September 20, 2006 by rcarruth.

 This works for me. I’ve used this very technique the past few years to drive qualified traffic to my web sites. Like Jeff, I’ve managed to get certain sites listed #1 for longer phrases that are hard to find using shorter versions of the same phrase. One of my web sites is www.Streetmagic.info . Look for this term, “street magic”, in Google. Then, look for “street magic secrets” and “street magic secrets revealed” and see where you find my site….

——————— 

Does your make money online business have a focus? One of the best things about the niche marketing craze is it forces you to concentrate on one market. A website that starts out as a site about fishing and ends up with pages on health does not have a focus. Most niche sites are very well defined and concentrate on that specific niche. If you want to make money online fast you will find having targeted pages will make a huge difference.

As search engines continue to provide better and more accurate results it is to your benefit to build web pages around keywords that are longer in nature and are about a very specific search. Make money working on the internet is going to provide a different result on Google than the shorter keyword phrase make money.

If you understand that and build a web page with the file title of make money working online you stand an excellent chance of climbing up the rankings for that specific page. On my site for example if you do a search for best mlm leads you will see I am #1 for that phrase. If you do the shorter search of mlm leads I am not in the top 20.

As a general rule the longer the keyword phrase the less traffic it produces and the less competition there is for that phrase. The shorter the phrase the more competition and the more searches it will produce. When you begin to understand the power of this you will begin to make money online in a way you never imagined.

The reason for that is simple. The longer the keyword phrase being searched the better the quality of the visitor doing the searching. If someone is doing a Google search for fastest way to make money on the internet you have a person who is looking to make money right away. By providing products and services that address how specific their search is you stand an excellent chance to make a sale, capture a name and email address. get a click on a Google ad, or whatever your site offers.

They key is to build a web page with that specific keyword phrase. In this case your file would be /makemoneyfast.htm. Write an article titled something like “10 Ways To Make Money Fast”, optimize your page with make money fast in the title, description, keywords, all images, bold, underline and italicize it once in the article itself, and put it at the bottom of the page.

Include some affiliate products hyper-linked in the text of the article, ad some Google Ads at the top of the page and along the side somewhere and you will find it climb up Google over a period of time.

Linking back to this specific page in directories, link trades, and internal linking will help it climb as well. Depending on the competition from other websites you could expect to have hundreds of your sub pages on page one of Google by just repeating this process over and over. I do!

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

September 17, 2006 by rcarruth.

I love Google Adwords. Why? Because they are the quickest way for the average website owner to get traffic to their site. Waiting for the search engines to drive traffic can take months and months, IF at all. After all your hard work, you may be so low in the index for your keywords that it’s as if you’re not there at all. Here are some good tips to maximize your adwords campaign… 

 ————————————

 5 Amazing Free Google PPC Ad Boosters
Try this; in a Google search page, enter the word, ‘Google.’ How many results do you get?

Over 2.5 Billion.

Zap back to the mid-90’s; two students named Larry Page & Sergey Brin are working on a new research project at Stanford University, California. Using the leading search engines of their day; Inktomi and AltaVista, they’re entering the word ‘Inktomi’ into the Inktomi search engine and ‘AltaVista’ into the AltaVista search engine.

How many results do you think they got; a Thousand? A Million?

Zero.

Larry & Sergey couldn’t believe it. Because Inktomi and AltaVista search engines were the leaders, but couldn’t even find their very own websites in an online search. This added to the boys’ conviction. Now they were sure they’d soon be blasting the competition with their own new creation; Google.

Google didn’t get to be king of search and PPC (Pay-Per-Click) by thinking like everyone else. They worked ‘outside the box’ to develop an alternate plan of attack. The results; obscene profits and domination of the search engine world.

In short, Google used imagination to get where they are today.

To beat competitors in your business category you must use imagination too. Here are 5 top techniques that’ll boost your performance. While your ad is climbing the Results ladder, you’ll be getting far more attention from prospective customers.

Introducing these tips may take a little time and effort (perhaps that’s why most advertisers aren’t using them). But there are resources available to help you. What’s more, these methods won’t cost you a penny.

1. Tailor the Web Address Displayed in Your Ads

Let’s say Mr Smith is searching online for apples. Meanwhile, you own ‘Fruit’ dot-com. If you happen to have the word, ‘apples’ in your ad’s web address, when it comes to providing Mr Smith with his search results Google is going to love you.

Problem is, you don’t have the word, ‘apples’ in your existing web address. Well, there’s an easy way to fix this. It’s called a subdomain. Subdomains are a great way to ensure the keyword entered by your prospective customer, is actually displayed at the bottom your Google ad text.

