Visualize your sources of traffic as a pie divided into segments (or
slices). Each slice represents a different source of targeted
traffic. Common examples might include: Joint Ventures, SEO, PPC,
forums, articles, youtube, squidoo, blogging, traffic exchanges and
others.
But prior to Jumping onboard with any online paid traffic source, an online entrepreneur must first seek out free traffic.
But not just any traffic will do. It has to be targeted
niche traffic to have good conversion rates (fancy term for the
percentage of people that buy on your site.)
Free Traffic:
Something we all want, right? In fact, free traffic is something every web site MUST have.
Free traffic
is the best way to bite into the other core elements of your online
business. These include testing your product, building your opt-in
list (your loyal customers), split-testing your copy, perfecting your
page layout, and determining the winning combination that gives the
highest conversions possible.
For an online entrepreneur to answer these questions with PAID
traffic sources, it's a straight downward slope to losing money (and
perhaps even massive DEBT if we aren't careful). So unless you have an
endless supply of money to burn - begin by focusing on free traffic generation methods before racking up debt for paid traffic charges.
Joint Venture Partnering:
Joint Ventures also are often talked about as an effective way to
grow a web site's traffic. And not only are there many ways develop an
online revenue stream, there are many ways to partner-up with another
online entrepreneur whether you co-develop a product, or worth together
to assist each other in providing leads or traffic. Successful Joint
Ventures are always win-win. They are winning propositions for both
YOU and your JV (joint venture) partner.
Another twist on an old idea:
One aspect of Joint Venturing that is NOT often discussed let alone USED, is to share OTO's with your JV partner.
OTO? That's the online version of the fast food restaurant asking
"would you like fries with that". And the acronym OTO ... simply means
"one time offer".
The concept is OTO cross promotion. (Although the same applies in
the real world, cross promotion in your online marketing processes is a
surefire way to explode your profits.)
Why is this successful? Because when a customer buys from you, they have developed a bond. A trust. They now like you.
So as a consumer when we listen to recommendations, they are from
those that we have developed at leas some level of trust with. THAT's
how internet commerce works - and that's how affiliate marketing works.
How to cross promote:
Locate an online business that sells a product that is complimentary to yours. (It MIGHT even be a direct competitor.)
Although it's not actually required (for this to successfully work),
consider becoming affiliates of each other's product(s). What's the
twist? This strategy would also work where the OTO revenue might go
100% to the JV partner - and what YOU get is a new person added to your
opt-in list. One new subscriber to your opt-in list might have far
more life time value to you over the long haul, than a commission you
earned from a sale of his product - or vice versa. And seriously - what
info-product developer would turn down an offer to present their
product and still keep all the commission right? Another thought along
these lines is that the one-time-offer might even be a giveaway. But
the goal of this type of cross promotion is to bring THEIR customers to
your site, and either purchase or "opt-in" and for you to present your
JV partner's complimenting product to YOUR customers.
Networking, connecting and partnering with other online
entrepreneurs grows your business for the long term. Introduce each
others' customers and subscribers to new and complimentary products and
services that they will enjoy. In the short term joint venturing is
the fastest way to grow an online business. You bring each other a few
visitors (and perhaps even hundreds or thousands) but in the long term
you develop a solid relationship of sharing ideas, cross promotion,
co-development of products, leveraging on each other's brand
identities, motivate each other, and help each other to focus on
revenue models that succeed.
In conclusion, today we talked about the importance of free traffic generation
through using OTO's to cross promote a JV partner's product. In
addition - consider this twist ... Rather than using an affiliate link
to earn a commission - but combine your efforts to build each other's
opt-in subscriber lists.
There will come a time, that a budding internet marketer will be
enticed by the many programs available - which sing the praises of
adding PPC (pay per click) to your traffic arsenal.
In fact, many
experts preach from the mountain tops that by adding Google AdWords,
you can bring in traffic by the thousands, for as little as 5 cents a
click. Now although you can tightly control your daily and monthly
budget with a PPC program, an inexperienced user can rapidly lose their
shirt. And I certainly heard of those who have spent THOUSANDS of
dollars ... racking up their credit card ... only to find they aren't
even bring in one dollar of revenue. And once you feel that pain - it
really hurts! You wonder ... where did I go wrong? It looks so easy?
Isn't everyone else doing it profitably?
Social
networking sites have are a popular way for internet affiliate
marketers to draw guaranteed website traffic. Creating a Squidoo lens
to promote your affiliate programs can help you reach your target
market and explode your client base without breaking your budget.
