An crucial component of any e-commercialism first step is to track the effectiveness of the marketing effort. Through careful psychoanalysis of a website's statistics much selective information tin be gleaned that tin can be further secondhand to fine-tune the advertising, website subject and customer relationship management strategies and policies. These wholly of import elements of Internet marketing plans and strategies that toilet ultimately dictate the achiever or failure of any e-mercantilism opening move.
Surfing the World Wide Web involves traversing the connections among hyperlinked documents. It is I of the about common ways of accessing World Wide Web pages. Theories and models beginning to explain how observed patterns of surfboarding behavior emerge from fundamental human entropy hunt processes. Hence, the ability to predict surfriding patterns has the potential to be instrumental in solving many problems facing producers and consumers depicted object. For instance, website designs lavatory be evaluated and optimized by predicting how users volition surf done their structures. Web node and host applications lav besides reduce substance abuser perceived network latency by pre-fetching cognitive content predicted to be on the path of individual users or groups of users with similar patterns. Systems and interfaces john be enhanced by the ability to recommend mental object of interest to users, or by displaying info in a way that best matches users' interests. Proper depth psychology of a website's activity is therefore an authoritative process that supports an enhanced and intelligent design of a website. Continued from Page 1. Given the limitations of the data recorded in memory access logs, it is not surprising that sites command users to adhere to cookies and defeat caching to gain More accurate usage.
Still, numerous sites either do not employment cookies or do not compel users to accept a to gain entree to message. In these cases, determining alone(p) users and their paths through with(p) a website is typically done heuristically. Even once cookies exploited, several scenarios potential a previously encountered is refined. If the petition is coming from the like server regardless of the agentive role, the postulation is treated as organism issued by the equal. This is because a unequaled is issued to only single web browser.
If the asking comes from a known horde, and then we could wealthy person a new to(p) or the, otherwise the bespeak is from a dissimilar. It is significant to point out that these latter two cases could too be issued from non- compliant crawling software package. An interesting set of scenarios pass off a unexampled is encountered. If the call for is from a legion that has already been and the previous economic value of the was "null" and the federal agent is the, it is carnival to conclude that the quest is from a young that just received their first from the waiter in the previous. If the guest is not victimization obfuscation package, unity would expect the following requests from this to altogether contain the.
Withal, suppose the previous time value from the innkeeper and was a another(a), it could be the obfuscating requests, or a Modern from the ISP victimisation the version and platform as the from the previous. Barring any other piece of supporting evidence like the referrer line of business or consulting the's topology, it is difficult to decide which the correct scenario is. If the is from the previous, but accompanies a New from the boniface, it is funfair to wear that a raw has entered the.
Of course, a wet behind the ears(p) from a fresh master of ceremonies regardless of the is a novel. You bathroom likewise learn something approximately visitors by studying their realm names. Though the lumber file cabinet may record IP addresses, your analytic thinking program commode make up one's mind from many of these IP numbers the associated world or ISP. This might tell you if your almost customer - or competitor - has been looking at your pages. The all but simplistic assumption to make close to users is that to each one IP destination or demesne name represents a unequalled.
Using this method, whole the requests made by the emcee treated as through and through from a single. Once a newfangled is detected, a recently profile is created and the corresponding requests associated to the newly. Several methods that consumption additional recorded in the accession logs or other heuristics as well conceivable. One refinement is to economic consumption the airfield. Using this method, freshly users identified as above as well as requests coming from the machine give birth agents. Another refinement is to place session timeouts on requests made from the machine. The intuition is that if a certain amount of time has elapsed, the old has left the and a has entered. A IP name and address is encountered (put on this is a ), or 2. an already IP speech is encountered and: * a session is terminated due to a timeout, get into a has entered the. Thence, if a substantial part of your statistics imply that many of the hosts and timeouts were from hosts in the land/IP turn to space, you crapper infer that a big identification number of website users either connect to the via ISPs with lading balancing proxies, or that a prominent phone number of users admittance the from within the sphere, as would pass with a magnanimous company, or that some combination of both cases exist.
Rabu, 30 Juni 2010
Selasa, 29 Juni 2010
Laying Horses The Easy Way
One of the best laying strategies that I often employ is to lay very short priced favourites with the sole intention of backing them later on in the event. Let me explain, let us say that you are looking at a tennis match between Tim Henman and a low ranked unseeded player in a first round match at Wimbledon. Tim Henman is the reigning champion and one of the most gifted
players ever to hold a racket and his opponent basically has no or very little chance
The odds of 1.04 on the exchanges reflects the Swiss players supremacy and expected victory. But you have to understand that despite Henman's supremacy and his almost certain victory, he is after all going up against another top tennis player. He is not playing some semi decent local club player. This means that there will likely be periods in the match where he will not dominate his opponent.
When you look at the result of a tennis match like this and it reads 7-5,6-4, 6-0, it looks pretty convincing for the winner. Of course over the entire space of the match, that is what it is. But if we were to break the match down into periods then what tends to reveal itself is that the weaker opponent will have good spells
What looking at the overall result will not show was that Henmans was 5-5 in the first set and a break of serve down in the second set. It is these periods that will have a profound effect on the relative prices of both competitors on the betting exchanges.
A clear betting exchange strategy now presents itself. When you LAY any competitor at a massively short price and 1.04 is a massive 1-25, your maximum potential downside is known. If you back Henman at 1.04 for £100 then you only stand to win £4. But the reverse is true when you are laying. If you Lay Henman to that same £100 and he wins then your liability is only £4.
In fact, it is less than £4 because if things fail to go your way and Henman just simply steam rollers his opponent and his price quickly shortens to 1.01 and stays there, you can still back Federer at this price to reduce your losses. But if as expected, the match enters one of those phases where Henman is playing loosely or hasn't warmed up yet or maybe is lacking motivation against his journeyman opponent, then his "well up for it" opposition may start to enjoy relative success in various stages of the match.
When Henmans's price hits 1.10 when it is 5-5 in the first set then you can back him for that same £100 to win £10 should he win and thus lock in a bet to nothing. Many events in various sports that have overwhelming favourites follow this pattern where the supposed "no hoper" will have a decent spell in the match and profits on the betting exchanges can accrue from those who are smart enough to do the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing.
The odds of 1.04 on the exchanges reflects the Swiss players supremacy and expected victory. But you have to understand that despite Henman's supremacy and his almost certain victory, he is after all going up against another top tennis player. He is not playing some semi decent local club player. This means that there will likely be periods in the match where he will not dominate his opponent.
When you look at the result of a tennis match like this and it reads 7-5,6-4, 6-0, it looks pretty convincing for the winner. Of course over the entire space of the match, that is what it is. But if we were to break the match down into periods then what tends to reveal itself is that the weaker opponent will have good spells
What looking at the overall result will not show was that Henmans was 5-5 in the first set and a break of serve down in the second set. It is these periods that will have a profound effect on the relative prices of both competitors on the betting exchanges.
A clear betting exchange strategy now presents itself. When you LAY any competitor at a massively short price and 1.04 is a massive 1-25, your maximum potential downside is known. If you back Henman at 1.04 for £100 then you only stand to win £4. But the reverse is true when you are laying. If you Lay Henman to that same £100 and he wins then your liability is only £4.
In fact, it is less than £4 because if things fail to go your way and Henman just simply steam rollers his opponent and his price quickly shortens to 1.01 and stays there, you can still back Federer at this price to reduce your losses. But if as expected, the match enters one of those phases where Henman is playing loosely or hasn't warmed up yet or maybe is lacking motivation against his journeyman opponent, then his "well up for it" opposition may start to enjoy relative success in various stages of the match.
When Henmans's price hits 1.10 when it is 5-5 in the first set then you can back him for that same £100 to win £10 should he win and thus lock in a bet to nothing. Many events in various sports that have overwhelming favourites follow this pattern where the supposed "no hoper" will have a decent spell in the match and profits on the betting exchanges can accrue from those who are smart enough to do the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing.
A Closer Look At Micropayments
During the early days of the Internet, most of the contents found online are provided for free, either by different institutions or universities. As the years go by, the Internet has experienced various innovations. One major factor in the evolution of the Internet is the consumers’ ability to purchase, sell and advertise products and services, a concept that is more commonly referred to as “e-Commerce”.
As the popularity of the Internet continuously grows, it is only natural for the content providers to start looking for different ways of making money from the content that they publish online. Basically, there are three ways for users to earn money from content; one is through advertising. Here, the content is available for free; however it comes with certain ads or links to their sponsor sites.
Another way for content providers to make money is by charging subscriptions, wherein consumers are required to pay a certain amount in exchange for access to the content for a certain period of time. The downside to the subscription model is that it only offers one choice to the consumer – either they do not pay the subscription and thus get no content or pay a substantial fee to get all the content. Oftentimes, this kind of choice led the consumers to move on to sites that offer content for free. Meanwhile, the third form of revenue is through donations that are solicited by the content providers themselves.
However, in 1998 a fourth form of revenue was proposed – the micropayment system. The concept of micropayments would not die down completely, nor would it fully come to life. What are micropayments, exactly? Micropayment is generally defined as the means of transferring small amounts of money (usually in pennies, nickel or dimes), usually in purchasing digital contents like music, movies, games and others.
Since charging such small amounts through the customary payment system like credit cards is impractical, the micropayment system is a viable option for those websites that wish to go "micro". The main objective of micropayments is to target a high volume of consumers by offering content at a relatively low price. It is also usual for micropayment systems to accumulate several payments and then charge it in one regular payment.
Most micropayments advocates firmly believe that the micropayment system is the solution to the free rider problem for those sites that are solely dependent on advertising. As for websites that are charging subscription fees, micropayments will be a viable alternative in order to increase the number of their consumers.
However, regardless of all the benefits that micropayment systems seem to offer, its popularity among the consumers did not quite catch on for quite a time. This is mainly due to the pressing disadvantages that micropayment detractors are quick to point out. Most micropayment system detractors insist that micropayments would cause inconvenience rather than convenience to consumers. How so? The most popular argument used is the "mental transaction cost".
What does mental transaction cost mean? Well, this is where a consumer stops and thinks twice whether the content is actually worth the price, regardless of how small the price is. This could cut down the number of your customer, since more people are likely to opt for free content.
The people pushing micropayments believe that the dollar cost of goods is the thing most responsible for deflecting readers from buying content, and that a reduction in price to micropayment levels will allow creators to begin charging for their work without deflecting readers.
Another possible drawback to using micropayment systems is that it requires the consumer to use major credit cards. Remember that Internet consumers are quite diverse in age; therefore, you cannot assume that all of them would have credit cards. Since teenagers are under the legal age, they do not have credit cards. Moreover, even among those consumers living in highly developed countries, not everyone has a credit card, and borrowing someone else’s credit card just to read a certain article in the Internet would prove to be a big inconvenience. Simply put, micropayment systems could very well alienate those consumers who do not have credit cards.
So with all these disadvantages, why do we need micropayments? With the growing demand for ethereal products (like information) in global economies and their immediate delivery at a low cost, the customary payment methods seemed to be impractical. Since most information found online (Web pages, Web links, etc.) cost barely a penny, the cost of charging in the usual payment method would turn out to be more expensive than the actual product. Thus, micropayment is a viable alternative.
A lot of content providers agreed that micropayments offer them the opportunity to regain the cost of online publishing, even possibly make money, that is, if they are popular enough. At present, content providers see their online popularity as a disadvantage since their popularity requires them to pay for large amounts of bandwidth. Another benefit that micropayment systems offer content providers is the opportunity to be completely free from sponsorship and advertising, which offers them more independence. Without advertising the provider could concentrate on publishing materials that interests their consumers instead of what interests their advertisers.
Micropayment systems are showing signs of recovery recently, what with the launching of Apple’s iTunes $0.99 a-song, the model is finally showing some signs of life. Furthermore, reports on the state of the paid content market shows that, content purchases below $5 increased 707% in 2002. A veritable accomplishment, since it made a seven-fold leap from virtually nothing.
Although, millions of people find the notion of purchasing $.99 songs at iTunes attractive, Apple’s administrators themselves admitted that most consumers still prefer purchasing larger album packages instead of the per song purchases. After all, Internet users do not purchase content as if they were a piece of candy. Some micropayment solutions even admit that their customers are loading less money into their accounts than what they initially expect which means that a considerable barrier still remains. Now, whether the micropayment system will eventually find success this time around or not will still depend on the consumers’ behavior, a hurdle that is yet to be crossed.
As the popularity of the Internet continuously grows, it is only natural for the content providers to start looking for different ways of making money from the content that they publish online. Basically, there are three ways for users to earn money from content; one is through advertising. Here, the content is available for free; however it comes with certain ads or links to their sponsor sites.
Another way for content providers to make money is by charging subscriptions, wherein consumers are required to pay a certain amount in exchange for access to the content for a certain period of time. The downside to the subscription model is that it only offers one choice to the consumer – either they do not pay the subscription and thus get no content or pay a substantial fee to get all the content. Oftentimes, this kind of choice led the consumers to move on to sites that offer content for free. Meanwhile, the third form of revenue is through donations that are solicited by the content providers themselves.
However, in 1998 a fourth form of revenue was proposed – the micropayment system. The concept of micropayments would not die down completely, nor would it fully come to life. What are micropayments, exactly? Micropayment is generally defined as the means of transferring small amounts of money (usually in pennies, nickel or dimes), usually in purchasing digital contents like music, movies, games and others.
Since charging such small amounts through the customary payment system like credit cards is impractical, the micropayment system is a viable option for those websites that wish to go "micro". The main objective of micropayments is to target a high volume of consumers by offering content at a relatively low price. It is also usual for micropayment systems to accumulate several payments and then charge it in one regular payment.
Most micropayments advocates firmly believe that the micropayment system is the solution to the free rider problem for those sites that are solely dependent on advertising. As for websites that are charging subscription fees, micropayments will be a viable alternative in order to increase the number of their consumers.
However, regardless of all the benefits that micropayment systems seem to offer, its popularity among the consumers did not quite catch on for quite a time. This is mainly due to the pressing disadvantages that micropayment detractors are quick to point out. Most micropayment system detractors insist that micropayments would cause inconvenience rather than convenience to consumers. How so? The most popular argument used is the "mental transaction cost".
What does mental transaction cost mean? Well, this is where a consumer stops and thinks twice whether the content is actually worth the price, regardless of how small the price is. This could cut down the number of your customer, since more people are likely to opt for free content.
The people pushing micropayments believe that the dollar cost of goods is the thing most responsible for deflecting readers from buying content, and that a reduction in price to micropayment levels will allow creators to begin charging for their work without deflecting readers.
Another possible drawback to using micropayment systems is that it requires the consumer to use major credit cards. Remember that Internet consumers are quite diverse in age; therefore, you cannot assume that all of them would have credit cards. Since teenagers are under the legal age, they do not have credit cards. Moreover, even among those consumers living in highly developed countries, not everyone has a credit card, and borrowing someone else’s credit card just to read a certain article in the Internet would prove to be a big inconvenience. Simply put, micropayment systems could very well alienate those consumers who do not have credit cards.
