Monday, October 19, 2009

Direct Sales and Your Corporate Website - A Creative Marketing Plan That Works

Creatively marketing your corporate site takes time in the set up but you will learn that building your customers isn't about marketing your products but getting your name and reputation into the minds of internet customers.
I have randomly chosen Watkins to design a marketing approach but you will see how to apply this concept to any direct sales company.
Now let's sort through the steps of developing your online marketing plan.
Become an expert.
Be an expert on your products, your corporate website, and your current and potential customers. If you don't see yourself as an expert about your products, your company... that is your first step.
Don't try to market or pay for advertising without knowing your products and the people that would love them!
When you are comfortable with the products you offer on your corporate website begin to brainstorm about how to connect your products to internet customers.
On paper list the different categories of products with a list of potential "markets"you can target. You are ready to start your marketing plan itself.
Find your niche market.
In our example of Watkins, there is a potential market with women that are homemakers, enjoy cooking, love to entertain or create family memories with cooking traditions but remember men love to cook too.
There is a very wide range of the ages, the groups within that cook and entertain. By studying your potential customers, a theme will emerge.
Let's look at "cooking from scratch."
To know your customers, do this exercise:
Think cooking. Think old fashioned values. Think food and family traditions.
Where would they go on the internet for ideas, menus, recipes and more? Use search engines for your initial search to find a few solid popular websites. As most well built website have links within their categories, visit their links or resources to find other similar sites.
Look for homemaking, cooking, familiy focused and entertaining sites with message boards, newsletters and articles.
You are finally nudging closer to your niche market, your potential customers.
Once you have found a few websites that cater to your market, stop and study the sites. Read the articles and visit the message boards. Message boards often have posts asking for advice or recipes. Articles may have ratings by visitors which tell you more about what readers want to see. learn what kind of information your potential customers may be looking for, what they want to learn and do.
Sign up for the site's newsletter. You will learn a great deal from the newsletter. Read the articles, hints and ads in the newsletter.
Start writing.
Submit your articles, recipes and kitchen hints both to site owners that accept submissions but you can also contact the publisher of the newsletters too.
It's very important to remember not to write about your products Write about anything connected to the homemaking, cooking, entertaining site....keep your written article focused along the theme of the website you have found.
Your articles should reflect your knowledge, your passion whether it be crafts for kids or organizing a closet.
Sell outside the article.
You do not need to sell within the article or post. On the power of your words, your writing, they will learn about you, your business in your "resource box." When a reader enjoys your article, connects with your writing, they will feel compelled to click on your link.
You have made your first contact with your market through creative marketing.
This is your best marketing strategy for your corporate website. Continue to post ads on message boards that allow you to but often that serves you best with recruiting for your direct sale team.
Your products, whether it is Discovery Toys or Tupperware, are best presented online in your resource box as you build your reputation as fun, knowledgeable and credible. Over time and repeated exposure online, your name will become synonymous with your product and your company.
That once limiting corporate website will be the link between you and your customer. Your success with your business and corporate site will be based on creating a market for You.

