Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Getting The Most From Your Advertising Dollars

You now have that website up and running. You have a great product. You are all set to start taking orders and making those trips to the bank to make deposits! And then you wait, and wait, and wait some more! Unless someone can find your site, you will have a very long wait! That is where the value and benefit of advertising comes in. Advertising is what brings potential customers into your "virtual business door". As a business owner, every dollar you spend is a dollar right out of your pocket. This affects your profit margin and revenues. This can be especially difficult if it comes at a time when you're trying to grow your business. If you're going to succeed, you have to pay close attention to your bottom line and look for creative, innovative ways to cut costs while still getting what you need.

That old saying that it "takes money to make money" has never been truer than when it comes to promoting your business. And when it comes to spending money on advertising, how do you make sure that your advertising is working hard enough, without spending a fortune that consumes all your profits or even worse money that far exceeds your business revenues?

Thanks to the Internet, you've got lots of options for finding cost-effective advertising that does what it's supposed to -- bring targeted customers who are hungry for what you're selling, right to your door. But don't forget about cost-effective offline methods as well. Here are a few ideas to help you get started:

Always make sure you focus your advertising dollars on your target market. The tighter your niche, the better your chances of finding the customers who are looking for exactly what you've got to sell! So rather than going wide, and trying to sell to everyone, narrow your focus, and then, if possible, narrow it some more! Figure out who your "ideal" customer is, and then create an advertising campaign for them. Once you know who you're selling to, look for media that targets that demographic. Depending on your product or service, think community and neighborhood newspapers, high school sponsor advertising, chamber of commerce directories, etc.

If your ideal customers aren't defined by a specific geographic location, look at regional or specific demographic publications. Perhaps a regional paper runs an annual issue that focuses on an issue or activity that reaches your target market. Use local cable television to broadcast your ads only in certain markets. You'll get cheaper rates and a more focused demographic.

Always ask for a discounted rate. (Many publications offer an "agency" discount of up to 15 percent. If you are acting as your own in-house advertising agency, you might qualify for the special rate. Sure, you might be turned down more often than not, but make it a habit to ask. It will be worth it every time it works for you.
Some monthly magazines offer discounts for multi-ads placed over a 3, 6 or 12 month time period. Most publications have a different rate schedule for different types of advertisers -- so depending on your product or service, you could qualify. And if not, sometimes just asking for the discount will give it to you.

Buy leftover space or airtime. This is advertising that the publication, radio or television station hasn't filled by their usual deadline. Of course you'll have to take the spots that are available, but again, depending on your business and the product or service you're selling, that inconvenience could still be worth the discount and the exposure you'll receive.

Use classified ads. They're not just for employment offers any more. You'll find classified ads in magazines and newspapers. Before writing your ad, go to your local library, and look through the back issues of the magazine or newspaper that you're considering. Look at the ads that catch your eye, or that are repeated month after month. Those ads wouldn't be in there each month, if they weren't making the advertiser money. Use those ads as springboards for ideas when you're ready to start writing your own classifieds.

Test your ads. Start out with the cheaper publications, so you can find out what's working and what's not. Play with them, and tweak them. Once you've got an ad that works, keep using it. You can run it more than once, or in more than one publication at a time. When it quits bringing in customers, or you start noticing a drop in effectiveness, then it's time to change it.

Do you own a retail business? If so, check into co-op advertising funds that may be offered by your vendors. Co-op programs provide joint advertising for your and your vendor, and you'll get a portion of the cost of the ad reimbursed because the ad mentions the vendor. (Note: most Co-op programs have strict guidelines, so check with your vendors and make sure you're following the rules).

Barter for goods and services. This can be especially effective with radio stations and local papers. See if you can provide your products or services in trade for the cost of advertising. (Also called "trade" or "In-kind" ads, the radio station or publication gives you the ad in exchange for products or services of equal value, and then uses those products or services as part of a promotion or contest for their listeners or readers). This can also be a great way to get additional free publicity, so if you decide to try this method, get creative and think outside the box!

