10 Profitable Reasons To Add A Discussion
Board Or Chat Room To Your Web Site
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/10485377/649011/211295582/2/
1. You’ll be able to communicate with your visitors.
They’ll begin to trust you and get to know you on a
more personal level. People will purchase products
quicker from somebody they already know and trust.
2. People will revisit your web site to participate on
your discussion board or chat room. They will meet
other people with similar interests and your web site
will become a hang out were they can chat.
3. You can learn important information about your
visitors by reading the conversations they have. They
may chat about your web site or products. With this
information you could learn to market your products
more effectively.
4. You could answer the questions your visitors ask
in your online communities. You’ll become known as
an expert by giving the answers to their questions.
This will give you and your business more credibility.
5. You could teach a free online class using your chat
room. This will give you an expert status and increase
traffic to your web site by offering the free class.
6. When your discussion board or chat room becomes
popular, you could sell advertising space on them. This
will give you an extra income stream for your web site.
7. You can network with other businesses by having
a chat room or discussion board. You could exchange
business ideas, leads, advertising, etc.
8. You could allow other web sites who don’t have
a discussion board or chat room to use yours. You
will get free advertising by allowing them to link to
your online community.
9. When you have a discussion board or chat room
you can get free advertising by listing them in online
community directories. You can also join web rings
with similar discussion topics.
10. You can make money by advertising your own
products and services on your discussion board or
chat room. You could also join other people’s affiliate
programs and make commissions advertising them.
Quote of the Day:
“How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” — William
Shakespeare
Thank you for being a valued subscriber!
Sincerely,
Martha Petrizza
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/10485378/649011/211295582/2/
P.S. Making money online is easier than you think… Start
NOW with The Home Biz Guy’s Plug-In Profit Site service at:
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/10485377/649011/211295582/2/
Martha Petrizza
1012 Aquia Drive
Stafford
Virginia 22554
United States
Here are the latest updates
“Internet and Businesses Online: Traffic Building Articles from EzineArticles.com” - 13 new articles
- Different Methods of Web Site Traffic Generation
- How to Generate Website Traffic
- How to Gain Profits With Traffic Exchanges
- 5 Free Ways to Generate Traffic For Your Blog
- How Do I Build Up Traffic to My Website?
- Traffic Generation - One of the Most Important Internet Marketing Skills
- Why Do You Need More Traffic?
- What is Website Traffic?
- Get More Backlinks Using Directory Submission Tools and Article Submission Techniques
- How to Measure the Effectiveness of My Internet Traffic
- Getting Traffic to Your Site
- Article Directories 101 - Ramp Up Your Website Traffic
- The Number 1 Way to Get Free Traffic
- More Recent Articles
- Search Internet and Businesses Online: Traffic Building Articles from EzineArticles.com
Today’s feature article is:10 Motivational Triggers That Make People Buy
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/10286689/649011/211295582/2/
1. People want to make more money. They may
want to start their own business, get a higher paying
job or invest in the stock market. This will make
them feel successful.
2. People want to save money. They may want to
invest for the future or save for a big purchase.
This will make them feel more secure.
3. People want to save time. They may want to
work less and spend time enjoying life’s pleasures.
This will make them feel more relaxed.
4. People want to look better. They may want to
lose weight, tone their body, or improve their facial
features. This will make them feel more attractive.
5. People want to learn something new. They may
want to learn how to change their car oil or build a
deck. This will make them feel more intelligent.
6. People want to live longer. They may want to
get in shape, eat better or gain extra energy. This
will make them feel healthier.
7. People want to be comfortable. They may want
to relive aches and pains or want to sleep in a more
comfortable bed. This will make them feel
relieved.
8. People want to be loved. They may not want to
be lonely anymore or want to start dating again.
This will make them feel wanted.
9. People want to be popular. They may want to
be a famous celebrity or be more popular in
school. This will make them feel praised and
admired.
10. People want to gain pleasure. They may want
satisfy their appetite or sexual desires. This will
make them feel more fulfilled.
Quote of the Day:
“Loneliness is the most terrible poverty.” — Mother Teresa
Thank you for being a valued subscriber!
Sincerely,
Martha Petrizza
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/10286690/649011/211295582/2/
P.S. Making money online is easier than you think… Start
NOW with The Home Biz Guy’s Plug-In Profit Site service at:
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/10286689/649011/211295582/2/
Martha Petrizza
1012 Aquia Drive
Stafford
Virginia 22554
United States
Today’s feature article is:
10 Mind Altering Words That Make People Buy
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/10225761/649011/211295582/2/
1. Use the word “fast” in your ad. People want fast
results, fast delivery, fast ordering, etc. Nowadays,
we usually value our time more than our money.
2. Use the word “guaranteed” in your ad. People
want to be assured they are not risking their hard
earned money buying your product.
3. Use the word “limited” in your ad. People want
to own or receive things that are exclusive or rare
because they are considered to be more valuable.
4. Use the word “easy/simple” in your ad. People
want easy ordering, easy instructions, easy to use,
easy payments, etc.
