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Archive for January 2009

Tactics to Draw People Back to Your Site

January 23, 2009 | Author admin

Tactics to Draw People Back to Your SiteBy Jeremy A Gislason (c) 2009 One of the biggest measurements of a website’s success is the stickiness of its visitor base. Generally web masters would rather have 1,000 visitors who return regularly (they are “stuck to the site”) as opposed to 3,000 visitors who only visit once or twice. These days the web is massive, carving out a niche for your site and gaining a following within that niche is the key to success. There are many reasons why you should try to make your website as sticky as possible. Visitors who return regularly are more likely to purchase some of your products or content. If you have a membership site, then retaining your member base is critical for growing your íncome and long term success. Also, a faithful following will encourage viral promotion of your site. Search engine optimization can be a costly and time consuming task and your site’s listing can be hammered down by the powers that be (Google) in the blink of an eye. If you gain a faithful user base though, they will tell their friends and family about your site and encourage them to use it as well. Viral marketing is the cheapest and most effective type of marketing there is and making your site and content desirable is the only way to achieve this phenomenon. There are “five C’s” of stickiness to remember, and they are:ContentRegardless of the site’s design, without good content, the visitor will not come back or stay at the site for more than a few minutes. “Content is King” is a cliché, but true. High quality content is far and away the most important factor in attracting people back to a Web site consistently, and keeping them there for more than a few minutes when they do visit. It is said, in fact, that content is what drives 75 percent of consumers to return to their favorite sites.In addition to your site being content rich, try to also keep it fresh. At least part of your site will be regularly updated, preferably at least once a month. This is why web sites which resemble online brochures fail. Delivering the same content in a blog, posted in installments, can be much more effective. This will encourage users to come back regularly, as they check in to see what new content you’ve added lately. This is stickiness in a nutshell.CommunityWhen a site attracts enough visitors with similar interests it has the potential to develop into a “community.” That can be very powerful for the site owner. Providing message forums, chat rooms, podcasts, user profiles, blogs, etc. are all tools to allow your visitors to interact with both you and each other. This also makes your site VERY sticky if you are able to develop a thriving community.Rather than visiting your site once a month people may begin to visit it multiple times a week. Having a thriving community can be viewed as developing a site which is constantly developing its own content. Rather than requiring you to spend hours developing content, you can instead monitor the postings on your site to ensure they retain the kind of atmosphere you want for your site. As time goes by you may also be able to appoint some of your more responsible members to monitoring positions to do this job for you as well. CommunicationCommunication is equally important as content and community. Communication includes building and maintaining your list, reaching out to people on it and interacting with visitors to your site. Try to respond to any question, comments, or feedback you receive promptly. This builds relationships with your visitors and will keep them coming back.One of the best ways to reach out to customers is to provide quality, free information. This is basically a sample of what your site has to present, and should always help address the questions your visitors came to your site for answers for. The very nature of the web stresses that you consider offering more free content to your customers than most other mediums do. You have too much competition to be stingy. One of the most effective means of providing content to customers and developing a slate of potential customers at the same time is to give a free guide to visitors who provide you with a name and email address.For example, if you run a site teaching real estate tips and tricks, after your visitors have seen your “foot in the door” content located on your “splash page,” provide them the first lesson of your course on real estate for free in exchange for their name and email address. You benefit from this by having names to attach to the IP addresses of your visitors. This provides you with more information about who is being drawn into your site. It is also important you use a quality auto-responder for this step, as communication is a critical part of your site and must be handled professionally.One last note on communication: Be sure to provide your name and contact information clearly throughout your site. It will frustrate and turn away visitors if they have a question or comment and cannot figure out how to reach you. By providing a name and place to reach you it also helps contribute to the last two “C’s…”Commerce and Consumer ConfidenceThese are perhaps the two most important things that get overlooked in websites. First, effectively promote your site by using professional marketing and search engine optimization for the niche your site seeks to fill. Provide reliable, safe, and secure means for your customers to purchase your for-pay content. If your ordering method does not look safe, all your efforts working to sell your content to your visitors will be lost if they get to the order page and you look like an unprofessional, fly-by-night operator. Always use a secure ordering form. Offering a monëy back guarantee can be extremely helpful to reassure customers.Lastly, respect your customer’s privacy. Make it clear you will not sell their names, personal information, or email addresses. People hate spam and will be hesitant to identify themselves to you out of fear of having their information sold if you do not provide some kind of assurance against this. A clear and easy to locate privacy policy is necessary. About The AuthorWant to know proven ways to dramatically grow membership sales? Want to take membership marketing to a whole new level of overflowing profíts? Build high-earning membership sites like a pro by going to www.membershipmillionaire.com . Want to discover the most incredible and intuitive membership site software today? Then go to www.memberspeed.com.

