Author: plugin

by: Terri Seymour
An Overlooked Fr~e Advertising Opportunity
� Terri Seymour

When you have an online business you need to utilize
every possible avenue of advertising and promotion.
As I sign up for more ezines and discussion groups,
I am finding numerous publishers are overlooking a
very effective and fr~e advertising opportunity.

After I sign up for an ezine or email discussion group,
I await the welcome letter for guidelines and to learn
a bit more about the ezine/website/webmaster. Too
often all I get in the welcome letter is the standard
default letter. No personal welcome, no introductions,
no links to check out and no email.

This disappoints me as I always like to check out the
sites of the people I am signing up with. It almost
makes me want to unsubscribe…….almost. 😉 But
I know that some publishers may just not know that you
can take advantage of this advertising opportunity.
I also didn’t know of such opportunity when I was
first starting.

So, by writing this article, I hope to make publishers
and listowners aware of this fr~e advertising.

Whether you use Yahoogroups, Topica or a list manager
that you have purchased, you can change the welcome
message. Personalize it by introducing yourself and
letting the subscriber know about your website/business.

*Inform them of any specials you might have.
*Tell them your advertising rates and add a testimonial.
*Invite them to your site to utilize the fr~e resources.
*Let them know your email so they can contact you.
*Use some of the space for ad swapping with other
publishers and their welcome letters.
*Add an affiliate product or program review.

There are numerous things you can promote with your
welcome letter. Also, do not overlook your goodbye
letter. You have one last chance to get this person
back. Make it a good one. 😉

I also have a little message in my goodbye letter that
encourages people to let me know why they unsubbed.

Example:

Thank you for being a subscriber to My Own Ezine.
I am sorry to see you go. If you could take a minute
to let me know why you unsubbed, I would appreciate it.
Please drop a quick note to
mailto:ter02@newnorth.net?subject=unsub Thank you.

You might learn ways to improve your ezine by asking
former subs this question. Of course, they do not all
answer, but a good many do! Always reply to them
with a short but appreciative thank you note!

I also promote many of the same things as I do with my
welcome letter. By doing this you just might get this
person to think……..”Maybe I will take one last look
and see what they have.”

In this business, you have to utilize every opportunity
possible and this FR~E advertising could turn out to be
a golden one!

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

About the Author

*************
Terri Seymour and her husband Terry of
www.seymourproducts.com offer a no cost,
home business opportunity. Apply online.
Resources and more for your home business
available at www.myownezine.com Free ecourse
business-building-ecourse@getresponse.com

by: Stan Hauser
The Untold Secret Of Pay Per Click Advertising:

An often misunderstood reality of Pay-Per-Click advertising is that many times you can’t determine where you ad will be displayed once you sign-up with one of the PPC Search Engines. In the incestuous world of online advertising, companies are often simultaneously competitors and partners. This is never more true than in the case of Search Engine Advertising.

Even The Big Guys Do It:

If the Pay-Per-Click program you’re using is from one of the major brands that has it’s own consumer search destination site (Google, Yahoo, Lycos etc,) it’s a little easier to tell where your ads will show up. However, even if you’re working with the major players, your ads won’t be limited to the Search Engine you signed up with. For example, Google has agreements with Lycos, Ask Jeeves, AOL, and other lesser known brands, to display ads from the Google AdWords program. Yahoo has relationships with MSN, and CNN.Com to display ads from its Overture Pay Per Click Program. Lycos owns HotBot.Com and has partnered with affiliates outside its network to increase the distribution of ads from the Lycos AdBuyer Pay Per Click program.

Distribution Strategies Of Smaller Search Engines:

Once you go beyond the major Pay Per Click Advertising programs it becomes increasingly difficult to know where your ads will appear. Most of the second tier Search Engines rely exclusively on networks of unknown sites for their distribution. FindWhat.Com, Kanoodle, Enhance and Search 123 don’t operate sites that consumers use to search the web. Because of this they have developed relationships with thousands of smaller sites to display ads from customers who sign up for their Pay Per Click programs.

Affiliate Traffic Isn’t Necessarily Bad:

Just because a Pay Per Click Advertising program doesn’t have its own search site to drive traffic doesn’t necessarily mean that the traffic is of lesser quality. Like everything else when it comes to a successful PPC Advertising campaign, the key is to track and analyze results on a daily basis. Set-up independent tracking URL’s for each PPC Search Engine you are working with, or use a third party tracking tool like Atlas One Point to track how many clicks you’re getting from each Search Engine, and how much of the traffic is converting into sales.

