Website Marketing Resource

In this Article we look at the second competitive advantage of successful Internet Marketers - Warm Traffic and True O’pt- In Lists.

Good, Bad and Ugly Traffic

Marketing depends heavily on the type of Traffic you attract.

* Untargeted Traffic

Similar to Traffic passing high street shops in vehicles.

This Traffic is of very little use.

* Targeted Traffic

Similar to people window shopping on the high street.

There is a chance that if the products appeal, they will walk in to get a better look. Competition from other shops, for this type of Traffic is very high.

* Warm Traffic

Similar to browsers who walk into the high street shops to “Touch and Feel” the merchandise.

Your best prospects and chances of sales come from this group.

=> Sidebar - What Traffic Touts don’t want you to know

They can and will sell you untargeted and targeted Traffic.

Very few can deliver warm Traffic!

Sidebar - What Traffic Touts don’t want you to know

Page Impressions with no filter deliver untargeted Traffic!

There are various ways to purchase highly targeted advertising at very low prices. Google AdWords is one simple and quick way to to do this. Regardless of your budget, you can actually get your text ads appearing on search result pages within minutes! You can also target your ad to a specific language or country.

Pricing is based on the position in which your ad is shown but there is no minimum amount required in order to open an account. Google positions your ad based on how many users click on it over time. Current rates range from $15-$10 (per thousand ads shown) for positions 1-3, and $8 per thousand for positions 4-8.

According to Google, Adwords text ads have an average click through rate 4-5 times higher than banner ads. I have generated click through rates as high as 36% by using the guidelines outlined below. I frequently test ads for as little as $1!

I’ve been using Google Adwords since it was first introduced and I’ve found it to be very effective for testing ads. My best click through rate so far has been 36% and the lowest being 0.98%! On average my ads get a 20% click through rate on very focused keywords and search terms and 6% on general popular relevant keywords. Here is what I do.

When you build your website you need to have a plan first. The reason for this is if you do not have a plan you will likely make mistakes, forget to include information, and overall have an unorganized and not a well thought out page. While you might read the page and completely understand everything, remember that your website visitor did not design the page and needs a little more direction. Read the following 10 website blunders that are common and will make your visitors head to another site quickly.

Blunder #1 Contact Information

You need to provide your contact information, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and physical address if important. The reason for this is if a potential customer wants to contact you for whatever reason they can!

Blunder #2 Poor Organization

Make sure your website is well organized and that all links are obvious. You should even use subheadings to make it even more clear where information is. You don’t want to have to make people search.

Blunder #3 Checkout

Back in November, when the Google Dance began, Barry Lloyd of makemetop.co.uk wrote an article entitled “Been Gazumped by Google?” GAZUMPED! What a wonderfully descriptive term. In fact, it succinctly describes what happened to us when our website went from #1 to oblivion a few months ago.

We were gazumped, swindled, cheated out of what was rightfully ours. Okay, who’s to say what search engine position rightfully belongs to anyone. I mean, let’s face it, getting to the top of the search engines for coveted keywords is really just a crap shoot, isn’t it?

Or is it?

The SEO Cycle…

We’ve been at this internet game for a long time, a decade, in fact. Dinosaur days! We don’t pretend to be search engine experts, it’s not our forte. Nevertheless, we have been around long enough to see some patterns emerge.

Here’s a recurring pattern we’ve observed in Search Engine Optimization:

1) The SEO experts research and make claims of what works to get a website to the top of the search engines.

2) It works for a time, and websites implementing their tactics move up the ranks.

3) Eventually, the algorithms change, and websites gain or lose rankings.

There’s a great interest among the Internet entrepreneurs about how to promote their business on the Web. There’s always a quest for new and innovative ways of promotion that promise greater results at lower cost and in shorter time. Yet with all the efforts spent on promotion it’s just amazing how many people totally ignore one basic question- is their website is worth of promoting it? With new computer technologies and high speed connections the new age on the Internet has arrived- the age that redefined the criteria of a successful web site, which satisfies demands of its visitors.

Content is the king.

