Another Form Of Email Marketing – Permission Based

5 04 2009

So, you want to know more about email marketing. Here is one type that will really help you out. Permission based email marketing. That’s right, permission based email marketing. Email marketing is the new perfect medium to use when you’re other marketing is not effective. For example, in-store marketing is only effective if customers come in the store. If they don’t, this form of marketing is wasted.

Another benefit of email marketing is that it doesn’t cost anything. Large-scale mailings can really add up cost wise, but not so with permission based email marketing. Because email is instant, so is customer response. Usually, if a customer is reading an email, likes what he or she is reading, they are more likely to click a link and make an online purchase. He or she is not likely to close out his or her email and come down to your store, especially if your store isn’t located anywhere near where he or she is. Email marketing is also effective because it widens your customer base. With email marketing, we are no longer held down by our locations.

One way to make sure that email marketing doesn’t turn into a flop for you is to use permission based email marketing. This is gaining permission from the people you are going to be sending to. The reason for this is because of spammers. Because of these people who send off emails that are not permission based email marketing, there are many times when even your emails might be considered to be spam and deleted. Since your lively hood depends on people coming to or shopping in your store, this can be very harsh and cost you money by having to use other forms of marketing. However, if you are using permission based email marketing, there is no need to worry because this form of email marketing requires getting the email address of your customers with their permission to send them email.

So, how do you effectively use permission based email marketing? Create the messages and set them to go out to your customers though an email list automatically. Get the name and email of people by maybe offering something for free. Tracking codes are useful as they give you numbers to show you whether your marketing strategy is working. Keep emails in a friendly tone, this insures that customers are more than willing to read your email than if it was in a mono tone or unfriendly one.



Email Marketing: Software Solutions

5 04 2009

If you wish to provide email marketing as part of your online business plan you might want to look at some of the email marketing software applications available.

Certainly there are sources where you can develop an online group at little or no cost. By following this approach you may be well served at the startup of your online business, but as it grows you may want to invest in software that aids in the effective delivery of your email marketing messages while providing a greater degree of flexibility in the final presentation.

Arial Software

The software application from Arial provides a laundry list of services that include templates for highly developed email messages with photos, logos and headers. The software can be toggled to account for the expertise of the user. Essentially this means that if you are not very skilled at using the software you can select a beginning setting and more assistance is provided to allow you to successfully access the functions you are seeking to use. The cost for the software can range from just under $1,000 to over $5,000 depending on your needs and subscriber base.

PoliteMail

This service was developed to work exclusively with Outlook Express, and works on a ëper email’ fee. The basic package is free to use and has a maximum distribution capability of 10,000. The caveat is that even the free edition requires a fee for the emails distributed through the system. According to PoliteMail, “”For less than a penny per message, you can send to thousands to customers and prospects.”

The professional version of PoliteMail is $495 and it is also subject to fees for each delivered email. It has a larger capacity for subscription and offered additional premium features.

EmailLabs

EmailLabs represents itself as a high-end email marketing solution and unlike other services takes a different approach to service availability, “EmailLabs does not offer a 30- or 60-day free trial account as do manyÖ providers in the industry.” They do provide a demo for clients to tour and their list of clients is impressive. No pricing structure was available for review.

While these three email marketing software solutions are varied in their approach they are also only a small number of potential providers. This article is not an endorsement of any particular product simply a means of alerting you to a variety of possibilities as you consider email marketing as a means of furthering the objectives of your online company.



Email Marketing Is Impression Marketing

5 04 2009

There is no such thing as 100% response to email marketing – even if you were giving your merchandise away (with free shipping).

You have to understand that not even your most loyal customers are going to fully review every email-marketing item you send.

Those that do read the email from your business may not be at a place where they need your product or service at the tie you send it.

So what is the point in continuing to send email marketing items if there is only a relatively small chance of response?

