Logo Size and White Space Affect ROI

Is Your Logo Too Small? Try a new logo cream designed to make your logo as large as your ego! Apply directly to your computer screen!

A very important factor in the pages you are sending all this traffic to is how big to make your logo. Additionally, how much white space is on your pages.

Some people will cram their logo into impossible-to-notice spots on their pages and completely lose their branding opportunity. Others have way too much white space and lose ROI.

It’s unbelievable how many people know about traditional conversion tools, yet have no clue what “website stardust” can do for CTR!

Watch this video and see what I mean…

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Tags: advertising, branding, marketing, video, Web Design

Really cool file sharing site goes beta…

I use StumbleUpon a lot lately and I have to tell you, if you aren’t using it for researching what’s going on in your market, you are missing out big time.

StumbleUpon is a tool bar that watches the kinds of sites you surf and then allows you to “stumble upon” sites like it.

It is WAY better than a search engine because the sites you find are not just any sites related to the kinds of sites you frequent; they are the best of the best sites you can find on the web in your interest area.

This is because they are ranked by votes of StumbleUpon users, so the very good stuff bubbles to the top.

Here is one I found that I would never have found until it got super big: Tubes.

It is a file sharing site like no other I have seen. It is peer-to-peer desktop sharing and you can make a “tube” for friends, associates, colleagues, employees, whomever.

Drop a video into a tube and everyone you invited to it gets it on their desktop with no fuss, no FTP, no restrictions on file size, and no emailing!

I find stuff like this all the time and it helps with business ideas, reasearch, and keeping up on my niches.

Check out StumbleUpon.com today. It is also a great traffic-driving tool for your sites!

Tags: file sharing, marketing, niche research, stumbleupon

Are you trying too hard?

Seth Godin has an excellent post about the different levels of marketing.

I think I fall into the level of appearing not to try many times.

I never want to appear desperate for anything, and, in truth, (or as a consequence) I’m not.

Wonder if that is a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Because my nature is to have people “love me or leave me” it is like taking a step backward and having people subconsciously step forward toward my sites and products.

It works not only for me but for a lot of sites on the web, many of which are probably in your bookmarks precisely because they didn’t appear to care whether you bookmarked them or not!

Tags: 4 levels of marketing, advertising, marketing, seth godin

Does PageRank Really Matter?

Karen Brown

I found an article that debates whether Google PageRank matters. According to the author, PageRank matters because he sees it as a credibility index. Higher PageRank means a better site.

I guess that works if your site is for other internet marketers. Ordinary folks don’t won’t have the Google toolbar installed, and couldn’t tell you what PageRank means if you held a gun to their heads.

If you want to be successful at internet marketing, make sure that your visitors are your highest priority. PageRank is secondary to making sure that your visitors return to your site (and tell all their friends).

Tags: credibility, google-pagerank, google-toolbar, internet marketing, marketing

Keyword Research Tool That Helps With Long Tail!

Ask and ye shall recieve!

Two posts ago I ranted in a big way about outdated keyword tools that are too short-sighted and restrictive on the keyword research you can do. Especially in the lack of long tail keyword research capabilities of all keyword tools on the market including Google’s, Wordtracker’s and other very high profile, popular tools.

We need a tool to help with [tag]long tail research[/tag]. Something to show what surfers who have been on the web longer than a week search for in the way that they search.

No one who is interested in “opt in list building with squeeze pages” types in “internet marketing” at the engines. C’mon!

People who have been surfing just a little while know that their results are better if they are more descriptive in their search terms. Thus the longer terms that no one is able to research with any of the tools out there today.

Except for one: HitTail.

I highly recommend you check it out if you want to see the difference between a list of phrases generated by your own site (what people actually use to find you) and the list you can get out of Overture or the other keyword list generators.

It’s like night and day. Here is a phrase someone typed in to find me just today: “myspace adding friends without requests”

If you got that out of Overture it would read like this: “adding requests without friends myspace” or some such nonsense.

Tens of thousands of people are using terribly bad data to write content around. And it is because the tools they use, that they accept as 100% reliable and “from the source,” are dinosaurs.

Using HitTail you can see where people come from with the actual phrases they use to find you.

