The Importance of Advertising Your Home Business

The Importance of Advertising Your Home Business

by: Kevin Purfield

The most important aspect of any business is selling the product or service. Without sales, no business can exist for very long.
All sales begin with some form of advertising. To build sales, this advertising must be seen or heard by potential buyers, and cause them to react to the advertising in some way. The credit for the success, or the blame for the failure of almost all ads, reverts back to the ad itself.
Generally, the กad writerก wants the prospect to do one of the following:

Visit the store or website to see and judge the product for himself, or immediately write a check or use a credit card and send for the merchandise being advertised.
Phone for an appointment to hear the full sales presentation, or write for further information which amounts to the same thing.

The bottom line in any ad is quite simple: To make the reader buy the product or service. Any ad that causes the reader to only pause in this thinking, to just admire the product, or to simply believe whatกs written about the product is not doing its job completely.
The กad writerก must know exactly what he wants his reader to do, and any that does not elicit the desired action is an absolute waste of time and money.
In order to elicit the desired action from the prospect, all ads are written according to a simple กmaster formulaก which is:

Attract the กattentionก of your prospect.
กInterestก your prospect in the product
Cause your prospect to กdesireก the product
Demand กactionก from the prospect

Never forget the basic rule of advertising copywriting: If the ad is not read, it won’t stimulate any sale; if it is not seen, it cannot be read; and if it does not command or grab the attention of the reader, it will not be seen!
Most successful advertising copywriters know these fundamentals backwards and forwards. Whether you know them already or you’re just now being exposed to them, your knowledge and practice of these fundamentals will determine the extent of your success in your home business.

About The Author

Discover more Home Business Tips subscribe to my newsletter [email protected]. Kevin Purfield owns the Wealth System Online Resource Directory where you can find everything you need to start, run and grow a home based internet business at: http://www.wealthsystemonline.com/

[email protected]

This article was posted on May 10, 2004

by Kevin Purfield

10 Awesome Online Promotion Strategies To Attract

10 Awesome Online Promotion Strategies To Attract More Orders

by: Ikey Benney, CEO, Mscsrrr, New York City

Hello, do you have a website and sell something on the internet?

If yes, may I offer you 10 awesome ways to get more orders at your website!

1. Create a free ebook directory on a specific topic at your website. People will visit your website to read the free ebooks and may see your product ad.

2. Turn part of your website into a members only website. Instead of charging for access, use it as a free bonus for one of your products.

3. Add a free classified ad section to your website. You could then trade banner ads with other web sites that have free classified ad sections.

4. Create two versions of your ezine so people can choose if they want ads included with it or not. Thisกll attract the people who hate ads to subscribe.

5. Publish your ezine only on your website. Have people subscribe to a กnew issueก email reminder. This could really increase your traffic and sales.

6. Sell advertising space in your product package. You could sell inserts, flyers, brochures, booklets, and digital ads for electronic products.

7. Offer daily or weekly visitor bonuses. This will increase your repeat traffic and sales because your visitors will visit regularly to get the visitor bonuses.

8. Allow people to download software or ebooks from your website at no cost. Just ask your visitors in return if theyกll refer their friends to your website.

9. Build up the number of people that join your free affiliate program quickly by temporally offering your product for free to the people that sign up.

10. Negotiate with ezine publishers to get free or discounted ads by letting them join your affiliate program and earn commissions on the ad you run.

Warmly,

Ikey Benney, CEO

Mscsrrr

About The Author

Ikey, an ขEnlightenedข man & Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of กMscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash Systemก, home based business, online investment opportunity (http://www.mscsrrr.com) which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shinning success during the past 2 yrs ago.

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 16

by Ikey Benney, CEO, Mscsrrr, New York City

Finding The Cheap Clicks

Finding The Cheap Clicks

by: Henry EldridgeDoyle

As anyone who uses Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising in their marketing campaign knows, getting your ad copy on the front page of a search results listing is becoming more expensive by the day. It’s a new phenomenon known as ‘keyword fatigue’, and itกs down to the overwhelming success of programs like Googleกs AdWords. As more and more advertisers realise the benefits of this form of traffic generation, so the number of people bidding for the same keywords increases, and the bid prices climb accordingly. Great news if you are a publisher taking a cut of the revenue, but not so welcome for those doing the bidding.

So are the days of 5 cents a click now just a distant memory? Not at all, there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of keyword phrases out there for minimum cost, all it takes is a little more effort to use them. To understand how this can be done, with Google AdWords in particular, it is first necessary to understand how ad positions are determined.

