“Promote one Affiliate Program is the Key to your Success!”
There are a lot of affiliate marketing programs out there that claim to make you more money than you could possible spend; when in true reality, you’ve just sign up to be another person that the company can send you emails to buy their products!
Well the KEY to really making an affiliate program work for you is just by sticking with the one program you’ve signed up for. It gets quite easy to keep signing up for program after program in hopes that you will finally hit pay-dirt. What has happened is that now you are spread so thin in your ability to market a single program effectively.
Your goal is to send tons of traffic to that site URL and then in turn change those visitors into paying customers; further, your goal is to turn those customers or visitors into a down-line group that will help you build an extra layer of residual income on top of your regular commissions.
Believe or not when you promote your affiliate's website directly ..Its more effective
than you put the same affiliate's link in your website...
You can make $2000 in a week from free advertising for only one affiliate...
When you collect your efforts in marketing your affiliate site by only some free
advertising with more working,,,I will guarantee you will earn at least $2000
in a week ....
My important free marketing which I will show you when you use it ,,you will
ensure earning $$$..
1- submit to search engins
http://www.easyblaster.com/
http://penneypalace.ws/page6.html
http://getmassivehits.com
http://blaster-boys.com/bbna1.html
http://payperclickuniverse.com/prefunded.php
http://www.payperclickuniverse.com/pay-per-click-search-engines-special-deals.php
2- Post to free marketing discussion lists
http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html
http://www.discussionlists.com/
http://www.tile.net/
http://www.websuccessmaker.com/internet_information/internet_marketing_discussion_forums.htm
http://www.websuccessmaker.com/follow-up_fine-tune/follow-up_fine_tune_resource_index.htm
http://www.wilsonweb.com/cat/cat.cfm?page=1&subcat=me_Newsletter
http://everydaybusinessonline.com/dboards.htm
http://www.supertips.com/forums/list.htm
http://www.howtocorp.com/forum/
http://www.ozemedia.com/cgi-bin/webbbs/webbbs_config.pl
http://www.williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi
http://www.network54.com/Forum/184615
http://www.talkbiz.com/cgi-bin/mlm.cgi
http://www.auctionhints.com/message/webbbs_config.pl
http://www.mcpromotions.com/webbbs/config.pl
http://www.mlmwoman.com/wwwboard/
http://www.escribe.com/computing/neatnettricks/bb/
http://www.network54.com/Forum/87014
http://homebusiness-websites.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi
http://www.network54.com/Forum/184615
3- Write a good article and submite it :
http://www.ezinearticles.com/submit/
http://ezinearticles.com
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.marketing-seek.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.netterweb.com
http://www.isyndicate.com
http://www.articlecentral.com
http://homeincome.com/writers-connection
http://www.web-source.net/syndicator_submit.htm
http://www.clickforcontent.com/writersadd.htm
http://www.aracopy.com
http://www.dime-co.com
http://www.zinecast.com
http://www.writebusiness.com
http://www.etext.org
http://www.zinos.com
http://www.addme.com
http://www.makingprofit.com
http://www.vectorcentral.com/ezine-question-answer-form.htm
4- Post your affiliate site to some Press Releases:
http://www.ebookbroadcast.com/submit.html
http://www.pressblast.com/
http://www.press-release-writing.com/
http://www.trashproofnewsreleases.com/
Try it an hour a day and you will be glad you did..........
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eiffel internet ... super affiliate since 1996...
My Great affilaite site http://www.telebay.com/eiffel/mall-general.html
E-mail : eiffel@soficom.net
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Why Your Online Advertising Traffic Leaves as Soon as It Arr
Why Your Online Advertising Traffic Leaves as Soon as It Arrives
by
Joel Walsh
Online advertising traffic leaves when advertisers don't make it easy to stick around.
Business website owners who buy online advertising often get frustrated when most of their
expensive traffic leaves as soon as it arrives--i.e, it "bounces."
Why does traffic from online advertising bounce? Think about it: you've done the same thing many
times. You've searched on a search engine, clicked on a result, then left that page less than ten
seconds after you arrived. You did that again and again until you found what you were looking for.
You might easily have left a trail of bounces on the server logs of a dozen websites, for a dozen
website owners to worry over.
Why did you keep leaving? Because you weren't finding what you were looking for on those websites
within the first ten to thirty seconds of arriving. Experience had taught you that you'd find what
you were looking for faster clicking on other search results, one of which was bound to have what you
were looking for, than sifting through the pages of a website that didn't look very promising from
the start.
That's how everyone searches, and how everyone treats online advertising. You have to work with this
behavior rather than against it.
How to Catch Your Online Advertising Traffic before It Bounces
So how do you keep online advertising traffic from bouncing? Think about why you bounced. What made
you doubt that the website had what you were searching for? If you were using a search engine, you
had searched on a keyword--let's say you searched on "small business website content." Without
realizing it, you were scanning each page for the keyword, "small business website content," or
something very close to it.
A website that talked about "small business web copy" might have been what you were looking for, but
if you didn't know that "web copy" is just another term for "website content," you'd have hit the
"back" button. You’d keep hitting the "back" button until you arrived at a page that had that keyword
in the page title, page headings, and in the first few lines of the body, maybe in boldface to make
it easier to find.
Of course, if you arrived at the page via a link from another website, you weren't looking for a
search engine keyword. You were just looking (hoping) for something that had to do with what made you
click on the link in the first place. If the page title and the first page heading resembled the text
of the link you had clicked on, you'd feel like you had found what you were looking for--no worries
about this being one of those pages that changed after the other site started linking to it.
But if the link promised no. 72 monkey wrenches, you'd feel let down if it brought you to the
homepage of a hardware store. Experience tells you the store might have stopped selling no. 72 monkey
wrenches long ago and never bothered updating its inbound links. Experience also tells you that even
if the site does have what you're looking for, it may be more trouble than it's worth to find it. Why
search through a website when search results from the entire world wide web are just a click of the
"back" button away?
Thanks to the "back" button, on the web, no one has to feel let down for long. Except advertisers who
let visitors down.
