Business Blogging Ideas – Use the News!

November 24, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

Business Blogging Ideas – Use the News!

Business bloggers frequently run out of ideas.  While contemplating this point, it seemed a good idea to write about ‘running out of ideas.’

In every case, blog operators and website owners have covered all the ground and written about every service topic, feature, advantage or attribute.  Coming up with new articles or topics just seems impossible.  At every site though, ‘the show must go on!’  Your readers want fresh material.  The search engines want fresh material, too.

How best to do this?  Utilizing local events or information important or of interest to your city can not only make your product/service features relevant, but can be used in such a way as to attract local internet reader traffic.

The landing page of your local television news website might provide all the idea information you need at the start of each day.  Topics such as utility rate hikes, road construction, subdivision approvals, crime rate news, local business news – all might be configured into a relevant local story for you.  If properly constructed – particularly in your article header – your piece will be configured to appear as a result for web users researching local stories.  It just takes a little creativity.

Is there anything in the news that is useful today?  Look at your leading news provider’s page or newspaper front page and for each local story, assess:

Local Impact:

Local events always impact a neighborhood or city area.  Assessing what that impact is and acknowledging the importance of the event is a good first step to using a story to keep your company and product in the consumer’s mind.  Issues such as sales tax changes, new restaurant openings, and school issues – are relevant to your readers as you share the same community.

Understanding what is important to your community is also understanding what is important to your customers.  Posting articles about it confirms your commitment to be part of that community.  Because ‘people buy from people’ no matter what the product or service, showing understanding  and your concern for these issues is important in making future local sales.

Customer Impact:

Issues such as sales tax changes have an immediate impact on your customer base and on the community directly.  Tax rate increases drive overall consumption levels lower.  What does this mean to you and your customers?  How can they plan for this?  What are some good ideas to prepare?

Crime stories also change a neighborhood’s behavior patterns.  Neighbors might be (or should be) replacing locks, initiating ‘watch’ program or taking some other actions that might impact your customers.  Even consistent traffic problems can present an opportunity.  If you sell the new auto navigation systems or deal in tires, you can certainly compose a post that notes these events and acknowledge the effect on local customers.

Not only can you prepare useful information about these events, you are in a position to comment on the local news blogs as well.  This puts you out in front when others read your comments.  Just remember to use a keyword or a geography name in the title of your comment.  Something like Dayton Tires lets the user know that you provide tires in the Dayton, OH area.

Opportunities:

It requires a bit more creativity to identify an opportunity and turn it into a ‘positive’ on your website.  As most news is ‘bad news,’ discovering opportunities for you or your customers is a little more difficult.   How could customers take advantage of the current news event you are writing about?  Or…how could they avoid negative impacts?  All of these issues are opportunities for you to present your site as the “go to” page for local business impact.  Sometimes, just posting something positive about a negative story is reassuring to your community.

Form:

To take advantage of local impact stories, title your page or post using the name of the event.  Use something like “I-85 Closure” or “Minneapolis School Bond” in the article title and refer to it again within the body content.  Folks looking for more information on these topics may see your page and pay a visit.  And once there, you have an opportunity to provide value and build your local reputation.  Search engines can also see that your piece is somewhat relevant to the I-85 closure and when users search for information about it, they may be presented with a link to your page.

Use the News!

By focusing on current events that are obstacles to achieving any of these objectives, customers will see you as their advocate; your reputation will be enhanced and you will enjoy the fruits of being a leader in your community.

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Spending eight years in software development really inspires creativity – especially for things other than software development. Thus, I embarked on my new underground career as a humorist. Now.. if others think I am funny, I am in good shape.

Sports in general and college football in particular inspire tremendous and irrational passions for one’s team. This is where the fun starts. Teams that make their bowl reservations in August are selling them for pennies on the dollar in November.

So read on and let me know what you think! If you want more, please visit my website at http://firstworst.com

Online Advertising – the Choices in the 21st Century

November 22, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

As the fastest growing form of advertising in the 21st Century, Online Advertising has been a constant area of discussion and debate. So, how can this format really work for advertisers in a fast moving climate?

In the mid nineties, Online Advertising was going through its initial stages of development. At that time people were intrigued by the power of the Internet and its capacity to give them a vast amount of information very quickly. As time and technology moved on, so did the advertising designs and the way they captured our attention.

There are many examples of Online Advertising formats and the decision of which ones to choose depends very much on the type of product you want to promote and the kind of message you want to give out. The most popular Online Advertising services include:

Contextual ads on search engine results pages

Banner adverts as standard leader-board, skyscraper or bespoke sized formats

Advertising networks, which includes banners and pay per click targeting

E-mail marketing, including the targeted use of opt-in lists or part of an in-house distribution

Sponsorships, including logo or message branding on content and PDF pages

Directory listings or tailored micro-site pages

Most of the above forms of Online Advertising rely on a certain amount of programming and designing to make the ads run and display in the correct way. There is also no doubt that recent advances in advertising technology has played a major part in the way we react and respond to online business and consumer advertising. However, it seems that technology is moving so fast that even the Online Advertising industry can barely come up with applications and tools that meet those changing technologies. Whichever way you look at it though, one thing remains – even though consumers have a consistent requirement for quick information, they are still making those clicks and filling out request forms online.

If we go back a few years, we’d see that Banner Advertising accounted for over 50% of total Online Advertising revenue. But with the reduction in ad clicks from banner adverts and other traditional online formats, advertisers are now looking for the next big online development that will get people clicking again.

This requirement has fuelled an explosion in the creative development of advertising formats in online media – love them or hate them, they’ll continue to change, will develop into even more sophisticated designs and will be around for a considerable amount of time yet.

So, now that we’ve established that Internet Advertising has evolved way beyond the early days of banner advertising and flashing buttons, how do we get the best value from a media that is constantly changing?

Well, what buyers need to do now is to step back, take a deep breath and make sure that they analyse and research all of the available options before testing different formats. Whatever they do, they must not believe the fly-by-night sites that promise you the earth and tell you that you don’t have to put any work into your Online Advertising. Unless you have a never-ending supply of money, you will have to do some work to make anything happen and it is no different with Online Advertising.

If we look at the more recent online products, one of the success stories of Online Advertising has to be pay per click advertising. A number of providers have developed this as a very cost-effective way of getting clicks to your site, for very little money. For the price of a half page advert in a regional newspaper, you can get a few hundred clicks to your website.

There is still a question mark, in terms of the return on investment value to this format, but there is no doubt that it is ticking all the right boxes when it comes to getting people to visit specific landing pages of a website. If this is all you want to do, then PPC is a must.

Of course, Online Advertising isn’t all about advertising on networks and websites. It also covers email and other electronic formats and this is an area that has enjoyed tremendous growth in the last few years. To reach the inboxes of an opt-in subscriber list is a very attractive means of promotion for a lot of advertisers and this method continues to gain popularity. However, as our overall capacity and enthusiasm for flashy graphics dwindles, publishers of HTML email newsletters and online animations are now toning down their designs across many industry sectors.

As far as allocation and media buying is concerned, it is known that almost one third of Online Advertising will come from incremental spending, but the majority will still come from traditional marketing budgets. This is a sure sign that Online Advertising is now becoming less of an ad-hoc test media and more of an ongoing fundamental requirement.

With the continuing shift from print to online, there is no doubt that this media will continue to grow as the technology and our desire to keep up with new developments grows with it.

Andrew Long is an advertising sales consultant and expert. He runs highly successful UK seminars for website owners at www.selling-advertising.com/seminars.php and also offers advertising related advice for publishers and media owners. A range of other pay per click services are also available at www.myadbase.com/cgi-bin/help.cgi?help_entry_id=120

Affiliate Success Guide – Treating Affiliate Product As Your Own Product

November 21, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

There are many advantages that the affiliate marketing business model has to offer and many people are starting your own business by using this model. Although you are promoting other people’s product, you will want to treat it as your own products. Here are the following reasons why you will want to do so.The 1st reason is that when you treat it as your own product, you will have the mentality that you will have to promote as much as you can so that you can get the maximum profits. You will want to understand the products that you are promoting and the benefits that your customer will get if they purchased the product.  The first step to selling successfully is to understand your product well.The 2nd reason is that you will want to provide good customer to your customers. It is true that you have promoted other people’s product but there will be times when your subscribers will ask you some question regarding the product. If you can help them and you reply them in a timely manner, you will gain the trust of your customers. They will more likely to purchase future products from you as they will know that you will respond to them when they need help.Here are the 2 mains reasons why you want to treat the affiliate product as your own product. Give as much help to your customers and you will be richly rewarded by them purchasing your recommended products consistently.

Zack Lim is an internet affiliate marketer who owns http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse. He has helped hundreds of people to start their own affiliate marketing business.

He’s recently developed a free e-course showing you a step by step process for starting your own affiliate marketing business easier. To learn how to start your own affiliate marketing business without wasting your time and money, visit http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse

Affiliate Sales Facts – Why You Must Promote Affiliate Product With Good Sales Conversion

November 21, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

Once you have already decided on the market that you want to base your business in, the next thing that you will have to do is to choose the correct affiliate product that you will be promoting to the market. As there are many affiliate programs that are available online, it can be quite confusing. The 2 questions that you might is why you should be promoting the products that has good sales conversion?The main key answer is you want to get the maximum profits from the time, efforts and money that you invest to drive the traffic to the affiliate link. You will not get many sales if the sales page is lousy even though the product is good. You must not forget that the main purpose of your online business is to generate profits. One of the things that you can do is to contact the merchant to get their sales conversion. If the merchant is genuine in helping their affiliates, they will tell them the sales statistics. You will want to treat it with a pinch of sale as you will want to further confirm the confirmation by driving traffic to the page. I would suggest that you send at last 200 clicks to your affiliate link before you conclude the sales conversion. If you do not get any sales after driving 200 visitors to the merchant’s website, it will be time for you to choose another affiliate product which might have better conversion. You will want to treat yourself as the customer and decide logically on whether the merchant has a good sales page.You must always remember that you are operating a business and you must always strive to improve your profits. It will be more practical to choose affiliate product that has good conversion so that you will be getting the maximum leverage from the effort that you put into your promotion.

Zack Lim is an internet affiliate marketer who owns http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse. He has helped hundreds of people to start their own affiliate marketing business.

He’s recently developed a free e-course showing you a step by step process for starting your own affiliate marketing business easier. To learn how to start your own affiliate marketing business without wasting your time and money, visit http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse

Affiliate Marketing Guide – How To Get More Affiliates To Promote Your Affiliate Product

November 21, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

There are many different ways that you can use to promote your affiliate marketing business. If you are just starting out and you do not have your own products, you will be able to promote other people’s product.  Is it possible to get other people to promote the affiliate product that you are promoting?One of the things that you can do is to join those multi tier affiliate program. You will be able to find some of these programs by searching through the affiliate network and the internet. When you are in a multi-tier program, you will be able to get people to join under you and promote the product. You will get a certain percentage of the commission if the people under make some sales. You will want to know that the commission that you get by directing sale by yourself personally is higher than the commission that you will get by having your affiliates promoting the products. Although the commission that you get is lower, you will need to know that you will be getting passive income whenever the people under you referred a sale. The main thing that you will have to do to get this model working is to get people to join under you. You will want to place some information on your website and let people know that they can earn money by promoting something. The more people that you can drive to your website, the higher the possibility that the people will join you as an affiliate. Once you have built your own network of affiliates, you will want to communicate with them constantly with relevant information and tips so that they will be motivated to promote the products. The biggest advantage is that you will also be able to ask them to promote your own product if you decided to have one in the future.

Zack Lim is an internet affiliate marketer who owns http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse. He has helped hundreds of people to start their own affiliate marketing business.

He’s recently developed a free e-course showing you a step by step process for starting your own affiliate marketing business easier. To learn how to start your own affiliate marketing business without wasting your time and money, visit http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse

Practical Affiliate Marketing Tips – How To Test The Lead Affiliate Product

November 21, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

If you have your own squeeze page, you will be either promoting the first product on your thank you page or you will be redirecting your subscribers straight to your affiliate link that directs them to the first product that you are promoting. The 1st product that you will be promoting to your subscribers will also be called the lead affiliate product. So how can you test the lead affiliate product to get more profits?The first thing that you will track is the number of subscribers that sees the affiliate product. You will want to let at least 200 people view the offer before you make any conclusion. Once you have 200 unique people who have viewed the offer, you will want to check the number of sales that you have. Most of the products will have an average sales conversion of 1%. This means that you should have at least 1 sale for every 100 people that view the offer.If you do not get any sale even after 200 people view the offer, you might want to consider changing to another lead affiliate product which have better sales letter. If you do get one which has a conversion of 1%, you might want to test out other product and choose those that will gives you a more then 1% conversion. If you choose those have better sales conversion, you will be getting more profits for the same amount of visitors that you drive to your website. It will be more practical to find one product which has better conversion as this will means that you will be fully maximizing the profits that you will get for every 100 people that you refer to the offer. When you do more to drive more traffic to your offer, this will simply means more sales for you. So start to track your lead affiliate product sales conversion and choose one that will get you more sales.

Zack Lim is an internet affiliate marketer who owns http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse. He has helped hundreds of people to start their own affiliate marketing business.

He’s recently developed a free e-course showing you a step by step process for starting your own affiliate marketing business easier. To learn how to start your own affiliate marketing business without wasting your time and money, visit http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse

Copywriting Tips For Beginners: How To Jumpstart Your Career As A Copywriter – And Make Lots Of Money

November 21, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

So you’ve studied all the copywriting books and courses, as well as the sales pages of top converting products. You’re ready to make piles of money as a copywriter, but how would you start if you don’t have any credentials or experience to show for it? In this article, I’ll reveal some copywriting tips for beginners to jumpstart your career.My recommendation is to surf the web and find websites with poor copy. When I say “poor,” I mean very short sales letters that are obviously written by someone who doesn’t know a bit of copywriting. And there are plenty of them online. What you do is contact the marketer, and then propose that you will at least double their sales, or they don’t have to pay. This is irresistible since they have nothing to lose, and everything to gain if you make their sites convert. And you don’t even need to be a very experienced copywriter to improve their copy. In fact, there are plenty of badly written sales pages all around the web; and if you just add or tweak a few words based on sound copywriting principles, you could dramatically improve their conversions! If you did a killer job, the better. But even if you just did a mediocre job, you could still double their sales since their sales letters are very badly written. This is one of the most valuable copywriting tips for beginners – you could do it even if you’re starting from scratch!You’re not working for free if you believe in your skills. Yeah, it’s a bit of a gamble; but as long as you apply the usual copywriting principles, the scales will tip in your favor. It would be best to do some research on the site’s traffic before sending your proposal, so you don’t end up improving a site that gets few visitors. But how will you know they’re not cheating you by saying their conversions didn’t improve (even though it did)? In my experience, most people are honest. You could occasionally run into a few bad apples, but you won’t have any problem most of the time.Now you could get the portfolio and testimonials – and money – you need to take it to the next level. Hope these copywriting tips for beginners help.

If you want to easily earn $10,000 or more every single month through freelance writing jobs, then go to http://www.20daypersuasion.com/5figurewriter.htm and discover the secrets to earn massive amounts of money continuously – even if you’re not a gifted writer.

Good Affiliate Marketing Tips – Key Factors In Choosing Good Affiliate Product

November 21, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

The next logical thing that you will have to do after you have chosen the market is to make sure that you will be promoting relevant product to the market that you have chosen. This is very important as the customers will only purchased product which will gives them the correct information to help them solve their problem. Here are the key factors that you must consider when you are selecting good affiliate product.Key Factor #1 – Reliability Of The Affiliate ProgramThe first thing that you must check is whether the affiliate program that you join is reliable. You will want to do some research through the internet where you will be able to know whether they pays their affiliates on time and the reviews that other affiliates have regarding their program.  Do some research so that you will be joining a network which has good reputation and you know that you will be paid on time if you have made any sales.Key Factor #2 – Checking That The Sales Letter Is GoodAs you will be investing your time and money into driving traffic to your affiliate link, you will want to make the most profits out of all the traffic that you have driven to the offer. The simplest thing that you can do is to treat yourself as a customer and read through the sales letter. While you are reading through the copy, you will want to ask yourself whether you will be tempted to purchase the product if you are the customer.  Choosing a good product which have good sales copy will ensures that you get more profits for the traffic that you drive to the offer.Key Factor #3 – Checking The Product ReviewYou will want to make sure that the product that you are promoting will be helping the customers. The next thing that you can do is to check the product review of the product by researching through the internet.  If the product is a junk product, you will be able to see many people posting bad reviews about the product. You will want to avoid promoting any junk product as this will greatly spoils any good relationship that you have with your customer.Key Factor #4 – Checking That You Will Be Credited With CommissionsYou will want to make sure that you will be credited with the commissions if the customer purchased the product through your affiliate link. Most of the affiliate network will provides only their own payment processing link so that they will be able to track the sales. If you check the merchant’s website and he is offering the customer other ways to make payment like phone order etc, you will want to clarify with the merchant on whether you will still be credited with the commission if the customer pays the product through other ways. Here are the 4 key factors that you will want to consider when you are choosing a good affiliate product to promote.  It will be worth your investment of time to do the proper research so that you will be able to get the rewards that you deserved to get for investing your time and money into promoting the product.

And now I would like to offer you Free Instant Access to “7 Days to Affiliate Marketing” Ecourse when you subscribe to my newsletter on Affiliate Marketing. You can get your instant access at http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse

From Zack Lim – The Up and Coming Affiliate Marketer who has helped hundreds of people to start their own affiliate marketing business at http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse

Google has no equals’ – Bing, unimpressed

November 20, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

Even with the loads of hype encompassing Bing, Microsoft’s latest search engine, experts are saying that it is not better than internet mainstay, Google.

Mark Mahaney of Citigroup tested Bing out while comparing it against the other leading search engines namely Yahoo! and Google, reported AllThingsDigital.com.

The expert found that for the bulk of his testing, that Google returned more relevant results than those found by Bing.

In searching seven out of ten searches sent, Google was either more accurate or tied with Yahoo! or Bing.

Mr. Mahoney also found that Bing only returned accurate results nearly 45 per cent of the entire testing.

In defense of Bing, AllThingsDigital.com reported that the overall results are improving swiftly.

In their findings, they noted that the search engine is still relatively new and has only been available for around a month, and as users search more, the relevancy will increase.

“The criticism is almost unwarranted because Bing does better for at least two types of searches: travel and health. If a person wanted to book a holiday, or perhaps one picked up a nasty rash on that recent trip, I would advise to start Binging before Googleing,” the online portal reviewed.

Search engine marketers are more apt to keep their attention turned to Google, while website traffic analyzing firm StatCounter Global Stats discovered that Google has an enormous 78.51 per cent market share.

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