Tag: "Internet Marketing"

Use Twitter to network with local tweeps

Byron Coke | November 17, 2009

Interacting with people online is a wonderful way to get started networking. Eventually you will want to meet some of your new found friends in person so they can become your In Real Life or (IRL) friends. People are more likely to do business with or joint ventures with you once they have met you in person and see that you are a real person and you act the same way offline as you do online. Here are some tools to help you find people in your local area to follow.

You can use hashtags.org to find people in your geographical area to follow. Just type in your city or state and you will see all of the tweeple that are located in or talking about things related to your city or state.
Another service you can use to find people located near you with is tweets.ws. Tweets.ws is very simple to use. Just click on choose your own news topic and type in your state. I tried using my city and state but I didn’t find anything that way. Once you type in your state you will see everyone who is in your state or talking about things of interest to your state.
Another great tool to use to find tweeps in your area is Twittermass. All you do with this site is to go to the website and login with the same username and password that you use to log in to Twitter. Once you’ve logged in you’ll have to click on the tab that says Create. Then click on manual follow for best results. Type in your City and State. The website will generate a list of tweeple in your city and state and then you can follow them.
Citytweets is another wonderful tool to help you find tweeps in your local area. Now if you live in a suburb you may need to use the next biggest city to find people near you. It looks like that site is still growing.

Twitter is a wonderful way to meet new people. Be sure to follow people local to your area so you can meet them in person. Be on the lookout for tweetups on your area. Basically, a tweetup is a combination of the word meet-up and Twitter or a bunch of tweeple in the same geographic area that meet-up and network.

Tweetups are great tools to add to your arsenal of Twitter tools. Be sure to take pictures and videos. This will prove that you were at the tweetup. When you meet people in person you deepen the relationships that you have on Twitter. That’s what it’s all about after all, right?

Tips for Meeting Potential Affiliates at Offline Events

Byron Coke | October 26, 2009

While affiliate programs are not entirely new, their potential as serious money making ventures has just been realized by many. By becoming an affiliate, an individual can opt to sell products without ever creating them.

This is wonderfully attractive if you have great sales skills, but don’t know how to or do not want to create products. When it comes to looking for these affiliates to promote their products, they frequently do it through the most obvious medium the Internet.

Why Do You Need An Ezine?

Byron Coke | September 4, 2009

This is probably one of the most asked question on the Internet among new people who enter the fray of Internet marketing. First, we need to understand what exactly is an ezine. An ezine is an electronic newsletter that can be sent through an email or many people now put them on blogs or web sites that people may visit to read. With time being limited and sometimes lost in spam filters, more and more people go to blogs or web sites to read their favorite newsletters. The real question maybe why it’s a must to have an ezine. Many different factors contribute to why you need an ezine, so let’s look at some of the main reasons an ezine will take your business to the next level.

Ezines are meant to connect with your readers in many different ways. if you talk to people who operating an ezine they will all give you various reasons they offer an ezine. I will give you the most basic reasons which will make it easier for you to get off on the right foot if an ezine is the way you may want to go. First and foremost an ezine is a place where you can connect with people. Relationships no matter where they are have to start somewhere’s and a ezine is a good way to start that off. Ezines help you grow your business in many ways besides building relationships. People love information and many times that is why they sign up for an ezine, getting that information to the consumer is what an ezine is all about.

Ezines are probably the best business builder you could ever have if your real serious about taking your business to the next level. An ezine gives the business your in many options. Over time your subscribers build a trust in you and the ezine you publish this will transfer in more sales for you and your company growing at the same time. Publish a very good ezine and world will get around about it and even bring you more business. That’s the power of an ezine.

Most Internet marketers started with an ezine and have built very successful businesses from them. Ezines are also very cost effective for a company big or small. before the Internet became big the cost of a newsletter was very expensive. You had mailing costs, printing, content seem to always be a problem. Now with the Internet basically everywhere these problems have been solved and businesses can connect with their customers quicker and more efficient than ever.

The future of ezines are always changing and businesses will need to adapt to them. The business that doesn’t have an ezine is really losing out and that will continue. The benefits of having your own ezine are to many to just ignore and act like they don’t exist. For any business to survive they need to bring in new business and a ezine can help you do this.

Introducing new products through an ezine is very cost effective as your already delivering to a warm market, plus people who believe in you is another reason that ezines are a must in today’s electronic publishing world. Businesses that don’t consider using a ezine aren’t going to be around as long as the ones that do. The key to lasting is building relationships and making sure those relationships are kept. Using an ezine is one tool that can help you do that. Without the ezine your just making it alot harder to succeed in your line of chosen work.

Ethical Internet Marketing Practices – Creating Incentives and Promotions

Byron Coke | May 24, 2009

Incentives and promotions are one of the most common tools Internet marketers use to acquire subscribers and customers.

Incentives can be used to entice someone to subscribe to your newsletter or to purchase your product or service. Promotions are used to publicize or promote a product or service.

You can create incentives or promotions your self or you can use someone else’s product.
Allow me to explain…

A classic example of an incentive is to offer new subscribers a free gift. This free gift is usually an informative ebook or report they can download immediately after subscribing to your newsletter.

The ebook or report coincides with the products or services you offer. For instance, if you offer health and wellness products, your incentive ebook or report would be on the topic of health and wellness. You wouldn’t want to offer an automotive book or a report on Internet marketing. That would defeat your purpose.

One way to obtain give-away e-books or reports is to purchase Private Label Rights (PLR). PLR allows you to purchase books that have been written by someone else and give them away or sell them on your website.

