Internet marketing specialist

Have your product sales slowed down? Do you want to give a new lease of life to one of your digital or small-ticket products?

At home, I’ve earned the title of ‘Queen of the left-overs’. Did you know that left-over spaghetti sauce can be recycled? Add a bit of cumin and chilli, it becomes taco sauce; mixed with a bit of white sauce, you have a lasagna sauce; add a few vegies, wrap the lot in puff pastry and you get a pastie, etc.

Using the same principles, you can recycle a product and market it using a different mix: change your promotion, sell it elsewhere, use it to barter, bundle it with another product, etc.

Start recycling a product using one of the following strategies:

1. Auction your product on eBay or another auction site. How much are customers prepared to pay for your product? Use this strategy to research your market and to experiment with a new selling outlet. Who knows, people in their bidding frenzy may pay more than you ever imagined!

2. Reposition your product. Review your promotional and pricing strategies and give your product a new image. Change your sales letter (including words and graphics), add testimonials, increase or lower the price, etc. Now sell your ‘new’ product.

3. Offer your product as a bonus with the purchase of another product. Sell the bundle as ‘this month’s special’, ‘buy one get one free’ or ‘value pack’. The bonus should boost your sales especially if you point out the dollar value of the bonus e.g. ‘valued at…’ and add a sense of urgency ‘limite/d time offer till (date)’.

4. Give to get. Ask visitors on your website to complete a survey and reward their effort with a gift, your product. Provided your product is relevant to the type of information you are seeking, this should yield a list of qualified leads and supply you with

   new ideas to create products and boost your business.

5. Sell your product as a promotional item. This is a strategy I have used very successfully. I’ve bundled signed copies of my book from my first printing batch into packs of ten. Businesses bought them at volume discount price and gave them as gifts to their loyal customers.

6. Increase your database by giving away your product for free as an incentive to join your mailing list. Your offer can be advertised for free on the online free stuff sites. When visitors are picking up their freebies, capture their email addresses and you will gain a valuable mailing list. (Note: this database building strategy will only work with digital products or else you will be out of pocket if you have to pay shipping costs.)

7. Swap your product for things you need for your own business e.g. exchange your ebook for a software or another ebook. Your savings will make up for your profit loss. At a conference, I swapped my book for books from my colleagues.

8. Organise an online contest and offer your product as the winning prize. This a cheap price to pay for free advertising for your product through online contest directories.

9. Donate your product for an attendance or raffle prize at non-profit associations’ events. In return, the organisation usually promotes your business by giving you an advertising space on their website or promotional flyers.

10. Approach businesses with complementary products and find out if they would be interested in bundling their product with yours. Build on each other’s equity and share promotional costs and profits.

Left-overs are delicious. Recycle your product for a new lease of life.

© 2005 Henriette Martel-Lawson

Henriette Martel-Lawson is a website strategist, professional speaker and author of ’200 Marketing Ideas for Your Website’.You will find free articles, tools and resources from the same author at http://www.marketingcues.com

Wouldn’t you like to know all the Internet marketing “secrets” that have made me the man I am today?

I live in a house way too big for my beautiful wife and myself. We eat three square meals a day and can snack anytime we feel like it! We drive our luxurious Cavalier to the beach and swim anytime we want (when I’m not busymaking money on the Internet and the beach is not closedbecause of E. coli levels or ice fishing).

It wasn’t always this way. I remember just about fifty-twoshort years ago when I had no clothes. The doctor had to wrap me up in a blanket. But I applied myself for decadesand finally starting making money on the Internet.

Did you hear about the guy that made fifty million dollarsin one day on eBay? Peanuts! If you want to make really huge amounts of cash from e-commerce, listen to a guy who’sbeen there.

Why should I tell you (a perfect stranger) all my tricksof the trade? Why don’t I just keep the information to myself and make a ton of cash with that knowledge?

These are good questions. This proves that you are thinkingand that people on the Internet are not stupid or gullible.