So with all these disadvantages, why do we need micropayments? With the growing demand for ethereal products (like information) in global economies and their immediate delivery at a low cost, the customary payment methods seemed to be impractical. Since most information found online (Web pages, Web links, etc.) cost barely a penny, the cost of charging in the usual payment method would turn out to be more expensive than the actual product. Thus, micropayment is a viable alternative.
A lot of content providers agreed that micropayments offer them the opportunity to regain the cost of online publishing, even possibly make money, that is, if they are popular enough. At present, content providers see their online popularity as a disadvantage since their popularity requires them to pay for large amounts of bandwidth. Another benefit that micropayment systems offer content providers is the opportunity to be completely free from sponsorship and advertising, which offers them more independence. Without advertising the provider could concentrate on publishing materials that interests their consumers instead of what interests their advertisers.
Micropayment systems are showing signs of recovery recently, what with the launching of Apple’s iTunes $0.99 a-song, the model is finally showing some signs of life. Furthermore, reports on the state of the paid content market shows that, content purchases below $5 increased 707% in 2002. A veritable accomplishment, since it made a seven-fold leap from virtually nothing.
Although, millions of people find the notion of purchasing $.99 songs at iTunes attractive, Apple’s administrators themselves admitted that most consumers still prefer purchasing larger album packages instead of the per song purchases. After all, Internet users do not purchase content as if they were a piece of candy. Some micropayment solutions even admit that their customers are loading less money into their accounts than what they initially expect which means that a considerable barrier still remains. Now, whether the micropayment system will eventually find success this time around or not will still depend on the consumers’ behavior, a hurdle that is yet to be crossed.
Senin, 28 Juni 2010
A Click On Your Profits
Pay-per-click advertising is a very economical compared to other advertising tools on the Internet. You pay only when a visitor clicks on your ad and goes to either your web site or to the website of which you are an affiliate of. The advantage of pay per click advertising is that you do not need a website, and this is an ideal way for home business beginners to earn money on a low budget.
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The main advantage of Pay per click adverting is that you only pay for actual clicks on your ads. Pay per click internet advertising lists your ads according to your bids on your keywords. Of course, ads which pay more are ranked higher.
Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing are the two most popular Pay per Click programs on the net.
Another advantage of Pay per Click programs is that you can constantly monitor the progress of your ads, edit your keywords, change the bids on your keywords, Change the Daily Budget (You can set a daily budget for your ads. After your daily budget gets exhausted, your ads stop running. on that day) This can be done anytime and any number of times. If you find your ads are not working for you , you can pause the ad or simply delete it.
Before you actually launch on a pay per click advertising, make sure to check out your competition. It will give you a good idea as to how to structure your ad. Also make out a list of keywords with which you want to link your product. A useful tip is to try out Wordtracker’s trial package to get the necessary keywords. You can also get the KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) here which will allow you to determine the niche keyword and not get lost in a sea of keywords. This is a very effective tool to determine the competition of the keywords and gives you a good idea as to which keywords to bid for to get targeted audience to click your ads at an economical price.
The Pay per Click advertising allows you to test market your future campaigns. If you intend to launch a full fledged website , Pay per Click advertising allows you to test the waters. You can analyse your keywords and find out which works for you best You can also test viability of the products for which you are an affiliate of.
Pay per Click advertising not only helps you in earning money but can also be a very effective marketing and information tool for your future businesses.
]
The main advantage of Pay per click adverting is that you only pay for actual clicks on your ads. Pay per click internet advertising lists your ads according to your bids on your keywords. Of course, ads which pay more are ranked higher.
Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing are the two most popular Pay per Click programs on the net.
Another advantage of Pay per Click programs is that you can constantly monitor the progress of your ads, edit your keywords, change the bids on your keywords, Change the Daily Budget (You can set a daily budget for your ads. After your daily budget gets exhausted, your ads stop running. on that day) This can be done anytime and any number of times. If you find your ads are not working for you , you can pause the ad or simply delete it.
Before you actually launch on a pay per click advertising, make sure to check out your competition. It will give you a good idea as to how to structure your ad. Also make out a list of keywords with which you want to link your product. A useful tip is to try out Wordtracker’s trial package to get the necessary keywords. You can also get the KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) here which will allow you to determine the niche keyword and not get lost in a sea of keywords. This is a very effective tool to determine the competition of the keywords and gives you a good idea as to which keywords to bid for to get targeted audience to click your ads at an economical price.
The Pay per Click advertising allows you to test market your future campaigns. If you intend to launch a full fledged website , Pay per Click advertising allows you to test the waters. You can analyse your keywords and find out which works for you best You can also test viability of the products for which you are an affiliate of.
Pay per Click advertising not only helps you in earning money but can also be a very effective marketing and information tool for your future businesses.
A Brief Synopsis of the Internet
Like an opening act for a play, the telegraph, telephone, and radio all took a part in introducing the World Wide Internet. The Internet had no problem taking over and crashing many predictions about whether or not it would be successful. It has no boundaries and pays no attention to international limits or geographic locations. Instantly you are connected to scores of businesses and people all over the world.
With its origins dating back almost 50 years ago, J.C.R. Licklider at MIT recorded the first description of the communications that could be performed through networking. Between him and a host of other individuals with brilliant forward thinking, the idea of the internet was conceived.
The first email made its appearance back in the early 1970’s as a way for the developers to communicate with one another. By the mid-1980’s the internet was being used by various developers and researchers as well as being tried out by many computer businesses. It finally was given a name in October 1995.
The internet became a vital part of today’s economy. Many companies regard it as a critical part of their daily activities. Individuals rely on it for their communication to the outside world. Bills may be paid, homework research accomplished, books read, Christmas shopping accomplished, music downloaded and personal relationships established through their access to the internet.
Although it may not seem so, the internet has changed greatly in the last 2 decades since its birth. Through file sharing, remote login, resource sharing and electronic mail, it has definitely kept up with the fast-paced computer industry. Expect nothing else through the future.
With its origins dating back almost 50 years ago, J.C.R. Licklider at MIT recorded the first description of the communications that could be performed through networking. Between him and a host of other individuals with brilliant forward thinking, the idea of the internet was conceived.
The first email made its appearance back in the early 1970’s as a way for the developers to communicate with one another. By the mid-1980’s the internet was being used by various developers and researchers as well as being tried out by many computer businesses. It finally was given a name in October 1995.
The internet became a vital part of today’s economy. Many companies regard it as a critical part of their daily activities. Individuals rely on it for their communication to the outside world. Bills may be paid, homework research accomplished, books read, Christmas shopping accomplished, music downloaded and personal relationships established through their access to the internet.
Although it may not seem so, the internet has changed greatly in the last 2 decades since its birth. Through file sharing, remote login, resource sharing and electronic mail, it has definitely kept up with the fast-paced computer industry. Expect nothing else through the future.
Minggu, 27 Juni 2010
A Brief History Of The Popup Ad
Pop-up ads are a form of online advertising on the World Wide Web intended to increase web traffic or capture email addresses. It works when certain web sites open a new web browser window to display advertisements. The pop-up window containing an advertisement is usually generated by JavaScript, but can be generated by other means as well.
A variation on the pop-up window is the pop-under advertisement. This opens a new browser window, behind the active window. Pop-unders interrupt the user less, but are not seen until the desired windows are closed, making it more difficult for the user to determine which Web site opened them.
For early advertising-supported web sites, banner ads were sufficient revenue generators, but in the wake of the dot com crash, prices paid for banner advertising clickthroughs decreased and many vendors began to investigate more effective advertising methods. Pop-up ads by their nature are difficult to ignore or overlook, and are claimed to be more effective than static banner ads. Pop-ups have a much higher click rate than web banner ads do (about every 14,000th popup ad is clicked on).
Pornographic web sites are among the most common users of pop-up ads. Some particularly vicious types of pop-up ads (again, most often seen in connection with adult entertainment sites) appear to have either been programmed improperly or have been specifically designed to "hijack" a user's Internet session. These forms of pop-ups sometimes spawn multiple windows, and as each window is closed by the user it activates code that spawns another window -- sometimes indefinitely. This is sometimes referred to by users as a "Java trap", "spam cascade" or "Pop-up Hell" among other names. Usually the only way to stop this is to close the browser.
Opera was the first major browser to incorporate popup-blocking tools; the Mozilla browser later improved on this by blocking only popups generated as the page loads. In the early 2000s, all major web browsers except Internet Explorer (then the most popular browser and still as of 2006) allowed the user to block unwanted pop-ups almost completely.
In 2004, Microsoft released Windows XP SP2, which added pop-up blocking to Internet Explorer. Many users, however, remain unaware of this ability, or else choose not to use it. Many others are not able to use it at all, as they do not use Windows XP SP2, but older versions of Windows. Some users install non-Microsoft ad-blocking software instead.
A variation on the pop-up window is the pop-under advertisement. This opens a new browser window, behind the active window. Pop-unders interrupt the user less, but are not seen until the desired windows are closed, making it more difficult for the user to determine which Web site opened them.
For early advertising-supported web sites, banner ads were sufficient revenue generators, but in the wake of the dot com crash, prices paid for banner advertising clickthroughs decreased and many vendors began to investigate more effective advertising methods. Pop-up ads by their nature are difficult to ignore or overlook, and are claimed to be more effective than static banner ads. Pop-ups have a much higher click rate than web banner ads do (about every 14,000th popup ad is clicked on).
Pornographic web sites are among the most common users of pop-up ads. Some particularly vicious types of pop-up ads (again, most often seen in connection with adult entertainment sites) appear to have either been programmed improperly or have been specifically designed to "hijack" a user's Internet session. These forms of pop-ups sometimes spawn multiple windows, and as each window is closed by the user it activates code that spawns another window -- sometimes indefinitely. This is sometimes referred to by users as a "Java trap", "spam cascade" or "Pop-up Hell" among other names. Usually the only way to stop this is to close the browser.
Opera was the first major browser to incorporate popup-blocking tools; the Mozilla browser later improved on this by blocking only popups generated as the page loads. In the early 2000s, all major web browsers except Internet Explorer (then the most popular browser and still as of 2006) allowed the user to block unwanted pop-ups almost completely.
In 2004, Microsoft released Windows XP SP2, which added pop-up blocking to Internet Explorer. Many users, however, remain unaware of this ability, or else choose not to use it. Many others are not able to use it at all, as they do not use Windows XP SP2, but older versions of Windows. Some users install non-Microsoft ad-blocking software instead.
Sabtu, 26 Juni 2010
A Brief History About Downloading Music
Downloading music is a process whereby music files are opened on the Internet and saved for future use. This has become one of the world’s greatest online pastimes during recent years, and the popularity of downloading music continues to grow.
Ironically, however, downloading music didn’t start off in the most positive light. As a matter of fact, it was considered quite illegal, and many file-sharing technologies, such as peer-to-peer networks, provided countless music to the public free of charge and without the permission of either the artists or the music copyright owners. One famous site known for this, Napster, was incited for breaking copyright laws and told to shut down. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), this practice was not only unlawful; it was hurting sales for the music industry—downloading music from the Internet exceeded sales of CDs and videos in some countries. Many lawsuits ensued, and yet other sites were ordered to shut down.
Several artists cried out at the practice of downloading music. They felt betrayed, since their hard-earned music was being passed along without profit and without their permission. They felt disrespected and ripped off!
Eventually, there was a solution that would keep downloading music an active pastime. Legal digital downloads became popular through iTunes in 2003, and downloading music from the Internet increased exponentially, setting new records in sales. One example of this is Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, which landed a position at the top of the U.K. Singles Chart solely on the distribution of downloading music. Napster is back online, too.
Interestingly enough, many of the artists themselves got in on the online game of downloading music, and now lots of their music is available on their personal and commercial sites. These downloads, however, are either brief previews or low-quality sampling—enough for the artists to market their music to those who prefer downloading music, and also to make money online as well as through music outlets!
Downloading music, then, has been a rather shaky ordeal for many, but due to compromise and innovative technological advances, this practice is fortunate enough to continue for some time to come!
Ironically, however, downloading music didn’t start off in the most positive light. As a matter of fact, it was considered quite illegal, and many file-sharing technologies, such as peer-to-peer networks, provided countless music to the public free of charge and without the permission of either the artists or the music copyright owners. One famous site known for this, Napster, was incited for breaking copyright laws and told to shut down. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), this practice was not only unlawful; it was hurting sales for the music industry—downloading music from the Internet exceeded sales of CDs and videos in some countries. Many lawsuits ensued, and yet other sites were ordered to shut down.
Several artists cried out at the practice of downloading music. They felt betrayed, since their hard-earned music was being passed along without profit and without their permission. They felt disrespected and ripped off!
Eventually, there was a solution that would keep downloading music an active pastime. Legal digital downloads became popular through iTunes in 2003, and downloading music from the Internet increased exponentially, setting new records in sales. One example of this is Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, which landed a position at the top of the U.K. Singles Chart solely on the distribution of downloading music. Napster is back online, too.
Interestingly enough, many of the artists themselves got in on the online game of downloading music, and now lots of their music is available on their personal and commercial sites. These downloads, however, are either brief previews or low-quality sampling—enough for the artists to market their music to those who prefer downloading music, and also to make money online as well as through music outlets!
Downloading music, then, has been a rather shaky ordeal for many, but due to compromise and innovative technological advances, this practice is fortunate enough to continue for some time to come!
Jumat, 25 Juni 2010
A Beginner’s Toolbox: 8 Things Every Home Should Have
Congratulations! You’re living out on your own. If you’re renting an apartment or bought a home of your own, there are going to be little things you need tools for. Whether it’s removing part of a light fixture to replace the lightbulb, or hanging your favorite pictures on the wall, a basic toolbox can come in handy. Here are the top eight tools that will be the most helpful.
1. A flashlight. This is crucial, even if you don’t buy anything else on the list. If the power goes out, or you can’t find the exact lid for your Tupperware container in the back of the cabinet, shedding some light makes life a lot easier.
2. A screwdriver. For maximum efficiency, and especially if you are going to be doing just little jobs, there are screwdrivers available now that have removable tips so you can buy just one tool for all screws and swap out the tips depending on what you need.
3. A tape measure. Ask anyone who has ever rented an apartment and then couldn’t fit the couch in any of the rooms, having a tape measure is a good thing to have. It will help you place furniture, decide how big an area rug to buy, or know how long a cable you will need for your TV.
4. Adjustable pliers. Maybe two pair, one large and one small. Maybe the previous owner or tenant left a nail in the wall that just won’t come out, or they used a stapler in the windowsill to hang their Christmas lights. Pliers will give you the grip you need to pull things out.
5. An adjustable wrench. This will help you tighten (or loosen) nuts and bolts. You can change your shower head, or loosen your dryer vent tubing to check for lint.
6. A hammer. Hang things on the wall, close up a paint can securely, or pound in stakes so your kids can camp out in the backyard.
7. An electric drill. You can keep it pretty basic, but a drill can save lots of time. Buy one that has a screwtip adapter also, and you can drive in screws much faster than with a manual screwdriver (and with less stress on your wrist).
8. A first aid kit. Don’t own a home without one. If you’re a first timer with any of the rest of the tools, you can put this to good use when you pinch yourself with pliers, or cut yourself on a fast retracting tape measure.
1. A flashlight. This is crucial, even if you don’t buy anything else on the list. If the power goes out, or you can’t find the exact lid for your Tupperware container in the back of the cabinet, shedding some light makes life a lot easier.
