Focus Marketing Seminar UK

Blogging for Business

September 30th, 2008

Every single small business owner is an expert in their field. No matter what product or service  you provide, your customers do business with you because you are the expert in that  arena, and if you are not an expert, then they very quickly realize that and go  somewhere else. People trust experts, and when making a decision about a purchase, they look to  the expert to tell them what they need to know and to give them all of the information they need  to make an informed decision.

For a small business owner who is just getting started, however, it may take some time and effort  to establish yourself as an expert in your field. You may know what you need to know,  you may have the information you need, you may do a superb job at what you do, but if your  potential customers do not know that and cannot see it, then why would they choose to do business  with you? You need to, essentially, place yourself out there in front of them and demonstrate  your expertise. You need to build your reputation as an expert in your specific area, which will  build the trust of your customers and potential customers.

An excellent tool to use when establishing yourself as an expert is blogging. A blog is  essentially an online journal. You write about whatever you want, it’s easy and simple to use,  and easy for people to read. This gives you a medium to communicate your expertise, as you can  blog about what you know about your product or service and provide useful information for your  readers.

For example, if your business is selling salt-water fish and aquariums, then you would want to  set up a blog and write about the care of fish, how to set up an aquarium, what you will need to  get started, what kind of fish are good to start out with, what fish and creatures dwell together  well, and so on. Since your business is marine fish, you obviously know a lot about them and have  a lot of information to share, and you can do this in a fun and interesting way, and in whatever  style is you.

Another example, if your business is a car repair service, then you would want to write about not  just car repair, but car maintenance, how to prevent common neglect and accidents, how to care  for your car after repair, how to choose a good mechanic and what to look for in a repair shop.  And the list can go on.

Setting up a blog is easy and inexpensive. There are numerous websites where you can sign up for  free and create your own blog. They already have the tools that you need integrated into the  website, ready for you to use - you can start blogging almost immediately! You can add photos to  your blogs, you can allow readers to post comments, and most blogs have an option for your  readers to subscribe to receive new blog posts via email or rss feeds. Google has a blog service  that can be found at www.blogger.com. Another free one is at www.thoughts.com. For other options,  just do a google search for “free blog” or similar keywords. These sites will give you your own  subdomain, such as www.yourblog.blogger.com, which links directly to your blog. You can then give  this url out to your friends, customers, and include it in your marketing materials to direct  people to your blog.

If you are not sure what to write about, or are afraid you will run out of topics, try some of  these ideas:

Keep a paper and pen handy with you in your purse, by the phone, on the dash of your car, in your  shirt pocket or wherever is convenient for you. You will find that as you go through a normal day, you may get ideas for blog topics. Write these down as you get them, then when you go to blog, you will  already have a list of great topic ideas!

Ask your readers what they would like to know about. Invite them to email you questions. Some  blog sites may have a tool where you can create a quick poll or a short survey. Use these to get  feedback and to find out what your customers are interested in knowing about your subject.

Browse magazines on your subject. This may spark ideas and you may be able to build off what you  read about.

Borrow from other experts. If you run across another blog, or website, or an article in a  magazine that you really like and would like to feature in your blog, then get permission from  the author and post the article on your blog. Most authors will be more than glad to let you use  their article as long as you provide their information and a link back to them.

Use your own experience. Do you have some entertaining stories from your experience in this  field? Do not be afraid to throw in some fun and humor.

Blogging does not have to be tedious and boring, or take up huge amounts of time. If you are not a  natural writer and feel like it’s too much of a job to sit there and write a long post, then  don’t! Keep it short and simple, or whatever is your style. Remember that it is your  blog, so let it reflect your personality.

If you find you simply do not have any time at all to do your blog, then hire someone else to do  it. Perhaps you already have someone working for you who can take it on, or perhaps you know  someone who would be interested. You can give them your topic ideas, or even use a voice recorder  to record the posts for them to type out in the blog. Again, whatever works for you, your style  and your business!

The world of blogging is a wonderful tool to use to keep in touch with your target customers and  to establish trust as an expert. If you take the time to start, you will find it well worth the  while and will learn a lot from it as well! You have information and expertise to share - a blog  is a great medium to use to get it out there!

