Learn the Top 5 Strategies and Cool Tools You Need to Know About to Start Your
Online Business. by John Navata
Copyright 2006 John Navata
#1: Depend on the tried and tested essentials of Internet marketing
These key strategies for marketing your business online have always been
effective, but are now much easier to apply. Things like...
Designing a web site that sells: As in the early days of the 'Net, your web
site needs to have clear navigation and a good sales process to be effective;
however, it's now much more important for your site to look professional.
Today's web surfers have clear expectations of how a commercial web site should
look and perform. Luckily, new tools and Subscriptions, such as the free
web-building software Nvu, make it a breeze for you to create a good-looking,
fully functioning business web site.
Discovering a profitable niche market: Providing a solution to a problem for a
narrowly-defined niche market is still extremely important -- maybe even more
so with the increased competition. But now, advanced tools such as Yahoo!
Search Marketing's Keyword Selector Tool and Wordtracker can help you pinpoint
exactly who your market is and what they're hungry for.
Multiplying your profits with additional income streams: If you want to pile
profit on top of profit, combine several revenue streams. The host of
e-commerce opportunities that are now available mean that you have an almost
limitless selection of these profit-boosters: from moving merchandise on eBay
to creating free web pages with Google pages that will be quickly indexed by
the search engines, to selling on-demand merchandise on sites such as
CafePress.com.
Expanding your reach -- and profits! -- with an affiliate program: An affiliate
program can still ramp up your income while exposing your site to a wider
audience. But instead of recruiting an "army" of affiliates, these days it's
more important to attract "super affiliates" to your program -- a few
affiliates who will be responsible for generating the bulk of your sales. These
superstars can be attracted by a generous commission structure and payouts for
sales generated long after an affiliate's referral. Of course, some areas of
Internet marketing have changed more than others since our first course made
its debut in 1998. Let's take a look at some of them... and the tremendous
opportunities they offer.
#2: Make sure your e-mail gets delivered... the critical changes you need to be
aware of E-mail marketing is still highly profitable. In fact, we made $2.4
million last year from e-mail marketing alone!
Not only is it a great -- and inexpensive -- way to establish relationships
with your customers, but your promotions and follow-up offers can be completely
automated.
However, while you used to be able to send e-mail to absolutely everyone, these
days you have to be very careful. Spam -- a growing problem on the 'Net -- cost
US businesses an estimated $17 billion in 2005 (Ferris Research) and now
accounts for 57% of all e-mail (Ipswitch 2006)!
The consequences of spamming have grown far beyond a slap on the wrist from
your Internet Service Provider or a few nasty e-mails from angry recipients.
For example...
Internet Service Providers now filter all incoming e-mail for spam by blocking
messages that contain particular combinations of words or phrases and shutting
out ALL e-mail from the domains and IP addresses of known spammers. So if you
get mistakenly labeled as a spammer, as much as 50% of your e-mail may be
"filtered" and never reach your subscribers. And it can take weeks or months to
resolve the issue!
The CAN-SPAM Act (January 2004) introduced laws that allowed spammers to be
prosecuted if specific guidelines aren't being met. Under this Act you can be
fined, and even jailed, if your e-mails don't meet certain requirements, such
as an "unsubscribe" link in the body of each e-mail you send out. The bottom
line is that if you want to take advantage of the profit-boosting power of
e-mail marketing, you MUST make sure that your e-mails comply with the CAN-SPAM
Act. You can read the full text of the CAN-SPAM regulations at
www.spamlaws.com/federal/can-spam.shtml.
Once you've made sure your e-mails will be delivered, you need to think about
their content. In the face of overflowing inboxes, your e-mails and newsletters
need to be particularly appealing and valuable if you want them to be opened.
#3: Keep up with the search engines and take advantage of FREE sources of
traffic The search engine landscape has changed dramatically since we published
the first edition of our course. We used to recommend getting listed on eight
major search engines: Altavista, Excite, HotBot, InfoSeek, Lycos, Northern
Light, WebCrawler, and Yahoo.
