Can you really make internet money with internet marketing?
Absolutely yes, yes and yes. I’m not going to beat around the bush; depending on what traffic medium you are using it may or may not take a lot of work.
You see, anyone can build a website if they put their mind to it or you can buy a website. They are being sold all over the net. However, what keeps many from making internet money is getting traffic to their site.
The reason why website traffic is crucial is because without it you have no business and no income. This task has become somewhat challenging these days, nevertheless, if you are patient and learn quickly you can become successful at getting traffic to your site and making internet money.
There are many things you can do to get traffic to your website. You have Google adwords , Pay-Per-Click, which is by far the fastest way to get traffic to your site and achieve internet income. But, there is a huge learning curve.
Article writing which could not only get traffic to your site but also enhanced SEO optimization, most people are very lazy about doing it though.
Let’s not forget to mention Youtube, which has tons of great free traffic provided you build a video that gets a lot of views. Blogging, this tragedy works if you have multi-blogs that links back to your site. It will allow for excellent SEO optimization because Google loves one way back links which will get you listed and increase traffic and in turn help you achieve great internet income.
Social bookmarking helps in allowing other people to see your site. However, this is a task most people skip all together. It allows you to build momentum, you would be surprise how many people who uses Stumbleton, Spurl, online wire, Blitz and other bookmarking sites. There are great site to use above and it help you on your way to making internet money.
Online forums can be great way to get traffic to your website. But, it takes a lot of work though and consistency. What you can do is go to Google and input whatever industry you’re in and write forum after it. Say, you’re in making internet money; you can put in Google search box, internet money forum. This should allow you to find forums that relate to your industry and you can post and get to know topics in the forum and relate to them, under your signature box you would put in your website address.
Email marketing is a great way to get traffic and make internet money. However, you need to build a list. If you don’t have a list you can buy one at submit pro. You can try a small list to see if it works if not keep looking for other good sites.
All the suggestion above should be done once you understand how each works. Google can be fairly complicated, but you can make internet money pretty fast that way. If you’re not careful you can loose a lot of money. Read as much as possible until you know everything there is to know about it and likewise for all other suggestions above.
One great way to build income streams to have multiple product needs. One good product would be a universal product that even you weren’t looking to sell anything you would be interested in selling it. A product that is all set up for you and you can use all the suggestion above to send traffic to it to make internet money once you know what you are doing.
dimanche 21 décembre 2008
List Building! The Number 1 Secret To Big Money Online
Internet marketing is one of the most powerful methods of marketing and is so varied by nature that the modern business entrepreneurs are left with a huge number of options to choose from. Either adopting a single method or a combination of methods and styles, the modern business people owe gratitude to the Internet business and marketing modes.
However, list building, is one of the most effective and strongest ways to market a product over the Internet. In fact, once you create a list you can then also take it and market offline.
The list building concepts are quite simple and if done correctly will help you create the perfect online business, which is stable and ever growing. It is a concept so smart and so transcendental by nature that the modern day entrepreneurs admire it and accept it as one of the pivotal tools for marketing and running their businesses online.
The list building concepts are usually built around searching for people who have an interest in your chosen niche.
Making a list of people with a strong interest in your product or services online is the basis of building an amazing long term business. For example, if your products or services are related to the flower business, you would obviously target people who have an interest in growing flowers, nursing them, treating them, selling them, reading about them, etc, etc.
The more targeted your niche, the better. For example I would rather build a list of people interested in flowers, than I would build a list of people interested in gardening. You can even go deeper with this and build a list of people interested in the rose flower.
It is extremely important to understand why people would want to join your list. What drives these people to be interested in this particular subject, what are they looking for, is it answers, advice, tips, products.
The number 1 point regarding this, concerns the emails you send to your list, the emails must contain information that interests and excites them. If the emails do not contain valuable information, then your business will suffer, but more importantly, you will have a list of unresponsive subscribers, who will eventually cancel their subscription.
Once you have a list of hungry, flower lovers or even better, rose flower lovers, they will obviously be happy to receive interesting emails regarding their beloved flowers. This leads us to the most important part of list building.
How to build a relationship with your subscribers!
The strength of the relationship between the list owner and their list, is the secret to having a highly responsive list. They must feel like they know, like and trust you, to do this takes a little time, but the rewards are immense.
Be yourself and be honest, only give information that you know is of the highest quality. Once you have a relationship built with your list, you can send an email with a call to action (product offer) and you will get results.
Well, there you go, a quick over view of list building. The secret to building a massive online business.
However, list building, is one of the most effective and strongest ways to market a product over the Internet. In fact, once you create a list you can then also take it and market offline.
The list building concepts are quite simple and if done correctly will help you create the perfect online business, which is stable and ever growing. It is a concept so smart and so transcendental by nature that the modern day entrepreneurs admire it and accept it as one of the pivotal tools for marketing and running their businesses online.
The list building concepts are usually built around searching for people who have an interest in your chosen niche.
Making a list of people with a strong interest in your product or services online is the basis of building an amazing long term business. For example, if your products or services are related to the flower business, you would obviously target people who have an interest in growing flowers, nursing them, treating them, selling them, reading about them, etc, etc.
The more targeted your niche, the better. For example I would rather build a list of people interested in flowers, than I would build a list of people interested in gardening. You can even go deeper with this and build a list of people interested in the rose flower.
It is extremely important to understand why people would want to join your list. What drives these people to be interested in this particular subject, what are they looking for, is it answers, advice, tips, products.
The number 1 point regarding this, concerns the emails you send to your list, the emails must contain information that interests and excites them. If the emails do not contain valuable information, then your business will suffer, but more importantly, you will have a list of unresponsive subscribers, who will eventually cancel their subscription.
