Internet MarketingTips for Newbies: October 2008

Friday, October 10, 2008

Should I Create a Website? Do I Need One?

People always want to follow the latest thing, be it in fashion, sports, that kind of thing. Websites have become a necessity to almost everyone. Companies, businesses, individuals, even young adults have created personal websites with their respective purposes, be it for profit, or for entertainment.

What one must consider, however, before creating a website, are the factors in which must be put to thought before doing so, such as the cost, maintenance, use, web host and so forth.

Firstly, associating with the cost, we must always try to find an affordable host, not spending too much, nor too little. A cheap host does not exactly symbolize a credible reliability rating, but we must always look for value for money deals. Also, regarding the efficiency and server/web host reliability, there are many cases of web hosts not providing the service they had assured other people, some had even shut down and were nowhere to be seen. Keep this note in mind, as if you would like a long-lasting website, this would be the first thing to look for.

Next, would hiring a professional be affordable? Is it the best option? For simple websites, we could always pick up the coding, or even use programs, as it is relatively simple. However, when it comes to more complex coding, and when you want it to do a tad more than just providing information, hiring help in doing so would be the best way. Not only in terms of design, but security is also a key factor in assuring a quality website. If the website also acts as a portal for businesses, security would definitely be the issue here.

So, having considered the things to do before building a website, do we actually NEED one? If creating one would boost sales or promote positive implications to oneself, then by all means, go ahead and do what’s best. Yet again, planning is the key to success, in everything we do.

The Pros and Cons of Video Blogging

Video blogging has a lot of advantages over text-based blogging, and it is little wonder that this new technology is catching on all over the globe. Video blogs very effectively grab the attention of web surfers, and people are much more likely to become excited about the dynamic content of a video blog than they are likely to find a written posting very thrilling. The more enthusiastic viewers are about a site, the quicker the word of mouth spreads, and the more traffic the site will get.

Of course, there are plenty of disadvantages to video blogging as well. Hosting a v-blog requires quite a bit of server space, which can make it difficult to get started. It takes more time to process and upload a video file than it does to dash off a quick bit of text, which means that running and updating a video blog can be quite a bit of work. In addition, web surfers sometimes grow frustrated with the slow loading times of the files on many video blogs. Whether you opt for a video blog or not depends on what kind of subject matter you want to cover, and how much time you can devote to video blogging. Before you decide to pursue a video blog, consider if there is an easier way for you to get your message across.

Keeping Affiliates Motivated

Running affiliates programs is easier than ever with the software and help available now. However, keeping your affiliates motivated and selling isn't quite as easy to do. If the success of your business rests upon how your affiliates perform, you make want to provide them with the right tools to get the job done successfully.

If you are already running an affiliate program for your products, you should know that a large number of people who sign up for your program never to be heard from again. You can however, reduce the number of non productive affiliates by remaining in touch with them constantly.

Remind them of their usernames and passwords, and tell them where to log in to check their stats or get creative. Always keep them informed of new product lines or changes in policy or procedures.

The key to motivation is making sure that you stay in touch. Always pay attention to who your top sellers are, and make sure that you contact them on a regular basis. Pay attention to who your worst producers are, and make sure you stay in touch with them constantly as well.

The main reason most affiliates don't perform that well is because they don't possess any leadership or guidance. This can easily be changed by writing a marketing course, which you can even offer for sale to non affiliates, although you should make it available to your affiliates at no charge.

Keep your creatives and sales copy up to date. You should also provide new material for your affiliates to use on a regular basis. Providing them with nothing but a text link and one banner just doesn't generate much excitement at all.

Provide your affiliates with sales letters, reviews, ads, banners of different shapes and sizes, and anything else that comes to mind. Be sure that your affiliates know the material is there for them to use. Always listen to your affiliates, and get the proper feedback on your material.

You should also hold virtual meetings. Set up chat rooms where your affiliates can attend virtual meetings on a weekly basis. Be sure to answer any questions, have motivated speakers, and aything else you can think of to make the meetings more motivated.

Given your affiliates the credit they deserve is also very important. Each month, you should give credit to the best performers in your affiliate newsletter. Give small bonuses to those that perform well, and you can even set up a payment structure that rewards higher commissions and bigger volumes of sales.

Always make sure you do everything you can to help your affiliates succeed and make money in your program. If they are making money - you are succeeding and making money as well. In reality - their success is your success.

Smart Affiliate Marketing Advertising

Affiliate marketing is really about the promotion of products with an online company. The affiliate will sign up with the advertiser or marketing arm of the company, then the affiliate will become an active looker of clients.

Advertising is the means to making a great number of consumers aware of certain products. Therefore, advertising should be both attracting and appealing to consumers. If the advertising isn't appealing enough, it won't be effective. If the advertising manages to pull the attention of consumers, then it's considered to be powerful.

To make advertising powerful and effective, the affiliate must use smart methods of advertising. An example of smart advertising is the re-use of one key concept of affiliate marketing - the harnessing of human resources. What this means, is that an affiliate may tap on the capacities of others to bring more visitors to the website.

The economics involved of making an affiliate marketing program beneficial can be simple, yet unquestionable. Say for instance, when a visitor ups a form to the website of the affiliate, the affiliate may be earning .50 cent from the company that he's promoting. In a single day, he may refer ten visitors - which is equivalent to 5.00.

Keep in mind, the affiliate may increase his income by utilizing others as well. The more people an affiliate manages to recruit or get to make purchases or fill out forms, the more money that affiliate will make.

To have a significant increase in income in affiliate marketing, an affiliate can actually do three things. First of all, the affiliate must search for a profitable site. Next, he'll need to link with companies that are generous with their leads. Last, the affiliate will need to locate a progressive and rising company online then recruit affiliates for the company.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

How To Get the MOST from Social Bookmarking

Here are some methods that you can employ to make social bookmarking work for you. Many of them focus on how to organize your information so that your website shows up in more and more search resualts.

1. When you create a blog post, make sure that the keyword phrase stays as close to the beginning of the post as possible. When you bookmark the post, use the title of the post and tag the keyword as well. This is great for search engine results.

2. Stay active on the social bookmarking website and bookmark every post. Social bookmarks are baits for the search engines.

3. Social bookmarking leads to more people reading your blog post and over time it creates additional credibility for you. This also do wonders in creating repeat traffic, referrals, sales, newsletter signups, activities on your website such as comments etc.

4. Interaction is most important in social bookmarking. Links back to websites rely on being bookmarked and getting read. Add videos, audios, RSS feeds to get more interaction on your website.

5. Content is the KING when comes to generating traffic. The content of your website must be good, you must ensure that you get quality links as well, because the links that you receive on your website must be from reliable sources and have to be relevant to your content.

6. Having good content is the fact that search engine spiders crawl good websites. Increasingly, social bookmarking websites are becoming a favorite of search engines. This is because there is a human element to social bookmarking. People are actively involved in organizing and tagging their favorites.

7. When using social bookmarking, it is important that you improve your search ranking. Get as many people (ideally those with similar interests) to bookmark your website. The best way to encourage repeat traffic is to provide great content and make it eacy for people to bookmark your website.