Thursday, July 31, 2008

What You Need To Know About Search Engine Marketing

By Carolyn Hulbert


A search engine marketing consultant will help you develop a website which can show up very highly in search engine results. There are certain techniques which you must do if you want to ensure your website shows up. You want your website to be high in the search engine rankings so that people searching for your particular topic will be able to find your website.

If you are concerned about how your website shows up in websites, you may inquire about search engine marketing services. These services will usually focus their attention upon three main areas: incoming links, your content, and your keywords. These are factors which are important for the search engines and will result in your website being placed higher in results if you focus on these factors. This article will talk more about this.

The first of the six factors a search engine marketing services company will examine is competitive analysis. This is done to see how your website stacks up against the competition along with which companies are in the top ten results and why they are there.

The second factor often examined is keyword research. This is used to determine competition for keywords and how you can make sure you are receiving as much traffic for various keywords as you can.

A search engine marketing consultant will also examine page optimization of your website. This is important because your website will have a set of different keywords and certain keywords are used for certain pages.

Search engine marketing services companies will focus upon site usability. This is important because you want your website to be very easy to get around so that your audience is able to find what they are looking for.

Off page optimization such as link building is the next area which will be focused on by search engine marketing services companies. Link building is important because this is a factor in search engine rankings.

One other factor you will want to look into is paid search engine marketing. This would include Adwords and you may want to think about this because you can put your website in front of your audience immediately.

Can you not see the importance of these tips if you were a search engine marketing consultant? There are certain steps that must be done to develop a highly successful website and this website covers many of those steps. Be sure to use these to maximize your website's chances for success.

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Traffic Generation Techniques

By Eddie Watkins


The importance of traffic cannot be overemphasized, and traffic generation techniques are of extreme importance to the future of your online business. Why? Because without visitors you might as well have no website at all.

The whole purpose of a website is to get visitors. You can equate a website with a store in a shopping mall. No matter what you are offering: vitamins, ebooks, software, information or just advice, without anybody walking into your store, you might as well close shop. The mall is your environment, as the World Wide Web is the environment of your website. You have to advertise your offline store as you must your online website, and traffic is your life blood, as shoppers are to an offline store.

If you are not receiving website traffic, your online business will not succeed, as the shoe store without customers would have to close down. So how do you go about getting the traffic, that is the life blood of your online business? We will look at four different ways of obtaining the traffic that you need to your website.

1. Search engines 2. Online advertising 3. Offline advertising 4. Word of mouth, or buzz advertising.

There isn't enough room here to discuss all of these, and you will likely be familiar with many of the more conventional traffic generation techniques, so let's have a look at one or two of the less well known methods within each of these categories that can be used to attract website traffic to your site.

Search Engines

SEO and search engines are not the same thing. There is a lot of studying and reading in order to use SEO on your website. But with search engine you can benifit while receiving traffic your website, with less aggravation.

Smart pages is one technique that is used. Smart pages are created using keywords that people use in order to get information on the web. You create as many of these pages as you can using different keywords. Your visitors never see these pages, even though the spider can find these smart pages when they search the web. There is software that you can purchase to create these pages so you won't end up with duplicate webpages.

The way that the smart pages work is when a person is searching for a certain keyword phrase, using any one of the many search engines. Your web page has usually already been indexed for that certain keyword. So wouldn't you think that the person would be directed to your indexed web page. That not so. They would be directed to the page that the software has been programmed to send them to. A person can set up as many of these smart pages as they deem neccesary, and the visitor that does the search will be sent to the page that the software is set to send them to.

If you have certain information on your web site pertaining to certain keywords you can use this among other techniques to get the search engines to send visitors to your webpages.

Advertising Online

When advertising online there are a few option that a person can take advantage of. If you have a Facebook page, you can get free links from it. You can also get free links from your post that you put on Twitter. In my opinion the best priced pay-per-click option that you have is to go with Searchfeed. Searchfeed charges 1 cent for pay-per-click advertising, and that is a great deal compared to Adwords.

Classified Advertising

When advertising any product, any traffic that you can drum up is good traffic. Go to your local free newspaper, put an ad in it advertising your website URL. This has been proven to be a great technique for getting traffic to ones site. Sending out flyers through to mail, you can purchase mailing list on peel and stick labels of people that are interested in online business opportunities. Post cards are a great source of visitors to your website. Sometimes we forget that advertsing offline can be just as rewarding as advertsing online.

Buzz Advertising

Whether you know it or not, people are out there looking for your products. Talk about your website to everyone, to your relatives, your friends and family. You have to place yourself in front of your potential customers. Send out flyers, mail postcards, place an ad in your local newspaper advertising your products. People are always looking for a product that is going to solve a certain problem that they have, or an easier way to do a certain thing, and this is your opportunity to feel that void. Get the word out.

One thing that is for sure, is that you will always need traffic to your website. You will have to find what works for you. If you have not tried some of the ways mentioned in this article, you might be missing something who knows.

Visitors to your website is of the utmost importance and the traffic generation techniques that you choose, means that your business lives or dies. Without traffic your online success will be very limited.

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4 Strategies to Slingshot Your Website Traffic

By D. Hatcher


The number one thing most Internet marketers need is traffic. Without traffic how would you make any sales? It doesn't matter how great your website is. You could have the best headline and ad copy in the world, but without a sufficient amount of traffic you will not do very well. This article is going to reveal simple strategies that can be put into effect immediately. These are proven methods for getting targeted traffic flowing to your site.

Write articles. This is a great technique that does more than just bring traffic to you. It puts you in the position to show your expertise and build trust in your prospects' minds. This is very important. People have to trust you if they are going to order. Nobody will buy from you if they don't first feel comfortable with you. Articles are a great way to "break the ice".

Here is what to do. Write a bunch of articles relating to your particular marketa and submit two articles per week to major article sites. Located at the bottom of each article is an area that is cajjed the "resource" area. In the resource area you are allowed to include a signature or "bio". Only in the resource are are you allowed to include links to your website. If you write an article of value, readers will click the link and be taken to your website. This is why it is extremely important to provide useful, high quality information. People will only want to visit your website if you give them something of value first.

Exchange links with popular sites. This method works on several levels. First of all, you will get traffic through your links that are posted on other sites. Also, as additional websites link to yours, your search engine rankings begin to rise. This can be a major source of traffic. Showing up on the first page in major search engines can bring you thousands of visitors per month.

Here is how to get links to your site. Find sites that are very similar in theme to your site. Make a call or send an e-mail to the site owner about the possibility of doing a link exchange. Send them a link to the page that you are displaying on your website that you have already put their link on. Now it is their turn. They will do one of two things, either accept your offer or not. If they refuse to add a link to your site on their website, simply remove their link from your site.

Use Pay Per Click advertising. Pay Per Click costs money but it can be a dynamic way to coral highly targeted traffic to your site. If you are careful to choose the right keywords and make intelligent bidding choices it can prove to be a very cost effective and useful tool. Google Adwords and Overture are the two most popular Pay Per Click companies. However, Yahoo and MSN offer pay per click advertising as well, and often for less cost per click. To get the most out of Pay Per Click you need to be armed with at least a fundamental amount of knowledge. I suggest buying a book or ebook on the subject before starting a campaign.