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Proven Insider Tips to Get More Web Visitors Quickly and Easily

January 23, 2009 | Author admin

Proven Insider Tips to Get More Web Visitors Quickly and Easily By James Gladwin (c) 2009 Believe me, in spite of the current financial turmoil, there hasn’t ever been a better time to generate an online income stream!And yet it seems that so many budding Internet marketers are finding it hard to break through VNB – the “Visitor Numbers Barrier.”When I started, I thought there was some magic elixir or secret technique that would transform my visitor numbers! If only I could find THE ONE successful method!Well, this article is to let you know that while there may be hundreds of ways to get visitors to your website – I’ve selected some of the techniques that work best for me. And they can work for you, as well.Because, if there IS a secret of success, it is this: “Don’t rely on ONE way to generate traffic. Become familiar with MANY.” Better to have many visitor doors to your website, rather than just one, don’t you think?I’m still surprised how many serious Internet marketers neglect the basics. And one of the most basic ways to improve your visitor traffic is to be absolutely certain that your website is listed by the search engines.Don’t trust the search engine spiders to do your work for you. All the major search engines have detailed and easy-to-follow instructions on site submission, as well as how to create and submit site-maps.I don’t think Facebook needs a great deal of introduction, does it? But you can mine value for Facebook if you look for opportunities to include your website on information that you provide.Then, there is what I call the secret power of blogging: search engines LOVE blogs. The search engine spiders thrive on novelty and change, and if you write or post a new entry to your blog every day – or every other day – the search engines will recognize what is going on and begin to rank your website blog higher than a website that doesn’t change its content from month to month. And a high ranking means visitors to your site.Don’t forget that you can leverage your signature in online communities or discussion groups. If your product is specifically niched, then you know that there are loyal and relevant online communities or discussion groups who want to hear from you.And, your forum signature could be a goldmine once you have thought through the best way of expressing your product’s unique feature so that readers find your website irresistible. Would you like your web address to be seen by ten million people in ten minutes? Well, it’s possible – if you’re careful! Because there are three kinds of people: those who love Google Adwords, often known as Pay Per Click, those who hate it – and those who haven’t tried it.Many people just go nuts trying to get their advertisement absolutely perfect. And, if you don’t read the small print, you could find that your budget is exhausted quickly. But if you follow the guidelines and budget sensibly you could attract many, many hundreds of paying visitors on a daily basis.Do you remember those kid’s stories where the fairy Godmother tells the child to repeat a word three times for magic to happen? Well, here’s that word: “eBay”, “eBay”, “eBay”.There – I’ve said it. eBay is perhaps THE most underestimated visitor generating resource. Ignore eBay at your peril. There are many, many resources available on the web where you can discover how to sell products on eBay. Until recently you could sell digital products (i.e. eBooks, which you can download) but the rules have changed and currently you can only sell physical goods, so your eBook will have to be on a CD. Personally, I think it’s a good move, and opens up many possibilities.Don’t forget that Ezines and Newsletters are the Grand Daddy and Grand Mommy of all