General Article

Internet Marketing Training – Do You Have What It Takes?

No one begins in internet marketing knowing all that there is to know and able to market their product or services impeccably without missing a beat. The bottom line is that marketing isn’t just marketing. A vast array of differences exist between regular, store front marketing and online marketing. The principles may be closely aligned in some ways, but the uniqueness of internet marketing and what is necessary to do it effectively requires that some type of internet marketing training be entered into when you decide to enter the world of online sales and services.

No matter what type of goods you’re offering, from tangible goods to services such as SEO or writing, or website design, the smart beginner will find a solid course in internet marketing training and learn all they can before they head out into the great unknown. The problem is that with so many different, and very good internet marketing training courses out there from which to choose, how do you find the one that will be the most effective in helping you to achieve your goals from your online trade or sales.

At the end of the day, choose the one that is most relevant to your type of business or marketing and choose the one that actually stands up and speaks to you. The marketing training course that seems to shout at you from the internet and really grab your interest, has something to offer you. They got your attention didn’t they?

Internet marketing training is going to make all the difference when it comes to separating the “men from the boys” so to speak. For a new website, knowing what you’re doing, how to get the traffic that you need to survive and grow is imperative. If you’ve marketed before, offline, of if you’ve never marketing anything online at all, get yourself some internet marketing training to get off the ground.

Your goal for your business is to see it grow. Your goal for your site is to expand it and to offer more good and services that will see you and your company begin to make more money and bring in more customers. If you don’t know the in’s and outs of attracting new customers and businesses to your website to review what you have to offer, the reality is that you simply don’t have a chance.

Every company has something to say and every company has something to offer. If no one sees what you have to offer, the chances of their buying it are nominal. Internet marketing training will make the difference in how you approach online sales and how successful that you are at the process.

Learning tactics such as gathering emails, sending out newsletters or auto-responders, building lists and then using them to offer to other companies who may be in similar or complementary companies that could enhance yours is just part of what you need to know. A good solid web presence and how or where to find content for that website, along with press releases and how to use them are another portion of internet marketing.

The many things that a single course of internet marketing training could teach you may make the difference between succeeding online or failing to see your dreams for your online business venture come to fruition.…

Local Business Marketing on the World Wide Web

If you own a local business, you may not think the internet will help you. After all, it is called the world wide web. This may suggest that it is only for large companies with outlets in many cities. While the web is great for big business, it is also a huge boon for local stores and services. In fact, it may actually be easier and cheaper to target a local market than a large national or international market.

Find Local Business Directories

Many local directories will allow you to submit a free listing. They may charge for upgrades to that listing, but you can probably start out by looking for free services.

One major example of this, that is very effective, is Yahoo! Local. Basic listings are free, and they are very popular. I know that I, myself, have used that guide when I wanted to find a local restaurant, doctor, or other service. If you. do not have a listing here, you are probably losing business because your competition will certainly be taking advantage of it.

You can find plenty of other free local directories that are run by large national, or international, companies. But beyond those, you can also look for smaller local directories. These may be run by another business person in your area. Lots of them provide free, or very cheap, listings They may even provide a map feature which gives visitors driving directions to your front door! This is a great way to help people find you.

Niche Directories

Beyond purely local directories, you can also look for niche listings. This may not be aimed a specific location, but to a specific kind of business. Since you will be listed, along with others, by your type of business and your location, this is a good way to bring in interested traffic.

Let us say you run a doll hospital. People who collect dolls, or even people who buy and sell dolls, would be interested in knowing that you have this local service. They may need to get items fixed or to buy supplies. If you can provide this help, you would want to connect with these potential customers where they hang out!

Social Marketing Online

If you have an account on one of the large social networking websites, like Facebook, you can also use this to help promote your business. Some of your connections may not even know what you do for a living. But many of your connections are probably local. And who would be better to provide service to them than somebody they already know. So please do not be shy about mentioning your business and website link on your social networking pages or profile.

Forums

One last suggestion is to look for forums. These could be related to your own city, or they could be about the type of business you do. You can participate in these forums. Try to gain respect as a valuable member because you can provide suggestions or answer questions.

You have to follow the forum rules, but almost all of them will let you have a link back to your own website. You may be able to have a signature line with your own link. Or if it is in the context of the particular post, you may be allowed to drop that link in your post.…

Are Your Advertising Techniques Misleading Your Customers – And Killing Sales?

Most small business advertising techniques aren’t truly “techniques” at all. They’re “ploys” to mislead the customer and get the quick cash from the initial sale.

To most business owners that might sounds good, but in the end it backfires like crazy!

Let me tell you what I mean…

The other day I was relaxing with my puppy, Kingsley, when I saw a commercial for the online music service Rhapsody.

