Archive for May, 2010

  • Run Your Business Like A Military

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    I am not sure about how things are in other countries, but in the USA, we have several different branches of military services. Each of them have a somewhat different approach, and medium, all to reach a common goal. They are the Air Force, Navy, Marines, Army, and Coast Guard. For this articles purpose, I will exclude the Coast Guard, just because I believe they are in a different boat, and I am not entirely sure how they fit exactly into the military’s equation.

    The military is supposed to be our countries protection. From whatever that may be, the various different branches are trained to do just that, protect and serve our country. No matter what branch of the service you are in, you are serving your country. In your business, you should have more than one way to “serve” just as the military does, in an attempt to get more prospects, customers, or clients.

    If you are currently only speaking or prospecting leads traditionally, you should listen up. If you are only speaking or prospecting leads online, you should listen up.

    Lets first take a look at the Air Force. The air force attacks its enemy from the air. They are supposedly like the smarter bunch of the military, they don’t attack on land. The get to their target very quickly, or more quickly than the other branches. We can look at this as internet marketing. We can gather and meet new people clear across the world, and never have met them. This can be viewed as a smarter approach to marketing, because there is a science involved to marketing online and its the fastest approach.

    Next, you have the Navy. The navy attacks by sea, the water. Its a much slower approach, but just like the heavy artillery the ship carries, it can pack a serious punch. We can look at this as the mail. Direct mail marketing is a slower approach, but if done correctly, it can have a serious impact on your business. Not everyone is on the internet, and if you want to run your business effectively, you must be able to accommodate all avenues.

    The Marines are a little bit tricky, because they are pretty sneaky in their attacks, which makes me think of them in terms of social media marketing. Social media marketing is where you use attraction marketing skills to socialize inside websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and others like that but your main objective is to attract leads. A little bit sneaky, but not so much because your business is apart of you, you are your business, and as you are making friends inside these communities, your interests, your likes, dislikes are going to come up. So sharing your business is not so far fetched.

    Lastly, we have the army. You do not have to be very bright or sneaky with the army. The army is alot of times on the front line, and I like to think of them as Gladiators. They just charge right in there, no worries, no cares, just head first. Die hards. To me, this is alot like the old school marketing tactics, which is still important although some people would disagree with me. You can’t be behind your computer all the time, nor can you always be mailing out mail. You will have to go to the grocery store, the movies, the mall and what have you throughout the course of your life, and you just might meet a prospect on the street. I’m not saying you need to be how my up-line told me to be which was to just go out daily and stop people on the street and ask them if they wanted to make more money and invite them to the company’s meeting. I don’t feel comfortable with that, but if you do meet someone out and about, and you build a re-pore with them, there is nothing wrong with sharing your business opportunity meeting and inviting them out.

    I hope I have not offended anyone with this article post, this is just merely my opinion, and I have no affiliation with the United States Military.

  • Market To A Niche, You’ll Be Rich

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    There is a saying out there that says “Market to all the folk, you’ll go broke…market to a niche, you’ll be rich.”

    This is a very important concept that marketers need to understand, that alot of times is overlooked. We all understand, that when you first join your network marketing business, or business in general how excited you are. You start to think of all the money you will make, what you are going to do with it, who you’re going to spend it on, and how your life will be made better as a whole. However, it is very easy to forget that everyone is not your target audience, and if you are marketing online, like I sure hope you are, you want to market to a very specific group of persons.

    A mentor once told me that in order to be successful with marketing, you must have or create your “USP”. Unique Selling Proposition. Because when a person buys a product from you, when a person joins you in business, they aren’t joining that company per sey, they are joining you. They bought a product or joined you in business because they like you. You are always selling you before your MLM business or product every day of the week. So you must create your USP.

    And all the USP is how are you going to stand out from your competitors, why should someone join you in business versus another upline leader. What are you going to do special for them? How are you going to help them? How are you going to make doing business with you better than with someone else? And this is important. It sets you aside from everyone else, but you must zero in on what that is for you, and who your target audience is.

    Say you are a a middle aged woman, who has lots of offline experience in MLM, and has recently figured a few things out online, and so now your target audience could be to those “old school” marketers who know next to nothing about marketing online, and how you were once them, and can show them the way. Maybe you have a ebook, or a video on the first steps they should take to establishing a brand for themselves. Whatever the situation is, you must sit down, and figure out who you are talking to, and write your articles, emails, sales copy to that one specific person (target audience) and you will have much more positive results than you trying to reach the masses.