website visitor attraction and list building activity. The thing is this – Ezines and Newsletters work!If you love your niche product, you’ll have LOTS to say about it, and there will be people who want to hear what you have to say. I built a subscriber of almost 3,000 with a business coaching Newsletter. Another way to get visitors to your websites is to write an ebook. I’m not embarrassed to say that we’re not talking great literature here. We aren’t talking about the Pulitzer Prize. We’re not even talking more than, maybe, 30 pages, double spaced, and size 12 font.But the fact is this: your eBook will attract visitors to your website single-handedly.Later, you can provide your eBook to affiliates so that they send visitors to your site as well! If you’re more of an audio expert than a novelist, why not create a podcast? Uh? Well, a podcast is a series of audio files that is distributed over the Internet to iPods and other music players and personal computers. This is the future – and it’s fun!The fact is, everyone loves information but don’t always find printed pages the best way to get it. If you can provide the same information that can be played on an iPod or similar media player, or a mobile phone, you’re offering a higher value product.You needn’t start from scratch – you can plug your product or service almost immediately by converting your existing articles or eBooks into .mp3 recordings. (.mp3 is the industry standard audio format that is widely accepted for iPods, mobile phones etc.) Remember, you have, on your hard drive, stuff that you have written, or will write, that you can add value to by converting it into an .mp3 recording.Again, it’s the basics that are often the key to increasing your visitor traffic, so you might need to shine your light on your meta tags. (To put it briefly, a “meta tag” is used by search engines to allow them to more accurately list your site in their indexes.To be honest, it works most of the time, but not always! Search engines are always changing their methods, and some use Meta tags a lot, while others don’t, but I would not want to neglect this technique. It is a small piece of the mosaic that completes the whole visitor traffic picture.How many times have you wanted to speak your mind? Well, now you can – and it’ll help drive visitors to your website. How? Leave testimonials on other people’s sites. This won’t take you a second, but your web address will be around for years. Go for it. It is so simple, and so little done.Another technique I used to attract visitors was to write a priority email to customers with an attention-grabbing subject such as “The Top Ten Myths In Your Industry.” Or, provide something like this as a freebie. Make certain that there are clear links to your website, and a compelling reason for the reader to visit.Finally, I don’t think YouTube needs much introduction! It’s simply one of the largest websites devoted to online videos covering every single subject you can think of – and more! So how can you use the power of YouTube to get more visitors? Simply this: upload a video of you talking about your niche.Many cheap digital cameras have a video option – and you do not need a high-end movie camera. You could get a friend to film you. Or, you could use a built in camera on your PC or Mac, if your model has one. Aim to talk for not much longer than 10 minutes maximum, and sign off with your website address. Again, this is much easier than you would think.Remember, so many people focus on one traffic building technique, and one only. I hope I’ve shown you that there are many ways – and you should have fun with all of them. My best to you. About The AuthorDid you find these suggestions helpful? Is your website making you money? Go to ultrasimplewebtraffic.com to find out more and claim your free visitor traffic mini course by James Gladwin.

