Donna Knight's Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews

Author: Donna Knight

  • How To Start Your Own Teleseminar Business

    By Donna Knight

    15 years ago there were only two ways to learn a new subject. You could go to a trade school, college or adult education school. Or you could study a book on the subject on your own. If you didn’t have time to travel back and forth to school, especially after a long hard day of work, the first method was too time-consuming. If you weren’t very disciplined, learning by book wasn’t right for you either.

    With all the technological advances in the last decade, including but not limited to the internet, you now have a bevy of ways to learn something new. In addition, you can now learn more subjects than ever before. One cutting edge way to get an education or even teach others is via teleseminars.

    Teleseminars are classes that allow a room full of people to learn over the telephone. What’s more, each teleseminar attendee can attend without leaving the comfort of their own home. You can even stay in your pajamas! How it works is that each participants is given a phone number to dial at a specific time. This allows them to listen to and even speak to the teleseminar holder and others attending. Teleseminars usually last anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. If you’re looking for a business to start, this is a great business you can run right from home.

    There are also classes called webinars which are more of a website-based classroom. The disadvantage of webinars over teleseminars is that they require technical savvy both from the person who holds the webinar and from the attendees. With teleseminars, the only equipment attendees need is a telephone. Everyone knows how to use one of those, right?

    Starting your own teleseminar business does have some requirements. Here’s what you need to know to start your own teleseminar business:

    1. You must have access to a teleseminar system that will allow multiple parties to connect via a single line. There are lots of companies offering this service that you can search for online.

    2. You need a subject that people would love to learn about. Examples of popular topics include starting a business, making money online, offline marketing, as well as highly specialized skills that require expert knowledge, such as taking care of pets or plants.

    3. You should prepare an outline of all your lessons ahead of time. This outline will allow you to practice the teleseminar and determine how long it will take, how many individual sessions it would require, and how much time per session.

    4. You must prepare each lesson beforehand. You can list everything you want to discuss. Make sure it is interesting and easy to understand over the phone. Remember that attendees don’t have the benefit of visual material as they would in a classroom. There are two alternatives though. You could mail handouts to attendees before the teleseminar starts. Alternatively, you could direct attendees to a website, where there are links to different graphics to illustrate your points.

    5. You don’t have to be the expert on the subject of the teleseminars. You could simply interview others who are well-known experts in your chosen field. You could even have the interviews pre-recorded and then use the teleseminar to discuss them and answer questions. Attendees will like it more if the teleseminars are interactive.

    6. You will need to determine how to price your teleseminar series. The answer is simple: The price should be what you think the information is worth. Using the internet, you can look for eBooks or classes on the subject and see what their pricing is.

    7. Like any business venture, you will need to advertise your teleseminar in order to gain attendees. You can market both online and offline and you should. If possible, advertise in places where your target market is most likely to be. For example, if your teleseminar is related to children, pass out flyers at a PTA meeting or little league game. Make enrollment as easy as possible for attendees. If you make it difficult, potential attendees won’t sign up even if they’re dying to learn what you can teach simply because they’re turned off by the sign-up process. The easiest sign up process would be a simple opt-in form on a website.

    8. Integrate a simple payment process that accepts multiple forms of payment. I recommend PayPal (http://www.paypal.com ) or ClickBank (http://www.clickbank.net ) both of which I have used extensively. Both allow you to accept echecks from people who don’t have a credit card. Both are secure payment systems using encryption so that credit card information can’t be viewed by hackers.

    9. Decide if you want to conduct each teleseminar live or by playing a recording. A live teleseminar will allow for interaction with students having the ability to ask questions and discuss the subject further. Interactivity is an added value that will allow you to charge more for the teleseminar. If you are insecure about your speaking abilities, you may not want to do it live. Besides, you can ask students to send in their questions ahead of time and then record the answers when recording the teleseminar.

    10. When it’s time to go live, be sure to start on time. If you’re charging a high price for your seminar, that’s all the more reason attendees will expect you to be a professional in the delivery of your teleseminar.

    11. You must have a good quality phone. A cordless phone or cellphone may be convenient but the sound quality isn’t good enough for a teleseminar. For maximum comfort, you might want to try a headset with a good quality microphone that plugs into the phone. Your neck will thank you!

    That’s not all. There’s more than one way to make money from your teleseminars. You could record the teleseminar with a recording device that hooks onto the telephone and convert it into mp3 format. You can find this device at Radio Shack. You can sell the mp3 files as a download. You could have the whole teleseminar transcribed and sell the transcriptions along with the mp3 recording at a higher price. You can print out the teleseminar into a book and sell it offline as a printed course. You can charge even more for this course than for the previous options. You can include mp3 recordings of the teleseminar on CD or DVD.