There's no doubt that somewhere along the way we have heard someone say "the money's in the list". Am I right?
And
today might be the day when you have finally come to realize that YOU
need a good opt-in list. So you started your pursuit by reading
articles (or listening to audio recordings), did a little online
searching, and maybe you have even been reading posts on your favorite
forum.
But maybe you're not new to list-building. Maybe you started 6
months ago or 12 months ago; maybe even a few years ago. And you're
paying monthly for that online account, but you're just not satisfied
with the results that you're getting from your opt-in list.
You
can accept this fact as truth: People have made small fortunes with
their opt-in lists. And finally today you're in a place (in your heart
and mind) where you're ready to dedicate some of your time and
resources to growing YOUR OWN opt-in list.
The reasons WHY to have an opt-in email marketing list are clear.
But right at the top of the list, is that a well-maintained list will
drive repeated targeted traffic to your web site, and your offers
whether it's your own product or an affiliate product.
But in this article today, we're going to discuss the things you should NEVER do in email marketing. So let's get started ...
(1) Never take your loyal customers and subscribers for granted and treat them like a cash machine.
Internet commerce has not been around for hundreds or thousands of
years. But offline business certainly has been. Today we'll see what we
can learn and apply from the offline world to our niche traffic generation, but I'd like to start with a
short illustration.
I was watching one of those crime shows on TV
the other night and they were talking about the "murder suspect" and
referring to him as an amateur entrepreneur.
Now you might think that this is a little
obvious, but in the next few minutes I will reveal to you WHY this is
important, HOW to do it, and identify some additional ways that you can
grow your customers into loyal, repeat buyers, with higher lifetime
value.
You might have heard somewhere along the way that it is less expensive
to keep an existing customer than to acquire a new one. This statement
is very true. And what's even more important to realize is that there
are customers that are profitable customers, and those that are NOT
profitable customers. And it's also true whether you have a bricks and
mortar real world offline business, or your business is 100% online.
Learn to generate free web site traffic by
participating in forums. Forums are communities, and communities thrive
because of give and take relationships. They are made up of people
(just like you and I) but they have a COMMON INTEREST. Chances are, you
can find a forum on just about ANY topic whether it's auto repair, home
financing, video game development and of course hundreds of thousands
(if not millions of topics.)
What's one of the most common problems that an online marketer faces today?
It's coming up with fresh innovative content and products that people will buy.
And whether you're new to online business, or you have been successfully earning your living online since the dawn of the internet, you know that multi-media has seen explosive growth in recent months. And there's no signs of it slowing down either!
While not everyone who puts up a video on YouTube will
be selling something, they may still want to get the viewer to take some action
after seeing "Skateboarding Dingoes in the Outback." The clever use
of product placement by producers of movies and television is all the rage now.
Take a tip from them -- find a way to insert a Web link, snail mail or email
address in a "purely entertainment" video! Give your prospects a
"wake up call" to the potential of this gimmick and you'll find that
your own bottom line will thank you very much!
Nothing communicates excitement like hearing and seeing an
enthusiastic testimonial from a real person. Think about all the times you were
motivated to take action by someone who genuinely loved a product or service
they paid for. Reminding your customers that a static, written testimonial can
be powerful, but not as powerful as a 30 second video of a "live
wire" buyer extolling the benefits of a product or service will boost your
own credibility and salability! Hmm, perhaps you need to take a hint and make
your own video about http://www.videobootcampebook.com/
and how it gave meaning to your life!
I have seen a few posts recently where people are asking how to become a voice over artist. In today's post I will answer a few questions to get you started on your new career of becoming an expert in voice overs. more»
If you're an internet marketer / audio producer, or someone who has been thinking about getting into audio production, this new site is a definate must-see.
Professional Audio Tech FINALLY Cracks and Reveals:
Whether it's spoken word or music, audio
can CONNECT with our emotions in a way that written words and visuals
can't. Ever find yourself singing a song in your mind ... more»
This was clearly a mistake because in the world of audio there are distinct markets and I was appealing to none of them.
Part 1: Color Scheme.
The site at the time of launch was mainly black, grey, orange, and white. Together these colors looked nice (and complimentary) but didn't follow the widely accepted colors used in "web 2.0" design. And speaking of web 2.0, my corners weren't rounded (on my boxes), my site had no "community" aspect to it, and there was so much going on that it actually LOOKED CLUTTERED.
Part 2: Grab their attention.
