Advertising
Another 4 Ways to Supplement Your Main Business Income With Your Website
Feb 1st
Yesterday we looked at a few ways that you can make extra money from your regular business website, without destroying its look or reputation in the process. Reading back over the post, though, having only 4 ways to get a return on your website and SEO investment was a bit of a tease! Today we explore 4 more of those ways. Remember, we are only looking at ways to do this that all business websites can use, without looking like a spam and virus factory.
1. Create and maintain a private forum
This can be a pretty big earner for your business if you have a way to provide real value to your customers! If you sell a product that often requires ongoing support or training, why not offer this at a fraction of the cost of phone support, via an online method? Someone will have to pay attention to the message boards, but people LOVE getting customized answers from experts.
2. Host a Job Board
Again, this depends on the type of content you have on site for suitability. If you are a marketing-copy-oriented site, it will seem out of place. If you have created a significant information resource, built yourself up as an expert and created a small community around your site, it will work perfectly. The easiest way to monetise is to charge a tiny fee for both advertisers and applicants.
3. Run a paid survey
Again, only for the info/expert/community sites. There are quite a few sites that will pay you to run polls on your own website – market research is big business. Just don’t overdo this one, or you’ll scare visitors away.
4. Sell an ebook on site
This leverages all that knowledge, and all that expert status that your site has built up. Having an ebook written usually doesn’t cost very much – provide a few resources that only you have access to, and give information via phone interview to the author to make sure that content is exclusive.
4 Ways to Supplement Your Main Business Income With Your Website
Jan 29th
The internet is split along a line … I hesitate to say “roughly equal lines”, because I’ve no idea if that is true! On one side of the line are the businesses who simply use the web as another marketing and promotion avenue for a business that already existed pre-WWW. On the other side are the businesses that would not exist without WWW and internet marketing – businesses like online freelancing, sole-purpose ad revenue sites and affiliate marketing sites, etc.
What many traditional businesses don’t realize is that there are plenty of way to combine the two approaches to making money online – we explore 4 of those today. Of note, we are only looking at methods that detract little from the actual corporate identity of a site.
1. Hosting banner advertising
The suitability of this strategy depends on the setup of your site. If you have substantial information sections, then it makes sense to offer links to other sites that people might find useful. If your site is purely marketing copy, it makes less sense to dilute your message. Still, consider that a site that hosts a banner ad with a $1CPM (cost per thousand impressions) and gets 100,000 page views a month will generate $100 monthly …pretty decent!
2. Affiliate marketing
Find a business that is complementary to your own,, and also has an affiliate program. Mention them and link to them in your own copy (only where appropriate), and you have the potential to be earning commissions from your website, without changing the perceived quality.
3. Sponsored reviews
If you are able to, or already have, built up some kudos in your industry community, people may ask you to do paid reviews – either of their site, a book, a product, etc. If they don’t ask, send out a letter to let them know! Alternatively, use sites like Pay Per Post.
4. Host Premium Content
As a business, you have lots and lots of expert knowledge. Given the quality of most content on the net (!), anything that comes from the expert’s mouth is highly regarded! Have some content on your site as free, and some paid. Offer a range of payment options – subscription, per-per-article, etc.
Applying The Immutable Laws of Marketing in SEO, part 3
Jan 23rd
Phew! 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing is actually quite a few 
. Ries and Trout have done quite a good job explaining what happens in a marketing context overall, but only a segment of the laws apply closely to internet marketing, and to SEO in particular. Today we continue our look at how Ries and Trout’s observations relate to the world of marketing on the web.
Marketing styles - different for every business, but all follow the same rules!
Time, time, time – see what’s become of me
One of the most relevant laws in an SEO context is number 11 – “Marketing effects take place over an extended period of time”. This is absolutely true in SEO – there is no business, anywhere in the world, that can launch a website one day, and be first on Google the next. Not only is the phenomenon not overnight, it often takes much longer than you expect. However, it is an ongoing practice with ongoing, very real rewards.
