[CaRP] XML error: junk after document element at line 1
|
|
State specific methods for Alabama
|
|
Internet marketing tips for EcoQuest in Alabama
By ArticleArticle911.com
For updates visit the EcoQuest Tips Blog
|
Are people taking in moola on the web?
You're interested in Alabama or perhaps Alabama is the state you live. You're marketing a product or service and you need to sell your product or service to visitors to your site who reside in Alabama and various other locations too. You've read that customers are spending money head over heels each day shopping online and you're determined to figure out how you can get your share of the pie.
Fact #1
People do make a sizable income from their website, but it's probably not you.
Fact #2
Business owners that do make the money, are not necessarily smarter than you.
Fact #3
The difference in the 'haves' and 'have-nots' is not measured by any number of college degrees, but rather by the application of a few common sense strategies. The difference in the 'haves' and 'have-nots' is not measured by any number of college degrees, but rather by the application of a few common sense strategies.
Are you one of the following?
-
A person involved with EcoQuest
-
An individual reselling someone else's products or services?
-
A small business, with your own products or services?
-
An affiliate, linking to other sites to collect commissions on
customers you refer?
-
A network marketer, distributor, or direct sales professional
marketing products or services of your 'parent' company?
-
Someone with a garage full of 'stuff' you want to get rid of?
-
A web site owner living in Alabama
-
Or someone thinking about doing one of the items listed
|
|
If any of the above activities sound like you, this article is for you. You are about to be taught step-by-step what to do this year to help ensure that next year your business, website or blog is enjoyably profitable.
Internet marketing tips and methods for EcoQuest...
If you wanted to simplify 'what' the Internet is, you could make a strong case for the following:
The net is a place to search for information, products and services
Listen closely to what folks say when they're talking about the web:
-
"Do a Google, and get back to me with on what comes up..."
-
"Yes, I compared 4 like items and found the best buy online at..."
-
"After a little research I found exactly what I needed..."
-
"Let me pull-up the TV guide, I think it's on tonight..."
Everybody's looking, finding, or searching for something. Everybody. So, it's your task to help them find you. It's a little more effort, but it's not nearly as hard as you might expect. Give yourself about one hour to explore in detail each strategy listed below. After you are exposed to the basics, you might wish to pace your efforts so that each week you tackle one approach until you have each one mastered.
STRATEGY #1
Everyone is talking about blogging, but do you have a blog yourself? A blog is nothing more than a platform for you to speak about what you're taking part in... perhaps topics related to your products and services, your profession, or the benefits and recommendations surrounding your various products.
Go by focusing on how this all relates to Alabama or the benefits people from Alabama might enjoy.
The reason a blog is a must for your online marketing strategy is because it gives you an instant presence on the internet to provide news and information about the things you are doing. Your blog or weblog should link to your various web pages and sites. Blogs are "search engine" friendly and much more likely to get ranked in Google, MSN search, Yahoo etc than your website.
Invest a little quality time setting up a 'profile page' on your blog (or connected to your blog) that tells visitors a little about you. Also remember to link to this profile page from your various other web site pages.
Post short but frequent messages every week (more often if possible). Keep it lively, interesting, and topical but above all don't hype and don't write sales pitches.
Need advice? Here are links to a few highly popular blogs that offer affordable services. Some are hosted others you can host.
STRATEGY #2
Invest a little time reading about "folksonomy" or "tags" and how they can benefit your online marketing efforts. A good place to visit is Technorati http://www.technorati.com/help/tags.html
Once you understand the basics of how tags apply to marketing, start using them on your blog and in comments you post to other blogs. Open a no cost photo sharing account at Flickr http://flickr.com/ to upload photos with descriptive titles and stories related to your business, EcoQuest, or your products and services. Don't forget your tags!
Open a FURL http://furl.net/ account to save and share bookmarks or favorites linked to all your important web pages. Again, add well worded descriptions and associate proper tags to every bookmarked page.
Never stop linking... return to your other site pages, your blog, and your profile page and add links to your Flickr and FURL pages.
STRATEGY #3
Start an opt-in e-mail list and/or give visitors the invitation to subscribe to your RSS or XML feed.
Most online business owners have learned few people purchase anything on that first visit. How often has anyone ordered or even contacted you from your site? It takes a bit more "dating" to get past first base, so to speak.
Here's what researchers have learned about who's most likely to buy merchandise on the Internet:
-
40% of adults with net access, subscribe to or have received opt-in e-mail in the past three months... (Source: Bigfoot Interactive)
-
People tend buy from non-brand names AFTER they subscribe to newsletters put out by those same web site owners.
-
91% of opt-in subscribers are more likely to buy... (Source: eMarketer Inc)
What's the bottom line here? No matter how much traffic you generate to your web pages or blog, if you do not provide visitors a compelling reason to sign-up for a newsletter, you will likely hamper your opportunity to make sales by over 90%. Add a subscription box to every page that you plan to direct visitors to. Do not list any web page on a search engine, business card, or other promotion if that page does not have a way for visitors to join your list.
