May

31

Basics Of PPC Advertising Part 2

Filed Under Marketing Articles | Leave a Comment

PPC, or pay per click, advertising is the most reliable way to purchase guaranteed traffic. You can get a large number of perfectly targeted visitors very quickly using this method of promotion.

PPC ads can be found in the listings of the major search engines, usually in the right margin and labeled “sponsor listings”. Also PPC ads can be delivered from standard Web page content if the Website owner participates in some sort of contextual ad network like Google Adsense.

Setting up a PPC campaign is simple. You must register an account with a publisher or search company and submit your ad in the format of headline and body. After you create your ad you will also need to select the specific keywords you would like your ad to appear for and then bid on these keywords.

In the case of PPC search engine promotion, your ads will only appear when a user searches on the keywords you specify. In the case of PPC ads displayed in standard Web content, your ads will be displayed within articles and blog posts that contain the keywords you have chosen. This formula means you’ll be getting extremely targeted traffic.

You are required to bid a specific amount of money that will be paid for each click your ad receives. Priority is given to the PPC ads with the highest bid amounts.

For instance, you might decide you’ll pay 0.10 for each visitor the PPC program sends you. Advertisers who bid 0.11 or more will have their ad shown higher in the sponsored listings than you, while advertisers who bid 0.09 or less will be lower than you in the rankings.

You will be required to enter your credit or debit card details into the ad system and then fund your advertiser account with an initial deposit.

PPC campaigns will almost always result in lost of traffic. This, of course, means your money will disappear pretty quickly, making the PPC game a little scary for new online marketers.

You can set daily budgets to avoid going broke, but even then your balance can be depleted within a matter of minutes.

Also many PPC providers have stringent terms of service, and it can sometimes be a real pain jumping through hoops to get your ad approved. I admit I’ve never had a problem but I know a lot of folks who have.

The ideal PPC program for a beginner will allow you to:

1. Test the waters without blowing a fortune in the process.

2. Just run your ads without being put under a magnifying glass and having to follow a manual of rules.

I recommend 7search.com for new marketers. This program serves PPC ads through a contextual ad network and on a variety of major search engines so you can get lots of good traffic from a wide variety of sites.

And their pricing is really good because they’re not as advertiser saturated as Google. Plus they have only basic rules in place - as long as you’re not advertising porn, hate, or illegal scams you’re good to go.

As long as you can afford a reasonably competitive bid, you will definitely receive a good flow of traffic from PPC promotion. The only real question is: how long will it take you to tweak your ads and landing pages to the point where you are making sales or getting sign-ups?

This type of advertising requires a great deal of trial and error. If youre not willing to test your sales page, ad copy, and overall process extensively dont bother registering a PPC account. The payoffs can be well worth the initial workload, as most good PPC providers allow you to expose your offers to a huge audience of targeted prospects.

Article by Tim Whiston
Tim Whiston is a professional entrepreneur who does a lot of his work online. To read part one of this article, check out his basic PPC marketing post. Also learn the basics of Web design with Tim’s robust online course.

May

31

#1 Free Way To Promote Your Business

Filed Under Marketing Articles | Leave a Comment

Here’s another online business tip that some business owners use, but strangely enough many do not, or do not use it properly. Emailing past customers and people who signed-up for an account is one of the best ways to promote your business for free. Business owners really underestimate the power of this.

With my fashion accessory business, we used to send out 2-3 emails a month that mentioned new items, closeout sale items, and sometimes included a 10%-20% off coupon, depending on the time of season it was. I would say 70% of our sales came from these emails.

I was really surprised that it took one of our main competitors almost three years to figure this out. Even though “they” received our company emails 2-3 times a month, it never clicked in their heads that they should be doing this too. Now after three years, I get a sales email from this company every week, sometimes twice a week. Like I said, it works!

But Don’t People Hate Email? Isn’t This Spam?

If a customer bought something from you and they enjoy the products you sell, the answer to both questions is “NO.” You will get a few people that object, maybe 2-3% of the entire customer email list. All you have to do is remove them from your list when they request you to so that theyll never get the emails again.