The primary reason for email marketing is what I like to call ‘Impression Marketing’. The email you send may hit a few people at the right time and a purchase is taken care of. However, in most cases the end user is left with another impression of your business (even if they don’t actually open the email). Since this is true you should always make sure the subject line includes the name of your business first followed by a compelling title for the email message.

Because we all receive a variety of spam messages the use of your business name gives the email added weight in the eyes of the recipient. They may not read it, but they are likely to be less hostile to email from someone they have done business with before. Besides it gets your name before the customers again.

Impression Marketing is a bit like Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In both cases you do a lot of hard work with very little in the way of immediate results. In both cases these two marketing functions take a long-range view knowing there will come a time when the hard work will pay off.

Impression Marketing takes your efforts and brings results much later than you expect. While that may sound bad, it also brings results that are often far greater than your effort.

This can be seen in the planting of a corn seed. The single seed grows into a stalk that can produce more than one ear of corn. The net result is a yield of hundreds of kernels of corn in exchange for the one kernel planted. Again, the corn doesn’t produce a stock and fully developed ears overnight, but it does provide a great return – given time.

The same is true for Impression Marketing. When you give it time and consistently maintain that long-range view the use of SEO and email marketing begin to make sense. You may not see the traffic you hope for immediately, but you may be able to view your stats in the future and see that looking long range is a great way to prepare for your future.



Generating More Website Traffic

5 04 2009

Whether your website is a personal blog or a business based site, every person with a site knows the most important aspect is to have traffic. Without visitors and traffic, the website becomes just wasted cyberspace. Many people struggle with the concept of how to generate more website traffic. The good news is there are a variety of ways to drive traffic to your site with little or no money invested. It is a simple matter of checking out what works and thinking creatively.

Consider getting involved with an affiliate program, if you haven’t already. Hosting another company’s products will send more visitors your way when they search for a specific item. This is also a good way to generate some income for yourself as well as receive more website traffic. The products draw visitors in, but hopefully, your amazing website will have them coming back for more. There are services out there that will take care of the majority of business for you. Some even allow you the instant ability to accept credit cards and run the affiliate program for you. This may be the best method for creating more website traffic.

Another highly result driven method for more website traffic is reciprocal linking. This practice is especially useful when your site is linked to similar content websites. For example, if you use your website to sell yoga equipment, linking to another site that focuses on yoga content and tips would be a mutually beneficial link. You get the sales and the other site gets more hits and more visitors reading and commenting. You will want to link with websites that are related to your products, but that are not in direct competition. Networking in this manner and reciprocal linking are excellent ways to generate more website traffic.

If you were blessed with adequate writing skills, then writing articles in your area of expertise is another way to get more website traffic. Writing a few articles a week and submitting them to other relevant websites has the potential of creating new interest in your website. Website content is a precious commodity and your articles have the potential of ending up on an unlimited amount of websites. How this benefits you is that in your byline you include a link back to your site along with the standard information about yourself. Be sure to set the link up to go directly to your sales page. If your homepage isn’t your sales page be careful to not make a new guest search your entire site for the products they want. This method of generating more website traffic is optimal because there is no cost to you and is free advertising.

A unique technique for getting more website exposure is to advertise locally. One way would be to have magnetic signs made with your website’s information on them. Have some extras made and maybe friends and family will help out with your advertising venture. The numbers of people who will see this information is astounding when you factor in vehicle traffic and the number of places you go in one week. The magnets won’t damage the finish of your car and you are taking advantage of a relatively low cost way to generate more website traffic. Add to that any outside help you receive and the Internet traffic from local sources may be just what your website needs.

Getting the attention and additional traffic your website needs doesn’t have to be the near impossible feat that it may seem like. A little bit of research and patience on your part paired with creativity can make your site the envy of its cyberbuddies.



