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ARTICLES OF INTEREST: Fundamentals of marketing on the internet by itrealtor

The internet provides everybody with a quick and easy way to find out information. It really could be anything under the sun. What differentiates between success and failure of your online marketing attempts can be put down to 2 very simple reasons - visibility & feasibility

1. Visibility Most people search for information online via search engines. 3 major players include Google, Yahoo and MSN. Of course there are other engines out there such as AskJeeves, Altavista, AOL and other location-specific engines.

More often than not, the results will be similar and inter-linked. So, if you need your product or service to be found, it needs to be "searchable" by the engines. Otherwise, how do they possibly list your information?

Now, the main question - HOW TO GET LISTED ON SEARCH ENGINES?

Actually, its pretty simple. If you already have a website, just go to any of the 3 major engines to look for your domain name. Alternatively, you can download this software (free 15 days trial) to check your position within individual engines.

For those who are already listed, we will touch upon HOW TO INCREASE YOUR SEARCH ENGINE RANKING later.

Previously, websites were listed within directories and the more systematic & densely-populated ones generally enjoyed more viewers. This was how net users used to search for information before engines became popular.

So, search engines can be considered to be a progression from directory listings, whereby you now enter "search words / phrases" and results get churned out for you using specific algorithms.

It's hard to tell exactly how each engine sets its criteria for displaying results. But there are a few basic steps that one can take to have a higher chance of being listed.

Research your keywords / phrases properly (if possible, use keywords for your domain name) Make your page rich in useful content (think of what the viewer wants to read, not what you want to show-off) Place important keywords nearer the top and left of a page Use your H1, H2, H3 and BOLD tags in a proper and logical manner Customise your meta description and keywords individually for each page (based on the page's content) Get other complementary / similar websites to link to you (using your keywords!!!) Create multiple inter-links within your own site (not just via navigation bars but also through text phrases in main content) Search engines have their own submission system whereby you can list your website for them to "crawl" - meaning for them to send their "robots" to your website and see what's available. The most important thing about these robots or spiders (which some might call) is that they only see text. They don't "view" images. But of course that's what the tags are for, right?

GOLDEN RULE #1 - "thou shall put keywords within thy text"

Another way to be listed in engines is to SUBMIT to their directory. Yahoo, for instance, allows for free and payable submission. If it's within your marketing budget, then why not?

Some engines also allow for Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC) whereby you can advertise your website (for specific keywords) by agreeing to pay a certain amount for every click. These is pretty good for those who are in the early phase of submission but want to quickly see their site "appear" in first few pages of search engines.

2. Feasibility Studies have shown that most online transactions are for homogenous, standardised products such as electronics , books, DVDs, CDs, show tickets and so on.

If your product is more specific and need a "try-on" before purchase, chances are it won't be that saleable unless of course you are marketing an already-popular brand and consumers are familiar with the quality class, cutting, size match, material, taste.

Now, for services and other truly heterogeneous products which a consumer MUST EXPERIENCE LIVE before deciding, how do you conduct a sale online?

Trouble is YOU CAN'T. Reason is simple - this is the nature of such goods and nothing will ever change.

For instance, a dentist can put up his service online but I still need to physically visit him to do my check-ups. Real estate can be advertised on the internet but prospective buyers still need to physically experience the house and its surroundings before making the decision.

So, why then should you market online if your service or product is part of the latter group?

GOLDEN RULE #2 - "EXPOSURE, EXPOSURE, EXPOSURE"

Think of how a business typically brings in revenue - (1) Get (2) Advertise (3) Sell

What you really want is to maximise exposure at every stage. It helps bring the costs down, create greater awareness and hopefully result in more sales.

Online marketing is not much different from traditional print ads in this respect whereby one typically advertise for greater awareness and wait for enquiries to come in.

However, online marketing is similar to enjoying fine wine and has one huge advantage over traditional print ads - it gets better with time.

If you place an advertisement in today's newspaper or this month's trade magazine. By next week or next month, it will probably be forgotten and treated as non-existent. But if you manage to include your website into the internet today, in time to come, it can still be found.

In fact, in one year's time, say, it is probably going to enjoy a much better standing in the engines' results than it does today and you will enjoy incremental exposure as time goes by (pretty much like having your money in a fixed-interest deposit and watching it grow and grow).

About the Author: www.itrealtor.com is a Singapore property portal for real estate agents and home owners to post property listings for sale or rent in Singapore.

Information available for use by all without copyright but kindly provide link back to Internet real estate marketing

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NEWS: Deadly Effective Ezine Advertising for Internet Network Marketing by Daegan Smith.