What to do with this insight? Publish content around topics you are scoring well for to score better in the engines (and with your visitors who obvisously like the topic!)

Find holes in your content and develop stronger content to move up in rankings for phrases you can create around the phrase you are scoring 1-2 hits a day on.

The phrase above and several others I happen to be mostly on the second page for in Google tells me I need more hooks for Myspace users if I want to tap that market further and move up the ranks.

Without a good [tag]stats tracking[/tag] system like HitTail you will never know this kind of information about your site and therefore you will be leaving tons of traffic on the table while you are fighting an uphill battle to get into the top ten on phrases everyone in your niche is going after with the same fervor.

And at least 10 of them have more resources or experience than you do in many cases.

Finally, realize that you get top ten rankings for one and two-word keywords only after you get the long tail phrases down and get a lot more links and popularity.

No one can compete with the top ten in their niche with a site that has little popularity. It is ridiculous to try. Only time and consistent promotion and linking will get you into the top ten with the most competitive phrases in your niche.

Until then, publish for [tag]long tail[/tag] and use tools like HitTail to greatly inform your content strategy so you know where you are going with your [tag]marketing[/tag] campaign.

YouTube Hit Tail Video (These guys are marketing it like they are charging for it - but it’s free!)

Tags: long tail, long tail research, marketing, stats tracking

Social Bookmarking Explained

Although social bookmarking might be something you’ve only just come across, it has in fact been around for a few years.

If you’re involved in Internet marketing, it’s also a great way to help generate traffic and page rank to your site. So the sooner you learn about it, the quicker your Internet business can benefit.

Put simply, social bookmarking is simply a way of saving your favorite URLs online. You probably already have a “Favorites” folder on your computer. Well, social bookmarking is just an online version of that. The main difference is that your social bookmarking favorites are publicly available for anyone to see. So, the big question is - how can this benefit your business?

If you do a Google search you’ll soon come up with a list of the most popular social bookmarking websites. Take a look at http://del.icio.us, which is one of the most popular.  All you need to do, once you’ve joined the social bookmarking site, is to start adding your URLs. With each URL you also add a list of tags, or keywords, so that people know what that URL is all about. So if you’ve bookmarked a site about dogs, for example, then make sure you use the word “dogs” as one of the tags.

You can also choose whether to make the listing public or private. Use a public listing if it’s a website you want other people to find, such as your own website. A public listing will also show other information such as who created the bookmark, when, and give an indication of how
popular that particular keyword is on the site. But you can use the private setting for other URLs that you know you will want to access while
you’re traveling around, and don’t have access to your home computer.

In some ways, then, a social bookmarking site is like a search engine, except that it only searches entries on its database. But the good part about that is that only sites that other people recommend will be listed. It’s easy to find a list of sites on any topic you might be interested in. Type in dogs, for example, and you’ll see sites that other people have recommended.

For [tag]internet marketing[/tag] purposes, then, you would add your website to you social bookmarking account, pick your main keywords and use them as tags, and potentially generate traffic to your site.

Another idea would be to have a link to your social bookmarking account from your blog page, so that people can see a frequently updated list of your recommended websites about that topic. You also get a backlink from the social bookmarking site to your website, which helps to boost your popularity in the eyes of the search engines.

For optimal results, you should open as many accounts on different social bookmarking sites as you can. The only problem is that posting your website to these accounts can become very tedious. Especially if you have a large number of websites or if you are adding the bookmark to a large number of accounts.

Recently a new Wordpress plugin has been released to eliminate some of this tedious work. It can automatically add bookmarks to all of your bookmarking accounts hands free. It is a great time saving tool that I highly recommend to anyone who wants to take advantage of social bookmarking without spending hours bookmarking their pages manually.

Social bookmarking is only in its infancy, and will probably develop in ways that nobody has even imagined yet. In the meantime, there’s no doubt it’s a great way to get traffic to your websites, so what are you waiting for?

Check out this Wordpress plugin NOW!

Tags: Blog Marketing, internet marketing, marketing, Social Power Linking, Website Promotion

What is Marketing?

You’re a woman and you see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and say, “I’m fantastic in bed.”
That’s Direct Marketing.