Remember that my product is audio. It's background music, podcast intros, e-book narration, custom music and so forth. The audio contained within the site was previews of the music that could be purchased. But I was not taking advantage of audio and video on the SITE. Until this point my use of audio & video was completely external. YouTube, viral ebooks, FreeIQ, and so forth. In fact my youtube videos were driving about 7% of my site's traffic. I needed to incorporate these videos and audios into the site.
When I start a video, I always start with a black video screen. It produces a cleaner, more professional look to the video. But when you load that video into flash and put it onto your web site, you have a big block of BLACK sitting on your screen (taking up valuable real estate). So I edited my video and put a headline along with instructions to HIT THE PLAY button to start the video.
I also added a line of text UNDER it "in a reverse" in case they missed it the first time.
Part 4: Position (placement) of the video
The "first fold" of the web site is the most important. (That's what visitors see when they havened scrolled the page yet). In my previous layout, 30% of the layout of this part of the screen. The video is now in the TOP section of the screen. There's no need to scroll to get to it.
Part 5: Addressing EACH target market
In changing the navigation on the site, I added a new section under the video called "QUICK NAV" where I listed the following:
This allowed me to speak to each of these target groups in a different way. I could customize the message as well as the testimonials.
Part 6: The Capture Form
In my previous layout, I was giving away my free report in an isolated section of the site which was marketed through viral efforts. (Articles, videos, free audios and so forth.)
I brought this into the main part of the site and it now appears on the center of EVERY page. This in itself was an important move, because not everyone who visits the site is READY to buy. They might be "tire-kicking" or researching, or looking for ways to learn more about using audio in their online marketing (such as podcasts etc.)
This now gets the ball rolling with the contact between myself and the prospective "audio or royalty-free MP3 music" client. They have a chance to learn some great stuff about audio in internet marketing as well as get to know me a bit better in the process.
After completing these 6 steps I had some impressive new results going on behind the scenes. I'll share those in tomorrow's post!
Have you ever sat down and tried to list all the mistakes you made in internet marketing?
And which ones were the most valuable learning experiences (to you)?
I'm posting this to my blog because I have been involved in internet marketing for over a decade. In the beginning I developed some e-comm sites of my own (with my partner) and eventually as our skills grew we were able to start to charge others for web site development. As the number of projects grew, the amount of time we spent on our own IM (internet marketing) efforts dwindled, and eventually, site development and marketing for others became a full-time endeavour.
At the time, this seemed like the natural evolution of our business.
It's interesting how in 2006 suddenly it hit me like a brick wall ... how abandoning those efforts was NOT a smart move. Stupid me ... it took me a decade to figure it out!
You see it comes down to leveraging your time. In a service business (like web site development and marketing) you are trading time for dollars. But you eventually "cap out" at how much work you can perform in a day ... and how much you can charge clients. Even the most skilled brain surgeons have a limit in what they can charge for their services.
Leveraging your time vs revenue, is all about making your internet revenue self-perpetuate, and produce more while you invest less hours into it.
Now YES I have just bared my soul to you and told confessed to you about this mistake.
But would it surprise you if I said there was a BIGGER one I was about to reveal?
Here we go ... we build successful e-comm sites and watch clients rake in thousands every week in online revenues, and then ask ourselves "what's wrong with this picture". The clients' success stories isn't the problem ... but rather we weren't doing the same thing for ourselves.
But was THAT discovery revealing to me the biggest mistake I ever made in Internet Marketing? Nope!
Here it comes ... In the spring of 2007 I launched a new site... just for me ... and one that would produce online sales.
Through 2006 and into the winter of '06 - '07 I thought long and hard about WHAT I would be selling online. The choices are completely and utterly limitless. But a successful internet marketer understands all about locating and dominating a NICHE.
I'm a musician/composer with a degree in recording engineering and decades of experience of live performance. Naturally my home is equipped with a small recording studio and music is still a huge part of my life.
OK so now you're asking "what about the biggest mistake?"
I'm getting to it.
In the same manner that mechanics drive cars that need repair work and the cobbler's kids need their shoes fixed ... I abandoned MY OWN marketing principles when I launched my site and focused more on the functionality than the message.
Although the site was selling ... conversions were poor and I was scrambling to figure out WHY.
In tomorrow's post I'll explain exactly what I did to boost MY OWN conversions in 48 hours!
There is no doubt about the success of infomercials in the sales and marketing process. Over the past 30 years, marketing via infomercials has grown to an industry that brings in billions of dollars.
