Archive for September, 2009

The inconvenience of building an opt-in mailing list using PPC (pay per click) search engines, is the cost connected to it. The following technique can reduce and even neutralize these costs and at the same time quickly build an email list for your chosen niche market.

Many internet marketers stress the importance of having your own mailing list, as this is where a more important stream of income may come from, within your online business. However, when entering a new niche market the challenge is often to build the new list quickly from start.

Getting free search engine traffic may take months and a lot of optimization & link building work, before seeing any results. One solution is to use PPC search engines which delivers instant traffic to your website and opt-in form. But how do we get rid of some of the costs a pay per click solution involves?

First, an opt-in mailing list is an email list a visitor choose to sign up to when visiting a web page, to get information delivered to their email box. They also usually have to confirm this subscription by doing a one-click confirmation in the sign-up email sent to them, before the information is delivered. This is to protect the visitor from getting unwanted information. At this point they have approved the subscription and is on the opt-in mailing list.

In this technique i’m going to show you, one has to think long term ROI (return of investment) as this method is just meant to reduce or erase the inital cost of getting a subscriber to your list. The real, long term value after that, is the opportunity to follow up your subscribers with useful, free information and at times offering them products, services, reviews etc., which he or she may be interested in.

If you do it right, you can end up with total sales income from your list, greater than the total subscriber cost, thus getting you on the profitable side. As the targeted subscriber list grows, the more income you can expect from it.

A subscriber which is given valuable free information over time, will be far more open to trust and buy from you, when offered products and services as well. An example is one of my niche websites, targeted to the stock market, which as of this writing has grown to 1100 opt-in subscribers and is a consistent source of income through affiliate links integrated into free stock market market updates, delivered via email. The value of these free market updates also ensure low unsubscription rates.

Just one simple day trading software banner, which shows up at the end of every update, has alone generated enough income to more than cover my monthly electricity expenses. In addition comes ebook sales and more. It’s not a huge revenue but is just one income stream among several others, which added together gives good extra income besides a regular day job. If a regular guy like me (educated as a car mechanic) can build an online income, so can you. The key is to continue building websites and opt-in lists in profitable niche markets, until a full income goal is reached.

This PPC cost reducing method may help to increase profit margins even more:

On your domain, create a simple “landing page” with an opt-in form, which is presented to the targeted visitor when they click on a PPC ad. Focus on the benefits of subscribing to your free email list, what’s in it for them. By offering them bonuses like a free report, ebook, ecourse, tool, etc., a higher subscription rate could be the result.

At the top, center of the page, code in a Google Adsense ad in the 728×90 format. For more information on how Adsense can generate an income for you, do a Google search for “Adsense” and you will find plenty of suggestions and tutorials.

Remove any Adsense ad border, change general ad colors to blend in with the color of your page. Black ad text against a white background page is the best. Change URL colors within the ad to the blue URL color you often see on many web pages. An example of this preferrable ad format and configuration, is available on the niche stock market website i mentioned above: http://oextradingresources.com

Now, to the main point, what this Adsense ad will do for you is to put money in your Adsense account, whenever a visitor clicks on one of the ads. The same visitor may also sign up for your opt-in newsletter. On the other hand, a visitor may click on an ad but leave your website without signing up to your newsletter. Of course, a visitor may also leave without any actions at all.

In the list building process, this combination of Adsense income and an opt-in form on the same page, can overall help reduce or even neutralize the cost of getting targeted visitors from pay per click search engines, into your newsletter.

Income from Adsense can vary from a few cents up to dollars per click, depending on your target market. To give a clue and a perspective on how valuable Adsense can be for you, there are many people out there making a good living from Adsense based websites alone, even without running any newsletters. But in my opinion, having a mailing list to promote to, is after all a reliable way compared to any unpredictable changes in external programs.

Arild Myklebust
http://www.articlesbase.com/affiliate-programs-articles/how-to-build-an-optin-list-62915.html

Have you ever asked yourself why some consultants seem to have it so easy? Why they are able to charge premium rates and still have prospects jumping at the chance to work with them.

One reason is, many highly paid consultants have established themselves as an expert in their niche. They are “the” consultant that everyone in their niche turns to for answers. They have established a brand in their niche that attracts new clients with much less effort.

On the reverse side, consultants who don’t find a niche to fill will find developing new clients quite slow and much more difficult. They aren’t know for anything or known by anybody, so they have to work much harder to sell themselves. They are constantly chasing after prospects hoping for work.

I met a coach not that long ago that called himself The Profitability Coach. I asked him what type of work he does and the answer I got back was rather vague. He told me he helps people who want greater profitability identify what is keeping them from being more profitable. Then he removes those barriers to profitability.

Now, that may sound good to him but to the rest of the world this is very confusing. From that description you can’t tell what he does or who he works with. If I wanted to refer someone to him I wouldn’t even know who would be a fit.

So, to find out more I asked him what types of customers he works with. And, he told me that he works with any small or medium sized business who wants greater profitability.

What this man just told me is he works with everyone and he does everything. Even if a prospect was sitting next to us listening to this conversation and they had a dying need for his help, they would not know that they were a good candidate for his services.

This is a sure road to failure. You must always identify which prospects you are speaking to and what need you are satisfying.

If a dentist goes into a book store searching for a book on business and he sees the title “How To Make Your Business More Profitable” and he sees another title right next to it “How To Make Your Dental Business More Profitable”, which one do you think he wants to buy? The book about the dental industry of course, because it speaks directly to him and his unique situation.

Your business and your message should speak directly to the person that you want to attract. The should know that what you offer is specific to them and their problem or their desires.

Another reason to niche is that marketing to the general market is expensive and takes a lot of effort. To be successful in any kind of marketing you must be known by your market and they must know what you stand for.

In order to carve out your niche in your prospects mind you must be visibile to them and this visibility must be persistent. If you are visible and then go away people will never remember you or what you are about.

If you are going to get consistent visibility to a mass market, over an extended period of time you better have some money to spend and a lot of man hours to work your plan.

Establishing yourself in a niche, on the other hand, makes it much easier to reach your niche market. You know where they go, you know what they read, and you know who they talk to. This means it is much easier to create persistent visibility in your niche, and you can do it very cost effectively. If you’re a small firm or a solo practitioner you probably don’t have the deep pockets necessary to create the same persistent visibility in a bigger market.

Also, when you know your niche market you also know what your marketing message should be. You know what things are important to them, what challenges are at the front of their mind, and what pain they are motivated to alleviate, right now. From this knowledge you can develop a service offering and marketing message tailored directly to your niche.

This type of marketing will resonate with your market and make them jump off their seats to contact you. Not only is it easier to get them seeking you out for a solution, they are ready to pay more for one that is customized to fit their exact needs.

Niche marketing will also quickly build your credibility in the market, which is important in creating new clients at higher rates. They must believe that you not only understand them and their issues but that you know how to solve their unique problems.

A solid niche strategy and a niche marketing strategy will establish that credibility. In addition, it will raise your visibility at the same time. Your niche market will come to know you as the consultant with the answers to their problems. It will establish you as the go to consultant in your niche and you will find that prospects seek you out for work and are willing to pay higher rates.

Wayne Landt
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/get-new-clients-and-higher-rates-with-niche-marketing-93725.html

It is highly recommended that you SEO your blog content. It is not recommended however that you make your blog sound stiff and technical for the sake of attracting search engines. When it comes to actually incorporating your keywords into your blog copy keep in mind that the best blogs are the ones that sound casual. Nobody wants to read a robotic repetitive piece of copy.

One key to keeping your blog looking neat and readable is to keep the content less than 300 words. 250 words per blog is idea. Keeping them looking reasonably uniform and the same length is also more visually eye catching and more likely to keep curious eyeballs on your page and not someone else’s.

Another thing you need to note is the way the headline of your blog article looks. Shorter is almost always better. Long search engine optimized blog titles don’t work if they are cut off at the end. Make sure that any blog headlines that you have are.

You should also make sure that your blog headlines are not too commercial or corny sounding. For instance a blog title such as “Make thousands a day using SEO!” is not going to work as well as a subtler phrase such as “How SEO Let Me Quit My Day Job.” Corny headlines look like spam to a lot of people when they get them on their RSS feeds so their eyes simply glaze over when they see something like “Hoodia Miracle Weight Loss Drug!” or “Grow Bigger Breasts in Three Days.”