    Teleseminars allow you to get into the information product business using a device everyone has, the telephone! You can start doing teleseminars as a part-time business, and if you get really good at it, it can become profitable enough to become a full-time profession.
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    Donna Knight is a Computer Trainer and Website Promotion Specialist. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time when marketing online, visit her Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com
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    Copyright (C) 2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free ebooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact. For product reviews, you may substitute your affiliate referral link for the product URL.

  • Finding a Niche Using Expert Keyword Research Tactics

    By Donna Knight

    In online business, it may seem like the world is your marketplace, but it is also true that the world is your competition. As a result you still have to choose your target market carefully.

    One way to narrow down your potential market to maximize your profitability is to choose a business that caters to a special niche. The definition of a niche market is a smaller segment of the population that has special desires or needs. The best niche may be overlooked by the vast majority of marketers, and as a result there is much less competition. As a result of this neglect by most marketers, niche markets have the potential to be vastly more profitable than an overexploited market with too much competition.

    If you choose your niche wisely, you could end up being the only source for a ravenously hungry market that makes repeat purchases. That’s the best situation for a business to be in.
    With that said, you may be asking, “Okay, so how exactly do I choose a good niche?” I’m glad you asked!. Here are 8 expert keyword research tips for finding a niche to sell a product or service to:

    1. Take inventory. Know what abilities you have and what products you have that may service a niche. You may not be in a good position to cater to a niche that requires a large expenditure of money or specialized knowledge that you don’t have. Write down a list of things you are good at. Your past job descriptions are a good place to start to get ideas. Even extracurricular activities such as coaching a baseball team can be included on this list. You should also write a list of products you already have resell rights to.

    2. Split niches into subniches. Once you have a list of some specific niches you want to pursue, narrow them down even further by listing subniches in those niches. The more general a market is, the more likely it is to be saturated. Smaller marketers have a greater chance of having a higher demand and lower supply, which makes for greater potential profit. If you’re having difficulty finding smaller subniches, use free keyword research tools such as the Overture keyword tool at http://www.inventory.overture.com and http://www.nichebot.com . Simply do a search of a keyword relevant to your target market, and these tools will list related keywords. This is an excellent way to discover untapped niches.

    3. Find a hungry audience. It’s very important to find a niche where there are enough searches to make it profitable. Using the previously mentioned tools, make a record of how many searches there are. A high number of searches (such as 100,000) indicates a strong demand. If there are fewer than 100 searches, that might be too small a niche. However, keep in mind that is only one search engine. There may be more searches on other search engines. Specifically, however many searches there are on Overture for that keyword, Google will have many more since it is a more popular search engine.

    4. Check out the competition. Your next step is to get a feel for how much competition there is in that niche. Manually search multiple search engines for the keywords for your chosen niche and note how many results there are. Also try using Metasearch engines such as http://www.dogpile.com and http://www.mamma.com . Nichebot.com tells you how much competition there is on Google and Wordtracker.

    5. Compare demand vs supply. Compare the number of competing websites (look at the number of search results, which is usually at the top of the page) with the number of searches made. The greater the difference between the two numbers, the less potential profit. For example, if there are 100 searches for a keyword and 10 million search results, this indicates too much competition, especially for such a small audience. If there are 100,000 searches and 10,000 results, this is more promising. If there are less results than there are searches for a keyword, you may have struck gold! For example, if there are 10,000 searches for a keyword, and only 10 results in the search engine, this could signal a potential windfall of profits.

    6. Check your knowledge base. If you’re like me, you may already have a bunch of unread eBooks sitting on your computer. Check out niche marketing eBooks and special reports that provide valuable tips and tactics on finding a good niche. You’ll find a lot of repetitious material, but you could still find some valuable nuggets of information. Paid eBooks are more likely to have valuable information than free ones, so you should focus on these first.

    7. Check niche lists. Although these are not as common as eBooks, there are niche lists prepared by successful marketers. Some people make a living by doing the “dirty work,” of finding potentially profitable niches. Even with one of these lists, you still want to follow the previous steps to confirm the potential profit of any niche. However, a niche list will save you time, especially you have no idea where to start.

    8. Mix and match. You may be able to combine related niches as your target market because your product or service may cater to more than one related market. In your keyword research you may have found several subniches that show 100 searches. If you combine 5 of these subniches, that may be a large enough audience to make it profitable.

