beautiful, streamlined site or you will never persuade anyone to link up to you. Be prepared to keep plugging away at this process, as long as it takes, until you achieve link popularity stardom!

Zaak O'Conan discovers and presents information on to enhance your site, newsletter, marketing and other Internet related topics. You'll find his other articles that expand your horizons at http://WebWorkersWeekly.com

Internet Marketing Methods Designed To Increase Traffic

Writen by Scott Oliver

Many business owners are searching for viable ways to increase traffic to their web sites through innovative internet marketing techniques. Most individuals fear the marketing concept, and deem internet promotion and advertising to be overwhelming. While internet marketing can be confusing to those new to the web community, a little time and education can take the complexity out of this difficult subject.

Familiarizing yourself with the consumer is key when dealing with internet marketing. It is extremely hard to promote a product to an individual you know nothing about. A major aspect of internet marketing involves learning the facts about your target audience. Age, gender, location, career, and income of the potential customer all play a factor on how you will market your product and web site. The more information you gather about your subjects, the easier your internet marketing campaign will be.

Communication plays a big role in internet marketing. If you know your audience well enough, then you will be able to compose and communicate a message that will encourage and entice them to buy your product. This message must make your potential clients be able to relate to you and your goals. Your audience must understand the views you have, and what you are trying to accomplish as you sell your ideas.

Successful internet marketing must be executed at the right time of year to be fully effective. Many business owners have excellent products and pitches, however, they have chosen to market and promote at the wrong time. What times of the year are the best to perform your internet marketing plan? Major holidays such as Christmas and Easter generate major traffic and income to almost any web site or store. With the proper development and planning, your internet marketing campaign is sure to be prosperous all year round.

Scott has his own website to help you find the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home at http://www.Pennies4You.com

Web Coach Tip 4 Ingenious Ways To Not Give Away The Digital Farm

Writen by Donna Payne

A few days ago a prospect replied to one of my follow up auto-responders where I asked how they were doing and if they had any questions or if they needed help with my free workbook they downloaded.

I was so proud, and down-right tickled silly as I read their e-mail, and I quote:

"Hi Donna, The check list is great and helped a lot. I'm on my way in terms of writing the copy for my website and am working with a web designer to get it up and running. Thank you for providing wonderful materials"

End of quote.

Hmm... (sigh)

Well. I'm so glad to provide awesome tools to the masses. If she liked my workbook so much, why didn't she contact me? All my work preparing a document to ultimately help me get clients on track was being used to benefit some other web designer. Grrr…I was steaming mad!

Then it happened - a king-size slap of reality just smacked me right across the face. Duh? I'm giving away my "goodies" for FREE!!! It's time to start CHARGING for my knowledge…Jeez I do live in the information age, don't I?

I immediately sent an IM to my Business Coach. What do I do? How did I not see this happening? How long was I going to continue to give away the farm? After an awesome brainstorming session with my Coach, I'm ready to re-draft my workbook with killer web site & marketing tips I learned at a recent seminar and package my workbook 4 different ways, WITH NEXT TO NO COST! Listen up! YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS FREE ADVICE!

#1. Read my workbook aloud to record an mp3 on my computer. Sell the instantly downloadable Mp3 for $37 + a boat-load of irresistible bonuses (don't forget those). Cost to me - $0.

#2. Of course I'll have my new draft saved as a .pdf file. The next package will be: the instantly downloadable Mp3 & .pdf file and the irresistible bonuses for $97. Cost to me – $0.

#3. I just love this one. A hard copy workbook with CD of the audio, the downloadable Mp3 & .pdf, PLUS 30 minutes of free coaching, and the bonuses for $197. Cost to me - under $20.

Do you see how this is working...just keep sweetening the pot a little at each price point.

#4. Ahh! the ultimate package! All the goodies from #3 PLUS a seat in my 6 week "Website U" teleseminar for $397. Payable in 2 payments (you can do that thru your shopping cart or Paypal – being flexible is key!) Cost to me - under $50 + time setting up the seminar.

And another Bonus tip…I have a small digital recorder that also records phone calls…betcha' can't guess what I'm planning to do? Ha! You guessed correctly! I'm going to record my teleseminars!

Isn't it amazing what you can come up with when you get slapped in the face?

And it all started with an 8 page word.doc I created to help my clients prepare to build their web sites. Whodathunkit?

Copyright 2005 Donna Payne

Donna Payne is the Chief Web Goddess of The Web Coach.net and is known as the gal to call when you're feeling overwhelmed by the internet. To spend some more time with Donna and to experience Web technology, Development and Marketing in the most SIMPLIFED way possible go to http://thewebcoach.net

Can You Really Quotstrike Goldquot Online

Writen by Jim Edwards

I guess human nature leads us to this about every 30 - 50 years.