So let’s create a subdomain using your web host’s control panel, so that ‘Apples’ will be a subdomain of your existing site. This allows you to display ‘Apples.Fruit’ dot com as the ad’s web address. Your ad will contain address text matching exactly what Mr Smith is seeking. What’s more, ‘apples’ will be highlighted in bold text.

Result? A big, free boost for your ad.

Most website hosts such as Network Solutions, Go Daddy and others will allow you to have 70 or more subdomains. So, you can have many tailored ads with different keywords in your address; ‘Pears.Fruit’ dot-com, ‘Bananas.Fruit’ dot-com - you get the idea.

By the way; don’t try to fool Google by entering a subdomain that doesn’t exist. Within a matter of hours they’ll catch you. And switch your ad off until you’ve fixed it.

2. Interesting Text Beats Boring Competitors’ Cash

As legendary ad man Claude Hopkins said many years ago; “Any studied attempt to sell, if apparent, creates corresponding resistance.”

Which is more interesting; ‘Online Tax Services; we’re the best,’ or ‘What the IRS doesn’t Want You to Know?’ The goal is to think creatively. Produce text so tempting, internet users yearn to learn more.

So don’t get in customers’ faces - be subtle. Ease your way into their minds. Because ads that give people a real reason to click, work. You’re limited only by your imagination.

3. Always Place the Keyword in Your Headline

If you’re bidding on the keyword, ‘Hammers,’ make sure the word ‘Hammers’ is in your headline. Google will then show that word as bold text; a huge benefit. You’ll need to create a number of tailored ads in order to make this work. Perhaps you’ll have one ad for every 2 or 3 keywords. No problem - Google makes this quite easy.

4. Put the Price in Your Text

People on the internet are busy. They want info - now. If you display a price of your product or service in your ad, you’re likely providing them with more info than your competitors are. Get ready for more clicks. And more clicks means your position soars.

5. Be Frugal with Google

Why pay for clicks that do you no good? Calendar studies show there’s likely at least one day a week you’d have to be insane to run your ad. For example, if you’re selling office supplies, it could be the weekend your ads should be off. If you’re selling theme park tickets, it could be Mondays that make no sense for you.

By studying your ad’s daily click patterns you can discover the days or hours to put your ad to sleep. This saves you money. Money which can be spent later, and boost your ad during the proper times.

After all, the goal is to save you money. Or, do you prefer to contribute unnecessarily to Larry & Sergey’s Google retirement fund?

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

September 11, 2006 by rcarruth.

Are you taking advantage of the many ways possible to advertise your website offline. Chris suggest ten ideal ways to exploit simple and cheap advertising methods that many of us overlook in our search for traffic. For some psychological reason, we actively seek traffic from across the country, from unpronounceable countries, from people down under, and our neighbors to the north and south. But we overlook those in our neighborhood…

One hundred visitors from your home town are every bit as valuable, and probably more so, than visitors from any other part of the world. Never overlook the obvious… 

——————– 

The Top Ten Offline Website Marketing Tools

When most people think about marketing their website they think about “How can we get more traffic online” and yet they seem to totally disregard the Offline Website Marketing Tools already available free and in most cases they should be using.

I want to set about in this article to give you 10 Offline Website Marketing Tools that are guaranteed to give you traffic. However, one point to note, it will not be easy to track how many people are using these offline website marketing tools unless you ask them. So on your contact page on your website make sure you have a drop down box with these options for your customers to select from. To often website owners only include online website marketing tools in their “How You Heard About Us” drop down boxes on their contact pages.

So let us get started …

Offline Tool #1 - Put Your Website Address on Your Business Signs

If you are like my company we have spent thousands of dollars on advertising signage on our business headquarters in Townsville Australia but it still amazes me as I visit other towns and cities, even countries, that businesses with really effective websites still do not advertise their web address on their traditional bricks and mortar signage.

Let me throw a few things at you … How would you like 37,000 people per day to see you! I am quite sure you would do anything to get that sort of traffic wouldn’t you? Course you would. Well there are 200 - 300 business on the street where we are located and in our street we have 37,000 vehicles going past each day which we will call free traffic. Then why wouldn’t you as a business owner have your website address plastered all over your business signs. Do you realise that of the 200-300 businesses that are on our street less than 10 actually have their website address on their business? That’s right, less than ten.

How crazy is that! Going past your business is free traffic. Never underestimate drive by traffic, and if you do not believe me then ask yourself a question, “Why do companies like Walmart, Harvey Norman, Coles Myer etc put their stores on main roads?” For the drive by traffic! It doesn’t matter whether you only get 100 cars a day or 1 million cars a day, having your website address on your signage is a mandatory action. If you do what you will find is that as people go to work and see your website address, they will be more likely to have a look at your website as soon as they get to work than any other time. If a person has a particular need for your products, studies have shown, they are more likely to first check out your website, than actually come into your store.