Negative thinking
This highly counter-intuitive rule is practiced almost nowhere on the web, and almost nowhere in traditional marketing – the rule states that ” When you admit a negative, the prospect will give you a positive”. The examples given are Avis, which ran a successful marketing campaign after admitting they were the number 2 car rental brand; Volkswagen, which admitted the Beetle was ugly; and Listerine, who admitted the mouthwash tastes like petrol. The fact is, it takes courage, honesty and confidence in your product to admit something negative about your brand … and those are aspects everybody wants to have in companies they partner with. Make use of it in your website copywriting, your PPC ads, your social media marketing, and any communication your have with your customers.
Success, arrogance, and failure
The 18th law of marketing is that ” Success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance to failure”. In an SEO context, we see this most often when companies believe that a number one Google position is absolute. They get to #1 … and then believe they can stop spending on SEO. If you want to remain successful, you have to keep trying to be successful!
Applying The Immutable Laws of Marketing in SEO, part 2
Jan 22nd
Marketing and SEO go hand in hand – SEO is simply a new tool to achieve the same position that you used to have to get by taking out ads in the Yellow Pages, and by creating crazy jingles for radio and TV . Today we are continuing our partial look at the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (as defined by Al Ries and Jack Trout), as they apply to your internet marketing activities. Check out our web-based analysis of the first four laws as a starter, if you like.
Owning a Word
Laws 5 and 6, which state respectively that “The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind”, and “Two companies cannot own the same word in the prospect’s mind”. These realte to the entire discipline of SEO … only you have to own a word in Google’s mind, but not necessarily in your prospects. Nice parallel … but we did know that anyway!
Strategy Determination
Ries and Trout observe in the seventh law that the strategy you should use depends on what rung you occupy on the ladder. The ladder is generally understood to mean the hierarchy of products within a category that exist in a consumer’s mind … and the main difference is what you do when you are number one, versus number 2, 3, 4 or lower. This gets a little complicated when you start thinking about details though – a web marketing firm will be an essential partner for implementing this one!
Follow the leader?
The ninth law comes next in our partial review of Ries and Trout’s genius – and it states that if you are shooting for second place, your strategy is determined by the leader. That is, if you are competing with a very strong brand in your category, and can realistically expect to get to the number 2 spot on the strength of your company and product … you should do the opposite of what the #1 company does. People want an alternative, not an imitator … and there are plenty of ways to give yourself that label through your web marketing activities.
Applying The Immutable Laws of Marketing in SEO, part 1
Jan 21st
People have written classic books as recently as 1993 – amazing, eh? I thought the only worthwhile thing created that year was hypercolour t-shirts . The classic I’m referring to is a book called The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, written by Al Ries and Jack Trout. It is aimed at marketers in general, but all of the concepts contained within are applicable to internet marketing. Today we are taking a selected look at the laws in a web marketing context.
The ‘First’ Laws
Ironically, the first laws in the book are all about ‘firstness’. Laws 1 through 3 are:
1. It is better to be first than it is to be better.
2. If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.
3. It is better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
In an SEO and web marketing context, one of the most important of this set is number 3 – it is better to be first in the mind than first in the marketplace. As concrete business advice, you can take this to mean “If your competitors are lagging behind in their SEO efforts, you’d better hop on your horse quick to take advantage of that!”. You can have competitors, not be the first in your niche and still succeed – if you see that little opening.
And if you take it a little more literally, you could say that it is better to be first (in the Google rankings) than it is to be better … and you’d have a highly profitable view of business on the web!
Battle of Perceptions
The law we are talking about here, number 4, is : Marketing is not a battle of products, it’s a battle of perceptions.
In the real world, it refers to the importance of brand-building. You should have a brand that is both recognizable and respected. In web marketing this is less important, because consumers are more apt to research and choose, than blindly brand-follow.
Yet, you should always focus on maintaining good perceptions of your business, as well as maintaining good products. If your website looks a little shonky, or you link out to bad neighborhoods, or your website is listed in dodgy directories, you lose in the battle of perceptions. SEO specialists can help determine exactly how those perceptions are best ‘massaged’.
By the way, we’ll be looking at more or less all of the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing in an SEO context over the coming weeks … so stay tuned!
SEO: Positioning Your Site First – webmarketingexperts.com.au
Sep 18th
Your ranking is critical to your business success. This reality that hits all online businesses must be addressed or the investments on the business will be wasted. A position in the searches can provide a vantage point for your site because this is what users are looking at when they seek information. Thus, a web marketing strategy is needed to bring your site to a good rank in the search results.