    By now you realize, online prospects are not the easy targets some internet marketing experts might want you to think they are. But if you choose your target market carefully, because of a larger potential customer base, you can have an online business more successful than you ever could imagine in the offline world.
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    Donna Knight is a Computer Trainer and Website Promotion Specialist. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time when marketing online, visit her Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com
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    Copyright (C) 2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free ebooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact. For product reviews, you may substitute your affiliate referral link for the product URL.
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  • Are You Down with the Clowns?

    Intro by Donna Knight
    This is an article from controversial internet marketer Jo Han Mok. His copywriting style is a lot like Gary Halbert’s. It’s raw, tough-talking and sometimes funny. If you’ve been in internet marketing circles long enough, you’ll recognize the clowns he’s talking about. Don’t let his somewhat offensive manner of speaking keep you from taking his main message to heart though. He’s right. The most successful people online (and off) really do exhibit the behavior he mentions. The clowns may seem successful for a little while then they suddenly disappear, never to be heard from again. For more information, read on:

    >From the desk of Jo Han Mok
    9/13/2005
    MEMO: Sales Avalanche

    Hi Donna,

    I think you’ll find today’s email rather interesting.

    You see…

    I often get lots of subscribers asking me how it is
    possible for me to consistently get such startling
    reponse rates.

    This is usually the case after they have done some JV
    with a supposed big name marketer claiming to have a
    billion people on his opt in list, and the clown pulls
    in only 3 sales.

    SO the big question is, how do you not fall into the
    trap of becoming a ‘clown’ like our friend above?

    Here are a few pointers.

    Power Pointer #1: It’s NOT the size

    Despite what women say, size has nothing to do with
    it. I don’t care how many people you have on your
    list. I rather have a list of a 1000 people who have
    spent at least $97 than a list of 3 billion people who
    have not spent a dime with me.

    Power Pointer #2: Give MORE value

    Majority of Internet Marketers fall into this
    category. Every email is a pitch. Buy this, then buy
    that. Let me promote anything under the sun. Doesn’t
    matter if it’s garbage, as long as I get my
    commissions. It’s easy to tell when a marketer is
    desperate. Usually you’ll get a flurry of emails that
    will telegraph something like “Hey you know I sent you
    an email yesterday to buy widget X. Guess what? Here’s
    widget Y and it’s better than Widget X”

    It’s everything or anything. Some thrashy fire sale,
    some crap software, the newest niche formula, blah
    blah.

    Leave this to the amateurs. Probably aside from
    sending emails to their list, they have no other means
    of making dough online.

    Don’t, for the love of mother mary fall into this
    trap.

    I’ve been there and done that when I started out. The
    money is crap.

    If you wanna squeeze MAXIMUM profits from your list,
    you gotta give. Give more, and learn to ‘hold out’
    from all that pitching.

    If you’re skeptical try it. Give nothing but your very
    best content for 4 weeks straight and throw in a pitch
    on the 5th, see what happens.

    Most probbaly, people will already be BEGGING you to
    sell them something in the 3rd week.

    Power Pointer #3: Focus

    If you want to make the most number of sales you
    possibly can, do it the PRO way and focus.

    Concentrate on ONE product, and have a CONGRUENT
    message.

    Marketing bozos on the other hand will have a ‘buffet
    spread’ of 72 hour specials alongside with an exlusive
    ‘buy my ebook and you get my mother as well’ type of
    offer.

    When people are confused, they DOn’T buy.

    If you get a poor response intially, try to ‘tweak’
    your offer and your marketing mechanisms and see what
    happens.

    Very often, it could be due to one or more variables
    that you can ‘fix’. For instance, it could be the
    ‘look’ of the piece, the ‘qualifiers’ in the copy, the
    price point yada yada. It could be anything, but
    unless you test and monitor your results, you wouldn’t
    know.

    And last but not least, don’t imitate.

    DARE to be different.

    If you have your own unique spin on things, do it.

    Screw those who don’t like you, and go with your
    heart.

    You can stand your ground and you don’t need anyone
    else’s permission.

    I’ll give you an example.

    Most ‘bozo’ marketers online are followers.

    They see a ‘fire sale’, they come up with a ‘fire
    sale’.

    They see a ‘source code blowout’, they come up with a
    ‘blowout’.

    They see a ‘Private lable package’, they come up with
    a ‘Private Label Package’.