Why is it successful?
Well there are many reasons, but the one reason I would like to talk about today, is the LINEAR aspect of it.
When we watch an infomercial, the marketer has complete control over more»
I was cruising this morning on one of the regular forums that I love and there was yet again a post about the use of video in internet marketing.
As I'm such an advocate for this entire concept, I always read what others have to say. The post was made yesterday morning ... and so far there are 35 replies.
The thread started off saying that we all know that video rocks and it is very powerful. But there was more»
In a few recent heated debates in forums that I participate in there have been a number of threads regarding the use of MP3 music on in video production.
Even if we throw aside for a moment the fact that it's "illegal" to use your favourite CD as your background, some of these threads couldn't even get past the fact that it's unethical and taboo. It seems that so many of the new generation of web users (let's call them the YouTube generation or the MySpace generation) are completely comfortable with using stolen music because it's easy to do.
But I'm on a rant.
Our views HAVE TO change. If you're using downloaded music MP3 in your media it simply MUST be Royalty-Free to be legal.
Although most royalty-free music production houses sell their music in music libraries (collections) you can purchase your clips one MP3 music clip at a time. And if you're new and starting out, yes there are plenty of free sources of MP3 music too.
Here are some examples of free music MP3's you can legally download:
Given the advances in high-speed internet and multi-media (audio & video) streaming technologies I still don't get why only 5% is NOT written language.
We may not know it, but the majority of us are in fact "audio learners". This is not a recent development in the 21st century, but rather it's something that happened in the 20th century with the rapid deployment of "the tube" in our living rooms.
Reading is less and less a past time for many of us, and now a means to acquire knowledge that we can't otherwise gain from sitting back and listening to someone else's recycled audio verbiage.
I don't discount the fact that still there's a segment of society that loves to read. But the percentage of readers vs listeners experienced a major upheaval since the 1950's.
But then along came Polly.
Oh I meant to say along came the mighty WWW.
In the beginning the web was dark and without form. Web pages were mainly text with a few oversized jagged and pixelated images. Yes I'm talking about circa 1995. Remember Netscape 2.0? (I do.)
Media-rich content was a definite taboo in web development since the majority of people viewing the sites couldn't keep up with the page-load times. No-one wants to wait. (We don't even like to wait for our coffee or burger anymore.)
Today on the other hand, one of the most popular sites on the web is YouTube. And the other sites offering multi-media (audio & video) are popping up all over. Free IQ is one of the latest. And it's worth checking out if you're in business. You won't (at least not yet) find a video of a bunch of 12-year olds at a slumber party singing their favourite dance tune.
But back to my point ... 5% of the web is NOT text.
This is a massive opportunity for YOU as an internet entrepreneur!
You can easily set yourself apart from the great and mighty masses with a few creatively placed audio and video teases. Incorporate them with flash, and you're streaming your way to "ease".
If your competition is NOT doing audio & video, then now is the time for you to jump in and do it now. After all, the early adopters are usually the ones who benefit the most.
Now to revisit my headline: Audio and video on the web ... RULES.
Let me explain. Audio and video add a new element of credibility and believability to your message. And there's no "work" involved for the reader. They can sit back and receive (or be fed) your message, in a guided manner that YOU choose.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what's a video worth? What's an audio greeting worth? What's a talking head worth? What's a podcast worth? What's an audio e-book worth? What's a transparent walk-on video worth?
Keep your multi-media short and concise. Don't ramble on unless you're Robert Plant. Delete the ums and uhs, deep breaths, or any other non-message noises that your mic picks up. If your MP3 or streaming flash message is "on" your web site, keep it to one or two minutes at most. Tease them first and go for the kill later.
Have you been using your web site to drive local business?
Most offline businesses (bricks and mortar companies) use their web site to support other marketing efforts and support their "sales" processes.
Examples of this include showing your portfolio, examples or products, and detailed info about what you sell.
Since most purchasing decisions are based on relationship development, doing business outside of the local market is sometimes tougher than selling to your those in your home town. After all, you can drive over to see them, right?
But you don't have to limit yourself to local business. Expand your horizons, and expand your market ... to the rest of the world.
Whether you're a podcaster, video game developer or YouTube producer you have no doubt realized that high quality royalty-free music is hard to come by at affordable rates.
My last Youtube video was a successful process so here is my latest ...
A few weeks ago I launched a site which creates audios for e-book marketers. The marketing plan for this site includes articles which are on some of the top ezine sites as well as some free viral ebooks which are available in PDF, audio, and video formats. The video was launched last night on youtube.com.