Minimize your risk as you are maximizing your online visibility. In some internet advertising methods, you are required to pay larger investments than what SEO is asking. Paid advertising can bring instant results, unlike organic search engine optimization. However, it also gets your position down fast just as how your results went up. In SEO, you cannot bring your site to an instant rank but you must bide a little time to see results. But contrary to the “fast ripe, fast rotten” effect of paid advertising, natural search optimization can make your name stay in searches for a long time.
Your site must also be designed to fit the demands of search engine optimization. This is the reason why a good web design can bring more benefits to make your site become more search engine friendly. When your site shows up in the front pages of SERPs, you can now start to earn huge benefits from this exposure. Business then can be guaranteed with better traffic, and greater conversion from these visits.
If you prefer to bring big graphics and animations to your pages, there is a big chance that you will be left out by search spiders. They do not like to index sites that are hard to download. So, it is preferable to stick to simple but substantial page content. Get high return for your web marketing promotion.
For more ideas on search engine optimization that brings visible results, visit www.webmarketingexperts.com.au.
Effective SEO And Google- webmarketingexperts.com.au
Sep 16th
Google is considered as a giant of the search engines. Before any website can get high rankings in this internet engine, aside from having an attractive web design, it has to go through constantly evolving algorithms. Listed below are some of the techniques on how to get along with Google and get a desirable ranking that yields fast ROI.
• Create relevant titles for your web pages. As much as possible incorporate 2-3 keywords to the names of each page that provides a clear descriptive overview of its content.
• Provide Meta tag descriptions that generate sales. Think of it as the only web marketing technique that gives you the chance to get buying customers. Placing something on the Meta tag that is not enticing would mean giving away potential customers to any of your online business competitors. Know the metrics of page Meta tags.
• Have relevant content for your site. Poor quality content will lead your site to poor search engine rankings especially with Google. The goal of search engines is to deliver a suitable website to every query that a person asks from their database. If your website has that valuable content, chances are, your site will get the first recommendation.
• Create the right website address since it is considered as the most important element of an effective SEO. If possible, secure a URL that contains at least 1 or 2 keyword/s that is/are considered vital to your business.
• Provide an xml sitemap for your website. It is like having an index (like that of a book) to a search engine. This would make the job of search engine crawlers a lot easier.
• As for the major headings, it is recommended that you use the H1 tags. H2 and H3 tags are suitable for smaller headings. Make sure that keywords are included within these headings.
• Create your website’s online presence. If people find it interesting and informative then definitely they will come back for more. Not only that, since they like your site, referrals are then possible. This would mean an increase in traffic and sales generation along the way.
Generating sales for your online business can be easy if you know how to work on smart internet marketing techniques with Google.
For further queries on effective SEO techniques, visit www.webmarketingexperts.com.au.
Making Business Work Through Search Engine Optimization- webmarketingexperts.com.au
Sep 11th
Marketing has found its way in the web because people have discovered that they can get more profit when utilizing internet technology. Online businesses emerge from time to time and that there is an influx of internet marketers and business professionals who want to get the biggest shot at selling. Bu they have to deal with complicated algorithms of search engines. In the web market, in order to maximize your business profit, you have to create an effective internet marketing technique that can battle the challenges of online competition. Visibility in the major search engines is one important factor to consider.
The convenience of easy access to the internet has provided companies a better way to realize their marketing potential. This is the reason why they are taking advantage of the immense power of online advertising. But before your business can appear in the pages of the search engines, your site has to go through complicated methods in order to meet SEO requirements. A good site analysis will help you to get the most profitable approach in optimization. This is what website optimization is all about. Effective optimization will provide your site with numerous visitors which in the long run can turn into buying customers. That is where online profit originates.
Since search engines work through its spiders or crawlers, you have to feed them the right information in order for your site to get noticed. This would mean that your site must contain valuable information associated with specific keywords that matches to certain queries. The more quality content your site provides, the more relevant it becomes to search spiders.
Another thing that you have to consider is the on-page factor. Aside from having an attractive web design, proper inclusion of titles and headers to content is also necessary. In the web pages, headers that are related to targeted search terms can help bolster your site’s page ranking. And lastly, never undermine the power of quality links. Search spiders value those incoming links since these create a signal that your site holds valuable web contents that other sites find to be very beneficial.
