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What am I talking about well 1,173,109,925 is the number of current number of Internet users.
Take a minute to digest this for a bit.
There are 1.1 Billion people to sell your product to!!! Imagine what you can do if you can reach just .1%.
So now what do you do?
Do not do what I did
I tried to learn all there was to know about HTML, marketing, auto responders bought just about every product on selling - only to become frustrated.
There is no way to learn all there is to know about an online business. Forget HTML, my brain likes certain things and this is not one of them, and every time you turn around there is a latest and greatest product that will finally decode the internet marketing mystery.
There are some tried and true ways to make a living on the Internet.
- You have to create a relationship with your prospects.
Think about the last time you bought something why did you purchase from this particular store or person when I am sure you had other choices. One word - the relationship you felt for the brand, store or the person selling you the item. I recently bought a mattress and I bought it from a particular sales person because I liked him. I cannot remember the name of the store, but I remember him.
So how do you do that on the net, well through a news letter offered free on your website.
- Create an informational product.
Yes I can hear you now how can I do this, I have no idea what to say or write and if I did how to get it all on a CD or pdf is just beyond me.
It is easier than you think.
Computers can allow you to record an audio product, burn it to a CD and even allow you to sell it on ebay if you wish. All you need a genuine interest in helping your prospects rather than just making money.
Think about what you know, your hobbies for example, do you love pets. One of my first products was a small report on how I control my Airedale Terriers allergies naturally.
Let your imagination run wild and see opportunity.
About the Author:
Joy Cassell is the publisher of www.life-optimized.com and ezine of the same name. Both are resources for the small business owners and visit http://www.life-optimized.com/instant-cd-product/index.php for the video ebook Instant CD products.
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Do you know what happens If a person has a good online experience?
They just might pass it on to a friend while encouraging that friend to forward it to their friends.
That my friends is what makes viral marketing so powerful.
There are many free advertising resources available to online marketers. What most people don't realize is that they can get their marketing message sent out to a targeted group of people by using viral marketing tactics and best of all, it's free!
So what is viral marketing all about? By following these suggestions you may find that viral marketing can be an effective part of your marketing campaign.
- The most common type of viral marketing is when people share quality experiences with friends. Some examples are software products, online services, online marketing tools, free advertising resources, etc. The product or service must be beneficial enough to encourage people to want to share it with others.
- If you want to have your viral email message forwarded frequently then you should place a relevant marketing offer in every outgoing email message. It is important to make sure that the incentives are good enough and that the people getting them feel that they are of sufficient quality to avoid any displeasure or backlash. Your offer should be something specific, such as free software, an e-book, or maybe a promotional item that you have available for your company.
- One way to avoid complaints is not to consider a name and address that is received through viral marketing as an opt in. This means that after the referral email is sent you should not add them to any subscription list. Ask them in the referral email if they would like to receive future mailings, allowing them to opt in.
- Response rates increase dramatically when people see that a message is coming from someone they know. So, personalize your referral emails. The subject
is important because it can identify an email as friendly. The subject line should show three things about the email. It should identify the email as an advertisement, that it includes a special offer and that the email was sent from a friend.
- If you can understand what makes a marketing message worthy of being passed along to others and incorporate it into your offer or program then you will be able to drive traffic to your website.
- Your website can also be used to take advantage of viral marketing. Create informative articles and post then to free article sites. Make sure the title is unique and that at least one link to your website appears in the article. Don't forget to have an Email This Page To A Friend link on your website, you can find the code out on the Internet. Another suggestion is to write free articles for a website that is related to your topic of interest. Especially one with a good newsletter or that distributes articles.
- Email newsletters are a great way to enjoy the benefits of viral marketing. By providing quality information in your newsletter, readers will be more likely to pass it on to
their friends. Remember to always include a Send to a Friend link in your newsletter along with a Subscribe to Newsletter link. This will make it easier for you to gather
new subscribers to your newsletter.
- Viral marketing can be extremely useful for a one time campaign, but it can also be a great tool for expanding your business over time. Whether your goal is branding or to drive more visitors to your website you can use viral marketing in a manner to encourage others to pass along your messages. Drafting a message with a beneficial offer for pass along is what viral marketing is all about.
- Viral marketing is something that happens naturally, your message should be something of interest while offering something valuable in order for your message to be successful.