Offline Tool #2 - Put Your Website Address On Your Vehicle

Just like the previous offline website marketing tool, this is a no brainer. If you have sign writing on your car for your business, you must also put your website address on it. Would you forget to put your phone number on the car? Course Not (Mind you I have seen a few cars that have even forgot that) then why would you forget to put your website address on your car. If your business sells products and services via the internet, then you need to tell your customers where to find you.

30% of our car detailing traffic that I own actually comes from our vehicles and within that 30% over 60% of our business is derived from people seeing our cars on the road, then visiting our web address to see our prices and services and then booking their cars in. So, rule number 2, never forget your website address on your vehicle.

Offline Tool #3 - Put Your Website Address in Your Yellow Pages Advertisement and White Pages Advertisement

The world seems to be obsessed with the Yellow Pages. It is truly a phenomenon. We pay thousands of dollars a year to be in the Yellow Pages and the three things we check to make sure are in our advertisements are our Address, Telephone number and web address. Most people before they ring you will in fact check out your website first. If the website address tells them nothing, then they will simply move on to the one that has a website address that tells them what they need to know.

Offline Tool #4 - Put Your Website Address on Your Business Cards

Look this one is another one of those no brainers. Everybody in business should have an email address and website address and they should both appear on your business cards prominently. Since a large proportion of business these days is done through email then not having just your email address is costing you business. I know of some businesses that will not communicate with you through anything but email and the phone. They simply refuse to deal with people who have a fax because they want to save money and faxing costs money.

Get your website address on your business cards. If you have only just gone and got brand new business cards printed then go down to your local stationary supply company and buy some small stickers and stick them on the back. Might look tacky but at least your customers will know how to contact you.

Offline Tool #5 - Put Your Website Address on all Media Advertising

When ever you do any advertising at all, whether it is a leaflet drop or billboard advertising in Time Square (Nice if you can afford it) make sure that your website address is on the advertising. When people see your website address they are more likely to visit your site first before coming into your store. Many many important sales are won or lost long before you ever see the customer and in many cases your website could be that deciding factor.

Offline Tool #6 - If you are sponsoring a Charity or Sports Group Demand your Website Address be included next to your Company Name

If you have decided to sponsor a Charity or Charity Day or even a sports group then make sure that the Charity or Sporting group includes your Name and Your Website on their printed material. The human race is really quite bizarre as they are more likely to remember your website address than your telephone number. Just like before, if they see your details at a Charity or Sports function, then they are more likely to go to you then your competitors because you are actively supporting your community. To finish this off make sure that the Charity or sporting group gives the customers a way to find you.

Remember to have your website address on all of their printed material and signage if possible.

Offline Tool #7 - Put Your Website Address on your Uniforms

One of the core reasons we give our staff uniforms is so that they are easily identifiable when they are out and about but more so, the uniforms make my staff walking billboards for my company. Most companies when developing their uniforms will only include their logos. My recommendation to everyone is to include your website address as well.

Many people have told me they have seen my staff at the shopping centre and seen our web address on their uniforms and that is how they have found us. Some of our biggest customers have come from the website address on my staff uniforms. This is one of the cheapest and free offline website marketing tools.

Offline Tool #8 - Put Your Website Address on all of your Business Merchandise

If you are creating merchandise to give to your customers, make sure you include your website address on the merchandise. In fact, it is less intrusive to include your website address on your merchandise than it is to include your telephone number. Let me give you an example. I am sitting in our business headquarters writing this article and I looked over at a Stainless steel mug that my brother gave me from Canada (He lives in Canada). The mug is a merchandise item from Prince George Savings Credit Union. I tried to look up their site and put in the usual but all I got was spam sites. Finding their website was simply to hard for me and so I gave up.

I should note that this stainless steel mug takes pride and place on my desk in my office and I use it all the time. If they had their website address on this stainless steel mug then I could have easily looked up their website and maybe set up a bank account or invested some money with them but they have made it too difficult to do so.

If your merchandise is designed to push your name or market you in the workplace, then make sure you make it easy for your customers to find you. Remember, most people will go to your website rather then to call or visit your store first, simply to avoid the heavy sell.

Offline Tool #9 - Incorporate Your Website Address Into Your Logo

When I work with our SEO clients and their business coaches one of the things we look at is their logo. When I first setup our training and car detailing business, one of the things I did was to incorporate our website address in the logo. The core advantage to this is that where ever our logo is our website address is and it allows people to find an easy way for people to contact us.

Often when you are sponsoring teams at football games, the only information about you they allow to be shown is your logo. If you are one of those companies that does not have a prominent office then people may find it to difficult to find you but if you include your website address in your logo, your customers will always have a sure fire way to find you. Remember the human credo, “We Are Lazy!”

