I’ve been speaking to a lot of very successful business people of late, and I am just overwhelmed at how excited they all are to be learning about internet marketing. It’s exciting to see the surge of business men and women actively seeking help with the internet marketing of their websites. You see, up until a year or so ago, getting your site live and in the search engines was key. So, people threw up a site, and let it run on its own. The sites were pretty much designed to be extensions of your business card, providing visitors with product and contact information. Ah, but the rules of the game have changed, my friend. Now it’s become a dog-click-dog world, and the internet marketing of your site on - and off-page is what makes the difference between a productive and a non-productive site.
So, first, I’d like you to take a quick look at your web site.
Go ahead, open up a new browser and check it out as a fresh visitor seeing it for the first time. · Is it easy to navigate? Is it logical, or do visitors just kind of meander around in your site like a lost child in the grocery store? · Is there a goal to your site? Is there a place where you ultimately want to funnel your visitors? Is it to a contact page where they submit their email address and questions or comments to you? · Ask yourself, what do you really want these people to do when they get to your site? Click around and then fall so deeply in love with your site that they drop everything and run, not walk, to your store’s location with open arms and wallets? · And, what do you have there for people that aren’t local? Do you have anything that you can offer them? · If someone doesn’t end up buying your product or service on your web site, do you have other ways for them to help you earn some money from their visit? Okay, well, it seems that we have a little work to do on your internet marketing! The most important thing to remember is that your web site is more than just an electronic advertisement. It has a purpose, and don’t forget that! Now, we just need to convince your visitors that you do have a reason for getting them to land on your site! Examine the ultimate purpose of your visitor…could it be to purchase something? That’s always a good purpose! But, do you give them a “slippery slope” of compelling content that leads them right to your purchase page? Believe it or not, it will take you a little bit of time mapping out your site’s content and pages that take their hand and carry them right to your purchase page.
Try it right now! There is a lot to learn for those courageous business men and women who want to learn more about internet marketing. Rest assured, you’ve found a resource that will not only help you with theinternet marketingof your current web site, but also with helping you develop a very strong strategy to help make your site extremely profitable.
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Are you thinking about starting a new internet business? Whether you are interested in affiliate sales or creating your own product, the first decision you will need to make is your niche.
It doesn’t have to be much, information and ideas and physical products are all good products and are in demand depending on your niche. I believe you should find a niche that consumers want and/or need. You have your whole life full of experiences that can be used an inspiration for your new home business. You have undoubtedly learned a great number of things in your home or family life. Don’t sell yourself short, there has got to be something. Whether you are single or married, kids or no kids, you have gained information that people out there may be looking for. If you have dealt with serious illnesses in your family, or have a friend whom you have helped through something traumatic, that could be useful to another person going through the same thing. Even the smallest thing, surviving college days as a student or a parent, getting through the night with a newborn, you have the knowledge, so use it to your advantage. Your occupation is another area of your life that has given you valuable information, especially if you have had college education or other occupational training. No matter what your current job is, you know something that you can use to your benefit. It would be easy for you to talk about your work in forums, blogs, and articles to promote a product that you have chosen because you understand it.
Even if you have a warning to all about certain types of work environments, or you believe you have a suggestion that would change the industry forever, don’t count it out. It would also be very easy for you to create your own product to sell in your home business. Your hobbies are also a source of inspiration to help you decide on a niche. You have spent a good amount of time and probably money enjoying your hobby, so you know a lot. You can share your passion with the world. Whether you enjoy cooking big feasts for the holidays, or building tiny ships in bottles, I’m sure you have some advice that enthusiasts around the world could use. You will undoubtedly enjoy a home business that is focused on something that you love. Your research will lead you in new directions and you will find it easy to create a new product based on your hobby. So wherever you find your niche, it’ll be worth it when you succeed in your home business. After you have decided on a niche, you can begin some research and see what is out there. Find out where there is a demand and take it from there. There are a good many ways to make money in your desired niche; the techniques are publicly available as well. There are various products available to help you choose a niche and help you develop a successful home business based on your niche. Choose wisely and good luck on your search.
On-Line Marketing StrategiesThese days an internet marketing strategy plays a vital role in the overall marketing plan of any small business. Getting your website viewed is important for any size business – large or small. Remember: You can’t put up a terrific web site on-line and “hope” that people will just arrive. You have to let your prospects know, IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY, that your web site is there.
This HAS to be part of any Internet Marketing Strategy you develop. This is actually a basic marketing principle. Unless you have something as needed and wanted as the original and authentic Fountain of Youth, your customers are not going to look for you; you have to look for them. There is a lot of hullabaloo about promoting your web site. In fact, building traffic to your web site is the subject of thousands of web sites, e-zines, books, courses and seminars. Using the web to promote your site, however, still assumes that your customers are surfers. Even though you may be an avid internet user, there is a large percentage of our population that are not as savvy with the internet as we would like them to be. So, what do you do about this large percentage of the population who are not internet adept? They will only find out about you through traditional marketing and public relations media. This is particularly true if you serve a fairly local market. Fortunately these are the easiest and cheapest prospects for you to reach off-line.Off-Line Marketing StrategiesOff-Line Internet Marketing Strategies are still alive. I recently read a statistic of the US Postal Service that stated that consumers spend an average of 25 minutes with Direct Mail and 30 minutes with catalogs. (There are more facts in the Mail Moment series of free white papers form the USPS.) Yes, they may go through their mail like Speed Racer and cull through the mail they want and the mail they don’t want at record velocity; but those that catch their eye and grab their attention, they actually read and spend time doing so. You need to tap into that market and utilize that statistic. Become part of that pile of mail that your prospective consumer spends time reading.
Direct Mail should be a pivotal point of your on-line marketing strategy.
You need to ensure that you have a direct mail marketing campaign to drive traffic to your web site.Other Marketing AvenuesBelow is a small list of some of the ways to make your web site known (this list was taken directly from the Traffic Building Volume of Ken Evoy’s brilliant book,Make Your Site Sell!): • TV, print and other advertising • Stationary and business cards • Catalogs, fliers, billboards, blimps, etc. • Direct mail (prominently on every document) • Telemarketing (make it part of the script) • News releases to targeted media. The main principle, to which you can add all your imagination, is: AN INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGY INCLUDES ANY AND ALL MEANS OF GETTING YOUR WEB SITE KNOWN AND VISITED BY TARGETED PROSPECTS. Unless you have a high budget, the TV, radio, classified ad route is not recommended but if you do run ads, be sure to mention your web site everywhere. Make it part of your Internet Marketing Strategy. Another guiding principle is that your off-line internet marketing activities should make it easy for your prospect to go straight to your site. One of the best ways to market your website off-line is direct mail postcards.What’s So Great About Postcards?If your prospect sees your website on a billboard as she’s driving home, she probably won’t look you up when she gets to the office the next day.
This is not the only medium that has problems like this. Newspapers are bulky, radio has to spell it out and with billboards most people are driving at the time. On the other hand, if your prospect is sitting at her computer and a postcard comes in the mail announcing your web site, she can just turn around and type in your URL and she’s at your web site. Now, if someone is in the office reading a trade journal and comes across an article about you in the magazine, it’s not difficult for him to copy your URL into his browser and pay your site a visit. If they are not in the office, there will be a lag time in logging into your web site. Also a percentage of those journal readers may not write the web address down or even remember to check out your site. I don’t mean to say that those other avenues won’t drive traffic to your site, but it will take numerous impressions and repetition to get them to remember your address. On the other hand, direct mail postcards are generally received at the home or office where a computer is present, and if received somewhere else they are small enough to keep with you until you can get to a computer. This way, your prospective customer will be able to take the postcard right over to their desk top computer, type in your address and go right to your site. Brilliant! I have seen the greatest success in off-line web site promotion with direct mail, and specifically direct mail postcards. The most successful people on the internet market with Direct Mail to drive traffic to their site. The virtual world is just that – virtual. It really is not the real world so if you want your virtual business to be creditable in the real world, apply real world principles. Direct Mail Postcard Marketing will give you the credibility that you seek and will drive copious amounts of traffic to your web site. Ah, nirvana!
John Navata If you have been on the Internet for any more than a minute you probably have a pretty good idea that Google is the monster of all search engines and can drive you tons of targeted traffic for free (and free traffic is definitely the best kind
With that said, Google is constantly coming out with new tools for us marketers to take advantage of and the one I want to address today is «Google Sitemaps». I want to answer two important questions about Google Sitemaps that I am constantly getting: Question #1: Will Sitemaps help increase my rankings? Answer #1: Now, I get this question all the time and the only logical answer I can come up with is YES! Chances are pretty darn good that if Google releases something and you use it, it could only help, not hinder, your rankings! (Remember Blogger.com… yup, the fastest blog sites to get listed in Google! Go figure!) Question #2: What exactly does a Google Sitemap do? Answer #2: Well here it is… any time you add new content to your site or your blog, you’re going to want Google to include the most up-to-date version in its listings.
In the past, this meant waiting for Google to index your site all over again… but since Google runs on its own agenda that could be next week… or next month… or next year. You never knew and it was extremely frustrating. But finally Google has solved this problem with Google Sitemaps! By using Sitemaps you can proactively tell Google every time you update your site so Google knows exactly when they need to come back and reindex it. And best of all, it’s free! Think of it as sending Google an invitation to visit your site every time you change it and add new information. This is particularly useful for blogs or other newsy web sites that are updated regularly. Through Sitemaps you will get: Up-to-date search results presented to your target market, so they can access the very latest information on your site. In-depth reports that show you which pages Google has visited and when, so you can make sure they index all your most important content. Here’s a quick five-step guide to walk you through the process of getting your site registered with Google Sitemaps, so you can start using it right away. Go to Google’s «Add URL» page to submit your site, if you haven’t already done so. (You can find it at: http://www.google.com/addurl.) Check to see if Google has indexed your site by typing «cache:http://Your Web Site» into your browser’s search bar and hitting «Enter.» A saved version of your web page will appear, along with the date and time that Google last visited it. (For example, if I wanted to see when Google last visited our site’s homepage, I’d enter the following: «cache:http://www.marketingtips.com») Go to Google Sitemaps and sign up for an account. Then follow their instructions to add your site or sites to your new account. Once you’ve submitted your site to http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps, there’s a very quick and easy process you can use to resubmit our site to Google every time you add new content. Simply take the following URL and customize it by adding your URL to the end of it: www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=http://%3A%2F%2F For example, if I were doing this for our main site, the customized URL would look like this: http://www.
google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap/ping?sitemap=http://%3A%2F%2Fwww.marketingtips.com Paste the customized URL into your browser’s address bar and press «Enter.» Then save that URL in your favorites or bookmark folder and simply click on that bookmark every time you update your web site or blog. And that’s it! Once you’ve got your web site submitted, you can check how often Google drops by to index your pages. You can even see which pages Google is visiting to make sure they’re all getting indexed.
This will help you drive more traffic to your site from Google. If you’ve ever experienced the frustration of waiting for Google to index your site, you’re going to love jumping ahead of your competitors and getting your listings updated right away with Google Sitemaps!