You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome guy. One of your friends goes up to him and pointing at you says, “She’s fantastic in bed.”
That’s Advertising.

You see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and get his telephone number. The next day you call and say, “Hi, I’m fantastic in bed.”
That’s Telemarketing.

You see a guy at a party, you straighten your dress. You walk up to him and pour him a drink. You say, “May I?” and reach up to straighten his tie, brushing your breast lightly against his arm, and then say, “By the way, I’m fantastic in bed.”
That’s Public Relations.

You’re at a party and see a handsome guy. He walks up to you and says, “I hear you’re fantastic in bed.”
That’s Brand Recognition.

You’re at a party and see a handsome guy. He fancies you, but you talk him into going home with your friend.
That’s a Sales Rep.

Your friend can’t satisfy him so he calls you.
That’s Tech Support.

You’re on your way to a party when you realize that there could be handsome men in all these houses you’re passing. So you climb onto the roof of one situated towards the center and shout at the top of your lungs, “I’m fantastic in bed!”
That’s Junk Mail.

You are at a party, this well-built man walks up to you and grabs your butt.
That’s the Governor of California.

You like it, but 20 years later your attorney decides you were offended.
That’s America!

Tags: brand recognition, direct sales, marketing, telemarketing

MySpace Advertising

Get Thousands Of Myspace Friends FAST! This is THE solution for Myspace advertising - Click Here!

More information on [tag]Myspace advertising[/tag] and the potential for marketers and promoters to take advantage of over 100 million users and fans of Myspace.

Yaro Starak wrote a great post on his blog “Entrepreneur’s Journey” about the things to consider about this monster site and the young demographics.

I believe far too many small shops are ignoring the potential to grow with [tag]Myspace[/tag]. Blowing off 109 million networked people out of hand would be a big mistake, no matter what the demographic, without thinking deeply about how your business might become hip enough to get attention on Myspace.

Starak states:

“MySpace has a high value because of it’s massive userbase, which in turn provides a potentially rich source of advertising income (let’s just say its $580 mil purchase price included a lot of money for future potential). Given the audience is a young demographic it’s a very lucrative market for advertisers.”

I believe many people are mistakenly ignoring [tag]social networking[/tag] sites like Myspace because they don’t understand the culture and see no immediate potential.

Many marketers are stuck in a model of [tag]marketing[/tag] that does not allow for change this radical in nature.

But it is high time the smarter marketers take a look at opportnities in the social networking world because the stats and studies show that the effect they are having on the web is extremely profound.

Tags: marketing, myspace, myspace advertising, myspace friends, social networks, Social Power Linking

Free Targeted Website Traffic

“Free traffic” is never free! 

You may not lay down hard cash for it, but you earn it nonetheless.  Today, a lesson in what it takes to earn that elusive targeted traffic!

First off, get your mind around the fact that there are thousands more scams on the web when it comes to getting targeted traffic than there are legitimate systems.

Everyone with a site at some point wants more traffic so bad that they find themselves making choices they’d never make under normal circumstances.

Below are some of those bad choices:

*Spamming
*Paid advertising you really cannot afford
*Paid advertising that doesn’t work
*Paid scams like guaranteed traffic
*Scams dealing with guaranteed search engine rankings
*Pay per click advertising without knowing anything about how to do it properly

Everyone with a site will go through a bitter deal with one of the above or any of the myriad other choices streaming through their inbox on a weekly basis.

It is almost like you cannot go forward without being taken for a ride so you know what it really feels like.

Then you get serious.  And things change in a heart beat.

No longer are there 1001 ways to promote your site.  Once you have your bull crap filter on, the world of internet marketing becomes uncluttered and much more simple.

Here are some of the top ways to earn free targeted traffic:

Extremely high quality article syndication

This has nothing to do with spam articles or the vast majority of the junk we all see on the web trying to pass as real content.

Extreme high quality article content is content that grabs a target market by the cahones and gives them a real, expert scoop on something.

It is the kind of content that earns visitors for the author who sign up for newsletters, click on ads, and flow through the links in resource boxes like no other form of article content on the web.

It is also the kind of content that gets picked up and run on the sites most dear to your market.  The people whose sites you most want to be on.

