10 Deadly Joint Venture Profit Killing Mistakes

1. Not sending out another mailing

Sending another mailing (to the subscribers who haven’t bought) will often bring 50% or so of the previous response.

2. Picking the wrong mailing list

Remember the 40-40-20 rule. 40% of your response depends on the right mailing list, another 40% on the right offer and 20% on everything else.

3. Targeting visitors instead of buyers

Buyers have always been and will always be more profitable than visitors.

Let’s take it a step further. A client who buys from you two times is twice as likely to buy as someone who only buys from you once. Why ? Because they have more of a relationship with you.

4. Not sending the endorsement e-mail through a spam check service before rolling it out

According to research done by Time magazine, a mind-numbing 40% to 70% of all e-mail is being destroyed and deleted by spam filters.

The problem with that is that a lot of legitimate e-mail is getting eaten by those filters, including endorsed mailings. And that sometimes means a massive loss in profits.

If you have a mailing list of 30,000 strong, that means that under certain circumstances, 12,000 to 21,000 potential buyers won’t even receive your endorsement.

By correcting the problem, you may be hard pressed to find something else that will make such a positive impact on your bottom line in such a short amount of time.

Listen, I don’t know if the percentages quoted by Time magazine are still accurate, and to what extent, but the fact remains that those filters are
routinely destroying a percentage of your profits.

Use a good spam check service and you will increase readership.

5. Not testing the mailing (or JV)

Testing is a risk-reducing activity. If you don’t test, you are literally playing Russian roulette. Always send the test mailing to the best names on the list.

6. Not making it easy for clients to buy

If you are offering a high ticket product or service, giving your clients the option to purchase with multiple payment options or multiple credit cards can definitely boost response.

7. Mailing JV proposals or endorsements so they arrive on the wrong days

Mondays and Saturdays get the worst results. The best days for your prospects to receive your mail (or e-mail) are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

8. Sending the mailing out to a desensitized client base

Many online publishers make this mistake. It seems like every other day they have another product of the year to sell or endorse. This eventually (and in some cases, rather quickly) desensitizes their prospects to all their offers.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if some online marketers had more and more trouble getting the same kinds of results than they used to get. The reason is simple. Their subscribers have not only lost faith in the fact that the list owner doesn’t have their best interest at heart, but also they will simply avoid reading their newsletter.

That equates to a massive loss in readership.

Make it worth their time, and they will definitely take the time to read your e-zine.

9. Sending an endorsed mailing without knowing the conversion rate or visitor value

Some partners endorse others without even knowing their visitor value. They are flying blind, and usually get hit hard.

Savvy marketers won’t want to pitch their customer base more than they have to, and they definitely won’t endorse you unless they have reasons to believe that they will be successful with the mailing.

10. Doing a JV with an endorser that has a small (or no) relationship with his / her clients.

Relationships make up the biggest factor in sales.

In JV endorsements, relationships are everything. Always partner with list-owners that have a great relationship with their subscribers because the stronger the relationship, the stronger the endorsement, and the stronger the endorsement, the more sales you’ll make.

Gabriel Howes is a Joint Venture expert. Download 2 free sample chapters from the highly-acclaimed Ultimate Joint Ventures ebook by copying and pasting (or clicking on) the following link now: ultimatejv.com/Adtrackz/go.php?c=a1 Go for it. Copyright © 2005 Gabriel Howes All Rights Reserved
http://www.marketingonlinepro.com

$1,458,92 in 18 days with AdSense

I had the privilege to interview a regular guy
(not a well-known 'Guru') who claims making more
than $200 a day with Google AdSense Program.

Here's an excerpt from the interview I did for my
upcoming eBook - 'AdSense Confessions' - read it and
try to apply what you learn iniside, it should make a
difference in your AdSense income and profits.

---
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
---

My name is John Tulus. I was born in October of 1966
in Córdoba, Argentina, South America.

---
How did you get started to make money on the Internet?
---

I started with small projects like web sites for friends.

After some time of developing web sites for others, I knew
it was time to start to work on the ideas for developing my
own site, my own online company. I put all my ideas
together, combined them with the experience I had achieved
developing web sites for others, and put in motion the
creation of my site. Once the site was up and running, all
I had to do was start generating traffic and wait for the
money to roll in. I remember the first cheque I received...
what a rush!! $29. That motivated me to keep on with the
project of the life that I desired.

---
Do you prefer AdSense over Affiliate Programs promotion?
---

Yes, I prefer Google Adsense over any other affiliate
program because it has Google guarantee. Thousands of
websites are now applying Adsense to their sites. Not only
do you have the Google guarantee, but visitors to your web
site may also see it as having the Google "seal of
confidence". In a certain way, having Adsense on your site
shows visitors that your site has been approved by Google.

Nevertheless, having Adsense on your site doesn´t mean that
you can´t have other affiliate programs combined with it.
You can actually have as many programs as you want, but I
prefer Adsense specially because the conversion rate to
money is much faster with Adsense.

No other affiliate program converts clicks to money as fast
as Google Adsense.

With Google Adsense I may need just 10 optimized clicks to
earn $20. By optimized, I mean clicks on a page that has
keywords that pay the most in Adsense. With other affiliate
programs I need at least 200 visits to an optimized site
with related content and optimized traffic to earn the same
amount of money.

---
What is the 'SECRET' formula for bringing quality traffic
to your Site?
---

In WMXP.COM I apply all my experience acquired during all
these years of investigation, using the best tools, the
best reports, the best products, to offer my visitors the
best of the best so that they have good reasons to return
and recommend the site.

Free tools for webmasters such as ...

Check Pagerank (http://www.wmxp.com/tools/pagerank.php)
Search Engine Ranking Popularity
(http://www.wmxp.com/tools/serp.php)
Search Engine Saturation
(http://www.wmxp.com/tools/index.php)
Popularity (http://www.wmxp.com/popular.php)
Overture Keywords (http://www.wmxp.com/overture)
a complete directory full of free and non-free scripts
(http://scripts.wmxp.com) a classified ads system
(www.adsbe.com) a directory full of products of one of the
most important affiliate systems on the net (FREE CLICKBANK
STOREFRONT - http://cbmall.wmxp.com) ... make of
www.WMXP.COM a site sufficiently interesting for
navigators that really work in the Internet.

---
How do you go about converting your Site traffic into more
Adsense Income?
---

If your Adsense is performing poorly, I have three tips
for you:

1. Decrease the number of Adsense blocks that you are
displaying on a page. I don't know how others have
experienced this, but my income seemed to be less if I had
more than one block of Adsense ads displayed at once - and
your CTR is definitely less if you have more than one ad
impression at a time.

2. Change your link colour to blue. While I cannot disclose
my CTR I can tell you that this one little change more than
doubled my CTR. I know that there are others out there who
advocate that your link colour should be the same as the
other links on your site, but try it out for yourself for a
day or two. I think you will be highly surprised!

3. Set the URL colour to the same colour as the ad's text.
This makes the URL ''melt" in and makes the link colour
stand out more, definitely making it more "clickable".

---
What final words of wisdom would you like to pass on to
everyone who is reading this eBook?
---

To trust your abilities, to trust the project, to develop
your ideas fully and that in the end your efforts will be
rewarded.



About the Author

Codrut Turcanu is putting his final touch on 'AdSense Confessions' - an info-packed eBook containing 3 in-depth interviews with regular Guys (not 'Gurus') making TONS of Cash with AdSense. To be notified of this release visit: http://www.AdSenseConfessions.com
http://www.marketingonlinepro.com

How to super-size every sale to double, triple, and quadruple your profits instantly

Ask and most businesses will tell you. The key to their success is upselling. It is one thing to get the sale. It is far better to super-size that sale.

Real profits come when you get the customer to buy a larger, more expensive, or more comprehensive product or service. The guy going into a pet store to buy a fish is a classic example.

When the clerk sees Sam looking at the budget-priced gold fish, she leads him over to the much more impressive tropical fish.







"As you probably know, you will need a fish tank," she says. "These beautiful fish only live in salt water. We have these $75 salt water tanks on sale for just $49.95."

By the time Sam exits the store, he has purchased much more than the twenty cent gold fish he originally came in to get. He is proudly carrying home several exotic species, a $50 fish tank, fish food, a light, and other accessories. The sale went from a tiny twenty cent transaction to nearly $100. The store's profit margin rose right along with it.