You Tube limits the video length to 10 minutes per video. And since this was about 17 minutes long, I split it into two parts.
Breathe new life into your dead or even hot-selling products
Get your web site to convert more traffic into buyers
And do it all quickly and easily while someone else does all the work
Video Outline:
Introduction
How to create a brand new income stream
Breathe new life into your dead or even hot-selling products
Get your web site to convert more traffic into buyers
This insructional video also has information for the "do it yourselfer" including a shopping list for what you will need to create great-sounding audios for your ebook marketing.
In watching the success of our clients making online revenue, we decided in late 2006 that it was time for us to get back into e-commerce for ourselves. We have a few sites in development, and two of these projects are in the industry of audio development. The two web sites will work in conjunction with each other, serving similar markets but in different ways.
What is unique about the approach of this site is that projects are billed by "running time" only, at 3 bucks a minute. While many in this industry charge $7 to $15 per page, our strategy was to structure the billing in a more cost effective manner.
For example you have a 30-page ebook that you want to sell as an audio ... this typically will average to about 50 to 60 minutes of running time (or $150 to $180). If you were paying "per page", the same project would run about $210 to $450.
Ebook marketers already know that this is an effective revenue stream because automated delivery leverages your time successfully. When you add audio to your ebook products you increase its value and position your price point higher.
To learn more about audio marketing download your free copy of
Also in the electronic media ... well audio specifically we are in the pre-launch phase of a royalty-free music catalog.
This site is able to service the "do it yourselfer" who creates their own: - podcasts - web sites - videos - radio commercials - video games - audio ebooks - and others
Sid's Mortgage Tips is a new online free newsletter providing tips and information for those seeking to secure a more cost effective mortgage, as well as how to improve your credit score.
Although the design of this site is somewhat basic, the technology behind it uses and autoresponder which will be paramount to its success.
Nash Jewellers, one of London Ontario's finest jewellery retailers has recently expanded their web site and added new features to their online gallery.
This new site www.3buckaudio.com offers a complete online service to create an integrate audio into your online marketing, and your online products (also sometimes called virtual products.)
If we step back in time just a little, to 1993, the first weblog (blog) appeared (Mosaic's What's New Page). But it wasn't until December 1997 that Jorn Barger coined the term "weblog".
Blogs have become almost as popular as websites. They have their own search engines, ad directories, and forums. Blogs have gained in popularity, and for good reasons.
First, Blogs work great in connection with your website. Your website is more on the business level, where your blog is more on a personal level. You can give more»
When you are deciding what your newly crafted post will contain, how do you develop your article content?
There are two methods of deciding content:
(1) whatever comes to mind
(2) whatever people are searching for
So what's the difference? It comes down to whether you have a "push marketing" or a "pull marketing" approach to driving people into your sales funnel of prospects.
A lot of new business owners open up their business and don't understand why people aren't flocking to their door. So they try a little advertising. Likely this fails. (But the advertising rept made their commission.)
The reason people aren't flocking to your door is that you need to be where they are looking. Are you solving a problem? Are you offering a better selection? better service? more knowledge?
Or are you "another me-too"? It's yet another reason why so many businesses (4/5) fail in the first year.
So back to our topic ... how do you come up with the right content for your blog that will bring in visitors?
If you decide FIRST on what your visitor is searching for, google the search phrase. When you click on each of the first few sites, see how many times your keyphrase appears in the content.
Once you have counted the frequency within the content then you need to make your keyphrase appear that number of times in YOUR content. Remember that the search engines are looking for content and not SEO tactics, the words on your page (your content) is what will pull you up to the top.
Podcasting itself isn't a new technology ... it's just the combination of technologies that have been around already for a number of years.
But due to the explosion of businesses jumping into podcasting to capture a new vehicle for promoting their business you will see a new breed of service providers are emerging.
How-To Kits:
The obvious first ... is those that already embrace the medium are teaching those who don't yet know the platform. There are plenty of sites, blogs, and podcasts that are segments of already successful businesses that are selling kits and memberships to get you off on the right foot to develop your podcast.
Hardware:
As audio quality improves podcasters realize that they need to be on the same level as the great ones. That means a good quality recording mic, and an interface to record into your computer. Edirol makes some great gear and will get you running on a very small budget. (Edirol is a division of Roland.)
Software:
Although my personal fav is Adobe Audition there are plenty of great audio recording programs around. The industry standard for recording direct to your hard drive is pro tools. If you have a PC with Windows 98 you can get a free version of Pro Tools lite. The only down side is that it only has eight tracks of audio. (Honestly ... if you're only doing podcasting or demos you don't need any more than that.)
Background Music & Intros:
Got a catchy intro? If not you can get one very inexpensively. Google for Royalty-free music and you can purchase something for your own podcast. And if you want something "original" (written just for you), you can expect to pay about $150 to $250, complete with a voice-over.
Audio Editing:
If the file you produce is poor quality you can still have it improved by someone who has the correct gear. Just make sure you are recording a WAV file. You can convert it to (the smaller) MP3 format later.
Catchers:
Apple's goal: Sell more IPODs! Sell more IPODs.
Portable MP3 players are the most popular form of "catching" podcasts because of their portability.
So you're in business in 2007 and the term podcast is still a bit of a mystery to you. Likely that would be because you don't own an IPOD. It simply doesn't matter!
There are a few terms that you need to understand whether you "get" all the techie stuff that goes on behind the scenes. First off ... the technology itself isn't really new. What is new, is what people are doing with it and how it is affecting our lives.
A podcast can be both a noun and a verb.
Podcast the noun - a distribution service for media files on the internet. This can be both PAID and UNPAID. But whatever type of business model you choose, your business can still benefit.
Podcast the verb - this is the actual distibution to your subscribers. You can call this podcasting. The files are downloaded automatically (a bit like Tivo) and your subscribers get to listen whenever and wherever they want.
In 2005, Podcast was considered to the word of the year according to the New Oxford Dictionary.
Pod Catcher - this is the device that receives (or catches) the media file. Examples include: a portable MP3 player, an Ipod Video, your browser, laptop, cell phone (if MP3 enabled) DVD players, pocket PC's and TiVo's.
If this was 1995 and you knew THEN what you know about the internet would you have done anything differently? Likely so. Well it's just like 1995 and the early adopters are the ones you WILL indeed benefit.
What is Podcasting Podcasting is quickly becoming a buzz
word among the techie crowd.
So what is podcasting, anyway?
Podcasting is online audio content that is delivered via an RSS feed.
Many people liken podcasting to radio on demand. However in reality,
podcasting gives far more options such as content and programming than
radio does. In addition, with Podcasting, listeners can determine the
time and the place, meaning they decide what programming they want to
receive and when they want to listen to it.
Listeners can retain audio archives to listen to at their leisure.
While blogs have turned many bloggers into journalists, podcasting has the
potential to turn podcasters into radio personalities.
3. Talk Shows - Industry or organizational
news, investor news, sportscasts, news coverage and commentaries.
4. Training & Tutorials - Instructional materials.
5. Story - Story telling for children or the
visually-impaired.
6. Promotion - giving samples of your ebook or other learning package as a demo or teaser.
Of all the ways to provide content, audio is the least
invasive because it requires no focus. For example, your
listeners can be listening while they are doing another task (working
out, driving their car, playing a computer game, or doing work around
the house.)
The reason that podcasting is still relatively unknown
is that it is still viewed as a somewhat techie medium. But as it
grows and develops we'll be seeing its potential grow and prosper.
If I looked up "blogosphere" in the dictionary it would read something like:
The blogosphere -- that name we give to the nebulous and loose
community of individuals who blog -- is changing fast. Are you prepared
for the changes?
For those who blog there is some good news. Still only a
percentage of websters are bloggers. I think the percentage is
around 28% these days. Seem high? No, not reallt
considering that I am one webster who runs five blogs. So to
interpret ... your competition isn't likely to have a blog yet.
But the bad news ... it you're just starting a blog it's going to be
harder to get noticed by other bloggers so that YOUR blog stands
out. Whether it's a web site or a blog, good content is KING.
The early adopters of technology are the ones who benefit. So we're talking still about blogging, podcasting, and video podcasting.
The more recent entrants into the game are doing it to make money. (But why not.)
I was on a site that stated that a recent survey says that 73% of bloggers say it's okay to include affiliate links in ther blogs to make a few bucks.
Do you find some here? Yes there are a few that I will point out
on the right. But for the most-part this is a
non-money-making-blog. BUT ... this is not my only blog.
Did I jump on the band-wagon? Absolutely I did.
I am part of a web development firm, and part of web development is
"making money online". Should I be SHOT? Hopefully
not. I think I just smartened up and started to implement what I
told other clients to do.
It's time for some catch-up on some of the work we were doing in the fall, and this post is regarding a site completed late last year.