Once you have a list of hungry, flower lovers or even better, rose flower lovers, they will obviously be happy to receive interesting emails regarding their beloved flowers. This leads us to the most important part of list building.
How to build a relationship with your subscribers!
The strength of the relationship between the list owner and their list, is the secret to having a highly responsive list. They must feel like they know, like and trust you, to do this takes a little time, but the rewards are immense.
Be yourself and be honest, only give information that you know is of the highest quality. Once you have a relationship built with your list, you can send an email with a call to action (product offer) and you will get results.
Well, there you go, a quick over view of list building. The secret to building a massive online business.
lundi 15 décembre 2008
Introduction To Forex Trading
There are many markets: markets for stocks, futures, options and currencies. These are probably the most accessible markets for everyday traders like you and I. People easily understand the basics of trading shares, so I will occasionally use examples from that market.
I began trading shares first and then I moved on to trading currencies; therefore, most of the examples I will be using in this book are derived from trading currencies.
If you do not know a lot about currency trading, allow me to introduce it to you. It is what I trade and I believe that it is one of the best markets to trade because of its efficiency. The transaction costs to execute a trade are minimal and most brokers provide you with the tools and data you need to make your trading decisions, they usually provide them for free. The market is open 24 hours a day which allows you to design your trading hours around your daily commitments. It is very volatile, which is great for those people who are looking for day-trading opportunities.
The foreign exchange market is the market in which currencies are bought and sold against one another. People may loosely refer to this market under different labels, including foreign exchange market, forex market, fx market or the currency market.
The foreign exchange market is the largest market in the world, with daily trading volumes in excess of $1.5 trillion US dollars. All transactions involving international trade and investment must go through this market because these transactions involve the exchange of currencies.
It is the most perfect market that exists because it has a large number of buyers and sellers all selling the same products. There is a free flow of information and there are little barriers to participate.
The currency exchange market is an over-the-counter (OTC) market which means that there is not one specific location where buyers and sellers can actually meet to exchange currencies. Instead, transactions are conducted by phone, fax, e-mail or through the websites of brokers who specialize in currency trading.
The major dealing centres at the time of writing are: London , with about 30% of the market, New York , with 20%, Tokyo , with 12%, Zurich , Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Singapore , with about 7% each, followed by Paris and Sydney with 3% each. Because of the fact that these centres are all over the world, foreign exchange traders can execute transactions 24 hours a day. The market only closes on the weekends.
THE MAIN 'PLAYERS' IN THE FOREX MARKET
The five broad categories of participants are: consumers, businesses, investors, speculators, commercial banks, investment banks and central banks.
Consumers, including visitors of countries, tourists and immigrants, do need to exchange currencies when they travel so that they can buy local goods and services. These participants do not have the power to set prices. They just buy and sell according to the prevailing exchange rate. They make up a significant proportion of the volume being traded in the market.
Businesses that import and export goods and services need to exchange currencies to receive or make payments for goods they may have bought or services they may have rendered.
Investors and speculators require currencies to buy and sell investment instruments such as shares, bonds, bank deposits or real estate.
Large commercial and investment banks are the 'price makers'. They are the ones who buy and sell currencies at the bid-and-offer exchange rates that they declare through their foreign exchange dealers.
Commercial banks deal with customers on one hand, and with the Interbank or other banks, on the other hand. They profit by utilizing the bid-and-offer spread. The bid price is the exchange rate that the buyer is willing to buy and the offer price is the exchange rate at which the seller is willing to sell. The difference is called the bid-offer spread. They also make profits from speculating about whether the exchange rate will rise or fall.
Central banks participate in the foreign exchange market in their effective duty as banks for their particular government. They trade currencies not for the intention of making profits but rather to facilitate government monetary policies and to help smoothen out the fluctuation of the value of their economy's currency.
I began trading shares first and then I moved on to trading currencies; therefore, most of the examples I will be using in this book are derived from trading currencies.
If you do not know a lot about currency trading, allow me to introduce it to you. It is what I trade and I believe that it is one of the best markets to trade because of its efficiency. The transaction costs to execute a trade are minimal and most brokers provide you with the tools and data you need to make your trading decisions, they usually provide them for free. The market is open 24 hours a day which allows you to design your trading hours around your daily commitments. It is very volatile, which is great for those people who are looking for day-trading opportunities.
The foreign exchange market is the market in which currencies are bought and sold against one another. People may loosely refer to this market under different labels, including foreign exchange market, forex market, fx market or the currency market.
The foreign exchange market is the largest market in the world, with daily trading volumes in excess of $1.5 trillion US dollars. All transactions involving international trade and investment must go through this market because these transactions involve the exchange of currencies.
It is the most perfect market that exists because it has a large number of buyers and sellers all selling the same products. There is a free flow of information and there are little barriers to participate.
The currency exchange market is an over-the-counter (OTC) market which means that there is not one specific location where buyers and sellers can actually meet to exchange currencies. Instead, transactions are conducted by phone, fax, e-mail or through the websites of brokers who specialize in currency trading.
The major dealing centres at the time of writing are: London , with about 30% of the market, New York , with 20%, Tokyo , with 12%, Zurich , Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Singapore , with about 7% each, followed by Paris and Sydney with 3% each. Because of the fact that these centres are all over the world, foreign exchange traders can execute transactions 24 hours a day. The market only closes on the weekends.
THE MAIN 'PLAYERS' IN THE FOREX MARKET
The five broad categories of participants are: consumers, businesses, investors, speculators, commercial banks, investment banks and central banks.