That was the mantra of all web masters for a long time. Just show your visitors some interesting stuff, give them a better deal ? and your success is guaranteed. The truth is ? it doesn’t work that way. The content alone cannot win you the hearts and minds of your potential customers. It’s just a part - thought a very important one- of building your image on the Internet. You can say whatever you want about yourself on your web site: that your company provides the best services, the best expertise, the best?. whatever. But people won’t buy it until you LOOK right to them. That is you look trustworthy and professional enough to believe you. And that’s the point where we come to the importance of keeping your web site up to your customers’ expectations.

Managing your online business from home is a great way to be more involved with your family and handle your business when it suits you. However, there is are things you need to know in order to work from home and make the most of your online business. Basically, if you are making money online you want to make as much as possible with as little effort as possible. While making money overnight on the Internet and retiring is virtually impossible, there are certain key things you can do regarding Internet marketing that will increase your business and take some of the work off of you.

When working at home you need to be very dedicated to your Internet marketing. The reason for this is the Internet is completely different from typical markets, so marketing should be done differently as well. Learning how to market your web site or websites is really important because it will increase your traffic, increase your rankings with the search engines and most of all will allow you to make more money. Read the following suggestions for working at home and making the most of internet marketing.

Internet Marketing Tip #1 Keywords

Hey, using eBooks, eReports and eCourses is a fantastic way to build a list.

You can use these things as an “incentive” for joining your affiliate program, as a “thank you” for visiting your site, a “bonus” when someone purchases a product/service from you. The possibilities are endless!!

Many eBusiness people use them, however, some are making TWO HUGE MISTAKES when they do use them. Here is what they do…

1. They upload these things to their site and publish the download link WITHOUT capturing an email address and name.

The WHOLE POINT of using this “stuff” is to build a list. YOU CAN’T MARKET TO A GHOST!!! Instead of uploading your items to your server and just publishing the download link, work smarter… Set yourself up with a mini-site where you can direct people to and for the PRICE of their email address and name, they can have the download link sent to them.

NOW you have a warm body to market to AND you know what they are interested in.

2. They don’t take advantage of customizing eBooks, etc with THEIR OWN links.

I was winding my way up the levels of a very crowded parking garage the other day. The line of cars desperately seeking a spot ahead of me kept turning to the right.

So, of course, it occured to me that perhaps there would be less competition for a space if I went via “the road less traveled by”, to the left. And indeed, there was.

Unless you are an Internet Newbie, you’ve probably learned by now that making money on the web isn’t easy … certainly not as easy as many sales pitches would have you believe.

Yet, this doesn’t seem to deter the millions trying to compete in perhaps the most crowded web market of them all, namely, Internet Marketing.

This is not to suggest that great success is not possible in Internet Marketing. To the contrary, I can rattle off a number of names that were virtually unheard of a year ago who have done tremendously well.

They did so with innovative tools or insights that contributed something new and valuable to this marketplace. They also possessed outstanding copywriting and marketing skills that turned their innovations into sales. And in every case, they worked their tails off.

Most people feel that optimizing is to target the search engines alone. In my opinion, this is not the only case. Optimization requires a balance of traffic enhancements and a user friendly atmosphere that provides clear navigation. Most will agree it would be much better to have people accept offerings from a Site, rather than masses of people who do nothing. Here are some general tips and thought to make pages user-friendly.

Focus on the Offerings

Is something being offered? Make it clear for people to see what is being offered. Give an eye catching call to action for your offers. For example, if you’re a Real Estate Agent offering, "Free CMA’s," make it clear for people to see the offer. Use font styles or colors to give the offers prominence over the rest of the text. Give links to offers a focal point on the page. This can be done by centering the offers or putting them on top of menus.

You know the drill. Everybody claims that in order to obtain and maintain a favorable ranking on the search engines you MUST have reciprocating links on your website.

This supposed "must have", so the theory goes, is necessary because the search engines look at links to your website from other sites. The search engines then rank the importance of your site based upon the number of inbound links to you. The more inbound links, the higher the ranking on the search engines. Or so the common wisdom would dictate.

While I am not saying that linking doesn’t have its benefits, it is my belief that most SEOs over-emphasize the importance of this area. Ask yourself this?if my business sells domain names, why do I have a reciprocal link for www.nosehairtrimmers.com? How insipid do you think Google really is?

Besides the obvious amount of time that managing a linking program takes from other more important tasks, such as improving your site content, are you really getting any bang for your buck?

Ask yourself these questions:

* How many site visitors actually LOOK for your link partners as a resource?