    They see a ‘Content Publishing system’, they come up
    with a ‘Content Publishing System’.

    Yet if you look at them and ask yourself what they
    ‘REALLY’ do, there’s only one answer. They’re anything
    and everything that makes money.

    That’s cool, but where’s your business longevity?

    Where’s your ‘identity’?

    Where’s your ‘brand’?

    How are people EVER gonna relate to you?

    I hope all this is making sense to you.

    It’s a long email laced with sarcasm and some dark
    humor but I’ve been keeping this stuff to myself for
    far too long.

    Time for you to know, and if you dig what I had to
    say, do every marketer on this planet a favor and
    forward it to any other marketers you know.

    The ‘little guy’ CAN succeed!

    Jo Han Mok
    Midas Touch Marketing

    P.s. Don’t take my word for it though. Just look
    through the emails you get in your inbox and see
    if what I said is true.

    P.P.S. You have full permission to reprint this
    article as long as you credit it to me ok? : – )

  • How to Start a Profitable Business on eBay

    By Donna Knight

    Unless you’re new to the internet, you already know that eBay is the most popular online auction site. Here’s how it works: Sellers get potential buyers to bid on an item, with the highest bidder buying the product for the price he or she offered.

    Like all successful sites, eBay started out as a simple site created by Pierre Omidyar for his girlfriend Pam (who is now his wife) to help her find other Pez dispenser collectors in the Bay area. Now this site is a billion dollar industry.

    Why should you care about Pierre’s success? Because Pierre is not the first or the last person who will become a success with eBay. Many people have quit their jobs by selling on eBay. Likewise many businesses have found untold riches on eBay.

    First thing you need to do is open a seller’s account in eBay. You will be asked for verifiable personal information so eBay can make sure you are not a criminal trying to scam people. This information will allow them to catch you if you are. Let’s assume you’re not a scammer though.

    Next step is to choose what payment methods you will accept from buyers.
    Most important is choosing what item you want to sell and how much you want to sell it for.
    Once you’ve chosen what item you want to sell, get your camera and take a picture of it. Upload the picture to the site and decide on the starting bid. Then sit back and relax. Let the bidding begin. If you’ve chosen your product wisely, people will be fighting to bid on it.

    Many people have found financial freedom on eBay. I’ve personally spoken to people who left high-paying jobs because their eBay business become so successful that they couldn’t do both. And why would they want to, when their eBay sales were more profitable? If you could choose to be your own boss, work your own hours from the comfort of your own home, wouldn’t you?

    One thing you must know is that these people hit the jackpot with eBay because they are trustworthy sellers, and that is essential in making buyers come back for more.

    Another ingredient for a successful eBay business, which I’ve already mentioned, is choosing the right product to sell. You don’t have to be the first to sell it, but you do have to sell an item that has few enough sellers to keep the demand high and keep it profitable.

    Some sellers set up online stores on eBay so that they can offer buyers a variety of products to choose from.
    There are almost no limitations on what you can sell on eBay, as long as it’s something that’s legal to sell. You can sell items like wedding dresses and all kinds of clothing, furniture, books, jewelry, and electronics, and lots more. Many items you might have difficulty selling offline do just fine on eBay, such as antiques and eccentric items.

    In fact, eBay has a ‘Weird Stuff” category in its items-for-sale directory and that category is subdivided into ‘Slightly Unusual,’ ‘Real Weird,’ and ‘Totally Bizarre.’ You can’t imagine just how eccentric and unusual the items being sold under these categories are. You should take a look for yourself. You won’t believe it.

    Let’s say you don’t want to sell weird items but still can’t think of an item to sell. Take a look around your home and see what you can get rid of. eBay is the ultimate proof that one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure. You probably won’t get thousands of dollars from your trash, but then again you never know. You’ll certainly get more than you would by throwing it away if it’s any good. Sometimes even broken items can be sold for the parts.

    There once was a seller who thought no one would bid for his broken transistor radio, but he decided to put it up for auction anyways. He was shocked when an engineering student bought it. When the seller asked the student why he bought it, the student said he wanted to learn about repairing electronic gadgets.

    Here’s another crazy story: Jay Leno from The Tonight Show confirmed that someone actually paid for a Doritos chip shaped like a Pope’s hat for a thousand dollars. That’s not the first or the last time food shaped like a religious symbol has commanded seemingly ridiculous amounts of money.