The real reason I am sharing this information is because I like people. In fact, I like you. I consider you one of my closest friends because you are interested in my onepassion, Internet marketing. The fact that you have read this far

proves your interest. Because you are so smart and motivated, I want to help you.

The fact that I am going to release only 5,000 copies of my Internet marketing “secrets” at $5,000 a pop, for a cool $25,000,000, has absolutely nothing to do with money.

You see, I don’t really need the money. We only have three more payments to go on the Cavalier. My fridge is full of Canadian beer. So, money is obviously not my prime motivation.

My charging you $5,000 for my Internet marketing “secrets” is my way of giving back to the community. Really, I’m doing all this to help you because I want to leave behind a legacy. I want people to say (after I’m dead and have no clue about what’s going on) what a great philanthropist I was.

By the way, the lawyer at the legal clinic said I should tell you two words: “Earnings Disclaimer”.

Even though anyone as smart and motivated and good-looking as you is sure to make billions on the Internet working two or less hours a week, he insisted that I tell you. (Aren’tthese creative types hilarious?)

He says: “There is no guarantee that you will make anymoney. Some persons are stupid, lazy and ugly and have zero chance of success.”

What a party pooper!

RESOURCE BOX:

J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over twenty-five years.

For profitable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/

Why is profiting on the Internet so hard for most people? If there is so much money to made, why do so many continue to struggle? There are secrets to profiting wildly online, and I assume you’re as deserving as the next person, so what rationale could you possibly use for justifying missing out?

First of all, it is helpful to understand the prevailing mentality among not-so-successful Internet marketers, so you can learn to avoid it and join the ranks of the top one percent of marketers who are able to enjoy true lifestyle – the combination of time and money.

One aspect of this mentality is the false belief among some marketers that is possible to profit long-term without offering potential customers something of real value, let alone underpromising and overdelivering..

If you only learn one thing in your lifetime about business, it should be the full awareness of the extraordinary power of delivering incredible value to your potential customer, whether you wish to sell your own product or make an affiliate sale.

Another aspect is short-sightedness – the desire to make a quick sale without even considering the possibility of ongoing, residual profits. If you can do the work once and get paid forever by expending the same effort that it takes to make a one-time sale, how crazy would you be to pass up the opportunity?

If you couple vision with the desire to overdeliver and overdeliver and overdeliver some more, then it is very possible that great wealth may come your way at some time in the future.

Obviously, the concept sounds good, but what are the mechanics of turning your dreams into reality via the Internet?

To generate substantial Internet profits, you must help others to succeed in order to succeed yourself. Pushing a hard sell will keep you at your job for a very long time, so why not have fun giving your potential customers what they want, and profit wildly at the

same time? So, without further ado, here are several prerequisites for creating a true Internet empire.

First of all, you must help others to profit in order to profit yourself. What does that mean? Simply put, you must create your own business model, or become part of one, that makes it easy for other potential marketers to generate massive traffic, which in turn should yield massive profits.

Secondly, you must be part of a profit structure that has the potential to go on forever. The only business model with the possibility of doing this is network marketing. Imagine where you would be today if you had taken advantage of a solid network marketing opportunity five years ago.

Thirdly, you must leverage the explosive growth potential of a model such as network marketing by turning the massive traffic it can generate into affiliate sales, or sales of your own instantly deliverable digital products.

Fourth, you must create or obtain a free information product(preferably an Adobe Acrobat PDF) that can easily be downloaded and transmitted, and be certain that the potential recipient has a huge incentive to pass it on. I allow anyone who downloads my free special report to change my two-tier affiliate link to their own, thus giving them a huge incentive to pass it on and earn substantial affiliate commissions.

Ultimately, your success will be determined by your ability to make a visitor’s time well-spent when they visit your website or read your newsletter. Never underestimate the awesome power of going the extra mile!

**Attn Ezine editors/Site owners** Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed below.

Feel free to substitute your referral link in place of ours in the resource box. Thanks!