Today, clear leaders have emerged, narrowing our recommendations to the top
three contenders:
Google: The most important of the three, Google has a 49% share of the search
market.
Yahoo: A distant second, Yahoo has a 22% market share.
MSN: With 11% of the market, MSN is still worth focusing on. With fewer search
engines, keeping on top of their ever-shifting algorithms has become critical.
If you can get a top listing on Google, for example, you can double your
potential customers!
A new way to drive free traffic to your site is to write short articles related
to your industry and post them on e-zine article directories such as
Ezinearticles.com. Include your tagline at the bottom of each article you write
and watch your traffic increase exponentially -- as well as your inbound links
(which the search engines consider when ranking your site!).
Take advantage of as many FREE sources of traffic as you can to drive tons of
targeted traffic to your site!
#4: Instantly boost your traffic with pay-per-click advertising
Paid search has exploded, becoming a widely accepted way to drive qualified
traffic to your site -- fast. And with each passing year, it becomes more
sophisticated, allowing you to zero in on your target market with greater
precision.
Today, the major players are...
Yahoo! Search Marketing (http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/
): Yahoo's sponsored search lets you advertise your site in the search results
of the following search engines: MSN, Yahoo, AltaVista, InfoSpace, AlltheWeb,
and NetZero.
Google AdWords (https://adwords.google.com/
): With Google AdWords, you can have your ads show up in sponsored search
listings for certain keywords -- and you can also advertise on other sites that
match your audience.
MSN AdCenter (https://adcenter.msn.com/
): MSN has recently entered the arena of paid search with MSN AdCenter. So far,
it's the only PPC engine to offer keyword-based demographic targeting. Paid
search is one of the fastest ways to drive qualified traffic to your site...
and if done properly, won't break the bank. To learn how to profit from
pay-per-click advertising in three simple steps, check out my blog post.
#5: Promote your business with the technologies that have changed the face of
Internet marketing Technology has been furiously advancing since the first
edition of our Insider Secrets course -- paving the way for new and highly
effective ways to promote your Internet business. Let's look at some that have
had the biggest impact: Audio and Video: The Internet has come a long way since
its text-only roots! Programming languages such as JavaScript and programs like
Macromedia's Flash have allowed for web video and audio, slide presentations,
and other interactive elements.
Our testing has proven that using audio and video as part of your sales process
can now have a dramatic impact on your bottom line -- if done right. Use short
audio and video clips of you and your customers to personalize your site and
reassure visitors that you are a credible business.
Blogging: Blogs are informal web forums that invite feedback and discussion.
They're free to set up and use, and so simple that they can be created in
minutes using sites such as Blogger.com. As a result blogging has exploded in
popularity over the last few years.
With a business blog you can reach a wider audience, generate better search
engine rankings, boost your revenue, and develop a rapport with your customers
-- to name just a few benefits. And because blogs are updated frequently,
search engines LOVE them.
Podcasting: Podcasting, the delivery of audio files -- typically MP3 files --
via the Internet, is one of the hottest new technologies to hit the market. It
allows you to publish audio content that interested listeners can subscribe to
via RSS "feeds" -- so they can automatically receive your audio broadcasts
without having to go to your web site.
Direct-to-desktop technology: Direct-to-desktop technology is a way to deliver
information straight to your subscribers' desktops -- without having to wrestle
with e-mail filters, bouncebacks, or your competition!
Once your customers sign up, they don't have to check their e-mail or visit your
web site to get your latest news or updates. A flashing desktop icon alerts
them as soon as they receive your message -- and all they have to do is click
to read it.
About the Author
John Navata is an internet marketer that has been showing marketers some
advanced ways to promote their products or service offline or online. If you
want to find more information, visit http://www.mega-dollarsonline.com
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