About the author
Joel Walsh is a website copywriter at UpMarket Content, a website content provider for small and medium-sized businesses. He has written as a staff writer for books published by Barnes & Nobles and St. Martin’s Press, as well as numerous online publications. Website: http://upmarketcontent.com
by
Joel Walsh
Online advertising traffic leaves when advertisers don't make it easy to stick around.
Business website owners who buy online advertising often get frustrated when most of their
expensive traffic leaves as soon as it arrives--i.e, it "bounces."
Why does traffic from online advertising bounce? Think about it: you've done the same thing many
times. You've searched on a search engine, clicked on a result, then left that page less than ten
seconds after you arrived. You did that again and again until you found what you were looking for.
You might easily have left a trail of bounces on the server logs of a dozen websites, for a dozen
website owners to worry over.
Why did you keep leaving? Because you weren't finding what you were looking for on those websites
within the first ten to thirty seconds of arriving. Experience had taught you that you'd find what
you were looking for faster clicking on other search results, one of which was bound to have what you
were looking for, than sifting through the pages of a website that didn't look very promising from
the start.
That's how everyone searches, and how everyone treats online advertising. You have to work with this
behavior rather than against it.
How to Catch Your Online Advertising Traffic before It Bounces
So how do you keep online advertising traffic from bouncing? Think about why you bounced. What made
you doubt that the website had what you were searching for? If you were using a search engine, you
had searched on a keyword--let's say you searched on "small business website content." Without
realizing it, you were scanning each page for the keyword, "small business website content," or
something very close to it.
A website that talked about "small business web copy" might have been what you were looking for, but
if you didn't know that "web copy" is just another term for "website content," you'd have hit the
"back" button. You’d keep hitting the "back" button until you arrived at a page that had that keyword
in the page title, page headings, and in the first few lines of the body, maybe in boldface to make
it easier to find.
Of course, if you arrived at the page via a link from another website, you weren't looking for a
search engine keyword. You were just looking (hoping) for something that had to do with what made you
click on the link in the first place. If the page title and the first page heading resembled the text
of the link you had clicked on, you'd feel like you had found what you were looking for--no worries
about this being one of those pages that changed after the other site started linking to it.
But if the link promised no. 72 monkey wrenches, you'd feel let down if it brought you to the
homepage of a hardware store. Experience tells you the store might have stopped selling no. 72 monkey
wrenches long ago and never bothered updating its inbound links. Experience also tells you that even
if the site does have what you're looking for, it may be more trouble than it's worth to find it. Why
search through a website when search results from the entire world wide web are just a click of the
"back" button away?
Thanks to the "back" button, on the web, no one has to feel let down for long. Except advertisers who
let visitors down.
About the author
Joel Walsh is a website copywriter at UpMarket Content, a website content provider for small and medium-sized businesses. He has written as a staff writer for books published by Barnes & Nobles and St. Martin’s Press, as well as numerous online publications. Website: http://upmarketcontent.com
Why Your Online Advertising Traffic Leaves as Soon as It Arr
Why Your Online Advertising Traffic Leaves as Soon as It Arrives
by
Joel Walsh
Online advertising traffic leaves when advertisers don't make it easy to stick around.
Business website owners who buy online advertising often get frustrated when most of their
expensive traffic leaves as soon as it arrives--i.e, it "bounces."
Why does traffic from online advertising bounce? Think about it: you've done the same thing many
times. You've searched on a search engine, clicked on a result, then left that page less than ten
seconds after you arrived. You did that again and again until you found what you were looking for.
You might easily have left a trail of bounces on the server logs of a dozen websites, for a dozen
website owners to worry over.
Why did you keep leaving? Because you weren't finding what you were looking for on those websites
within the first ten to thirty seconds of arriving. Experience had taught you that you'd find what
you were looking for faster clicking on other search results, one of which was bound to have what you
were looking for, than sifting through the pages of a website that didn't look very promising from
the start.
That's how everyone searches, and how everyone treats online advertising. You have to work with this
behavior rather than against it.
How to Catch Your Online Advertising Traffic before It Bounces
So how do you keep online advertising traffic from bouncing? Think about why you bounced. What made
you doubt that the website had what you were searching for? If you were using a search engine, you
had searched on a keyword--let's say you searched on "small business website content." Without
realizing it, you were scanning each page for the keyword, "small business website content," or
something very close to it.
A website that talked about "small business web copy" might have been what you were looking for, but
if you didn't know that "web copy" is just another term for "website content," you'd have hit the
"back" button. You’d keep hitting the "back" button until you arrived at a page that had that keyword
in the page title, page headings, and in the first few lines of the body, maybe in boldface to make
it easier to find.
Of course, if you arrived at the page via a link from another website, you weren't looking for a
search engine keyword. You were just looking (hoping) for something that had to do with what made you
click on the link in the first place. If the page title and the first page heading resembled the text
of the link you had clicked on, you'd feel like you had found what you were looking for--no worries
about this being one of those pages that changed after the other site started linking to it.
But if the link promised no. 72 monkey wrenches, you'd feel let down if it brought you to the
homepage of a hardware store. Experience tells you the store might have stopped selling no. 72 monkey
wrenches long ago and never bothered updating its inbound links. Experience also tells you that even
if the site does have what you're looking for, it may be more trouble than it's worth to find it. Why
search through a website when search results from the entire world wide web are just a click of the
"back" button away?
Thanks to the "back" button, on the web, no one has to feel let down for long. Except advertisers who
let visitors down.
About the author
Joel Walsh is a website copywriter at UpMarket Content, a website content provider for small and medium-sized businesses. He has written as a staff writer for books published by Barnes & Nobles and St. Martin’s Press, as well as numerous online publications. Website: http://upmarketcontent.com
by
Joel Walsh
Online advertising traffic leaves when advertisers don't make it easy to stick around.
Business website owners who buy online advertising often get frustrated when most of their
expensive traffic leaves as soon as it arrives--i.e, it "bounces."
Why does traffic from online advertising bounce? Think about it: you've done the same thing many
times. You've searched on a search engine, clicked on a result, then left that page less than ten
seconds after you arrived. You did that again and again until you found what you were looking for.