Can You Cherry Pick Affiliates?

As a rule, most Search Engines won’t divulge the list of affiliates they are working with to display your ads. Even if you are able to determine which affiliate sites are converting better for you than others, the Search Engines generally won’t allow you to cherry pick which affiliates will display your ad. However, some Pay Per Click Search Engines like Google allow you to opt out of their affiliate network.

Conclusion:

Driving traffic by displaying ads across a network of affiliate sites is a fact of life for Pay Per Click Search Engines. It’s not necessarily bad, but it is something you need to be aware of as you analyze which PPC Search Engines to use, and which ones perform. By displaying your ad on affiliate sites your marketing message is put in front of more people who are looking for the products you sell. The downside is once you move beyond the big brands and venture into the vast mysterious world of affiliate networks, there is a chance the quality of your traffic will decline. As long as you monitor your traffic sources for volume, and conversions, and adjust your campaigns accordingly you should be able to benefit from the increased distribution affiliates provide, while maintaining the profitability metrics for your Pay Per Click Advertising campaign.

About the Author

Stan Hauser is a leading expert on effective Pay Per Click Advertising strategies, and the creator of http://pay-per-click-advertising-guide.com

by: Tom Worsley
If you want to make money online with a work from home business then you are going to need lots of good targeted traffic to your web site and or affiliate links. One way to get good targeted traffic is to pay for it. I know you were hoping to do this business of yours without spending a dime right? Well if that�s what you are thinking you better keep working for someone else and forget about working from home with your own internet business.

I have been paying for traffic ever since I started my online business over 4 years ago and one of the best sources of targeted traffic is through pay per click search engines (PPC) or pay for placement search alternatives like Google adwords or Yahoo Sponsor Listings, formerly Overture.com .

Google adwords and Yahoo Sponsor Listings are the kings of pay per placement search engines. They are also the most expensive but you will get the most targeted traffic from them. If you cannot get a free listing in the top 10 on their main search results under the sponsored listings then you may want to consider pay per placement. Sponsored listings usually appear at the top above regular listings on Yahoo, and down the right side of the page at Google.

If Google and Yahoo are too rich for your liking then try some of the smaller PPC search engines like 7Search, Findwhat and or Kanoodle. I have put together a web page with links to these PPC search engines at the following web page.

CLICK HERE—–> http://bigmoolla.com/ppc.html

The key to good PPC advertising is to find cheap key words under .50 cents per click that will land you in the top 5 positions. There is no need to be number 1. A number 5 placement may cost you a few cents per click less and you will likely get the same traffic or in some cases even more than a number 1 spot. Try to pick as many key words as you can that are directly related to your product or service.

If you are advertising a work from home internet business try breaking down what I just typed. Work from home, home internet business, internet business, work from home business, home business. YOU GET THE PICTURE.

If you want to advertise a product like multivitamins try keywords like vitamins, supplements, vitamin supplements, health supplements, diet supplements, multivitamins. YOU GET THE PICTURE.

If you don�t have your own web site and only an affiliate link you may have to get a redirect URL from someone like http://tinyurl.com . Most of the PPC engines will not allow you to use an affiliate link. But you can get a tinyurl for free and have it re-direct to your affiliate link. If your affiliate program allows you to key code for testing purposes like SFI does then you can get several tinyurls and direct them to a different key code. That way you can actually test your PPC ad campaign to see which key words are working the best for you. This is important if you want to reduce your advertising dollars without sacrificing traffic to your web site. (We all want to do this right?)

PPC is only one advertising method that you should be taking advantage of, but it�s an important one so give it a try if you have not already. It may just change the way you do business and effect how much money you make with your work from home internet business.

About the Author

Tom Worsley is a successful work from home Internet marketer and independent representative for Strong Future International (SFI), Owner and Webmaster for http://kawarthapublishing.com.

by: Kirk Bannerman
An unfortunate byproduct of the pay per click advertising
business is click fraud. Many people with an online business
spend large amounts of money on pay per click advertising only to
discover that many of the people clicking on their ads weren’t
really interested in their products or services.

Bogus “visitors” to a pay per click ad represent click fraud.
This is a serious scam that threatens the viability of the pay
per click advertising business which has become enormously
profitable for all of the major search engine operators, namely
Google, Yahoo/Overture, and MSN.

Click fraud has different twists, but the end result is generally
the same. Advertisers are billed for fruitless traffic
generated by someone who repeatedly clicks on an advertiser’s ad
without any intention of ever buying anything.