    Now that you know how to get started and understand that you can sell almost anything, there’s no reason not to. Whether you’re an individual who wants to make some extra money or a business owner who is already selling a product offline, there is literally money waiting to be made on eBay. All you have to do is get started today.
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    Donna Knight is a Computer Trainer and Website Promotion Specialist. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time when marketing online, visit her Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com
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    Copyright (C) 2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free ebooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact.

  • Why You Need an Opt-in List and How to Get One Fast

    By Donna Knight

    If you want to expose as many people as possible to your products or services, you need traffic. But sometimes traffic alone is not enough. A visitor may not choose to buy from you today. Once a visitor leaves your site, however, chances are they’ll be gone for good. End of story. But wait…what if you could get them to purchase your goods or hire your services tomorrow?

    That is exactly why you need an opt-in list. An opt-in list is a way to capture leads so that you can follow up with visitors who otherwise would never come back. If you follow up enough times, some of those who opt in will buy from you eventually.

    First, let’s discuss what an opt-in list is. It is the online equivalent of a mailing list. It is a database of names and email addresses of website visitors who have chosen or opted to subscribe to your list so that they may receive emails from you, the mailing list owner.

    To grow a sizeable opt-in list, you need to entice people to sign up by offering them something they want or need. Examples of what you can offer include:
    • A highly informative ezine or newsletter that you publish regularly, for example, weekly, biweekly or monthly.
    • A free downloadable digital product like an eBook, a special report, templates, or a software program.
    • A free service such as email accounts, web hosting or an email reminder service.

    Among these free offers, an ezine is by far the most popular among subscribers, and the most effective for the business owner. With an ezine, the business owner can continuously do follow-ups offering educational content mixed with sales messages. Your newsletter can have ads that you sell other advertisers, ads for your own products or affiliate links to products that you earn commissions for.

    Permission from the subscriber is essential for an opt-in list. This ensures that the subscriber won’t delete your emails immediately as spam.

    Here are some steps to help you build an opt-in list in the shortest amount of time:

    • Choose your target market and know what they want like the back of your hand. Opt-in lists are vehicles mostly for follow-ups. Following up won’t do you any good if you don’t know how to connect with your prospects so that you can address their problems in a way that’s most profitable for them and ultimately you. Remember, the ultimate goal is to sell them something. You can’t continuously sell prospects if you know nothing about them and what they want.

    • Send personalized emails. Referring to your subscribers by their name goes a long way in building their trust.

    • Build traffic to your website. You can’t get subscribers if you have no visitors. The traffic must be a sufficient volume since not every visitor will become a subscriber.

    Here are some ways to get more visitors which will lead to more subscribers:

    1. Using search engine optimization tactics like selecting keywords corresponding to what your prospects are searching for, incorporating these keywords into your website, frequently updating your website code, and, if necessary, using Pay Per Click (PPC) search engine campaigns.

    2. Article marketing, by writing some articles relevant to the subject of your business, submitting them to free articles directories on the web, and including a resource box that contains a link to your site.

    3. Link exchanges and ad exchanges

    4. Advertising methods often overlooked, including forum marketing, buying ads in other ezines, and even offline advertising.

    • Make your opt-in offer irresistible. It’s hard to be objective, but when crafting your offer, ask yourself, is this something I would sign up for as a consumer. Look at newsletters you’ve joined and figure what made you want to sign up.

    • Co-opt lists. There are services that let you exchange leads with other webmasters. The result is an increase in subscribers to all newsletters involved.

    • Build relationships. Though follow-ups are usually done through pre-set autoresponder email messages, you should send some individualized emails occasionally. This will make subscribers feel special because it gives them the impression that you’re sincere in your desire to cater to their needs.

    If you ask many successful online businesses what contributed the most to their success, most will tell you their opt-in list. Therefore, if you want your business to be sustainable online, you must have an opt-in list. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling your own product or services, or making money with resale rights or affiliate programs; an opt-in list will boost your business. Now that you’ve read this article, you know exactly what you need to do to get started.
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    Donna Knight is a Computer Trainer and Website Promotion Specialist. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time when marketing online, visit her Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com
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    Copyright (C) 2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free ebooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact.

  • How To Market Your Offline Business Online

    By Donna Knight

    The disadvantage of an offline business compared to an online business is the limited marketplace. There are multiple factors that need to be perfect to guarantee your business success. One factor is the limited geographic area that will be the potential audience for your goods or services. Another factor is the limited number of places to advertise. In addition, to give your products or service the exposure they need usually requires a sizeable financial investment.