2. A screwdriver. For maximum efficiency, and especially if you are going to be doing just little jobs, there are screwdrivers available now that have removable tips so you can buy just one tool for all screws and swap out the tips depending on what you need.
3. A tape measure. Ask anyone who has ever rented an apartment and then couldn’t fit the couch in any of the rooms, having a tape measure is a good thing to have. It will help you place furniture, decide how big an area rug to buy, or know how long a cable you will need for your TV.
4. Adjustable pliers. Maybe two pair, one large and one small. Maybe the previous owner or tenant left a nail in the wall that just won’t come out, or they used a stapler in the windowsill to hang their Christmas lights. Pliers will give you the grip you need to pull things out.
5. An adjustable wrench. This will help you tighten (or loosen) nuts and bolts. You can change your shower head, or loosen your dryer vent tubing to check for lint.
6. A hammer. Hang things on the wall, close up a paint can securely, or pound in stakes so your kids can camp out in the backyard.
7. An electric drill. You can keep it pretty basic, but a drill can save lots of time. Buy one that has a screwtip adapter also, and you can drive in screws much faster than with a manual screwdriver (and with less stress on your wrist).
8. A first aid kit. Don’t own a home without one. If you’re a first timer with any of the rest of the tools, you can put this to good use when you pinch yourself with pliers, or cut yourself on a fast retracting tape measure.
Kamis, 24 Juni 2010
3 Simple Steps to Your Own Website - Explained.
So you want to build that website – for whatever reason, perhaps you’ve started a business or simply wish to share pictures of the new addition to your family. Let me tell you it’s easier than you think – all you need is directions that you can follow and you will soon be online.
Let’s talk what it will cost upfront. For $10 - $20/month you can have a working website (Imagine: www.yourname.com), available to anyone in the world with internet access. That’s a trip to your favourite fast food joint. (Yes, you can afford it!) There are also some ways of getting a free site – still residing at www.yourname.com, but lets learn about all those weird internet terms first.
There are 3 basic components required to building a personal, custom website.
You need:
- A domain name
- A hosting account and
- Content written in HTML or some other web language.
I know, what’s a domain name!!!?
Here is an analogy I teach:
You live in a home that is built on a certain piece of land (that you rent or buy). That piece of land has a specific address.
Your website (a collection of individual web pages) sits on a hosting account that you rent. That hosting account is found at a specific address – called a domain name.
Your Home Your Website
Your Street Address: e.g. 1 John St, Anytown
Your domain name: e.g. www.yourname.com
Your plot of land Your hosting account
Your physical house Your web content
Here is the 3 step process:
STEP 1: Choose your address
STEP 2: Rent some space on a computer connected to the internet
STEP 3: Build the house you want and place it on the space you bought in step 2
Let’s explain each step:
STEP 1: Choose your address (a domain name)
With the internet you can choose what you want your address to be (your domain name). What are you selling? What would make a cool name? Understand that after over 10 years of public internet access – a lot of good names have been taken. So get creative, and be unique but understandable. An easy place to start with is your full name for a family/personal site or your product name for a business site. Make a list of about 10 possibilities that you like in this format www.yourdesiredname.com Move to the next step.
STEP 2: Rent some space on a computer connected to the internet (A hosting account)
With a quick search for the words “Web Hosting” on the internet, you get a list of web hosting companies – all eager to sell or rent you some space on their computer. GoDaddy.com and 1and1.com are some recommended companies – feel free to look into others, but there are thousands upon thousands – so don’t waste your time searching for the cheapest (you pay for what you get, but $10+ will get you a decent hosting account.
Many of the hosting companies will either give you or sell you your choice of domain name at the same time you start your hosting account. Bring out your list from STEP 1, and when instructed in the purchase process, enter in your first domain name choice. You will be informed if that name is available or not. Keep trying out your names in order of your preference until you find on that is available. Finish the purchase process and let the hosting company instruct you on how to access you account. (They’ll send you an email – and if you go with one of the companies I recommended, you can call them with your questions.)
STEP 3: Build the house you want and place it on the space you bought in step 2
You have some choices to make here:
A - You can ask someone to build you a site.
B - You can build it yourself.
C - Use a free website builder – (like a blog)
Each has its pros and cons.
The first option is great if you can afford it and can find someone reliable. If you want cheap, post a job at your local high school – someone in computer club will be able to help you for really cheap. The problem is that they may not always be around when you need them to make changes. Enter choice B
It’s great to learn a new skill, and you can learn for free online – just invest a little time. Remember once you know how… you own that knowledge forever and you will never depend on someone else to build your site. Again search online for “how to build a website” They will tell you how to design, build and upload your site onto your hosting account form STEP 2.
If you don’t really require a customized design and all you want to do is place some text and perhaps some pictures online. I suggest starting what’s called a blog - these are often free, and have a really simple “HTML CODE FREE” way of adding your content. All you do is type and publish. You can often still have your own domain name here, but each blogging company is different. Again search online for blogging – and read what the various companies offer.
Content
There is one thing that is really important and that ONLY you can do! That is come up with the content and the idea. Think about what you have to offer and what problem it solves for your visitors and prepare your content so as to answer that problem. E.g. You write great jokes. People are looking for jokes… your website should give people some jokes and perhaps they can register for your daily joke email.
Write simply, write short, write clearly. As time goes on, remember to keep your site fresh. Keep the content updated and relevant to your ideal visitors.
The goal of this article was to give you easy steps of how to get a website for yourself. Naturally you can learn more about each step, and there are many people who can give you help, but now you can start the journey. Create your list of domain names, purchase a hosting account (including the domain name you want) and build your site and keep the content fresh.
In future articles I’ll take about next steps:
- “I build it, but they ain’t coming to see it.”
- “I built it, but nobody’s buying”
- “I built it, but I don’t know how to improve it.”
A journey of a million miles starts with one step – so go to step 1 and start. (Don’t worry – this is not a long journey – but it’s exciting!).
Here to Help You!
Thanks for reading,
Your Rich Cousin
(Author and Business Success Story) Get the free e-book that got me started and helped me start making money at http://www.richcousin.com It's so straight forward and easy to understand AND you will have the support you need to start making a great income online.
Let’s talk what it will cost upfront. For $10 - $20/month you can have a working website (Imagine: www.yourname.com), available to anyone in the world with internet access. That’s a trip to your favourite fast food joint. (Yes, you can afford it!) There are also some ways of getting a free site – still residing at www.yourname.com, but lets learn about all those weird internet terms first.
There are 3 basic components required to building a personal, custom website.
You need:
- A domain name
- A hosting account and
- Content written in HTML or some other web language.
I know, what’s a domain name!!!?
Here is an analogy I teach:
You live in a home that is built on a certain piece of land (that you rent or buy). That piece of land has a specific address.
Your website (a collection of individual web pages) sits on a hosting account that you rent. That hosting account is found at a specific address – called a domain name.
Your Home Your Website
Your Street Address: e.g. 1 John St, Anytown
Your domain name: e.g. www.yourname.com
Your plot of land Your hosting account
Your physical house Your web content
Here is the 3 step process:
STEP 1: Choose your address
STEP 2: Rent some space on a computer connected to the internet
STEP 3: Build the house you want and place it on the space you bought in step 2
Let’s explain each step:
STEP 1: Choose your address (a domain name)
With the internet you can choose what you want your address to be (your domain name). What are you selling? What would make a cool name? Understand that after over 10 years of public internet access – a lot of good names have been taken. So get creative, and be unique but understandable. An easy place to start with is your full name for a family/personal site or your product name for a business site. Make a list of about 10 possibilities that you like in this format www.yourdesiredname.com Move to the next step.
STEP 2: Rent some space on a computer connected to the internet (A hosting account)
With a quick search for the words “Web Hosting” on the internet, you get a list of web hosting companies – all eager to sell or rent you some space on their computer. GoDaddy.com and 1and1.com are some recommended companies – feel free to look into others, but there are thousands upon thousands – so don’t waste your time searching for the cheapest (you pay for what you get, but $10+ will get you a decent hosting account.
Many of the hosting companies will either give you or sell you your choice of domain name at the same time you start your hosting account. Bring out your list from STEP 1, and when instructed in the purchase process, enter in your first domain name choice. You will be informed if that name is available or not. Keep trying out your names in order of your preference until you find on that is available. Finish the purchase process and let the hosting company instruct you on how to access you account. (They’ll send you an email – and if you go with one of the companies I recommended, you can call them with your questions.)
STEP 3: Build the house you want and place it on the space you bought in step 2
You have some choices to make here:
A - You can ask someone to build you a site.
B - You can build it yourself.
C - Use a free website builder – (like a blog)
Each has its pros and cons.
The first option is great if you can afford it and can find someone reliable. If you want cheap, post a job at your local high school – someone in computer club will be able to help you for really cheap. The problem is that they may not always be around when you need them to make changes. Enter choice B
It’s great to learn a new skill, and you can learn for free online – just invest a little time. Remember once you know how… you own that knowledge forever and you will never depend on someone else to build your site. Again search online for “how to build a website” They will tell you how to design, build and upload your site onto your hosting account form STEP 2.
If you don’t really require a customized design and all you want to do is place some text and perhaps some pictures online. I suggest starting what’s called a blog - these are often free, and have a really simple “HTML CODE FREE” way of adding your content. All you do is type and publish. You can often still have your own domain name here, but each blogging company is different. Again search online for blogging – and read what the various companies offer.
Content
There is one thing that is really important and that ONLY you can do! That is come up with the content and the idea. Think about what you have to offer and what problem it solves for your visitors and prepare your content so as to answer that problem. E.g. You write great jokes. People are looking for jokes… your website should give people some jokes and perhaps they can register for your daily joke email.
Write simply, write short, write clearly. As time goes on, remember to keep your site fresh. Keep the content updated and relevant to your ideal visitors.
The goal of this article was to give you easy steps of how to get a website for yourself. Naturally you can learn more about each step, and there are many people who can give you help, but now you can start the journey. Create your list of domain names, purchase a hosting account (including the domain name you want) and build your site and keep the content fresh.
In future articles I’ll take about next steps:
- “I build it, but they ain’t coming to see it.”
- “I built it, but nobody’s buying”
- “I built it, but I don’t know how to improve it.”
A journey of a million miles starts with one step – so go to step 1 and start. (Don’t worry – this is not a long journey – but it’s exciting!).
Here to Help You!
Thanks for reading,
Your Rich Cousin
(Author and Business Success Story) Get the free e-book that got me started and helped me start making money at http://www.richcousin.com It's so straight forward and easy to understand AND you will have the support you need to start making a great income online.
Selasa, 22 Juni 2010
3 Legitimate Reasons For Getting An Immediate Product Refund
So now that you've finally decided to purchase that product and can't wait to try it out, you have to find out that it does anything else but what you've expected. Don't worry, you still have a chance to get your money back with the following tips for getting an immediate product refund.
1. False advertising
"Get 10.000 hits to your website in 24 hours". Such tempting promises might sure make you wanna flip out your credit card immediately. But when you apply the methods or use the software and have to find out that those 10.000 hits might really result in 10, then this is a legitimate reason for requesting a refund. Unfortunately it's not always that easy. Many vendors get around such false advertising by stating in the fine print that these results cannot be guaranteed. Therefore always keep an eye on such statements and if you cannot believe what's advertised then search for product reviews using your favorite search engine.
2. Product outdated
Believe it or not, but I've seen products that were still advertised and happily took the money out of the customers' pockets but were totally outdated or didn't work anymore. I once bought a product that could not be downloaded anymore but still had the sales page up and running, it even displayed the current date indicating the end of a special promotion. Every attempt to contact the creator of the software failed and after I read in a forum that I wasn't the only one not being able to download the software, I contacted the credit card processing company and got my money back.
3. Usability
Not every software is as user-friendly as Windows (you got the joke, right?!), which can be frustrating if you want nothing more than use it immediately. For most complex software products there exist written tutorials that exactly describe how to use them and sometimes even video tutorials that make the product handling even easier. If you've read and watched all tutorials and still cannot manage to use the product, then state this to the creator and you should get that refund.
If you've contacted the product creator and still were not able to get a refund despite some legitimate and acceptable reasons, not all hope is gone. Most marketplaces offer a refund guarantee for products that were sold through them (e. g. Clickbank offers its customers a general refund policy of 8 weeks after the product purchase, for a vendor like PayDotCom you have to contact the credit card processor like Paypal which has a refund policy of 60 days).
It is always suggested to clearly state the reason for your product refund and to keep a friendly communication style. Even if the product is not worth a single penny it doesn't make things easier when you insult the creator. Try to show that you've really tried to use the product in an efficient way, maybe attach some screenshots, include suggestions what could be better, etc. The product creator might loose you as a customer but still can benefit from your experience and will most of the time happily give you the refund.
Whatever you do, please be fair. It's just not right to purchase a product which you badly want and then request a refund to get your money back but still continue to use the product. Most marketplaces (Clickbank, PayDotCom) tolerate 2 or even more refunds, but after that you might not be able to purchase anything again through the specific company.
1. False advertising
"Get 10.000 hits to your website in 24 hours". Such tempting promises might sure make you wanna flip out your credit card immediately. But when you apply the methods or use the software and have to find out that those 10.000 hits might really result in 10, then this is a legitimate reason for requesting a refund. Unfortunately it's not always that easy. Many vendors get around such false advertising by stating in the fine print that these results cannot be guaranteed. Therefore always keep an eye on such statements and if you cannot believe what's advertised then search for product reviews using your favorite search engine.
2. Product outdated
Believe it or not, but I've seen products that were still advertised and happily took the money out of the customers' pockets but were totally outdated or didn't work anymore. I once bought a product that could not be downloaded anymore but still had the sales page up and running, it even displayed the current date indicating the end of a special promotion. Every attempt to contact the creator of the software failed and after I read in a forum that I wasn't the only one not being able to download the software, I contacted the credit card processing company and got my money back.
3. Usability
Not every software is as user-friendly as Windows (you got the joke, right?!), which can be frustrating if you want nothing more than use it immediately. For most complex software products there exist written tutorials that exactly describe how to use them and sometimes even video tutorials that make the product handling even easier. If you've read and watched all tutorials and still cannot manage to use the product, then state this to the creator and you should get that refund.
If you've contacted the product creator and still were not able to get a refund despite some legitimate and acceptable reasons, not all hope is gone. Most marketplaces offer a refund guarantee for products that were sold through them (e. g. Clickbank offers its customers a general refund policy of 8 weeks after the product purchase, for a vendor like PayDotCom you have to contact the credit card processor like Paypal which has a refund policy of 60 days).
It is always suggested to clearly state the reason for your product refund and to keep a friendly communication style. Even if the product is not worth a single penny it doesn't make things easier when you insult the creator. Try to show that you've really tried to use the product in an efficient way, maybe attach some screenshots, include suggestions what could be better, etc. The product creator might loose you as a customer but still can benefit from your experience and will most of the time happily give you the refund.
Whatever you do, please be fair. It's just not right to purchase a product which you badly want and then request a refund to get your money back but still continue to use the product. Most marketplaces (Clickbank, PayDotCom) tolerate 2 or even more refunds, but after that you might not be able to purchase anything again through the specific company.