The search engine advertising market is currently about $3.8
billion per year and estimates vary widely on how much click
fraud is actually going on. Clearly, the search engine operators
would like to downplay the extent of this problem. Some industry
experts claim that a little click fraud exists but that it is
overblown by advertiser paranoia, while others estimate that ten
to twenty percent of all clicks are false (made by someone with
no legitimate interest in the ad itself).

Virtually everyone involved with pay per click advertising sees
click fraud and knows it’s there, but no one is quite sure what
to do about it.

Both Google and Yahoo/Overture acknowledge that the click fraud
problem exists, but claim improved internal controls will prevent
the problem from escalating. Their stated position seems to be
that they are concerned about click fraud, but that it is not a
material issue so far. Both of them are touting their increasing
internal actions aimed at detecting and combating click fraud.

Such reassurances from search engine companies certainly aren’t
surprising, given how much they stand to lose if advertisers
cut back on advertising spending. The stakes are huge and the
search engine companies are actively involved in public relations
campaigns. Industry research firm eMarketer expects $7.4 billion
to be spent on search engine advertising by 2008, up from only
$108.5 million back in 2000.

The incentives for click fraud have increased along with the
money devoted to search engine advertising. Advertising on search
engines has turned into a fast-spreading craze as more and more
marketers have realized substantially higher returns on search
engine ads than on more traditional marketing campaigns conducted
through print media.

Most pay per click advertisers set a spending limit and once the
spending limit is reached, the ads cease to appear in the search
results. Click fraud is a very unethical competitive tactic
where someone repeatedly clicks on a competitor’s ad until the
spending limit is reached and the ad then disappears from the
search results. It seems that it’s only a matter of time before
some advertisers become so exasperated with click fraud that they
file a class-action lawsuit against a major search engine.

The success of search engine advertising has substantially
raised prices that advertisers pay for top spots. Unfortunately,
these higher prices have turned click fraud into a dark little
industry of its own. Some crooks have hired cheap overseas
contractors to just sit in front of computers and constantly
click on targeted ads and others are developing sophisticated
software to help automate and conceal click fraud.

If you use pay per click advertising it would be wise to
carefully monitor your traffic to determine if you are the victim
of click fraud. In any event, it’s probably safe to say that
pay per click advertisers are going to have to accept a certain
level of click fraud as just a cost of doing business.

About the Author

Kirk Bannerman operates his own successful home based business
and also coaches others seeking to start their own home based
business. For more information visit his website at Proven Work At
Home Business

by: Stone Evans
When you are starting out in a new home business and no one
knows who you are, one of the greatest challenges you will face
is how to drum up new business.

If there were not people in your community or marketplace that
you knew who needed your products or services, you probably
would not have started your business to begin with. But, once
you have talked to those who you personally knew who needed your
what you offer, then your next task is to find others who will
help keep your doors open.

Many people know that they must turn to advertising at some
point in the future, but they hope that day will be long down
the road. For some, this utopian concept will come to fruition.
But for the rest of us in the real world, we must come up with
creative solutions for meeting our home business advertising
needs while working within our budget.

Most people have a misconception about having to spend lots of
money in order to advertise their home business. When you start
out, you honestly will not have much money available for
advertising, and if you do, you should still spend it wisely.

Before you jump headfirst into the world of advertising, let me
share some of the lessons I have learned concerning this most
important topic.

LESSON #1

It does not have to cost an arm and a leg to advertise your home
business, unless you fail to plan and fail to test.

As much as is possible, you should always test your advertising.
If you jump in and start dumping tons of money in to advertising
without first testing your advertising, you might find yourself
broke and without sales at the end of the road. Most people who
commit this error write off their failure on the home business
they chose or the economy or any of a hundred other excuses.
But, if they are unwilling to take responsibility for their
mistake, they will never learn from their mistake. Don’t let
this be you.

LESSON #2

All testing should be done in blocks. If you begin to advertise
simultaneously in newspapers, radio and television, how will you
know which advertising is bringing people to your cash register?
You won’t. All you will know that something might be working,
but you will not know what is actually doing the trick.

Even if you tell people in your advertising to tell you how they
found you, my experience shows that fewer than 10% of the people
ever will tell you anything — and those people who do may not
even get the facts straight! You cannot rely on your customers
to tell you what advertising is working for your home business.
You must put in the extra effort to know for yourself.