Tips for Setting up Your Mailing List

September 30th, 2008

Email newsletters are an important part of marketing, but how do you put an opt-in option on your website so that poeple can sign up to your newsletter?”

There are a number of different ways that you can do this yourself. Two simple ways you can do this are covered here.

First of all, if you want to manage your email list manually, you can add a simple form to your website that will collect the subscriber’s information - email address - and send you an email with that info. This is a simple solution if you don’t want to have to try to figure out how to use a mailing list program - but it also means that you have to manage the list, and transfer the email addresses from the emails you get into a spreadsheet or whatever you are using to build your email list. This may be more hassle then it is worth, or it may work perfectly for you. The important thing is to find the option that suits you and works best for your business!

Form Experts

To add a form to your website, I recommend using this service, Form Experts - the Fastest and Easiest-to-Use Website Forms, Guaranteed. Advantage Website Solutions uses this service for our forms, and for our clients, and we have found it to be exceptional! The cost is low - less than $50/year - and you can make as many forms as you need. The tools are simple and easy to navigate. You can use these forms without any knowledge of html or any other kind of programming. You can set your own display options, such as color, font, size and form fields. You choose what email address you want the notifications to be sent to and whether or not you want an autoresponder to send an email to the subscriber automatically.

To integrate the form into your website, you can choose from two different options. You can let Form Experts host the form - for this option you would have a url to link to your form. We use this option a fair bit and just have the link open in a new window, so the visitor does not have to actually leave your website to subscribe. The other option is to put the form right into your webpage. The Form Experts website automatically generates the html code for your form - and all you need to do then is to paste that code into your website, wherever you want the form to show up. Both of these methods are easy and simple. Form Experts does all the work, and you can relax knowing that when someone subscribes, the email will come right to your inbox for you to take care of from there!

Mailing List Software

Another option that we also use is mailing list software. Our preferred provider of this is BlueHost.com, where you can also get excellent web hosting, blogging tools, and many many other options for your website. We love that they have partnered with other programs and offer so many fantastic tools to their customers!

A software program that they offer is called PHP List, which is a program that will manage your email lists, subscriptions and your actual newsletters. You can do it all from this program! Setting it up is fairly straightforward, and involves customizing your subscribe pages, as well as the emails that are automatically sent when someone subscribes. You can customize the pages by adding your own logo. PHP List handles all of the details like adding new email addresses to your list, sending automated confirmation emails, as well as including easy links to unsubscribe as well in each email newsletter. You can design your newsletter right in the PHP List interface and automatically send it out to your mailing list.

To integrate PHP List into your website, you simply have to add your subscribe link (you’ll find it in the PHP List management page) to your website, wherever you want it, for people to click on - PHP List does the rest!

You can use PHP List by itself without signing up for a BlueHost account. If you do not need the web hosting or the other cool programs BlueHost offers, then you can go straight to PHPList.com and use it alone - but don’t forget that BlueHost has it all in one place - hosting, domains, blogging, mail list, photo albums and more, and it’s not expensive (less than $100/year for everything)!

Which option do you choose? This will depend on what you are comfortable with, and what works best for you and your business! But if you need some assistance, or suggestions, or just some coaching to help you set it up, don’t be afraid to contact someone who can help you!

How To Get More Leads With A Squeeze Page

September 30th, 2008

Squeeze pages, also referred to as lead generator pages, are a very useful tool for any internet marketer.

Squeeze pages are designed with one purpose in mind. Their aim is to get someone to sign up to your email list. Once they've signed up, you have their permission to email them over and over again. But you can't do that until they sign up for your list!

First up, choose a template for your squeeze page. You can find these on the web either for free or for a small charge. If you choose the free option, make sure your target market is well away from such well trodden areas as internet marketing, weight loss and (weird as it may sound) dog training. Otherwise your potential customer will likely have seen something very similar to your squeeze page tens or even hundreds of times before. So they would be more likely to click the back button.

Then modify your template. At the very least, you'll want to put in your own headline and bullet points. You may also want to split test your headlines to make sure that you’re getting the maximum number of sign-ups. Some marketers have reported that they regularly get 7 out of ten people signing up from the squeeze pages they create.