    You will be able to establish a better connection with your list once this is achieved, and receive higher conversion rates. But if you keep trying to market to everyone, you are really marketing to no one. You must zero in on a specific group, and go deep with them. Speak about the experiences that you have had that they too have possibly had and connect with your readers. Without specifying who those folks are, you will not be able to do that as effectively as you could.

  • 7 Rules To Building An Online Business

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    Recently, I had the privilege to attend a seminar by Lee McIntyre and although there were tons of value I received out of what he shared, the one concept that truly drove home to me is what he called the Momentum 7.

    1. Give First and Sell Second.

    We as marketers are sometimes a tab bit eager to “pitch our deal.” You don’t want to do that, you want to viewed as a trusted advisor first, by sharing value, and then make suggestions after a re-pore/relationship has been built up. For example, say you were looking to buy a digital camera. So you go to the store and soon as you start picking up cameras and looking at them, a salesman comes over and tries to ask you if he can help you. Immediately, we put up our guard, because we don’t want that salesman to try and sell us. And that saleman can be the most knowledgeable person around about digital cameras, but it doesn’t matter to us. We don’t want to be sold. But what if you were in the same store, and you run into a buddy of yours who you know is in the know about cameras, you would take all the advice you can get from your friend. That’s how you want to position yourself, as a trusted friend, merely advising folks on our products we have to offer.

    2. Never Stop Believing In Yourself, Or Your Business

    We all have rough points in our lives, as well as in our businesses. But its important to remember your why, and constantly build upon yourself for when those rough times come, because no one is exempt.

    3. Acknowledge That The Easy Button Doesn’t Exist

    The way to make money online is to build a real/true business. What does a real business look like: Has customers, has multiple products for people to buy. A good business has a front-end and a back-end. A good business has a strategy to acquire its customers as cheaply as possible on the front-end, then convert them into back-end customers as often as possible.

    There is NO easy button out there secretly hiding and all your have to do is find it. Once you acknowledge that that EZ button does not exist, you are ahead of 95% of your peers. There has never been a successful internet marketer who has been successful while still believing there is an EZ button out there.

    When you believe there is an EZ button, you’ll never invest in yourself by reading new material, staying abreast, watching videos, or attending seminars.

    4. Build Deep Foundations If You Want A Big Building

    If you want to build a big building, a big long term business, then you must focus on long-term results. Make sure you do things that build big businesses, like writing an auto-responder series. Build relationships with your subscribers.

    5. Go Deeper, Not Wider

    The most expensive cost you’ll ever have is the acquisition of a new customer, in either time or cash, you will pay. The real money is made in the back-end of your business, and not the front-end. No matter if you sold a $27 ebook or a $1 trial to a membership site, the back-end of your business is the most profitable. The 2nd sale marketing cost is less than the 1st sale because you have already acquired the lead or customer. So you want to go deeper by getting the 2nd, 3rd, 4th sale from that customer you spent your time and money to acquire. You don’t want to go wider, by going into another niche. Go as deep as you can within the one niche.

    Never go into another market unless you have consistent lead flow and you’ve hit the bottom of the market (you’ve gone as deep as you can.)

    6. Choose Passionate Markets

    Choose a market that you are passionate about, and where people are passionate and desperate for a solution. If you are in the weight loss niche, market to the one who has tried all the weight programs and is constantly looking for a weight-loss program that is a fit for them. Don’t try and market to the individual who is just “info-seeking” and only has a few love handles to burn. They are not as desperate and passionate as the person who is overweight and has been trying product after product.

    Tip: Folks inside forums are generally very passionate about that market they are in. Hang out there!

    7. Stop Looking For Excuses And Accept Your Results

    Accept that you make things happen/or not happen in your business.

    People who are successful, do things fast! Put knowledge into practice right away. Take massive action!

  • Adsense: Where Adsense Should Appear?

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    When deciding whether to incorporate Adsense into your website there are several factors to consider. Many feel that it diminishes their brand, while others see it as a useful tool for visitors which creates revenues and makes their content profitable.