Offline Tool #10 - Put Your Website Address On Your Press Releases

When ever you release a press release ensure that you put your website address on it. Many a time, media companies will actually include your website address in their news stories, in particular when they post information about your press release on their websites. I have noticed a trend at MSNBC, Ninemsn and CNN to do this. The advantage to you as the website owner is that the link they include in the text will be treated as a high quality link over others, because most of these three media sites have PR rankings of 8 or more which means this will help you in your webpage rankings in the search engines.

The other point to this is that you may find a traffic peak whilst your news story is actually visible or being played. For example, as a proud Australian I was heartbroken to hear about the death of Steven Irwin an Australian Icon and Legend and also a proud Queenslander like me but when his family did the press release about his death and what he stood for they included the Wild Life Warriors website address on the press release. Virtually every single media outlet around the world has posted the website address on their websites which means this website is doing outstandingly well. Which I am very ecstatic about … as at least in this tragic circumstance there will be some good come out of it.

To finish off, I want to reiterate the 10 Offline Website Marketing Tools you should be utilising -

Offline Tool #1 - Put Your Website Address on Your Business Signs

Offline Tool #2 - Put Your Website Address On Your Vehicle

Offline Tool #3 - Put Your Website Address in Your Yellow Pages Advertisement and White Pages Advertisement

Offline Tool #4 - Put Your Website Address on Your Business Cards

Offline Tool #5 - Put Your Website Address on all Media Advertising

Offline Tool #6 - If you are sponsoring a Charity or Sports Group Demand your Website Address be included next to your Company Name

Offline Tool #7 - Put Your Website Address on your Uniforms

Offline Tool #8 - Put Your Website Address on all of your Business Merchandise

Offline Tool #9 - Incorporate Your Website Address Into Your Logo

Offline Tool #10 - Put Your Website Address On Your Press Releases

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

September 7, 2006 by rcarruth.

What is Magical Marketing Juice? Read on and find out..

———————- 

Magical Marketing Juice is the sort of thing that’s only talked about in dark alleys by faceless individuals speaking in hushed tones. It’s powers are so grand and it’s secrets are so great that any single person marketing their business after taking just a sip of this heavenly concoction would have enough success to last to the end of their days.

My quest to learn the secrets of Magical Marketing Juice was born out of a desire to catapult my own business. So through diligent research and a few alliances with individuals who cannot be named lest their lives be at risk, I finally found the source of this potent mixture. In a land far away lay the answers to all of my marketing dilemmas. My lips were about to taste the grandest of marketing prizes!

High atop the Andes mountains, in a small cave barely lit by smoldering torches sits a small man with a long white beard. He’s the keeper-of-marketing-secrets. He has more marketing knowledge in his little pinky than the worlds greatest entrepreneurs. After a two-week hike through some of the roughest terrain known to man-kind, I wearily set down my pack and approached him. In the dull orange glow of this cold, hard cave I asked if I may partake of his home-made concoction - Magical Marketing Juice - to reach the heights of success beyond my wildest dreams.

He slowly opened one eye with a raised brow and said …

“There IS NO Magical Marketing Juice you insufferable, unthinking, warthog-faced peasant! Now get outta my cave before I go ‘Kung Fu’ on your backside!”

Well, so much for life’s mysteries! He did offer to sign me up for his bi-weekly newsletter before I left, though I declined as the entire trip left me with a sour, bitter taste in my mouth - it wasn’t what I was expecting, but at least I finally had a chance to discover the true taste of Magical Marketing Juice.

Every day on any number of marketing forums on the internet you’ll see posts such as this:

“Please Help! I need a fast way to generate lots of money on my website and I only have $20 to spend!”

“I need a writer who can write a book for me - I can’t pay up front but I’ll give you some profits!”

“I’m looking for an expert web-designer to build my site but I’m just starting so I have very little cash!”

These examples aren’t made up, mind you. These individuals are all on the same quest I was - forsaking the age-old advice of “you get what you pay for” and in some cases throwing common sense out the window in pursuit of the impossible. Perhaps it’s the culture of the internet where everything is available instantly and immediately as soon as you ask for it. This goes far beyond a “get-rich-quick” scheme - this is a pervasive thought process that can be a real dangerous dose of anti-reality to someone trying to make an honest living online or offline.

Combine the desire for quick ways to bolster your biz and generate a ton of cash with various internet marketing products out there and you have a recipe for disaster. Some people sell marketing eBooks for $20 that are accompanied with sales letters so stacked with hype phrases like “Laser-Focused”, “Ultra-Powerful”, and “Once-In-A-Lifetime” that the only end result is someone with the bitter, sour taste of Magical Marketing Juice in their mouth.

