Build Your Business with Social Media Marketing
By Terri Seymour Copyright �2010
Social media marketing is extremely important to your
business and as this marketing method evolves, so must you
and your business. Social media marketing is marketing
through online communities, social networking sites, blogs,
etc. If you are not already utilizing social sites for your
business, you need to start NOW!
Social networking enables business owners to get extreme
exposure for very little or no cost. You can use social
networking sites to build your reputation, brand your
business and increase your customer base. The marketing
potential of these sites is phenomenal!
Now you can't just register, make your profile and then
never go back. You have to keep your information fresh, add
new content, always be looking for new contacts, etc.
Meeting new people, whether they be potential customers,
business associates, or just people learning the ropes, can
be very beneficial for your business and your reputation.
These sites allow you to make yourself much more accessible
than just having your own site. Whenever possible, use your
business name as your username to help make your business
more recognized.
Social marketing sites can also help you get more links thus
increasing your search engine ranking. People who find your
content and information helpful and useful will link back to
you which will in turn cause your own website to become more
popular.
You can also use your social site pages to gather
information and feedback from people on your products. This
can help you improve your business and improve customer
service.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Can You Say Designing Your Own Website Is A Bad Idea
Can You Say Designing Your Own Website Is A Bad Idea?
If you have ever had a professional website design, you have experienced the sheer joy of letting someone who knows what they are doing, do their job. Yes, you do have to gather information and provide them with insights about your product or services, what colors you like, and what kind of ‘look’ and style you want your website to have. More importantly, you know you can leave all the HTML coding, links and Meta tags to the expert; you can let them do their job, and free up your time to do your own.
On the other hand, if you have tried to design your own website, you will no doubt have experienced the challenge of having to learn something new, and at the same time hope the end result looks professional. What you don’t find out at the beginning when you design your own website is that if it isn’t done properly, not only will you not get any traffic coming to your site, but when they do arrive they may not stay longer than a nanosecond. It really doesn’t take any of us more than a glance to know whether a website is easy to navigate or not, and more importantly whether it’s worth hanging around to find out.
One of the challenges in designing your own website is the over-abundance of complex tools. It doesn’t take a non-professional too long before the website looks like it has been on caffeine for a week. Because there are such a wide variety of design features, many first time uses may try to utilize them all. The end result can be overly bright colors, strange fonts, oddly placed site navigation buttons, and distracting borders around links that may not work correctly.
An experienced website designer doesn’t just know about the code and the behind the scenes activity that must be adhered to if the site is to attract traffic, they also know the details of website design and management. But even when you know the rules, such as keeping it simple, and the eye catching utilization of white space, it’s still very easy to go wrong.
A website professional may make it look easy with their easy to navigate tools, links that work, pages that will download easily and fast, but it really does take specialized knowledge. A professional website designer will most likely take ongoing classes to keep up to date about latest trends and features; some are so well-learned on the subject that they may even teach classes about website design.
But the other problem with designing your own website is that things change, and when they do, they change really fast. Code and protocol that worked yesterday may not work so well today. Yes, they may work as far as the website looks to the outsider, but behind the scenes, where the real work in terms of improving the search engine ranking goes, design is king. And while it may look easy to get stats on your newly designed website, and provide keywords to improve search rank, there is much more to it than that. Google and yahoo look for keywords that match current protocol. It may have worked in the past to just put together a huge stream of keywords, but the latest development in search engine techniques are designed to search out websites that are well designed and have integrity. All in all it pays to find a website designer that has your best needs at heart.
For a web design that converts more of your visitors into customers see what Wildfire Marketing Group can do for you.
If you have ever had a professional website design, you have experienced the sheer joy of letting someone who knows what they are doing, do their job. Yes, you do have to gather information and provide them with insights about your product or services, what colors you like, and what kind of ‘look’ and style you want your website to have. More importantly, you know you can leave all the HTML coding, links and Meta tags to the expert; you can let them do their job, and free up your time to do your own.
