Where is Your Phone Number?

by Jeff Mulligan (C) 2009

There is probably a major problem lurking on your sales
page right now. And it could be hurting your profits.

Experts agree that one of the most important factors in a
successful website is credibility. This frequently
translates into the credibility of the site owner. People
are more likely to buy from somebody they believe in.

Is your website as credible as it could be?

People judge credibility by many subtle factors. Does the
design of the site look professional? Is the site well
written? Are there typos and grammar errors strewn
throughout the site? Is the author believable? Does the
author have experience in this market or with this product?
These are all important factors.

We also know that a strong guarantee is a key part of a
successful sales page. Taken one step further, the reader
needs to believe he will actually get a refund if
requested. And herein often lies a major inconsistency.

Look at your sales page and ask yourself: Who is standing
behind the product? What do you provide for contact
information?

If there is only an e-mail address, or worse yet, no
contact information at all, then you do not have a
believable guarantee.

If you want someone to believe that you stand behind your
product you need to be reachable. Put your complete
contact information on your web site. I'm not just talking
about an e-mail address. Consider adding your snail mail
address and even, dare I say, your phone number.

At first, I worried about using this approach. I feared
getting calls at all hours of the night. I worried about
getting overwhelmed. But, I reasoned, I could always remove
the phone number if it became a problem.

Turns out, having my phone number on the site is a
blessing. I have made dozens of sales because I have been
available to answer one or two simple questions from a
prospect. I now look at each telephone call as an
opportunity to help someone solve their problem and,
frequently, earn their business.

I have received numerous comments from customers saying
that one of the reasons they purchased is because they can
tell there is a real person standing behind this
business. The fact it is, I only get about one or two phone
calls a day. And my sites have thousands of visitors every
day.

In summary, take a look at your own sales page or contact
page with a critical eye. Do you look like just another
anonymous web site? Or is there a person there; ready,
willing and able to help. The answer to these questions may
have a lot to do with your conversion rates.

At the very least, test putting your phone number on your
web site. If you are worried about privacy, use a voice
mail box like that at http://GotVmailDemo.com. If it
becomes a problem, you can just cancel the service.

Even if your web business is part time, with a
good voice mail system you will sound professional and you
can return phone calls when you are able. Try this
credibility improvement. And see if it doesn't improve
your sales.


Resource Box:

Jeff Mulligan has an MBA and 20+ years of marketing
experience as an ad agency Senior VP and VP Marketing for
two software companies, one of which was publicly traded.
Jeff owns CBmall, a free site that provides 15 different ways
for ClickBank affiliates to earn income on thousands of
popular InfoProducts.

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Guide to free advertising

by: Jeinerd Jimmy

Guide to free advertising When I first started my internet home business, I realized that in order to make money I would have to bring visitors to my website. I didn't have a lot of extra cash laying around, and my mentality at the time was "Why would I pay for it, when I can get it for free"? So, I starting searching the internet for places that would accept an ad for my product for free. I was very happy to find literally thousands of sites willing to accept my ad. As the weeks went by I worked hard and learned a lot. The phrase that comes to mind when I think back is, "you get what you pay for". I was placing ads on the internet every free moment I got and was getting very little results. Not being one to quite, I figured I would move on to another form of advertising or figure out what I was doing wrong with the free advertising. As soon as I placed my ad, I would go back and look at it. I expected my ad to be at the top of the list since I had just placed it. Much to my surprise, my ad was listed down the list a little way. I realized that at the very moment that I was placing my ad, others were doing the same. And as each person placed an ad, mine moved further down the list. In my infinite wisdom... I realized that potential visitors would probably not search past the first page before choosing a product. So then I decided that I would go into that site and place my ad every few hours. This way I knew it would always stay close to the top of the page, and hopefully be viewed by a potential customer. How right I was!!! Eventually, I had my first customer and had made my first sale on the internet! What a feeling! I was ready to take the internet by storm... The week ran into the weekend, and I continued in the same way with my free ad campaign...and no luck. Several weeks went by were I was getting visitors and making sales through the week, and none on the weekend. Are you seeing a pattern here? I sure did. I soon discovered through statistical data that I pulled up from a search engine that the internet traffic on the weekend is super low compared to the weekdays. I also learned that the internet traffic is at its peak around the noon hour in the US. From that day forward, I didn't waste my time advertising on the weekends. Instead, I would sit down around 11:00 a.m. every morning and run as many free ads as was humanly possible. I could just about plan each day at noon that I could get a potential customer, affiliate, sale. I'm also a firm believer in the phrase "work smarter, not harder". It didn't take me long to figure out that I could utilize copy and paste and run the same ad in every category that it applied. I also used the back button on my browser a lot. Most of the time by using the back button, all my information was still there and I could just choose a different category. It wasn't long before I had several paying customers and was bringing in a small monthly income from my small internet business. I often try to teach this method to my members who cannot to pay for advertising to start out with...without much luck unfortunately. Many will not sacrifice their time to this extent, or they will run one ad on the internet and expect to get up the next morning and be a millionaire. For those of you who don't have the money to invest, you will HAVE to invest your TIME. How much is your time worth? Many are drawing 6-figure incomes from the internet within 2-5 years. The internet has made more millionaires from the average Joe than any other vessel in history. Is 2-5 years a hard pill to swallow? It shouldn't be. How many of you are going to work your nine to five job for 40-50 years and have nothing to show for it? Am I still running free ads? No, I'm not. I took my very first paycheck that I earned from free advertising and put it back into paid advertising. I can reach a vast number of customers with paid ads with no effort on my part at all. Instead, my time has been filled with teaching others to do as I have done, and building my own business day by day. Not a day has gone by in the last year and a half where I have not built onto my business. I started out running free ads, then I moved on to paid ads, ppc's, email lists, enzine ads, then I built and optimized my own website, got link partners, got listed with the search engines, etc... If you want to turn your life around and live without any financial constraints, then the internet is the place to be. All it will take is patience, persistence and the will to succeed on your part. Best Wishes for your future success and prosperity!

How to Use Internet Marketing Promotion And Advertising to B

by: Daegan Smith

Internet marketing promotion and advertising is crucial for your website’s success. Take time to create a buzz about your site and that will keep people coming back. Excited people are motivated people willing to spend money on your products. Advertising that promotes both your products and your website will keep them coming back for more. Web site traffic should be the focus of early Internet marketing promotion and advertising. Many effective ways exist t generate traffic for no or little cost. Even if you do not have a large marketing budget, you can operate a successful website. In your Internet marketing promotion and advertising, create copy that will have a lasting effect. The”hurry-up and buy before offer expires” ads might generate a few motivated customers, but none that are loyal. The future success of your website depends on residual business, those that will come back again and again. Offer good useful information in your ad copy that explains how to use your product as well as the need for it. An effective advertising program should be long lasting. Don’t just use an ad once and discard; find ways to use it multiple times. Use a similar approach in each ad and build customer familiarity with your ad as well as the product itself. Think of some successful ads like the ones for Energizer batteries, Taco Bell, and Snuggle fabric softener. Immediately their advertising comes to mind before you think of the product. Have your customers remember your Internet marketing promotion advertising in the same way. Create several different versions of your ad, change the message, color format, and font size but don’t change feature character. Another Internet advertising tip is to never be afraid to explore new options. If you have been using just the Internet to advertise your business, think of may be trying direct mail, set up booths at fairs or business expos. The more you broaden your advertising efforts the more likely your Internet business will succeed. About the Author Why do Some Get Filthy Rich Online and Others Don't?