Unless the acronym is very well known you are also supposed to stay away from using them as headlines in your blog. However this is not advised if your SEO title is too long as in “Valuable tips for Utilizing Search Engine Tips for Blogs.” It is much better to keep the language very simple as in “Top SEO Tips!”

Chris Angus
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/seo-tips-on-making-seo-blog-content-look-good-83669.html

If you’re trying to make money with you blog traffic is must. If you have a blog and not making money it is because you do not have enough traffic coming to your blog website.

Now how do you bring traffic to blog out of nowhere? there are five very simple ways to do so.

1) PPC advertising. This is probably the easiest way to bring traffic. Just sign up with either Yahoo!SearchMarketing or Google Adwords to bring traffic. Soon you will see a quick result. My personal advice is that make sure to watch your budget. The money tend to go down very quickly. Always watch for it or you could set a daily budget like I do.

2) Leaving comments on other blogs. Say that you blog talks about football. Then go to other high-traffic football blogs and leave comments there. After leaving comments, put a link that directcs back to your website. Make sure you’re not spamming anything. Make your comments reasonable. If you can do that you will receive not only traffic but good observe from SEO search engine sites.

3)Email signatures. When seding emails have your signature at the end. Your signature should include your blog address.

4) Get involved in forums. Pick a high-traffic forums and get on it. Your signature, just like the email one, should include your blog address. Again, do not spam.

5) Give away free things from your blog website. This is the method that I use for all my new websites. They are very attractive and people simply just cannot pass free stuff. People LOVE free stuff. If you do not have anything to give away, go to google and search for it. There are literally thounsands of them on the net.

If you follow those 5 steps, you will soon bring massive traffic to your blog. Remember more traffic means more money. Now, your 6th step. ACT NOW!!!

David Hong
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-promotion-articles/how-to-bring-traffic-to-your-blog-139575.html

Blogs usually come with ready made blog templates or designs which are actually pretty nice but customization is always a must. Customizing your site to fit your personality and the subject of the blog would help get readers in the mood to read as well as catching their interest.

So, if you are looking for ways to maximize your profits even more through choosing the right blog design, then look no further than the tips I have below.

The first of which would be including an “about me” space on your blog’s sidebar. Remember to keep it simple and avoid making it seem like a resume. Just a simple description of you and the things you are interested in would do just fine.

Why put this up? Because people who are interested in your blog and what you are talking about would also be interested in getting to know the person behind the blog so having something like that helps.

Another thing is to have your email address visible in your blog. A great tip to avoid spammers is to use a graphic for this instead of just plain text. Though your readers might not really contact you, having that on your blog adds more credibility.

Pictures are also great additions. A nice photo of yourself would further your credibility and potentially get you more readers. Of course, everyone likes a friendly face and when they connect your face to the informative articles you have up, it makes them feel more familiar with you.

Thus building up their trust in your blog and in the things you recommend. Of course, some of your posts would end up more popular than the others.

These are your “classic” posts and you shouldn’t just let them be buried under the new posts.

Create a link on your side bar that puts emphasis on these popular posts. These would get more people to your blog and to your other less noticed articles as well.

Next, you wouldn’t want to have a blog banner that eats up too much space. A nice graphic that has the name of your blog is good enough. Make sure that its not too distracting so that you readers won’t lose focus.

Having a banner that’s too big would distract them and potentially annoy them as well that they move on to another blog without even reading your posts. That’s a client you just lost.

Lastly, make sure your blog is visually attractive. No neon colors and make sure your posts are legible. Meaning, they are in the proper and standard font size of 12. Also make sure that your posts are the center of attention.

So don’t clutter your blog with too many add-ons such as games, videos and music. This would distract your reader and he or she might just play the games you have or watch the videos instead of reading your posts and clicking on your ads.

Remember, the point here is to get them to read and the convince them to buy or join whatever you might be promoting. But if they are distracted by other things that you have on your blog, then you won’t make any profit at all.

Lambert Klein
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/maximize-profits-with-the-right-blog-design-664209.html