Simple Ways Internet Marketing Can Work For You

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What do you know about internet marketing? Do you have a marketing plan? If you do, do you wish to improve upon it? It's what you're using working with your business or against it? Are you sure you are marketing properly? If you cannot answer these questions confidently, look at the tips below. If you are using an email to communicate with your customers, make sure that it is a professional email account. You would not like the feeling of getting an email from someone you are contacting for work from an email from a free email site. Get an email that is tied to your website. Offer two versions of your product so that it can appeal to a wider range of people. You should have a basic version and then a premium version that is a bit more expensive than the first. People like to believe that they are getting exclusive things so a lot of people will go for the more expensive. Starting a blog for your online business will help you to have discussions with your customers. Readers will be able to comment on your articles. Those who comment on your articles are potential customers. Comments are great, and will help you to be able to discuss things with your customers or potential customers. You do not have to keep your audience spellbound, but you do have to keep them interested. To do this, make sure your content is always constructed in an entertaining way. There's nothing wrong with a little bit of humor or a personal account about how this product or service you're pushing has affected you. Join your local chamber of commerce. Membership here will allow you to meet and interact with other business owners and you can possibly strike up a few joint ventures. The chamber of commerce is also a great place to find out local information that you can use to your advantage. Create a personal connection with your reader. Your online marketing materials should be written in first- or second-person to make the site visitor feel that the email or article is written specifically with their interests at heart. It also brings your brand down to a more human level, rather than a large, faceless corporation. You may be an amateur Internet marketer, but your efforts need to appear as if they're professional. If you do not know how to build a website or to construct correct product descriptions or landing pages, outsourcing this work to a qualified expert will ensure that people take your brand seriously. An important tip regarding Internet marketing is to be sure that you understand what other companies occupy the same market space as you. This is extremely important because before you can even begin to develop your marketing plan, you need to know what your competition is up to. Then, you can base your plan around either filling in gaps left by other companies, or showing how your product is better. If you want to be successful in internet marketing you need to be able to back-up all the claims that you say on your website with indisputable evidence. Some of the things that you can do is to add third party test studies or testimonials from reputable sources. Being able to build trust from your consumers is very important. Now that you've chosen a banner design for your website, you have to decide if you're going to use single-site advertising or network-wide advertising. With single-site advertising, you find sites that relate to your product but are not in direct competition with it. In most cases, you then pay them a specified CPM amount, usually ranging from two to five dollars. With network-wide advertising, you join an advertising network that can feature your banner on select product-related websites or on all of the websites in the network. This method can set you up with banner ads on dozens to hundreds of different websites. Are you more informed when it comes to internet marketing? Do you have a new plan or do you have a better plan now? Can you now promote your business better? Do you know how to properly market your site? With any luck, the tips above should have created better answers. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Sales Tip: Always Be Closing (ABC). The one simple rule that will help increase your sales.

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I don't know who came up with the phrase, "Always Be Closing" but it's brilliant. In sales circles it's known more simply as ABC. If you are in sales, this simple catchy phrase will help keep you on track to making sales. Here's some insight into sales and how to increase the number of sales YOU make. Buyers like to get the sales person off track. They like to ask questions, lots of questions. They ask: Does it come in blue? What's the guarantee? Buyers like to stall, hedge, avoid. They say: I have to ask my wife. I want to look around. I think I can get a better deal somewhere else. Buyers like to know that their business matters, that they are getting some personal attention to earn their business. But sales people, know the ABC's of sales - Always Be Closing. Smart, successful sales people know that happy customers and good sales people go hand in hand. They know that spending a little extra time with a serious buyer, or creating a personalized offer can be exactly what is needed to clinch a sale. The buyer wants their questions answered so they can make the decision to buy. The smart salesperson wants to answer those questions and move the person ever closer to buying. My colleague, Dr. Jeffrey Lant talks about the sales dance. He likens the sales process to a type of courtship. The sales person approaches, the buyer is shy, aloof. The sales person comes closer, offers the right words, and assurances. The buyer plays hard to get but shows interest. The sales person is more engaging, tries harder with a better offer, always moving toward the close. ABC - Always be Closing means this: Answering relevant questions, eliminating obstacles to the sale being made, helping with payment plans, reassuring the buyer, making special offers, sweetening the deal, whatever it takes to get the sale. Closing the sale means finding out from the customer, what it will take to get them to buy NOW, not next week, or next month. The best sales people are listeners. They listen to what the buyer wants and they determine a way to get it for them so the sale is made, today. You can HEAR someone who wants to buy, if you stop talking long enough to listen. ABC means doing your job right so the customer gets a great deal and you make a great sale! Most of us have been on the receiving end of a poor sales person, and we also remember that warm happy feeling when you've made a purchase that you feel good about. We like to feel special, a good sales person can make that happen or alternatively with the wrong approach can make you walk away. Happy customer's who feel they got a good deal can be a repeat customer or a customer for life. Unhappy customers help you learn what you could perhaps be doing better. The right approach with an unhappy customer can convert them into a happy one! In fact, they may end up being your best customer because they see you actually cared and tried to make better a problem situation. Got a sticky note? Write ABC on a sticky note, and post it on your computer. It will help remind you when you are talking to a customer, or answering an email, or sending a quote, or posting an offer, remember to Always Be Closing. *** We invite your comments below. About the Author Sandi Hunter is the Director of Website Development at Worldprofit Inc. Worldprofit provides a number of services for the small and home-based business community including hosting, design, webconferencing, traffic, advertising, SEO, safelists, traffic exchanges, training and resources. This year Worldprofit marks their 20th year in business. Republished with author's permission by John Silva http://InstantComputerBiz.com.

Free Internet Marketing

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Many people who are interested in making money online wonder if they need to take an internet marketing course. The truth is that there are many free internet marketing resources online where you can learn the ins and outs of online marketing for nothing. There are forums you can visit to learn pretty much anything you will ever need to know about building a successful business on the internet. This free internet marketing information will not cost you a penny. The only downside to this strategy is that you never know how accurate the information you are getting actually is. This is hardly the most time effective way of building an online business because you will have to put all the information together piecemeal. So, if you have the money and want to speed up your learning curve, I suggest getting an internet marketing course. Before you go out and buy one, though, there are some things you should keep in mind. First, before you invest your hard earned money in any course you want to make sure that the techniques you will be taught actually work. Many things that used to work online are now outdated and either do not work like they did before or they do not work at all anymore. Pay per click is one perfect example. When it first came into play you could get a lot of traffic for very little money. Today PPC has become so competitive and so complicated you can lose a lot of money quickly if you do not learn the process inside and out. Just make sure the course you choose is up to date with all the information it offers you. Another important consideration is the format the course uses. We all have our preferred ways of learning. Some of us learn by reading, others learn by watching a video, still others learn by listening to an audio book, and of course, some learn with a combination of all of these methods. When considering any given course, make sure that it will make your learning process quicker and easier by highlighting the way you like to learn and are most comfortable with. You also need to find out what type of support you will have access to. You will undoubtedly find you have a question during the course of the training and you will want to get that question answered as quickly as possible. If you don't have someone who you can turn to with questions you might as well have just stuck with the free methods we discussed earlier. Make sure that there are qualified instructors who can help you out if you ever get stuck while going through the course. There are a lot of courses around today and it's important that you take your time to find the best course for you. But, if you have the time and not the budget go ahead and find the free internet marketing resources that will teach you to build a business online. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Motivate New& Return Business For Your Web Site

