Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Using Your Web Site to Advertise Your Business

Using Your Web Site to Advertise Your Business
From Apryl Duncan


You can't hide from it. Whether you're driving by a billboard, listening to the radio or flipping through the TV channels, every advertisement has dot.com this and dot.com that.

Even in a lean economy, the evolution of the Internet has business taking a new direction. Now companies need a Web site...even if they aren't involved in e-commerce. But this new wave of marketing still takes some old-school advertising.

Web sites need more than good content. A comprehensive advertising campaign is the only way to make a Web site successful. You not only have to tempt potential customers to buy from you but you have to tempt them to buy from you NOW!

There are several key factors you must consider to accomplish this:

What benefits does the customer get from buying the product? Does your product or service make people smarter, faster, more attractive?

State the benefits. And again.

It's the benefits that will hook your customer. And that hook will have them grabbing their credit card. But if they don't know what's in it for them, they'll be on your competitor's Web site faster than you can clear your cache files.

Keep your site updated. And give them a reason to come back.

Maybe weekly specials, new articles or post a newsletter. Make your site an invaluable resource. Giving people incentives to come back to your site can still generate sales even if the customer wasn't in the buying mood.

Do you have testimonials from your customers? Testimonials prove your product's worth as well as establish your company's credibility.

If you don't have testimonials, one way to get them is by donating your product or service to a few qualified customers. Let them know that you're giving them the product to try for a certain amount of time in exchange for their comments at the end of the trial period.

Make your Web page as easy to read as possible. Grab customers with powerful headlines.

The headlines gently ease customers to read further into your sales message without the tact of a used car salesman trying to unload a few lemons.

Headlines also break up the flow of copy, making your Web page easy on the eyes - something your customers will appreciate.

How many Web sites have you visited with grammatical errors or words misspelled? It looks unprofessional and makes would-be customers wonder about the professionalism of your company.

Proofread your Web page copy. Then have a few more people proofread it.

The writing needs to jump off the page. Fresh. Crisp. A poorly written Web page is worse than not having a Web page at all.

Following these tips will make your Web site informative and profitable. If you're a business owner wanting to develop a Web site, you can contract out the writing portion to a professional freelance copywriter.

Monday, May 23, 2011

How To Create a Podcast Ad

Podcasters are open to generating revenue but don't want to lose the quality of their podcast. Advertisers know podcasts are hot and it's not just small businesses that want to feature their ads in podcasts. Create a podcast ad that's designed to capture the listener's attention instead of being tuned out.

Difficulty: Average

Time Required: Creating a solid 15-second ad can take a few hours if you're producing it yourself.

Here's How:

1.Brief is Better

Many podcasters won't allow ads longer than 15 seconds. Keep your message brief and to the point.

If you're used to a 60-second format to get your message across, break the ads into four 15-second spots. Podcasters usually won't fast forward through short ads but one long one will get skipped through.


2.Vary Your Message

This may go against everything you've learned about your ad campaign. You've always heard consistency is key.

But podcasters are finding that their listeners get bored wtih the same ads playing over and over and, given the medium, they begin to tune them out. This makes your message completely ineffective.


3.Be Creative

While you're varying your message, be creative with it. Since podcasting ads are low-cost advertising solutions and you should vary your message, be creative when you do create new ads.

If you're advertising during the holidays, make your ads specific to that particular holiday. You don't have to be selling holiday-specific items. Just be creative when you're creating any new ads for podcasts.


4.Know Your Audience

Who's listening to the podcast? These are your potential customers.

Teenagers are running podcasts and selling ad time. If the content they're providing isn't your target market outside of the podcasting world, look for a podcast that does offer content geared toward your type of audience.


5.Choose Your Placement Wisely

Placement in front of the podcast sounds like a good idea but many podcasters automatically tune these ads out because they're waiting for their content. Ads in the middle or even at the end of the podcast may not seem like better placement but many podcasters report those are the ones that are getting the most attention.


6.Don't Mistake a Podcast Ad for a Radio Commercial

Podcasters have specifically downloaded a program to listen to. They're not the driver on his way home from work tuning out a cluster of ads.

Don't go for the loud music, the annoying screaming or the kooky skits to grab the listener's attention. Keep your message simple, creative, clear and informative. Give your message and get out without being a distraction or an invasion on the listener.



Tips:

1.How Often Will Your Ad Be Heard

Knowing how many people listen to a particular podcast is important to getting a gage on if your ad dollars are being well spent on that particular podcast. However, podcasters are still testing the waters and finding out how many people are actually listening so they may not have 100-percent, solid numbers.


2.How Frequently Does the Podcast

Podcasts vary in frequency. Few are daily, some are weekly, some are monthly and there are some that are released sporadically.

Can you get a good deal on ad time by purchasing multiple ads for podcasts that are released weekly? Will you be better off advertising with a podcast that is only released monthly? These are the decisions you'll have to make before purchasing your podcasting ad time.