5. Use the word “testimonial” in your ad. People
want to see believable proof before they buy your
product. It should be reputable and specific proof.
6. Use the word “discount/sale ” in your ad. People
want to find bargains. They could be rebates, one
time sales, percentage offers, get one free offers, etc.
7. Use the word “free” in your ad. People want free
incentives before they do business with you. They
could be free books, accessories, services, etc.
8. Use the word “you/your” in your ad. People want
to know that you are talking them. This’ll make them
feel important and attract them to read the whole ad.
9. Use the word “important” in your ad. People do
not want to miss important information that could
effect their life. People will stop and take notice.
10. Use the word “new” in your ad. People want
new products or services that will improve their life
like new information, tastes, technology, results, etc.
Quote of the Day:
“What is wrong with our world is that love is in short
supply.” — Christopher Bryant
Thank you for being a valued subscriber Geronimo!
Sincerely,
Martha Petrizza
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/10225762/649011/211295582/2/
P.S. Making money online is easier than you think… Start
NOW with The Home Biz Guy’s Plug-In Profit Site service at:
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/10225761/649011/211295582/2/
Martha Petrizza
1012 Aquia Drive
Stafford
Virginia 22554
United States
Today’s feature article is:
10 Magic-Like Ways To Multiply Your Orders
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/10220737/649011/211295582/2/
1. Use reward programs to keep people revisiting
your web site and buying your products. You could
reward gifts or discounts for revisiting or buying.
2. Publish e-zines for other web sites to increase
your traffic. You could do it at no charge and in
return just ask for a sponsor ad in each issue.
3. Trade endorsement ads with other e-zines. They
pull more hits and sales than just trading classified
ads because it gives your ad instant credibility.
4. Test your ad copy before you start taking orders.
Tell your visitors to e-mail you if they want to be
notified when you launch a new product.
5. Get your visitors excited about your product by
letting them know how excited you are about it. Tell
them why you’re excited and use exclamation points.
6. Use incentives to gain referrals if you don’t have
an affiliate program. Tell people when they refer
customers you will award them with free products.
7. Tell your visitors the reason why you’re having a
sale so they don’t think your products are cheap. It
could be a holiday/seasonal sale or clearance sale.
8. Stay away from overloading your web site with
high tech gadgets. They can create a slow loading
web page and distract people away from your offer.
9. Cut out words, phrases, and paragraphs in your
ad copy that aren’t selling or supporting your product.
This will stop people from getting bored with your ad.
10. Keep people at your web site as long as possible.
Allow them to download free ebooks, sign-up for
contests, use free online services, etc.
Quote of the Day:
“Friends are an aid to the young, to guard them from error;
to the elderly, to attend to their wants and to supplement
their failing power of action; to those in the prime of
life, to assist them to noble deeds.” — Aristotle
Thank you for being a valued subscriber Geronimo!
Sincerely,
Martha Petrizza
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/10220738/649011/211295582/2/
P.S. Making money online is easier than you think… Start
NOW with The Home Biz Guy’s Plug-In Profit Site service at:
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/10220737/649011/211295582/2/
Martha Petrizza
1012 Aquia Drive
Stafford
Virginia 22554
United States
08
Today’s feature article is:10 Killer Ways To Make Your Online Testimonials More Believable
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/9970063/649011/211295582/2/1. PICTURES
Ask people if they would e-mail a picture with their
testimonial. If they don’t have one scanned you could
have them send their picture by mail and you could
scan it. This technique will give your testimonials more
credibility.
2. ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES
Most online testimonials you see have text signatures.
You could have people mail their written signature,
scan it, and upload it with their testimonial. People
will feel the testimonial is more official.
3. ONLINE AUDIO
You could record people’s testimonials with a mini tape
recorder over the phone, on your answering machine,
or voice mail. Then you could convert the recording
into a online audio file and upload it to your web site.
You can find more information about converting audio
recording’s by typing “real audio” at a search engine.
4. POSTCARDS
Have people mail you their testimonial on a postcard,
scan it and upload it to your web site. This will give
people proof that the testimonial isn’t fake because
it will have a post mark on it.
5. PROFILES
Ask people to include a profile of themselves with their
testimonial. You could just have them answer some
questions like age, occupation, hobbies, favorite quote,
etc. This will make your testimonials more entertaining
to read.
6. HAND WRITTEN LETTERS
This is similar to the “electronic signature” tip. Scan
and upload the entire written testimonial or letter to
your web site. This will give your testimonials a feel
of realism.
7. RECORDINGS
You could record peoples testimonials over the phone
with a mini tape recorder. Then, take the recording
and record it to an answering machine or voice mail
system. Under each one, include a phone number they
can call to hear the actual testimonial.
8. E-MAIL MESSAGES
When you get e-mail testimonials, publish the entire
e-mail message instead of just the contents. It will be
more believable because it will include the date, time,
subject, who it’s from and who it’s to.