Consumers, including visitors of countries, tourists and immigrants, do need to exchange currencies when they travel so that they can buy local goods and services. These participants do not have the power to set prices. They just buy and sell according to the prevailing exchange rate. They make up a significant proportion of the volume being traded in the market.
Businesses that import and export goods and services need to exchange currencies to receive or make payments for goods they may have bought or services they may have rendered.
Investors and speculators require currencies to buy and sell investment instruments such as shares, bonds, bank deposits or real estate.
Large commercial and investment banks are the 'price makers'. They are the ones who buy and sell currencies at the bid-and-offer exchange rates that they declare through their foreign exchange dealers.
Commercial banks deal with customers on one hand, and with the Interbank or other banks, on the other hand. They profit by utilizing the bid-and-offer spread. The bid price is the exchange rate that the buyer is willing to buy and the offer price is the exchange rate at which the seller is willing to sell. The difference is called the bid-offer spread. They also make profits from speculating about whether the exchange rate will rise or fall.
Central banks participate in the foreign exchange market in their effective duty as banks for their particular government. They trade currencies not for the intention of making profits but rather to facilitate government monetary policies and to help smoothen out the fluctuation of the value of their economy's currency.
Interested in FOREX Trading?
The Foreign Exchange Market (Forex) has no central exchange location yet it is the largest financial market in the world. It is over 3x's the size of the stock and futures markets combined and operates via an electronic network of a banks, corporations and investors.
Foreign exchange consists of a simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another. Currency is traded in pairs, in other words, one currency is traded for another. The major currencies are:
USD — United States Dollar
EUR — Euro members Euro
JPY — Japan Yen
GBP — Great Britian pound
CHF — Switzerland franc
CAD — Canadian dollar
AUD — Australia dollar
There are 2 types of investors involved in the Forex market.The first type of investor is the hedger. The hedger is involved in International trades and utilizes Forex trading to protect their interest in a transaction from adverse currency fluctuations. The 2nd type of investor is the speculator who invests in currency solely for profit.
Currency prices fluctuate due to a variety of economic and political factors. The major factors are:
Interest rates
International trade
Inflation
Political stability
There are many reasons investors take a great interest in FX trading Some of the major reasons are:
No fees
No middlemen
No fixed trade sizes
Low transaction cost
High liquidity
Instant transactions
Low margin / High leverage
24 hour market
Online access via online trading platforms
Always good opportunities to trade, unlike the stock market the market is never bullish or bearish.
No one entity can control the market
No insider trading can occur
To begin trading in the Forex market, an investor only needs a computer, a high-speed internet connection and an online trading currency account. A mini account can be opened for as little as $100.
These are some of the reasons why Forex trading has become quite popular in recent years
Foreign exchange consists of a simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another. Currency is traded in pairs, in other words, one currency is traded for another. The major currencies are:
USD — United States Dollar
EUR — Euro members Euro
JPY — Japan Yen
GBP — Great Britian pound
CHF — Switzerland franc
CAD — Canadian dollar
AUD — Australia dollar
There are 2 types of investors involved in the Forex market.The first type of investor is the hedger. The hedger is involved in International trades and utilizes Forex trading to protect their interest in a transaction from adverse currency fluctuations. The 2nd type of investor is the speculator who invests in currency solely for profit.
Currency prices fluctuate due to a variety of economic and political factors. The major factors are:
Interest rates
International trade
Inflation
Political stability
There are many reasons investors take a great interest in FX trading Some of the major reasons are:
No fees
No middlemen
No fixed trade sizes
Low transaction cost
High liquidity
Instant transactions
Low margin / High leverage
24 hour market
Online access via online trading platforms
Always good opportunities to trade, unlike the stock market the market is never bullish or bearish.
No one entity can control the market
No insider trading can occur
To begin trading in the Forex market, an investor only needs a computer, a high-speed internet connection and an online trading currency account. A mini account can be opened for as little as $100.
These are some of the reasons why Forex trading has become quite popular in recent years
vendredi 5 décembre 2008
Market Positioning
Falling in love! As entrepreneurs, we do it every day. Our passionate belief in, and commitment to, our product (or service) makes all things seem possible. The most successful entrepreneurs learn to transform their passion into position.
Positioning is a perceptual location. It's where your product or service fits into the marketplace. Effective positioning puts you first in line in the minds of potential customers.
As individuals, we continually position ourselves. The responsible older sibling, the class clown, a number cruncher, a super genius are all examples of positioning. These identifiers help us define ourselves and distinguish our abilities as unique and different from other people.
Positioning is a powerful tool that allows you to create an image. And image is the outward representation of being who you want to be, doing what you want to do, and having what you want to have. Positioning yourself can lead to personal fulfillment. Being positioned by someone else restricts your choices and limits your opportunities.
That's why it's so important for entrepreneurs to transform their passion into a market position. If you don't define your product or service, a competitor will do it for you. Your position in the market place evolves from the defining characteristics of your product. The primary elements of positioning are:
Pricing. Is your product a luxury item, somewhere in the middle, or cheap, cheap, cheap.
Quality. Total quality is a much used and abused phrase. But is your product well produced? What controls are in place to assure consistency? Do you back your quality claim with customer-friendly guarantees, warranties, and return policies?
Service. Do you offer the added value of customer service and support? Is your product customized and personalized?
Distribution. How do customers obtain your product? The channel or distribution is part of positioning.
Packaging. Packaging makes a strong statement. Make sure it's delivering the message you intend.
Positioning is your competitive strategy. What's the one thing you do best? What's unique about your product or service? Identify your strongest strength and use it to position your product.
