by: Alan Cheng |
'Ezines are the most cost effective way to advertise your business opportunity'. I'm sure you’ve heard that phrase many times if you’ve been marketing on the internet for a while. But is that a myth or a fact? An Internet Marketer once advertised that he can guarantee $1,000 profit for the user within weeks if he used the techniques outlined in his ebook.
And the secret of the ebook - advertise in Ezines using $2,000 and you are guaranteed success unless your product is useless. Well I didn't try it at the time because I couldn't find $2,000 lying about in the house or in my bank account. However, it does show the belief people have with Ezines.
There are 3 types of ads in Ezines:
Classified Ads
These are small ads which you can find at the bottom of newsletters. There is limited space in these ads therefore your ads have to be eye-catching. Classified Ads in ezines are cheap and sometimes free due to its limited space and location which is at the end of the ezine.
Sponsor Ads
These ads are placed at the top of the newsletter and sometimes in the middle. Some ezines have more than one sponsor ads. Sponsor ads are more expensive than Classified ads and can contain more words so your ad can be more descriptive. Sponsor ads are more effective than Classified Ads as their position in the newsletter is better.
Solo Ads
Solo ads is the most effective way out of the three type of ads for generating response.
Solo ads fills up a whole email which only contains your advertisement. The newsletter is sent on your behalf to its subscribers. Thus your ad will have the biggest exposure. Solo ads are more expensive than Sponsor ads but more effective.
'Great. Super. Fantastic. So what's your advice Alan?' My advice is advertising in Ezines do work. And they work very well. Some people don't think so because after placing some ads and seeing very little or no response they think they have proven that Ezine advertising is a lie used by Ezines Publishers.
Well I can tell you now that they are getting poor responses because they have not followed the rules for advertising successfully in Ezines.
Rules in Advertising in Ezines Successfully
1. If you can, save money and advertise using Solo ads. They have the best chances of being read by the subscribers and they have no other ads distracting or competing against.
2. Work on your subject line. Even with Solo Ads, people will not open your email if the subject is of no interest to them. Subjects which promises massive fortunes in a few days will get deleted with second thoughts.
3. Work on your Content. After the subscribers open your email, your next task is to try and get them to read the content. So make damn sure your content is interesting and enticing enough for them to take some action. Believe the saying “Content is King”.
4. When you’re advertising other peoples’ products using affiliate programs do not send the visitors to the product’s website. I think people are crazy when they do this. The reason is that you are sending traffic to other peoples websites and if they won’t buy you’ve lost that lead for good.
Therefore the aim of you ad is to capture their email address so that you can advertise to them again and again. If they don’t buy product A then you can advertise Product B to them. Now don’t you think that makes more sense?
5. Advertise in well known Ezines and which are related to the topic you are advertising. Advertising stock recommendations to Golf enthusiasts will surely give you a terrible response rate.
6. For Classified ads, make sure you are advertising in large numbers such as 100,000. Not many people read Classified ads and you will be listed among other ads as well. However, you might get lucky if your headline is attractive enough.
To end this article I’m going to share a secret with you on what I think is the best and cheapest way to advertise in Ezines. That is to write your own articles and ask the Ezine Publishers if they are interested in sending out your articles in an issue of their newsletter.
Now let’s think about this for a moment. Your own article is published in ezines and placed on their websites. People who write articles are given more respect and are trusted more. Plus your articles will stay on some websites for years which also means that it will generate traffic for years. The traffic is generated with a resource box you can put at the bottom of your article. You can put your URL here and also write a little bit of background about yourself.
You are creating a name for yourself on the internet scene and you are also generating leads which you can email your recommendations to. There is no cost for you when Publishers decide to include your article so the only cost coming out of you is the time needed to write the article.
In my opinion, writing articles for ezines is the most effective way to advertise using ezines. Not to mention it’s cheap and will generate traffic even after many months.
If you want to know which ezines to advertise in, the cost, number of subscribers and what services are available that can help you in publish your articles, please send an email to my autoresponder at mailto:ezineart@onlinemoneymachine.com
Alan Cheng, is the owner of http://www.onlinemoneymachine.com the membership site to help beginners setup a profit generating online business. With all the right tools to setup your website and advertise effectively. You can contact Alan at mailto:alan@onlinemoneymachine.com. |
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Ezines Are Effective In Advertising Your Online Business?
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Ezine Article Advertising & Marketing Blunders
Ezine Article Advertising & Marketing Blunders
Interested in advertising and marketing your web business with ezine articles? Make any of these blunders and you may cut your response in half.
Blunder Number 1: Not including an author's resource box/ezine advertisement
Yes, there are really authors who don't remember to include an author's resource box (the biography/advertisement at the end of the article). That box is the whole point of distributing articles in the first place. Even if the body of your article has a link to your website, you'll be losing all the clicks from dedicated ezine readers who look for that box at the end of articles they like.
Blunder Number 2: Not including a link in your ezine article's author's resource box
There are a shocking number of author's who use an author's resource box to include their email address, telephone number, street address, gym locker combination, and everything else but a link to their website. This is a big waste for two reasons:
1.Few people will contact you directly without seeing your web page first. At that point, people just aren't motivated enough. All they know about you is that they liked an article you wrote.
2.Search engines rank web pages in part based on "link popularity" i.e., the number, quality, and relevance of links to a website. You may not care about search engines now, but if you ever do in the future you will be pretty upset at having wasted all these opportunities for link popularity.
Blunder Number 3: Not including an HTML-formatted link with "anchor text" in your ezine article's author's resource box
As much as reasonably possible, you want to encourage publishers to publish your author's resource box with the link in HTML, using your chosen anchor text (i.e., the text you click on to follow the link, traditionally displayed in blue and underlined), if it's going to be shown in a web page or HTML newsletter. If the article is being distributed as plain text, you can include a link to an HTML-formatted version on your website. There are three reasons for this:
1.A link that says "discover widgets" is going to get more clicks than a link that just says "http://www.widgets.com" Your call to action (e.g., "discover widgets") is much more powerful when the reader can read it and act upon it in one split second, since there is not that crucial extra split-second of pause while moving the mouse. In that split-second pause your reader might get second thoughts. With advertising (and the author's resource box is an advertisement), impulse is everything.
2.Anchor text, like bulleted lists, boldface text, headlines and subheadings, has a higher chance of being read than the rest of the text. People tend to scan computer screens rather than read text word for word. Eyes will be much more likely to slow down from scan mode and actually read anything that stands out from the page, especially hyperlinks. This phenomenon and the psychological power of putting a call to action in the anchor text together mean well-written anchor text might easily double the click-throughs you get on your author's resource box link in HTML newsletters and web pages.
3.A web page will rank higher for a keyword in search engine results if the anchor text of links to that page has that keyword.
Blunder Number 4: Only including an HTML-formatted link with "anchor text"
You really want that anchor-text link, but it is foolish only to provide that link. No matter what you do, a substantial number of publishers will reformat your article as plain text, and your link will simply disappear. That's why you need to have both an HTML link with anchor text and a URL written out in this format: http://www.yoururl.com/page
"But I'm only interested in getting my article on web pages so I can gain link popularity," you say. Well, a large number of plain-text email newsletters will be archived on the website of the newsletter publisher. These newsletter-publisher webmasters won't usually remember at that point to get your HTML version to post online. The standard approach is just to automatically convert the URL to a link using special software.
Remember: the publisher may be operating dozens of ezines and websites, so this whole step will be partially or completely automated, without anyone stopping to check for an HTML version. If you don't have a URL written out in your article, that link will simply be lost.
Besides, think of all the traffic you might have gotten from plain-text newsletter readers. Who would say no to free targeted traffic--isn't that why you want to rank high in search engines in the first place?
In fact, with paid online advertising going for more than a dollar a click on average, you really are throwing money away if you make any of these ezine article marketing and advertising blunders.
About the author
Joel Walsh is the head writer of UpMarket Content (http://www.upmarketcontent.com). Visit upmarketcontent.com to promote your website with professionally written ezine articles
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Essential Guide To Pay-Per-Click Advertising
by : Michael Low
Which Engines Should You Use?
Following Goto.com's (now known as Overture) phenomenal success
with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, more than 160 PPC startups
have sprung up.
Out of these 160 PPC engines, only a few may actually have the
search volume to generate a respectable number of clicks for your
site.
Most PPC startups require between $10 to $25 of setup fee which
can be applied to clickthroughs. They offer low minimum bids of
$0.01. But with limited search volumes, they may bring you only a
few clicks each day!
My recommendation is to go for established PPC engines with high
search volumes that can generate higher clickthroughs. The big
boys are Overture (previously known as Goto) at
http://www.overture.com, Sprinks at http://www.sprinks.com,
FindWhat at http://www.findwhat.com.
Overture is the best because they serve over 2 billion search
queries monthly through their partnership with major search
engines such as America Online, Lycos, Altavista, Netscape,
Hotbot and InfoSpace.
You can test the startup PPC engines but commit only the minimum
setup fees. If they generate decent traffic, you can always top
up your account. That way you minimize your risk to only $10 to
$25 per PPC engine. For a list of over 160 PPC engines, see
http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com
How To Find Relevant Keywords?
Since you are paying for each clickthrough on your bid, it makes
good sense to ensure that your keywords are relevant to your
target audience.
One of my favorite tools is Overture's Search Term Suggestion at
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Enter a keyword and it shows the number of times the word was
searched - which indicates its popularity. The more popular the
keyword is, the higher are your clickthroughs. Overture also
generates a list of similar keywords and their search counts in
the previous month.
Overture's tool is one of the best ways for finding good keywords
to bid on. Another alternative is to download Good Keywords at
http://www.softnik.com/products/gkw/index.htm
Enter a keyword into this free software and it will display a
list of relevant search terms and their search counts across
multiple PPC engines.
You can also try JimTools' Keyword Toolkit at
http://jimworld.nu/keywords.html
JimTools can generate a list of related keyword possibilities,
some with search counts, from Goto, Google, Magellan and
WebCrawler.
How Much Do I Bid?
The bigger PPC engines such as Goto and Sprinks require a minimum
bid of $0.05. Startup engines have lesser minimums of $0.01.
How much to bid depends on your return-on-investment (ROI)
calculations.
For example: If you bid $1.00 per visitor, and 1 in every 10
visitors buys your product, your cost-per-sale is $10.00.
So if each sale of your product produces a gross profit of $15,
then your net profit will be $5.00 ($15 gross profit minus $10
cost-per-sale).
Your return-on-investment (ROI), before non-marketing expenses,
is 50.0% ($5.00 net profit / $10 cost-per-sale). Always price
your bids to achieve a positive ROI!
A great tool that you can use to compare bids for a specific
keyword across multiple PPC engines is at
http://www.compareyourclicks.com
To read about how you can maximize your returns from PPC engines,
go to http://internetmarketingfocus.com/article.php?sid=53
You'll learn how to reduce your bids while still maintaining the
same ranking or get a top 3 position for maybe just 1 cent more!
How Do I Track Clicks?
Most of the time, you'll notice that the number of clicks tracked
by yourself is between 15% to 30% more than the clicks the PPC
engine reports.
This is because reputable PPC engines such as Overture have
installed anti-cheating mechanisms that prevent your competitors
from repeatedly clicking on your listings and wasting your bid
fees!
They will count multiple clicks within a specified timeframe from
the same computer as only one clickthrough while your own log
will usually register the multiple clicks.
There was once when I noticed that my log was registering less
clicks than Overture's reports. They were experiencing some bug
which prevented clicks from being properly delivered to the
advertiser's website.
Because I was tracking my clicks, I notified them of the problem
and they credited my account for the bad clicks. Tracking your
clicks give you a more reliable picture of how well your PPC
campaign is performing.
If you have access to your CGI directory, I recommend LnkinLite,
a small yet powerful tracking software that can track clicks to
your site in the background. Get it at
http://www.dtp-aus.com/cgiscript/lnkinlte.shtml
Otherwise you can consider free online trackers at
http://www.hypertracker.com or http://www.linkcounter.com
About the Author
Michael Low is a widely-published marketing consultant. He
provides top-notch press release (PR) services at affordable
rates. Check out his full-range of PR services at
http://www.prbuilder.com/pr.cgi?a003
Friday, September 4, 2009
Email Advertising Doesn't Get Any Cheaper Than This
| by: Micah D. Cranma |
| What is the most powerful marketing tool a web site owner has? I'll give you a hint - it's not banner advertising! It's e-mail - nothing else even comes close. Have you ever really considered just how many people use e- mail? There are millions upon millions of people out there who, if they're anything like me, just plain love to get e-mail and communicate with others using this wonderful medium. Part of the beauty of e-mail is that people pay attention to e-mail. People will actually read your advertisements if they're mixed with information that's valuable to them. E-mail is the ultimate marketing tool. How to Harness the Power --------------------------- "Great," you say, "but how do I use this 'awesome power?'" There are an unbelievable number of innovative and really effective ways to use e-mail to advertise yourself and your business on the Internet, but for the scope of this article, we're going to focus on one. E-mail Signatures -------------------------- E-mail signatures, or "sigs," are one of the easiest and most effective ways for an Internet marketer to promote his web site (or other people's sites, for that matter.) For those of you who don't know what an e-mail signature is, here's an example of one I use on a daily basis: Sincerely, Micah D. Cranman Sybren Design http://sybren.net ======================================== Would you like to tap the money making potential of the Internet with a powerful website? If so, contact Sybren today for a FREE consultation! http://sybren.net | mdc@sybren.net | 770-971-9868 ======================================== (NOTE: Signatures can also be an effective tool when used in newsgroups, discussion groups, or message boards. Use them anywhere possible!) Signatures can be easily set up in any e-mail program that's worth something, and usually very easily. Just look in the "help" section or browse around the program menus and you should be able to figure out how to set them up pretty quickly. I personally use Microsoft Outlook Express, and have found it to be totally sufficient for my needs. (www.microsoft.com) Others swear by Qualcomm's Eudora Pro, (www.eudora.com) and still others by other programs. Just pick one that suits your needs. Now, there are three key components to a signature, each with a different purposes: 1. The closing of the letter - this is the first four lines you see in the signature above. It's purpose is two-fold: to avoid having to type a closing to save time (which can really add up if you get a lot of e- mail), and to provide information about yourself, and possibly, some contact information. 2. The advertisement - this is where you try to generate interest for whatever you're trying to promote in the recipient of the e- mail. It should in someway catch the reader's eye or stir up some emotion that will impel them to act. (Note: FREE works especially well as an attention grabber. Try to offer something free in your signature.) This "ad" of sorts should be no more than 5 or 6 lines long, and should probably be separated in some way from the rest of your message, as seen above. 3. The information which shows the reader how to act - you have to include some form of information about how an interested reader can access a deal, contact someone, visit a web site, or whatever else you're trying to get that reader to do. So, offer them a way (or several ways) to go about "taking action," with contact info, a web address, a phone number, etc. How to Use "Sigs" ------------------- Signatures can be a powerful tool for the budget-conscious web site owner, if used effectively. If used poorly, they're simply a waste of time and effort. So, in order to use signatures in a manner that will produce positive results, here are a few things that you should do: a) Use as many different signatures as you can. Don't just send one signature you've developed over and over again to the same people. Think of several different ones you could use for your business, and alternate. Also, signatures are an excellent tool for promoting an affiliate program that you're involved in. Again, have as many as you can, and rotate. b) Test the effectiveness of your signatures. Don't just keep sending the same group of signatures if it hasn't generated good results. Try some new ones, testing each particular signature for a little while to see if it's working better than other sigs you've tried. And once you've improved on your initial results, don't just stop experimenting. KEEP trying to improve upon your signatures more and more and eventually, you'll really be generating some good results. c) Have a signature for every "type" of message that you send. If you make a signature for every different situation and "type" of e- mail you encounter, you can boost their effectiveness. For example, since most of your friends probably don't want to hear about your business or some affiliate program you're promoting, think of something else that they would like and would benefit them. Here's an example: you ever hear of those "get paid to surf" programs? Well, since it would be unprofessional for me to try to get people to sign up for them on this site, I promote the programs to my friends through the use of e-mail signatures. I could use something like this: Regards, Micah P.S. Have you heard of those new "get paid to surf the web" programs? Well, I signed up with one called AllAdvantage.com, and they really work! I got a check for like $30 last week in the mail. If you want to sign up for one, just go to: https://www.alladvantage.com/joinsecure.asp?refid=ASU-673 See how effective that could be? And that applies for ANY e-mail "situation" you might encounter. Get to Work! ------------------- Now that you're aware of all the benefits of using "sigs," you have no excuse not to start. So, start thinking about a few signatures that you could use. Jot them down on a piece of paper, revise them, edit them, and USE them. Good luck! About the Author Micah D. Cranman owns and operates Sybren Design, |
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
EMAIL ADVERTISING
| by: Joseph Robert Neil James. |
| Sending out emails these days is fast becoming a joke. To achieve an order is getting harder and harder because of the large quantity of email needed to sent out, to secure an order,
My research has indicated that with a click thru rate of just 1% of all emails sent out, at a conversion rate of 2% - on average - one order should be achieved every 5,000 emails sent out. Keeping in mind that Spam filters block, at least 39% of emails being sent out. This means, if you can purchase 5,000 emails at $0.001 each, which equals $5 per 5,000 – and is very good value for money, providing you are selling a product or service for about $20. However, the click thru rate can fluctuate, depending on how good you are at writing headlines, to promote your product or service. The reason why it’s necessary to send out so many emails, to secure an order, is because most people avoid quoting their prime email address, when submitting their website to directories or classifieds because usually once a website has been submitted to a directory of classifieds, the website owner receives hundreds of emails in return, within a short time, which is a little annoying. If people could be persuaded to use their prime email address when submitting their websites, the 1% click thru rate would increase dramatically because many more emails would be read, instead of being classed as junk mail and discarded, unread. Recently I discovered two new programs that offered me the opportunity to submit my website and only receive one email in return, from each. The name of the programs are Search-o-Rama.com and OnSeek.com - When I submitted my website via my prime email address free, to their comprehensive directory, I only received just one email in return, from both programs. Search-o-Rama.com and OnSeek.com - also invited me to purchase 5,000 emails at a low purchase price of $5, which is $0.001 per email and send out my adverts via their own system. Search-o-Rama and OnSeek.com - are unique, quality and uncomplicated programs, with a first class easy to set up, affiliate program. There are also facilities for monitoring advert statistics i.e. click thru % rate ECT. To submit your website free to – Search-o-Rama.com and OnSeek.com – directories, please click the following links: http://search-o-rama.com/jrnjames.htm http://onseek.com/jrnjames.htm About the Author perpetual@m999.fslife.co.uk
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