3 Free Website Marketing Ideas - Easy And Quick
Online marketing is not cheap. You can spend thousands of dollars on Pay Per Click (Google Adwords) and thousands of site-targetted dollars (AdBrite), and you can spend thousands just buying text links from individual sites. Trust me, I've spent thousands on advertising.
However, my favorite form of marketing is the free kind. Anything free I like, especially if it helps my websites make more money without increasing my advertising costs.
Here are three easy and quick ways to market your website at no additional cost.
1. Free Business Cards
Free business cards are a staple in my advertising arsenal. You can leave them everywhere and give them to anyone. The best part is, they are free! Use them where you want, when you want, and as often as possible. That is the motto I live by whenever I get a shipment of free business cards in the mail.
2. Link Exchanges
Link exchanges are a great way of spreading Page Rank, but also of sharing visitors. Most people who like a site will bookmark it. After they have read everything they want, they will read the site that you link to. You get the visitors, and share the visitor through a link exchange.
3. Business card networking
After you have received your free business cards, use them to network with other people. Everytime you meet someone, hand them one of your free business cards. After that, ask for one of their business cards in exchange. If they don't have one, make sure you mention what you do, and the website address that is also listed on your free business card. Free business cards make a great networking tool if you will put them to use. Never forget, they are free, and should not be used sparingly. Use them in any situation you can think of. People will take them home and visit your site when they pull your business card out of their pocket.
With those three free website marketing ideas, your website will not only be more successful, but you won't have to spend any of your hard earned money on marketing!
However, my favorite form of marketing is the free kind. Anything free I like, especially if it helps my websites make more money without increasing my advertising costs.
Here are three easy and quick ways to market your website at no additional cost.
1. Free Business Cards
Free business cards are a staple in my advertising arsenal. You can leave them everywhere and give them to anyone. The best part is, they are free! Use them where you want, when you want, and as often as possible. That is the motto I live by whenever I get a shipment of free business cards in the mail.
2. Link Exchanges
Link exchanges are a great way of spreading Page Rank, but also of sharing visitors. Most people who like a site will bookmark it. After they have read everything they want, they will read the site that you link to. You get the visitors, and share the visitor through a link exchange.
3. Business card networking
After you have received your free business cards, use them to network with other people. Everytime you meet someone, hand them one of your free business cards. After that, ask for one of their business cards in exchange. If they don't have one, make sure you mention what you do, and the website address that is also listed on your free business card. Free business cards make a great networking tool if you will put them to use. Never forget, they are free, and should not be used sparingly. Use them in any situation you can think of. People will take them home and visit your site when they pull your business card out of their pocket.
With those three free website marketing ideas, your website will not only be more successful, but you won't have to spend any of your hard earned money on marketing!
Senin, 21 Juni 2010
3 Quick Ways To Start Your Own Online Business In Less Than 24 Hours
The Internet and online business especially are becoming more and more popular by the day in todays world simply because people are starting to see the true benefits of the web, consumers are starting to trust the web more, and more importantly, the start up costs for a online business are next to nothing compared to the offline world of business start ups.
The only set back most people run into when wanting to start one of their own online business is How and Where to get started.
I did a search under the keyword term "home based business" and the search results returned 575,000,000 results for that keyword alone.
That's a pretty intimidating number for someone wanting to start their own home based business on the web wouldn't you say?
These were the same obstacles I was up against when I first ventured into the online world of business.
But I didn't let that stop me and I hope that won't stop you either from wanting to start your own online business.
So, I saved you the hassle and put together 3 of the quickest ways for ANYONE(that's You) to start their own online business with next to no investment required and can get started in less than 24 hours.
Are you ready? I hope so.
Business Model #1. Affiliate Programs.
Affiliate Programs are simply programs set up by the business owner for others to sign up for and promote for the business owner for a agreed upon commission(usually between 10 - 75%).
The great thing about Affiliate marketing is it doesn't cost you a single penny to get started, you don't have to worry about refunds or customer service that come with owning your own product.
All you have to worry about is generating the traffic to your affiliate link and collecting your commission cheques.
This is the quickest way to get started online... Period!
Here's a few Affiliate Directories to give you a start:
Associate Programs - http://www.associateprograms.com
Refer It - http://www.refer-it.com
Business Model #2. Resell Rights.
Resell Rights are simply products that have already been created and are available to anybody who is willing to pay for the Resell Rights to market them.
The upside to this is you get Ready-To-Go websites with PROVEN sales letters that convert. The best part of all is... you get to keep 100% of the $Profits$.
The draw back is you can't claim those products as your own. The original creator of the product maintains full rights. You just get to keep all the profits.
Not such a bad trade off wouldn't you say?
Business Model #3. Private Label Resell Rights.
Private Label Resell Rights are simply products that are ready to be branded with your name to it.
What I mean by that is you get full rights to the product or products and are able to claim them as your own even though you didn't create them yourself.
This is the fastest way for anyone to start a online business who really doesn't have any experience or knowledge on how to create their own products.
The other really cool thing about Private Label Resell Rights products is they come with Ready-To-Go websites which then again saves you time and money in having to create them yourself.
Well there you have it, 3 Quick Ways To Start Your Own Online Business In Less Than 24 Hours.
The easiest way to locate any of the above via the search engines is by entering something like this into there search engine web form:
affiliate programs + "what your niche is"
(Note: make sure you use the quotations around what niche you want to target. Very Important!)
This will save you time and target your search much better, where as if you were to just enter 'affiliate programs' into the search engine web form you would get a gazillion results, leaving you frustrated.
Now, the only thing left for you to do Right NOW is make a decision on what you would really enjoy doing as a business online.
Once you've figured that out the only thing left for you to do is put together a... Plan For $Profit$.
The only set back most people run into when wanting to start one of their own online business is How and Where to get started.
I did a search under the keyword term "home based business" and the search results returned 575,000,000 results for that keyword alone.
That's a pretty intimidating number for someone wanting to start their own home based business on the web wouldn't you say?
These were the same obstacles I was up against when I first ventured into the online world of business.
But I didn't let that stop me and I hope that won't stop you either from wanting to start your own online business.
So, I saved you the hassle and put together 3 of the quickest ways for ANYONE(that's You) to start their own online business with next to no investment required and can get started in less than 24 hours.
Are you ready? I hope so.
Business Model #1. Affiliate Programs.
Affiliate Programs are simply programs set up by the business owner for others to sign up for and promote for the business owner for a agreed upon commission(usually between 10 - 75%).
The great thing about Affiliate marketing is it doesn't cost you a single penny to get started, you don't have to worry about refunds or customer service that come with owning your own product.
All you have to worry about is generating the traffic to your affiliate link and collecting your commission cheques.
This is the quickest way to get started online... Period!
Here's a few Affiliate Directories to give you a start:
Associate Programs - http://www.associateprograms.com
Refer It - http://www.refer-it.com
Business Model #2. Resell Rights.
Resell Rights are simply products that have already been created and are available to anybody who is willing to pay for the Resell Rights to market them.
The upside to this is you get Ready-To-Go websites with PROVEN sales letters that convert. The best part of all is... you get to keep 100% of the $Profits$.
The draw back is you can't claim those products as your own. The original creator of the product maintains full rights. You just get to keep all the profits.
Not such a bad trade off wouldn't you say?
Business Model #3. Private Label Resell Rights.
Private Label Resell Rights are simply products that are ready to be branded with your name to it.
What I mean by that is you get full rights to the product or products and are able to claim them as your own even though you didn't create them yourself.
This is the fastest way for anyone to start a online business who really doesn't have any experience or knowledge on how to create their own products.
The other really cool thing about Private Label Resell Rights products is they come with Ready-To-Go websites which then again saves you time and money in having to create them yourself.
Well there you have it, 3 Quick Ways To Start Your Own Online Business In Less Than 24 Hours.
The easiest way to locate any of the above via the search engines is by entering something like this into there search engine web form:
affiliate programs + "what your niche is"
(Note: make sure you use the quotations around what niche you want to target. Very Important!)
This will save you time and target your search much better, where as if you were to just enter 'affiliate programs' into the search engine web form you would get a gazillion results, leaving you frustrated.
Now, the only thing left for you to do Right NOW is make a decision on what you would really enjoy doing as a business online.
Once you've figured that out the only thing left for you to do is put together a... Plan For $Profit$.
3 Easy, Money-Making Internet Business Models
All the noise and hype on the Internet today, not many people realize that all the ideas and techniques you can find are petty much useless if you don't first understand your business model. In other words, even the most amazing Internet marketing technique will not work if you don't understand how to apply it to YOUR business.
The 3 most popular business models are:
1) Affiliate Marketing
This is perhaps the most popular one out there, since there are absolutely no barriers to entry. Almost anyone can sign-up for an affiliate program for free and start promoting the product or service on the Internet with hopes that someone will buy, giving them instant commissions. Affiliate marketers don't carry any risk, since they do not pay for the creation of the product, they do not handle customer service and they do not need any up-front investments.
When you consider that those are the top three things people want to avoid, it's no surprise that almost everyone and their neighbor promotes an affiliate program or another. In fact, if there is a single reason why the Internet today is so proliferated with ads and banners, it's because of affiliate programs.
Even though there are so many affiliate marketers out there, only 5% ever make any money and only 1% makes big money. The "Super Affiliates" do it very differently from all the other millions; therefore they earn the big checks.
2) E-book and Information Publishing
Sitting at the other end of the spectrum, e-book authors need to be more disciplined in their approach to Internet marketing. Of course, they also need to invest more than affiliates do. While affiliates can get away trying to "get something for nothing" the same is not true for the e-book type of business.
If you're thinking about publishing and selling your own e-book online, and you think it's going to be easy, think again. You'll need to learn a lot more than affiliates are required to. You'll need to spend some amount of money getting your business up and running. However, when you do it right, the payoff in this online business model is much more rewarding.
The reason why e-book marketers and "Infopreneurs" make more money is simple; they have very, very low production and maintenance costs. Anything digital doesn't cost a single cent to be produced in millions if necessary. Whatever initial start-up costs spent can be covered by selling just a few copies of high-margin e-books, and you can even recruit an army of affiliates who are more than willing to do all the selling for you.
Of course, it's not as easy as it sounds, but the point is, when done properly, the "E-book Publishing" model is a truly profitable business.
3) Internet Based Network Marketing
I've heard many people say that the Internet and network marketing are a match made in heaven. In my opinion, though, almost 90% of people get it wrong when it comes to Internet based network marketing. People in this business usually think they're talking about network marketing, but in reality they are talking about affiliate marketing.
They try to make the Internet do all the work. They hide behind their computers and pretend everything's going great. They focus on selling more and more every month. They have systems that are so complicated only they can understand it. Well, that doesn't sound like network marketing to me!
Internet based network marketing is simple if you understand it, and are willing to put in the effort. The role of the Internet here is only to get you the names and contact details of people you can talk to, after which YOU, not a computer, has to build a relationship with these people and help them to start their own business.
For this simple purpose, it is not necessary for you to have a high-tech system and pretend that your auto responder is building relationships for you. It's not going to work. The key is to have simple systems that are duplicable, something you can teach to all those people you have built a relationship with.
E-book authors, no matter what they say, have no obligation to teach you their "Secret Strategies to Become a Millionaire” of any variations to that. The reason is simple; why tell you the absolute truth when you'll end up as their competitor? No one wants more competitors, right?
Internet based network marketing is very much the opposite of that. You HAVE to tell people EVERYTHING you know or your business will never take off. For this reason alone, I always recommend that if you're new to the online world, you need to first join an Internet based network marketing business at least to learn. Rest assured, no one will be selling you half-baked truths when their success ultimately depends on yours.
No matter which model you choose, make sure you understand the basics, and stop listening to and buying things that are not applicable to your business. Information overload can stop you before you even get started
The 3 most popular business models are:
1) Affiliate Marketing
This is perhaps the most popular one out there, since there are absolutely no barriers to entry. Almost anyone can sign-up for an affiliate program for free and start promoting the product or service on the Internet with hopes that someone will buy, giving them instant commissions. Affiliate marketers don't carry any risk, since they do not pay for the creation of the product, they do not handle customer service and they do not need any up-front investments.
When you consider that those are the top three things people want to avoid, it's no surprise that almost everyone and their neighbor promotes an affiliate program or another. In fact, if there is a single reason why the Internet today is so proliferated with ads and banners, it's because of affiliate programs.
Even though there are so many affiliate marketers out there, only 5% ever make any money and only 1% makes big money. The "Super Affiliates" do it very differently from all the other millions; therefore they earn the big checks.
2) E-book and Information Publishing
Sitting at the other end of the spectrum, e-book authors need to be more disciplined in their approach to Internet marketing. Of course, they also need to invest more than affiliates do. While affiliates can get away trying to "get something for nothing" the same is not true for the e-book type of business.
If you're thinking about publishing and selling your own e-book online, and you think it's going to be easy, think again. You'll need to learn a lot more than affiliates are required to. You'll need to spend some amount of money getting your business up and running. However, when you do it right, the payoff in this online business model is much more rewarding.
The reason why e-book marketers and "Infopreneurs" make more money is simple; they have very, very low production and maintenance costs. Anything digital doesn't cost a single cent to be produced in millions if necessary. Whatever initial start-up costs spent can be covered by selling just a few copies of high-margin e-books, and you can even recruit an army of affiliates who are more than willing to do all the selling for you.
Of course, it's not as easy as it sounds, but the point is, when done properly, the "E-book Publishing" model is a truly profitable business.
3) Internet Based Network Marketing
I've heard many people say that the Internet and network marketing are a match made in heaven. In my opinion, though, almost 90% of people get it wrong when it comes to Internet based network marketing. People in this business usually think they're talking about network marketing, but in reality they are talking about affiliate marketing.
They try to make the Internet do all the work. They hide behind their computers and pretend everything's going great. They focus on selling more and more every month. They have systems that are so complicated only they can understand it. Well, that doesn't sound like network marketing to me!
Internet based network marketing is simple if you understand it, and are willing to put in the effort. The role of the Internet here is only to get you the names and contact details of people you can talk to, after which YOU, not a computer, has to build a relationship with these people and help them to start their own business.
For this simple purpose, it is not necessary for you to have a high-tech system and pretend that your auto responder is building relationships for you. It's not going to work. The key is to have simple systems that are duplicable, something you can teach to all those people you have built a relationship with.
E-book authors, no matter what they say, have no obligation to teach you their "Secret Strategies to Become a Millionaire” of any variations to that. The reason is simple; why tell you the absolute truth when you'll end up as their competitor? No one wants more competitors, right?
Internet based network marketing is very much the opposite of that. You HAVE to tell people EVERYTHING you know or your business will never take off. For this reason alone, I always recommend that if you're new to the online world, you need to first join an Internet based network marketing business at least to learn. Rest assured, no one will be selling you half-baked truths when their success ultimately depends on yours.
No matter which model you choose, make sure you understand the basics, and stop listening to and buying things that are not applicable to your business. Information overload can stop you before you even get started
Rabu, 09 Juni 2010
Chitika For Website Marketing
Although Chitika has been around since 1993, not many pople were aware of them in the website marketing business, in fact, I myself didn’t realize of there existence until I saw people start bragging about how much money they were making of off them, even over Adsense.