    In the past decade, all this has changed. On the internet, the whole world can be your market. Marketing and promotion can be done at the speed of electrons at little or no cost. All this has changed with the advent of the Internet. When you do pay to advertise, your advertising dollars can stretch a lot further with online marketing

    It’s no secret that the Internet has become a breeding place for unknown millionaires. These are the people who have established new online businesses that became wildly successful empires. Despite their success, you won’t see them on T.V., doing the rounds on The Tonight Show or David Letterman. These entrepreneurs are perfectly happy to keep their success to themselves while enjoying a life of abundance beyond their wildest dreams.

    If you have an offline business, right now you may be thinking, “that’s good for them but how will it benefit me?” The good news is that the internet can provide the same benefits for offline businesses. In fact, if you’re smart, you’ll position yourself on the internet now before your competition does and leaves you eating their dust.

    Here are some things you need to know to start marketing your offline business online:
    1. You need a website. A website will be like an online version of your shop where you can display your products or announce your services. You can also choose to perform transactions or make sales on your website. You can accept orders and pre-orders by using forms and online payment processors.

    2. You need a secure payment method to accept payments online. 63% of consumers worldwide are still hesitant to use their credit card or checks online. Your payment pages can be secure by using Secure Sockets Layers (SSL), which protects data transmissions over the web by encrypting or encoding the data so that it can’t be read if intercepted by a hacker.

    3. You also need to learn how to drive traffic to your site. This is not that difficult though. Traffic refers to the number of people who visit your website. The more people who see your site, the more exposure your products or services receive. Therefore, making more sales may require getting more people to come to your site. Making sales is always a numbers game, both online and offline. Here are some proven ways to increase traffic to your site:

    A. Optimize your site for the search engines. A good 80% of traffic comes from search engines queries. If your website gets a high position in the search engine results, you will get more visitors. Search engine optimization tactics include keyword research and integration, content creation, and submission of your site to as many high-traffic search engines as possible.

    B. Exchange links with other similar but non-competing sites, but also try to get one-way links to your site. One-way links are links where they link to you, but you don’t link back. Search engines frown on obviously intentional reciprocal linking. If you get links from completely unrelated sites, these may be poor quality links.

    C. Advertise on other sites by using banners.

    D. Try pay-per-click advertising, such as Overture or Google AdWords.

    4. You also have to establish a way to keep past visitors. This can be done using a good autoresponder service or by regularly sending out an Ezine. Ezines are electronic newsletters that provide valuable information for your subscribers. By offering them something worth their time, you will gain trust, which could result in future sales.

    5. Consider viral marketing, which is the online equivalent of word of mouth advertising. Here’s how it works: distribute a useful and desirable product for free. This is usually in the form of an eBook or a special report on a subject of interest and importance to your target market. Add links to your product or website to this Ebook. Allow your readers to freely distribute it to their friends and family by giving them giveaway rights. An advanced technique is to give them resale rights to this viral product, allowing them to keep 100% of the profits for any sales. This would guarantee an exponential spread of the viral product, resulting in a similar exponential growth of your site’s traffic.

    These days putting your offline business online is so cheap, that you have nothing to lose by trying it. You don’t need a major investment, and the risks are usually negligible. The key is to start now, and you will find that there are endless possibilities for your business online.
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    Donna Knight is a Computer Trainer and Website Promotion Specialist. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time when marketing online, visit her Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com
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    Copyright (C) 2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free ebooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact.

  • Create Your Own Online Marketing “TV” Station

    Here’s an interesting article from Jim Edwards about the start of the convergence of the internet and television. If this is really going to happen, it’s definitely in very early stages, but it’s always a good idea for online marketers to be on the lookout for new marketing media.

    -Donna Knight

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

    Create Your Own Online Marketing “TV” Station

    – by Jim Edwards

    © Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
    http://www.thenetreporter.com
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

    It will happen! TV and the Internet will eventually merge into one giant multi-media “melting pot” that includes everything from live footage and old reruns to garage videos posted by your next door neighbor’s kid. Just like cable TV fractured network TV, the Internet will enable everyone with a voice, a video camera, and something to say to fracture cable TV even more. But the real TV revolution on the Internet will only happen when marketers stop trying to copy TV, with its commercials and outdated modes of revenue generation, and start copying the “pay-per-view” and “infomercial” models.

    One company at TVexe.com has started offering television broadcasts from around the world via Internet streaming. The free software (with optional one-time $25 upgrade) allows you to stream TV feeds from around the world to your desktop through a broadband connection. The picture rates a “C+” on the quality side, but, just like Internet telephony 6 years ago, you can expect the quality to improve quickly. If they can keep costs down long enough to figure out how to make money, this company will likely succeed because they provide programming that’s virtually impossible to get anywhere else.