- What it comes down to is that your viral message must be perceived as having value. To most of us entertainment has value. We all like fun, interactive content that inspires us to pass it on to a friend. How many jokes have you received in your inbox?
So, should you try to incorporate viral marketing into your email campaigns? Yes! There is no doubt about it, viral marketing will allow you to reach more than just your target audience and without much cost. Just remember that viral marketing is another strategy to be used in your online marketing campaign and is one small step toward achieving your objectives.
One last thought. Your viral marketing message can offer one of the most amazing incentives around and contain some of the best content found on the Internet, but if people visit your website and don't get what was promised, you may just see viral marketing at it's worst.
Feel free to forward this to a friend.
Copyright 2006 Joe Rispoli
About the Author:
If you want to leverage what you are already doing to promote your online business then visit UcanTo.com where Joe Rispoli has has put together many resources for online business owners and offers them for free. You can also subscribe to his Free Advertising Resources Ezine. Email Marketing Software is included with subscription.
Provided by www.life-optimized.com. A Joy Cassell Inc Company. Check out www.life-optimized.com for home and online business how to, marketing, and business development.
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By : Ian McLennan
Submitted 2007-07-03 11:33:09
So you have a website, you have a great product or service to sell, you have traffic coming in, and sales are happening. And still, lots of traffic is "getting away." How do you wring every last ounce of value from your traffic? That is exactly what a site testing service will help figure out.
Site testing is the scientific way to determine what actually works to make your potential customers jump and heed your call to action. A brief glance into the world of website conversion testing includes some pretty foreign sounding terms -- like Taguchi testing, multivariate testing and split run or A/B testing. Don't let these terms intimidate you. Website conversion testing is fast becoming a "must-do" for e-commerce sites these days, and it's easy to see why.
With the technology available today, no one, from the novice website owner to the expert who runs multiple websites, has an excuse for not optimizing their websites and continually improving their conversion rates.
Many website owners use what is called A/B testing methods, otherwise known as "split testing." A/B testing allows you to direct traffic to two different versions of your web page to determine which page sells better. Whether it's the content, design or copy that proves more attractive, something makes more customers buy from one page than the other.
The process is fairly simple. The first step is to create two different landing pages. You might test different headlines, different versions of your sales copy, even different graphics or colors. Then the traffic is split between the versions, and data is collected that will tell you which page converts better. Good information, certainly, and can definitely help boost conversions when it's done right.
Two more thorough approaches are multivariate testing, and Taguchi testing. With some of the hosted testing solutions in the market today, website owners are no longer limited to the basic A/B split testing methods. Today, multiple elements can be tested at the same time, which allows business owners to determine exactly which phrases, images, content or other variables perform best, and in what combinations.
The multivariate testing solution takes each element and combines it with the other elements in every possible combination. Your site traffic is split between all the various versions. Conversion information is collected for each version, and you'll know which is the best performing version of all the possible combinations. So you can make educated decisions on what to keep and what to change on your site. While this is a much more thorough way to test, it will take longer to get results than an A/B split test, so you need either a pretty heavy stream of traffic, or the patience to wait a few weeks or longer for actionable results.
By far the most effective solution, with the fastest actionable results, is a true Taguchi style testing solution. To create a Taguchi test, the site owner selects which elements to test, and creates several variations of each. The variables may include headlines, promotional banners, buttons, graphics, testimonials, copy blocks, pop-ups...any element on your page that you want to check. This is done in much the same way as the multivariate test, with one major advantage.
The true advantage to using the Taguchi algorithm? Because of the scientific way the test is run, it becomes statistically valid with a much smaller pool of visitors. So you'll get actionable results must faster. And faster results means your site will be making more money, faster.
Website testing is a major part of website optimization these days, one that can not be ignored by any online business owner, no matter how big or small you are.
Ready to start your own testing program? These four things will help you be most successful:
- determine what your conversion goals are;
- know your customer base and what they are looking for;
- be creative and try some "out of the box" ideas; and most of all,
- test, test, test and optimize, optimize, optimize until you have created and designed the best combination of words, graphics and designs.
Test your site, and learn the best way to squeeze every last ounce of potential out of your site traffic stream.