So, what’s the big deal? You may ask. Well that’s pretty simple actually, Chitika has invented a revolutionary ad-type called eMiniMaills. These eMiniMalls are banner sized shopping cart displaying items that you choose by keywords, and you get paid for every click on the ads.
Chitika introduced eMiniMalls in June of ’05, but people really started to utilize them quite recently, and started to realize the true power that they held over the common consumer. From most, if not all, reports that I’ve seen, most people’s Chitika earnings have surpassed there Adsense earnings by a large amount, and this is no small feat.
Now that I’ve made you all aware of how it all works, and true power of eMiniMalls, let’s get into the nitty gritty. You’ll obviously want to start out with a website, or a blog, in fact, any median will do, and is needed. You’ll then want to sign up for an account here. (https://chitika.com)
Now that you have an account, you’ll want to create the adds that you’ll be displaying on your site, this is almost like your creating your adsense ads and the same rules apply, we’ll discuss this more a little later. Unlike adsense you can’t save color schemes so you may want to write the colors down so you can use them in the future for any other ads.
When deciding colors for your adds, you’ll want to try your best to blend them in to your existing website, color wise. It has been proven that those people that have successfully blended there ads into their site via good colors, have has a higher click-through-rate, and thus higher earnings. Try your hand at this and see how it works out. If you’d like an example of how I did the colors compared to my site, you can visit Super Justin.com. (http://www.superjustin.com).
Another important factor to take into consideration is ad placement, I find that the better ad placement, the better click-through-rate. It’s hard to determine which would best suite every site, because every site is different, so you’ll want to test this out as much as you can through trial and error. Some key things to consider is that you’ll want to have your ads in high traffic areas, such as menus as well as site articles.
In closing, don’t forget to use chitika’s great referral program after you sign up, and give your friends and relatives, so you can earn money from them as well. Click here to sign up. (https://chitika.com)
So, what’s the big deal? You may ask. Well that’s pretty simple actually, Chitika has invented a revolutionary ad-type called eMiniMaills. These eMiniMalls are banner sized shopping cart displaying items that you choose by keywords, and you get paid for every click on the ads.
Chitika introduced eMiniMalls in June of ’05, but people really started to utilize them quite recently, and started to realize the true power that they held over the common consumer. From most, if not all, reports that I’ve seen, most people’s Chitika earnings have surpassed there Adsense earnings by a large amount, and this is no small feat.
Now that I’ve made you all aware of how it all works, and true power of eMiniMalls, let’s get into the nitty gritty. You’ll obviously want to start out with a website, or a blog, in fact, any median will do, and is needed. You’ll then want to sign up for an account here. (https://chitika.com)
Now that you have an account, you’ll want to create the adds that you’ll be displaying on your site, this is almost like your creating your adsense ads and the same rules apply, we’ll discuss this more a little later. Unlike adsense you can’t save color schemes so you may want to write the colors down so you can use them in the future for any other ads.
When deciding colors for your adds, you’ll want to try your best to blend them in to your existing website, color wise. It has been proven that those people that have successfully blended there ads into their site via good colors, have has a higher click-through-rate, and thus higher earnings. Try your hand at this and see how it works out. If you’d like an example of how I did the colors compared to my site, you can visit Super Justin.com. (http://www.superjustin.com).
Another important factor to take into consideration is ad placement, I find that the better ad placement, the better click-through-rate. It’s hard to determine which would best suite every site, because every site is different, so you’ll want to test this out as much as you can through trial and error. Some key things to consider is that you’ll want to have your ads in high traffic areas, such as menus as well as site articles.
In closing, don’t forget to use chitika’s great referral program after you sign up, and give your friends and relatives, so you can earn money from them as well. Click here to sign up. (https://chitika.com)
Selasa, 08 Juni 2010
A Website Without Online Marketing: A Fruitless Tree
Nowadays, many people save money to quit their day jobs in hopes of achieving their own customized version of the American Dream by starting what is commonly known as an e-commerce business or a "dot com" venture. They then proceed to spend the savings of their labor on great looking, functional and hopefully practical websites. However, a large percentage of such venturesome warriors that take the initiative to quit a steady job and embark on the bumpy road of e-"self employment" do not end up reaping the fruits of their courage.
The initial phases of website development both financially and emotionally drain the average venturous individual to a point that at the end of the process they are impatiently waiting for miraculous profit to be pouring their way. In reality, this seldom happens since there are thousands of such individuals both from the past and the present on the very same path striving to prosper. In order for a website to be profitable, it would have to contend in the race for traffic against hundreds of thousands, or even millions of competitors.
It is possible to attract visitors to your website via countless means however the best and the most efficient are what have been rounded up under the roof of Online Marketing. Online or Internet Marketing addresses the concerns of all those website owners that are astounded at the low returns on their investments. It helps strategize a plan to increase the popularity and traffic of the website and tackle the issues of low profits. The most important aspects of Internet Marketing are as follows:
The above are the main areas in which you have to be active in order for your online marketing campaign to be successful. However it is sometimes not possible to achieve the best results in all areas without rigorous research and extensive training. This is where internet marketing firms come to your help in devising and implementing a successful campaign. Internet Marketing is virtually the only way to turn your investment of time, patience and money into measurable profit that could get you closer to achieving your goals and fulfilling your dreams. This is why I invite you to read my future articles where I will be providing more detailed information on each of the above categories as well as information on how to find do-it-yourself information and shop for internet marketing services.
The initial phases of website development both financially and emotionally drain the average venturous individual to a point that at the end of the process they are impatiently waiting for miraculous profit to be pouring their way. In reality, this seldom happens since there are thousands of such individuals both from the past and the present on the very same path striving to prosper. In order for a website to be profitable, it would have to contend in the race for traffic against hundreds of thousands, or even millions of competitors.
It is possible to attract visitors to your website via countless means however the best and the most efficient are what have been rounded up under the roof of Online Marketing. Online or Internet Marketing addresses the concerns of all those website owners that are astounded at the low returns on their investments. It helps strategize a plan to increase the popularity and traffic of the website and tackle the issues of low profits. The most important aspects of Internet Marketing are as follows:
- Spreading the Word: Since other online venues require a relatively longer initial period of time to yield results, it is quick and efficient to spread the word about your website via submitting articles and news releases to be published. An informative and useful article will intrigue other website owners to syndicate the article hence exposing your website to the visitors of their own websites. On the other hand a carefully prepared news release if published at the right time will drive major media publishers to run stories on your website which in turn will expose your website to a very wide base of potential visitors and in turn converted customers.
- Networking: Propagating the word about your website is a great way to jumpstart your internet marketing campaign, however you need stability from within to be able to sustain your website's popularity. By partnering or simply having a relationship with websites in and out of your industry you will be able to increase your website link base and provide a one-stop solution for your visitors. You can achieve this by being an active participant in online forums, chat sessions and even seminars not to mention offline venues such as business mixers and conferences.
- Search Engines: Once you have created an initial surge of visitors via press releases and worked on networking to maintain your traffic, your website will be seasoned and ready to benefit from a very precious medium that lets targeted visitors come to you rather than you going after them. Search engines are inundated with searchers looking for products and services in virtually every single industry and category imaginable. By using keyword popularity tools you can find out approximately how many people search for keywords relevant to your website on a daily basis. Once you find the keywords that would bring valuable visitors to your website, then you can target them by optimizing your website. This process is referred to as Search Engine Optimization which will be discussed in much more detail in future articles.
- Refining the User Interface: Refining the User Interface is certainly one of the most ignored yet extremely important aspects of owning and operating a website. You can be getting hundreds of unique visitors on a daily basis to your website yet making less profit than a direct competitor of yours with half the traffic. The secret lies in your user interface consisting of elements such as forms, navigation, contents, links, buttons, customization, localization and more. By using these elements in the correct places and at the correct time and constantly monitoring your visitor retention and conversation rates, you can not only increase your conversation ratio and therefore your profit but also maintain a larger visitor base potentially creating word of mouth and return business.
The above are the main areas in which you have to be active in order for your online marketing campaign to be successful. However it is sometimes not possible to achieve the best results in all areas without rigorous research and extensive training. This is where internet marketing firms come to your help in devising and implementing a successful campaign. Internet Marketing is virtually the only way to turn your investment of time, patience and money into measurable profit that could get you closer to achieving your goals and fulfilling your dreams. This is why I invite you to read my future articles where I will be providing more detailed information on each of the above categories as well as information on how to find do-it-yourself information and shop for internet marketing services.
Senin, 07 Juni 2010
Aggressive Internet Marketing Made Possible
Aggressive internet marketing means full-blown marketing and promotions that exceed any businessman's expectations. A business needs fierce internet marketing. No more, no less. But to make it low cost? Is that even possible? How can something so aggressive be affordable?
Luckily, you can avail of inexpensive aggressive internet marketing if you just look hard and good enough. Be keen and alert and know what's going on in the online industry. The following questions will help you discern if your chosen internet site to do the marketing fits the bill.
1. Does the company offer free website design?
Even if you know your HTML, it is still more advisable if a professional team does it for you. Some internet marketing sites offer free web design to make sure that your site's needs are met. It's a must that marketing is integrated to the web design. If the company requires you to pay more than fifty bucks for the web design, then so much for straight-forward internet marketing! Look somewhere else!
2. How many keywords does your web site cater to?
Having too many keywords or key phrases to focus on will make your page ranking drop. Creating smaller web pages with content that emphasizes only a few keywords will serve Internet marketing endeavor better.
3. How search engine-compatible is your website?
Internet marketing is coined "aggressive" only if it is a hundred percent search engine-compatible. There are about 10 major search engines online and your site has to work accordingly with them. Find out if your internet marketing site is expert on search engine optimization.
4. Do you know your competitors?
Affordable aggressive internet marketing pushes your business forward by taking note of your competitors. Analysis and evaluation of the competition is mandatory to figure out your shortcomings and advantages over them. If this feature is excluded from your internet marketing plan, you're getting a mediocre deal.
5. How efficient is the monthly marketing plan?
Usually, you're asked to pay a monthly fee for the marketing plan. For a marketing plan to be efficient, it must zero in on the following things: webpage development, link exchanges, web content, updates and technical support. Of course, also included are the standard SEO, competition analysis and keyword density.
If you've procured the right answers for the previous questions, then you can finally say: "Now that's low cost aggressive internet marketing."
Luckily, you can avail of inexpensive aggressive internet marketing if you just look hard and good enough. Be keen and alert and know what's going on in the online industry. The following questions will help you discern if your chosen internet site to do the marketing fits the bill.
1. Does the company offer free website design?
Even if you know your HTML, it is still more advisable if a professional team does it for you. Some internet marketing sites offer free web design to make sure that your site's needs are met. It's a must that marketing is integrated to the web design. If the company requires you to pay more than fifty bucks for the web design, then so much for straight-forward internet marketing! Look somewhere else!
2. How many keywords does your web site cater to?
Having too many keywords or key phrases to focus on will make your page ranking drop. Creating smaller web pages with content that emphasizes only a few keywords will serve Internet marketing endeavor better.
3. How search engine-compatible is your website?
Internet marketing is coined "aggressive" only if it is a hundred percent search engine-compatible. There are about 10 major search engines online and your site has to work accordingly with them. Find out if your internet marketing site is expert on search engine optimization.
4. Do you know your competitors?
Affordable aggressive internet marketing pushes your business forward by taking note of your competitors. Analysis and evaluation of the competition is mandatory to figure out your shortcomings and advantages over them. If this feature is excluded from your internet marketing plan, you're getting a mediocre deal.
5. How efficient is the monthly marketing plan?
Usually, you're asked to pay a monthly fee for the marketing plan. For a marketing plan to be efficient, it must zero in on the following things: webpage development, link exchanges, web content, updates and technical support. Of course, also included are the standard SEO, competition analysis and keyword density.
If you've procured the right answers for the previous questions, then you can finally say: "Now that's low cost aggressive internet marketing."
Minggu, 06 Juni 2010
8 Ways To Make Your Ads More Effective
I don't know everything and if I have learned one thing about doing business on the Internet it is that the more you learn the more you don't know. However, I have been doing business on the Internet since 1999 and I've managed to carve out a successful enterprise for myself with several profit streams. The largest percentage of my marketing and promotional efforts has been conducted through one simple method-Ezine Advertising.
These are the 8 important lessons I've learned regarding Ezine Advertising and Marketing Success:
A common mistake many advertisers make is to attempt to do too much, or rather sell too much, in one ad. Sure you have lots of great products but you can't sell them all in a few lines-at least not individually. Instead focus on the benefit your customer can achieve from all your products and promote that! People are much more likely to click on a link that BENEFITS them than a link that promises to sell them something.
For example, "Help your child reach their maximum potential" instead of "Try our many reading, writing, math, shapes and colors programs"
More importantly, tell the customer "what your product or service is going to do for him."
It is important that you identify your Unique Selling Proposition before you begin your advertising program. This will determine which Ezines (or markets) you target as well as what you should include in your ad copy. Who will be interested in your product and why? What benefits does your product offer them?
Don't go for the sale in your ad! You are at a disadvantage because you can't list all your products' wonderful benefits in the space allowed. Also, there is only a small percentage of any Ezine audience that is ready to buy your product at the exact moment they view your ad. Yes, maybe they should be, but most people today live in the moment and if this isn't the time they want to buy then they aren't going to buy, end of story.
But it doesn't have to be the end of the story. If you go for the soft sell approach your target consumer is much more likely to click on your link and then you've got the chance to go for the hard sell-again and again!
Here's an example. I'm selling a product called the Preschool Prep Power Pack. It's an educational CD for preschoolers. Now I could go for the hard sell in my promotion and I would make some sales but a lot of people who really might be interested won't even look at my site and product. However, I've chose to go the soft sell approach. Instead of selling my product in my ads, my ads offer two FREE items. I offer a free newsletter (Preschoolers Learn More) offering tips about preparing preschoolers for kindergarten. This is my target market for my product. The folks who subscribe also receive a free ABC-123 coloring book. Why wouldn't the parent of a preschooler subscribe, right?
But what's in it for me as a business person? A lot! Think about it. I now have the freely offered contact information for my target market. Now I can regularly email them information about my product. I'm confident they will buy eventually because my product provides a solution to something that concerns them-or they wouldn't have subscribed in the first place!
Another common mistake is not giving your ad campaign enough time to work.
Studies show it takes prospects an average of seven exposures to your promotion before they take the bait. Even after they have clicked through to your site visitors may need to visit your site as many as three times before they buy from you. So make sure you keep that offer in front of them. That means it may well pay to take the long-term package versus a one-shot ad.
People run through their emails rapidly and delete things they wish they hadn't. Make their wish come true! Give them a second, third, fourth chance. The formula is--when you're sick and tired of it, the public is just beginning to hear it.
Just because you've bought ad space doesn't mean you have to utilize every pixel or character-space. Short, punchy lines that do not use up every available space are more effective. Think about the reader scanning down the page or screen. What will catch their eye and make them stop scanning and actually read? White space is your friend so don't squander it. Use it to set off your important message.
