Friday, October 30, 2009

How to Sell Things on eBay – Writing Descriptions that will Pack a Punch

If you’ve spent any great length of time studying auctions on eBay you may have noticed discrepancies between identical items selling at wildly different prices. There are many potential reasons for this such as ending an auction at a bad time, a title that doesn’t really describe the item in question or an unrealistic starting bid dissuading people from getting into the auction spirit. All of these traits demonstrate a person that doesn’t know how to sell things on eBay. However, these traits can easily be mastered with practice and with research, making your auctions the ones that sell for more than your rivals.

One particular way in which to improve your auctions to make your items sell for a higher price is to spend a considerable amount of time on perfecting your item descriptions. The description of an item up for auction on eBay tells a potential buyer everything that they need to know about said item.

They expect to find all of the details including the condition of the item, any faults or failings with it and an accurate and comprehensively detailed description of it.

You aren’t alone when you are selling items on eBay. Even with a niche market there are likely to be other sellers competing for your customers, therefore you need to create item descriptions that are going to stand out from the crowd. Let’s consider a few handy tips that could help to promote your descriptions to the top of the class to aid you in mastering how to sell things on eBay.

  • Avoid overly garish colours. Although you want your description to be eye-catching, too many overly bright colours could actually put a buyer off your auction instead of the opposite effect. Instead concentrate on using bold, italics and underline to help to bring attention to relevant sections of your description.

  • Be detailed in your description. Include as much information as you can get your hands on with regard to the produce that you are selling. Not only will this provide your consumers with all that they need to know but it will also label you as an authority on the type of item that you are selling. Once your buyers have established that you know what you are talking about they are far more likely to come back to you.

  • Check for spelling and grammatical errors. Don’t ever submit a listing to eBay without having proofread it. Ideally write your description in a word processor first to catch any spelling errors.

  • Be persuasive but not over-salesy. In your description you don’t need to convince viewers that their life will end if they don’t purchase your product. Instead you need to appeal to the need that the item will fill, subtley persuading them that this purchase will make their life easier, better or more entertaining depending on the item.

Mastering item descriptions is one of the key elements to learninhow to sell things ebay,ebay selling,sell on ebay,sell stuff on ebay,powersellers secrets,make money on ebayg how to sell things on eBay. Remember that practice makes perfect, in no time at all you will be able to increase your sales through excellent descriptions.

This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Web Analytics and Your Website – What You Need to Know

When it comes to the web, information is king. Indeed, the web itself is information, a massive collection of articles, videos, blogs, news stories and photographs trying to convey a message to various audiences scattered around the world. The big sensation over the last year has been Twitter, a system built around condensing information to a mere 140 characters and broadcasting it out to interested users with a minimum of frills and features.

YouTube, a site where literally anybody can upload their videos for the appreciation of others, became the fourth most popular site on the Internet in less than a year. Compare that to newspapers and television, which both have been experiencing decreasing viewership in recent years. People need, want, and will seek out every conceivable sort of information, and the Internet is the place to find it.

Who Wants To Know?

Information isn’t just of use to the casual browser or dedicated auction enthusiast, however. Equally and increasingly interested are the very people posting content to the many pages on the web. Who is visiting which pages? How much traffic is your site getting, and how does it measure up against traffic going to similar sites? What has changed since you put up the big new advertising system last year? Necessity being the mother of invention, this increasing craving for varied and precise forms of information has led to the steady growth of a field called Web Analytics.

What Are You Looking At?

Put simply, Web Analytics is a system of study dedicated to collecting, measuring, and reporting on web and Internet data. This general idea breaks down further into two broad disciplines. The first is on-site analytics, which concerns itself with the journey of each user to a website, and is of primary concern to the owners of that site. It records information ranging from a record of which pages are being visited to a comparison of which pages garner more purchases from visitors. Off-site analytics focuses on information on the Internet as a whole, such as what websites more people are visiting, and what sites are being talked about most frequently. Both methods seek to answer the key question for any website operator – what are people looking at?

But What Does It All Mean?

Proper Web Analytics goes a step further than simple data collection, however. It also concerns itself with interpretation of the data in a context that allows the site owner to take appropriate steps. Let’s use the advertising campaign mentioned earlier as an example. Simple web measurement would be the collection of how many hits and purchases the site gathered before and after the campaign. A serious analytic comparison would explain how quickly purchases picked up after the change, what products and portions of the site drew more traffic as a result, and which pages remained unaffected. In short, web measurement is the gathering of the data; Web Analytics is the comparison and interpretation of that data.

The importance of the analytics field to the modern site owner can be observed in the sheer volume of material available on the subject. Sites offer free programs allowing users to set their own metrics, and others can be purchased, offering extra features and a professional interface. Hardcover and electronic format books have been published dealing with the material, and people have formed associations for the purpose of standardizing Web Analytics methodology and terms.

There is even a Web Analytics conference, the E-metrics summit, held in Santa Barbara, California and London, England each year. Going even further, there are listed job offerings in the field that offer salaries approaching $100,000 a year. Clearly this is not a passing fad, but a serious, vital step for any website interested not just in drawing an audience, but keeping it.

It’s All About Information

Of course this all begs the question – how does a user get started. Moreover, to what degree should they seek to implement Web Analytic tools and techniques? Perhaps a bit counter-intuitively, the quest for information begins with information. Site owners know what they want to accomplish with their sites, be it promoting a specific product or generating an audience for geopolitical discussions in a casual atmosphere. This information is the best place to start because it allows the user to begin understanding what information will help them pursue their goal.

For example, if a page is intended to promote an e-book series, then the user wants to know what information will help them do that promotion. They can then look for analytic tools that will tell them what pages are more successful at selling e-books, and what techniques are less successful.

Taking the time to sit down and think through the purpose that analytic information is ultimately intended to accomplish will make the search easier, and more fruitful from the beginning. With this basic framework established, the next step is the web itself. A simple web search on ‘Web Analytics’ or ‘Web Analytics for beginners’ will return a substantial amount of information. From there users can locate articles, videos, and e-books that will help them make the decisions they need to make their websites successful.

This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Social Media Marketing / Do Not Make These Mistakes

Web-2.0The Cluetrain Manifesto asserts that “Markets are Conversations.” The Manifesto is a document published in 1999 and 10 years later is still considered to be an outstanding treatise on the Internet phenomenon – in regards to the impact and opportunities of Internet and web technology on the modern businessman. Nowhere has this assertion been borne out more than in the complex, fascinating world of Social Media Marketing (SMM).

What is Social Media Marketing?

Any definition of SMM requires an understanding of social media networks. These are any community-oriented networks based on user-generated content. For example, YouTube’s primary focus is the hosting of user-generated videos, not the promotion of the parent company’s products. Social media networks include Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and many others.

SMM therefore is the use of these networks to promote and market products, services, or information to the promoter’s intended audience. This could be a traditional product seeking a market, such as an author promoting a new novel. Or it could be something much bigger; the US Presidential campaign of 2008 brought Twitter into the spotlight as a way for the candidates to quickly transmit a message to their audience, keeping them updated on happenings on the trail. In the latter case, no tangible product was being promoted per se, but it was a means of marketing the candidates and their messages. Twitter exploded in popularity following the election, and remains a current topic of discussion.

The intelligent business strategy will seek to understand these opportunities, and reach out to the social media markets available, in order to directly reach their customers. SMM has as many pitfalls as opportunities, however. Several politicians have had their tweets made public, and have regretted it. Here are some easy mistakes to make and how to avoid them.

Mistake #1 – Not Having A Blog

Everyone has a blog. While this may not be true in fact, it certainly is true in perception. Free services such as Wordpress and Blogspot allow anyone with a connection to have a voice in an organized and attractive form. Twitter, Facebook, and other networks are useful, but they aren’t directly under a user’s control. A blog, however, is, and the savvy marketer will take advantage of that. In a blog, a user can post their thoughts, analysis, and arguments with very little restraint and go into greater detail than most social networks permit. For example, Twitter only allows posts of 140 characters, which is certainly too small for a product description or a dissection of a major political speech. However a short ‘tweet’ telling book fans that their favorite author has been interviewed by a blog will bring people flocking to the site where they will not only read the interview, but probably the many other articles on the site as well.