Don't forget or be afraid to recycle the good ads in other advertising medium. If you've got an ad that's especially effective, looks great (or more importantly that is profitable), by all means reuse it in a circular, brochure, handout, flyer or direct mail piece. Use the graphics on your Webpages if available.

In summary, your goal should be to find a balanced mix of online and offline advertising. This will go a long way towards getting the greatest bang for your advertising buck! With a little creativity you will be maximizing your profits while minimizing your expenses.

Selling Yourself with Your Article Promotion

When it comes to promoting yourself, there is no better way to pull it off than writing articles. By submitting well-written, informative articles to online publishers, you will become an authority figure in the industry and be regarded as the one to go to. When you submit articles to online publishers, most will offer you the chance to include a short bio, as well as a link to your website. Article promotion is free advertising for you and is a great way to promote your website.

The term 'free' is not often used in the advertising world of today. Many individuals and companies spend thousands of dollars each year to get their name out and try, with all their spent dollars, to bring in new clients and new visitors to their site. The fact is you don�t have to spend a penny when you submit your articles to online publishers and your website and your name will be available for all visitors to see.

The wonderful thing about article promotion is that some of the publishers allow their visitors to copy the articles and place them on other websites. They do, however, have to leave the article as is, as well as make sure the author's name and information is attached. A way to make sure that your website is attached to the article is to include a resource box along with it and make sure your link is part of it whenever you partake of article promotion opportunities. What this means is that your article with all your information can spread all over the internet, that is if you make sure your link is used when use article promotion opportunities.

For example, if you submit 10 articles to 10 different sites, it gives you the opportunity for 100 links back to your site. But what happens when a quarter of those articles are put on 10 more sites? That's right. You've more than doubled the links back to your site. Before you even realize it, you could have as many as a thousand or more links to your site.

What happens when someone is looking up information on a subject and they keep coming across information that is written by you? Instantly, you are regarded as an authority on the subject at hand. This is a major benefit derived from article promotion. The one thing that will most likely happen is that you will get a visitor to your website as they browse for more information. The fact is, by submitting informative articles that are well written and give the reader something they need; you will become an individual well-known in your particular subject. By submitting your articles to online publishers, you will find yourself in the spotlight from time to time.

To get your articles noticed on the web, you can also make sure you use keyword optimization in your articles whenever you partake in article promotion opportunities. This is great for the search engines, allowing your articles to be found quicker, therefore, bringing in more visitors to your site.

Syndicating your articles is another way to get your articles to as many sites as possible. This simply makes it much easier for website owners to put content on their websites. Because it is very easy to do, it will save a lot of time for the site owner and it's a great situation for you as you no longer have to worry about marketing each of your articles individually.

When you get started, you'll simply include a link on your article to allow them to publish this, as well as any other articles you currently have available for syndication. Within days, your article can be viewed on hundreds of websites and you didn't really have to do anything but add the link to your content. Again, free advertising at its best!

If you would like to get your name and website advertised and bring in new visitors to your site, take advantage of the opportunity for free advertising by submitting well-written, informative articles. You'll be surprised by the amount of visitors you will get to your site!

Adrian Lawrence is the webmaster of Article Alley a popularfree content directory web sites. Please feel free to republish this article providing this resource box remains intact with a working hyperlink to our site.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/

The easy way to multiply your income

If you've got a website and have attracted some good traffic to it, you will probably be feeling pleased with yourself.

However, you may still be missing out on a chance to triple your sales (or more!).

Think of all those people who visit your site just once and never return again. How powerful would it be if you could capture their email addresses and build a mailing list?

Let me also ask you, would you rather buy from personal recommendation or from a stranger? Of course, most of us feel more comfortable buying from someone we feel we know.

Maybe you should consider getting an Auto Responder for your website. Autoresponders can send out automatic replies and pre-written emails after having recieved an email. They can also be set up to send out a preset sequence of emails.

Auto Responders offer a great opportunity to build a relationship with the visitors to your site. After building that relationship over several days or weeks, studies have shown that you are more than five or six times as likely to make a sale!