What are Ezines?

Ezines are online newsletter that people subscribe to because they have an interest in the subject matter described in the newsletter.

Personally, I love Ezine advertising. I've used this very strategy that you are about to learn right here and I've created some exceptional growth in my business. Just to give you an idea, one Ezine ad that I sent to a list of a little over 2,000 subscribers that cost me $31, generated 55 new leads and 12 new sign ups in the course of 24 hours. That's a 22% lead to sign up conversion ratio! I've had people in my downline that have had better results than this.

The best part is, the people that joined my business from this mailing were focused savvy Internet marketers. They joined my business and just ran with it. I estimate that those 12 sign-ups account for about 40 new down line members in the course of a month and 100s at this point.

Wouldn't you like to have the same happen in your business?

It gets me excited just sitting here writing about it!

So let's get on with it . . .

Which Ezines will we target?

We want to advertise in Ezines that target Home Business Entrepreneurs, Network Marketers, Biz Opp Seekers, Internet Marketers, Affiliate Marketers, and your companies primary niche. These are the people that are actively interested in making money online and in what you have to offer and will see the most value in what we're offering. There are free places as well as paid places to find highly targeted Ezines to send your ads to.

I personally only advertise in the Directory of Ezines because I find it to be the best and most up to date listing of quality Ezines. There is a membership cost but I personally think it's worth it.

QUICK TIP: If you decide to buy a membership I would advice going with the one year membership as opposed to the lifetime membership. Because by following the method that I am about to describe to you this time next year you will have developed so many strong relationships with great Ezines that you'll have your own rolodex of great places to advertise.

You can also use Ezine-Universe.com which is a free resource.

What type of ad do we want to place?

There are two ways to go about this, the fast way and the slow way.

To go about this the slow, way would mean we would first place a small classified ad in the Ezine that we plan to target. We would then track our response to see if a larger ad is warranted.

This method works well with direct marketing online because it decreases risk, but it will drastically increase the time frame until we see our most wanted response - sign ups.

Why?

We'll have to wait and track responses at each step.

The fast way:

I have been using a faster and a little bit more risky method. What I do is I call or email the list owner to ask about their lists to try to get a feel if it is a good match for my ad.

Here is what I want to find out:

How many mailings do they send out a week?

You don't want to send an ad to an Ezine that sends out more than 2 solo ads a week because most likely no one will read them.

How many new subscribers does the Ezine get in a month?

-You want an Ezine that gets a steady flow of new subscribers.

Have similar ads to mine for my same business run in the recent past?

=You don't want to advertise in an Ezine that has had similar ads run in the past month or so.

Does the Ezine owner have a list of references?

-I ask if the Ezine owner can provide a short list of references that I can contact to see what their response rates have been like in that particular Ezine.

Is there a newsletter archive that you can take a look at?

-Since you're going to be running the ad you want to see the layout of the Ezine so you know how your ad will look. What do you do next?

Find a few good Ezines and ask the List Owner some of the above questions to help you decide if their list is a good match for your offer.

After you've done your homework you'll want to go ahead and place your solo ad. Place about 3 or 4 at a time and be sure to track your click- thru rates.

About the Author

Daegan Smith is the Author of "Internet MLM Success" - The Next Generation in Network Marketing! Learn the Secret to using the Internet to Exploding your Downline Growth the Simple, Fast, Rejection-Free Way!" For the exciting New Free Report click here www.internetmlmsecrets.com

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Selecting a Search Engine Optimization Company by Karen Martin

A Search Engine Optimization Company can be an invaluable asset in your Internet marketing campaign. They specialize in knowing how to raise your search engine positions, monitoring those positions on the regular basis, and adjusting their strategies to account for undesirable results in any given month. Since this takes a lot of time, effort, and specialized knowledge, it can be in your best interest to go to an outside source rather than try to maintain high search engine positions on your own.

However, like every business, there are good companies and there are lemons. Knowing the right questions to ask and the criteria to look for will help you in choosing an affordable, effective search engine optimization company.

When looking at different companies, begin by considering the approach they employ to raise your search engine positions. Steer clear of companies that use cloaked, doorway, or bridge pages to raise your positions. These techniques violate most search engine policy, and in the worst case scenario, will only get your website severely penalized, if not removed entirely from a search engine's index.

A cloaked page is a page that is created which is invisible to the regular visitor to your website. The cloaked page is coded to detect a search engine spider and divert them to this special page, which is set-up to artificially boost your search engine position. Doorway or bridge pages utilize the same concept, but often reside on an entirely different server. Google, one of the largest and most important search engine on the Internet, will remove your website from their index if they detect you have cloaked pages. Never, never employ any company that uses this technique!

