Serious Marketing Guide

In Web 1.0 world, we are using internet banner ads, text ads, email, newsletters as our internet marketing vehicles to drive our marketing message to our potential clients online. Today, internet had been transitioned to web 2.0, new internet marketing strategies are needed to continue be successful in internet world. With Web 2.0, we need to consider not only the new means of reaching our online audience but also the new nature of the social Web. Weblogs, blogs, and other web 2.0 sites dabbling with social media tools such as wikis, podcasts, videocasting, photo sharing sites, social bookmarking are the key marketing vehicle to drive internet traffic to the targeted websites. So, as an internet marketer for Web 2.0 world and to be successful in an era where customers are freely discuss your products and services, you should consider the 5 important marketing strategies below:

1. Learn about social mediaSocial media is one the most important must know knowledge in Web 2.0. Thus, the first and foremost, you should participate in and understand social media by learning about it. YouTube, del.icio.us, Flickr, digg, MySpace, and Technorati are examples of new engines that you need to understand in order to effectively use them to reach your markets.

2. Marketing Plan For Web 2.0You should factor let your visitors to play a more important role in your new marketing plan for Web 2.0. Let your website visitors to create content on your site and pass it a long. You even can your passionate users to create promotional videos about your sites/products, then use them on your local TV channels and post them online everywhere to get maximum exposure.

3. Join Participate In The ConversationSocial media applications are two-way streets that conversation happens between two or more parties. To get exposure, you can join and participate to these conversation groups. You can join as members to other social media groups of your niche marketing or you can add social tools and services (such as Weblogs, wikis, tagging, video blogs, etc.) to your library Web sites. Enable comments on blogs and allow users to contribute to wikis.

4. Be RemarkableSocial media is a form of viral marketing where interesting ideas and content get passed along rapidly.

Hence, in Web 2.0 world, content is the king. You must have contents that attract your visitors that they can use, bookmark, share online / offline and get your content or message pass along.

5. Get Your Content TravelEncourage visitors to bookmark and tag your content with a click of a button and allow users to repost booklists, book reviews, photos, podcasts, or videos on their own sites. Post your content on sites like Flickr and YouTube where it’s easy for users to find and share it. Make news feeds for new materials such as books, DVDs, talking books, and video feeds so that these materials can be shared by online users and get your contents spread to the internet world.

6. Be part of the multimedia waveIn Web 2.0 world, images and static pictures no enough to attract internet users any more, video is the key driver for Web 2.0. Statistic shows that more than 100 million videos being download daily. So, the effective of video marketing must not be overlooked. Create short videos and post them to YouTube and other video-sharing sites.

In SummaryThese are just a few strategies about marketing in a Web 2.0 world. There are still a lot of ideas for social media marketing where you can explore and integrate into your web 2.0 marketing plan.

Mark Nenadic When a prospective client uses the internet to search for a product, he or she usually types a keyword or a phrase into a search engine and uses the results to find what he or she desires. If your ad is among those listings, you therefore have a much better shot at having prospective clients visit your website to find out what information you have, and what you are offering. However, just because they have found your site, doesn’t mean that he or she will buy from you.

It depends on if you have taken the right steps to persuade them to shop with you. To convince visitors to buy something, one of the most effective steps that you can take is to create a landing page which is designed specifically to encourage them to click the “buy now” button that you have made available. Landing pages have been found, today more than ever before, to be among the most effective sell tactics on websites. Even if you don’t manage to sell anything, your landing page can also encourage visitors to sign up for a free newsletter that will be compelling and frequently remind them of your company, and what your company is selling. This way, when they do want to make the purchase, your company will be the natural option for shopping. In fact landing pages are considered to be among the most vital stages that, when missed, can lead to the largest percentage of lost potential sales. After all, one of the most important part of your marketing strategy is to send targeted traffic directly to the part of your site where they can buy. Therefore, landing pages are the direct solution to that need. To make your landing page most effective, there are a few important steps that you can take: 1.

Don’t send your visitors to your homepage.

This may sound strange, since your homepage is really the hub for the rest of the pages on your website. However, though it may seem like the natural place to start visiting your website, it has not been designed to create the sense of urgency to “act now” and make the purchase. It has only been designed to move the visitor around the rest of the website. Without immediately creating that sense of urgency, you immediately lose a good deal of the potential that you had to start with. 2. Build a sense of trust. This should start as soon as possible on your landing page. Though the main purpose of the landing page is to encourage a purchase from your visitor, you need to show them that they are not being rash by acting right away. By building trust, you give them a sense of security with the decision to make the purchase. This can come in the form of a guarantee or warranty. This will allow them to make the decision right away, knowing that if they have made the wrong choice, there is an “out”, and they aren’t stuck with their mistake. 3. Ask for a purchase. Be direct with your visitors and use your landing page to ask flat out for the purchase. However, this doesn’t mean that you need to make a hard sell that pushes visitors away. Instead, use the right techniques, that primarily include these three: • Use strong action words • Minimize navigational options • Place all of your strategic selling information at eye level, before the place where the visitor will need to scroll down to see it.

