Monday, July 12, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
How to Be Successful With Banner Advertising!
Banner advertising is a great way to advertise your business, product or service. If done well, it can be quite profitable. This is a well written article by Ghyslain Lefebre that will give you the basic of banner advertising.
There are several steps you should follow if you are considering using banner advertising as a method of marketing for your business. I will be taking you step by step on how to set up your banner advertising campaign. How to be successful with banner advertising? Alright let's get busy...
Banner advertising, what is it? A "web banner" or "banner ad" is a form of advertising on the Internet. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking to the website of the advertiser. The advertisement is constructed from an image (GIF, JPEG, PNG), JavaScript program or multimedia object employing technologies such as Java, Shockwave or Flash, often employing animation, sound, or video to maximize presence. Images are usually in a high-aspect ratio shape (i.e. either wide and short, or tall and narrow) hence the reference to banners. These images are usually placed on web pages that have interesting content, such as a newspaper article or an opinion piece.
Setting up a banner advertising campaign is not difficult. 3 hours at first to set up for the first few times but will get easier and shorter as you get more experience. There is minimal maintenance once your campaign is started. Your results will get better with time This is very similar to television advertising where advertisers know that it take on average for a potential customer to see your add 3 to 7 times before they take action.
It is important that you know how banner advertising works. Learn the terminology...
Impression: Each time your banner ad loads on a website, this is considered an "impression."
Click: Each time someone clicks on your actual banner; this is counted as a "click."
Conversions: When someone fills out the form on your website, this is considered a "conversion" (or lead).
Click: Each time someone clicks on your actual banner; this is counted as a "click."
Conversions: When someone fills out the form on your website, this is considered a "conversion" (or lead).
CPM - Cost Per Thousand: This is a method of measuring how much you will pay for a banner ad. Often times you are charged "on a CPM basic" which means you are charged for every thousand impressions. A "$2 CPM" means you pay $2.00 for every thousand impressions your banner ad receives. Be wary of sites that charge more than $4 to $5 CPM for banner ad placements. $2.00-$2.50 is ideal, but we've seen sites out there charging up to $15 CPM, which is very high.
CPA - Cost Per Action: This is a method of measuring how much you will pay for a banner ad, based on the actions taking. An action can be considered a click, or it can be considered a conversion. If a website offers banner advertising on a "CPA basis" this means you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad (as opposed to impressions).
CTR - Click through Rate: This is the ratio of impressions to clicks. For example, if there are 1000 impressions (or page views) on a website and 10 people click on the banner ad, that would be a CTR of 1%.
Cost per Conversion: How much it costs you to get one lead. If you spend $30 and you received 8 leads, than your cost per conversion is $3.75.
Cost Per Action - If your specified action is a "click," and you spent $30 to get 100 clicks, than your cost per action, or cost per click, would be $0.33.
Publisher: These are the websites that accept advertising on their site.
Advertiser: The individual or company placing the banner advertisement (you).
A few tips to keep in mind. Always make sure your ad is above the fold. What this means is people don't have to scroll down on the website to see you add. Some website will try to take advantage to new entrepreneurs and will charge you $3-$15 per 1000 impression. Never pay more than $2 per 1000 impressions especially when you are new. You want to be able to see which one of your ad works and which one doesn't without investing too much money.
3 steps to your banner research:
Step One: Understanding How Websites Make Money: Closely examine the websites you look at to decipher if they're selling advertising space (i.e. banner advertisements, text advertisements, Google's AdSense ads, etc.), selling a product or service, or a combination of the two.
Step Two: Create a List of Websites to Research
1. What Sites Do I Visit? Start by looking at websites and blogs you personally visit.
2. Choose a Target Market: This can be anything... teachers, motorcycle enthusiasts, college football fans, investors, entrepreneurs, small business owners, dancers, golfers, etc.