The product Nyquil was conceived as a superior daytime cough suppressant. Unfortunately, it made people drowsy. Determined to recoup product development costs, the side affect of drowsiness was then transformed into a powerful positioning strategy. Nyquil became "the night time, coughing, sniffling, sneezing so you can rest" medicine. Nyquil created and owned the nighttime cold remedy market.
As the Baptist minister of my childhood would say at the conclusion of a lengthy sermon, "I've said all that to say this". Positioning, when used effectively, can help you be first in the mind. Being first in mind equals ownership. Market ownership allows you to be a big fish in a small pond. When you're a big fish, you can always increase the size of the pond.
Positioning is a perceptual location. It's where your product or service fits into the marketplace. Effective positioning puts you first in line in the minds of potential customers.
As individuals, we continually position ourselves. The responsible older sibling, the class clown, a number cruncher, a super genius are all examples of positioning. These identifiers help us define ourselves and distinguish our abilities as unique and different from other people.
Positioning is a powerful tool that allows you to create an image. And image is the outward representation of being who you want to be, doing what you want to do, and having what you want to have. Positioning yourself can lead to personal fulfillment. Being positioned by someone else restricts your choices and limits your opportunities.
That's why it's so important for entrepreneurs to transform their passion into a market position. If you don't define your product or service, a competitor will do it for you. Your position in the market place evolves from the defining characteristics of your product. The primary elements of positioning are:
Pricing. Is your product a luxury item, somewhere in the middle, or cheap, cheap, cheap.
Quality. Total quality is a much used and abused phrase. But is your product well produced? What controls are in place to assure consistency? Do you back your quality claim with customer-friendly guarantees, warranties, and return policies?
Service. Do you offer the added value of customer service and support? Is your product customized and personalized?
Distribution. How do customers obtain your product? The channel or distribution is part of positioning.
Packaging. Packaging makes a strong statement. Make sure it's delivering the message you intend.
Positioning is your competitive strategy. What's the one thing you do best? What's unique about your product or service? Identify your strongest strength and use it to position your product.
The product Nyquil was conceived as a superior daytime cough suppressant. Unfortunately, it made people drowsy. Determined to recoup product development costs, the side affect of drowsiness was then transformed into a powerful positioning strategy. Nyquil became "the night time, coughing, sniffling, sneezing so you can rest" medicine. Nyquil created and owned the nighttime cold remedy market.
As the Baptist minister of my childhood would say at the conclusion of a lengthy sermon, "I've said all that to say this". Positioning, when used effectively, can help you be first in the mind. Being first in mind equals ownership. Market ownership allows you to be a big fish in a small pond. When you're a big fish, you can always increase the size of the pond.
Marketing Tips
After more years in marketing than I care to publicly confess, here it is. The distilled wisdom and previously undisclosed two-step strategy for success is simply this:
1) Have a clear intention. Know what you want to be, do, or have.
2) Take consistent action. Do the things necessary to achieve the desired outcome.
Like all things simple, the practical reality is somewhat more complex. That's because the process of taking action in accordance with a clear intention often takes you someplace unexpected.
It's a fundamental misconception to believe that you can control the process or the outcome of marketing activity. You can have a clear intention (a goal), a step-by-step process for achieving the intention (objectives), and an internal plan for providing the product or service (a strategy). But if taking action alters even the clearest intention, how does an entrepreneur avoid descending into chaos?
Enter the two most important words in the entrepreneur's vocabulary -- not "undercapitalized" -- but focus and flexibility. Focus is that rare ability to pay attention to a select number of things -- the finite not the infinite. Flexibility is the willingness to continually re-focus your intention based on the new information that arises from consistent action.
If you can't control the process or the outcome of marketing, where's the fixed point? The one constant is the customer. Building relationships and providing customer service is not a marketing event but the creation of an environment of trust.
Just as Will Rogers "never met a man he didn't like", I've never met an entrepreneur who focused too much on potential customers. Passionate belief in their product or service leads many entrepreneurs into the pitfall of universal appeal. Even if everyone on the planet is a potential customer, mass marketing in the early stage of your company development is too expensive and unwieldy.
Focusing on specific groups of potential customers that share common characteristics (vertical markets) is both economical and quantifiable. It's easy to monitor a target audience response while you build in-depth knowledge of their profile and develop an environment of trust. If focused activity produces results other than those you desire, it's time to be flexible and re-direct your intention, or approach another vertical market, with consistent action.
The entrepreneurial watchwords for this month -- focus, flexibility, and fun. To paraphrase Joline Godfrey, if you aren't making money, doing some good, and having fun, what's the point!
1) Have a clear intention. Know what you want to be, do, or have.
2) Take consistent action. Do the things necessary to achieve the desired outcome.
Like all things simple, the practical reality is somewhat more complex. That's because the process of taking action in accordance with a clear intention often takes you someplace unexpected.
It's a fundamental misconception to believe that you can control the process or the outcome of marketing activity. You can have a clear intention (a goal), a step-by-step process for achieving the intention (objectives), and an internal plan for providing the product or service (a strategy). But if taking action alters even the clearest intention, how does an entrepreneur avoid descending into chaos?
Enter the two most important words in the entrepreneur's vocabulary -- not "undercapitalized" -- but focus and flexibility. Focus is that rare ability to pay attention to a select number of things -- the finite not the infinite. Flexibility is the willingness to continually re-focus your intention based on the new information that arises from consistent action.
If you can't control the process or the outcome of marketing, where's the fixed point? The one constant is the customer. Building relationships and providing customer service is not a marketing event but the creation of an environment of trust.