You Are There To Help

Upselling is easy if you think of your main business as helping customers. Think about the problems your customers come to you with. What does it REALLY take to solve their problems?

Chances are, your customer needs a lot more than the simple inexpensive solution they first consider. By grouping together several different products and services, you can give the customer a more advanced package that goes much further toward creating a satisfying solution.

Melissa buys a computer. Even though she is not thinking of purchasing anything more than the computer, a few questions posed by the sales person reveal Melissa will probably need new software to help her achieve the things she wants to do with the computer.

The computer and new software have a pretty steep learning curve. Melissa will need help from an expert and likely a technician to install the network system her needs demand.

The computer retailer anticipates Melissa's situation. Many of their customers are just like her. The store offers a "getting started" package with all new computers. It includes several software choices, instruction sessions, and help with installation. These things are cheap for the store to provide, but greatly increase the value of the purchase.





Three Ways To Make Upselling Automatic

Here are three favorite ways to build upselling into any purchase. Use these and customers will buy two or three times as much without even thinking about it. The day I put these ideas to work in my own business, I trippled my income.

1. Bundle several related products or services together. Drop the price below what the total would be if the customer bought all the products separately.

When a customer inquires about a single item, point out she can get that item PLUS a great deal more by purchasing your bundle.




You will find many customers just can't resist the bundle bargain. Announce your new bundle with flair. It can pull in orders faster than you can fill them, especially if you advertise heavily to existing and previous customers who already have a good taste for what you offer.

2. "It works fine by itself, but it REALLY works when you add THIS." If your product or service works much better with a complimenting item, be sure to tell customers about it.

It is surprising how many products and services go hand in glove. It's hard to have one without needing the other.

Years ago I wrote press releases for $75. A great many customers bought the release, but never got around to sending it to media. So I started writing AND sending press releases. The $75 press release became a $295 release-and-distribution. Almost no one bought the press release by itself after that.

3. If a little worked, a LOT will work even better. As soon as you learn a customer is having success with your product or service, offer them a good deal on more of it.

Sheila's family likes the yellow bars of soap one company sells. When the distributor who services her account hears about this, he offers her a deal on six bars each and every month.





This works as well for management consultants as it does for soap sales. If you solve one problem for a company, pitch them on letting you solve three or four more problems for them. Later you can convince them to let you handle all their problem solving needs.

Successful upselling needs to be at the core of every business or professional practice. It can instantly multiply your profits. You might well go from just getting by to living comfortably, and from living comfortably to rolling in wealth.

As you can see, super-sizing every order has to do more with planning than with any special selling skill. Get good at fulfilling a need. Then create packages and strategies that sell even more of your solution to each customer.

Kevin Nunley provides marketing advice and copywriting. See his 10,000 marketing ideas and popular promotion packages at http://DrNunley.com Reach Kevin at kevin@drnunley.com or 603-249-9519.
http://www.marketingonlinepro.com

How To Properly Use Ezine Advertising Conclusion

Up until this point, we discussed the two methods of using ezine advertising, playing the numbers, and targeting. Then, we focused on targeting by discussing how to select ezines based on content and audience, and how to analyze those selected for the best advertising value.

Now, finally, we come down to the actual cost of purchased advertising. How much is affordable and what is too much?

As I said in part three of this series, it just depends. I don't mean to give a misleading answer with that statement, nor do I mean to skirt around the subject. It's just that price is a subjective item that revolves around the product or opportunity you are promoting and the ezine you are promoting in.

So, while I cannot give you a simple rule to follow, I can give you a way to analyze the cost. However, there are still a BUNCH of other factors that I'll bring up afterward.

First, let's use the term 'ad hits' to describe the number of people that view your ad in an ezine and then answer it by either going to the site you want them to or emailing to you or your auto responder.

Now, look at the following formula:

(# subscribers) x (% response) = Expected Ad Hits

Example:

1000 subscribers x 3% = 30

>From there, naturally, it depends on how many sales you get from the ad hits you receive and how much money you make per sale. Getting 1 sale out of 30 hits is a 3.33% sales ratio.

Now, if you can do at least that, consider how much you make per sale as opposed to how much the ad cost you. If you make $10 per sale and the ad to 1000 subscribers only cost you $5, then there's your profit of $5.

So essentially the equation you need to use is this one:

Income for the ad =

(# subs) x (% response from ezine) x (sales % from site) x ($ made per sale)

If that number is of greater value than the cost of the ad, then it's good. Of course, all of this is assuming you have an ad tracking system in place so you can see the results of your advertising in different ezines. If you don't, then either you advertise in only one ezine at a time so you can track your results, or you make groups based on ezines that are similar and you track your results as you go through different groups. This may be done by counting hits at your site, or merely by seeing what results in sales.

Obviously, ad tracking can give you more data to work with as far as seeing which ezines are getting you results. However, that can be another expense you must figure into the cost of your advertising.

So, that's it as far as figuring out whether or not advertising is worth the cost a particular ezine is asking, right?

Not hardly. Here's the deal.

In all my reading, I've seen most writers say you can expect .5% to 3% response from an ezine, and occasionally get up to 5% or higher even depending on certain factors. I have no problem with those numbers.

What we have talked about before now becomes vitally important. If you've done your job right and selected the best ezines based on appropriate content and audience, and analyzed them to determine the best ones to advertise in, then you should have no problem getting the 3% response rate. Plus, repeat advertising in the same ezine can get you a higher overall response rate as the ad keeps drawing hits from different people each time it's seen. Naturally, then, you have to compare the cost of the repeated ad to the number of additional hits it creates. However, often ezines have package deals that reduce the cost per issue if you buy an ad for multiple issues.

>From here, you also have other questions to answer.

Is targeting ezines worth my time or should I just play the numbers and buy bulk ads?

Is my ad going to be effective and pull the responses I am seeking?

Is my sales site going to get the sales I expect after I get visitors there?

Does what I make from sales over the cost of my ads also cover the other expenses of my business so that I make a profit overall?

This series focused solely on how to use ezine advertising. However, as you can see there are other factors to be considered. My goal with this series was not to provide you with all the answers on how to do everything. I can't do that anyway. I do hope, however, that I've enlightened you to the choices you do have and started you to thinking about what is going to work best for you.

It's not always simple, but there are things you can do to improve you chances at success. I hope you've learned some of those things with these articles.

Joe Bingham, Editor of the NetPlay Newsletters Subscribe to 1 of 3 Quality NetPlay Ezines, See which one fits you at: http://www.netplaynewsletters.com Need To Publish Your Own Ezine? I'll Write It For You and Show You How to Make It Successful! http://www.netplaynewsletters.com/publisher.html
http://www.marketingonlinepro.com

13 Free or Cheap Effective Advertising Methods

Advertising is the life blood of any business, no matter how big or how small. No advertising usually means no business. Large companies have an almost unlimited source of advertising dollars. Small business owners on the other hand, are limited in the amount of money they have for advertising. So, the problem is how to make ones advertising dollar get the most bang for the buck. It's not enough to advertise. Your advertising must be effective. So, once you have a website or an ad to advertise, check out the following ways to advertise for little or no cost.
1. Advertising coop- Many businesses, especially work at home businesses, offer advertising coops. They will send people to your business for a fee. Usually the fee is relatively small. This is nice because you already know that these people have at least some interest in your business. Although they may not spend a penny with you, you at least get the exposure.
2. Website-The age of the internet has expanded the possibility of owning your own business to an almost unlimited number of people. It also has expanded the advertising audience to a tremendous amount of new people, world wide, who otherwise you would never have been able to reach. Although websites will cost you to get hosted, you can advertise it many ways for free. Things like link exchanges and article submissions allow you to get exposure to your website with no cost except for you time. And as we will see in a moment, your website can be advertised many other ways for free. The advantage of a website is that it centralizes all your business and products into one central location. It gives you somewhere to send people so that you don't have to do as much selling because you let your website do the selling for you.
3. Answering Machine-Change the message on your answering machine to reflect the fact that you are now in business for yourself. You could say something like," Hello. You have reached the home office of John Doe of My Business.com….." That way when you call that person back, they may ask you about your business and thus the door is open to discussing your business.
4. Put a sign in your front yard or in the yard of a friend or relative with your name and website address on it. This is a good way for your neighbors to find out about your new business as well as any people that ride by your house.
5. Place a magnetic sign or bumper sticker on your car. Now, when you are riding down the road, sitting at a stop sign, or leaving your car parked at the mall or grocery store, you are getting free advertising.
6. Wear your ad-Place your website on a sweatshirt, tee-shirt, or a hat. So, when you are out in public, people will see you ad and again it will open up the door to discussing your new business.
7. Flyers-There are many places that will allow you to place a flyer about your business. Businesses like grocery stores, libraries, laundromats, hair salons and others will let you place a free ad on their public bulletin board.
8. Business cards-Don't leave home without them. You never now when the chance to hand one out will happen. You may see an old friend, meet someone looking to get out of the 9-5 rut or who is in need of a new opportunity.
9. Free Classifieds-Use the internet and the many free classified ads on it to advertise your business. A search using "free classifieds" will give you an almost limitless number of places to submit your website and ad.
10.Ezines or electronic magazines are also a good place to advertise your business. Some charge a fee for placing your ad in the best location, some let you advertise for free. Again a web search will allow you find numerous ezines to place you ad in.
11.Place your web address in your e-mail signature.
12.Place a flyer or business card in your out going mail.
13.Word of Mouth-The least expensive form of advertising and maybe the most effective way to advertise your business is word of mouth. Simply tell those you come in contact with that you are in business for yourself. They will tell others and they will tell others and it can go on and on. Sooner or later someone will take a look at what you are doing.
Obviously, there are many more ways to advertise your business for little or no money. The point is you don't have to have the big bucks to successfully advertise you business or product. There are many people who have started and become extremely successful in their business on a shoe string advertising budget. There is hope for the small business owner. All you need is a website or add, a little creativity, a little time, and you too can advertise your way to success without going to the poor house.