Step Three: Research Websites
1. Alexa.com: Go to Alexa.com and type in the URL of the website you're researching. You can find a wealth of research on websites on Alexa. Specifically, however, you are looking for the overall traffic rank as well as traffic rank by country, related links (you can get ideas for other websites to research here) and keywords (it's helpful to know what search terms are used when the site comes up in a search). In very general terms you are looking for websites with a traffic rank between 1 and 100,000.
2. Examine the Website: Quality Content: Does this website offer the reader valuable content or does it look like the Las Vegas strip with a flood of blinking and flashing banner ads?
3. Place Your Banner Advertisement
a. Step One: Understanding Advertising Rates: Most websites post a "rate card" on their site letting potential advertisers know how much they charge for advertising space.
b. Second: Understanding Placement: Without question you want to be "above the fold"
c. Step Three: Start Small: While you may be pressured for a long-term contract at a "special rate", it is always advisable to start with a smaller budget for shorter time period.
d. Step Four: Submit Banner
This is how to be successful with banner advertising in 1000 words or less. Again banner advertising can be quite profitable as long as you use this technique to the letter. If you start throwing money at it like you are the craps table in Vegas, you will not be successful. Do your diligence, take your time especially at first and go make some cash.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Top 15 Ways to Build Your Subscriber List
Email marketing can be profitable for any business, no matter what kind of product or service you offer. It is significantly cheaper than other advertising methods and, if done right, helps build loyalty and trust with customers. As a result, you generate more sales and more profits!
The foundation for successful email marketing is a targeted, permission-based email list. Marketers call contact lists their "goldmine" because it can generate much of their sales revenue. If you've built up a list of opt-in subscribers that are qualified and interested in what you have to offer, then you've completed the first step and are on your way. Now it's time to "mine" for gold!
Below you'll find several list-building and retention ideas that will help you get the best results from all your email marketing activities:
1. Provide useful, relevant content. Your visitors will not give you their email addresses just because they can subscribe to your newsletter free of charge. You have to provide unique and valuable information that will be of interest or use to them.
2. Add a subscription form to every page on your website. Make sure it stands out so it is easy to find. If it doesn't look cluttered, you may want to include more than one on some pages. For instance, if your opt-in form always appears in the top-left corner of your site, you may want to add one at the end of your most popular articles.
3. Add subscription forms to your social media pages. Make sure that you don't waste this valuable source of revenue opportunities. Integrate your sign-up forms with Facebook and more!
4. Make it easy for readers to sign up. The more information you request, the fewer people will opt-in. In most cases, a name and an email address should suffice. If it's not necessary, don't include it here. You can always survey them once they're customers! We do recommend that you provide a link to your Privacy Policy however.
5. Publish a Privacy Policy. Let your readers know that they can be confident you will not share their information with others. The easiest way to do this is to set up a Privacy Policy web page and provide the link to it below your opt-in form. (Note: If you don't have one, put the words "privacy policy generator" into a search engine and you should be able to find a suitable form to use.)
6. Provide samples of your newsletters and Ezines. This lets potential subscribers review your materials before they sign up to determine if it's something they'd be interested in.
7. Archive past newsletters and articles. An online library of past newsletters and articles is both appealing and useful to visitors and builds your credibility as an authority. In addition, if your articles are written with good SEO techniques in mind, they can increase traffic to your website through enhanced search engine positioning.
8. Give gifts subscribers can actually use. Offer an opt-in bonus for joining your subscriber list! Write an ebook or provide a PDF business report, or even hire a programmer to create downloadable or web-based software. But don't limit yourself to offering gifts to opt-ins. Give them out when your readers fill out a survey, provide a testimonial, success story, or a great product idea. Let them know when they can expect the next gift offer. Everyone likes to get something for free! And if you pass out "goodies" throughout the year, your subscribers will feel truly appreciated − and that's good for business!
9. Ask your subscribers to pass it on. Word of mouth is a powerful viral technique that works great with email marketing. If your subscribers find your content interesting, amusing or informative, they'll probably share it with their friends. This can be a great source of new customers, so make sure to remind them to "pass it on".
10. Let others reprint your newsletter as long as the content is not modified. If you're happy to share your content with the universe, then why not! Many webmasters and newsletter publishers are actively looking for high-quality content and, if they reprint your newsletter, you'll get new subscribers, and more traffic and links pointing to your site.
11. Include a "Sign Up" button in your newsletter. If you're using plain text instead of HTML, be sure to provide a text link to your subscription page. You may feel that this is not required because the subscriber is already on your list, but remember that readers will forward your newsletters to others, or reprint them online. Make it easy for them to subscribe!
12. Add a squeeze page. A squeeze page has one goal − to acquire opt-ins and build your list. Think of it as a mini-sales letter to go along with your subscription or opt-in gift. It should feature a strong headline and a couple of powerful benefits that should make subscribers salivate to sign up! Once created, use a service such as WordTracker to find hundreds of targeted keywords, and promote your offer using pay-per-click advertising from Google, MSN and Yahoo. Now that should make a splash!
13. Include testimonials on your squeeze page. This is crucial. Put one or two strong testimonials from satisfied customers on your squeeze page. This can be in any format, but you may find that multimedia (audio or video) is more "believable" and inspires more people to action. To further enhance believability, get permission to use actual customer names, locations and/or urls (Don't use "Bob K, FL"). Add a note inviting others to participate. After all, it's free publicity!
14. Blog religiously. Blogging is a great way to communicate with prospects and potential customers, and creates a nice synergy with your email marketing. Be sure to include your newsletter sign-up form on each page of your blog. You can start a free blog at Blogger or WordPress.
15. Post on other blogs. Post thoughtful comments and information on similar blogs with a link to your squeeze or opt-in pages. Also comment on others' blogs through trackbacks. In most cases, your comments will be posted on their blogs with a link back to your site. This is an easy way to generate new traffic and subscribers, and get your brand out there!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
IM FacePlate
The newest online branding site is free. Build your IM faceplate, enter your profile and personal data. Link to your social network profiles. Build the page up with suitable articles and watch the system work for you.
While the traffic experts talk about this way and that way to get to tons of laser beamed traffic to your site, they always seem to forget to mention how they get traffic by being a traffic grabbing parasite.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise to you when you consider the simple fact that dominating search engines like Google will flood your site with prospects who will whip out their credit cards at the drop of a hat.
In fact, being a traffic parasite was so profitable that the big parasite hosts started banning IM and business opportunity related affiliates from using their services. Traffic parasites would use other people’s website to advertise lists of favourite exchanges, safelists and home based business opportunities.
That’s why even long time owners of traffic exchanges can’t use Ezine Articles or Squidoo to promote their sites.
And if you are anything like me – then you know deep within your heart – that it is wrong to stifle the message of creating life changing income, right? But that was yesterday…Today your voice can be heard.
Logiscape just launched IM faceplate where you can use their reputation and their hosting to drive traffic to your sites without having to worry about being censored by people who really don’t have a clue about affiliate marketing.
And I am sure you will agree if the folks at Logiscape know one thing about internet marketing – it’s getting traffic! I know that getting traffic by being a traffic parasite may seem a bit incredible to you, that’s totally understandable. Being a traffic parasite reaps visitors like there is no tomorrow, all I ask is that you start getting IMfaceplate traffic from this page and watch the amazing results.
It is free to sign up. What more can you ask for? As always, I am never going to recommend any product or service that will not help you with your online marketing. This service will help – and it is free.
written by Colin F. Brennan July 2, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Autoresponders - What They Are & How They Work
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By Jonathan GS Edwards
Autoresponders are fantastic tools & will save you a lot of time when it comes to sending messages to everyone in your list. When someone goes to your website that has an opt-in box, fills in the opt-in box with name & e-mail address, clicks submit/subscribe, their details are sent to your autoresponder and stored there.
What is a list?
A list contains peoples names & e-mail address. When someone goes to your website and fills in the Opt-in fields to subscribe to your product/service, their details are sent & stored in a list, which is stored in your autoresponder. Autoresponders will send follow-up messages automatically after a chosen period of time and when requested, send broadcast messages to everyone on your list by the click of a button.
Follow-Up Messages
Your autoresponder will then send a follow-up message to that person(s), e.g. 'Thank You for registering your interest in my product/service. Your autoresponder will then automatically send another followup message to each subscriber after a certain period of time after the last e.g. 2 days later, 3 days later and so forth.
Broadcast Messages
If you have something that you want to share with each subscriber in your list. Your autoresponder will allow you to send a 'Broadcast message' to each subscriber in your list, regardless of the number of subscribers in your list. Broadcast message is a message that is sent to all subscribers at once, with a Broadcast message, you write it in the form of a friendly e-mail & then once finished, save the message.
Instead of have to re-write or copy & paste the same message over & over, you simply type the message once, save it & then click on the 'Queue' button, your autoresponder will then queue all the messages to be sent & you will receive a message informing you of the date the broadcast will be sent. On the day the Broadcast message is sent, everyone in you list will receive the message sent, whether its 20 or 1000 subscribers.
Broadcast message should always have a structure to them
1) Introduction
2) Offer Value (Offer them something for free)
3) Option to move forward (Link to your website)
4) Sign off (Your name & you website links)
There are many autoresponders out there & you can search for them on Google but the one I use and highly recommend is AWeber (www.aweber.com).
Autoresponders will save you hours of manually writing or copy & pasting messages. Imagine how long it would take to re-write or copy & paste say, for example, 300 people. An autoresponder does it all for you at the click of a button.
Jonathan is a home based marketer dividing time between family life and coaching a team of elite marketers beneath him.
Autoresponders are fantastic tools & will save you a lot of time when it comes to sending messages to everyone in your list. When someone goes to your website that has an opt-in box, fills in the opt-in box with name & e-mail address, clicks submit/subscribe, their details are sent to your autoresponder and stored there.
What is a list?
A list contains peoples names & e-mail address. When someone goes to your website and fills in the Opt-in fields to subscribe to your product/service, their details are sent & stored in a list, which is stored in your autoresponder. Autoresponders will send follow-up messages automatically after a chosen period of time and when requested, send broadcast messages to everyone on your list by the click of a button.
Follow-Up Messages
Your autoresponder will then send a follow-up message to that person(s), e.g. 'Thank You for registering your interest in my product/service. Your autoresponder will then automatically send another followup message to each subscriber after a certain period of time after the last e.g. 2 days later, 3 days later and so forth.
Broadcast Messages
If you have something that you want to share with each subscriber in your list. Your autoresponder will allow you to send a 'Broadcast message' to each subscriber in your list, regardless of the number of subscribers in your list. Broadcast message is a message that is sent to all subscribers at once, with a Broadcast message, you write it in the form of a friendly e-mail & then once finished, save the message.
Instead of have to re-write or copy & paste the same message over & over, you simply type the message once, save it & then click on the 'Queue' button, your autoresponder will then queue all the messages to be sent & you will receive a message informing you of the date the broadcast will be sent. On the day the Broadcast message is sent, everyone in you list will receive the message sent, whether its 20 or 1000 subscribers.
Broadcast message should always have a structure to them
1) Introduction
2) Offer Value (Offer them something for free)
3) Option to move forward (Link to your website)
4) Sign off (Your name & you website links)
There are many autoresponders out there & you can search for them on Google but the one I use and highly recommend is AWeber (www.aweber.com).
Autoresponders will save you hours of manually writing or copy & pasting messages. Imagine how long it would take to re-write or copy & paste say, for example, 300 people. An autoresponder does it all for you at the click of a button.
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