by ZK on November 20, 2009
Welcome back! This Blog runs on Thesis . Get Thesis Theme Bonus worth $225. Download my FREE ebook "The 10 Point Site Optimization Checklist" and subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Invesp Consulting’s Blogrank recently released the Top 50 blogs by business categories. We are happy to announce that this web marketing blog came at number 21. Happy to be recognised alongwith big bloggers and internet marketers like Chrisbrogan, Shoemoney, Seth Godin, Mari Smith and Jim Kukral to name a few.
Blogrank uses over 20 different factors to rank the blogs in any category. Some of the factors include incoming links, compete, alexa ranking, technorati and popular social sites.
This blog was also in the top 10 for number of unique monthly visitors – 9,615, at number 33 for number of incoming links – 17,665, number of pages per visit at 2.6
We would like to thank YOU for being a regular visitor to this blog and making this happen. Without YOU this would have not been possible.
Check out Blogrank’s Top 50 Business Blogs .
by ZK on November 13, 2009
I hope this isn’t the way you think of the Internet: A TV With a Buy Button
Unfortunately most businesses make this very assumption. They assume that the best way to market their products and services online is the same way that we have done through traditional marketing channels like television.
They build marketing strategies using one method: Repetition
But this type of advertising isn’t a feasible strategy for small businesses using the Internet to sell products and services.
Here is why.
There’s No Money In It
My first attempt at starting a business (which ended badly) based its entire marketing strategy around print advertising in newspapers and direct mail. I burned through a lot of cash. Fast.
To my larger competitors, this was a great strategy but for a small start up with limited funds, there was no money in it. I simply couldn’t REPEAT my message enough times to my prospects to compete as a brand with these larger, more established businesses.
Chances are, you can’t either.
Repetition Is Avoided At All Cost
Traditional advertising strategy is rooted in the repetitive branding that takes place when you see a logo or hear a jingle hundreds if not thousands of times.
The Internet is used by billions of people each day to find information and entertainment. But once we have seen a message, we don’t want to see it again.
This doesn’t lend itself well to traditional advertising methods. Escaping your repetitive message is just a “back button” away.
There is another way.
Educate Your Market
I write and speak about using Content Marketing to establish yourself as an authority in your industry. Using valuable and consistent content creation coupled with the free tools available to us on the Internet, you can create marketing that your prospect will SEEK.
I teach that the techniques and strategy around creating consistent and valuable content and delivering it to your target market through social media channels, email and blogging technology.
You will use this content to create raving, loyal fans of your business. These fans will be your best customers. They will create more fans and they will refer business to you on a regular basis.
Not only is this strategy a viable one, it is the ONLY viable strategy available to us on the Internet.
You will find that by using this strategy your business will be leveraging the strengths of the Internet rather than operating under the illusion that the computer is nothing more than a TV with a buy button.
This is a guest post by Russ Henneberry. He is an Internet Marketing professional making his home in Saint Louis, MO. He writes and speaks about how tiny businesses can make mighty profits using a personal computer, a little imagination and a few well placed dollars. You can read his Content Marketing blog here. If you want to write a guest post contact us . Image credits elescher68 :
by ZK on November 12, 2008
If you have a new site or blog, initially you ll find that you don’t get a lot of traffic or your traffic is like a roller coaster ride high on some days and low on other days. Don’t get intimedated by this trend even the best of bloggers go through such a traffic cycle.
More traffic does not alway mean more sales, qualified traffic leads to better sales. You can convert low traffic by ensuring that your site is tuned for conversion.
1. Ensure you have a neat layout :
If you are a blog owner, ensure you have a neat blog theme depending on your niche I recommend you to use the Ultimate Blogging Theme if you have a blog about Internet Marketing, Blogging or Make Money Online. This is a tried and tested theme for successful conversions even if you are a new blogger or have less traffic.
2. Understand your Surfers :
What do people surf on your site, where do they come from , what are the keywords that drive people to your site from search engines, how can you leverage those keywords in your post to get better conversions and higher traffic for search engine, Improve banner placements and Call to action in your articles. You need to push the surfers to the right places which deliver the right traffic.
