Serious Marketing Guide

Building an online business is not easy, especially when you are on a very limited budget.

As I come in contact with more people, I realize that numerous publishers and netpreneurs are overlooking some very effective free advertising opportunities. Examples of these opportunities are: 1. Welcome letter for your subscribers – I subscribe to tons of groups and ezines and am always disappointed when I get the default welcome letter. Personalize it by introducing yourself and letting the subscriber know about your website/business. This is a crucial moment in that you can start bonding/connecting with the reader before they even get your ezine. Inform them of any specials you might have. Tell them your advertising rates and add a testimonial. Invite them to your site to utilize the free resources. Let them know your email so they can contact you. Use some of the space for ad swapping with other publishers and their welcome letters. Add an affiliate product or program review. 2. Goodbye letter for your subscribers – This is your last chance to get this person back. Make it a good one!
Thank them for being a subscriber and encourage them to re-sub. I also have a little message in my goodbye letter that encourages people to let me know why they unsubbed. Example: Thank you for being a subscriber to the Bulletin. I am sorry to see you go. If you could take a minute to let me know why you unsubbed, I would appreciate it. Please drop a quick note to (put email here) Thank you. By doing this you might be able to change their minds and if not, you could find ways to improve your ezine for the next subscriber. Remember, always send them an appreciative thank you note as well. 3. Email Signature – This simple but powerful method of promotion is unknown to some. By using an effective email signature, every time your email goes out to someone, you have free advertising. Join several discussion groups and message boards to utilize your sigtag to the maximum. Example of a email signature: Warm regards, Jane Doser FREE Ecourses – Sign-up for one or all! (Put link here.) Build Your Business with Us! (Put subscribe email here.

) You want to keep your signature fairly short – about 6 – 8 lines. Many discussion groups will have a limit to the number of lines you can have in your sigtag. 4. P.S. – It has been found that a P.S. is very likely to get read. Using a P.S. can be quite effective. Make it short and to the point. A P.S. novel will more than likely be ignored! Example: P.S. Need more subscribers? FR~E Report (put email or link here) Then you would have your main message on auto – responder. Do not just send them a sales pitch. Add some useful information and resources that will actually help the reader. This will get you more credibility, which is extremely important if you want more customers. 5. Thank you page – An excellent way to get more subscribers is to get together with a group of fellow publishers and set up a group subscription page. Every time someone subscribes to one of the group’s ezine, the thank you page will come up with a message something like this: Thank you for subscribing to the Bulletin. Take this opportunity to check out more quality ezines. Please check the ones you wish to receive. You would have each groups member’s ezine listed with a short description.

This is a very powerful method of gaining subscribers because the person is already in a subscribing mood and will most likely check most or all of the other ezines. The above advertising opportunities are quite simple, but simple can be most effective!

When you pick up a magazine or a brochure perhaps with all their vibrant color images and clear text, or choose a product from a catalog, have you ever wondered how these print items were produced? We know that in every publication there are a number of experts and professionals involved in the creative process – from the planning, to the design, and all the way to writing the content. Whatever is produced from this creative effort, commercial printers usually turn them into printed materials that we see in our mailboxes and on racks.

These printers use different printing methods to come up with the publications we read almost everyday.

And one of the most commonly used printing processes is the offset printing. Offset printing is a printing method that transfers the inked image to a rubber blanket, and then applied to a printing surface such as your paper. Most printing companies use this method to reproduce large volumes of documents like your brochure or catalogs because it is generally less expensive than the other printing processes. What most commercial printers do is to produce the documents in a computer, print out the drafts, and then use offset printing to generate the final result. The plates on the other hand, are produced from film or high resolution paper output. This method is so popular because of these things: 1 – Compared to other printing methods, it usually produces high quality image consistently. Compared to letterpress printing, offset printing has sharper and cleaner graphics and pictures precisely because the rubber blanket conforms to the surface the image is being printed. 2 – Although the costs of the equipment and setting it up are quite high, the actual printing process itself is relatively cheap. 3 – Printing plates can be easily made and fast. 4 – Printing plates have longer life span compared to direct lithographic presses because the process avoids direct contact from the plate onto the printing surface.

So what are the kinds of offset printing? There’s the photo offset for one, where light-sensitive chemicals and photographic methods are used to transfer the image and text from its original form to the printing plates. Then there’s the sheet-fed litho where offset litho printing is applied on single sheets of paper or board. This is generally used to do short runs of magazines, letter headings, brochures, and other general commercial printing. Basically, offset printing is a very popular commercial printing method especially for high volume jobs because anyone who uses it gets to have quality materials at much lower printing costs.