Bagpipe Solutions By John Cairns has been a client of ours since they began their business several year ago, and it was time for them to rebuild their site from scratch.
The need for an overhaul was more»
As the expression goes, the mechanic drives the worst car, or the cobbler's kid has the worst shoes, and I know I'm the last to announce to the world when we have completed a new project.
Childrens Furniture Gallery is a business in London Ontario is one of our latest projects. But there is something that has got me very excited about this site, which is that they were producing sales within 48 hours of our launch earlier this week.
As a consumer I had already known about the more»
In our business of web development I have the opportunity to talk about SEO often. SEO if you don't already know, is Search Engine Optimization.
If you have a web site - then you need to understand SEO basics.
In these conversations, people fall into two categories. (1) they really don't more»
Can we all agree that we are in "the internet age"?
My daughter is now six, and has been online likely every day since she was 3 1/2. What does that say about her demographic? (I've only been online since the mid 90's.)
Other than more»
Is your blog in danger or becoming dead or obsolete? How much time elapses between each of your posts?
This four minute tutorial will teach you the quick and easy steps to use bookmarklets and google alerts to post to your more»
After my last post, I made myself a tea, and sat down to time myself using the techniques in the previous post on how to post in under 2 minutes.
I opened my yahoo mail where I receive my google alerts and saw the latest alerts having to do with VOIP. One of the blogs I run is a VOIP information blog.
I quickly scanned about 6 summaries and more»
n the last post Creating Useful and Interesting Blog Content we battled the subject of WHAT to put in your blog and how to get fresh content.
The answer to WHAT to put in your blog? Is NEWS.
The answer on HOW to get fresh content daily? Is more»
In yesterday's post I addressed the challenge of keeping your blog fresh with content.
When we lead such busy business lives, we never seem to find enough time to dedicate to our blogs. Today I will give you some instructions on how to create a post in under 2 minutes. With a big of practice, you should be able to do it in less than one minute.
Sound impossible? Not at all. You'll be taking advantage more»
Although it's already eight days into 2007, it somewhat feels like
today is the first day of the year. This is because the kids go
back to school.
The two week break was nice to spend time with family, but eventually I had to return to business.
I looked at my blog postings today ... specfically at the frequency
(and sometimes lack thereof) to see ho I managed in 2006. I'm
pleased that there was an improvement especially since I'm now running
four blogs instead of only one as in previous years.
I took a quick look over at what some of my clients were managing to do
with their blogs, and the problem is widespread ... we manage to find
time for our emailing but our blogs sometimes sit unattended for
several months at a time.
Did you know it takes on average about 2 minutes to post? And if
you're using a news aggregator to feed you news from other blogs, you
can get a post up in less than a minute. More prolific blogs will
naturally take more time.
So I decided I would start this new series for you .. the challenged
blogger ... who doesn't know what to put into his or her blog. Or
even if you can't find the time. I'll give you the down and dirty
tips and tricks to blogging quickly.
So if we already know WHY to blog - then we need to cover HOW TO BRING IN FLOODS OF TRAFFIC. There are really only two things you have to do to bring in blog traffic! They are: POST and PING.
(1) Build valuable and interesting content that people will actually want to read.
If you understand the mindset of your web site visitor this will be simple to understand. Remember that they aren't there to buy. They are there to get some free information -- this of course is perfect for your blog. Use your blog to communicate - give them something of value on a regular basis.
The added value to YOU (the owner of the blog) is that you are building search engine food. Every time you post, you have a new page. Search engines love sites that have lots of content - and particularly love sites that change frequently. For example, if you were to post once a week - you would have 52 new pages added to your site every year. But does posting need to take a long time? No it doesn't. You can dedicate 10 minutes a week. even if those posts are short, they still have value. And since post people who read blogs aren't wanting to read pages and pages of text, a short post of only a few paragraphs is perfect.
(2) What do you write about?
One approach is to write about new projects you have just completed. Your blog can be an up-to-date showcase of your latest work.
But the most important thing is to be writing with keyword rich content. What does that mean?
Vivid Marketing Elements specializes in online marketing for small businesses. So when I come up with a new topic to write about, I'm thinking of things that will help our clients. This drives traffic to our site that are looking for the services that we provide.
Our site launch page shows some of our completed web site designs. In each post there are a few details about the project. Again ... this is providing search engine food.
I also like to post about common problems or common questions. These are things that people call me about. For example, people on Rogers Cable Internet have trouble setting up their outgoing mail. So I created a post for that - actually a podcast, to show them how to do that.