Submit videos to video sites such as Youtube. Videos are one of the best ways to "get the word out" about your website. They can also be made with no more equipment than a small digital camera with a "movie mode" or an inexpensive webcam. Processing your short movie (adding titles, music and basic editing) can be done using a free video editing program that is part of your Windows operating system.

Here is what to do. Make a video about your product or opportunity. Upload your video to Youtube and give it a catchy title and description based on it's content. There are some things you can do with the title and description to make sure that it is seen by as many people as possible. For instance, make sure to do some keyword research and use those keywords or "tags" that laser target the audience that you want to reach. I could go on about that but that is a subject for another article. For now, learn from others that are already on Youtube. Take a look at the descriptions and tags on highly viewed videos and "learn" from them!

While any one of the traffic generation strategies above can make a major difference, I suggest using all of them combined. This will give you the most traffic possible in the shortest amount of time. The more effort you put into the tactics provided in this article the more they will work for you.

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Directing Desired Visitors to Your Website

By Ricardo d Argence


The purpose of Internet marketing is to get people to visit your website. There are several ways to get people interested in visiting your website. All the techniques the Internet marketers will use at some point involve the search engines. No matter what it is you're looking for, if you use a search engine, as countless people have found out, you'll get your answer.

Having a site that indexes high in search engines gives the feeling like having money in the bank. SEM, search engine marketing, is at the very heart of generating quality traffic to your site. When you have enough knowledge to insert the popular keywords in the search engines, you will yield a high result on the search engine results pages, also known as the SERPs, then you know you are advertising the correct way.

What do you do if you have the greatest website on the entire web for pet supplies? Your website's address is your URL. Google, along with the many indexing spiders that it employs, will soon index your pet supply website.

You need to remember that when you're typing your "keywords" in Google search, you will not find your site on the first page. Over 68,000,000 returns pop up if you simply type in "pet supplies" on Google. This is the reason for SEM is so important. If you want people to find you, you need exposure.

SEM will include SEO, which is search engine optimization, search engine submissions, search engine maps, local search methods, PPC (Pay-Per-Click) along with other search tools and keywords. The concept of PPC advertising is one of the most efficient ways to effectively market your site in modern search engines.

This is easy to do when you join a PPC advertising company, just make up a short advertisement with your choice of keywords that will attract customers in your market. When someone does a search for a keyword that you have chosen, your ad will appear along side of the search results.

If you used a good keyword, it will generally show up on the first page. When the search engine user sees you ad and clicks on it, they end up on your website. You pay the PPC company for each click when someone clicks on your ad. This method is a very popular way of generating traffic.

SEO should always be used on your website. SEO is a standard the search engines use to index and rank your website. The better the SEO, the higher in rank your website will show up in search engine results. Optimizing your site has to do with using keywords sprinkled naturally throughout your text. Keeping your website relevant to what your site is about is also taken into consideration. Google loves people that use forward links to other relevant pages within the text too.

One should not keyword stuff when using SEO. If your keywords are used out of context or over saturated, it will cost you in rank. You can find more detailed information about SEO for free online.

When using search engine marketing, there will be things you need to take into consideration. The generation of page hits is most times related to the web page placement on the most commonly used search engines, such as Google or Yahoo. If you want search engine exposure, you will learn to use SEO in almost everything you wish to market. For a fee, there are many companies that will do your search engine advertising for you.

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Finding an Effective Promotional Product

By Bree C Robbins


A promotional product helps get a company's name out into the public domain and allows them to build a reputation via other means, besides the usual billboards, TV commercials, and other advertisements. The key is finding the most effective promotional products. So what makes a promotional product effective? The most effective type of promotional product is the one that gets used. If it is getting used, the recipient is constantly reminded of your company and anyone who sees the recipient using the product is exposed to your company as well.

Some of the most useful promotional products are also some of the cheapest. For example, a Pen or Tote Bag can be used by almost anyone on a daily basis. They are also very portable so that the recipient can carry it with them and it can be seen by others. This is another important quality of a promotional product, if you want the recipient to use it and get your company's name out into the community.

Let's take a look at a few different popular promotional products and what their advantages and drawbacks are:

Key Chains are portable and would likely be used a lot by the recipients; however few people may see them, since they will spend a majority of time in the recipients? purses or wallets.

Another example of this is Refrigerator magnets they are also likely be used by the recipients, but don't get much exposure to third parties while they are at home on the refrigerator. This however is a great idea if you want your recipients to be constantly reminded of your company and to have your contact information readily available should something in the home need repair for example or if they need to find your number quickly. Not such a great idea if you want your name out to third parties.

A really useful item that people use over and over again is a good Tote Bags they are extremely portable and get seen by lots of people, on the down side they tend not to be used daily however when they are used they generally get used in high viewing areas such as the supermarket, the beach, the gym or taken to seminars. With a good logo that suits the style of the Tote bag this makes for a really powerful and effective promotional item.

One of the great options that is extremely cost effective are Pens they are portable like key chains, effective like refrigerator magnets and useful like tote bags, all these benefits out of one very cost effective promotional product. This is especially true if you can pass the pens on to clients. It is very important to remember however they it is essential to get a high quality pen that works so that people will take them with them and use them till they run out of ink.

The return on investment on a good promotional product is huge an example of this is a pen with your company's logo generally cost less than a dollar or two, but the reach of that one pen can be worth thousands.

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Internet Marketing: Newbie's Introduction

By Joseph Then


Have you ever wondered how internet marketers work? Better, have you ever wondered if internet marketing is actually real. Well, let me tell you about internet marketing. The first thing you should note is that internet marketing can make you earn big bucks.

You may be questioning my statement but I'll tell you once again that what I am saying is true. Well, we will begin by introducing internet marketing to you. Internet marketing, also known as online marketing, is the marketing of products online.

Internet is so readily available nowadays. Almost every household has access to the internet. Internet marketers are smart people who use this to their advantage. They choose to use the internet because of the low cost in distributing information a very low cost. It is also readily available to the mass.

This article will give you tips and thus, you will know the truth about internet marketing. You will know the myths and what you should do to make more money out of internet marketing.

Firstly, as an internet marketer, you should take note of the terms printed on a web page. Most internet marketers try to get away with not following the terms. Most of them think the terms are just for show and are meaningless. Let me tell you this; they are there for a reason.

Losing a site's service can create a lot pf problem but this is only the beginning of the problem. Losing a site's service can affect a lot more such as a member's prospect. What would happen if you are found guilty of breaching a tracking service contract? Well, all your advertisement tracking URLs can get deactivated.

Like I said earlier, that is only the beginning. As we know, taking the terms of a website lightly will affect the prospect f a member. It will also affect a member's reputation. Now, that is not a good thing isn't it.

The next thing I am going to tell you is that testing is important. Testing is the only way to keep track of what you are doing right with your online business, and what you need to improve. You should keep in mind that any changes you make should be for one main purpose: to do a better job of converting visitors to customers.

The next most important thins you should remember is that you should always include a feedback or survey form. A customer's feedback is important and this will help to improve you sales. Trust me on this. A customer's feedback is valuable.

In conclusion, we know that internet marketing is true and in order to succeed, you should take note of the internet marketing guide and tips given above. By following them closely, your online business will surely make lots of profit.