Googleกs PPC program, like their core search engine, places a great deal of emphasis on advertisment relevance. When a web surfer types keywords into the search box, Google wants the ad that most closely matches that phrase to be shown nearest the top of the list not just the ad bidding the highest amount of money. It mutiplies bid price by keyword relevance, and that means that by careful selection of your keywords, it is possible to be placed above competitors and pay only 1 cent more than they are (Google doesn’t necessarily charge the maxium amount you bid, only enough to put you ahead).

There are three simple ways you can trump your competitors with your keyword selection:

1. Longer phrases. There are huge numbers of people bidding on a loose term like กmortgage brokerก, but fewer people bidding on a tighter phrase like กmortgage broker in texasก. If a searcher types กmortgage broker in texasก into Google, and you have that phrase in your keyword list, your ad will be deemed more relevant than anyone just using กmortgage brokerก in their own list which means a cheaper click for you! Of course, there are fewer searches for mortgage brokers specifically in Texas than for mortgage brokers in general, so itกs necessary to build a large list of similar keyphrases targetting many locations.

2. Closer matching. Just because you might type กin car satellite radioก into Google, doesn’t mean every surfer will do the same. Somebody else searching for the same thing may well enter กsatellite radio in carก, or กradio in car satelliteก, and so on. If your ad contains every variation, it may trump a competing ad which lists only the first example. In other words, having just the keywords in your list isn’t necessarily enough having them in the same order a searcher enters them will give your ad a better relevance score.

3. The final (Google specific) method is to ensure that you wrap every keyword or keyphrase in both quotes and brackets. Again, this means that if someone enters an exact term you have listed, your ad will beat a competing ad that has the same term but without the brackets or quotes.

Clearly, building keyword lists in this way can be more time consuming than simply selecting a few generic words that describe your product or service, but free tools such as those at http://www.keywordlinker.com can make the process much quicker than doing it manually.

Cheap keyphrases are still there for the taking, the winners in PPC now will be those who put in the effort to catch them.

About The Author

Henry EldridgeDoyle is an internet marketeer, and site developer at http://www.keywordtoolkit.com.

This article was posted on September 29, 2004

by Henry EldridgeDoyle

Is Your Yellow Pages Ad Putting Cash in Your Pocke

Is Your Yellow Pages Ad Putting Cash in Your Pocket… or Sucking Cash Out?

by: Alan Saltz

Any idea? It’s a question that more than a few Yellow Page advertisers ponder. If you are currently spending money every month to run an ad in your local directory, you don’t want to wrestle with that question. You want to know that your investment is generating a consistent flow of new clients to your business. So what can you do to maximize returns and stop worrying?

First of all, know this—Yellow Pages Advertising has incredible potential. As a business owner, you have few other ways to reach prospects who are as targeted, and ready to buy as these. But naturally… your success depends on the quality of your ad. And when it comes to ad content, far too many advertisers are quite simply… lost.

ขThe redhot commodity of the Information Age? Why that would be the Yellow Pages… It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.ข

Fortune July, 2003

There are few places to turn. It makes for an unpleasant situation for the honest businessperson trying to harness the tremendous potential of such a perfectly targeted medium. And so, most advertisers rely on the Yellow Pages design department, who, as it turns out, develop most of the ads in their directory.

It’s hard to differentiate your company if that’s the case, don’t you think?

That situation doesn’t need to be one that you find yourself in. While many advertisers fail to develop an ad that draws a strong response, it’s not especially difficult to do. In fact, the basic mistakes that ขriddleข just about every subject heading provide a fantastic opportunity for the business owner that does his homework. If you’re reading this article, you’re doing your homework.

ขHow come we still have the Yellow Pages? They Work. You don’t go to the Yellow Pages and look up pizza unless you’re planning to order pizza.ข

Fortune July, 2003

What Yellow Page success boils down to is ad content. Not color. Not professional design. Sure, those things matter too; but they are nowhere near as important as the words you use to fill your ad. People turning to the Yellow Pages have already determined that they need you. They just need to know whether they should call company A, B, or C.

Their choice doesn’t depend so much on color or design, as it depends on what you offer that your competitors don’tข the policies you hold yourself to that give consumers faith in you and your business.

Here is a point you need to understand… Listing the brand names you carry and the ขlaundry listข of products or services you offer don’t build credibility. They don’t set you apart from your competitors who offer the same thing!

Plenty of other things do. And chances are you embrace those policies and those hassle, and risk removing, motivators already. You probably do quite a bit for your clients that make their lives easier, more lucrative, more pleasant, and so on. You probably have credibility boosters that you’ve never considered including.

And that is because you may not realize the power they have in motivating an eager prospect to act. Ironclad guarantees… customer testimonials… rocksolid offers for new customers… a headline that goes well beyond your logo and company name; these are things that work wonders in a targeted, readytobuy medium such as the Yellow Pages.