How Much Is Too Much In Terms Of Sending Out These Emails?

We’ve never gotten complaints from 2-3 emails a month. You might be able to get by with one a week, but I’ve never tried it. We’ve gotten such good results with 2-3 emails a month that it made no sense for me to force the issue with more emails, which would cause a higher % of people asking to be unsubscribed from our customer email list.

Be sure to allow people to join your mailing list from the homepage even if they don’t buy anything. If your shopping cart doesn’t allow this, there are programs and companies online that handle mailing lists. Sometimes people will join your mailing list but wont make a purchase from you that same day, and then theyll come back and make a purchase after receiving your sales email. I suggest offering some sort of small giveaway to entice people to signup for your mailing list like, “Subscribe to our sales mailing list and be eligible for a free ‘whatever’.” You could do this every month but it is most effective obviously during your more busy months when more people are visiting your website. Obviously, you’ll get more subscribers and still have to give out only one prize.

Article by John J Rogers
Join me, John Rogers, each week at ThingsWeLearned.com, the business opportunities, work from home website, for over 100 of my free money making business articles. I’m one of the foremost experts in the world on making money on the Internet, earning over $5 million dollar since 1997 with several different businesses.

May

31

How An Advice Column Can Get You More Readers

Filed Under Marketing Articles | Leave a Comment

If you want to know how an advice column can get you more readers, here are several ways having a Q and A portion running on your website can transform first-time visitors into loyal readers.

You Learn More about Your Target Market

The people who are seeking for your advice are more often than not a part of your target market. With an advice column set up, you get to know more about what issues or concerns your target market are involved with. In time, youll realize that the data you derive from your advice columns can also be implemented in formulating marketing strategies.

With the help of advice columns, you learn more effective techniques in attracting your target market to your website and turning them into loyal readers.

They Learn More about Your Common Interests

Sharing of knowledge in advice columns goes two ways. Earlier on, weve discussed how you get information from advice columns and how you can use it to build a loyal readership base. This time, you can see how the knowledge you impart can also create loyal readers on its own.

Lets say you have an advice column on your dog care website. Through the advice column, visitors had been able to learn a lot of tips and tricks in caring for their canine companions. Once they realize they can expect a constant flow of valuable information from your website, information thats usually directly relevant to them because theyre being asked by people almost exactly like them, theyll definitely develop a habit of reading your advice column every time a new question is posted.

Interaction Increases in Your Website

Advice columns dont have to be a two-way street with your visitors asking advice, and you providing it. By allowing other people to comment, you can also have them give their own two cents as well. In time, a high-spirited but well-meaning debate may even ensue, making your website more popular and attractive to your target market.

With advice columns, youre also giving your readers their chance to shine. Advice columns dont always have to revolve around your expertise. In fact, your readers will appreciate it more if you acknowledge valuable suggestions from your readers from time to time.

Of course, the trick in getting more interaction from advice columns is by knowing which question to publish, encouraging readers to comment and give their own advice, and lastly, asking a question yourself once in a while.

You Please Your Readers

Most readers feel its an honor when you choose to publish their question. You please your readers all the more if you share a bit of information about his background and display his website address. Other people are sure to hanker for the same privilege, leading them to come back to your website over and over in hopes of having their questions published next.

Having an advice column also pleases your readers because youre showing that you care enough about their needs. Once they see that you do answer their questions as informatively as you can, theyre sure to become loyal readers themselves simply because theyre hoping youll get to help them with their own problems next.

Now that you know how an advice column can get you more readers, the next thing to do is set up one in your website. Dont forget to inform all your subscribers about the newest segment in your website!

To learn additional ways to attract customers and readers to your website using the simplest means available that most will never know about and at no cost to you, follow the link in my resource box now.

Article by Kevin Tyler Smith
Kevin Tyler Smith is an expert Internet network marketer. “If banking over $14,139.79 per month whether or not a single lead joins your MLM opportunity gets you excited, then pay very close attention to what’s on the other side of this link” >>> www.EZWealthStrategy.com

Next Page →