To drive conversions with low traffic you need to understand every move of your surfer on your blog or website.
3. Use Google Analytics
I use Google Analytics on my blogs, its the best free tool available online. Ensure you install and understand the analytics package, Google Analytics is free and a good place to start, understand which pages your visitors are entering on and make sure you funnel these visitors to your “sales page”.
If you have an article or sub-page which is attracting the visitors, ensure this page delivers the information they are looking for but also encourages them to visit other pages within your site.
4. Ensure you pre-sell well :
Getting the traffic to your page is the hard part, don’t let yourself down when they arrive, ensure you mirror the key selling points, benefits and features of the product you are recommending.
Ensure you have completely pre-sold the product before letting them leave your site, as an affiliate you have done your job, it is now down to the merchant to ensure they close the sale. Ensure you are promoting the products that convert the best, a poor converting merchant site can undo all your hard work. I recommend that you work only with well know affiliates like Market leverage, Niche More etc.
5. Split Test
Test everything possible on your site, the beauty about the internet is that you can test your copy and design. It takes just 5 minutes to install Google Optimizer, this allows you to send half (or less if you install more than 2 pages) of your traffic to one page and half to another.
You can try different header text, different call to actions or complete pages, why not create 3 more index pages which different approaches and see which ones convert best?
6. Use clear call to actions :
Your visitors are looking for guidance, ensure you clearly explain where they should go next. If they land on a product review, give them a number of different opportunities to visit the product’s landing page. If your surfers visit your index page, ensure you show them the path you wish them to take.
You don’t need deep pockets to succeed during a credit crunch simply innovation, determination and the right guidance.
If you like this post , you may want to subscribe to my Email or RSS feed.
by ZK on September 2, 2008
Have you even wondered what it’s like to be a full time Internet Marketer? Do you ever feel like walking up to a GURU and asking him how he became the big shot he is now? How did he earn his living prior to mining gold on the net? What is his real story?
Consider this…
*** When asked by his boss at a car dealership to choose between his current job or his Internet Marketing endeavours, this guy asked his boss to stick it. We know him as Mike Filsaime, the guy who now makes multi-million dollars every year on the net.
*** College couldn’t hold his interest. After flunking out, he labored in a video rental store while building his business. He owed over $100,000 in credit card debt at his lowest point, and his friends and relatives may have thought he would fall through the cracks like so many other dreamers.
Once he put all the pieces together… he became the cash generating machine that we know today. We know him as John Reese, the guy known for his feat of earning a million dollars in a day.
*** He walked out of a job interview at IBM because the interviewer didn’t like his tie. Now, he is a self-made millionaire and his ex-boss works for him. We know him as Matt Bacak, the guy who owns 3 multi million dollar companies.
Do you want to hear stories of 40 such Internet Marketing Gurus who left their past behind and carved their own paths to success on the Internet?
In his disarmingly illuminating style, Joel Comm profiles these individuals in his book Click Here to Order: Stories of the World’s Most Successful Internet Marketing Entrepreneurs”
With the same intensity that produced his New York Times Best Selling book “The Adsense Code”, Joel dissects the paths that dozens took to jump on the internet marketer’s bandwagon.
While Joel is no John Grisham (yet), his book reads like one of Grisham’s novels; Joel’s subject matter is just so darn fascinating.
If you’re one of the guys or ladies mentioned in the book, you may wish that Joel had kept his mouth shut.
*** I DON’T MAKE A PENNY OFF THIS ***
That’s right. I don’t earn a single penny if you buy just this book. I just think you should read it… it’s a must-read for anyone in Internet Marketing and even those who want to explore the online business world.
It will teach you tons of stuff, it will take you behind the scenes where you can observe the Internet millionaire’s mindset, it will motivate you to become one of them.
This is a story of Internet Marketers by a well known Internet Marketer. It is a story that you can relate to. It is a story that will drive you. It could very well be your own story.