Advertising – The Key to Success

by: Julie Martin

You have got a great idea, and your website is now complete. You are ready to open for business but where are your customers? Simple – you are going to have to go out and get them. It sounds easy, but advertising can be a pitfall that can cripple many e-businesses. There are several methods of advertising on the Internet. Some are free, some are low cost, while others are insanely expensive. The first thing you will need to look at is how much you are willing to pay for traffic, and how far your advertising dollar can go. One of the most effective, and cheapest, methods of advertising is through e-zines. There are thousands, if not millions of e-zines published every single day. The best way to approach e-zines for advertising is to join a couple that fit your product profile and that you find interesting. Most e-zines offer incentives to new businesses signing up, and will even run your ad for free just for subscribing. You can find many e-zines that offer ads for as little as a dollar. It is a fantastic way to reach thousands of people who are already interested in your type of business. In fact, you can utilize e-zines to promote your product for free, if you can write an informative article. E-zines are desperate for content, and will often offer to publish your article in exchange for a link back to your site. If you go this route, make sure that your article is informative and not just a sales pitch. For example, if your e-business deals with making money from home, an article about how working from home decreases stress would be very well received. You can rely more on making a good impression with the article and a simple link back, than a hard sell that might not even make into print. Link exchanges are another free alternative to costly advertising. Be prepared to get lost in the shuffle if you choose a popular site. The best way to make use of this method is by running your own link exchange from your site and offering a free posting in exchange for a link back to your site. My links page, for example, can be found athttp://www.iscaweb.com/Links.html Targeted advertising is by far the best way to bring in traffic to your website. By using targeted key words, your customers are not just stumbling into your website. Half the work is already done by the key words. You just need to supply the information. Google Ad Words can be used very effectively as well as other targeted key word companies. Most of these operate on a pay per click basis, so you will need to research your key words and supply the best possible words to ensure a good cost-to-click ratio. Press releases are a great way to get the word out about your site and possibly create media buzz. While this method is more expensive than the above methods, it has the potential to bring in substantial traffic. Before sending out your release, make sure that it is formatted correctly and contains a powerful first paragraph. News editors are inundated daily and you do not want to get lost in the shuffle. When writing your press release, it is important to make it news worthy, instead of a plain announcement. Using our example above, if a recent study is released about stress management and working from home, it would be a perfect time to send out a press release that mentions the study and your business. Be prepared to receive phone calls and answer questions if your release is a hit. You don’t necessarily have to wait for an event to happen to send out your release. If all else fails, get creative! There are many ways to tie in your business to current events, all you need is a little imagination. We have covered just a couple of ways to effectively advertise your new or existing e-business. The best advice is to start wisely, plan your advertising budget accordingly and get the word out as effectively as possible. About The Author Julie Martin © Julie Martin is the publisher of “Iscawebs Internet Income eZine” a weekly eZine dedicated to increasing your online profits, no matter what you are selling. Julie also uses the “Plug-In-Profit” system to GREAT effect!

Buying your way to the top with Pay Per Click Advertising

by: Ed Kohler

Imagine if you could advertise ONLY to people who have actually expressed an interest in doing business with you? That’s basically what happens whenever a prospective customer or client types a phrase into a search engine that’s relevant to your business. But how do search engines decide which sites are worthy of top placement in their search results? It turns out that some of the results are ranked by the search engine’s computers while others are simply paid advertisements from companies willing to buy their way to the top using Pay Per Click Advertising. Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC for short) is an online advertising format that allows you to buy your way to the top of search results pages for search phrases relevant to your business. Businesses buy advertising on specific search phrases, and are then charged each time a person clicks through to their web site. How does this work? Try running a search on a major search engine like Yahoo or Google for a common consumer product like “DVD players.” When reviewing the results, you’ll likely see a set of results labeled as “Sponsor Results” or “Sponsored Link”. Some results may appear in the same format as the main search results on the page, while others are listed within colored text boxes along the site of the page. All of those results are paid advertisements from the sites listed within the ads. The ads are ranked based on how much a business is willing to pay to advertise on each search phrase. In the example search for “DVD players” the current top advertiser is currently paying $0.81 per click – one penny more than the #2 advertiser. The ads are purchased through pay per click advertising suppliers, and the two largest happen to be owned by Google and Yahoo. Google’s program is called Adwords and displays results on Google.com, AOL, Ask Jeeves, many smaller search engines. Yahoo’s program is run by an acquired company called Overture, and the results appear on Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista, and many other syndication partners. Why should I pay for traffic? For businesses that have had success with search engine optimization, the idea of paying for visitors is not particularly enticing. However, if you can make more money off a visitor to your web site than it costs to get them there, why wouldn’t you pay for those visitors? Keep in mind that you can choose exactly what search terms you want to advertise on, and you only pay when a searcher actually clicks on your ad, so it generally comes down to deciding how much you can afford to spend for those visitors rather than whether it’s worth doing at all. How much should I spend? The main factors influencing how much money can be spent on a PPC campaign are: 1. How many searches are conducted per month using phrases relevant to your business? 2. How much are you, along with your competitors, willing to pay for those terms? The average monthly ad spend on PPC advertising is a couple thousand dollars, but this varies immensely from less than $50/month for regionally targeted and niche businesses to millions a month by large national retailers. The goal of any advertising campaign should be to bring in more money from the campaign than it costs to run it. Pay Per Click is no different, but the level of detail you can measure in PPC is significantly higher than most types of advertising. For example, with relatively inexpensive (some are even free) tools, you can determine which ads are generating sales or leads for your business. Beyond that, you can determine how much money you spent on a specific ad to generate a sale or a lead. By measuring what’s working, you can aggressively advertise on terms that prove to be winners for your business while shutting down ads that don’t deliver. Tips for Success 1. Advertise on a large number of relevant search phrases. Brainstorm beyond the first dozen terms that come to mind to describe your business. Advertise on the terms used to describe your products, the product names, product codes, and the questions a prospect might type into a search engine that your services answer, and more. 2. Build unique ads for each search phrase. It takes a lot more time to write a unique ad for each search phrase relevant to your business rather than creating one ad for all of your search phrases, but the extra work will definitely be rewarded. Ads that are aligned with the corresponding search term receive more clicks, which will mean more targeted traffic, and in some cases paying less per click (on Google Adwords) due to the intricacies of how the advertising is priced. 3. Send visitors to the most appropriate page of your web site. If you place an ad for a specific product within your online store, don’t send visitors to your homepage and force them to dig for what they just searched. This will frustrate your visitors and increase the chance that they’ll hit the dreaded Back button. 4. Track your results. Spending money without measuring the return on your investment is not a good business practice. At the very least, consider installing the free tracking tools available through Google Adwords and Overture to measure which terms are delivering results for your business. Beyond that, consider using a 3rd party statistics tool with conversion analysis to compile the results of your various pay per click programs into one easy to manage interface. Go for it People are searching for what you sell at this very moment! If your site is not showing up near the top of the results, your competition thanks you. Ed Kohler is the President of Haystack In A Needle, Inc., a web marketing firm in Minneapolis, MN, offering search engine optimization and pay per click advertising consulting services.