Just as Will Rogers "never met a man he didn't like", I've never met an entrepreneur who focused too much on potential customers. Passionate belief in their product or service leads many entrepreneurs into the pitfall of universal appeal. Even if everyone on the planet is a potential customer, mass marketing in the early stage of your company development is too expensive and unwieldy.
Focusing on specific groups of potential customers that share common characteristics (vertical markets) is both economical and quantifiable. It's easy to monitor a target audience response while you build in-depth knowledge of their profile and develop an environment of trust. If focused activity produces results other than those you desire, it's time to be flexible and re-direct your intention, or approach another vertical market, with consistent action.
The entrepreneurial watchwords for this month -- focus, flexibility, and fun. To paraphrase Joline Godfrey, if you aren't making money, doing some good, and having fun, what's the point!
The Marketing Plan
If marketing is everything you do to place your product (or service) in the hands of potential customers, how do you do it all -- especially if you're all alone? It helps to have a plan.
A marketing plan is more than your map for success. It's actually a map-making process that when complete will reveal a clear route to your prospective customers.
A good map reveals specific items of information. A good marketing plan should do the same for you. Here are six things your marketing plan should help you accomplish.
1) Prove that you understand your industry. Knowing your product isn't enough.
2) Identify your target market. These are the people most likely to buy your product or use your services.
3) Identify your competition. Who's out there and what are they doing?
4) Establish your pricing, distribution, and product positioning. How much will it cost plus a fair profit? How will you get it there? And where do you fit into the marketplace?
5) Get someone to subsidize your dream. If you want to attract investors, a written marketing plan is essential.
6) Focus on a single effective marketing concept. Define your strongest strength and lead with that. For example, Little Caesar's "pizza pizza" may not be the most innovative idea ever conceived -- but it's certainly one of the more effective. Why? Because it's simple and consistent.
Here are the major components that you should consider when writing your marketing plan.
Mission (or vision) statement:
This is an external communication of your company's values. Like Admiral Stockdale, you're answering the question, "Who am I and what am I doing here".
Company objective:
This section communicates what you want to do, by when, and how (what are your resources?). It is specific, quantifiable, and is inclusive of your entire company. It is not merely a sales goal. If you're an entrepreneur, your company objective might also serve as your marketing objective.
Market analysis:
This section reports on the findings of the extensive research that you have pursued and prepared. You need to discuss various factors of the market environment in relation to your product. These factors include legal, social, political, economic, and technological considerations.
Target audience:
Based on your research, discuss who your customers are and how you can reach them. Here's where you decide whether to niche or not, or to segment your audience either vertically or horizontally.
Competitive analysis:
Your advance research should reveal your competitors, the obvious and especially the others. How does what they're doing relate to your product? What advantages do you have? How can you keep the advantage?
Action plan:
As Shakespeare said, "Action is eloquence". You've made your map. Now you can define the best route to reach your customers. This section of your marketing plan outlines what media mix you'll use to reach your audience. Advertising -- where, how often, and at what cost. Public relations -- specific programs and promotions of interest to the community. Sales strategies -- incentive programs for representatives and distributors as well as prospective customers.
A successful marketing plan is based on research and analysis. But because information can be manipulated to prove almost anything, insight is equally important. As Edward de Bono says, "Proof is often no more than a lack of imagination".
A marketing plan is more than your map for success. It's actually a map-making process that when complete will reveal a clear route to your prospective customers.
A good map reveals specific items of information. A good marketing plan should do the same for you. Here are six things your marketing plan should help you accomplish.
1) Prove that you understand your industry. Knowing your product isn't enough.
2) Identify your target market. These are the people most likely to buy your product or use your services.
3) Identify your competition. Who's out there and what are they doing?
4) Establish your pricing, distribution, and product positioning. How much will it cost plus a fair profit? How will you get it there? And where do you fit into the marketplace?
5) Get someone to subsidize your dream. If you want to attract investors, a written marketing plan is essential.
6) Focus on a single effective marketing concept. Define your strongest strength and lead with that. For example, Little Caesar's "pizza pizza" may not be the most innovative idea ever conceived -- but it's certainly one of the more effective. Why? Because it's simple and consistent.
Here are the major components that you should consider when writing your marketing plan.
Mission (or vision) statement:
This is an external communication of your company's values. Like Admiral Stockdale, you're answering the question, "Who am I and what am I doing here".
Company objective:
This section communicates what you want to do, by when, and how (what are your resources?). It is specific, quantifiable, and is inclusive of your entire company. It is not merely a sales goal. If you're an entrepreneur, your company objective might also serve as your marketing objective.
Market analysis:
This section reports on the findings of the extensive research that you have pursued and prepared. You need to discuss various factors of the market environment in relation to your product. These factors include legal, social, political, economic, and technological considerations.
Target audience:
Based on your research, discuss who your customers are and how you can reach them. Here's where you decide whether to niche or not, or to segment your audience either vertically or horizontally.
Competitive analysis:
Your advance research should reveal your competitors, the obvious and especially the others. How does what they're doing relate to your product? What advantages do you have? How can you keep the advantage?
Action plan:
As Shakespeare said, "Action is eloquence". You've made your map. Now you can define the best route to reach your customers. This section of your marketing plan outlines what media mix you'll use to reach your audience. Advertising -- where, how often, and at what cost. Public relations -- specific programs and promotions of interest to the community. Sales strategies -- incentive programs for representatives and distributors as well as prospective customers.
A successful marketing plan is based on research and analysis. But because information can be manipulated to prove almost anything, insight is equally important. As Edward de Bono says, "Proof is often no more than a lack of imagination".
What Is Marketing ?
