TRAFFIC ROOTS By Jens P. Berget

Transcription

Successful Traffic Generation Strategies
TRAFFIC ROOTS
by
Jens P. Berget
www.slymarketing.com
www.twittervirtue.com
www.marketingflop.com
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Copyright and Disclaimer
The Publisher has strived to be as accurate and complete as possible in the
creation of this report, notwithstanding the fact that he does not warrant or
represent at any time that the contents within are accurate due to the rapidly
changing nature of the Internet.
While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this
publication, the Publisher assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, or
contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. Any perceived slights of
specific persons, peoples, or organizations are unintentional.
In practical advice books, like anything else in life, there are no guarantees of
income made. Readers are cautioned to reply on their own judgment about their
individual circumstances to act accordingly.
Disclaimer: Please note the information contained within this document are
for educational purposes only.
Every attempt has been made to provide accurate, up to date and reliable
complete information no warranties of any kind are expressed or implied.
Readers acknowledge that the author is not engaging in rendering legal, financial
or professional advice.
By reading any document, the reader agrees that under no circumstances is the
author responsible for any losses, direct or indirect, that are incurred as a result
of use of the information contained within this document, including - but not
limited to errors, omissions, or inaccuracies.
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Who Is Jens P. Berget?
If you’ve already heard of me, chances are that you’ve also seen at least one of
the two pictures above. I use them on my blogs, and I use them on my different
profiles for various social media sites.
My name is Jens P. Berget. I’m a fairly regular Norwegian man, 38 years old,
with a passion for marketing. I have a wonderful wife, and two awesome kids. I
have a master’s degree in political science. I’m currently working at a college in
Norway, where I’m doing my best to recruit new students and developing new
marketing strategies.
I have written several articles, and a few eBooks, all about various topics of
marketing. I’m also the author of three marketing blogs:
Copyright 2010 // Jens P. Berget
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Slymarketing : http://www.slymarketing.com
Twitter Virtue : http://www.twittervirtue.com
Marketingflop : http://www.marketingflop.com
If you want to share your thoughts and ideas, please contact me:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/berget
Facebook: http://facebook.com/jens.petter.berget
Resource List
Throughout this eBook, the following products or services are mentioned or
discussed:
AWeber
Blog Mastermind
Commission Blueprint 2.0
Dreamhost
Facebook Ads Guide
Keyword Elite 2.0
Third Tribe Marketing
TweetAdder
Various Free Internet Marketing Reports
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Why Is This eBook Free?
Many Internet marketing associates have told me that I am nuts to be giving
away this valuable eBook for free. Well, I’m not. The reason I’m giving away
Traffic Roots is that I was struggling for a long time to understand the basics of
Internet marketing. I had to visit a lot of websites and I had to read a lot blogs,
buy too many eBooks and become a member of a huge amount of membership
sites in order to understand what it’s all about.
This eBook is my gift to you, because I don’t want you to end up doing the same
mistakes as I did, and I don’t want you to spend as much money and time to
finally understand what it’s all about.
And, it’s not about a quick get rich scheme. It never is. It’s about a long-term
strategy and it’s also about passion and commitment.
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Table of contents
INTRODUCTION 1 HOSTING YOUR OWN DOMAIN 6 BLOGGING 7 LIST BUILDING 10 KEYWORD RESEARCH 11 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION 20 LINK BUILDING 31 PAY PER CLICK (PPC) 46 EMAIL MARKETING 55 SOCIAL MARKETING 87 PRESS RELEASES 104 ARTICLE MARKETING 108 DISCUSSION FORUMS 113 CREATIVE TRAFFIC 120 AUTOMATE AND OUTSOURCE 127 FINAL WORDS 129 THE FUTURE OF TRAFFIC ROOTS 130 Copyright 2010 // Jens P. Berget
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Introduction
Drive-By Shooting
I have been marketing online for a few years, maybe more than I few years, I’m
actually not sure when I got started. I have been reading and studying. I have
bought a lot of eBooks, software, and various products. Some of the products
were awesome, and some really awful. Until now, I have been involved in what I
like to refer to as drive-by shooting.
Don't get me wrong. I'm using it as a metaphor. How I imagine drive-by shooting
feels like when I’m holding the gun, and just waiting to pull the trigger.
When you're in a car, driving, even though it might be slow, holding a gun and
aiming at a target is probably difficult. We're moving, the target might be moving
as well. Even if the target is standing still, it's hard to hit it while moving.
Why do I feel like I've been involved in a drive by shooting?
When you're in this business, marketing, and selling stuff online, without any
blueprint, or without any mentors, it's really hard to hit the target. It's even hard to
know who your target is. It's not that he's moving; it's more that he's invisible.
One big problem when it comes to the real live drive-by-shooting is that it's a big
chance that you might hit other people as well, and not just your target. You
might hit people who are close by.
This is not a problem when it comes to the drive-by-shooting I have been
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involved in. Well. It's difficult to hit anyone at all, and if you do, usually, he just
ends up with a bruise. When it comes to marketing, you're in it for the kill, and
you want to kill as many people as possible. This time, a kill is a metaphor for a
sale.
I wasn't testing and tracking my marketing, therefore, it was almost impossible to
improve. It was like shooting at moving targets, or invisible targets, without
understanding how I could actually hit someone. And when I got a hit, I was
lucky. I received information about the hit, but I didn't understand why I had hit
someone or how I could hit someone again. It was like starting all over every
single time.
I'm not involved in drive by shootings anymore. It's all because I joined Third
Tribe Marketing.
Third Tribe Marketing has changed the way I do business online, and it has
changed my marketing. There are three reasons why I joined in the first place.
1) I wanted to learn from the most experienced, and the most successful people
in the business. They have Q and A's, where we, the members, are asking the
questions. The successful people are answering. This is a live event, but since I
live in Norway, I only read the transcripts or listen to the audio.
2) The discussion forums are awesome. This is the place where all members,
and the people behind the course, are chatting. This is where I spend most of my
time when it comes to Third Tribe Marketing. I also like the fact that they
recommend products. This way I don't have to trust myself anymore. I'm one of
those people who always seem to buy every new product there is. And most of
the new products really suck. I probably don’t have to tell you that.
The thing with Third Tribe Marketing that has impressed me the most is, well it's
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actually two things. It's that world famous people like Darren Rowse, Brian Clark,
Chris Brogan and Sonia Simone are chatting with and networking with people
like myself. I have already learned a lot from this. And it's that they provide
awesome seminars (that’s reason number 3), both full audio and transcripts, and
even action sheets about what to do next.
To me, Third Tribe Marketing is the reason why I stopped with drive by shooting.
And in fact, it might have even saved my (marketing) life. Therefore, I really
recommend Third Tribe Marketing.
What I’m saying is, the first rule is that you need a mentor or at least some
friends to help you out. Doing a business online is all about networking and
sharing. There are many ways you can do this, but I believe that learning from
the best is important, both when it comes to saving time and money.
Let me tell you all more about this eBook, why I have written it, and how you
benefit from it.
The Traffic Roots eBook
This book is based on the concept of Third Tribe Marketing. You should deliver
value, great content, awesome service, and then, only then, ask for the sale.
Traffic Roots is about how to receive traffic to any website. It’s not about what to
do with the traffic once you get it (it’s not about conversion).
If you have any comments about this eBook or any of my work, please let me
know at jens@slymarketing.com.
When it comes to being successful online, regardless of your niche market or
whether you are creating your own products or working as an affiliate marketer,
the lifeblood of any online business is in being able to generate highly targeted,
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consistent traffic to your websites.
Without traffic, you will struggle to build a customer base, generate revenue or
even build a brand online.
It's as simple as that.
General, bulk traffic however is useless apart from sucking bandwidth and
potentially causing your server to crash. What you really need is relevant
targeted traffic, the kind that consists of crowds of hungry buyers and prospects
that are genuinely interested in your products and services.
I wrote Traffic Roots so that you’ll be able to follow a step by step action plan,
that will help you instantly flood your website with an unlimited amount of traffic,
quickly, easily and absolutely free (well, most of it is free, and you can become
successful by not paying for any service).
While I'll also cover paid traffic strategies including press releases, the majority of
the techniques featured within this eBook will cost you absolutely nothing but
your time, to implement and set into motion.
If you are a new online marketer or entrepreneur, utilizing free resources will help
you get started with little to no investment cost, and as you begin to build your
online business and start to make money with the products and services that you
sell or promote, you can start to spend more money on outsourcing your
marketing campaigns and consistently automating the process.
To begin however, I'll help you set up a complete traffic generation system that
you can manage and maintain completely on your own, so that you can minimize
costs and focus on making money, rather than spending it.
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First, before you do any advertising, you need a product. I’m not going to find a
product for you, or tell you how to create your own product. This eBook is not
about that. You need to understand that this product of yours is something you
really want to promote. Don’t just promote any product. It should be a product
that you’re really passionate about or at least a product that you think is
awesome. Don’t ever promote anything less than awesome.
Let’s get started…
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Hosting your own domain
If I asked you to tell me what the most important rule of online business is what
would you say? Not sure, well I don’t blame you, because it’s difficult, it really is.
If you ask me, I would say that hosting and owning your domain is probably the
most important rule.
The reason is obvious. Think about it. If you’re selling something offline, it’s a lot
easier to do it if you’re doing it from a regular store (when I say regular, I’m
talking about a physical building). First you need a really awesome product or
service, and then you need to sell it from somewhere. When people want more of
it, they know where to buy it. The same goes for online businesses.
You need your own domain. This is like the location of your business, and you
know how important location is? In the offline world, location is almost as
important as the product or service. That’s not entirely true, but it’s very important
that you have a great location. If people can’t find your building, they won’t buy
from you, no matter how awesome your product is.
That’s why a short and easy to remember name is important in the online world.
When they visit you once, people don’t usually buy, they usually end up
searching other places as well, and then they might come back a few days later.
If you have a short and easy to remember domain name, it would really help, not
only for people to remember it, but also for the search engines to list your
website.
Think about it. If you consider these two options for your business, which one
would you prefer?
http://shoes.blogspot.com or http://shoes.com
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There are many free options of creating and maintaining your business online.
Lots of the free options are awesome, but when it comes to your (domain) name
and your host (host is the company you pay rent to, they own your property, the
difference is that you can do what you like with your property – that doesn’t
happen in the offline world), you should only rely on the best. And the reason I’m
saying that you never should go for a free option, is because it’s very cheap not
to. The money you spend on your host and your domain is close to nothing.
I recommend that you use Dreamhost. I have been using them for a long time,
and I’m really satisfied with everything about them. They host all my three blogs,
and there are never any problems.
Now, let’s say that you own the name of your business (it’s short, easy to
remember and descriptive). You’re hosting your website at Dreamhost, now all
you need is content.
Blogging
One of the most important parts of Internet marketing, and that should be part of
any marketing strategy, is to include a blog. This is your content, not your store,
but it could be. The important part of a blog is that it represents you and your
company, it’s where you describe what you are doing and why you are doing it.
The number one reason why blogging is important for any business is that
blogging builds community between you and your readers/customers.
Blogging platforms/software and added plugins make it easy to optimize your
website for search engines with little knowledge of the field and get decent
rankings in the SERPs (search engine result page). And since search engines
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simply love blogs, it’s fairly easy to get visitors to your blog. Blog software offers
uncomplicated URL structure making it easy for search engine spiders to find
and crawl blog frequently to improve SERP results.
Blogging is a low-cost alternative to having a web presence, because it's easy to
maintain and most of the software is open source and free (I use WordPress for
all my blogs, and it’s completely free), you just need hosting. And hosting comes
as cheap as $4.95 a month (and probably even cheaper).
RSS is built right in making it easy for your readers to subscribe to your content
Comments from your readers help you learn what your target market wants and
needs.
Blogging helps to position you as an expert in your field by sharing your
knowledge on the subject.
Keeps you in touch and in front of your reader on a consistent basis, as long as
you putting content out there they will keep coming back for it.
It’s easy to add social bookmarking plugins to help spread links to your blog. I’ll
explain more about this later (read the chapter on social marketing).
There are many free blogging platforms (I’m very satisfied with WordPress, and if
you haven’t got a lot of experience as a blogger, I recommend that you try
WordPress):
Blogger - http://www.blogger.com
Wordpress - http://www.wordpress.com
LiveJournal - http://www.livejournal.com
Thoughts - http://www.thoughts.com
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Freevlog - http://www.freevlog.org
Blogster - http://blogster.com
Bravenet - http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/journal
Multiply - http://multiply.com
Vox - http://vox.com
Xanga - http://xanga.com
Yahoo360 - http://360.yahoo.com
There are many hosted blogging platforms:
Wordpress - http://www.Wordpress.org
Movable Type - http://www.movabletype.com
Expression Engine - http://expressionengine.com
Serendipity - http://www.s9y.org
b2evolution - http://b2evolution.net
Here’s a list of blogging tools and systems to help you build your community:
My Blog Log - http://www.mybloglog.com
Blog Catalog - http://www.blogcatalog.com
FeedBurner - http://www.feedburner.com
FeedBlitz - http://www.feedblitz.com
Zookoda - http://www.zookoda.com
Blog Poll - http://www.blogpoll.com
Pingoat - http://www.pingoat.com/
AudioBlogger - http://audioblogger.com
If you don’t already have a blog, you really should consider starting a blog today.
It’s easy to create and maintain a blog, what’s difficult is to know exactly what to
do in order to get a lot of visitors and to convert your visitors into buyers. That’s
why I joined Blog Mastermind a while ago. This is an online course from Yaro
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Starak, a celebrity in the world of blogging. With his Blog Mastermind he will take
you behind the scenes of his blogging empire and he’ll show you how he is
earning a full time income blogging part time… I really recommend this course.
List Building
One of the biggest mistakes I have ever made when it comes to doing business
online, is not starting my list building right away. List building is more important
than I can probably explain.
The real reason why building a list is important is because online business is
about relations and networking. When you build a list, you are asking people for
their contact information. When you build your database of people, you can send
them information and have a conversation with them whenever you want to.
There are three important things to remember about building a list.
1) You need to offer them something in return for their contact information
(you need to bribe them).
2) What you are offering in return for their contact information should be
related to what kind of information you are going to be sending them in the
future. If you’re selling coffee, and all of your communication with them will
be about coffee, then you’ll need to offer them something related to coffee
in return for their contact information.
3) You need to grab their attention. You grab their attention with a nice sign
up form / subscription box, and you need to put it somewhere where they
will see it.
The sign up form can have many shapes, and there are many ways to do this.
I’m using AWeber (more on this service later in the section about email
marketing) for my email newsletters, and AWeber comes with many types of web
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forms, both inline, popover and lightboxes. I have been using AWeber for many
years, and I really recommend it.
Example of a web form:
Keyword Research
In order to build the most effective marketing campaigns possible, choosing
appropriate keywords is a vital component in being able to penetrate your
market, and reach out to your target audience.
Having a relevant, optimized keyword swipe file is an important element in nearly
every traffic strategy online, from article marketing to effective search engine
optimization.
By identifying what keywords are being used by your target audience, you can
ensure that your content is focused on implementing these keywords and
keyword phrases, so that your website appears within search engines or
directories whenever a potential prospect enters in similar keywords, searching
for information in your niche.
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There are two types of keyword phrases or terms, known as “head terms” and
“tail terms”.
Head keyword terms are shorter keywords and phrases, while tail terms
(otherwise called long-tail) are longer keywords consisting of three or more words
in length, or that have less competition than directly competitive keyword
phrases.
For example, “true crime mystery book” would likely be searched for far fewer
times per month than “books”.
Head keywords tend to have a higher search volume but are more competitive,
while long-tail keywords have a lower search volume but are often far easier to
rank for. The best SEO campaigns will always include both long tail keywords
and head (shorter) keywords and phrases.
When it comes to conducting keyword research and compiling a listing of
possible phrases to use, a large majority of new marketers give up, believing that
analyzing and evaluating keywords is simply too difficult or time consuming.
Overlooking the importance of having a solid keyword swipe file will directly
impact your ability to generate highly targeted, relevant traffic to your website, so
it's extremely important that you learn exactly how to conduct keyword research
as well as how to use these keyword lists that you create.
If you are new to the idea of all this, rest assured that the process is actually
incredibly simple, and better yet, by following this step by step action plan, you
will be able to create as many different keyword lists as you need, in a matter of
minutes.
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One thing to keep in mind before we begin to evaluate potential keywords,
however, is that there are certain keywords in your market that will be very
difficult, if not impossible to rank for.
Usually these keywords are the primary keyword phrases in your market, such as
'weight loss' or 'golfing'.
The reason why it's exceptionally difficult to rank for these keywords is simply
due to the mass amount of competition who is also focusing on these keywords,
many of which spend a great deal of money every day within pay per click
marketplaces, ensuring that their position in the market is maintained.