You might easily have left a trail of bounces on the server logs of a dozen websites, for a dozen
website owners to worry over.
Why did you keep leaving? Because you weren't finding what you were looking for on those websites
within the first ten to thirty seconds of arriving. Experience had taught you that you'd find what
you were looking for faster clicking on other search results, one of which was bound to have what you
were looking for, than sifting through the pages of a website that didn't look very promising from
the start.
That's how everyone searches, and how everyone treats online advertising. You have to work with this
behavior rather than against it.
How to Catch Your Online Advertising Traffic before It Bounces
So how do you keep online advertising traffic from bouncing? Think about why you bounced. What made
you doubt that the website had what you were searching for? If you were using a search engine, you
had searched on a keyword--let's say you searched on "small business website content." Without
realizing it, you were scanning each page for the keyword, "small business website content," or
something very close to it.
A website that talked about "small business web copy" might have been what you were looking for, but
if you didn't know that "web copy" is just another term for "website content," you'd have hit the
"back" button. You’d keep hitting the "back" button until you arrived at a page that had that keyword
in the page title, page headings, and in the first few lines of the body, maybe in boldface to make
it easier to find.
Of course, if you arrived at the page via a link from another website, you weren't looking for a
search engine keyword. You were just looking (hoping) for something that had to do with what made you
click on the link in the first place. If the page title and the first page heading resembled the text
of the link you had clicked on, you'd feel like you had found what you were looking for--no worries
about this being one of those pages that changed after the other site started linking to it.
But if the link promised no. 72 monkey wrenches, you'd feel let down if it brought you to the
homepage of a hardware store. Experience tells you the store might have stopped selling no. 72 monkey
wrenches long ago and never bothered updating its inbound links. Experience also tells you that even
if the site does have what you're looking for, it may be more trouble than it's worth to find it. Why
search through a website when search results from the entire world wide web are just a click of the
"back" button away?
Thanks to the "back" button, on the web, no one has to feel let down for long. Except advertisers who
let visitors down.
About the author
Joel Walsh is a website copywriter at UpMarket Content, a website content provider for small and medium-sized businesses. He has written as a staff writer for books published by Barnes & Nobles and St. Martin’s Press, as well as numerous online publications. Website: http://upmarketcontent.com
Why Radio Advertising Could Be The Best Thing You Ever Did F
In the marketing world, radio has earned the reputation of being the odd step-cousin. You know the one. No one knows quite what to do with him. Especially at family gatherings when everyone tries hard to avoid sitting with him. (After all, who knows WHAT he'll start talking about.)
Much of that reputation comes from radio being tough to track. On one hand, radio does work. Businesses do notice an increase in sales when they add radio to the mix. However, radio doesn't test well. In surveys and other tracking methods, radio tends to be the one with the dismal scores.
A good friend of mine, who's also a marketing consultant but before that she sold radio for many years, has a theory about that. She says radio works on a subconscious or unconscious level. People remember the ad, but not that they heard it on the radio. So, they tend to credit a different medium for the ad, like the yellow pages. Yellow pages gets a boost while radio drops a few points.
Regardless, radio should not be ignored because it does work. And many marketing consultants will probably tell you radio is an excellent medium to reach a local market.
However, I feel there are possibilities beyond merely reaching local customers.
Internet radio shows are starting to take off in a big way. That means advertising and sponsorship opportunities are also taking off. In addition, "offline" methods have been shown to be pretty effective at driving traffic online. If increasing Web traffic is your goal, using traditional media outlets to increase traffic should be a part of your mix.
If people already know you (which they might in your local market) they're more likely to be loyal. And they're more likely to send other customers to your site. Depending on the costs of radio in your community, radio may be a very affordable way to get a good viral campaign going. (A viral campaign is what happens when other people pass around your business' e-mails to their friends and family, or send them to your Web site.)
Below are some other positive reasons to use radio:
* Affordable -- when you compare spot to spot, radio tends to be one of the least expensive media out there. However, one spot ain't going to do it. To reach your target market, you need to purchase several spots. That's why radio can also turn into one of the more expensive media. However, there are ways to keep your costs in line yet still reap the benefits of radio -- for instance, buying less spots but running them all in one or two weeks, so your customers are more likely to hear your message.
* Psychological, if you voice the commercials yourself -- hearing your voice makes people feel like they "know" you. (Hence the popularity of audio on Web sites. In fact, marketing gurus claim just by adding audio to a site substantially increases how many people buy.)
People tend to buy from people and businesses they know and trust. Hearing your voice helps them feel as if they know you. These psychological aspects may be another reason to consider running a few radio ads in your local market even if you have an Internet business.
* Speed -- you can get your spot up and running in no time.
* Loyalty -- listeners choose stations based on the music or shows they like and they tend to be quite loyal to that station. If you know what your customers enjoy listening to, it's an excellent way to reach them. (I include both music and talk shows in this.)
* Good support medium -- radio works really well when paired with other marketing mediums (like print, direct mail or television).
But for every positive, there's a negative. In the spirit of being objective, here are a few for radio:
* Background medium -- radio tends to be on in the background, which means it tends to be ignored. Generally, your target market needs to be exposed to your ad more times than other marketing media before they'll act upon your message.
* Little staying power -- the lack of visuals again keeps radio from "sticking" with people. At least, that's what some of the marketing gurus say. But, here again my marketing consultant friend differs. She thinks it's that subconscious thing again.
And if you can write a spot that creates pictures in your customers' heads, you can actually work this to your advantage. In fact, according to my friend, if the picture is defined enough, not only will people remember it better, but they'll also think it was a print ad instead of a radio ad. (More on the art of creating pictures using words in later issues.)
* Hard to track – it's impossible to know exactly how many people are tuning in at any given time.
A final note: Because radio is subconscious, keep that in mind when crafting your ad. Repeat your business name a lot and any other branding info, so it gets into your customers' heads. Don't put in phone numbers. Instead, purchase a memorable Web site domain name and repeat that. And remember to create "pictures" whenever possible.