General advertising and promotion - Multiple streams of Traffic

by: Eric Koshinsky

You are free to publish this article online in your ezine website, ebook, or other online publication. The full resource box, including 'By line' must remain intact and be published with the article. If you publish this article, please contact me and let me know where you are using it. Contact at: artpub@newbie-guides.com --- **Article info** Word count: 1085 approximately Hard-wrapped at 65 characters --- General advertising and promotion - Multiple streams of Traffic: PART II There are a variety of ways that you can advertise and promote your site or products. In this, Part II of the 'mini-series' on Multiple streams of traffic, I'd like to take a look at a couple of the more commonly known methods of online promotion. Some are much better than others, and some are more suitable than others. Our goal then is to look a little more closely at them to determine if they are suitable for your needs. Read on for more... Banner ads Using banner advertising and displaying banner ads on your site has changed a lot in the last 2 years. The cost and value (benefit) of banner advertising has dropped significantly. I won't talk about them too much other than to say that their main use is now principally as 'branding' tools. A way to get your name/product/site in the front of people's faces quickly. For the average person, it is nearly impossible to get the kind of reach required to really get much benefit from banners. That being said, if you can get good exposure in a niche that fits your market, go for it, it won't hurt. On the other side of things, displaying banners on your site as a source of revenue is only worthwhile if you are getting thousands upon thousands of hits/month. The average CPM is now only about $2.00 (that means you earn $2.00 for every 1000 banners displayed!). Considering that when you display a banner on your site you are promoting a product or site that is not your own, you are giving visitors an exit that does not generate income for you. It isn't any wonder that the top online marketers (Cory Rudl, Jimmy D. Brown, Ken Evoy etc.) don't display ANY ads (banners or anything) from any other site. I am not knocking banners here. They serve a purpose. You just need to be sure that they suit your purposes. I have found that the FastClick Ad Network provides very good service for all your banner advertising needs. FFA's and traffic swaps Let me be very blunt about FFA's. They are a waste of time for anyone except the person who owns it. No matter what the claims may be, they will not produce traffic. Traffic swaps and exit exchanges have to potential to produce reasonably large amounts of traffic, however the problem is that for the most part it is untargeted. Most traffic swaps are based on a system of credits, where your site gets a visitor in exchange for displaying the traffic swap link on your site, or visiting a member site yourself. The real problem is that much of the traffic is simply other webmasters trying to boost their own credits. They are not interested in visiting your site except to get the credit. I'm sure you can see the problems with that. In a way, you can think of traffic swaps as an online equivalent of a highway detour. Lots of traffic gets re-directed your way, but it doesn't really want to be there. If you are interested in learning more about traffic swaps, you can go here to take a look at a popular one. More recently, a slightly different breed of traffic swap has emerged. These focus on generating ezine subscribers. The way they work is basically the same as the a normal traffic swap, however because they are directed specifically at getting subscribers, they don't create junk traffic. Every time you display the pop-up containing the ezine registration form, you earn an impression for your subscription link on another site. When visitors see the pop-up with the links, they choose to sign up for your ezine. There are still very few of them around, so they are very effective and produce good results. There are a few services that provide opt-in services for a fee (usually in the range of $1.00/subscriber), but I prefer free ;-). I have had very good results with this service. It is 100% free and generates dozens of subscribers a week. Ezine advertising Ezine ads (both solo and classified ads) can be very effective if done right. They can also be utterly useless. The key is to get your ads in ezines that are very closely related to your product(s), and that don't run tons of ads. There are literally thousands of ezines out there that are essentially advertising rags. Their only purpose is to run ads for you and every other person willing to spend $15. Before you advertise in any ezine, get some information about the ezine. A decent publisher will know their subscriber base and be able to tell you with reasonable accuracy how responsive the subscribers are, how many ads they run, and if someone has recently run an ad like yours (similar products). If they can't do that, you might want to think twice about advertising with them. Realistically what you want is an ezine with a reasonably large subscriber base (1000 or more), that is closely related to your product, and only accepts limited advertising (e.g. 1 ad/issue). Stephan Peirce's book goes into great detail on how to find good ezines and what to look for and what to avoid - it costs less than a solo ad in a decent ezine, and will save you tons of money in avoided mistakes. A final comment: Anyone who claims they can provide you with 100,000 (500,000, whatever) guaranteed visitors is selling junk. Think of it this way, if it were so easy to get that many targeted visitors (and you only want targeted visitors), you can bet companies (scammers) wouldn't be selling them because they would be raking in millions in profits by directing those visitors to their own products and sites! Do a little math, 1% conversion (a very low rate) from 100,000 visitors = 1,000 buying visitors. Sell a $10 product and you have $10,000. If such a profit is possible, why the hell is this kind of traffic sold for $50-$200? Quite simply because it is junk traffic, frequently created by piggy backing on traffic exchanges and FFA's. In the next section of the series we will start to look at some of the less well known methods of traffic generation, and how you can put them to use to generate a more stable and consistent base of traffic for your own sites. --------------------------- Eric Koshinsky: webmaster and guide at Newbie-guides.com We aim to provide useful tips and guidance for those who are new to personal online marketing. Learn more about programs, techniques, and software that can help you reach your online marketing goals. Come on by and have a look. http://www.newbie-guides.com/?aa Join our newsletter: news@newbie-guides.com About the Author Eric Koshinsky: webmaster and guide at Newbie-guides.com We aim to provide useful tips and guidance for those who are new to personal online marketing. Learn more about programs, techniques, and software that can help you reach your online marketing goals. Come on by and have a look. http://www.newbie-guides.com/?aa Join our newsletter: news@newbie-guides.com

Free Ezine Advertising On Steroids!

by: John Colanzi

Free ezine advertising has been with us for some time now. As the ezine explosion continues, publishers are scrambling to keep pace in the battle for new subscribers. Freebies have become the order of the day. Free Ebooks Free Software Free Training Courses Free Advertising This has created an extremely favorable environment for subscribers. They can pick and choose from the freebies of their choice. Many have hopped on the Free Ezine Advertising Bandwagon. But as the Free ads became more common place, Free Ezine advertising began to lose it's pulling power. Sure you could draw a lot of leads if you posted enough to ezines, but the process is time consuming and still doesn't come close to the pulling power of paid advertising. You had the choice of either spending time or money. If you were short on cash you had to spend the time. Now that's all changed. Imagine getting Free Paid advertising. I know what you're thinking, "John that's a contradiction." Guess What? It's not! There's a new system that will help the average marketer earn Free sponsor and solo advertising. The scramble for new subscribers has created an opportunity for you to cash in. If you have a list of contacts or an extremely active downline you can take advantage of Free Paid Advertising! How does it work? Publishers looking for new subscribers are paying readers in advertising credits for referring new subscribers. It's a win - win situation. The publisher gets a wider circulation and you earn Free sponsor and solo advertising. You can put your advertising into high gear, absolutely Free. If you'd like to see how this system works visit: http://www.listpartners.com/cgi-local/addpartner?360 It truly is Free Ezine Advertising on Steroids! Wishing You Success John Colanzi publishes the "Street Smart Marketing". To subscribe mailto:ezmailer-subscribe@listbot.com If you'd like to see how John uses this strategy to make money in network marketing visit: http://johncolanzi.com/cash.html