The VERY FIRST STEP in driving traffic to your website is through what is commonly referred to as Online Forum Marketing.

Online Forums are very interactive web pages that allow you as a registered user to read, interact and participate in discussions about a certain topic of interest.You would do everything you can to participate in as many discussions as you can about your favorite topic, wouldn’t you? The reason is because with these ‘discussion groups’, you realize that this is your opportunity to learn as much as you can from these people in the shortest amount of time! and more importantly, you can establish your credibility as an authority on your chosen topic! Forum Etiquette – Every forum has its own set of rules. It is your duty as a member to find out what is acceptable and what is not. This can include how to set up your signature. Do they allow links? If so how many? How long can your signature be? Some forums do not allow you to post links that are of certain type of nature. This can include links to porn sites, gambling sites or even affiliate links. What is the general subject matter of the forum? If using a Homeworker Ideas forum for instance, don’t post things that are off topic unless they have a specific thread for that. There are forums that do not allow discussions of a political nature or discussion of religious topics. Even others discourage talking about specific products and companies.

The bottom line is that each forum is different and if you are to be an outstanding member, you have to play by the rules. If you don’t, you might get slapped and even publicly humiliated. That doesn’t amount to good marketing. In conclusion, the best way to market yourself in a forum is to not really market yourself at all but rather to be a consistent member that contributes quality and substance to the community. When your motive is to help others, contribute good content and become an integral part of a community, you end up marketing yourself without even trying. When you start participating in various forums, you’ll notice the various Signature Boxes on the bottom of the majority of the comments posted by forum members. You’ll also notice that after you read a member posting that intrigues you, you’ll find yourself clicking on the link of that particular member’s signature. Just like that, you just created a click through to that particular member’s website! When you simply register for your first online forum, the VERY FIRST THING you should do is create your ‘Signature’. As mentioned in the section above, a Signature is basically what is used at the end of email messages to give your recipient that ‘feeling of credibility’ about you. However the SAME THING could be accomplished by adding that signature at the end of EVERY SINGLE ONE of your forum posts. This is one of MANY times you’re going to hear me teach you about the importance of your CREDIBILITY when marketing your product or service online. Your first major accomplishment as an Internet Marketer is to first ESTABLISH your credibility. As you are well aware, the Internet is enormous – and being able to establish even a small amount of credibility is a major complishment, and COMPLETELY doable! Do everything you can to use Online Forums as your first step in establishing your online credibility! Why not, it’s free! Warning! Forums are VERY interactive in nature, with back-and-forth replying from just ONE particular post lasting for weeks and months at a time! You should post as frequently as possible: 2-3 times a week in as many as 5 different forums.

Try not to spend a tremendous amount of time on the forums. Just simply log in, locate your prior posts to check out any possible responses, respond if necessary, then go ahead submit your NEW POST, maybe read a few other members’ posts, then LOG OUT! Forums could be VERY ADDICTIVE if you let them effect you in that way. Millions of other forum members around the world find themselves investing TOO MUCH TIME in forums. So don’t forget the reason why you are a forum member – that is to learn as much as you can, and DRIVE TARGETED TRAFFIC to YOUR WEBSITE! Another reason why you want to be careful in forums is because, depending on the forum, it may be a case of ‘the blind leading the blind’. You’ll notice that the MOST SUCCESSFUL internet marketers may not even exist in the forums anymore because of this. Just to remind you, When you are just starting your internet marketing career, establishing your positive professional credibility is your first and main concern. Forums are one of the most PERFECT places to accomplish this goal. However, as your credibility starts to rise and you start to ‘brand’ yourself, you may make the decision whether or not you still want to invest your valuable time in the forums. This is completely up to you and your business. Your Action Step for driving massive amounts of targeted traffic to your website using Forum Marketing TODAY! Simply sign up and register for as many RELEVANT forums as you can, insert your Signature Box, and publish your first posts! Don’t hesitate to involve yourself with 3-5 separate forums – of course the more the merrier! The first step is to modify your profile to include your Signature Box. When you create your first post, make sure you can ‘preview’ your post to make sure your Signature Box appears.

Don’t forget to make sure your website link is WORKING, then post away my friend!