Rather than spending a lot of time trying to rank for overly competitive keyword
phrases, it's always best to try alternative phrases, keywords that are still used by
the majority of your customer base, but aren't so competitive.
These are often referred to as 'long tail keyword phrases', because they consist
of multiple words in one sentence, such as 'weight loss system for women', or
'golfing guide for newbies'.
When it comes to general keywords (otherwise referred to as broad keyword
phrases), competition is fierce and as previously mentioned, it would cost you a
great deal of time and money to compete for these keywords, however choosing
long tail (specific) phrases, you can still reach out to your market and drive in
targeted traffic, while minimizing the time and costs involved in circulating your
message and maximizing your exposure.
So, how can you begin to evaluate potential keywords and determine what is
being used by your prospective customer base?
It all begins by using free tools and resources found online, including keyword
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evaluation tools such as
WordTracker: http://www.Wordtracker.com
KeyCompete: http://www.KeyCompete.com
Compete: http://www.Compete.com
Google: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
With the KeyCompete tool, you are able to extract keyword lists from those used
by your competition within Pay-Per Click (PPC) marketplaces and campaigns.
You are also able to instantly evaluate the popularity of a specific keyword
phrase based on the number of websites that feature these keywords within their
website’s overall content.
Evaluating what keyword phrases your competition is focusing on is a great way
to determine what keyword phrases are being used by potential visitors, in fact,
following this method will save you an incredible amount of time since they’ve
already done the work for you!
www.Compete.com
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Compete provides information including keywords and rank used by competitors
in your market. They can be used to tell which keywords your competitors are
targeting, and which ones they are ranking for. This can help you compete on a
new level with them.
What better way to beat out your competitors in the SERPs than to actually target
the exact same keywords?
www.WordTracker.com WordTracker is one of the most well-known and popular keyword tools.
Its results aren’t the most accurate in terms of traffic numbers, but it does give
you a wide variety of keywords.
It is said that you should multiply the numbers it gives you by around 3-10 to get
an accurate reflection of the total number of searches on Google, or on all major
search engines.
The paid version will allow you to get unlimited keywords at a time, but they also
have a free version available at
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com that will give you 100 keywords at a time.
Here is a quick start action plan to exploring potential keywords quickly and
easily:
Visit:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
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What you need to do is enter in a keyword phrase that describes your market or
product.
Example: If you were selling an ebook on Acne Cures, you could enter in
keyword phrases such as “how to cure acne” or “how to treat acne”.
The Adwords Google Keyword suggestion tool allows you to enter in a keyword
or phrase from a possible niche that you are considering so that you can
evaluate existing competition, active keywords based on popularity and overall
use.
When you enter keywords into the Google Keyword tool, you will be able to
generate extended listings that feature various keywords associated to the main
keyword that you entered into the search box.
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The first column provides you with alternative keyword phrases that you could
use within your content as well as with search engine optimization or promoting
your product within PPC marketplaces.
The second column indicates the level of competition, and in our example above,
nearly all of the featured keyword phrases are being heavily targeted by
competitors.
The third column indicates the estimated number of searches for each particular
keyword, based on monthly volume.
Sometimes it takes a bit of time to find a good number of solid keywords that you
can use that aren’t so heavily targeted by competitors, but by using Google’s
Keyword tool, you will be able to generate hundreds of potential keywords for
each niche market you are involved in, and then by dissecting each keyword list,
you should be able to compile a reasonable number of keywords to use within
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your marketing campaigns.
Taking a closer look at additional results generated from the Google Adwords
Keyword tool on the acne niche reveals a variety of long tail keyword phrases
with less competition.
This keyword tool is incredibly helpful in locating keyword phrases that you might
have otherwise overlooked or perhaps never even thought of using.
Since this tool pulls information stored by Google based on type-in keyword
searches from its main search engine, you should always spend some time
evaluating potential keywords before creating your content, so that you can focus
on developing highly targeted material that implements a number of these
keyword phrases.
Another way to conduct keyword research is by simply evaluating existing
competition in your market (who is ranking in top position and for what
keywords).
You can peak into the source code of competing websites as well as generate a
detailed analysis sheet consisting of back links, external traffic sources, on-site
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keywords and other important data that will help you directly compete with the
top ranking sites in your market by using services such as:
www.Compete.com and www.SEODigger.com
Another quick way to evaluate the level of competition for various keywords is by
using the major search engines and directly entering in your keyword phrase, as
shown below:
The phrases you should target in the beginning should ideally have fewer than
150,000 results in Google when you search for them in quotes, like this.
“Keyword phrase here”.
As you can see in my example above, the keyword phrase “how to get rid of
acne” has generated over 290,000 results alone, meaning that this keyword
phrase is quite competitive and may be difficult to rank for.
Enter in different keyword phrases, wrapped in quotations, until you find 10-12
phrases with less than 150,000 results.
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The reason you should always conduct your keyword search terms by wrapping
your text in quotes is because of relevancy and keyword proximity.
Google and other search engines give more weight to sites with an exact phrase
quote than when the words aren’t in such close proximity, so by wrapping your
text in quotations (example “dog training tips”), only pages that feature your
entire keyword phrase will appear within the search results window.
Other Resources:
Google Trends: http://www.google.com/trends
Ebay Pulse: http://pulse.ebay.com
Yahoo Answers: http://answers.yahoo.com
One paid keyword tool that I really recommend is Keyword Elite. This is what
many of the most well-known people in Internet marketing are using.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) plays an important role in helping to drive
targeted, organize traffic from the major search engines, like www.Google.com
or www.Yahoo.com
SEO is exceptionally easy to set up on each of your websites, even if you have
absolutely no experience in search engine marketing or optimization.
When it comes to SEO, one thing you should know is that search engines do not
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rank entire websites, but rather individual pages. This means that you have to
focus on optimizing every single webpage on your server, rather than just your
index page.
In fact, you may end up finding that one of your internal pages carries more
weight or a higher position in search engines like Google, than even your main
index page does, based on the keywords you have incorporated into your
content, and your overall structure.
With SEO, there are two factors that work together to help you rank within the
search engines, and maintain a top position. These two elements are called 'on
site SEO' and 'off site SEO'.
With on site SEO, it involves manually optimizing every page on your website,
from its title tag, keywords used within content to the way that your site map or
overall structure is created.
With off-site SEO, you are focusing on building solid back links to your website.
When it comes to SEO, there are important structural elements that you need to
implement into your webpages in order to ensure that your website ranks as high
in the search engines as possible. This includes title tags, meta description tags,
meta keyword tags as well as implementing a site map so that spiders are able to
successfully crawl, explore and index all of your main pages as well as all
internal (sub) pages.
Let's take a closer look at how you can quickly optimize your website for top
search engine results:
Title Tags
Search engines rely on spiders to crawl websites and index pages appropriately.
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When a spider (otherwise referred to as a crawler) lands on your website, the
first thing they take notice of is your domain name and your website's title tag.
A title tag should include a description of what your website is about, rather than
just including your website's URL, you should always incorporate your primary
keyword phrase into the title tags of each webpage you own.
Example: Instead of just calling your index page "Your Domain Name", include
your primary keyword in your page title as shown below:
In Google, the title tag becomes part of your website’s description as shown
below:
The title tag can be found in the head area of your HTML document. It is placed
between title tags, like this:
You want to make sure that you use different title tags on every single web page,
that way you are able to rank for different terms rather than just one.
Header Tags
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Header tags also play an important part in search engine optimization, because
by using head tags within your website's content, you are able to highlight
important text on your website, ensuring that search engine spiders pay special
attention to the text contained within these head tags.
And because you also want to be able to showcase specific text to your website
visitors, such as headlines, or bullet points, using head tags helps you
emphasize important information found on your website.
Another very important element to SEO is including a site map on your website.
What a site map does is helps both visitors and search engine spiders navigate
their way throughout your pages and categories, by outlining all of the different
areas of your site.
You can create a sitemap very easily by using free services such as:
http://www.XML-Sitemaps.com
Start by entering in your main website's URL as shown below, selecting the
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change frequency to daily.
You will want to update your sitemap each time you add new pages to your
website, so that it is kept up to date and so search engine spiders are instructed
to re-visit your website to index the new pages.
Click the 'Start' button to generate your new site map.
Next, download the file and upload it into your public_html folder.
Finally, create a free Google Webmaster account at:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/siteoverview
and add your sitemap's URL so that you are able to instantly update it, at any
time as well as monitor traffic stats for your entire website.
When it comes to developing your content so that you are optimizing your
website for the search engines, you should pay attention to keyword proximity,
prominence as well as the order of your content itself.
The prominence of your keyword is based on the first instance of where it
appears within your content.
A keyword phrase that is used at the end of your content will be considered less
relevant than a keyword phrase that appears in the first portion of your content or
article.
This means that you need to ensure that you implement your primary keyword
phrases into the first half of your content, so that it is given more weight when
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search engine spiders index your website.
Keyword proximity is also very important in terms of search engine rankings
because it indicates to the search engines that these keywords are related to one
another.
For example, if you search for the keyword phrase 'dog training tips' in
www.Google.com you will pull up listings of websites that include the keyword
phrase 'dog training tips'. Without quotations, all websites that feature the
keyword dog, training and tips seperately will also appear in your search results.
Since you want to rank for specific phrases, rather than just individual keywords,
you need to do your best to focus on close keyword proximity, so that search
engine spiders crawling your website index entire phrases rather than singular
keywords.
Anchor text is also exceptionally important in search engine optimization.
With anchor text, you are describing a link, whether it is internal (one page linking
to another) or external (where you link to an outside website).
Example: A regular link would look like this: www.InternetWealth.com but an
anchor text based link would look like this: How To Create Wealth On The
Internet
Anchor text is important because it allows you to rank for specific keywords,
rather than just for your main website's URL.
When creating internal and external links, you always want to do your best to
focus on including your primary keyword phrases, and that you vary the text used
so that you are able to rank for different keyword phrases, rather than just one.
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This is exceptionally important with off-site SEO when creating back links for your
website as well.
The last element of effective SEO is in your website's SILO, which is the overall
structure and organization of your website itself. The best structure (SILO)
involves categorizing your website.
For example, if you run a website that covers various hobbies, you could
categorize your content based on each topic:
www.example.com/stamp-collecting
www.example.com/coin-collecting
and so on.
With websites based on blog platforms such as Wordpress, this is automatically
created for you within the software itself, but for static HTML websites, you will
need to manually create individual folders on your server that feature keywords
relating to each sub section of your website.
If you only focus on one topic that doesn't contain sub topics, you can still break
up your content and categorize it based on individual topics.
For example, if your website is focused on traffic generation, a well structured
SILO would break down your content into individual categories including:
www.example.com/articlemarketing/index.html
www.example.com/searchenginemarketing/index.html
www.example.com/PPC/index.html
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To link to your SILO structure, you would include direct links to each category
from your main index page, and then each category on your server would include
individual pages or articles based on its topic.
For example, your main index page could feature a column linking to all internal
categories like this:
You see SILO's commonly used with content management systems like Drupal
or Joomla, as well as Wordpress as an easy way to organize and structure
content.
Setting up your website using a well defined SILO will help you rank for individual
categories, pages as well as help you maintain your website as it continues to
grow.
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One important factor in developing your SILO is that you use relevant keywords
to describe each category.
To determine the best possible keywords, simply head on over to
www.Google.com and search for a potential category title, in my example I am
considering “Acne Solutions” as one of my SILO categories.
Make a note of the website listing that appears for the first 3-5 listings in the
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search results, ignoring the sponsored ads and focusing only on organic results
as shown above.
The first listing that appears for my keyword phrase is www.AcneSolutions.org
Next, load up Google’s Keyword tool as mentioned in our previous chapter:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Check the radio button beside “Website content”. This will open up a section for
you to enter a website URL.
Enter in the first website URL that appears in Google’s search results after
entering in your intended keyword phrase:
You will see that the keywords are grouped into sections. At the top of each
section you will see “Keywords related to keyword phrase”. Each of those
keyword phrases is a category.
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This is a great way to generate category titles that are already ranking well in the
search engines and are being entered in by potential visitors.
Take notes of additional keyword suggestions provided by Google’s keyword tool
when investigating each of the top five websites, so that you can create a
keyword swipe file that will help you develop highly targeted, fully optimized
content for the search engines.
Get my free report: «10 Quick And Powerful Website Optimization Tips You Can
Start Using Today!» http://trafficroots.com/seo
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Link Building
If we could sum up the word wide web into just one thing, that thing would likely
be links. Without links, it’s tough for Internet surfers to find you and impossible for
search engines to know you exist, let alone rank your pages.
Links allow websites to reference information on other websites. Links allow
website users to tell friends about the products they use, funny videos,
interesting blog posts and favorite websites. Links allow search engines to find
your site and the quantity and quality of those links help them rank your pages.
Links can do a LOT and that’s just scratching the surface.
That’s why link building should be a part of your overall marketing plan for your
website. And the great thing is, that a little bit of link building now becomes
extremely valuable over the long term. As your site ages, search engines give
you more value – and your ranking increases. In addition, links breed links. 5
links today can turn into 10 tomorrow, 30 the next week and 80 the next month
because when people see your links and they like what you have to offer, they’ll
link to you too.
Many people refer to linkbuilding as off site SEO. That’s search engine
optimization techniques that are not performed on your website itself, but are
influenced by external factors.
There are many different ways of establishing quality back links to your website,
including:
- Link Exchanges
- Blog Commenting
- Forum Marketing
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- Directory Listings
- Social Bookmarking
The number of back links isn't as important as the quality of the back links, so
you want to always focus on building back links from established websites, and
directories.
In addition, one way back links are of greater value than reciprocal links, where
you are required to link back to the website linking to you.
When it comes to back links, you will want to pay attention to using anchor text
based links that consist of relevant keywords, while using several different
variations of the text within each back link so that you are able to yield better
results in the search engines.
To avoid losing weight in the search engines, it's always best to gradually build
back links to your website, so it appears more natural than purchasing hundreds
of back links within a short amount of time.
In order to generate high quality back links to your website, you need to be
proactive in focusing on consistent link building and networking with other
relevant websites in your market.
You also want to ensure that your website is consistently updated with fresh
content, and that you are equally focused on on-site SEO as you are with off-site
SEO so that your website can benefit from both internal optimization, as well as
continued growth from high quality back links.
One easy way of creating a back link strategy is by analyzing existing
competition in your market, and determining who is linking to them, and what
anchor keywords they are using.
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Yahoo's search engine provides extended results when it comes to researching a
website's back link structure.
To start, visit http://www.Yahoo.com and in the command:
Link:domain.com
Example: Link:www.TrafficRoots.com
This command will instruct Yahoo's search engine to compile listings of the
number of websites that link to a particular page.
Later on, once you have established back links to your website, you can always
check where your links are coming from by returning to www.Yahoo.com and
entering in:
site:www.yourdomain.com
You can also evaluate your own back links by registering for a free Google
Webmasters account at: http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/
Let's take a closer look at how you can begin to generate back links to your
website from credible sources:
1: Directories
With online directories, you can add your website into specific categories and
instantly establish back links to your website, just be careful not to over-do it!
You want to develop a natural back link campaign, so that you are not penalized
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by the search engines for what may appear to be 'link spamming' or participating
in link farms.
A few directories to consider are:
http://www.DMOZ.org
http://www.Lii.org
http://www.Info-Listings.com
http://www.Buzzle.com
http://www.MasterMOZ.com
http://www.maxpromo.com
You can also hire a service that will submit your website into specific directories.
Just be sure to provide a listing of relevant categories that you would like your
website to be submitted to, as well as a keyword list to be used with anchor text.
Here are a few services worth checking out:
http://www.blendz.net/
http://www.directorysnob.com/
2: Social Bookmarking
By far, this is one of the most popular methods of building highly effective back
link campaigns.
With social bookmarking, you can easily generate traffic to your website, by
submitting your website URL into social communities like
www.StumbleUpon.com or www.Digg.com which allow users to share their
favorite sites with other members of the community, as well as post comments
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regarding the website content.
Here are the top 20 social bookmarking websites for generating fresh back links
to your site. All of these contain DO follow, ensuring links leading to your website
will count within the search engines as a valid back link:
1 - http://slashdot.org (PR9)
2 - http://digg.com (PR8)
3 - http://technorati.com (PR8)
4 - http://www.furl.net (PR7)
5 - http://www.backflip.com (PR7)
6 - http://www.hugg.com (PR7)
7 - http://www.mixx.com (PR7)
8 - http://ma.gnolia.com (PR7)
9 - http://www.connotea.org (PR7)
10 - http://mystuff.ask.com (PR7)
11 - http://www.reddit.com (PR7)
12 - http://www.dzone.com (PR7)
13 - http://www.folkd.com (PR7)
14 - http://multiply.com (PR7)
15 - http://www.searchles.com (PR6)
16 - http://de.lirio.us (PR6)
17 - http://www.dotnetkicks.com (PR6)
18 - http://www.bloghop.com (PR6)
19 - http://www.plime.com (PR6)
20 - http://www.bibsonomy.org (PR6)
For an even longer list, you can visit my blog (slymarketing):
A List of top social bookmarking sites http://tinyurl.com/ybdp3xk
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3: Blog Commenting
When it comes to adding comments to popular blogs as a way of generating a
back link to your website, you want to ensure that your comment is useful or
informative, so that you don't run the risk of having all of your comments removed
by the blog author.