Make sure you apply the same principal to your urls and e-mail addresses as well. Nothing can make an ad look more cluttered than giant web addresses with a complicated string of numbers and letters. If you have to use an address like that (perhaps for your affiliate code, for example) then it might be wise to use a redirect. There are numerous free services out there (http://snipurl.com for exmple) although perhaps it might be a good idea to use a page from your own web site with a redirect programmed in
USE YOUR HEAD
Your headline is the most important part of your ad. This is usually the line that determines whether the skimming reader will stop or skip ahead.
Some of the proven headline formulas include:
1. Ask the reader a question: "Are you worried about filing your
tax return this year?"
2. Tell the reader how to do something: "How to buy a
car without getting a lemon."
3. Provide a testimonial: "Big Al saved me $200 last month. Thanks, Cindy Lou from Paducah, Kentucky."
4. Make a command. Turn your most important benefit into a commanding
headline. "Stop rushing through life." "Make more money this month." "Feel better about yourself."
5. Important news makes a good headline. "Max Electronics just went international!"
6. Start the clock: "Buyers who act before midnight Tuesday will save an extra $50!"
7. Give the reader something free: "Free whatsit for the first 100 visitors!"
DON'T FORGET TO TELL THEM WHAT TO DO!
It sounds almost ridiculous, but simply giving clear, specific directions about what you want the reader to do can increase the response to your ads.
Click here to find out more: http://whatsit.com
Subscribe by emailing subscribe@whatsit.com
Visit http://whatsit.com today to save!
SET YOUR BUDGET
One of the most difficult things to decide for any business person is how much money to spend on promotion. There really is one simple way to determine the answer. How much is a customer worth to you? That tells you a great deal about how much you can afford to spend on advertising.
The simple formula to calculate the net worth of a visitor is: Net Profit divided by Conversion Rate.
First, what is your net profit on an average sale? Let's say $10 to make it easy. (Hey, I'm an English professor, I need to keep it simple!)
Then consider what your conversion rate is for visitors to become customers. Let's say one visitor out of 50 becomes a customer. (This makes your conversion rate 50 as you need 50 customers to make a sale)
With this example, a visitor is worth $0.50 to you. ($10 divided by 50)
So if you spend $100 on an advertising campaign that draws in 1000 visitors then you made $400 on that campaign.
SET REALISTIC GOALS
This issue is really about control. Yes, if you could control things that you would have a high sell through but that isn't always going to happen. In fact, for most advertisers that isn't going to happen. However, if your goal is to capture customers then you are much more likely to match your goal or even exceed it. And in the end a customer is worth a lot more to you than a sale because a customer can represent many sales over years to come-sales that were fairly easy to achieve.
As frustrating as it may be, advertising is usually about long-term versus short-term benefits. Your ad simply serves as a lure to draw people into your site or long-term promotion. Once you've pulled them in then you need to sell them. So it is not really fair to judge an ad campaign on simple sales.
The success of an ad campaign should be measured by one or two elements only-first, how many people followed up on your offer (click-through rate) and second, how many of those visitors were you able to convert into customers (conversion rate).
Over time you will be able to judge where the weak link in your chain of customer creation exists and work to fix it.
Low click-through rate? Then it is probably your offer. You are not giving readers enough incentive to follow through. What is in it for them to click on your offer? Remember you are selling benefits!
Low conversion rate? Then perhaps you are not attracting the right sort of visitor. Target your incentive (the free offer, for example) to match your target audience. See my example in SOFT SELL.
These are the 8 important lessons I've learned regarding Ezine Advertising and Marketing Success:
A common mistake many advertisers make is to attempt to do too much, or rather sell too much, in one ad. Sure you have lots of great products but you can't sell them all in a few lines-at least not individually. Instead focus on the benefit your customer can achieve from all your products and promote that! People are much more likely to click on a link that BENEFITS them than a link that promises to sell them something.
For example, "Help your child reach their maximum potential" instead of "Try our many reading, writing, math, shapes and colors programs"
More importantly, tell the customer "what your product or service is going to do for him."
It is important that you identify your Unique Selling Proposition before you begin your advertising program. This will determine which Ezines (or markets) you target as well as what you should include in your ad copy. Who will be interested in your product and why? What benefits does your product offer them?
Don't go for the sale in your ad! You are at a disadvantage because you can't list all your products' wonderful benefits in the space allowed. Also, there is only a small percentage of any Ezine audience that is ready to buy your product at the exact moment they view your ad. Yes, maybe they should be, but most people today live in the moment and if this isn't the time they want to buy then they aren't going to buy, end of story.
But it doesn't have to be the end of the story. If you go for the soft sell approach your target consumer is much more likely to click on your link and then you've got the chance to go for the hard sell-again and again!
Here's an example. I'm selling a product called the Preschool Prep Power Pack. It's an educational CD for preschoolers. Now I could go for the hard sell in my promotion and I would make some sales but a lot of people who really might be interested won't even look at my site and product. However, I've chose to go the soft sell approach. Instead of selling my product in my ads, my ads offer two FREE items. I offer a free newsletter (Preschoolers Learn More) offering tips about preparing preschoolers for kindergarten. This is my target market for my product. The folks who subscribe also receive a free ABC-123 coloring book. Why wouldn't the parent of a preschooler subscribe, right?
But what's in it for me as a business person? A lot! Think about it. I now have the freely offered contact information for my target market. Now I can regularly email them information about my product. I'm confident they will buy eventually because my product provides a solution to something that concerns them-or they wouldn't have subscribed in the first place!
Another common mistake is not giving your ad campaign enough time to work.
Studies show it takes prospects an average of seven exposures to your promotion before they take the bait. Even after they have clicked through to your site visitors may need to visit your site as many as three times before they buy from you. So make sure you keep that offer in front of them. That means it may well pay to take the long-term package versus a one-shot ad.
People run through their emails rapidly and delete things they wish they hadn't. Make their wish come true! Give them a second, third, fourth chance. The formula is--when you're sick and tired of it, the public is just beginning to hear it.
Just because you've bought ad space doesn't mean you have to utilize every pixel or character-space. Short, punchy lines that do not use up every available space are more effective. Think about the reader scanning down the page or screen. What will catch their eye and make them stop scanning and actually read? White space is your friend so don't squander it. Use it to set off your important message.
Make sure you apply the same principal to your urls and e-mail addresses as well. Nothing can make an ad look more cluttered than giant web addresses with a complicated string of numbers and letters. If you have to use an address like that (perhaps for your affiliate code, for example) then it might be wise to use a redirect. There are numerous free services out there (http://snipurl.com for exmple) although perhaps it might be a good idea to use a page from your own web site with a redirect programmed in
USE YOUR HEAD
Your headline is the most important part of your ad. This is usually the line that determines whether the skimming reader will stop or skip ahead.
Some of the proven headline formulas include:
1. Ask the reader a question: "Are you worried about filing your
tax return this year?"
2. Tell the reader how to do something: "How to buy a
car without getting a lemon."
3. Provide a testimonial: "Big Al saved me $200 last month. Thanks, Cindy Lou from Paducah, Kentucky."
4. Make a command. Turn your most important benefit into a commanding
headline. "Stop rushing through life." "Make more money this month." "Feel better about yourself."
5. Important news makes a good headline. "Max Electronics just went international!"
6. Start the clock: "Buyers who act before midnight Tuesday will save an extra $50!"
7. Give the reader something free: "Free whatsit for the first 100 visitors!"
DON'T FORGET TO TELL THEM WHAT TO DO!
It sounds almost ridiculous, but simply giving clear, specific directions about what you want the reader to do can increase the response to your ads.
Click here to find out more: http://whatsit.com
Subscribe by emailing subscribe@whatsit.com
Visit http://whatsit.com today to save!
SET YOUR BUDGET
One of the most difficult things to decide for any business person is how much money to spend on promotion. There really is one simple way to determine the answer. How much is a customer worth to you? That tells you a great deal about how much you can afford to spend on advertising.
The simple formula to calculate the net worth of a visitor is: Net Profit divided by Conversion Rate.
First, what is your net profit on an average sale? Let's say $10 to make it easy. (Hey, I'm an English professor, I need to keep it simple!)
Then consider what your conversion rate is for visitors to become customers. Let's say one visitor out of 50 becomes a customer. (This makes your conversion rate 50 as you need 50 customers to make a sale)
With this example, a visitor is worth $0.50 to you. ($10 divided by 50)
So if you spend $100 on an advertising campaign that draws in 1000 visitors then you made $400 on that campaign.
SET REALISTIC GOALS
This issue is really about control. Yes, if you could control things that you would have a high sell through but that isn't always going to happen. In fact, for most advertisers that isn't going to happen. However, if your goal is to capture customers then you are much more likely to match your goal or even exceed it. And in the end a customer is worth a lot more to you than a sale because a customer can represent many sales over years to come-sales that were fairly easy to achieve.
As frustrating as it may be, advertising is usually about long-term versus short-term benefits. Your ad simply serves as a lure to draw people into your site or long-term promotion. Once you've pulled them in then you need to sell them. So it is not really fair to judge an ad campaign on simple sales.
The success of an ad campaign should be measured by one or two elements only-first, how many people followed up on your offer (click-through rate) and second, how many of those visitors were you able to convert into customers (conversion rate).
Over time you will be able to judge where the weak link in your chain of customer creation exists and work to fix it.
Low click-through rate? Then it is probably your offer. You are not giving readers enough incentive to follow through. What is in it for them to click on your offer? Remember you are selling benefits!
Low conversion rate? Then perhaps you are not attracting the right sort of visitor. Target your incentive (the free offer, for example) to match your target audience. See my example in SOFT SELL.
Sabtu, 05 Juni 2010
7 Critical Reasons Why Marketers Use Mini-sites!
The use of mini-sites has become the mainstream for most internet marketers. Some people claim mini-sites to be “trendy”, while others know they are here to stay.
Their use is not just a fad, mini-sites out perform every other type of website in the history of the internet as long as they are used wisely.
Here are 10 critical reasons why we see them in use everywhere we surf:
1) They can be created quickly! Any marketer will tell you, if you don’t know already, time is of the utmost importance when selling any product. The quicker a sales letter, order page, and product gets in front of buyers, the faster you make profits.
2) They can be generated easily! Why waste precious time and effort struggling to create a massive informational site to sell a product? Think about it. A person can have a mini-site up and running in a matter of a couple of hours. Wow, less frustration and stress to make solid profits! What a concept!
3) Mini-sites are cost effective! Everyone wants to save a buck these days, especially with the way our economy is going. The price of gasoline and oil alone is causing inflated rates for just about everything we buy.
Why pay the extra $300-a couple of thousand dollars to have a webmaster or designer create one for you when you can build your own free?
That’s right! There is free software on the net like Mozzila for instance that you can download and use to generate mini-sites.
FYI, in most cases you can generate a site and have it up and making profits,
subscribers or driving traffic to one of your other sites, before a professional can place you on his or her schedule.
4) Mini-sites have a primary focus! They focus on one objective — usually to call a person to act — to subscribe to a newsletter, click an order button, or click a link on a site referring them to a product.
The more narrow the focus the less confused visitors will be. I know from experience and from hearing other marketers say, it is easier to keep the visitors attention and call them to act when we only give one choice at a time.
Remember, there is great wisdom in this statement when you generate any website.
5) You can test headlines and sub-headers faster! If the sites can be built quicker and easier, don’t you believe they can be tested faster to see what works and doesn’t work? It sounds like a big “cha-ching” to me!
6) Mini-sites can be tested for search engine optimization quickly too! You don’t
have as many pages to go through— the fewer pages you create, the more time saved so you can do other things like write articles or create another site you can sell products or link to.
As long as your sales letter and so forth has good content, Meta tags, descriptions, and keywords your site can be optimize more efficiently and get better rankings.
7) Mini-sites are so easy and quick to create you can generate many for different purposes! I use them as a means to make different streams of profits and lists.
Here is an example: I may have 2 or 3 for the sole purpose of gaining subscribers to different newsletters describing the use of the products I’m selling, while I have 5 or 6 others that promote affiliate products or my own.
I interlink them with each other and with other high-traffic sites making them more attractive to search engines.
If you are tired of wasting time, energy, or money on your websites and want to make profits or get subscribers faster, try spending a one time fee on a good program that shows you step-by-step how to set up and use mini-sites. It will be the best return investment you can make.
Look at it this way, it can be like having your own energized bunny where you can create, and create, and create some more to serve whatever purpose you have in mind and not spend another dime paying other people to do it for you.
© All rights reserved.
Article may be freely distributed in its entirety! Absolutely no selling or altering content including the links provided.
Their use is not just a fad, mini-sites out perform every other type of website in the history of the internet as long as they are used wisely.
Here are 10 critical reasons why we see them in use everywhere we surf:
1) They can be created quickly! Any marketer will tell you, if you don’t know already, time is of the utmost importance when selling any product. The quicker a sales letter, order page, and product gets in front of buyers, the faster you make profits.
2) They can be generated easily! Why waste precious time and effort struggling to create a massive informational site to sell a product? Think about it. A person can have a mini-site up and running in a matter of a couple of hours. Wow, less frustration and stress to make solid profits! What a concept!
3) Mini-sites are cost effective! Everyone wants to save a buck these days, especially with the way our economy is going. The price of gasoline and oil alone is causing inflated rates for just about everything we buy.
Why pay the extra $300-a couple of thousand dollars to have a webmaster or designer create one for you when you can build your own free?
That’s right! There is free software on the net like Mozzila for instance that you can download and use to generate mini-sites.
FYI, in most cases you can generate a site and have it up and making profits,
subscribers or driving traffic to one of your other sites, before a professional can place you on his or her schedule.
4) Mini-sites have a primary focus! They focus on one objective — usually to call a person to act — to subscribe to a newsletter, click an order button, or click a link on a site referring them to a product.
The more narrow the focus the less confused visitors will be. I know from experience and from hearing other marketers say, it is easier to keep the visitors attention and call them to act when we only give one choice at a time.
Remember, there is great wisdom in this statement when you generate any website.
5) You can test headlines and sub-headers faster! If the sites can be built quicker and easier, don’t you believe they can be tested faster to see what works and doesn’t work? It sounds like a big “cha-ching” to me!
6) Mini-sites can be tested for search engine optimization quickly too! You don’t
have as many pages to go through— the fewer pages you create, the more time saved so you can do other things like write articles or create another site you can sell products or link to.
As long as your sales letter and so forth has good content, Meta tags, descriptions, and keywords your site can be optimize more efficiently and get better rankings.
7) Mini-sites are so easy and quick to create you can generate many for different purposes! I use them as a means to make different streams of profits and lists.
Here is an example: I may have 2 or 3 for the sole purpose of gaining subscribers to different newsletters describing the use of the products I’m selling, while I have 5 or 6 others that promote affiliate products or my own.
I interlink them with each other and with other high-traffic sites making them more attractive to search engines.
If you are tired of wasting time, energy, or money on your websites and want to make profits or get subscribers faster, try spending a one time fee on a good program that shows you step-by-step how to set up and use mini-sites. It will be the best return investment you can make.
Look at it this way, it can be like having your own energized bunny where you can create, and create, and create some more to serve whatever purpose you have in mind and not spend another dime paying other people to do it for you.
© All rights reserved.