On the other hand, if you have tried to design your own website, you will no doubt have experienced the challenge of having to learn something new, and at the same time hope the end result looks professional. What you don’t find out at the beginning when you design your own website is that if it isn’t done properly, not only will you not get any traffic coming to your site, but when they do arrive they may not stay longer than a nanosecond. It really doesn’t take any of us more than a glance to know whether a website is easy to navigate or not, and more importantly whether it’s worth hanging around to find out.
One of the challenges in designing your own website is the over-abundance of complex tools. It doesn’t take a non-professional too long before the website looks like it has been on caffeine for a week. Because there are such a wide variety of design features, many first time uses may try to utilize them all. The end result can be overly bright colors, strange fonts, oddly placed site navigation buttons, and distracting borders around links that may not work correctly.
An experienced website designer doesn’t just know about the code and the behind the scenes activity that must be adhered to if the site is to attract traffic, they also know the details of website design and management. But even when you know the rules, such as keeping it simple, and the eye catching utilization of white space, it’s still very easy to go wrong.
A website professional may make it look easy with their easy to navigate tools, links that work, pages that will download easily and fast, but it really does take specialized knowledge. A professional website designer will most likely take ongoing classes to keep up to date about latest trends and features; some are so well-learned on the subject that they may even teach classes about website design.
But the other problem with designing your own website is that things change, and when they do, they change really fast. Code and protocol that worked yesterday may not work so well today. Yes, they may work as far as the website looks to the outsider, but behind the scenes, where the real work in terms of improving the search engine ranking goes, design is king. And while it may look easy to get stats on your newly designed website, and provide keywords to improve search rank, there is much more to it than that. Google and yahoo look for keywords that match current protocol. It may have worked in the past to just put together a huge stream of keywords, but the latest development in search engine techniques are designed to search out websites that are well designed and have integrity. All in all it pays to find a website designer that has your best needs at heart.
For a web design that converts more of your visitors into customers see what Wildfire Marketing Group can do for you.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
How To Improve Your Writing And Thrive
Improve Your Writing and Thrive
Whether you’re a ClickBank publisher or affiliate, a key component to your success is getting people to take action based purely on the strength of your writing.
For publishers, it’s obvious that your pitch page needs to be able to sell interested visitors on why they really need your product, how it’s going to improve their lives, and why it’s better than any of your competitors’ products. Once you’ve made the sale, your product needs deliver the value you’ve promised, and be easily comprehensible and actionable to people all over the world.
Affiliates need to have an even broader range of writing skills, depending on where and how they’re trying to promote products. If you’re paying for search engine advertisements, you have a very limited amount of space in which to convince searchers to click on your ad, and to explain what they should expect on the landing page. If you write articles, you have to legitimately inform people and entice them to click on your Hoplink. Affiliates have to master a wide variety of writing styles and learn how to use them properly in many different locations.
Since great writing is important and valuable to all of us, I wanted to share a few particularly useful articles from my favorite writing blog, Copyblogger.
Copywriting 101: Brian’s 10-step tutorial has something for everyone, whether you’re writing full articles or just PPC ads.
Do These 3 Common Copywriting Mistakes Keep Your Readers From Buying?: Sonia makes some great points about why solid products sometimes don’t sell as well as you’d expect, and how to remedy that.
The Two Most Important Words in Blogging: Although the title refers to blogging, this post applies equally well to all sales writing.
How to Write Magnetic Headlines: This series of posts about writing headlines can be especially useful to affiliates working with a limited amount of space, like in PPC advertising. It’s also great for publishers who want to grab a visitor’s attention immediately on a pitch page.
Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques: Great advice for all kinds of copywriting.
And finally, Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb: In affiliate marketing, credibility is the key, and even smart people make grammatical mistakes from time to time.
These posts, along with the rest of the useful information available on Copyblogger, will go a long way toward help your affiliate marketing efforts thrive!
Take a look at these related posts:
Whether you’re a ClickBank publisher or affiliate, a key component to your success is getting people to take action based purely on the strength of your writing.
For publishers, it’s obvious that your pitch page needs to be able to sell interested visitors on why they really need your product, how it’s going to improve their lives, and why it’s better than any of your competitors’ products. Once you’ve made the sale, your product needs deliver the value you’ve promised, and be easily comprehensible and actionable to people all over the world.