Don't request that readers visit your website, nor should you include the link to
your website within your comment itself, but instead, include it in the «URL» field
of the comment box.
You should also never include affiliate links within your comments, but instead
focus on generating traffic to your own website's main page. One of the best
tactics to use in order to build back links from blog commenting, as well as in
generating consistent traffic to your website, is to develop an article or content
that offers helpful advice, or information, rather than leading them directly to your
salespage.
To determine whether a specific blog will count as a link back, you can download
the free Firefox plugin at: http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/
It's also important to use anchor text within your blog comments, especially if you
want to rank for various keyword phrases.
For example, if a blog or website is linking to you, rather than feature a link like
this:
<a href="http://www.yoursite.com">Your Domain Name </a>
You would want to use something like this:
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<a href="www.yoursite.com"> Relevant Keyword Here </a>
Linkbuilding tips
Here are some link building tips that you should consider doing:
Write guest posts on blogs that are related to your field. Many bloggers will be
glad to allow you to provide some fresh content for them in exchange for a link
back to your site. Just contact the blogger and make an offer.
Answer questions on sites such as Answers.Yahoo.com, AllExperts.com and
JustAnswer.com. By providing quality advice on subjects related to your site, you
link to your pages as related information. Just understand that sites like this
frown on website owners simply linking to their sites. You can link when it’s
relevant, but you don’t need to say it’s your own site.
Apply as an expert at About.com, or as a blogger at a site such as
B5Media.com. These sites have lots of traffic, and you can link to your site on
your profile page and within articles when appropriate.
Offer testimonials for the sales pages of products you enjoy. Internet marketers
love to get them, and most will gladly post an active link or at least a URL to your
site in return.
Post lists on your blog and submit them (or better yet, have someone else
submit them) to social news and media sites such as Digg.com. Items such as
“20 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Browser” and “Top Five Reasons Reading
Is Good for You” are simple enough to come up with, and they tend to get lots of
votes and links because they’re both informative and easily digestible.
Submit material to niche social media websites. While these have less traffic,
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it is more targeted, increasing the chance that visitors will be interested in linking
to your site.
Try running a pay-per-click campaign to drive traffic to linkworthy material. If
you target the right keywords, this could bring you a fair amount of links. Set a
budget and let the campaign roll.
Write and distribute press releases to media websites (PRWeb.com for
example) about special events your business is hosting. Customer appreciation
days are always good in the absence of a special occasion.
Distribute press releases about new joint ventures. These are often featured
in the business section of TV, radio and online news sites.
Launching a new product line? This is an occasion worthy of a press release,
too.
Organize or participate in community service projects. Send out press releases
about this as well.
Send your press releases to bloggers in your field. They may not have
audiences as large as the media does, but they will be more likely to write about
your story if it relates well to their niches.
Submit articles to free article directories with your link in the resource box.
Placement in the directory alone will give you a free link from the directory, plus
other webmasters can use your article on their websites, giving you more links.
Email bloggers in your field and pitch your site to them. If you can craft a
proposal that will provide benefit to the blogger and his readers, he might be
willing to do a post about your business or use you as a source.
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Look for “In the News” pages on sites of companies in your industry.
These provide links to news stories and blog posts about the company, so write
about them and let them know. They might put you on their “In the News” page.
Submit your site to DMOZ.org. This is one of the most respected directories
online, and getting listed with them can boost your traffic and search engine
rankings. It’s also free, although there is no guarantee of inclusion.
Submit your site to reputable paid directories such as Dir.Yahoo.com and
Best of the Web (BOTW.org). These directories charge a review fee, and
inclusion is not guaranteed here either. But these sites are well respected, and
getting your site listed can boost your search engine positioning.
Join your local Chamber of Commerce. This is good for your business for a
lot of reasons, one of which is a link to your website from a respected resource.
Join the Better Business Bureau Online. It’s one of the most trusted
organizations on the web and they link to members.
Find other organizations that link to members’ websites to join. For best results,
choose ones related to your niche.
Write or edit Wikipedia pages. Even if you can’t get a page dedicated to your
business, you could add links to your site as resources on other pages where
appropriate.
Set up pages on Squidoo and HubPages. You can place your links on these
pages, and if they are informative, readers will link to them or your main website.
Join and participate in forums. Add links to your site to your signature.
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Set up a profile and review books and other products on Amazon.com. You
can add a link to your site to your profile page, and the more products you
review, the more exposure it will get.
Do reviews on other sites such as Epinions.com and Yelp.com. Most review
sites allow links in your profile.
Submit your blog to Technorati.com. Add tags to your posts to have them
appear in more places and make them easy to find.
Find quality sites to exchange links with. Quality is the key here – trading
links with any old site won’t provide much value and could get you into trouble
with the search engines. And the links should appear in a natural way (ex. in an
article, in a product review, etc.), not as part of a “Links” or “Resources” page.
Donate to charity. Charitable websites might thank you by linking to your site.
Raise money for charity. Ask visitors and donors to help you spread the word,
and send out press releases about it.
Have a prize drawing on your website or blog. Submit your contest to contest
sites like online-sweepstakes.com, contestguide.com, contestalley.com, etc.
Have a referral contest. Whoever refers the most people to your forum, blog or
email list wins. Participants will often post invitations for visitors to join on their
websites.
Have a silly contest. Have participants post a wacky picture of themselves with
your product on their blogs, or ask them to post videos of themselves doing a
funny dance. Don’t forget to require a link to your site, too.
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Give away information products. Ebooks, special reports and audio are
simple and inexpensive to create, and if you’re giving them away, they can attract
lots of traffic and links.
Give away free samples or inexpensive products. You can get your giveaway
listed on freebie sites, and fellow webmasters will link to it as well.
Sponsor giveaways on blogs. You supply the product, and the blogger holds
the giveaway. You’ll get a link from the blogger, and you could also request that
entrants be required to link to your site.
Give webmasters or bloggers exclusive coupon codes to offer their
visitors. You’ll get a link and some new prospects, and they will get to offer their
visitors something of value.
Design WordPress themes, website templates, etc. You can add your link to
the footer, and it will appear on any blog that uses the theme or template. If
you’re not technical, hire someone to make it for you.
Create a widget (with a link to your site) for visitors to put on their blogs. If
it’s well designed and useful, this could bring in tons of links. Again, if you’re not
technical, hire someone to do it for you.
Develop a browser addon. Submit it for inclusion at the browser’s website, and
spread the word to tech bloggers who might be interested in reviewing it. A
capable coder can help you do this.
Create a Firefox theme. Submit it for inclusion on Firefox’s website, and at sites
like Customize.org. You don’t have to be technical…just look for someone on
rentacoder.com.
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Offer useful tools on your website. Many real estate websites, for example,
offer mortgage calculators. These applications encourage both traffic and
linking.
Give away stuff. Free icons, clipart and other small graphics, with the
requirement that those who use them link to your site.
Create profiles on popular social networking sites, and link to your site
from them. Some of these will be “no follow” links, but when link building, don’t
worry about this…just build good, quality links.
Comment on other users’ social networking profiles. Any comment will link
to your profile. Only link directly to your site if you can do so in a relevant
manner.
Link to your site from your blog and other sites you may have. But don’t
place links to it on every page, or you could turn off both visitors and the search
engines. Link just like you would if you were linking to an external site.
Link amongst pages on the same site within your content as much as possible.
For best results, use the keywords you’re targeting for the linked pages.
Make sure you have good site navigation in place. This means having links
to your most important pages on every page of the site. Good navigation makes
it easier for your visitors to get around and gives each page more links.
Start an email newsletter and fill it with quality content. Offer an online
version that readers can link to, or include some articles that you are willing to
allow them to reprint in exchange for a link.
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Create viral videos and upload them to sites such as YouTube.com, and include
a link to your site in the description or profile. Visitors will often click the link in
search of more information or entertainment. You can also gain links from those
who use the video on their own sites. Not everyone who embeds the video will
include a link to your site, but some will.
Make yourself available for interviews, not only online, but with offline media.
Most media outlets have websites, and they often post transcripts of interviews
there along with relevant links.
Post a quiz on your website. It doesn’t really matter if it’s serious or silly, as
long as it fits with your site’s theme and makes sense. Internet users love to test
their knowledge (or be entertained, as the case may be).
Do a survey and post the results on your blog or website. These make great
linkbait.
Advertise your site on Craigslist and other online classifieds. Most remove
postings after a specified amount of time, however, so if you want your link to
remain after that, you’ll have to resubmit it.
Send promotional items to bloggers in your industry. They may write a post
thanking you for them.
Ask fellow webmasters and bloggers to review your products. They get a
freebie, and you get exposure and a link.
Promote your RSS feed. Encourage webmasters and bloggers to add it to their
sites. If it contains information that their audiences can use, they will often be
glad to.
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Are you a good photographer? Offer free stock photos through sites such as
Stock.Xchng (sxc.hu). You can require those who use them to link back to your
site.
Go to trade conferences and do some networking. You could find some
great people to cross-promote with.
Buy aftermarket domain names that have inbound links and redirect them
to your site. This can be expensive, but it’s a quick way to get lots of links. But
realize, if you don’t develop the website, the benefit of those links will be effective
for a limited time.
Buy links from sites such as PayPerPost and Text Link Ads. Be forewarned,
however, that search engines may discount these links unless they contain a
“nofollow” tag.
Get your site reviewed. Some webmaster forums connect users who would like
to exchange site reviews. And some bloggers are willing to do them as well if
you ask.
Go local. Search for local websites and see if their webmasters would be willing
to link to you. They are often happy to oblige.
Check Google Trends (google.com/trends) and see what keywords are hot at
the moment. Try to find a logical way to work a post about one of them into your
blog. If you use Technorati and social news sites to promote it, there’s a good
chance that fellow bloggers and webmasters will see it and link to it.
Stir up some controversy. Everyone won’t agree with you, but you will almost
certainly get some links out of the deal.
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Give out awards for site of the week or month. Have a simple graphic created
that recipients can display on their sites, and send them the code to display it
along with a link back to you.
Donate money to open source projects. Often they will link to their donors.
Submit your blog to Zimbio.com. Zimbio is a community that allows users to
contribute to “wikizines” by submitting relevant blog posts to them.
Start a Yahoo group (groups.yahoo.com). It’s free, it allows you to build a
community, and it’s another place where you can add links to your site.
Do you have an innovative or beautiful site design? Submit your site to web
design galleries. Some popular ones include CSSDesignVault.com,
StyleGala.com, and TheBestDesigns.com.
Write instructional articles for sites such as eHow.com. Make them relevant
to your site’s content and include it as a resource.
Get your hands on some exclusive content. If you can get an exclusive
interview with a prominent figure in your field, it will almost certainly bring you
traffic and high-quality links.
Make it easy for visitors to link to you. Create a “Link to Us” page with HTML
coded links that they can copy and paste.
Comment on stories at popular news sites. Try to find stories that are related
to your blog posts or specific pages on your website, and cite them in your
comments.
Volunteer as a guest lecturer at your local institution of higher learning. This
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could get you a link on the school’s website.
So… the next time you feel like you don’t know what to do to build links, you’ve
got a big fat list here. Just take them one day at a time and build those links for
very long term results.
Paid Media
In order to drive in as much traffic on a consistent basis as possible, you need to
set up an automated system that once activated, continues to power your
website with fresh traffic every single day.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
One of the easiest ways to create an automated traffic system is by harnessing
the power of pay per click marketplaces, like Google's Adwords.
In case, you are unfamiliar with what PPC entails, here is a brief summary of how
it works:
Visit http://www.Google.com and enter in any keyword phrase you wish, such as
'Acne Solutions'.
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The advertisements that appear under the 'Sponsored Listings' on the results
page are PPC advertisements, as shown above.
Advertisers can create as many advertising blocks (and campaigns) as they wish
and by bidding on keywords, their advertisements will appear within different
positions.
First of all, above all other forms of advertising, PPC marketing is the fastest way
to get your message across and in front of thousands of potential customers and
prospects.
In fact, within minutes of creating your very first PPC campaign, your
advertisement can begin to appear whenever keywords are entered into the
search engine that trigger your advertisement.
When it comes to PPC, there are a few terms that you should be familiar with,
including:
CTR which stands for Click Through Rate
CPC which stands for Cost Per Click
In order to create an effective PPC marketing campaign, you need to focus on
building campaigns that include targeted keywords for your niche, as well as
action driven ad copy, titles and body text assigned to each ad block.
If you are new to PPC marketing, you can create an account at
http://adwords.google.com/select
Here is a quick start guide to setting up your first PPC account:
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Click on the "Start Now" link to begin the quick and easy registration process. It
will only take roughly ten minutes to set up your account before you will be ready
to customize it and create your campaigns.
On the next page you will be given the option of either creating a Standard
account, or a Starter account.
I recommend creating a Standard account to ensure that all of the features
available within Adwords are available to you.
Once the system has created your account, you will be asked to confirm your
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request by logging into your email account and validating your Google Adwords
account by clicking on the link contained within.
The first time you log into your Adwords account, you will be asked whether you
are interested in focusing your advertising towards specific demographics, based
on location or language.
Personally, my focus is on English speaking customers as that is my primary
language and the language in which my website is created in. I also choose to
include a wide variety of countries including Canada, United States, Australia,
United Kingdom, Japan and so on. Setting these options will depend on how
wide-scope you wish your outreach to be.
Are you interested in only advertising to those within your own country?
Perhaps your product or service is only available in specific countries, or maybe
you wish to showcase your advertisements in front of as many people as
possible.
You will need to determine this within your Adwords settings to ensure that your
advertisements are only triggered when a user enters in your keywords from an
IP address within your permitted country list.
This flexibility and control over how your ads appear, and to who, allows you to
better target your customer base, eliminating the costs to reach your market, by
ensuring that your advertisements only appear whenever customers from a
specific geographical location, nationality, and/or language enter in relevant
keywords that trigger your ad.
In order to set up an Adwords account, you will need to pay a one-time activation
fee, however you will be able create your advertisements prior to paying the set
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up cost, your advertisements will simply not go live until you do.
With Adwords, you are able to create an unlimited number of campaigns that
target different keywords, or groups.
This is an easy way to set up multiple advertisements and split test campaigns to
determine what will produce the best results, just be sure to keep an eye on your
overall preformance and consistently monitor your progress, so that you can
eliminate ineffective advertisements and minimize your costs.
When it comes to developing the highest converting PPC campaigns, your
keyword research is an important part in ensuring that you are effectively
targeting the right keywords based on your niche market.
These keywords should be highly relevant and speak directly to your potential
customer.
Furthermore, because you are paying for each click to your advertisement, you
want to minimize freebie seekers, by focusing on pre-approving visitors based on
your keywords. Avoid using terms like 'free' so that only genuine buyers will click
on your ads and visit your website.
When it comes to Adwords, the higher your maximum bid, the higher your
advertisement placement within the marketplace. Your daily budget will also
reflect how frequent your advertisement appears and based on your overall
quality score, you can end up paying less per click for a higher placement within
the listings.
Your quality score is determined based on your overall campaigns preformance,
so the higher your CTR (click through rate), the lower your cost per click will be.
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This means that you need to ensure that you are using highly relevant, targeted
keywords within your PPC advertisements.
Your CTR is determined based on the number of clicks that your advertisement
receives based on the number of times your ad appeared within the marketplace.
For example, if your advertisement appeared 100 times and only 10 people
viewing your ad clicked on your link, your CTR would be determined as 10%.
(CTR is defined by the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions).
In order to create your first campaign, log into your Adwords account and click on
'Campaign Management'.
Open up the 'Active Campaign' section of your account and create your first
online campaign. You will be able to choose whether to create a keywordtargeted campaign or a placement targeted campaign.
Placement targeted campaigns are based on specific websites featured within
Google's content network, whereas keyword targeted campaigns are what you'll
ultimately want to focus on, which involved targeting specific keyword groups.
In order to maximize overall preformance of your PPC ads, you need to pay
attention to the entire structure of your ad block, including title, body and even
the URL you use to direct people to your website.
When creating your advertisement within your PPC administration panel, you will
need to assign specific keywords to each ad block.
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Start off with 5-10 keywords and gradually add in additional keywords as you
begin to see progress with your PPC marketing.