    But, for the rest of us “mortals” who want to stream our images, video, and audio across the Web, trying to provide “live TV” broadcasts spells the kiss of death in both time and money. For the vast majority of companies doing business online, it will prove virtually impossible to get a meaningful number of people to show up to a website at “8:00 P.M. Eastern” for tonight’s live “TV” broadcast. But what will work online is adopting the “pay-per-view” model found in hotels where you watch the program you want, when you want. Offering website visitors video content they can download, start, stop, play, pause, and view on their own schedule holds the key to online “TV” success. I hate to make this overly simplistic, but bottom line: an effective online “TV Station” only needs a basic website and the ability to allow “viewers” to download or stream video files.

    All of us get two basic options when it comes to creating content to deliver from our “TV Station” website. First, you can do “screen capture” video, which combines video of the action taking place on your computer screen with your voice as narration, to create excellent instructional content. You then allow viewers to download this “TV program” from your website either free or for a free. Two programs enable you to do this quickly and easily: “Screen Cam Generator” from http://www.ScreenCamSoftware.com and “Camtasia” from http://www.TechSmith.com.

    Your second option involves using full-motion video, either from a web-cam or a camcorder. The content most easily gets published online either as a WMV file (Windows Media Video) played with Microsoft’s Media Player, or FLV file (Flash Video) played with the free Flash “plug-in” found in most Web browsers.

    Regardless of which option you choose, remember: unlike traditional TV, successful models of “TV-style” content online will empower the viewer to watch when and where they choose.

    —
    Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
    creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-
    step and click-by-click how to finally create your own
    money-making mini-sites…

    -=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    “Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU to Painlessly Set Up
    Your OWN Moneymaking ‘Mini’ Websites… Without Being a
    Computer Geek, Buying Expensive Software, or Paying
    Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!”

    Click Here => http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com

  • Clickbank’s Change to Refund Policy Benefits Sellers

    Clickbank has lowered it’s refund time from 12 weeks to 6 weeks. In addition, the customer requesting a refund must give a reason. This is in contrast to Paypal’s refund policy time limit which is 60 days.

    There are two ways to look at this. Marketing experts will say that increasing your money-back guarantee time limit will increase your sales. Therefore lowering your refund time limit could actually decrease your sales. However, most sellers will welcome a lower refund deadline because in their minds giving people less time to think about asking for a refund means less refunds.

    Requiring customers to give a refund makes perfect sense and should help cut down on fraudulent or frivolous refund requests.

  • The 5 Reasons Why You *Must* Get Into the Software Industry Today

    by Mike Chen

    No matter what industry you’re in, it’s absolute vital that youeither sell software or offer free software to your customers.

    By the time you are done reading this article, you willunderstand why.

    1. “It’s the Product, Stupid”

    No amount of marketing “how to” is going to make up for not having a killer product.People are sick of being told how to do it. They want somethingthat will “do it” for them.Software does just that … It *does* things for people.Stop trying to sell “how to” and start selling instant solutions.That’s where the real money is.

    2. Downloadable Viral Marketing Tools

    OK, so you don’t want to sell software. Fair enough.You’re crazy if you don’t use software as a viral marketing tool.Many of the largest lists o­n the Internet were built using freesoftware downloads as an enticement for subscribing.You can easily add viral twists to these tools and beforeyou know it hundreds or even thousands of sites could beoffering your free software – becoming virtual newslettersubscriber magnets.What if you created just o­ne new tool like that a week?How big would your list be inside of 6 months?

    3. Create Value-Added Customer Helper Apps

    What if you were to create applications that simply added value to your existing products and services? How much higher would your customer satisfaction be if you created various software tools to teach, train, support, or otherwise help your customers? How many more sales would that added customer satisfaction generate for you without any additional effort year after year?

    4. Upsell Products

    As you probably know, selling new products to existing customers is the easiest way in the world to make money.It’s 5 times easier to sell to an existing customer than it is toacquire a new o­ne.Why not create new products using “Make Your Own Software” and sell them to your existing customer base?Instant profits.

    5. Highest Profit Margins in the World

    Electrons are free. If you’re selling an instantly downloadable product, your product fulfillment costs are virtually nil. Plus, in the software industry there is no inventory to manage,so it’s probably the easiest business in the world to manage aswell.