This of course means that good blogging is consistent blogging. A blog can’t be neglected and only updated when big things happen – the modern attention span of Internet users is fairly short. Bloggers need to consistently post good content in order to keep drawing in their intended audience; not month by month but sometimes even day by day.

Mistake #2 – Not Branding Yourself

The web is an information explosion and getting anyone to notice a product or a company consistently is a challenge. The savvy web marketer must take advantage of the chance to brand their name with every networking opportunity. If a company has a blog and a product website, they must be connected. The blog must promote the site’s main goal, and the site must refer visitors to their excellent blog content. Posts to social networking sites should refer to this ‘brand’ image, and keep the message consistent across them all. The successful SMM campaign will treat each element as a unified whole, and approach them systematically. Every Twitter message, every Facebook post should remind users who is posting the content, and where they can find more.

Mistake #3 – Not Being Nice

As mentioned above, “Markets are Conversations.” The users on the Internet are not robots. They will respond with a pre-programmed action when a certain combination of criteria is applied. They are people with ideas who think critically, and who have become accustomed to having their say. While a marketer must take every opportunity to promote their message, this does not mean forcing it into every single conversation. Participants on social networking sites will quickly identify the more ham-fisted efforts of some marketers, and let their acquaintances know of their displeasure. A bad reputation can spread quickly on the Internet – a certain St. Louis police officer lost his job when a video of the officer abusing his authority was posted to Google.

So the proper tactic is not to view these markets as simple places to advertise, but places to converse. Simply popping onto Facebook and posting a new product to every available group is a quick way to get noticed, and disregarded as incompetent. On the other hand, a user could join several groups with discussions pertaining to the subject of their personal passions, and cultivate friendships and a reputation as a quality commentator. Then, when they refer folks to their blog, they are more likely to be taken seriously. Simple courtesy and respect for the groups can go a long way to securing a few more hits per post.

In essence, SMM requires thought, persistence, and critical thinking just as any other marketing campaign. It is not a short series of clever commercials that can be aired for several months at a time, but a means of consistently communicating, day in and day out, with a target audience. Good SMM must provide constant, consistent content for its target markets and be prepared to participate in a lot of give-and-take with an audience uniquely suited to making their voices heard.

This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Friday, October 23, 2009

How to Get Your Article to the Top of the Search Engines

There are millions-if not billions-of articles on the internet. No matter the topic, people have already written about it online. So it can be difficult to get new articles to the top of the search engines. But, it can definitely be done.

It isn’t enough to select a topic people about which people will want to read. Let’s say that you went over to Google’s AdWords (or another website that determines which keywords are the most popular search terms at the moment) and then decided to write about one of the latest trends. While this does improve your chances of ranking higher on the search engines (and it is, in fact, a worthwhile step to take), it alone will not guarantee success. Instead, you will need to make your article stand out somehow.

Tips on Writing Your Article

Writing about the current buzzwords and trends-also known as viral marketing-is a great start. But you can definitely take other steps to make sure that your article rises to the top of the search engines. These are some ideas that you might try:


  • Choose your keywords wisely. Let’s say that you did research and found that a certain brand of candy bar was a big trend that a lot of people were talking about because of a contest that was going on. Keywords for your article could very well be ‘candy bar’ and ‘contest.’ The brand name could also be a keyword. Don’t, however, choose something extraneous, such as ‘chocolate’ or ‘nougat.’ For this type of article or articles, you won’t need to describe the candy bar.

  • Select keyword placement wisely. You should include your keywords in the headline of your article. You should also make certain to include them in the body of your article several times, toward the beginning and the end.

  • Keep keyword density in mind. Keyword density is the number of times your keyword appears relative to the number of words in total. Your density should be no more than 5% to 7%. Any more than that, and most search engines may regard your article to be spam.

  • Include links to high-ranking websites (or other articles on your own website). Links will help you to achieve high search engine rankings, especially if they are links to popular websites.

  • Remember: Content is King. If the quality of your article isn’t good, no one will read it-and, therefore, no one will click on any of the links. Make your article interesting and readable.

What to do After the Article is Written

Once you have finished the article, there are still a few ideas you can try that can help to get your article to the top of the search engines:



  • Submit your articles to the several article directories.

  • Submit your article to ezine editors that accept articles on your topic.

  • Look for blogs related to your topic, and ask if they accept outside articles for submission.

  • Post a link to the article on Twitter and Facebook.

  • Submit the article to social bookmarking websites, such as StumbleUpon and Digg.


This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

How to Make a Website Successful

webmastersWhen doing business on the Internet, there are many ways in which you can make a website successful. Although the look of your website is important, fancy websites don’t make sales. There is much more to creating a quality website. To make a website successful, you must create a website that will be of interest to your target market and make them want to visit your website over and over again. In addition, your website should lead your visitors to take the action you desire, such as joining your mailing list, or making a purchase.

Selecting a Website’s Niche

The first step toward how to make a website successful, will be to target your website for one specific niche. For example, if you are designing a website about wine, everything within your website should relate to wine.

Selecting a Website’s Keyword Phrase

You must also select the most relevant keyword phrase for each web page. A keyword phrase is two or more words that best describe your web page. For example, if your web page is about ‘making wine,’ your best keyword phrase would be ‘wine making.’ You should use your keyword phrase a few times within your web page, as this will enable the search engines to determine what the website is about. This is a very important step to make a website successful.

Using HTML Heading Tags

When you begin writing your content, it is very important that you use the HTML H1 heading tag with your main title at the top of your web page. In addition, use th HTML H2 tags for your sub-titles. This is very important, as some search engines place relevance on the text displayed with heading tags. As the default text for the H1 heading tag is very large, you may want to use CSS style sheets to display the heading tags in the font style and size you prefer.

Using META Tags Within a Web page

Another step to help make a website successful is to include META tags between the HEAD tags of your web page. META tags help the search engines to know what keywords are relevant to the web page. They are also used to tell the search engines what the web page is about. Many search engines will display this description within the search results.

Backgrounds and Text

It is always best to display a web page with a white background and black text, as this will make the text easy to read. Distracting backgrounds will make the text hard to read. A good rule of thumb is to just use common sense and keep your website simple. This alone is a great way to help make a website successful.

Animated Graphics

If you’re using animated graphics, it is important that you use them sparingly. Graphics that continually flash are VERY annoying and may prevent your visitors from returning to your website in the future.

Navigational Links

It is very important to include good navigational links on every page. They should be displayed at the top, bottom, left or right side of your web page. In addition, your visitors should be able to get to any web page within your website within four clicks.

Web page Layout

Always be consistent with your web page design. This is a very important step to help make a website successful. The layout for your website should be the same on each page. If you make it different, your visitors will become confused. In addition, it will make your website appear to be unprofessional. Your website design should include the same layout, logo, and navigation setup on each page.

Spelling and Grammar

Always make sure you proof read and spell check your web pages for errors. It is also very important that your webpage doesn’t have any broken images or links.

Important Web pages

When you launch your website, it is very important that you include the following web pages:

About – The ‘About’ page is used to tell your visitors about you and/or your company.

Privacy – The ‘Privacy’ page is used to let your visitors know what you do with their personal information, such as their email address.

Terms and Conditions – The ‘Terms and Conditions’ page should be displayed on your website for your protection.

Site Map – A ‘Site Map’ is used to help the search engines index your website more easily.

You can learn more about all of these pages by doing a search through your favorite search engine. They are very important and will help make a website successful.

Website Interactivity

Another way to make a website successful is to make the website interactive. This can be done by including a targeted forum that compliments your website, a form in which they can subscribe to an ezine, a feedback form to enable them to give their opinion, or an informative blog in which visitors can comment.

Web Browsers and Screen Resolutions

When you begin designing your web page, it is HIGHLY recommended that you install the most popular web browsers on your computer. This will enable you to see how your website will display in different browsers. You will find that your website may look great in one browser and terrible in another. It would be wise to design your website to display properly in Firefox and then it should display properly in Internet Explorer, Opera, etc.

It is also important that you view your website through different screen resolutions. You can either open your webpage in your browser and then change your computer’s screen resolution, or there are website’s online that you can visit, such as Any Browser, to test your website.

If you follow these simple guidelines, you can begin to make a website successful in no time.