This way, you won't become overwhelmed with trying to monitor and manage
exceptionally lengthy keyword phrases and will be able to determine which ones
are best performing, and which ones you should remove.
You will also have to set a daily budget for your PPC campaigns. I suggest
starting off with only $25-50 until you become more experienced with developing
high converting campaigns and improving your overall quality score so that your
cost per click is lowered accordingly.
When it comes to creating your advertisement itself, each ad consists of four
main elements:
Advertisement Title, body, Display URL and Destination URL.
You want to focus on action driven titles, so that you are able to capture attention
and motivate potential customers to click on your link and explore your website.
Make sure that your titles are relevant and include your primary keywords.
If you aren't sure where to begin, spend some time evaluating what your
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competitor's are using and model your advertisements in a similar way.
Just make sure that you are using exceptionally targeted keywords within your
title as well as your actual advertisement content (body) as well.
Highlight the benefits of your product or service, and trim down any unnecessary
words as you are restricted to a very small amount of space in which to get your
message across.
One final note on the importance of monitoring your overall performance is that in
order to ensure that your campaigns are worthwhile, based on the costs involved
versus the earnings generated from your exposure, it's important that you keep
on top of your overall conversion rates, rather than just your CTR.
Google Adwords offers several tools and resources that will help you evaluate
your campaigns and track your progress, so do your best to use these effectively,
and get into the habit of consistently testing and tracking your results.
Everything but Google
Google is expensive. There are many other very interesting paid media sites
other than Google, you can get just as targeted visitors, and a lot cheaper than
by using Google.
You can buy banners, text ads or email ads. With PPC and CPC, you pay per
click or cost per click. CPM is cost per thousands, and we’re talking about views.
CPV is cost per view (also known as PPV). CPA is cost per action. CPS is cost
per sale (affiliate marketing, you pay after a sale is made). EPM is earnings per
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thousands, how much money you have earned per thousand impressions. ROI is
return on investment. The amount of money you make divided into your
advertising and fulfillment costs that represents your profit.
The top alternatives to Google are (in no particular order:
Advertise.com
AdBrite.com
MediaTraffic.com
AdReady.com
Arcamax.com
Clicksor.com
AMPKeywords.com
AdBuyer.com
Pulse360.com
The best resource when it comes to how to use paid media, other than Google, is
Traffic Evolution. It’s a really great course which includes everything you can
think of.
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Email Marketing
I am using AWeber for all my e-mail marketing. I have been using AWeber for
more than 3 years. But, I'm not here to talk about AWeber. Let me tell you why email marketing is so powerful, and what you should know in order to use it.
If you’ve ever asked for information online about a product or service, or signed
up for list or a membership on the Internet, and received a nearly instantaneous
response in your e-mail inbox, an auto responder program was most likely
responsible for delivering the reply.
Simply put, auto responders are e-mail programs that send out a preset message
in response to every incoming e-mail received. Some auto responders, like signup services for e-groups and forums, are one-shot deals: a single response for
every message received. Just about every Internet-based company uses auto
responders for a variety of purposes, from automating tasks that would otherwise
take up hundreds of man-hours to building lists and tracking prospective leads.
Multiple auto responders send a series of messages to received e-mail
addresses on a predetermined, timed basis. For instance, a multiple auto
responder can be used to send an instant response, then a follow-up message
three days later, then another five days after that, and so on. It can be
programmed to send a message a day, one per week, twice monthly, or any
interval that satisfies the purpose of the message series.
Auto responders are one of the most powerful Internet marketing tools available.
They are easy to use, and once they’re set up the entire marketing process is
automated and instant. When you use auto responders, your Internet business
runs itself 24 hours a day. Launching an effective auto responder campaign can
mean the difference between a struggling business and a wildly successful one.
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I bet you wonder how you can make money with auto responders?
Just about any online business can benefit by using auto responders. In fact, with
a properly arranged campaign, your as-yet-unfounded business can be built
around an auto responder program. All you need is a product and an effective
series of auto responder messages, and you can start carving your piece of the
Internet pie.
Your auto responder is your golden goose: the marketing tool that will sell your
well-developed product far more effectively than any other form of advertising.
Few sales are made by impulse buyers, particularly on the Internet. But if you are
able to get your message out repeatedly to people who are already interested in
what you have to offer, you will see an explosive sales response.
CRAFT YOUR AUTORESPONDER MESSAGES
Creating a great auto responder message series is the key to making serious
money on the Internet. Studies have proven that most consumers buy only after
repeated exposure to a product. Having an auto responder system is the hasslefree, automated way to put your product in front of interested buyers enough
times to move them from consideration to purchase.
An approximate breakdown of the percentage of people who buy according to
product exposure is:
•
16 percent after one or two messages
•
34 percent after three or four messages
•
34 percent after five or six messages
•
16 percent after seven or more messages (and the passage of a
considerable amount of time for deliberation)
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This means the largest percent of your target market will buy after receiving three
to six messages about your product. To build an effective auto responder
campaign, you should prepare eight to ten messages to load into your program.
Each message should build on the previous one, and make your product more
enticing to buyers. There are several methods you can use to increase interest
through auto responder messages. You will find a complete sample of an
effective auto responder series in the index of this book.
Once you have your autoresponder messages set up, you will need to determine
the timing. You can send one a day, three at one-day intervals with weekly
follow-ups; one a week (this is recommended for paid autoresponder e-courses),
or any interval you would like.
Following are concrete tips on creating autoresponder messages that sell your
product for you. You’ll learn what to say, how to say it, how to format it, and how
to avoid having your messages sent straight to the spam folder unread.
Never spam – it’s a one-way ticket to marketing oblivion.
Components of a typical auto responder message
So how, exactly, do you go about composing an auto responder message?
Here’s a breakdown of what your messages should contain. NOTE: These
guidelines are just that: guidelines. There is no concrete method and you may
feel free to use your own creativity. This will simply give you a framework to build
your messages on.
Subject line. The subject line is the first thing people will see when they receive
your message. Therefore, it must be compelling enough to keep them from
deleting the message unread. Which of the following e-mail subjects would you
be more likely to click on: “Make a MILLION DOLLARS Practically Overnight!” or
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“Here is your free Report #1 on boosting your web site profits through the roof”?
You may have jumped at the first one, but think about it: to most internet users,
the first is obviously spam and would be deleted without a second thought. The
second subject line implies that not only have you requested the information (and
everyone receiving your auto responder messages will have requested the
information; see the section on opt-in lists), but you are receiving something of
value for nothing. Be understated, but as specific as possible with your subject
line to ensure your message is opened.
Compelling opening sentence. Let’s say you clicked on the second subject line
in the preceding example. You now have the message open, and the first line is
this: “Buckets of money will pour on you. Buy My program Now, for only $495. It’s
easey!” Will you read further? Chances are, you’re already looking for the delete
button. This opening is long on hype and short on promise—not to mention
riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes. But what if the first sentence reads:
“You are about to learn the secrets successful web marketers use to make a
killing on the internet.” Will you continue? Probably. There is no outright pressure
to buy anything; you are being given something for free that will benefit you. So
far, it costs nothing but a few minutes of your time.
Disclaimer. This should not be lengthy. Immediately following your compelling
opening sentence, remind people they are receiving your message because they
asked to be on your list. It will keep them from clicking the “spam” button if they
decide they aren’t interested in your product, and keep your auto responder and
web site off internet blacklists.
Introductory paragraph. Explain in a concise paragraph exactly what your
product will do for the buyer. Avoid using ALL CAPS or excessive punctuation!!!
This looks amateurish and will almost certainly get your message deleted.
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Subheads and further information. Write compelling subheads, set on
separate lines within your message, that describe certain benefits or sections of
your program, then follow up with a short paragraph of explanation. For example,
using the fictional internet marketing program we began discussing, your first
subhead might state: “Millions of people do business on the internet. Are you
reaching them with your web site?” Tease the contents of your product, but do
not give away too much information (otherwise, why would anyone want to buy?).
A call to action. After several subheads and short paragraphs of information,
reveal your product. State what it is (an e-book, e-course or audio CD or
download); where customers can get it (your web site, Amazon, e-Bay); and how
much it costs. NOTE: To make your price impressive, state the retail value of
your product (many affiliate and reseller programs have this in place already),
and then reveal your price as a deep discount. When setting your price, aim for
the high side at first and be willing to lower it in later follow-up messages—this
will give people an even stronger incentive to buy after message 3 or 4. For
example, your call to action in your first message might read: “This amazing ebook revealing internet marketing secrets to jumpstart your web site’s sales is
valued at $395. Through our program, you can order “Huge Web Site Profits” for
just $49.95.”
Reminder of follow-up messages. Let your subscribers know the next time you
will contact them, which will be the time interval you’ve set for your auto
responder distribution—tomorrow, in a few days, next week. Be sure to include a
teaser of what will be revealed in the next message.
Unsubscribe link. This is critical to a successful auto responder campaign. You
must give subscribers the option to discontinue receiving messages from you, or
you will be labeled as spam. Most auto responder services will provide you with
an automatic unsubscribe list for all your auto responder series. All you have to
do is make sure to include the link in your message.
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Making your message irresistible
With the inundation of available products and information on the market today,
you will have approximately three seconds—yes, three seconds—to hook a
buyer’s interest and keep him or her reading. Fortunately, there are ways to
breach this barrier and keep the consumer riveted to your message.
Passion. Remember when you were choosing the topic for your product?
Personal interest was a key element in that decision-making product. Now that
you have a topic you believe in, let that passion show in your auto responder
messages. Mention those aspects of your product you find particularly
fascinating and give them your personal endorsement.
Write casual. Make your message read the way a conversation in a restaurant
would sound. Big words might impress some people, but most of them just want
to know what you have to say—and they aren’t going to rush to the dictionary in
the middle of reading your message to find out what you’re talking about. Use
short sentences and keep it straightforward and direct. Don’t be afraid to use
contractions instead of the more proper two word phrases. Do, however, make
sure your spelling and grammar is correct. You want to seem friendly, not sloppy.
Be personal. You are writing a message that will be read by thousands of
people, one at a time. Each person who opens your message is an individual,
and will be far more at ease if you address them as a person rather than a piece
of the collective public. Use the word “you” as often as possible, and limit the use
of “I.” You don’t want to tell them why you’re so great. You want them to know
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how purchasing your product will benefit them, and why they should part with
their hard-earned money to hear what you have to say.
Eliminate extra words. As previously mentioned, keep your message simple
and clear. If you have an “effective web site marketing technique,” don’t say it’s a
“wonderfully amazing, mind-blowing web site marketing extravaganza method.”
No one wants to try and cut through all the fluff and hype to try and decode your
message. It’s also annoying.
Use decisive language. Try to use action verbs whenever possible—this means
replacing as many instances of “are,” “is,” “was,” and “were” in your message
with stronger wording. For example: instead of writing “If your web site has been
languishing with low sales, this program might be able to help your business
grow,” say: “Your web site sales will increase dramatically with this program.”
Write your messages with the confidence that your product is worth paying for,
and your subscribers will be more comfortable buying.
Give reasons and incentives. Don’t be afraid to repeat the benefits of your
product throughout your message. Just as repetitive contact is effective in
converting prospects to buyers, repetitive reminders of benefits—without
bludgeoning people over the head with them—can reinforce everything they
stand to gain from a purchase. Also, reveal some of the information in your
product within your marketing message without giving everything away, and then
state that even more exciting information can be found when you purchase a
product.
Testimonials: A marketer’s best friend
Testimonials are a great way to build consumer confidence in your product.
Hearing from other people who have purchased the product and are satisfied
with the results goes a long way toward making sales. Testimonials can range
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from short blurbs (a sentence or two, or a paragraph) to letter-length
endorsements. The blurbs are great for interspersing with the text of your
autoresponder messages; longer testimonials are excellent for posting on your
web site.
How do you get testimonials? Once you start selling your product, you will likely
receive unsolicited notes from buyers who are pleased with their purchases. But
at the outset of your campaign, before you have actually began selling anything,
there are several ways to get testimonials:
Friends and family. Ask friends and family to review your product and write a
few sentences describing what they like about it and why they would recommend
it to others. This may seem like cheating, but no one has to know you’re
acquainted with your testimonial writers—and besides, if they actually like the
product, there is nothing dishonest about it.
Colleagues and experts in your field. If you work or have worked in a field
relating to your topic, ask your coworkers (or former coworkers) to write up a
testimonial blurb for you. If you don’t work in a related field, look up people who
do online (groups or forums are good places to start) and e-mail them to ask if
they would mind reviewing your product in exchange for a free copy. Most
reviewers work on a free-product basis and will be happy to do so.
Other affiliate members and resellers. Think all people trying to sell the same
product as you are bitter enemies? Think again! Many internet marketers working
with affiliate and reseller programs are happy to help other entrepreneurs,
because believe it or not, there is plenty of market to go around. Of course, they
will expect the same courtesy from you. Since they are already familiar with the
product, they will have no trouble coming up with a testimonial for you.
NOTE: Always make sure you have the permission of the person who wrote the
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testimonial to use their name and words in your marketing materials. Get it in
writing or by e-mail, even from friends and family. Make that especially from
friends and family—you never know when a disagreement will result in a
rescinding of an offer to help. If you get permission via e-mail, simply end your
disclaimer message (I hereby give [your name] permission to use my name and
remarks for marketing purposed, signed X) with a line that states: Typing my
initials here constitutes my official signature___. Then just ask them to reply to
the message, add their full name and initials, and hit send. Most people will be
willing to do this.
Spam-Me-Not: Avoiding too much hype
Keep in mind when constructing your messages and building your subscriber list
that there are two types of marketing: “cold selling,” or unsolicited e-mail; and
opt-in selling. It is highly recommended that you do not engage in cold selling.
This is considered spam. If enough people report your address as spam, you will
be banned from ISPs and search engines. The occasional sale you see from cold
selling will not be enough to compensate for your being blacklisted on the
Internet.
On the other hand, building an opt-in list is a perfectly acceptable and highly
successful method that will keep you from being labeled bad business. With an
opt-in list, people ask to be added to your subscriber database because they’re
interested in your topic. Opt-in subscribers should always be given the option to
opt out…but you would be surprised how many people don’t bother clicking the
unsubscribe link, and eventually make their way to your site to investigate your
product further.
When preparing your autoresponder messages, it is imperative to strike a
63
balance between excitement and hype about your product. You must avoid
wording your messages so that they look, feel and smell like spam, even if they
have been requested. This means following the rules of creating direct and
simple messages as described above (no writing in ALL CAPS, or putting seven
exclamation points at the end of every paragraph). There are also a few other
deadly spam sins to avoid:
Do not write your message in 18-point Impact Red or other “flashy” font
styles and sizes. This does not draw attention to your product; it draws attention
to your inexperience. It’s perfectly acceptable to use color in your autoresponder
messages, and in fact may help to strengthen that three-second lead time by
pulling attention to those compelling subheads you wrote (you did write
compelling subheads, didn’t you?). But for the most part, keep your entire
message in the same font and type size, using emphasis like color, bold and
italics sparingly for effect.
Do not stuff your messages with “cool” graphics, animated smileys, or a
dreaded Flash presentation. This slows down load time considerably, and
many people won’t wait for your incredible pictures to appear on the screen.
Do not use chat language, or “leet,” in the text of your message. Even to
people who know what LOL, IMHO, IOW and ROFLMAO* stand for, this is not
professional and does not score you any “friendly” points. And if your subscribers
don’t know what these abbreviations stand for, they will be quick to dismiss you
as inept. (*In case you don’t know yourself: LOL=laughing out loud or laughing on
line; IMHO=in my humble opinion; IOW=in other words; and ROFLMAO=roll on
floor laughing my a** off.)
Do remind people that 1. they are receiving your message because they
requested more information (or a friend suggested they would like to receive the
information; see the following section on name squeezing for further details), and
64
2. they can opt out of further messages using a link you have provided at the end
of the message.
Spam filters: Is your message zap-proof?
Just about every e-mail program has built-in spam filters that route unwanted
messages to a separate folder, often called a “bulk” folder, whose contents are
routinely deleted by either the program or the owner of the account. Following the
suggestions above for avoiding spam-type messages will go a long way toward
ensuring your autoresponders don’t get diverted to an early grave. Here are more
tips on beating spam filters and verification programs:
Subject line don’ts: Never begin your subject line with ADV: or include the word
“advertisement.” Do not state “this e-mail sent in compliance with…” And never
use the word “free” in the subject line—especially in all caps.
In fact, never use the word FREE (in all caps) anywhere in the message. If
possible, avoid using all caps altogether.
From address: When you set up your web site and associated e-mail accounts,
do not name any account sales@yourdomainname.com – this guarantees you an
automatic trip to the bulk folder.