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The Brand Story Web Marketing Process

January 15, 2009 | Author admin

The Brand Story Web Marketing ProcessBy Jerry Bader (c) 2009 If websites have one overarching goal it is to create confidence in whatever the website is promoting and who’s promoting it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a product, a service, a sales campaign, or an idea, if the presentation is not minimally credible or optimally motivational, then it fails as a means of marketing communication. Communicate to the Subconscious MindBranding is often thought of as a marketing strategy reserved for major consumer product companies, but the fact is all businesses are brands that are either cultivated so they blossom, or let go-to-seed like a garden full of weeds.Marketing neophytes often think of branding only in terms of some physical manifestation, like a logo, but a brand is the full complement of residual impressions resulting from all the experiences associated with a product, service or company. And today, the online experience is a vital venue for creating those experiences. By using video, the marketer has the opportunity to tap into the audiences’ subconscious mind, the buried remnants of both remembered and forgotten experiences; the kind of experiences that form attitudes, prejudices, and preferences that inform our decisions, most importantly our buying decisions.Where Businesses Go WrongWhere businesses go wrong is settling for only the obvious, the logical, and the rational. Brands are formed in the subconscious, so if your marketing communication doesn’t reach the subconscious mind then it is not establishing or enhancing the brand in any meaningful, effective long-term way.What video does, when done right, is communicate on both the obvious and subconscious levels, making it the ideal Web-communication vehicle for creating a powerful brand experience, but only if you understand how to use the presentation and performance elements available.Considering how powerful a tool Web-video can be, it amazes me how so many normally intelligent business people can opt for second-rate presentations. The do-it-yourself and user-generated efforts compete for the booby prize with the mindless corporate drivel – they all miss the point: a persuasive motivating presentation must communicate on multiple levels.How To Deliver A Brand StoryWe like to refer to developing, delivering, enhancing, and managing a Web-based brand, as The Brand Story Process. By thinking of your brand in terms of a story rather than just some graphical image, or nebulous mission statement, you avoid many of the pitfalls associated with ineffective branding.A story, any story, has certain fundamental elements:1. A storyline, plot or arc that moves the audience from skeptical Web-surfers to loyal customers.2. A hero, who vicariously represents the audience and their dilemma in satisfying their subconscious needs or desires.3. A villain, who represents the problems, obstacles, or challenges that confront the audience in satisfying those subconscious needs.4. An agent of change that represents your company’s ability to resolve the dilemma by providing a solution to satisfying those needs.5. And a format that structures the presentation in a series of procedural or serial video episodes, that establishes and enhances the brand image, all while delivering literal and subliminal benefits. Storyline – The Arc of TransformationAt the heart of your brand story is your marketing message and that message must invoke change: a transformation from dissatisfaction to satisfaction, and not just a presentation of features and benefits.Your brand storyline puts what you provide into context, and illustrates the achievable results through onscreen surrogates acting out the audience’s hidden agendas. A competitor can always cut your price or add new features, but neither tactic can overcome brand loyalty based on satisfying subconscious emotional needs.Hero As Brand MessengerIt’s not just the message; it’s the messenger. There is no substitute for the human being. No avatar, cartoon character, or computer-generated equivalent will provide the subtlety and nuance required to communicate on the verbal, visible, and subconscious levels.The one caveat is that real people can be ‘too real’ for their own good. We rarely recommend using company executives in front of the camera because the camera picks up all kinds of signals that the unpracticed performer is not aware of, resulting in an impression often contrary to the intended message. An uptight senior executive, no matter how well meaning, delivering a reassuring message to the public over some product liability problem can actually hurt the company’s rehabilitation efforts if that onscreen presenter is deemed untrustworthy or deceptive. He’ll Always Be Tricky DickThere are many examples of this sort of marketing faux pas, with Richard Nixon’s 1960 television debate with John Kennedy being one of the most famous. On the radio many people thought Nixon, the veteran campaigner, won the debate, but under the penetrating scrutiny of the television camera, Nixon’s true self came through. It was not just the five o’clock shadow; it was his buried true-self delivering a negative impression to the audience’s subconscious mind. The negative Nixon brand was established forever, one that wasn’t ever fully recovered.A Brand Should Never Get Old, Ill, or FatEven positive reaction to a real personality can turn out to be negative. Take the example of Steve Jobs. His keynote addresses are treated like rock star performances, but when not available to perform for whatever reason, rumors start, and even major corporations like Apple feel the effect.What you really want to create is a brand character, a spokesperson that can be managed, cultivated, and grown into a long-term brand representative, one who can deliver your marketing message and brand story in consistent, effective, and controlled campaigns.Every Brand Story Needs A VillainWhen we speak of the brand villain we are not necessarily referring to another character although that can certainly be one way of illustrating the issue at hand. As an alternative, situations or scenarios can be used to represent the problem or dilemma.Psychological issues are most often not so cut-and-dried as to be presented by the black-hat villain and white-hat hero. Engaging heroes are often tainted or damaged in a way the audience can relate to, and effective villains are not so much evil as they are representative of an alternative agenda.About The AuthorJerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit www.mrpwebmedia.com, www.136words.com, and www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (905) 764-1246 end_of_the_skype_highlighting .

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Top 5 Reasons Most Internet Businesses Fail

January 14, 2009 | Author admin

Top 5 Reasons Most Internet Businesses FailBy Mark Yarrobino (c) 2009 If you’ve been online for any amount of time, then I’m sure you’ve heard many of the success stories about internet entrepreneurs, and how they’re making millions every year, and you’ve probably heard how easy it is for you to do it, too. And the truth is, it actually is kind of easy, but not as easy as most salesmen would have you believe. There is a little bit of work involved, and anyone who’s really been successful has put in the time and effort to get there. And they’ve managed to avoid the pitfalls on this list.If you’re trying to start your online business and things haven’t gone as well as you’ve hoped so far, then hopefully, these suggestions will help. Here are the five most common reasons that most internet businesses fail that I’ve seen, in no particular order:1. Information OverloadYou’ve probably already been inundated with emails explaining how some new money makíng scheme is the hottest thing on the planet and you need to get in now so that you’re on the cutting edge of internet marketing.The problem is that you haven’t finished working on the previous hot new thing yet, and as soon as you start this one, yet another hot idea will hit, and so on, and so on.In every valid email you get, there should be an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom. Start clicking on it, and just stick with a few of the people who you know are giving you good information about building your business from start to finish in the right order without any distractions.And make sure that you see every task through to completion before moving onto the next one. It’s the only real way to get anything done.2. The Curse of PerfectionSpeaking of seeing tasks through to completion, also consider that not everything on your website and in your sales process has to be absolutely perfect before you can unleash it on the public.So many home busíness owners who are just starting out have a habit of obsessing over every little detail forever before they’ll allow themselves to launch their site.Stop it. It doesn’t have to be perfect. That doesn’t mean that you don’t need to make sure your website is working properly first. It means that you can work on adjusting small details, such as the color scheme, the sales copy, the images, later on. In fact, if you’re planning to do any proper testing (and you should be), then you should be constantly working on those items anyway.So get your website out there, get some traffic, make sure the big things are working right, and then worry about adjusting the small details. 3. Waiting for the “Magic Bullet”Let me just start by saying that there is no magic bullet when it comes to running your business, or doing any kind of work online.I know that a lot of salesmen make it sound that way when you’re reading their sales letters, but it simply isn’t true. They’re lying to you. And even if they’re not lying to you, and let’s say their system does work, it’s only going to work for a short period of time, and it’s only going to make you a little bit of money. Not the millions they’re promising.That’s why I constantly warn people away from the “business-in-a-box” opportunities. The result isn’t ever very good. Maybe you’ll make a small bit of side money, if you’re lucky. Besides, why would you want to sell the same thing everyone else is selling anyway?The only way to have lasting success online is to have a website that is unlike anyone else’s, that you’ve built up into a success, with a loyal customer base, one step at a time.4. Being a ShopaholicThis goes along with #3 above. Stop paying for every new scheme that comes along because they’re promising you instant riches. All that’s going to do is drain you of your money.And then, if you’re like so many others, there’s a good chance you’ll get frustrated and give up on the whole thing, because you don’t know who you can trust anymore, and you don’t want to take a chance. So your dream of workíng from home is over before it began.Or, maybe they’re not selling you a scam, but in fact have valid programs that many people use successfully in their businesses. That’s great, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s right for you right now. It might be something that will be a good investment for your business later on, but you should really concentrate on getting your website up and running first. Otherwise you end up with information overload as described in #1 above. 5. Fear of TechnologyJust because you haven’t tried something before doesn’t mean that you can’t learn to do it. Think about pretty much everything you’ve ever done, especially the things you’re good at. Did you always know how to do that, or did you learn it over time?I’m guessing that you learned it, and you can learn to do a lot of the work on your website, too. I constantly have to tell the people I meet that it’s in their best interest to learn at least a little bit of the technical stuff that comes with having a website.I’m not saying you have to be a programming expert. In fact, if you need heavy duty programming done, then you should definitely get someone to do it for you. It’ll save you a lot of time, for one. But there’s no reason why you can’t learn some of the basics of HTML so that whenever you need to make a small change to your website (such as the testing we talked about earlier) you won’t have to pay someone to do it for you. And you won’t have to wait for them to have the time.It’s not as hard as you think. It just takes a little time to learn it.ConclusionThe most important point I’m trying to convey is that, in order to be successful online, you need to remain focused on one task at a time. Finish that task and move onto the next one. Finish that task and move on. And keep going until you’re done.Stop investing in every fancy new program that comes along. There are no “magic bullets” anyway. Stick to the plan from the beginning, and see it through to the end.Starting a new website does require a bit of work at the beginning. There’s no way around that if you want to succeed. But the great thing about working online is that once you have everything set up, you can put almost all of it on autopilot and bring in money 24 hours a day with a minimum of work.So get started now, don’t be afraid that you can’t do it, don’t get frustrated, and don’t let anything distract you. You could be making very good money in very little time if you do it right. About The AuthorMark Yarrobino is the president of Maroon Enterprises. One of their websites, ProfitStreamFormula.com was created to help guide its members through the individual tasks of starting and completing a successful website without distraction.