How To Properly Use Ezine Advertising - Part Three

by: Joe Bingham

ANALYZING EZINES After having selected ezines to advertise your program in based on how the content of the ezines relate to what you wish to advertise, there is still another process to choosing the best ezines for your marketing dollars. Analyzing the ezines is a rather subjective process, however. There are no hard and fast rules to follow that give you a clear indication of whether or not an ezine is worth the cost. However, there is an information gathering process that can help you to make better decisions. AD FORMATTING One important aspect is how ads are handled in the ezine itself. Where are the ads located in the ezine? Are they made visible by being placed directly between or at the start of the articles, or are they pushed all to the end of the ezine or published separately in an ad sheet? How many ads are run in each issue? Are the headlines of the ads offset to attract attention, are the ads separated in some way from each other, or does the entire ad section look like one big chunk of text? Naturally, anything the ezine publisher does to give visibility to the ads is a plus for you as an advertiser. SUBSCRIBERS: Who Are They and Where Did They Come From? Don't be afraid to contact the editor, publisher, or advertising agent of an ezine and ask them some questions. Find out not only how many subscribers they have, but get their opinion of what type of markets their subscribers are interested in, AND how they get their subscribers. Some marketing practices, such as automatically subscribing people that post to an FFA or ad site, may pull a lot of subscribers for an ezine, but result in very little readers. Ads for subs programs also have mixed results. Some stick around and read the ezine, but many don't. The best subscribers are those that are completely volunteer opt in readers. However, many ezines use multiple means of gaining subscribers and while some use not so great methods, they may also clean their lists of non-responsive subscribers regularly. That's why it is best to ask and make a judgment based on the answer you receive. This may take some practice and trial and error, but at least if you have the information you are giving yourself something to learn from. So, ask where, how, and what type of subscribers the ezine has. Ask how effectively they retain subscribers as well. That is a good indication of many subscribers are reading the ezine and viewing it as worthwhile. FREE vs. PAID ADVERTISING There are many ezines that do offer free ads to their subscribers. Some of these are worthwhile others are not. It really comes down to reader involvement. If people are still reading the ezine and not just subscribed to put their ad in every week, it may be worth your time. If the ezine has passed all of you're other criteria up to this point, it has to be worth a shot. At least this costs you nothing but your time. Paid advertising at this point where you have studied, selected, and analyzed many ezines and come up with a short list is definitely going to be worth the cost. Let's just review what you have gone through in selecting the ezines to advertise in. 1. Targeted Content that matches the product, service, or opportunity you are advertising. 2. Acceptable Potential Market based on the content of the ezine and what the ezine's editor says about his or her subscriber's interests. 3. Acceptable Ad Formatting and Placement in the Ezine. 4. Acceptable Subscriber Base as described by the way the ezine gets it's subscribers and keeps them. Now comes the kicker, ad cost. What's a good price, and what isn't? Well, it just depends. That's not what you wanted to hear, I know. You'd rather I provided a simple rule to go by that made all of your decisions for you. Sorry, but I don't believe that is possible. It is a big subject, however, so we'd best save it for the final installment in this series. Joe Bingham, Editor of the NetPlay Newsletters Subscribe to 1 of 3 Quality NetPlay Ezines, See which one fits you at: http://www.netplaynewsletters.com Need To Publish Your Own Ezine? I'll Write It For You and Show You How to Make It Successful!http://www.netplaynewsletters.com/publisher.html

Online Advertising For The Perplexed

by: Dave Collins

One of the more frightening realities of business is that in order to make money, you often have to spend it first. For independent software developers, the costs of doing business are usually very low. There are often no expensive offices to purchase or lease, a limited amount of hardware to buy and maintain, and for most, no stock to tie-up precious capital. For many developers, the first and most obvious option for productive spending is advertising. And for the online business, there is no shortage of options to choose from. Most websites offer some form of graphic or text advertising, and there is a bewildering variety of mailing lists, newsletters, and regular mailings. And that's before you even begin to consider the printed media. However, before you even start to think about where you want to advertise, you need to consider why you're advertising in the first place. For many companies, the aim of an advert will simply be to increase sales and make more money. Other legitimate reasons for wanting to advertise can include raising the profile of your company or product, increasing brand awareness, and testing new pricing strategies or new markets. >From the outset, it's important that you are clear about exactly what it is that you want to achieve. From there, you'll be able to choose where to advertise. When selecting a venue, an important factor will be how targeted the audience is, as this will have a major bearing on the price that you should be prepared to pay for the ad. In general, the less targeted the audience, the less money you should part with. And even though it's not always the case, you might want to consider spending a little bit extra for a highly targeted advert. The next obvious factor is the price. First of all you need to know how much you will be paying, and whether this is a flat fee, a cost per click, paying per exposure, or some arrangement. You also need to consider the costs involved in preparation. If you're using artwork, you may wish to use a professional designer to create it, and don't overlook that the graphic might have to be in a specific format. More importantly, you have to take into account the amount of time that you will have spend on arranging this. You also need to consider the time period that you're hoping your advert will cover. If the ad will be on a website, then you'll probably be looking at days, weeks or even longer. If so, then you should find out whether you can change the content of the ads as you go. If this is what you want to do, all the ads should be prepared well in advance, and the total costs of these should also be factored into the budget. A good starting point in finding a suitable place to advertise is to learn from the experiences of others. As an ASP member, you have access to the private newsgroups, where other members will often be considerably more open, detailed and revealing than they might in public. When you think you've found the right venue, read through whatever information you can find on their website or in their publications, and only then contact the person who handles these matters. Present them with a general introduction to yourself, your products and your needs, and don't be afraid to ask questions right from the start. Ask about their terms, payment terms, conditions, and whether they offer any form of guarantee or minimum response levels. A little bit of optimism never did any harm! You'll also want to find out if there are any deadlines or timescales to consider, and whether they will publish your ad "as is", or reserve the right to edit it to suit their content. Bear in mind that whoever you contact is likely to know their audience very well, so make sure that you ask for any guidance, tips or pointers that they can offer. Find out who will see the ads, what behavioural patterns you might expect, what outcome or response rate you might get, and whether they can offer any helpful suggestions. Also find out who else has advertised with them in recent months, and ask if you can have their contact details. Make sure that you chase these up, and ask them outright about their experiences. Leave nothing to chance, and find out whether there will be a contract to sign, and any commitments that may be involved throughout and beyond the advertising period. It's also a good idea to find out how flexible they may be. For example, if the ad will run for a number of days or longer, can you change the content of the ads with little or no notice? At this point, it's very important to keep in mind that you are the customer. Don't be afraid to ask questions, don't be worried about bargaining, and make very sure that you're getting all the information and answers that you need. If not, move on. There are many other places to advertise. Assuming that their answers meet your satisfaction, you are then in a good position to negotiate. The web is full of advertising, but even the more popular websites and newsletters often find it difficult to sell all their advertising space nowadays. You might also want to ask them whether some form of trial period may be possible. If they're very confident of a high click and success rate, then they shouldn't object to an ad going out to a smaller test group, or perhaps a normal ad running for a number of hours. When it comes to the actual payment basis, the ideal scenario would be a vendor offering high-quality, targeted advertising, with payment based solely on a commission basis, with no sign-up fee or base rate. This is, however, a little on the unlikely side. A more realistic option will be advertising that is based on a flat fee, most (or all) of which will be paid for in advance. When the terms, price and payment conditions have been dealt with, you're then ready for the content of the ad itself. The following article will look at the importance of knowing your target audience, what to include in the ad, and how to know when to call in the professionals. We'll also be looking at the importance of implementing a good tracking system, and how to follow up an advertising campaign to gain from your experiences. In short, we'll be looking at everything else you need to help make your ad campaign a successful one. Until then, be seen, be sold. Copyright © Dave Collins About The Author Dave Collins is the CEO of SharewarePromotions Ltd., a well established UK-based company working with software and shareware marketing activities, utilising all aspects of the internet. http://www.sharewarepromotions.com and http://www.davetalks.com.