Within the message: Never say “for free?” or “for free!” or use the words “extra
income” in the body of your message. Recently, many internet marketers
attempting to bypass spam filters have begun breaking up the word “free”
anywhere it appears in their sales copy: f-ree or fr.ee are the most commonly
used methods.
Keep your messages out of spam oblivion by adhering to these guidelines, and
you will see your sales and response rates climb.
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Formatting your auto responder messages
If you use the Internet regularly, you have probably received at least a few emails that look something like this:
Dear Friend,
Congratulations! You have been selected
>>to receive a free
>>>laptop,
>during our promotional giveaway here at
>XYX Company…
This is either the result of multiple forwarding, or poor formatting on the part of
the sender. Not many people would try to interpret this kind of mess if it was sent
to them by a stranger, even if the information was requested. How can you avoid
giving your auto responder messages that choppy, I-can’t-use-a-computer feel?
First, you should understand why this occurs. Every e-mail program is different,
allowing different line lengths for their viewing windows. If your e-mail program
allows 75 characters per line, it may look fine on your screen—but when you
send it to someone whose program allows only 70 characters per line, those last
five characters get moved to the next line and break up your message with those
pesky > signs. Another potential problem is the font you choose. Fonts like
Courier New are fixed-width: every character takes up the same amount of
space. But fonts like Times New Roman (the default font for most word
processing programs) and Arial have varying width according to the character: an
“i” takes up less space than a “w” and so forth. This variance in space creates the
66
same broken effect as the line length problem.
Keep your messages in a fixed-width font (10-point size is best in nearly every
case) and make sure each line is 60 to 65 characters long. When you reach the
limit, use a hard return to start the next line rather than allowing your word
processing program to wrap the text. If you’re using Microsoft Word to compose
your messages, there is a counter at the bottom of the window that tells you what
line and character number you’re on as you type (this reads Ln ## Col ##) which
you can use to ensure you’re staying at 65 or less. You can also create a guide
at the top of the page you’re working on (you will delete the guide after you finish
your message) that will allow you to determine your line length at a glance. Your
guide should look like this:
---------1---------2---------3---------4---------5---------6----Another way to avoid sending garbled messages is to save them in a universal
format. Many people mistakenly believe ASCII works on all computers, but this is
not the case. You should save (and copy and paste) your messages in either
Plain Text (this is almost always in Courier New font) or Rich Text format (the
format every word processing program can open, which allows you to preserve
color, bold and italicized text). You will find these file formats listed in the Save
As dropdown box on your Save window.
Get Started
There are several auto responder programs available for internet marketers, all
with different features and pricing plans. As I mentioned earlier, I have been
using AWeber for more than 3 years, and it's the best auto responder system I
have ever used. And their customer support is awesome.
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INDEX: SAMPLE AUTORESPONDER SERIES
The following eight-message auto responder series represents a fictional
company and a fictional product. Any resemblance to real companies or real
products is purely coincidental. Honest.
You can use these messages as a framework or guide to creating your own auto
responder message series. However, direct copying of this text is cheating.
MESSAGE #1
(Sending time: instant—when an opt-in e-mail address is first received)
SUBJECT: Thank you for your order! Here is your first free report on internet
marketing strategies.
Congratulations! You’ve just taken the first step toward turning your web site into
a cash register. You are about to discover secrets successful internet marketers
use to reap enormous profits online.
***You are receiving this message because you requested information from
WebMoney or one of our partners.***
Do you want to know how they do it?
There are stories all over about people making a great living from the comfort of
their own homes, all through online sales. But if you’ve tried to break into internet
68
marketing and found out the cash just isn’t pouring in—and as a matter of fact, it
isn’t even trickling—you may be asking yourself: “What do they have that I
don’t?”
The difference between success and failure online
To become a successful internet entrepreneur, you need planning. Most people
think you can just slap up a web site, hang out a shingle and name your price,
but the truth is this: there are hundreds of millions of web sites out there, and
drawing attention to just one is a challenge. The good news is: you can meet that
challenge and win the marketing game!
This free series of report will show you how.
Secret #1: Sell something people want to buy.
Sounds simple enough, right?
Actually, this is one of the biggest hurdles facing internet businesses. The market
is so glutted with products, it takes something special to get people interested
enough to hand their money over to you. You need as many competitive edges
as you can get, and the first is your product.
There’s an old quote that goes: “If you’re going to do something, do it right or not
at all.” You want to do right by your customers, and that means giving them
something worth every penny they paid for it and then some.
Find out more.
My comprehensive 7-part e-course “Super Web Site Profits for Explosive Sales”
reveals in-depth trade secrets for putting value into your product, with advice
69
from big names in internet marketing that will help you make your product shine.
This valuable money-making gem retails for $395, but I’m making it available to
you for just $49.95 through this special subscriber offer.
Check out the details of my course here: www.mysalespage.com
Coming soon: Who will buy from you?
Tomorrow you’ll receive Report #2 in this series. You’ll learn how to find buyers
that match your selling goals and increase your click-through sales rate by up to
33 percent. Stay tuned!
===================================
If you don’t wish to receive further messages from WebMoney, please click here:
www.myunsubscribelink.com
MESSAGE #2
(Sending time: Day 2)
SUBJECT: Ready to hook up with more customers? Here is your second Special
Internet Marketing Report
Hi there,
Last time we talked about making your product worth buying. Today you’re going
to learn who’s looking for what you’re selling, and how to find them online.
Finding your perfect buyer is like getting a hole-in-one…
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He’s out there somewhere: your dream buyer. He wants what you have and he’s
willing to pay for it. What does he look like? Where does he hang out? How can
you connect with your market?
The good news is: Once you find one, you find hundreds.
“Great minds think alike.” The best thing about finding your target is people with
similar interests tend to gather in the same area. This is true in both the physical
world and the cyber-world. If you can identify the best way to reach your target
market, you can strike internet gold mines.
Secret #2: Do Your Homework.
You there in the back: stop groaning! Thanks in large part to the ready availability
of information online, performing market research is easier than ever. Here’s a
list of quick tips to help you pin down that elusive species of Buyerus Onlinus:
• Look to your friends to find out what kinds of people share your interests. Ask
them where they go online, then visit those places and check out the advertising
there.
• Seek out groups and forums dedicated to topics related to your product. Join
some of them and ask around: have they ever bought anything online? If so,
what made them decide to spend money?
• Put up a survey on your web site to find out more about your customers: how
old they are, where they live, how they found your site, what their online buying
habits are.
• Ask an expert! Find successful web sites selling products similar to yours and
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ask them what their “sales demographics” are like (they’ll be impressed with your
extensive vocabulary!).
In-Depth Research: It’s Easier Than You Think.
In my 7-part e-course “Super Web Site Profits for Explosive Sales” you’ll get tips,
tricks, tools and free online resources for pinpointing your market research. The
more you learn about your target market, the greater your click-to-sales ratio will
be! Part II of my course contains market research secrets that can increase the
number of visitors that buy your product by as much as 50 percent! You can get it
now for only $49.95.
I’ll even throw in a bonus: if you order “Super Web Site Profits for Explosive
Sales” within the next week, I will include 20 free marketing surveys you can
customize for your web site. Click here to start your profits pouring in:
www.mysalespage.com
Next up: Transform Your Web Site into a Beacon for Buyers
In a few days, you will receive Special Report #3, revealing the secrets to giving
your web site a spit-and-polish. You’ll learn how to keep potential customers
riveted to the screen once they arrive at your site.
===================================
MESSAGE #3
SUBJECT: Your web site is invisible. Check out Special Report #3 to give your
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site an overhaul.
How many visitors come to your web site without buying a thing? If you
answered, “Too many!” then read on to discover the secrets that keep them
glued to your content and begging for more.
Is it too easy to leave your site?
What does your site look like? If it isn’t pleasing to the eye, then most visionweary web surfers will go for the mouse and click away fast. There are a lot of
visual turn-offs you have to consider in designing your site.
You’re not saying what they want to hear.
If the front page of your web site is just an advertisement for your product, you
will lose the 95 percent of visitors who come to your site because they’re
interested in your topic (and not necessarily your product). In order to attract and
keep visitors, you need more than just sales copy. You need substance.
Secret #3: Looks Aren’t Everything (But They Sure Don’t Hurt)
A successful web site combines appealing looks with meaty content that keeps
potential buyers exploring your site. The longer they stay in your domain, the
more likely they are to buy! Follow these tips for hanging your web site in the
stratosphere of success.
• Go easy on the graphics. Sure, images and flash presentations look great—but
in most browsers a graphics-heavy page takes a long time to load, and buyers
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won’t hang around to wait when there are plenty of other options available.
• Choose a font style that’s easy to read. If you’re selling a book on relationships,
putting all your web copy in Edwardian Script ITC will not get the romance juices
flowing. It will, however, cost you sales.
• Teach them something. Provide more than just thrilling monologues about how
great your product is. Write articles on your topic or reprint articles from internet
databases. After spending half an hour reading through exciting and informative
pieces of your topic, they will want to learn more.
• Show your marketing savvy by providing a sign-up box or link for your
newsletter, e-zine or autoresponder (*gasp* – you don’t have any of those? Visit
the resource section on my web site right now at www.myresourcepage.com and
find out why you need one!) right on your front page. Repeat for subsequent
pages.
Get the keys to unlock your web site’s full potential.
My 7-part e-course “Super Web Site Profits for Explosive Sales” gives you a
huge amount of web site resources and free tools for every aspect of site design
and content creation, all in one place. You’ll get information that would take years
to gather on your own (that’s how long it took me!) and cost you hundreds of
dollars—and much, much more—for only $49.95!
Order “Super Web Site Profits for Explosive Sales” within five days and I’ll not
only include 20 free marketing surveys you can customize for your web site, I’ll
also throw in a free e-book on writing killer web copy.
Give your web site a kick in the profits right now: www.mysalespage.com
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Coming soon…Repeat After Me: Repetition is Key
In your next Special Report, you’ll learn one of the most important secrets to
internet marketing: why it’s good to repeat yourself. Stay tuned!
===================================
MESSAGE #4
SUBJECT: Can you hear me now? Your Report #4 on internet marketing secrets
has arrived.
Internet marketing is a whole new game: new rules, new crowd, new methods
and a new generation. Would you like to find out why repeating yourself is not
only recommended, but required?
We’re talking money, money, money…aren’t we?
Not exactly.
Using repetition in your internet marketing does not mean putting the same word
or phrase together multiple times to give your web site more keyword pull. You’ve
seen sites that say things like: Sign up here for cash, cash, cash! This Money
Magnet works. Order a Money Magnet today. Click here for Money Magnet.
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It’s annoying. And it doesn’t get you to buy anything.
So what am I supposed to repeat?
For the purpose of this lesson, “repetition” does not refer to the number of times
you use a certain word or phrase, but the number of times a customer sees your
advertising message. On average, a person must see or hear mention of a
product at least 4 times before they will consider buying it.
You will also repeat certain ideas within your marketing message. If your product
has a number of amazing benefits for the customer, it doesn’t hurt to remind
them what they’re missing out on by not buying now.
Secret #4: Be the squeaky wheel.
You need to get your marketing message out there in front of the customers
multiple times. Other than getting them to come back to your site every day, how
can you do this? Check out these great repeat-exposure tips:
• Auto responders. These are perhaps one of the most powerful internet
marketing tools available. With autoresponders you can send a series of
messages (just like this one!) to people who are interested in your topic, by
simply adding their e-mail address to your list. The process is completely
automated; the messages go out by themselves at preset intervals you
determine.
• Newsletters and e-zines remind your customers of new developments, updates
and special deals on your web site. A weekly, bi-weekly or monthly e-zine is a
great way to keep your product at the front of potential customers’ minds.
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• Placing sequential classified ads in other people’s newsletters and e-zines also
gives your message multiple exposure. Classified ads usually begin to produce
results after the third appearance in a newsletter or e-zine.
• Be sure to frequently highlight the benefits of your product...just like I’m about to
do.
Get the keys to unlock your web site’s full potential.
“Super Web Site Profits for Explosive Sales”, my extensive 7-part e-course, takes
you step by step through the process of setting up an auto responder, newsletter
or e-zine for your web site. You’ll discover how to get thousands of subscribers,
where to place your sign-up forms for maximum effectiveness, how to word your
sequential messages to pump up your profits, and so much more—all for a onetime payment of $49.95!
In the next three days, if you order “Super Web Site Profits for Explosive Sales”
you’ll get the 20 free marketing surveys, the free e-book on writing killer web
copy, and a free subscription to my award-winning newsletter “Blast Off!
Marketing,” featuring fresh bonus tips every week.
Why wait? Start collecting your slice of the online market:
www.mysalespage.com
Next up: How to get more money by giving stuff away
Now if that isn’t an oxymoron. How can giving things away make you money?
Find out when you receive Special Report #5. Stay tuned!
===================================
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MESSAGE #5
SUBJECT: Your Report #5: Give stuff away to get more money
By giving away free e-books, mini-courses, or even a limited number of copies of
your product, you can generate more sales than ever! Why? Because everyone
loves to get something for free.
Isn’t it counterproductive to give away what I’m selling?
Not at all! Holding contests, free drawings and giveaways is great publicity for
you, and as a result you’ll get more traffic to your web site. More traffic means
more exposure, and more exposure...well, you get the idea!
I don’t want to give away my product!
You don’t have to! Instead of holding a contest, consider giving away e-books on
similar topics (there are thousands of free e-books floating around the internet
that anyone can give away) or coming up with a short version of your product to
hand out as a mini “teaser” course.
If you can offer everyone who comes to your web site a valuable free gift, your
visitors will spread the word about your site through their respective online
communities. Word-of-mouth is every marketer’s best friend!
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Secret #5: Give your customers a good reason to buy: free stuff.
Hosting giveaways not only gets you more web site traffic, it also serves as
powerful incentive to purchase. Gather as many bonuses as you can and be
prepared to give, give, give! Some tips on making bonuses and incentives work
for you:
• Make sure whatever you’re giving away is valuable—and not just because you
say so. It’s great to get something for free, but not so great when you find out it’s
something you already knew, or were never interested in anyway. Consider your
topic and look for giveaways that have concrete benefits for your customers.
• Give before, during and after your sales campaign. Offer a free sample of your
product or a gift for signing up for your newsletter or autoresponder series; give
bonuses with every purchase; and have a follow-up thank-you gift ready.
• Set a schedule and promote your contest or giveaway “for a limited time.”
Knowing the offer will expire gives customers added incentive to act now.
Are your web site sales still languishing?
If free stuff sounds like a great idea, my e-course “Super Web Site Profits for
Explosive Sales” is just what you need! Part V of the course lays out 6 giveaway
strategies that will flood your web site with visitors. You’ll also discover the
hottest giveaways on the ‘net and how to get your hands on them free. The $395value “Super Web Site Profits” e-course is yours at the special subscriber rate of
$49.95!
Good news: your deadline is extended! Order “Super Web Site Profits for
Explosive Sales” in the next 5 days to get the 20 free marketing surveys, the free
e-book on writing killer web copy, and a free subscription to my award-winning
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newsletter “Blast Off! Marketing,” featuring fresh bonus tips every week.
Cash in on the internet’s best-kept secrets now: www.mysalespage.com
Coming Soon: How to be a complete yo-yo on the internet
If you can’t beat ‘em... have a sale! In Special Report #6, you’ll learn the
importance of setting a price you’re willing to come down from—and then
squeezing every potential drop of profit from your huge blowout clearance. Stay
tuned!
===================================
MESSAGE #6
SUBJECT: You are a yo-yo: Here’s your Special Report #6 on internet marketing
secrets
Hi again,
Last time we talked about giving stuff away to get more money. Now you’re going
to hear another contradictory bit of advice: lower your price—and get more
money.
Now that really doesn’t make sense...
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Not true, my friend. Think about it: how many times have you walked by a
particular item and thought, “Gee, it would be nice to have it,” then a few days
later you find it on sale...what happens? You snatch it right up!
The two most powerful words in marketing: “Save money”
Discounts are even better than free stuff. You know you’re getting more value for
your dollar when you buy on sale, especially if you’re familiar with the product—
and if you’ve done your marketing homework, your customers will have already
received your message several times before you offer a sale.
Secret #6: Less is more.
When your per-unit profit goes down, the number of units you sell goes up
exponentially. This is where those “wild profits” internet marketers talk about
come in. Give your customers a bargain and they’ll line up to buy.
• Just as you did with your free incentives, put a time limit on your sale—and stick
to it. Bump your price back up at the end of the time period. Then, when
customers miss the sale, you can let them know you’ll offer it again soon. This
will keep more people watching your web site for deals!
• Don’t undercut yourself by charging dirt-cheap rates. Even if you’ve built your
entire marketing campaign on a shoestring, you are in business and deserve to
be compensated for your time, if nothing else. If you’ve set your rates wisely from
the beginning, you should be able to offer big discounts and not end up “scraping
by.”
• Consider investing a little more money in marketing your sale. Remember, sale
items sell faster and in greater quantity than regular priced items, so the added
exposure you’ll get for a few extra marketing dollars will be priceless.
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I’m putting my money where my mouth is...
Yep, you guessed it: I’m offering you a discount. A huge discount. Buy “Super
Web Site Profits for Explosive Sales” in the next week at 50 percent off the
special subscriber rate! You’ll find out the incredible strategies successful internet
marketers use to promote sales events and make thousands of dollars in just a
few weeks!
My e-course will also show you exactly where and how to advertise your sale on
the internet for an explosive response, and much more—all for just $25! But you
must order within the next week to take advantage of this offer.
Order “Super Web Site Profits for Explosive Sales” at the special sale rate and
you’ll still get the 20 free marketing surveys, the free e-book on writing killer web
copy, and a free subscription to my award-winning newsletter “Blast Off!
Marketing,” featuring fresh bonus tips every week. Click here now:
www.mysalespage.com
Don’t go away…we’re almost there!
Your final Special Report will arrive soon, where you’ll learn the most crucial
internet marketing secret of all. Here’s a hint: it has something to do with
lunchmeat...
Stay tuned!
===================================
MESSAGE #7
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SUBJECT: The most important thing to (not) do for your customers: Special
Report #7
You’re about to discover the Number One secret to successful internet
marketing, and it’s not about what you do—it’s about what you don’t do.
Put your customers on a no-spam diet.
That’s right! Making sure you don’t spam is the most important step in your
internet marketing campaign. Not only will unsolicited mail and web site hype
drive customers away in droves, it can also get your site banned from search
engines and choke off your traffic before you get started.
But isn’t all internet marketing spam?
Wrong again! The key to avoiding spam is to build an opt-in list. This is where
people actually sign up and ask to hear more about your product (like you did
when you signed up for this free report series).
You may think this severely limits your market reach, but again...wrong idea.
Since the people on your list have already expressed interest, your odds of
converting subscribers to buyers is far greater than the traditional “cold sell”
spam marketing: 1 in 10 instead of 1 in 500! Can you beat those odds?
Secret #7: No more throwing spaghetti at the wall.
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That’s what spam marketing is like: throwing spaghetti at the wall to see how
many pieces stick. By avoiding spam-like techniques, you guarantee yourself
greater profits and happier customers—who in turn will bring you even more
business. Apply these tips to your marketing to ban spam from your domain:
• When you send out list messages, don’t stuff your messages full of graphics
and hype. Stick to the facts, ma’am: describe your product, tell them exactly how
they’ll benefit from it, and put substance in your send-outs. People want to know
that you know what you’re talking about!
• Never, ever send unsolicited e-mail. Ever. If ISPs start receiving complaints
about messages coming from your domain, they will blacklist your site, and your
business will be as good as dead.
• Spam-proof your web site along with your e-mails. Don’t practice keyword
stuffing, using mirror sites, placing invisible text, or other “cheat” methods of
boosting your search engine ranks. DO offer concrete, valuable information in an
eye-pleasing format, and be honest. Believe it or not, people appreciate honesty!
Are you ready to pump up your profits?
“Super Web Site Profits for Explosive Sales” explains every detail you need to
keep spam from your marketing and still get buyers excited about your product.
You’ll learn the “buzz words” that sell product and the “dud words” that kill sales.
You’ll find out how to strike the perfect balance between hype and information.
You’ll even get a look at powerful examples of web sites and sales messages
that have actually generated thousands in sales for their creators!
Did you miss my blowout sale? You can still get the $395 value “Super Web Site
Profits” e-course for only $49.95. You’ll even get a fourth valuable bonus if you
order within the next week! In addition to the 20 free marketing surveys, the free
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e-book on writing killer web copy, and a free subscription to my award-winning
newsletter “Blast Off! Marketing,” featuring fresh bonus tips every week, you will
receive a free in-depth web site evaluation from an internet marketing
professional. You’ll find out exactly what’s working and what’s not on your site—
and how to fix it—absolutely free!
Don’t wait another minute. Start making money now: www.mysalespage.com
P.S. Though this is the end of your free Special Report series, I’ll contact you
again in a few days to find out how you’re coming along on your road to internet
marketing success. I may even have a special offer, just for you...
Stay tuned!
===================================
FOLLOW-UP MESSAGE (#8)
SUBJECT: Even more internet marketing secrets! Act now...this is your last
chance
Are you applying your internet marketing secrets to your web site? By now you
may have noticed an increase in interest, and you may even be enjoying more
sales!
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Do you want to know more?
I’m going to let you in on even more internet marketing secrets—at absolutely no
cost to you. There is a secret section on my web site with loads of marketing
resources, helpful articles, free tools and expert advice, and it’s available only to
subscribers. Here is your secret link to this marketing treasure:
www.myhiddenpage.com
Happy marketing!
Welcome to Last Chance Gulch
If you missed my super special sale, I have good news for you: it’s back by
popular demand! But you have to act fast—purchase “Super Web Site Profits for
Explosive Sales” within the next 48 hours to receive an incredible 50 percent off
the special subscriber rate! The in-depth insider secrets you’ll learn will pay for
themselves over and over. You can start to see a profit boom in as little as two
weeks!
Order within the next 48 hours to get this special discount as well as all 4
bonuses: a $150 value for absolutely nothing. You’ll get the 20 free marketing
surveys, the free e-book on writing killer web copy, a free subscription to my
award-winning newsletter “Blast Off! Marketing” featuring fresh bonus tips every
week, and a free in-depth web site evaluation from an internet marketing
professional. Act fast—this offer expires in just 48 hours! Get your spectacular,
one-time-only deal here: www.mysalespage.com
===================================
THE END – OR IS IT THE BEGINNING?
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Social Marketing
As I'm writing this, social marketing is probably the hottest marketing technique
today. Millions of people all across the world are involved, although most of them
are not focusing on the marketing technique per se, but on using social media as
part of building their relationships online.
What is social marketing?
Social marketing appeared as a marketing discipline in the 1970s. Before this,
marketing was one-dimensional, where the company announced their product or
service. And people listened to the announcement, and bought their product or
service based upon the announcement (advertisement).
Social marketing, to be brief, is about using the same marketing principles that
we use to sell products to consumers as we use to sell ideas, attitudes and
behaviors. When you use social marketing, you try to influence social behaviors
not to benefit yourself, but to benefit the target audience and the general society.
Examples of social networking sites:
http://www.twitter.com
http://www.myspace.com
http://facebook.com
http://mywahmspace.com
http://www.linkedin.com
http://www.friendwise.com
http://www.flickr.com
http://www.ryze.com
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http://www.classmates.com
http://match.com
http://www.catster.com & http://www.dogster.com
http://del.icio.us
http://multiply.com
Many talk about social networking, instead of social marketing. Anyway, it’s a
phenomena defined by linking people to each other in some way. Social
networks grow from the personal interactions of the people within them.
There’s a growing online community of internet users with common interests.
Social networking can spread the word about a product, business, event or
anything else very quickly.
Using social networking can provide you a wealth of knowledge and help you
figure out what exactly your target market wants, needs, and is searching for.
Social networking (and bookmarking) is a great way to build quality links to your
site and many times deep links to individual pages.
One bit of linkbait (linkbait being something people come looking for to tell others
about, a hot topic perhaps) can bring in hundreds and sometimes thosands of
links to your website.
Brand awareness spreads for your site/product as more people share it and read
about it
In most cases social networking is completely free and costs only the amount of
time it takes to submit your link with a description
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Having other people favorite you and link to you, on your topic will help build trust
and establish you as an expert in your topic.
One of the best benefits to social networking is the connections you make with
people interested in your topic or field of work
The technology (web 2.0)
Web 2.0 was originally characterized as interactivity in a website and making it
something more than just words on a page. As far as I can see, there is no actual
definition for the term web 2.0, it has been shaped and molded to mean different
things over the past years depending on the discussion. But what’s important to
know is that it’s about using the web as a platform, web 2.0 is used when the tool
or the technology is new and trendy. Examples of web 2.0 includes blogs, wikis,
tagging, social bookmarking, rss and syndications, and multimedia sharing sites.
Users can add content in many forms, comments, pictures, articles, etc. It’s been
stated that the launch of web 2.0 was like introducing democracy to the Internet.
There are voting sites, consumer information, everyone have the chance to give
their opinions for whatever reason. Web 2.0 has become more like a buzzword something people say when something is new.
When people talk about Web 2.0, they talk about the technology behind the
websites. When people talk about social marketing, it’s the marketing technique.
For instance. Both Twitter and Facebook are Web 2.0 sites, and you can use
both as part of your social marketing strategy.
Let me provide you with an example.
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As a social marketer, you want to sell your product, but in order to sell it, you
need to find a conversation online about a problem that your product will solve.
You can do this in many different ways (more on that later), like using Twitter
search to find the topic and follow every conversation on the most interesting
topics related to your product.
I'm promoting a software called TweetAdder. I think it's the best software when it
comes to adding thousands of targeted followers on Twitter. In order to promote
this software, I'll just use Twitter search and follow conversations about how to
get more Twitter followers. Every time someone asks this question, or talks about
it, I'll join in and tell them my story.
This way, I'll provide them with a solution and I'm not really selling, at least not
when it comes to the traditional way of selling a product.
Social marketing, involves both interacting and engaging with your target
audience, as well as setting up individual webpages on communities including
Squidoo and HubPages.com (and many more, I'll provide you with a long list of
social marketing communities later).
Using social marketing
You should always start by creating good content as usual. Content is still the
most important part.
Don't sell, or at least don't sound pitchy - help, inform, teach, and sales will
follow.
You should have a plan and goals just like you would with any other marketing
campaign.
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Find where your target audiences are online and join them in some of those
places as an active participant.
Encourage your visitors to share your content by making it easy for them and
including a "share this" plugin or buttons alongside your content (that’s if you
have your own blog/website).
Open up the comments section and hear what people have to say, respond to it
both on the page and via email to keep them coming back to continue the
conversation.
Make yourself available, let your readers email you questions, and more
importantly answer them.
Keep the content fresh, and update often.
Take advantage of video and audio to tell people about your product.
Use the interactivity to understand your community and provide them with even
better content and answers to their questions and problems.
Be mindful not to spam, it's easy to get carried away and go overboard in social
media.
Make your content easy to subscribe to via rss feed and email subscriptions
Interaction with Website Visitors
As part of your social marketing strategy, I highly recommend that you have your
own website, preferrably a blog.
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It’s all about interaction. You and your visitors.
Blog comments allow visitors to comment on articles that you have written and
offer their insight.
A message board or discussion forum allows your visitors to not only comment,
but to start a conversation and ask questions and meet each other.
Voting and polls allow them to express their favorite content and give you an idea
of what they like.
Live chat for support or social lets you talk directly with your visitors.
Adding audio to your website allows you to personally and verbally communicate
a message to your readers. There is a big difference in how written and spoken
language is interpretted so it can help make your purpose more clear.
Video works much the same way as audio, your visitors can see and hear you.
Social bookmarking buttons and links allow your visitors to tell others about your
site easily and let them know they liked what they found there.
Contact forms let your reader contact you directly with their thoughts and
questions.
If you use a wiki, it will allow your visitors to add their own content to your site.
A few words about using video
Using video to communicate and stay interactive with people can be really
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powerful. But, there are a few things you need to know before you get started.
There are different file formats:
mpeg - A multiplexed (audio and video combined) MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 file mpeg
was not developed for any particular operating system
wmv - windows media video file
qt - quicktime movie
mov - designed initially for the Mac platform but is now usable via a plugin and
helper application on most other operating systems
avi - audio/video interleaved. Originally developed as a rival to Quicktime format
for Windows machines but will be playable on most computers via helpers and
plug ins
rm - archetypial streamed video files, basic player can still be downloaded for
free at http://www.real.com/. You can also use the files as non streamed format,
but they are not so well designed for that
Video can better illustrate your product and service benefits by showing them
what it can do for them and telling them yourself, in person via the video. A lot of
people are using video to sell their products, or sell products as an affiliate
marketer.
Visually eye catching directs your reader where you want them to go and then
holds their attention for you to get your message across.
Studies show that using video increases coversion rates. It’s all about attention
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and trust. People will watch your video, and it’s more likely that they’ll trust you
more if they see you, and listen to you talk.
A video can enhance your sales letter, and in many cases it can replace it all
together. Although, I highly recommend that you combine text, images and video
for your sales letters.
Videos help to explain points that are very difficult to explain in plain textual
writing, even with the best copywriters sometimes it is hard to get across your
message.
It’s asier for a visitor to visually see a demonstration on a help topic or tutorial as
opposed to just reading about it.
Audio and Podcasts
Podcasting is online audio content that is delivered via an RSS feed. It gives new
options in terms of content and programming compared to radio. Listeners
decide when and where they want to listen, it's conveniant for them and you.
Podcasting works the same as a standard RSS feed reader that you are used to
subscribing to. Well, almost, it contains an audio file, and you need a reader that
supports podcasting
Podcasting files can be added to an ipod or mp3 device, and you can even
subscribe to podasts via iTunes to have them added right into your itunes
account.
Programs like Feed for All http://www.feedforall.com/ make podcast creation and
editing easy.
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Podcasting can be used for talk shows, tutorials, music demos, educational
training, stories, newsletters, and probably a lot more as well.
To create a great podcast, your equipment matters. A quality microphone will
help ensure that you have a quality audio file.
Adding iTunes tags and submitting your podcast for inclusion in the iTunes Music
Store can help attract a large listener base of people interested in your topic.
It’s important to include readable information too. Like detailed show notes or a
transcript of the show in the description of the podcast feed to help gather
interest for your show, and if you add text, it’s easier for search engines to rank
your content and get new visitors to find your content.
Teleseminars
Teleseminars are good for teaching and explaining your products, going over the
keypoints in an ebook for example and taking Q&A for your customers.
Give directions to your callers, let them know how to mute and unmute
themselves in case of background noise and let them know when you'll be
opening the line for questions.
Be sure to use a teleseminar service that allows you to record, then you can
make an mp3 version available later for those who missed the call.
You can also send the mp3 to a transcriptionist so you can have a text version
along with the mp3 for your members.
Average length for a teleseminar is about an hour, some more detailed topics will
have calls that are 1.5 hours or 2 hours.
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Keep a drink nearby, especially if you are the only presenter, all that talking
makes your mouth dry and you want to make sure you sound clear.
Include Q&A time to encourage participation from the listeners and add value to
your call.
If you have a guest to interview during your teleseminar have a backup plan or
secondary guest just in case something happens that they don't make it to the
call
Prepare an outline for your teleseminar to help keep you on track for the time
frame you've allotted, you can even give the basic outline to your participants so
they can follow along and take notes accordingly.
End your teleseminar with a call to action for your members, give them an
assignment, ask them to send in feedback, direct them to your message board
etc...
Make your website mobile friendly
You get access to the Internet with mobile phones, ebook readers, pda’s and all
sorts of mobile gadgets. You should test your website, and see if it works ok with
the major mobile phones and ebook readers, like the Kindle, nook, and iPhone.
You have access from close to everywhere and with almost every gadget. You
need to think about if it’s important that your websites should be available from
every single mobile device.
Size matters, think of the size of a pda compared to your computer monitor, most
website designs don't lay out well on smaller display.
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Going mobile gives you the chance to capture on-the-go customers in need of
your product or service.
Consider a separate site for wireless users.
Add some simple code to your main page that detects a mobile operating
system, such as Windows CE and/or Palm OS, and have it redirect to a basic,
low-bandwidth page.
A seperate site would include the basic bones of your site, contact info,
summary, and include a link back to your main site from those pages.
You may want a domain mirror just for the mobile users(Example
www.mysite.com is your site and you could put a mirror on a subdomain
mobile.mysite.com).
A PHP file which will be automatically prepended to every page of our site that
changes all URLs to mobileized URLs.
Modify .htaccess file to allow prepends.
In the end of you're not sure how to handle formatting, mirroring, and seperate
areas for mobile users hire a professional designer that specializes in mobile
computing. What’s important is that your website works with mobile devices.
A few words about Squidoo
Squidoo is an exceptionally popular service that allows users to create one-page
websites referred to as 'lenses'.
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It's fairly easy to use Squidoo to create an authority website with search engines
like Google. Each time you build a lens, you are able to rank for specific
keywords used within your page's title and content itself. It's a very effective
strategy for generating back links and generating traffic to your website.
Squidoo also offers additional modules that you can integrate into your lens
pages, including the option to incorporate an opt-in form into your page, so that
you can begin to develop an email list of prospects.
You can also earn money from within the Squidoo community based on affiliate
commissions generated from the different modules and add-ons that you inject
into your lense pages, including Amazon modules, and Adsense. Visit
http://www.Squidoo.com
The reason Squidoo is social marketing, is because it's really a community.
People inside Squidoo are commenting on each other's lenses, and people
outside of Squidoo are doing it. You can also add extensions to your lenses like a
system for voting. This way all your targeted visitors can share their experience,
and you'll be providing them with your product or service at the same time.
A few words about Hub Pages
Another similar service that allows you to develop one-page websites that rank
heavily within the search engines is available at www.Hubpages.com
With Hub Pages, you can also earn revenue from different add ons that you
decide to implement, but are also able to add tags to your hub pages for better
ranking within the search engine.
With Hub Pages, there are a few restrictions in place that you need to pay
attention to, including:
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You are only permitted to feature two external (outgoing) links on each hub that
you create.
Your content has to be unique, (no PLR allowed) and it has to be of high quality.
You are not permitted to use excessive tags.
As long as you focus on developig high quality hub pages, you can benefit from
the popularity of the Hub community, as well as the back links from each hub
page that you create.
Make sure when you create external pages on websites like Hub Pages or
Squidoo that you interlink your pages to your main website's URL.
By cross linking from remotely hosted pages to your own main site, you will be
able to develop a solid back link campaign, quickly and at absolutely no cost.
This is also a very effective method of ensuring your website is indexed.
A few words about wordpress and blogger
There are other free methods of building back links and maximizing your
exposure online by using social marketing, including by developing a quick blog
on http://www.Wordpress.com and http://www.Blogger.com
Both of these services also carry weight within the search engines, which means
that you will be able to increase your outreach just by spending a few minutes
developing a single page website that showcases your main website, or your
products and services.
Once again, make sure to link back to your main website each time you create
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an individual page on remotely hosted services.
A few words about Twitter
The social media system I use more than any of the others are Twitter. As I’m
writing this, I have close to 11,000 followers and I get targeted traffic to my
website on a daily basis. Everything is automated, thanks to a software called
TweetAdder.
If you’re not using Twitter, you should start right this very minute. Download and
read my ebook Twitter Virtue: The real marketing power of microblogging, then
you’ll understand why it’s important that you use Twitter.
Why use social marketing?
As I've already mentioned, social marketing is probably the hottest marketing
technique today. Millions of people are using social media every single day. Let's
use Facebook and Twitter as example. Facebook has more than 300 million
active users, and more than 120 million users log on to Facebook at least once
each day. Twitter attracted 44.5 million unique visitors worldwide in June, 2009,
according to comScore. ComScore now counts it as the No. 52 largest site in the
world.
If you want a large audience, social marketing is what you should be doing.
How to use social marketing to build your brand1
When it comes to social marketing, you should build your brand and reputation
by conversation. There are at least 5 ways that you should use social media.
1
http://www.lizhover.com/2009/05/guest-post-using-social-media-to-build-your-brand/
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Build powerful profiles You should always start with your profile. If you’re like me, you’re using Twitter,
Facebook and many of the other social media sites. When you do use various
sites, you should always start by building a strong profile. Let me people know
who you are, and tell them why you’re interesting and why they should buy from
you. Use powerful images, and focus on creating similar profiles on the various
sites. This way, people will know it’s you and your brand. Brand recognition is
important, because in the end it might lead to brand preference and loyalty. Think
of it as buying a can of soda, which brand do you prefer?
Listen, engage and converse You need to join the conversation, because the conversation is what social
media is all about. First, listen to what people say. Don’t just jump in, wait untill
you know for sure what they’re talking about and when you do jump in, be
engaging and think of the conversation as you’re entering a party of people you
don’t know.
Be genuine and provide value You should try to expand your network, but you should always be yourself. Tell
people what you believe is true, what you care about, and provide value to the
conversation.
Develop an authority blog You should be blogging. Blogging is part of social marketing and a great way to
drive targeted traffic. It’s a place to share your interests and your passion. It’s
also a great place to start conversations. For instance, I usually start my
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conversations at my blog (slymarketing) and since my posts are automatically
published on Twitter, the conversation continues on Twitter and the
conversations on Twitter drives traffic to my blog.
Personalise your brand If you’re a freelancer, you are your brand. You need to be authentic and genuine.
If your brand is a product or a company (service), then your brand should have
characteristics like a person. Your brand should have a voice of its own. For
instance, check out M&M’s on Twitter. They’ve personlised their chocolates MMS
Racing and M&M’s Green. It makes them cool and unique.
List of the top social marketing sites2
This is a list of the top 50 social marketing sites. It’s a random list, not sorted by
the most popular or by niche. Think of it as a list of social marketing sites that
every business needs to be on.
General Social Websites
Reddit: http://reddit.com
Digg: http://digg.com
Del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us
StumbleUpon: http://www.stumbleupon.com
Technorati: http://technorati.com
Ning: http://www.ning.com
Squidoo: http://www.squidoo.com
Mixx: http://www.mixx.com
2
http://www.doshdosh.com/list-of-social-media-news-websites/
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Shoutwire: http://www.shoutwire.com
Newsvine: http://www.newsvine.com
IndianPad: http://www.indianpad.com
Linkfilter: http://linkfilter.net
NewsCloud: http://newscloud.com
Hugg: http://hugg.com
Plime: http://www.plime.com
C2NN: http://www.care2.com/news
Kirsty: http://www.kirtsy.com
Nowpublic: http://www.nowpublic.com
Stirrdup: http://stirrdup.com
Searchles: http://searchles.com
Linkinn: http://www.linkinn.com
Earthfrisk: http://earthfrisk.com
Truemors: http://truemors.com
StumbleUpon: http://www.stumbleupon.com
Linkswarm: http://linkswarm.com
Niche Social Websites
Sphinn: http://sphinn.com
Dzone: http://www.dzone.com/links
Tweako: http://tweako.com
Autospies: http://www.autospies.com
Design Float: http://www.designfloat.com
Ball Hype: http://ballhype.com
YCombinator: http://news.ycombinator.com/news
SWiK: http://swik.net
Buzzflash: http://www.buzzflash.net
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DNHour: http://www.dnhour.com
PlugIM: http://www.plugim.com
Showhype: http://showhype.com
Small Business Brief: http://showhype.com
Hypediss: http://www.hypediss.com
Chictini: http://chictini.com
DotNetKicks: http://www.dotnetkicks.com
Lipstick: http://lipstick.com
Hubspot: http://links.hubspot.com
Winelifetoday: http://www.winelifetoday.com
iliketotallyloveit: http://www.iliketotallyloveit.com
Value Investing News: http://www.valueinvestingnews.com
Teenwag: http://teenwag.com
Muti: http://muti.co.za
Tip’d: http://tipd.com
Gooruze: http://Gooruze.com
Another awesome list of social media and social networking sites can be found at
Traffikd.
Press Releases
A Press Release is a news story that either announces an event, an award,
discounts, sales and even newsworthy items relating to your company.
With Press Releases, you are able to reach out to a larger market than many
other forms of advertising, and in most cases, word will begin to spread within
hours of your press release being approved and distributed.
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Before your Press Release can be circulated to your target market, it needs to
pass the approval of editors, which means that your press release should be
structured so it appears to be newsworthy, rather than a blatant advertisement.
Traditionally, a well-structured press release should not consist of more than a
single page.
A Press Release that addresses the fundamental aspect of what people are
looking for (how it benefits them) will outperform any other kind, so keep it
trimmed, comprehensive and highly targeted so that it communicates directly
with your customer base.
Here is the basic anatomy of a successful press release:
The introductory of your press release typically includes the words: “For
immediate release” and should include a specific date as to when publication is
expected.
You could use the “For Release Before…” date or “For Release After…” date.
Most people use the “For immediate release” option.
Headline:
This will be the most important part of the press release, so plan to spend a great
deal of time on it. You want to grab the reader instantly with it, so they’ll be
interested in reading the rest of the release.
Try to focus on incorporating power, action driven words within your headline,
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such as:
Announcing!
Secret
Free
Discover
Strategies
Success
Shocking
Summary:
The summary simply offers a snippet of what your Press Release is about. It’s
like taking your entire press release and describing it in four sentences or less. It
should work in a similar way that your title does, in terms of catching their
attention and luring them in, so keep it direct and strong.
Content/Body:
The body content of your press release serves as the information lifeline that
provides all of the information needed for your reader to clearly understand your
message.
The thing to remember is that your press release should be designed in a similar
format as a journalistic style news story, so that the most important element is
featured first.
The reason for this is that you’ve pulled in your readers with the headline, and
now you need to keep them there, so they’ll read through the rest of it or read the
most important facts before moving on.
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The last couple of paragraphs within the body of your press release should tie
everything together. It reminds your readers about the point of the press release.
At the end of your press release, you want to signify that’s there no more. It
would look like this:
###
Resources:
Press Release Creation Services:
http://www.pressequalizer.com
http://www.pressedge.com/
Press Release Writers:
http://www.custompressrelease.com
http://www.prnine.com
http://www.Press-Release-Writing.com
http://www.contentdone.com
http://www.contentcustoms.com
Press Release Distribution Channels:
http://www.PRWeb.com
http://www.URLWire.com
http://www.PRNewsWire.com
http://www.Free-Press-Release.com
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http://www.marketwire.com
http://www.wiredprnews.com/
http://www.livepresswire.com/
http://www.PressReleaseNetwork.com
http://www.WebWire.com
http://eWorldWire.com
http://www.BusinessWire.com
http://www.PRLeads.com
Article Marketing
Article marketing is one of the most popular methods of generating relevant back
links from authority websites, and in maximizing your outreach with well-crafted,
high quality content directed at your target audience.
Each article should be between 300 and 600 words in length and provide useful
information that your target audience would find appealing.
The greater the number of articles in circulation, the more exposure you will
receive, however you always want to focus on producing high quality content,
rather than just on the quantity that is being distributed between these networks.
Apart from directly benefiting from the exposure received by having your articles
showcased within popular article directories, as an article marketer you will also
benefit from the frequency in which search engines crawl article directories due
to new content being posted each day.
This allows you to generate exceptional back links from these article directories
based on the number of articles featured that contain links to your website within
the Author’s Resource box. I’ll get back to this in a second.
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Since articles are available for re-print, where webmasters can use your content
on their websites and communities, (as long as the Author’s resource box is left
intact), you will also be able to build additional back links from the websites that
feature your content throughout their network.
The Author’s Resource Box
The most important thing to remember, other than writing excellent articles, is
that you need to create a compelling Author’s Resource Box. The resource box is
the area where you are able to include a link to your website and direct readers
to explore your own personal site.
Since the space allocated is quite limited, you need to focus on using a strong
call to action that prompts the reader to click your link and visit your website.
The best way to go about creating your Author’s Resource box is to think of it as
a short commercial, where you are given a very limited time to explain the
benefits and highlight the most important features of your product or service.
In addition, if you offer a freebie or giveaway within your Resource Box, rather
than a direct pitch (such as directing your reader to download a free report or
ebook by visiting your squeeze page), you will instantly maximize your articles
performance in terms of driving targeted traffic to your websites, as well as in
building relevant mailing lists of potential buyers.
Here are a few things I successfully featured within my article resource boxes to
generate traffic and build a list of responsive buyers:
Free Reports
Free Ebooks
Free Scripts
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Free Content (PLR, MRR)
Free membership (even trial will work)
Free video tutorial
Here is an example of a well constructed resource box:
*****************************************
Jens P. Berget specializes in teaching new marketers how to set up highly
profitable marketing campaigns and heavily monetized websites using the power
of FREE resources!
To gain instant access to all of his incredibly popular collection of resources
absolutely free, visit his website at: http://www.slymarketing.com
*****************************************
It’s important that you write your author’s resource box before you write your
article, because once you finish your article, you’ll want to publish it right away
(believe me you will). It’s important that your author’s resource box is related to
the topic of your article. If you’ve written an article about gardening, your author’s
resource box shouldn’t be about Internet marketing. It should be about
gardening.
Why It’s Important To Write Excellent Articles
Your articles have to be excellent in order to attract traffic to your website. The
higher the quality the more visitors they’ll attract. Another reason they need to be
excellent is that you should become an expert in your niche. Once you’ve
published some excellent articles, people who have read them will start to think
of you as an authority - that’s exactly what you are looking for.
The great thing about writing articles as part of your marketing strategy, is that
once you publish your articles to the right directories (I’ve added a list of the top
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article directories below), you’ll get traffic for years to come. You’ll also get
backlinks that will help you rank higher in the search engines.
Before You Write
When you write articles, you should always try to focus on teaching people
something. Your goal is to get them to trust you and the information you provide,
and try to entertain them. If you’re successful, they’ll think of you as an authority
within the topic of the article, and they’ll visit your website for more information.
The topic of your article should be about something people are searching for (on
Google or any of the major search engines). The hotter the topic, the more
people are looking for your article. I never use keyword research when it comes
to writing articles, but many people do, and you should consider it. If you find the
right keywords (lots of traffic and little competition), you might get a lot of traffic. I
like to find the topic first, then just write regardless of the «right» keywords
(SEO). I’m thinking, if I’m writing a great article and providing some excellent
information and people enjoy reading it - people will find it, and it will bring me
lots of traffic.
Length, headline and keywords
The lenght of your article should be between 300 and 500 words, usually my
articles are closer to 500 words. The words in my headlines are used at least five
times during the article, but no more than ten times. If you use the words too
much, you might get «hurt» by the search engines. You don’t need the exact
same words in the exact same order. You can rearrange them or use synonyms.
How should you write your articles?
I’ll tell you how I’m writing my articles. My articles are between 300 and 500
words, and I use between 20 and 30 minutes to write them.
I start with a pen and paper, and create a list of ideas for the article. I start writing
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out a few ideas for topics, and I think about the ideas for a while, sometimes a
few days (and sometimes just a few minutes). Then, when I’m ready, I just start
typing for 5 minutes. After the first 5 minutes, I review what I have been typing
and ask myself if it’s good enough, and if I should keep typing. If I have problems
with writers block, then I’ll go for a walk. A few minutes of walking is perfect for
my mind and I always get a lot of new ideas while walking.
I think that the best articles are not written all at once. When finished with your
first draft, you should leave it for a while, then, come back to it and read it again.
You might want to add a few extra points, and edit some of the text. The third
time you look at it, it’s probably a lot better than when you finished it the first time.
Finally, always try to use bulletpoints in your articles. People like them, it’s easy
to read and it makes your article looks more informative.
How many articles should you write?
You should write as many articles as possible, but at least 10 articles related to
your website. The more excellent articles you write and publish to the directories
below, the more traffic you’ll receive.
Many marketers are using software to help them create many new articles from
just one article. This way, they can get a lot of extra traffic by publishing
hundreds of articles instead of just a few. I’m not using software like that, but if
you’re interested, you should take a closer look at Mass Article Control.
Where to publish your articles
The top 10 article directories are:
ezinearticles.com
ehow.com
ArticleBase.com
buzzle.com
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webpronews.com
goarticles.com
helium.com
articlesnatch.com
articledashboard.com
articlealley.com
Discussion Forums
One of the easiest methods of building back links to your website, while exploring
potential product ideas, evaluating niches, and communicating with your target
audience is by spending time in forums and community boards that are focused
on your market.
Joining discussion forums and joining discussions are important, and it should be
part of your social marketing technique.
You could install your own discussion forum/ message board, or you could
register at one of the popular discussion forums in your niche.
First, here are some of the most popular discussion boards that you can install
yourself. A few of them are free, and a few will cost you money.
http://www.vbulletin.com
http://www.phpbb.com
http://getvanilla.com
http://www.proboards.com/
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http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/forum/
http://www.ezboard.com
http://www.ivillage.com/messageboards
http://www.boards2go.com
What’s important is that you, as a user, can join discussions and share your
thoughts.
This form of user generated content can grow very quickly but needs a lot of
maintenance and enough people to keep it active so it doesn't grow stale. This is
why I don’t use my own discussion forum. And it can take up a lot of space if you
don't place limit the size of signature files and avatar images.
On the other hand, using a discussion forum brings people back to your site so
they can continue to participate in the conversations they joined adding a steady
stream of traffic to your website. If you don’t have your own discussion forum,
using a signature to point people to your website(s) is very important.
A discussion forum is a great way to build relationship with your visitors, by
establishing yourself as a trusted expert on your topics.
What’s important to remember is that this is not a fast process, it takes time to
build a community and keep it active, getting a discussion forum off the ground is
a lot of work.
It’s important to add moderators, to keep things moving and keep away
spammers. You can’t do this all by yourself, well maybe in the beginning. In most
communities people will volunteer to moderate, but it is usually a good idea to
hire 1 or 2 people to work your boards as well.
It’s probably better to have no discussion forum than to have unactive "dead"
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forums with no recent activity. Make sure you plan ahead and have some people
ready for your discussion forum before you launch.
How to find the best discussion forums
There are many variables you should think about when it comes to finding a
discussion forum to join. You’re looking for a forum with lots of members and lots
of traffic.
You’re looking for a discussion forum with lots of active members, not just a lot of
traffic. The more quickly the discussions grow, the more fun you’ll be having, and
the easier it is to build your network.
The posts should be open to the public to read. If they’re open, each post will
most likely get traffic from search engines as well.
One easy method of locating potential discussion forums message and message
boards is by reviewing the directory of forums located at
http://www.big-boards.com
You can also search for active discussions in your market by using the Google
search engine. Visit http://www.google.com and enter in search strings including
“your keyword+forum” or “your-keyword+message boards” to locate hundreds of
possible communities.
Complete Forum Directory (with alexa ranking, etc):
http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/best-webmaster-forums
When it comes to Internet Marketing, I am using two discussion forums, and
that’s all I need (both of them are really powerful and with thousands of
members):
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Digital Point: http://forums.digitalpoint.com
Warrior Forum: http://www.warriorforum.com
Benefits of participating
Obviously, the more active you are within these forums, the more traffic you will
be able to generate to your website. One thing you want to keep in mind is that
you need to do your part in building a solid reputation, and not appear to be
spamming the boards with the intention of promoting yourself or your websites.
Instead, focus on building relationships within the community, by offering help,
resources and engaging in active discussions.
There are at least three benefits of participating in discussion forums:
1. Testing
Before you start selling, before you launch your website, you should ask people
on the discussion forums about their opinion. This way, you’d know that your
product, or your sales copy is great before you launch it to the general public.
Recommendations
When you’re thinking about buying a new product, you should ask people about
the product. If you do, you’ll get their reviews and opinions before you buy. I
always do this before buying anything related to Internet marketing, no matter if
the product is brand new, there’s always at least one member that has tried it.
Building a network
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When you become active in a discussion forum, you’ll be building a network of
people who are like you (enjoy the same stuff, are involved in the same niche as
you). By building a network in your niche you’ll keep up with what’s going on in
your industry.
3. Direct sales
When you use a signature, sometimes people will click on it and buy whatever
you’re selling (because your signature is either a direct link to your product or
your website. This is not why you use discussion forums though. It’s more
powerful to use it for testing, recommendations and reviews.
It’s all about creating a strong profile
In order to be successful with marketing using discussion forums, you should be
creating a strong profile. A strong profile will make people more interested in you,
and when they’re interested in you, they’ll be visiting your links and your website
(which means more traffic).
There are five steps to create a strong profile:
1. Introduce yourself
When you join a discussion forum, you should always start by introducing
yourself before you start publishing questions and participating in the
discussions.
Tell people who you are, where you’re from, and why you joined the discussion
forums. All the most popular discussion forums have a section of introductions,
that’s where you start.
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Example of a great introduction:
Hey Everyone!! New from Florida
Hi Everyone.
I just heard about this forum from a colleague. My name is Bridget, and I am from
South Florida. I am joining this forum to learn from all of you on here. I have read
through a few posts so far, and I found out I have A LOT to learn. I have recently
started to learn web design, and am in the process of developing my first
website. I hope this forum will be interesting, and imformative.
Bridget
No personal drama
There are always people arguing and involving themself too much when it comes
to discussion forums. You should always involve yourself in the discussions, but
don’t attack other people. Don’t get too personal. Don’t be controversial. You
want people to like you. If they enjoy your posts, and you, they’ll end up at your
website again and again.
Be helpful
Even though you joined the discussion forum in order to promote your products
or your website, you should always try to offer help and insight.
Don’t self-promote
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When you introduce yourself, you can tell people what you do for a living and you
can tell people about your blog and your products (if you’ve created the products
yourself). But don’t keep telling people about yourself again and again, if you do,
they get tired of you.
When people start to trust you, they’ll be visiting your profile and your websites.
They’ll become interested to learn more about you.
Signature
You should always include a signature (some forums allow signatures only after
you’ve posted a certain amount of posts). The signature will appear below all of
your posts.
Your signature should use a teaser tag about your product or your website, and a
link to it. Explain with a two sentences what purpose your product/website
serves. Include your achievement in your signature.
If you’re selling a product and you’ve earned $2,000 by selling it. Put a line
related to your income in your signature and another line related to the purpose
of your product.
Let me give you an example when it comes to a signature from photography
discussion forum:
5D x 2|580ex X 2 |17-40L |24-1054L IS |70-200 f/2.8L IS
Hasselblad 503CW | 50, 60, 80, 150mm Zeiss
| Bogen Tripod | Newton CR Bracket
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R1800 Printer | Lumiquest & Apollo Diffusers | CS3 |
MY WEBSITE - MY GALLERIES - MY BLOG
This guy has added information about his gear, and links to his website, his
galleries and blog. It’s all the information he really need in his signature file. If
people are curious, they’ll learn more about him by visiting his websites.
Creative Traffic
Sometimes, if you do something different, it might end up giving you a lot of
attention. There are many examples, and I’ll provide you with some of them later
on.
What’s important to notice, is that you need to be unique, different, and stand out
from the crowd, in order to get a lot of traffic from creative ideas. I’ve named this
chapter, creative traffic, in order to focus on the stuff that’s different. You might
want to try to come up with something similar.
Facebook
Let me begin with an example from Facebook. This is actually not a true story,
but hopefully you’ll get my point. This woman’s Facebook account was hacked,
and therfore, she didn’t really make the mistake.
I need you to think about this, before you read the story and see the profile
picture. What if your company did this in order to get more traffic? What if you
used yourself or one of your colleagues (they need to be aware about what can
happen and that this can really spread across the world) to fake a funny story?
Could this benefit your company?
Now, it’s time for the story.
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It seems that Tracy, an ordinary woman using Facebook, had a one-night-stand
with Michael. They did something different, and she thought she’d sent him a
private message about it. The message wasn’t private. In a short while, this story
was all over Facebook, and all over the Internet and on top of many of the major
social news sites. It happened in August 2009. Take a closer look at the image
below:
The Tiger Woods story
Electronic Arts makes awesome games. I’m not saying that they did this
intentionally, because what it seems like, is that they made a glitch, and did a
famous recovery. But what if Electronic Arts anticipated the response, and all the
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attention they would get from this?
A player of EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008 found a glitch in the game that
allows Tiger Woods to walk on water. The guy filmed it and posted the glitch on
YouTube. A lot of people watched the clip, and a lot of people commented. Soon
after, EA responded to the video with their own video. A version where Tiger
Woods actually walked on water and made the «Jesus Shot» that everybody
thought was a major glitch from EA. Now, it looked as it was not a glitch at all. It
ended up being funny, and a creative marketing campaign with a lot of attention
towards this game and towards Electronic Arts.
How I Became A World Class Designer in 10 Minutes
A few days ago I decided to become a professional designer. I did it in less than
10 minutes. And I'm receiving traffic to my blog from the 10 minutes I spent.
Actually, I think I'll be receiving a lot of traffic from the 10 minutes and the $90.
Ok. I'll be honest with you.
I didn't learn how to design, and I'm not a Guru, not at all. All I did was sponsor a
beautiful Wordpress theme. I found one that I really thought was amazing, it's the
Mac Blog theme. You can watch it here. I paid the designer $90, and now, you
can read in the footer that it's designed by me, and there's also a link to my blog.
I could have sponsored one link, or two links, but I decided to sponsor
everything. I don't consider this cheating, although it looks like I designed the
theme, but I didn't. To me, it's a lot like PLR. You buy the article or the e-book,
and you add your name as the author. It's about the same.
If my link is the only link in the footer, people using the theme (hopefully) won't
delete the link. If there are more than one link, then, they might find it annoying
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and might want to delete them (at least some of them).
If the link to my blog will end up on hundreds of blogs, it will provide me with lots
of link juice. Hopefully it will be very helpful when it comes to ranking in the
various search engines.
If the theme is awesome, and I think this one is, then lots of people will download
and use the theme. When lots of people are using it, traffic will be generated, and
people will eventually click on the link to my blog, and this will continue for a long
time.
You can sponsor themes at Digital Point.
Paid Traffic From Yahoo! Answers
Yahoo! Answers is a knowledge-sharing community with more than 90 million
members. Anyone can ask questions and answer them on any topic. Take a
closer look here: http://answers.yahoo.com/
With more than 90 million members and a lot more readers, I've been thinking
about how much traffic questions and answers could generate.
Before leaving for work on monday, I looked at a few sites, and I ended up at the
discussion forums at digital point. Whatever I do online, I always seem to end up
at the discussion forums. What happened was that while looking at various
discussions I found a person advertising his service for Yahoo! Answers.
For $13 he would post 25 questions to Yahoo! Answers. All the answers would
be related to the niche of the buyer. All of the answers would be linking back to
the buyers website. All he needed was a link. He would do the research, and he
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would find questions and post answers.
What this advertisement said, was that I wouldn't have to do a thing, other than
pay the man and send him the link to my blog.
I thought about this for about two minutes, and decided to try it. It was only $13
and I had never tried Yahoo Answers. Again, I was thinking about the traffic it
could generate.
I paid the man, and sent him the link to this blog.
He was fast. Within 30 minutes he had published 10 answers. I received the links
to all the answers. It looked ok. He then waited about 12 hours and published the
final 15 answers. I recived the links to all of the answers this time as well.
His answers were not detailed, and might not provide the readers with a lot of
value, but I guess they were more or less ok, and of course, they contained a link
to my website. That was the obvious reason for the test.
I was thinking that, this would provide me with link juice for the search engines
and possibly direct traffic from people clicking on the links.
Looking at Google Analytics today, I see that I have received 20 unique visitors
from Yahoo Answers during the past 48 hours.
To me, it was a test, and an interesting one. It seems that you'll receive traffic
from Yahoo Answers, and you can even outsource the service.
So far, I haven't received a lot of traffic and I probably won't, but it's going to be
interesting to see how many visitors I'll receive from this test during the next
weeks and months. My guess is that it's worth the $13.
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A very interesting real estate marketing trick
No wonder why Ralph Roberts was dubbed by Time Magazine the best-selling
realtor in America. I just read the most interesting and funny marketing trick in
real estate that I have ever seen.
I will try to explain it in my own words, and I will try to tell you why I think it´s so
interesting and funny. And I really like it, even though I understand that it´s really
a marketing trick... and I don´t like marketing tricks, well, except for when they
are very intereresting and funny.
I don´t know that much about how real estate agents do their job when it comes
to marketing, other than that they promote using newspapers and directories on
the web. But as I now understand they also send out letters to prospective clients
asking them for a job, although I am not sure about the contents of the letters.
This letter might be to people who have contacting the real estate agent for a job
to sell their house (I would think that this is what it might be all about). Many
people are contacting many different real estate agents in order to find the one
with the cheapest price and the best service. So, to follow up on the people that
have been in contact, most real estate agents sends out letters to them and try to
get them to contact them and use them for that particular job.
According to Ralph Roberts, as many as 90 percent of the people receiving the
letter might simply crumple it up and toss it in the trash. Here's where it becomes
interesting. Ralph Roberts´creative marketing idea was to follow up on that letter
to those people who didn´t contact him. The 90 percent or so that tossed the
letter in the trash.
So, what he did was the interesting and funny part:
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"About four days after I sent out the original letter, if the prospect had not gotten
in touch with me, I would send out a nearly identical letter, but this time, I wadded
it up first, smoothed it out a bit, and wrote with a red marker at the bottom of the
letter, "Please Don't Throw Me Away Again!" I inserted the letter in a plain
envelope, addressed it by hand, and mailed it to the original recipient."
This is what I call creative marketing. He received a lot of response after starting
this new marketing campaign. Many people even thougth that he had dug
through their trash to find the letter and resend it. It´s a marketing trick and most
people might understand that, some might even get a little upset by it - but I find
it very amusing.
Using Xbox Live to drive traffic and sales
I was rather surprised when I read the following post at a discussion forum. It
was something I had never thought about doing. I believe it will work for certain
niches and for certain audiences, especially if you’re targeting young boys. But of
course, more and more people are playing games online, so it might work for
many products.
This is the post:
“Hey there, like most of you, I was thinking of new ways to promote a website to
increase activity and potential sales, and I came up with something pretty new
that I would love to do for anyone who wants it.
Have you guys heard of Xbox Live? There are millions of people all over the
world playing online right now, especially games like Call of Duty Modern
Warfare 2. Every single game you play, you play with/against 11 other people.
With that said, I could play about 50 games for you daily with your URL as my
gamertag (username), as well as a profile attached to that with information about
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your forums for the players to see.
I have used this technique for a guy's website, www.UniversityStore.com, and his
traffic increased 15%, and his sales improved by about 31%. Playing 50 games
per day, while playing with 11 other equals 550 people that your site is being
advertised to DAILY, as well as 3,850 per week. Those are huge numbers that
can be added to your other marketing techniques on the Internet.
Another option for you guys is for me to play FIFA Soccer 2010, where you play
with 19 other people. This is more for those forums with sports-related themes,
but 19 viewers is better than 11.
If that doesn't interested you, I also have these games:
Halo 3
Madden NFL Football 2010
NCAA Football 2010
NBA Live 2010
Fable 2
So is anyone interested?”
You could pay a person to play, or you could play yourself.
Automate and Outsource
I’ve been struggling for a while to be able to make my websites work for me when
I’m not available, when I’m sleeping or doing something completely different.
There are many ways to do this. It’s usually all about content, and ways to
automate publishing new content.
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Let me give you a few examples.
Affiliate datafeeds can import products, descriptions, pictures etc at set intervals.
A discussion forum allows visitors to leave their comments and often get
feedback without you being there personally.
A blog, wiki, affiliate programs, or other software will allow you to set up
automatic user registration, to allow users to have a username and password
processed for immediate access instead of waiting for someone to manually
approve all new users.
A refer a friend program allows your current visitors to contact others and invite
them to your website or discussion forum.
Link checking software can keep track of backlinks and alert you when
something changes or a link to you is taken down.
Automatic shopping cart and paypal responses can thank your customer for
paying promptly and ordering from you.
Autoresponder services can keep in touch with your customers or send out your
newsletter automatically.
Think about your website purposes and tasks, if it can be automated, give
automation a try and save yourself time and money.
Having parts of your business automated frees up more time for you to focus on
other things like marketing, allowing you to stay competitive.
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Using RSS subscriptions can allow your visitors to syndicate and subscribe to
your content
Importing other RSS feeds can add fresh content to your site automatically.
Automation can be done server side or client side.Server side system has tools
that run on the server and may be more complex. Client side systems run in the
browser and is usually easier to install and get running.
Whatever you chose, I think it’s important that you automate some of your tasks,
and focus on doing the most out of your most important tasks. You don’t have
much time, it’s only 24 hours a day, and if you’re like me, you don’t want to spend
more than a few hours a day working.
Final Words
You now know exactly how to set up high performance campaigns that will
generate an unlimited amount of traffic to your websites, quickly and easily!
The most important step you can take is in consistently applying this information
to every marketing campaign that you develop, while focusing on maintaining the
momentum, by tweaking and improving your campaigns, monitoring your
progress, and expanding your outreach on a regular basis.
Spend a few hours each week building solid back links to your websites,
optimizing your pages, participating within targeted communities and blogs,
setting up action driven PPC campaigns, and exploring new strategies towards
maximizing your website' exposure.
Stay focused and on track and most importantly, never give up.
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The Future of Traffic Roots
As I wrote in the introduction, my work with Traffic Roots is not finished, actually,
not for a very long time. I’ll continue to write and update this eBook, and as long
as you’re receiving my newsletter (subscribe at the top of www.twittervirtue.com)
you’ll get a notice and a direct download link to the latest version whenever I
publish it.
I’ll be focusing on the three main categories of web traffic. Because you either
pay for the traffic, you attract it, or you borrow/steal it. There are also long term
traffic and short term traffic. Everything will be covered in this edition, but even
more detailed in the future editions.
I’ll continue to update this eBook with an overview of what kind of traffic you
should be using in order to get the effects you’re looking for. Usually, it’s a
combination of the three main categories above.
The focus of my writing will be about the 19 web traffic tactics below (the list is in
no particular order):
Pay Per Click Advertising
Banner Advertising
Text Link Advertising
Paid Reviews
eZine Advertising
Article Marketing
Discussion Forums
Press Releases
Classified Ads
Social Marketing
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Viral Videos
Blog Commenting
Reviews
Blogging
Viral Reports
Search Engine Optimization
Joint Ventures
Traffic Exchanges
Creative Traffic
The reason I’ve named the last category creative traffic, is that this will be about
new traffic tactics that I have discovered. Traffic tactics that won’t necessarily fit
in any of the other categories.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please send them to
jens@marketingflop.com
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TRAFFIC ROOTS By Jens P. Berget

Transcription

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