3.Ad-Insertion Companies

Fruitcast and Podtrac are ad-insertion companies that charge a minimum bid of four-cents per podcast download. These companies link up podcasters and advertisers without you doing business directly with the podcaster. Smaller companies may find this solution ideal for getting started.


4.Sponsorships May Be an Option

Don't give up on the idea of sponsoring a podcast instead of or in addition to buying ad time. With sponsorships, the podcaster generally mentions your company a few times throughout the podcast.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Keyword Suggestion Tool - Keyword Popularity Tool

This keyword suggestion tool will help you with the choosing of the right keywords for your website. You can see which keyword combinations are more popular and also get ideas for more keyword combinations. Those keyword popularity results are extracted from two sources - Keyword Discovery and Overture. Now you can check both databases in one go.

Keyword suggestion tips

Choosing the right keywords is critical for a success of a website. Target the wrong keywords and you have lost. There is pure gold hidden in less competitive keyword combinations and variations. Here are some more keyword suggestion tips for your success:
Start your research with more general terms. Let's say your website is about widgets. Type in "widgests" into our keyword suggestion box and study the results. Write down all results that are somehow relevant for your website.


Dig for more specific keywords. Based on the list you have just created, do a search for every keyword combination (let's say "red widget", "discount widget" and so on) and write down the new keyword combinations. It makes no sense to search for those new terms as you would not get anything new.


Now think about synonyms that people might search for like "buy widgets" and "purchase widgets". Do a research for them too.


Now you should have a decent list of relevant keywords. Optimize your pages for them. Create new pages optimized for the missing keyword combinations and link to them from your existing pages.


If you are serious about keyword research, we suggest to sign up for Keyword Discovery. You will be able to search their huge database of terms that people search for. Here are just some of their advantages:


Search for keywords and get hundreds of keyword combinations
Search for related terms (like if you enter "golf", you will get "tee time", "tiger wood" etc !)
Search for common misspellings
Check the popularity of all search terms
Find the balance between the total number of competing web pages for each search engine, and popularity of the search term. Then attack the niches!
Keyword Research
Industry Keywords
Spelling Mistake Research
Seasonal Search Trends
Related Keywords
KEI Analysis
Keyword Density Analysis
Domain Researcher Tool
Wordtracker Comparison

All of these tools will bring you a lot of targeted traffic relevant to your website. Trust us - you will get your investition back in no time.

You can take advantage of this information to:


Optimize the content of your web pages and your meta tags
Maximize your pay per click campaigns
Take traffic away from your competitors

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

5 Must Have Actions for Affiliates in 2011

Affiliate Marketing is not “as easy as 1,2,3″. But I guess you know that by now. It needs constant efforts and taking advantage of all the opportunities in order to succeed in a significant manner.



You may have already done some of the things we will talk about here or not; the important thing is to try to use these resources for your benefit in 2011. They can bring you a lot of business:

1.Customize your shopping template – build up trust for your visitors by personalizing your shopping cart in order to have the look’n'feel of your website. This will reduce the shopping cart abandons and will increase your visitor-to-customer conversion rate.

As an Avangate affiliate, you can easily customize your template from the special section in the admin interface.

2.Use automatic tools to populate your site – this is especially important if you have large volumes of information on your website (you have a download portal, a coupon website etc.). Most of the affiliate networks provide data feeds with all product details you need in various formats that you can easily import on your website. This way, you can be sure the information is constantly updated with the latest changes.

Here at Avangate you can also create custom XML data feeds according to your requirements by using filters to narrow the results (e.g. create a data feed with the discount coupons offered by our software vendors).

3.Create and use discount coupons – convince your customers to buy from you by throwing in an incentive in form of a discount coupon. But don’t think that if you’ve done this, all the customers will flock to your website – you also have to bring some unique value along with that coupon (e.g. a product comparison sheet, a review etc.)

You can generate discount coupons yourself or you can use the ones supplied by the vendors if you’re a member of the Avangate Affiliate Network.

4.Promote your business via social media – Facebook and Twitter are a must. Promote your deals via social media channels and see the feedback you get from the market. Reach out to millions with a simple tweet / post and create a community around your website. Tell your audience about special deals you have on your website (exclusive bundles, promotions) or about new published reviews.

5.Take part in affiliate events – this is the best chance you get for creating new business opportunities with vendors across the globe. Nothing compares to a face-to-face meeting where you can discuss about new partnerships and arrange future deals. Affiliate Summit and A4U Expo are two major events in the affiliate industry that are worth going to.



As a bonus, if you’re an Avangate affiliate, just take a consultation with our Affiliate Doctor – he can offer a few pointers to you for optimizing your affiliate business. Use the live chat feature from the Avangate Control Panel for Affiliates.



So, to wrap this up, first of all be sure your website is attractive to visitors and generates sales; after that, you can go ahead and find new opportunities for it. And don’t forget to constantly test and improve your business.