You can also test other elements on your lead generation page. Most of the time, people report that they get better results when they add audio messages to their squeeze pages. Test this as well as whether the message plays automatically when a visitor reaches your squeeze page.

Nowadays, video is being used more and more on squeeze pages. One very good system is to use a video on the landing page that only shows part one. Make it clear that the second part is only made available to people who part with their email address. If you go down this route, take inspiration from the cliff hangers you used to watch at Saturday morning cinema. If you don't rememer these, think of the ending of an episode of the television show "24". Make sure your viewer is hungry for more information. Which they'll get in return for their email address.

You can get your squeeze pages designed at the click of a button with this simple lead page generator.

3 Things All Affiliate Marketers Need To Survive Online

September 29th, 2008

 Every affiliate marketer is always looking for the successful market that gives the biggest paycheck. Sometimes they think it is a magic formula that is readily available for them. Actually, it is more complicated than that. It is just good marketing practices that have been proven over years of hard work and dedication.  You need to find a top affiliate training program.

There are tactics that have worked before with online marketing and is continuing to work in the online affiliate marketing world of today. With these top three marketing tips, you will be able to able to increase your sales and survive in the affiliate marketing online.

What are these three tactics?

1. Using unique web pages to promote each separate product you are marketing. Do not lump all of it together just to save some money on web hosting. It is best to have a site focusing on each and every product and nothing more.

Always include product reviews on the website so visitors will have an initial understanding on what the product can do to those who buys them.  You need to find a top affiliate training program.  Also include testimonials from users who have already tried the product. Be sure that these customers are more than willing to allow you to use their names and photos on the site of the specific product you are marketing.  Top Affiliate Training Program

You can also write articles highlighting the uses of the product and include them on the website as an additional page. Make the pages attractive compelling and include calls to act on the information. Each headline should attract the readers to try and read more, even contact you. Highlight your special points. This will help your readers to learn what the page is about and will want to find out more.

2. Offer free reports to your readers. If possible position them at the very top side of your page so it they simply cannot be missed. Try to create autoresponder messages that will be mailed to those who input their personal information into your sign up box. According to research, a sale is closed usually on the seventh contact with a prospect.

Only two things can possibly happen with the web page alone: closed sale or the prospect leaving the page and never return again. By placing useful information into their inboxes at certain specified period, you will remind them of the product they thought they want later and will find out that the sale is closed. Be sure that the content is directed toward specific reasons to buy the product. Do not make it sound like a sales pitch.  You need to find a top affiliate training program.

Focus on important points like how your product can make life and things easier and more enjoyable. Include compelling subject lines in the email. As much as possible, avoid using the word “free” because there are still older spam filters that dumps those kind of contents into the junk before even anyone reading them first. Convince those who signed up for your free reports that they will be missing something big if they do not avail of your products and services.

3. Get the kind of traffic that is targeted to your product. Just think, if the person who visited your website has no interest whatsoever in what you are offering, they will be among those who move on and never come back. Write articles for publication in e-zines and e-reports.  You need to find a top affiliate training program.  This way you can locate publications that is focusing on your target customers and what you have put up might just grab their interest.  Top Affiliate Training Program

Try to write a minimum of 2 articles per week, with at least 300-600 words in length. By continuously writing and maintaining these articles you can generate as many as 100 targeted readers to your site in a day.

Always remember that only 1 out of 100 people are likely to buy your product or get your services. If you can generate as much as 1,000 targeted hits for your website in a day, that means you can made 10 sales based on the average statistic.  You need to find a top affiliate training program.

The tactics given above does not really sound very difficult to do, if you think about it. It just requires a little time and an action plan on your part.

Try to use these tips for several affiliate marketing programs. You can end maintaining a good source of income and surviving in this business that not all marketers can do.  You need to find a top affiliate training program.

Besides, think of the huge paychecks you will be receiving…

Top Affiliate Training Program

 

How To Make Money Fast Online And Generate Thousands of Dollars

September 29th, 2008

Hi guys, I have some amazing news to share with you today because In this article you’re going to discover the ultimate online money loophole that can teach you how to generate thousands of dollars on the internet. So if you want to know more, please just keep on reading…

You see, there are a lot of websites out there that claim to have the secret to success on the internet and most of these sites make ridiculous claims of how much money you can make using their system. Most of these are lies and just pumped up sales letters to try and make you a believer so you will go and buy their product.

I thought that the system I am going to tell you about in this review was just another one of those products, until I tried it and actually started making some serious money. On the home page of Auto Cash System the author Lanty Paul talks about his battle with debt and how he was finally able to defeat the problem by using his secret techniques to generate thousands of dollars on the internet.

He then goes on to explain that he shared his system (which would later be named Auto Cash System) with four of his family members. After these four lucky individuals started applying his techniques online they immediately began seeing profits. After about a year of following the secret techniques in Lanty Paul’s system each of them were making a killing online sometimes more then $700 in a single day!

Now this is a huge claim and like you I sure as hell didn’t believe it… but I was proved wrong. I really thought I was going to purchase Auto Cash System and throw away another 50 bucks just to write a horrible review and try to save as many people as possible the hassle and save them their hard earned money, but fortunately this was not the case at all.

After purchasing this system I quickly realized that this was more than just a simple e-Book. It was an e-Book (two e-books actually) but the system also came with tons of other perks to help me along the way, everything from audio taps to bonus programs. I couldn’t believe the plethora of material that was actually included with the purchase price.

I read both volumes. The first volume was a very detailed guide explaining how to get started right away, and for you newbie’s out there this E-Book will teach you every thing you need to know to be well on your way to making a killing online. The second eBook was a little more in-depth and really revealed all of the tricks and secrets that are not talked about in any other money making system you can find on the net.

The things Lanty Paul discuses in volume 2 are flat out the only things you really need to be successful online (there must be a lot of gurus pissed at him for sharing these kind of secrets). After reading both volumes 1 and 2 I took a dip in the audio pool with tons of audio interviews to choose from.

These interviews really dug deep into the minds of some of the biggest names in the internet marketing business… period. After listening to a few of these audio interviews I was pumped and ready to start making some money (I completely forgot that I didn’t think I was going to enjoy this system and was planning on writing a rotten review as I did for every other system I have tried) I followed the easy step by step system Lanty laid out for me in volume 1 and within 48 hrs I was seeing some profit.

I was excited. I started implementing some of the secret tactics I learned in volume two and within 24 hours my profits doubled. I stayed on this path for about three months adding more and more of Lanty’s techniques and the amount of money I was earning on a regular basis continued to grow from month to month. Needless to say the rotten negative review of auto cash system that I was planning on writing is not going to happen anymore.

Now, after trying several money making systems online that promised the world and did nothing but steal my $50 I am relieved to say I finally found the one product that pushed me out of this downward spiral of failure and drug me to success and really taught me the techniques I needed to know to began earning a substantial income from the comfort of my home.

I highly recommend this product for anyone who is seriously looking to make real money on the internet. What’s best is even as a newbie, Auto Cash System really has everything you need to get started and achieve success in a very short time. I have been practicing Lanty’s techniques now for a little over 5 months and I couldn’t be happier with the results.

Hopefully within my first year I will be able to see the type of daily income his family members were able to enjoy (and trust me I don’t have very much further to go) Auto Cash System truly is a godsend… Thank you Lanty Paul!!!

How to make money online…

September 28th, 2008

  

 
Today, people use the Internet not only to gather information or
as a communication medium, but also to market their products or
services and thus, to make money. Many people try different ways
to make money online, but they hardly get any success. By
understanding the reason as to why they fail in their attempt to
make money online and by looking at some proven ways of making
money, we can effectively earn money online. In this article, we
will look at what we could do to make money online.

We need to understand that the Internet is not a magical place or
some sort of money- making machine. But it provides the cheapest
way to communicate with lot of people. It helps you in reaching
out to millions of people who use the Internet daily. In
business, if you want to grow and make more money, you have to
market your product or service quite well. In other words, you
should try to make people aware of your business. This is where
the Internet comes into play. As it provides cheapest way to
communicate, it becomes an excellent medium to market your
business.

Considering this, we can conclude that it would be a better
option to have a business first and then use the Internet to
market it. You can start a business to provide others with some
kind of service, or to create and sell your product or to market
other people’s product. Let’s look at how you can start with a
service-oriented business.

In service-oriented business, you have to sell your skills. For
example, if you know how to develop software, then you can become
a freelance software developer. Another good example is, if you
are good at writing articles, then you can become freelance
writer and make money by writing and selling your articles. There
are lots of freelancing websites on the net where people post
different projects. You need to register as freelancer and then
bid on the projects. In this way, you can start making money
quickly.

Some people use a different approach. Instead of bidding on
projects posted by others, they either develop some software or
write an e-book and later on, market it online. In this way,
initially you need to spend some time in creating your own
product and then you need to focus entirely on marketing. The
more you market, the more number of people will buy your product
and more money you will make.

In the third approach, you don’t have to develop any product or
sell your skills. You just need to help others in marketing their
products and in return, they will give you some commission on
every sale. This is known as affiliate marketing. The more
products you market, the more you can earn.

No matter which approach you would choose to start your business,
you must understand that, if you want to earn, you have to work
hard. Think about which could be the best approach for you. You
can also start with more than one type of business at a time. For
example, while acting as a freelance writer, you can also write
articles to market products created by others. So start working
now to make money online.

 

Why is There Google Sandbox?

September 27th, 2008

What is the Google Sand box porblem?

Webmasters found that the new websites optimized and having number of inbound links were not ranking well for the selected keywords. It was observed that after being listed in the SERPS for two weeks, pages were either dropped from index or ranked low for the desired keywords.

The websites were losing the high SERPS positions, whereas previously low-ranking websites had the opportunity to rank near the top for their keywords. This provided the evidence of the Google Sandbox that gave the chance to the Search Engine expert and Search Engine Marketing Specialist to understand what exactly the Sandbox effect was. 

Possible explanations for the Google Sandbox effect

“Time Delay” factor is the most common factor of Google Sandbox effect. This ‘website aging’ theory has earned a lot of importance since the webmasters felt the effects of Sandbox after a certain period of time. But , it is an artificially imposed punishment on the web sites.

As stated to the ‘Link threshold’ rule, a certain amount of quality and quantity and the history of the inbound links will avoid Sand box issue.

How to find out if your website is ‘Sandboxed’?

If your web site does not shows in any of the search result for the target keywords or if the SERPS are not ideal though there are many inbound links and correct onpage SEO then the web site is very likely in Sandbox.

Google Search engines will provide most relevant website to their visitor. SEO develops complex algorithms to infer relevancy of content for various search terms.

The Sandbox limited the new sites; the problem diminish on the basis of timing of the web sites but on the link URL history. According to the ‘Allegra' update websites that were continually being optimized when they were in the Sandbox began to rank quite high for desired keywords when the Sandbox effect ended.

  • SEO technology strategies to minimize your website’s ‘Sandboxed’ time
  • Start promoting the website the moment it is created.
  • Make low-intensity and long-time link building schedual.
  • Stay away blackhat techniques. 
     

How to Get Google Index Fast?

September 27th, 2008

A website get list in google fast is important for SEO web design. You may wonder how people get listed in Google within 1 to 2 days. About one hundred percent of the people you will find at forums want to be listed by Google within just fourty eight hours. It can be achieved by deploying “top secret” search engine marketing strategies.
 
The truth is, getting listed in Google within just 2 days is pretty easy. It is not recommended to do The Google Submission or any other search engine form like MSN, Yahoo and Altavista.
 
So, what is the procedure of getting your website indexed within the 48 hours? There are quite a few strategies, but for those who have a new website which has not yet been indexed, two important ways are suggested for them to get indexed by Google, MSN and Yahoo.

First you have to understand how search engines crawl web sites. Google visit one web site that is available in their index, then they will follow all the URL on the website to find other related web sites. This is termed as “spiding”. Google will find new webpage and put them in the database of search results while spiding. So if you have a new web site, search spider will just follow your website by tracking the links of other web sites that are already listed.

The next job is to find websites that are indexed by search engines and getting them to link back to your website. This is the main reason why you must have a lof of related web sites supplying back links.