Consider how powerful that could be when you find or develop a new product, you have a list of subscribers who trust you and know that you are an expert in your field. Now you're personally recommending them your product, rather than selling, your sales will literally take off.

If you're not building a list of your customers, you're missing out on a huge opportunity!

You can find out more on setting up your internet business at, visit Auto Responders
This article was submitted by Jennifer Carter, author of Work at home internet business

Stop emailing articles to your list!

If you're sending out articles to your email list, you need to stop right now, this instant, without delay! Yes, yes, I know everyone is telling you to email information to your list regularly, but let me show you why you need to change all that.

I used to do what everyone else does. I would research the latest happenings in my subject area, write up what I felt was a good informative article on the subject, and email it out to my list of opt-ins who like to get that kind of information from me.

But then I signed up to receive information from a search engine guru that I felt knew his stuff. The next day I received an email from him that didn't contain an article, but merely a short description of an article and a link to where I could read the whole thing on his web site.

So I clicked the link and landed on an article page with AdSense on it. That's when it hit me.

Why You Should Post Your Articles to Your Web Site Instead

You should never email a full article to your list. You should always send them a description of the article, or a short excerpt, along with a link to the web page where you have the full article. There are many benefits to doing this:

1. You get additional AdSense revenue from your list.

This one is obvious. If you send your list to your web site, and you have AdSense on the site, you can generate more revenue from the clicks.

2. You can link out to recommended products from the articles.

AdSense is really a tiny piece of the pie that you can earn by sending your readers to a web page. By having links to related products that you recommend inside the article itself, you are more likely to get your readers to click and buy.

Of course, you can also have a list of recommended products alongside every article as well.

3. You're building a content site that search engines can find and people can link to.

If you're posting all of your articles onto a web site, then the search engines can find those articles and send you traffic, and people can link to the article from their own web sites, from forums and in emails. This generates more AdSense revenue and product sales.

4. You can grow your email list.

If your articles are all on your site and you include an opt-in box on each page, then visitors who follow links or find your site through the search engines can join your email list and continue to earn you more money.

5. Your list has a place to go to find all of the articles you've posted in the past.

Sometimes I wish I hadn't deleted that article from that guru that I just didn't have time to read at the moment. I wish I would have saved it so I could look back at it.

Have you ever thought that? I have! And chances are so have many people on your email list. By having all of your articles posted to your web site, they have a place they can go back and find that information. New subscribers have the benefit of being able to go back and read the articles they missed as well.

And again, these extra visits to your archives generate more AdSense revenue and more product sales.

6. Short article description emails are less likely to trip SPAM filters.

A long email article has a much greater chance of using words or phrases that trip email SPAM filters and cause your readers to never get your email in the first place. A short description with a link is far less likely to trip those filters. Fewer SPAM filters triggered, more readers, more clicks, etc. etc.

How well has this method worked for me?

How well have I been doing with my own blog using this method? Well it's only been up a month, but so far it's earned me over $200 in extra AdSense revenue, more than $2500 in affiliate product sales (that does not include sales of my own products, which have been at least as much), and has gotten me 90 new subscribers to my email list.

Keep in mind–it's only been a month. Word is just getting out about the blog, and already I've gotten 90 new subscribers and made thousands of extra dollars from the blog.

All this because I stopped emailing articles to my list.

10 Tips For A Successful Email Campaign.

1 Build your list internally, even if it takes time, so the quality of yourrecipient list remains at a high level.

2 Keep an accurate audit of how your company received permissionto contact the subscribers of the lists - some people forget theysigned up to receive information

3 Make membership to your list valuable by offering deals that non-members cannot receive

4 Make sure that your company's name (or product name) is clearlystated in the domain name which appears in the "Sender" line ofthe e-mail

5 Use clearly stated words that describe what you want customers torespond to in both the "Subject" line and the body of your message

6 Provide recipients with a clear way to contact you for moreinformation, including a staffed telephone number or e-mailaddress

7 Provide subscribers with clear instructions of how to be removedfrom future mailings, and make sure that your Privacy Policy iseasily accessible

8 Plan mailings for specific, opportune times so subscribers areexpecting your messages and are properly suited to respond

9 Personalize headers with recipients' names, and tailor messagesthat are ideally suited for different target segments

10 Choose software that is capable of performing as your lists grow,scans outgoing messages for viruses and can measure theeffectiveness of your campaign.

for more information please visit http://www.moneytreeprofits.com/profits-commando

Monday, November 26, 2007

Make Money From Home And Claim Your Freedom!