    ****************************************************************
    Mike Chen was o­ne of the pioneers of the software security industry and is a widely respected Internet Marketing expert. Mike’s newest product, “Make Your Own Software,” allows even those who don’t know a single line of code to create software programs instantly.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: “Make Your Own Software” has my highest rating. http://www.makeyourownsoftware.com/main.art
    ****************************************************************

  • Eight Strategies to Do Google AdWords The Smart Way

    By Donna Knight

    So, you’ve tried all the other marketing techniques you have read about, and you’re now ready to work some of that pay per click magic. What you may not know is that this form of online wizardry needs more than just a sleight of hand. It requires careful planning and a good sense of what should be expected.

    I’m talking about Google AdWords. This is a advertising system that allows you to advertise your site through a short ad that is displayed prominently in every page of a Google search performed on keywords relevant to your business. Your ad is just like a tiny classified ad. The way it works is that advertisers like yourself bid on certain keywords. The winner of the bid gets his link shown at the top of the page on every query that contains the winning keywords.

    Unlike other pay-per-click systems such as Overture, the bid price is not the only consideration in awarding keywords. Your Click-Through Rate, or CTR, also plays an important factor in the rank of your ad. CTR is acquired by dividing the number of times a user clicks on your link whenever it appears on search engine results by the number of impressions. An impression is whenever your site’s ad appears in a search query. For example, suppose your site’s ad appears 200 times in several searches. Your impression would be 200. Suppose also that 2 users click on your ad during this period, your CTR would be 2/200, or 1%.

    The best thing about AdWords is that the winner of the bid only has to pay when a user actually clicks on his link. This method has given birth to the term Pay Per Click, or PPC. This is much less expensive than paying per impression, like advertisers did in the early days on the internet.

    Here are some strategies to help you develop a strong AdWords marketing campaign.

    1. RESEARCH YOUR KEYWORDS WELL. If you have an existing business, make sure that the keywords you choose are commonly searched words or phrases that people type in their search queries. If you have yet to set up a business, make sure that the keywords you are considering are actually profitable, meaning, they cater to a market with a high demand, also known as a “hungry market.”.

    2. CONSIDER CREATING MULTIPLE ADS FOR EVERY KEYWORD. By having several ads appearing for the same search query, you would be able to determine which works best. The ad that performs best should be used as a control for subsequent ads to try to beat.

    3. SET A BUDGET YOU’RE WILLING TO SPEND PER DAY. Google allows you to set a cap on the number of hits you could generate in a day. Study your budget and come up with a ceiling that would not eat up a major portion of your projected earnings.

    4. WRITE YOUR ADS WELL. Ad writing is not a place to get sloppy. The quality of your ad affects your clickthroughs. Use words that will attract the readers’ attention. The words should be powerful without being full of hype. The length of your ad is very limited, so don’t write more than you need to, but make sure you mention the benefits of what you’re advertising.

    5. ALWAYS STUDY YOUR ADS. Even if your ads have a high ranking on Google’s search pages and are producing a passable CTR, you should always take time to study and refine your ads. Changing their structure from time to time would also help in winning back the attention of those who have viewed them before. Get rid of ads that are not performing well and create new ones.

    6. CHECK OUT THE COMPETITION. Check the high-ranking ads of those competing for the same keywords. You should never copy but looking at competitor’s high-ranking ads will give you an idea of what the target market is looking for. If the competitor’s ads are the top, that means they are saying to your potential customers what they want to hear.

    7. TRACK YOUR ADS. There are many tools available on the net that would allow you to track which of your ads produce the most visitors. These tools will help you a lot in weeding out non-performing ads and discovering a pattern that makes your successful ones tick.

    8. DESIGN NOW, ADJUST LATER. Since Google considers CTR before awarding top listing for a keyword, it is important that you produce a site that is rich with informative content. Content is what attracts visitors and increases your site’s sales conversion. Once you have a high listing for a keyword and your ads are producing a consistent number of hits, you could adjust the sales copy on your landing page to try to convert more of your visitors into successful sales. Great sales copy can also be informative despite being a sales pitch.

    It is said that Google AdWords levels the playing field between rich and poor advertisers. This does not mean it is easy and inexpensive. What it means is that while corporate advertisers play it dumb because they have large sums of money to waste on advertising, you can win the competition against them by playing it smart and following some simple precautions.

    Donna Knight is a Computer Trainer and Website Promotion Specialist. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time in your online marketing efforts, visit her Internet Marketing Tools blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com

    Copyright (C)2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free ebooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact.