Internet Marketing Stategies For Sucess

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant

I feel lucky to be alive and on the cutting edge of what is fast becoming The Age of Blogging... and you should feel the same way.

And if, by some chance, you don't know what a blog is and how it works for your benefit, you are lucky again; I'm going to reveal the true importance of blogs and some key observations on how to derive maximum benefit from them.

Why blogging is sweeping the 'net and the globe.

Consider this.

The history of machine publishing begins in 1454 with the preparation of what became known as the Gutenberg Bible. It took over a year before finished copies were available. This was thought to be -- and was -- a great advance; hitherto books had to be copied by hand, a process that resulted in many errors, of omission and commission.

Printing the Gutenburg Bible was a laborious process; as a result today just 21 copies are known.

Over the centuries publishing developed.

Books were easier to print... there were many more publishers to print them (thereby increasing the number of opinions and points of view available).... and in due course publishing advanced to where books could be universally distributed and available.

But all this, important as it was, was as nothing compared to the most signal advance since Gutenburg himself.

This is the blog.

A blog is the publishing marvel which enables any person anywhere to post and distribute any message they want any time they want. It expunges the middle man, called the publisher, from the publishing equation and enables the new publishers -- you! -- to set their own agenda and make sure that their message is written just so... and distributed worldwide within minutes.

The implications of this development are staggering. Until just the other day (in historical terms), to get your message out to the world, you either had to persuade a publisher or his designated representative (an editor) to publish your article... or you had to establish your own publication with all the expense and uncertainty that entailed.

These days the process is radically different.

Subscribe to a blogging service. Write your message. Update your message as necessary and desirable, even daily.

And, always and forever, keep building your subscriber lists so that more and more people see what you have written.

No longer must writers cringe like Uriah Heap before publishers; you, not they, control your content and can shape and refine it to the satisfaction of a single individual -- you! This has never happened before in the history of mankind and is an event of the highest significance for our species as a whole and the crucial availability and distribution of information.

So, who's blogging?

Powerful institutions are not always known for their ability to move quickly, understanding change and working at once to use such change to their advantage. But the advent of the blog has caused many to leap into this brave new world. One of many examples is Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts, a prince of the Church, beloved of the Pontiff.

O'Malley has become one of his Church's "go to" guys in the pedophile priest scandal and its related sexual issues. Like other Church leaders, I suspect O'Malley has been grievously unhappy about the constant drumbeat of terrible press his beloved church has attracted. You can imagine his eminence's eyes popping as he learned about the blog and grasped its implications. He probably jigged about his office...

O'Malley no longer needs to submit to the impertinent, probing questions of pesky reporters and their insistent editors. Instead, he can shape and nuance his message just the way he wants it, to the very last comma. This is an unadulterated benefit for O'Malley... though not necessarily for truth since those pesky reporters authority figures do not like... are the means of digging, digging and digging some more; now they would be, to a significant degree, cut out of the process. The O'Malley's of the world can breathe easier.

Recently (June, 2011), O'Malley used his blog to deal with a nasty issue that had parishioners of every hue very angry indeed. A liberal priest (no, not a tautology) had announced a "liturgy to commemorate Boston Pride 2011," an annual celebration of the city's gay, lesbian, and transgendered community. Conservative Catholics were enraged, many of them blogging their anger.

This, then, had the result of haviing the mass "postponed" (church-speak for "it won't happen until hell freezes over, if then"). This, of course, had the predictable result of angering the liberals... and causing their blogs to erupt in a frenzy of vituperation.

What's a poor prince to do?

In years past, his eminence would have been forced by the hostilities of his brethren to go before the media and submit to questioning. That is not a thing princes like to do; in fact they abhor this profoundly irritating and degrading event of lese majeste'.

Now they blog... now no one ever sees them sweat... because they no longer sweat at all!

O'Malley, thanks to his growing proficiency as a frequent blogger, dealt with this more than tempest-in-a-tea-cup when HE wanted, how HE wanted... his blog carefully nuanced to his liking. In due course, working behind the scenes, with the message completely his without having to bother with reporters, the matter was solved.... at least this time.

Not as smart: the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.