Seeing the commercial really didn’t bother me at first. I mean, if they paid for advertising they should be able to well, advertise! And frankly, they can advertise how they want to. But when I saw the end of the commercial, let’s just say I was a little “peeved” to say the least.

Here’s why:

At the beginning of this year, my wife and I were looking for an online service to download music from to put on our mp3 players. We both got gyms memberships and we wanted some music to work out to.

So while we were searching, I came across Rhapsody. Rhapsody says you’ll be able to download as much music as you’d like, which got me pumped! So I signed up.

But, here’s what I found out…

When you download music from Rhapsody, you can only listen to it on your COMPUTER — not an mp3 player!

Now, call me old-fashioned but if I see people in your commercials using mp3 players left and right, I’m going to assume that I can download the music and put it on my mp3 player!

Not so with Rhapsody…

Which brings me to my point – if you’re going to advertise something, don’t mislead your customers to make the initial sale. Because quite frankly, most of your money isn’t made on the initial sale… it’s made on the BACK-END.

Here’s what I mean by “the back-end”…

Let’s say you have a subscription service in your business. Let’s say you get customers to sign up for $20 bucks a month.

Initially, you charge $20 for the set-up, and $20 for the actual service ITSELF. Sounds good, right? But here’s where those days in Math class where I DIDN’T fall asleep pay off:

On the front end, you may earn $40 bucks. But if you mislead and lie to your customers, they’ll cancel their subscription ASAP.

So you may have gain $40 initially. But with a subscription service, you get money from your customers AUTOMATICALLY… month after month.

If you’re charging $20 bucks a month and your customers stay with you for a year, that’s $240 in cash – you don’t have to work for!

And if they stay with you for 5 years, you’re looking at each customer being worth at least $1,200 to your business!

See why it’s so important to be honest in your advertising?

The lesson here is not to chase the quick buck. Go after the long-term, profitable relationships in your business. Don’t lie or mislead your customers or prospects.

Be up-front.

Be real.

Be honest.

Be grateful for your customers.

Do that – and you’ll find yourself having a lot of business in the future.…

How to Make Money Online

Some Simple and Easy Ways to Make Money Online

Today the idea of making money online has become one of the lucrative ways of making some quick money without having to go through the routine of day jobs earning peanuts. Internet offers you feasible source of making money online in an easy way as a part time engagement without any fixed schedule at a location of your convenience.

You get all information regarding the method you need to follow to start making money online just by a simple search on the net. Here, we try to give a categorical list of just a few ways one could take up to start making money online.

o You can write blogs or set up a website of your own to advertise or sell products to make some profit as you earn revenue from it.

o You could be part of affiliate marketing where you promote some product or service and earn commission on sale of the product based on your promotional work.

o You may try to start a business online which would offer service or sell product that you develop such as web-designing, network marketing or copywriting and so on.

o You could be part of Get-Paid-to websites which pay you to read emails, make some surveys, setting up email accounts or writing offers etc.

o One of the best ways is to start freelancing online on contract basis. You can offer various services like writing reviews, copywriting, develop sites, site promotions, offer SEO services and many more.

o You could also start an Online Retail Trade where you buy a product from one site to sell it to some other.

Hopefully, this article comes to some help to those who are looking for information to start with making money online.…

Discovering the Benefits of Effective Business Marketing

If you’re running your own business and you’ve tried to manage the marketing side as well, you may have noticed how you cannot seem to cover all areas you want to reach. Sure, you can use social networking and email technologies to promote your products & services, and even organize some marketing activities well, but rather than being able to concentrate on running the business and actualizing plans for the future, you end up spreading yourself thin. Remember that business marketing is a process, and requires continuous planning & effort, so it may be best to leave it to professionals specializing in it. Even if your business is a small start-up home-based venture, like for instance a bead accessory business whereby you offer your own handmade creations to accessory lovers online, or you have a yoga website offering clothing, mats, books & DVDs, and accessories for yoga enthusiasts, you’d still need to get expert help to drive the desired visitors to your site. You’ll also need high quality articles and learn the ropes of using search engines to help you attain a measure of online business success.

Rather than devising & conducting marketing activities in a piecemeal fashion on your own, you can free yourself up and let a marketing professional develop a comprehensive marketing strategy that can bolster your business growth.

Good business marketing entails effectively communicating a clear and consistent message to your targeted public. This message should then be integrated throughout all marketing activities. This kind ofstrategic, big-picture approach will cost you money, but in the end the investment can be worth it because with more efficient marketing efforts, you stand to improve your business and rake in more profits.

When looking for a topnotch marketing consultant to handle the marketing aspect of your business, opt for one with a good track record. When meeting the heads of that marketing consultancy firm, you’ll see if they have a solid knowledge base. They should be able to offer innovative solutions to diverse marketing problems. Most marketing consultancy firms offer a wider range of packaged services – including specific search engine marketing, viral marketing, compelling article content, effective advertising copy, and other crucial marketing strategies. You’d actually benefit much if you choose the right firm. Through a good marketing consultant’s perspective, you’d spot which areas you may be missing out on. An experienced marketing consultant has been around and will aim at producing results that will redound to your business success. By choosing the right marketing firm, you’ll be able to build name recognition and improve your company’s image as well.

For the best business marketing help, choose a company that has a good grasp of about your industry. If you run an accessories shop, for example, go for a marketing firm that has experience in creating good visual advertisements highlighting such products. If you own a sports store, check if the marketing firm’s portfolio includes some experience handling sports-related businesses. A sound marketing plan may be carried out by experts with a wide range of skills and experience, and its up to you to tap these to help your business grow.…

What Is True Article Marketing Automation?

Some may say to get article marketing automation you must have a way to get your articles out to thousands of directories with the press of a button. This is not true automation of article marketing, however. There is much more to it than just buying some type of software and sending your article out to a ton of different directories.

In fact, you don’t need more than 10 to 15 directories when using article marketing. This is because most directories don’t give you much benefit at all. If you choose the top 10 to 15 directories, you can get all the benefits you need from marketing with articles. Just submit to these directories and the rest will happen over time.

Yes, some work will be involved with writing the articles and doing the submitting, but this is also the part you can automate. It will cost money to automate your article marketing, but it can help you build much faster. The best way to automate your marketing is with outsourcing. You can hire a couple good writers and you can hire someone to handle all your submissions.

Article Marketing Automation Myths

1. Spinning Articles

So many people say you have to spin your articles for each directory you submit them to. This is a horrible thing to do and will not help you in anyway. Spinning usually created content that is hard to read and it will not draw in the same traffic or the quality links you get from leaving your content alone.

2. Duplicate Content

Many think duplicate content is actually an issue, but it is not. As long as you don’t link the exact same content to the exact same content, you will be fine. Duplicate content actually has to do with the same content being on the same domain name, not with the same article being submitted to more than one directory.

3. Article Marketing is Dead

Using articles to make money online is very alive and you can still use traffic from directories, but it comes differently. You cannot count on submitting a ton of short, useless articles to get your traffic anymore. Instead, you need to submit quality content for the readers. This will help you to do more with your articles and you will get many benefits you don’t get from content that is not all that good.

Automating your Articles for Targeted Traffic

Once you have an article written you want to outsource it to someone that can submit it to all your directories. After that, you just wait for others to pick up your articles and use them. As long as you find a writer that can provide high quality content, you will be able to get syndication from the directories and your article will produce for you.

You will see a large amount of traffic if you keep up your efforts for a few months. Yes, it takes a decent amount of articles to gain a decent amount of traffic, but it won’t end. The traffic will continue for quite a long time and every single article will help you gain the traffic you need to make the money you are after online.…

The Dual Benefits of Marketing Automation for B2B Lead Generation

Many of those who consider using marketing automation and demand generation software first think about its applications for cost-cutting. Automated marketing packages can make light and easy work of a project that could tie up a staggering amount of man-hours if it was done by hand. This makes these systems very attractive to managers or small business owners who have had to let employees go during the current economic climate. Even those enterprises which have not needed to cut their wage bill may desire to use automated marketing so that valuable employee time can be used more efficiently and staff freed up to work on growing or consolidating the business.

However, automated marketing is not simply a tool that is used to replace personal attention; it is a valuable tool in its own right that gives particular benefits over and above that which can be gained from individual workers. Marketing automation allows a wide net to be cast in B2B lead generation through demand generation and email marketing. Generally speaking, the more contacts that are made, the more leads that are generated and the more leads that are converted to sales. This is not all that marketing automation is about; it is more than simply a automatic email-shot to a contact list. This kind of software also allows automation of responses based on the replies that customers send and integration of email marketing with the business’s entire online marketing strategy.

Marketing automation software also allows analysis of trends and development of strategies based on hard data. Analysis of website visitors’ behavior allows for automatic targeting of receptive potential customers so that they can be prompted to return to a business’ website and convert into sales. Follow-up strategies to maximize the amount of sales from a single customer are also possible. This allows a more accurate determination of return on investment so that unsuccessful strategies can be abandoned or reworked and more focus can be put on those strategies that are resulting in successful B2B lead generation. May software packages also offer integrated control systems so that all of the elements of a business’ marketing campaigns can be seamlessly organized from a single program.

While the cost-saving elements of marketing automation in B2B lead generation are a valuable draw, business owners should not forget the other benefits that they can gain and ensure that they choose the software that best allows their business to grow and prosper.…