Since so many of your competitors are focusing on their company name and their laundry list of products and services, the copy points above will differentiate you! They give you the credibility that your competition likely lacks, and they make a strong case for many a prospect to choose you with confidence. That’s what the Yellow Pages are all about, right?!

About The Author

Alan Saltz, the author, teaches Yellow Pages Advertisers how to boost their response and return on investment, using simple, but extremely effective techniques. To learn more about how to improve your own Yellow Pages ad, visit: http://www.YellowPagesProfit.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 22, 2004

by Alan Saltz

3 Things Every Yellow Pages Advertiser Needs to Kn

3 Things Every Yellow Pages Advertiser Needs to Know

by: Alan Saltz

Too many business owners and marketers know that Yellow Pages advertising has an incredible amount of potential… but they don’t quite know how to take advantage of it.

Fortunately, it’s a mystery that’s solved pretty easily once an advertiser knows where to turn for advice. There are fundamental truths about Yellow Page advertising that so many businesses fail to recognize, but once they do, they stand to capitalize on a sizeable reward. That said… let’s try to understand it a bit better, shall we?

1. Common Yellow Page advertising mistakes are simple to fix.

Very simple. You don’t have to be a graphic designer or marketing expert to drastically improve your ad either—you just need to know your customers.

You see, most Yellow Page ads make the very same mistakes… year after year …directory after directory …category after category. Some of the ads I see from professional design firms are riddled with mistakes too.

Of course they may look nicer… but that won’t cut it in the Yellow Pages! While a professionally designed ad can certainly help grab attention, there is no substitute for ad content (read: words) if your goal is to generate a phone call.

And when it comes to Yellow Pages advertising, thatกs all that really matters.

By learning what makes a good headline, good body copy, and how to develop a strong offer—your Yellow Pages ad will run circles around an ad that just ขlooks great,ข but makes the same mistakes most others are making.

An example? Using your name and logo as the headline…

It’s disastrous and yet more advertisers do it than not. No one cares what you call yourself until theyกve decided to pick up the phone and actually call you.

Your company name does not win you business. So if your name and logo is at the top of your ad… if it’s big and bold and takes up space… if it takes the place of an attention grabbing, hardhitting headline… you’ve made a big mistake.

Next, here’s fundamental truth number 2…

2. Most Yellow Page ads are developed by the directory publisher.

That’s right—the directory itself develops most of the ads you see. That’s a pretty unfortunate scenario if you think about it. What happens if they design your ad and 4 of your competitors’ ads? Whose ad stands out? Who gets the best ad content and the most original headline?

That’s not a risk you’ll want to take.

When it comes to Yellow Pages advertising those that know how to set themselves apart from the pack fare well. Nice design might get you noticed, but good ad copy grabs attention like a magnet and doesn’t let it go.

Don’t just hand the reins to someone else and let them develop your ad for you. Learn what it takes to generate response and play a role in developing that winning ad for your business.

Your design department will be happy to design your ad free of charge, but make sure you play an active role in developing the content. Because no one knows what makes your customers ขtickข like you do!

3. Yellow Pages Advertising is different from just about EVERY other medium you use.

You might want to reread that. Yellow Pages advertising is different because people see your ad when they are ready to buy. This is huge! Almost every Yellow Page ad I see takes the approach: ขThis is who I am and this is what I offer.ข

Guess what—that’s dead wrong!

All that matters in Yellow Pages Advertising are ขthe reasons someone should choose you over your competition.ข Telling them what you offer does no good. They know what you offer! They’re looking at your ad because their tooth hurts and they turned to the ขDentistข category.

Focus on ขwhy, with all of these options, they should choose youข and you’ll be doing what so many advertisers before you have failed to include.

That is the information your prospects looked in the Yellow Pages to uncover. Give it to them. Give them a reason to pick up the phone and know you’ll provide them with something different… something better.

Your prospects are a skeptical bunch. Make contacting you and giving your business a shot a riskfree, valuefilled proposition for them. When done correctly this will give any usiness a tremendous edge over the competition.

Care to learn a little more?

About The Author

Alan Saltz, the author, teaches Yellow Pages Advertisers how to boost their response and return on investment, using simple, but extremely effective techniques. To learn more about how to improve your own Yellow Pages ad, visit: http://www.YellowPagesProfit.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 22, 2004

by Alan Saltz

Determining the Value of Links from Link Renting

Determining the Value of Links from Link Renting

by: Aaron Wall

What is Link Renting?

Link renting is a means to ‘rent’ the popularity and traffic flow of another site – you pay a monthly fee in return for a text link pointing to your site. In doing so, you can directly and indirectly drive more targeted traffic toward your website.

Many industries such as travel, pharmacy, pornography, and gaming have search results which are hyper competitive and require heavy advertising or aggressive SEO techniques. Some niche websites may see an even greater ROI on smart link rentals since many of their competitors may not include link renting in their online marketing budgets.

Some rented links provide great value in direct targeted traffic, whereas some other links provide greater value from the effect they have on search relevancy.

Most links are rented on a monthly basis with an option to renew at the end of the month. Some link prices can be as low as a few dollars a month whereas some can cost thousands per month.

There is no singular onesizefitsall way to directly assume the value of a link. Most effective marketing has risks associated with it, but you can minimize the risks and maximize your return by breaking the value of the link down into its elements:

Direct traffic from link renting

Viral effect of advertising

Effects of link rentals on search relevancy.

1. Direct Traffic from Link Renting:

Link renting can drive significant direct traffic. The first things you need to know are:

what is the quality level of the traffic?

how related is this audience to my product?

how much traffic does the site receive?

What is the Quality Level of the Traffic:

Where does the bulk of their traffic come from? Someone recently asked about ePilot, the pay per click search engine, at Search Engine Watch forums. Andrew Goodman replied ‘the first question I would ask myself would be: กwhere does ePilotกs traffic come from?ก Answer isn’t clear? Then it would be no surprise that the socalled traffic doesn’t convert to anything.ก

This same concept holds true with any site. If you do not see any quality inbound links that could indicate a problem: or they could get most of their traffic from payperclick ads. Whatever the case, if you are going to spend money renting links for traffic, make sure you know where their traffic comes from.

How Related is the Audience:

It will be somewhat of a guesstimate as to how exactly how related the traffic will be, but generally it is fairly obvious when something is on theme or off theme. Some things you may want to consider when determining traffic quality:

What is the mood / mind set of their traffic? Related traffic may not be traffic that converts. At the 2004 Webmaster World Las Vegas Conference a speaker mentioned that a website about prom hairstyles may not be a good place to advertise prom dresses since girls do not usually look at prom hairdos until after they have already purchased their prom dresses.

What product should I advertise? Sometimes it makes sense to send traffic to your home page while other times it is more logical to advertise a specific product because it is hot or more related to that particular audience.

How Much Traffic Does the Site Receive:

Most honest webmasters who sell ad space understand that the traffic they receive is a large part of their ad value and should have no problems giving you that information.

Some systems such as Alexa also track traffic, but their statistics can be inaccurate due to their limited distribution.. The best way to use such systems is not for traffic estimates but for comparisons between sites. Note that Alexa has a heavy bias toward webmaster resource type sites. Additionally other companies such as Hitwise may provide more accurate traffic statistics.

From the base traffic level there is a bunch more research you can do to determine how much traffic the site may bring:

Who currently advertises on the site? You may want to ask them about their advertising experience. Some ad networks such as AdBright show past advertisers average cost per click and ad renewal rates.

How many ads are on the page? Each additional ad will split up some of the traffic.

Where does your ad sit? Ads that are tucked away in the footer or in common ad space may get less exposure and drive less traffic. Ads near the content may gain additional exposure and drive more traffic.

What ad formats can be used? Certain ad creatives may provide greater value than other ads.

What is the ad turnover rate? Advertisers tend to stay with a site that delivers traffic. A high turnover rate may indicate other problems.

Have advertisers made any suggestions? Ask if any of their past advertisers made any suggestions or stated that they found any particular setup as being especially helpful.

Is the traffic seasonal? Some sites have large shifts in traffic volume due to seasonal factors.

2. Viral Effect of Advertising:

Some ads go through click tracking systems which may prevent them from being indexed by search engines. This means that the only value of those particular links would come from direct traffic. Sometimes ads lead to additional exposure though.

3. Effect of Link Rentals on Search Relevancy:

Many links have a greater indirect value than direct value.

When someone links to your site it is seen by search engines as a vote of quality. The anchor text and other page elements such as the page title and headers may also help search engines further classify the link. On image links the image alt text plays the roll of the anchor text.

On the commercial web many links are bought and sold, and thus for search engines to remain relevant they must find ways to regulate link purchasing.

Some of the things you may want to look for when buying links to help maximize your ROI and minimize your risks:

Are the links direct links? Links that go through an ad server usually do not help build your link popularity.

Is the page on theme? On topic links from industry hubs are given significantly more weighting in clustering or community based algorithms such as Teomaกs topic distillation and Googleกs Hilltop. If the site allows off topic links then it has a greater chance of having its link popularity blocked or devalued.

How many links are on the page? If a page sells an unlimited number of ads then the outbound link popularity is split up many ways, and that also could look a bit unnatural to search engines. If there are hundreds of internal links on a page then each additional link will be getting an exceptionally small share of link popularity.

What anchor text can I use? If you can use descriptive anchor text then the value of the link is greater since the link text helps search engines understand what your site is about.

What is the cost difference between site wide and individual page links? Generally site wide links may drive significantly more direct traffic, but likely they do not provide much additional weight beyond a single link from the best page on the site.

What is the PageRank of the page? Generally many people place too much value on PageRank, but a higher PageRank does equate to greater connectivity and slightly additional value.

Who links to the page and to the site? If the page or site is well connected within your topical community then search engines will likely consider links from it as being far more important than links from pages which are not as well connected.

Summary:

To best determine the value of a link you need to consider both its direct and indirect effects. Generally it is best to buy on topic links since they provide both direct and indirect value.

About The Author

Aaron Wall is a self taught, independant search engine marketer. He currently owns/operates http://www.searchmarketing.info, and is learning more about the internet daily. Aaronกs articles have been syndicated across the web. He quietly works out of his house helping numerous website as a consultant and search engine marketer. You can reach Aaron day or night at (401)2071945.

This article was posted on February 18, 2005

by Aaron Wall

10 Great Ways To Generate More Sales

10 Great Ways To Generate More Sales

by: Mohamed Rabea

1. Negotiate with ezine publishers to get free or discounted ads by letting them join your affiliate program and earn commissions on the ad you run.

2. Build up the number of people that join your free affiliate program quickly by temporally offering your product for free to the people that sign up.

3. Allow people to download software or ebooks from your web site at no cost. Just ask your visitors in return if theyกll refer their friends to your web site.

4. Offer daily or weekly visitor bonuses. This will increase your repeat traffic and sales because your visitors will visit regularly to get the visitor bonuses.

5. Sell advertising space in your product package. You could sell inserts, flyers, brochures, booklets, and digital ads for electronic products.

6. Publish your ezine only on your web site. Have people subscribe to a กnew issueก email reminder. This could really increase your traffic and sales.

7. Create two versions of your ezine so people can choose if they want ads included with it or not. Thisกll attract the people who hate ads to subscribe.

8. Add a free classified ad section to your web site. You could then trade banner ads with other web sites that have free classified ad sections.

9. Turn part of your web site into a members only web site. Instead of charging for access, use it as a free bonus for one of your products.

10. Create a free ebook directory on a specific topic at your web site. People will visit your web site to read the free ebooks and may see your product ad.

About The Author

Mohamed Rabea is the owner of the Internetกs most popular home based business and marketing websites, available from http://www.bizpioneer.com & http://www.bizpeak.com

This article was posted on September 05, 2004

by Mohamed Rabea

How to Write B2B Ads That Catch Customers

How to Write B2B Ads That Catch Customers

by: Steve Koons

Are your businesstobusiness ads working for you? If they are not making sales, are they at least generating interest in your company? Are they making an impression on your potential customers by making you stand out in a crowd? If not, then you should take a look at this article and get those ads working hard for you.

Don’t just fish for customers, catch them!

ALWAYS include your company name in the first sentence, preferably as the first word. Don’t start out with ‘we’. And briefly state what you do right away. For example: ขSolinc designs plastic injection molds.ข You want them to know who you are right away. Also, many B2B sites don’t allow visitors to view the total ad without paying or registering. You want everybody to at least be able to search for you on the Internet. This can also help your ad to appear on some search engines.

You need a ‘hook’ to reel in your readers. There are probably plenty of other ads right next to yours so you need to get them within the first sentence or two. Use some great adjectives. Which is better: ขSolinc designs injection molds.ข Or ขSolinc expertly designs high quality, precision injection molds.ข Now they know who you are, what you do, and why you are special.

Ask a question about why your reader should choose you and answer it. Questions such as ขDo your customers demand high quality?ข ขAre you looking for a total solution package?ข Then tell them that’s what you deliver, you’ve got what they need.

Clearly state what you do stepbystep. Use bullets, numbers or short dedicated paragraphs. Make a list of your products and services. Then tell a little bit about them. Don’t forget to use your adjectives here. Give them a ‘line’ to find the bait.

Give them some food for thought. It’s time to ask them another question. This time ask them about a problem they might have that you can solve. For example, ขAre you completely satisfied with your current supplier?ข ขAre you frustrated with late deliveries?ข ขAre you looking for faster and more reliable service?ข

Give them a call to action. This is your ‘sinker’. Offer them the answer to their questions by contacting you today. Don’t let them get away.

If you follow these steps you are on your way to catching some customers. But you need a few more pieces of bait to land the big catch.

Include your keywords and company name throughout the text. This can help your ad land in the search engines. Avoid using the words ‘we’ and ‘it’ and ‘our product’.

Use ‘you’ often. It pays to include your potential customer in your ad.

Be entertaining or subliminal, but don’t be boring! This can be a bit tricky in some areas of business, especially manufacturing. A good trick is to use a product noun as a verb and couple it with an adjective. An example would be for injection molds. Not the most entertaining subject, but: ขInject some speed into your production with high quality molds by Solinc.ข And you’ve got a line with pull.

Be sneaky. Some B2B sites don’t allow you to put in your email address or URL in the ad copy. However, if you spell out ขdotข or ขatข in your addresses your potential customers can find you.

And finally, be polite. Never use all caps or more than one exclamation point at a time, be careful of poor grammar or bad spelling. Show your potential customers you care.

Don’t forget, practicing and proofreading lead to good ad copy, which leads to good sales.

About The Author

Steve Koons works in the marketing department of Solinc Die and Mold and lives in Seoul, Korea. To read more of his stuff visit his blog:

http://www.injectionmolds.blogspot.com

http://www.solinc.net

This article was posted on December 30, 2004

by Steve Koons

Guide To Free Advertising

Guide To Free Advertising

by: Rebecca Gilbert

When I first started my internet home business, I realized that in order to make money I would have to bring visitors to my website. I didn’t have a lot of extra cash laying around, and my mentality at the time was กWhy would I pay for it, when I can get it for freeก? So, I starting searching the internet for places that would accept an ad for my product for free. I was very happy to find literally thousands of sites willing to accept my ad.

As the weeks went by I worked hard and learned a lot. The phrase that comes to mind when I think back is, กyou get what you pay forก. I was placing ads on the internet every free moment I got and was getting very little results. Not being one to quite, I figured I would move on to another form of advertising or figure out what I was doing wrong with the free advertising.

As soon as I placed my ad, I would go back and look at it. I expected my ad to be at the top of the list since I had just placed it. Much to my surprise, my ad was listed down the list a little way. I realized that at the very moment that I was placing my ad, others were doing the same. And as each person placed an ad, mine moved further down the list. In my infinite wisdom… I realized that potential visitors would probably not search past the first page before choosing a product.

So then I decided that I would go into that site and place my ad every few hours. This way I knew it would always stay close to the top of the page, and hopefully be viewed by a potential customer. How right I was!!! Eventually, I had my first customer and had made my first sale on the internet! What a feeling! I was ready to take the internet by storm…

The week ran into the weekend, and I continued in the same way with my free ad campaign…and no luck. Several weeks went by were I was getting visitors and making sales through the week, and none on the weekend. Are you seeing a pattern here? I sure did. I soon discovered through statistical data that I pulled up from a search engine that the internet traffic on the weekend is super low compared to the weekdays. I also learned that the internet traffic is at its peak around the noon hour in the US.

From that day forward, I didn’t waste my time advertising on the weekends. Instead, I would sit down around 11:00 a.m. every morning and run as many free ads as was humanly possible. I could just about plan each day at noon that I could get a potential customer, affiliate, sale.

Iกm also a firm believer in the phrase กwork smarter, not harderก. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I could utilize copy and paste and run the same ad in every category that it applied. I also used the back button on my browser a lot. Most of the time by using the back button, all my information was still there and I could just choose a different category.

It wasn’t long before I had several paying customers and was bringing in a small monthly income from my small internet business. I often try to teach this method to my members who cannot to pay for advertising to start out with…without much luck unfortunately. Many will not sacrifice their time to this extent, or they will run one ad on the internet and expect to get up the next morning and be a millionaire.

For those of you who don’t have the money to invest, you will HAVE to invest your TIME. How much is your time worth? Many are drawing 6figure incomes from the internet within 25 years. The internet has made more millionaires from the average Joe than any other vessel in history. Is 25 years a hard pill to swallow? It shouldn’t be. How many of you are going to work your nine to five job for 4050 years and have nothing to show for it?

Am I still running free ads? No, Iกm not. I took my very first paycheck that I earned from free advertising and put it back into paid advertising. I can reach a vast number of customers with paid ads with no effort on my part at all. Instead, my time has been filled with teaching others to do as I have done, and building my own business day by day.

Not a day has gone by in the last year and a half where I have not built onto my business. I started out running free ads, then I moved on to paid ads, ppcกs, email lists, enzine ads, then I built and optimized my own website, got link partners, got listed with the search engines, etc…

If you want to turn your life around and live without any financial constraints, then the internet is the place to be. All it will take is patience, persistence and the will to succeed on your part.

Best Wishes for your future success and prosperity!

Sincerely,

Rebecca Gilbert

http://www.101homebusiness.org

About The Author

Rebecca Gilbert has been an successful network marketer since July, 2002. Visit her at: http://www.101homebusiness.org Rebecca will show you step by step how to create a successful internet business of your own.

[email protected]

This article was posted on October 28, 2003

by Rebecca Gilbert

Understanding Google AdWords

Understanding Google AdWords

by: S. Housley

Google AdWords

Unlike many search engines Google, to its credit, clearly denotes search listings that are paid placement. In fact, Google AdWords appear in a separate section down the left side of the screen.

Google AdWords provide an inexpensive advertising venue for businesses to advertise products or services to a targeted audience. Advertisers have the ability to control their budget, target their advertising based on keywords. Advertisers are also free to determine the ad contents.

Google AdWords allow for nearly instant traffic, which can be turned on and off. Traffic results can be measured, providing information on what is successful, what isn’t and what needs to be changed. AdWords can be found that work by running a test campaign.

Benefits to AdWords

Advertisers bid on keywords, the more an advertiser is willing to pay the higher the likelihood the ad will appear higher in position in the list of ads served. Google, invariably wanting to make the most from advertisers, determines placement based on a combination of click through rate, bid amount and budget. Of course, in order to maximize revenue and please searchers Google does have guidelines for ads served and all ads must receive a minimum percentage click through or they are removed.

AdWord Guidelines

Clearly and accurately describe the website, this is to the advertiser and searchers benefit. Ultimately, the more qualified the visitor who clicks the ad, the higher the likelihood the clicker will convert into a sale. By providing clear and accurate information, searchers who click the ad are qualified leads, which tend to convert more consistently than unqualified leads. The most effective advertising communicates a clear message to a targeted audience.

Avoid excessive capitalization, superlatives and lavish exclamation marks in the ad. By doing this you are not only serving the visitor you are filtering unwanted clicks from nonbuyers. Due to space limitations your ad message will need to be concise. Select keywords that are relevant to your product, service or content. Call to action phrases are not allowed (i.e. you cannot use phrases like กclick hereก in your ad copy.) There are also no popups.

Steps for AdWord Campaign

1.) Open an account

2.) Target language and country This is very important because if your product or service can not be exported you do not want to pay to advertise in those countries for which your product or service can not be sold.

3.) Create Ad Group design an ad, select keywords, determine maximum cost per click that you are willing to spend and define bid amounts.

Title

The title tag is generally the most important part of the ad be sure to use a short phrase that gets the attention of your target audience. An underutilized feature at Google allows you to put a question mark in the title, the term searched on automatically replaces the question mark in the title of your ad.

Define max click Google will suggest a cost per click, but the recommendation does not need to be adhered to. Arguments have been heard that #1 position does not always mean increased sales; sometimes a second position will filter useless clicks and provide targeted traffic with a higher conversion ration. The rule of thumb is positions 13 garner the most traffic and best results. Increasing either your maximum costperclick or the ads click through rate will generally improve the adกs position.

Use keyword variations to reach more prospects. A variety or spellings and derivatives of keywords will increase the chances of your ads being served. Be sure to use common misspellings and plurals in your keyword list.

Broad match is targeting keywords in a loosely defined manner. Ads appear based on keywords that have been queried by search users. For instance, if the keywords you are planning on broad matching are กmountain bikesก and users search for the terms กbikes that can climb a mountainก, your ad will appear; as opposed to exact match, which requires that the keywords selections must exactly match the query.

Phrase match is indicated when quotations are used in the phrase. A keyword phrase set to phrase match will only appear when the exact phrase is searched on. For example กmountain bikesก will appear when searchers search for กbrand name mountain bikesก.

Exact match is when the keyword or phrase is entered with brackets. The phrase will only serve ads when the entered search phrase is identical to the keyword phrase. กMountain bikesก will only appear when searchers search for กmountain bikesก

Negative keyword is helpful in filtering unrelated phrases. A dash is entered before the filtering phrase. กMountain bike races will not appear if mountain bike races are searched on.

Landing Page is important because this not only helps with tracking, but also provides a focused and specific landing page for searchers. Information can be related to the actual search, while also increasing the conversion ratios for sales. A focused landing page with content related and using the same terminology as the actual search, will show the searcher that your solution is relevant to their needs.

3.) Define budget in order to maximize exposure Google recommends a daily budget for each campaign.

Googleกs suggested budget is helpful in receiving consistent traffic throughout the advertising campaign. Keep in mind this is only Googleกs recommendation; ultimately it is up to you to determine a budget that is affordable and suitable.

Google supplies tracking tools that assist webmasters in determining their return on investment based on keyword searches and phrases. While the technology is not perfect and cannot track phone and purchase orders, it should give advertisers a sense of what phrases and keywords are converting well in their advertising campaign.

While Google AdWords should not be your only advertising campaign, but should be a significant part of your campaign. Google AdWords can certainly help send those important targeted searchers to your website. Get started with Google AdWords at http://www.google.com/ads/

About The Author

Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com, and http://www.smallbusinesssoftware.net

This article was posted on August 19, 2004

by S. Housley

Spyware : An Internet Plague

Spyware : An Internet Plague

by: Mitch Johnson

As spyware threats continue to grow the methods by which users are infected becomes less and less difficult. It no longer takes physical access to a computer nor do users have to click on an ad or email attachment to install the malicious applications. Spyware can easily be picked up by visiting a web site. Spyware is put on computers commonly when users download freeware or shareware. Once you download these programs, spyware and adware are installed as well.

You may begin to notice more pop ups and slower computer functions once spyware has infected your system. Spyware moves through your computer and monitors your internet habits and the information is sent to a third party who uses it for advertising purposes most likely. More serious types of spyware are capable of recording each keystroke you make on your computer. This means every chat or email message as well as passwords, social security and credit card number are all recorded by the intruder.

Several different types of spyware exist, which makes catching and removing the invasive applications even more difficult. Adware is the most common form of spyware. It works by sending you pop up ad after pop up ad for various products and services while you are online. Adware also monitors your internet surfing habits and sells that information to other parties who then use it to bombard you with junk email and spam.

Another form of dangerous spyware comes as browser hijackers. These applications get into your computer and change your start page and preferred search engine to a site full of ads or adult material. Browser hijackers are typically also a data miner which reports all of your internet browsing habits to a central database that is sold to other parties.

One of the most dangerous and malicious spyware programs is keyloggers, which are used mostly for identity theft and credit card fraud. Keyloggers can record every piece of information you type in your computer from credit card numbers to social security numbers and banking information.

Probably the most expensive form of spyware that users have to deal with is a modem hijacker. Also known as dialers, these applications install themselves so they can use your internet connection to dial long distance or premium rate phone numbers.

By dialing these remote areas from your connection you are the one charged for the outrageous rates. To remove any current spyware infections users need to obtain two or more antispyware programs. These programs can scan your system, compile a list of infected files and remove them to restore normal setting and functioning. Ad Aware from Lavasoft and Spybot Search and Destroy are two free spyware tools that work well together in catching all possible spyware infections. To avoid future spyware threats from infecting your computer do not click on links or ads offering free movies, competitions, prizes or software.

Installing and keeping a firewall activated on your computer can help reduce the amount of spyware infections. And having a good antivirus program is essential, although it cannot detect most forms of spyware it will help keep your computer more secure.

About The Author

Mitch Johnson is a successful freelance author that writes regularly for http://www.1stinremovespyware.com/, a site that focuses primarily on spyware detection software, as well as tips on how to avoid spyware from popping up on your computer. His articles have also been featured on related spyware sites such as, http://www.bestinspywaredetection.com/ as well as http://www.bestsypwareremovalreviews.com/

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 27

by Mitch Johnson

Your Web Page Check List

Your Web Page Check List

by: Dan Brown

1. Easy To Read You want to make it easy for your visitors to read your text. You don’t want to use a light colored text like yellow on a white background and you don’t want to use dark blue text on a black back ground.

2. Create A Mood You want to use the color of your text to create a mood for the reader. If you want to create excitement, use some red text. If you want to create greed, use a some green text. Use colors that would put you in a mood to buy your product.

3. Grab Their Attention You can grab your readers attention by using headlines. Make the headline more noticeable by using a different colored headline than your ad copy. This offsets the headline and pulls the reader into the rest of your ad copy.

4. Highlight Keywords You can emphasize phrases and keywords that are important to your readers. For instance, use super, deluxe, fast, low price, free, new, etc. You could use bolding, underlining, italics, color changing, etc.

5. Sizing It Up You don’t want to use text that is too small or to large. You want to use larger text for your headlines and subheadings. You want to use smaller text for your ad copy. If your grandparents can’t read it, itกs too small.

6. Don’t Use All CAPS! You don’t want to use all capital letters in your ad copy. It looks unprofessional and is hard to read. You may want to use all CAPS in your headlines to offset it.

7. Font Properly You want to use a text font that relates to the product or services your selling. You don’t want to use a comic type font when your selling business books.

8. Spacing Out Itกs important to use spaces properly when typing your text. You should indent and bullet key benefits your product or service will give the reader. Your headlines, subheadings, sentences and paragraphs should be consistently spaced throughout your web site.

9. I Need Sunglasses Don’t use all bright text colors and backgrounds on your web site. It will make your text hard to read and actually bother your readersก eyes to the point they just decide to leave your site.

10. Check The Readability Itกs important to check your spelling and grammar before you upload your web page. When writing an ad copy you’re allowed to break some of those grammar rules to get your point across.

About The Author

Dan Brown has been active in internet marketing for the past 4 years. Dan currently is working with the Zabang search engine introducing their new affiliate program which is due out Nov. http://www.zabangaffiliate.com/

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 11

by Dan Brown