Optimize Websites To Attract Free Traffic

5 04 2009

An absolute crucial part of website-building includes optimizing the website to attract free traffic. Optimizing your website can save you up to thousands of dollars in paid advertising. Even if you do not have high revenues, this can remain an asset to your website for a long time to come. If at some point in the future, you decide to sell, being able to show interested buyers your completely free search engine traffic will lift the perceived value of the website.

First of all you need to learn how to optimize your website to attract free traffic. I guess your first question should be, how do you go about optimizing your website to attract free traffic from search engines, such as Google?

One of the best ways in which to go about this is to setup link partners with other website owners in your particular niche. One way to do this is by joining a link exchange program, or you can search for willing web masters yourself. Be careful when choosing a link exchange program. Do a little research first or it could do more harm than good. You want a program that will get you links with partners in your niche and not too many too fast. Add them over time.

You can add link partners with low page rank in your niche but ultimately it will be in your best interest to set up links with high page rank websites that are related to your niche. It would also be a good idea to put your target keyword to optimize in the anchor text of your link that you give to link partners. Search engines will look at this when they are trying to determine what your site is about based on the link.

If you accumulate a larger amount of link partners, it will be good to vary your anchor text to several different keywords for your website, not just the one you want to optimize your website for the most. This will help you receive traffic for a number of keywords in your niche.

Another idea that will help you optimize your website for free search engine traffic is to run a complementary content-creation campaign. You can do this by creating new pages for your website based upon keywords that are receiving little traffic, but have no competition. This will help you to dominate all of the traffic for that given keyword and be ahead of the competition by being on top of the search engines.

That’s the basics of how to optimize your websites to attract free search engine traffic. Look for more of these articles to come.

To sum up, get inbound links to your website, create and optimize extra pages of your website for keywords that no one is competing for.



Drive Traffic To Your Website Using The Right Keywords

5 04 2009

Search engines are the #1 tool people use when shopping for products, services or information online. Optimize your website with the proper keywords or keyword phrases for your content and watch your traffic explode. If you gain an understanding of how to properly promote your website your efforts will reach it’s full potential.

To rank relevantly within search engine results, each website must be considered relevant to a particular search algorithm for a given keyword or phrase. Keyword selection can be a challenge to both experts and neophytes. While anyone can come up with various words that may be used when searching for their product or service, these words may not be the ideal mix for search engine ranking. Why? If a marketer chooses a popular keyword phrases, he or she and a million other businesses compete for top placement. Top SERP placement is dense, searchers typically giving up after the first three pages. To succeed, one must use relevant keywords that are not being used by everyone else and that are searched for quite often. This may include misspellings and other alternative data. After finding relevant keywords and phrases, the results must encourage conversion or success based on each business’ criteria. For example, while it may be possible for a DVD rental firm to get top listings under the search criteria “free DVD rentals”, the person who visits is looking for free merchandise and will leave if its not found.

For optimal search engine rankings, a page will be optimized for only one to two popular but non-competitive keywords or keyword phrases.

Keyword Coding

HTML coding are two words most people never want to hear, especially in a learning environment. But it’s important to understand the basic web page header structure and where the search engines look to find key words for search engine ranking pages (SERP).

Sites rank highest when each page is optimized separately. For instance, a business may have one website with unlimited interlinking pages. The top page must be named “index.HTML.” While each sub-page may be named according to the designer or programmer’s preference. Ideally sub-pages are named according to the strongest keywords or phrases for each business. Both the domain name and the URL or complete web address string, are important factors in determining search engine relevancy

Three important META tags are on each individual HTML page located between the “head” tags: description, keywords and title. The webpage description is the short sentence that displays after the listing name is the SERP’s. The keywords are not viewed by the casual surfer, but offer a clear-cut description of what is found on the website or who’s behind it. The title is the most condensed of all metatags. The title should repeat the top 1-2 keywords and describe what the site is about.