    The choice can largely come down to the commercial goals and the purpose of your website. Many businesses who sell products decide to place Adsense adverts within their website. This would appear to be a strange choice, opening up opportunities for rivals to promote their service or product to your potential customer base.

    Many publishers claim that they are only doing this to allow companies who provide ancillary services to advertise. These claims have some merit, as those who for example sell pillows could provide those who sell bedding with an opportunity to advertise.

    Although this would make sense, there are still those online retailers who allow rivals to penetrate their audience. Many claim that there are still benefits in allowing your direct competitors to advertise within your website. One of these is that ultimately if visitors wish to see your competitors they would be able to see them through a Google search regardless. This may be true however the thought of an established brand like Coco-Cola having a Pepsi advert in their website is not even a possibility.

    Another factor which is considered in this situation is that publishers do not feel that Adsense is effective in making conversions. They feel that visitors who would click on adverts are not highly qualified customers, as they would quickly navigate to the materials or products that interest them if they were.

    Despite Adsense being a questionable choice for online retailers, it is surely a good supplementary service for other varieties of online publishers. For example, a website which provides a free service like dictionary.com gets high levels of traffic, and is able to make their service profitable through adsense. This has been the case for Bloggers who originally provided content free of charge, being unable to reach the scale that is necessary to contract with advertisers directly.

    This could also apply to other previously free services, including wider forms of information broadcast, and news for example. In 2006 a man who later published a selection of Videos claims to make $19,000 a month through adsense, claiming that he was also contacted through Google to help him increase the CTR (Click Through Rate) that he achieved. The thought of success like this has been a major factor in stimulating online publishers to opt for Adsense.

    Many publishers also claim that adsense makes their website look more professional. Those who are able to contract with advertisers are generally seen to provide a service with large appeal, and therefore those unfamiliar with the program may feel that the Adsense advertiser is in this position.

    Adsense however, is also aligned with those publishers who use the service purely to provide links to adverts. Everyone has done a Google search, clicked on an Adwords advert and came into a website which reads “Top 10 Resources On…” This is a major problem, as is generally something that surfers find frustrating. If people see that it says adverts by Google, and they then see adverts by Google on another site, they may align that site with consumer unfriendly practices. This is therefore an issue which Google has to address, to maintain Adsense as a reputable service.

    Regardless of the disadvantages and the websites for which the service may be inappropriate it is still a useful tool for website visitors. Those who visit a website, and click on a link provide revenues for the publisher, whilst those who provide free services are able to generate revenue.

    The only fear that Google has, is that rival PPC programs offer better deals to publishers and they decide to go elsewhere, therefore taking advertisers with them. However, ultimately it is best for advertisers and publishers if they largely remain in same PPC circuit.

  • Adsense: The Disadvantages of Adsense

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    As adsense continues to grow as the most popular publisher program for Pay Per Click advertising, flaws and disadvantages still exist. Since its inception advertisers have chosen to advertise in search because they felt that visitors would be less targeted. This is a genuine concern and one that makes perfect sense. If you are visiting a website, and notice an advert then the chances are you are not particularly concentrating on its content.

    Adsense has also become so popular that people can distinguish them from other adverts. Therefore people may choose to ignore them without even paying them a thought. This has been a hot topic discussed by Bloggers and one that could contain a lot of truth. Many have blamed Google for this, and their decision to include text that says “Ads by Google” beneath the advert.

    Many publishers also fail to ever gain the revenues they anticipated when starting the program. Those only gaining 30 – 40 visitors a day to their website would be unlikely to earn even one dollar a day. Many advertisers talk of rates such as 1.5%- 5% for traffic to click conversion, while only gaining around $0.10 per click. The math doesn’t work out great, but you can hardly blame advertisers or Google if you are not bringing enough traffic. The key is to bring ‘targeted’ traffic to your website that are likely to click on adverts, however it is said that it may be easier on other programs which allow figures such as 75% share of advertising revenues for publishers.

    Another disadvantage in adsense is that it has almost become tacky. Its appearance on websites that generally appear to be designed in a DIY fashion has lead people to associate them inextricably. This can only be tackled through adsense evolving to be more attractive to the bigger brands, while those who currently use adsense are restricted.

    Google Adsense also has to tackle the issue of click fraud which is anticipated to count for over 15% of click through rate in content. This has meant that advertiser’s who have been particularly affected, have moved away to other programs or have restricted their advertising to search.

