nternet Marketing Trends for 2008

by Gillian Meier

As the internet's voice shifts from being dictated by journalists and companies to consumers (citizen media) we will see a number of changes in the way in which companies market their brands on the internet.

The top 10 internet marketing tips for 2008 are:

1. Optimize your websites content:

First and foremost, get your website content right. Make sure it is easily read by both humans and search engines. An essential variable applied by Search Engines in the way in which they rank websites is based on the relevancy of the content that the search engine is indexing.

2. Create a content development strategy for your website:

In addition to optimizing the existing content on your website, it is essential that you develop a strategy to continuously increase your websites content on an ongoing basis. All new content should be written specifically with the web reader in mind and should also be optimized for the search engines.

3. Invest in a paid search (pay-per-click) campaign:

When you pay for traffic (visitors) that click on your advertisements that are being advertised on search engines, this is called pay-per-click or search engine advertising. Paid search allows you to quickly leverage search engine traffic by bidding for keywords that are related to the products or services that you promote and sell on your website. Paid search advertising is particularly beneficial to companies who are not yet well ranked on search engines through natural search.

4. Publicize your website through article marketing:

Article marketing is regarded by Internet marketing experts as one of the most effective promotional methods to publicise your website and to increase the number of back links (incoming links) to your website content. To ensure ongoing awareness, articles should be submitted to suitable article directories, content publishers, article announcement lists and content syndication (RSS feeds). Make sure to publish the content on your own website before submitting it to article directories and publishers. Make it easy for the reader to bookmark your content on social search engines by including a bookmark button at the end of each piece of content.

5. Develop a social media marketing strategy:

Studies show that by the end of 2007 more than 60% of top global companies will have had some form of social media marketing strategy in place. Corporates and small business owners should create a clear social media marketing strategy as part of an integrated communications and marketing strategy. Social Media has become an essential component of online marketing and search engines are adjusting their rankings to include search personalization. One of the effects of the social media revolution is an exponential increase in the amount of content online.

6. Create a Company Blog:

In the past, corporates have been focusing marketing and communications efforts on becoming faceless. This has changes significantly. The online consumer wants to engage with companies that have an online personality. More and more companies are starting to realise the significance of establishing a company personality and we are starting to see more Corporate Blogs coming alive. Business Blogging will continue to become more lucrative as more and more people look to new media such as Blogs and social websites for insight.

7. Experiment with video marketing:

There is tremendous power and revenue-generating potential in Video Marketing. With the rapid ongoing growth of YouTube's traffic in addition to the emergence of Internet Television websites, streaming video is dominating the international web and marketers are quickly scrambling to capitalize on this exciting channel. As companies seek to simplify video sharing, video marketing will become more interactive which could have huge implications for Affiliate marketing.

8. Engage your audiences with web widget marketing:

Widgets have made significant strides as an accepted marketing technique in recent months. Many new Blog oriented services are launching Widgets providing businesses with the opportunity quickly introduce their services and new products to audiences.

Web Widgets are small applets that live in HTML and provide miniature versions of a specific piece of content outside of the primary web site. Web Widget Marketing is not only an exciting new marketing technique; it is fast becoming one of the leading brand-building marketing strategies for businesses advertising online.

9. Discover the benefits of mobile media marketing:

Mobile media marketing has continued to grow at a meteoric pace as many web companies recognise the huge potential in mobile marketing. As new technologies emerge and standard websites are converted to ones can easily be accessed by mobile devices, companies will need to ensure that there websites are mobile-friendly. This leads the way for new and innovative opportunities to provide the consumer with improved brand and marketing experiences.

10. Create an effective email marketing strategy:

Introduce an effective Email communications strategy as part of your marketing strategy to grow your existing customer base and to expand your client base significantly through permission marketing and regular targeted communications. Engaging your customers with relevant, targeted information when, where, and how they want it is crucial to marketing success. By combining technological advances with tried-and-tested best practices, the future still looks bright for email marketers.