A lot more people than you may think make money from home in successful home based businesses. Whether they work at their businesses full or part time, they are able to make money from home by providing quality products or services to the local community at a personal level or globally via online services.

You may be able to make money from home by doing things you love to do. Wouldn't it be great to profit from your hobbies and interests? If you enjoy making craft items you can create them and then market them either locally or online to a broader global community. You can even take a good idea and tailor it to a particular niche so that it is unique.

The number of home based businesses has grown considerably over the past decade as the internet has enlarged the opportunities available to make money at home. As technology and online services have improved, it has become easier and less expensive to set up an online business and get it operational. Websites can be set up inexpensively and quickly. You need to learn about internet marketing and you're on your way. A way to quickly make money from home is to work online as a freelancer. This way you don't need to establish a website immediately, you can begin to establish your reputation as a freelancer by obtaining work from freelance writing sites. You just need an email address and professional skills to make money from home. You can bid on jobs (contracts) at freelance work auction sites. Some of the most popular forms of work available on these sites are computer programming, web design, and freelance writing. Once you begin to build a good reputation and a solid client base, you can expand your business by marketing from your own website. This allows you charge higher rates as you are not directly competing with very low bids.

Another popular way to make money from home online is to become an affiliate marketer for other people's products or services. An affiliate is someone who is paid a commission for sales gained from their referrals. To be truly successful as an affiliate marketer it is important to have your own website; it is also necessary to belong to a number of affiliate programs that are all linked in someway to your website's theme so that you don't waste targeted traffic.

If you would prefer to create and sell your own products, you might consider information products such as eBooks, streaming videos, online training courses and audio downloads. Information products are ideal because once they are created there is no further cost of production and you make a hundred percent profit as long as you are the sole provider of the products. The most successful information products offer specialized information that people are prepared to pay for.

More and more people are making radical changes in their working lives in order to change the quality of their whole lives and make money from home. It takes a decision, courage, the willingness to learn, the ability to do something well that people are willing to pay for, and a dose of patience. But the result is certainly worth it for a lot of people.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Affiliate Marketing Tactics: 2 Reasons Why You Need Top Use A Opt In Landing Page

A effective "opt in landing page" is a very important element in a successful affiliate marketing business. It is also call squeeze page and it can be defined as a simple website which is specially designed to collect the customer’s name and email address so that they customer will join their list. There are 2 reasons why you need to use the squeeze page.

The 1st reason is you want to capture the maximum number of subscribers so that you will have the chance to convert them into a buying customer. When you have started building your own list, you will be able to build a relationship with your customers so that they will feel that you are interested in helping them and they can trust you. When your customer has trust in you, it will be much easier for you promote products to them.

The 2nd reason is to prequalify your prospects before you will reveal the information to them and directing them to the merchant’s sales page through your affiliate link. You would want to have responsive customer who are willing to give you their data. It is logical to know that if the customer is not even willing to give you their data, it will be very difficult for them to take out their credit card and purchase the product through your affiliate link.

Thus when you have a opt in page, you will firstly prequalify the customer so that you will be getting a quality list and you will have the chance to build a relationship with your list which will increase your credibility with them.

When you have a very responsive list, you will have a long term business as they have already trust you and they will buy any affiliate products that you recommend. It is thus important to know that you should only recommend quality products.

These are the 2 reasons why you need to have a effective opt in landing page. As long as you are not building your own profitable list, you will not have a long term business. So do not make the mistake of not using a opt in landing page in your affiliate marketing business.

Zack Lim is an up and coming affiliate marketer who owns http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com providing information on Affiliate Marketing.
To get Free "7 Days to Affiliate Marketing" course, go to htttp://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBiz.com