Wanna learn how to generate thousands of highly targeted visitors, absolutely free? => http://www.iwantchoices.com

Every online business strives to make their website unique. In my experience, there are five fundamental tactics that every online business should employ. Some are intuitive, some are not. I have found that businesses find several of them ‘inconvenient’ and choose to ignore them. Review the list and see if you are guilty of avoiding a useful tactic.

1. Use Professional-looking branding

If you were to choose one item from this list not to ignore it should be branding graphics. Professional graphics can make or break your company. If you don’t have strong, well-thought out branding, you are wasting your time selling on the internet. This doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune on a high-priced designer. It means you have to decide what your business is about and make it clear to visitors the moment they hit your home page. The key here is strategy, not pretty pictures.

2. Make your Products Easy to Buy

I picked “Make it Easy to Buy’ as the tagline for my online marketing company because I believe most online businesses get that wrong. Intuitively, you know it’s true, because you can’t always buy an online product you want. You have chosen your item, you have your credit card in hand, but you just can’t make it happen. Ask three people who are not associated with your company to log onto your website and attempt to buy a product while you observe. This is always eye-opening. Do this today and you’ll learn something about why your sales are stagnant.

3. Reward your Customers

It seems strange, but most companies don’t really thank their customers for buying from them. By that I mean REALLY thank them, by offering a future discount, a special newsletter or something that moves the relationship forward. No one is required to buy from you. If they are

willing to purchase your product, make sure they are rewarded. People, who are rewarded, will repeat the experience, it’s as simple as that.

4. Partner with others in your Field

This tactic separates the successful from the very successful. Many businesses jealously guard their information and never look outside for inspiration. The best way to grow your business is to partner with others who market to the same customers. Not only do I recommend that you seek out those in complimentary businesses, I encourage you to look at others doing the same thing you are. Approach them and see how you can be stronger together. This may seem threatening at first, but once you realize that more resources and more ideas make you stronger, the quicker you’ll see the value. Obviously, don’t give away proprietary secrets, but find common ground and you’ll be amazed what can happen.

5. Provide Content Variety

Everyone has a favorite way to access information. The internet makes it mandatory that you read text to get where you’re going. But don’t be limited to this method. Use audio, video, flash movies and anything else you can try to diversify your message. Don’t be afraid to try teleseminars or pod casting. Use it as a test. You don’t need to commit a huge budget to these tactics, but a small test will allay your fears and might point you toward a great new way to generate revenue.

Digital Media Works, Inc.(http://www.DigMediaWorks.com ) is an Internet marketing and design firm that specializes in solutions for e-commerce companies . . A seasoned 25+ year management/marketing professional , founder Stephanie Diamond is experienced in building profits in a broad range of product and services businesses . She created a line of multimedia software products that sold millions of copies for America Online .

“Forget words like ‘hard sell’ and ‘soft sell.’ That will only confuse you. Just be sure your advertising is saying something with substance, something that will inform and serve the consumer, and be sure you’re saying it like it’s never been said before.”– William Bernbach

I ran across the above quote earlier today andloved it so much it’s going to appear insidemy Marketing Tips 2 ebook.

And, like many times when we see a new wordor hear something in a new way, the oddestthings happen.

Today I also received an update from a programI’ve been participating in since it’s inception.So as not to embarass anyone – or myself forthat matter – I won’t tell you which one.

Suffice to say I’ve written to the owner ofthe program numerous times asking forclarification. Sure, I’m no doubt just havinga “blonde moment,” (no slam intended I assureyou!), but the fact of the matter is apparentlyI am not alone.

The email today says the program is doing verypoorly, very little in terms of revenue or useis happening.

And, it’s no surprise to me… unfortunately.

Logging into the member’s area is a nightmare,and once inside you truly haven’t a clue WHATit is you’re suppose to do next.

The emails that come to “help everyone” tendto be even more confusing. Informationoverload to the point that the point iscompletely and utterly lost.

Read Williams’ words above again and thentake it a step further.