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10 Best Strategies to Massively Increase Your Visibility Online

January 14, 2009 | Author admin

10 Best Strategies to Massively Increase Your Visibility OnlineBy Donna Gunter (c) 2009Increasing online visibility is the goal of most online business owners. After all, without visibility, you have no traffic and thus no business. However, when you start to research how to improve your online visibility, you discover many options, but find that there is little time for research and implementation. Where does an online entrepreneur turn first to get the visibility (and traffic) to promote an online venture? New tricks and gimmicks come out every day, but unfortunately, most of them are like so many recording artists and become one-hit wonders. In my business, I’ve discovered that there are a handful that are able to stand the test of time. Some have been around for as long as websites have been around, while others are newer kids on the block. Here are my 10 most effective strategies to massively boost your visibility online: 1. Press releases. Press releases are a well-known marketing strategy that have worked for years with print and broadcast media. In recent years they have found new life as an online visibility tool. Just like in the old days, your release should carry some newsworthy angle that has been optimized with a select few keywords by which you want your business to be found. Don’t waste your time submitting your release to the free press release sites — the release simply sits on the site and goes no where else. Instead, invest in a fee-based service (I prefer PRWeb.com), which will ensure your release gets the recognition it deserves.2. Social Networking. A “johnny come lately” to the online visibility scene, social networking now ranks near the top in terms of attracting visibility to your business for a very low cost. If you don’t yet have accounts on the two most popular social networking platforms, Facebook and Twitter, today is the day to hop on board and begin to network. Choose 1-2 social networking platforms where your target market hangs out, and then begin to work it by making connections, joining groups or networks, sharing resources, and asking questions. Dedicate 15-30 minutes each day to your effort to begin to see results.3. Article Marketing. Writing and submittíng articles to major article directories has definitely stood the test of time for online visibility. Article marketing will drive traffic to your site, establish you as an expert in your target market’s eyes, and give you valuable content to repurpose into information products. For maximum effectiveness, your article needs to contain a strong resource box (author’s bio) that drives traffic back to your site, needs to contain useful content that solves a problem of your target market, and be written in a tips-based fashion, like this one, since it is the easiest format for a website visitor to read and digest.4. Blogging. Business blogs (a web log or journal), have gained popularity over the last few years as an online visibility tool. Blogs use RSS feed technology to immediately get new posts and updates out to your blog subscribers through a feed reader. Unlike ezines or traditional websites, search engines index blog posts almost immediately, which help you generate traffic to your website. To use effectively as an online visibility tool, you need to post 2-3 times per week to keep your readers interested and coming back. 5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Optimizing your site or your blog for organic (naturally-occurring) searches has been around from the beginning of Internet marketing. Use a keyword research tool and create a listing of keywords applicable to your business. Don’t forget to add things like “how to”, “tips”, or short descriptions of your target market’s problems to your research. Then, take a look at your page titles, page descriptions, page headlines, and formatted text on a page (bolding, italicizing, underlining) and include your keywords in those areas, as well as sprinkling 1-2 keywords throughout the content of your page. Make the SEO appear to be natural, not forced, and the search engines as well as your visitors will love you.6. Email Newsletter (Ezine). Regular publication of an email newsletter (weekly is most effective) will enable your prospects to get to know, like and trust you and have you be top of mind when they are ready to solve the pressing problems that fall within your line of expertise. If you make opting into your ezine the primary call to action on your website, you continually build your list with prospective customers. Best of all, if they like what you write, they are more likely to pass along the issue to their contacts, thus increasing your visibility yet again. 7. Signature Teleseminar/Speech. Have you created your signature speech or teleseminar that you can present whenever you’re asked to speak to any type of group (face-to-face or virtual)? If not, design a signature speech or teleseminar that demonstrates your knowledge and expertise without giving away the store (focus on the what and the why but not the how) that compels your listeners to visit your website or request your client attraction device and get on your líst.Then, begin to research groups that contain your target market both in your geographic area and online. Once you’ve landed a speaking gig, strategize your best call to action for the group — do you want participants to sign up for your ezine, purchase a product, or book a consultation? Add that call to action to your presentation.8. Videos. With the popularity of broadband Internet connections, it’s much easier for almost anyone to view online video these days. And, with high-quality yet low-cost web cams, video cameras, and screen capture software readily available, anyone can make a video today. You might record a live Q&A session on UStream.com and post it on your site. Or, perhaps you want to record a “how to” tutorial using screenshots from your computer and upload that to your YouTube.com channel. Remember to include your call to action in your video so that you drive traffic back to your site. Just think — your video may cause you to become the next YouTube star!9. Expert question sites. Most people conduct online searches to find free information that answers their questions. Many online entrepreneurs are registering as experts on an expert or answers site, like Yahoo Answers or AllExperts.com, in an effort to get visibility online. To be an effective expert on these sites, you need to seek out questions that you can knowledgeably answer as an expert. Your answer needs to be very detailed and as specific as possible. The more thorough your answer, the better chance you’ll have of getting chosen as the “favorite” answer, which is the one rated highest on the site and in the search engines.10. Viral marketing. Viral marketing involves creating a marketing piece (ebook, video, software) that gets passed along free of charge from person to person. Publicity Hound Joan Stewart does this quite effectively each year when she compiles the best tips she’s written about in the previous year in a “best of” ebook compilation that she gives away free of charge on her site. She also encourages her líst and website visitors to “regift” it.You’ve got two options when you try to get online visibility: the “steady and effective over time” method or the “quick and short and probably get banned” method. I prefer to use methods that have stood the test of time and won’t result in my site being removed from the search engines. Use one or more of these time-honored strategies to get you the visibility you deserve online.About The AuthorInternet Marketing Strategist and Boomer Biz Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses that they love by demystifying and simplifying the tools and strategies needed to market and grow their businesses online. To claim your FR*EE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com . Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at AskDonnaGunter.com .

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Killer Campaigns, Making Emotional Connections