Getting your article on a bunch of article directories is NOT the point.  The point is to be PICKED UP by publishers FROM those directories and chosen out of thousands to be featured on their sites.

High Tech Blogging

This form of marketing takes full advantage of RSS syndication of your blog content and tons of different linking strategies such as tagging or social bookmarking, posting your “stories” at places like Digg.com (there are tons of sites like this one now), and doing RSS feed exchanges with other bloggers and website owners in your niche.

Blog promotion is so deep and so multi-faceted that it is impossible to get into it in an article like this.

But it is a massive mistake to try marketing anything online without taking advantage of blogging and RSS technology.

I’m not talking the basics here.  I am talking about serious study and mastery of some pretty high-end stuff most people on the web know nothing about.

It is an easy way to blow competition away, especially if they, like everyone else, are focused on search engines.

Search Engine Traffic

Search engine traffic is not something to worry about for most people.  Most people will never get any more than 15% of their traffic from engines for the life of their sites.

Enjoy passive search engine marketing.  Post to your blog frequently and let the engines come to you.  It is a far less stressful way of life.

Believe me, aggressive search engine marketing has given more people more ulcers and empty bank accounts than anything else online.

If you are relevant, post plenty of original, topical content to your site regularly, and you actively market everywhere BUT the engines, they WILL come to you and reward you for putting your visitors first.

Finally, find some good quality partners to exchange articles, RSS feeds, and even text links with.  And no, reciprocal linking is not dead!  It just doesn’t impress Google anymore.

So what?  Links are for targeted traffic first and forever, not search engines.  The engines didn’t invent how the web works and can lay no claim to how a person should drive targeted traffic to her site.

The only thing you should worry about is if you are going to straight up trade links, you need to make deals where your link (and theirs) go on high traffic pages and not in some link directory.

Tags: Content Syndication, feeds, free links, linking, links, marketing, RSS, syndication, tag and ping, targeted traffic, Website Promotion

Using Product Giveaways As A List Building Tactic

These days one of the most powerful ways to build your opt in list is to use co-registration and product giveaways. This is a great way to build your list fast and uses other leverage techniques that can save you time and money.

However, there are some disadvantages to using these techniques.

1 - The person signing up for your list is also signing up for someone else’s who is most likely in direct competition with you. Keep in mind that when they are sending out information on products and services, you will probably be doing the same thing and giving your list member the same email twice and a reason to unsubscribe.

One way around this is to always send out unique emails so that they never get the same email twice. This is especially true in internet marketing.

2 - By promoting products as an affiliate you will more than likely be sending your members or site visitors to a squeeze page. This is where they will enter their email information and join the list of the person whose product you are promoting.

Now this is great if you get a commission, but even so, after you get this commission you will no longer have this person as a customer. However, the affiliate product owner now has this persons email to continue to promote to thanks to you.

A good way to avoid this is to offer your site visitors a free e-book or report in relation to the product you are promoting. This way they are sent to your squeeze page first and you get the email as well. Then you simply promote the affiliate link within the report you are giving away or in your auto responder.

Yes, you will have a similar situation as mentioned in the first scenario, but the email you obtain will be much more targeted and the member will now know you.

3 - The last item to mention is giveaway products. Many authors will allow you to give away their e-books freely to your website visitors and list members. The drawback here is the contents of the e-book.

There is nothing wrong with having the authors name, URL and company information within the e-book. After all they did write it. The thing is many authors now have complete opt in forms or require that you register to gain access to the complete e-book. This will also be redirecting possible subscribers to your list.

Try a variation of #2 and have them opt in to your list before giving them the download link. There are also programs available that allow you to giveaway the e-book with your product or opt in details as a back end offer.

You can also bundle several related e-books and offer them as a reward for signing up for your list.

Try to get resale rights as well. This may allow you to re-brand the e-book with your opt in information. This way the author gets credit and you can still get the subscriber.

Using co registration and product giveaways are a two way street. The key is to try and get the visitors email as well as give them a valuable tool or service.

List building is largely about building relationships. What better way to start than to give them something of value? Just make sure that you get something valuable in return. When it comes to marketing online, what’s more valuable than your subscribers?

Tags: list, list builder, list building, marketing, Website Promotion

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