This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Strengthen Your Advertising with SEO Copywriting

article writingAdvertising should be part of any growing business. Regardless of what your business does, customers have to know about your product or service in order for them to use it. As the Internet becomes a primary source for consumer knowledge and increasingly, purchasing, it’s imperative that your company gets its message out through this medium. However, advertising on the Internet works differently than traditional advertising in that the customer must find the business instead of a business coming to the customer.

Copywriting is the creation of text used in advertising, regardless of medium. This covers every aspect of an advertisement: promotional flyers, jingles, slogans, billboards, and web pages. All of these strive to put your product or service in the best light possible and are aimed directly at the consumer; except for web pages. With web pages there is another audience your advertisement must also target: the search engine.

What’s a Search Engine, and Why Isn’t it Finding Me?

Think of a search engine as being a giant phone book: customers looking for a type of business will often look up that category and start by calling the first listing. Because phone books are indexed alphabetically, almost every category will have a business with a name beginning with “a,” or even “aaa.” Likewise, Internet users who aren’t familiar with the category they’re looking at will start with the first link they see when they search for something. However, dozens or even hundreds of factors determine the placement of these pages. This is where SEO comes in.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Like naming your business “AAA” for placement in a phone book, SEO techniques match web pages with the criteria that search engines use so that they are placed as high on a search as possible. Web pages are placed on search engines through the use of a web crawler. This is a program that systematically searches for new web pages and categorizes them. Because the Internet is so massive, these crawlers are designed to weed out useless pages and concentrate on unique ones that will be useful to people who are doing the search. Search engines use dozens of factors in their algorithms to find and place web pages. They are very secretive about the specific factors so that no one can cheat their system by writing a web page just so it will be placed on top. While the specifics are unknown, there are a few things all search engines use to categorize pages: the number of links to a page, its ranking on website traffic sites, and keywords in the page.

Use SEO and Play By the Rules

We all depend on getting accurate, useful results from search engines. Search engine companies actively modify their criteria to keep spam from showing up on their pages and to keep their users happy. Therefore the best way to use SEO to get people to your web page is by playing by the rules; pages that have useful information will stay on top of searches, while those that don’t are quickly removed.


So What CAN I Do to Get My Business Noticed?

Many search engines sell ads, but any reliable service will not sell search placement, nor does advertising with them influence your place on their searches. There are three things you should be concerned with to ensure a good ranking:

1. Keyword indexing: HTML pages can use meta tags that tell search engines what topics a page covers. It is important to include as many words related to the subject of a web page in its meta tags. However, placing popular but unrelated words, such as a celebrity’s name, or hiding keywords behind backgrounds or images on a page to generate search results will quickly get the page ignored.

2. Good linking: Links are very important to getting your page noticed, but only if they’re from reliable sources and are written to emphasize keywords. Links from known link sellers will not improve your page rank, and will cause consumers to distrust your site. Linking within your site to appropriate pages and getting others in a related area to link to you will help your page ranking immensely.

3. Limited web crawling: This may seem counter-intuitive, but there are some pages that you may not want to show up on a search engine, like temporary pages or login screens. Most search engines consider internal search pages to be spam, and allowing them to be crawled will lower your search ranking. This can be prevented using the robots exclusion standard: a text file named “robots.txt” placed in the root directory of a domain will tell crawlers which parts of your web site to skip.

SEO is vital in copywriting for Internet-based advertisements. Properly implemented, it will help keep your page on the top of search lists. By creating good links, using accurate keywords, and limiting web crawling to useful pages, you can ensure customers can find you.



This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

10 Article Templates to Overcome Writer’s Block Fast So You Can Write Your Articles in 30 Minutes

I am a natural born writer, so writing has always come easy to me. But, when I had to start writing articles everyday for my blog, for my newsletter and for article submission – I quickly ran out of article topics.

Then one day as I was reviewing all of my articles, I realized that thereawas a structure and a formula behind each article I wrote. By recognizing these formulas I’m able to write an unlimited amount of articles – and write them in record time.

If you want to overcome writer’s block and start writing articles faster, then you want to model proven article writing formats, such as those found in my “Complete Instant Article Writing Templates Kit

Here Are 10 Different Article Writing Templates That Will Help You Overcome Writer’s Block So You Can Write Articles Faster…


1. Myth Buster Article Template — With this template, you crush your prospects’ preconceived thoughts and notions about a subject. Take 3 myths people have about your industry. Explain to people why it’s a myth. And, then show them what can happen if they clear this myth from their mind.

2. Top 10 Article Template – Have you ever seen a Jay Leno, David Letterman or any other late night television show that doesn’t have a “Top 10″ segment? Well, neither have I! It’s because people love top 10 lists. So give readers and prospects what they want.

3. How-To Article Template – It’s no secret that “how-to” articles and blog posts are some of the most sought after, linked to and bookmarked content online. People want useful information and they’ll reward you by promoting it to others when you provide it. It’s also one of the easiest articles to write.

4. Step-by-Step Article Template – If you think writing a how-to article is easy especially if you’re using article templates, then you’ll think the step-by-step article template is a cinch. In how-to articles I start off with the problem or pain that my prospects are experiencing. Then I give them a solution and end with the results. In a step-by-step article, I like to sell the dream. I want to instantly connect with my prospects’ desires, wishes and needs. So, I explain the results up front that can happen if you follow my advice that I give in the article.

5. Quiz Article Template – Why do you think magazines publish quizzes all the time? Why do you think the quizzes you find on Facebook are so popular? It’s because people love taking quizzes, unless it’s a pop quiz in school. So, why not use a quiz format for your articles that will enable you to do a soft, pre-sell for your products and services. When readers answer “NO” to your questions, you’re implanting thoughts of “Maybe, we should be doing this.”

6. 3 Mistakes Article Template – When you mention mistakes within your title and throughout your article, you will automatically grab attention. People will think in their minds, “Am I doing this right? I better find out!”

7. The Why Article Template – How-to articles are great. And, as I said before, it’s the most popular article template. But sometimes, when you give too much of the “HOW,” you give prospects no reason to go to your website for more information. So, why not write an article that focuses on the “WHY” and give prospects a reason to visit your website and join your list.

8. Differentiate Yourself Article Template – This template helped Article Marketing Experts make more than 10,000.00 in less than 2 months. I created an article entitled “How to Choose an Article Submission Service.” Within this article, I created 10 questions that prospects should ask. Now these questions were designed to show everything that my service includes that no one else offers. It educated prospects and at the same time, it pre-sold my article submission services.

9. Failure to Success Article Template – Did you ever notice how speakers (especially those who sell from the stage) would always tell you about their hardships? Why do speakers do this? Because we want you to connect with us. We want to show you that if we can achieve success, so can you. By opening up and revealing your failures or your scars, you add realness to your written words. People will look up to you and they will want your guidance.

10. What I Learned From Article Template — Through my years as the article marketing expert, I’ve learned that I can connect almost anything – no matter how unrelated it may seem – to various secrets that I teach my clients, subscribers and readers. For example, I’ve written articles such as “7 Article Marketing Lessons I Learned From Being a Martial Arts Champion,” 3 Lessons I Learned From the Mother of a Fearless PR LEADER,” and “5 Relationship Building Lessons I Learned From My Parents.”


This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Over Analysis Will Kill your Business

Have you ever come across the saying “analysis – paralysis?” This is a superb phrase that ideally describes the processes and difficulties faced by a large number of entrepreneurs in this day and age. Just about anyone can easily end up spending most of their time thinking to themselves “what if”, and going over – repeatedly, the very reasoning behind their endeavours, or they can press on ahead. You can ask yourself whether your marketing campaign will yield real results, or you can go for it and see what happens. Most of the time, the aspiring entrepreneur falls short and will turn away from his or her targets due specifically to this kind of analysis.


If you are establishing an online business, you know that you need to use the power of Internet marketing to help you become established, to make people aware of your existence and to draw them to your sales funnel. One of the best ways to do this is to use the power of article marketing. In spite of the fact that this has been proven time and again to be one of the most powerful ways of marketing your online business – and a crucial factor in website development as well, many people still second and third guess its effectiveness.

It is quite common for newcomers to the arena to be exposed to the power of article marketing and to fully understand and comprehend its concept, yet the character sitting on their shoulder whispers some words of doubt. It is not good enough to accept that article marketing has been around for a considerable period of time and has stood the test of that time, but rather the question arises once again whether it is “for you.”