Affiliates need to have an even broader range of writing skills, depending on where and how they’re trying to promote products. If you’re paying for search engine advertisements, you have a very limited amount of space in which to convince searchers to click on your ad, and to explain what they should expect on the landing page. If you write articles, you have to legitimately inform people and entice them to click on your Hoplink. Affiliates have to master a wide variety of writing styles and learn how to use them properly in many different locations.
Since great writing is important and valuable to all of us, I wanted to share a few particularly useful articles from my favorite writing blog, Copyblogger.
Copywriting 101: Brian’s 10-step tutorial has something for everyone, whether you’re writing full articles or just PPC ads.
Do These 3 Common Copywriting Mistakes Keep Your Readers From Buying?: Sonia makes some great points about why solid products sometimes don’t sell as well as you’d expect, and how to remedy that.
The Two Most Important Words in Blogging: Although the title refers to blogging, this post applies equally well to all sales writing.
How to Write Magnetic Headlines: This series of posts about writing headlines can be especially useful to affiliates working with a limited amount of space, like in PPC advertising. It’s also great for publishers who want to grab a visitor’s attention immediately on a pitch page.
Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques: Great advice for all kinds of copywriting.
And finally, Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb: In affiliate marketing, credibility is the key, and even smart people make grammatical mistakes from time to time.
These posts, along with the rest of the useful information available on Copyblogger, will go a long way toward help your affiliate marketing efforts thrive!
Take a look at these related posts:
Friday, August 13, 2010
How To Write Ebook That Sells
How to Write Ebooks That Sell-Part II
By Brian Clark
As more people begin to realize that blogging for ad dollars and other free content strategies might not be the best way to make money online, I’m getting more and more questions related to writing and selling ebooks.
Producing any information product is almost entirely an exercise in marketing. Everything from the topic you choose, to how you position it, to the copywriting strategy you use to sell it boils down to figuring out what people are willing and even driven, to pay for.
As far as ebooks go, the first question you have to ask is whether or not the ebook is the format you should be using at all. The humble PDF seems to be the first thing that comes to mind when people consider developing a product, but it’s often the least useful and has the lowest perceived value—at least when you want to charge for it.
Is Writing Ebooks Dead?
While the format is still alive and kicking, the basic ebook is a pretty weak substitute for a real book. It has none of the tangible attributes that make books the portable and convenient information vessels they are, and the only real advantage the ebook has is that it is instantly deliverable.
Plus, for any topic where there is already a “real” book available, you’re most likely going to lose the sale, instantly downloadable or not. People trust Amazon, and whether fair or not, they consider “real” authors to be those who are delivered in ink on dead tree material.
So if your goal is to write a 200-page book, you might just go ahead and try to get a publisher, or even have your work self-published. People who read books tend to love books themselves, so it makes sense to give book lovers what they want… a real book.
Ebooks That Sell Solve Problems
The good news for people interested in making money from ebooks is that the ones that sell best are nowhere near 200 pages. In fact, you can often turn a sweet profit from a document that is only 10, 20 and up to 50 pages long, as long as those pages solve a problem that people will pay to have the solution to.
Contrary to what you might think, it doesn’t matter if the solution to a problem can be found by even simple online research. “Normal” people don’t like to do in-depth research online and are often skeptical of free information sources. Do the work for them and demonstrate that you are a credible person (or partner on the ebook with someone who has the necessary credentials), and as long as the problem is real, you’ll make sales.
There are so many ebooks out there that try to tell you that the key to successful ebook creation is “write what you love” and the money will come. They use that angle because that’s what people want to hear, and it sells a lot of ebooks about ebooks. But that doesn’t make it true.