What exactly is marketing and why is it important to you as an entrepreneur? Simply stated, marketing is everything you do to place your product or service in the hands of potential customers.
It includes diverse disciplines like sales, public relations, pricing, packaging, and distribution. In order to distinguish marketing from other related professional services, S.H. Simmons, author and humorist, relates this anecdote.
"If a young man tells his date she's intelligent, looks lovely, and is a great conversationalist, he's saying the right things to the right person and that's marketing. If the young man tells his date how handsome, smart and successful he is -- that's advertising. If someone else tells the young woman how handsome, smart and successful her date is -- that's public relations."
You might think of marketing this way. If business is all about people and money and the art of persuading one to part from the other, then marketing is all about finding the right people to persuade.
Marketing is your strategy for allocating resources (time and money) in order to achieve your objectives (a fair profit for supplying a good product or service).
Yet the most brilliant strategy won't help you earn a profit or achieve your wildest dreams if it isn't built around your potential customers. A strategy that isn't based on customers is rather like a man who knows a thousand ways to make love to a woman, but doesn't know any women. Great in theory but unrewarding in practice.
If you fit the classic definition of an entrepreneur (someone with a great idea who's under-capitalized), you may think marketing is something you do later -- after the product is developed, manufactured, or ready to sell.
Though it may feel counter-intuitive, marketing doesn't begin with a great idea or a unique product. It begins with customers -- those people who want or need your product and will actually buy it.
Entrepreneurs are in love with their ideas, and they should be. After all, why would anyone commit their energy, life savings, and no small part of their sanity to anything less than a consuming passion. Because entrepreneurs are passionate about their idea, product, or service, they innocently assume other people will feel the same. Here's the bad news -- it just doesn't work that way!
People have their own unique perceptions of the world based on their belief system. The most innovative ideas, the greatest products, or a superior service succeed only when you market within the context of people's perceptions.
Context can be many things, singly or simultaneously. To name a few, you may market to your customers within the context of their wants, needs, problems solved, or situation improved. Entrepreneurs need to be aware of many other contexts, such as social and economic trends or governmental regulations, which we'll discuss another time.
People don't just "buy" a product. They "buy" the concept of what that product will do for them, or help them do for themselves. People who are overweight don't join a franchise diet center to eat pre-packaged micro-meals. They "buy" the concept of a new, thin, happy and successful self.
Before you become consumed with entrepreneurial zeal and invest your life savings in a new venture, become a smart marketer. Take time at the beginning to discover who your potential customers are, and how to effectively reach them.
Without a plan, your entrepreneurial dream is really wishful thinking. While a marketing plan can be a map for success, remember that the map is not the territory. A strategy that ignores the customer isn't an accurate reflection of the landscape.
A good marketing plan can help you focus your energy and resources. But a plan created in a vacuum, based solely on your perceptions, does not advance the agenda. That's why market research, however simple or sophisticated, is important.
Just keep in mind that research attempts to predict the future by studying the past. It reveals what people have done, and extrapolates what people might do -- not what people will do.
Planning is imperative, research is important, but there's no substitute for entrepreneurial insight. After all, as Mark Twain wrote, "You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus".
It includes diverse disciplines like sales, public relations, pricing, packaging, and distribution. In order to distinguish marketing from other related professional services, S.H. Simmons, author and humorist, relates this anecdote.
"If a young man tells his date she's intelligent, looks lovely, and is a great conversationalist, he's saying the right things to the right person and that's marketing. If the young man tells his date how handsome, smart and successful he is -- that's advertising. If someone else tells the young woman how handsome, smart and successful her date is -- that's public relations."
You might think of marketing this way. If business is all about people and money and the art of persuading one to part from the other, then marketing is all about finding the right people to persuade.
Marketing is your strategy for allocating resources (time and money) in order to achieve your objectives (a fair profit for supplying a good product or service).
Yet the most brilliant strategy won't help you earn a profit or achieve your wildest dreams if it isn't built around your potential customers. A strategy that isn't based on customers is rather like a man who knows a thousand ways to make love to a woman, but doesn't know any women. Great in theory but unrewarding in practice.
If you fit the classic definition of an entrepreneur (someone with a great idea who's under-capitalized), you may think marketing is something you do later -- after the product is developed, manufactured, or ready to sell.
Though it may feel counter-intuitive, marketing doesn't begin with a great idea or a unique product. It begins with customers -- those people who want or need your product and will actually buy it.
Entrepreneurs are in love with their ideas, and they should be. After all, why would anyone commit their energy, life savings, and no small part of their sanity to anything less than a consuming passion. Because entrepreneurs are passionate about their idea, product, or service, they innocently assume other people will feel the same. Here's the bad news -- it just doesn't work that way!
People have their own unique perceptions of the world based on their belief system. The most innovative ideas, the greatest products, or a superior service succeed only when you market within the context of people's perceptions.
Context can be many things, singly or simultaneously. To name a few, you may market to your customers within the context of their wants, needs, problems solved, or situation improved. Entrepreneurs need to be aware of many other contexts, such as social and economic trends or governmental regulations, which we'll discuss another time.
People don't just "buy" a product. They "buy" the concept of what that product will do for them, or help them do for themselves. People who are overweight don't join a franchise diet center to eat pre-packaged micro-meals. They "buy" the concept of a new, thin, happy and successful self.
Before you become consumed with entrepreneurial zeal and invest your life savings in a new venture, become a smart marketer. Take time at the beginning to discover who your potential customers are, and how to effectively reach them.
Without a plan, your entrepreneurial dream is really wishful thinking. While a marketing plan can be a map for success, remember that the map is not the territory. A strategy that ignores the customer isn't an accurate reflection of the landscape.
A good marketing plan can help you focus your energy and resources. But a plan created in a vacuum, based solely on your perceptions, does not advance the agenda. That's why market research, however simple or sophisticated, is important.
Just keep in mind that research attempts to predict the future by studying the past. It reveals what people have done, and extrapolates what people might do -- not what people will do.
Planning is imperative, research is important, but there's no substitute for entrepreneurial insight. After all, as Mark Twain wrote, "You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus".
mercredi 3 décembre 2008
How to use Adsense cleverly on your blog?
Placing Adsense on your blog is easy. A simple copy and paste action and you’ve setup your website to make money. However, you need to know when to place Adsense ads and where to place them and how to place them. This is what divides the successful Adsense website builders from the not-so-successful Adsense website builders. You need to use Adsense cleverly on your website.
Here are my findings you can use which has worked well for me to increase your Adsense income.
There has been a lot of discussion of people throwing-up when they see Adsense on a blog. They see the blog as a vehicle to earn income from Adsense and the blog itself has no value. After seeing some awful blogs, I agree.
What you need to do is place Adsense on your blog which blends with your website. Take away those borders and change the colors. Make it look as though it is part of your website. This will lessen the preconceived notion others have with Adsense blogs.
Next, you need to post regularly to your blog. I have to admit that regularly means daily. I have tests that show missing a day or two with blogging, generally affects the traffic to your blog. So get some postings ready for times when you are busy.
With good daily updated content on your blog, people will not mind that your blog has Adsense on them. You have to understand that people are looking for information. If you give them what they want, they will return and click on some Adsense ads which are of interest to them in time.
Daily blogging with good content will make people forget your blog is built for Adsense income. They will appreciate that you are making money since you are spending so much time offering them content.
I find that using horizontal Adsense ads are very effective. These are called leaderboards which span across the website. I normally place these at the top of the website so that my regular readers will see them first thing when they visit.
I also find that ad links are very effective. These are Adsense ads that only show the category of ads and have no description. They look like menu bars. People need to click on the ad link, see a list of related Adsense and click on them again before you are paid.
Though it requires 2 clicks to generate Adsense income for you, I find that this sort of ad is very effective. The good thing is Google does not count ad links towards the number of Adsense ads you can have on your website (which is 3 by the way).
Next, if you’re writing a post on your blog, make sure that you place Adsense right after you mention an interesting point. It could be the revealing of a finding or some breaking news with your niche.
The reason is that people are drawn to your content at that moment and seeing related Adsense ads beside it will help the click thru rate.
For your last Adsense ad, I would suggest placing it on the left hand side of your blog. Preferably you will have a sign up box for a newsletter or mini-course there, and place your Adsense under it.
We humans read from left to right and from top to bottom. The top left portion of your blog is viewed the most when they visit your blog. Make use of this space.
Use these suggestions to place your ads and increase the Adsense clicks. They have worked for me. I suggest you test out a lot of these and see for yourself.
Here are my findings you can use which has worked well for me to increase your Adsense income.
There has been a lot of discussion of people throwing-up when they see Adsense on a blog. They see the blog as a vehicle to earn income from Adsense and the blog itself has no value. After seeing some awful blogs, I agree.
What you need to do is place Adsense on your blog which blends with your website. Take away those borders and change the colors. Make it look as though it is part of your website. This will lessen the preconceived notion others have with Adsense blogs.
Next, you need to post regularly to your blog. I have to admit that regularly means daily. I have tests that show missing a day or two with blogging, generally affects the traffic to your blog. So get some postings ready for times when you are busy.
With good daily updated content on your blog, people will not mind that your blog has Adsense on them. You have to understand that people are looking for information. If you give them what they want, they will return and click on some Adsense ads which are of interest to them in time.
Daily blogging with good content will make people forget your blog is built for Adsense income. They will appreciate that you are making money since you are spending so much time offering them content.
I find that using horizontal Adsense ads are very effective. These are called leaderboards which span across the website. I normally place these at the top of the website so that my regular readers will see them first thing when they visit.
I also find that ad links are very effective. These are Adsense ads that only show the category of ads and have no description. They look like menu bars. People need to click on the ad link, see a list of related Adsense and click on them again before you are paid.
Though it requires 2 clicks to generate Adsense income for you, I find that this sort of ad is very effective. The good thing is Google does not count ad links towards the number of Adsense ads you can have on your website (which is 3 by the way).
Next, if you’re writing a post on your blog, make sure that you place Adsense right after you mention an interesting point. It could be the revealing of a finding or some breaking news with your niche.
The reason is that people are drawn to your content at that moment and seeing related Adsense ads beside it will help the click thru rate.
For your last Adsense ad, I would suggest placing it on the left hand side of your blog. Preferably you will have a sign up box for a newsletter or mini-course there, and place your Adsense under it.
We humans read from left to right and from top to bottom. The top left portion of your blog is viewed the most when they visit your blog. Make use of this space.
Use these suggestions to place your ads and increase the Adsense clicks. They have worked for me. I suggest you test out a lot of these and see for yourself.
dimanche 30 novembre 2008
How You Can Make Money With Google's AdSense ?
There are many ways to monetize your blog or website. Google's AdSense contextual advertising is one of these ways and provides some amazing tools for tracking and testing performance of this advertising.
What is Google's AdSense? as stated above, it is contextual advertising. You place vertical and horizontal adblocks on your site with your Google's AdSense affiliate code embedded, and when a visitor clicks on that ad link, you earn a commission. These ads are contextual, meaning that they display ads that are related to the content of your site. Who pays for that commission? Ultimately, it is the pay per click advertisers that use the Google network to bring paid traffic to their sites. They pay Google, who pays you a percentage when your site visitor clicks on an ad link.
