Archive for the ‘Advertising’ Category
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007
When deciding on what your newsletter will be about, it’s important to hone in on a niche topic or area of expertise. Picking a niche will help to ensure that subscribers are getting the information and resources they are looking for about a particular topic.It allows you to focus on one niche area rather than trying to cover an entire area.
An opt-in mailing list is a mailing list that a person subscribes to and has to verify that they did indeed subscribe. An opt-in mailing list is preferable because it cuts down on the possibility of spam in that the subscriber asked to get your newsletters.
Before beginning the niche newsletter, do some research and find out how many, if any, other newsletters there are out there that focus on your desired niche. Generally speaking, the fewer the better. Having fewer newsletters already on your topic means that when someone is searching for said topic, they will find you much easier. Having a niche area that’s rather obscure will mean it might be slower building your opt-in mailing list, but at the same time, you might gain more simply because there aren’t many newsletters on your chosen topic.
When making your website on your niche, use a lot of keywords and use them often. You might consider archiving your newsletter on the site to help draw in readers. The keywords will help to generate more traffic and thereby boost your mailing list subscribers. If your niche happens to deal with any brand names, use those brand names often through your site and in your newsletter. The key is to not only drive traffic to your site and gain subscribers but to make sales.
If your desired niche for your newsletter is special needs kids, consider focusing in on that idea. Rather than trying to cover all things about special needs kids, think about a tighter niche such as autism. Special needs kids with autism is still a big area, so focus even tighter. You might consider a niche about an autism diet for special needs kids, the Gluten Free Casein Free Diet, or GFCF Diet.
So instead of publishing on a wide topic area of autism in special needs kids, your niche topic would be about the GCFC autism diet. This would mean that readers who are not interested in information and resources about the GCFC autism diet wouldn’t subscribe to your opt-in mailing list, but those readers who are wanting resources would sign up to your mailing list. You might tighten the niche even more by offering only particular products for sale that deal with this topic.
Building an opt-in niche mailing list will result in having subscribers who want only what you are offering, thereby increasing the number of subscribers and sales.
Posted in Articles, Self Promotion, Publicity, Working the Web, Advertising | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007
You’ve built the ultimate website. The layout looks fantastic, it’s easy to navigate, and you’ve got a nice selection of content for your readers to enjoy. You’ve promoted your site and the hits have been coming in, but suddenly there’s a huge drop in your hits.What’s going on and how do you keep traffic returning to your website?
First of all, to keep visitors returning to your website, you have to give them something to return to. Promotion and marketing is great, but if you don’t give a reader a reason to return, why are they going to return? Studies show that repeat customers make you a profit as much, if not more so, than first time visitors.
Following are some tips and ideas that can keep traffic returning to your site and increase profits from your affiliate marketing and sales from your site.
Keep fresh and updated content on your website. New articles are a must to a content site. Visitors who return to your site want to see new content added for them to read. A good rule of thumb is to add one to four articles a week, perhaps more so, depending on the size and topic of your site.
You can write articles yourself or you can hire someone to write for you to your specifications. You can also look at article directories online and find free articles that pertain to your website. Often people will provide free articles in exchange for links back to their site, something that benefits both you and the author of the articles.
Offer a free download to your readers. Offering free downloadable ebooks is another way to keep traffic coming back to your site. Change the ebook each week that you are giving away so that the customer has something new to download. You can also offer free patterns if you have a craft or sewing site, free music samples if you have a music site, etc. The point is to offer something new on a regular basis.
Run a contest. People love to win things! Offering a contest on your site is a sure way to increase traffic and have visitors coming back. Offering a new contest on a regular basis will improve even on this idea. You can give away books, DVDs, CDs, ebooks, designer jewelry you created, handcrafted baby items, beauty samples, gift baskets, run writing contests, etc. Keeping a new contest going will ensure more repeat web traffic.
Offer special discounts and/or coupons on items. People love sales and bargains! Offering a regular sale or discount on something that you sell on your site can help with repeat web business. Changing the sales weekly or monthly will give readers something new to look for on your site, so they will visit to see what you are offering.Saving money is something that just about everyone wants to do, so if you offer something at a nice savings to the customer on a regular basis, chances are they will return to see what you have available.
Have a blog and a newsletter. Keep in touch on a personal level with your readers by means of a blog and a newsletter. Blogs have become very popular, and they are much more personal in nature. Newsletters offer the opportunity to tell customers what’s new on the site, what areas you have updated, specials you have going, etc. Blogs and newsletters are great business tools in that they offer direct communication with your readers and customers, thereby bringing in repeat traffic. You can add links in your blog to your latest articles or contests. Offering a gift when they sign up for your newsletter helps to gain subscribers.