Whereas Cardinal O'Mallley got the point about blogs and their utility, the Archbishop of Canterbury, senior cleric in the Church of England, did not. In the most recent (June, 2011) issue of the "New Statesman" magazine, his grace lashes out at the Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition, which came to power 13 months ago. Williams was appointed in 2002 by Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Willams, way behind the technology curve, missed a grand opportunity not merely to get his message out to a worldwide audience far larger than the readership of a single magazine, but to grow his list (something no serious blogger can overlook).

He opted for the traditional paper method... and that instantly limited the effectiveness of what he had to say. Had he, instead, set up a blog and posted his message there... his readership would have exploded and he would have added a host of new readers to his blog... where he could have worked early and late to convert them to his often irritating point of view.

His grace will learn, however; he really has no choice. No "leader" of any kind does. For all, for each, it's "blog or atrophy and die." The same applies to you... which is why you must blog today, tomorrow, forever, or create your own irrelevance and obsolescence. a state of affairs you would really not relish.

About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Herman Hartman http://HomeOfficeInternational.com. Check out Traffic Blog Empire -> http://www.HomeOfficeInternational.com/?rd=dl2HM2t2

Today I am tackling one of the BIGGEST problems faced by new online marketers. The problem is this, the inability to market effectively. This causes so many marketers incredible frustration! The result, they throw up their hands in despair and quit long before they see any results.

This is what I hear from people day after day in my role as an online Home Business Consultant. "I am posting, and promoting but not getting any leads or sales! Help me!" If this is you, keep reading, I am going to tell you what you need to know about marketing.

It is true that you can be promoting every day but if you are making one or all of the 5 common mistakes I've outlined here, you won't get the results you want. Take note, this is important stuff if you are really serious about making money online.

1. The first mistake made by new online marketers is this:

Not knowing WHAT to market.

I talk to people daily, nice people who want to sell something online and earn some extra money. They sign up or this and for that, they get Affiliate Memberships all over the web hoping to get better results by being involved in everything they can get their hands on. There intentions are good, they are motivated but they stumble right off the bat by not knowing what to market.

Here's a quick guide for you on WHAT to Market: -Pick products to market that are DIGITAL. Digital products are those that can be bought and sold instantly online. You get your commission sooner, the buyer gets their product instantly! It's no-fuss no-muss and the best way to start your web marketing experience and see some results. -In most cases there is no cost to be a product Reseller or Affiliate - hurray! -Pick Reseller products from a reputable long-standing company that specializes in helping vendors connect with affiliates to sell products online -Pick products or affiliate programs that provide advertising copy, banners, and sales aids along with referral links so you can easily promote the products -Pick products that catch YOUR EYE! Newest releases, products with catchy names, trendy topics, those with positive buyer feedback, and return guarantees are best! -Look for Joint Venture releases so you can be one of the first to promote the products when first released for sale Finally, FOCUS! Keep your eye on the prize - profits - don't spread yourself too thin. Narrow your efforts to a few products and put 100% effort into your campaign.

2. The second most common mistake made by new online marketers is this:

Not knowing HOW to market.

I am always surprised at the answer people give me when I ask how they are marketing online. They look at me perhaps thinking what a ridiculous question that is! They tell me they are sending out their website address. When I look at their website I see a site that is oh so boring! It reads like a brochure with company history, and a few pages of fluffy copy. Yes, of course it is important to promote your website address BUT if you wish to capture leads you must do this - get the prospects contact information!

Getting the contact information from a prospect is often very difficult to do with a standard corporate site. The answer to this problem is to create what are called LANDING pages, or Squeeze pages. These are single page sites that have one purpose and one purpose only - get you a LEAD - and better yet lead to a sale! Some companies provide Landing Pages for you when you become a Reseller for their products. Landing pages help you build your marketing list. Every person may not be a buyer today, but on your mailing list they may enjoy future products you offer. Offering an option to join your mailing directly on your Landing Page gives people 100% control over opting in to your mailing list or not. You build your list while ensuring that people have voluntarily joined your mailing list.

Here's a quick guide to creating responsive landing pages:

-They should be FAST Loading! Skip any animation, video or annoying distraction that just makes people click OFF! -Use images that are colorful, directive, and related to the theme of your product -Your copy MUST be short, punchy, laden with benefits - speak directly to the reader -Your copy should tell readers what they get if they ACT now! Limit the offer, even better! -Capture the contact information of the reader so you can deliver what they asked for -The more goodies, freebies, offers, and cool stuff you can give people the BETTER the response! -Always include an option for people to join your mailing list and give them GREAT reasons to want to do so!

Unlike a website, a landing page should be EXCITING, BENEFIT-LADEN and accomplish this:

Look reader! You get this! Do this to get it! Do it NOW and also get this BONUS!

3. Here is the third most common mistake I see new marketers making:

Not KNOWING WHERE to Market

Marketing is NOT simple but if you know what you are doing it can be. The key is to find the sites, the niches where you can target your market. Market to the right people instead of the masses with solid products and you will get instantly better results.

Here's a quick guide to knowing WHERE to market:

-Do a Google search to find sites related to what you are promoting, then target those sites for your marketing campaigns -Use every available niche market you can find and post there, this includes Forums, Classified Ad Sites, Banner Exchanges, Twitter and Social Networking and Bookmarking sites. -Do not discount FREE and low cost advertising options like Safelists, and Traffic Exchanges. These are excellent ways to target a specific market -You do NOT have to spend ridiculous amounts of money on advertising. Find the sites where your target market exists, then place low cost ads including safelist posts, banners, and classified ads. Don't even think about buying pay-per-click ads at sites like Google unless you have deep pockets and know what you are doing. -Learn what backlinks are and why they are SO VERY important to generating traffic and achieving better search engine indexing for your site, products or business. -If any of the terms above are foreign to you, you have some homework to do, I have included some resources below.

4. Are you ready for the fourth and perhaps most fatal mistake made by new online marketers?

Not knowing how to TRACK your promotional campaigns

If you are going to spend time and money to promote a product or service you MUST, you absolutely MUST know where you are getting your results. Ad Tracking is a 100% requirement! If you are not tracking your ads, and the clicks you get and from where, you are promoting blindly. What happens when you don't watch what you are doing? You can fall in a hole! Online this can be a hole where you fall in and throw your money into wasted ad campaigns. I've seen more people allow paid advertising to eat up their entire budget than I want to think about. Smart marketers that get results know exactly the ad campaigns that get results, and the sources they came from.

Get an Ad Tracker Tool. Some advertising sites provide you with data on number of clicks to your ads, or impressions. This is important, just be sure you understand what those terms mean. A click is usually far more powerful for you then a "view". You want ACTIVE respondents, real people actually clicking on your ad to see it. This is much different than an "exposure" or a "view" with the latter being considered passive and very weak marketing, often provided free. For best results you will ALWAYS get better results from paid advertising than from free advertising but don't discount free promotion, it is a good way to earn advertising credits if you have a small advertising budget. If you buy advertising be SURE you get some kind of way to validate the promotion, the click rate, and actual IP addresses of unique respondents to ensure the hits are legitimate and not computer generated. Make sure your respondents will be geographically specific too, from countries that you wish to target. For example, Canada or the USA. If you have your own domain you are fortunate, as you can benefit from an Ad Tracking tool that tracks all your promotional activities and traced to your website domain address.

5. The fifth common mistake I see online marketers making is very straight-forward.

Not being realistic or giving it enough consistent time and effort to see results.

I know we live in an instant gratification world but if you are new to online marketing you will need to be more realistic. Promotion takes a lot of CONSISTENT effort using a number of strategies at a number or web sites. By tracking your ads you can see instantly where your efforts are being productive. Be prepared to try various copy, be cognizant that some products will sell better than others, some advertising resources will deliver better than others. Vary your offers, change up your products as needed, update landing pages, post to a number of sites and track the results. Take some time to learn about some of the terms used in this article. Be honest with yourself about what you are doing. Are you serious about earning money online or are you doing this as a hobby? Your level of hunger and ambition to succeed will be your motivator. The good news is that once you have built your mailing list, and found niche sites and advertising resources that work, your job to promote gets easier but NEVER goes away.

Sandi Hunter is the Director of Website Development at Worldprofit Inc., a company specializing in hosting, online tools, training, ad tracking, and marketing resources for small and home business. Established modestly in 1994 off a kitchen table, today Worldprofit is known as the Home Business Experts and the number one resource for all things related to home business. Republished with author's permission by Herman Hartman http://HomeOfficeInternational.com.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Today , April 19, 2011, is a special day for the three members of the Worldprofit blog writing team. Today we completed writing 200 business blog articles, a project which began in June, 2010. The response to these articles has been nothing short of spectacular, so we decided to discuss the reasons why this has occurred and what it means  for you and your business blog.

1) Be clear on the objective.

We are focusing this article on blogs created by businesses. Their objective is simple: make money. No business blog should ever be created which has some supposedly "better" purpose. It's easy to forget this purpose; it doesn't take much to unfocus a blog. That's why we suggest posting this message prominently in your office: "It's the money, silly." A variation of this message helped Billl Clinton (a notoriously diffuse individual) from going off  theme and was influential in putting him in the Oval Office. This message will also work for you.

2) Designate a good writer to produce your blog's content.

Business blog copy must be clean, clear, accurate. That means designating a writer with business writing experience. An experienced copywriter is perfect. They know how to write copy that sells... which is just the copy you need.

3) If you cannot find a copywriter,  become that copywriter yourself.

Successful copy is based on just 4 important words:

YOU GET BENEFIT NOW.

The "you" is your reader, the person you need your blog copy to motivate to contact you.

"get" is there to remind you that copy is always about what the reader (your past, present and future customer) gets from you.

"benefit" is the specific thing they get from each article you publish.

"now" is when you want the reader to respond, reminding yourself that there must always be one or more offers in each blog issue, such offers being intended to stimulate the immediate reader response which must always be your objective.

4) Master search engines.

Writing business blogs means finding and using a never ending supply of data, information, research findings, quotations of note, etc. Blogs eat up lots and lots of information.

This means becoming expert at finding pertinent data from search engines. Surprisingly we discovered that many business blog writers do not use and therefore do now know how to ensure best results from search engines.  That problem must be recognized and overcome ASAP.

Successful business writers know how to write articles with data "holes" in them, "holes" they can quickly fill by accessing search engines... without ever leaving the computer. Given the fact that not so many years ago, business writers had to use specialized business libraries, a cumbersome process at best, search engines have made all the difference in getting important data quickly and easily, all at your fingertips.

5) Always have a lead article, the focus of each individual issue.

We have found in practice that each blog issue should be anchored by a major article. The length we recommend is 1,500 words.

This article should be divided into two distinct parts; first, the actual content itself. Second, pertinent follow-up details which advise your reader what is available, its benefits, and how to get it. These follow-up details are crucial and must follow each article. (See below for an example.)

How long does it take for such an article to be researched, written, edited, etc.? Obviously that depends on the amount of research you must do, how quickly you find it, your own skills and speed as a writer, etc. However, we have found that this "anchor" article takes on average 4-8 hours.

6) Always have a "new uses" feature.

You've all heard the old adage, "sell the sizzle, not the steak". That's why you need a "new uses" feature. Select any of your products and services; then provide at least one detailed blog article on how to get the great results from its use. Remember, people buy products too achieve results; the more practical uses you detail, the more sales you make.

7) Always include customer testimonials, particularly testimonials that provide details on what individual customers did and their positive results.

Customer testimonials work. Thus, make sure you always include one or more in each blog issue. And always make a point in each blog of asking your customers to provide more.

8) Have a "new product" feature... and, as above, ensure the copy focuses on what it does, that "sizzle" again.

Remember, blog copy is about making money by generating reader inquiries and sales. Your readers are glad to read about new products to the extent that the copy introducing them focuses on what the customer gets.

9) Set and keep a fixed blog publishing schedule.

Your readers should expect to see your blog, like clock work, on a published schedule. They should be trained to look forward to it and respond. But if your publishing schedule is erratic, unpredictable, then your reputation will not be enhanced and your sales will definitely suffer. Ouch!

Once you've set the schedule, treat it religiously.

10) Always include a very special offer in every issue.

Make it a truly spectacular offer... one available to blog readers only.

Position this offer prominently. It is, after all, eye-popping.

Last words.

Blogs in general and business blogs in particular are here to stay. Businesses without them are businesses that suffer, having thereby circumscribed sales and growth. Make sure that isn't you.

One last piece of advice: Make your blog fun read and ALWAYS easy to respond to. If you follow these instructions, your blog will steadily grow in importance as a readily available source of customers and profits. As we can tell you from personal experience, what blogs deliver will truly delight, excite, and enthuse you. A steady stream of new customers and enhanced profits tend to do that.... Get started today and see for yourself.

About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by Herman Hartman HomeOfficeInternational.com. Check out AutoBlog Syndicate -> Click Here Now!