Devour The Web

It’s a difficult task creating a website that brings you business. It’s a full-time job where things seem easy at first but as soon as you start to explore the possibilities and appreciate the complexity of the task at hand it can soon start taking up ever increasing amounts of your time.

There is a plethora of people out there offering you conflicting advice and it’s often difficult to know what to focus on.

This article cuts through all that and reveals to you the two most important things you need to know about creating a website that brings more profit to your business..

Secret Number 1 - Information

Yes - that’s all it is - information. Just think about this for a minute - what is the sole reason for anyone surfing any website anywhere across the world? Every single one of them is looking for just one thing - information.

The information might take the form of text, an image, a sound file or whatever but at the end of the day it is information. This is the first biggest and best-kept secret of success on the internet and now you know it!

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These days with millions of websites out there, you need a way to get noticed. When your company website is ranked highly in the major search engines, customers from all over the world can find your front door. suddenly, your virtual storefront becomes prime business property and you are making sales 24/7.

What can a web site owner do to make sure your site appears in the top 2 pages in any given search engine? You could buy some submission software, read some books and try it yourself. But what if you miss something and find your site’s not positioned, or worse, banned. The only other option is to hire a search engine specialist.

There are alot of self-proclaimed, “SEO specialists” and “search engine submission” companies, so you need to know what to look for in the positioning program they offer.

Here are my top five things to look for in a Search Engine position program:

1. SE Optimization (SEO) ? The pages on your site are checked for the percentage of keywords you want to target, and the quality of the content on the page. Your SEO consultant should make recommendations regarding your site content to improve it in the eye of the Search Engines.

People are so focused on promoting their websites on the web these days that many are overlooking the original marketing medium-the offline world! Many tried and true methods of advertising exist for brick and mortar businesses that could just as easily be applied to online businesses. These methods have been developed over hundreds if not thousands of years-what cavemen used to sell I have no idea-but the point is still valid. Business promotion existed long before the internet. So what methods of marketing in the "real" world can an online business owner apply to the cyber world?

One extremely effective method is brand marketing through merchandise. Think about it-before the web existed, how did businesses like real estate companies market their brands? One way they did it was to give stuff away-a marketing trick that is still being applied effectively today. How many pens, pencils, and magnets do you have lying around the house, stuck to the refrigerator, placed behind your ear-wherever-that bear some company’s logo or name? If you have ever worked in an office environment doubtless you would have noticed several different slogans on a hodgepodge collection of pens (some that might even still work) and pencils collected over time from seminars, informational fairs, trade events, etc. Brick and mortar businesses are doing it, so why aren’t you?

What was once such a good thing is now a rip-off and a sham!

I’m talking about pay-per-click search engines, and how they’ve become a really bad investment!

There are two reasons for the deterioration of pay-per-click search engines: high bid prices and out of control click fraud.

A few years back, you could get popular keywords at a halfway decent bid price. Nowadays, even moderately popular keywords are ridiculously high.

How high? Well, let me give you an example, using the most popular pay-per-click search engine: Overture.

Let’s take the popular keyword phrase, “home business.”

At the time this article was written, Overture’s top bid for the keyword phrase “home business” was an exorbitantly high $2.28. Just to get on the first page, it would cost you $0.61, which would place you last at number forty.

Now let’s just delve inside the numbers for a moment, shall we? I’m not going to even bother breaking down the number one bid price, because quite frankly, it’s obvious the top spot is reserved for and controlled by the high-rollers.

T.V. and radio News got you down? On-line current events and News blogs make being informed a much more enjoyable experience. For many the News on television has become a trying time of the day. Focused mainly on negative events, you may have to wait through the whole program just to hear the one story you were waiting for. If you miss the 6:00 p.m. show, waiting until the late night segment can be a real drag, especially if you’ve got a lot to do, or have to wake up early the next morning.

My friends, there is an answer to this problem: News blogs or on-line current events. You can find all of your favorite broadcasters (E.g.: CNN, BBC) on the Internet, getting up-to-date information at any time of the day or night. You can even read personal journal entries written by multiple correspondents out in the field reporting on several different stories down to the current minute. Instead of hearing all News from one voice (often an irritating one), now you can read different human opinions straight from the scene of interest.

In this Article we look at the third competitive advantage of successful Internet Marketers - Creating Products.