As a history major, I studied the gold rush of 1849, the 19th century oil booms, the stock market hustles of the late 1920's, the get rich-quick mail order schemes of the 1950's and 60's and now the "Internet" gold rush of the late 1990's and early 21st century.

When people perceive someone else getting rich with little or no effort, they jump on the band wagon seeking fame and fortune.

In reality, in any "gold rush," the ones who really get rich represent the exception.

Unfortunately, people perceive those "exceptions" as the rule, rather than the special cases they actually represent.

But, if you're bound and determined that you can be one of the "chosen few" who get rich online, the following tips will save you years of frustration.

** Little Oil Wells **

Don't try to get rich online with one gold or oil "strike!"

Most people I know who do very well online operate multiple websites targeting multiple niche markets.

They sell many products and make their money by creating multiple streams of income rather than depending on a single website to stake their claim for online riches.

** Solve Problems **

People go online to solve problems.

Whether they need to improve their job interview skills or find a winter coat and hat for their Chihuahua, they want to find products or knowledge they don't currently possess.

The more pressing the problem, the easier and faster these people will buy.

The easiest way to make a fortune online involves finding the most severe problems you can and charging for the solutions.

** Sweat, Not Money **

Most people want to throw money at a problem and hope that will get them what they desire.

This fact keeps the "get-rich-quick" schemers in business.

However, the best way to make money online involves getting your hands dirty, learning a market inside and out, discovering what they want to buy and why, and then selling it to them.

Contrary to popular belief, throwing money at a problem often won't solve it.

** Don't Compete **

The fastest way to make a fortune online involves persuading other people to sell your product or service for you as an affiliate.

However, nobody sells a product or service for someone they perceive as "competition."

You must position your product or service in such a way that others will eagerly promote it for you because they see you as someone who complements what they already offer.

** Wants vs. Needs **

Circus and publicity guru, P.T. Barnum, expressed it best, "People will spend their last nickel to have fun!"

People always find a way to buy what they want, but often avoid spending on what they need.

** The Underwear Myth **

The "make money in your underwear at the kitchen table working only 1 or 2 hours a day" represents the biggest crock of !@#$% ever foisted on the public.

Anyone I know who makes a lot of money at anything, busts their buns to get their projects off the ground.

Once they get a business up and running, it might only take a couple of hours a day or week to keep it running, but they worked their fingers to the bone to get things rolling.

And the real secret to their success: they repeat the process over and over again!

Copyright 2005 Jim Edwards

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist & creator of an amazing course that shows A Quick and Easy Way To Painlessly Set Up Your OWN Money-making 'Mini' Websites... Without Being a Computer Geek, Buying Software, or Paying A Webmaster!" Click => http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com

Make Money Online With Targeted Keywords

Writen by Bing Zou

A keyword is a word or concept with special significance which describes a concept used to organize webpages and objects on the Internet. In today's world, more and more people use the Internet as a tool to get or sell specific product, service or information. Compared to previous model—directory search, keywords search has specific advantage, convenient, fast and also exact.

The trend is that most of those users use keywords to search. The search engine giant Google holds the half market of keywords search. Meanwhile, PPC (pay per click) campaign has hit the web like a storm. Pay per click campaign attracts much more interest from both advertisers and webmasters.

Keywords or key phrases are terms that a possible client would use to find your product or service. It is important to have a large number of top paying targeted keywords - but it is equally important that these top paying targeted keywords be specific relevant to your website. Keywords research is a continuous never-ending process that can help increase traffic and attract targeted visitors. This is the most important for you to make money online.

Top paying targeted keywords are the best keywords among searches. They have targeted function and high ROI. You should remember that top paying keywords will change. To make money with targeted keywords, you need to know much more top paying targeted keywords.

For advertisers, it is very important to control budget and get a high ROI. Some top paying keywords have a low bid price but the function of target is same to other high paying keywords. It is better to replace these high paying keywords.

A common mistake is to target the wrong keywords or worse, even no particular keywords at all. When you optimize your website, you are optimizing your targeted keywords. It means you create a list of specific words and phrases which you know users will search for.

To make money online with targeted keywords, you should often ask yourself these questions: 1. First of all, will people actually search for the things you have at your website? 2. Second, which keywords will they use to search for? 3. Third but not the last, how competitive are your targeted keywords?

Be realistic about targeting highly competitive keywords - you may be better off targeting less popular ones. The more popular, the more cost. So it is not always right to focus on popular keywords. It is important to focus on targeted keywords which will bring sales to you.