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Once you get your online business up and running and get traffic going to it, it can be pretty easy to manage. This ease of management is one of the big selling points for owning an online business. Simple oversight and a little work every day can keep it running smoothly, earning you a consistent income. While this is how it is most of the time, this is not necessarily true for every internet based business. Sometimes you will need to Motivate new business for your web site in order to keep it going. This can be a bit of a challenge since you still need to stay true to your original business model, but you also need to keep things fresh and entice people to visit your website and buy your product. There are three things you can do to help you out with this. 1: Play into desire. People want what they want. People will also be willing to part with a fair bit of cash if it can get them what they want. So as a business owner, you need to try and give them what they want. If you can feed into this desire, you can keep them coming back for more. If your current business model is not cutting it, try to branch out to similar products that people may desire to keep your business going. 2: Enjoyment. Another way to Motivate new business for your web site is to show potential customers that they can enjoy the product they buy from you. It does not necessarily have to be enjoyment in the sense of a child playing with a toy, but if you are selling say... self help books. Then make them think they will get a lot out of your product and thus enjoy purchasing it since it gives them what they want. As stated above, desire is a powerful motivator, does not hurt to try and make them desire your product. 3: Fear. A common and effective method is to invoke a little fear. If you read through websites trying to sell you a product, you might pick up on a little scare tactic going on. It plays into the human psyche in making them feel as if they need something. By making them think they will lose something by not buying your product, you make them more willing to buy your product. Obviously this does not mean to intimidate them, it is all about wording, as you probably noticed from other websites. Trying to Motivate new business for your web site can be a bit tricky since it means you have to expand, or at the very least find new ways to promote your product. These three tips may or may not work given what exactly you are selling, or maybe you already follow them. But for those of you who can utilize these tips, they can provide you with a means of increasing sales. There are still many more methods out there for you to use as well, so whether these work or not you should still seek out more ways to build up your business. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Internet Marketing Consulting Is A Business Of Its Own

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An internet marketing company is expected to provide a wide array of services for their clients. From designing and building up a website to Search Engine Optimization and marketing. But what makes the difference between an average internet marketing company and a highly successful one is what you do beyond these standard services. As someone working in internet marketing it is only natural you provide those services, but you can also offer Internet marketing consulting to your clients. Offering consultation is a great way to build a rapport and make a name for yourself, and it can really make a difference in the level of success you see. Some things to keep in mind are the following. 1: Provide worthwhile content for free. Depending on how far you have gotten with your internet marketing business, you may or may not know that it is strongly advised to offer a free gift to attract people to your business. But it does not have to stop there. You can offer tidbits of information on your product and related products, inform your clients and make yourself known as a trusted source of information. If they can trust you and feel you know what you are doing, they will be more inclined to purchase your product. 2: Sell your experience and knowledge. Not all people will necessarily need or want to buy the exact product you are selling. In these situations, offering Internet marketing cosulting can be a great way to sell something they might need. If you are successful and know what you are doing, why not sell that? Offer to help them get their business where they want it to be. They may not want your product, but they may be willing to buy your experience. 3: Work with local companies. Building off the previous tip, marketing yourself to local businesses can be a great way to build up your business and theirs. Go in and offer to work with them or teach their staff if you have something to offer. In today's economy every business needs a strong online presence, selling your services to help them make a strong presence can be a great boon to your own success. 4: Keep learning. There are always new things to discover, new methods that prove effective, new ways of doing things. It is important to not become complacent. Eventually you will run out of things to teach, and what then? Not only does it help you with your Internet marketing cosulting for other businesses, but it can help your own as well. If you are constantly learning new tricks and ways to build up your business you will always be at the forefront of success. These tips are not the be all end all of consulting. As the fourth tip says, there are always new things to discover. The internet is always changing and while these tips can give you a good foundation to springboard yourself into the thick of things, you will have to work to discover what works best for you and your potential clients. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

So Many Affiliate Programs! Which One Do I Choose?

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Ask questions first before you join an affiliate program. Do a little research about the choices of program that you intend to join into. Get some answers because they will be the deciding point of what you will be achieving later on. Will it cost you anything to join? Most affiliate programs being offered today are absolutely free of charge. So why settle for those that charge you some dollars before joining. When do they issue the commission checks? Every program is different. Some issue their checks once a month, every quarter, etc. Select the one that is suited to your payment time choice. Many affiliate programs are setting a minimum earned commission amount that an affiliate must meet or exceed in order for their checks to be issued. What is the hit per sale ratio? This is the average number of hits to a banner or text link it takes to generate a sale based on all affiliate statistics. This factor is extremely important because this will tell you how much traffic you must generate before you can earn a commission from the sale. How are referrals from an affiliate?s site tracked and for how long do they remain in the system? You need to be confident on the program enough to track those people you refer from your site. This is the only way that you can credit for a sale. The period of time that those people stay in the system is also important. This is because some visitors do not buy initially but may want to return later to make the purchase. Know if you will still get credit for the sale if it is done some months from a certain day. What are the kinds of affiliate stats available? Your choice of affiliate program should be capable of offering detailed stats. They should be available online anytime you decide to check them out. Constantly checking your individual stats is important to know how many impressions, hits and sales are already generated from your site. Impressions are the number of times the banner or text link was viewed by a visitor of your site. A hit is the one clicking on the banner or text links. Does the affiliate program also pay for the hits and impressions besides the commissions on sales? It is important that impressions and hits are also paid, as this will add to the earnings you get from the sales commission. This is especially important if the program you are in offers low sales to be able to hit ratio. Who is the online retailer? Find out whom you are doing business with to know if it is really a solid company. Know the products they are selling and the average amount they are achieving. The more you know about the retailer offering you the affiliate program, the easier it will be for you to know if that program is really for you and your site. Is the affiliate a one tier or two tier program? A single tier program pays you only for the business you yourself have generated. A two tier program pays you for the business, plus it also pays you a commission on the on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsor in your program. Some two-tier programs are even paying small fees on each new affiliate you sponsor. More like a recruitment fee. Lastly, what is the amount of commission paid? 5% - 20% is the commission paid by most programs. .01% - .05% is the amount paid for each hit. If you find a program that also pays for impressions, the amount paid is not much at all. As you can see from the figures, you will now understand why the average sales amount and hit to sale ratio is important. These are just some of the questions that needed answering first before you enter into an affiliate program. You should be familiar with the many important aspects that your chosen program should have before incorporating them into your website. Try to ask your affiliate program choices these questions. These can help you select the right program for you site from among the many available. CPP_author John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Turn Your Customers Into Friends Using Social Media Marketing

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If you don't know what social media marketing is, your first step should be to spend some time on Facebook and Twitter. Once you understand what these sites are all about, you can begin the journey to getting your business in line with them. This is going to be very important for your business if you want to expand in the future. Use Facebook as a way to develop relationships, not customers. If you are only logging on to Facebook to post another ad for your business, you are going to get disliked quickly, but if you log on and add interesting snippets of information about your community, you will get many likes quickly. If you are using social media to market like Facebook or twitter you must be very careful about any content that you post or that is posted on your page. Because you are instantly and at ask times connected to your customer base any minor our maitre snafu can cost sales. If your online presence involves any kind of a blog, make sure you update your Facebook page immediately after the blog is updated. This can draw Facebook users to your blog or website, and leaves no lag time between your blog post and garnering attention to it. As soon as you post a blog entry it starts aging, so getting the word out on Facebook immediately takes advantage of the fresh and relevant content. To spark feedback and activity in your social media marketing, run polls with interesting questions. Facebook has a good feature for this. Polls often go a little viral within social media, but also serve as good conversation starters with your subscribers and followers. It can also yield treasure troves of statistics you can use to target your demographics better. To make the most of social media marketing, respond to questions and comments in a very timely manner. You do not want to sit at your desk refreshing your inbox 24/7, but you do want to check in multiple times per day if possible. Anyone asking questions is either a loyal customer you want to retain and get more business from, or an interested prospect who might open their wallet if you give them some personal attention. If your social media marketing campaign involves Twitter, get the most followers you can. The number of Twitter followers an entity has, is now a serious measuring stick of importance in today's world. Companies always love seeing that their Twitter feed has more followers than their competitors and are quick to point it out to their customers. You should too. If your social media marketing involves a Twitter account, automate certain kinds of content. If there are bloggers or news sources within your niche that you trust, and whose posts are consistently interesting, automate your account to retweet their posts. Also set up something where your best Tweets are periodically retweeted so they do not sink out of sight. Having your business set up online with social media is becoming an essential for all businesses. If you haven't done it already, this article has shown you how you can become part of this online world. Your business can see a lot of increase in interest and sales just by using this one marketing trick. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Hidden Content Marketing Benefits You Didn’t Know About, or Was Afraid To ASK

RE: Hidden Content Marketing Benefits You Didn’t Know About, or Was Afraid To ASK

Hi,

“Start content marketing. It works.”

Sure, that’s good advice. And if your advisor is generous or in content marketing nirvana (either will do) she continues with telling you why you should start content marketing now.