About the Author

Donnie Baird has been involved with work at home businesses for 4 years and is the webmaster/owner of http://internet-work-at-home-opportunity.com . He lives in North Carolina with his wife and two children.
http://www.marketingonlinepro.com

Where is online advertising going

Discusses t he brief history of online advertising through specific ad strageis and discusses where online advertising is headed.
Is there such a thing as “traditional” online advertising? If there is, it started with banners, moved to FFAs, took a step backwards with SPAM, a hard right with classified advertising and then shot forward with pay per click search engine. So how do you know where to spend your advertising budget in the current market? If you’ve been responsible for your company’s web advertising efforts over the years you might agree that the traditional means of advertising worked; as least for a little while. So as new types of advertising penetrate the market with increasing frequency, what do you do with those proven stand-by methods of generating links and traffic? Throw them out? Keep them around for posterity? Maybe give them a facelift? Let’s review those traditional ad models then look at some experimental models. TRADITIONAL ONLINE ADVERTISING MODELS

Banners
Banner ads in the form of animated gifs are the most common and widely used form of online advertising today. Banner ads reach the widest possible audience because practically 100% of Internet users can view them without any special plugins. Web marketers, advertisers and promoters have quickly realized that banners under 12k in file size puts the ad in front of the visitor as quickly as possible, increasing the chance of click-through even though surfers are growing increasingly immune. New styles and shapes of banners (such as skyscraper ads) have grown in popularity recently, which is addressed in the “Experimental Advertising” section below. SPAM
What does SPAM stand for? It’s not “Stupid Pointless Annoying Message” (which in some cases it could be) but rather “Sending and Posting Advertising Messages.” It’s hard to believe SPAM is effective, but unarguably, it is. While click-through rates continue to fall and legislation begins to rise, it is a savvy advertiser’s best bet to stay away from it, unless of course you’re selling Pasta Pots or Viagra. Rich mail – “Fancy SPAM”
Most likely, the e-mail messages you receive on a daily basis are text only. Rich mail, on the other hand, allows graphics, video and audio to be included in the e-mail message. When you open up a rich e-mail your e-mail client automatically calls up your Internet connection and launches an html page in your browser. E-mail clients that are offline will invite you to click on the link when you have your Internet connection open again. If your e-mail client does not support graphics you will receive the e-mail in text only. While SPAM is still SPAM, rich mail has proven to be much more effective than standard text messages. Pop-Ups/Pop-Unders:
This creative, yet completely obtrusive and annoying means of advertising was once celebrated in some circles as the most innovative ad concept since banners. It only took a short time before many users, sick of being trapped in a never-ending onslaught of such ads, voiced their rejection. One can only wonder when advertisers will recognize the public dissatisfaction and move on to another more effective means to promote their companies. Institutional Advertising:
While institutional or “in-house” advertising has been available since the inception of the Internet, few companies have made an effort to utilize the many different aspects of online advertising in one format as has 7Search.com with its Direct Pay-Per-Text advertising. 7Search, a leader in the pay per click search engine arena, has recently introduced this program which enables its advertisers to advertise outside of its search return lists using the same titles and descriptions seen on its search engine. The pay-per-click model enables interested advertisers to leave behind the CPM impression model and focus on the click conversions. Direct Pay-Per-Text is a patent-pending concept from 7Search which will be released to the general public in the coming months. Pay-Per-Click Search Engines
It’s hard to think of PPC search engines as a “traditional” means to advertise online, but the ratio of those advertisers who do versus those who don’t is staggering; in fact the majority have at least tried their hand at leasing traffic. In a PPC agreement, the advertiser only pays for qualifying clicks to the destination site based on a prearranged per-click rate. The response on ads with well-written titles and descriptions targeted to the users query pull response rates unseen in the ad industry previously. The greatest advantage arguably is the ability to measure precisely the rate of return versus your investment. Some of the most popular PPC search engines are FindWhat.com, 7Search.com, Ah-ha.com and the industry leader Overture. EXPERIMENTAL ONLINE ADVERTISING MODELS Traffic Exchange Advertising:
Hit exchanges, actually a form of banner exchange, are a recent phenomenon on the Internet. You will visit the site of a member of an exchange, and in exchange, another member of the exchange will visit your site. The recent explosion of hit exchanges on the web has diluted the effectiveness of such a method of advertising. There have also been many instances of cheating, in which a script is used to generate visits to a site. However, if you have a product that is of interest to webmasters, and is low cost or has a free version, there is no harm in giving hit exchanges a try. Shockwave ads
Shockwave is best suited for campaigns that want to utilize out-of-banner real estate, such as applets, trading cards, and games. Director and Flash provide the ability to embed interaction, video, and audio within the file, making Shockwave files some of the richest ad units on the Web. Viral marketing and strong brand interaction are two of the key strengths of Shockwave ads. As these ads are typically “bandwidth monsters” the adoption has been slow and will most likely remain that way. Other downsides include development costs and the fact that it just won’t work without the Shockwave plug-in, which (though downloaded by millions of users) is far from being a mainstay. Interstitial ads
Interstitials are ads that play between pages on a website, much like television ads play between sections of a program. There are several variations on the interstitial model: some play in the main browser window, while some play in new, smaller windows; some are pre-cached, while some stream ad content as it plays; some provide the ability to create very rich ads, while some focus on smaller, faster-loading ads. Whatever the format, nearly all interstitial ads perform very well if measured by both click-through rates and brand recall. Floating ads and DHTML
Types of floating ads include DHTML sponsorships, in which advertising objects "fly" across the page on a preset course; cursor sponsorships, in which the cursor turns into an advertising image; and scrolling ads, in which an advertisement moves up and down the edge of a page as the user scrolls up and down. Floating ads give the advertiser and publisher the flexibility to achieve nearly any effect. However, as this is one of the more daring types of online advertising, advertising and content must be balanced on any given page. Floating ads (especially DHTML and cursors) are best run for short periods to create brand awareness—running them for longer periods can bring negative user feedback. It is important to understand that online advertising is only effective if it generates significant response and this applies to both traditional and experimental ads. Unfortunately, the only way to discover the efficiency of your campaign is to test in every format at least once with as many ads as you are able.

About the Author

Pete Prestipino is the founder and CEO of SCG - Swirling Circle Group, a consortium of online marketers, promoters, SEO's, web designers, and Internet consultants. For more information visit: www.SwirlingCircle.com
http://www.marketingonlinepro.com

10 Illuminating Ways To Charge-Up Your Orders!

1. Use plenty of examples in your ad copy. This will
allow your whole target audience to understand your
pitch completely.

2. Gain extra credibility by using terms your readers
may not understand, but can follow by explaining them
in simple terms. This will show you're an expert.

3. Reveal how excited you are about the product. You
could use words or a picture of yourself looking very
excited.

4. Tell your target audience you were in their current
position. Next, tell them how your product pulled you
out of that position.