For webmasters, your content is always the king but if you can design your website based on top paying keywords, then the targeted Ads have the high value, your website will make more money with these high paying targeted keywords.

Top paying keywords will increase your Google AdSense's revenue. With the top paying targeted keywords for maximizing GoogleAdsense, you can exactly target your site's content with the top paying or high paying keywords. It means you use top paying keywords to express your meaning on your website to attract high paying AdWords Ads.

However, keywords are the same important to users. Whenever users want to search something, the first thing is entering keywords which are relevant to search item. The more the keywords relevant, the easier the item found.

Top paying targeted keywords are the backbone to every successful pay per click campaign. The opportunities of PPC are endless, but you need the right tools to be successful. Keywords success doesn't just happen, it's created. Top paying targeted keywords is the key for your success.

Bing Zou is the owner of website http://www.haveatry.com and http://www.onlyworkonline.com. Haveatry.com is designed for making money at home with a new lifestyle. Onlyworkonline.com recommends opportunities to make money online fast. You can contact him at email: infofreetoyou@yahoo.ca

Your 3 Best Options For Quickly Multiplying Your Websites Income

Writen by Rockford Tapscott

Have you ever wondered why it takes so many visitors for your website to make any real money for you?

My coaching students email me all the time and ask questions along the lines of -

"I've got 60/100/200 website visitors a day but I'm not making any money yet, what's wrong with my site?"

Of course, you need a lot more traffic than that to make a decent income from your site...in fact you need a lot more traffic than you think.

Let's go through the numbers.

We'll assume you have a site that promotes either affiliate products or you use your content website to generate leads for another website (like a mini or sales site) or an offline business you have.

We'll also leave Adsense revenue out for now, because every click on an Adsense ad takes away one chance you have for selling your 'real' product or service.

On average, for every 100 visitors who arrive at your site, only one or two will click on an affiliate link or click through to your main site where you sell your product or service.

And then depending on how good your sales copy is (or how well the sales letter of the affiliate merchant converts) only 1% or 2% of the people arriving at that site will make a purchase.

So, looking at these numbers, and taking a 1% response rate as pretty normal, you have to get 10,000 visitors to your website to generate just 1 sale (100x100 visitors=1 sale)...

Now if your site is getting 60 visitors a day, and they are reading on average 3 pages before they surf off to somewhere else, it's going to take you on average 55 days to make each sale.

If the product you sell is a 30 dollar ebook and you earn 15 dollars commission every time somebody buys a copy, you've set yourself up to make 99 bucks a year from your site...

Pretty dismal isn't it.

Now obviously, the more pages your visitors read, the higher the product value they buy, and the higher your conversion rates are, the better.

You could double or triple this number, or more.

The point is, you need a LOT of traffic and/or big ticket items to sell to make the average site earn you a respectable living.

So, here are my top 3 tips for increasing your website's potential revenue and breaking into the big league of online entrepreneurs...

1) Do some research and find several big ticket items you can promote

It doesn't matter what niche you're in, you can find things like seminars, big box home study courses, membership sites and the like to promote to your visitors.

Sure you can promote $20 ebooks, but the big money is in making $200, $400 or a grand each time somebody buys something through your site.

It's a lot easier to earn a hundred grand a year online by making a few large ticket sales than by selling 6,000+ ebooks that make you 15 bucks each.

2) Work on creating keyword specific landing pages for all of the affiliate products (or your own products and services) so that when people arrive at your site they find the exact solution they are looking for right there.

Don't make your visitors click around your site while they try to find what they are looking for.

Give them the exact solution they want immediately or they will hit the back button and leave without finding what they are after.

3) Build a list and build long term relationships with your readers

If you have your visitors' names and email addresses, you can send the same people back to your site (where they are exposed to your affiliate, Joint Venture and product links) again and again instead of just once.

This gives you a multiplier effect and can exponentially increase every visitors' value to you.

Use a service such as Aweber to send out your autoresponder messages and they will go out in the exact order you want your readers to receive them reliably, on time and automatically.

The main thing is that you get to work on building your list as soon as you can...

So there you have it - 3 simple things you can do straight away to get started on increasing your traffic and maximizing the income you receive from every website that you own.

Rocky Tapscott is the author a free 7 Part Mini Course "How To Build The Perfect Home Based Business Around Your Favorite Hobby, Pastime, Sport Or Skill" which uses 6 real life case studies to show how others have used a proven system to build profitable businesses around their favorite hobby.

Drop by http://www.hobbyandlifestyle.com/ecourse.html to grab your free copy.