Desperate Buyers Only
There’s only one ebook that provides clear guidance on how to research, develop and sell these short problem-solving documents, and it’s called Desperate Buyers Only by Alexis Dawes. This no-fluff guide quickly dispenses with the biggest myths about ebooks, and then takes you step-by-step through:
Identifying a potential profitable topic
Researching the viability of developing the document
Discovering buyer hot button issues, and
Understanding how the problem is framed in the mind of the prospect
Alexis then walks you through her five-step variation of the problem-agitation-solution copywriting technique for creating empathy, demonstrating credibility and closing the sale. But it all goes back to the fact that you started with a highly motivated person with a problem, and therefore the “instantly downloadable” aspect of the short ebook becomes a strong selling point.
I once commented on a review of Desperate Buyers Only that this is the ebook about creating ebooks that I would have written had I been inclined, so I have no problem recommending it to you (and using my affiliate link). It not only tells the truth about what it really takes to make money, it reveals several concrete strategies that I’ve used for years to make a great deal of money.
By Brian Clark
As more people begin to realize that blogging for ad dollars and other free content strategies might not be the best way to make money online, I’m getting more and more questions related to writing and selling ebooks.
Producing any information product is almost entirely an exercise in marketing. Everything from the topic you choose, to how you position it, to the copywriting strategy you use to sell it boils down to figuring out what people are willing and even driven, to pay for.
As far as ebooks go, the first question you have to ask is whether or not the ebook is the format you should be using at all. The humble PDF seems to be the first thing that comes to mind when people consider developing a product, but it’s often the least useful and has the lowest perceived value—at least when you want to charge for it.
Is Writing Ebooks Dead?
While the format is still alive and kicking, the basic ebook is a pretty weak substitute for a real book. It has none of the tangible attributes that make books the portable and convenient information vessels they are, and the only real advantage the ebook has is that it is instantly deliverable.
Plus, for any topic where there is already a “real” book available, you’re most likely going to lose the sale, instantly downloadable or not. People trust Amazon, and whether fair or not, they consider “real” authors to be those who are delivered in ink on dead tree material.
So if your goal is to write a 200-page book, you might just go ahead and try to get a publisher, or even have your work self-published. People who read books tend to love books themselves, so it makes sense to give book lovers what they want… a real book.
Ebooks That Sell Solve Problems
The good news for people interested in making money from ebooks is that the ones that sell best are nowhere near 200 pages. In fact, you can often turn a sweet profit from a document that is only 10, 20 and up to 50 pages long, as long as those pages solve a problem that people will pay to have the solution to.
Contrary to what you might think, it doesn’t matter if the solution to a problem can be found by even simple online research. “Normal” people don’t like to do in-depth research online and are often skeptical of free information sources. Do the work for them and demonstrate that you are a credible person (or partner on the ebook with someone who has the necessary credentials), and as long as the problem is real, you’ll make sales.
There are so many ebooks out there that try to tell you that the key to successful ebook creation is “write what you love” and the money will come. They use that angle because that’s what people want to hear, and it sells a lot of ebooks about ebooks. But that doesn’t make it true.
Desperate Buyers Only
There’s only one ebook that provides clear guidance on how to research, develop and sell these short problem-solving documents, and it’s called Desperate Buyers Only by Alexis Dawes. This no-fluff guide quickly dispenses with the biggest myths about ebooks, and then takes you step-by-step through:
Identifying a potential profitable topic
Researching the viability of developing the document
Discovering buyer hot button issues, and
Understanding how the problem is framed in the mind of the prospect
Alexis then walks you through her five-step variation of the problem-agitation-solution copywriting technique for creating empathy, demonstrating credibility and closing the sale. But it all goes back to the fact that you started with a highly motivated person with a problem, and therefore the “instantly downloadable” aspect of the short ebook becomes a strong selling point.
I once commented on a review of Desperate Buyers Only that this is the ebook about creating ebooks that I would have written had I been inclined, so I have no problem recommending it to you (and using my affiliate link). It not only tells the truth about what it really takes to make money, it reveals several concrete strategies that I’ve used for years to make a great deal of money.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Discover How To Write Articles To Make Money
How to Write an Article in 20 Minutes
By Jim Estill
Believe it or not, it only takes me 20 minutes to write a 400-500 word article. This article (which I wrote in 20 minutes) explains some of the tricks I use to accomplish this.