5. Challenge your readers at the end of your ad.
Make a bet with them; if your product doesn't solve
their problem, offer them a free product in return.

6. Get your audience involved in your ad by asking
them questions. They'll automatically want to answer
the questions in their mind.

7. Introduce yourself in your ad copy. Haven't you
ever read an ad copy and wondered half way through it
who is selling the product? It's a big turn off.

8. Start your ad with a story. It draws people right
into your ad and they forget they're being sold to.
You could start with "Once upon a time..."

9. Use less than five points in your ad copy. If you
start revealing too many topics, your readers might
get confused and quit reading.

10. Make your target audience's experience reading
your ad positive. You could educate them or tell a
joke to make them laugh.

About the Author

Larry Dotson is the co-author of "The Hypnotic
Writer's Swipe File" a collection of hypnotic words
and phrases that sell. You can visit his web site at:
http://www.ldpublishing.com

http://www.marketingonlinepro.com

Press Releases for Every Occasion

Press Releases for Every Occasion

by Bill Stoller, Publisher Free Publicity, The Newsletter for PR- Hungry Businesses http://www.PublicityInsider.com/freepub.asp

To many marketers, the press release is something of a "one size fits all" proposition. You want to get media coverage, you knock out a press release, send it to some journalists and sit back and wait.

Of course, smart Publicity Insiders already know that’s a prescription for failure. You know that your press release has to have a "hook", be well-written and sent to appropriate journalists in an active, not passive, manner. But there’s another part of the puzzle that even savvy publicity-seekers sometimes miss -- you can’t just write "a press release", you have to write the right kind of press release.

There’s no such thing as a "one size fits all" release. Smart publicists have variations of the press release model ready to be go, depending on the occasion.

(Note: for a general introduction to press release writing and formatting, see: http://www.publicityinsider.com/release.asp

Let's look at some releases suitable for "harder" and more timely news...

The News Release

To some folks, "news release" and "press release" are interchangeable. Not to me. I use the phrase "news release" to refer to a release that, well, carries actual news. Let’s face it, most of what a business has to say to a journalist isn’t exactly "stop the presses" kind of stuff. But, on occasion, something of real significance occurs. A merger, a stock split, a major new contract, winning a national award...something that’s truly timely and important. For these sorts of events, don’t mess around. Craft a solid, hard-hitting News Release that’s written in pure journalistic style (lead includes "who, what, when, why and how", language is in 3rd person and completely free of hyperbole). Use journalism’s "inverted pyramid" -- most important information at the top, next most important info in the second paragraph and so on down.

Tell the entire story in the headline and subhead. Again, don’t get cute -- get straight to the point. The headline "Acme Corporation Selected by Pentagon to Supply Troops with Widgets" is far better than something like "Guess Who’s Making Widgets for Uncle Sam?" or something "clever" like that. In the subhead, fill in some details: "$18 Million Contract Largest in Company’s History". Talk about getting straight to the point! You’ve just given the journalist the meat of the story before she’s even read your lead.

Add a "dateline" (Akron, OH) at the beginning of your lead (first) paragraph. In the dateline, use your company’s home town (or the location where some news has broken. You can be a bit creative here, if it helps maximize your impact. For the above example, you can dateline it Washington, DC and say that "The Pentagon today announced that it has selected an Akron company...").

In distributing the release, use e-mail, fax, distribution service such as PRWeb or PR Newswire, or even overnight courier. The goal is to get it into journalists’ hands on the same day you distribute it.

Executive Appointment Release

Most businesses send out a brief release and headshot when someone new is hired or a major promotion is made. That’s fine, and it will get them in the "People on the Move" column on page 8 in the business section. It’s an ego stroke for the employee, but that’s about it. Savvy publicity seekers use the Executive Appointment release to generate real publicity. Here’s the key -- don’t just announce that someone’s been hired or promoted. Rather, explain why the move is significant to the company -- and perhaps the market -- as a whole.

For example, Jane Smith has been hired as your company’s new director of sales. Not so exciting. However, the reason you hired her is because she came from a major online retailer and is planning to overhaul your sales system to compare with the state- of-the-art systems used by the big guys. Hmmmm...that’s a lot more interesting. So why not tell the media about it?

The key ingredient is context. Your headline may still look like that of a typical Executive Appointment release (Acme Names Jane Smith New Director of Sales), but starting with the subhead, you begin your journey off page 8 of the business section and onto page one (Hiring of Key Figure in Online Sales Explosion Marks Important Shift in Acme’s Sales Strategy). Ah, now you’ve entered the realm of news, not business as usual. And a sharp business editor will see that a local company is doing something far more significant than just making a hire.

Dateline the release, fax (or even messenger), email or regular mail it over to your local business editor and follow up with a phone call. Offer Jane Smith for interview, too.

The Media Alert

The Media Alert is a deceptively simple creature. It’s essentially a memo from you to TV, radio and newspaper assignment editors, city desk editors and others who decide whether a particular news event is worth covering. They’re used to alert the press about news conferences, charity events, publicity "stunts" and other events.

The point of the Media Alert is to, in just a few seconds, tell a journalist about the event, how to cover it and why it’s important that the media outlet, in fact, covers it. Most publicists are pretty good on the first two points -- almost all media alerts do a decent job of telling what the event is, where it will be held and what time it starts. It’s the third aspect -- the "why" -- that will make the real difference, though. And it’s the thing most publicists do a lousy of job of conveying.

First, a word about format. Use standard press release headings (contact info, "For Immediate Release" and headline). The rest of the document should be a few paragraphs, spaced at least three lines apart from one another. The first paragraph, should begin with What: and continue with a one or two line description of the event (WidgetFest 2004, a celebration of young minds). Next paragraph, When:, after that Where:

Now here’s the key paragraph,

Why You Should Cover WidgetFest 2004: The brightest young minds from around the region will gather to present their inventions, as Acme Corp. celebrates the state’s top high school science students. The event will be a visual feast, with a host of awe- inspiring inventions, many colorful, active and exotic, on display. As part of the event, more than $10,000 in scholarships will be distributed to budding Einsteins by John Smith, Ohio’s Science Teacher of the Year.

The key? This line: "The event will be a visual feast, with a host of awe-inspiring inventions, many colorful, active and exotic, on display." I just spoke an assignment editor’s language, telling him that this will provide lots of cool visuals, making for great video or photos. The bit about the scholarships and the Science Teacher of the Year assures him that this won’t just be a promotional stunt. So what are we offering? A non-promotional, feel-good event with great visuals. Just what an assignment editor is looking for.

# # #

About The Author:

Bill Stoller, the "Publicity Insider", has spent two decades as one of America's top publicists. Now, through his website, eZine and subscription newsletter, Free Publicity: The Newsletter for PR-Hungry Businesses http://www.PublicityInsider.com/freepub.asp he's sharing -- for the very first time -- his secrets of scoring big publicity. For free articles, killer publicity tips and much, much more, visit Bill's exclusive new site: http://www.PublicityInsider.com
http://www.marketingonlinepro.com/

Understanding the Game of Search Engines

When I started my e-business, I ask my web-designer friend to make a site which is really brainstorming. He did me a great favor and really made an excellent site. My site's design is fabulous, it's graphics are mind blowing and coding is superb. But now what? What I seen in the coming days, I am not earning a single penny because no one is visiting my site.





I think for a while that why all this is happening, then I make a search on Yahoo and see the first site which is coming on the top. It doesn't have a good design like mine but still he is making good money. Then I came to know that the site's design is meaningless if site's ranking on search engines is not good.

When it comes to search engine every ear just not hears it but listens it's every aspect and try to locate it's presence in his site. Well why not it be done as it is the place from where all of us get our business.

Every search engine has it's own criterion of ranking and it's clear from the fact that when you do a search on Yahoo or Google or any other search engines there results vary. Here is the listing of some of the Top Search Engines and a few noteworthy points about all of them. Know which engines get you more bangs for the buck?

Google

Google has increased in popularity tenfold the past several years. They have gone from beta testing, to becoming the Internet's largest index of web pages in a very short time. Their spider, affectionately named "Googlebot", crawls the web and provides updates to Google's index about once a month.

Google.com began as an academic search engine. Google, by far, has a very good algorithm of ranking pages returned from a result, probably one of the main reasons it has become so popular over the years. Google has several methods which determine page rank in returned searches.

Yahoo

Yahoo! is one of the oldest web directories and portals on the Internet today, and the site went live in August of 1994. Yahoo! is a 100% human edited directory, and provides secondary search results using Google.