Does that mean that someone selling a marketing eBook for $20 is responsible for this? No. Does this mean that every marketing book out there is not worthwhile? Not at all - however, this is a “buyer beware” culture accompanied by a heavy dose of “you get what you pay for” and that’s even more important when dealing with businesses on the internet. All this does is serve as a warning …

If ever you find yourself pulling your hair out, and beginning the search for that great Holy Grail of Marketing Miracles, do everything you can to resist. What you really need is time, and a step back to see everything with an objective eye. Only then will you taste the sweet fruit of your hard work instead of the empty bitter gulp of that Mythical Marketing Juice!

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

September 6, 2006 by rcarruth.

I really can’t stress the basics enough: getting high listings in the search engines, and driving traffic to your site. Oh, there are many other factors to making money online, including site design, domain name, topic, readability, and most of all - your product. But the basics are the building blocks on which all else are built.

I had a small magic related site one time, built on a free host with a simple wysiwyg editor, that was the number one site for it’s keyword in both Google and Yahoo. I made a good chunk of money with that little four page website. I didn’t know any better…

But I had studied website optimizing techniques that bode me well, even with my simple site. The design was totally simple, but the subject was hot, the traffic was there, and the ranking was there as well. The MONEY followed…

Scott has some really timely ideas for getting YOUR site listed highly in Yahoo! 

——————————

 Yahoo!-It — Reach High Rankings with Your Website in Yahoo!

In terms of relevancy Yahoo! is the number one search engine, while Google leads the market in terms of popularity. The question is: could you optimize for both? It depends…

Keyword Optimization

One of the major differences between Yahoo! and Google is the keyword density tolerance. Google tolerates a maximum of 3% keyword density while Yahoo! around 5-6%. Now, the question is: are you going to ignore Google and start optimizing for Yahoo!?

If you go over the 3% keyword density boundary Google might penalize your website, considering it keyword stuffed. Are you going to take that risk for higher rankings in Yahoo?! Certainly not. Then what could you do to “score” in both search engines?

Use synonyms. The Yahoo! search algorithm is language based so it will recognize your words and reward your website for its variety. This way you’ll add a few more searchable keywords to your content and this might bring good results in Google too.

Stemming works well in Yahoo! too. Stemming refers to word variations, including prefixes and suffixes. For example the stem forms for tattoo: tattoos, tattooing, tattooed, tattooer, etc. Google doesn’t consider stemming spam either, but you should be careful how many keyword variations you use.

These two techniques will help you write your page copy in a more natural form and well-written content is valuable for your clients too. As a matter of fact the main purpose of your website is to rank well among your visitors. That’s why natural language is the best approach.

Adding More Content

Adding content works for all search engines. It’s like a magic potion: Google, Yahoo, MSN fall in love with content-rich websites. But you’ll need to do this constantly. You’ll also need to refresh web content on regular-basis. Additionally, more pages mean more possibilities to be found be your target customers.

When you add more pages don’t ignore website usability. Your visitors should be able to find their way through your website and not feel as walking thorough a virgin forest. This is why you need a site map, good internal linking, clear menu bars and a easy to use website navigation.

Both Yahoo! and Google love fresh content so both love blogs. Adding a blog to your website will give the search engines a reason to come back and crawl your site more often. Yahoo! treats blogs even better than Google, so it shouldn’t surprise you when you see a blog placed higher in the Yahoo! SERP than in the Google SERP.

Remember that each page, no matter how new, needs its own title and description. META tags are not as important in Google as they are in Yahoo!

In conclusion, enough quality content, good keyword choice and relevant linking will bring you results in all search engines, no matter the algorithm differences. But if you optimize for Yahoo! it is always useful to know that content is really the key.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

August 30, 2006 by rcarruth.

 There are many ways to make money online… Some work much better than others. Composing DIY type web sites is the perfect way to get your feet in the water. Niche categories thrive, the work is minimal… considering, and the lessons learned are invaluable..  Read on.. 

———————— 

What’s the Attraction?

Today, with the cost of ready-made products continuing to rise, more and more people are finding it prudent to make or do things themselves. Sometimes kits are available, such as those for birdhouses or jewelry and sometimes it’s necessary to build it from scratch, such as wood planters or an extra bedroom. Whatever your preference is, don’t let potential customers miss the sense of accomplishment they’ll feel when they’re able to stand back and say, “I made that!”

What’s the incentive?

Online “shoppers” are always checking websites regarding how to make or do specific things. You may have just what they need.