10 Ezine Advertising Strategies For Starters

by: Diane Hughes

Copyright Diane Hughes If you're like most ezine advertisers you wish to generate FAST Sales by sending your message in front of thousands ezine subscribers. Some spend hundreds in ezine advertising hoping to generate a BIG profit... but it ends up costing them more than they earn. Yes, ezine advertising works, but if you really want to WIN the ezine advertising GAME you must take in consideration the strategies below: 1. What do you plan to advertise? e.g. an affiliate product, your own product, a course by e-mail, an ebook, etc. You must know exactly what you want to promote in other ezines before advertising in them; ask yourself these questions: Is the product related to your target audience? Is the product valuable? Does the seller offer a money-back guarantee? Does the Web Site make you want to purchase the product yourself? Does the Web Sales Letter convert into Sales? 2. Who is your target audience? The product you plan to promote in other ezines must be related to a certain niche (target audience) so don't make the mistake to think that everyone needs or wants what you promote. e.g. if your product is related to dog lovers, don't advertise in ezines related to cat lovers because you won't make any sales. 3. Where to find the 'BEST' ezine to advertise in? The 'BEST' ezine to promote a product in is the one targeted to your audience. The more specific your target audience and the ezine TOPIC, the more sales you could receive. Also, the 'BEST' ezine to advertise in is the one where the publisher has already built TRUST with his/her subscribers and they purchase regularly from their recommendations. Ezine Advertising List http://www.probiztrack.com/go/p.cgi/ezines 4. What's your BUDGET? If you only afford $300 to spend on ezine advertising, you don't want to spend it all on one ezine. Try to invest your money wisely, step-by-step. Have you seen a publisher claiming their ezine has 90,000+ subscribers and they sell advertising for $25 - $50 or so? If these offers sound too good to be true, maybe it is! 5. How many subscribers does the ezine have? Numbers don't count, the quality of the ezine CONTENT itself is what makes the difference; if a publisher sends too many ads to their subscribers, I suppose you imagine there are not too happy seeing all those ads. The more CONTENT and less advertising an ezine has, the better RESULTS you could receive from your advertising. 6. Who wrote your Ad Copy? You know exactly the 'BEST' ezine to advertise in, how much you want to spend on advertising, but your ad copy is weak ... try to improve it yourself or ask a copywriter to rewrite it. How to make your Ad Copy bring in GREAT results? - write an eye-catching headline or no one will read your WHOLE ad copy; - use powerful / action words in your headline & ad copy like 'INSTANT', 'FREE', 'GET', 'CASH', 'UNLIMITED', 'TURN', 'BOOST', 'CREATE', etc. - write your ad copy to promote a FREE offer like a FREE course by e-mail, a FREE ebook or a FREE sample of a product. 7. Don't want to track your Ad? Why not? How will you know that the ezine you advertised in is profitable or not? Most advertisers don't track their ads. Just look in other ezines and you'll see their regular Web Site link, no tracking URL available. A tracking URL will show you how many clicks your ad receives and how many sales it makes from those clicks. http://www.probiztrack.com 8. Don't want to use autoresponders in your Ad Copy? Autoresponders are one of the SMARTEST internet marketing tools simply because they allow you to follow-up with your leads and send out more promotional offers automatically. You only write your messages once and then put them on the autoresponder sequences to be delivered at pre-determined intervals like 1, 2 or more days. You can even use autoresponders to build your own mailing lists of leads and customers. Instead of sending prospects to your main Web Site page, direct them to a Web Page where they can GET a FREE course by e-mail. Use this course to educate them and build a relationship with them, gain their trust. 9. Want to play with 'SPAM'? Don't do it if you are SMART. Search on your favorite search engine for "spam laws + email marketing" and you'll get a picture of what 'SPAM' is and how you can protect yourself! Make sure you read about the CAN-Spam law if you want to know how to legally send commercial emails. Also, don't forget about the FTC laws on e-mail marketing! 10. What ads are 'BEST'? If you want to sell something directly from your ad, try Solo Mailings (one e-mail sent to all subscribers with no other ads in competition!) If you want to TEST your ad or want to promote a FREE offer, try Classified, Top Sponsor or Bottom Ads. They are much cheaper than Solos and could bring 'POOR' results. If you invest in Solo Ads, make sure your ad copy is short and to the point, don't bore your prospect with long ad copy. About the Author Diane C. Hughes * ProBizTips.com FREE Report: Amazingly Simple (Yet Super Powerful) Ways To Skyrocket Your Sales And Build Your Business Into A Tower of Profits! ==>> http://madmarketer.com/diane

Web Surfers Revolt Against "Pushy" Advertising

by: Jim Edwards

(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved http://www.thenetreporter.com=====================================

As the Internet continues to populate with websites trying to turn a buck, two drastically different schools of thought have developed on how to advertise online - "Push" and "Pull."

"Push" advertising involves the use of "in-your-face" advertising tactics such as pop-up windows and direct email. "Pull" advertising entails using search engines and posting articles that literally "pull" interested consumers to a website on their own terms.

As web surfers revolt against pushy advertising, site owners who understand how to pull consumers to their sites will come out the long-term winners.

"Push" advertising tactics worked in the past because they had not reached a saturation point. Since not everyone used pop-up windows, a site owner could use them without fear of backlash. Now it seems pop-up windows hit consumers from every angle and even multiple times from the same sites.

The cycle of events with online advertising always unfolds the same way. Someone finds something new that works and people immediately jump on the bandwagon. As a technique saturates the 'Net and loses effectiveness, instead of finding an alternative, site owners just do it more!

Result: instead of pop-up windows going away, many site owners just run more pop-up's - more often!

Well, if recent developments indicate anything, they show that consumers have said "enough" to pushy advertising.

AOL, infamous for their pop-up ads, has agreed to cut down on the intrusions even though their earnings could use a boost right now.

Major ISP (Internet Service Provider) Earthlink even offers a "pop-up killer" feature on their new service.

Almost all email programs come with filters to fight unsolicited email and many email add-on services have sprung up to help consumers eliminate the unsolicited offers for pornography, business opportunities, and promises of instant riches.

This "anti-spam" sentiment has also caused an unintended consequence for legitimate marketers. Many major newsletters have found their emails blocked by spam filters intended to stop unsolicited email. Through no fault of their own, legitimate email marketers have found themselves casualties of the war on spam.

The future of the Internet lies in "Pull" advertising driven by consumer wants and needs.

The successful Internet companies of the future will invest in search engine promotion and in providing valuable, on-demand information consumers receive only when they ask for it and want it. When a web surfer goes to their favorite search engine and enters the keyword phrase "MP3 Player" or "tax advice" that means they are receptive to information on those subjects.

If they read an article about using vitamins to improve health and click a link for more information, only then they will they be truly receptive to a marketing message about vitamins.

Consumers have taken back control of Internet!

Not with laws or more regulations, but simply by flexing the muscles of their wallets. By pulling money away from advertisers who annoy them and putting it with those who meet their needs, the average web surfer has brought the Internet powers to their knees and will continue to reshape the Internet into an effective, consumer-driven communications vehicle.

Any site owner who wants to have a thriving online business and survive the next year had better take this fact to heart!
About the Author

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...

Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months... without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

Sell Advertising On Your Web Site

by: Loren Baker

The number of sites on the Web today is almost infinite, with new ones popping up every day. There are multiple types of sites: portals, "brochureware," content sites, directories, search engines, and ecommerce sites, to name a few. Those that do not sell product or services directly or indirectly on their site often rely on advertising revenue to support operations. So how does one get started getting companies to advertise on a site? Here's a quick primer to getting out of the gate. Google AdSense Probably one of the most simplistic ways to place advertising on your site is to sign up with Google as one of its AdSense Publishers. The Adsense program displays text ads rather than images on your site. Google then serves ads based on the content on on the page containing their ad code. For example, if we post a tip on our site about email marketing, Google ads will likely deal with email marketing services or products (see our archived tip, How Email Formats May Affect Response Rates, as an example). Just in case any of your competitors show up in these text ads, you have the option to pre-block them with an ad filter. Google pays a percentage of the revenue it earns (it does not disclose exactly what that percentage is) and sends checks to publishers monthly, provided that the publisher has generated at least $100 in ad revenue. Affiliate Programs The next easiest way to get advertising on your site is to sign up with an affiliate program (or multiple ones) as a publisher. You will then have access to listings of hundreds of merchants (a.k.a. advertisers) who offer a financial incentive for you to promote their products. Though typically you only get paid when there is an actual sale (versus getting paid just to display their ad), all you have to do is place the ad on your site or in your newsletter, etc., and the affiliate program will take care of the rest. Some of the most reputable and well-known affiliate programs are: * Commission Junction * LinkShare * Affiliate Shop * Commission Soup * DarkBlue * Amazon Associates * Primary Ads * Affiliate Fuel Ad Networks An ad network is essentially one centralized re-seller of advertising space which brokers sales for its network of publishers at mass or liquidated pricing in exchange for a percentage of the ad buy. There are various ad networks out there and joining them is rather easy, but before you do so you should ensure that your site is up to date and meets the criteria of the network. Typical criteria include: * Minimum page views or visitors per month - Some networks require little or none while others want anywhere from 3,000 to 250,000 page views a month or thousands of visitors per month * Content - Your site content should be relevant and regularly updated * Targeting * Residing on own top-level domain - Your site should not be hosted on free providers * No excessive amount of advertising - A site cannot be all advertisements because that won't appeal to anyone As a publisher, you just don't want to "give away the shop" and sell your soul for a bit of advertising revenue. Here are some particulars to be aware of: * Percentage of revenue - Legitimate networks should give the publisher the lion's share of the advertising revenue; somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 to 70 percent of revenues generated by the site is common * Exclusivity - Avoid ad networks that do not allow you to serve ads from any other network * Payment terms - Many times you will not be sent your check until 30 to 90 days AFTER the month in which your balance has reached a pre-determined amount. * Dependability - As with anyone else you might be hiring, contact some other sites * Publisher veto power - Like Google AdSense, does your ad network give you the power to reject specific campaigns or ads shown on your site? Feel you are ready to accept network advertising but don't know where to start? Here's a list of some small to mid-sized ad networks to contact: * Search Feed * Adtegrity * BlogAds --specifically for blogs * Burst Media * Fastclick * ValueClick * x10 Networks * Clicksor For sites attracting visitors on a larger scale, some networks for you to also consider include: * Blue Lithium * AzoogleAds * Advertising.com * MaxOnline * 24/7 Real Media * Ad-Up After you have met the requirements needed for a particular ad network and have decided to sign up, you may also want to keep a few things in mind. Without a doubt you should read the contract word for word and make sure you comprehend all of the information. Then take into consideration the ad rates, types and formats. Would you like to offer targeted or non-targeted advertisements or both? Just don't throw caution to the wind for a quick buck. Be sure to retain the upperhand when dealing with any kind of advertiser or advertising network. It is, after all, YOUR site. About the Author: Hollis Thomases is the President of Web Ad.vantage, Inc., an online marketing firm specializing in search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, and online media buy. Source: www.isnare.com