Guillermo Puyol One of the many challenges of starting an online business is getting traffic to your website. Unfortunately for most beginner webmasters, quality traffic is not only hard to get, but it is also very expensive. In the following article I will discuss the technique that I used to get free advertising and free laser-targeted traffic to my website. First of all let’s consider some of the alternatives most beginning webmasters use to generate traffic: The first option that comes to mind is Pay Per Click advertising (PPC). PPC is a very effective way of driving traffic to a website, and if the ads are well written they usually bring in highly targeted traffic. The downside of PPC is cost. In order to start a PPC campaign, the webmaster must bid on keywords or phrases related to the content of the website being promoted. After the bidding, the ads will show all over the internet getting hundreds or thousands of impressions. When an internet user clicks on this ads, he or she is taken to the website advertised and the advertiser is charged the bid amount. PPC advertisements are great, but should only be used to promote special offers, introductory offers or high tag items; it should not be the only force driving traffic to your site.

A similar kind of advertisement is Pay Per Impression (PPI). Although they are virtually undistinguishable for the audience they target, PPI are different for the advertisers. With PPI advertisers pay for every time their ads are shown, and not only for the times the ads are clicked on. In order for this type of advertising to be effective, the website where the ads are displayed must offer products that are complementary to those you offer, or vise versa. As you can see, the driving factor of advertising is your budget. If you can afford to pay for your traffic then you can run an ad campaign, but if you are on a tight budget then you have to create other traffic generating resources. So what is this magnificent free laser-targeted traffic generating tool I mentioned early on? Well… you are reading it. One of the ways I use to drive the most traffic to my website is to write articles. You don’t have to be a certified writer or a literature Nobel Prize winner to write articles, just make sure you know what you are talking about and show your passion for it through your writing. In order to get your articles to drive traffic to your website you must make sure that they get published all over the internet and that there is a link to your website at the end of each article you write. Article submission websites and article directories are great tools to get your articles published. Most website owners strive to keep their content fresh and interesting to their visitors, but because of time limitations it is often very difficult to come up with original content. This is where your articles come in! These webmasters take advantage of the free content you provide through your article, and they return the favor by displaying a live link to your website. Before you know it you will have hundreds of pages displaying your articles followed by a link straight to your website. The beauty about article writing is that the links you get from it are free and the traffic that you get from your links comes to you looking for “expert advice”.

These links also help improve your page rank in search engines due to your increased link popularity. So go now, start your word processing software, put your writer’s hat on and type away. Don’t try to sound formal or professional if that is not you. Be yourself, write only about things that you know, and enjoy it. You are certainly going to enjoy the traffic from this great opportunity!

If you have ever tried to make good landing pages, know that you need to test and retest your pages to make sure they convert. One of the best ways to make great landing pages is to look at what the internet marketers are doing online and follow them. Also women’s magazines are a great place to look for what good copy writers write for good landing pages. Some women’s magazines have the very best writers on staff so it’s a great place to look for ideas when you go to write headlines. A smashing heading and some good copy and you’re on your way to making a great landing page that can convert your customers into buyers. Nothing is more frustrating than having a lot of web traffic visiting a site but getting very few leads or sign-ups. If you can put together a simple web page that customer will land on and fill it with some good pictures and have a good clean design you can make a great landing page.

Great colorful pictures and pretty borders and great at keeping a readers attention on a landing page and you have either paid traffic of free traffic. You also want to keep you speech very simple so all readers can understand your copy. Landing pages are not a good place to impress your readers with your extensive vocabulary. You want to use simple words and simple sentence structure. Making your heading lines bold so reader can scan the page quickly you’re your offer. Bullet points are a great way to list if you’re trying to explain some benefits or features of your offer. They are easy to read and make your copy easy to scan. The close of your copy should invoke a deep interest from your reader to ask for additional information or collect an email address or newsletter sign-up. My system to make a landing page is like this: • Bold Headline • Some eye catching copy • Bullet point of some benefits • Closing copy • Offer • Test conversions and make changes • Retest pages We have put together a collection of landing pages and you can download for free. With them you change the copy to your own and upload them to your web site. If you have ever tried to make a good landing pages to know that you need to test and retest your pages to make sure they convert.

One of the best ways to make great landing pages is to look at what the internet marketers are doing online and follow them.

Also women’s magazines are a great place to look for what good copy writers write for good landing pages. Some women’s magazines have the very best writers on staff so it’s a great place to look for ideas when you go to write headlines. A smashing heading and some good copy and you’re on your way to making a great landing page that can convert your customers into buyers. Nothing is more frustrating than having a lot of web traffic visiting a site but getting very few leads or sign-ups. If you can put together a simple web page that customer will land on and fill it with some good pictures and have a good clean design you can make a great landing page.