Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Word of mouth and social media advertising - Building Traffic Part 2 - E-Business Success Blueprint Workshop - Part 22

Social Media Concept
Previous lesson...

It is sometimes called the world’s best marketing secret. This is because word-of- mouth advertising is more credible than paid recommendations. People tend to believe what friends and family recommend than what advertising tell them. They know that advertisers put their products in the best possible light whereas family and friends don’t sugar coat them. They either like the product or they don’t and they aren’t afraid to say so.  
With this in mind, start talking to anyone you know or meet about your site. Pass out business cards with your new website address and give it to everyone. Tell them about your new business and ask them if they can give you any advice or suggestions. They will be much more responsive to this method. Join internet communities and meet members who share your interest. Network online and offline. Get out there and meet people. Here are links to several well established internet networking communities: 

http://community.adlandpro.com
http://www.tribe.net

When you realize how much time people spend on places like Facebook ,Twitter, Pinterest and other social networks then understanding how social media marketing can help you in your business becomes understandable. For many people, especially those of you who are used to traditional marketing methods  navigating this terrain can often be confusing as well as challenging, which is why I have created this course.
Before jumping into social media marketing it helps to develop a background so that you can make sense out of everything..so back to school time ( for a short while)


Business Card exchange


Social media – what is it really?

While many people have created many definitions for social media my definition is:
 ”Social Media is a technology used across web and consists of online tools and websites that encourage people to interact with companies, brands, and people. Social media is interactive where you can create a two-way of even a group communication stream, where as with traditional media it is a one way stream an example would be television or print newspapers.
Examples of technology that powers social media are:
  • Blogs
  • social networks
  • podcasts
  • video sharing sites ( YouTube)
  • Photo sharing sites
  • Wikis
  • Social bookmarks
  • RSS
  • Widgets
  • Google Hangouts
  • Skype
  • Google Hangouts
Now that you have a basic understanding that social media is all about technology, now we can go to social networking. Social networking is about people, organizations, companies ( brands) who are going through the process and practice of interacting with each other through networks ( AdlandPro is a social network) for the purpose of sharing,engaging and collaborating with other people. The wonderful thing about social networking is that because it is so interactive, you can talk about anything and people will talk back to you.

Social Networking
When you think of the term “six degrees of separation” and the concept that any two people on the planet could make contact through a chain of no more than 5 other people, then you can look at social networking as a way that helps people make contacts that would be good for them to know and people they wouldn’t otherwise meet. Basically how it works is that you join a social site and invite people that you know – those people invite their own contacts to join and they invite their contacts and the process keeps going for every person.It is safe to say that with the advent  social media, people are connecting and have been touched in many ways on a daily basis, from connecting with friends, lost friends, learning the news from all over the world and the way we communicate has been forever changed.

Sorting social friends


Social Media Marketing
As I have just explained social networking is great for entertainment, talking to friends and family, getting the news on any topic you can think of but because you are promoting a business, then you need to learn a new term and that is social media marketing.   Social media marketing which in easy to understand terms means marketing the social way using different media such as videos, blogs and social networks to give your company/product exposure which will translate into sales, maybe a better way of wording social media marketing is interactive marketing.
Through the use of the different online tools social media marketing can also be used for other reasons
  • Research ideas, and learn more about what customers and prospects are saying about their needs and experiences, and about your products and related areas.
  • Gain new market and competitive insights to improve your products and services.
  • Create and join conversations with customers, prospects, partners and other constituents about key issues and concerns.
  • Create positive word-of-mouth about your products and services.
  • Grow your company’s reputation as a thought leader
Just as 90% of people skip TV commercials the reality is that people will tune out any kind of advertising if they think they are being sold to outright through social networking and when you realize that the average person is exposed to more than 3000 advertising messages every day, then you start to see the challenge of social media marketing when it comes to promoting your business. While this may sound very gloom and doom, the fact that you are reading this and taking it all in, means that you are further a head than many marketers out there, who try to treat social media marketing exactly like traditional marketing.
Some of the differences between traditional marketing and social marketing are:
  • Social media is interactive
  • Traditional marketing is a one way conversation

  • Social media is a one on one marketing
  • traditional marketing is about mass marketing

  • Social media marketing is about real time creation
  • Traditional marketing is about scheduled/pre-produced messages

  • Social media marketing uses informal language ( having a conversation)
  • Traditional marketing is about formal language

  • Social media marketing is about active involvement
  • Traditional marketing is about passive involvement

  • Social media marketing is about user generated ( or brand) content
  • Traditional marketing is professional content

  • Social media marketing is about authentic content
  • Traditional marketing is professional content

  •  Social Media marketing is about YOU
  • Traditional Marketing is about ME
Now that you have an understanding between social media marketing and traditional marketing, is there a right way or a wrong way to tackle social media (marketing)? Many Marketers are under the impression that joining different social networks is enough and that the magic will happen in creating leads or making sales and they would be very wrong!
To have social media marketing really work for you, you need to learn some basics.