Host a forum or chat. Allow your customers a place to talk to you or to others interested in your site. Getting on a personal level with your readers shows the readers that you are real and are interested in their thoughts about your products or services. It also helps to bring them back to you site for repeat business.
Bringing repeat traffic back to your website isn’t hard to do, but it does require that you keep your site updated and that you communicate with your readers. Keeping fresh content up in the form of articles and news and giving the reader something new to look forward to will not only bring back customers to your website, it will add more profit in your pocket.
Posted in Articles, Self Promotion, Publicity, Working the Web, Advertising | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007
You’ve created some wonderful work. You want it to be seen and noticed. You want people to buy your creation. You want publicity. After all, how can you make money if what you have created to sell is never seen by the general public?That’s where promoting and marketing yourself comes in.
Regardless of what you have created, the principle is the same. In order to sell, to be seen and noticed, you must promote and market your creation. It can be a book you wrote, handcrafted designer dolls, fabulous paintings, or handcrafted jewelry.
If you are someone that simply creates things for the fun of it, for a hobby, and you don’t do it to make a living, then there is of course no need to worry about promoting or marketing anything. But for the rest that create in order to sell and earn a living, marketing and publicity is a necessity. No one will purchase or order something that they don’t even know exists.
The number one rule of promoting is shameless self promoting. If you don’t promote yourself, no one will! Toot your own horn! Tell others about your creation, your site, your book, your articles, your crafts, etc. Whatever it is that you have created that you are wanting to sell or promote, tell about it! Don’t sit back and expect someone else to market you if you will not market yourself. Self promotion will get you everywhere, but sitting back and not telling about what you are offering won’t make sales.
Make a website. A website is paramount today for just about any business related venture. Have clear photos of your what you are wishing to sell or market, and give very accurate descriptions of items. If you are promoting a book, offer a sample chapter for free. Offering the book in a downloadable ebook format can also increase sales.
Have a newsletter. This offers you the chance to tell your readers what you have new, about sales and specials, or to alert subscribers about updates to your site. A newsletter is one of the best publicity and marketing tools you have, because it allows you to communicate directly with all of your readers.
If you are in an area that had art fairs and craft fairs, reserve a spot to sell your wares. If you have written a book and want to promote it, ask local bookstores about setting up a table in their store to sell books and sign them. Offer a free book to every 100th person to want a book or something similar. Face to face sales have an advantage to internet sales in that it’s more personal. Internet sales have an advantage in that you can reach so many more people online.
If it’s feasible offer samples of your products. Giving away free samples can often bring in sales by allowing a potential customer to try before they buy. The best way to offer any free samples is by face to face contact rather than over the internet.While the web offers a lot more people, a lot of freebie web surfers are simply looking for a freebie with no intention of buying anything. Face to face contact gives a better chance at making the sale and offers you the opportunity to speak directly with the person, making it a much more personal experience and therefore allowing the potential customer to more than likely remember you.
The simple fact is that unless you hire a promotional or marketing expert, no on is going do market for you and promote for you. You can ask family and friends to help get the word out, and word of mouth is good. But it all starts with you. Marketing will make sales and sales make money. Promoting yourself will make yourself known and the profits will roll in. Sitting back and expecting to be found by some streak of luck just isn’t reality. If you took the time and energy to create something, take the time and energy to market that something and promote it shamelessly. Shameless self promotion will have you laughing all the way to the bank, while the person that didn’t think it was the right thing to do will be still sitting there waiting to see the green.
Posted in Articles, Self Promotion, Publicity, Advertising | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007
Having a newsletter is a must for anyone doing business online. A newsletter is the main lifeline to the customer. It’s through the newsletter that businesses can let customers know about sales and discounts or updates to their website.
Online marketing has grown by leaps and bounds. Opt-in marketing can greatly increase repeat visitors to your site, and drastically increase sales of your services or products. The wonderful thing about an opt-in mailing list is that the subscriber is wanting to receive emails from you, meaning they are interested in hearing from you on a regular basis.
One of the goals for your website should be to gain subscribers to your newsletter. It’s important that your newsletter be an opt-in newsletter, and that you don’t just add people or email addresses to your mailing list on your own. The opt-in feature is to ensure that the person wants your emails so that you are not spamming them. Opt-in means that the subscriber has to sign up for our newsletter and then confirm that subscription via the email they signed up with. This prevents anyone from just adding them or subscribing them without their permission or knowledge.
Put a sign up form on every page of your website. Most of your visitors will come from to your site from a search engine, and they could land on any page. Give them the option of signing up for your newsletter no matter what page they land on.
Focus on a niche for your newsletter. Instead of trying to do a little of everything out there, focus on one main niche area of interest. For example, if your interest is teddy bears, your website and newsletter could focus on teddy bear clothing or designer made teddy bears. Instead of trying to do all things regarding teddy bears, focus in on a small niche.