One would say that effective web marketing is enough to maximize your online business’ profit maximization goal. But with the constant algorithm changes that occur in the search engines, there is a need for efficient search engine optimization, one that is timely and ethical as well.
For further queries about search engine optimization techniques, call www.webmarketingexperts.com.au.
Creating User-Friendly Websites For Your Online Business- webmarketingexperts.com.au
Sep 10th
In generating visitors for your site, the utmost usability of websites must not be taken for granted. Attractive designs can catch the attention of viewers but users usually prefer the easy navigable ones. Aside from generating quality traffic along the way, it makes easier for people to get through your website.
For a web marketing technique to work, you need to create user-friendly websites. Here are some ways on how to come up with attractive and effective websites for your business.
• Consider the balance of images and texts in your site. Make sure that the images are not too powerful and lead the viewers away from what they are supposed to get.
• Always bear in mind that creating interesting headlines entices the visitor to further read the given information. Just be careful in choosing a suitable text color and size.
• Consider using captions on images. Like the papers, people like captions attached to pictures.
• Your website must be designed according to user friendly interface and navigation structure. This will create an effective web design since the viewing customer gets the necessary information quickly and in a more convenient way. As much as possible, minimize the unnecessary clicks that users have to go through or else they will navigate away from your site.
• Include some interactive features because they are essential to internet marketing. Creating areas for feedbacks, blogs, surveys or forum can be a great help.
• Avoid the flashing images and when you integrate multimedia with your site, see to it that their file size is small.
• Content of your site is important and so make sure that it goes through proof reading and spell check. Avoid the copy and paste method. Plagiarism takes your website to a risk of being blacklisted in the search engines.
• Choose the right set of keywords that enhances the promotion of your products and services. As what SEO tries to convey, right frequency and prominence of such satisfies web spiders thus making your site more visible in the internet. High website visibility means greater profit for your business.
For more effective techniques in creating user-friendly websites, contact www.webmarketingexperts.com.au.
The Advantages Of SEO In Times Of Recession- webmarketingexperts.com.au
Aug 13th
Search engine optimization is the most cost-effective and profitable internet marketing tactic an online business can apply. It brings more benefits than any other high priced web marketing plan and by far, creates the most effective online marketing results. If you’re looking to publicize your company, product or service, SEO trumps media advertising in costs and outcomes.
It’s obvious how huge the impact of the current financial fallout has on our industry. In light of the economic struggle we are facing, several companies have been reduced to choices that force them to compromise some aspects of their business. The times call for a band aid solution that could help prevent further economic demise. They come in the form of downsizing and sometimes, even foreclosure.
The world of business is slowly turning into chaos. But who would have thought that today’s recession will still produce some of the most inspiring and triumphant businesses ventures. At present, the online industry is still booming even in the wake of a crisis. As a matter of fact, online companies have even increased in number, selling everything and anything that could be sold. The internet, after all, is an amazing business arena.
It gives you access to all your needed resources and allows you to reach out to more consumers at a shorter amount of time. But what’s testing about the internet is its unpredictability. As such, one cannot readily assume a position in the business hierarchy without putting in a little SEO effort. With SEO:
• Your company can get multiple returns for a relatively low investment. With SEO, you get to augment your online visibility, popularity, credibility and revenue. Unlike a media advertisement that costs thousand or maybe even millions and does not guarantee any one of these facets, optimization can guarantee an improvement in AT LEAST three, given continuous and dedicated performance. You can either do it by yourself or hire an SEO company that can maintain the task for you. But it will certainly be less than what you will spend with a personality endorsement.
• You also get to experience the benefits for a longer period of time. SEO takes time to do. But its effects also take time to dissolve. Optimization can take your business as far into the future, given the proper maintenance.
• You get to make the most out of your online business and its environment. SEO takes advantage of the fact that there are more internet users today; that most of the internet users pay more attention to the sites with high organic search ranking; and that a significant portion of them have every intention of purchasing a product or service from a site that it highly relevant and credible in the SERPs. It makes use of links, keywords, web design and content in order to address these facts and manipulate them to your company’s advantage.
For more ideas on SEO, visit www.webmarketingexperts.com.au.