LESSON #3

Only when you have a proven and solid advertising portfolio
should you venture to drop big bucks in an advertising campaign.
Even then, you should be careful to keep further measurements to
determine how much the maximum advantage of an ad would be.
Sometimes you might be able to reach ten times as many people,
but depending on the kind of media and other factors, the
additional exposure will only generate twice as many sales. Keep
your eye attuned to situations like this to get the most from
your advertising dollars.

LESSON #4

As Lesson #3 illustrates, sometimes your best advertising
investment may actually cost you less money. When you are first
starting out, whether you are running a home business or a
business outside of your home, you need to be able to get people
talking and thinking about your business.

If you are busy testing ads in media’s such as the newspaper,
magazines, radio, and television, you need to learn ways of
promoting your business that do not require large cash
expenditures. A few examples are:

� Word of Mouth
� Business Cards
� Press Releases
� Non-Primetime Ads on Radio and Television

Here is more information about each type of low-cost advertising:

WORD OF MOUTH

This of course is the cheapest kind of advertising on the planet
— it does not cost you anything. Ask your customers if they
know anyone who could also use your products or services. When
they are happy with your offerings and service, they will be
willing to tell you whom you can contact, and they will pass the
word for you.

BUSINESS CARDS

You can usually pick up 500 business cards for about $20. When
you do, hand them out. Do not give more than a couple of cards
to each person. If they need more cards from you, they will ask.

Some people are known to network with others on a regular basis.
Some of these people are also known to be always looking for an
extra few bucks. With these people, you can suggest to them that
if they write their name on the back of one of your business
cards and the card is presented to you, then you will pay a
referral fee to them. You do not have to offer much —
sometimes one dollar is enough. Look at your home business and
your offerings and decide how much would be a good referral fee.

PRESS RELEASES

Press Releases are a good source for generating news about your
home business. The business editor at your local newspaper is
always on the lookout for a good business story to fill the
business news section of the newspaper.

Of course, the business editor understands the economics of
running a paper and is more inclined to run your story if you
buy advertising in his/her publication, but will still print
stories for special events and openings.

The important thing to remember about Press Releases is that it
must be constructed in the form of a news story. Even if you are
a sole proprietorship, quotes from you should be written in a
third person format: John Doe said, “Your quote here.”

A Press Release should pack the most important information at
the beginning of the copy, and leave extra details towards the
end.

You should always provide the reporter who gets the task a
simple and easy way for him/her to contact you directly. Often
the reporter will want to contact you to get details that will
enhance their take on your story.

To learn more about creating Press Releases, you may check out
Rusty Cawley’s site: http://www.PRrainmaker.com/

NON-PRIMETIME ADS ON RADIO AND TELEVISION

Believe it or not, some of the best rates for radio and
television are on the overnight and non-primetime venues. These
target times are not a total waste as they can easily keep the
infomercial people in business.

These off-hours are just less populated than the primetime hours.

Don’t be afraid to check your local radio and television rates
for non-primetime hours to see what bargains may exist. With
television, primetime is 7pm to 10pm. With radio, primetime is
8am to 5pm. This sure leaves a whole lot of hours available to
advertise your home business at discount rates!

IN CONCLUSION

When it comes down to it, there is a lot to understand about
advertising, but when you have the basic knowledge down pat,
everything will fall into place and bring more dollars to your
bank account.
About the Author

About the author:
—————————————————————–
Stone Evans owns the Home Business Resource Directory where
you can find everything you’ll ever need to start, run and grow a
home based business at: http://www.Home-Business.com

by: Paul Jesse
Copyright 2005 Paul Jesse

Internet technology offers vast opportunities to promote your business with virtually no advertising borders, and you can find countless sources online directing you towards budget marketing via pay-per-click search engines for maximum effectiveness in the information age.

Enterprising people know all the benefits of optimizing their online advertising, and because of this fact the pay-per-click� (PPC) technique has been developed to meet the need. PPC is certainly at the cutting edge of Internet advertising today, because you bid� or budget on the exact amount you want to put into your advertising campaign, giving you the choice to state just how much you�ll pay each time someone clicks on your ad.

For instance, if you bid five cents a click, that�s how little you�ll pay for your advertising – and you�ll only have to pay that five cents each time a consumer clicks on your ad! Budget marketing via pay-per-click search engines should encompass the following integral steps of creating, optimizing and managing your advertising campaign or sponsored search� on the most widely used search engines including Google, Yahoo, MSN, Earthlink, American Online, Ask Jeeves and CNN.com – just to name a famous few!

