Archive for February, 2009

What is Internet Marketing?

February 18th, 2009 Gail

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i_006 People come to the Internet looking for information.  Many are under
the assumption that everything on the Internet is free.  These are the people who get upset when you dare to charge them for information.  Why isn’t it free?

Let’s first review a few definitions:

Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service.

Internet marketing, also referred to as web marketing, online marketing, or eMarketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet.

~ Wikipedia

Free Information

Yes – there certainly is free information on the Internet….and lots of it.  Some of it, like the information in Wikipedia is intentionally provided as a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.  There are also sites that provide free software, often referred to as shareware.  Most of this software provides people with a free trial period to use the software.  Once the software expires, you are given the option to purchase the basic package or to purchase an upgrade with added features.

In addition to these sites are vast arrays of article directories, blogs, Squidoo lenses, Hub pages and other sites that are built to provide information on subjects of interest.  Most of these sites are built around niches that are highly searched by people looking for specific information.  If people are searching on something, sites will be built to provide the information in the form of facts, articles or a personal point of view.

There are also plenty of websites giving away free software that is filled with viruses.  As soon as they are installed on your computer, a virus is initiated that continues to spread, slowing down your computer and collecting your information through keystrokes and files on your computer.  Most websites will check the software they give away to make sure it does not contain any viruses.

Website Expenses

Once a website is built, the owner of the site has ongoing expenses to pay, such as an annual fee for the domain name and monthly hosting fees.  For this reason, the owner must find a way to monetize the site to earn enough income to pay the expenses.  This is usually done with text ads the reader can click on for more information and with banners and graphics that advertise related products the reader can purchase.  Since the site owner needs to earn enough income to break even, the incentive is there to try and earn a profit.

Once a website is monetized, the site owner is then using Internet Marketing strategies to earn as much income from the site as possible.  As with any business venture, a website that does not earn enough to pay expenses will soon be out of business.

Internet Marketing as a Business

Website owners who have had success making money on the Internet strive to build a legitimate internet marketing business for long-term success.  They use a business model similar to direct marketing businesses to bring in new customers through a sales funnel.  The sales funnel is designed to bring the customer in with a free giveaway or a low-cost product to take the customer through a series of up sells to higher priced items.

As the customer progresses through the sales funnel, they move from the lower cost products to the higher priced products.  By keeping the customers on specific lists, the business owner knows what price point the customer is willing to pay.  If a customer accepts an offer to pay $75 for a product, they are moved from the lower priced list to the $75 list, etc.  They will now continue to receive higher priced offers as long as they remain subscribed to the list.

Free Versus Paid Information

If you’re searching for information on the Internet, why pay when you can get it free?  Well – that really depends on how much time you have!  If you’re not in a hurry, you can spend all the time you want collecting all the free information you can find.  Just keep in mind the first rule of marketing free information online:  useful, but incomplete.  Huh – what is that?

This is a common practice used by most marketers.  It allows the marketer to provide information the reader is searching for that is accurate and useful.  This internet marketing strategy allows the marketer to retain the “meat” of the information and sell it to the reader after the perceived value is attained.  This is exactly the same scenario used in magazines when portions of a book are printed to generate sales for the author.

When you purchase an information product, you are guaranteed to receive insider knowledge the marketer has to sell.  This knowledge was obtained in most cases through hands on experience and is therefore a valuable commodity.

Before you complete that purchase, make sure:
•    It contains the information you are looking for
•    You find a refund policy in case the product falls short
•    There is a Customer Service or Help Desk function to process customer issues

Next time you expect free information and find a price tag instead, you’ll be in a position to decide of the product is worth the expense.


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How Online Selling is Done

February 6th, 2009 Gail

saleimageNobody wants to be sold – that’s why we all fast forward through TV commercials. On the other hand, that’s why so many people watch Infomercials – they’re listening in on conversations people are having about a product. They get hooked on the chatter and start to believe they can get the same results which leads to them placing an order.

To sell anything on the Internet, you have to build a relationship through your words. People want to know the real you – not just who you want them to know. When they signup to your list or signup to your blog, they get to know you through your writings. As long as you provide quality information, your readers will start to trust you and will then trust your recommendations.

For example: Write an article or blog post about your experiences with network marketing. Tell them everything you tried to become successful and how hard it was. Reveal any success you had; tell them how much you spent; tell them how you feel about the experience. Then tell them what you learned. That last sentence is your key to hooking them into following you.

