Devour The Web

The most successful advertising is obviously expensive. There are ways of free advertising that over time will work out to be just as profitable for you.

Everybody, at some point, has brought a product over the internet. If you like the product then write a testimonial for the business you brought it from. Say how much you like the product and how it benefited you and let the business use your testimonial if they include your signature file at the end.

We have all seen websites with forums on them, post your message there, be it a question or compliment. Again, leave your signature file there for all visitors to see.

If you come across a website that you highly enjoy, write a review for it. Explain what you like about the site, for example, design, services, ease of use etc. Send the review to the owner and tell them that they can use it if, yet again, they include your signature file.

A lot of websites have a guest book where people leave a small comment about the site. Sign the guest book with good compliments about what you have seen on the site. People do visit guest books more than you think and this is a great way to advertise.

Sponsored Links

So where did all these blogs come from? How did they get from an underground geek toy to a mainstream tool that has revolutionized politics, journalism, marketing and the media?

I always find that when I learn about a new technology or way of doing something online, the geeks have already been there (and I say the word ‘geek’ with complete affection ? I’m one too!). Before business became inseparable from the computer, email or the internet, the academics and tinkerers were there first, kicking the tires and playing with the technology. Blogging was no exception.

Many of the earliest internet geeks wrote online journals detailing interesting links and points of view. As this was before programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver, everything was done by hand - and that was a huge hassle. Each time you updated the site, you ran the risk of breaking links inside the website and leaving your readers stranded with the dreaded ‘page not found’ error. Eventually, the computer programmers and web designers became fed up with all of this manual work and created their own software to automate the process of updating their journal websites. Thus the weblog was born.

First, go to google and type “dan kennedy” into the search box. At the present time I get about 49,200 results!

Now, type in “jason blackston” into the search box. Well, it’s quite a drop from the 49,200 results Dan Kennedy received. At only 123 results, I’ve got a ways to go to catch old Dan!

Nevertheless, the more articles that I submit to various ezines and the more websites that I have on the internet, my search results are going to continue to grow!

So what does this mean for you and me. Good question. You can establish credibility with potential clients by using the google search. Often times, people approach me wondering what I can offer them. What do I know? How can I help? The list goes on and on…

So what I tend to do, is send them to http://www.google.com and tell them to do a search for “jason blackston” They’ll find old articles, news, and websites. This allows them to gain a better perspective of who you are and what you can offer them.

9 out of 10 times, they’re impressed and want to learn more about me. This is great news and it generally leads to a positive relationship and potential sales.

Do you want an amazingly simple trick to move far ahead of your competition and increase sales? With this free, no- software little tweak, you will be able to put customized information into a web page that is different for everyone you invite to visit. It is incredibly simple; seriously, I promise! All that you need is a very basic understanding of HTML, like how to make hyperlinks, and I will teach you everything else. Sound fair?

What can you do with this, you may be wondering? Well, if you have a newsletter, you can create a link to your web site and the page displayed could have your subscribers first name where ever you want it. It doesn’t have to be their first name either; it could quite literally be any custom variable that your newsletter managing service/script/program has saved for each of your subscribers — their last name, email address, snail mail address, gender, age, favorite color, etc.

But we don’t have to stop there, not at all. You can go on and use as many variables as you want, not just one. We’ll thoroughly cover this.

If you go strictly by the numbers, Yahoo, MSN and Google are the “Big 3″ of search engines and directories. Between them, they index millions and millions of pages in their directories. Although Google claims to index over 4 billion.

However, that’s a subject for a different day. The point is, out of all those millions and millions of pages, there’s room for only a very few websites at the top of the results pages.

That means, if you go strictly by the number of indexed web pages in their directories, you have a better chance of winning the lottery, than getting high enough in the results pages to where it’s going to make a significant difference in your traffic. That’s not my opinion, it’s a fact!

You’re simply playing a game YOU CANNOT WIN!

So what can you do about it? The first thing you need to do is forget about the search engines–period! Just forget about them!

If you’ve ever been to a popular forum hosted by a singal indivual, you would probably notice that most of the members of said forum take the owner or moderators advice as gold. Allan Gardyne is a good example of this, with his affiliate advice forum. Whenever he posts, people listen and will actively revolve their own decisions around his.