Integrating Advertising into Your Web Design

by: Stephen Bucaro

If you are going to be placing ads on your website, you'll want to put some thought into how you'll integrate them. Poor integration of ads into your website will cause visitors to click away fast. Successful integration of ads into your site can be highly profitable. Before I show you where to position ads, I want to mention a few important points about ads. 1. Ratio of ads to content How many ads should you place on your website? There is an optimum ratio of ads to content. If your website has too high a proportion of advertising relative to content, the traffic on your website will suffer and you will lose money. If your website has too low a portion of advertising relative to content, the sales on your website will suffer and you will lose money. What is the optimum ratio of ads to content? I can't point to any studies, but I feel the optimum ratio is somewhere around 20 to 25 percent ads relative to content. Go much above that ratio and, despite more ads, the revenue from your site goes down. But, there are ways to exceed that ratio and still make more money. Ads as a service Advertisements can provide useful information, as well as content. In that case, the ads become content. Here's an example. Rather than post ads that pay you the highest commission, post ads that provide the best value to the visitors to your website. These are ads where the value is so good you might respond to the ad yourself. This type of ad is more of a service than an advertisement. Another example is ads for gifts around the holidays. People expect and are not turned off by an increase in ads around the holidays. Finding gifts for everyone on your list is difficult work, and people appreciate gift ideas. Again, this type of ad is more of a service than an advertisement. You can safely exceed the normal ratio of ads to content if you hide the ads in the content. An example of this is product "reviews". For example, computer magazines are almost 100 percent advertising posing as product reviews. 2. Repetition of ads and ad management I have seen websites that display the exact same banner on every page. If I didn't respond to the banner on the first page, what makes them think I will repond to it on the second, third ... hundredth page? Displaying the same banner on every page of your website is annoying to your website's visitors, and a money losing propostion for you. Keep your ads fresh. Ads are boring enough without repeating the same ad over and over. Display a variety of ads, and use an ad management system. An example of an ad management system is a banner rotator. 3. Ad type relative to response rate I have heard claims that text ads receive the highest reponse. I'm sure these results are not related to whether the ad is text or graphics, but more likely related to the fact that text ads are usually placed in the more responsive areas of a webpage. All thing being equal, a graphic ad will always get better response than a text ad. A graphic ad will get higher response than a text ad, and an animated graphic ad will get higher response than a static graphic ad. But animation can be taken to an extreme. Some types of animation are annoying and not only does the ad get a low response, but it also causes visitors to click away from your website. Examples of annoying animated ads are banners that flash or jiggle or do something else that distracts the visitor so they can't read the webpage content. Those visitors that don't click away will scroll the webpage so this type of ad goes off screen while they try to read the webpage. A secret few advertising designers know is that the graphic that will get the most attention is a picture of a human face. People are genetically predisposed to look at a human face in their view area. Try it yourself while you're browsing the web. If a webpage has a human face on it, that's the first thing you will look at. Where to position ads on your webpage To discuss where to place ads on a webpage, we need to divide a page into five sections as listed below. Header Footer Left Margin Right Margin Center column Note: There is a sixth area of the webpage which is the popup window. There are many forms of popup windows; pop-over, pop-under, delayed, and exit. The polite way to use popup windows is the self-closing popup window. Because of popup window blockers, popup windows are much less effective today, and, from my own experience, when I tried using popup windows, the page views on my website dropped by 50 percent. The most common position to place advertising banners is in the header section of a webpage. Web users have programmed themselves to ignore banners in this position. The response rate of banners in the header section of webpages has dropped to something like .0001 percent. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has tried to overcome this problem by defining giant (what I call "battleship size") banners. I don't know of any studies that show this works. Using banners in the head section of your webpage is a waste of processor time, but most webpages still use them. Making a sale this way is a long shot. Banners in the footer section of a webpage are even less responsive. Actually Web users have programmed themselves to ignore all advertising on the web. However, from my own experience, you can get some response from ads in the left and right margins of a webpage. Most websites are designed with the menu in the left margin and possibly ads in the right margin. This means if the user has a low resolution display, depending upon the width of the webpage, the advertising may be off the screen. Place your menu in the right margin and use the left margin for advertising. This places the user with a low resolution display in the positon of having to scroll to view the menu. Too bad. They should get a bigger display. Website revenue comes first. The most responsive position to put your ads is in the center column of the webpage along with the content. As visitors are reading the article on the webpage, they come upon the ad. It's unavoidable. If you imagine the center column of your webpage divided into three parts; top, middle, and bottom, the most responsive position for your ad will be right in the middle. As the visitors are reading the article on the webpage, they are forced to look at the ad as they continue to the lower part of the article. This might be a little annoying to the reader, but let's hope your content is worth that slight annoyance. I would recommend placing your ad at the bottom of the center column. As visitors read the article on the webpage, they end up looking at your ad. This is almost as effective as placing the ad in the middle of the column, and a lot less annoying to the reader. As you can see, how you integrate advertising into your webpages has a major impact on your ability to produce revenue from your website. Poor ad integration will cause visitors to click away. Proper integration can make your website highly profitable. But, ad positon is not the only determining factor, don't forget the ratio of ads to content, ad management, and ad type relative to response rate. Copyright(C) Bucaro TecHelp. Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included. Stephen Bucaro To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp

Advertising Do's and Don'ts

by: Jeremy Gislason

As you begin marketing and promoting your online business you are going to run into some unbelievable advertising opportunities. Generally speaking if the ad offering sounds too good to be true--It is. There are companies that will tell you they will get you listed in the top 10 search engines or place your link on millions of sites or they will get you listed in the top 10 returns of search engines. This last one sounds similar to the first, but there is a big difference. Google searches over 3 billion pages during their searches. The companies that tell you they will get you listed in the top 10 of the major search engines would have to defy all the principles of math to do this. They could not work with more than a few companies in order to achieve this and honestly, there is no way they can get you listed in the top 10 of the search engines placements at all unless they make up their own search terms and people search on that specific term. Stay away from the companies that tell you they are going to place you in search engines for a fee, for the most part they will do nothing more than use a site software submitter. You can get your own software for this or use an online service and submit your site yourself for a lot less than what most SEO companies charge for this service. Guaranteed traffic-- They work fine for free sites or if your goal is to build a database of names, but if you are selling a product or service, you will get hits, but not many sales. Mass email -- Any company that tells you they will send your ad to millions of people for $20 or $30 is simply taking your money. This might sound inviting, but do not waste your money. They are either using site submit tools or sending your ad to millions of harvested email addresses. The companies who tell you they are going to submit your site to millions of pages will most likely do what they say, but you will not see any return and may even get you Spam complaints. Mass emails are a complete waste of your money regardless of what product you are selling. There are many sites that will tell you they will send your ad to double opt-in lists of people. We have tried over a dozen of these services and have barely received a hit, much less sales. The problem is you lose control over your ad when you use mass email companies. There is no way to verify the ad was sent and if you could verify it was sent, there is no way to tell it was sent to the numbers they promise. Plus, you run the risk of being accused of Spam. Solo ads-- These are by far one of the best methods of promoting your product and service. They are targeted, you can verify the numbers and you can subscribe using a unique email and verify the ad was sent on the day and time it was supposed to be sent. Consultants-- Use your best judgment when hiring consultants, call some or send an email and ask about a money back guarantee if they cannot meet the objectives they set forth. I am not a big believer in money-back guarantees because if a service is valuable and you can see the value before you buy, then a money back guarantee is not necessary. However, if someone comes to you and says, I can make your site profitable within 30 or 60 or 90 days and it is going to cost you X amount of money, then they should give you your money back if they do not achieve the desired results. A good consultant will work with companies that he or she knows they can help by relying on their background and expertise in certain areas of marketing and advertising. Nobody knows everything, but if someone has an expertise in an area that I lack knowledge with, I would hire him or her in a second if they can honestly help me and they can prove they can help me and they will back up what they tell me. We get emails every day from people who want to join ISOR with the plan of retiring in a month, making a million dollars without doing anything, etc. and we turn every one of them down. There is no business on the Internet or in traditional business where you can accomplish this type of unrealistic goal. There are, however consultants who will tell you what you want to hear, just to get your business. They take your money and run and they will not help you a bit. We hired a copy writer one time who seemed like a good fit for our company and only after she finished the writing at $120 an hour did she tell me that she would not buy my product. Not because she could not benefit from it, but she refused to pay for anything online. Her copy was terrible and we ended up re--writing the entire sales page. Her feelings and beliefs came across in her writings. It was simply impossible for her to write positively when her mind was telling her negative things. We have many marketing and advertising partners and all the companies we partner with have been tested by us to offer valuable services, but there are thousands of other companies on the Internet and you might find a very good company with a very good service that works for you and within your budget. Not all companies are out to cheat you, but the purpose of this article is to forewarn you regarding where you spend your advertising dollars. We have spent a lot of money and time buying and trying different advertising options and by using our own ad campaign and link tracking system for all our advertising campaigns we have the data to back up what we say. Research your advertising options carefully and do not get pulled into a good deal just because it sounds like a good deal. You do not need to spend a lot of money to advertise and promote your business, you just need to use your common sense and think long term. Copyright Jeremy Gislason About The Author Jeremy Gislason has over 15 years of marketing experience and is the Vice President of ISORegister, Inc. We are dedicated to helping online businesses succeed by providing them with the tools and resources every online business should not be without. Discover how ISOR has helped 1000's of ordinary people and dozens of top Internet marketers earn a living online. Visit http://www.isoregister.com today.

HIT COUNTS AND ADVERTISING

by: Bob McElwain

hen you first open your new site, hits will be slow in coming (unless you are an expert at generating them). And sales will be correspondingly scarce. Even so, you need to be checking your stats and sales with care. The number that matters most to you is ... The Value Of A Hit By this, I mean, what is a hit worth to you? (By hit, I mean one unique visitor or user session.) Compute this number by dividing total sales amounts (gross profits) by the number of hits. That is, find the total earned for say a month. This includes your part of sales of products produced by others, commissions on sales, and so forth. Your stats will provide the number of unique hits. For example, if you have a gross of $200 for the month, and 1000 hits, the value of a hit is 200/1000. Which is 0.20 or 20 cents. If gross was only $50, then this number is only 0.05 or 5 cents. Moving Averages With a mature site routinely generating hits, this number is not likely to vary markedly from month to month. Even so, a good plan is to include in your results a 3 (or 4) month moving average. For example, given Jan: $0.30, Feb: $0.20, and Mar: $0.10, add these three numbers and divide by 3. (30 + 20 + 10)/3 = 60/3 = 20. The reason this helps is that looking only at the monthly data, the above looks like an ugly downtrend. The 3 month average eases that downer feeling. Equally important, it helps you keep from getting too excited about an apparent up trend. Suppose the value for April jumps to $0.40. For the new average, January is excluded; you look at only the last three months. This gives (20 + 10 + 40)/3 = 70/3 = 23.33 which is roughly 23 cents. In considering 23 cents as opposed to 40 cents for the month, there is a more reserved view of the sudden jump. I chose numbers here to make things easier to follow. Actual results for your site will look quite different. And since the computations, while simple, can be tedious and prone to error, most who take this sort of thing seriously use a spread sheet program, such as Excel. Why These Numbers Matter The value of a hit is fundamental to what you can afford to pay for advertising. And you'd like to stay a bit under this figure. If the ad produces only this value per hit, the campaign was a fizzle, for no profit was made. (The exception would be the value of new customers as subscribers to your newsletter, those who return to purchase other products, and so forth.) There's a lot of trial and error in testing ads, but the ins and outs of it are off topic here. For our purpose, suppose you have a well tested ad that can be expected to generate 25 hits in 1000 impressions. If the value of a hit to you is 50 cents, then you can expect a gross of 25 x $0.50 or $12.50. What this means is you can afford to pay up to $12.50 CPM (Cost per 1000 impressions) provided hits add to your subscriber list or returns for other products. If you expect only a one time sale, you probably will not want to pay more than $6.25 CPM, so that half of revenue is immediate profit. With an established site, even given troublesome variations month to month, it is a fairly straightforward matter to decide what you can afford to pay for advertising. Things are different, though, for ... New Or Small Sites Initially you just don't have enough hits or sales to produce numbers that make any sense at all. There is likely to be large variations each month. Even so, it's best to begin this kind of tracking even when only getting started. Probably the best approach is to forget about a 3 or 4 month moving average, and generate an average this month for all earlier months. Whatever your results, you can not afford to advertise until you have a tested ad and feel confident from the value of a hit the ad will produce profits. For a new site, unless you already know the advertising game, this may mean waiting a year or more before even giving advertising a try. Getting Started With Advertising Most find advertising in ezines to be the most effective approach on the Web. The trick is to find ezines directed at your target. Then test your response to an ad in the least expensive way. Given a poor or inadequate response, try another ezine. But given a good response, go for it. In theory, advertising that works can bring unlimited profits. Ezine advertizing costs are often stated with a single price. To make your numbers work, convert this price to CPM. This also makes it easier to compare costs from ezine to ezine. For example, if the circulation of an ezine is 4000 and the cost of the ad is $20, you are paying $5 CPM. Other Paths I've haven't heard any recent reports of good success with banner advertising using the CPM model. Some are reporting success with the pay-per-click model, which means you pay only for clickthroughs to your site. This is essentially the same model used with the pay-per-click search engines such as the one at GoTo.Com. There are no tough decisions here. If the value of a hit to you is greater than what you must pay for a click to your site, go for it. If it's not, ignore these avenues until it is. With an established site, several search engines, such as Google, offer some interesting possibilities I have not tested. Pricy, though, for new or small sites. Directories To submit a listing to Yahoo requires payment of $199. Regardless of the value of a hit to you, submit as soon as your site is sufficiently polished. Consider it a one time advertising cost, and don't look back. Yahoo may deliver as much as a third of search engine related traffic. LookSmart is not such a sure thing. Also $199, they're asking too much, in my opinion. But I still recommend paying the fee. Again, it's a one time cost. Over time, a listing will pay for itself, and may ultimately do so many times over. SNAP is another matter. They also ask for $199 for a listing in their "Top Sites" directory. I don't think it's worth it. And I have not heard others recommend it. But it is an option. Submit for free to their "Live Directory," then walk away. DMOZ is a must. Submitting a listing is free. And if you find a second category into which your site fits well, a second submission about a month later works well. So When Should An Advertising Campaign Be Launched? As soon as the value of a hit and a tested ad will produce profits. Until this point is reached, advertising is a waste of money. For a new or sluggish site, the way to go is to keep working at boosting your CR (Conversion Ratio). That is, continuously examine all elements in all paths leading to sales, in search of improvements that bring a higher CR. By increasing your CR, you increase the value of a hit. Ignore all thoughts of advertising until your CR is sufficient to produce a hit value high enough to cover the costs of placing ads. But once this happens, go for it. All out. About the Author Bob McElwain Want to build a winning site? Improve one you already have? Fix one that's busted? Get ANSWERS. Subscribe to "STAT News" now! mailto:join-stat@lyris.dundee.net Web marketing and consulting since 1993 Site: Phone: 209-742-6349