• For example, last winter you built your grandson a very elaborate playhouse, from scratch. As you worked, you wrote down the details of your original pattern. When your wife suggested you try to market the pattern online, you did just that. Using a marketing plan, you set up your own website, arranged for credit card and PayPal billing, and took detailed photos of the playhouse. Once the site was up and running you simply sat back and waited for the orders to come in. Success! Not bad for two weeks of work! 

   

• Another example of a DYI website is one related to writing your own tutorials for popular software programs such as PhotoShop or Norton’s Utilities. Having used these programs for years, you now consider yourself an expert, particularly related to shortcuts and customizing your work. You’re so good, in fact, that you were able to take some rather mediocre wedding photos and, using sepia tones, turn them into keepsakes that even the most highly paid professional would envy. You’ve decided you’re now willing to share your talents, so you develop a website to market your original tutorial online. Your first offering has paid off well.

Consider online DYI projects as a viable income source.

The sense of accomplishment one gains through successfully completing a DIY project cannot be easily described. Let’s just say, it makes you feel good and proud of yourself. Any market that aims at fulfilling these two factors is attractive to any potential online “shopper.” Because of the anonymity of website exploration, shoppers are willing to explore topics they’d stay clear of in real life. For example, a man might research flower arranging or sewing, and a woman might explore automobile timing or repairing small appliances. When you develop a website for a specific DIY topic, you are opening up a possible floodgate to online profits. Even something simple such as selling the details of flower arranging could bring in a comfortable sum if it’s marketed to the right people.

Go ahead - take a chance.

Go ahead - take a chance - you haven’t much to lose. Rather than make a large initial investment in your own website, test the waters using e-Bay or Craigslist.com. Try to sell your playhouse pattern or your PhotoShop tutorial through them. While you may have to pay them a percentage of your profits, it will be well worth it. You’ll know for sure if there’s a market out there for your DIY idea. Considering all the people, worldwide, who scan the web looking for do-it-yourself projects, you’re bound to appeal to dozens of potential buyers.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

August 26, 2006 by rcarruth.

 Been there.. done that. I’ve set up links that didn’t work, affiliate info that was incorrect, a missed dot here, a wrong letter there. And it’s cost me money. I have a magic based newsletter I send out bi-weekly, and I depend on affiliate links within the text to pay the bills. Recently, upon checking my affiliate stats, I found that two of my three primary links were NOT working.. and it wasn’t even my fault. But had I not checked, I would still be sitting around wondering why I didn’t earn what I had expected….  

————————————– 

 Classic Internet Marketing “Blunder” Is Like Flushing Tens Of Thousands Of Dollars Down The Toilet
One of the most useful and important tips I ever heard about running a marketing campaign is “inspect what you expect.” In other words…don’t assume the printer, the web designer, the merchant account service or any other aspect of your Internet marketing campaign will just automatically do as they are supposed to. Don’t think someone won’t drop the ball or have a brain fart at the absolute worst time.

Inspect your Internet marketing system — every detail of it — before and during the launch.

Good advice isn’t it?

You’re dang right it is.

In fact, it’s so important…and so ultra critical…I completely ignored it recently and lost a bundle of money as a result.

Let me explain what I mean.

You see, so far just about all the ads I’ve written have paid out and are winners. There have been a few flops here and there where I tried selling to a market I didn’t really understand. But the majority have pulled and pulled well.

Except for this one ad my client and I had up for about three months.

Even though it was for a very rabid market that loves to buy…and even though I’m very familiar with that market…the ad didn’t pull even one single order in the three months it was up. And I mean nothing. Nada. Zippo.

Of course, it could be I simply penned a crappy ad.

But even that didn’t explain zero sales. Especially in this particular market, where even a crappy ad pulls at least some response.

But for some mysterious reason…no matter how much I tweaked the copy, no matter how low we cut the price…we couldn’t produce a single sale.

And this drove me absolutely crazy.

I became obsessed with making it work. I revised it dozens of times. Played around with it. Let other copywriters and Internet marketing friends of mine read it and then revised it again. And still no sales.

I was almost ready to write the entire thing off as a dud.

And then it happened.

A few weeks ago my client got an email from someone who wanted to buy the product.

He was a customer who kept trying to order…but said the order form wasn’t working. It wasn’t taking his credit card numbers. And the only price that appeared was the cost of shipping.

Doh!

Turns out there was a small glitch with the shopping cart software my client uses. And it wasn’t working properly.

Now, we’ll never know exactly how many sales that stupid little mistake cost us. But judging from the response we’re getting now — about 3% — I’m guessing we flushed at least $10,000 in sales down the toilet.

Obviously, if we’d simply followed the “inspect what you expect” mantra — this never would have happened. We would have noticed the software glitch and nipped it in the bud.

But you know what the real irony is?