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Finding an Effective Promotional Product

By Bree C Robbins


A promotional product helps get a company's name out into the public domain and allows them to build a reputation via other means, besides the usual billboards, TV commercials, and other advertisements. The key is finding the most effective promotional products. So what makes a promotional product effective? The most effective type of promotional product is the one that gets used. If it is getting used, the recipient is constantly reminded of your company and anyone who sees the recipient using the product is exposed to your company as well.

Some of the most useful promotional products are also some of the cheapest. For example, a Pen or Tote Bag can be used by almost anyone on a daily basis. They are also very portable so that the recipient can carry it with them and it can be seen by others. This is another important quality of a promotional product, if you want the recipient to use it and get your company's name out into the community.

If we look at a few different but very popular promotional products we can see some of the advantages and drawbacks to each one:

An example of this is Key Chains they are portable and are often used a lot however, a distinct disadvantage of using key chains is that people rarely tend to see them as they spend a majority of time in the recipients? Pockets, purses or wallets.

Refrigerator magnets - Will also likely be used by the recipients, but won't get much exposure to third parties. Good idea if you want your recipients to be constantly reminded of your company and to have your contact information readily available to them. Bad idea if you want to get your name out to third parties.

Tote Bags are a really useful item that people use over and over again they are portable and get seen by many, but on the down side they are rarely used daily however when they are used they tend to be used in the supermarket or at the beach or at the gym or taken to seminars so they are used in high view areas. With a good logo that suits the style of the Tote bag then this can also be seen as trendy.

Pens are a great option that combines the portability of a keychain, the effectiveness of a refrigerator magnet, and the visibility and usefulness of a Tote Bag. Generally this is one of the best options for someone who wants to get all three benefits out of one very cost efficient promotional product. This is especially true if your recipients have clients that they can pass on the pens.

The best part about a promotional product is that the return on investment can be large. A pen bearing your company's logo may cost mere pennies, but the reach of that one pen can be worth thousands.

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Instantly Increasing Web Site Visitors? Impossible?

By Jeffrey S. Gross


A critical element of running a successful business on the internet is getting people to visit your site. Attracting site visitors is called getting traffic.

With the number of existing Web sites in the billions and the growing daily, it can be extremely difficult for a small or new site to get noticed in the vastness of cyberspace. It is not as though you can simply build it and they will come. Getting steady traffic to a site takes time and effort. The more traffic a site receives, the easier it becomes for others seekers to find it.

Here is how it works: most people surf the Web for information or products using search engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN. Many people enter general terms into the search box (for example, dogs, music or cars), and the search engines deliver a listing of sites containing those terms.

Large Web sites that have been around for a number of years appear on the very first page of their search, because they most likely contain these terms on many pages within their sites, or already receive a multitude of visitors every day. Small and new sites with the same search term do not show up until many pages into the search.

Relying solely on search engine ranking isn't the only way to generate traffic to your site, thank goodness. Experiment with different approaches for helping people to find your site. The following are three ways to accomplish that goal:

Engage in link exchanges with other non-competing Web sites: Your search engine ranking improves (you appear on an earlier page under specific search terms) when you have other sites link into yours. Adding their links to your site helps the other site owners, too. Find sites with information or products that go well with yours, and suggest exchanging links. Another way to get your URL on other sites is to initiate a blog on one of the blogging sites (two of which are blogger.com and blogspot.com), including a link to your site in each blog entry.

Writing articles for other sites: People are constantly looking for new material to add to their Web sites or include in their on-line newsletters, also called e-zines. Paying for content can get costly, but site owners and e-zine editors frequently carry articles they receive for free, in exchange for allowing the author to include his or her URL at the end of it. People who read your articles might want to learn more about you by clicking your link.

Use traditional advertising methods: Tried-and-true ways for getting word out about your Web site include placing television and radio ads, handing out business cards and fliers with your URL on them, or giving away items such as pens, water bottles or refrigerator magnets that include your Web address. These techniques are not for brick and mortar businesses alone.

Wholesale Website Traffic: This option is the best of them all. It requires the least work and it really gets your website real visitors fast. In a nutshell, you do not need to write anything, build links, or even lift a finger. If you choose the right company for the job, you will be seeing real visitors coming to see your website. You are leveraging their websites power to get your site popular, it is a win for you all the way. Please read on for our company recommendations.

In summary, use a variety of tactics to publicize your Web site and its URL. It makes sense that the more traffic you generate to your site, the more potential sales you will generate as well.

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Free GDI Global Domains Marketing System Blog

By Residual Wealth Factor System Blog


Hi thanks for visiting my Free GDI Global Domains Marketing System Blog Article Site. I hope you enjoy reading about the Residual Wealth Factor Marketing System at my Global Domains Marketing System Blog.

Free GDI means you can sign up for Global Domains International for free. Try it out for seven days and keep it for 10 dollars a month. Go to my Global Domains Marketing System Blog Site and get more free information about GDI.

What is this Free GDI Global Domains Marketing System Blog. Basically this blog trains and empowers GDI members to maximize their promotional efforts. You are invited to visit my blog site to learn more about how to promote any online business.

There are hundreds of powerful marketing articles at the Global Domains Marketing System Blog Website. Please visit often and take advantage of the marketing business expertise displayed here. I have been helped so much by the strategies laid out and taught to me. My online businesses have exploded.

I will be honest the main way we market GDI is through the Residual Wealth Factor Marketing System. It is the title of my blog. I highly recommend joining the famous GDI marketing system founded by David Parnell. He is consistently at the top of GDI leaderboard. Were talking lots of cash here folks.

His RWF system is just replicating what he does. If we succeed we all succeed. This is one reason why I like internet marketing. People are very helpful and want us to do well because we all benefit. Please visit the Residual Wealth Factor Systemtoday and get more free information.

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Test Driving The AdWords Keyword Tool

By Ronny Talmor


The Internet Marketing world received what seemed like very good news: as of July 2008, the AdWords Keyword Tool is showing actual search volumes instead of shaded green bars.

I have received a lot of emails from newsletters I subscribe to, informing me of the great change. One of the senders was excited enough to conclude: "it probably spells the end for services like Wordtracker." A famous guru could not hide his joy: "Holy cow! Talk about shaking up the planet!"

The famous keyword research guru, Jim Morris, dedicated a post on his blog (nichbot.com) to the Keyword Tool revolution: "All of a sudden - there is no longer any confusion about how many times people are searching for a certain keyword phrase on Google.com."

Mr. Morris included in his post a screenshot of 8 results the Tool returned when he had asked for keyword suggestions for the term "blogging." Here they are: blogging, blogs, blog, blogging software, radio blog, pink is the new blog, blog search, bad girls blog. Three columns follow the keywords list: Advertiser Competition, Approx Search Volume for last month, and Approx Average Search Volume.

Prior to July 2008, these 3 columns showed a shaded green bar, which somehow represented the volumes, i.e. if the bar was fully shaded it must have indicated very high volume; an empty bar indicated no competition etc. Now, the columns of search volume include actual numbers, while the Advertiser Competition column still shows shaded bars.

I checked the results Jim Morris got when searching "blogging." The Advertiser Competition bar next to the keyword "radio blog" is 3/4 green - looks like a lot of competition, doesn't it? Well, why don't you search Google for "radio blog?" There must be tens of ads for that keyword, right? Wrong! Not even one ad! Neither when you use broad nor when you use phrase, neither in the U.S. nor in the UK nor in Canada (on 7/8/2008).