The most widely touted benefit of budget marketing via pay-per-click search engines is that it delivers your product information and your web site to the very consumers online who are searching for such products, be it business, science or technology-related, trips and travel, car buying, entertainment ideas or wedding planning! Your business specifically reaches those already interested in knowing more, and enthusiasts of budget marketing via pay-per-click search engines will tell you that no other advertising medium can give you that kind of bang for your advertising buck.

Other pluses of budgeting via PPC are that your ad can be targeted to regions you specify, whether you want the entire world to know, or just focus on your local area at the moment. Your ad can also be tracked towards search engines that receive the highest amount of keywords specific to the product or service on your website. Whether you have a home based business or you�ve just been appointed Director of a countrywide multi-national, your business will benefit from budget marketing via pay-per-click search engines. Seek out experts who will

About the Author

Paul Jesse is a retired worker turned Internet Marketer. You can visit his website at: http://www.breastfeedbaby.com

by: Lawrence Roth
Another great tool for advertising is http://www.kanoodle.com. At Kanoodle.com you can sign up and get $5 free towards you advertising cost. You can then request for Kanoodle to review your submission and create a list for you with the keywords that best describe your website. This process will use up your $5 credit but is well worth it. This is an easy way to get a list of keywords to put in your Meta tags and use for pay-per-click advertising.

Also with Kanoodle like Google Adwords and Overture the site does have a Keyword suggestion box so once you get your list of keywords generated by Kanoodle you can use their suggestion box to estimate the amount of clicks you might receive.

Kanoodle also has a feature where you can advertise heavier on some days and lighter on other days. Generally, Monday through Thursday are the best days to do the heavier advertising because there are more people online during those days. So with Kanoodle you can advertise heavier on Monday through Thursday and lighter on Saturday through Sunday.

Kanoodle also has the basic reporting features like Google Adwords and Overture. It does appear to be a good tool and I have found it useful to supplement advertising that I do with Google Adwords and Overture. However, the one thing that I have found most helpful from Kanoodle is using the $5 credit towards receiving a list of keywords. This is a great start for those who are starting advertising on the Internet but are not too sure about where to start and do not know what keywords to use for their site.

About the Author

Rothline Entertainment is an online catalog for computer and video games and pc software.
Lawrence Roth
Web Manager
http://www.rothline.com
http://stores.ebay.com/Rothline-Entertainment
If you have a question or suggestion about article please email rothmail@rothline.com

by: Mike Cheney
How much does an advert in Yellow Pages cost? How many enquiries would you expect to get back for that investment each day? 1? 10? 100?

What about an ad in the local newspaper or a trade publication? They don’t come cheap. When was the last time you heard an advertising salesman say:

“If you’re not happy with the volume of responses and sales you get from the ad I will give you your money back.”

How many times have you heard an ad salesman say:

“I will tell you exactly how many people view your advertisement, how long they read it for and which ad they were looking at before they starting reading your ad. You can use this to work out the profile of your potential customers.”

Hardly likely is it? Yet this is the kind of information that you can get your hands on via your website.

Expensive is a dirty word. Nothing is about cost – everything is about value. Having a great profile on the web can not only bring you more customers and sales but it can boost the perceived size and stature of your company.

As a business owner of course you want to see your website at the top of the search engines – everyone wants to be higher than their competitors – what value would you put on this?

Imagine placing an ad in a magazine and asking the salesperson:

“Can you guarantee me more sales? Will you give me my money back if people read the ad but don’t buy my product?”

It just wouldn’t happen. And yet there is a lot of scepticism surrounding the web – I come across it every single day.

“Mike, we’ve had our fingers burned in the past and though I like what you’re saying how do I know you’re not one of the cowboys?”

Ultimately nobody will ever buy anything from anybody unless buyer confidence is establsihed – no matter what is being sold. And the only way to establish buyer confidence is to develop a lasting relationship built on trust, two-way communication and transparency of information.

I don’t believe that website marketing is, or should be, a black art. I don’t believe that copywriting or accounting are black arts. They are all just things that, if you want done right, you need to get the professionals in to do.

*TOP TIP*

Want to know what people are looking for on the web? Visit the following link and type in words related to your business and this nifty tool will give you an indication of what phrases people are typing into search engines to find the products and services you provide. Cool eh?

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Mike Cheney

www.magnet4web.com

[You have my permission to use this article in your newsletter, on your website or anywhere else for that matter as long as it remains unedited and includes the resource box at the bottom.]

You can get free access to lots more of my articles plus a Free Bonus Special Report “How To Turn Your Website Into A Customer Magnet” worth a value of 47 ($85) here: http://www.magnet4web.com/website_services/?page=freeguide