Other than the fact nobody phoned their order in (which is another topic for another time)…this is actually a classic Internet marketing blunder routinely committed by seasoned gurus and amateurs alike all the time.

I’d heard about this sort of thing happening hundreds of times. It’s in almost every good marketing and copywriting book I’ve ever read. It’s happened to just about every serious marketer I’ve ever met.

In fact, our situation is a joke compared to the hair-raising screw ups involving multi-millions of dollars being flushed down the toilet because the marketer’s secretary gave the ad rep the wrong 800 number or something to that effect.

Now, you may be tempted to think, “no way will I ever make such a stupid mistake.”

And I hope you’re right.

But it’s a lot like not regularly backing up your computer’s hard drive.

If you get lazy and refuse to sweat the details (as I did in this case) you’ll eventually get nailed.

Anyway, the moral of the story is make sure you inspect what you expect every time.

It only takes a few minutes to check your order form, see what your ad looks like on multiple browsers, verify your third party merchant account service (if you use one) is standing by and not performing “routine maintenance”, and all the other boring, mundane things we love to let other people handle.

And yet…those few minutes can make all the difference at the end of the day.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

August 18, 2006 by rcarruth.

You can’t argue with success. Sean has had success with writing marketing articles, and he offers his opinion in this article. I could tell you a half dozen good reasons to write articles on YOUR subject, but I’ll save that for another article. In the meanwhile, take this advice to heart and start writing. It’s all about eyeballs and links, eyeballs and links… eye….

 ——————————

What I Think of Article Marketing

Article marketing has gotten a lot of press lately. Gurus have sold probably millions of dollars worth of ebook manuals on how to do it. Web script writers have made a bundle promoting software, both to create directories and to automate article submission.

Does it work?

That question would probably be answered differently by different people.

So what about me?

First off, I started article marketing about 6 months ago and have published about 20 articles in as many as 80 different directories. Some of those directories have RSS feeds that get my articles onto many more web sites. I have seen search engine directories showing as many as 15,000 results for one of my article titles.

I have had several web sites zoom to number one positions in several of the top search engines that everyone talks about. Now don’t get me wrong–I did a few others things in my quest to gain a spot in the search engines. But I believe article marketing has done the bulk of the work for me.

So how do I do it?

First, I write about what I know. When I first started writing, I was promoting a christian time management website. So I wrote about time management and success–both topics about which I am fairly well versed. Now that I have learned a thing or two online, I write about what works for me online.

Will article marketing work for you? Maybe. Maybe not. But if you haven’t tried it, you must. It may be just what your business needs to get to the next level.

Suggestions:

1. Always construct an article title that is not in use so you can track the propagation of your article online. So before I submit an article, I type the article name, in quotes, into the major search engines. Unless the search comes up with ‘no results’, I choose another title. Once you have one that yields no results, you can track how many sites are hosting your article. Once you submit the article, simply wait a few days and type the name of the article into the search engines. Do this every few days. You will be surprised at the results, if you are submitting to at least 10 or 15 different directories.

2. Write about something you are skilled at and have an active vocabulary in. If you do not have more information on the topic than the average reader, you are probably out of your topic comfort zone. Simply choose another topic.

3. Write comfortably. This isn’t rocket science. Write so that it is easy to read. The internet reader is click happy today. If your article is tough to navigate, they will simply click away.

4. Write short articles—500-750 words each. You are not writing a book.

5. Always include a link to your site at the end of the article. This is critical for building backlinks to your site.

Now get writing!

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

August 16, 2006 by rcarruth.

I’ve long said that regardless of what marketing method you use, you HAVE to drive traffic to your site to be successful. Traffic is the key. Heck, you can offer an inferior product and STILL make sales, IF you have enough traffic. Not that you would want to sell an inferior product, but I use this as an example to make my point.

Jan suggest an ideal way to get traffic to your site and get your url indexed in the major search engines. Although not unique, it’s a point worth driving home again and again.

——————————————-  

 Free Website Marketing - Endless Options 

Laura, you’re on a roll. Your website is a winner. It offers something simple and needed, support for those married more than twice (and divorced). Your question how to market your site - is an often asked question. So, I’ll write a short article here and show you how simple it is.

Let’s get started!!!

Drop 5 articles in http://ezinearticles.com all in one day - and do that a couple of times over the next month - so you’ve dropped a total of 25 articles. Your site is going to be getting some mega hits at that point… Mostly from people who are seeing your articles and visiting your site. Great way to get attention!

It will do a couple of things, first get you priority on ezine (you’ve published more than 10 articles) - which brings you up in their rankings, therefore, you get more ‘advertizing’ (read noticed) from them… Well, it’s because you’re near the top of the heap, posting 25 articles in a month is almost like competing with Lance (the top producer on ezine).