Within your sentences telling them what you learned, you could include a hyperlink to an offer. By using a hyperlink instead of telling them where to go with the URL, you are letting them make the decision to get more information. This lets them remain in control and they don’t feel you are just trying to sell them something.

Here’s an example: “I was completely frustrated with the lack of training from my upline. Why do they always tell you what you want to hear to get you signed up and then forget about you after you signup?”

You have now provided them with a link to an offer and asked a rhetorical question – probably the same question they ask! They can now start to connect with you emotionally and that’s the beginning of building trust and successful marketing on the Internet.

By accurately targeting your customer, building relationships and using the right marketing strategies, you will reach the success you want online. It’s not an overnight process, but each proven strategy you learn to use  successfully will continue to generate traffic for you, even when you’re away on vacation!


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How to Build a Website – Will They Come?

February 5th, 2009 Gail

billboard Unfortunately, most websites end up like a billboard in the middle of the desert, never to be found or seen by anyone.  Why is that?

There are “secrets” to marketing on the Internet that once known, help you achieve the success you are looking for.  It’s up to you to pull these “secrets” out of an online guru (if s/he will tell you!), purchase all the information you can find or sign up for a program that will give you the information you seek.  This is no easy task – consider this as difficult as getting your MBA.

You see – there are no shortcuts to online success.  It takes time, knowledge, some technical ability and marketing experience.  Marketing is actually the #1 tool you need.  If you have no experience with marketing, you can start your reading with Zig Ziglar or Dan Kennedy.

On the Internet, you have to build rapport with people just as you do in the offline world before you can expect to make a sale.  We do this through socializing in forums, getting to know each other through Twitter, leaving comments on a regular basis on your favorite blog, using linkbait to cause a buzz and so much more.  The most efficient way to build rapport is by building a list of subscribers.  But you can’t do everything at once.

One secret most people won’t tell you is you have to master one marketing strategy before moving on to the next strategy.  After all, if you can’t master one, you certainly can’t expect to succeed with the next one.  The progression is to take what you learned from becoming successful with the first strategy and applying it to the next strategy you want to use.  Eventually you have a full arsenal of marketing techniques to use every day that are giving you the results you need.

Why Isn’t Anyone Finding Your Blog or Website?

It’s very simple – you’re not using keywords correctly.  You are using them, right?

Not only do you need marketing strategies, but you need to understand how the Internet works.  The Internet is based on people searching for information.  As a marketer, it’s your job to give them what they are looking for.

First – you need to use a keyword research tool to find what people are searching for.  Let’s use building a business as an example.  You can find prospects by knowing exactly what they are searching for to solve their problem.  They may be searching for:

•    Ways to get out of debt
•    How to start a home business
•    How to supplement their income
•    Boost retirement savings
•    A network marketing opportunity
•    A MLM company
•    Etc.

You can use the free WordTracker tool to do your keyword research or you can download my free keyword tool.

To find out what people are searching for to supplement their income, use supplement income and start the search.  All the related searches containing “supplement income” and the number of searches per day will be displayed (here’s what it looks like in WordTracker):

wpkeywords

From the keywords returned, I see two that could be used in an article or blog post:

•    How to supplement one’s retirement income
•    Ways to supplement income

If you have a blog, you choose one or two keyword phrases to use in a blog post.  Use one keyword phrase in the title of the blog post as your primary keyword phrase.  Then repeat the keyword phrase 2 – 3 times in your blog post.  Once you have your article completed, list your keyword phrases as tags and keywords on your post.  This is how you attract people to your site through the search engines.

How Does this Work?

If you are not posting information on the Internet using keywords that people are searching on, people won’t find you.  Along with your keyweords, the search engines rank websites, blogs, and other information by site popularity.  They consider the number of other sites that are linking to yours and give you a popularity rating.  The more popular a site is, the higher it is placed in the search engines.

So – if people are searching on “ways to supplement income” and your site is using this keyword phrase, the search engines will then count the number of other sites linking to your site and present them in their search engine results pages (SERPs) in the order they think are most important to the people searching for that information.

This is a simplistic approach to understanding keywords and the search engines, but it provides you with an understanding of how things work and what you need to do to “work within the system.”

To get results on the Internet, you need more than just a website.  You need knowledge, tools and a marketing plan for success.


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