Article may be freely distributed in its entirety! Absolutely no selling or altering content including the links provided.
Jumat, 04 Juni 2010
Is Freeware Safe? How To Be A Smart Downloader
More and more people are learning about the awesome resource on the Internet known as freeware. Freeware is the shorthand term used to describe free software. Yes, freeware is an amazing resource and I have been an enthusiastic user and promoter since I learned about it years ago.
What I found interesting, though, were the number of people I spoke to about freeware who said that they would never use it because they heard that free software contains viruses. My first thought was that this was just not a true statement. I have been using freeware for years and have never been infected.
However, after giving the idea more thought, I realized that such a concern is not without merit. Because I’ve been online since the time of the old BBS systems, I’ve learned whom I can trust and whom I need to stay away from. But to a lot of people, downloading software from the Internet is a scary idea.
How does the average, non-technical person know what is safe and what isn’t? If you do a search on Google for the term freeware, more than 170 million pages are returned. The problem is that if you just start downloading software that looks good, you can get yourself into a lot of trouble.
Yes, freeware can contain spyware, adware, trojans, back doors, key loggers, bots or viruses. So, you should be concerned. However, even though we know that anytime we drive our car we run the risk of an accident, this concern does not keep us from driving. It just means that we must be aware of the threats and know how to avoid them.
So how do we know how to avoid dangerous software? We can try freeware websites, but some sites will list any and all freeware that they can find just so they can say that they have the largest collection. Some sites list only a subset of freeware by sticking to the popular versions. But popular does not always mean the best and this still does not guarantee safety.
If you want to be a smart downloader, I have found that there is no substitution for old-fashioned research. There are two sources you need to find to gather enough information to be an informed consumer of freeware. The first source is message boards -- also known as forums or news groups.
Message boards are a great place to learn about people’s experience with a particular piece of software. Believe me when I say that if someone is unhappy, they will eagerly let everyone know about it. But be sure not to read only one or two people’s experiences. Some people just don’t know what they are doing and even though their own ignorance may be at fault, they are quick to blame the software.
The second source of information is websites that test a wide range of software themselves before posting and sharing it with the world. You would think that everyone posting software would do this. But as stated earlier, most are concerned with quantity of software and not quality. So how do you find a website that you can trust? Part of it is just knowing the history and the background of the different websites and this, again, is learned via research.
Because of my passion for freeware, I have tested hundreds of programs over the years. I then started listing only the best freeware on my website for friends and family to use. When you are ready to begin your research I encourage you to browse my website vbmark.com by clicking on the link in my bio or "About the Author" section at the bottom of this article. At least be sure to bookmark the site for future research.
There is a lot of great freeware out there but you need to be a smart downloader. Do your research.
What I found interesting, though, were the number of people I spoke to about freeware who said that they would never use it because they heard that free software contains viruses. My first thought was that this was just not a true statement. I have been using freeware for years and have never been infected.
However, after giving the idea more thought, I realized that such a concern is not without merit. Because I’ve been online since the time of the old BBS systems, I’ve learned whom I can trust and whom I need to stay away from. But to a lot of people, downloading software from the Internet is a scary idea.
How does the average, non-technical person know what is safe and what isn’t? If you do a search on Google for the term freeware, more than 170 million pages are returned. The problem is that if you just start downloading software that looks good, you can get yourself into a lot of trouble.
Yes, freeware can contain spyware, adware, trojans, back doors, key loggers, bots or viruses. So, you should be concerned. However, even though we know that anytime we drive our car we run the risk of an accident, this concern does not keep us from driving. It just means that we must be aware of the threats and know how to avoid them.
So how do we know how to avoid dangerous software? We can try freeware websites, but some sites will list any and all freeware that they can find just so they can say that they have the largest collection. Some sites list only a subset of freeware by sticking to the popular versions. But popular does not always mean the best and this still does not guarantee safety.
If you want to be a smart downloader, I have found that there is no substitution for old-fashioned research. There are two sources you need to find to gather enough information to be an informed consumer of freeware. The first source is message boards -- also known as forums or news groups.
Message boards are a great place to learn about people’s experience with a particular piece of software. Believe me when I say that if someone is unhappy, they will eagerly let everyone know about it. But be sure not to read only one or two people’s experiences. Some people just don’t know what they are doing and even though their own ignorance may be at fault, they are quick to blame the software.
The second source of information is websites that test a wide range of software themselves before posting and sharing it with the world. You would think that everyone posting software would do this. But as stated earlier, most are concerned with quantity of software and not quality. So how do you find a website that you can trust? Part of it is just knowing the history and the background of the different websites and this, again, is learned via research.
Because of my passion for freeware, I have tested hundreds of programs over the years. I then started listing only the best freeware on my website for friends and family to use. When you are ready to begin your research I encourage you to browse my website vbmark.com by clicking on the link in my bio or "About the Author" section at the bottom of this article. At least be sure to bookmark the site for future research.
There is a lot of great freeware out there but you need to be a smart downloader. Do your research.
10 ways to advertise online (and where to get started)
Most business owners fully understand that not advertising is the surest way to kill your business.
However they are also bombarded by so much information and so many choices they quickly lose track of what options are available to them.
There are a number of cheap and easy online advertising options available to you.
1. Ezine Advertising
Ezine advertising is one of the best ways to reach your future customers because it is often inexpensive and flexible as well as offering you the option to match the ezine audience with your product and ad. It also often offers a double benefit--your initial ad plus longevity in the ezine archives.
2. Text Links
This simple tool is often overlooked by many. It is simply one of the least expensive and yet most powerful advertising option available. You can often buy text links for under $10 and the link will not only promote the specific site or page you choose but also connect it with the specific key words that will benefit you the most.
Text links also provide a double bonus. You can attract immediate traffic from the host site as well as achieve better search engine ranking which will further increase traffic.
3. Pay per click advertising
Just like it sounds pay per click advertising is simply paying for specifically targeted traffic. You can monitor and control these advertising programs very closely and tweak your ad copy and the key words that you are sponsoring. This can be a very expensive option but doesn't have to be if you plan carefully and watch closely.
4. Email marketing
Despite ever-increasing vigilant attempts to stop spam, we all know that email marketing is still alive and well. While it is foolish in the extreme to risk your business, web host, or internet connection, by sending out spam you can still use email marketing as a way to reach out and touch your customers and your future customers.
You just need to make sure that no one receives mail except the people who ask for it. People are still willing to sign up for mailing lists--especially if you have something to offer them in return for sharing their email address. Sponsor a contest; give away an article, ebook, or tutorial; or offer a discount and you will have people sign up willingly.
Then if you don't abuse the mailing list you will have the opportunity to reach them again and again!
5. Banner Ads
Banner ads have a bad reputation. In part because of the proliferation of banner farms that killed all the banner swap programs (or at least made them completely ineffectual). Also we all have memories of those hideous banners flashing across the top of so many web sites.
Banners have come along way since then and a cleverly designed banner can be a real asset to any advertising campaign. Also don't forget that you don't have to use one of those big giant banners that span the width of the screen. You can use smaller simple ads that can fit easily into the sidebar or special box on a web site so they can suit the design and work more effectively.
It is also important that you pay close attention to what sites you will choose for displaying your banner. IE. A site about web development for your web hosting service ad or a site about parenting for your ad promoting your potty training book.
Many text link and pay per click advertising vendors also offer the option of banner ads. Similarly many ezine and newsletter publishers sell space on their sites.
~~ Sell Your Knowledge ~~
These next five advertising methods are all free or relatively inexpensive because you are trading something of value -- your knowledge and expertise -- in return for advertising.
6. Publish a Newsletter
Creating your own regular newsletter or ezine offers you all the advantages of ezine advertising and email marketing offered above.
7. Publish a Blog and RSS Feed
While publishing a newsletter or ezine isn't that difficult it is much easier to create a blog and make its content available via RSS feed. This can offer you the benefits of regularly updated material for your web site which will be attractive to visitors and search engines alike. It will also help establish you as an expert in your field.
I personally like using WordPress on your own site but many web hosts now offer blogging services and there are many free blogging sites around where you can create a blog on their site.
8. Write Articles
Take some of the material you have generated for your newsletter and/or blog and share it with others. Make it available in one of the many free content directories available on the web. This not only helps to establish your credibility but the contact info you provide in your resource box (which will run every time someone else publishes your material) will bring in both direct traffic as well as search engine attention.
9. Create an Ebook
Once you have enough material generated from your newsletter and blog then you can package it into a convenient Ebook and give it away. Make sure to collect names and email addresses and offer a coupon or discount to bring people back to your site!
10. Post in Forums
If you have the time you should start your own forum but even if you only have a few minutes a week to spare for this effort then it can be well worth the effort. Don't offer blatant spam posts but find a forum where you have something to offer. Make sure that you include an appropriate url and description for your forum signature and you will attract the double benefit of traffic and search engine attention!
No successful advertising campaign embraces one single method of advertising and no single method of advertising works for everyone. Advertising cannot be treated as a one-size-fits all proposition. However you know what your business needs and can offer--mix and match methods and make sure to track your results--to optimize your choices.
However they are also bombarded by so much information and so many choices they quickly lose track of what options are available to them.
There are a number of cheap and easy online advertising options available to you.
1. Ezine Advertising
Ezine advertising is one of the best ways to reach your future customers because it is often inexpensive and flexible as well as offering you the option to match the ezine audience with your product and ad. It also often offers a double benefit--your initial ad plus longevity in the ezine archives.
2. Text Links
This simple tool is often overlooked by many. It is simply one of the least expensive and yet most powerful advertising option available. You can often buy text links for under $10 and the link will not only promote the specific site or page you choose but also connect it with the specific key words that will benefit you the most.
Text links also provide a double bonus. You can attract immediate traffic from the host site as well as achieve better search engine ranking which will further increase traffic.
3. Pay per click advertising
Just like it sounds pay per click advertising is simply paying for specifically targeted traffic. You can monitor and control these advertising programs very closely and tweak your ad copy and the key words that you are sponsoring. This can be a very expensive option but doesn't have to be if you plan carefully and watch closely.
4. Email marketing
Despite ever-increasing vigilant attempts to stop spam, we all know that email marketing is still alive and well. While it is foolish in the extreme to risk your business, web host, or internet connection, by sending out spam you can still use email marketing as a way to reach out and touch your customers and your future customers.
You just need to make sure that no one receives mail except the people who ask for it. People are still willing to sign up for mailing lists--especially if you have something to offer them in return for sharing their email address. Sponsor a contest; give away an article, ebook, or tutorial; or offer a discount and you will have people sign up willingly.
Then if you don't abuse the mailing list you will have the opportunity to reach them again and again!
5. Banner Ads
Banner ads have a bad reputation. In part because of the proliferation of banner farms that killed all the banner swap programs (or at least made them completely ineffectual). Also we all have memories of those hideous banners flashing across the top of so many web sites.
Banners have come along way since then and a cleverly designed banner can be a real asset to any advertising campaign. Also don't forget that you don't have to use one of those big giant banners that span the width of the screen. You can use smaller simple ads that can fit easily into the sidebar or special box on a web site so they can suit the design and work more effectively.
It is also important that you pay close attention to what sites you will choose for displaying your banner. IE. A site about web development for your web hosting service ad or a site about parenting for your ad promoting your potty training book.
Many text link and pay per click advertising vendors also offer the option of banner ads. Similarly many ezine and newsletter publishers sell space on their sites.
~~ Sell Your Knowledge ~~
These next five advertising methods are all free or relatively inexpensive because you are trading something of value -- your knowledge and expertise -- in return for advertising.
6. Publish a Newsletter
Creating your own regular newsletter or ezine offers you all the advantages of ezine advertising and email marketing offered above.
7. Publish a Blog and RSS Feed
While publishing a newsletter or ezine isn't that difficult it is much easier to create a blog and make its content available via RSS feed. This can offer you the benefits of regularly updated material for your web site which will be attractive to visitors and search engines alike. It will also help establish you as an expert in your field.
I personally like using WordPress on your own site but many web hosts now offer blogging services and there are many free blogging sites around where you can create a blog on their site.
8. Write Articles
Take some of the material you have generated for your newsletter and/or blog and share it with others. Make it available in one of the many free content directories available on the web. This not only helps to establish your credibility but the contact info you provide in your resource box (which will run every time someone else publishes your material) will bring in both direct traffic as well as search engine attention.
9. Create an Ebook
Once you have enough material generated from your newsletter and blog then you can package it into a convenient Ebook and give it away. Make sure to collect names and email addresses and offer a coupon or discount to bring people back to your site!
10. Post in Forums
If you have the time you should start your own forum but even if you only have a few minutes a week to spare for this effort then it can be well worth the effort. Don't offer blatant spam posts but find a forum where you have something to offer. Make sure that you include an appropriate url and description for your forum signature and you will attract the double benefit of traffic and search engine attention!
No successful advertising campaign embraces one single method of advertising and no single method of advertising works for everyone. Advertising cannot be treated as a one-size-fits all proposition. However you know what your business needs and can offer--mix and match methods and make sure to track your results--to optimize your choices.
Kamis, 03 Juni 2010
10 Marketing Strategies for Sports Betting Sites
So you have a new sports betting site and you were hoping to compete with the established sports book sites, how do you go about letting the world know the site exists?
In the old days new sports gambling sites would simply just start aggressive Pay Per Click campaigns. With today’s Internet the search engines no longer allow gambling sites to advertise and that includes a ban on search engine PPC. Removing this type of advertising forced the online gambling providers to come up with other ways of increasing their popularity.
There are a number of strategies you can try in order to attract potential members to your sports betting sites.
1. Optimize your site for higher ranking in the organic searches. This is a tough one seeing as the competition is very steep. Don’t use questionable tactics, just be honest with your SEO and optimize the pages for the content that is actually on each page.
2. Generate topical content well in advance of the sporting event that you would like to promote. Generally speaking, search engines can take 3 to 12 weeks to find new pages so unless you are really up on how to get the pages indexed quicker, give new pages plenty of time to be discovered by the search engines.
3. Allow other sites to use your topical content in exchange for a text link back to your site. Doing this allows you to gain extremely valuable one way text links that will help to increase your link popularity. Just make sure you choose the text for that link carefully and the site posting your article maintains credit to you as the writer.
4. Post articles from other sites. Make sure that the article you post on your site is full of keyword rich text and optimize the page that contains that article for the contents of that article. When done properly this can greatly improve your chances of being found in a search engine for that articles topic.
5. Add a Forum to your site and create categories that promote the events that your site specializes in. For instance, if your site is based out of Europe you might want to make a bunch of categories based on Soccer such as Soccer Injuries, Soccer Trades & Rumors etc. Doing this will generate keyword rich, topical pages that eventually will be indexed by the search engines. The more active you’re Forum, the greater the chance of creating countless pages that the search engines will love.
6. Join forums on other sites and actively contribute to them. You see when posting to other forums your signature is added to the bottom of your post. In your signature you have an opportunity to place some text that could be used to promote your site. Also, some forums will allow you to place text links within the signature. Be respectful and do not stuff the signature with too many text links.
7. Add your site to as many directories as you can. Some directories can take a long time for inclusion, the DMOZ for instance, so you should apply to them as quickly as you can after launching your new sports betting site.