Creativity Exercise -- How can you use radio in your business?
Would radio work for your business? Let's find out.
Take out a sheet of paper and a fun pen. (I'm partial to gel pens.) Draw a line down the center.
On one side, put the header: Why advertising on radio is a good idea for my business. On the other side, put the header: Why advertising is a bad idea for my business.
Now pick a side and start writing down reasons.
You might be more comfortable starting with the side that's easiest for you. Then when you work on the other side, you can simply turn the reasons around.
For instance, let's say you started with the bad idea. One of your reasons was: My product is completely visual. You could turn it around by saying "Because my product is so visual, I'll have to work harder to create pictures in my customers' minds. And because the customers create their own pictures, they're more likely to remember them."
Or what if you started with a good idea, and one of the reasons was: "Because my business is local." You could turn it around and say "Because radio is holding me back -- I'm only reaching this local market." (Ah, now I'm even going against what I said earlier. Maybe with this statement you could look for ways to get your customers to spread the word outside the area about your business.)
As you saw by my last example, you'll be amazed at what comes out when you do this exercise. Even if you don't change your views on radio advertising, you may come up with new and powerful insights to your business.
Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting, a writing, marketing and creativity agency. She offers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at www.writingusa.com.
Copyright 2004 Michele Pariza Wacek.
michele@writingusa.comk
Much of that reputation comes from radio being tough to track. On one hand, radio does work. Businesses do notice an increase in sales when they add radio to the mix. However, radio doesn't test well. In surveys and other tracking methods, radio tends to be the one with the dismal scores.
A good friend of mine, who's also a marketing consultant but before that she sold radio for many years, has a theory about that. She says radio works on a subconscious or unconscious level. People remember the ad, but not that they heard it on the radio. So, they tend to credit a different medium for the ad, like the yellow pages. Yellow pages gets a boost while radio drops a few points.
Regardless, radio should not be ignored because it does work. And many marketing consultants will probably tell you radio is an excellent medium to reach a local market.
However, I feel there are possibilities beyond merely reaching local customers.
Internet radio shows are starting to take off in a big way. That means advertising and sponsorship opportunities are also taking off. In addition, "offline" methods have been shown to be pretty effective at driving traffic online. If increasing Web traffic is your goal, using traditional media outlets to increase traffic should be a part of your mix.
If people already know you (which they might in your local market) they're more likely to be loyal. And they're more likely to send other customers to your site. Depending on the costs of radio in your community, radio may be a very affordable way to get a good viral campaign going. (A viral campaign is what happens when other people pass around your business' e-mails to their friends and family, or send them to your Web site.)
Below are some other positive reasons to use radio:
* Affordable -- when you compare spot to spot, radio tends to be one of the least expensive media out there. However, one spot ain't going to do it. To reach your target market, you need to purchase several spots. That's why radio can also turn into one of the more expensive media. However, there are ways to keep your costs in line yet still reap the benefits of radio -- for instance, buying less spots but running them all in one or two weeks, so your customers are more likely to hear your message.
* Psychological, if you voice the commercials yourself -- hearing your voice makes people feel like they "know" you. (Hence the popularity of audio on Web sites. In fact, marketing gurus claim just by adding audio to a site substantially increases how many people buy.)
People tend to buy from people and businesses they know and trust. Hearing your voice helps them feel as if they know you. These psychological aspects may be another reason to consider running a few radio ads in your local market even if you have an Internet business.
* Speed -- you can get your spot up and running in no time.
* Loyalty -- listeners choose stations based on the music or shows they like and they tend to be quite loyal to that station. If you know what your customers enjoy listening to, it's an excellent way to reach them. (I include both music and talk shows in this.)
* Good support medium -- radio works really well when paired with other marketing mediums (like print, direct mail or television).
But for every positive, there's a negative. In the spirit of being objective, here are a few for radio:
* Background medium -- radio tends to be on in the background, which means it tends to be ignored. Generally, your target market needs to be exposed to your ad more times than other marketing media before they'll act upon your message.
* Little staying power -- the lack of visuals again keeps radio from "sticking" with people. At least, that's what some of the marketing gurus say. But, here again my marketing consultant friend differs. She thinks it's that subconscious thing again.
And if you can write a spot that creates pictures in your customers' heads, you can actually work this to your advantage. In fact, according to my friend, if the picture is defined enough, not only will people remember it better, but they'll also think it was a print ad instead of a radio ad. (More on the art of creating pictures using words in later issues.)
* Hard to track – it's impossible to know exactly how many people are tuning in at any given time.
A final note: Because radio is subconscious, keep that in mind when crafting your ad. Repeat your business name a lot and any other branding info, so it gets into your customers' heads. Don't put in phone numbers. Instead, purchase a memorable Web site domain name and repeat that. And remember to create "pictures" whenever possible.
Creativity Exercise -- How can you use radio in your business?
Would radio work for your business? Let's find out.
Take out a sheet of paper and a fun pen. (I'm partial to gel pens.) Draw a line down the center.
On one side, put the header: Why advertising on radio is a good idea for my business. On the other side, put the header: Why advertising is a bad idea for my business.
Now pick a side and start writing down reasons.
You might be more comfortable starting with the side that's easiest for you. Then when you work on the other side, you can simply turn the reasons around.
For instance, let's say you started with the bad idea. One of your reasons was: My product is completely visual. You could turn it around by saying "Because my product is so visual, I'll have to work harder to create pictures in my customers' minds. And because the customers create their own pictures, they're more likely to remember them."
Or what if you started with a good idea, and one of the reasons was: "Because my business is local." You could turn it around and say "Because radio is holding me back -- I'm only reaching this local market." (Ah, now I'm even going against what I said earlier. Maybe with this statement you could look for ways to get your customers to spread the word outside the area about your business.)
As you saw by my last example, you'll be amazed at what comes out when you do this exercise. Even if you don't change your views on radio advertising, you may come up with new and powerful insights to your business.
Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting, a writing, marketing and creativity agency. She offers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at www.writingusa.com.