Author Resource:- Testing is an important part of any online marketing effort -- but only Fortune 500 companies can afford the expensive, enterprise level testing solutions available today through offermatica.com or taguchinow.com. Would you like to test your site? Give us your opinion and join the Revolution in site conversion testing!
Article From Headline Articles
Provided by www.life-optimized.com a Joy Cassell Inc Company.Visit www.life-optmized.com to learn about home business opportunities, how to, marketing and small business success.
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If you have not yet discovered Craigslist.org, then you may be missing out on one of the best, free advertising resources out there. Craigslist is ranked the 41st largest in the world by Alexa. This means that millions of people visit this website every month. Classifieds stay posted on Craigslist for 45 days, plus these classified ads sometimes find their way into Google search results!
Posting ads on Craigslist regularly can be a great help in getting your website indexed and drive traffic to your website.
Follow these simple rules and you can drive traffic to your site regularly.
- Do not post multiple times in the same category or the wrong category.
- Do not post to multiple sites.
- Do not post too many ads too quickly.
- If you post multiple ads, use different titles for each ad and modify the body. If possible try and change any links to your site within the ads.
- Opportunity type ads are only accepted under small business services.
- Another suggestion is to use different email addresses for each ad. If you have your own domain this should not be a problem. Just use different prefixes for your domain and you will then be able to approve each posting confirmation email.
- Post only a few ads a day, then wait a few more days to continue. This will drive traffic to your site and prevent you from getting banned.
What is the best way to use Craigslist effectively?
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Target your audience.
Know who you are trying to attract to your business! Once you do know your target audience you can then aim to reach that audience by posting in the correct advertising category on Craigslist. Even though Craigslist claims to have over 4 billion hits a month, what really matters is that your business is in the right place to be found by the right people.
Reaching your target audience is much more important then reaching a large audience. Craigslist offers advertisers the opportunity to promote their business through a number of different sections and categories.
This makes it easier for people to find the information they need, which should be your information!
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Marketing strategy.
Not only can you drive traffic to your website by placing ads in Craigslist but you can also participate in the discussion forums. Just make sure you provide useful information and accurate answers to questions relating to your business. Do not forget to place a link to your website in your signature and be careful when posting that your messages are not mistaken for spam.
Creating a successful online business costs money and advertising it does not have to cost you more. Take advantage of Craigslist and other similar websites that are free for you to use.
Here are some other free advertising resources that can be used to promote your online business.
- Trade-pals.com is a directory of business professionals that provides leads to its members.
- MySpace.com can be used to join in on business group discussions.
- Ziggs.com gives you a detailed profile that is placed into categories that can be searched on by people seeking your services.
- Pr.com is a press release website.
- Linkedin.com is a business networking site.
It is worth your time to take advantage of these free services.
Why not let them provide free advertising for your business 24 hours a day?
Copyright 2007 Joe Rispoli
Joe Rispoli has been providing free advertising resources to online marketers for over 10 years. Find out how you can join his team at TheBerryTreeTour.com and take advantage of his experience.
Provided by www.life-optimized.com. A Joy Cassell Inc Company.Check out www.life-optimized.com for home and online business how to, marketing, and business development.
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If you're just starting your business then ezine advertising could be the most cost effective way of beginning your marketing campaign.
Why?
- It makes it easier to reach targeted prospects
- It gets results fast.
- It gives you the opportunity to test the effectiveness of your ads.
- It allows you to calculate your return on investment.
Before advertising in an ezine it is important to know what kind of subscribers they target, the content and what is the number of ads per ezine. There are many
ezines available so make sure you focus on the ones that relate to your topic and thus bring more interested visitors to your website.
While an ezine that has a ton of subscribers may look attractive, I suggest that you check out smaller, highly targeted ezines and test your ads in those.
You'll get more bang for your buck!
Ezines with smaller subscriber lists usually have more detailed, informative content and do not have to many ads per issue. This means that your ads have a much better chance of being read. If your ads are relevant to the content of the ezine then your click through rates could be very high.
Tracking your ezine ads will help you determine which ones are driving traffic to your website. You can save thousands of dollars by only using successful ads. So do yourself a favor and track your ezine ads and know what ads are working for your business.