Internet marketing tips Bonus Idea: Many site owners now offer XML or RSS feeds as an alternative to newsletter subscriptions (not necessarily a replacement). Explore options to offer XML or RSS feeds to your web site visitors. Email as a marketing vehicle has lost some of its effectiveness and profitability in recent years. Users are confused about what is quality content in their inbox and what is SPAM and unwanted advertisements. XML or RSS feeds are not nearly as complex as they sound and are worth learning about.
STRATEGY #4
A pay per click search engine marketing campaign will generate more website prospects and customer traffic at a lower investment than any other form of website marketing. Period. Yet the overwhelming majority of website owners ignore this route to a continuous flow of highly motivated visitors.
Consider these facts.
A Georgia Tech survey revealed that over 80% of its respondents discovered web sites through search engines and were searching with intent to buy something.
eMarketer statistics showed that last year, search engine marketing (SEM) skyrocketed. Growing over 120% -- just in the US. Paid search advertising accounts for about 40% of total internet ad spending.
All these millions are being spent by entrepreneurial businesses, large businesses and people just like you. It's called PAY-PER-CLICK ( PPC or COST-PER-CLICK ) and it allows you complete control over your search engine listings. No more optimizing, waiting and praying only to end up as listing number 5465 on page 353 under the keyword phrase "find me if you can" because that's where some search engine employee (or worse yet, some robot) thought your search engine listing belonged.
Pay Per Click puts you behind the mix-master where you can whip-up perfectly worded ads (referred to as listings) with lively headlines (referred to as titles), compelling descriptions (10 to 20 words or so) and stir up perfect matches between keywords and keyword phrases. YOU control everything and the destination or landing pages you want to link search prospects to.
With pay-per-click, web site owners decide how high in the rankings (or search results page) they want to appear by bidding against your competition for the best spots. Keywords popular among site owners cost more while other more diligent web site owners find less expensive keyword niches that may bring equally good results for much lower per-click bid rates.
The great advantage in PPC marketing is that you can bid on dozens or hundreds of keywords associated to your products, services, business or affiliate offer while never spending a penny until someone CLICKS your listing. Add to this the fact that some keyword listings in some PPCs can start as low as 1 penny or a few pennies a click.
There are many lists and eBooks with recommendations about setting up a PPC marketing campaign. Many charge you upwards of $100 (be careful), but the best we've found is free and is available to you by joining this internet marketing newsletter.
We recommend the following newsletter
(All list members get a free search engine tips PDF)
Pay-Per-Click Search Engine and Marketing Ideas
Here are a few hot search engine techniques and keyword exploratory ideas to get you thinking:
- When thinking up keywords, use examples of specific things your product is used for: 'clean floors', clean countertops', 'wash floors', 'mop floors', 'polish stove top', 'remove grime', 'shine appliances', 'disinfect bacteria', 'hide furniture flaws' etc.
- Explore variations: 'soy milk', 'soymilk', 'soy-milk'
- Add plurals: 'protein bar' and 'protein bars'
- Use abbreviations and acronyms
- Use US and UK spellings
- Keyword phrases may be questions: 'how to repair bad credit', 'when should I diet', 'how do I lose weight', 'where are discount cosmetics', etc.
|
The Alabama Marketing Strategy
Go local. Yes, business owners from Alabama search for stuff to buy using "Alabama" as their keyword. That means you must include listings targeting Alabama and bid on keyword phrases which have your state: Alabama.
The path to success with any pay-per-click marketing campaign is preparation and consistency. Do your homework upfront to find less expensive keywords to bid on, think up a quality title and description for your search listing and stick with it for at least 8 months as you learn the ropes. Set a reasonable budget that you are comfortable with (perhaps $73 a month) and consider that your investment in the search engine school of hard knocks. After you graduate, you'll begin to see results. It's an education worth the time, money and effort.
STRATEGY #5
Don't start any other strategies until you have the strategies outlined in this article implemented. However, you should invest in yourself by reading articles and eBooks on internet marketing.
|
ArticleArticle911.com source:
Article researched by ArticleArticle911.com staff and contributors.
|
© Copyright 2005 by
ArticleArticle911.com
or article author
Top of Page
|
|
|
|
In WirelessGuys integration experience they have not run into many cases where the signal was to strong for the subscriber. The coverage area of Verizon, Sprint, and At&t appeared strong in Mr...
Email Leads that are targeted for use by home business and MLM professionals and network marketers are the focus of this new venture. An affiliate program that pays 150% more than most competitors ha...
The initial Forum webcast, co-sponsored by ClearSaleing and Search Marketing Now, began the process of defining attribution management practices and methodologies. (PRWeb Nov 19, 2008)
Read th...
New RSS feed generator creates instant theme-based content for your website. Improve your site ranking in all search engines. Built-In keyword tracking tells you exactly how many site visitors each of your pages are generating...
|
|