Copyright 2004 Michele Pariza Wacek.
michele@writingusa.comk
Why Hire an Advertising/Marketing Consultant?
As a business owner, you have the option of taking several different approaches to handling your Marketing and Advertising. You may choose to handle the responsibility yourself, with the idea that no one understands your business quite the way you do.. You may also consider hiring a full time marketing manager or even assigning the tasks, as they arise, to someone already working within your organization. Consider this When your business needs plumbing work do you do it yourself? Hire a plumber to be on staff full time? Or ask your accountant to handle it?
Call in the Experts.
Though some advertising and marketing ventures seems simple enough to be handled in house, nothing is as costly as a marketing misfire. Not only may you be sending out the wrong messages, to the wrong markets, but also by the time you catch it, your budget may be in no shape to recover and redirect. The truth is, no one can do the job as effectively and efficiently as someone who lives and breathes the industry everyday. Plus, the added perk of consistent media contacts that will prove to be financially beneficial to your business.
Seeing the forest and the trees.
When you hire a consultant you hire an objective opinion, as well as a fresh point of view. Sometimes a business may lose perspective on itself by being too heavily immersed in the day-to-day operations, and lose itself in the big picture, missing the small details or vice-versa. Sadly, sometimes a businesss marketing will clearly reflect this. The president of a private jet companys focus is on the bells and whistles of his fleet. Its what he sees as important in his view of his business. Inevitably, his marketing may also focus on this portion of his business, ignoring what he is really selling to his potential clients: The feeling and the status of private jets.
If you add another ball, technically it is juggling.
If you, as a business owner, or an employee take on the added tasks of the marketing of the business, attention is being taken from other projects and responsibilities. Inescapably, focus and demands are bound to pull from one and take away from others until something falls to the floor. Consultants are dedicated to one, and only one, portion of your business. Their focus is committed, and they allow you to keep yours where it should be.
The Gumby Factor.
Consultants are very flexible. Immediately ready and available to take on assignments at a moments notice. Accessibility to getting a new project off the ground is just a phone call away. On the other hand, trying to hire a new employee specifically to handle your marketing needs takes valuable time to places ads; conduct interviews and then sort through applicants, hoping to find the right person for the job.
The M Word Money.
When you total up the actual cost of bringing on a new employee, you will most likely find that hiring a consultant is much more cost effective. The hourly rates may seem to favor a full time employee, but when you factor in employee benefits, training time, vacation/sick time, 401(k), the added overhead involved in situating a new employee, and the sheer fact that you may be paying full time wages for something that may not need full time attention, the cost effectiveness will fall in favor of a consultant. Which bring us to....
The C- Word Commitment.
Hiring a full time employee is a commitment. And bringing on an employee to handle a special marketing project, or set up an initial marketing plan, may in the long run leave you scrambling to find a new project or position for that employee. Or worse yet, you find yourself paying a full time marketing director to do basic maintenance. Hiring a consultant requires no long-term commitment. When a consultant completes a project, they have the flexibility to move into whatever position you need them, from quarterly analysis, to basic maintenance, to completely out of the picture, but on the sidelines when youre ready to take a new step forward.
"There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." -Franklin D. Roosevelt
Mary Ellen Martelli is President of MareMax Consulting, a full service Advertising, Marketing & Website Consulting firm, located in the Southern New Jersey / Philadelphia area. You can reach her via her website http://maremaxconsulting.com/ or email: maremaxconsulting@comcast.net
Call in the Experts.
Though some advertising and marketing ventures seems simple enough to be handled in house, nothing is as costly as a marketing misfire. Not only may you be sending out the wrong messages, to the wrong markets, but also by the time you catch it, your budget may be in no shape to recover and redirect. The truth is, no one can do the job as effectively and efficiently as someone who lives and breathes the industry everyday. Plus, the added perk of consistent media contacts that will prove to be financially beneficial to your business.
Seeing the forest and the trees.
When you hire a consultant you hire an objective opinion, as well as a fresh point of view. Sometimes a business may lose perspective on itself by being too heavily immersed in the day-to-day operations, and lose itself in the big picture, missing the small details or vice-versa. Sadly, sometimes a businesss marketing will clearly reflect this. The president of a private jet companys focus is on the bells and whistles of his fleet. Its what he sees as important in his view of his business. Inevitably, his marketing may also focus on this portion of his business, ignoring what he is really selling to his potential clients: The feeling and the status of private jets.
If you add another ball, technically it is juggling.
If you, as a business owner, or an employee take on the added tasks of the marketing of the business, attention is being taken from other projects and responsibilities. Inescapably, focus and demands are bound to pull from one and take away from others until something falls to the floor. Consultants are dedicated to one, and only one, portion of your business. Their focus is committed, and they allow you to keep yours where it should be.
The Gumby Factor.
Consultants are very flexible. Immediately ready and available to take on assignments at a moments notice. Accessibility to getting a new project off the ground is just a phone call away. On the other hand, trying to hire a new employee specifically to handle your marketing needs takes valuable time to places ads; conduct interviews and then sort through applicants, hoping to find the right person for the job.
The M Word Money.
When you total up the actual cost of bringing on a new employee, you will most likely find that hiring a consultant is much more cost effective. The hourly rates may seem to favor a full time employee, but when you factor in employee benefits, training time, vacation/sick time, 401(k), the added overhead involved in situating a new employee, and the sheer fact that you may be paying full time wages for something that may not need full time attention, the cost effectiveness will fall in favor of a consultant. Which bring us to....
The C- Word Commitment.
Hiring a full time employee is a commitment. And bringing on an employee to handle a special marketing project, or set up an initial marketing plan, may in the long run leave you scrambling to find a new project or position for that employee. Or worse yet, you find yourself paying a full time marketing director to do basic maintenance. Hiring a consultant requires no long-term commitment. When a consultant completes a project, they have the flexibility to move into whatever position you need them, from quarterly analysis, to basic maintenance, to completely out of the picture, but on the sidelines when youre ready to take a new step forward.
