Smart advertising |e-commerce

Archive for January, 2010

Six Common Pitfalls Of Article Marketing

If you’re not seeing the results you want with your article marketing campaign you may be falling prey to any of the common mistakes people make. We’re all pressed for time these days and it’s easy to discount the importance of things like providing unique content using good spelling and grammar and avoiding black hat SEO tactics. But the fact that your time is so precious should make it all the more important to you to use that time wisely by producing articles that are more likely to be published around the Web. To do that you’ll want to avoid these six common mistakes.

In your rush to get as many articles as possible out there in the world you may be tempted to resort to using a PLR private label rights article or other regurgitated material slap an about the author box on it and send it on its way. This is a big mistake.

Publishers want unique compelling articles filled with information their readers can’t find in thousands of other places. Reputable article distribution services such as Article Marketer will not even distribute PLR articles and other duplicate content. Do yourself a favor and write something original. If you just don’t have the time hire someone else to do it for you. The money will seem well spent when you see the results of your efforts.

Good content is virtually worthless if it’s full of spelling and grammatical errors. Running a spellchecker software is a good start but for real accuracy you need to enlist the help of a human. Having someone else read your articles is a great way to catch mistakes. If no one is available to help you walk away for a few hours or even a few days and come back and look at it with fresh eyes. You will catch little errors you missed the first time.

Avoid being too salesy. Remember what publishers are looking for: informative engaging articles that capture readers’ interests and help them in some way. If you want to post an advertisement you’re going to have to pay for the privilege. The only advertising you should ever do in an article marketing campaign is in the about the author box. That’s your opportunity to sell yourself.

Don’t act like spam. Underhanded tactics such as keyword stuffing will have publishers dropping your article like a hot potato. Similar to being too salesy keyword stuffing is another way to alienate publishers and readers alike.

Write for the reader. You’re not writing the article for you you’re writing for the hundreds of people who come upon your article. Avoid referring to your business or website constantly throughout the article. Remember it’s not an ad.

Dish up something they haven’t seen before. Everyone has unique experiences mistakes they’ve learned from things they find inspiring or advice they can offer. Do that and you’ll get more readers. And more readers translate into more traffic for your site. Don’t do it and you’re limiting your publication possibilities.

Even if you avoid all the common pitfalls you’ll never realize your internet marketing potential if you don’t track your results. The web is a unique marketing forum in that it readily allows you to see exactly where your back links appear.

Then you can go back to your site and analyze your traffic statistics. Are you seeing more traffic? Are more people subscribing to your newsletter? Is your forum seeing more activity? Use all the measurements you can to determine the impact of your marketing strategy. Then tweak as necessary.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Dana Davalos graphic designer and online biz whiz shares her thoughts on internet marketing design and life in general at her blog Groovy Graphix. She is a frequent contributor to Article Marketer a highly popular article distribution service.http://www.articlemarketer.com

Building Your Business Identity

Owning your own business requires a lot of savvy to stay ahead of the pack. You want to stand out above the competition you want to be remembered and you want to make a positive impression. So what does it take to keep your business in the mind of your targeted audience? An identity!

Impressing customers and driving sales get a lot easier when prospects know your name. There are easy ways to quickly and efficiently create a company identity. Here are just a handful of ways.

1. Create A Blog. Web logs or blogs are online journals that can be used to help supply your customers or potential customers with the latest industry news. Blogs also encourage the input of readers which makes them feel a part of your business and its ideas. There are many articles online regarding how to build blogs and if you do not have the time how to hire a content writer.
2. Put Your Name In A Public Place Now this kind of advertising seems obvious but getting it done in perpetuity is the trick. One way is to contribute to a local charity neighborhood project public park or playground. Choose a group that has some affinity with your company goals to donate to. You can then send a press release jointly with the organization to announce your gift and hopefully that organization will put up a plaque with your companys name in a public place. Discuss this option with the organization you are donating to ahead of time.
3. Stay Visible If you can’t afford to underwrite an entire project just get involved in the community. Join a local service club such as Rotary. Make sure you’re personally connected to the community. Stay visible by serving on the board or chairing events or committees. That will get you known around town and reel in clients.
4. Identify How You Are Unique Invest in your brand. Hire somebody to help you design a logo and then a public relations campaign to go with it something that shows how unique your company identity is.
5. Get People to Wear your Brand. Once you have had your unique logo designed have it either embroidered or screenprinted onto Tshirts hats workout gear scarves and more. Use the clothing as premiums for favored clients or employees. Free Tshirts not only make people feel special but they get worn on weekends and when customers travel. Depending on the identity you want to promote you can make people look fashionable promote an adventurous life fight for freedom of speech or make people laugh. Your brand could go far.
6. Use Your Online Presence Wisely Keep your website looking professional and relevant. If it is outdated hire somebody to help you keep the content up or make changes to it. Dont leave a half built website up it is better to have no website than one that looks incomplete. Remember this is your identity people are checking out and judging you by. Use your website to provide information to your customers show them you are on top of things as well as trends. When using your email always have an email signature. You can add your logo and tag line as well to your signature.

Remember that identity or brand building is the ongoing relationship between your business and your most influential audience including customers media investors employees family suppliers and so on. A brand is created from the inside out from the CEO to the administrative assistant.

So stay ahead of the pack and start building your business identity today.

About the writer:  Justin Morris is a Managing Partner of LEADApparel.com. LEADApparel.com offers first class Screen Printing Embroidery services custom clothing including printers tshirt. Companies purchase tshirts print services from LEADApparel.com at heavily discounted prices. For more information visit www.leadapparel.com.

Tips For Promoting Your Home Business Web Site

Traffic on the freeway is bad. Traffic on the Internet is good. With over 60 million web sites on the Net you need a solid strategy for steering customers to your home business web site.

Search Engines

Search engines are the yellow pages for a home business web site. Over 80 of Internet surfers use search engines to find information on the web. To get the most traffic to your site list with the big search engine players Yahoo Google and MSN. Smaller search engines also get results from the big three so you’ll be covered in case customers visit less popular engines.

Looking Good

Your home business web site can be simple or complex but it must be functional and attractive. Make sure your site does what it is supposed to do 8211; provide customers with concise useful information about your product or service. Be wary of making things too complicated. The site should be easy to navigate or customers will look elsewhere.

Your web site should also look professional not cheap. If you aren’t design savvy spend money on a good web designer. The investment will pay off by attracting more people to your web page.

Online Ads

The Internet has many sites where you can list your home business for free. To guarantee the greatest exposure place your ad on several 20 or more sites and repeat the process every month.

Banner advertisements can be as effective as TV spots in increasing customer awareness of your business. A banner ad should be direct i.e. promote a benefit of rather than just the name of the product or service. Try participating in a banner exchange program such as LinkExchange that connects your home business web site to other company sites that have similar customer bases.

Affiliate programs offer an excellent opportunity to promote your web site. Affiliate businesses post links to your web page on their sites. You pay them a commission or set fee based on the amount of traffic sent to your web site. Pay arrangements vary and can be based on the number of people who visit your site or the number of customers who purchase your product.

Bloggin’ It

Bloggers are the hot new information medium. Getting them to write about your home business web site is an excellent way to gain exposure to potential customers.

Technorati Blog Directory provides a listing of blogs by industry. Do your research here to determine which blogs might be interested in writing about your business. Send a short personal email to a few blog writers describing your web site and asking the blogger to write about it. Offer the writer something in return for example free product or a link back to his blog on your web site.

Offline Ads

Cruising Down the Highway

Your car is a moving billboard for a home business web site. Window decals and bumper stickers are inexpensive ways to get the word out about your web site. Spend a few extra dollars for a personalized license plate with your web address.

Old Media Standby

Regardless of what the bloggers say people still read the printed page. Run ads in the classifieds of large and small papers trade magazines and free weeklies. Your choice of print media will depend on the product or service offered and whether you do business locally or nationwide.

Sources

Gaebler Ventures “Advertising on the Web” gaebler.com
Data Synthesis “Internet Solutions for Today” ictks.com
“Top Ten Ways to Promote your Website” agorabusinesscenter.com
“Using Blog PR to Promote Your Site” sitepronews.com

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Eugenijus Sakalauskas
is an established ezine publisherand
direct marketer on PNP.com
Subscribe to my FREE ecourse
8221;Power up Your Profits by Packing Your Email
Marketing With More Punch 8221;
Send blank mailto:pnplistbuildgetresponse.com
or visit http://www.pluginnetproefit.com
and get 18 free bonuses