The same thing happened when I tried "bad girls blog." The shaded bar is painted half green, perhaps indicating moderate competition (As you can see, it is hard to know what it actually indicates. The question is: why doesn't Google reveal the real number of bidders on each keyword? Why is it a secret in the first place?) At any event, you expect some competition when the bar is half green, don't you? But again, there is not even one ad for "bad girls blog" in all the English speaking countries.

You may ask "what is the problem? Don't use Google if you don't like it." Well, the problem is that Google is not just a search engine. Google charged its advertisers over 16 billion dollars last year alone, and an advertiser must rely on the data Google provides him or her in order to set up a good campaign. If these data are extremely inaccurate, there is a good chance most AdWords advertisers are spending their money in vain.

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How to make your lawn care business a success

By Andrew Caxton


There are various ways of marketing lawn care services. Sales or leads for lawn care services can be generated through telemarketing or through direct mails. Generally, marketing strategies are employed in fall and spring as there is a great demand for lawn care services during this time. Attempts are also made by various lawn care agencies to minimize cost by printing color postcards or self-mailer brochures.

Ideally, lawn care marketing strategy has maximum impact when individual attention is provided to each client. This means that each potential client should be given a customized schedule for his or her lawn that will produce a great looking lawn. Details like mailing dates etc. should also be provided to create a sense of security about the lawn care agency.

Other ways of marketing for lawn care services would be to rely on sales tools to do with direct marketing. Door hangings that are imaginative and witty could go a long way in positively attracting sales and building the business. Similarly, sales postcards could be very effective as a marketing strategy.

It has been established as a fact that the fall season is the time when most people are open to the idea of lawns being serviced by lawn care agencies. The reason is that insect problems and terrible weather usually damage the lawn around this time. So, if you strike while the iron is hot and come up with good looking post cards and attractive offers through mail, the results will definitely be very good.

If you are still skeptical about your marketing skills, then you could take the help of sales training video programs created by the experts in the field. These videos aim to educate lawn care technicians who are unsure how to proceed with the marketing. These videos give information on the best methods to generate and seal great lawn care leads. Since these videos are made on the basis of lots of experience and practical wisdom, they will help you in successfully carving your business.

Another great marketing strategy is to go online and put up a professionally designed lawn care services website. You can provide information on price ranges and also offer lawn care advice and tips through your site. If your site is designed well and has good content, you can establish yourselves as a reliable authority for lawn care services. As most people want to deal with such professional agencies, you will get lots of work on the basis of your site.

Finally, a fantastic marketing strategy is to reach out to people through television commercials. With this kind of advertising, you can attract the attention of a large section of the population. Make sure that the commercials are great as far as production value and quality are concerned. Last but not the least; you can participate in the trade shows to market your artificial grass lawns and other lawn care services.

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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

What Is Paid Search

By Terry Stanfield


There are a lot of options when it comes to advertising on the Web. One of the many options that you can use to advertise your website is paid search. Have you ever noticed that when you use a search engine like Google to search for a particular thing on the side of the search engine results page is a long list of features websites and links?

There are usually some at the very top of the page also. Those are all website that use paid search. Paid search is one form of search engine marketing. Users pay a certain fee that is usually based on a sliding fee schedule depending on the search engine marketing content of the website to have a link and a description of their website placed at the very top of the search engine results page.

The website still needs to use search engine optimization and search engine marketing in order to get listed but the extra fee will guaranty that there is a prominent link to that website at the very top of the page whenever someone does a search for the keywords or key phrases that are listed on your site. Paid search might seem similar to pay per click advertising, where a company only pays when someone clicks on an ad that leads the customer to the company's website but the two advertising options are distinctly separate. Most companies use a combination of search engine marketing, paid search and pay per click advertising in order to drive more customers to their websites.

It can be quite time consuming to manage the budget for pay per click or paid search advertising because many search engines have a complicated rate structure that encompasses many factors. Usually the fees are based on the keywords or key phrases that you are using and how many people are clicking on your ads. If you don't have the time to manage your online advertising or you're not very experienced at setting up online advertising it might be a good idea to hire a ppc management company or a paid search management company.

Companies that specialize in ppc management can work with you to make sure that you don't go over your advertising budget and that you are getting the most traffic that you can get out of these advertising methods by using only relevant and popular keywords. Paid search management companies can also make sure that your online advertising is being targeted to the right target market so that your ad dollars aren't being wasted. You can use great search engine marketing techniques and pay a fortune for paid search and pay per click advertising but if you're not reaching the right target market your sales won't go up at all. Internet advertising is nothing like traditional advertising so if you're not sure how Internet advertising works you should consider hiring a search management company to help your company get the most from advertising online.

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Outsourcing Your Teleprospecting

By Terry Stanfield


If you are weighting the benefits of outsourcing your teleprospecting for sales leads against setting up your own teleprospecting program in house, you are trying to decide which will be most cost effective way to go for the leads you need to increase your sales.

So we are going to look at both sides of the coin for you to determine which one is best for your business. Starting with an In House Program you will first need to advertise for applicants. Then there will be the screening, interviewing, and hiring the applicants.

Next step will be to train the new hires along with supervising, monitoring and motivating the new employees. Cold calling is tough, so there will be a lot of monitoring to keep them on the phone and motivating to keep up their attitudes.

Script writing is a must. You will need to have some basic plan of actions for them to take in order to get the information you need from the businesses. You will need to provide them with answers to unexpected questions which may arise during the course of the phone conversation.

You will need to keep track of the results of the phone calls in order to determine whether you are acquiring the information you need. You will also want to know the progress being made by the telemarketers. This will enable you to weed out the ones who are not performing to the standard you have set.

Finding and making space for the telemarketers along with setting up the phones and making out schedules. Then there are the payroll taxes, the insurances, the actual phones, chairs, desk, etc need by each telemarketer. There are other expenses not yet mentioned here, but this will give you an idea of what to expect if you choose to set up an in house teleprospecting program.

If you choose to outsource your teleprospecting needs, you will be required to pay a price for the service they will provide, however the cost should be less than what it would cost you to start an in house teleprospecting program. They already have the quality people needed to get the job done in a shorter amount of time than it could take you to get it yourself. Their people will implement your project immediately, while you will have none of the headaches and all the rewards.

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How to Improve Your Copy

By Ray Edwards


This article will focus on a few ways you can improve your writing.

First off, you should read any book by Dan Kennedy. He is an expert on copywriting, specifically Direct Response Writing (where the reader can immediately respond to the offer, such as direct mail advertising). The Ultimate Sales Letter is a great book to start off with.

Visit your local library, there you should find one or two books on copywriting. The Internet is another great resource. Here are a couple of good sites that have great tutorials: www.sherus.com/business/copywriting/ and www.adcopywriting.com/Tutorials_List.htm. Don't try to learn everything at once, but instead follow the step-by-step tutorials available. This way you can learn on your own schedule and according to your own pace.

It is pivotal to write every day. This will consistently help you become a better writer. You must also be constantly learning about your field. There is so much information out there, so don't be worried about learning everything over night. It will take some time and persistence to develop greater expertise.