The other thing to write about is NEWS in your industry. What is going on that might be of interest to your customers and potential customers?
So that's step one. POST POST POST.
Step two - is notify.
The easiest way to do that is to PING. This tells the sites that track blogs that you have new material on your site. You can set up your blog to do this by itself ... or you can take about 5 seconds and go to pingomatic.com and submit your feed manually. Either way ... it's a small thing to do which will not take a lot of your time.
(On a side note - tell your clients when you have added something to your blog by emailing your client list.)
So in conclusion, the two step process of how to bring traffic to your blog is to POST, PING, POST, PING, POST, PING.
If you do this every week for a year you'll be amazed with the results.
I spent the past weekend in Toronto at a seminar taught by Derek Gehl where he spoke for two jam-packed days about online businesses.
The information as astounding and I came back with dozens of pages of notes, a renewed enthusiasm to achieve my goals of an online income and motivation to help our clients succeed.
I'll be sharing this information with you as well as what I learned from the face-to-face meetings I had with their experts (mentors) that were also in attendance. These are the guys that regularly help regular people achieve success online ... truly amazing results!
I blogged back in May a posting called Why are blogs so popular and thought today I would write a sequel or follow-up to that post.
The growth of blogging
Last Year - there were 173 Million Blogs
This year - there are 2.3 Billion Blogs
That is absolutely explosive growth in blogging! But here are some more compelling statistics ...
2 new blogs are created every second, and there are 33,000 new posts every hour.
Who reads blogs?
- people who read blogs are 11% more likely to earn more than $75,000 a year
- they spend more money online
- the spend twice as much time online
- and are 30% more likely to buy online
So what does this mean to you? If you have an online presence for your business, it pays to have a blog because you are targetting potential buyers.
BLOG DEFINITION
Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site.
People search for blogs.
According to word tracker, in the past 24 hours there were 370 searches for "blogs", 416 searches for "blog" in MSN. There is a blog on just about ANY subject, and internet users also search for "online diaries journals personal weblogs" to seek out the information they are looking for. In September of this year there were over 10,000 searches in Yahoo for the term "blog search".
If you're a reader and looking for blogs they are easy to find. Go to your favourite search engine and type in blog directory. It's not suprising to see over 100 million results come up!
Have you ever wondered how much of your outgoing mail is receiving a "false positive" when the spam filters are testing for spam?
When you understand how spam filters work you'll soon realize that a lot of your outgoing newsletters and other mass broadcasts may not even end up in the in-box of your intended recipients.
On our mail server we use a service called more»
A few months ago I came across a term for the first time "podcasts".
I was told that podcasting was the hottest new technology on the internet. Wow, that was a grand claim to make.
Even blogging is relatively new. Though I haven't run the stats
on it, I would take a guess that likely only about 10% of our clients
are running a blog. A quick definition of a podcast, is that it is
an audio blog. Did you know that the New Oxford American
Dictionary has even selected "podcast" as the word for the year in
2005? But most of us haven't even heard about it yet.
What is podcasting?
Podcasting is the delivery of audio files to the internet, typically in
MP3 format. Listeners use a "reader" to access the files which
allows them to easily and automatically transfer the files to a digital
MP3 player. Because they are an MP3 file, they don't have to be
played on an MP3 player. You can listen to them on your computer,
or burn a CD to listen to them in your car. This is typically
what I do with some of the longer ones that I have downloaded, so I can
listen while I am traveling.
How this applies to our marketing business:
To make a long story short, the information that I generally give in
the form of newsletters and articles can now be recorded to an audio
file, and posted so that our contacts can "listen" to the information
instead of reading it. Why is this so powerful? Because
audio is "passive" communication. You can listen with your eyes
closed, or while emailing, playing a game of solitaire, working out at
the gym, or even doing household chores. You're
multi-tasking.
The first subject that I have decided to podcast about is autoresponders.
In some recent conversations I have had with clients and friends, I
realized that most people don't understand what a sequential
autoresponder is. So I have decided to do a series to podcasts on
this subject. The first MP3 is "an introduction to
autoresponders" and explains in detail what an autoresopnder is, and
how you can take it to the next level by having a sequential
autoresopnder.
Anyone in sales knows that most sales usually occur in the follow-up
stage of the selling process. Sequential autoresponders automate
this by putting your inquiries on auto-pilot.
How to create a truly VIRAL video to generate free targeted Niche Traffic