"There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." -Franklin D. Roosevelt
Mary Ellen Martelli is President of MareMax Consulting, a full service Advertising, Marketing & Website Consulting firm, located in the Southern New Jersey / Philadelphia area. You can reach her via her website http://maremaxconsulting.com/ or email: maremaxconsulting@comcast.net
Where is online advertising going?
Discusses t he brief history of online advertising through specific ad strageis and discusses where online advertising is headed.
Is there such a thing as “traditional” online advertising? If there is, it started with banners, moved to FFAs, took a step backwards with SPAM, a hard right with classified advertising and then shot forward with pay per click search engine. So how do you know where to spend your advertising budget in the current market? If you’ve been responsible for your company’s web advertising efforts over the years you might agree that the traditional means of advertising worked; as least for a little while. So as new types of advertising penetrate the market with increasing frequency, what do you do with those proven stand-by methods of generating links and traffic? Throw them out? Keep them around for posterity? Maybe give them a facelift? Let’s review those traditional ad models then look at some experimental models. TRADITIONAL ONLINE ADVERTISING MODELS
Banners
Banner ads in the form of animated gifs are the most common and widely used form of online advertising today. Banner ads reach the widest possible audience because practically 100% of Internet users can view them without any special plugins. Web marketers, advertisers and promoters have quickly realized that banners under 12k in file size puts the ad in front of the visitor as quickly as possible, increasing the chance of click-through even though surfers are growing increasingly immune. New styles and shapes of banners (such as skyscraper ads) have grown in popularity recently, which is addressed in the “Experimental Advertising” section below. SPAM
What does SPAM stand for? It’s not “Stupid Pointless Annoying Message” (which in some cases it could be) but rather “Sending and Posting Advertising Messages.” It’s hard to believe SPAM is effective, but unarguably, it is. While click-through rates continue to fall and legislation begins to rise, it is a savvy advertiser’s best bet to stay away from it, unless of course you’re selling Pasta Pots or Viagra. Rich mail – “Fancy SPAM”
Most likely, the e-mail messages you receive on a daily basis are text only. Rich mail, on the other hand, allows graphics, video and audio to be included in the e-mail message. When you open up a rich e-mail your e-mail client automatically calls up your Internet connection and launches an html page in your browser. E-mail clients that are offline will invite you to click on the link when you have your Internet connection open again. If your e-mail client does not support graphics you will receive the e-mail in text only. While SPAM is still SPAM, rich mail has proven to be much more effective than standard text messages. Pop-Ups/Pop-Unders:
This creative, yet completely obtrusive and annoying means of advertising was once celebrated in some circles as the most innovative ad concept since banners. It only took a short time before many users, sick of being trapped in a never-ending onslaught of such ads, voiced their rejection. One can only wonder when advertisers will recognize the public dissatisfaction and move on to another more effective means to promote their companies. Institutional Advertising:
While institutional or “in-house” advertising has been available since the inception of the Internet, few companies have made an effort to utilize the many different aspects of online advertising in one format as has 7Search.com with its Direct Pay-Per-Text advertising. 7Search, a leader in the pay per click search engine arena, has recently introduced this program which enables its advertisers to advertise outside of its search return lists using the same titles and descriptions seen on its search engine. The pay-per-click model enables interested advertisers to leave behind the CPM impression model and focus on the click conversions. Direct Pay-Per-Text is a patent-pending concept from 7Search which will be released to the general public in the coming months. Pay-Per-Click Search Engines
It’s hard to think of PPC search engines as a “traditional” means to advertise online, but the ratio of those advertisers who do versus those who don’t is staggering; in fact the majority have at least tried their hand at leasing traffic. In a PPC agreement, the advertiser only pays for qualifying clicks to the destination site based on a prearranged per-click rate. The response on ads with well-written titles and descriptions targeted to the users query pull response rates unseen in the ad industry previously. The greatest advantage arguably is the ability to measure precisely the rate of return versus your investment. Some of the most popular PPC search engines are FindWhat.com, 7Search.com, Ah-ha.com and the industry leader Overture. EXPERIMENTAL ONLINE ADVERTISING MODELS Traffic Exchange Advertising:
Hit exchanges, actually a form of banner exchange, are a recent phenomenon on the Internet. You will visit the site of a member of an exchange, and in exchange, another member of the exchange will visit your site. The recent explosion of hit exchanges on the web has diluted the effectiveness of such a method of advertising. There have also been many instances of cheating, in which a script is used to generate visits to a site. However, if you have a product that is of interest to webmasters, and is low cost or has a free version, there is no harm in giving hit exchanges a try. Shockwave ads
Shockwave is best suited for campaigns that want to utilize out-of-banner real estate, such as applets, trading cards, and games. Director and Flash provide the ability to embed interaction, video, and audio within the file, making Shockwave files some of the richest ad units on the Web. Viral marketing and strong brand interaction are two of the key strengths of Shockwave ads. As these ads are typically “bandwidth monsters” the adoption has been slow and will most likely remain that way. Other downsides include development costs and the fact that it just won’t work without the Shockwave plug-in, which (though downloaded by millions of users) is far from being a mainstay. Interstitial ads
Interstitials are ads that play between pages on a website, much like television ads play between sections of a program. There are several variations on the interstitial model: some play in the main browser window, while some play in new, smaller windows; some are pre-cached, while some stream ad content as it plays; some provide the ability to create very rich ads, while some focus on smaller, faster-loading ads. Whatever the format, nearly all interstitial ads perform very well if measured by both click-through rates and brand recall. Floating ads and DHTML
Types of floating ads include DHTML sponsorships, in which advertising objects "fly" across the page on a preset course; cursor sponsorships, in which the cursor turns into an advertising image; and scrolling ads, in which an advertisement moves up and down the edge of a page as the user scrolls up and down. Floating ads give the advertiser and publisher the flexibility to achieve nearly any effect. However, as this is one of the more daring types of online advertising, advertising and content must be balanced on any given page. Floating ads (especially DHTML and cursors) are best run for short periods to create brand awareness—running them for longer periods can bring negative user feedback. It is important to understand that online advertising is only effective if it generates significant response and this applies to both traditional and experimental ads. Unfortunately, the only way to discover the efficiency of your campaign is to test in every format at least once with as many ads as you are able.