Think of it this way, you build up a huge site, where you discuss and release articles designed to help people restore old cars. After a few months/years your site is relatively well known in the field of car restoration. People begin to rely on your knowledge and the knowledge avaible at your website. One day, you get the brilliant idea of designing and selling an ebook revolved around car restoration, and everything you’ve picked up over the years. When people realize YOU are selling the book, that YOU wrote it, they will be clamoring to buy it from YOU! You have built up the trust and satisfaction of these members, and they strongly believe that your book is the end all be all of car restoration.

What is the most important skill you can possess as an Internet Marketer?

Your words!

The words you choose to use in your ad copy, in your sales letters and on your website will determine your success in sales!

Improve your “word” skills daily. Read the ads that come to your mailbox (spam) and learn what words others are using to SELL their product. More important read your competitors ads. What words do they use to SELL their product?

Carl Jung did a study and has determined people fall into one of 4 groups:

1. Thinkers

2. Feelers

3. Sensors

4. Intuitors

Thinkers are detailed oriented, logical and their fear is criticism. They will check and recheck facts. Targeting this group you will need to use factual numbers, precise words outlining benefits of saving money and value for money spent. Be professional and conservative giving the thinker facts and space to make their decision.

Feelers are risk takers and highly competitive. Entrepreneurs and investors fall into this category. They are assertive and confident and do not have time to waste time. To target this group you will need to use “strength” words, saving time, money and appeal to health related issues. Be quick and confident with your words to attract a “feeler”.

We have dealt with the tags so the search engines should be happy when they find you, now you have to shove your site in a few places that get indexed on a daily basis.

This ensures that your website will get indexed by google, yahoo and alike as quickly as possible. These next 4 steps are free and necessary for the continued growth of your internet business.

The first site we want to visit is http://craigslist.org When you get to the site you will want to find the small biz ads section and find the relevant area for you. If you don’t live in the USA or England then please use the area closest to you.

Please respect this site and do not spam it, he provides a valuable service and you will be banned if you misuse it.

Add your website, make sure you make use of the title tags as described in DIY seo prt 2 (just google the title if you haven’t read it) and you will get a valuable link from a high PR site for a week or so. Because Craig’s gets indexed on a daily basis your site will be included by the bots.

You’ve launched your web site. You’ve implemented a public relations campaign and spent oodles of money advertising in trade journals, magazines and newspapers. But your site’s daily visitors are still in single digits and your sales are…well let’s just say that early retirement is no longer an option.

Now what?

Perhaps it’s time to try email marketing. Or, to be specific, an email newsletter. After all, they require minimal effort to produce, and are proven to increase sales.

Of course, there are many other reasons why email newsletters make good business sense. Here’s just a few of them:

• You can create a marketing campaign on a shoestring budget.

• You can measure the results and find out what works and what doesn’t.
• You can build a personal relationship with a large group of people.
• Your subscribers pick YOU when they opt-in to your list.
• You can track customer behavior.
• You can collect user information for specific, targeted campaigns…the list goes on and on.

So what are you waiting for. It’s time to take the next step and put the power of email newsletters to work for you.

Starting Your Email Newsletter Campaign

According to the dictionary, the definition of the word “overture” is as follows:

“An opening or initiating move toward negotiations, a new relationship, an agreement, etc.; a formal or informal proposal or offer.”

Hmmmmmmmm…very interesting definition–especially that part about “a new relationship.”

I think pay-per-click giant Overture should look up the definition of their own company name, because they appear to be breaching their “relationship” with their customers big time!

Here are the most common complaints:

• Suspicions that competitors are clicking on their listings just to cost them money.
• Competitors bidding up the top three positions to ridiculous amounts, ensuring that everyone loses money.
• Fear of new, naive competitors coming onto the scene ready to throw away their money and driving up Overture’s exorbitant bids even higher.
• Wild fluctuations in bids. The top bid can double or even triple within just a few days.
• The slow, frustrating, and time intensive process of maintaining listings and changing bids.
• Poor, arrogant and unsympathetic customer service and support.

So, why hasn’t Overture done anything about the complaints? Because, and I’m going to as blunt as I possibly can here– they don’t care about you. They only care about your money! Arrogance and greed seems to be the common thread that bonds the major search engines.