January 13, 2009 | Author admin

Killer Campaigns, Making Emotional ConnectionsBy Jerry Bader (c) 2009 We live in an age of clones: somebody makes a very profitable movie about vampires, and the next thing you know we’re all inundated with movies, television shows, books, blogs, websites, and every form of blood-sucking permutation you can imagine. CSI begets CSI Miami, which begets CSI New York, which begets NCIS, which begets NCIS Los Angeles, which is just about as much as anyone can take. If something is successful, you can be sure more of the same will follow. Despite the occasional success story, most clones either fail completely, or never live up to the success of their groundbreaking predecessors.Most of the copycats fail because the clone-masters behind them don’t understand why the original worked, and as a consequence, they clone all the wrong elements. This is as true of commercial presentations as it is with broadcast programming.Cloning a successful format is not the same as Slipstreaming. Clone marketing is just rote copying of technical elements without any reference to why the original worked, whereas Slipstream marketing takes a familiar idea and plays off it like a great jazz musician reinterprets an old standard.Kleenex “Let It Out” Campaign: Recognizing The Emotional Value PropositionWhat is more generic than facial tissue? A consumable paper product that you use once and discard; it is the very definition of a commodity, and as we all know commodity-sales are primarily based on price. Enter Kimberly Clark, one company that has managed to turn their commodity product into the industry standard to the extent that the commodity itself has become known by Kimberly Clark’s designated brand name – Kleenex.The Kleenex, “Let It Out” campaign is just one example of a company that recognizes that in order to turn their commodity product into something of higher value, they have to link it to what we refer to as “an emotional value proposition:” the implied psychological or emotional connection between the product and the consumer.The original series of Web videos was housed on a dedicated video microsite. The series of videos showed a casually dressed interviewer with an engaging personality asking people to sit down on a couch in the middle of a busy street to chat about some significant emotional moment in their lives. Some people talked about their children; one woman even discussed Katrina and the impact it had on her. People cried, and people laughed, until tears came to their eyes, at which point, the interviewer handed each person a Kleenex: Kleenex and emotions go hand-in-hand. Let It Out, the concept was brilliant. The following version was created for television; it is a compendium of clips from various videos, and as good as it is, it doesn’t have the same emotional power of the Web video versions that concentrated on each person’s emotional response to the interviewer’s questions. It’s good, but not as good, but it does serve to illustrate the point. Unfortunately the individual videos are no longer available.

Kleenex “Let It Out” TV Commercial

Everything in the commercial works: the interviewer’s manner and personality, the visual imagery of the couch in the street, and the memorable music message. It’s all good, very, very good.On The Other Hand…Rogers Communication Inc. is a large Canadian communication company that provides digital cable TV, high speed Internet, and mobile phone services. Their primary competition would be Bell Canada.In order to promote their new Home Phone service Rogers initiated a series of commercials featuring a man on the street interviewing people passing by, asking them to compare their phone service to their competitors. They used a red and blue couch in the street with the red side of the couch representing Rogers and the blue side representing Bell. They handed each person a blue phone and asked them to call a friend or relative; then they handed the person a red phone representing Rogers, and asked them to call the same person. Then the interviewer asked them to compare the service, which according to the commercial was the same. The difference of course was in the price.Anyone who has seen both campaigns could come to only one conclusion, and that is the Roger’s commercials were patterned after the Kleenex, “Let It Out” campaign. Did it work? Take a look.

Rogers Home Phone Campaign

On a very superficial level, the commercials are eerily the same, both have a couch in the street, an interviewer, and a passerby; but on an emotional and psychological level, they are as far apart as you can get. Kleenex tied the use of their product to people’s most personal feelings, their response to emotional reminiscence, while Rogers relied on price only. Their service isn’t better, it’s the same; it’s just cheaper so the ad says. The Kleenex interviewer is courteous, interested, and responsive, while the Rogers representative is glib, and a bit smarmy.The Technique and Why It WorkedThe Kleenex campaign works for all kinds of reasons, the most important of which is that it engages the audience with an intriguing visual presentation that resonates on a psychological level by providing an emotional value proposition associated with their brand. On the other hand, Roger’s value proposition is price.You may say, price is important, but pricing tactics are a dangerous game. Competitors aren’t just going to sit back and let you drive them out of business. If you fire a price missile across your competitor’s bow, you can bet they’ll respond, and that’s exactly what Bell did.Whoops!By not understanding what Kleenex had done in their campaign, and not following Kleenex’s precedent by associating their brand with an emotionally resonant value proposition, they laid themselves wide open to a slipstreamed response by their competitors, who created a campaign that riffed on their imagery, and one-upped them with an alternate price comparison.Rogers AdvertisementBell AdvertisementConclusionIf a commodity product like facial tissue can become a major brand by employing marketing strategies that emphasize their emotional value proposition, then so can your product or service. Delivering a marketing message based on it’s underlying emotional value is a better strategy than price and feature selling, a tactic guaranteed to be short-lived. Features are forever being added and prices are continually under competitive pressure, but emotional relevance is sustainable.For many companies, it is very difficult for them to see the emotional value their offering brings to the table, but the conceptual basis of any effective marketing campaign starts with discovering that underlying human connection your product or service has with its audience. About The AuthorJerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design and marketing firm that specializes in Web-video Marketing Campaigns and Video Websites. Visit www.mrpwebmedia.com, www.136words.com, and www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (905) 764-1246 end_of_the_skype_highlighting .

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Microsoft vs Google: Game On or Bing results too”Spammy”?