Understand that time does not stand still and neither do your competitors. One of the most important traits that you can possess as an entrepreneur is the efficient use of time. Time management dictates that once you have decided upon a course of action, you put it in place and continue to move forward toward the goal. Over analysis just wastes time. Once you’ve decided, after due diligence and research that you have a course of action, you must be willing to act on this.

There are a lot of people out there who see article marketing as a process which just takes too much time. The actual fact is that this is one of the wonderful aspects of this particular approach. The creation of educational and informative content and the distribution to others can scarcely be a better way of informing people about your authority, expertise and ability to meet their needs. By the time prospects arrive at your website, they may be partly qualified as they will have read through the information that you are putting out and have decided that they need to move towards the next step.

As article marketing is by definition a process that takes time, it is common for people to start such a campaign and then to stop it. If you are creating good content and distributing it accordingly, the odds are that your article marketing campaign will work, but it will take your confidence and ability to continue with the process until you see results.

Many entrepreneurs do not feel confident enough to create the content themselves and this is where a ghostwriter can come in very handy indeed. Consider hiring a virtual assistant to help you create the content according to your requirements, and to help you distribute it to the best authority sites on the Internet. A dedicated approach here and a commitment to success will undoubtedly bring real results.


This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

The Last Word in PPC vs. Article Marketing

website-promotionThere is always a big discussion when it comes to comparing two of the best ways to advertise online: PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising and article marketing, otherwise known as “organic” or “natural” search engine optimization. There is no denying that both methods can be effective. However, which method is better? Which gives you a bigger bang for your buck?

You may get varying statistics on this issue, depending on which website you visit for information. Oh yes, this matters, because you have to consider the source of the statistics and who is sponsoring the article. For example, two sources of information (respectively, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and ComScore) recently produced studies indicating that PPC advertising was more cost-effective on average. However, did the fact that Yahoo/Overture and Google were sponsoring this major study play any role in determining the final outcome? Of course it did – those are the two biggest PPC companies on the net!

In figuring out which of the two is better, you have to consider cost-effectiveness as well as click-through-rates and direct conversion from visiting user to paying customer. We are going to review some statistics a little bit later on. For now, let’s consider some logical points that illustrate how PPC and article marketing differ.

Search engine result pages display more listings than PPC results, which does have a psychological effect on the user. For some users seeing ten search results (each one relevant to the search) is enough to convince them that there is enough web information on the subject and that “fishing” PPC ads might not be necessary.

The catch is that in order to actually rank in the Top 10 SEO results for your keyword, you have to have relevant website content, not to mention technical prowess in HTML coding. Search engines will be focusing on their proprietary algorithms, or the most relevant websites based on the search term queried. There is no “bribery” here, whereas in PPC, it is quite the opposite: whoever bids highest for each word usually gets the top listing. A quality algorithm definitely plays a part in PPC, but in the end money talks. In article marketing, we haven’t quite come to the point where “money talks”. The best websites still win the search engine contest and that is an important factor to consider in your marketing campaign.

Even PPC proponents will admit that Pay-Per-Click is largely style over substance. With PPC advertising you are trying to grab attention in just a few loud and occasionally obnoxious words. You direct the user to a carefully crafted page that “sells” the idea. This operation contrasts with article marketing, which doesn’t necessarily sell an idea on a single page, nor does it grab attention with a few words. With article marketing, there is an entire article waiting for the visitor, which uses a methodical and “indirect” approach. Assuming you are listed in the Top #10, your listing means that the search engine agrees that your website is the best authority on the

keyword subject – for the time being. People in a hurry or on a whim will probably click on PPC. People on a mission will be looking for relevant content on their chosen keyword.

Therefore, the question now becomes which methodology works better for your business? Are you appealing to the fast clicker or the thoughtful user? Let’s now consider two sources of statistics for a clearer view of the issue. First, one in favor of article marketing, the next in favor of PPC.

In Favor of Article Marketing

Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D. and principal founder of the Nielsen Norman Group (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/defaults.html) researched the behavior of users who found search engine results pages and noticed some trends. Forty-two percent of users selected the #1 search listing for their result, leaving 58% that selected another Top 10 Result. The #1 site listed held the majority of clicks. This indicates that almost two thirds of Internet users were not content to choose even the #1 listing on a natural SEO search. That means that these users (and the majority of all users) are actually using independent judgment in deciding what links are most relevant to their needs.

Other related statistics (with sources from ComScore, Webxico, iProspect, SEOResearcher and Hotchkiss, Garrison, and Jensen) concluded that 77% of search users choose organic listings over PPC ads. There were also studies that suggested organic click-through generated 25% higher conversion rates than equivalent Pay-Per-Click (PPC) click-through.

In Favor of PPC Advertising

Now to be fair, we have to consider some advantages that PPC advertising has. The best feature PPC has is that it gets instantaneous results. SEO advertising takes time, especially if you have a new website just submitted to the all of the major search engines. Yes, this can be frustrating. PPC brings you immediate traffic and sometimes brings in thousands of users. Seeing your Alexa ranking take a drastic increase certainly pumps up your adrenaline!

ComScore recently published statistics in favor of PPC, stating that their studied users had an 18.3% click-through-rate on “paid” search results versus a 4.3% click-through rate for organic search results. The conversion rate was also higher according to ComScore, stating that PPC had a 1.4% versus SEO’s 0.6%.

The Real Issue: Longevity

However, the downside here (even if you didn’t contest these suspicious results) is that instant and high volume traffic is, frankly, cheap and not as exciting as it first appears to be. Remember that when you use PPC ads you are making a pitch and capitalizing on your audience’s curiosity. When that curiosity fades, they forget your website – especially if it’s just a glorified advertisement. PPC campaigns can also be costly and time consuming when you consider your duties as a manager.

Another problematic scenario with PPC is that they have no staying power – unless of course you have thousands of dollars a month to blow in this recession. With article marketing you get more quality traffic, and perhaps more importantly to you, you earn customer trust over time. Internet users aren’t stupid, the popularity of Yahoo Answers notwithstanding. Most users know that PPC ads usually aren’t relevant to their search – they’re just there because someone is consistently paying big bucks to get noticed.

You can consider article marketing as an investment that continually pays all through the life of your company (or until you shut the website down) since it generates traffic forever. You can easily spend thousands a month on a brilliant PPC campaign and soon run out of money, meaning your ads go extinct. Therefore, we can conclude that article marketing does have specific advantages over PPC, which are intrinsic because of the differences in operation.


  • Article marketing generates traffic forever

  • Article marketing improves your natural SEO ranking and

    backlinks

  • Article marketing establishes trust – you appear as a

    professional in your industry

  • Article marketing doesn’t cost you extra on top of

    fees spent on websites, landing pages and superfluous domains

How About Return-On-Investment?

ROI is another key issue, as short-term and long-term profit must equal out. Article marketing, by some authorities appears to have a slower ROI -(especially if you make money on CTRs). However, studies suggest that organic ROI is more consistent than PPC. Consider some independent research conducted by popular blogger Gord Hotchkiss who explained the situation in crystal clear terms. Let’s say you have 50 high traffic search terms. Now for these 50 terms, there are 2.8 million searches being launched in a month. If statistics like ComScore’s are correct and unbiased, that translates to 456,000 visitors thanks to PPC and 153,000 visitors thanks to article marketing.

The total cost of those 456,000 PPC visitors would amount to over $500,000 with an average CPC of $1.18. Even if you work with an SEO company that charges top dollar ($10,000 a month, let’s say) you’re still paying $10,000 compared to half a million. That means article marketing’s virtual CPC amounts to $0.07. Even if you apply PPC’s higher conversion rate, 3,647 converted visitors, you are paying $147.08 for each individual person. Compare that to 611 visitors you earned through article marketing – you are paying $16.37 for each visitor. And in doing so, you are also earning a higher quality of customer and generating traffic until the end of days.

Does your final ROI number take into account your total expenses? Absolutely! While both methods of advertising have their place online, when it comes to earning quality traffic, article marketing gets the last word.


This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Search Engine Strategies – How To Increase Your Search Engine Ranking

The methods employed to increase your search engine rankings may seem like rocket science to you, so you have probably avoided dealing with this issue. I am here to tell you—the time has come to face your website! A high search engine ranking for your website is so essential that if you have the slightest desire to actually succeed in your business, there is no way you can continue to avoid this issue.

At least 85% of people looking for goods and services on the Internet find websites through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pages for high search engine rankings is to attract targeted customers to your site who will be more than likely to make a purchase. The higher your page comes up in search engine results, the greater the traffic that is directed to your website. That’s what search engine optimization is about.

You can immerse yourself in all the technical information available online to figure out how to optimize your web pages to achieve higher rankings. Or you can look at a few simple items on your pages, make some small adjustments, and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. The first item you should examine is the title bar on your home page.

The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page. Look at the words that appear there when you access your home page. To increase search engine rankings, the words on your homepage’s title bar should include the most important keywords or phrases, one of which would include your company name.

Then click on all your links and examine the title bars on the pages you access. Each title bar on every single page of your site should contain the most important keywords and phrases taken from the page itself. However, avoid very long strings of keywords, keeping them to six words or less. Avoid repeating keywords more than once in the title bars, and make sure that identical words are not next to each other.

The next item to put under your microscope is your website content. Search engines generally list sites that contain quality content rather than scintillating graphics. The text on your site must contain the most important keywords—the words that potential customers will be typing into search engines to find your site.

Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this is not desirable due to your design, aim for at least 100 carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a high ranking on search engines, this text is essential. However, the search engines must be able to read the text, meaning that the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.

To find out if your text is in HTML format, take your cursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are able to do this, the text is HTML. If the text will not highlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case, ask your webmaster to change the text into HTML format in order to increase your search engine rankings.

Next we come to what is called metatags. I know this sounds like something out of science fiction, but it is really just simple code. Many people believe that metatags are the key to high search engine rankings, but in reality, they only have a limited effect. Still, it’s worth adding them in the event that a search engine will use metatags in their ranking formula.

To find out if your page is set up with metatags, you must access the code. To do this, click the “view” button on the browser menu bar, and select “source”. This will pull up a window revealing the underlying code that created the page. If there are metatags, they usually appear near the top of the window. For example, a metatag would read: meta name=”keywords” content=. If you do not find code that reads like this, ask your webmaster to put them in. This may not do much for your search engine rankings, but any little boost helps.

Lastly, we come to the issue of link popularity. This is a factor that is extremely important in terms of search engine rankings. Almost all search engines use link popularity to rank your website. Link popularity is based on the quality of the sites you have linked to from your links page.

If you type in “free link popularity check” in a popular search engine, the search engine will then show you what sites are linked to your site. In the case that there aren’t many sites linked up to yours, or that the sites that are linked up have low search engine rankings, consider launching a link popularity campaign. Essentially, this entails contacting quality sites and requesting that they exchange links with your site. Of course, this requires checking out the rankings of the websites you want to link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites not only boosts your search engine ranking, but it also directs more quality traffic to your website.

Search engine rankings are extremely important for a successful Internet Marketing campaign. Before you go out and hire a search engine optimization company, try taking some of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can’t boost your rankings yourself. Don’t ever ignore this all-important factor in Internet marketing. Remember, the higher your search engine ranking, the more quality customers will be directed your way.


This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Learning How To Market Your Blog Online

If you’re new to blogging then it can be confusing when creating your first blog.

For a blog marketing guru though, it’s really not that difficult, anyone whose familiar with blog marketing online will tell you it takes hard work, dedication and most importantly consistency.

For someone just starting out with their marketing campaign, it may seem like a lot of work with little or no immediate return, however, just know that marketing is something that you have to build.

You have to work on it and continue to market your blog.

There are many things you can do to market your blog and get it out there to be seen by the world, one of the most important things is to visit other blogs that are relevant to yours and leave comments.

Doing this gets your blog out there to readers of other’s blogs and in return can get you some new visitors as well as readers.

While all of this might seem confusing at first, after a while you will get the hang of it and it will make sense and fall in place.

Posting on your blog on a regular basis is another way to get new readers, who wants to read a blog that is never even updated?

Would you?

Of course not! So give your readers what they want with new content and give it to them often, post daily, weekly or bi weekly and be consistent about it.

This way your readers and visitors will know how often to check your blog for a new post.

You must know where your traffic comes from, knowing which search engines are directing people to your blog is extremely valuable as is identifying those which aren’t, find out which keywords are driving visitors to your blog too.

If you know all of this then use it to your advantage, write further content using the keywords that work for you and look at the areas where you fall down on search engine results that are sending visitors.

If someone leaves a comment on your blog, be sure to acknowledge it.

No one wants to have a conversation with themselves, and it will only take a brief moment to reply and let them know you appreciate them, otherwise if you have a section full of comments and you have not replied, chances are that you will not be getting many more.

The readers may even drop you off of their list of blogs to visit frequently as well, using your head and treating others as you would want to be treated is a big part of marketing.

Make friends with other bloggers, network with them and find out how they get so many visitors to their blog and what they do to keep them interested.

Exchanging ideas with other bloggers that are successful is a great idea and a good way to make friends. If you want, you can even become friends with other bloggers offline as well.

Use this to your advantage but don’t just take from your conversations though, make sure you share all your own blog marketing techniques with your blogging friends as well.

If you happen to be quoting an article from another source or blog, always be sure to provide a link back to the original, otherwise this is known as plagiarism and something that is looked down on in the world of marketing.

Stealing other peoples content isn’t clever and let me assure you, you won’t get away with it, you’ll get caught trying to pass someone else’s work of as your own when clearly it’s not.

This is not a good way to start off in the blog marketing world.

Blog marketing is a fantastic way to make an extra income and build an online presence letting people know you are there there.

Be patient, use these tips to drive people to your blog, as they become regular followers and you earn their trust you’ll be able to use your blog to earn yourself some money.


This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Thursday, October 8, 2009

You Are NOT George Clooney – So Get Your Social Networking Act In Gear!

social mediaWhen George Clooney was recently asked about his take on Facebook at the Toronto Film Festival, his response was short: “I’d rather have a prostate exam than a Facebook page.”


Now, that’s probably understandable when movie studios (his potential clients) have his number on a speed dial, and pesky paparazzi (freebie seekers and unqualified prospects) chase after his every move.


But unless you already have more prospects and high quality clients than you and your business can handle, your approach to Social Networking should be drastically different.


Frankly, a little over a year ago I considered online networking a total waste of time. Fortunately, I was able to recognize how wrong I was. And I wasn’t the only one that had a change of hearts on this.


After Dell revealed they generated a cool million dollars in extra sales in 2008, (ahm, make it a cool $3 million by June’09!), many other companies large and small started paying attention to this social networking “fad”!


Just consider a few of these facts:


- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networks initially considered online hang-out places for kids and teenagers are now attracting a much more demographically diverse crowd. – Big brand names, like Ford, WholeFoods, Comcast, IBM, Dell, Southwest Airlines, and many, many more are establishing a strong presence on social networking hubs like Twitter and Facebook. – Facebook membership has just passed the 300 million mark (that’s nearly the population of USA!) and Twitter is marching towards 18 million users by year’s end! That’s a lot of potential customers! – Although, started with college kids in mind, over 50% of Facebook’s members now are over 25 years old, over 55% are women (the new buying power), 51% have an annual income of $75K, with 33% claiming to earn $100K or more. – Finally, Facebook has become one of most trusted companies in America, and people spend three times more time there than on Google!


Got your attention now?


Good, let me give you just five basic tips on putting this massive connection power to your advantage.


1. Get Started!

Open an account on every social media and social networking platform you come across. Even if you are not actively using all of them, (which you never will) you should reserve your own name, the name of your company, your brand, or your key products, because those are like real estate locations – once the prime spots are gone, they are gone! For example, I have the vanity url facebook.com/adamurbanski – but there are at least six other Adam Urbanskis who will never be able to grab that link! I also have twitter.com/adamurbanski, youtube.com/adamurbanski and many more like this – are you getting the point?