4. Remember the basics of making a sale. These same basics of selling have been known for over a hundred years and haven’t really changed much. They are tried and true, and work even with the internet to apply them. They include the understanding of why people choose to buy from you. These are: • That it is a logical decision • That they trust your company • That they have a desire or a need for your product. With these steps, and the right landing page, you’ll have everything you need to convince your visitors to not only use your site for its information and content, but to make their purchase, and to do it right away. You’ll convince visitors that the time is now for buying your product, and that they can feel safe in making a decision right away.

You need to be careful browsing through online turnkey offers to avoid serious financial loss. Everyone has at least one horror story involving online scams, and some are more personal because they were a victim. Once I receive my check for $14,000,000 from Nairobi I can retire from writing advice for small business owners and designing web sites. Wish me luck! Consider the line from the movie «Field of Dreams» saying «If you build it, they will come».

This does not apply to websites. Online, the P.T. Barnum adage «There’s a sucker born every minute» is too often the case when it comes to purchasing a turnkey online business. Think before you hand off your hard earned cash. You could become victim of an online scam. In the real world, individuals with novice internet skills are becoming victims every day. An honest person is more apt to believe what they read online because it’s in their character to trust things in writing. Stories of instant wealth with turnkey websites help perpetuate the elusive dream, especially when the reader has little or no business experience. Let’s examine a true case involving one of my clients, and the extreme nature of what can happen. Imagine this single Mom, struggling to make ends meet while living off the proceeds of a real estate sale, and she encounters a variety of online ads filled with exaggeration and promising the opportunity of a lifetime. Over time, and before meeting me, she purchased 7 prepackaged web sites for a variety of online products and services thinking that money would roll in automatically. To put her online marketing in perspective, only recently she grew more comfortable sending and receiving email. Her total cost for 7 sites exceeded $10,000 two years ago with zero profit to date. Most of the sites were cookie cutter turnkey subdomains with insignificant search engine ranking. In general, the top level domains were poorly coded with grade school level graphics, so each of her sites had serious problems with credibility. When questioned about the lack of sales, most of her sources replied blaming her for the poor performance because she wasn’t promoting and marketing the site. Any person with bare email skills, no previous online marketing, and ruthless predators taking advantage of novice online entrepreneurs, all adds up to disaster. The ones selling advice about how to make money are often the only ones making money.

Read on about how truly outrageous this situation became. To get started, one company required payment of $2500 by EFT to transfer funds immediately from her bank account to theirs. One year later, they renewed her site without any prior notice, and withdrew $2500 again. Believe it. I know because by this time I was contacted to create a super site as a portal page to introduce the other 7, and she asked for advice on how to handle the $2500 withdrawal. Here are some tips to help you avoid online scams when considering an online turnkey website. 1. Look at the web site and reflect on your first impression objectively. Your visitors will decide within 5 seconds if your product or service is credible and worthwhile. If your reaction viewing the parent site is not favorable, move on. 2. If you decide to review their web site further, look for signs of exaggeration. Pages overloaded with adjectives claiming or exclaiming success may be overselling in an attempt to convince you that you’ll be the next millionaire. 3. Next, do the owners or managers of the online opportunity give their real names, physical address, and phone numbers? If all you find is a postal box address and nothing to identify who’s taking your money, don’t do it. 4. Never consider buying an online business unless you personally have the experience to market and grow the product or service. Very few people make it rich quickly without effort and a considerable commitment of time and energy. 5. Don’t believe ads that offer something too good to be true. Avoid the pressure to act now. There is no urgency handing over your life savings until you perform some basic research. 6. Check for comments from satisfied customers. Testimonials from unhappy buyers are never published, so save your energy and skip over those unless you’re in the mood for some entertainment, and enjoy reading fiction.

7. Join a forum to get advice and feedback from other honest people like you. Search Google for «online business marketing forums» and visit several to see reviews of online opportunities from other users. 8. If you are going to distribute a product, think twice if the site requires you to pay in advance for inventory, offers a bonus if you sign up more distributors, or has ANY advance fee requirements. Keep an open mind as you review different concepts, and think twice before you believe what you read online. Another downside to a turnkey website is you own a site that is most likely a clone to 100’s or perhaps 1000’s of pages covering the same product or service. Making a positive first impression includes being unique. In most cases the turnkey site is a fixed design, so you probably have zero influence on the look, and no chance of revising the content. In summary, caution and research will be the key to avoid being victimized. Shortcuts to wealth are rare. Real success in any online business requires long hours and hard work. The turnkey website for an online business may look too good to be true. It probably is. Your success depends on having a popular product or service that people need, presenting your offers on a credible and attractive site, and finally getting traffic to your web pages to make the sale.

It is not easy.

It can be done.