Yahoo! is also one of the largest traffic generators around, as far as web directories and search engines go. Unfortunately, however, it is also one of the most difficult to get listed in, unless of course you pay to submit your site. Even if you pay it doesn't guarantee you will get listed.

Either way, if you suggest a URL, it is "reviewed" by a Yahoo! editor, and if approved will appear in the next index update.





AltaVista

Many who have access to web logs may have seen a spider named 'scooter' accessing their pages. Scooter used to be AltaVista's robot. However, since the Feb 2001 site update, a newer form of Scooter is now crawling the web. Whichever spider AltaVista uses, it is one of the largest search engines on the net today, next to Google.

It will usually take several months for AltaVista to index your entire site, although the past few months scooter hasn't been deep crawling too well. Unlike Google, AltaVista will only crawl and index 1 link deep, so it takes a good amount of time to index your site depending on how large your site is.




AltaVista gets most of its results from its own index, however they do pull the top 5 results of each search from Overture (formerly Goto).

Inktomi

Inktomi's popularity grew several years ago as they powered the secondary search database that had driven Yahoo. Since then, Yahoo as switched to using Google as their secondary search and backend database, however Inktomi is just as popular now, as they were several years ago, if not more so.

Their spiders are named "Slurp", and different versions of Slurp crawls the web many different times throughout the month, as Inktomi powers many sites search results. There isn't much more to Inktomi then that. Slurp puts heavy weight on Title and description tags, and will rarely deep crawl a site. Slurp usually only spider’s pages that are submitted to its index.

Inktomi provides results to a number of sites. Some of these are America Online, MSN, Hotbot, Looksmart, About, Goto, CNet, Geocities, NBCi, ICQ and many more.

Lycos

Lycos is one of the oldest search engines on the Internet today, next to Altavista and Yahoo. Their spider, named "T-Rex", crawls the web and provides updates to the Lycos index from time to time. The FAST crawler provides results for Lycos in addition to its own database.

The Lycos crawler does not weigh META tags too heavily, instead it relies on its own ranking algorithm to rank pages returned in results. The URL, META title, text headings, and word frequency are just a few of the methods Lycos uses to rank pages. Lycos does support pages with Frame content. However, any page that isn't at least 75 words in content is not indexed.

Excite

Excite has been around the web for many years now. Much more of a portal than just simply a search engine, Excite used to be a fairly popular search engine, until companies such as Google seemed to have dominated the search engine market. As of recently, Excite no longer accepts submissions of URL's, and appears to no longer spider. To get into the Excite search results, you need to be either listed with Overture or Inktomi.





Looksmart

Getting a listed with Looksmart could mean getting a good amount of traffic to your site. Looksmart's results appear in many search engines, including AltaVista, MSN, CNN, and many others.

Looksmart has two options to submit your site. If your site is generally non-business related, you can submit your site to Zeal (Looksmart's sister site), or if you are a business, you can pay a fee to have your site listed. Either method will get you listed in Looksmart and its partner sites if you are approved.

Once you have submitted your site, and it is approved for listing it will take up to about 7 days for your site to be listed on Looksmart and its partner sites.

AOL Search

America Online signed a multiyear pact with Google for Web search results and accompanying ad-sponsored links, ending relationships with pay-for-performance service Overture Services and Inktomi, its algorithmic search provider of nearly three years.

Ok, now you have got a better understanding of search engine’s game and finally you come to know which search engine is best for you and which one is leading in today's Internet World. In nutshell, the thing which every e-entrepreneur wants is Top Search Engine Ranking. Isn't it right? So take some time to register with these search engines as soon as possible and watch the traffic grow.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Raamakant S. is Author of "The e Success Code". An "entire Internet Marketing Encyclopedia" covers almost every topic of Internet marketing. If you want to earn a real Income from the Internet, have a look at here: http://www.theesuccesscode.com
http://www.marketingonlinepro.com

Free Ezine Advertising On Steroids

Free ezine advertising has been with us for some time now.
As the ezine explosion continues, publishers are scrambling
to keep pace in the battle for new subscribers.

Freebies have become the order of the day.

Free Ebooks

Free Software

Free Training Courses

Free Advertising

This has created an extremely favorable environment for
subscribers. They can pick and choose from the freebies of
their choice.

Many have hopped on the Free Ezine Advertising Bandwagon.
But as the Free ads became more common place, Free Ezine
advertising began to lose it's pulling power.

Sure you could draw a lot of leads if you posted enough to
ezines, but the process is time consuming and still doesn't
come close to the pulling power of paid advertising.

You had the choice of either spending time or money. If you
were short on cash you had to spend the time.

Now that's all changed. Imagine getting Free Paid
advertising.

I know what you're thinking, "John that's a contradiction."

Guess What?

It's not!

There's a new system that will help the average marketer
earn Free sponsor and solo advertising.

The scramble for new subscribers has created an opportunity
for you to cash in.

If you have a list of contacts or an extremely active
downline you can take advantage of Free Paid Advertising!

How does it work?

Publishers looking for new subscribers are paying readers
in advertising credits for referring new subscribers.

It's a win - win situation.

The publisher gets a wider circulation and you earn Free
sponsor and solo advertising.

You can put your advertising into high gear, absolutely
Free.

If you'd like to see how this system works visit:
http://www.listpartners.com/cgi-local/addpartner?360

It truly is Free Ezine Advertising on Steroids!

Wishing You Success

John Colanzi publishes the "Street Smart Marketing". To subscribe
mailto:ezmailer-subscribe@listbot.com If you'd like to see
how John uses this strategy to make money in network marketing
visit: http://johncolanzi.com/cash.html

http://www.marketingonlinepro.com/

Six Ways to Stretch your Advertising Dollars

Every business worries about advertising costs and the effectiveness of their advertising. Inserts into newspapers are often thrown away before anyone looks at them. How can you get your advertising dollars to stretch and generate sales? Whether you are an Internet-based business or a storefront business, this is a crucial issue to your long-term success!

Banner advertising: Banner advertising comes in two forms: online and storefront. A banner ad can be created and hung on your storefront to get attention or advertise a special sale. Review the advertising banner ordinances in your area to ensure you meet regulations. Far more visible than newspaper ads, these low-cost banners can last for years.

An online business should have a banner ad, which is a small, graphically pleasing, “box” seen on websites that generates traffic to your site. These small ads must convey a lot of clear information in a very small space in order to get the “hits”. No hits means no sales. Compelling content is the key; make the reader NEED to know more. Get the click!

For both types of banner advertising, you may need to turn to a reasonably priced professional. The price is small and the number of people reached is very high. Without the right design, your banner simply won’t be noticed.

Google Adwords: Google is the 1 search engine today and provides a means of advertising where you define what you want to spend. A professional Adwords manager may be needed because the process, from selecting keywords to creating the Google Ads, is a bit complex. This can, however, be some of the most effective advertising for stretching your dollar. It’s as simple as defining a budget for your Adwords campaign, having the advertisements produced, and making sales. It is even possible to track the hits generated by the ads and your search engine rankings.

Search Engine Optimization: If you have a web presence and are not getting the results you want, it may be because no one can locate you! The right keywords must be used to get your site listed in the popular search engines. Then you will have the best chance of receiving clicks to your site and closing sales. No matter how good your website, if no one reads it, there will be no sales.


Pleasing and Easy to Use Websites: Once a potential customer reaches your website, they must find it simple and easy to use. The investment in a complex, difficult to use web presence is useless.

The website should be not only informative, but visually attractive and show your business services or products clearly and concisely. If a person lands on a page and gets the impression they “need” search into the site, sales will possibly occur.

Brochures: The use of brochures, both online and for handing to potential clients in networking situations, can make a very big impression on the potential client – either good or bad. If a brochure is properly designed, the person will remember you when they need your services.

Business Cards: Having a well designed, unique, informative and original business card that not only tells about your business but shows what your business is about is a great investment but costs very little for the exposure you gain. The right business card should make a major impression on the reader. A very small advertising investment can generate a “branding” that provides great profits.

As you can see, making the right impression and having the right visibility are the keys to making potential clients remember you and want to contact you, while stretching your advertising budget.