Author:

Cristi Miculi

Saturday, May 14, 2011

5 Things You Must Have to Succeed in Affiliate Marketing

5 Things You Must Have to Succeed in Affiliate Marketing
by Abigail Bezuidenhout


The idea of being mere passengers on a ship meant to sail to the farthest points does not appeal to people who like to put their destiny into their own hands. They have the desire of maneuvering the ships themselves, of being able to be the ones to take it anywhere they want to. Being aboard a ship on its way to a particularly great destination is something each and every one of them dreams of, and the knowledge that they have the capacity to steer it themselves is what makes them actually want to.

Perhaps this is the reason why more and more people are succumbing to one of the most popular businesses around – affiliate marketing. It is because in this business, there are no bosses to order the employees around. There are no deadlines to meet and no clutter of work do to. One only needs to be equipped with the tools needed to succeed in a business such as this, and he is bound to get what his heart ultimately desires.

Just what are the things needed to be able to succeed in affiliate marketing? What must one have within himself to be able to do well in this industry? There is a lot of competition involved in affiliate marketing, and to be able to rise above the norm, one must be equipped with just the right stuff necessary to propel him forward. There are five things one must ultimately possess if he wants to achieve the glory he is yearning for in this business, and these five things are a must for him to possess to be able to stand out among the rest.

The very first quality one must possess if he wants to try his hand in affiliate marketing is the willingness to learn and be trained. Treading through unfamiliar territory is scary stuff if one is not properly equipped, and he might get lost amidst a jungle of the unknown. Learning the tricks of the trade is also an important aspect of the game, and one’s willingness to know it all will give him far better advantages in the business than he could ever imagine.

The second quality one must possess is the willingness to invest time and effort even if direct results do not seem at all apparent. Although several months may pass without good news, it is important for one who has his foot in the industry to hold on and wait. It is this quality which would save him from giving up after investing a lot of himself in the business.

The third quality one must possess is self-determination. If one wants to conquer the affiliate marketing world, he must have the ability to push himself ahead. Never having to say die is a quality each and every affiliate marketer should possess, and the ability to motivate oneself into scaling greater heights is an ability which would actually take an affiliate marketer there.

The fourth quality one must possess is discipline. If one knows how to teach himself to work everyday with all the energy he can muster, then he is close to achieving what he has set his heart to having in the first place.

The fifth and last quality one must possess is optimism. Negative attitudes and hearsays should not discourage an affiliate marketer from pursuing what he has to in order to make life better for himself and for everyone concerned. Neither should anyone influence his attitude toward the business, because once in it, it is a must for him to be the captain of his ship and the master of his soul.

The ingredients to success in a business such as affiliate marketing are diverse and manifold, but the most important thing one needs to be able to make it big lies in himself alone. It is he who has the capacity to do everything to be able to realize his prospects, and the desire which fuels his heart in doing so is the gasoline which should keep the engine going.

Affiliate marketing is all about putting one’s fate into his own hands. The right attitude is the key to being able to steer one’s ship into that part of the ocean where a certain kind of serenity can be found, one that permeates the atmosphere as the ship sails calmly on.

Abigail Bezuidenhout is the owner of ABigBeznis.com and reviews popular home business ideas and opportunities.

Friday, May 13, 2011

The Wonderful World of Internet Marketing

The Wonderful World of Internet Marketing
By A. David Beaman


I love Internet Marketing! As a former offline business owner who got into Internet Marketing full-time when I retired from my offline career, I think Internet Marketing is the greatest thing since sliced bread. OK, OK. I know that’s an old cliché and sound over-enthusiastic about this, but it’s true.

Look, I once started a home maintenance business and the tools alone cost me $20,000. I also owned a shoe store, which I purchased from the former owner. That cost almost $200,000 with a monthly mall rental of several thousand.

If you start as an affiliate marketer, and advertise through articles posted to highly rated article directories, all you need is a computer to start making money. Agreed, that perhaps is a bit oversimplified, but not in the start-up cost. Yes, you need to do some research online into key words and find the article directories with which to have the most success, but that’s about it.

Now, I know some of you will say, but I can’t write well enough. Well – surprise, surprise – you don’t have to be able to write well. There is plenty of Private Label Rights (PLR) materials out there that is of reasonably good quality that you can obtain free. And if you want higher quality stuff, you can purchase it for as low as $5. Just go to any popular search engine and type in “free plr,” or “free to join plr membership sites,” or any similar search terms and see what comes up.

However, before you join any site do your due diligence. There are a lot of unscrupulous marketers online, but there are also some really good, honest, ethical ones such as Nicole Dean, Tiffany Dow, Alice Seba & Mila Sidman, and Mark Austin to name but a few. Read their blogs and other blogs related to what interests you. Join forums and ask questions. All of this can be done with an investment of time, but it doesn’t cost any money.

Give it a try! As another cliché goes, “You’ve got nothing to lose.”