Hopefully this article has illuminated some ways you can improve your copywriting skills. Find some books or some resources on the Internet and start learning. There are enough resources out there that you can find material that will best fit your learning style. Good luck on improving your skills as a copywriter. You will find it to be very rewarding and flexible. Perfecting your writing abilities will improve all of your work; Websites are a great example. You must have good web-content if you want to effectively sell your product or service.

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Helpful Copywriting Tips

By Ray Edwards


This article will go over a few tips and tricks on how to maximize your sales letters. This information comes directly from Dan Kennedy's book The Ultimate Sales Letter. Dan Kennedy is one of the foremost experts in the copywriting field and his books are very helpful.

Copywriters use their own writing to gain sales leads. If your work has been inconsistent, you should consider using a sales letter to help stabilize your workload. After you send out enough letters you will begin to learn how much work you can expect from how many letters you send out. This will allow you to stabilize your work and keep business coming in. You can then control your work as well. You can send out more letters when you have more time to work, or you can send out fewer letters when life gets a little busier.

A sales letter can help you make more money from your telemarketing clients, or help gain new telemarketing clients. Telemarketing has become much more difficult in recent years due to new laws and extremely high turnover. A well made sales letter can make telemarketing more effective and potentially reduce turnover. If you can quantify your savings and train employees in better sales techniques, other telemarketing clients will want your business because you have demonstrated yourself effective in their difficult field.

Another great area to discover new business is through doctors and dentists. Doctors and dentist are quite often looking for new clients and a well-made sales letter can help increase their referrals.

These are just a few pointers from Dan Kennedy's extremely helpful book. This article and Dan's book can help new or seasoned copywriters find new sources of income. Hopefully this article helped you understand how to better maximize your sales letter and make more money.

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Best Search Engine Optimization

By Ken Knorr


Targeting SEO to achieve results

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is targeted at achieving high search engine ranking for relevant keyword phrases. This can be achieved in many ways and SEO companies employ various techniques and strategies in order to take their clients? sites to Google?s top pages. But what is the best Search Engine Optimization strategy? This is really not a simple question to answer, for SEO techniques can get extremely sophisticated and often involve multi-component blends of methods and technologies.

Avoid Blackhat Techniques

To develop an effective SEO campaign one should avoid the so-called black hat techniques that exploit such risky practices as spamdexing, link farms and keyword stuffing which can result in a removal of the site from search engine listings. To be on the safe side you need to abide by the rules and guidelines set up by the major search engines.

Simplicity Wins

The proper functioning of any site to a large extent depends on the performance of its code and design. If you want to make your site appealing to users you shouldn?t overload it with bandwidth graphics and slowly loading animation. Keep the navigation simple and easily understandable for the users, while the main thing that drives them to your site is not the exquisite finery but the valuable and informative content that you offer. However important it is, design is always just a means of obtaining information.

Unique Content Matters

Since we?ve identified information as a top priority of the SEO campaign, the site?s content is obviously the next element to consider. Just like the internet users, search engines are primarily interested in unique content that is highly relevant to the topic your site claims to be dealing with. The articles, manuals, guides and what-not that you place on your site, should be informative, clear and useful. Even if you manage to drive a lot of traffic to your site, the best Search Engine Optimization results would be when the users want to stay or come back to your resource for more information. And that would only be the case if you constantly update your site adding more content as often as possible.

Build proper internal links

Quality content will provide for another factor that is crucial in developing the best SEO campaign possible and that is the linking structure. With other sites linking to yours your chances of getting to the top page in search engine results get much higher. But make sure that you are linked to by authoritative sites, relevant to the topic you cover, or else the countless linking contacts you have can impede your search engine performance rather than improve it. Links are just like friends, it?s better to have a few reliable allies than mess up with lots of guys whom you hardly know and who seem to have a controversial reputation.

One Size does not fit all

Discover more SEO techniques and practices and experiment, adjusting them to your specific needs and goals. There?s no best Search Engine Optimization strategy as such, there is one that is best for you.

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Do You Want To Get Free Traffic To Your Site

By Anson Hall


You may have already created a website for your business. Yes building a website is certainly a good way to promote your business. However, you should also learn the ways to drive traffic to your website otherwise you will not be able to promote your business with your website.

As you may already know, there are a lot of ways for you to buy traffic. You can launch PPC programs. You may also purchase advertisement spots in sites with high traffic. However, you may not be interested in these methods since they are all paid methods. Yes you may not want to spend your hard earn money in order to build your traffic. Instead you may want to use some free methods to drive traffic to your site.

The first free method of driving traffic to your site is to build a content site. The advantage of a content site is that it is a good way to boost your search engine ranking. And you can in turn use this content site to promote your business site.

If you are not trying to build a content site, you may also consider adding the contents in your main business site. In this case you will create articles which are related to your business and put them into the website.

Link exchange is also a good way to build traffic to your website. There are people who think that link exchange is not good since it main ruin your search engine ranking. However, there should be no problem as long as you are having link exchange with relevant websites.

You may also promote your website by using article marketing. As a matter of fact, article marketing is considered a wonderful way to drive traffic. It can also help to build back links to your websites. You can submit the articles to article directories yourself. You may also use some distribution services so that you can save time.

Some people will post comments in blogs. Of course you are not trying to spam. You will be posting constructive comments in the blogs. It is also very important for you to post comments in blogs which are related to your business.

As a matter of fact, the above are only some of the ways for you to build free traffic. What you have to do is to be creative. You should try to seek for new ways to drive quality traffic to your website.

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How to Market Your E-Commerce Site Online

By SFXsource


E-commerce has become an accepted practice of buying and selling products and the first task is to get products, build an orderly catalog, and upload them onto a working site. The second all important job is in being successful in e-commerce is getting interested visitors to your site. Various ways of building an online presence and getting traffic which apply to all types of e-commerce businesses follow.

1. Optimize your e-commerce shop for searching by adding a succinct site description, relevant keywords, and a title that describes your business.

2. Add a link page in order to do link exchanges with like-minded entrepreneurs and other friends and family associates. Make sure that the link text lists the keywords you would like to point to your site as opposed to your actual business name.

3. Create pages for your business on social networking sites, include your business URL on these pages, and make tons of friends. You can definitely increase your user and client base by networking on these types of social sites.

4. Post helpful tips and advice frequently on online forums related to your industry as such posts often allow you to include your URL links.

5. There are many article directories online in which you can submit articles relevant to your industry. Each article you publish will allow you to include a resource box with your URLs.

6. Publish press releases often to free press release sites and update the world on new content or news concerning your site.

A successful e-commerce site needs much traffic to create many sales. Through time, traffic turns into a loyal customer base which ensures your the future of your business. Though, you must consistently follow the above strategies over the years to increase and also simply maintain your search engine rank.

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Copywriting Salaries

By Ray Edwards


This article will discuss the salaries and rates for an employed or a freelance copywriter.

Employed copywriters can earn a little or a lot based on their skill level and how well they sell themselves. The magazine Advertising Age found that the average salary for a copywriter in 2005 was around $60,000 after bonuses. (taken from http://www.collegeboard.com)

Freelancing salaries are more difficult to estimate. Some charge per project, while others charge per hour. Here are some figures from 2005 that will help you better understand what a freelancer could earn: A lead generating sales letter went for $1000 to $2000 and a website could go for $300 to $400. If you want more information checkout this website: http://www.excessvoice.com/copyfees.htm. Invest in some survey results, they will be extremely helpful.