January 7, 2009 | Author admin

Microsoft vs Google: Game On or Bing results too “Spammy”?By V9 Design & Build (c) 2009 It didn’t look too promising at the launch but Bing has been constantly in the news ever since. Some say the results are better than Google, even going as far as suggesting Google is all but finished. I don’t agree. On one of the search engine forums I often comment on, one of the moderators had this to say on the subject: “But overall this confirms my sense that Google, having abandoned the business model that got it to the top, viz. fast no frills search, in favour of added features and buying up other companies, is becoming increasingly fat and complacent, and along the way their search results are becoming less relevant.”Now, I have to say that I had a small run-in with this guy as he supports everything Microsoft does, from its browser to its operating system and now to its new “decision engine”. So when he writes – “I’ve been using Bing lately and I’m finding a lot of advantages over Google. These are early days yet but this is the first emerging search engine that may provide a real threat to Google’s dominance – something I for one welcome,” – I’m a little suspicious. There’s plenty of supporters out there giving online commentaries on Bing’s progress. TechCrunch.com, for example, analyses its early success by saying: “Microsoft sites’ average daily penetration among US searchers reached 16.7 percent during the work week of June 8-12, up 3 percentage points from the May 25-29 period (which was prior to Bing’s introduction) and up over 1 percentage point from its first week.”However, on webpronews.com following its launch, Matt Cutts, Google’s spokesman and soothsayer, was reported, rather scathingly I thought, to have tweeted: “Matt Cutts: Congrats to @bing on the launch! Sad to see this not-so-relevant result at #4 for [matt cutts] though.” And then: “The #5 Bing result for [matt cutts] is spammy too.” Interesting that one should search one’s own name to find out if the results were “spammy”, but nevermind.So, I did a little research on the subject of my own and tested my web turf to find on “web design bangkok” Bing returned very poor results, spammy even, with “Luxor Bangkok the Egyptian Design Hotel” and “Bangkok Metropolitan Administration” being placed in the top ten.However, there is a site that offers users the opportuníty for us to choose for ourselves. Just go to bingdevelop.com and type in any search term you are unfamiliar with and see which search engine results you would choose. Select say ten of them. You are presented with randomised results from Bing, Google, and Yahoo placed in a three-column set. You don’t know which one is which at this stage until you make your choice. As a test, take a look and select the one you think delivers the best results.I tried 10 searches for terms I’m not at all familiar with and Google came out on top in all but one. It did surprise me after my original test on my own search terms that Bing was very close on all of them.For Matt Cutts to comment as he did in the wake of Bing’s launch, indicates Google is not too comfortable with Microsoft’s re-emergence into the search engine marketplace. For me, though, I am much happier to accept Google’s results as the test bore out. Others may be switching to Bing already, but I am not. I then looked for commentary – they’re ubiquitous these days – and found money.cnn.com had run the headline: “Bing vs. Google: Consumers Can’t Tell a Difference”. Oh, but I think they can, I thought. While it’s true that on wider, more unfamiliar search terms the two are very close indeed (my own findings were “seo consultant” – Google, but Bing very close; “manchester city t-shirt” – Google because it returned MCFC official site; “polar ice caps melting” – Google again but Bing almost identical; “bank bonuses uk” – Google, as it had reports from BBC, Guardian, etc. but Bing again very close), Bing still has its teething problems.So as I read the plethora of reports and opinions being spun as to whether Bing is better than Google, I wonder what drove them to that conclusion. Like that of the forum moderator, perhaps? But I’m sure he was being honest with himself about his choices. It’s just a matter of why he would choose a different set of listings to me. It can’t be just because he’s a closet fan of Microsoft; the three engines are hidden until one is selected and I can vouch for his integrity.However, Bing’s campaign, or spin, however you look at it, seems to me to be communicating that in order to get “relevant” information, you should choose Bing over Google, with its grandiose promise of being a “decision engine”. Which is what, exactly? Another one of Microsoft’s tricks to decide matters for me? As if Word wasn’t frustrating enough at doing that already.Maybe the differences are far too subtle for me to notice. Or just maybe the Luxor Bangkok the Egyptian Design Hotel is not the place I would go to find a web designer in Bangkok. But the moderator, of course, had the final say: “I was a big Google fan for a long time, but increasingly I find myself going to Bing first and only to Google if Bing doesn’t deliver the goods. There’s no question that Google still has more web pages indexed than anyone else. But if they can’t find better ways of sorting through them they are going to crash. They can’t count on brand loyalty forever. For those of you old enough to remember Alta Vista, I am reminded of their rapid and total fall from grace when Google launched. Nothing is forever on the net.”My findings are that they are very similar and certainly not enough to make “Google crash” just yet. Personally, I don’t believe this is yet Bing’s time until they tighten up their results. I agree with Mr Cutts that right now Bing is just too, how do you say again, “spammy”. About The AuthorV9 Design and Build produce tasteful web design in Bangkok, Thailand, including ecommerce shopping cart solutions, with functionality that allows owners to set up and maintain their online stores.

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