Once you join the Google's AdSense affiliate program, you will find an array of tracking tools in your back office. These can be used to optimize your website for maximum click through rates by knowing which ad blocks are performing best and on what pages. This will require some work on your part because you have to set up tracking channels for each ad block in order to see how it performs. This is not mandatory, so don't let that scare you away from using AdSense, but it is a very powerful tool once you get the hang of it.
There are other tools that let you adjust the look and feel of the ad blocks, such as colors, fonts, backgrounds, shape and size. These are important because you want your contextual ads to blend in well with your site as if it were a natural part of the content.
Google AdSense has a flexible reporting tool that you can use to show page impressions and click through rates. You can group your web pages however you want, viewing results by URL, domain, ad type, category and more. Plus, you can use analytics to look at your website traffic stats and see what keywords are being used to find your site with.
Getting started with Google's AdSense is really very easy. Once you sign up, then log in and copy the html code for the adblock. Then just paste it into your webpage with your favorite editor and update or upload it to your host. Contextual ads will start being shown almost immediately. You can also put a search bar on your site and earn additional income when a visitor uses it to search for more information. As you build traffic to your website, you will be earning AdSense revenue in no time.
How You Can Make Money From BLog ?
Of course, not every blogger is this lucky. It does take some skill, and some luck to make money from blogging. What it also takes is some knowledge of how exactly to generate income just by posting blogs. We will go over three specific methods of making money on your blog: AdSense, Pay per Lead, and Affiliate Links.
What is AdSense?
AdSense is a program offered by Google. The program, if installed, will display ads provided by Google.
How do I get AdSense?
You'll need to go to Google.com, first. At the end of the screen is a link for Advertising Programs. Click on that. Then click on the link for AdSense. Scroll down on the page that comes up and click here to Apply! You then fill out the form with information about yourself. After 12-48 hours, Google will notify you via email whether or not your site has been accepted. When you've been accepted, set up your ads by doing either of the following: You can set up your AdSense ads by going to your profile, selecting settings, template, add an element. Then select AdSense and log in with your account info. Next, you'll configure your ads and save the template. That's it.
How does AdSense work?
Every time a visitor clicks an AdSense ad, you get a little bit of money. The amount you get for each ad clicked depends on the number of unique visitors you receive on your blog. The more visitors, the more money that can be earned. Google will then send a check or pay you through Paypal once you've made at least $100 from the ads. It is important to remember that Google will punish you if you click your own ads, or if you ask visitors specifically to click ads. So don't do that!
Pay Per Click:-
Pay Per Click is basically just like AdSense, except you don't just work with Google you work with multiple companies. BidVertiser is one such company you can sign up with to do Pay Per Click advertising.
How do I get Pay Per Click:-
You sign up with a site like Bidvertiser and then follow their commands to set up the Pay per Click ads on your site.
Affiliate Links:-
Affiliate links are basically links which people pay you for. Companies will actually pay owners of admired blogs to post links on their blog. You can do as much Affiliate linking as you want.
How do Affiliate Links work?
Affiliate links work by paying you money each time they are clicked. You get paid for each click per unique visitor.
How does Pay Per Click work?
It works by paying you money each time someone clicks an ad that you display. You won't get paid for several clicks from the same user in the same visitor, nor will you get paid for someone simply visiting your site. You only get paid for genuine clicks.
So now you have it, three genuine ways to make money from blogging. It is important to keep in mind that the amount of money you are able to make depends on how many visitors your blog draws. If you draw a lot, you'll make a lot.
What is AdSense?
AdSense is a program offered by Google. The program, if installed, will display ads provided by Google.
How do I get AdSense?
You'll need to go to Google.com, first. At the end of the screen is a link for Advertising Programs. Click on that. Then click on the link for AdSense. Scroll down on the page that comes up and click here to Apply! You then fill out the form with information about yourself. After 12-48 hours, Google will notify you via email whether or not your site has been accepted. When you've been accepted, set up your ads by doing either of the following: You can set up your AdSense ads by going to your profile, selecting settings, template, add an element. Then select AdSense and log in with your account info. Next, you'll configure your ads and save the template. That's it.
How does AdSense work?
Every time a visitor clicks an AdSense ad, you get a little bit of money. The amount you get for each ad clicked depends on the number of unique visitors you receive on your blog. The more visitors, the more money that can be earned. Google will then send a check or pay you through Paypal once you've made at least $100 from the ads. It is important to remember that Google will punish you if you click your own ads, or if you ask visitors specifically to click ads. So don't do that!
Pay Per Click:-
Pay Per Click is basically just like AdSense, except you don't just work with Google you work with multiple companies. BidVertiser is one such company you can sign up with to do Pay Per Click advertising.
How do I get Pay Per Click:-
You sign up with a site like Bidvertiser and then follow their commands to set up the Pay per Click ads on your site.
Affiliate Links:-
Affiliate links are basically links which people pay you for. Companies will actually pay owners of admired blogs to post links on their blog. You can do as much Affiliate linking as you want.
How do Affiliate Links work?
Affiliate links work by paying you money each time they are clicked. You get paid for each click per unique visitor.
How does Pay Per Click work?
It works by paying you money each time someone clicks an ad that you display. You won't get paid for several clicks from the same user in the same visitor, nor will you get paid for someone simply visiting your site. You only get paid for genuine clicks.
So now you have it, three genuine ways to make money from blogging. It is important to keep in mind that the amount of money you are able to make depends on how many visitors your blog draws. If you draw a lot, you'll make a lot.
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