And it will make you a RECOGNIZED Authority on your topic… Of course you’ll write about the site you’re wanting to promote. Get serious and provide informative content in these articles. THEN —

Your articles will get keyword searches on Google…..

Tada - the gold…

Keywords — before you write your articles, check the titles on google - for instance: a search on “Marital Communications” reveals about 33,000 hits - “Sex Talk” about 2,380,000 so you’ll want to put them together for a title like “Marital Communications: Sex Talk Rocks” — be sure you use “Marital Communications” and “Sex Talk” as keywords when you place the article. In your article reuse those same phrases frequently - at lest 3 or 4 times per hundred words. Other publishers will be picking up your articles and publishing them in newsletters and the like. You’ll be a published author…

SAVE your 25 articles! Put them all together and publish them as an ebook - and give it away on your site. Give always brings people back time and time again. You’re off to a great start.

You have more information — put together an ebook without articles. Optimize it with links to your site and more information, then sell it - using a BUY NOW button from Paypal.com and you’ve got a source of legitimate income on an information site, along with the ebook and articles you’ve been GIVING AWAY - and all that time investment will be returning.

But don’t stop!!!

Write approximately one article a week, to stabelize your visitors - 3 - 5 a week to keep increasing visitors.

Keep putting them into ebooks as you write them and begin selling them as “Info Packs of Articles” in ebook format. Write them with a theme and use an intro page on your website to promote them…

Did I say salesletter?

Well, yeah, an intro page is a sales letter. You put up a killer headline that brings in your reader. Some magnetic copy that keeps them there. And — something for those demanding few who insist on getting their money’s worth - an occasional free ebook/report you create from one of your most interesting and keyword optimized articles in report form. Dress it up with a snappy cover, title, and a few more words, and a bio pac on the back for a great ‘REPORT’.

Note: Be sure to include plenty of links to your sites for some awesome viral marketing, and you’ve got a zippity marketing plan going for your free info site at http://www.freewebs.com/luckslec

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

August 12, 2006 by rcarruth.

What does connectivity and traffic have in common? Tim Dillard knows. Actually, it’s not a secret, but it IS a well-kept fact. Read on, then let me know what you think.  

 —————————————–

Ask an 18 year-old today if they read the newspaper and you generally get a laugh. Being 49, I recognize that laugh. It’s the same one I gave my parents when they wanted me to put water and a little dab of Bryl-cream on my hair and cut my hair above my ears back in the 1970’s. It was sooooo outdated.

You see, the newspaper world just doesn’t get it. They think the same eyeballs that read a newspaper are going to read the same copy online. What they’re unable to do is monetize effectively the online eyeballs. That’s because they’re investment is still tied up in big buildings, huge printing presses, enormous staffs, cutting down millions of trees and spending millions on gas to get the newspapers to the people that are no longer reading them.

Pity.

Haven’t we seen this all before? Remember the railroads. The railroads are the classic study of how an industry has it all and loses it. They failed to recognize they were in the transportation business. So, the airlines came in and took over the monetization of moving people from point A to point B.

When Bill Gates and Steven Jobs were going door to door with their silly little operating systems, the IBM’s of the world laughed them out of the conference rooms. Why? Because America was built on manufacturing. Appliances and machines and ships and tanks needed to be built. Designing software was something for college geeks.

Jobs and Gates looked at each other and said, “They don’t get it, do they?” And countless billions of dollars in lost revenue later, the IBM’s of the world finally get it. And Steven Jobs finds himself as CEO of Disney.

And now the newspaper world is selling ads in their newspapers and in the process you can get a banner or something like that on their respective websites. Why? Because they think the battle is about content. It’s not.

Look at Myspace.com and Youtube.com. Sure, there is lots of content there but the reason they exist is for connectivity. What the newspaper world has failed to realize is that we are no longer in the Information Era. We’re headlong into the Internet Era where Connectivity is King and content is measured by volume, not quantity. Still don’t get it? Look at anyone under 25’s emails. Check their spelling. If content is king, spelling would be queen. It’s almost as if they have a code. Spelling doesn’t matter because the less letters you use the more you’re able to connect. Just communicate, nothing more and nothing less.

There are lots of sites built on content. Yahoo is indexing over 12 billion pages. Type anything into Google and see how many matches you get. That’s because we have too much information. In the Information Era, information was king. If you owned the Information you had power.

Now, thanks to the Internet, the first entity in the history of mankind not owned by anyone, information has lost it’s grip on power. To gain power on the Internet, you need connectivity. Once you achieve connectivity, you get eyeballs. And even the newspaper world will tell you that the more eyeballs you get the more money you make.

It’s about eyeballs stupid and eyeballs will always equal cash.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »