The Marketers Edge

I’ve had a couple of emails last week that asked me for information on list building. I posted several articles on list building a while ago and even though list building is a constant thing that we internet marketers do, there is always something new to learn.

There are many experienced list builders on the internet. It is an indispensable tool to all marketers. I have several mentors that I still continue to learn from.

Mike Filsaime was one of the first list builders that I learned from, his viral techniques helped me understand the power of giving free products away in exchange for an email address and then “allowing” your customers to help you create a huge list through the power of the viral effect.

Not knowing the many techniques associated with list building, I neglected it for almost 2 years when I first started marketing on the internet. Rationalizing that once I had sold my product to this person I could always go back to sell them another and another. That is the general idea behind building a responsive list.

Being new to internet marketing and list building I did not build a relationship with all my customers. In turn my customers did not know who I was after the first sales and were not open to receive offers from me. Big mistake!

So I learned from that mistake and recommend that if you plan to make a living on the internet as a marketer you need to nurture a relationship with your customers. You need to stay in touch with them and you need to find out what they want and market whatever that is to them.

Provide value for your customers, market only products that you use or have tested and are willing to stand behind and they will be responsive to your offers.

If you are new to list building and do not know an autoresponder from a WYSIWYG editor here is a Link to a video for creating your first Autoresponder:

http://www.ebooksinstantly.com/List/tutorial/FlashCreateAList/

Till the next time,

Stay focused . . . .

How another web 2.0 website is making a show in the search engine game

Here we go again!

I received a flood of emails in the last few days touting this new traffic generating source. Curious as any other marketer looking for new avenues to generate traffic I am off on another adventure.

This new wonder is hubpages.com and it is a community of content producers that shares traffic and revenue through a quality index that promotes the best content.

This is another Web 2.0 site that freely hosts a community of content producers
much like Squiddo . And just like squiddo it shares revenues with the content creators. The idea is not new and it is appealing to the writers that are judged by the community for the quality of the content they generate.

The website is organized in tag based hubs that indexes the content by a “hub score” that is earned by the author of the content based on how the community judges the quality of
the content.

The content producer is encouraged to monetize his “content” with Adsense ads, advertisements from Amazon or eBay if you are an affiliate. They also provide lead generation tools that you can incorporate in your web pages. They also have a HubPages Royalty Program.

A warning here: if you do not want to share the revenue from your Google Adsense you should not choose to monetize your content that way, because HubPages wants 40% of that revenue.

The interesting thing is that the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN are starting to rank some hubpages for very competitive search terms.

Knowing that the search engines are taking into consideration the traffic that is generated by the hub and that they are allowing all links in your content to external websites (your websites) as back links . It makes great sense to capitalize on the traffic that you don’t have to generate to benefit from search engine placement for articles that you write in your hubpages. Instantly your blog has a PR6 rating.

Creating Your First HubPage

The creation of your new account and the posting into your hubpage seems simple enough. They provide many “non-techie tools” that allow the inclusion of photos, audio and video from sources like YouTube, Google Video and others.

Membership of HubPages is constantly growing as people are discovering the community through word of mouth and search engine results.

Using HubPages.com to Improve SEO

Take a look at HubPages, if you have a blog, hubpages are very be similar.
You can lurk and see what the community is writing about and see if there is a place
there for your specialty. I found several internet marketers there and they have been
welcomed by the community.

Since this is another social networking site I can only recommend it with caution. I have
my reservations about this site just as I do about MySpace and Squiddo. The object is to create content of value for the community and grow your internet business at the same time. Many people become involved with the community and neglect their businesses.

You make the call.

Web 2.0 Evolving Internet Marketing

Being away from The Marketers Edge has given me an opportunity to just lurk for a while and observe how internet marketing is transforming itself. At the expense of losing alexa rankings and traffic (which, by the way, was an expensive lesson to learn) I’ve found that many marketers and online businesses have changed the way they are doing business online.

Many marketers and online businesses used to devote countless hours and money at the science of Search Engine Optimization. It seems Google is now dictating to everyone (who equates search engine rankings up there with traffic generation) how the of content of your website will influence your search engine rankings.

We always knew that original quality content was important to the life of your internet business, but we never expected that it would be a requirement for our sites to contain so much original content.

So, these days you can do a search on any subject and find that blogs are ranking very high in the search results. The SEO experts are now recognizing that constant new content is the reason why search engines are returning such findings. Bill Gates in his infinite wisdom told us that “content will be king one day” over 10 years ago.

Many marketer and businesses alike have discovered the benefits of publishing a blog that adds value to its customer base and community. If you have a question, or have an answer there is a blog that will fill that need. If you have a common problem or you have a solution many netizens are looking for help online instead of the traditional friend and family network.

If you are a beginner, there are many resources now where you can find out all that you need to know to create your own blog. Websites like blogger.com can help you create your blog in a few minutes. If you are a more advanced Wordpress may be the answer for you.

Adsense ads, RSS feeds and Widgets populate the majority of blogs from most complex to the simplest. The blogosphere has spawned a thriving internet industry and has invaded social networking sites.

If you listen to experts like Joel Comm they will tell you that everyone who has something to say has a blog as his favorite platform.

By trying and experimenting you can find out if a bloging is for you. Bloging has become an indispensable tool for communicating with the internet world. I still have my reservations about social networking sites, but that does not mean they can not help in my marketing endeavors.

Stay focused.

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Internet Marketing Never Forgets

Hi Everyone

It seems I have been on vacation for ever. It was great and now its time to get back to work.
Europe and South America were great and it was wonderful to see how the other half lives. It has given me a greater perspective on what it is to be an American and how the world feels about us.

Now the time for reminiscing is over and the plans for the next vacation are in the back burner while I share with my friends the things I have learned and continue to learn in my Internet Marketing endeavors.

I just finished reading a post from Eric Holmlund’s blog about Twitter.com :What are you Doing?

It is amazing to see the dialog involved when people speak about their social pages. Many of Eric’s readers are marketing aficionados and opinions on the subject are heated.

I have considered many times getting a MySpace page for myself not with any interest in marketing through it, but just simply to have visibility.

Well, it is one of the things on my to do list for this week. I continue to read how several well known marketers are enjoying the benefits of networking with people that they would have never come in contact with in the business of Internet Marketing if it was not because of their MySpace pages. Enough said about MySpace.

Enjoying the energy at Stonehenge

Geri and me enjoying the sites in London.
I will post some photos through the coming weeks of my adventures abroad.

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Inexpensive Ways Generate Website Traffic

Welcome back to my blog, It great to see you again. Please visit often.
Traffic generation is always present in the mind of the entrepreneur. This is one of the hardest things to accomplish if you are just getting started. Sure you can spend money with Adsense and PPC and search engine optimization. If you are like many, these are not viable options. You can lose large amounts of money fast with these vehicles if you don’t have the proper knowledge and experience.
It is a known fact that you need traffic to generate an income. You need to attract consistent website traffic day and night. When you fail to generate traffic you don’t stand a chance of generating an income. There are many different tried and true techniques of generating targeted traffic and many sites who fail to get results and fade into obscurity. Many knowledgeable insiders insist that you must invest a considerable amount of money to generate the necessary traffic to make a website profitable.
It is TRUE, you do need to invest in order to generate traffic, the good news is that you don’t need a lot of money to generate targeted traffic for your website.

You don’t need to wonder how large sites drive traffic to their site. They have a marketing plan. You need to create a strategy that will drive your advertising campaign. This plan needs to incorporate different forms of promotions and marketing techniques that will start placing your website in front of prospective buyers.
Many small entrepreneurs don’t have the resources that the Gurus have to generate traffic. That does not mean that you can not emulate their techniques and reap similar results. We will explore several low cost techniques that can be implemented for very little money that will start generating the targeted traffic that you need. After all we do not want to invest on expensive methods that may give you similar returns as the low cost alternatives.
These strategies are not all inclusive. There are many other that can also be implemented. Traffic to your website will start to trickle in and before you know it your stats will show the effectiveness of these techniques. Once the prospective customer visits your website you will need to capture and convert him into a client, and that’s a subject for another time.

Write and Submit Articles

Demonstrate your knowledge in the relevant articles that you write. Make your articles available to article sites, ezines and blogs by submitting and syndicating them for mass publication, Do Not forget to brand your articles! EzineArticles.com is a great site for submitting your articles.

Create a Newsletter or Blog

You may think this a lot of work. Well it is, but its not hard work. You have already created articles for submission to mass publication sites. You can use these articles also there are many writers and sites that provide free articles that you can use as long as they are given credit.

Join Forums and communities in your Niche Markets

Make knowledgeable contributions in forums that are frequented by potential clients looking for your expertise. The Warrior forum is where many entrepreneurs go their starts. I still see many of the Gurus visit the forums and post answers to help new aspiring marketers. Post relevant questions and post opinions and suggestions that will help other forum members. Always include subtle keyword links in your signature URL.

Exchange Links

Search engines love inbound and outbound links to other relevant sites. Many webmaster will exchange links to generate new traffic to their sites. Leave your URL and signature on sites that allow link submissions. Sign guess books and send testimonial to related sites in your niche endorsing their site. When they publish your testimonial a link to your website will be included.

Site Optimization

You must list your site in all major search engines. Your site needs to be optimized for the appropriate keywords and phrases. Optimizing your site along with linking will increase you site rankings.

Site Content

Your creative content needs to be interactive in many ways. Your site needs to be updated regularly with new articles, resources, promotions, polls, quizzes and other relevant content. Visitors will return to see the results of you latest promotions. Give away Free eBooks and audio as incentives for visitor to subscribe to your newsletter. Give your visitors many reasons to return.

Brand Recognition

Visitors remember memorable promotions, sites and articles. Start branding everything from your emails to your Blog. Include a short compelling and irresistible benefit packed blurb under your signature along with your URL. Above all make it Memorable.
This is a short list of ways to generate traffic to your website. Many of these methods I used regularly with great success. After you start generating traffic and an income from your new found traffic you can start exploring other methods that require a monetary investment.
Enjoy the dog days of summer wherever you call home.

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Building Your Business with an Opt-in List

There are no secrets in building a targeted opt-in list. There are many fallacies and misconceptions that will need to be cleared before one indulges into building an opt-in list. These misconceptions create many obstacles for the startup business to profit initially.

Everyone uses email

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing methods today. Simply because everyone has an email address. It seems that a person without an email address is a person without an online home, which is a must have if you plan to do business on the internet.

Email marketing campaigns can often be intrusive

The method to get around this small problem is to get permission to send an email. The opt-in method is popular and it allows the receiver the opportunity to opt-out at anytime.

Be selective about your target market

The key to this predicament is to have a very discerning eye on who to email and who to not email. Better look for some metrics on how to know which group of people would give you high ROI or return on investment.

The Real Deal with Building Opt-in List

After clearing the fog regarding some of the email marketing myths, here’s how one can benefit from employing the power of email marketing campaigns to build an opt-in list.

However, building an opt-in list is not a piece of cake particularly for the uninitiated. Here is a list of tips on how to succeed in this kind of marketing endeavor.

1. Strategic Collection of Data

Know which information from your audiences will help you in lowering expenses and/or make sales flourish. Devise a tactic to make people voluntarily provide you with the information necessary to create higher conversions.

Overload of data is not good. Ask only for their full name and email addresses in the opt-in process. Make sure that the profiles that you gather are updated to aid in improving the relevance, timeliness and satisfaction from each mailing you make.

2. Good Implementation

Old adage says it all - “action speaks louder than words”. This easily translates to the difficulty one has to undergo during the execution of his or her email marketing efforts. It’s a good thing that various methods, often low-cost, abound to help and facilitate the building up of one’s opt-in database.

Tracking your email marketing results can pose great hardships, too. Technology and relevant sources should be employed in making this aspect of your marketing more manageable. You should record the source of you high traffic of opt-ins, this will help you identify and target the source in future campaigns.

The following are the most widely used methods to leverage your efforts without overspending:

1. Make use of your website

Your website is an excellent tool for data collection and providing you with relevant information regarding your email offers. Use forms that solicit your visitor’s email address and consent.

2. Make use of print ads, brochures, TV, radio and direct mail.

These are the most popular ways of marketing to lead traffic to your site. You will want to ask for signups for mailing list services. Make sure your website is more visible through these media. Offering a free electronic newsletters, ezine and / or rewards program can be a good incentive to add clients to your mailing list.

3. Maximize your sales effort.

Customer service is a great opportunity to add subscribers to your list. Back end sales is one of the techniques that not only increases your bottom line but also can move your one-time customer into the valued repeat sales customer that will return time and time again to receive special offers and programs. Techniques like offering account updates and special programs through email can easily land you those lists of valuable visitors.

4. Don’t make your point of sale pointless.

If you have a mortar and brick business you need to include forms for signing up to your mailing list near your cash registers and other high-traffic and highly visible spots. This method is an excellent way for your business to collect email addresses. Notification of upcoming sales through their email addresses can coax them to supply you with the information you need.

5. Conferences or trade shows can work, too.

Giveaway offers or entries on sweepstakes are great for opt-in to volunteer their contact details.

These tactics should be applied with adequate caution and should focus on earning the trust of your opt-in list instead of simply collecting data for your sole benefit. Always make sure that the forms that you use and other methods that you employ will not be an inconvenience for your customer. You want to make the process simple and easy to accomplish and beneficial to you customer.

This information is basic to build an opt-in list; we are going to look at some tools to simplify this endeavor.

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