To conquer commercial combat, a significantly powerful Internet presence, supported by a brilliant E-Marketing Strategy, is paramount to ensuring that you remain competitive, increase revenue and magnetize your customers!

source: http://www.site-reference.com/

Sex, Lies and the Secret Truth About Marketing

by Barry A. Densa


It doesn’t matter which business you’re in; what service or product you’re selling—if you want to net six or seven figures every year, drive your competition into bankruptcy and tears, be voted best marketer of the year and be awarded the Noble Peace Prize and an Oscar—you’ve got to be absolutely great in bed!

Where was I? Ah, yes...

Unbridled sex is not what I’m talking about here! I’m talking about how to be a successful marketer. And the bed and mattress is your market. And your partner is not your wife, husband or lover—it’s your customer.
But, if you insist...

Let’s Talk About Sex (Though strictly as a marketing metaphor)

So if you’re easily offended, do not read the next sentence. Now, imagine going to bed with someone you don’t like, who you can barely tolerate, someone you don’t want to talk to or be with—but you sleep with them anyway—and only for the money.

What does that make you? Yeah, exactly.

Yet, even within that business sector, the “business owner” who has a big and generous heart for her clientèle, who’s willing to at least act as if she’s making love to them, well, she’s going to fare far better than her competition—who looks at her customers as just another “John”.

Make Love to Them—Don’t Screw Them!

If you truly care about your customers and you wish to have a quality relationship with them, then their needs and concerns, their pains and deprivations will and must touch you—and drive you to create a solution (read: product or service) that will aid and benefit them. And if you do this, well then, they’ll love you forever (read: buy from you, and be loyal to you and recommend you). Why? Because your efforts are a labor of love—and it’ll show, and it will be reciprocated.
On the other hand, by not caring about or respecting your customers, your motivation is certainly exploitation and self-gratification.

And therefore you’ll foolishly offer them only what you believe they should have or want—that which will please and benefit you more—and them far less, if at all.
And all your relationships will then be shallow and short-lived. And your life will be filled with a tiring succession of unsatisfying first dates (and they’ll all be ugly, dumb, poor—and fat!)
Of course, if you’re an artful and cunning low-life liar, you might succeed in stringing a few gullible dates along for awhile longer. But, in the end, even the ugly, dumb and poor ones will resent your empty promises, and even the fat ones will quickly abandon you for a far more caring, considerate, compassionate and entrepreneurial lover. Because he’ll make them feel beautiful, smart, rich—and skinny! (Remember: you’re replaceable. Do a Google search and see for yourself.)

What’s Sex Without Passion?

Boring. Mechanical. Unsatisfying. Unconvincing. And it won’t get you any more nooky. Passion is what “ka-chings” the cash register on both sides of the bed. (Hey, this is a marketing class; I’m allowed to co-mingle my metaphors.) Passion is uncontainable, infectious, firm, strong and untiring. Romeo had it. Valentino had it, Gable, Harlow and Monroe had it. Depp and Theron, Pitt and Jolie have it now. Pee Wee Herman never did and never will. Passion is the key to every lover’s memorable nights. And the marketers secret to undreamed of success. Passion is honest and true—it can’t be faked! It comes from a belief deep within. Some may mimic its sounds and appearance—but such artifice will always ring hollow, cold and shrill. Real passion leaves no doubt. It’s hot. It’s seductive and inviting. You don’t have to sell it, though you may have to contain it. Express it through your business and to succeed.

Whoa! How Do You Do That?

Okay, for the finale, we’re abandoning all metaphors. Bottom line: To be a successful marketer—a high six or seven figure income marketer—you’ve got to fully believe in and have a deep and abiding love and passion for what you do, what you sell, and to whom you sell it. Your belief and passion has to be so strong that just the scent of it will knock down all doors, all obstacles, all disbeliefs—and all objections. Of course, if you don’t fully believe what you’re selling is the best—the best you can produce and your offer the best you can make—then it clearly isn’t! And to say otherwise is a damnable lie. And you’ve got to be the sleaziest of con artists, a sociopath to the nth degree, to get excited about a lie—to package it and sell it as truth. How can you transfer your excitement, your palm sweating, knee-weakening passion to your customers—instilling in them an unalterable and compelling desire to buy—if you know deep down inside what you’re telling them and selling them is a lie? Listen, if you’re just trying to make a buck by pulling a fast one—you’ll die poor. Passion isn’t a shirt you put on in the morning—it’s the skin you sleep in at night. Passion is what your customers respond to, because passion comes from your heart—from belief, confidence and love. Love your customers and love what you do and be in love with what you have to offer and the world will be yours.

sources: http://www.site-reference.com/

15 Creative and Profitable Ways to Use Autoresponders

by Nelson Tan

An interested visitor who has been strolling through your site has finally come to just what she is looking for and is about to make a purchase. It's a sunny afternoon, and her cat, who happens to be sitting on the moss under the visitor's large fifty-year-old snow-rose bonsai tree, suddenly jumps down, and the priceless tree topples over.In the blink of an eye, your visitor exits your site, and your sale is dust—unless you have had the foresight to utilize an autoresponder that has captured her e-mail address. If you have installed an autoresponder, you can then follow-up with her, and in all probability, make the sale when the poor woman has finished repotting her precious bonsai.Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that do so much more than just automatically answer your e-mail.

Here are a few ideas that will help you to creatively and productively use your autoresponder to transform the casual visitor into a profitable customer. Use your autoresponder to:

1. Publish a newsletter. Certain quality autoresponders will manage subscriptions and follow-up with interested prospects. Your newsletter can keep your visitors informed about your services or products, while building your reputation as a credible expert in your particular business.
2. Publish a newsletter only for your affiliates. Inform them of current sales you are running and of promotional material that your affiliates can use themselves to increase their commissions. Include tips, advice, and techniques that your affiliates can use to successfully go out and promote your business.
3. Write reviews. Cover books, software, music, e-books, movies, etc., and put each review in an autoresponder. Review your affiliate programs, using a link to your affiliate's page in your autoresponder.
4. Distribute your articles. Writing and distributing targeted articles is a powerful tool to build your business credibility, bring traffic to your site, and increase your sales potential. If your articles contain valuable information, many editors will print what is known as a resource box for you. A resource box contains your bio and a brief description of your service or product. It can also contain your autoresponder address. Let's say you've written fifty articles. Put them on separate autoresponder accounts and create a master list that contains the titles of each article, the autoresponder address, and a brief abstract. Then promote your master list. Additionally, include your publishing guidelines so your affiliates can add their articles to your list, increasing the number of writers who are represented in your article list.
5. Create mailing lists. Inform subscribers to your articles when you've written new ones that they may want to publish in their own newsletter or website.
6. Automate your sales process. Use an ad to insure repeated exposure of your message, which has been proven to effectively increase sales. In your ad, put your autoresponder address where a visitor will be exposed to numerous marketing materials. This multiplies the chances of converting visitors into customers. For example, if you're selling a particular product, put testimonials about how spectacular it is on your autoresponder, and add a detailed, enticing description of your product.
7. Distribute advertising. Let's say you sell advertising on your website or in your newsletter or e-zine. Set your autoresponder to send the information about rates and how to place an ad automatically to all prospects' email addresses. Then have your autoresponder follow-up. It can also send notification of any special deals you are currently offering.
8. Distribute an e-mail course. Each day, have your autoresponder send out another lesson. Just be sure that each lesson has quality content—not a sales pitch. Your content will do the selling for you, and will do it much more effectively. You can include tips centered on a different topic for each lesson, illustrating how your product will benefit the reader. Include the tangible benefits the visitor will reap by purchasing your product. Make sure to include a paragraph or two at the end of each lesson enticing your prospect to consider making a purchase.
9. Automate a reminder about your service or product after a visitor has completed your course. This will increase the possibility of sales from visitors who have taken your course but are dragging their feet about actually making a purchase. You can also use these reminders to promote new products or services, and the products and services of your affiliate programs.
10. Distribute free reports. This gives your visitor an idea of the type of information you can provide and the quality of your product or service. Make sure these reports are not sales letters or you will more than likely lose a potential customer than gain a sale.
11. Create trivia quizzes on your site and place the answers in an autoresponder. Your visitor will then be motivated to request your autoresponder, and you will have a record of the visitors' email addresses who took your quiz. Or create a contest and have any visitors that enter send their responses to your autoresponder. Your autoresponder can be set-up to send them a confirmation of their entry.
12. Offer a trial version of your product. Give your prospects a sample of your e-book, course, software, membership, etc. People who are exposed to a little taste often end up wanting the whole pie. You can also capture their email addresses when you offer them a free trial from your website. Set up your autoresponder to give instructions on how to obtain their free trial, and then make sure to follow-up to try and close the sale.
13. Link to hidden pages on your autoresponder. For example, a hidden page could be your affiliate page that contains graphics, promotional articles, and text links that interested affiliates can make use of. Inform visitors that they may have free access to your affiliate page by simply requesting your autoresponder. You will then gather a list of visitors who may be interested in becoming your affiliates.
14. Use an autoresponder on your order page. Post a request form for visitors to be notified of special offers or discounts in the future. This creates a very effective mailing list that contains the names of people who are already your customers.15. Put your links page on your autoresponder. It should contain up to fifty links that would be of particular interest to your visitors. Make sure to add your own promotional copy at the top or bottom of this page.Now that you have proof that autoresponders can be used creatively, see if you can come up with some brilliant ideas of your own!

Ways To Create Profitable Info Products

by Pawel Reszka

Information products such as eBooks, training courses and others have become substantial moneymakers for modern Internet infopreneurs. People today are hungry for all kinds of information and eager to download it for a reasonable price. Here are seven ways you can create info products and profit from selling them online.

1. Decide what information products to createStart by doing some research online. Determine the best keyword that describe your product and determine its viability. Select products by determining niches that aren't being served by competitors. Look at the way successful info product marketer's package and sell their offerings. How are they priced? Choose a market with the best potential.
2. Determine the best way to produce itOnce you have made an informed decision regarding the type of product you want to offer, the next step is to produce it. Since most information products are primarily written materials, who will write it? If you think that you're not a good enough writer, it's easy to locate and hire professional freelance writers that can take your ideas and turn them into written materials. To find them, go online to sites like www.GetAFreelancer.com, www.elance.com, www.freelance writersguild.com or others. There are many to choose from. If you aren't up to snuff on desktop publishing software, you may also want to hire someone to help you with graphic design so that your product looks professional.
3. Choose a packaging methodDespite the fact that an information product is comprised mainly of written materials, audio recordings or audio/visual materials, you need to determine an attractive, eye-catching method of packaging it for delivery to buyers. Whether it's an eBook, a training Course or a written report, the product should be eye-catching. If you must, hire a graphic designer or someone expert at desktop publishing to do it for you.
4. Decide what it will sell forThe best way to determine what your selling price should be is to review similar products now for sale online and compare. You don't have to compare your product only with those for the same market. The size and type should be enough notwithstanding the subject matter. Keep in mind that most info products are somewhat price sensitive so don't set your price at the highest end of the spectrum. You can always upgrade it later.
5. Think about how to promote your productThere are many possible ways to promote your info product. You can build a website or blog for that specific purpose at very-low cost. Determine whether you will deliver the product as a download or if you prefer to sell it as a CD that can be shipped directly to buyers. Both methods are currently in use. When it comes to promotion, marketing skills are necessary and if this isn't already your forte, there is a lot of very-specific, detailed information available online at no cost. In addition to your own website, you can use press releases announcing your product's availability, write articles about your product and submit them to available article directories, or sell it through online bookstores and malls. For specific niche markets, consider a joint venture with owners of other nice-related products serving the same market segment. You can also promote it by submitting it to newsletters that are already established and through forums and discussion groups too.
6. Do market testing firstDo some market testing before you formally launch your product. This will tell you if there are little problems to work out. This can be as simple as asking five or six people whose opinion you value what they think about your product. Be sure to tell them to point out anything they don't like.7. Protect your product by copyrighting itCopyrighting an info product is not terribly complicated. There are complete and detailed instructions available on line along with the required form. It pays to protect what you've worked so diligently to create. Perhaps just as important, you'll be protecting your future profits from people who might like to copy them outright and divert sales into their own offers.