1 You will need to join different networks and while some people will say 40, 50 or even 60 social networks, I will say that you need to join those networks where your potential customers will gather and you will have to join enough networks to claim your real estate. The top networks you should be on are
There is a tool called  Namechk where you can see if your desired username or vanity URL is still available and I would highly suggest you use it to help in your social media planning.

2.  Of the three words in Social Media Marketing the most important one is -> Social. Just like offline, social is about conversations and if all your are going to do is sell, then I can guarantee you won’t get very far. Take the time to socialize, be conversational, offer fresh and interesting content.

3. Your Profile is your resume and a business card! Put thought into building your profile and fill every thing in from music to books to your “bragging rights”  People want to know YOU. If you are setting up a business profile of any kind, then take the time to present a professional presence.  A good question for you to think about is -how do you feel when you go to a profile and all you see is ” Hi my name is xxxx and here is my product to buy” Talk about you first and then put links to your business in the proper places.

4. What are you waiting for? Get active! Make sure to like, follow others who are like-minded businesses,people who share common likes as you, organizations that mean something to you, groups that have the same interests as you. Make sure you are active and participating in conversations. Yes it all takes time, but it is time well spent and really is the best way to earn friends and brand advocates. Make sure you update on all the networks that you are involved in..people really do have short memories!

5. Part of being active is responding to what people are saying. Be generous with your comments, ask questions, leave well thought out comments on a persons blog, forum topic, Facebook post, a twitter message or a G+ discussion.

6. Support your community! Just as in real life, the relationships you form are special. Like in real life there are gives and takers. Create a good balance of giving and taking. A golden rule to follow would be – show support to your network if you expect them to support you!
I will end this lesson with the  two rules of social media marketing:

Rule 1:  Be REAL!  The people on social networks want to see you for who you are. This doesn’t mean they want to know EVERYTHING about you, but they do want to know if you are real. Putting up a facade will not work and don’t do the smoke and mirrors on people. Be transparent and be willing to share.
Rule 2:  You have to be active before the door slams in your face. Join the conversations and make your voice heard.
My next lesson will continue on the journey of social media marketing where I will talk about strategies and social networks.
Till next time,  read, think and plan on being active.

Next lesson...

Bogdan Fiedur
Adlandpro.com Copyright 1998 - 2013 - All rights reserved . 


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Google Plus does it really help you?

G+ community

Google plus,  G+, should I say Google+, sometimes I get confused which way to say it!

I still remember joining ( going to say) Google+ and being one of the very first to see what it was all about. As many of you may know I love trying new things not just out of curiosity, well maybe a bit of curiosity, but more to understand and figure out how something might be useful.





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Is working from home right for you?

Working from home
When I think about whether working from home is right for any person, I remember a story that Richard Kiosaki told in his book “Poor Dad- Rich Dad”. He talks about his two dads who had two very different mentalities about money. One had the mentality of an employee and the other of a business owner. Both dads believed they were giving correct advice although they were advising exactly the opposite.
His “poor” dad told him to choose employment because it offered job security and corporate ladder, where he could become somebody after years of being promoted. The “rich” dad asked him to choose the path of an independent business owner because that way he could work for something that he owns.

Continue reading..
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Due Diligence in the 21st Century

Scam
Any so-called business can make any outrageous claim they want on a website. While some are blatantly obvious thrown together sites filled with typos, bad copy and erroneous statements, there are thousands of very slick, well-written, professional-looking sites. The crooks and con artists know how to fool people!

Continue reading..

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Can you really make money with Affiliate marketing?

Talk to my hand
The fact is that no matter what you do, there is work involved one way or another and affiliate marketing is a job whether you are doing it part time or full time!
Am I being a little harsh – maybe!
I think I am getting very tired of people who string others along for no better purpose than to make money themselves, without being open and honest in what is involved.
I honestly believe that a person can make an income with affiliate marketing, but I also feel that you need to come from the mindset that you are going to need learn how do things, that you have to be realistic and that you need to WANT to work!
Continue reading...


Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Blogging Tool| Zemanta

Blogging Tool Zemanta
Zemanta  is a content and links suggestion plugin for publishers, bloggers and other content creators according to Wikepedia but to me it is much more than that!
Everyone who is creating content, understands that making your work known, relating what you say to other people, finding those appropriate references can be very time consuming. Most of the time, at least for me its not just a matter of finding content but finding the right content in context to what I am saying that is important and Zemanta is the tool of choice to accomplish my particular goals.


Related articles 

 

Submit your site to search engines- Building Traffic Part 1 - E-Business Success Blueprint Workshop - Part 21

Web Traffic

Previous lesson...

Now that you have a great product, a marvelous sales letter and are set up to receive credit card payments you need visitors.  After all, if no one knows about your product then they can’t buy it, right?  

Free ways of producing traffic to your site.  

The great news is that there are many free and paid advertising methods that you can use. For the purpose of this workshop, we’ll only discuss free advertising methods.
  
Here are 12 free methods that consistently work:  

1. Submit your website site to search engines
2. Utilize word of mouth advertising 
3. Distribute press releases to get immediate exposure 
4. Utilize free online classified ads 
5. Join an affiliate program or set up one. 
6. Create and distribute your own newsletter 
7. Join and participate in bulletin boards and online forums 
8. Write and publish numerous articles 
9. Join discussion groups in your area and demonstrate your expertise. 
10. Create a bloggs and safe lists 
11. Participate in legitimate traffic exchanges 
12. Send a powerful marketing letter to your mailing list  

We will go over them in subsequent lessons.  


Today submit your site to search engines.  

Being found in search engines is very important because people typically utilize various sources to find the product or service they are most interested in. The great news is that you don’t have to pay to be found in search engines.  

Today there is handfull of search engines which are important and it takes very little time to submit your site to them.  As of today, that the two most important search engines

  • Google
  • Baidu
  • Yahoo
  • Yandex
  • Microsoft (Bing and MSN)

There are several other search engines like startpage.com, Ask.com which will be addressed in article below.

Therefore, it is paramount that you submit your site to the larger search engine first and then proceed with the others. For example, Adlandpro receives approximately 600 visitors a day from numerous search engines and 20,000-30,000 direct visitors but we still know the importance of these search engine referrals.  


What is search engine ranking?  

Search engines logic is not a straightforward one. Although you can be found in search engines, you might never receive a single click from them. This is because you might have a low search engine ranking. For instance, if you’re found as one of the top 10,000 sites for a keyword, you likely won’t be displayed on the first 3-4 pages of the search results and customers typically don’t search past the first 3-4 pages.  

This is why you should consider optimizing your site. SEO is Search Engine Optimization and there is an entire industry dedicated to this concept. SEO Companies are very familiar with search engines and algorithms and they ensure that your site is found in search engines for specific terms near the top of the first page. In order to accomplish this, they cleverly reverse engineer ranking algorithms which search engines utilize to determine the relevancy of keywords. Unfortunately their efforts are short-lived.  

SEO

Some less scrupulous SEO businesses, utilize tricks to fool search engines into thinking that site is specifically geared for one thing when it isn’t. However, I’ve learned that you shouldn’t use tricky SEO tactics as these can get your site banned. The best way to get traffic to your site is to optimize it, be honest and provide quality content which appeals to humans.  Refer to section on Site Design for specifics in regards to SEO.  

Submit your site manually to two biggest search engines.  
Access this link and submit your site to Google
Access this link on how to submit your site for free  to Yahoo
Access this link to Submit your site to Bing.

Read article below on importance of other smaller search engines.  




Article: Four Reasons Why the Smaller Search Engines Matter  
By Bill Platt  

These days, all search engine optimization gurus only seem to talk about Google, as if Google was the only search engine on the Internet.  

Of course, we all know that there really are hundreds of search engines and directories available to us, and we know that some of the smaller search engines serve a very tight niche of users.  

Honestly, I can understand why there is a lot of press on Google, because after all, granddaddy Google is the biggest of the big. We know that millions of people use Google daily for their search activities, and we know that our websites receive a lot of traffic from Google. 

There are actually four reasons why you would want to extend your search engine marketing activities beyond Google. I will discuss each of those reasons here:  

Reason #1: Targeted Traffic  
Niche content search engines can be a very powerful force in your marketing arsenal.  For example, suppose you have a website dedicated to helping sell real estate. Does it make better sense to list a house for sale in Google or in one of the many real estate search engines?  

Let's face facts. When we look for tightly focused content such as real estate listings, we generally seek out a search engine that will serve our search the best. When searching for a new home, an individual may begin his or her search at Google to find the real estate search engines, but once the niche search engine has been found, there is no need or desire to return to granddaddy Google.

The real estate search engine will allow the individual to search through cities and neighborhoods, prices, features and pictures, to find just the house they feel might strike their fancy.  
Even in the game of Internet marketing, a niche content search engine or directory can be a very powerful addition to your marketing portfolio. It is only a matter of searching out and locating the niche content search engine or directory that serves your particular niche the best.  


Reason #2: Costs Management  

The Big Three have each developed their own pay-per-click search models. And, because they are the Big Three search engines, they can also afford to charge advertising rates that permit them to be among the most profitable enterprises on the Internet.  

The perception of pay-per-click pricing at the Big Three is that the little guy can afford to advertise with them. But with every Internet marketer on the web trying to compete for Big Three search traffic, their five cents per-click easily increases to sixty cents per-click, and in some industries, it can climb to five or fifty dollars per- click.  

The pay-per-click "auction mentality" really kicks into hyper-overdrive in some industries. And the Big Three eat it up, as do their stockholders. Each day, they dance their way to the bank with your money in tow.  
The smaller niche search engines may not serve as much traffic, but they definitely allow you to reach more people for the same money. You can reach people who are more inclined to buy your goods and services, because they were searching on a niche website, and you can get their traffic for a lot less money than it would cost you to get the same prospect from any of the Big Three search engines.  

Reason #3: Linking for Google Placement  

For those of you who are still involved in the Google PageRank chase, the smaller search directories can be counted on as a really valuable asset in your linking portfolio. 
Many of the smaller search directories carry some pretty decent PageRank with them.  For example:  
Blog-Search.com carries a PR6.  Search66.com carries a PR6.  GoArticles.com carries a PR6.  SearchWarp.com carries a PR5.  SitesOnDisplay.com carries a PR5.  SearchRamp.com carries a PR5.  MixCat.com carries a PR5.  TorontoMalls.com carries a PR5.  OutdoorHits.com carries a PR4.  FindYourForum.com carries a PR4.  


As you are already aware, the PageRank of a website that is pointing to your website plays a role in determining the value of your own website in the Google PageRank calculations, thereby increasing your chances of gaining ground in the Google SERP's (Search Engine Result Pages).  

Targeted directories pass their PageRank value to the websites that list with them, which is great for your website. Additionally, getting placed into these directories is often cheaper and easier to accomplish, than with any other method of linking for the purposes of increasing PageRank.  

Reason #4: Extra Traffic  

Yahoo, Bing, ExactSeek.com, and many others are making changes, improving their results, and trying to position themselves to compete toe-to-toe with Google or to compete for searchers not happy with Google's search product (yes, there are actually people out there who do not like to use Google). These non-Google engines are currently serving millions of additional searches a day or month.  The Big Three: Google, Yahoo and Bing only served 75% of the Internet's search traffic in Aug 2012 http://searchenginewatch.com/reports/article.php/3099931). These percentages are based on a rough estimation of just over 173 billion searches per month.

For December 2012, the search landscape was like this:
  • Google: 114.7 billion searches, 65.2% share
  • Baidu: 14.5 billion searches, 8.2% share
  • Yahoo: 8.6 billion searches, 4.9% share
  • Yandex: 4.8 billion searches, 2.8% share
  • Microsoft: 4.5 billion searches, 2.5% share
  • Others: 28.7 billion searches, 16.3% share


If your search engine marketing activities are focused only on the Big Three, or even worse, only on granddaddy Google, you are throwing away anywhere from 20% to 35% of your potential customer base!  

Locating The Smaller Search Engines and Directories...  

Below are a few resources that can help to find hundreds of the smaller search engines and directories that may be available to you:  
Independent Search Engine & Directory Network  Yahoo Search Engine & Directory Listings  International Directory of Search Engines  

Small Search Engines and Directories Really Do Matter...  
I have just outlined four reasons why the smaller search engines and niche directories should matter to those of us who market our goods and services on the Internet. I have also given you a starting point for locating these excellent search websites. 

Sure, it might take a little bit more time to get listed in these smaller resources, but if you calculate how much time you spend developing your positioning in the Big Three, then it really is not that much of a time investment after all.  

The smaller directories can help us to improve our Google PageRank. They can help us to get more mileage from our advertising dollars than what we can get from the Big Three. They allow us to tap into additional sources of targeted traffic with a real potential for increasing our sales and profits.
    
About The Author  Bill Platt is the owner of thePhantomWriters.com Article Distribution Service. He has been ghost writing for clients since 1999, and he has been distributing client articles since 2001. Bill regularly maintains his database of submission resources, and he applies the human touch to every article distribution. By reviewing every article and manually selecting where it will be distributed, publishers and webmasters trust that he will send only the most appropriate articles to them.

In addition you can check out this fine slide show which will show you all resources needed to get you high traffic to your website these days.

Next lesson...


Bogdan Fiedur
Adlandpro.com Copyright 1998 - 2013 - All rights reserved .
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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Traffic Exchange Success

Is Traffic Exchange success achievable? Can you actually use Traffic Exchanges successfully?
A while ago, I wrote an article called, “Traffic Exchanges – Do They Work Any More?” It generated a lot of comments, both on and of the blog, and considerable discussion in many places across the net. In fact, rather than making people feel more comfortable with Traffic Exchanges, it raised a whole lot of questions.“If Traffic Exchanges work, how?”“What do I have to do to succeed with Traffic Exchanges?”
“I click and click until my fingers pretty near fall off, and I’m not making any money!

#trafficexchanges #traffic #marketing