If you have your own domain then you can track every ad by using a specific redirect link that is only used for that particular ad. Or you could add a question mark at the
end of the url and check for that on your websites statistics listing. For example, domainname.com/pagename.html?trackingcodehere. Check with your hosting company to find out how to access your websites statistics log.
Writing ads that focus on what you offer are much better then ads with a bunch of hype and false promises. You're ads should focus on the end result only!
Most ezines allow about 5 to 7 lines of text with 65 characters on each line for an ad, so keep your ads short. Remember to generate interest with your ads and once you capture a lead then do the selling! Use your ads to direct subscribers to your webpage.
Using compelling headlines for your ads will help them pull, just remember to research what is already being advertised in the ezine so you do not waste your time or money by posting a repeat ad.
What is the difference between a simple classified ad and solo or top sponsor ads?
- Classified Ads can cost between 5 to 25 dollars and they tend to run faster. One issue of an ezine could have 10 to 20 classified ads that are usually grouped in the middle or end of the issue. What you may not know is that classified sections in an ezine are often times just scanned by the reader and thus are not very effective. Some ezines do offer free classified ads in exchange for a subscription.
- Sponsor Ads are more expensive then classified ads but can be more effective. The ezines only have about 2 to 3 ads per issue and they are are spaced out in the ezine between the content or are at the top of the issue.
- Solo Ads do get the most exposure, but they are the most expensive of the three since they are mailed out seperate from the ezine to the subscribers.
Starting with classified ads may be a good idea, since you can get them for free. You can then track your ads and determine which ones are pulling before you spend more money on solo and sponsor ads. Determining the effectiveness of your ads through testing is extremely important when advertising with ezines.
One tidbit of advice is to run your ads more then once per ezine. Alot of people are running one ad one time and if it does not pull then they switch ezines and run the same ad again. Try running the ad at least twice, even if there are no results the first time.
This will give your ad more exposure and readers will take notice and think that other subscibers like it. Your ad will get more attention. Then, instead of moving on to another ezine, switch ads. Then run that ad twice. If you do this with all your ads you may be surprised at the profits you can get for one ad and not another. This will allow you to get more results from each and every ezine that you advertise with.
Advertising with ezines can be profitable but it takes time to test, track and place your ads. If you can just find 4 to 8 profitable ezines then your business will grow!
Copyright 2006 Joe Rispol
About the Author:
If you want to leverage what you are already doing to promote your online business then visit UcanTo.com where Joe Rispoli has has put together many resources for online business owners and offers them for free. You can also subscribe to his Free Advertising Resources Ezine. Email Marketing Software is included with subscription.
Provided by www.life-optimized.com. A Joy Cassell Inc Company. Check out www.life-optimized.com for home and online business how to, marketing, and business development.
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In the November 2006 edition of Muscle and Fitness magazine (yes I have very eclectic reading habits) there is a profile of bodybuilder Colt Wynn. Why is he special? Well he is paraplegic.
Colt lost the use of his legs at the age of 14 in a hunting accident, and he is remarkable; if you can pick up a copy of M&F November 2006 it is worth the read.
sure I would like to walk again, but I wouldn't change the accident and what I experienced from it. |
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wow ! |
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Most of us will never experience such a life altering or threatening injury but we can learn from his clarity and fearless approach to living.
- He accepted (no doubt with the typical struggle) his injury and the limitations imposed.
- He got off, what I like to call the mental hamster wheel the endless replaying of life's unfair/unkind moments never moving forward STUCK.
- He learn to use what was available to him his upper body understanding that he could still participate in his own way in the activities he enjoyed
- He participated in life despite the fear of loosing to normal individuals
- He clearly moved beyond the fair of FAILURE.
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This story moved me to tears, not out of pity but as a source of encouragement.
How do you deal with your fears? |
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TOOL KIT
- Be honest with your fear, look it in the eye
- Get off the hamster wheel. Yes analyze problems and come up with solutions but STOP the incessant reliving of the event. Understand there is a fine line between analyzing and using this as an excuse for lack of action.
- Look dispassionately at your option, be honest remember this is your life.
- Assume OWNERSHIP of the situation and TAKE ACTION.
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The Power of Acceptance |
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The prayer of Serenity asks for courage to change the things we can, most of us spend our lives in a state of denial regarding what we can change.