Keep fresh content on your site and as you update the site, relay the news to your subscribers. Keeping interesting and fresh content will help keep from losing subscribers. Give subscribers something new to look forward to.
Pick a day that your newsletter goes out and keep on that schedule. Your readers will know when to expect to hear from you. Don’t send something out every day, because most likely readers will grow tired of an everyday mailing. Once a week is the best option, although some choose to send out only on a monthly basis.
When you are getting material ready for your newsletter, be honest in product descriptions, etc. Don’t give your readers a lot of hype about something that you know doesn’t work as well as you are saying it does. Don’t say you have tried something that you’ve in fact never tried or used. Be honest with your subscribers. They will appreciate the honesty and see that you can be trusted. Trust is important in business. Gain the trust of the readers and don’t lose it.
On occasion, ask subscribers their thoughts on what you can do to improve your newsletter. Ask them what they want to see more of or less of. Remember that the customer is the lifeline to you making a profit. For example, even though you might love the layout of your newsletter, your readers might find it less than appealing. Go with what works best for your mailing list. The subscribers are the ones reading it, so you want to please them overall.
Even in the internet age, word of mouth is still the biggest and best advertising. Word of mouth can still make or break a business, and word of mouth can bring in new subscribers. Keeping a friendly appearance and attending to the needs of your subscribers on your mailing list can cause a domino affect. People will take about your business, your website will get more hits, and your subscriber base will grow.
Never sell your mailing list. Never give away your mailing list, or share it. When a subscriber joins your opt-in mailing list, they are not joining for your to sell or share their personal and private information or email address. They are joining to receive updates and newsletters from you, and you alone. This comes back to the trust issue. Your subscribers trust that you will not sell them out.
Offer a potential subscriber a sample newsletter on your website. Be sure to keep the sample newsletter up to date so that the reader can see just what they will be getting when they opt-in to your newsletter. It’s also a good idea to keep back issues of newsletters archived on your site. This gives readers and visitors the opportunity to look at older issues they might have missed.
Avoid sending out newsletters that are too heavy in advertising. While the goal of a newsletter is often to make a profit, no subscriber wants to get newsletters that contain nothing but a constant barrage of ads wanting them to buy something on a continual basis.
Your good reputation and the trust of your readers will build your mailing list size and increase your subscriber base.
Posted in Articles, Self Promotion, Publicity, Working the Web, Advertising | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007
Blogs, which are also known as web logs are all the rage right now online. Everyone has a blog, and everyone is making money by blogging. The question is how are they doing it? What is so special about a blog that you can make money by posting on it? First you should know that a blog is a little bit like an online journal. You can make posts in it about anything that you want to, and then publish it for the whole world to read. If you have never blogged before, it is a good idea to do so just for fun in the beginning, so that you can get a feel of what it is about.
Once you have become familiar with the blogging platform, and kind of get the jest of it, you will be ready to try and make some money at blogging. However, for a beginner blog marketer, you want to take it slow and one step at a time. You will need to do things in order and that will help keep you from getting overwhelmed with it all.
The first thing that you want to do is find a niche to blog about. This can be anything that you know, want to know, or want to learn. Become an expert in that field. The more you know, the better. The niche can be anything that you want it to be. It can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. Think about something that you know and love, something that you want to learn all about. You will come up with a niche that will be perfect before you know it.
Now that you know what your blog will be all about, you are ready to get down to business. First of all you want to decide how often you will update your blog. Will it be daily? Every other day? Maybe even weekly? Whichever you choose, stick with it and make sure that you hardly ever miss an update. Once you get readers to your blog you want them to know that you will update it as often as you say. They need to know how often to check and visit your blog for new information. If you post like you say you will, you will end up with a large reader base that will follow you anywhere.
So now that you have a niche, and have decided how often your blog will be updated, it is time to get down to some marketing. To begin with, you need to get back links. Back links are important and they mean that someone is linking to you. There are a few ways that you can get these much needed links. You can look around on the internet and find some sites that are relevant to your niche and request a link, or your can post comments on other blogs that are relevant and leave a link behind with your comment. Either way, they both work and they both count as links that you need to your blog.
Are you trying to sell things from your blog? If so you are going to find that promoting products in your blog is a great marketing technique that you can use as well. People do it everyday and make lots of money from it. Whether it is affiliate links, or your own products and services that you are promoting, you are going to find that blog marketing is one of the best ways to get the word out and let people know that you are in business. Marketing from your blog has never been easier.
With all of the great tools that are out there now for blog marketing, it is really hard to have a blog fail when you use them. Make sure that you ping your blog every time it is updated, and work on those links as they will make a huge difference.
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