    This has meant that there is less competition in content and therefore smaller revenues for publishers. Publisher’s who previously had high yielding ads, are now having to alter their content to ensure they get any adverts at all. This has largely been the fault of the publishers themselves, however the issue is one that if not addressed could bring adsense to its knees.

    Google Adsense also has the disadvantage of not paying enough for their search program. Other similar programs pay higher rates, and if publishers decide to go elsewhere then problems will occur for advertisers and publishers alike. Although Google fail to pay enough for search another major problem with Adsense is that it does not have a powerful database of graphic adverts. Many advertisers prefer showing graphically drive advertisements, however this has yet to materialise. As several other programs exist for PPC graphic distribution problems could occur.

    This may not be a problem for all publishers but many complain that the adverts within their site do not change, so their repeat visitors fail to see fresh adverts so therefore fail to visit them. This is a problem which could be addressed through making adverts rotate. However if adverts rotate then how will that be linked with advertisers paying a rate per click? These are all problems which Google has to address to ensure that Adsense remains the market leader.

    Adwords on the other hand also has major advantages, and remains the best in the market. Although Facebook is right on its tale. It’s cost per click (CPC) rates can be chosen by the advertisers so that even when they feel that they are not getting the results they expect they can lower their prices while still using the service.

    Issues still remain with adsense, as do all programs, but the program still remains the most popular amongst publishers. Google Adwords remains the most popular among advertisers with a database of over 250,000 Adwords remaining on top for all time.

  • What is Google Adsense?

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    If you look at the Internet a few years back, you’ll see that advertising was done in a way that was very similar to other types of media like television, or actually, more like what you would see in a newspaper.

    You’d enter a site, and in some location you’d get to see a banner (often these were quite numerous and very large), which would present and ad for whatever company was paying for ads on your space.

    But there was one problem with this kind of advertising. It really wasn’t exploiting the fact that the ads weren’t in some newspaper, but were instead presented over the Internet.

    You’ve probably noticed a lot of things like this over the pages you’ve browsed. You’re looking at an on-line shop, looking for a watch but you get a banner that advertises a car.

    While you might, at some later point want to buy a car, right now you’re looking for a watch and it would have surely been nice if the banner were advertising a watch, because then you would have probably clicked it.

    Well that’s also what the folks at Google thought of, so they came up with a killer idea. This is knows as Google AdSense, and it’s known as a targeted advertising program.

    What you do (as a web designer / website owner) is, instead of jumping through hoops to get some banner on your site that your visitors won’t even care about, is you just allocate some region of the screen.

    You then sign up for the Google AdSense program, you insert a small snippet of code in your webpage and Google ensures that in the location you specify, a banner will appear, presenting ads relevant to the contents of your site.

    It’s very easy for Google to do this because Google is a search engine company. It looks for the key words in your page, searches a database of websites to find the ones related to whatever is on your page and presto: a targeted ad.

    You (the webmaster) get a fee for each visitor that clicks on an adsense banner on your site. Now that’s bound to happen more often then with a traditional banner because people are actually interested in what’s in that banner (otherwise, they wouldn’t be on your page would they?).

    But, this also does wonders for the people who want to advertise. And it’s because of the same reason. The greatest thing about Google AdSense is that all the content in a banner is relevant.

    This relevancy is the key to the programs success, and also the reason why everyone remains happy. The advertiser has a relevantly placed advert, the publisher earns money from their content and Google take their cut.

    Of course, as always, Google has set some high standards for its AdSense program, in terms of looks and functionality. You can’t have more than two such banners on your website and Google only inserts text in these banners.

    So an extra benefit is that AdSense advertising is a lot less obtrusive then regular advertising. But this also means you should position the banner better because it’s possible that visitors might miss it altogether.

    So in the end, Google AdSense is an advertising program that is unique because the ads are relevant to the content on the site. Anyone that wants to advertise pays Google for it. Anyone who wants to place ads on their site does this through AdSense, getting paid by Google in the process.

    All transactions are run through Google, and the advertisers and publishers get access to statistics which help them to understand and moderate the effectiveness of their campaign.

    The whole process is elegant, simple and effective for anyone in the chain, from site visitors to advertisers, and it’s one of the reasons why Google is known for their innovation and new thinking.