About the Author
Pete Prestipino is the founder and CEO of SCG - Swirling Circle Group, a consortium of online marketers, promoters, SEO's, web designers, and Internet consultants. For more information visit: www.SwirlingCircle.com
Is there such a thing as “traditional” online advertising? If there is, it started with banners, moved to FFAs, took a step backwards with SPAM, a hard right with classified advertising and then shot forward with pay per click search engine. So how do you know where to spend your advertising budget in the current market? If you’ve been responsible for your company’s web advertising efforts over the years you might agree that the traditional means of advertising worked; as least for a little while. So as new types of advertising penetrate the market with increasing frequency, what do you do with those proven stand-by methods of generating links and traffic? Throw them out? Keep them around for posterity? Maybe give them a facelift? Let’s review those traditional ad models then look at some experimental models. TRADITIONAL ONLINE ADVERTISING MODELS
Banners
Banner ads in the form of animated gifs are the most common and widely used form of online advertising today. Banner ads reach the widest possible audience because practically 100% of Internet users can view them without any special plugins. Web marketers, advertisers and promoters have quickly realized that banners under 12k in file size puts the ad in front of the visitor as quickly as possible, increasing the chance of click-through even though surfers are growing increasingly immune. New styles and shapes of banners (such as skyscraper ads) have grown in popularity recently, which is addressed in the “Experimental Advertising” section below. SPAM
What does SPAM stand for? It’s not “Stupid Pointless Annoying Message” (which in some cases it could be) but rather “Sending and Posting Advertising Messages.” It’s hard to believe SPAM is effective, but unarguably, it is. While click-through rates continue to fall and legislation begins to rise, it is a savvy advertiser’s best bet to stay away from it, unless of course you’re selling Pasta Pots or Viagra. Rich mail – “Fancy SPAM”
Most likely, the e-mail messages you receive on a daily basis are text only. Rich mail, on the other hand, allows graphics, video and audio to be included in the e-mail message. When you open up a rich e-mail your e-mail client automatically calls up your Internet connection and launches an html page in your browser. E-mail clients that are offline will invite you to click on the link when you have your Internet connection open again. If your e-mail client does not support graphics you will receive the e-mail in text only. While SPAM is still SPAM, rich mail has proven to be much more effective than standard text messages. Pop-Ups/Pop-Unders:
This creative, yet completely obtrusive and annoying means of advertising was once celebrated in some circles as the most innovative ad concept since banners. It only took a short time before many users, sick of being trapped in a never-ending onslaught of such ads, voiced their rejection. One can only wonder when advertisers will recognize the public dissatisfaction and move on to another more effective means to promote their companies. Institutional Advertising:
While institutional or “in-house” advertising has been available since the inception of the Internet, few companies have made an effort to utilize the many different aspects of online advertising in one format as has 7Search.com with its Direct Pay-Per-Text advertising. 7Search, a leader in the pay per click search engine arena, has recently introduced this program which enables its advertisers to advertise outside of its search return lists using the same titles and descriptions seen on its search engine. The pay-per-click model enables interested advertisers to leave behind the CPM impression model and focus on the click conversions. Direct Pay-Per-Text is a patent-pending concept from 7Search which will be released to the general public in the coming months. Pay-Per-Click Search Engines
It’s hard to think of PPC search engines as a “traditional” means to advertise online, but the ratio of those advertisers who do versus those who don’t is staggering; in fact the majority have at least tried their hand at leasing traffic. In a PPC agreement, the advertiser only pays for qualifying clicks to the destination site based on a prearranged per-click rate. The response on ads with well-written titles and descriptions targeted to the users query pull response rates unseen in the ad industry previously. The greatest advantage arguably is the ability to measure precisely the rate of return versus your investment. Some of the most popular PPC search engines are FindWhat.com, 7Search.com, Ah-ha.com and the industry leader Overture. EXPERIMENTAL ONLINE ADVERTISING MODELS Traffic Exchange Advertising:
Hit exchanges, actually a form of banner exchange, are a recent phenomenon on the Internet. You will visit the site of a member of an exchange, and in exchange, another member of the exchange will visit your site. The recent explosion of hit exchanges on the web has diluted the effectiveness of such a method of advertising. There have also been many instances of cheating, in which a script is used to generate visits to a site. However, if you have a product that is of interest to webmasters, and is low cost or has a free version, there is no harm in giving hit exchanges a try. Shockwave ads
Shockwave is best suited for campaigns that want to utilize out-of-banner real estate, such as applets, trading cards, and games. Director and Flash provide the ability to embed interaction, video, and audio within the file, making Shockwave files some of the richest ad units on the Web. Viral marketing and strong brand interaction are two of the key strengths of Shockwave ads. As these ads are typically “bandwidth monsters” the adoption has been slow and will most likely remain that way. Other downsides include development costs and the fact that it just won’t work without the Shockwave plug-in, which (though downloaded by millions of users) is far from being a mainstay. Interstitial ads
Interstitials are ads that play between pages on a website, much like television ads play between sections of a program. There are several variations on the interstitial model: some play in the main browser window, while some play in new, smaller windows; some are pre-cached, while some stream ad content as it plays; some provide the ability to create very rich ads, while some focus on smaller, faster-loading ads. Whatever the format, nearly all interstitial ads perform very well if measured by both click-through rates and brand recall. Floating ads and DHTML
Types of floating ads include DHTML sponsorships, in which advertising objects "fly" across the page on a preset course; cursor sponsorships, in which the cursor turns into an advertising image; and scrolling ads, in which an advertisement moves up and down the edge of a page as the user scrolls up and down. Floating ads give the advertiser and publisher the flexibility to achieve nearly any effect. However, as this is one of the more daring types of online advertising, advertising and content must be balanced on any given page. Floating ads (especially DHTML and cursors) are best run for short periods to create brand awareness—running them for longer periods can bring negative user feedback. It is important to understand that online advertising is only effective if it generates significant response and this applies to both traditional and experimental ads. Unfortunately, the only way to discover the efficiency of your campaign is to test in every format at least once with as many ads as you are able.