9. CONTACT INFORMATION
When you get testimonials from people, ask them if
you could include their contact information under the
testimonial. This will allow potential customers to ask
your current customers questions about your product
or service before they buy. Usually, they will trust
them more than you.
10. ONLINE VIDEO
If some of the people who give you testimonials have
a camcorder, ask them to record their testimonial on
video and send it to you. Then you could convert the
video to an online video file and upload it to your site.
You can find more information about converting audio
recording’s by typing “real video” at a search engine.
Quote of the Day:
“Knowledge is the food of the soul.” — Plato
Thank you for being a valued subscriber!
Sincerely,
Martha Petrizza
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/9970064/649011/211295582/2/
P.S. Making money online is easier than you think… Start
NOW with The Home Biz Guy’s Plug-In Profit Site service at:
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/9970063/649011/211295582/2/
Martha Petrizza
1012 Aquia Drive
Stafford
Virginia 22554
United States
Squeeze Page Bribes: are They Right for You?
Author: Matthew Paolini
Building an opt-in list often requires a marketer to entice potential subscribers with something akin to a gentle bribe. Most often the bribe comes in the form of a free ebook delivered as a “thank you” in exchange for the subscriber’s name and email address. But is this really the most effective form of squeeze page bribery, especially for the beginning list builder who’s promoting an affiliate product?
If you’re like me, you’ve given your email address away in exchange for a free ebook countless times. It’s no secret that most of these ebooks never get read. You probably have an entire graveyard of free-but-never-read ebooks somewhere on your hard drive.
This fact alone must give pause to anyone considering a list-building campaign that uses a free ebook to entice a potential subscriber to give up his or her email address. No matter how cleverly I fill my viral give-away with (potentially) moneymaking affiliate links, they’re no good to me if no one ever reads a line of the book.
This scenario is made even worse if I’m a beginning marketer. Once I’ve given away my free gift, I’ve lost most of the leverage I’m trying to gain through giving a gentle bribe. Yes, I have a subscriber. But what do I do now? Most beginning email marketers don’t have a convincing answer to this question because they don’t yet know how to write a follow-up autoresponder campaign powerful enough to convert subscribers into customers.
Most people who try to build a list in this way take a pretty conventional approach. They drive traffic to a squeeze page, usually through PPC campaigns, forum posts, or article marketing. This squeeze page offers a free download in exchange for a subscriber’s email address.
Good opt-in marketers then redirect their subscribers, sometimes after a double opt-in confirmation page, to the sales page of the product they’re really trying to sell. Less successful marketers just let their autoresponder service redirect subscribers to a generic “Thank You” page.
While this redirection tactic occasionally results in a direct sale, this type of campaign ultimately relies on a follow-up autoresponder series or newsletter to make the sale. Because the free ebook seldom gets read, it’s easy to see that if the beginning marketer can’t write a powerful follow-up campaign or engaging newsletter, he or she is often destined for disappointing results.
To avoid these pitfalls, I’ve looked for - and found - a different way. Instead of offering subscribers a gentle bribe on my squeeze page, I offer them an incentive. The incentive is found on a pre-sell page positioned between my squeeze page and the sales page of the affiliate product I’m really trying to sell.
My autoresponder service automatically redirects my subscribers to this “welcome” page after they opt-in. The page then pre-sells the subscriber on the affiliate product and offers to sweeten the deal if they click through and buy that product within a given period of time.
This deal sweetener is usually a high-quality ebook, but can also be some other quality digital product, including a nice video tutorial or even a review of some other product created with Camtasia. On a high-priced item, even a cash rebate is possible.
Whatever it is, offering a time-sensitive incentive instead of an up-front bribe gives me more leverage over my potential customers. By customizing my autoresponder series to link back to the pre-sell page instead of the sales page, I can incentivize my potential customer over and over. All in all, my chances of converting an opt-in to a sale significantly increase.
All that being said, sometimes a picture, or in this case a process, really is worth a thousand words.
That’s why I’ve included a link in this article’s resource box that points to an opt-in page that will walk you through and help you visualize the whole process: squeeze page, pre-sell page and sales page.
Check it out for yourself and see if this idea makes sense to you, too!
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/squeeze-page-bribes-are-they-right-for-you-380734.html
About the Author:
Follow the opt-in process described above, from squeeze page to pre-sell page to sales page, by visiting http://acs.homebiz2000.com. Don’t forget to opt-in to see how the autoresponder series is used to refer subscribers back to the pre-sell page over and over. Of course, there’s a revealing - and valuable - free gift at the end of the series for all those who subscribe at http://acs.homebiz2000.com
10 Killer Ways To Jump Start Your Profits
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/9821699/649011/211295582/2/
1. Offer to write exclusive articles (that means you
only submit them to one place) for high traffic web
sites in exchange for a link back to your site.
2. Create a positive online image. Tell your visitors
about fundraisers you have sponsored or that you
donate a part of your profits to charity.
3. Improve your customer service on a regular
basis. Try out new technologies that make it easier
to communicate with your customers over the net.