Don’t be forgettable – be outstanding and memorable. It doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to obtain the advertising tools you need to reach your prospective clients.
About the author:

Christopher Ross, UE is the owner of Getaway Graphics, a premier web design and marketing firm, focussing on helping small businesses build web sites that get results. You can contact him at 506-452-1595 or at info@getawaygraphics.com

© Copyright 2005, Christopher Ross. All rights reserved. Please contact author for reprints
http://www.marketingonlinepro.com

The Future of Advertising

Advertising is a medium that constantly evolves. It changes with the times. It adapts to new technologies. It is unrelenting in its desire to find new and better ways to reach an ever-growing consumer marketplace.

But its not simply advertising that evolves. Consumers and consumer behavior are changing too. As we look at the future of advertising, it's important to look at how the two interact and change together over time.

Without a doubt, the Internet has revolutionized the industry. It has taken the world - and the advertising world by storm. And it has only just begun to make an impact. The Internet has become a global medium with massive potential. Forty years ago, television was considered new media. Fifteen years ago, it was cable. Today, people spend increasing amounts of time online at the expense of other media. The first evidence of this audience migration appeared in 1998 in a Forrester Research report.

The researchers asked PC users which activities they were giving up to spend more time on their computers. 75% of the respondents said they gave up television.

Interactive. That is the real key behind the power of the Internet in advertising. The Internet is really the only medium where we see true interactivity. In addition:

• It means greater viewer involvement.
• It means users can access services according to their interests and their tastes.
• They can request and receive specialized product information, make an instant purchase, all the while saving time and expense.
• The effectiveness of Web advertising appears to relate to the fact that surfing the web is an actively engaging experience, similar to reading magazines.

Consumers also have the choice to "opt-in" to receiving additional information on a particular product or service. In Seth Godin's groundbreaking book, Permission Marketing, he said, "By reaching out only to those individuals who have signaled an interest in learning more about a product, Permission Marketing enables companies to develop long-term relationships with customers, create trust, build brand awareness- and greatly improve the chances of making a sale."

All the Rage: Pay Per Click and Natural Search Using SEO

It's no secret what has taken over the business world, in industry after industry. Pay Per Click and Natural Search Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Today, being on the first page for your most popular keyword phrase is like having the most memorable prime time television commercial in 1973.


Pay per click advertising on search engines allows you to choose keywords you would like your site to appear under when a potential customer engages in a search. You decide how much you are willing to pay each time a person clicks on the search results. But it can be competitive – and expensive if you are trying to use keywords that are very popular.

Natural Search or Organic Search is the non-biased, non-paid results that come up when you do a search. This can be influenced heavily by what's called "Search Engine Optimization" – the complex and time consuming practice of ensuring that your website is doing all the right things in order to rank high for certain search terms. In this arena, smaller companies can out maneuver large corporations, so there's a lot of excitement generated because of this.


Essentially, that's where the power of advertising is going. It's all about Search. And Search is only going to become more important over the next ten years. If you can get on that coveted first page organically, well then, more power to you!

Web Sites, Banner Ads, etc..

The other forms of on-line advertising vehicles are of course, web sites, banner advertising placed on others sites, newsletters, ezines, and email. They are used in many different combinations, for different purposes at different times. But most savvy companies are using all of them. The value of banner ads has been hotly debated for a number of years. Opponents argue that the click-through rates have gone down so much, that banner ads are nothing but wasted money. But research clearly shows that banners are very effective in building brand awareness. On-line users may not click on a banner, but if they see it enough times, the company's name is drilled into their head. When its time to shop, that product or service is first in their mind. Simply being exposed to the brand as one surf's the web is enough to make a big impression.

The impact of banners on brand awareness was tested for the first time in fall 1996 by Millward Brown International. Three brands were tested including a men's apparel brand, a telecommunications brand and a technology company. The findings were significant and conclusive for each brand. Awareness was significantly greater among the banner-exposed (test) group than the non-exposed (control) group. Specifically, exposure to the ad banners alone increased brand awareness from 12% to 200% in a banner-exposed group.

The study also compared the impact of the banner ads in this test to television and magazine norms from prior Millward Brown studies. The findings were remarkable: Single exposure to a Web banner generated greater awareness than a single exposure to a television or print ad. Rather, the effectiveness of Web advertising seems to stem from the fact that Web usage is an actively engaging exercise.

Newsletters and Ezines

Most smart marketers out there have either a newsletter or ezine nowadays. These types of customer communication and advertising tools will only continue to grow in use and importance. It goes back to the whole "what's in it for me?" issue. The customer wants to be part of the process. They want to learn something. Or keep themselves updated on the latest news. Most of all, they want to get something out of the relationship. They want to do more than buy something, they want to improve their lives in some small way – and they want you to help them do that.

Email Advertising

Email is another of the big three Internet advertising mediums. Companies like Got Marketing, OptinBig.com, and N5R are providing new and exciting email marketing solutions for thousands of progressive firms. Their results are impressive. Consider response rates that average 10 to 20 times those of traditional direct mail. Or campaign Network marketing referral rates as high as 40%. The bottom line is that programs they put together have produced millions of leads for clients. And it's surprisingly affordable. This means that almost anyone can now utilize this advertising medium. But it has to be done smartly, because you don't want your emails to end up in spam filters. That is one inherent problem with email advertising, especially in the past two years.

N5R in particular is now one of the leading direct marketing agencies in North America. They develop innovative one-to-one marketing campaigns that drive a measurable, positive ROI on behalf of their clients by driving acquisition and conversion to trial and purchase for their clients. They have developed award-winning strategies in five major industry sectors. These include Internet Marketing and Online Contests/Promotions, Permission Based Email Marketing, Text Messaging, Success Based Email.

In Internet Marketing and Online Contests/Promotions, marketers can gather and compile behavior and preference data from prospects and customers and use this information to send targeted and relevant information. Developing ongoing programs of one-to-one communication is cost effective and measurable. Contests are the quickest and most effective way to gather this data and build relationships with customers. It's very possible to build a permission-based database of over 50,000 prospects in only 6 weeks, increase web site traffic by 900%, improved online sales revenue by 1,000%, and achieve $40 million in sales from leads generated by an online promotion.

With Permission Based Email Marketing, loyal clients are just an e-mail away. Where traditional marketing campaigns fail, e-mail can shine through. E-mail marketing allows companies to speak one-to-one with their audience in a respectful, intelligent and creative way. It is extremely cost-effective, provides the foundation for future marketing initiatives, and delivers measurable results.

Text Messaging or SMS (Short Message Service) is a technology that allows people to send and receive short (up to 160 characters) written messages on cellular phones. It is already hugely popular in Europe and Asia and is growing rapidly in North America. SMS marketing offers the following benefits:

One-to-one communication with your target group, anywhere, anytime reach, low campaign cost, and very measurable data. Imagine if your mobile phone received an email message, "You're only a block from a Starbuck's; stop in for a 20% discount on your latte." The data is available and marketers are starting to tap into these resources.

Success Based Email is free email deployment where companies only pay for results. This "pay-per-click" approach is based on the premise that companies will only pay for each email that receives a "click-through" from the recipient. Not only does the new approach enhance the value of marketing dollars spent on such campaigns, the move will likely trim total dollars spent.

For example if 100,000 emails are sent, 70% are opened and 15% of the recipients actually click on a link in the email then clients will only be charged for the 15,000 people that clicked on the link, not for the other 85,000 that didn't. The return on investment (ROI) or cost savings inherent in this new approach will be very appealing to permission-based marketers. The bottom line is that marketers will now pay for real, measurable results.

The Next Step

Compared with other media, the Web is still limited in its bandwidth offerings. But it's getting better every day. With the continued improvement of bandwidth development, we will soon be positioned well to create full-featured multimedia advertising on the Internet. Once a majority of consumers have DSL capability and the computer power to access it, there will be some incredible things happening. Sites like tvtonic.com are already offering some very compelling visual and audio imagery in the form of movie trailers and music videos.

Market researchers, futurists and industry experts predict that interactivity through multiple technologies and devices will change how consumers interact with marketers. Interactive advertising will soon be everywhere. So, in effect, it could be considered the age of mass customization in advertising. Advertisers will have the tools to narrow their targets and address Web ads to individuals and not to a demographic or psychographic group. Why market a commercial to 1 million people, most of who aren't in the target audience, when the same ad could be shown to 10,000 people who are very interested in the product or service? Most of those will even give their name and address.