Advertising Costs Getting Too High?

by: Diane Hughes

Everyone knows that advertising is essential to growing a business. One problem that small business owners have always faced is the high cost of marketing. Most, however don't realize that there is an effective way to reduce the cost of your advertising while - at the same time - increasing its reach. Advertising co-ops are nothing new. Usually they are a "perk" offered by major manufacturers to encourage retailers to promote their products. Because the retailer has direct access to customers that would want to buy certain products, it only makes sense that they should do joint advertising. You've seen it - McDonalds mentioning Coke in their commercials, Dell stating that you get a free Epson printer with purchase and so on. The retailer doesn't make the product the manufacturer is providing, but it IS a great match with what they DO offer. Nobody would want to eat a Big Mac without something to drink, and a computer wouldn't do a lot of good without a printer. Now you can use this same strategy to create your own advertising co-op to increase the reach of your ads and drastically reduce the cost, too. --- How It Works Generally speaking, the cost of any advertisements (bulk emailings, ezine ads, banners, newspaper, etc.) would be split equally between all participants. If you and two associates decide to purchase a solo ad, you would each receive equal mentions in the ad and you would each pay equal portions of the cost. So if the solo ad were going to a list of 200,000 and cost $150, each of the three would pay $50. You get to reach 200,000 people for 1/3 the cost you would have normally paid. And, because this ad relates you to other types of businesses, you actually expand your advertising reach. --- Getting Started So who would be qualified to enter into an ad co-op with you? It depends on the nature of your business. Think of others that reach your same target customer and make a list. If you design Web sites, you might approach hosting companies, graphic artists, copywriters or programmers. If your business is landscaping, you could invite yard maintenance companies to join you. Once you have a list of one or more business types, think of current associates you know who belong to those groups. Also, ask others if they know of any reliable businesses that fall into the categories you've outlined. --- Making the Approach When you have a list of businesses to approach, simply write or email them with your offer. Be sure to point out the benefits such as: * a win-win situation * reduced cost of advertising * expanded reach of advertising * larger, more prominent ads for a fraction of the cost Also, be sure to ask about the advertising outlets these businesses currently use. You will likely find new avenues that lead to greater exposure. --- Finalizing the Deal You'll need to work out payment arrangements with your partners prior to placing the ad(s). The best way I have found to handle the finances is for each party to pay me for their portion of the cost with a credit card. I then place the ad order with MY credit card. This way, you are assured of receiving the dollar amount due to you; and your partners have the assurance that - should you default on your end of the deal - they have recourse for getting their money back. Working in cooperation with other businesses can lead to tremendous successes with advertising. When like-minded companies pool their resources to reach one target audience, the impact is doubled while the cost is reduced by at least half. That's the best advertising bargain around today! About the author: Diane C. Hughes * ProBizTips.com FREE Report: Amazingly Simple (Yet Super Powerful) Ways To Skyrocket Your Sales And Build Your Business Into A Tower of Profits! ==>> http://madmarketer.com/diane

Advertising On A Budget -- Using Print To Drive Traffic Online

by: Michele Pariza Wacek

I decided to try something a little different and illustrate the marketing challenges of a small business. I'm using one of my clients, PrescottWeddings.com. PWC is an online resource guide for couples planning their weddings. Along with a ton of information for brides and grooms, the site includes a resource guide where local businesses can advertise their products and services. We launched PWC in November 2001. Like many start-up businesses, PWC didn't have much money for marketing. Yet we had two major challenges (three counting the limited budget): 1. PWC had to attract two kinds of target markets to the site -- advertisers and couples -- essentially at the same time. And if that wasn't bad enough, we had to appeal to each group even though one was dependent on the other -- advertisers wanted brides and grooms logging onto the site, and brides and grooms wanted a complete resource center. 2. Several bridal print publications had come and gone in Prescott -- and had burned their advertisers while racing out of town. Businesses were understandably hesitant about sinking their money into another bridal venture. Armed with those challenges, we went to work. Now, just over two years later, PWC enjoys well over 40,000 hits a month and has increased its advertising base by over 600%. On top of that, PWC is well on its way to establishing a reliable brand in not just Prescott but throughout Yavapai County. So how did we do it? A great Web site with great content plus three main marketing strategies: 1) Using print to drive traffic online 2) Thinking small 3) Frequency, frequency, frequency I'll cover number two and three in the next two articles. Today we'll talk about number one: Using print to drive traffic online. The cornerstone of PWC's marketing program has been print advertising, more specifically monthly advertising in the local newspaper. Print advertising is an excellent choice for many businesses -- from small to large. In fact, it's not uncommon for small and medium-sized businesses to build their advertising program around print. The strength of print advertising is its flexibility. Print publications come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They can appeal to a broad readership or a narrow one. They can be published every day or once a year. This variety gives you a lot of flexibility in fitting print advertising into your campaigns. You can also track print to a certain extent (coupons in newspapers for example). Print is physical, allowing your customers to carry something around with them. However, print's weakness is also its strength. It's a visual medium only, so it requires more effort and interaction from your audience to make an impact (they need to stop and read it). In the case of PWC, we chose monthly advertising in the local paper as the foundation of our marketing program. We decided upon the local newspaper because it has the broadest reach. Prescott isn't big enough to have its own evening television news, so the newspaper is the best vehicle for local news. If you live in a big city, the local newspaper may not be practical because of cost. In that case, you may want to try a niche newspaper or magazine, like a business or lifestyle journal, or maybe a regionalized newspaper. In Phoenix for instance, the Arizona Republic is the main newspaper, but all the cities around Phoenix, like Scottsdale and Tempe, also have their own papers. Because PWC is a Web site, there's an assumption we should be using only online methods to advertise. Online methods are good, and PWC does use them, but they only take you so far. Print is a part of the "real world" -- something you can touch and pick up, not virtual like a Web site. Print has also been around a lot longer, and carries more trust with it. We found by using print, some of that trust and "real world" essence rubbed off, making PWC seem less anonymous and more like a "bricks and mortar" business (a business with a store front). Also, since we were trying to drive local traffic to the site, it made sense to advertise locally rather than attracting people from all over the world. But even with our local advertising, we still have a substantial number of visitors from around the state, including Phoenix and Tucson, as well as all over the globe. The point of our marketing program was to advertise regularly so we could both build the PWC brand and drive traffic to the Web site. Yet it was essential to keep our costs down. So we leveraged our monthly newspaper advertising to stretch our marketing dollar as far as we could. More on that and how we "thought small" in the next article. About the author: 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 http://www.writingusa.comCopyright Michele Pariza Wacek