More sales (= more money), more traffic to your website, more email subscribers, more leads. And the “more” is endless. Or so it seems.

So you start content marketing. The benefits you’ve been told and keep reading about are “nice-to-haves.”

But could that mean you’re missing out on other benefits of content marketing? Is it always all about more money, more subscribers, more traffic, and more leads?

No. That’s the short answer. The following benefits of content marketing tell you more... Read the whole article here.

Cheers,

Joao

% Jeff

PS. You may also enjoy these...

How I Used Marketing Automation (and Twitter) To Grow My Email List By 10,000 New Subscribers

Live Streaming 101 for Social Media Marketers

Mistakes Bloggers Make When Building an Email List

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Guest Writer.
wait for it...
...wait for it......

How Can You Improve Web Site Traffic

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Everyone in internet marketing is searching for ways to improve web site traffic. It is the juice that keeps your online business alive. While it's true that competition is fierce when it comes to traffic, it is also true that there are several effective ways of doing so. Some are expensive and some are inexpensive (or even free) so you can choose the ways that fit your time and budget. Keep in mind that generating traffic is an ongoing process and that there are constantly new ways to do so on the fast-paced web. First of all, before you start looking for ways to actually go out and find traffic, make sure that your website is set up so that traffic can find you. In order to do this, you must have a properly SEOed site. SEO (search engine optimization) is a way to get the search engines to like you. And if the search engines like you, they will reward you by moving you up in search rankings. And if they move you up in search rankings, you will get more traffic to your site. On the contrary, if the search engines don't like you, they will even penalize you and move you down in ranking. The concept is simple, but the practice is more complicated. SEO is basically comprised of two elements: keyword optimization and backlinks or incoming links. The search engines determine how relevant your site is based on the keywords that you use in its content. So, if you place the keywords that you are trying to target in the right places, and the appropriate frequency (not too much and not to little), then you are off to a good start to improve your web site traffic. Backlinks are even more important when it comes to SEO. Search engines use backlinks to determine how popular you are. A backlink simply means a link from another site (ideally a highly-ranked site) to your site. When search engines realize that other quality sites are linking you yours, they will reward you by raising you in ranking. This is because they assume that your site must be worthy if others are linking to you. There are many ways to get backlinks to your site: social bookmarking, article submission, website directory submission, manually requesting the links from webmasters, and, of course, the most natural and essential way, of just providing unique and valuable content on your website. This will ensure that others will link to you because they genuinely find your site appealing and would recommend it to their visitors as well. You can go through the SEO process yourself or you can hire an adept SEO professional to make sure that this important aspect is taken care of. There are many other ways to improve web site traffic and they include promoting your website link on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, relevant online forums, in blogs, with PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, online classified advertising, ezine advertising, article marketing, and more. They all work and they all work well. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Turning Your Ambition Into Internet Marketing Gold

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Have you ever wondered how some businesses got to be so successful on the internet? Their success did not come by luck, but it came by knowing how to market effectively on the internet. You can also gain that knowledge. Find out some of the things that these marketers did to achieve success. A great internet marketing tip to increase the amount of visitors who will purchase your products is to reword headlines and testimonials in order too see what type of information gets better results. Try rewording titles and headlines while including the same information to see which ones work better than others. Use Email marketing effectively. If you allow your customers to sign up for a mailing list, you are going to be able to attract them back to your site by emailing them the latest products and sales. You can even include a special discount to them for signing up to receive the emails from your site. Try including small free products when your customers buy something from your website. You can use buttons, bumper stickers, window decals, pens, etc. Go with products that you can put your name or logo on so that they remember where it came from and other people can see where it came from as well. If you are attempting to promote a product, service, or business using a web site, create a "news" page about your business. Having a press release up on your site, especially if you post new ones on a regular basis, will increase your search engine visibility and make your site seem more up-to-date to visitors. Use terms like "guaranteed" and "money back," in your marketing campaigns. Customers like knowing that you stand behind your product enough to offer a guarantee that they will be satisfied. It will also help people who are on the fence about purchasing your product, go ahead and take the leap, since they feel they can return it if they aren't happy. Mention the address of your website in your voicemail greetings and include it in your email signature lines. Get the word out to people that you have a web page. Prospective customers have more trust in companies that have online presences and it allows them to see who you are before they even talk to you. When you are trying to use internet marketing for your small business, you should take a look at the content of your site. You want make sure that the information will grab the attention of prospective customers. So, try to add new content often, to prevent people from becoming bored of your site. As you can see, there are many things that you can do to give your internet business a boost. It will take time, effort, and some trial and error. However, if you keeping learning about internet marketing techniques and applying what you have learned, like what you have learned from here, you will achieve the success that you are looking for. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

How To Pick a Legitimate Home Business Opportunity

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You've seen the emails, the offers, the promises and the claims. Everyone it seems has a way to help you make money online. But how do you know who you can trust? How do you know what system works? How do you protect yourself? The fact is that you CAN earn money online from legitimate sources, here's what to look for when picking an online business opportunity. Products or Services with actual value Many companies including large companies like Amazon and ClickBank offer what is known as an Affiliate marketing program, or sometimes called a Reseller program. This allows you to promote a company's products or services and earn a commission when a sale is made through your website link. The key in knowing what is legitimate is to be sure you are actually promoting a real product, or a digital product, or an actually service. Beware of selling anything that seems without substance, and has no real market value. An example of something suspect would be getting paid to recruit people into a program who have not paid any money to do so. All business online and off works when there is an exchange of money for a product or service. Pyramid schemes exist online and off and are an example of focus on recruitment into a program rather then the sale of an actual product. In the case of a pyramid scheme, and example is someone paying to join a program but receives no product or service of REAL value in return. In short, make sure that you are actually selling something of value. Customer Service and Support Legitimate companies that sell actual products and services will support or service what they sell. In other words, good companies will have a Customer Support Department, or a Service Department or Technical Support division to assist customers who have either bought a product or intend to do so. Reputable companies offer this support in any number of ways, online chat, support forums, Twitter, Facebook, telephone support, or online support. Time in business Legitimate business opportunities most trustworthy are often those that have stood the test of time. On the web it is very easy to set up a company, sell questionable products and services, then disappear into the night when the business practices come into question. When picking an online business opportunity select a company that has been around for at least a few years. Companies that continue to exist are usually those that demonstrate an interest in keeping their customers happy, are accountable, and adhere to policy and legislation that permits them to provide a product or service. Reputation When picking a reputable business opportunity people will often look to review sites for feedback from others. This can offer you some interesting details about what people think about a company and how the company responds to complaints. In reading the reviews though keep an open mind knowing that no company exists without complaints against it. Good companies that you would want to associate with, are those that try to address customer complaints or resolve issues brought to their attention. People with an axe to grind will sometime post negative reviews and hide in the anonymity of that post. So be smart when reading review sites, and look for dates, patterns or themes and try to separate the intelligent comments from the less helpful and questionable ones. Look before you leap When you decide on which business opportunity you wish to join, be sure to take your time and read over what you are agreeing to before you sign on the dotted line or hit the submit button. Determine what your up front cost is, your monthly cost (if any), your ongoing cost? What happens if you want to cancel, is there a guarantee, or is there any long term obligation or a penalty for cancelling? Find out how your sales will be tracked, how often will you paid, for which services and how will you be paid. In summary, here are 5 questions to ask yourself for any company you are considering for a home business opportunity. 1. How long has the company been in business? What is their reputation? 2. What is the product or service you will be selling? What is the value in the market place? There should ALWAYS be a product or service being sold. 3. What is the initial cost to get started in the business? What do you get for that amount of money? What are the ongoing costs? 4. What kind of support or service will you receive as an Affiliate Marketer or Reseller for the company to help you make sales? What kind of support of service will the people you refer receive when they make a purchase? 5. How much money are you paid by this company when you make a sale, how often, and how will your sales be tracked? These questions and information contained within are a guideline to help you make a smart decision about an online business opportunity that is right for you. One final bit of advise. Once you have found a company to represent be sure to be realistic about your earnings and accept some responsibility for your own success. At the end of the day, your success comes down to you, and your efforts. It won't matter what business opportunity you select if you don't take the time to learn about the program, learn how to market online, and make an honest consistent effort to build your own success. I hope this has helped you so you can select one or more legitimate companies and you can join the growing population of people making money at home using the power of the web. About the Author Sandi Hunter is the President of Worldprofit Inc., a company providing training and support for small and home based business since 1994. Services include home business training, reseller programs, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today. Republished with author's permission by John Silva http://InstantComputerBiz.com.

Tips for Effective Page Design

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Tips for Effective Page Design While we won’t be going into the technicalities of creating a Facebook Page, we will look at some critical tips that you should keep in mind when designing it. • Customers come first. You need to make sure that you are designing your page with your customers in mind, which means that every component of your page should offer them value. • Don’t overdo it. While you may be tempted to add every application under the sun to make a cutting edge Facebook page, a little restraint is in order. Remember that you want your brand to stand out and applications should only add to the experience, not take the spotlight off your business. • Staying on topic and updating. You need to make sure that whatever you post on your Facebook Page is relevant to your business. So, if you are promoting an internet marketing product, you shouldn’t be posting about your love for sushi. Likewise, if you continuously update the content on your Page, you are giving fans a reason to come back. So, make sure that you are always posting fresh content. • Brand yourself as an authority with personality. First of all, your Facebook Page advertises your business to the world, so you need to be seen as an authority in your industry. Therefore, make sure that your content showcases your expertise. At the same time, Facebook is a social media site which means you need to let your personality come through a little. While having a little fun is great, make sure that you still act professionally, though. • Feedback is critical to your success. The biggest mistake you can make is to overlook the feedback you receive through your Facebook Page. In fact, you should be encouraging it by posting surveys, polls and through discussions. It is highly valuable because it can be used to improve your business and it’s all for free. However, the most critical aspect of an effective Facebook Page, as with any other presence you may have on the web is posting relevant and interesting content. The more you update with interesting content, the more reasons people will have to visit your page, become fans and then return. Your job doesn’t end once you have built a following. It only begins. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Converting Your Regular Twitter Followers Into Lifelong Customers

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Let's jump right in and talk about how you can use Twitter to conduct your market research. Every business has a target market, but the simple fact is that many business owners often miss the mark because they don?t know the true needs of their market. By using Twitter, you can easily listen to the needs of your prospects, the issues they are currently facing and the kind of help that they want. Whenever you meet someone new on Twitter it's a good idea to try to establish a good relationship from the start. Think like your customer. You buy from people who you trust and like. Your target market also behaves the same way. It is important, especially in social marketing that you get to know your clients and do your best to win their trust and confidence. A good rule of thumb is to try and keep ninety percent of your tweets full of helpful content and try to limit your promotional ones. By doing so, you can attract more followers and hopefully customers. In order to show off your expertise on Twitter you will want to post quality content on your blogs, website and other sites, like article directory EzineArticles.com. Then share them with your followers. There are a wide variety of tools that work with Twitter that will automatically check the blogs you?ve posted and share them instantly on your page. Offering educational materials, seminars, video training and networking events will also go a long way when you are trying to convert your followers into paying customers. As a matter of fast I recently came across a great website that allows you to stream live video on your Twitter page and chat real time with your followers, so if you're not camera shy, plug in your webcam! This will be a fantastic way to make an instant connection for you and your peeps. You can find out more here: http://twitcam.com There are so many different techniques that you can use to help the transition from follower to customer by using Twitter. Just remember to keep the value of your content high and the volume of your promotions low and you will begin to see real results from your efforts. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Take Advantage Of The Reach Of The Internet With These Marketing Tips

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Your Internet business makes all its sales on the unseen highways and byways of cyberspace. If you are young, you may be quite comfortable with this. If you are older, this may be daunting. Either way, these tips can help you find your way through cyberspace to arrive at success. Include free items in packages you ship to customers to compliment the sale and polish their image of your business. Everyone loves freebies and something as simple as a refrigerator magnet or free sample will add immeasurable value to the impression you give your customer. Their positive perception of you equates to another order, a good referral and increased sales. Unless your advertisement is integrated into a video or another audio device someone is using, don't use sound. Scaring away your target audience is easy when you physically scare them with an advertisement with audio. A better way to get someone's attention is to use bright colors or moving objects in an audio-free ad. Have a unique selling point. In all of your marketing materials, especially on your site itself, make sure that prospective buyers know that you are different from everyone else in your field. Tell them why you are different; you can even do a comparison table showing them the ways you surpass your competitors. If you have already come up with a great name or idea for a product or service that you want to market on the internet, you should go ahead and find the domain name for the website. These are very cheap to hold, so if you wait too long, it may be already gone. Internet marketing is the most effective form of marketing today. With the availability of the internet to so many people in the world today, information put out online is available to the largest audience ever. The cost per view is minimal and by making ads available to search engines, sellers can target buyers looking for their products easily. It's well known that writing articles with unique content is an effective online marketing technique. However, knowing how to format those articles to make them appealing to potential buyers is another matter. Studies have shown that people tend to skim online articles. So how can you use this information to your advantage? Write articles with bulleted lists, emphasize key words or phrases by capitalizing or underlining them or by using bold or italicized letters, use subheadings and keep your paragraphs short and to the point. In order to be successful in internet marketing you need to have the support of your consumers. A good way to get their support is by asking them how much they are willing to pay for your product. Cater to what they want and ask them what they think is fair. When creating banner ads to market your online product or business, disguise them as text or article headlines rather advertisements. This is easiest to do if your ad copy already resembles an article. Readers are more likely to click to read the rest of an article based on a headline, than they are to follow a banner ad. A great internet marketing tip is to complement any copy of product descriptions with corresponding pictures. If you have a site with just written descriptions people will not be able to visualize themselves with the actual product. Including pictures gives customers and idea of what it would be like to own the product. After reading these tips, we hope you are more comfortable with navigating the vast expanse of cyberspace. In order to optimize your business' sales, you will want to keep exploring: finding new marketplaces and websites, and checking on what your competition is doing. Internet marketing is, after all, an adventure as well as a business! John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Reach Customers Efficiently With This Mobile Marketing Advice

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A mobile marketing campaign is a great way to reach a large amount of people with very little money or time invested. Most people now own some type of mobile device, including cell phones and tablets. Integrate your mobile marketing efforts with your other marketing plans. By having mobile marketing blended with online or print marketing, you present a consistent message to your customer or client base. At the same time, allowing your customers to perform the same activities via multiple channels such as mobile applications or web sites further increases the value of your customer interactions. Enhance your text messages with other forms of communication. Make use of multi-channel marketing. One form communication isn't enough for today's audience. Each style of communication has its own set of pros and cons. This is why it is best to use more than one. Try sending direct mail, e-mail and a text right before something important happens. Have a goal. Do not start a mobile marketing campaign until you know exactly why you want to have one. You may want to have extra revenue or draw in more readers, but whatever the reason, you need to track the information you receive to find out if your program is really successful. Let customers give you feedback. Some mobile marketers have outgoing only messaging, meaning that a customer cannot text them back without going through a lot of hassle. Let your customers talk back to you to improve the focus of your plan, and know if you may need to do something differently. Develop an app. Apps are programs for mobile devices that interact with customers in many different ways. They provide easy access to your business through the program the customer installs on their phone. Make your app useful and appropriate to attract the most attention and downloads from your current and potential customers. Make sure your customers know their business is appreciated. Give them special offers, discounts based on hallmark goals or even a simple thank you note. They need to know you value their business or they may take it to someone who will go that extra step. Keep your material clean in order to keep your brand clean. Sending out raw, unfiltered material, even if you think it's worthy of attention, can be detrimental to your mobile marketing efforts. Things don't have to be outlandish to draw attention. They just have to be worthy of someone's time. If you often have great sales or give-aways, consider using SMS to get the word out. Text messages shine in their ability to cut through the clutter of an otherwise busy, application-filled mobile device. The messages usually trigger a pop-up notification on the system, making SMS a terrific choice for getting the word out about a sale that can't be missed. But be careful to only text message customers who have signed up to receive them, as many people feel SMS mobile marketing is invasive. It could have the opposite effect than your intent. You should expect mobile marketing to grow since the use of mobile platforms keeps increasing. Within the next few years, most people will own a smartphone. The best way to take advantage of this trend is with a solid mobile marketing strategy. By using the these tips, you will be ahead of your competition and in position to effectively promote your products through this new form of marketing. Good luck with your mobile marketing campaign. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Internet Advertising Cost-You Get What You Pay For

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Many new internet marketers find themselves asking the question "How much does internet advertising cost?". And the answer ranges from. . ."It's free" to "It's very expensive" depending on what type of advertising you are using. It's important to remember that free advertising doesn't necessarily mean low-quality, especially when it comes to internet advertising, but it does mean that you will pay in the amount of time that it takes rather than with a sum of money. Free or low internet advertising cost methods include article marketing, blogging (on a free blogging platform), participating in any of the social networking sites or forums, placing free online classified advertising, using safelists or traffic exchanges and more. Article marketing means creating informational articles that your target audience would be interested in reading and acting upon and submitting them to various content sites like EzineArticles, HubPages, Squidoo, etc. This type of advertising builds up your credibility, expert status and can get you ranked higher in the search engines. You can set up a blog at Blogger.com and promote your business there. Setting up a profile at Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or any of the other hundreds of social networks is a way to be seen and establish relationships with potential customers. Getting traffic to your blog, profile or answers on forums requires that you participate with other members of the network in a social way. Being too promotional will not win you any points with your audience and it may even get you penalized by the network itself. Doing advertisements on free online classifieds allows you to do more hard-core promotional (less social) advertising. When it comes to Safelists and Traffic Exchanges, the key is to come up with a short headline that compels whoever sees your ad to read further. When it comes to paid internet advertising, pay per click (PPC), ezines (online magazines) and banner advertising are three popular choices. Pay per click can be very cheap, or it could be expensive. It all depends on how much you bid. If you have a low budget, you will want to bid low and on uncompetitive keywords (terms that people aren't searching for very much). Luckily, it's easy to find out what the uncompetitive keywords are in any of the search engines that you advertise on. They will provide you with the tools that help you identify keywords. Once you start getting some traffic and making money, you can gradually start to bid more on the keywords. Ezine advertising prices vary greatly as well. The price you pay for advertising on an ezine depends on the size and quality of the subscriber list so you will need to research the best ezines and possibly go through some trial and error before you find some that consistently perform. Banner advertising is a way to promote your products on other sites that are ranked well in the search engines and not direct competitors. The internet advertising cost for this depends on the site that you choose as well. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Here's How To Avoid The 3 Most Common Affiliate Mistakes

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Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective and powerful ways of earning some money online. This program gives everybody a chance to make a profit through the Internet. Since these affiliate marketing programs are easy to join, implement and pays a commission on a regular basis, more an more people are now willing in this business. However, like all businesses, there are lots of pitfalls in the affiliate marketing business. Committing some of the most common mistakes will cost the marketers a large portion taken from the profit they are making everyday. That is why it is better to avoid them than be regretful in the end. Mistake number 1: Choosing the wrong affiliate. Many people want to earn from affiliate marketing as fast as possible. In their rush to be part of one, they tend to choose a bandwagon product. This is the kind of products that the program thinks is ?hot?. They choose the product that is in demand without actually considering if the product appeals to them. This is not a very wise move obviously. Instead of jumping on the bandwagon, try top choose a product in which you are truly interested in. For any endeavor to succeed, you should take some time to plan and figure out your actions. Pick a product that appeals to you. Then do some research about that product to see if they are in demand. Promoting a product you are more passionate about is easier than promoting one for the sake of the earnings only. Mistake number 2: Joining too many affiliate programs. Since affiliate programs are very easy to join, you might be tempted to join multiples of affiliate programs to try and maximize the earnings you will be getting. Besides you may think that there is nothing wrong and nothing to lose by being part of many affiliate programs. True, that is a great way to have multiple sources of income. However, joining multiple programs and attempting to promote them all at the same time will prevent you from concentrating on each one of them. The result? The maximum potential of your affiliate program is not realized and the income generated will not exactly be as huge as you were thinking initially it would. The best way to get excellent result is by joining just one program that pays a 40% commission at least. Then give it your best effort by promoting your products enthusiastically. As soon as you see that it is already making a reasonable profit, then maybe you can now join another affiliate program. The technique is to do it slowly but surely. There is really no need to rush into things, especially with affiliate marketing. With the way things are going, the future is looking real bright and it seems affiliate marketing will be staying for a long time too. Mistake number 3: Not buying the product or using the service. As an affiliate, you main purpose is to effectively and convincingly promote a product or service and to find customers. For you to achieve this purpose, you must be able to relay to the customers that certain product and service. It is therefore difficult for you to do this when you yourself have not tried these things out. Thus, you will fail to promote and recommend them convincingly. You will also fail to create a desire in your customers to avail any of what you are offering. Try the product or service personally first before you sign up as an affiliate to see if it is really delivering what it promises. If you have done so, then you are one of the credible and living testaments aware of its advantages and disadvantages. Your customers will then feel the sincerity and truthfulness in you and this will trigger them to try them out for themselves. Many affiliate marketers makes these mistakes and are paying dearly for their actions. To not fall into the same situation they have been in, try to do everything to avoid making the same mistakes. Time is the key. Take the time to analyze your marketing strategy and check if youa re in the right track. If done properly, you will be able to maximize your affiliate marketing program and earn higher profits. CPP_author John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

For Successful Marketing Understand Your Target Market

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Before you can do any good advertising your product and service or undergo any decent marketing campaign you have to know your target market. In the world of internet marketing you need to be able to know as precisely as possible all the information you can gather so you can custom tailor your marketing mix to be more effective. You will need to know about their demographics. On any online marketing campaign you need to know who it is that you are reaching out to. What does your ideal customer look like? How old are they? What income bracket are they in? Where do they work? Where do they socialize? What are their buying habits? The marketing strategies that you incorporate are going to use all this information. Fortunately it doesn't take much to find out much of this. If you are targeting a certain geographic area, use the internet to find out as much demographic information as possible. In the US use the chamber of commerce for that area. For your market targeting you will also need to know about their geographic location. What is the culture there like. Get familiar with ti and find out what things are typical for that region. Make sure you find out not only what marketing strategies are popular but find out also what things are taboo. What may seem harmless to one region may be a death sentence to your marketing strategy if your marketing research doesn't find this information out. You also need to see what other factors might affect the buying decision and behavior of your target market. What styles are in fashion for your target markets? What type of climate is it? Are they freewith their money? It may seem like a lot of work but if you want your marketing plan to work, all of this research is going to pay off. The most important part of your marketing research will be understanding your customers needs. The more you understand this, the better able you will be to create an ad campaign. This will help bring about some effective branding of your product and services as a viable part of their buying pattern. Your best way to find out about your target market, though, is to spend time where they are. If your hope is to have a coffee shop, you are going to want to see first hand what works and doesn't work You will want to know what the atmosphere is like in a successful coffee shop and spend time talking to customers to find out what they like and don't like about it. The same thing is going to be important for any online marketing plan. Wherever it is that your potential customers go to find out more about what you are trying to offer them, go and spend time there. If there is a forum that is used by those who typically are interested in your product or service, be a member of it or spend time reading what is going on. Get in the shoes of your target market and find out what it is like to be them. The more you can understand them, the more effective you will be a marketing to your target market. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Turn Your Customers Into Friends Using Social Media Marketing

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If you don't know what social media marketing is, your first step should be to spend some time on Facebook and Twitter. Once you understand what these sites are all about, you can begin the journey to getting your business in line with them. This is going to be very important for your business if you want to expand in the future. Use Facebook as a way to develop relationships, not customers. If you are only logging on to Facebook to post another ad for your business, you are going to get disliked quickly, but if you log on and add interesting snippets of information about your community, you will get many likes quickly. If you are using social media to market like Facebook or twitter you must be very careful about any content that you post or that is posted on your page. Because you are instantly and at ask times connected to your customer base any minor our maitre snafu can cost sales. If your online presence involves any kind of a blog, make sure you update your Facebook page immediately after the blog is updated. This can draw Facebook users to your blog or website, and leaves no lag time between your blog post and garnering attention to it. As soon as you post a blog entry it starts aging, so getting the word out on Facebook immediately takes advantage of the fresh and relevant content. To spark feedback and activity in your social media marketing, run polls with interesting questions. Facebook has a good feature for this. Polls often go a little viral within social media, but also serve as good conversation starters with your subscribers and followers. It can also yield treasure troves of statistics you can use to target your demographics better. To make the most of social media marketing, respond to questions and comments in a very timely manner. You do not want to sit at your desk refreshing your inbox 24/7, but you do want to check in multiple times per day if possible. Anyone asking questions is either a loyal customer you want to retain and get more business from, or an interested prospect who might open their wallet if you give them some personal attention. If your social media marketing campaign involves Twitter, get the most followers you can. The number of Twitter followers an entity has, is now a serious measuring stick of importance in today's world. Companies always love seeing that their Twitter feed has more followers than their competitors and are quick to point it out to their customers. You should too. If your social media marketing involves a Twitter account, automate certain kinds of content. If there are bloggers or news sources within your niche that you trust, and whose posts are consistently interesting, automate your account to retweet their posts. Also set up something where your best Tweets are periodically retweeted so they do not sink out of sight. Having your business set up online with social media is becoming an essential for all businesses. If you haven't done it already, this article has shown you how you can become part of this online world. Your business can see a lot of increase in interest and sales just by using this one marketing trick. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Tweet & Tweet Often!

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When it comes to writing tweets, don?t spend a lot of time worrying about whether it?s creative enough, witty enough, or interesting enough. Once you have become an active member of the twitter community, you?ll find it easier to think of entertaining and useful tweets, and will also be able to respond to ongoing discussions from those you follow and who follow you. For now, post whatever?s on your mind. Working on a website? Post about it. Perhaps you?ve found an interesting website or news story, post about it. The idea is to simply post enough so that you become comfortable with the twitter system, and more importantly, so that your profile page shows activity before you start inviting people to follow you. Once you?ve posted your first tweet, it?s time to start following people on twitter, so that you can build up your twitter presence, and encourage people to follow you in return. Don?t just sign up and blast out ads every few minutes expecting to achieve anything but annoying those on your list. Take the time to talk to people individually by directing messages to specific people, post useful information or links to free products and resources that people in your various niche markets would appreciate. Just like anything else you need to develop a reputation on Twitter as being someone who is interested in helping others, while developing your own Twitter presence. A great thing about Twitter is the ability to quickly locate other people who are involved in your target market, or industry. For example, if you are looking to find people to interview who may be experienced in specific things, you can find many people who are involved in nearly every topic and subject online. It's like a rolodex of the entire online business industry, and as Twitter continues to grow, more and more people are jumping on board, so expect to see Twitter evolve and change to improve their system and add more interactive, productive features that will make it even easier for use to reach out to other users. Posting subtle little updates about your current projects, websites, blogs and products is an easy way to keep people up to date on what you are doing, even people who otherwise might not know who you are, or what you do. The way you present your updates, and the frequency in which you do it, (avoiding Twitter spamming) is critical in staying current and helping your brand become memorable, and noticed by the community. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Maximizing LinkedIn For Your Business

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LinkedIn is no doubt the most known social networking site for professionals. It has more than 120 million users and this places it among the top social networks overall. Joining LinkedIn can help you find more customers, referral partners, contact a mentor, raise your popularity and more. It is a networking and a business tool that can help you find a lot of new businesses. If you want to use LinkedIn effectively, here are the ways that you might want to know. Get your profile attractive! One way to do this is to edit Your Profile and claim your vanity URL. Having a more professional profile will make it easier for you to share. A URL with too many confusing numbers or letters at the end is not recommended. You can get your vanity URL by editing your profile. When you go to your profile, you can go down on the right hand side and customize your public profile URL. Then make sure that you change the default anchor text in your profile. It is important to make the anchor text links more appealing to people who check your profile. When they view your profile, make sure that you have a catchy anchor text link. By changing the link?s anchor text to something more value oriented, the clicks on the website link will surely increase. Customizing the anchor text link to your blog is a very important thing that you should remember. Using your keywords, this can invite more views to your profile and blog. Every profile in LinkedIn can display 3 website links. Make sure that your website links are customer focused. Make your profile SEO optimized. This means you must make your profile more visible to people by using key terms which you want to be associated with. Optimizing your profile is a good way to get more views. Just use keywords in different sections in your profile including the headline or summary. Don?t forget to use ?save searches? to your advantage as well. When you create a free account in LinkedIn, you are allowed to create up to 3 saved searches. When you conduct a search, you can click the ?save this search? option. This will then save the search and allow you to run it easily again later. Receiving weekly or monthly reminder via email is also possible. This can happen once new members in the LinkedIn network match the criteria you saved. Clicking the ?saved searches? tab on the Advanced Search options page and choosing your saved searches will allow you to run the same searches you did before. Use applications to your advantage. LinkedIn features an application directory. One of the most famous applications on LinkedIn is SlideShare. This application links your blogs to showcase presentation and blog articles on your profile. Another application that you might want to add is the Events. It is a great way to know and find the popular events that your connections are attending to. Be updated on what people are saying. One of the most helpful pages on LinkedIn is the Signal page. You can track what people are saying on any topic that you want to track. Just go to News then select Signal and enter your search. This will allow you to follow updates and provide you the results in real time. Send messages as well to people who you?re not yet connected with ? but could give you an edge if they?re among your connections! Do this by opting for OpenLink. On LinkedIn, you can send messages to people whom you are connected. A first degree connection is required in order to send messages. However, you can also send messages to people whom you are not connected by using OpenLink. To become a part of OpenLink network, you need to have a premium account. By being a member of OpenLink network, you can be available for messaging by any other LinkedIn member if they choose to be. You can identify OpenLink members as they appear with an icon that looks like a small ring of dots next to their name on their profile. Always check your network updates. This is an essential key to connecting and engaging your network so that your online presence is increased. Network updates can be found on your LinkedIn homepage. The Network Updates are kind of similar to the news feed on your Facebook. You can always know what your connections are doing and sharing by checking a quick glance at it. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Advantages of Link Building Programs

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You can go about building links to your website manually, hire someone to do it for you, or you can take advantage of link building programs. The first method can be very cheap in terms of monetary value, but very expensive in terms of precious time. This is why many look into the latter options of either hiring a service to handle this aspect of their business, or using one of the link building programs or software, or both. It's not a bad idea to start out doing things on your own at first, so you can obtain a general understanding of how it all works. But as you go on, you may very well decide that you are ready to invest in some sort of help for your link building. When you are going through the slow and tedious process of manually gathering incoming links throughout the internet, you will likely realize that your ability to efficiently maximize your website's success potential is limited. How will you compete with the sites that have thousands of links if you can only do yours one at a time. The answer is you can patiently do it and just wait out the years that it will take you, or you can seek a faster way. Link building programs come in different shapes and sizes. They offer different time-saving aspects in regards to your link building efforts and many of them are even free. Here are just a few of the ones that are around today. Link Building Solutions offers a one-way link building plan which is rather unique, and it is also free. Only high-quality websites are accepted into the network and the program currently has 173 of them. It works like this: each qualified member of the program agrees to link to other members within the same program, but these are only one-way links. These sites that you link to do not require a link back. The HandSubmit One-Way Links Program has been around since 1998 and prides itself on doing modern-time business with old-fashioned ethics. All the web sites included in the program are genuine, and backed by hard-working marketers. The company's motto is "Old-fashioned service on the new frontier." This program costs $175.00 earch year. Link Dominators is a program that sells you one-way links for 13 cents each. It also posts content on your behalf on various blogs, pings, and submits RSS feeds. Another tool is called the Fast Directory Submitter, and this too is free. With this tool, you put in your site profile and description just one time and then submit your site to over 2,000 directories. Comment Kahuna, also one of the free link building programs, allows you to semi-automate your posts on blogs. You can choose your blogs with the help of the software's rank displaying feature so that you only choose those that are of a certain rank, or on a certain platform. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Seo Ranking Tool-Things Change Online Quickly

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Things change online... quickly and often. It seems like there is an ebb and flow to various things. For example, a few years ago it seemed that everyone was talking about building lists, then it was link building and today it is turning more to seo. In order to get the most out of your seo you want to use the best tools. Finding a good Seo Ranking Tool isn't as hard as you may have thought. With any type of marketing you want to be able to track your results. If you can't, how can you tell which things are working and which things aren't? Without that information you may be spending too much time or money on ineffectual practices. So, you need to use whatever tools you have at your disposal to do just that, hence the need for a quality Seo Ranking Tool. The nice thing is that you can get most of the tools you will need for free online. As a matter of fact one of the biggest search engines around will provide this information to you for free. All you need to do is check out what analytic s services Google has to offer. It is totally free and all you need to do is copy and paste a little bit of code onto your website. You can then login to your dashboard and find all kinds of information that will make it easier for you to track your successes, or failures, when it comes to your seo campaigns. One very important element to seo are back links. It's not just a matter of getting as many links as you can, it's also about getting quality links. But what is a quality link? Well for now, until it is changed, quality means that the back link comes from a site that has a high ranking and is considered an "authority" site in the search engine. It also means that the site is relevant to your site. So, for example, if you have a site about training dogs and you get a back link from a site that specializes in selling dog accessories that would be considered relevant. These factors will increase the amount of "link juice" each one of these back links has. In effect it's more about quality than quantity. You can have fewer of these high quality links or you can work harder to get a greater number of less valuable links... it's up to you. Just these two tools can make it easier for you to closely monitor your efforts. Whether you are paying someone else to do your seo for you or you are doing it yourself, you must be able to find out what is working and what isn't. Otherwise, you will waste valuable time or money... or maybe both. There are many quality, and free or low cost, tools that will help you out with your seo. Just find the right combination of Seo ranking tool available to you and use it. That will ensure that you get the results you want as quickly as possible. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Engaging Your Audience, Growing Your Boards By Running Contests

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Today we are going to jump right in and talk about engaging your audience, growing your boards by running contests. As we well know the purpose of Pinterest is to allow people to "pin" photos they find on the internet or upload from their computers to their virtual pinboard's. This powerful social network makes it easy for anyone to organize collections, share ideas and even product pictures, so that consumers can find and share them with others. To ensure that you are engaging your audience and growing your boards you can do several things, including launching a Pinterest contest. Running a pinning contest can be a great way to promote your pins, boards and especially your business. There are many types of contests you can run on Pinterest including "pin it to win it,? ?best photo contest? or ?re-pin/like contest.? The first thing to consider is what type of contest you're going to run? - Will it be a good fit for your business? - Will it help raise brand awareness and engage consumers? - What type of prizes will you give away? - How long is it going to last? It's important to have a good idea of what results you would like to achieve by running the contest. This will help you prepare properly and achieve your goals effectively. Now let's go over a few different types of contests you can run: - Pin To Win Contest Is this where you have your contestants create a board specifically dedicated to your contest. On this board you will instruct them to pin specific images. They can be photos of your products or images related to a certain theme topic. The most creative board wins. Kraft Food's recently did this in their "Pin It To Win It" recipe contest. This is a very good example of how to run a popular contest on Pinterest. You can find the entries by doing a search on Pinterest with the term #kraftrecipes (notice how they used the hashtag) or by going to: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/promotions/pinterest-rules.aspx The contest is over now, but you can still use it as an example. - Photo Contest This is where your contestants pin images of themselves actually using your products in a creative way. Then you have your site visitors and other pinner's vote on the most creative images. The contestant with the most votes wins. - Repining Contest This is where contestants are asked to repin specific images and write descriptions using specific hashtags. This type of contest can help jumpstart the viral nature of your pins by utilizing Pinterest's ?repin? feature as a means to enter. It can also be the most effective in building brand awareness, because the winner will be the follower who repins the most. - Comment Contest This is one of the simplest types of contests to run. This is where contestants are asked to leave comment on a specific pin. You can have them include the hashtag or answer a question and the most informative comment will win. This type of contest is quick, easy and allows anyone to enter. Not to mention, generates a lot of interest. Here are a few quick tips that will help ensure your contest will be a big success: - When getting ready for your contest be sure to post clear, easy to follow rules for your contestants. - Include a start and end date for your contest. - Monitor every phase of your contest carefully. Keep track of entries to ensure everyone is entering correctly and not breaking the rules. - Give a prize that your contestants will really want to work for to win. To - Consider giving first, second and consolation prizes to your finalists. - Make it's easy to enter. A social media contest should be simple and not require lengthy forms or mail-ins to enter. This will only deter people from participating. As of now, Pinterest doesn't have any formal rules pertaining to running contests or sweepstakes, but before you begin your contest you want to make sure that you are complying with your state?s rules and regulations regarding sweepstakes. If you decide that running a contest on Pinterest will be a good fit for your business, but you're not quite sure where to start you can always visit the site and look at ongoing contests from other Pinterest users. This way you can watch what works and what doesn't so that you can plan your own contest more effectively. TIP: Use the search term "#contest" Truly, there's no doubt that you can use Pinterest to help promote brand awareness, create buzz and attract more customers, so why not make it fun by hosting your own Pinterest contest. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Take Your Internet Marketing To The Next Level With This Advice

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Here are some of the great things about Internet marketing: you can be your own boss! You can make your own schedule! You can set your profit limits yourself. Some of the best techniques have been included here to help you make the most of all of the benefits of Internet marketing. Unconventional advertising on the internet may be very useful. For instance, you could create a YouTube channel where you demo your products for all to see. Not only does this let your potential customers comment and rate your product, but it can also create a closer bond between you and your customers. They will feel they are closer to your company and will return for more products. Review sites, such as Yelp, should be monitored to aid customer satisfaction programs and hone marketing messages. If people are praising a certain aspect of your brand, you can strengthen this aspect in your online marketing, and if they are criticizing a certain aspect, you can address this through PR reach-out efforts to these specific users and/or future online marketing strategies. When it comes to Internet marketing, it is best to avoid overt sales talk. One of the quickest ways to drive your visitors away is by coming across as a pushy salesman. Instead, provide valuable information to your visitors that allows them to decide to buy on their own terms. For example, a high quality review of a product that outlines the pros and cons will allow someone to decide to purchase it on their own without feeling pressured. Figure out where the traffic to your site is coming from. It is important to get to know the customers who are interested in your products. There are many tools available that will help you examine your traffic. It is worth investing in a program that will tell you detailed information about visitors, so that you understand how to market to them in the future. Domain names highly influence where your site is ranked with the search engines. Search engines pay a lot of attention to the authority of the domain name. It is best to use a name that has history and is popular. If you are new, you can purchase an expired domain name with great history. Add an email newsletter to your Internet marketing strategy. Keep in touch with your customers regularly by sending them a periodic newsletter with updates and interesting information. This helps you maintain a relationship with the customers you have worked so hard to cultivate. It also provides them a way to contact you to offer valuable feedback. If your marketing website includes sound, be sure to provide convenient controls for people who are at work or simply prefer a lower volume. Sound can be great for grabbing someone's attention, but if it becomes annoying they may simply browse away from your page and you will lose the customer. Participate in online discussion forums related to your niche and include a link to your website in your forum signature. This activity can get you lots of quality backlinks to your website which can increase your search engine rank. You may also get a lot of relevant visitors to your website from the forums. You can start a small business, however only you can keep building on its foundation until reaching the particular success goals you set for you. Building a strong Internet marketing company takes time, patience and persistence. As you learn some crucial tips on the subject, you will be able to create different campaigns with relative ease. All the luck to you when dealing with your internet marketing business. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Internetmarketing For Small Business-A Way To Define Your Market

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So, what is Internetmarketing for small business all about? It is about defining who your target market is and then creating a relationship with that target market. Once you do this then the sky is the limit for you and your bottom line. Start your Internetmarketing for small business by taking some time to think about who it is that will buy your product or service. Then think long and hard about how you can get the word out that you are the best provider of that product or service. To get people to your website you need to be visible online. To get visible online you need to be optimized to the search engines. This is the best way for those people who can benefit form your wares to find you. Once they find you you need to grab their attention and then strive to do all you can to keep their attention. This is where you might run into some difficulty if you are not set up right. Make sure that you have an opt-in form on every single page of your website so when potential customers find you they can fill in the blanks with their contact information. Once you have their contact information you should be able to follow up with them on a regular basis so they continue to remember who you are and that you have what they need. Offer a free report of some kind relating to your niche or product or service when they sign up so they are getting something of value from you right off the bat. Don't just expect them to come running to you when they get to the point of making a purchase. You must cultivate this relationship and the best way to do that is to have an autoresponder set up. What an autoresponder does is keep in touch with your email list every week or so, whenever you choose to have the emails sent out so you can cultivate the relationships. People will more often buy from someone they know. It is said that it takes seven separate "meetings" for someone to think they know someone else and to trust them and the things they have to offer. Especially when it comes to making purchases online. An autoresponder will help you do that. Say you want to send out emails to your list every week. What you have to do is sit down once a month and write out four separate emails. Include things like discount offers or coupons to entice your readers even further. Then enter them into the autoresponder and they get sent out when you have chosen each one to go out to your list. Easy. You will have to pay something every month for the service of having the autoresponder but it will increase traffic to your business exponentially and you will hardly notice the cost at all. This is only one aspect of Internetmarketing for small business. There is more to learn and master but always strive to keep in touch with your email list so they can come to you when they need you. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Taking Your Business To The Next Level With Internet Marketing

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No individual or organization can ignore the power of internet marketing. It is an essential element of a successful venture, whatever that venture may be. Tips such as the ones listed in this article, will help you get started on a successful, dynamic internet marketing campaign for yourself or your business. If you want to receive direct response from your internet marketing, you must position a call to action. Many novice internet marketers will lean on general brand marketing when they first get started. While there is definitely a place for brand marketing on the internet, if you really want someone to take an action, you must position the action you want them to take, along with the means in which they will take it. This call to action can be as simple as, "Book your trip today" along with a button that brings them to a page where they can complete the action. Setting goals and maintaining a system to keep track of your goals, will enable you to plan for success. Understand what the goals for your website are and how they fit into your overall business plan. Keep record of how each strategy takes you closer to your goals so you know what is working for you. If whatever you are doing has not brought you to your goal, be realistic and try something else. Not everyone involved with internet marketing is looking for a partner, but getting a partner might just be a great way to improve your overall profile. You won't have to work with this person as a legitimate business partner, but teaming up with another site owner can help you increase your web presence through their market. Keep up on your email list maintenance. To be successful in email marketing, your email list needs to be as clean and strategic as possible. Look for emails that have bounced repeated times and remove them. Mark the emails of customers who have been dedicated purchasers of your products so you can send them emails aimed specifically at them. You will find your email marketing will be more successful with a clean list. It is smart internet marketing strategy to maximize the variety of payment methods the business website offers to its customers. Different payment systems have different costs. Research in the business's niche will show which systems are common for the business's products and these should be supported from day one. More unusual payment methods that come up through customer feedback, should be investigated and taken advantage of if they look profitable. Create a blog that is directly linked with your website. This increases awareness of your brand, and is a separate, creative avenue to link to content on your site. A blog with your company's name means you automatically have a second search result that relates to your business. Finally, you can join a professional blog community and contribute intelligent comments to other sites, which increases web exposure to your links across the web. To promote your business with internet marketing send out a press release. This may sound like an old fashioned approach, but press releases are still effective online. You can set up a mailing list for your website to ensure that those interested will get relevant notifications. Search for bloggers with similar interests who will be interested to know about your business and might help spread Internet word of mouth. Pay attention to the advice listed in this article. Because of the ever-growing necessity of internet marketing, it is more important than ever before, to ensure that you stay focused and organized in your future marketing endeavors. The power of internet marketing has been established and with the right advice, you can successfully enact online marketing strategies. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

How To Avoid Getting Your Adsense Account Terminated

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Google, being the undisputable leader in search engines from then until now, is placing a high importance on the quality and relevancy of its search engines. Most especially now that the company is public property. In order to keep the shareholders and users of its engines happy, the quality of the returned results are given extreme importance. For this same reason, doing the wrong things in the Adsense and other forms of advertisements, whether intentionally or unintentionally, will result in a severe penalty, may get you banned and even have your account terminated. Nothing like a good action taken to keep wrongdoers from doing the same things over again. So for those who are thinking of getting a career in Adsense, do not just think of the strategies you will be using to generate more earnings. Consider some things first before you actually get involved. Hidden texts. Filling your advertisement page with texts to small to read, has the same color as the background and using css for the sole purpose of loading them with rich keywords content and copy will earn you a penalty award that is given to those who are hiding links. Page cloaking. There is a common practice of using browser or bot sniffers to serve the bots of a different page other than the page your visitors will see. Loading a page with a bot that a human user will never see is a definite no-no. This is tricking them to click on something that you want but they may not want to go to. Multiple submissions. Submitting multiple copies of your domain and pages is another thing to stay away from. For example, trying to submit a URL of an Adsense as two separate URL?s is the same as inviting trouble and even termination. Likewise, this is a reason to avoid auto submitters for those who are receiving submissions. Better check first if your domain is submitted already an a certain search engine before you try to submit to it again. If you see it there, then move on. No point contemplating whether to try and submit there again. Link farms. Be wary of who and what are you linking your Adsense to. The search engines know that you cannot control your links in. But you can certainly control what you link to. Link farming has always been a rotten apple in the eyes of search engines, especially Google. That is reason enough to try and avoid them. Having a link higher than 100 on a single page will classify you as a link farm so try and not to make them higher than that. Page rank for sale. If you have been online for quite some time, you will notice that there are some sites selling their PR links or trading them with other sites. If you are doing this, expect a ban anytime in the future. It is okay to sell ads or gain the link. But doing it on direct advertisement of your page rank is a way to get on search engines bad side. Doorways. This is similar to cloaking pages. The common practice of a page loaded with choice keyword ads aimed at redirecting visitors to another ?user-friendly? page is a big issue among search engines. There are many seo firms offering this kind of services. Now that you know what they actually are, try to avoid them at all costs. Multiple domains having the same content. In case you are not aware of it, search engines look at domains IP?s, registry dates and many others. Having multiple domains having the same exact content is not something you can hide from them. The same goes with content multiplied many times on separate pages, sub domains and forwarding multiple domains to the same content. Many of the above techniques apply to most search engines and is not entirely for Google only. By having a mind set that you are building your Adsense together with your pages for the human users and not for bots, you can be assured of the great things for your ads and sites. Not to mention avoiding the wrath of the search engines and getting your Adsense and site account terminated altogether. CPP_author John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.

Where To Find The Best Free Blogging Platforms

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There are a lot of questions out there today about blogging and all of the things that this trend has to offer. If blogging is something that you want to get into, then you don't have to look any further. This article and the tips inside can help you build and maintain a successful blog. Since blogs are written on a more personal level, you should avoid writing in formal tones. This will make it easier for the reader to relate to you on a personal level. This will keep your readers coming back later on to read more of the blogs you write. You should be adding new content to your blog on a daily basis. If you want to keep your site prominent with the search engines, then you must be continually post new entries. Make sure that what you write is actually useful, not just a lot of fluff to say that you made some kind of entry. Think of your blog posts as travelers. When you have clicked the publish button, the blog post will continue to survive on its own. Your blog post then becomes a traveler. Try giving your posts what they need to deal with any harsh conditions, along with good instructions on how to prosper online. Having active commentary on your blog is an effective way to maintain traffic. This is because comments are content just like blog articles. Readers will revisit your blog not only to read new articles, but also to see if anyone has left new comments. You can encourage commenting by asking questions and inquiring about your readers' perspectives in your blog articles. Responding to comments also encourages commenting. Try participating in some online group projects. Attempt to do some collaborative writing challenges online. You can do things like guest blogging, or even writing some e-books. It can be a very productive learning experience. It's also great for promotion and it can help you experiment with various writing styles. Be sure to use a dictionary when writing content. There are many online, or even desktop-based dictionaries out there that you can use. This can be very useful when searching for synonyms or other words. Brushing up on proper English can be beneficial to both native speakers and non-native speakers alike. Link building is a great way to traffic to your blog. In order to generate enough quality links you need to submit your blog to web directories like DMOZ, Aviva and other blog directories. Doing this creates incoming links which help your site get spidered, indexed and ranked higher by search engines, all of which drives more traffic to your blog. No matter the blog type you want to create, the tips from this article have provided you with ideas that you can use towards maintaing a successful blog. Just be sure to apply all of what you learned from this article to the best of your ability and you should have many people following your blog before you know it. John Silva is the Owner of http://InstantComputerBiz.com. Check us out anytime for marketing tips and a free subscription to our cutting edge newsletter.