We can take the keyword theme as far as necessary, yet success through search engine optimization is not a 100% guaranteed way to gain top rankings and can often dilute the site and information quality by becoming a string of repetitive keywords, not value-added information. Some of these tactics include adding pages of keyword-rich articles solely to rank high. Another is developing a mini-empire of interrelated sites not for expert information, but solely to make the sites appear more important and relevant to the main site focus.

To ensure a small 30-page website is optimized, it must first renew keyword use each month to find the most popular terms for the three major search engines, Yahoo!, Google and MSN. Each page must be optimized for different but interdependent terms to strengthen the site as a whole. This involves new keyword research and website content for each page every month.

An example of a good ecommerce site using paid advertising instead of keyword optimization is buy http://automotive.com. Notice the content is relevant to the visitor entering and seeking the product. In contract, auto http://anything.com, a competitor site, relies heavily on keyword content, uses text that has no purpose and confuses the visitor with too many navigation links and useless words meant for search engines alone. Though this may gain rankings with work and keyword saturation, it can also damage a business reputation and ultimately lead to less sales.

Needless to say there are far more aspects to choosing the right keywords than I can cover in this article but the information provided here should give you a good insight into understanding how important it is to design a website that is keyword friendly.

Let’s face it, there is no magic bullet when it comes to successfully promoting your online business. There are pros and cons to almost everything you do. If you never develop a plan and put that plan into motion, you’ll never know if that’s the plan that will ultimately be the “magic bullet” that launches your online business to new found success.

Do give up! If at first you don’t succeed, TRY, TRY, AGAIN! There is a lot to learn when starting a online business. Give yourself a break and don’t set unrealistic goals. Contrary to popular beliefs, having a successful, profit making, online business doesn’t happen overnight.

So, Good Luck, make money and have fun doing it.



SEO – Affiliate Marketing Using Clickbank

3 04 2009

In a nut shell – affiliate marketing is all about placing links on web page of any sort and then having your readers click on them. When the links are clicked on you can make money per click or you can make a commission when somebody goes to the recommended site and then buys something. It is in essence, a quiet, unobtrusive way of being a salesperson.

You don’t necessarily need talent or even good grammar to write a blog. You do however need a real passion for what you are writing about and to have some kind of idea of what you would like to sell that might be attached to your blog and the keywords that go along with it.

Once you have decided what you want to sell finding affiliate links is pretty simple. Let’s say that you want to write about exotic bonsai trees on a blog. Your next step is to simply type in the words “bonsai ñ affiliate” into a big search engine like Google and you will be lead to scores of sites that have affiliate programs for selling bonsai.

Sometimes the affiliate link will also read “affiliate program”, “associates” or “partners”…there will normally be some kind of help section on how to sign up. The good thing is that this signing up part of the affiliate program process is always free. Depending on what type of program or site is mastering the affiliate program you can make money per click or on different rates of conversion. You can also make money if you persuade someone else to join the same affiliate program.

A highly recommended source of affiliate revenue is Clickbank, which has an average commission rate of 50%. The good thing about Clickbank is that the checks to affiliates do arrive in the mail on time every two weeks. It is a very reliable site when it comes to payouts.



Wealthy Affiliate Review

3 04 2009

Wealthy Affiliate is an interactive marketing community designed to teach you how to make money online as an Affiliate Marketer. At Wealthy Affiliate you’ll find a lot of information, guides, and tools to help you succeed at making money online. Their goal is to help you reach the next level in affiliate marketing and become a wealthy affiliate.

The concept of affiliate marketing is simple. As an affiliate (you), send traffic to a companies website, and the company pays you a commission whenever someone makes a purchase through your link. As an affiliate marketer you can make money from commissions for almost anything sold on the internet.

For example, let’s look at a web hosting company. There’s one web hosting company that pays their affiliates a $40 commission for each new web hosting account an affiliate refers. Ok, so one sale a day is not going to let you quit your day job. If you can image for just a minute, getting 1 sale a day on ten or fifteen products, what would that translate to? With a bit of work you can easily see how to get yourself up to $400 or $500 a day.