4. Ask your customers what they would like to see
offered by your business in the future. This type of
information can boost your sales.
5. Make sure your web host isn’t losing your sales.
If you get an e-mail from someone that told you that
they couldn’t access your site, it might be your host.
6. Allow your visitors experience to be an enjoyable
one at your web site. Provide easy navigation, good
content, fast loading graphics, search options, etc.
7. Keep changing or adding freebies to your web
site. If people see the same freebie in your ads they
will say to themselves, “been there done that”.
8. Add a directory to your web site. When visitors
submit their web site, e-mail them confirming their
link has been added and remind them to revisit.
9. Organize your marketing and advertising into a
plan. Create a list of daily, weekly, monthly and all
other future promotional plans.
10. Trade links only with web sites that your target
audience or yourself would visit. They should offer
their visitors valuable content or freebies.
Quote of the Day:
“If you want to increase your success rate, double your
failure rate.” — Thomas Watson, Sr., founder of IBM
Thank you for being a valued subscriber!
Sincerely,
Martha Petrizza
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/9821700/649011/211295582/2/
P.S. Making money online is easier than you think… Start
NOW with The Home Biz Guy’s Plug-In Profit Site service at:
http://marcandmartypetrizza.com/t/9821699/649011/211295582/2/
Martha Petrizza
1012 Aquia Drive
Stafford
Virginia 22554
United States
Jeff Walker - death of this and that…
I was just reading an interesting blog post
that declared the “death of product launches.”It reminds me of the last time that product
launches were declared dead… which was in late
2006.
If you folks were around back then, you might
remember that back in October 2006 there was a
whole bunch of launches in the “Internet
Marketing” niche… there were literally five or
six launches PER WEEK that month, in just the
“Internet Marketing” niche alone.
Predictably, with that many launches in one
niche, some of them didn’t do very well… and
there were rumors of “product launch overdose”
and the “death of product launches”.
Well, Mark Twain once famously wrote “the rumors
of my death are greatly exaggerated”… and the
same was true for product launches.
In fact, the entire “product launch phenomenon”
never even slowed down - it just kept growing.
The product launches today, both inside and
outside the “Internet Marketing”niche, are
bigger than ever.
———
Just the facts…
———
Let’s look at some facts… of the top five
all-time launches (measured by total sales) in
Internet Marketing history, four of them have
happened this year.
One was in January, one in February, one in
March, and one in April.
Does it sound like launches are dead in the
Internet Marketing niche?
Now some people are saying that using total
sales (or profits) is not a good measure for the
success or failure of product launches.
I find that a bit weird, since we’re talking
about business here… are we supposed to be
ashamed of making profits?
But OK, if we aren’t going measure things by
profits, what else should we look at?
Well, how about something that I’ve been
preaching about since 2003… how about your
relationship with your clients and prospects?
Because if you’re doing things right, that
relationship is the strongest asset in your
business…
——
“The Relationship Maximizer”
——
I’ve mentioned this before - there is simply no
better way to create a strong bond with your
list than a well-executed product launch.
If you haven’t personally experienced this, you
would be shocked how well this works.
Now since I’m on the inside of sooooo many big
launches (both inside and outside the “Internet
Marketing” niche), I get to see what happens
AFTER the launch.
And the same thing happens every time - after
the launch you end up with an super-energized
and highly-responsive list. It happens every
time if you’re doing things right.
——
What about YOUR niche?
——
Of course, probably only one in a hundred (or
one in a thousand) of the people reading this
are in the “Internet Marketing” niche.
Most of them are in a niche like “learn to play
guitar” or “pet first aid” or “get more dates”
or one of a thousand other niches.
And if that’s your case, then you’re really
lucky… because those are the markets where
product launches are REALLY killing it.
I suppose the reason that I’m always focusing on
niches outside of Internet Marketing is because
that’s where I spent my first 10 years online…
I was publishing and selling stuff for stock
market investors and traders.
And that’s the market where I developed all my
product launch techniques (ie, the “Product
Launch Formula”)…
So yeah, I *knew* launches worked great outside
of the rather weird and twisted world of
“Internet Marketing”.
But here’s the big NEWS FLASH - all those
launches in all kinds of “obscure” niches keep
getting bigger - just like the “Internet
Marketing” launches.
I see it nearly every day in the results my PLF
Owners keep reporting back to me. Here’s just
one example… a few years ago, the typical
launch in the “learn guitar” market was
$6,000.00 or $8,000.00. Now lots of them are
pushing up towards the six figure range.
I don’t have the time to go into all the reasons
why I think launches keep getting bigger (hint:
Product Launch Formula is part of it… but only
part of it) - that will have to be another email.
——
The OTHER side of the coin…
——
Of course, it seems like the “death of the
product launch” people seem focused on the
Internet Marketing space.
I don’t know why people obsess about the IM
niche so much, but they do.
And these people keep wringing their hands about
the large number of launches, and the
overwhelming number of emails they’re getting
about those launches.
Well, there’s a simple answer to that - just
unsubscribe from the lists that aren’t creating
any value for you.
It’s really not that complicated. The lists all
have an unsub link down at the bottom.
(One more thing to watch for: some of those
people writing about too many launches are
actually using their rant to build a platform to
do their own launch or promote someone else’s
launch. Interesting. Nothing wrong with it at
all… it’s just clever marketing. But it’s
interesting nonetheless.)
——
The real HOLY GRAIL…
——
Here’s something that lots of people miss about
product launches (and business in general)…
it’s all about positioning.
One of the first and best lessons in business
came from an old friend of mine who owned a very
successful car repair business.
He specialized in servicing Subarus. At the time
he was one of the most successful people I knew.
But he told me that his big regret was that he
could of picked any brand… and he picked
Subarus instead of Mercedes or BMWs.
He told me that he could be charging 25% more
per hour - same amount of work, but a lot more
money.
He had a great reputation, his staff did great
work… but he could be making a bunch more
money with better positioning.
So what does this have to do with you?
Simply put, you need to continually focus on
your positioning in your market. And you will
make a lot more money and have a much healthier
business if you are positioned as a leader in
your niche.
And guess what?
Product launches are the ultimate positioning
tool. They give you instant credibility. They
give you instant name recognition. They give you
“guru status”…
——-
Oh no… I said “guru”
——-
Lots of people seem to recoil at the word
“guru”… it’s a loaded phrase in the Internet
Marketing world.
But my definition of the word “guru” is “leader”
or “market leader”… and if you’re not looking
to be a leader in your niche, then you should
probably find a different niche.
Because there is no better positioning than to
be a leader in your field.
Trust me… I have had that “guru positioning”
several times in different niches. I was a minor
guru in the investing field, I had a bit of guru
positioning in the stock market trading field…
and I suppose I’m a guru in the Internet
Marketing field.
Each time it made a serious impact on my
business. Because when you’re seen as a guru,
then it makes building a business a whole lot
easier.
——
Case Study: Eben
——
Let’s look at an example of great positioning
being built through a product launch…
Right now Eben Pagan is in the midst of a launch
He just spent four weeks or so giving away great
content and material… and he just went “live”
with his launch a few days ago.
Eben’s a good friend of mine… and about an
hour into the launch he sent a one line email to
me with an update on how it was going - the bottom
line is that it’s going very well.
This is yet ANOTHER super-successful launch.
And I can guarantee that if you ask Eben whether
product launches are dead, he would have a good
long laugh.
Eben is a good “case study”… or at least
someone who’s good to study.
You see, he has a NICHE business that’s doing
some $20 million in sales each year. His niche
is the “dating advice” market.
Eben was a lot like me… for years he made all
his money outside the “Internet Marketing”
niche. In fact, his only exposure to the IM
niche was as a customer buying IM training
products.
Then last year he decided to start teaching
stuff in the IM niche… and it was really clear
to Eben that the best way to create a business
in this new niche was with a series of product
launches.
KEY POINT: given the assets from his “other”
business, Eben could have used virtually ANY
method to create his new “Internet Marketing
Guru” business.
But by using a series of product launches (which
went with the standard progression of “seed
launch”, then “internal launch”, then big “JV
launch”) he was able to create a near-instant
seven figure business with little risk and
without spending much money.
Since Eben’s dating advice business was built on
“guru status” he clearly knew the value of
achieving that positioning in his “new” niche…
and he went after that guru positioning right
from the start.
Now clearly, Eben’s path to the very top of the
“Internet Marketing” niche is NOT something that
everyone can achieve. In fact, I would say
that’s INCREDIBLY hard to do.
But if your sights are a little lower than multiple
millions in your first year, and if you’re going
after a less competitive niche than Internet
Marketing… well, it’s still VERY achievable.
And that’s what I’ve been preaching for years…
——
Get “guru” positioning in YOUR niche…
——
Last week I was on a mastermind call with Eben.
It was just the two of us. The first 45 minutes
we brainstormed on Eben’s business, then the
next 45 minutes we focused on my biz.
Somewhere in the middle of our conversation I
said “everyone wants to be in our business”…
And that’s the truth.
Outside of being a rock star or playing
professional sports, pretty much EVERYONE would
rather be in the information marketing business.
Or more specifically, the ONLINE information
marketing business…
It’s easy to see why - it’s a business pretty
much anyone can start with almost no money or
risk, you can focus on any of ten thousand
different niches, and the sky is the limit in
terms of profits.
(Can you really start an information marketing
business with almost no money? Well, my total
investment to start my business was $35.00… in
retrospect, it would have been better if I spent
some more money initially - but times were tight
and I just wasn’t sure if the business would
work out. 
It’s been 12 years in this business for me now,
and after starting multiple seven figure
information marketing businesses, I will tell
you that there is ONE thing that you MUST do…
——
Get “guru” positioning in YOUR niche…
——
Every top marketer knows this… you need to be
the expert. You need to be the leader. You need
to be the guru.
Some people aren’t comfortable with this. But if
you want to succeed in this market, you need
to get over it.
And don’t get me wrong - you don’t need to be a
public speaker. You don’t need to be in a bunch
of videos. You don’t even need to be an
extrovert (for example: me… I’m definitely an
introvert).
But there are things you need to do to position
yourself and your business…
And Eben’s got it figured out… that’s what his
new product is about.
——
The guru mastermind…
——
OK, this email has gotten REALLY REALLY long.
But this is the part where I try to pitch you on
going to check out Eben’s new Guru Mastermind
program.
First, I want to tell you WHY I’m going to pitch
you on it.
You see, I get approached every single day by
people that want me to send out an email for
their offer… but I turn down 99% of them.
There are lots of reasons that I turn them
down… either I’m not impressed with the
product, or not impressed with the product
producer, or I don’t think it fits my list.
But one of the biggest reasons is that I just
don’t like sending offers to my list. I don’t do
it often… over the last five years I’ve
probably sent an average of six or seven offers
per year.
But this is the deal with Eben’s stuff - I was
onboard to promote this product before he even
asked me…
You see, as I’ve gotten to know Eben over the
last two years, he has delivered a HUGE amount
of value to my business.
Serious bottom-line value.
He’s done that in mastermind sessions, phone
conversations, emails… and his products.
In fact, when I was going through the big launch
of PLF 2.0, Eben was in midst of an “internal
launch” for his “Guru Mastermind” program.
He launched on March 25th and I launched on
March 27th… and since we were both going
through the same experience, we decided to coach
each other through the process.
Basically, we checked in via phone every couple
of days coming into our launches. We helped each
other with ideas, copy, and acted as overall
“reality checks”… and it worked GREAT for both
of us.
——
The insider’s view…
——
Since I helped coach Eben through his initial
launch of the Guru Mastermind, I have a bit of
an insider’s view on the product.
And here’s my opinion:
1. It’s really expensive. It will NOT be a fit
for most people. Sorry about that.
2. It’s the most comprehensive training in the
information marketing business that I can think
of.
3. The “regular folks” that I know that joined
the Guru Mastermind during his initial program
have raved about it to me. (And some of those
people are VERY demanding.)
4. It overdelivers in a serious way.
5. It’s a serious commitment - it’s hardcore
training, and Eben tells you right on the order
page exactly what he’s expecting from members in
terms of a time commitment.
And did I mention it’s really expensive?
It is. But here’s the other side of the coin…
in my first year in the information marketing
business I made less than $20k (that was 1996).
It wasn’t until my THIRD year that I started
really making a good living, and I didn’t hit
six figures until my FOURTH year.
That’s because I tried to figure everything out
on my own. Duh… not very smart.
So this is the point… I’m sure that if I had
Eben’s program back then, I would have cut that
learning curve by YEARS.
Back then I wouldn’t have had the money to take
Eben’s program. And I wouldn’t have been smart
enough to sign up for it, even if I had the
money.
Because it took me a long time to figure some
things out… like the value of paying for “top
gun” training from people who had the experience
that I sorely lacked.
So if you’re in a position to afford this
program, and you’re interested in a massive
short-cut in your business, then I highly
recommend you take a look at Eben’s program.
Here’s the link:
http://www.sixinseven.com/gmm.html
best regards,
Jeff
A WordPress Squeeze Page
What’s a Squeeze Page?
Very simple - sign up as a subscriber or leave.
In the context of a blog, it might be subscription to a mailing list, or more often than not, nowadays, an RSS feed.
A squeeze page is probably of less value than it used to be - users are wary about giving up an email address, even a disposable one… But, depending on the sector your blog is operating in, it might pay a dividend…
Since the purpose of the page is to obtain the visitor’s email address (if we’re going to be cold-blooded about it) any additional content could distract or send them elsewhere - so keep content to a minumum, just enough to appear on the search engines.
Zookoda enables you to send a daily, weekly or monthly email summary of your latest blog posts direct to your vistor’s inbox - so that cuts out a lot of work, but doesn’t supply any new content…
A WordPress plugin for creating a subscriber form and db table, at first sight, seems to work ok
New WordPress Theme:Squeeze Page
I was helping a friend with the design of a squeeze page today and it inspired me.
It’s a single column, widget ready theme, with 3 column sidebar at the bottom and a page menu at the top.
Download Squeeze Page | Preview Squeeze Page
Thursday, May 29, 2008
One webmaster found Google unwilling to index pictures located in an images directory, but some extra content apparently left the site afoul of Google’s guidelines.
Editor’s Note: Duplicate content presents an issue for webmasters: search engines like Google will punish sites for it. But what if that content is merely a cached copy held for reference? Have you found one of your subdirectories dropped from Google over cached pages on your site?
Here’s the short version: don’t stick cached content in a directory you want Google to index. Chances are the Googlebot will freak out and run screaming from your server.Michael VanDeMar wrote at Smackdown how a simple test of indexing images in a subdirectory ended up with Googly accusations of webmaster malfeasance.Opening a discussion on a Google Groups webmaster help discussion eventually attracted the attention of a Google staffer, John Mueller, who took a peek into VanDeMar’s images subdirectory and found some terrifying creepy-crawlies therein:
In particular regarding your /images/ subdirectory I noticed that there are some things which could be somewhat problematic. These are just two examples:
- You appear have copies of other people’s sites, eg /images/ viewgcache-getafreelinkfromwired.htm
- You appear to have copies of search results in an indexable way, eg /images/ viewgcache-bortlebotts.htm
I’m not sure why you would have content like that hosted on your site in an indexable way, perhaps it was just accidentally placed there or meant to be blocked from indexing. I trust you wouldn’t do that on purpose, right?
VanDeMar keeps those cached copies to support his discussions, as such pages can and will change regularly, or disappear altogether from sites. Doing this in a place where Google expects not to find such content evidently put him in a tough spot with the search engine, as Mueller suggested it ran counter to Google’s webmaster guidelines.
The difficulty appears to be in the nature of the cached pages. Mueller thinks it’s duplicate content, VanDeMar believes it isn’t, based on his reading of the guidelines; he further questioned why the entire subdirectory received a delisting from Google.
| Turn clicks into customers with advanced targeting. Facebook Ads. |
The obvious solution, as one commenter suggested, would be to place the cached pages into a different directory and tell the Googlebot to stay out of it. Whether or not it’s the fairest solution for webmasters won’t figure into the decision, as Google has really dug in on quality issues it perceived over the past year.
Keeping cached copies of content sounds like a prudent course of action to take. It helps keep site visitors from clicking into a non-existent page, which makes the linking site look bad. If Google consistently dumps subdirectories that mix cached and original content because the company thinks duplication is in effect, webmasters will have to alter their linking structure to accommodate the fussy Googlebot.
| Comment Here |
|
About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Follow me on Twitter, and you can reach me via email at dutter @ webpronews dot com.
The Dark Art Of Search Engine Optimization
The title of this article is designed to illustrate the point of this article. Today we won’t be taking a look at black-hat search engine optimization tactics. Admittedly, I’ve toyed with them in a “know your enemy” kind of way but I’m no expert on advanced cloaking techniques nor effective link sp@mming tactics. What we’re going to cover here are the hidden (i.e. dark) areas of effective optimization strategy.I’ve written numerous times in past articles and blog posts that using tricks to rank your site highly is, in the end, ineffective as tricks imply a manipulation of the ranking formula and will eventually become obsolete as the search engines work to advance their algorithms and shut down such possible abuses. But here I’m going to illustrate some of the tricks we use to drive traffic to our site. Is this a conflict? Not really; these “tricks” aren’t so much directed at search engines as they are website owners and visitors. These are marketing tricks, not SEO tricks - they just happen to help you with your rankings.
Before we begin let’s review an important point about Google. When most people think of Google they think of the dominant search engine (and in that they would be right) HOWEVER if Google was primarily a search engine they would be much smaller than they are now. No, they are an advertising company and the world’s largest at that. To this end they need traffic, market share, and clicks. They need you to love Google.com, visit it often, visit their other properties and offerings such as Gmail. If you do this, the odds of you clicking on one of the paid ads increases and their primary function is fulfilled. It is driven by this purpose that Google has developed the most complex search algorithm that has ever existed. Their search is their primary source of traffic. The better their results, the more you will return, the greater the likelihood you will click an ad, the more revenue they generate (thus leading to their continued increases in reported revenue quarter-after-qu arter). Why is this important? Because this is the driving force of their current algorithm and will be for the foreseeable future we can assume that any action that increases relevant traffic to your site, increases the stickiness of your site and/or increases the number of links from relevant sites to yours will help your rankings and it will help Google keep their visitors loyal.
Building A Sticky Site
A point I’ve made in past articles that I will reinforce here as opposed to “contradicting” will be that of the importance of a sticky site. Of course, monitoring your statistics to assess your visitors’ behavior is an important practice for the conversions on your site however it’s importance from a search engine optimization perspective is often overlooked. I’ve mentioned before and I’ll mention again, the search engines have the ability to monitor the length of time a visitor spends between visits to that engine. If you are on Google, enter “seo services” into it and visit the Beanstalk site but only spend 5 seconds there before hitting the back button Google can infer that the site was not what you were looking for. If it was 5 or 10 minutes before you returned back to Google they could thus infer that you found content you found useful to your query.
So let’s put that more obviously, having a site on which visitors find what they’re looking for quickly, easily, and in a visually pleasing way will increase their time on your site which will thus increase the assumption by the search engines that you are relevant for the phrase the searcher has queried. This will reinforce that your site does indeed belong among the top site. As a disclaimer: this works on a mass scale so don’t go running off and clicking through to you competitors and quickly hitting the back button. First, it’s unethical (like clicking their paid links) and second, it doesn’t work like that (how big a hole would THAT be in the algorithm) so it would only be a waste of your time.
The how to of building a sticky site I will leave to designers (being an SEO - my skills lie more in understanding mathematical formula).
Clickability Counts
The engines know when your site appears in a set of search results and they further know how often your site was click on when it appeared. The more often your site is selected when presented in a set of results the more relevant it is assumed to be and thus, the more entrenched it becomes in that set of results (assuming your stickiness issues are dealt with).
What this means is that your title and description matter, not just as part of the classical search engine optimization tactics we’ve used them for since the 90’s but also to draw visitors to your site. Fortunately the end goal of the engines closely matches what your own end goal should be for your site - maximizing traffic. Let’s take a look at two example titles that the Beanstalk site could have:
An old-school over-optimized title: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services Company | Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning | SEO Services, Internet Marketing, Link Building, Consulting, Training & Copywriting
Our current title: Expert SEO Services by Beanstalk
Can you see the different? While our title changes periodically as we test new titles for clickthroughs we always keep it short, easily read, and always such that the whole title will appear in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Our clickthroughs are much higher with shorter titles than longer and we have seen the same results with client sites.
The same applies to your description tag but the rules are a bit different. With your description tag you want to make sure to include your targeted keywords and make the copy compelling to a searcher. The reason for this is that when searched keywords are including in your description, is is typically the description that appears in the SERPs. This give you an opportunity to determine how your ad to the world appears. You write your title, you write your description - write both well and your clickthroughs will increase. And when your clickthroughs go up, the implied relevancy the engines will assume your site has to that phrase will increase with it and thus, so too will your rankings for that phrase.
Getting People To Link To You
We’re not going to bother discussing reciprocal link building, directory submissions or the other usual suspects. There are countless articles out there on those topics; what we’re going to focus on here are the tactics for getting articles picked up widely the resources you want to get them onto (and if you’re reading this - you know it works) as well as ways to get the links that both you and the search engines will love the most - the ones you don’t ask for or work for outside of creating a great site with useful content. The best part of these links is that they not only work to boost your link popularity but they also tend to drive great traffic to your site. Let’s begin with articles.
When you’re working to publish an article there are two main audience members: the readers and, more importantly, the editors (I say more importantly as they’re the ones that determine if you have any readers at all). There are some tactics for increasing both:
- Write a compelling title. This gets back to the point I was making in the first paragraph. Everyone is interested in black hat search engine optimization, even those of us who don’t practice it. Readers will be drawn to it as it receives relatively low coverage and editors like to publishing something that they feel may draw some controversy. While this article doesn’t get into black hat tactics as some editors may have hoped, it will draw them in and get their attention.
- Find quality related resources and get the article published there. I generally use a tool like PR Prowler to find good, quality resources to submit articles to. You can do it manually through a search engine, PR Prowler just speeds up the process so much that after its first use it’s paid for itself. You want the places you submit to, to be related to your industry and you want them to provide a link back. If you can setup that link as anchor text instead of your URL - all the better.
- Keep a list and add to it. If you’re going to publish multiple articles don’t start from scratch every time. Keep a list and try to add a few sites to it with each submission. This will keep your list growing and get you more exposure links as time goes on.
- Keep a good relationship with the editors. They are the end-all-be-all of whether this tactic will work or not as a link and traffic building tactic. Make sure you’re polite and don’t write nasty emails if you get declined. Read what they say and make sure to take it into account with future articles.
But what if you don’t want to build links with articles, what if you want to get links the old fashioned way (and I’m talking about the old old old way - you know, before there was any SEO value to it). What if you would like to get people to link to you simply because they like your content (I know, shocking but it actually happens !!!) There are a few different factors that you need to take into account to accomplish this. Here are a few important rules to follow:
- You’ll need to create content that others will want to link to. This is an art in-and-of-itself. I wrote about some of the basic rules involved with this in a past article “Building Link Bait” and so I won’t repeat it here.
- Get the bait into social bookmarking sites. This will get people interested in your topic aware of it. If it’s good, they may link to it. Don’t just focus on Digg and the other majors, look around for some industry-specific bookmarking sites. For example, when this article is complete I’ll work to get it into Sphinn, an SEO bookmarking site.
- Get the bait into forums and/or blogs. I’m not talking about blog sp@mming here, I’m talking about finding blogs and forums that are RELATED to your topic and who’s visitors could be genuinely helped by the tool, information, etc. that you’re providing. Don’t worry if the blog has rel=”nofollow” on the links. The purpose is webmaster awareness, not getting links from the blogs (I’ll leave that to a different article).
- Promote the bait on your site. Use banners, links, your blog, etc. to build awareness.
- Provide the code to link to your bait. The easier you make it for people to link to you, the more of them will. Provide the code with a text and banner option and you’ll increase the number of people who will link to you.
- Put out a press release. If it’s big enough news, put out a press release. If the media grabs it you’ve won the lottery both in publicity and in high valued links.
- If the topic of your bait is searched on the engines, rank it.
 |
|
|