We seem to refuse to accept the things we cannot change, (reliving them constantly) while abdicating the responsibility TO CHANGE the things we can. |
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WHAT DO I MEAN? |
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Early in my 9 to 5 career, while I was searching for a sense of direction I had my first taste of office politics. At this time I was not equipped to manage this and as a result I was eventually fired. No reason was ever given to me other than this is not working out and legally none was needed as I lived in a right to work state. Now to say I was depressed and confused would be an understatement after all I had met ALL my goals and quotas even earning record bonuses unheard of before (this it turns out what the problem but I am getting ahead of myself.) so I knew I was not underperforming. I eventually discovered the real story and it is the typical one of the mediocre 10 year veteran being rattled by the new kid and decided to make sure I did not get promoted over her. She did such a good job, that I was told to leave as I was seen as anti-team. |
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| THE MORAL OF THE STORY |
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I spent about a year replaying this injustice over and over despite the fact I had found a better paying job with a substantial pay increase. My mind was filled with this toxic energy; I was on the hamster wheel.
Until I discovered the power of acceptance and realized how important it was in turning my life around. It is without a doubt the first step on the ladder up to emotional and financial greatness.
Do not confuse acceptance with inaction, I am not saying we accept wrongs and do nothing (in my case my legal options were non-existent, but I became determined to achieve GREATNESS.) What I am saying is to accept the unpredictable nature of this existence, that our most difficult moments are our best teachers. |
Charlotte Joko Beck says it this way:
we have to face the pain we have been running from. In fact we need to learn to rest in it and its searing power to transform. |
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We cannot transform our attitudes and consequently our relationships, career, financial futures and in a larger sense our world until we stop wasting energy resisting what is. Only then is our unique GENIUS IS RELEASED.
So going back to my story, my firing was the first step to the wonderful life I have now. I would not have achieved financial success with out having my cage rattled. |
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TOOL KIT
- It is no coincidence that all the great religions teach about the power of acceptance/forgiveness It is the first step to transformation.
- Nothing in your life will change, as it did with mine unless YOU see your problems as a source for growth and GREATNESS.
- Time and energy are wasted consistently reliving the injustice
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Optimize your attitude and your life, career and finances will follow. |
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Take everything you THINK you know about career management
And THROW it out the window.
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Really, throw it out the window.
The workplace today is nothing like it was ten years ago and there is no going back. The world of our parents, a world where employers concerned themselves with the long term; or even the overall moral of their employees - that is gone. A world where one can expect to stay with a company for twenty plus years, retire with a modest pension and health care is non existant.
The reality is far harsher.
Most CEOs do not see past the next fiscal report to Wall Street, or the short term politics of the board of directors. While small businesses are being developed to be sold. Most of you reading this will go through a downsizing due to a sale of you place of employment.
Part of this change is due to the global economy, and the downward pressure it places on the wages of the middle class.
There is very little any political party can do about this as the global economy is here to stay.
So what do you do?
There are great advantages to this for the average Joe, and I have lived on both the managerial side making the decisions and on the side that was downsized
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Do not make the mistake and assume that your boss is looking after your career. If you do not have a five year plan with specific goals you are no better off than a hamster using its exercise wheel, running in place and getting nowhere.
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Do not buy into the old rules of career planning, the average person will stay at their current job no more than four years. Job hopping does not carry the same stigma it once did. In most cases THE ONLY way to advance your career and get an increased in salary is to promote yourself by taking another job.
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Job searches MUST include networking (this is easier than you think,) not just responding to ads. There is a large non advertised market.
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If you spend more than you make, and save nothing you will have no capacity to walk away from a bad situation.
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For example I remember reading about a certain banking institution that decided to outsource to India, (the global economy I mentioned above) but the kicker was the following the workers who lost their jobs had to TRAIN their replacements to get any severance. As you can imagine most did just that as they could not afford to go without the money. This is the kind of desperate behavior employers count on. FREE YOURSELVES from this tyranny SAVE. This is easier than you think.
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The average worker, if willing to think outside the box, and act courageously CAN achieve financial security DESPITE the points I mentioned above.
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Joy Cassell is a Life Transisitional Coach (www.life-optimized.com) Visit for information on the Life-Optimized Coaching Gym or sign up for a free coaching session.
LIVE OPTIMIZED! |
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