You must write 1 article which is similar to the content of your web site. At the end of the article you will just have to include a link to your website. After this you should to submit the article to popular article website that are available. The moment the search engine crawls those directories or to be more precise, the articles, the crawler gets to read your site link and Voila! Your website has been listed.

The more you submist the articles, the more link backs you will get to your website and quicker your website gets listed. This is most of search engine expert will do for fast list in Google.

Off page website SEO

September 27th, 2008

We’ve gone over the onpage seo web design and optimization, so let’s move on to the offpage search engine marketing and SEO which is what really makes a difference in your site’s ranking. Off Page Optimization is done outside the website in order to increase its performance in search engines for the desired keywords.

• Which web sites point to you
•  The number of websites linking to you
•  The Google page rank of the website linking to you
•  The page title of the website linking to you
•  The anchor text used in the link linking to you
•  The number and type of links linking to the website that’s linking to you.
• The number of external links on the web site that is pointing to you
•  The total number of links on the website that is linking to you
•  Whether or not the websites linking to you are deemed by Google as an authority website.

The major offpage SEO techniques are as follows:

  1. Link Campaign: One of the important parts of search engine optimization is building of links with the partners. Link building increases link popularity which in turn increases the google page rank of the particular webpage. Link exchange is one of the very important method of the OffPage Optimization.
  2. Social networking: Social network service refers to the several online social communities where the members share the similar interests and activities. Examples of this kind of websites are Face book and MySpace.
  3. Directory Listings: Submission of the website to the directories will definitely enhance the generation of the traffic and link popularity of the particular website. Directories include list of websites that are meticulously checked. The directories are differentiated into several relevant subject categories that provide information to the visitors. Web directories are human edited and are much smaller than the search engine database. 
  4. Article Distribution: Article distribution is the modern trend of off-page optimization. An article with relative key word is written and the steady resource locator of the self-owned web site is located at the end of article. Thus when the article is submitted in the popular article websites the traffic is generated to the self-owned website. For short time, the web site owner will get potential customer in the effective way.

When doing offpage SEO one should research and come up with many Anchor Texts including the recommended density of key words key phrases. If you are not familiar with the word “Anchor Text”, it is the hyper linked text that is put on the Webpage which links back to your webpage.

Improvement in SERP or Search Engine Ranking Positions: It is the list of the web pages which a search engine returns according to the keyword query. The results generally incorporate the web pages with link to the page, titles, a brief description showing where the keywords have similar content in the webpage.

OnPage Website SEO

September 27th, 2008

On page optimization is an important aspect of SEO services and Search Engine Marketing. It is the method by which a number of elements on the web page are properly structured so that it can be found by search engines for desired keywords or keyword phrases.   

On page optimization is pretty easy and must be a target not only for the main web page but also for every single content page within the website.

The following are the few of the techniques of On Page SEO web design optimization:

  1. Add Keyword in Title: Include ONLY our main keywords. The least amount of keywords you can put in the title, the more important Google will give to every key words and the higher the site will rank.
  2. Add Keywords  in

    header tags: The

    header tag should be as far towards the top of the page as possible. You can think of an

    header tag as a title for whatever content you have on your page.

  3. Add Keywords  in

    header tags: This can be thought of as a sub heading for our webpage. You should place your 2nd most important keyword in the

    header tag. The

    tag should be placed somewhere towards the top half of your webpage

  4. Keyword Density: It is the percentage of the number of times the keyword or keyword phrases appear as compared to the number of words in a particular webpage. Remember to mention every keyword in a normal way as you are writing
     
  5. Bold or italicized keyword text: Bold is used as strong and italics are used as emphasis tags in the body copy of the blog posts. This might help the search engines like Google and Yahoo which words and phrases are more important.
  6. Properly include image tags: image tags is the description of the image for search engine. You should always include the keyword in the alt tags to increase keyword dentisity, but not overdo it.
  7. Anchor Text: It is the clickable or the visible text within the hyperlink.
  8. Keywords included URL: Search engines account the keywords used in the URL. So it’s a good habit to include your main keywords in the URLs of your web site. 
  9. Link structure: If the navigation menu of a website is structured then the visitors will navigate the website with just few clicks. It is necessary for the consumer. This also helps the search spiders to get several links to follow.

 

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