The main problem with creating products is not in the build process, but rather in the “Ideas Process.”

Product Ideas Come From NEEDS

* New Knowledge

Research at centres of learning gives rise to new theories that provide a wealth of ideas, for new products.

* Emulation

Modification and copying of existing products and services is the most common source of new ideas for products.

* Ego

Most inventors of products have big ego’s that are only satisfied by the “creative process,” from invention to production.

* Difficulty

Hardship in terms of effort required to do any work or activity is a rich source of new ideas for products.

* Scarcity

Shortages of necessities and luxuries very often give rise to new ways and products to overcome the shortages.

Product Development

Products can be developed in one of two ways :

* Product Centric Approach

This is where the idea and the product are the drivers of the process.

You might have heard that banner advertising is dead. Nothing could be further from the truth! If you can find a banner exchange that gives you a decent ratio you can begin branding of your site, and branding may be the one thing you MUST do to get and keep business.

Banner ads and banner exchanges are great tools for branding your site. Even better, most banner ads can be shown for free through banner swaps. It isn’t necessary to purchase ads to have a successful branding campaign.

You must however, remember the most important part about using banners for branding –The Brand! Never create a banner, button, or other graphic to submit to any exchange be it banner ads, reciprocal links, etc., that does not have your name, logo, or tag line (Slogan) on it.

Try to get two of the three on it if you can, and always have a call to action on the banner; such as, “Click here!”, “Sign up today!”, or “Limited Time!” to get the viewer to click on the link and visit your site.

For the uninitiated, searching for web pages can seem a slow, obscure process. Unless you have a high-speed Internet connection, web pages may seem to take days to load. And the searching itself ? you have to admit it looks weird typing in bunches of plus signs, asterisks, parenthesis, and other funny symbols and operators to find what you want.

To help you in this process and show that you are not, I’ve compiled a top five list of things you must realize when searching the web for information. No pencils will fly, no drums will roll, but you just might learn something.

5. Search Engines Have to Make Money

Before you grumble over the growing number of advertisements and sponsored links that appear in search engine results page, remember that most search engines are free. You’re not paying anything for a very costly service. Thus, these sites have to earn income somehow to stay afloat (computing power and bandwidth isn’t cheap!) So, to put it bluntly? live with it.

(Yes, I know some types of advertising are much more obtrusive than others. Popup ads, dancing animations, and other larger advertisements may make it harder to use some search engines that support these types of ads. If you don’t like it, vote with your mouse clicks and move to another search engine).

Sub-domains are websites that are located within a directory of your main site and have their own domain name. Because they use the same resources as the main website, they are normally much cheaper than getting another hosting account. Their low cost and flexibility make sub-domains a great device for directing traffic to your site without breaking the bank.

*Sub-domains as Portal Sites*

One of the best uses of sub-domains is portal websites. Portal websites are sites that link to your main website and have a similar theme. Basically, they provide another portal, or doorway, for visitors and search engines to get to your main website.

Since creating content for a website takes time, often webmasters simply modify the existing text of the main site and reuse it on the portal site. It is important that the content is not exactly the same and the portals do not just redirect to the main site. Otherwise, search engines may not index them.

*More Portals, More Visitors*

Portal websites can be submitted to the search engines just like your main site. If your website is doing alright in the search engines, then imagine having five more websites out there for the spiders to find. Five more listings means that Web surfers have five times as many ways to find your network of websites.

As a marketer you are engaged in a “War” with competitors where the ultimate prize is capturing the mind of prospects and claiming their purchase dollars.

What you are about to read shows you how to create a powerful, automatic weapon for that war that generates relentless, repeating sales.

Step #1 - Get Into Your Prospects Mind.

Many new netpreneurs forget, or fail to understand, that prospects are individuals.

You must get into your prospect’s mind and appeal to them, and them alone, before they will buy from you.

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With some exceptions, buying decisions are made on the basis of emotional and intellectual reasoning in that order.

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Some marketers prefer to use market research exclusively for this step. This is a valid, but more expensive option to build your prospect’s profile.

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Remember : People do not necessarily buy features. They always buy benefits.

Step #5 - Headlines

Now you have all the pieces of your jigsaw start to build your “Mind Capture Weapon”.

Headlines can be formatted as :