2. Get Involved!

Just opening the accounts won’t do anything for you. You must be actively involved. Choose the best three platforms for you – where you can find the largest population of your ideal clients and it’s the easiest to connect with them. Each platform provides search tools that enable you to find people you already know, current customers, as well as hubs where most of your ideal potential clients already hang out, so you can become visible to a lot of them very quickly. And start connecting and talking! But first…


3. Listen, Listen, Listen More!

The most important thing you must remember is that social networking is NEVER ABOUT YOU! It’s ABOUT THEM! So don’t listen twice as much as your talk (I mean “post”), listen 10 times as much! Find out what the current topics are. What people are concerned about, what information and solutions they are looking for. Then make your posts relevant to other people’s needs! Here is a hint – nearly all of social networking services and tools, at least the basic version of them, is free! So don’t go out there pitching your high-priced wares. Give, give, and give some more first! If your focus is on getting and taking, you will get a big fat NADA from your networking efforts. But if you focus on giving, you’ll be abundantly rewarded in return.


4. Get Attention!

Following all the rules is for sissies! So don’t be a social networking pansy – have an opinion (in fact, have lots of opinions on everything!) and voice it loud and often! People admire people with opinions – even if they don’t agree with you, they will stick around to watch what will happen next. Social networking experts are quick to dispense all their “must not break” rules (heck, I’m doing it right now!), but the fact is, this is such a new media that most of the effective approaches are still to be discovered. And the only way to do so is by stepping on some toes and breaking some norms. If you want a “safe” way to practice this, follow my PET formula: polarize, entertain, teach! – POLARIZE. Whether you piss people off or make them love you, they will pay attention. If they are indifferent, they will leave! – ENTERTAIN.


People will always choose fun over education. If people laugh w/ you, they like you… Plus, when they laugh – they learn! – TEACH. Gary Veynerchuk says “give good s#!%.” And he gets how PET works, because that phrase rubs some people the wrong way, it entertains, and it teaches! Peeps love good tips they can use right away – so share some! 5. Automate! The purpose of social networking is to CONNECT WITH PEOPLE on a very personal level, still there are some tools that can help you impress your fans with your “omnipotent online presence” and get more networking done in less time. RSS blog feeds, friendfeed.com, ping.fm, twitterfeed.com, socialoomph.com, tweetbeep.com, and tubemogul.com are just a few of a plethora of tools and services – most of them free – that will kick your online socializing into high gear! Here is my final take on it. And I really want you to get it! In April of 2008, from a stage at one of my boot camps, I called people who use Twitter “lazy idiots with no life” (yeah, how is that for polarizing, huh?) But at the same boot camp earlier this year I had my Twitter networking activities to thank for clients from Australia, Singapore, Netherlands, Spain, England, Hungary, and a few other countries. Needless to say, I changed my tune. I’ll leave it to your imagination as to what I now call professionals and entrepreneurs who refuse to recognize the client attracting power of social networking. Better yet – stop wondering, and if you aren’t involved yet – get started now!


This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The Tricky Issue Of Duplicate Content & What Google Says About It

business modelBeing a full-time online marketer means you have to keep a close watch on how Google is ranking pages on the web… one very serious concern is the whole issue of duplicate content. More importantly, how does having duplicate content on your own site and on other people’s sites, affect your keyword rankings in Google and the other search engines?

Now, recently it seems that Google is much more open about just how it ranks content. I say “seems” because with Google there are years and years of mistrust when it comes to how they treat content and webmasters. Google’s whole “do as I say” attitude leaves a bitter taste in most webmasters’ mouths. So much so, that many have had more than enough of Google’s attitude and ignore what Google and their pundits say altogether.

This is probably very emotionally fulfilling, but is it the right route or attitude to take? Probably not!

Mainly because, regardless of whether you love or hate Google, there’s no denying they are King of online search and you must play by their rules or leave a lot of serious online revenue on the table. Now, for my major keyword content/pages even a loss of just a few places in the rankings can mean I lose hundreds of dollars in daily commissions, so anything affecting my rankings obviously get my immediate attention.

So the whole tricky issue of duplicate content has caused me some concern and I have made an ongoing mental note to myself to find out everything I can about it. I am mainly worried about my content being ranked lower because the search engines think it is duplicate content and penalizes it.

My situation is compounded by the fact that I am heavily into article marketing – the same articles are featured on hundreds, some times thousands of sites across the web. Naturally, I am worried these articles will dilute or lower my rankings rather than accomplish their intended purpose of getting higher rankings.

I try to vary the anchor text/keyword link in the resource boxes of these articles. I don’t use the same keyword phrase over and over again, as I am nearly 99% positive Google has a “keyword use” quota – repeat the same keyword phrase too often and your highly linked content will be lowered around 50 or 60 places, basically taking it out of the search results. Been there, done that!

I even like submitting unique articles to certain popular sites so only that site has the article, thus eliminating the whole duplicate content issue. This also makes for a great SEO strategy, especially for beginning online marketers, your own site will take some time to get to a PR6 or PR7, but you can place your content and links on high PR7 or PR8 authority sites immediately. This will bring in quality traffic and help your own site get established.

Another way I combat this issue is by using a 301 re-direct so that traffic and pagerank flows to the URL I want ranked. You can also use your Google Webmaster Tool account to show which version of your site you want ranked or featured: with or without the www.

The whole reason for doing any of this has to do with PageRank juice – you want to pass along this ranking juice to the appropriate page or content. This can raise your rankings, especially in Google.

Thankfully, there is the relatively new “canonical tag” you can use to tell the search engines this is the page/content you want featured or ranked. Just add this meta link tag to your content which you want ranked or featured, as in the example given below:

link rel=”canonical” href=”place your preferred link here”

Anyway, this whole duplicate issue has many faces and sides, so I like going directly to Google for my information. Experience has shown me that Google doesn’t always give you the full monty, but for the most part, you can follow what they say. Lately, over the last year or so, Google seems to have made a major policy change and are telling webmasters a lot more information on how they (Google) rank their index.

So if you’re concerned or interested in finding out more about duplicate content and what Google says about it try these helpful links. First one is a very informative video on the subject entitled “Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues” which is presented by Greg Grothaus who works for Google.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hSoXutuj0g

Another great link is this page from Google Webmasters Support Answers by Matt Cutts. It has a lot of helpful information, including a video on the Canonical Link Element. It’s located here:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394

In yet another post, Matt Cutts discusses the related issue of content scraping and advises webmasters not to worry about it. This is a slightly different matter, other webmasters and unmentionables may use software to scrape your site and place your content on their site. This has happened to me, countless times, including when my content has been reduced to scrambled nonsense. Cutts says not to worry about this matter as Google can usually tell the original source of the material. In fact, having links in this duplicate content may just help your rankings in Google.

“There are some people who really hate scrapers and try to crack down on them and try to get every single one deleted or kicked off their web host,” says Cutts. “I tend to be the sort of person who doesn’t really worry about it, because the vast, vast, vast majority of the time, it’s going to be you that comes up, not the scraper. If the guy is scraping and scrapes the content that has a link to you, he’s linking to you, so worst case, it won’t hurt, but in some weird cases, it might actually help a little bit.”

As a full-time online marketer I am not so easily convinced, I mainly have pressing concerns about my unscrupulous competition using these scrapings and duplicate content to undermine one’s rankings in Google by triggering some keyword spam filter. Whether in fact this actually happens, only Google knows for sure, but it is just another indication, despite the very detailed and helpful information given above, duplicate content and the issues surrounding it, will still present serious concerns for online marketers and webmasters in the future.


This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

How to Make a Transparent “Walk-on” Video, Part 2

Website marketing is extremely competitive. If you use videos on your website, you will do much better against the competition. The slickest type of video to use now is the transparent video.

People like to watch short, to-the-point videos. Statistics prove that using video on your site helps greatly.

A transparent video lives in a dynamic html layer. As you can see, you can scroll up and down and the transparent video stays in its position.

Making transparent videos is becoming easier to do. The tools you will use to accomplish this task are becoming more user-friendly.

As a quick overview of how you make this type of video: First, you need to record the video against a green background. Next, you need to key out the background which makes it transparent, or invisible. The process of keying out the background is covered in another one of my videos. The Keylight Keyer(1,2) is simple to use and very effective.

The settings to use when your render your video are very important. Your intent should be to make the file size of the video very small so that it will load quickly.

Most beginners don’t know the secret about how to make the correct settings. They render their video at a high resolution with stereo sound.

Consequently their video is bloated and it won’t load quickly. More importantly, when it does load, it is likely to stop and go. It will need to buffer repeatedly to transfer all those bytes.

Consider the settings you will make in video editing software. It uses the a special codec. What is a codec? This is a compression / decompression type of software product.

In non-technical language, it removes the unessential information from the video file. In a sense, it compresses the video by taking out information that doesn’t show in the video — it isn’t unusual to see a reduction ratio in the range of 100 to 1.

As an example, a walk-on video was saved as an uncompressed AVI file. It was 251,081 kilobytes in size. After this was run through the On2 codec, it was compressed down to 1,567 kilobytes. That reduction was in the range of 160 to 1…quite incredible.

Here is a review of what it takes to make a transparent walk-on video:

We encode the alpha channel that includes the actor but doesn’t include the background. Remember, we don’t want the background.

The frame rate can be reduced to one-half the source’s frames per second without much reduction in quality. By the way, a screen capture video can be shown at 8 or 10 frames per second without noticeable change in quality. The source’s fps was 29.97, which is typical. If we divide that in half, we get 14.987, not 15. If you use 15, you will lose lip synch if the video is long enough.

Don’t concern yourself with the default settings in your software…choose the maximum data rate of about 220 KBS. Consider the audio settings next. We don’t need stereo and we don’t need any more than 32 kilobits per second. If you add the video’s kbps to the audio’s kbps, we get only 252 kbps.

The vast majority of internet users, about 85%, can show a video properly without starting and stopping if you make your video small.

Making these type videos is fun and rewarding. Everybody should be able to make a walk-on video with a little study and work.


This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Sell on eBay – How To Write Profitable Listings

It is a simple fact that if you sell on eBay and receive only minimal views on your listings then the lower the bidding or amount of sales will be. It does not matter how detailed and professional your listings look, viewings are the key. And the key to increasing the number of viewings is research!

In order to research, you must first take a look at what other sellers, especially Powersellers of the same items, are doing. What keywords do they use? Which categories are they listing in? Do their listings trigger an emotional need so that the reader simply has to buy now? How many photographs do they have and what quality are these? Take a good hard look at how they sell on eBay to get ideas for your own listings.

When a potential buyer reads your listings, they are looking for good value. So, you must add value to your products. Adding value does not always mean giving something extra free or doing something to the actual product! You just need to achieve a perceived added value which will catch the reader’s attention when they look at your description. So added value could be something as simple as offering a no quibble 30 day money back guarantee. If your competitors who sell on eBay are not offering this then you have added value to your product. The same goes for your listing description – photographs add value, as do the benefits of the product.

Make sure that you write your description well and always include photographs – people like to see exactly what they are buying! It is important to remember when you to write your description in a friendly, informative manner, as though you are talking personally to the reader as this will encourage them to continue reading and arouse their interest.

If your product has lots of features and especially benefits, then make sure you include them in your listing. Do not drone on and on, but be clear and concise and tell the potential buyer exactly why they must buy your item right now.

To sell on eBay effectively, you need to invest some time into creating that added value as ultimately your listings will attract more views and sales. Bearing this in mind, there is nothing more off putting to a potential buyer than seeing a confusing listing before them! Not everyone is a technical whiz so where possible use simple layman’s terms in your description. Show all your Payment, Shipping and Dispatch Times so that they can be easily seen and understood so that buyers can work out total costs and approximate delivery dates at a glance.

If people feel at ease with your auction listing, then they are much more likely to bid or buy. So it is important when you sell on eBay that you are completely honest. If there happens to be a fault with a product, tell buyers what it is as this will show that you are not trying to mislead anyone. Really, the simple rule is to think about what you would like to know about the item if you were buying it, and then add all these thoughts to your description. Don’t miss bits out because if all the information is there in front of the potential bidder or buyer then they are more likely to bid or buy right now.

As your views and sales grow, you must encourage your bidders and buyers to look at your other listings because a big part of your eBay sales strategy is to get bidders to purchase more items from you. So, if you are selling a supplementary or complimentary item let your buyers know and highlight the fact that you offer combined postage if they purchase both items!

When you sell on eBay, your listings should be regarded as an opportunity to establish relationships with buyers. You then need to look after these buyers so that they come back to you time and again. Never think in one-off transactions, even if they do end up as a one-off, because your ebay income depends on customers to guarantee you success!


This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Friday, October 2, 2009

Adding Search to Your Marketing Mix - Part II

Understanding Searcher Behavior

In marketing, it is accepted that one must grab the prospect's attention with a compelling message in order to maintain his or her interest. On the Internet, this is paramount. People who are using search engines are, by definition, in a "searching" mode. While this is of course obvious, it is also important to remember that in no other form of marketing is it easier for the searcher to abandon your attempts to attract his or her attention and look elsewhere. Your competitors are a simple click of the 'back' button away. In fact, a recent study shows that the average visitor to a website stays for less than three minutes - hardly enough time for him or her to be sold.

Searchers have been conditioned, by the sheer amount of information available, to be impatient when they do not immediately find what it is they are seeking. What does this mean? It means that your pages should offer immediate insight on the common problems that your customers face. If you cannot communicate, within a few seconds, how you understand your prospect and how you are different from the myriad of other firms out there, you have lost them, perhaps forever. With help from your search engine optimization company, take a close look at every page of your website. Do you focus on the user, or do you focus on your company? Do you immediately engage your prospects with your knowledge of what particular business challenges they are facing? If not, it may be time to rethink the most prominent marketing message on your individual pages and devise a new action plan for your SEO campaign.


Redefining "Competition"

Almost every company has a list of four or five companies that it considers to be its primary competitors. These are generally the companies that it believes offer products and services most similar to its own. Often these companies steal employees from one another, and they seem forever concerned with what the other is doing.

On a search engine, however, your definition of competition should be broader. It should include any company that offers the same products or services as your company that outranks you for important terms. Whether or not these companies are on your immediate radar is immaterial - a searcher will not know the difference, nor will he or she care. The Internet is, by and large, a vast and level playing field. There are quite possibly companies that you have never heard of using the Internet almost exclusively to promote their brands. It is important to watch out for these competitors as well as the ones you and your search engine optimization company currently track.

The Role of Patience

Unlike with most marketing channels, search engine optimization has many variables that will be outside of your control and the benefits will not be immediate. Simply put, it takes time to properly optimize a website for optimal search engine performance, and there are no guarantees as to when the engines will re-visit your site and reward you for the efforts of your SEO campaign (although, if you select the right search engine optimization company and play your cards right, it will happen).

The obvious downside is that an SEO campaign can take time before you begin to see your ROI, and unlike most other forms of traditional marketing, the timing can vary greatly. The upside, which people who successfully engage in an SEO campaign realize, is that the ROI is typically much greater than other forms of marketing. It is also important to remember that working with a search engine optimization company is a longer-term investment, which, like other longer-term investments, takes time to mature. If you spend marketing dollars on a print ad, that ad will only be effective for as long as the publication is in the public eye. If you buy banner ads or use pay-per-click advertising, your presence will decline once you stop paying. But a website that's been properly optimized by a competent, knowledgeable search engine optimization company will likely bring you traffic for years to come.

About The Author

Scott Buresh is the founder and CEO of Medium Blue, which was named the number one organic search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld in 2006 and 2007. Scott's articles have appeared in numerous publications, including ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. He was also a contributor to The Complete Guide to Google Advertising (Atlantic, 2008) and Building Your Business with Google for Dummies (Wiley, 2004). Medium Blue is an Atlanta search engine optimization company with local and national clients, including Cbeyond, Boston Scientific, and DeKalb Medical.

Adding Search to Your Marketing Mix - Part I

businewssThe powerful capabilities of organic search engine optimization (SEO) are now a highly sought after marketing tool by many companies that want to alert customers to their products or services by focusing on certain keyphrases that highlight these offerings. And though SEO has embarked on a meteoric rise in the past few years, other non-traditional forms of marketing are now gaining a great deal of well-deserved credibility as well. More and more marketers are using paid ads to hone in on a potentially profitable client base, while other more traditional channels, such as PR and print ads, appear to be becoming somewhat less effective.

In a recent study (1), Forrester Research found that interactive marketing spending will reach nearly $55 billion by 2014, representing 21% of all marketing spend. And the fact of the matter is that marketers are continuing to place more stock in newer forms of marketing and social media, leaving many higher-ups to wonder if it is time for them to include these channels in their own marketing mixes. And with the help of your search engine optimization company, it’s possible to achieve outstanding rankings and results!

What follows are some common considerations that should be analyzed prior to the launch of an SEO campaign so that you will know what you are getting into, what you will need from your own team and your prospective search engine optimization company, and how to most effectively pursue this particular form of marketing.

Achieving Buy-in

Search engine optimization is unlike many traditional forms of marketing in that several departments must be involved in order for the SEO campaign to be successful. Apart from the obvious need to get buy-in from upper management (unless, of course, you are upper management), you will also need to get buy-in from your sales department and, very importantly, your IT department before pursuing the powerful capabilities your search engine optimization company can bring to the table.

Upper Management

While a well thought out, highly targeted SEO campaign is becoming an increasingly popular marketing tool, many “old school” bigwigs are uncomfortable pursuing something that is completely foreign to them. This is not an indictment of the individual – keep in mind that the traditional marketing methods that the company has likely relied upon (trade shows, direct mail, print advertising, etc.) have been relatively unchanged for decades.

While these traditional marketing channels may have remained relatively stagnant, the allocation of spend for them has not. According to a 2008 SEMPO report, more marketers are shifting their budgets to search rather than spending it on the more traditional channels of the past. Nearly 26% of advertisers shifted budget for print magazines to search; 23% from direct mail; 18% from print newspaper; 15% from website development; and 7% from email marketing.

One of the reasons for this is obviously the effectiveness of the channel. In the same study, SEMPO found that respondents viewed online marketing efforts as their strongest tactic or best ROI. 63% of respondents saw paid search as the best return on investment in terms of marketing or advertising efforts; 49% for organic SEO; 43% for email marketing; 12% for conferences and exhibitions; 11% for public relations; and 6% for print magazines.

Another reason for the shift in marketing dollars, which can be used as ammunition when you are trying to convince your higher-ups to go with a search engine optimization company, is the ultimate accountability that goes along with online marketing: the data that indicates success or failure of your SEO campaign is of the black-or-white variety.

When describing the effectiveness of a company’s marketing strategy, there is often an old sentiment tossed around – “I know that half of my marketing is not working, just not which half.” Because of the analytics involved in search engine optimization, your company higher-ups can take comfort in the fact that this is not another marketing initiative that will self-perpetuate indefinitely – the metrics involved in your SEO campaign will demonstrate that it is working, justifying the continued expenditure.

When trying to get buy-in from upper management, you also have a formidable weapon in the actions, or inaction, of your competitors. If your hated rivals are actively embracing the tools offered by a search engine optimization company, there will be a tendency among upper management not to want to let them get too far ahead. If none of your top competitors appear to be actively pursuing this channel, your company can gain traction before your rivals do and thus gain the competitive edge. Whichever the case, it is now much easier to present a compelling argument to pursue an SEO campaign.

Sales Department


There is often a mutual suspicion and distrust between sales and marketing, but in order for your SEO campaign initiative to be as successful as possible, you should involve sales in the process of selecting a search engine optimization company as early as possible. Achieving buy-in from the salespeople is critical in making certain that the leads that are generated from the website are followed up on as diligently as they should be. By asking sales to assist in important areas of the SEO campaign, like creating an ideal prospect profile and helping to identify targeted keyphrases (after all, they talk to your prospects more often than anyone), you should be able to ensure that when the leads start coming in, your sales team will believe that leads from the website are high-quality and worthy of their immediate attention. After all, without increased revenues, the SEO campaign is not a success – and your salespeople will play a crucial role in determining this.

IT Department

This can be your most difficult challenge. Unlike most other forms of marketing, search engine optimization is a mixture of marketing and technology. Without achieving buy-in, or at least acceptance, from the IT team prior to the launch of an SEO campaign, you are likely to run into problems. IT teams can be particularly protective of their “turf” and may be reluctant to hand over information to your prospective search engine optimization company. This is not inherently bad (it obviously shows dedication to the job), but it can make things difficult when your search engine optimization company is requesting that changes be made to the company website or that analytics platforms be introduced (to name only two likely scenarios).

If you are not used to dealing with your IT department, it would probably serve you well to involve your prospective search engine optimization company in the process of achieving buy-in with them. After all, the vendor should have years of experience in approaching these situations without ruffling feathers. If you choose to approach IT yourself, make it a point to let them know that they will receive a fair share of credit for the success of the initiative and involve them in how you are defining success. This may be enough to win them over to your side.

Works Cited

1. U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2009 – 2014


This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

5 Ways to Get Your Email Marketing To Your Prospects or Customers

Don’t think email marketing is now too hard as more autoresponders insist on double opt in. You can still market effectively to your customers only you hve to be a bir more creative.

Personally, I welcome email marketing becoming harder because the more effort that has to be put in will make those ‘lazy’ or wannabes simply drop out. Into that gap the inventive professional approach to email marketing will thrive.

I want to show you the impact of the new rules and how to deal with them and let’s start with the double opt in.

If you use any of the major shopping cart providers like 1shoppingcart (ISC), they now have, mandatory double opt in and they did this because of being blacklisted by SPAMHaus organisation. This was caused by one selfish, unethical person using ISC’s ‘Tell a Friend’ script to send out thousands of Spam messages. The consequence was that email sent via 1SC servers was being classified as Spam by many ISP’s. 1SC agreed to make all email sign ups double opt in so as overcome this problem. What does this mean to you?

Double opt in means that anyone joining your list is sent an email asking them to confirm that it really was them that signed up and they want to join. This method produces a better and more responsive list BUT reduces the numbers. Take your pick because there are a few different reasons for this, including forgetting to confirm, changing their mind, or not really understanding what they are being asked to do. What can you do?

I am a firm believer in telling your customers and prospects EXACTLY what to do. On my website I have a video of me telling people exactly how to confirm that they want to subscribe to our lists. The video allows me to actually show them what to do, and how to do it and anyone signing up to my list is directed to a web page where I show them the exact email they’ll receive and how to click on the link.

This is simple…but very powerful and by using it on several of my lists I have achieved a confirmation rate of over 90% – and that’s virtually unheard of.

5 key tactics to use now Your aim is to get your email through and read by your customers and prospects. Yes it may be getting harder, but these tactics will help you win out over your competitors:

1) Brand your emails so they stand out from the crowd Give your emails a brand name or title so as soon as people see that name they know who it’s from and what to expect.

For example, one list I have with my partner Neil Travers is the Junior Soccer Coach Newsletter ‘Tip of the Week’. Now that doesn’t really have impact so we went to ‘Junior Soccer Coach – Inside Tactics’ and further refined it to ‘Inside Tactics’ and that is now our ‘brand’ name for the free tip of the week.

2) Send out a reminder for all of your emails. Your first email is your regular email and you must follow up with another one that briefly reminds them of what you have just sent or to direct them to read a copy online or on your Blog.

That second email must give them a REASON to go and find/read your earlier email. How? Give them a teaser of the information your newsletter contained, maybe a free gift or how it can help them…use the biggest benefit.

3) Always, always, run your messages through a SPAM checker It’s essential because it will tell you if your email is likely to be classified as spam or not. If it is spam, then you will know which words you need to change.

4) Your subscribers need to be kept in touch with regularly. I receive better responses to my promotions when I am regularly emailing people in that niche.

Coincidence? No, because more contact with your list means you are building a relationship with them, and so they are much more likely to buy from you.

5) Build smaller targeted lists Smaller, targeted, lists are by far more responsive to you and your offers. I would rather have 250 highly focused names on a specific topic than 5000 names on a generic one.

I want people who are positively interested in my specific niche. Your first sub list should be of buyers, people who have already bought from you, and then people who have bought from you more than once. Build sub lists of topics within your particular niche, as your next step.

For example; in our football newsletter we might ask subscribers to email us for more information about a specific topic such as under 7’s or girls football. We would add these people to a sub list with its own autoresponder series. Then target these prospects with specific offers relating to their enquiry.

Use these 5 tips to help you make your email marketing more effective, and to ensure it gets through to your customers and prospects.


This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

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