There are numerous private label rights programs, which provide e-books and reports on every topic known to man. Several of these companies are listed in “The Honest Marketer”.

Choose your incentives wisely. Don’t give your new subscribers a poorly written report that contains useless information. It’s not that difficult to compile a good report filled with beneficial information. And the pay-off can be tremendous if you take the time to organize a report or compile an ebook that provides people with the information they are seeking.

As mentioned earlier, people receive many newsletters and offers. While it used to be the “in” thing to offer a freebie, people are much more aware of marketing ploys and find the word “free” to be a turn-off. They assume there will be some catch.

Promotions are offers such as discounts; special deals such as buy one, get one free; free shipping; clearance sale; new product announcement; etc.

You might have promotions that coincide with holidays or awareness events, such as breast cancer awareness. You can run promotions daily, weekly, monthly, semi-annually, bi-annually, or annually.

I once knew a woman who offered a different promotion each day. She began offering daily promotions to test out various ideas she had written down in her marketing plan. She made them fun and irresistible.

For instance, one day she offered a 10 percent discount on products that had the color pink on the label and then donated 10 percent to a breast cancer awareness organization. Another day she offered the same discount on products that had the color green on the label and donated a percentage to an environmental organization.

Another day she offered free shipping on all orders that included at least one herbal dietary product. The next day she took 20 percent off all orders and included free shipping. She mixed her promotions up and you never knew what she would do next.

Her promotions piqued my curiosity and I visited her website frequently. Her deals were always great. She was prompt in shipping the product. She had excellent customer service. In the five years I did business with her, I never had a problem. Today, she sells her product line on QVC.

My point is, in order to make it big in Internet marketing; you have to be creative and unique with your incentives and promotions. You don’t need a lot of money to offer incentives and promotions. In fact, you don’t need any money at all. The only thing you need is to let your imagination run free and don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone.

Always keep your incentives and promotions above board. If you say you are donating a percentage of your profits to an organization such as breast cancer, you would be wise to show a copy of the check you submitted to the organization.

You’ll find other valuable tips in “The Honest Marketer.”

Ethical Internet Marketing Practices – How to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Byron Coke | May 17, 2009

It doesn’t matter if you are a newbie or a pro; when it comes to Internet marketing you must have targeted traffic or you’ll soon be a sinking ship. Targeted traffic means that the people who are finding your website are actually interested in what your offer.

Websites are cataloged in search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL. In addition to the giants, there are hundreds of lesser-known search engines that people use every day.

Search Engine Optimization

Certain techniques are used to help websites obtain ranking within the various search engines. One of the most common techniques is referred to as search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO techniques utilize keywords or key phrases to help search engines identify the content on each web page. The more targeted the keywords or phrases, the higher your web page will rank in the search engines.

If your website is about a popular topic such as Internet marketing, or health and wellness, you’ll be competing with thousands of people for those top spots. People do all sorts of ludicrous acts to obtain the number one spot.

Occasionally the ludicrous acts will work and a website will shoot to the top. However, it won’t take long for the search engine owners to figure out what you have done. As soon as they do, they will yank your site from their search engine. Using unethical practices to capture a high rank will quickly get you blacklisted from all the search engines forever.

Be on the look out for companies who tell you they can get your website in front of a million visitors in one day. Or ones that claim they can get your pages ranked in the top positions at all major search engines. The vast majority of these companies use unethical techniques that can ruin your business.

Ad Blasting Programs

Popular traffic driving schemes include ad blasting programs. In these programs, members agree to accept ads from other members. Doing so allows you to post a certain number of advertisements each day.

The problem with these types of programs is you receive a tremendous amount of mail. A large percentage of the ads are written by people who have no clue what they are doing. Everyone wants to sell what they have, but nobody wants to buy. The ads consist of everything from Internet marketing programs to porn.

If you do decide to embark on this type of traffic building program, proceed with caution! You would be wise to set-up a separate email account to receive the hundreds of offers that pour in daily.

These types of programs are great for learning how NOT to write ads. Very few of the ads posted in traffic building programs are worth reading. It’s sad, but true. After you begin receiving dozens of ads, you’ll soon find yourself selecting the “delete all” option. Than it will sink in that if you are deleting all of the ads without reading them, chances are good that a lot of others are doing the same.

Pay Per Click Advertising

Instead of wasting time on ad blasting programs, consider investing in pay-per-click advertising (PPC). PPC can bring highly targeted visitors to your website in a matter of minutes.

Google Adsense is one of the most popular PPC programs; along with Yahoo! Search Marketing and MSN Adcenter. Oftentimes you can open an account for $10 USD. With PPC advertising you purchase keywords associated to your product or service.

You can also select to publish PPC advertisements on your website or blog. When your visitors click on these ads, you are paid a percentage. After you accrue a certain amount, a check is issued to you. Generally, you are required to have a minimum of $100 in your account before you are paid. If you do not accrue that in a month, it rolls over until you reach the minimum.

Last, but not least, when engaging in PPC advertising, keep this in mind…

Keep a watchful eye on ads that are being displayed on your website. Most PPC organizations provide you with options to block certain types of ads. Depending on what you sell, you could end up with ads for things that could be deemed unethical.

The same holds true for where your ads are being displayed. If your ad ends up on a “XXX” website, it could harm your reputation. Track your ads and be mindful of where they are posted and what they contain.

In “The Internet Marketer“, you can discover other traffic driving methods to drive targeted traffic to your website.