Interactivity will also be a part of television. Interactive TV will be the norm in the near future, and this too is another exciting opportunity. There will be total integration between TV channels and advertisers web sites. While we are watching TV, we will be able to interact with what we are seeing, ordering hamburgers from the McDonalds down the street or communicating with the local car dealer that we are interested in buying a car. Clicking on products we see in TV shows and ordering them will be easy. Your TV will keep track of what you are watching. Your TV will even know what kind of car you own because you'll tell for the free oil change you're offered in exchange. The oil change will be compliments of DirecTV, and it is only good at Jiffy Lube, which has paid to be the official oil-change provider for DirecTV." That's the way it will work.

Service Initiative Advertising

Another major trend is what I call "Service Initiative Advertising". Let's face it; consumers are tired of advertising as usual. Many people say they hate commercials. The success of Tivo and satellite radio can attest to this. They want more from their advertising. And who could blame them? People are inundated with advertising today- every where they go. Service Initiative Advertising takes the whole process one step further. Essentially how it works is that it requires advertising to offer some value to the consumer.

For example: Kraft Foods creates a website that offers busy mothers a source for quick recipes for the family evening meal. The idea isn't to push Kraft products, but to promote Kraft as a brand that offers a service to customers. There have been companies who positioned their entire marketing strategy on this tenant. Now, it will become a key part of advertising for almost everyone. The consumer wants to know you care.

It's important to realize that advertising mediums of the past will still be here. But, they may look a little different in the future. Direct mail will always be around as long as people like to receive mail. And despite external challenges, the U.S. Postal service will still be around. TV and radio will be here too.

But the future is here. And advertising will never be the same.

One thing that is certain is that it will continue to be as exciting and dynamic as it has been in the past. But now, the consumer is a part of the process.

Copyright © 2005 Jon Wuebben

About Jon: Jon Wuebben is a professional Website Copywriter, SEO Copywriter and Advertising Copywriter with 10 years experience in B2B & B2C copywriting and marketing. He has provided copy for a number of organizations including Ford Motor Company, Kia Motors America, Harmon Kardon, JBL, Infinity, Advertising Agencies, small and medium sized businesses and pro bono for a variety of non-profit groups. He can be reached at (909) 437-7015, or online at http://www.CustomCopywriting.com for any copywriting project you may have or if you would like more articles or a Complimentary Website Copy analysis. Need a custom newsletter or e-zine article written? Call Jon Today at (909) 437-7015 or email jon@customcopywriting.com for a professional Website Copywriter, SEO Copywriter, or Advertising Copywriter.

http://www.marketingonlinepro.com

10 Quick Tips To Writing Profitable Articles

One of the best ways to promote your business for free is to write articles for publication in ezines.

To help you get started, I've compiled a list of ten tips that will not only help you successfully write your own
articles, but also help you get the most out of the articles you do write.

To begin:

1. Put a lot of thought into the title of your article.

Writing a good title will grab your readers attention and encourage them to read through your article.

2. Keep the introduction and conclusion of your article short.

3. Write your article as a series of tips that center around a specific subject. This is a very effective way to present your information and hold your readers interest.

4. Use numbers to list the tips in your article. This allows your readers to go quickly from one tip to the next,
and also keeps your article neatly organized and easy to read.

5. Keep your tips brief and to the point.

6. Keep your article focused on one topic. If you have several things you want to talk about then try writing
separate articles for each topic.

7. Write your article with a sincere desire to help your reader. Don't write an article that is basically just a
sales letter for your company. Save your self promotion for your resource box at the end of your article.

8. Do write a compelling ad for your business in your resource box. Entice your reader to go to your site or
request more information from you.

9. Use your resource box to gain more subscribers to your ezine. An article is a very effective way to showcase the
type of quality content your reader can expect as a subscriber to your publication.

10. Offer a free marketing course in your resource box. This will give you the opportunity to further increase your sales by following up with people interested in your information.

Once you start writing articles, you will find that your articles can bring a lot of free promotion to your
business.

Write with your reader in mind and you will be on your way to creating more profit for your business with every
article you write.

About the Author

Article © 2002 by writer Ken Hill. Discover how to successfully promote your business online by writing
articles. Get your FREE 4 part
"Beginner's Guide To Profiting With Articles" course now at
mailto:yourfreecourse@zipresponse.com


http://www.marketingonlinepro.com

10 More Steps to Internet Success

This article will teach you the basics of starting your
first internet business. You'll be introduced to some very
useful products and services. You can also use this as a
checklist to help stay focused and make it easier to set up
and improve your internet business.

1) ‘Find a Market’ - Find a market before you decide on a
product. If you pick a product first then find out later
there isn’t a market for it, you will have wasted a lot of
time and money. So be sure to look for the market first.
Also try to find an area that inspires or excites you. If
you find your passion then it’ll be easier to stay motivated
when building your business. Use Google to search different
keywords. Try searching with Yahoo to see what else is
selling. Check eBay for all their different categories. And
use ClickBank to look for interesting markets. When you
locate a market and find out what people want, all you’ll
have to do is sell it to them. After your first internet
project is up and running, and is profitable, then you may
want to start looking for your next market. Remember it's
very easy to jump from one project to the next before the
first one is finished. So try to find a market or project
that you really like and stay with it until its making
money.

2) ‘Find a Product’ - After finding a market you’ll need to
find a product to sell. You could search the internet to see
what other people are selling to get some ideas. Or buy
resale rights to a product. Maybe you can sell an affiliate
product. Remember you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Find
a product someone else is selling and make it a little
better, different, lower in price, or add a bonus whenever
someone buy from you. If you choose to sell digital products
you will find many extra benefits such as: no shipping or
handling, low start up cost, your profit margin will be
close to 100%, your customer will get their product right
away. And a lot of it can be set up automatically so there’s
less work for you. Make sure to take full advantage of the
automation possibilities of the internet.

3) ‘Get a Domain Name’ – You’ll want to have your own domain
name. Try to think of a few different names because your
first choices may not be available. Choose a short name and
it will be easier for people to remember. If possible get
domain names ending with .com. You should also try to get a
name to match your product. And maybe use keywords in your
domain name to get a better listing on search engines.

4) ‘Hosting Companies’ - The purpose of hosting company is
to keep your website running properly. They will make sure
everything is working properly so your customers can
navigate through it and buy your product or service. So this
is a very important responsibility. If your website isn’t
working properly or not at all then you are losing money.
You may find some free hosting companies, but you really do
get what you pay for. So it may be better to use a paid
hosting company.

5) ‘Create a Website’ - Create a website so your customers
can buy your products 24 hour a day. You will be competing
with lots of other websites so try to make yours unique. If
your site takes a long time to upload your potential
customers will go somewhere else. Graphics are nice to look
at but slow to upload so have more text and less graphic.
Remember its words that sell products. To get ideas for you
website search the web and look for sites that you like.
Make sure your website is easy to navigate. And if you are
short on time and have the money you could hire a
professional to build your site. Or if you want to save
money you could do it yourself.

6) ‘Payment Processor’ - To collect money for your products
you will need a payment processor. Make sure that you accept
credit cards because most transactions will be made with
them. But you should also consider other options as well,
like accepting checks and money orders. And you may want to
use PayPal. The more ways you can collect money the more
sales you’ll make. And if you’re selling a digital product
you may want to use ClickBank.

7) ‘Autoresponder’ - If you want to make your internet
business easier, then you’ll want to automate as much as
possible by using an autoresponder. You can automate a lot
of your every day business tasks leaving more time for you
to concentrate on more important things. Here are a few
examples: send out email advertisements to everyone on your
list at predetermined intervals. Automate the delivery of
several different mini courses all at once. Send out
sequential emails automatically whenever someone buys one of
your products. Have all of your digital products sent out
automatically. And with an autoresponder you can collect
names and email addresses and add them to your list of
customers and much, much more.

8) ‘Free Advertising’ - This may be a good way to start out
if you are limited on funds. But this will be slower than
paid advertising and will take a lot more time. And time is
money so figure out how much you’re worth and monitor your
time. If you are spending a lot of time with free
advertising and not getting the results you like, then you
may want to try something else. Keep in mind when using free
advertising someone else may also place their ad with yours
and this is not very professional. Also when you join these
free advertising lists it usually means everyone on that
list can send free advertising to you. So you may get a lot
of unwanted emails.

9) ‘Paid Advertising’ - You may get better results with paid
advertising. And at first you may think blasting your ad to
as many people as possible will make you the most money. But
this really isn’t a good idea for a couple of reasons. First
a lot of people won’t have an interest in your product so
they’ll probably not even read your ad. And second you may
be accused of spamming which is something you never want to
do. So always try placing ads with your specific targeted
group. And always test your results to make sure that its
cost efficient.