Believe it or not, there are wealthy affiliates out there that average over 50 sales a day, every day. And earn on average $20 per commission which translates to $1,000 a day, $30,000 a month, or $360,000 a year. That’s a lot of money and if you work at it you can do it too!

Oh, there is one thing that no one seems to mention when generating that kind of money, its called expenses. Remember, affiliates making that much money are also paying out about $10,000 a month in expenses. And that’s where Wealthy Affiliate can save you from spending more than you’re making.

Wealthy Affiliate members get access to a lot of resources to teach them about affiliate marketing. Wealthy Affiliates also have access to tools, such as keyword research, Clickbank research and link tracking. Another major benefit of membership at Wealthy Affiliate is the personal support you get from the owners, Kyle and Carson, and other Wealthy Affiliate members in the members forum. Feedback in the Wealthy Affiliate forum is very helpful.

Wealthy Affiliate is for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re just getting started or an advanced affiliate marketer wanting to get to the next level, wealthy affiliate can help.

You don’t have a website. Not a problem, with a Wealthy Affiliate membership you can use one of their pre-built or feeder sites. Or if you do want to build your own website you can use one of their website templates.

How much does Wealthy Affiliate cost? First, I want you to think about how much a class similar to this would cost at a university near you. On average it’s going to cost you over $400 a semester for a single 4 credit hour class.

Wealthy Affiliate costs $29.99 a month or about $120 a semester. You can have a membership to Wealthy Affiliate for a year and it’ll still cost you less than one class at a university. Plus, you have access to all the guides, tutorials, members only forum, and other tools to help you make money on the internet.



Seeing Through Affiliate Program Hype

3 04 2009

Affiliate Program Overview

“Cutting Through the Information and Finding the Right Program for You”

One of the fastest growing trends to making money on the internet is the affiliate web based business. Affiliate programs are everywhere, and if you’ve been reading your spam offers, you have probably received countless invitations to join various programs.

Affiliate network internet marketing offers a reliable and fast way to set up a business to make money on the internet. Each program comes with its own web site, product or service, commission plan, and advertising aids. If you have been looking for a web based business to make money on the internet from home, affiliate marketing plans have exactly what you need to get you started.

Choosing the right one for you may not be so simple. Your inbox has been jam packed with offers to join countless affiliate marketing programs and you are certain you want to explore this option, but narrowing out the top choices may seem daunting.

One of the best ways to figure out which program will help you make money on the internet is to ask questions, a lot of questions, to help you decide which program is designed for you. With so many to choose from, there’s bound to be one that fits your criteria.

Research is a vital part of making decisions when it comes to internet marketing. No matter how good a program might look, making money on the internet can be more effective with just a few key concepts in place. Never jump at the first opportunity promising big profits without effort or guaranteed results. Learn to ask the appropriate questions so that you can make the most of this growing internet trend.

Knowing What Questions to Ask

Having a basic list of questions when investigating affiliate network marketing programs will help you narrow down the list of options quickly. Your goal is to make money on the internet, and the right set of questions will help you save time and money when making your final decision.

Start with the basics. How much does the program cost to join? There are numerous affiliate network marketing programs out there that are free to join. Some are free to join but require you to upgrade before you can receive a commission check. Remember that affiliate programs are commission based businesses. There are some programs that require a membership fee right from the start, sometimes even before they tell you what their product or service is. Do you really want to spend money just to find out that the program isn’t right for you?

Not all free programs are worth your time and energy. Some of them have commissions so low that reaching a basic level of commission would require a ridiculous number of sales. The company makes money but you don’t.

Understand the commission structure prior to committing. Making money on the internet is possible, but you have to be able to access your money in a time frame that is right for you. There are affiliate programs that require a minimum dollar amount before sending out a check. Some companies pay their affiliates bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly. It can be frustrating to need a little cash and seeing it sitting completely out of your hands for another month or so. Most people choose programs with a faster turn around time than quarterly. A few programs are starting to pay their affiliates weekly, but they are fairly rare.