Another important element is to get a guarantee that the company you hire will not work with your competitors while they are working for you. Obviously, this would seriously compromise the effectiveness of the search engine optimization campaign. Be aware that some companies will use the success they achieve for your website to sell their services to your competitors. So get your guarantee in writing, and make sure it is legally binding.

Of course, one of the most important factors you want to check out is the company's track record of results. However, don't take the company's word for it. They will undoubtedly be slanting their results in order to sell their services to you. To go beyond their simple statement of success, ask them a few pertinent questions, and verify their answers.

Ask them which engines they have achieved the best results on. The ones that are important are the most popular engines, and these are the ones you want to see good results on. Since the popularity of search engines can change with the landscape of the overall Internet, check out the Nielsen Netratings page at Search Engine Watch. You can access this at http://www.searchenginewatch.com/article.php/2156451.

Next, find out what keywords and phrases they are claiming great results with. It's easy to get high rankings with unpopular words. For instance, the keyword "cat leashes" will get high popularity ranking because no one else would think of using it. What you are looking for is good results using popular keywords. Check out the software Wordtracker, available at www.wordtracker.com. You can order a free trial, or a subscription ranging from 1 day to 1 year. This software rates the popularity of keywords and phrases based on actual search engine use.

Next, look for good results over an entire site that the company claims to have successfully worked for. You want to see a wide range of positions over a number of different search engines using different keywords or phrases for the entire site. Request a report for any client the company claims to have done well for. This report should show good positions on a number of the most popular search engines for a variety of different, popular keywords and phrases.

When you are checking out search engine optimization companies, make sure they have actually done the work they are claiming to have done. Some companies will use other company's results in order to get you to sign on with them. If you are in doubt, call the company they are showing you results for, and ask for the name of their search engine optimization company.

It's important to keep in mind that a successful search engine optimization campaign will result in maximum exposure across a wide range of popular search engines using a variety of keywords and phrases. This is the formula for a successful campaign, and you should keep it always in the forefront of your marketing strategy.

Ask the search engine optimization company you are considering for a report that shows you rankings across a number of popular search engines for a period of at least six months. Remember: search engine marketing is a process that is continual, and you need a company that not only understands this, but keeps constant tabs on your search engine positions. That company must also be able to adjust its strategy in the event that search engine rankings drop.

Since search engine marketing is an on-going process, your positions must be constantly monitored. If you want your search engine optimization company to do this for you, request a sample of a monthly report. It is essential that this report should show rankings for the most popular search engines. Don't be impressed by a report that only shows great results for a limited number of small search engines. These are fairly easy results to acquire. Also confirm that the popular search engine results they are showing you are indeed the popular search engines currently.

Be sure the sample report the company shows you is in a format that you can easily understand. For example, it could be in the form of a chart that covers a period of at least six months and presents data such as the top 50 positions broken down on a monthly basis or the top 5 pages each month. Then, ascertain that the company you are considering actually monitors these positions or pages every month, and that the sample report they show you includes findings and recommendations for the specific site. This insures that the company will actively monitor and make adjustments to their strategy on a continual basis rather than simply gather statistics on your positions. You need a company that is actively participant in your search engine marketing campaign, not just an information gatherer.

Obviously, your finances have to figure into your choice of company, but bear in mind that a search engine optimization company is crucial the success of your marketing campaign. It is not just a casual accessory. If you cannot afford a company that will do a thorough and reliable job for your website, you might consider waiting until you do have the finances in place.

If you have to find a company and can't wait for your finances to catch up, you may be able to find an affordable company that will also be able to supply quality, reliable work, such as a fairly new company. Just remember that there are risks involved with using a company without a proven track record - and that risk is your money! Don't take that leap unless the company can supply you with a least a few references.

References are the most reliable indicator of a good company. Don't use a company that won't show your references because of any reason, confidentiality included. Remember - even doctors will provide references! The firm you choose should provide you with a minimum of two references, one that is from the past, and one that is current.

When you contact these references, be prepared to ask precise, specific questions so that neither of your time is wasted. Ask them what their experience was like with the company, such as their availability to answer questions and deal with problems and their ability to meet deadlines. Ask the reference to rate the overall performance of the company.

Find out if the company requested that the reference make significant changes to their web pages that affected the visitors coming to their site. You are looking for a search engine optimization company that can balance the needs of both search engines and site visitors without compromising either.

The most essential question to ask is whether the work of the search engine optimization company resulted in higher profits for the reference. Without profits, it doesn't matter whether your positions are at the top of the list or not.

P.S.

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