About the Author
Pete Prestipino is the founder and CEO of SCG - Swirling Circle Group, a consortium of online marketers, promoters, SEO's, web designers, and Internet consultants. For more information visit: www.SwirlingCircle.com
What is Advertising - and What Does it Mean on the Internet&
Today’s Quick Tip answers the question “What is advertising?”
“Advertising is salesmanship. The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its
actual sales.”
- Claude Hopkins, one of the early masters of advertising and author of My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising.
This #1 issue of Copywriting Classics Quick Tips focuses on the late, great Claude Hopkins and how you can apply his decades old marketing wisdom to your online efforts today.
Jay Abraham, renowned as 'America’s Number One Marketing
Wizard' said this about Hopkins. “Claude Hopkins is the master
of them all. His influence has easily added over $6 million to my personal Income…and still counting.”
So, what else did Claude have to say about advertising in addition to the quote above? Hopkins said “Advertising is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. Treat it as a salesman. Force it to justify itself.
Compare it with other salesmen. Figure its cost and result. Accept no excuses which good salesmen do not make. Then you will not go far wrong.”
So how many of us do a good job of this in the online world?
Obviously the only way you can know if your advertising is profitable is to be able to accurately track its results.
How many of us have thrown money at the concept of branding - of keeping our name before the people? Just hoping we'd get some results. I know I’ve been guilty of it in the past.
So when you’re getting ready to place that banner ad, or pay for some online or offline directory listing, or bid on that keyword at Overture.com, how are you going to track the cost and result?
And don’t delude yourself into thinking that any advertising is
“free.” The most valuable resource any of us have in our marketing arsenal is probably our own time.
What do you value yours at? $25 - $50 - $100 - $1000 per hour? Or more? So be sure and include the cost of your time or whoever you’re paying to perform that advertising task into calculating the true cost of your advertising.
This is truer then ever in the Internet world. So, know your costs
and measure your results. There are online tools available to help you do this, so don’t get careless or lazy. The effectiveness of your online advertising can only be measured by its actual sales.
Your task: Analyze all your advertising to determine its true
effectiveness. If you're not tracking your results you have to figure out a way to do it now. Why? Because Claude told you so.
Next week – you’ll get some more thoughts from Claude Hopkins. This time about how long you should make your ad copy in order to make the sales. Until then, my best wishes for success in all your marketing endeavors.
© 2002 TWI Press, Inc.
****************************************
The Copywriting Classics Quick Tip is written by Bret Ridgway. To subscribe
send a blank email to subscribe@twipress.com . Portions of this issue are excerpted from the Claude Hopkins’ book My Life in Advertising/Scientific Advertising.
You can locate the complete text of Scientific Advertising in various locations online. Or, it is available as part of the package set with My Life in Advertising at the following page: http://www.twipress.com/productpages/MyLifeAd.htm
****************************************
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bret Ridgway is President of TWI Press, Inc., supplier of hard-to-find classic marketing books via the http://www.twipress.com website. He provides a copywriting and advertising resource center at internet marketing conferences for well known internet marketers like Carl Galletti, Jonathan Mizel, Michael Penland, Ron LeGrand and Fred Gleeck.
“Advertising is salesmanship. The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its
actual sales.”
- Claude Hopkins, one of the early masters of advertising and author of My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising.
This #1 issue of Copywriting Classics Quick Tips focuses on the late, great Claude Hopkins and how you can apply his decades old marketing wisdom to your online efforts today.
Jay Abraham, renowned as 'America’s Number One Marketing
Wizard' said this about Hopkins. “Claude Hopkins is the master
of them all. His influence has easily added over $6 million to my personal Income…and still counting.”
So, what else did Claude have to say about advertising in addition to the quote above? Hopkins said “Advertising is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. Treat it as a salesman. Force it to justify itself.
Compare it with other salesmen. Figure its cost and result. Accept no excuses which good salesmen do not make. Then you will not go far wrong.”
So how many of us do a good job of this in the online world?
Obviously the only way you can know if your advertising is profitable is to be able to accurately track its results.
How many of us have thrown money at the concept of branding - of keeping our name before the people? Just hoping we'd get some results. I know I’ve been guilty of it in the past.
So when you’re getting ready to place that banner ad, or pay for some online or offline directory listing, or bid on that keyword at Overture.com, how are you going to track the cost and result?
And don’t delude yourself into thinking that any advertising is
“free.” The most valuable resource any of us have in our marketing arsenal is probably our own time.
What do you value yours at? $25 - $50 - $100 - $1000 per hour? Or more? So be sure and include the cost of your time or whoever you’re paying to perform that advertising task into calculating the true cost of your advertising.
This is truer then ever in the Internet world. So, know your costs
and measure your results. There are online tools available to help you do this, so don’t get careless or lazy. The effectiveness of your online advertising can only be measured by its actual sales.
Your task: Analyze all your advertising to determine its true
effectiveness. If you're not tracking your results you have to figure out a way to do it now. Why? Because Claude told you so.
Next week – you’ll get some more thoughts from Claude Hopkins. This time about how long you should make your ad copy in order to make the sales. Until then, my best wishes for success in all your marketing endeavors.
© 2002 TWI Press, Inc.
****************************************
The Copywriting Classics Quick Tip is written by Bret Ridgway. To subscribe
send a blank email to subscribe@twipress.com . Portions of this issue are excerpted from the Claude Hopkins’ book My Life in Advertising/Scientific Advertising.
You can locate the complete text of Scientific Advertising in various locations online. Or, it is available as part of the package set with My Life in Advertising at the following page: http://www.twipress.com/productpages/MyLifeAd.htm
****************************************
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bret Ridgway is President of TWI Press, Inc., supplier of hard-to-find classic marketing books via the http://www.twipress.com website. He provides a copywriting and advertising resource center at internet marketing conferences for well known internet marketers like Carl Galletti, Jonathan Mizel, Michael Penland, Ron LeGrand and Fred Gleeck.
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