Do a little math. Affiliate programs offer varying ranges of commission, starting at very small and working their way up to quite handsome sums of money. Some pay for only the sales you produce while others pay for a couple of tiers below you. Since you are interested in making money on the internet it would make sense to go with the programs that offer the most methods of making that money. Tier programs offer you several streams of income and can be the most productive for your time and money.

Check the stats. How many hits does the average affiliate site need in order to produce a sale? If the product or service is high quality the ratio will be fairly low. If the product or service is overpriced or useless the ratio will be quite high. Just because an affiliate program offers better commissions doesn’t automatically mean you will be making more money on the internet. It is more reasonable for the average family to spend $29.95 than it is for them to come up with a spare $1000. Reasonable cost for a good product or service will result in more sales.

Some affiliate programs pay for hits and leads as well as actual sales. If someone pops onto your affiliate site and fills out their contact information but doesn’t make a purchase, some programs will pay for that. Again, if a program is offering multiple methods of making money on the internet, they are ahead of the pack.

Thoroughly investigate the referral system is it has one. Affiliate programs that pay for a few tiers down need to have accessible stats and a way for you to get in there any time you want and find out what’s happening with your web based business. How long do active participants stay active in the program? It’s frustrating to build a web based business that people continuously are dropping out of, leaving you to start all over again every month. Nor will you be making much money that way.

Affiliate tiers are an interesting concept. You are working to build your web based business and so are the people you have introduced along the way. You brought them to the business so most affiliate programs do reward you for that. After all, the more people they have out there marketing for them the more money the company is likely to make. When choosing an affiliate tier program, check how far down the commissions go and what percentage you receive off of their sales.

Expect out of pocket expenses. No matter what program you are planning on joining, there will be marketing expenses. Factor those expenses into your monthly budget. Does the company provide assistance or are you just out there by yourself playing in the dark? Any program that promises no out of pocket expenses isn’t interested in your success nor has honesty as a priority. It is impossible to market a web based business without some form of advertising. Do you have to purchase the product or service for yourself in order to qualify for commissions? If so, proceed with caution. You should not have to purchase anything outside of your advertising and your affiliate fee if you so choose.

Referral programs have been making people a lot of money out there. It is possible for you to get in on the referral program action, but make sure that you proceed as a knowledgeable and savvy marketer. Just because a referral program is selling like hot cakes at the moment doesn’t mean it will still be around in a year or two. Stable companies do exist, and it’s important to align yourself with something that can lift you up right into the middle of the trend for a long and healthy ride. Referral programs that promise overnight success or seem too good to be true typically are. Making money on the internet takes work, nothing will happen by itself.

Investigate the product or service. Every affiliate program is marketing some sort of product or service. They have to, otherwise it’s a pyramid scheme and it’s illegal. Thoroughly understand the product or service and make sure it’s something you feel good about marketing. Making money on the internet is easier to do it if you feel good about what you are promoting. Web based business are exactly that, business that use the internet for promotion and sales. Just like any other home based business, there are good ones and there are bad ones. Do your homework when making the decision to be a part of an affiliate based program.

More Guidance  “Cutting Through the Information and Finding the Right Program for You”

Whether you have already decided on which affiliate network marketing program you are going to use to make money on the internet or you are still looking for more answers to your questions there is place where you can go to receive more help than you will from any actual program out there. “Affiliatepit” website has a large range of topics and information, links and advice to help get you started. Beyond that they can help keep you going along the way.

Affiliate network internet marketing has its pitfalls to go right along with all its benefits. Unbiased information is always the best and finding more secrets to making money on the internet is just a few mouse clicks away. This is a phenomenal website that will literally take you by the hand through the decision making process as well as the profit process to help you make the most of your money making internet experience.