8. Reciprocating links can be helpful as long as you carefully search out potential linking partners. Make sure that the sites you are linking to are quality sites that you yourself would actually spend time on. A good rule of thumb is this – if you would bookmark the site others would probably bookmark it as well and therefore, the site would be a good site to trade links with.
9. Offer affiliate programs to other webmasters. If you offer affiliate programs make sure that you actually pay your affiliates in a timely manner. You would be surprised at how many sites actually don’t treat their affiliates very well. Treat the affiliates like the limited partners that they are and that level of respect will more than likely result in your banners and text links gaining better placement on the affiliate’s websites.
10. Purchase banner space on sports related websites. This can be an expensive proposition so you really need to take care in selecting the sites you want to buy banner space on. Don’t base your decision on Alexa ratings alone as these can easily be skewed. Also be wary of sites stating Hits and Impressions as their verification on traffic. The best stat to base you purchase on is monthly unique visitors and don’t take their word for it, use an independent third party tracker for unbiased results.
Just like everything else in life there are no guarantees but if you adopt some or all of the above mentioned marketing strategies, your site should see improvements over a short period of time.
In the old days new sports gambling sites would simply just start aggressive Pay Per Click campaigns. With today’s Internet the search engines no longer allow gambling sites to advertise and that includes a ban on search engine PPC. Removing this type of advertising forced the online gambling providers to come up with other ways of increasing their popularity.
There are a number of strategies you can try in order to attract potential members to your sports betting sites.
1. Optimize your site for higher ranking in the organic searches. This is a tough one seeing as the competition is very steep. Don’t use questionable tactics, just be honest with your SEO and optimize the pages for the content that is actually on each page.
2. Generate topical content well in advance of the sporting event that you would like to promote. Generally speaking, search engines can take 3 to 12 weeks to find new pages so unless you are really up on how to get the pages indexed quicker, give new pages plenty of time to be discovered by the search engines.
3. Allow other sites to use your topical content in exchange for a text link back to your site. Doing this allows you to gain extremely valuable one way text links that will help to increase your link popularity. Just make sure you choose the text for that link carefully and the site posting your article maintains credit to you as the writer.
4. Post articles from other sites. Make sure that the article you post on your site is full of keyword rich text and optimize the page that contains that article for the contents of that article. When done properly this can greatly improve your chances of being found in a search engine for that articles topic.
5. Add a Forum to your site and create categories that promote the events that your site specializes in. For instance, if your site is based out of Europe you might want to make a bunch of categories based on Soccer such as Soccer Injuries, Soccer Trades & Rumors etc. Doing this will generate keyword rich, topical pages that eventually will be indexed by the search engines. The more active you’re Forum, the greater the chance of creating countless pages that the search engines will love.
6. Join forums on other sites and actively contribute to them. You see when posting to other forums your signature is added to the bottom of your post. In your signature you have an opportunity to place some text that could be used to promote your site. Also, some forums will allow you to place text links within the signature. Be respectful and do not stuff the signature with too many text links.
7. Add your site to as many directories as you can. Some directories can take a long time for inclusion, the DMOZ for instance, so you should apply to them as quickly as you can after launching your new sports betting site.
8. Reciprocating links can be helpful as long as you carefully search out potential linking partners. Make sure that the sites you are linking to are quality sites that you yourself would actually spend time on. A good rule of thumb is this – if you would bookmark the site others would probably bookmark it as well and therefore, the site would be a good site to trade links with.
9. Offer affiliate programs to other webmasters. If you offer affiliate programs make sure that you actually pay your affiliates in a timely manner. You would be surprised at how many sites actually don’t treat their affiliates very well. Treat the affiliates like the limited partners that they are and that level of respect will more than likely result in your banners and text links gaining better placement on the affiliate’s websites.
10. Purchase banner space on sports related websites. This can be an expensive proposition so you really need to take care in selecting the sites you want to buy banner space on. Don’t base your decision on Alexa ratings alone as these can easily be skewed. Also be wary of sites stating Hits and Impressions as their verification on traffic. The best stat to base you purchase on is monthly unique visitors and don’t take their word for it, use an independent third party tracker for unbiased results.
Just like everything else in life there are no guarantees but if you adopt some or all of the above mentioned marketing strategies, your site should see improvements over a short period of time.
Rabu, 02 Juni 2010
To All Internet Marketers - How To Get My Business
More and more people are realizing that the Internet offers great potential to set up a healthy business for pennies on the dollar. This is good news for internet marketers - but it also means that they need to lift their game.
Why? Because the would-be "netpreneur" has access to way more training than ever before. It's possible to get up to speed very quickly on what is needed to get started online. This, in turn, means that people quickly recognize what offers true value and what does not. They see so many sales letters that they become, to a certain degree, immune to the typical hype. They're willing to spend - but they want value for money. They want to be treated like intelligent and discerning adults.
So here's a message to all 'gurus' (and aspiring gurus) who are keen to get their share of the dollars waiting to be sent flying their way via cyberspace.
1) What does it take to make people want to buy "you" rather than some other internet marketer?
2) What might make people want to unsubscribe from your list?
3) And what pushes them into asking for a refund?
What Makes People Want to Buy?
- They buy if they can see that a product will give them new knowledge and understanding.
- They buy if the purchase will speed up business growth.
- They buy if a product will automate a task that eats into their time. (People quickly learn to spend their time on marketing and product creation, rather than repetitive tasks.)
Tip: Once newbies have been exposed to a few sales pages, it's not long before they learn to look beyond the sales hype. They study a sales letter carefully to work out what the product will "really" offer them. (Do they need this? Or will it duplicate something else they own?)
They also learn to look for value for money. Some higher-priced products are worth every cent. Some cheaper products add very little to what they already know.
(Note: Savvy internet marketers already realize that if they put together online interviews offering truly valuable information, they are far more likely to attract and keep new customers. A quick example: Jane Smith listens to a one-hour audio interview on search engine optimization and traffic. She finds out some really useful information she has not so far heard anywhere else. She decides that this guy knows what he's talking about and shells out a couple of hundred dollars for his products.)
What Makes People Want to Unsubscribe from a List?
- Getting four identical emails trying to sell them the same product, because the sender hasn't figured out how to move them from one list to another after they buy.
- Getting a 'canned' email sounding full of excitement about a new product or service - which turns out to be a duplicate of the email they get from six other marketers who are affiliates for the same product.
- Getting email from a product creator about anything under the sun because you bought XXX product from them. If your customers sign up for a newsletter, they expect mailings.
What Makes People Want to Ask for a Refund?
In the past, buyers tended to shrug and write off a bad purchase. But increasingly, people are prepared to stand up for their rights. If they feel they have not received value for money, they will ask for a refund.
So what makes them decide to ask for their money back?
- Software that doesn't work as it is supposed to.
- Physical products (CDs, DVDs) that don't work on their systems.
- An e-book that is full of content easily found in an hour's net-surfing.
- An e-book that has skimped on content or that has been poorly written.
- An e-book that not only skimps on content but is full of links to up-sells to get the 'really valuable' information, or is full of affiliate links.
The last case, an e-book full of affiliate links or links to an up-sell...is something you should be giving away free as part of your viral marketing campaign. Charge for it and you risk your reputation for being a source of quality information.
Other things that bite into your customer's valuable time.
- MP3's that are streamed from a website rather than being downloadable.
- e-books that are in ".exe" format only, so the customer can't print them out in one 'hit' (and can't access them on a Mac computer).
Give your clients anything that they can listen to or read away from the computer. Most of them spend enough hours a day at the keyboard already. They'd rather load an audio interview
into their MP3 players and listen while they go for a walk or relax in the sun. They'd prefer to print out an e-book and read it or mark it up while sitting in an easy chair.
Please, please don't tether them to the computer!
And finally, about those "name squeeze" pages. People are very quickly getting tired of having to give up their email addresses just to get to a sales page. Do you want them to buy or not? These days, unless there's a huge buzz around the Net and they want to see what it's all about, prospective customers are just as likely to click the 'back' button on their browser, or close the window and leave.
After all, there's always another internet marketer waiting to sell them a product. Probably one very similar to yours. Marketers who respect their client's time and intelligence are the ones who will get their loyalty - and their cash.
Why? Because the would-be "netpreneur" has access to way more training than ever before. It's possible to get up to speed very quickly on what is needed to get started online. This, in turn, means that people quickly recognize what offers true value and what does not. They see so many sales letters that they become, to a certain degree, immune to the typical hype. They're willing to spend - but they want value for money. They want to be treated like intelligent and discerning adults.
So here's a message to all 'gurus' (and aspiring gurus) who are keen to get their share of the dollars waiting to be sent flying their way via cyberspace.
1) What does it take to make people want to buy "you" rather than some other internet marketer?
2) What might make people want to unsubscribe from your list?
3) And what pushes them into asking for a refund?
What Makes People Want to Buy?
- They buy if they can see that a product will give them new knowledge and understanding.
- They buy if the purchase will speed up business growth.
- They buy if a product will automate a task that eats into their time. (People quickly learn to spend their time on marketing and product creation, rather than repetitive tasks.)
Tip: Once newbies have been exposed to a few sales pages, it's not long before they learn to look beyond the sales hype. They study a sales letter carefully to work out what the product will "really" offer them. (Do they need this? Or will it duplicate something else they own?)
They also learn to look for value for money. Some higher-priced products are worth every cent. Some cheaper products add very little to what they already know.
(Note: Savvy internet marketers already realize that if they put together online interviews offering truly valuable information, they are far more likely to attract and keep new customers. A quick example: Jane Smith listens to a one-hour audio interview on search engine optimization and traffic. She finds out some really useful information she has not so far heard anywhere else. She decides that this guy knows what he's talking about and shells out a couple of hundred dollars for his products.)
What Makes People Want to Unsubscribe from a List?
- Getting four identical emails trying to sell them the same product, because the sender hasn't figured out how to move them from one list to another after they buy.
- Getting a 'canned' email sounding full of excitement about a new product or service - which turns out to be a duplicate of the email they get from six other marketers who are affiliates for the same product.
- Getting email from a product creator about anything under the sun because you bought XXX product from them. If your customers sign up for a newsletter, they expect mailings.
What Makes People Want to Ask for a Refund?
In the past, buyers tended to shrug and write off a bad purchase. But increasingly, people are prepared to stand up for their rights. If they feel they have not received value for money, they will ask for a refund.
So what makes them decide to ask for their money back?
- Software that doesn't work as it is supposed to.
- Physical products (CDs, DVDs) that don't work on their systems.
- An e-book that is full of content easily found in an hour's net-surfing.
- An e-book that has skimped on content or that has been poorly written.
- An e-book that not only skimps on content but is full of links to up-sells to get the 'really valuable' information, or is full of affiliate links.
The last case, an e-book full of affiliate links or links to an up-sell...is something you should be giving away free as part of your viral marketing campaign. Charge for it and you risk your reputation for being a source of quality information.
Other things that bite into your customer's valuable time.
- MP3's that are streamed from a website rather than being downloadable.
- e-books that are in ".exe" format only, so the customer can't print them out in one 'hit' (and can't access them on a Mac computer).
Give your clients anything that they can listen to or read away from the computer. Most of them spend enough hours a day at the keyboard already. They'd rather load an audio interview
into their MP3 players and listen while they go for a walk or relax in the sun. They'd prefer to print out an e-book and read it or mark it up while sitting in an easy chair.
Please, please don't tether them to the computer!
And finally, about those "name squeeze" pages. People are very quickly getting tired of having to give up their email addresses just to get to a sales page. Do you want them to buy or not? These days, unless there's a huge buzz around the Net and they want to see what it's all about, prospective customers are just as likely to click the 'back' button on their browser, or close the window and leave.
After all, there's always another internet marketer waiting to sell them a product. Probably one very similar to yours. Marketers who respect their client's time and intelligence are the ones who will get their loyalty - and their cash.
Selasa, 01 Juni 2010
Top Internet Marketing Techniques
The Internet offers many means of affordable marketing, often with full-color imagery to go along with text. And multimedia components add some spice to the mix and increase online visitors and purchases. Here are some top Internet marketing techniques to help increase your sales and income.
1. DIRECTORY - Create your own directory on a specific industry topic, placing your own ad or banner along the top. Then invite others to add their website links via a link exchange program, listing themselves in your directory. This will result in lots of free advertising for you as your directory expands with links across the World Wide Web. Enter “link exchange software” into your favorite search engine for help with setup.
2. TEACH A COURSE – Write out a simple step-by-step instructional class in your area of expertise. Then break it up into smaller segments and set them up in an autoresponder as email messages with your ads included at the top and / or bottom of each message. Invite website visitors to sign up through on online form or email subscription address offered through the autoresponder service. Then as people sign up, they will learn more about you and your products and services.
3. EZINE EBOOK – Forget about small daily or weekly ezines. Try publishing one large monthly e-zine as an e-book format, preferably an Adobe .pdf file. Include a large number of articles with each issue and regularly featured areas like inspirational quotes, industry tips, favorite sites and advice from the pros. Also insert full-color graphics, multimedia components like audio file links, if you like, and ads. Then you can charge a monthly rate, with an annual discounted package purchase, and sell advertising spots.
4. TIP OF THE DAY – Set up your own Tip of the Day targeting your own area of expertise, relating to your own products and services. You can set it up on your website in a targeted box, via autoresponder, a blog, an RSS feed, an audio file or others means of communication. Add your own ad along with your tip for whichever product or service you want to target or maybe even your own online store for all. This will gently remind your target audience where to go to learn more.
In summary, by using Internet Marketing techniques customized to fit your own products and services, you can reach out and increase your website traffic and purchase opportunities. Internet marketing can mean a more affordable way to grow your business.
1. DIRECTORY - Create your own directory on a specific industry topic, placing your own ad or banner along the top. Then invite others to add their website links via a link exchange program, listing themselves in your directory. This will result in lots of free advertising for you as your directory expands with links across the World Wide Web. Enter “link exchange software” into your favorite search engine for help with setup.
2. TEACH A COURSE – Write out a simple step-by-step instructional class in your area of expertise. Then break it up into smaller segments and set them up in an autoresponder as email messages with your ads included at the top and / or bottom of each message. Invite website visitors to sign up through on online form or email subscription address offered through the autoresponder service. Then as people sign up, they will learn more about you and your products and services.
3. EZINE EBOOK – Forget about small daily or weekly ezines. Try publishing one large monthly e-zine as an e-book format, preferably an Adobe .pdf file. Include a large number of articles with each issue and regularly featured areas like inspirational quotes, industry tips, favorite sites and advice from the pros. Also insert full-color graphics, multimedia components like audio file links, if you like, and ads. Then you can charge a monthly rate, with an annual discounted package purchase, and sell advertising spots.
4. TIP OF THE DAY – Set up your own Tip of the Day targeting your own area of expertise, relating to your own products and services. You can set it up on your website in a targeted box, via autoresponder, a blog, an RSS feed, an audio file or others means of communication. Add your own ad along with your tip for whichever product or service you want to target or maybe even your own online store for all. This will gently remind your target audience where to go to learn more.
In summary, by using Internet Marketing techniques customized to fit your own products and services, you can reach out and increase your website traffic and purchase opportunities. Internet marketing can mean a more affordable way to grow your business.
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