How to Backup Your Computer Files

As I write this, it’s early December, and try as I might, I can’t remember what my new year’s resolution was last time around. One thing I can say with near hundred percent certainty is that whatever it was, I failed to keep it. Maybe you’re the same. Maybe you resolved to quit smoking, lose weight, or read more. We all make promises with ourselves, then fail to keep those promises. Worst of all, those promises might be exactly what we need most. Consider this: When was the last time you backed up your computer files? Last month? Last year? Never?
Let’s make a new year’s resolution together, you and I. Let’s promise to back up our computers. It’s important, I promise. Just yesterday the automatic backup feature in MS Word saved me about an hour’s work when my computer froze up. Given that I haven’t backed up my computer in almost a year, I can’t even imagine how much data I’d lose if I suffered a power surge or hard drive failure. It can happen to the best of us, and often does. Even high end hard drive manufacturers report an average failure rate of between five and eight per thousand every year. That may not sound like much, but let’s face it, somebody has to be those five to eight people. Feeling lucky? There are about 185 million household PCs in the U.S., according to Computer Industry Almanac, so that means about 150,000 hard drives fail each year. But even if your drive stays intact, about a tenth of all computers suffer minor data loss in any given year. A power surge, the magnets in your home stereo speakers, or even an accidental nudge can affect data storage. According to a report from the ONTRACK data recovery service, data loss can be caused by natural disasters (3% of cases), computer viruses (7%), software problems (14%), and plain old user error (a whopping 32%). Now, I’m sure you never hit a wrong keyboard button, but do you have a button on your computer that prevents a bolt of lightning? I didn’t think so.
WHEREAS our data is important, and disaster can befall even the most noble and undeserving of us, BE IT RESOLVED that you and I shall back up our computer files forthwith.
Amen, brothers and sisters. Now, where and how do we start?
STEP ONE: Choosing Favorites
Not all files are important enough to preserve for posterity. The most critical files on a computer are its operating system files. If you’re a good little consumer, you bought the operating system and kept those CDs handy and secure from data loss. If you’re not, then remind yourself to go stand in the corner later. The drones at Microsoft did not work for years just to watch you steal their work. It’s people like you that keep Bill Gates from buying his second planet. Now that you’ve been suitably chastised, either go buy a legal copy of the operating system, or include the necessary files in your “must back up” list.
The same principle goes for software applications. Maybe you bought an ad and spyware blocker you really like, but the company that coded it has since gone out of business (perhaps because other consumers weren’t as scrupulous as you). If so, include the files you need to run the app in your must list. Now it’s time to look at the remaining files on your computer and prioritize. If you’re not a digital packrat like me, it may be possible to save everything. If so, congratulations. I don’t have ten gigabytes of portable media at my disposal, so when I back up my computer, I’ll be leaving a few gigs of MP3s and questionable Windows Media files at risk. One of the first things I will save is the folder I use to save my writing assignments, because that data represents money in my pocket. I’ll back up my email address book, plus my digital photography and fiction writing efforts. I can live without “Milkshake” (what was I thinking?), but the guitar piece my friend recorded and sent to me is going on the list. Your results may vary.
STEP TWO: In Which I Tell You Where You Can Put It
That’s right, this is the section in which I’ll tell you where to store your data. It’s not a good idea to put backup files on another drive on the same computer. That defeats the whole purpose. Duplicating your files on another computer in the same LAN is almost as risky, because computer viruses can spread as fast as an imaginary Anna Kournikova JPEG. You need to find a portable storage medium that can hold all the files on your must list. Your options include floppy diskettes, portable hard drives, optical drives, tape drives, and remote servers. We’ll look at each in turn.
Hard diskettes, the old familiar 3.5” squares, hold up to 1.44 megabytes of data. They’re cheap, but 1.44 MB is less than two percent of the ten gigs of data on my hard drive. Even if each of those files were smaller than 1.44 MB (and each weren’t), I’m not keen on the idea of buying, labeling, and storing fifty diskettes. Next idea, please.
Most computer experts rely on removable hard drives for memory backups. The most popular of these drives are the Zip drive from Iomega and the ORB drive from Castlewood. They’re relatively inexpensive and hold up to two gigs of data. Basically, you’ll save your data on a Zip disk, then transfer it from the disk to the portable drive. The catch is that removable drives fail about as often as regular hard drives. They may even be more susceptible to damage from dust and rough handling. A sub-option here is to use a permanent hard drive as a removable drive. At up to two hundred gigs, conventional hard drives are bigger than removable drives, and prices have dropped enough in recent years to make this idea practical. Whatever kind of hard drive you decide to use, make sure to keep it isolated from dust, magnetic charges, and static electricity.
Optical drives use a laser to store information, rather than a magnet. Even if you’re not a tech junkie, that’s probably enough information to give you a clearer idea what we’re talking about: namely, CDs and DVDs. Less common are EO (erasable optical) and WORM (write once, read many) media; they’re less common because they cost over $1000 per drive. CDs, on the other hand, cost less than a buck and can hold up to 650 megabytes. DVDs hold up to five gigs and cost about fifteen dollars apiece. Most computers nowadays have either a CD or DVD writer (or both), but write times can be slow. My CD writer, for example, works best on the 300 kilobyte per second setting—if then. I’ll be using the remote server option. At $250 and up, tape drives are more expensive and slower than hard drives or optical media, hence less common, but also extremely reliable.
Remote servers are third party companies that store data online for a fee. This is a great option for broadband Internet users, especially people like me who don’t own a reliable data writer. SkyDesk runs http://www.Backup.com , Back-Up Solutions maintains http://www.BackUpHelp.com , and Iomega hosts iServer ( http://www.Iomega.com ). XDrive ( http://www.xdrive.com ), once a free service, now charges ten bucks a month for up to five gigs of storage. Promotions and other rates change, so it’s a good idea to shop around before selecting a remote storage service.
STEP THREE: Git ’er Done
Now it’s time to put the files you want to save on the storage medium you’ve chosen. There are several ways to do this. Your CD writer, for example, may come with proprietary disk writing software. That application may even include a backup option. If it does, and you’re more familiar with that software than Windows features, then that’s the way to go. Otherwise, backup is still relatively easy on all MS operating systems since Windows 98. Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows XP Professional include a built-in Backup utility. To run it, just click on Start, then Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, then Backup. How easy was that? If you’re using the XP Home edition, you may need to add the utility manually. If so, insert the Windows XP CD into your disk drive and wait for the “Welcome to Microsoft Windows XP” screen. (You may need to double-click the CD icon in My Computer.) Then click on Perform Additional Tasks and Browse This CD. In Windows Explorer, double-click the ValueAdd folder, then Msft, then Ntbackup. Double-clicking on Ntbackup.msi will install the utility. Once it’s installed, you can also run the program by clicking Start and Run, then typing msbackup.exe (Windows 98 and Windows ME) or ntbackup.exe (Windows XP) in the Open field. Click OK, and you’ll be off to the races.
Incidentally, the Windows XP Backup utility also includes a bonus application called the Automated Recovery Wizard. This creates a bootable floppy that initiates backup if the hard drive must be replaced. Other options for “disaster recovery” include BackUp MyPC from Stomp ( http://www.StompInc.com , $79) and Norton Ghost 9.0 from Symantec ( http://www.Norton.com , $69.95). Ghost actually allows users to duplicate the contents of their computer over the Internet. Both have earned stellar reviews from top PC magazines.
Don’t let another month go by without protecting the files you value most. My girlfriend justifies her messy car by saying she “lives out of it.” Well, I live out of my computer. It’s not just my office; it’s the home of cherished memories in the form of pictures, MP3, and other data files. I’m resolved to keep it safe.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Why Build a Social Bookmarking Website?

While there are many benefits to participating in online communities like social bookmarking sites, there are also huge gains to be had by building your own. While a lot of complex coding can go in to such a website, installation is actually quite easy when you're building such a site with Pligg or another pre-existing and free content management system for bookmarking.
Bookmarking sites share a common principle: new pages of content are submitted by the users of the community and these new pages are focused around links to other interesting web resources. When you're running one, this means creation of content is virtually automated - the most you will need to do is monitor and moderate the incoming data to maintain a theme and a sense of quality. Otherwise, surfers and other webmasters will gladly write your website for you!
Another benefit to running a bookmarking site is the potential links you can point to yourself. One choice is to add site-wide links to the template so that every new page points to your favorite domain. Another choice is to add links individually to your bookmarking site, or even automatically pick up new posts from your blog through an RSS importer plug-in. Since its you're site, you can also decide what goes on the front page. This can be a great way to promote your best stories or highest converting pages! The effect can even be amplified if the social bookmarking site is hosted on an IP address different than the main website you are trying to promote. The search engines will then be more likely to assume they are unique sites.
And It's Easier than Ever
The programming that goes into such an automated bookmarking site can be quite daunting to anyone who hasn't made a career out of coding websites. Fortunately, that does not matter for today's webmasters! Pligg is a free and open-source web application that accomplishes all of the functionality and community features people have come to look for in a bookmarking site. Manual installation can be a little bit tricky, but multiple online resources exist to guide one through the process. Some web hosts, like Dreamhost, even provide a completely automated installation process that can set up a new bookmarking site in a matter of minutes.

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Saturday, March 28, 2009

Quick Tips to Get Started Using Twitter For Your Job Search

Do you Tweet? If not, maybe you should.
Perhaps it would be misleading to say that as a job searcher you MUST be on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or other social and business networking sites. But, assuming that you use social media in appropriate and professional ways, being connected and networking in these ways can only help. And, few people would argue that you shouldn't seize on any edge that you can give yourself in a job market that is widely being called the most competitive in a quarter-century.
Twitter, for those unfamiliar, is a service that allows you to communicate and stay connected with your colleagues, current and former co-workers, friends, family, and other contacts through the exchange of quick, simple answers (140 characters or less) to the question, "What are you doing now?" While the premise is simple-so simple that you might at first question how "Tweeting" (Twitter-speak for posting an update to Twitter) could be helpful in your job search-I would urge you to take another look. Twitter has become vastly popular and you might be surprised at how many of your colleagues, friends, and even top experts in your field or profession are on Twitter.
If you are actively involved with managing your career or conducting a job search, here are just a few benefits that will justify the time you spend setting up your free Twitter account and learning how to use it:
1) Twitter can be a great tool to help you build, enhance, and promote your personal brand. Briefly, your personal brand (as it relates to your career) is what differentiates you and makes you and your contributions uniquely valuable in the workplace. As a job searcher, you can use Twitter to make your followers aware of your expertise, post links to interesting news stories about your industry, or post tips related to your profession. All of these are brand-building activities that will make you memorable to your contacts, boost your credibility, and help set you apart as a leader in your field.
2) Twitter is an extraordinary networking tool. Remember that networking is all about building relationships. Twitter helps you stay in contact with people in your network in a quick and easy way that was never before possible. It will allow you to keep your contacts up-to-date on your job search, it is a great way to learn about unadvertised job openings, and it is often an easy way to get referrals to people you should talk to. Of course, it is important to remember that networking is also about providing reciprocal help, and Twitter allows you a fast, easy way to let people in your network know about job openings you've heard about, or give other help or advice to your contacts when they need it.
3) Twitter provides you with a way to connect almost instantly with recruiters and other hiring authorities in your field. More and more recruiters are using Twitter and other social media tools to find candidates for job postings. Some companies are actively encouraging their employees to Tweet about (or discuss on LinkedIn or Facebook) job openings that they are trying to fill. If you are regularly Tweeting about your job search and posting other on-brand Twitter posts, it is just a matter of time before you start uncovering and being referred for attractive job or business opportunities.
Are you convinced? Even for the time-challenged professional (does that describe nearly all of us?), Twitter is easy to use. You don't even need to be sitting at your computer as Twitter is mobile and can easily be used on your iPhone, Blackberry, or cell phone.
When you are ready to get started, here are some quick tips:
1. Sign up for your free Twitter account and fill out your profile. Remember that you will be using your account for networking and professional purposes, so use discretion and only include information or a photo that you would be comfortable sharing with recruiters, your colleagues, and the world. If you have a reason to keep your business and personal life separate, you should create separate accounts.
2. Search for and "follow" people that you know. Twitter provides easy tools and instructions for doing this. Consider friends, family, current and former co-workers, industry contacts, people you went to college with, etc. Once you are following these people, look through their contacts and selectively follow some of their contacts. Even if you don't know someone, if you have a reason to do so, follow them. This is a way to build new relationships.
3. As you begin to build your list of people you are following, many will begin to follow you. When you are getting started, try to post Tweets daily-perhaps twice daily. Besides just answering the basic question "What are you doing now?" (always keeping in mind that your Tweets should be appropriate and follow basic rules of etiquette) try to regularly post useful, on-brand information and links.
4. When your contacts Tweet, respond if you can answer a question or have useful information or tips for them. Twitter gives you two ways to do this: direct messages and replies. Be selective about which method you use. A direct message will only be seen by the person you are responding to. A reply will go to everyone that follows you.
5. Search Twitter for keywords. This is a good way to find out what is going on and being discussed on topics of interest to you among people that you aren't already following. You may also find interesting people that you will want to follow. The place to do that is search.twitter.com
5. Do you have a Facebook account, a LinkedIn profile, a blog, or another website? There are options to link them all and post status updates simultaneously to all of them. This can be a great timesaver, so it is worth taking the time to learn how to link them. You could also consider including your Twitter user name in your email signature files or on business cards. Doing so will quickly build your following, and the larger your following, the more beneficial Twitter will be to your job search and career.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

SEO Or PPC Which is Best?

SEO or PPC?
Which is better, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Pay per Click (PPC)?
In our opinion, the best approach is to combine SEO and PPC. During the initial period of site promotion, PPC carries an advantage because good listings can be achieved in 3 - 6 working days. Organic listings take longer to achieve, as the site needs to first be automatically indexed by the search engines.
What are SEO and PPC and how exactly do they help your business?
SEO:
80 - 85% of surfers use a search engine to find what they are looking for. If your site ranks higher in a search engine for a specific search, you have a better chance of bringing traffic to your site. SEO means optimizing your web pages for particular key phrases. This can give you higher rankings at the search engines for your chosen search terms. Optimization means you need to get a number of factors right - technical infrastructure; key words and phrases; page titles and H tags; enough
relevant, well written copy; effective linking strategies; xml sitemaps and more. SEO is not about tricking the search engines but about understanding what elements search engines look for to help determine the relevance of the page to a search term by understanding what the search engines take into consideration.
PPC:
PPC is a form of search engine marketing that involves buying website traffic from the search engines. You bring traffic to your site by visitors clicking on an advert shown in the "Sponsored Listings". Every time the advert is clicked a charge is made to the advertiser. Behind the ad there are 'keywords' and you bid on certain keywords to bring relevant traffic to your site. You only pay for users that click through your listing and arrive at your site. A very important point to keep in mind with pay per click is you must test, test, and test some more. Don't start off with a major investment. Start with the minimum and see how the search engine performs in terms of the traffic it delivers and how well that traffic converts into paying customers. An essential part of your testing is having a method in place that allows you to track your return on money invested.
How can SEO and PPC help your business?
Research shows that 'consumers' rely on search engine results to a greater extent than advertisements in other media, during their decision making process.
Search Engine Results 41%
Print Ads 10%
TV Ads 9% Between 68% -72% of searchers believe Organic (SEO) results produce the most relevant information. More than 93% of searchers won't look beyond the results of the first two pages.
72% of searchers who use a search engine to look for a specific product or service will purchase or request more information from that company, only if they easily find what they are looking for when they land on your website.
Website-based leads are 62% more profitable than other forms of media. Investments in SEO generate higher returns than investments in other media.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Demand For the Product - How Not to Underestimate the Market

Demand for the product you are creating is key. There are so many stories of people who have created a product that they "believed in" but nobody wanted. It is an all too easy trap that anyone can fall into if they don't know what they're doing. In this article, I'll show you how to choose a product for a market with laser precision.
Backwards Rationalization
The problem is that we human beings are highly emotional. We think that we have shed these shackles and can think for ourselves logically but the simple truth is that most of the time we make an emotional decision and then use backwards logic to fool ourselves into thinking that we exercised logic.
This happens all the time with product creation and especially when someone has a passion for a product that blinds them from seeing the truth of their situation. So how do we avoid it?
Do Your Research
Always do adequate market research.
First of all you need to pick a niche. The advantage of marketing on the internet is the great reach so there is no point in creating an info product that only your local village residents are interested in.
Pick a niche that has a high demand and will have for the future too.
Secondly you need to create the right product for that niche. I made a mistake of once creating a strategy book for a particular market. It was only when the book completely flopped that I realised that the market was not interested in strategy but actually wanted something else - training plans.
If I had stopped and done my research beforehand I could have saved myself a lot of wasted time.
Don't Reinvent The Wheel
Because there is so much room for new entrants in the internet marketplace, you may as well choose a niche that has been done before. Check out Clickbank, a well known publisher, to see what kind of products they are selling. Example good niches are health, self development, make money products and hobbies.

Friday, March 13, 2009

SiteBuildIt - Demystifying Myths and Hype

Sitebuildit, commonly known as SBI is the "only all-in-one website-building software that helps people build a profitable business online".
Dr. Ken Evoy the president, designed this niche software to help entrepreneurs build profitable businesses online. With all the hype that goes on the Internet, it is almost impossible to find a genuine review of something. This knowledge is through the writer's experience with Site build it.
Myth 1: Site Build It is for everyone.
If someone tells you that SBI is the only way to build a successful website online, that is not true. although it is definitely one of the best choices for the average person.
Site build It has all the tools in one place. Instead of going from place to place looking for different tools, you will find them in one place. This will save you lots of time and money.Experienced webmasters love and use SBI as well as newbies. Before you consider Site build it, you must know the kind of website you want to build. SBI is specifically ideal for content-rich sites targeting free organic traffic from the search engines. If you want a page or two, site build it is NOT for you.
Myth 2: Site build it is for newbies:
This it absolutely NOT true. Because the process is simplified to such a degree that success is achievable even for a beginner, many think it is only for newbies. If you are experienced, sitebuild it makes your success even smoother. You can change many things to suit your expertise.
Myth 3: You can Get Rich Quickly:
If you are looking for a quick way to make money, one to three months, sitebuild it is not for you. Don't get me wrong, depending on your past experiences and other factors, you can quickly make money... BUT on average, it takes some time... Site build it is more than just building a website. It goes into the fundamentals of building a profitable business. And businesses need time. Right?
If you are not willing to work hard, invest time and read a lot, site build it is not for you. The good news is, you will reap from your initial effort for many many more years.
Myth 4: All SiteBuildIt sites look the same.
You have an option of designing your look and feel. Most people stick to the basic templates and concentrate on strategies to build traffic. As we all know, it is useless to have a nice looking website without visitors. Besides, people search for info and they love a site which can be navigated easily. Once you have put most of the hard work out of the way, you can think of redesigning your templates. Site build it evolves every other day. With technology, things don't remain static. It is a good practice to check with them time and again to see what new features they have added.
Myth 5: SiteBuildIt is very expensive.
The question is, "Expensive compared to what?" People who own SBI sites agree that the $299 yearly fee is nothing compared to what you get within the package. If you were to find and purchase those tools separately, they would cost thousands of dollars. In fact many SBIres( a term referring to people who own SBI sites) have more than two sites. This is because they know the value..(I am about to launch my second one:-)
Instead of building a free site or one which costs like 5 bucks a month and you have no clue of where to start from, you are better off investing in site build it. It is useless to build a site that is doomed to fail in the first place... Thousands of people have spent fortunes and lots of time to build websites only to be disappointed.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Pay Per Click Advertising "PPC" - Your Tips and Tricks

Lets use the following example of a PPC campaign to promote a hotel in Poland.
This is how I suggest you go about it. Set your website up showing all your "BENEFITS" that you offer, (not features such as how many rooms your Hotel has etc), but focus on the night life, fun, excitement, peace or luxury that your hotel/area offers.
If you have a pool put a photo of some pretty girls swimming/ having fun around it for instance or some photos of your chefs specialty dishes in a nice setting together with two elegant glasses of wine all candle lite.
Identify What will attract tourists to your area and focus your marketing strategy on that?
Then clearly explain how to make a booking on your site and the reason again why they should book with you. Some Photo's to remind them what they will be missing if they fail to act now....
Right... now you want people to visit your website, this is where PPC comes in.
You can choose any one of the following to advertise with. Each has its own advantages depending on your market. Try Google first and see how you fare with them as they have the largest search results and their campaigns are very easily to set up.
Google AdWords,
Marketing solutions. yahoo.com
adcenter.microsoft.com
Open an account and set up your advert following their step by step format.
A Few Tips And Explanations Before You Start.
Go to wordtracker.com and download a free trial keyword tool to find "good" keywords which people use when searching the web for your market. This tool is a must. It will give you alternate keyword phrases and show you how many searches are made in Google, Msn, and Yahoo. This gives you an idea how to promote your site and with which advertiser to go with...
Include the best key word phrases suited to your campaign, as well as in your add.
The idea of your ad is to get people to click your link to your web site. The Head line must get your prospects attention and then explain what good feeling they will get by going to click that link.
Key Words and Phrases.
In your campaign you must understand the difference between content match and search match. Search match is the words or phrase that people type into their browser to find what that they are looking for. These people are looking for particular information and are normally the best prospects to target...
In Wordtracker find the best 5 or 6 keyword phrases like "Best Polish Holiday Resort" and use these in your Google keyword match. If you put "..." around your phrase, (example "Best Polish Holiday Resort") your ad will only show to people using that exact search phrase. This means your ad is more targeted and should give you the best and cheapest results. Remember each click that they make costs you money.
Content match ad on the other hand will show on a web page that has content related to your ad only. These surfers are not your best prospects as they are not targeted and may click out of curiosity. More clicks and cost to you but less effective....
YouTube has a lot of videos showing you how to set up a PPC account, just type "PPC advertise" into their search bar.
To help you set up your own website and autoresponder mailing list system, a membership site I recommend is the one that helped me get this one going. Your first months membership cost I think is $1. Try it out and see how easy it is to follow step by simple step video instruction. If you do not like what you see- cancel your subscription.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Advertising and Its Importance in Viral Marketing

Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. While now central to the contemporary global economy and the reproduction of global production networks, it is only quite recently that advertising has been more than a marginal influence on patterns of sales and production.
To find the advertising that is right for you can be a troublesome period of test and trial. Most importantly you need to find the form of advertising that brings profits to the business in the form of sales to balance out cost paid for the initial payment on your advertising campaign. The Website Advertising Agreement document is in traditional agreement form, and should be signed in hard copies by both parties to the agreement. The Website Advertising Terms document is designed for incorporation into a website, to be accepted by the applicant during an online application process.
For decades marketers have been spending more and more to try to get their message out only to find their pitches go down in a sea of noise generated by countless other marketers trying to do the same thing. In effect, companies have been paying big bucks to be ignored. Now, inspired by the Internet's ability to do a better job of targeting prospects and measuring results, advertisers are dreaming up new ways to break through the clutter and connect with potential customers at a lower cost.
The new techniques are formerly finding their way onto streets and walls and even into clothing pockets around the world. Perhaps just five years from now, companies will be able to routinely and inexpensively embark on ad campaigns that hit exactly the right prospects with entertaining, hard-to-ignore messages that can follow people via new high-tech media into their cars, offices, living rooms, and bedrooms and the advertising revolution got started online.
Though the advertising revolution got started online, some of the new techniques are already finding their way onto streets and walls and even into clothing pockets around the world. Perhaps just five years from now, companies will be able to routinely and inexpensively embark on ad campaigns that hit exactly the right prospects with entertaining, hard-to-ignore messages that can follow people via new high-tech media into their cars, offices, living rooms, and bedrooms.
Most importantly you need to find the form of advertising that brings profits to the trade in the form of sales to balance out cost paid for the initial payment on your advertising campaign. The Website Advertising Agreement document is in customary accord form, and should be signed in hard copies by both parties to the agreement. The Website Advertising Terms document is calculated for incorporation into a website, to be accepted by the applicant during an online application process. To find the advertising that is right for you can be a troublesome period of test and trial.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

3 Key Components of SEO

When getting started with SEO there are many things to consider. The problem with this is information overload. How do you know where to begin? How do you know what really works and what is just plain bad info? I like to stick to the basics and do things the way the search engines want them done. Search engine optimization can be intimidating, but if you have a website then you already have most of the tools you need to get started.
In this article we will discuss 3 key components of search engine optimization that every webmaster can identify with. You do not need to over think seo, just get in there and get it done. As a webmaster you will have no problems with these seo tips as they are very straight forward and easily understood. We are going to discuss basic html, site content, and backlinks.
HTML- This is the backbone of solid SEO. It really surprises me how much I learned about seo from a book I bought to learn HTML. As you build your sites just be sure to remain w3c compliant. That's it. Hard huh? You build your sites compliant anyway, right? Well if not then you are hurting your sites ability to get high search engine rankings. You can check your site for correct HTML by visiting the w3c website. A quick search on Google will get you there.
Site Content- Your sites content is it's soul. You didn't know your site had a soul did you? You need to keep your sites soul pure and clean with quality unique content. That's what the search engines want, trust me. Content is King and all webmasters should know this by now. Please do not soil your sites soul with outdated rehashed content as this will cause the search engines to look the other way.
Backlinks- Backlinks are the blood that flows through your sites veins. Getting links to your site from niche related sites is what your after. A link from a site with a similar theme is considered very valuable to the search engines. This should be considered as a very important part of your search engine optimization plan. You can get quality backlinks by posting comments on blogs related to your niche and emailing other webmasters asking for a link trade.
The most important thing to remember about SEO is K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid). Do not over think it or believe that it is too hard. Trust me, you can do this. Just stick to the basics until you feel more comfortable with your skills. Most importantly please research the SEO tactics you plan to implement to be sure that they are acceptable to the search engines. The last thing you want to do is follow some bad advice and end up being penalized or worse, banned.

Friday, March 6, 2009

How Do I Make a Windows XP Bootup Disk?

What happens if you are unable to start your computer because the Operating System (OS) could not be loaded? This could happen when any file used for the booting process becomes corrupt or lost, or if your system has been affected by a virus.
You need a set of clean files that will allow you to load the OS and access the file system and services in case your PC is unable to boot. Keeping a backup of the files critical to this functionality on a Bootup disk is good practice.
Let us see what exactly happens when you turn on your computer - the BIOS is loaded first. Normally, the BIOS runs some tests on the system hardware at startup, after which it locates a bootable device on your computer (Floppy, CD-ROM, Hard disk) and the Master Boot Record (MBR) is loaded into the memory. The MBR locates the active partition and loads the boot sector into the memory. The boot sector has the code to start the bootstrap loader which then loads the OS (Windows, Linux, Unix, MacOS) into the memory.
In case of Windows XP, the bootstrap loader is called Ntldr. The bootstrap loader must be located in the active partition, in the root folder. In addition to this file, Windows XP also requires Ntdetect.com, boot.ini, bootsect.dos (for dual boot) and Ntbootdd.sys (needed if you plan to use SCSI devices) to be available in the same folder, on the active partition.
Ntldr uses Ntdetect.com, boot.ini, and bootsect.dos to let you choose the operating system that is to be loaded. Once Windows XP is chosen from the boot menu, Ntldr runs Ntoskrnl.exe which in turn launches Winlogon and Lsass, which then displays the welcome screen and allows you to log on.
Any Bootup floppy you create must be done on a system that has Windows XP already working on it and is free of viruses. Insert a blank floppy in the floppy drive; format it by right clicking on the floppy icon.
Once you have a formatted virus-free floppy in a virus-free system, copy Ntldr, Ntdetect.com, and the boot.ini files onto the floppy. You can either copy these files from the Windows CD-ROM or from your computer. As an added measure, the edit program available in windows could be copied on to the Bootup disk so that you can use it to edit boot.ini if necessary.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Spam Filtering For Small Businesses - Increase Productivity and Protect Your Data

Email Spam filtering is most likely not the first thing a small business owner thinks about when starting up a new business. Using the right tools to block spam takes research and an understanding of how effective spam protection applications operate. Small businesses often do not have in-house information technology (IT) resources, and must purchase those services from outside sources or product vendors. Protection from spam is crucial, however, as spam results in a considerable loss of productivity, exposes businesses to virus infection and identity theft, and consumes significant network storage space and resources. Spam filtering options include hardware email spam blockers, anti-spam software, and hosted email security.
The most common anti-spam solution for small businesses is a software-based email filter. Many email programs come with built-in spam filtering technology, but a more thorough and accurate spam filter purchased separately leads to a more secure IT environment. These products stop spam at the server level, preventing them from ever reaching your network. Many filtering software solutions still rely on an outdated, mathematical formula to determine what constitutes spam. These anti-spam programs run on the principle that the higher the occurrence of certain words or phrases in an email, the more likely the email is to be spam. This approach, however, results in a high number of legitimate emails being erroneously flagged as spam.
Effective spam filtering systems are intelligent, and are able to more accurately identify spam messages based on a variety of factors, including user criteria, reputation filtering, and context-sensitive message analysis. The use of intelligent spam filters significantly reduces the number of lost, legitimate emails, and thereby saves time that would be spent sorting through quarantined messages in order to locate missing messages.
Anti-Spam is not an area that small business owners can afford to neglect. Ineffective spam protection can result in significant costs resulting from decreased productivity, wasted resources, and company downtime. Investing in the right IT solution improves email security, protects your valuable data and sensitive information, and reduces the burden on your network. Investing in a sophisticated, intelligent spam filter will save your business money over time, and ultimately improve your bottom line.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Affiliate Marketing Website Models for Great Business

A registered domain name would give you an address in the virtual world. A web hosting service would give you a lot. It’s time to build your house.

But there are many kinds of houses, with each type serving a particular need. In the same light, there are many kinds of websites, and each type would also serve a particular need. Our goal right now is to determine the kinds of websites you could create to best serve you affiliate marketing concerns.

As an affiliate, here are a number of website models you could decide to employ. Let’s take a look at them.

A Review Center

You could create a website, preferably using a blogging software like that offered by www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com , which seeks to review the products that are released in the market. Here’s the deal, though. Review the products you are promoting. Naturally, you’d want your reviews to be favorable for the affiliate merchant’s offerings. So stress the beneficial points of the products so that your visitors may be encouraged to click on your affiliate link and be redirected to the affiliate merchant’s sales page.

An Affiliate Mall

An effective way of promoting your affiliate links is through an affiliate mall. You could make your website into an online catalogue of sorts. Display the products you are promoting, and attach your affiliate links. Provide a short but encouraging description for each product. Also include a small image of the product itself (as an affiliate, you are allowed to use the affiliate program’s images for your promotional campaigns, so you won’t be violating any copyrights by doing this).

This setup is quite empowering for your visitors. They are given the option to choose which among the products you are pre-selling would be most advantageous for them.

A Content Site

Content is king on the internet. People surf the World Wide Web in search for information. If you have the information they need, then you’re in business. You could focus on unique and quality information for your website, and include your affiliate links by way of recommendation or direct announcement.

There are many kinds of content sites which you could decide to build:

• a news site which offers the latest information on the market you will be catering to;
• an information hub containing guides and general information about the same market;
• a download center for valuable products you’re freely offering (this is great for a viral marketing campaign, which we will discuss in subsequent lessons)

An Opt-In Page

You will not be able to win all of them. You won’t even be able to win a majority of them. The best thing you could aim for is to gather the “yes” visitors, try your best to change the mind of the “no” visitors, and capture the contact information of the “maybe” visitors so that you could continue to convince them for a future sale. And this you could do with a mailing list.

By having them subscribe to your mailing list, you’d be able to contact them at any time, with new offers, or perhaps with some valuable tidbits that would warm them up to purchase what the affiliate merchant is selling. All you need is an account with an excellent autoresponder service, which you could integrate in such a page so that it will capture prospective leads on auto-pilot.