Blogging gives me a daily deadline, and I don’t really want to spend more than 20 minutes each day on blogging. Many of my blog entries are actually less than 500 words so take me less time.
Taking up blogging got me to start thinking seriously about writing quickly, and you may be facing a blogging time-crunch as well. So here are my 8 tips for writing an article in 20 minutes or less.
I start with a list of ideas and concepts I want to cover. Usually I write this list in point form. For me, I do this the old fashioned way, with a pen and paper.
I often “incubate” an article for a few days (this does not count in the 20 minutes). What I do is start roughing out some topic ideas then leave it. Because I have thought about it, ideas tend to come to me that I frequently add to my points. Of course I always carry a notebook for ideas.
I often need to reduce the number of ideas that I cover. Sometimes they do not fit with the angle of the article or do not flow with the other ideas. Sometimes I have to give up a point to write a good article.
Never save a good idea. When I know I have many article deadlines to meet, it is tempting to “save” a few good ideas for later. New ideas will always come so always give your best ideas.
Develop tricks to get past writers block. One way I do this is ”warm up” writing. I just sit down and write for 5 minutes. This tends to help subsequent writing to flow. Another way I do this is to go for a walk, cycle or a run (although sometimes I think I might use this to procrastinate a bit too). Another trick I use is to make a game out of the deadline – say I will do it by X o’ clock. Perhaps I am simple but this motivates me.
Come back to it later. My best articles are written partly, revisited a few times, then finished. I spend the same 20 minutes, though only 5-7 minutes per session. Of course if the ideas are flowing well, I do keep writing.
I often write 3-4 articles at the same time. Spending 5 minutes on one, 7 on another etc. When I am really in writing flow, this works well.
One trick is using bullet points or numbered points as in this article. People seem to like this technique and it helps articles flow for me.
So if I can write so quickly, why don’t I write a few articles each day? Apart from the fact that I have a very full time job, writing is the easy part; coming up with the ideas is the tough part.
By Jim Estill
Believe it or not, it only takes me 20 minutes to write a 400-500 word article. This article (which I wrote in 20 minutes) explains some of the tricks I use to accomplish this.
Blogging gives me a daily deadline, and I don’t really want to spend more than 20 minutes each day on blogging. Many of my blog entries are actually less than 500 words so take me less time.
Taking up blogging got me to start thinking seriously about writing quickly, and you may be facing a blogging time-crunch as well. So here are my 8 tips for writing an article in 20 minutes or less.
I start with a list of ideas and concepts I want to cover. Usually I write this list in point form. For me, I do this the old fashioned way, with a pen and paper.
I often “incubate” an article for a few days (this does not count in the 20 minutes). What I do is start roughing out some topic ideas then leave it. Because I have thought about it, ideas tend to come to me that I frequently add to my points. Of course I always carry a notebook for ideas.
I often need to reduce the number of ideas that I cover. Sometimes they do not fit with the angle of the article or do not flow with the other ideas. Sometimes I have to give up a point to write a good article.
Never save a good idea. When I know I have many article deadlines to meet, it is tempting to “save” a few good ideas for later. New ideas will always come so always give your best ideas.
Develop tricks to get past writers block. One way I do this is ”warm up” writing. I just sit down and write for 5 minutes. This tends to help subsequent writing to flow. Another way I do this is to go for a walk, cycle or a run (although sometimes I think I might use this to procrastinate a bit too). Another trick I use is to make a game out of the deadline – say I will do it by X o’ clock. Perhaps I am simple but this motivates me.
Come back to it later. My best articles are written partly, revisited a few times, then finished. I spend the same 20 minutes, though only 5-7 minutes per session. Of course if the ideas are flowing well, I do keep writing.
I often write 3-4 articles at the same time. Spending 5 minutes on one, 7 on another etc. When I am really in writing flow, this works well.
One trick is using bullet points or numbered points as in this article. People seem to like this technique and it helps articles flow for me.
So if I can write so quickly, why don’t I write a few articles each day? Apart from the fact that I have a very full time job, writing is the easy part; coming up with the ideas is the tough part.
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