About two out of every five copywriters earn somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 a year in gross income. If you would like to learn more about copywriting rates, you can find more here: http://www.excessvoice.com/copyfees.htm. Take advantage of these survey results so that you don't undercharge yourself.

These figures were a median taken from the surveys, if you have technical knowledge that is quantifiable then you could earn more than these figures. So take some time and learn more about your field and develop your skills in order to gain a competitive edge.

Hopefully this article has given you a rough idea of what an employed or freelance copywriter can earn. If you want more information you should go to the site listed above and invest in some survey results, this will help you go much further as a copywriter.

It is important to note that these rates are a median and only give you an idea of what you could charge. Your exact rates will depend on the market, your expertise, and how well you sell yourself.

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Tips for Copywriting

By Ray Edwards


This article will examine how to gain more clients and improve your copywriting skills.

If you improve these two skills then you will become far more successful as a copywriter. Many talented copywriters struggle because they cannot find clients or sell themselves. You must learn to sell yourself if you want to become successful and set yourself apart from those around you. Make a portfolio and put some of your best work in it. You should also include a letter that outlines your qualifications, has examples of your writing, and includes testimonials from past clients. This allow potential clients see your work as they consider hiring you. If you can, reference as many Fortune 500 companies as clients. If you're just starting out, do not include potential clients, only list past work. If you have worked for an advertising agency and are looking to do some from freelance copywriting, make sure to include some of your work from the advertising agency.

Posting your availability on elance.com or directfreelance.com will also help you gain new clients. These sites also allow you to research companies that you are interested in working for. Another way to gain clients is by reading the business section of the newspaper. Take notice of all the companies affiliated with your particular field. You may be able to turn this information into possible leads.

If you need to improve your copywriting skills, then read some books by the experts. Dan Kennedy is a great example. His books are very useful and will help you create better copy. In particular, his book "The Ultimate Sales Letter" will help you immensely by outlining how to write great copy and by working through several example writing-projects.

Hopefully this article was helpful. Stephen King once said in Time Magazine that writing is like exercising. The more weight you lift the stronger you will become. Copywriting is no different. Applying these skills and writing often will make you a better writer.

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Link Exchange Tips For You

By Anson Hall


In order to make money with your websites, you have to drive a lot of quality traffic to your sites. To this end you will need to create unique contents in your sites. This will certainly help you to attract the visitors to visit your sites again. You will also need to exchange links with other sites in order to drive even more traffic.

In the past, webmasters would exchange links casually. They would not consider if they should have link swapping with a certain site. However, you should never do that. You have to think about it carefully before you exchange links with the others.

There is no doubt that you need to consider different issues before you exchange links with other sites. One of your considerations will probably be the pagerank of the site. You may not want to have link swapping with a site with zero pagerank.

The relevance of the site you will be linking to is also very essentialvital. You should never link to sites with contents which are not related to your site.

If you visit some online webmaster forums, you will find that some webmasters will maintain that you should never have link exchanges since this will not be good to your search engine ranking. However, the truth is that it should be alright as long as you exchange links with related sites only.

On the other hand, it will help the search engine ranking of your site if you exchange links with relevant sites. Relevance is always important when you are exchanging links with the other sites.

Your ranking in search engine is only one of the considerations when you are doing swapping. In fact, it should not be your sole concern. Your main concern should be the traffic you can get directly from the websites you are exchanging links with. This is why you are trying to exchange links with other websites.

The last thing you have to remember is that, link swapping is only part of your link building campaign. The number of links from link swapping should never exceed 25% of the totally number of links you are trying to build.

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What is Lead Generation?

By Terry Stanfield


Every working business owner should have a sales lead generation program in place. Some of them can be as simple as getting referrals from existing and new customers. Some can be as elaborate as a lead generation service. Whatever method the business uses lead generation is an important aspect of business life.

Lead generation is a method used by businesses to create new customers. An existing business may have customers, but with only a few customers businesses cannot survive, so then it becomes essential for the business to find new customers.

Finding new customers is a constant process. Every business may have more than one method in place to produce new customers, but they all will have at least one. Depending on the financial situation of your business, you can find low cost lead generation programs to use or you can hire a lead generation service to provide you with a list of qualified leads.

If you are going to use a lead generation service, make sure to choose a reputable company who will stand behind the qualified leads you receive. If you are going to pay for leads, make sure you are getting qualified leads. You want the prospective clients to able to use your product or service.

If you are not getting qualified leads, you might as well get the names out of your local phone directory.

If you are going to use a low cost lead generation, make sure the method you choose will narrow down the list of prospects to those prospective clients who will most likely use your product or service. It is possible to make sales from cold calls however the percentage is much smaller than with qualified sales.

Every business needs a good sales lead generation program working for them. If it is not working well at increasing your sales, then you might look closely at the method you are using in order to find any changes, which might need to be made to improve its performance. If it still doesn't work, try implementing a different method.

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Sale Lead Generation is the Key to Business Success

By Terry Stanfield


In order for a business to success and remain in business, they must determine the best method for sale lead generation. Each business has it's own unique features, which must be taken into consideration before deciding on a method to create new potential customers. Because this can be difficult to figure out, sometimes the process of trial and error must be used.

One of the first steps a business needs to take is to determine their target market. A business could target their efforts of attracting potential clients who are in a particular type of business. For some types of businesses the target market might still be too broad. They will need to determine even more factors about the businesses in need of their products or services..

Once a business has determined their target market, they will need to look for creative methods of creating new potential clients. It is up to the business to work at developing a relationship with the decision maker as a way to get their business. A business without a method of sale lead generation will not remain in business for very long.

There are a number of methods, which can be used to generate new customers. Probably two of the most commonly known are television and newspaper ad. While these methods of generating new customers may work for some businesses, but if you need business clients, newspaper and television ads will not work for you. The chances of a decision maker of a large corporation watching a television ad and calling you about your product or service are somewhere between slim and none, so you are forced into look for other options.

If you are selling a product or service, which only certain types of businesses are likely to buy, then you will have to get creative in order to find a method where you will be able to reach that particular group of businesses. Depending on the type of product or service you are selling, there may be a trade show where someone in your company can set up a booth or a kiosk. You will get the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the audience you are targeting. Your company will then have the information it needs to contact your target audience with letters, phone calls, or catalogs in an effort to establish a relationship with that company.

Sale lead generation is not an easy task to accomplish. However once you have decided on several methods of sale lead generations, which work best for your company and type of product, your business will be headed in the right direction on the road to success

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Benefits of Targeted Generated Leads

By Terry Stanfield


If you are using generated leads and your sales have not increased by a significant amount, you might want to check into telephone lead generation. By using the telephone to generate leads, the telemarketer can ask questions, which will narrow down the market to those who are most likely to be interested in utilizing your product or service.

You will be able to determine whether or not the business is a good prospect by the way they respond to the questions asked. This is considered a targeted lead because it has sifted through a large number of businesses, the majority being those with little or no interest in your product or service. This will avoid wasting the time of your sales personnel.

If you have not done so, you will need to determine the type of business who is in need of your product or service. Pay attention to the type of business, their current situation, the number of employees, and other useful information. All these qualities will help you determine your target audience and in able you to find them through their responses to specific questions. Be aware you don't narrow your search so much you miss out on sales you could have had. You could inadvertently rule out some businesses in need of your product in an effort to narrow down your target audience.

As you are finding the qualified prospects you need, you can also include questions, which will give you some feedback. You would be able to find out the likes and dislikes of those using your type of product or service, even if it is not your product or service. This will inform you of the dos and don'ts. You will have the opportunity to correct a mistake before it is made.

Setting up a telemarketing department in your business can be costly. It may however increase your bottom line enough to offset the cost. This may ultimately depend on the cost of your product or service. If your company has no desire at this time to start a telemarketing department, there are companies you will do the telemarketing lead generation for you. This is a decision your company will have to make based on the numbers.

By using telephone lead generation, your sales personnel will have a better chance at making a sale. Your sales personnel will be working with target generated leads, which should increase your sales by a significant amount. Since so many things must be worked out through trial and error, you may find yourself changing the questions until you find the right questions to ask.

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Creating Leads on a Limited Budget

By Terry Stanfield


If your business is one started on next to nothing or maybe you are experiencing a cash flow problem, you will need to implement a low cost lead generation program. Because you are on a limited budget you may not wish to pay the cost of having a lead generation service do the work for you, so you will have to find a way your business can do it on its own without much outside assistance.

Here are some ideas for some low cost lead generation. If these don't work for you, put your thinking cap on and get creative. You should be able to come up with some ideas of your own.

There are trade shows for just about everything. You could rent the space and set up with a demonstration of your product or service at a trade show and have everyone you can stop fill out a registration for a drawing of something small like $100. This will give you something to work with.

You can have someone call with a survey to illicit more leads. Have them ask questions, which are related to your product or service. This will help you narrow down the playing field to those who might be interested in the use of your product or service. Make sure to ask about their likes or dislikes of the product or service they are currently using.

If they have a supplier of your product or service already, they may be unhappy with what they have and will listen to competition. Make sure to offer something better. After listening to their likes or dislikes regarding what they are currently using, you will be able to adjust your service or product to better suit their needs.

Offer current customers a reward of some kind for every referral you get from them who becomes a customer. For years word of mouth has been a business's best source of advertisement, so why not put it to good use. Your current customers will thank you for the extra $ 25.00 you give them for sending you a referral.

When looking for a low cost lead generation program, just get creative. Find something, which will help you get your business on the road to success.

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Finding Business Leads Through Telephone Lead Generation

By Terry Stanfield


Your company is looking for lead generation with telemarketing companies in the United States. You will want more than just a name and a phone number. You could have found that information on your own by looking through the phone book. So what do you want from the telemarketing company? Let's take a look at what the telemarketing company should give you for your money.

The telemarketing should make a quality phone presentation on your behalf. The information they should ferret out for you will be as follows:

1. They should identify the decision maker for you.

2. They should confirm the need for your product and when the product is needed.

3. They should have a significant conversation with the decision maker, which will enable them to glean even more information for you, such as the process of decision making, the current situation with the prospective client, who your competition might be, the important details, which will enable you to close the sale with the prospective client and any other important pieces of information you need to make the sale.

Knowing these key elements will assist you when you contact the prospective client regarding the need for your product. The telemarketing company is basically turning, what would have started out as a cold call, into a relationship on which your company can base a business transaction. This allows your sales personnel to do what they do best, which is getting a signature on the dotted line and closing the deal.

When looking for a lead generation with a telemarketing company here in the United States, you will want to find a quality company who will have your best interest at heart. A company who knows how much people hate wasting their time listening to a sales spiel from a telemarketer and are willing to spend the time having a sincere conversation with your prospective client on your behalf.

There are several telemarketing companies who do not understand the importance of having a sincere conversation with the prospective client. They may believe it is a waste of time, however if they understood the reason behind the conversation maybe they would change their methods of telemarketing. By having the conversation with the prospective client, they are opening the lines of communication as a two-way street. The prospective client is more likely to open up and talk about details he would never let on to a salesman.

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Professional Copywriting

By Ray Edwards


Today we will look at what copywriting has to offer as a job.

Copywriting has a lot to offer as a job. Copywriting pays more than the average job in the United States. The magazine Advertising Age reported that in 2005 the average salary of a copywriter was around $60,000 in the United States with bonuses included. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a slightly smaller figure of around $57,000, but you can expect that number to have increased over the past two years because of inflation.

Copywriting is far more flexible than many other jobs. Since your main focus is producing good copy, you don't have to stick to a set hourly schedule like most jobs. This allows you to create your own schedule and live a fuller life, here's an example: You can work less one day in order to go to Timmy's ball game and then make it up at another time that doesn't interfere with life's more important events. You could not do this as easily in many other jobs.

Copywriting often brings with it a great workplace environment. Many copywriters work within an advertising agency, which can be a great place to work. You often have many other creative people around whose energy you can feed off of. This can be great because you will often be challenged by their intelligence and creativity. There are many different sizes of advertising agencies that can better suit your personality. A smaller advertising agency will produce an intimate group of people to work with, but a larger advertising agency will offer more competition. Clearly there is a great deal of flexibility within your work environment.

Because copywriting can be very challenging it will never get boring. When working for an advertising agency you quite often have many different types of clients, this makes for a variety of work projects. No two days are the same. This way you'll always have a variety of projects asking for your creative skill and you'll never get bored.

Vocational Copywriting offers many benefits from whatever angle you examine it. Your income will be substantial with an average wage of about $60,000. If you become a master copywriter, then you can clearly earn more money as well. A copywriter's work environment is often brimming with creative energy and is far more flexible than most other jobs.

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Tracking Cold Calling

By Valerie Schlitt, President of VSA, Inc.


Unlike virtually any other marketing tool, cold calling lets companies change courses at almost any time.

In today's ever-changing business environment, this flexibility is critical.

Companies new to cold calling must watch early results closely.

Testing, assessing, and refining the program from the onset are critical first steps. These actions can result in a long term program that produces a predictable stream of sales opportunities.

Veteran cold callers also must work. Constant attention is needed to keep the program sharp. Here's a recommendation: continue with the program that works, but apply a portion of your tele-prospecting investment towards testing new approaches that may surpass your existing model. When you find one that is more effective, replace your existing program, but continue to test new approaches.

It's easy to test and change cold calling campaigns. Unlike print ads, radio spots, billboards, or most other marketing vehicles, cold calling programs make testing and applying those results to the program easy.

Here are some of the items that every program should assess:

1) The offer. Do you want to set a sales appointment? Do you want to invite people to a webinar? Do you simply want to collect email addresses for a campaign? Are you offering a free assessment, or a free trial? Do you need an incentive to enhance your "call to action?"

2) The list. Are the decision makers and the companies on your list the best prospects?

3) Talking points. Do your callers have the conversation points to highlight the key aspects of your program? Is there something compelling that needs to be added? Are the talking points too complicated or long?

4) Your calling team. How well do they represent you? How effective are they in talking to decision makers? Can they ask for the appointment?

5) Your ability to close the leads. This is the part that comes after a cold calling lead is identified. Can you cost effectively convert that lead into a sale? Do you have the people and processes in place? Are you getting qualified leads?

Case Studies

Here are short examples of savvy VSA clients who tested, assessed and refined their programs.

1) A software company implemented a program which successfully produced leads. However, the company was unprepared to convert the leads to sales. Now, this company plans a product-specific website, marketing materials and the right expertise to make sales calls. A second cold calling initiative is scheduled.

2) An online marketing company completed a program that produced poor results. The company has changed its offer to simplify steps prospective companies must take to enroll. A second campaign has been launched.

3) A commercial roofing company implemented a program and generated desired results. Later, the company realized the prospective clients were not a good fit. The company has implemented a second campaign targeting a different prospect list.

If you are planning a cold calling program, please call us to talk about the factors that can make or break your campaign. We'd like to know what marketing tools have worked for you in the past and show you how we can add to that success. We are happy to help.

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How To Write ClickBank Product Review Pages

By Ian Traynor


ClickBank is one of the largest sources of digital products, and some 10,000 merchants use ClickBank to sell their products.

Merchants like ClickBank! For a very small charge per sale, ClickBank operates affiliate schemes for merchants and handles their customers' credit card transactions.

If you're wanting to start making serious money by selling products as an affiliate, ClickBank is also ideal. Just set up a free account, decide which ClickBank products you want to promote, get the special ClickBank "hoplink" for those products and start sending people to the merchant's sales page through your ClickBank affiliate link. Then start raking in the cash - usually at least 50% of the selling price.

Is it really that easy? No, of course not! Many people make very little money from ClickBank products - even assuming that they at least try (which many don't!). So many people simply promote ClickBank products incorrectly.

Many people just put up banner ads on their websites and add their affiliate links to their forum posts and emails. These "lazy" methods don't work. Few people will click through to the merchant's sales page from these methods.

Let me show you a method which I've used to great success. OK, you have to work at it a bit, but it will be well worth your while:

How To Write Product Review Pages

Product review pages are simply web pages which express opinions about a product. For this technique to work, your review should "pre-sell" the product - to get people to want the product before they visit the merchant's sales page though your link.

The reason why this technique is so successful is that more and more people, before they buy something online, look for reviews of the product. If you type "review" + a product name into Google, you're likely to find examples of product reviews.

Even this technique on its own is not enough. Many, many affiliate marketers write very poor review pages. You need to be a little subtle!

Refining Your Product Review Page

1) Don't fill your review with nothing but good points about the product. Find a few unimportant things that you don't like. These, of course, should more than countered by the good things!

2) Don't try to "sell" the product. The main purpose of the review page is to get people to click through to the merchants's sales page through your affiliate link, ready to make a positive buying decision.

3) You mustn't use words and sentences taken straight from the merchant's sales page. Your review will lose all its impact if you do this. It will no longer be seen as impartial.

4) Ideally, you should already have used the product before you write the review. Ask the merchant for a complimentary copy of the product saying that it's for a review. Many merchants will be happy to do that.

5) "Comparative reviews" are very powerful. Just find other products which satisfy the same sort of needs, and review them alongside the product you really want visitors to buy. A "star rating" system is a good idea in a comparative review. You will, of course, give the main product more stars than the others!

I hope that you've gained some good ideas from this article, and that it will help you to improve your ClickBank income. You'll find it even easier to promote ClickBank products by using the tools included in my ClickBank ToolKit.

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Structuring your Copy

By Ray Edwards


This article will examine pre-existent copywriting structures and discuss why you use them. There has been a lot of copy written and there is no reason to reinvent the wheel. This article will specifically look at how to write a sales letter, which will has the greatest impact, especially if you're writing SEO copy.

One pattern of thought says that you should make your website one big sales letter. This allows you to sell yourself with an effective structure. Sales letters are useful when writing for both off-line businesses and Internet customers.

An effective sales letter has three major components. The first is the headline. This is where you grab your reader's attention. If you fail to do so, then you are wasting your time with the rest of the letter. Second comes the offer. This needs to be explicit so that the reader knows exactly what you're offering. It must also entice them into further pursuing your product after reading the letter. The final component is the postscript. After the headline, this is the second most read portion of a sales letter. This is where you put that extra incentive to make your offer irresistible. You should always write the sales letter in order and never all at once. Do it section by section. This method produces excellent sales letters.

If you lack experience as a copywriter and want more structures and patterns, then you should follow the experts. Dan Kennedy is a great copywriter that has written some excellent books on copywriting. This will be extremely helpful.

Hopefully this advice has helped you better develop your skills as a copywriter. The key is to follow the patterns already established and build your own creative spin into your work. Don't reinvent the wheel when writing. This will result in weak sales and more work. Use the structures that have already been proven successful. This will help you become a better and more successful copywriter.

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What is Teleprospecting?

By Terry Stanfield


Teleprospecting is using the phone wisely, without doing any selling. However, when utilized properly, teleprospecting is the most effective tool in the lead generation program. It will deliver sales ready leads.

The reason it works so well is because of the human contact, one person talking to another person. Without human contact it is impossible to build relationships, which become profitable to customers and sellers alike. Human contact is the only way to get to meat of a situation, which means you must have lengthy and sincere conversations with the potential clients.

Every time you have a productive conversation with a potential client your knowledge of that potential client will increase. Think about it if you having a conversation with someone, eventually you can earn their trust. They will tell just about anything you want to know.

By the end of a couple of conversations you will know when this business will be ready to place an order. You will already be talking to the decision maker, so you will learn all about how the process works. You will have learned what the prospective client likes about the product and what he doesn't like. You will learn who your competition is and what the potential likes and dislikes about them.

The leads generated from these telephone conversations will be ready for your sales personnel to make the sale. Your sales will increase significantly. Your sales department will be able to maintain a positive attitude, which is an important element when it comes to making sales.

If teleprospecting is not something your company wants to attempt, there are companies who do this line of work for companies just like yours. They will be more than happy to talk to the potential clients for you. They can set appointments for you to meet with the client face-to-face, or they can give you sale ready leads. It is your choice

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Copywriting Market Demand

By Ray Edwards


Here we will discuss the market demand for freelance or professional copywriters.

There will always be a market for copywriters. Demand will be strong regardless of the economy. In the past it was easy to sell a good product with poor advertising. But in the global-market competition has increased dramatically, making it difficult for consumers to distinguish between products. Now, a company must employ copywriters to create the advertising edge they need to sell their product. In the face of weak sales, some companies cut their advertising budget, but they quickly learn the mistake inherent in this decision: even weaker sales! Thus if companies want to sell their products in the midst of a weak economy, copywriters will be necessary. Demand for copywriters may drop a small amount during a recession, but not terribly, and it will quickly bounce back as the economy recovers.

The Internet has provided a massive new market for copywriters. Search Engine Copywriting helps websites appear under searches on sites such as google.com (called "indexing"). It is difficult to index a website and thus demand for Search Engine Copywriters is high. Searchers and search bots must be able to find your site, and you need a good copywriter to do this, especially with over four billion web pages on the Internet. Suffice to say, copywriters are in high demand.

There are many opportunities in the copywriting field. You can work for an advertising agency or for yourself. Jobs are available all over the country. Copywriting demand will track and grow with the pace of the economy. Monster.com reports that there are currently more than 500 jobs available for copywriters. This is just a small piece of the market! This should help illustrate the demand for copywriters.

Hopefully this article was helpful in showing the demand for copywriters. A copywriter should be able to find work despite the condition of the economy. In the midst of a recession some companies' sales will increase and therefor copywriting will stay strong. With whole market before you, you will always find someone who needs your services.

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