10) ‘Collect a List’ - This gets 5 stars. Start collecting
your list of names and email addresses as soon as possible,
add to your list often, and cherish your list because it
will make you money over and over again. Whenever you need
extra money you can send an email promoting a product to
your list. So you’ll want to collect names and emails
addresses by offering free e-books or a mini course, by
having them join your newsletter and of course whenever they
buy your great product.

And remember to always invest in yourself. Invest your money
for quality information that will help expand your business,
and invest your time to thoroughly read the information.

Copyright © Duane Marx

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Duane Marx
For a list of internet marketing resources
and other free marketing tips please visit:
www.internet-checklist.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.marketingonlinepro.com

10 Activities For Better Marketing

Ten Activities for Better Mortgage Marketing/By Jay Conners

1. Business Cards

It is very important to market yourself via business cards. You should be making a conscious effort to hand out ten per day at the very least.
Have them on you at all times, and keep a supply in your car just in case.
When doing business with someone, don’t give them just one business card, give them two, and ask them to refer someone to you.

2. Mailers and Reminders

Keep a tickler file handy on all of your customers birthdays, kids birthdays, and anniversaries. Send them a card to wish them well on their special occasion. They won’t be expecting it, making them all the more appreciative, it also keeps you in their thoughts, reminding them that they know a mortgage specialist that they can refer should the topic ever arise. It also gives you a reason to send out more business cards and keep them circulating.
Remember, the average home owner refinances, or purchases on average every three years, so it is important to stay in front of your customer.

3. Phone Numbers

Giving your phone number to your customer seems obvious, but it is equally important to give them your cellular phone number as well as your work number, and let them know that they can feel free to call you at any time, this will personalize the relationship you have with your customer and give them a comfort zone where they feel as though they can really trust you.

4. Become Active

Become active in local organizations and charities, here are a few examples:

•Chamber of Commerce
•Rotary
•Lions Club
•Networking Groups
•Church
•Local Youth Athletic Associations

5. Apparel

Wear your company’s logo, It doesn’t hurt to have a few polos or dress shirts in your wardrobe with your company logo on it for attending special events or just going out to lunch, lets face it, it’s free advertising, and it shows that you take pride in the company that you work for.

6. Body Language

Your body language can speak volumes. Always smile when it’s appropriate, and speak clearly and slowly so that people will understand you. Eye contact is also very important when talking to people, it lets your client know that you are very confident in what you do, and that you believe in what you are saying.
It is also important to be empathetic when appropriate as well, sometimes it is better to listen than to speak. Not everybody is in the ideal situation, so it is important that you understand where they are coming from, and exactly what they will need.

7. Tag Lines

When your answer the phone, make sure you answer it in a professional manner and state your name. You can also add a tag line promoting a product or promotion. Here are a few examples.

•Hello, thank you for calling XYZ Mortgage Company, this is John Doe, how may I help you?

•Hello, thank you for calling XYZ Mortgage Company, this is John Doe, have you heard about our interest only loans?

8. Partnerships

Partner up with a few Realtors in you area, this way you can attend their open houses, this is a great way to make contacts and make people aware of all the programs you have available. Remember to be prepared with plenty of business cards and literature.

9. Product Knowledge

This is perhaps one of the most important marketing tools that you can posses. It is so important to have the ability to be able to speak off the cuff when asked about a particular product. It sends a clear message to the customer that you know what you are talking about, and the better you know the product the more confident you will be. Remember, your client is considering perhaps the biggest financial decision they will ever make, they need to trust you and believe in you! Take ten minutes out of every day to learn some of the benefits of the programs your company offers. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you become an expert.

10. Show them your appreciation

Over the course of the loan process, it is fair to say that you have built a very good relationship with your customer, and like all relationships you want this one to last. Once the loan is closed, take the time to thank them by sending them something to let them know that you appreciate their business.
It could be a thank you card, or a small care package.
My suggestion would be to send them a small care package, preferably to their work place, this way, all of their fellow employees will want to know who sent it and why, this is a great way to get them talking about you, which could easily lead to lots of referrals.



About the Author

Jay Conners is the owner of www.jconners.com, a mortgage resource center for mortgage brokers, loan officers, and lenders. He is also the owner of www.callprospect.com, a mortgage lead company, specializing in fresh leads.

http://www.marketingonlinepro.com

How To Win The War of Pay per Click Advertising

Do you know what is the most important question among
most internet marketers specially newbie’s. It’s "How to get
highly targeted visitors to there site?" Believe me, I know
it because I received this question from my subscribers
almost daily.

Well, earlier when I started my internet business I also faced
this problem. I tried safe-lists, I bought so called guaranteed
visitors, even I blast my ad to 10 million (Yes, you are right.
It’s 10 million) sites but couldn’t make a single sale.

Than I changed my strategies and get this problem solved by
finding a right solution, and that is "Pay Per Click Advertising".
Pay Per Click Advertising is a great solution for traffic worries
which directs a highly targeted traffic to my site. Yesterday
only I got around 280 visitors and I made 24 sales.

Pay-Per-Click is a simple type of paid advertising that most
search engines, including some of the largest ones, now offer.
It requires a bid for a "per-click" basis, which translates to
your company paying the bid amount every time the search
engine directs a visitor to your site. There is the added bonus
that when a per-click site sends your website traffic, your site
often appears in the results of other prevalent search engines.

As with all marketing campaigns, there are pros and cons.
Where there are flowers there are thorns also. what you
have to do is to protect yourself from thorns and let only
the fragrance touch your inner sense. I am going to tell
you advantages the Pay Per Click Advertising.

One of the greatest advantages of PPC is that you never
have to tweak your web pages to change your position in
search engine results, as you must do in a typical SEO
campaign. What you do have to do in a pay-per-click
campaign is pay a fee.

Another advantage is the simplicity of the pay-per-click
process. You just bid and you're up and running. It doesn't
demand any specific technical knowledge, though the more
you know about search engines and keywords, the easier -
and more effective - the process will be.

Now came the very point in your mind that what is bad
about Pay Per Click Advertising. The downside is that PPC
is essentially a bidding war. A higher bid than yours will
lower your position on search engine results. This means
that you will have to raise your bid to regain your position
- which can obviously become quite expensive, especially
if you are bidding on a popular keyword.

In order to determine if pay-per-click is a cost effective
form of marketing for your business, you must do some
computing to figure out how much each visitor to your site
is worth. You can compute this value by dividing the profit
you make on your website over a given period of time by the
total number of visitors for that same time period. For
example, if your site made $5,000 in profits and there were
10000 hits, each visitor would be theoretically worth 50
cents. The basic formula is profits divided by visitors.

Be aware that the most popular keywords often cost
considerably more than 50 cents a click. The only way
around this is to bid less for these phrases or you will be
paying too much for each individual hit.

Since when you are doing the business for earning money
and you are losing a heavy part of it then you must have
a plan in place to closely track the effectiveness of your
keyword. It is advisable to monitor your keywords on at
least a monthly basis.

The only way to assess your success in this field is monitoring,
not only monitoring but careful monitoring. You can easily analyze
it by visitor behavior which can produce invaluable knowledge
about consumer motivation, habits, and trends. Expert monitoring
and consumer analysis is essential to your overall business needs,
and pay-per-click campaign is a must for this.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2005 Raamakant S.



About the Author

Raamakant S. is owner of http://www.umtezine.com.
Subscribe to his Ultimate marketing Tips eZine by sending a blank
e-mail mailto:umtezine@getresponse.com -- Learn Everything
You've Been Wanting to Know about Internet Marketing. REAL
Tips, Tricks and Techniques You Can Use In Your Business and
Consistently Produce MASSIVE Amounts of Profits.


http://www.marketingonlinepro.com

I want Free Advertising

So you`ve got your website all set up. You know what you`re promoting and it`s looking good. You know you need to advertise and promote as much as possible to actually get your website seen. You`ve tried the normal avenues such as classified ads, safelists, ffa`s. etc, but now you`re ready to try something else, right?

There IS another way of getting free advertising. It`s called Bartering. It basically means to exchange goods and/or services without using money. Bartering, also known as Trading, Exchange or Ad Swapping comes in all shapes and sizes. Many small sites use banner exchanges as a way to reach more people. Ezines ofte