It doesn’t matter if you truly

HAVE built abetter mouse trap or have the best programthe internet has every seen, if you don’texplain it for everyone to fully understandyou are doomed to failure.

I have this problem a lot Not doom, buthaving to take something I’m thinking ordoing – knowing full well I see the “bigpicture” – and then making sure, beyonda shadow of doubt, that the person who was NOT in on my brainstorming session willunderstand it, too.

If they can’t follow it, they can’t do it!

Yes, “it” may make perfect sense… to you!But, if you’re being asked over and overto explain “it” and you are still having problems promoting it or getting people involved, the problem lies not with them, but you!

Many of us are familiar with the wordsspeaking and/or writing “to the lowest common denominator.” This isn’t a put down, it’s a plain and simple fact.

Do choose your words carefully, and, whenyou THINK you are done, always remember to ask yourself, “Am I saying it correctly?”

If in doubt, seek a second opinion!

© Theresa Cahill – All Rights Reserved. Feel free to distribute this article. Please keep it intact and with the resource box included below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Theresa Cahill, a two decade veteran of marketing, is the owner of http://www.mywizardads.com and invites you to take a look at the services of MWA and download fr.ee helpful information and more at http://www.mywizardads.com/sitemap.html

As Thomas Edison famously said “genius is one per cent inspiration ninety nine per cent perspiration”. Internet marketing does not require genius, present company accepted of course, but it does need persistence of the one per cent decision, ninety nine per cent action variety. There is such a multitude of products, ideas and information out there that it is only too easy to start many different things only to drop them again when they don’t appear to be supplying the instant buckets of cash as promised for your $ 29.99 sign up fee. This is why around nine out of every ten internet marketers never make a sale, give up and become just another moaner about “the web just being full of scams and nothing else”. Don’t get me wrong there are certainly lots of scams out there but there are also a lot of good products that are being badly marketed with the promise of “instant riches “ when what is really required to make it work is thought, planning and a bit of good old fashioned persistence. There is a saying that is very popular in forums at the moment you haven’t failed until you stop trying, a little glib perhaps but also true. It can be difficult with a new project too keep on when nothing seems to be working but this is what separates those that make it and those that don’t.

Try a different angle

When your pay per click campaign seems to be doing nothing but eating up money with little or no return, and you seem to be caught up in a cycle of scanning keyword lists for the one cheap word that no one else thought of, or signing up for course after course that will give you “the inside track on adwords” then getting the words disabled by google again, just step back for a day. Put your campaigns on hold to stop the erosion of your remaining funds but don’t give up! Take a break and work on something else for a while, research some new affiliate programmes or brush up the look and feel of your site, anything to take your mind off

the problem for a while and get your focus on something else so that when you start work again you are fresh and out of the cycle of confusion that can happen when “ nothing seems to be going right”.

Take a hike

If all else fails and you are tired, broke and you just want to give up on running your own business, don’t ever forget that’s what it is, a business, then turn to the Germans for inspiration! When faced with a patient suffering mild depression a German doctor will sometimes prescribe “ a walk in the forest” as an alternative to medication. The savvy, and probably town bound marketeers alternative is to allow yourself to dream a little of what it will be like when you business is up and running and making rather than costing money. Take a little walk on the richer side of town look at the cars by the side of the road and decide which one you will buy when you make your business work, but not only which one but what model will it have a cd player, air conditioning, leather upholstery and top of the range sat nav? Will you even need to drive it yourself? Look at the houses a nice duplex maybe or a townhouse by the river? And the shops Armani or Luis Vuitton? All a bit aspirational but these are things that very few will ever get by working for someone else and it will help to put all thoughts of giving up out of your mind and replace them with a fresh determination to solve the problem. When the option of quitting is removed the mind clears and good thoughts take the place of the negative and the positive take their place. The only thing to give up is giving up itself.

Keep on keeping on!

Copyright © 2005

http://www.site-builder-review.com is a weekly tips avdice newsletter dedicated to helping people who want to make their own profitable website rather than the get rich quick schemes that promise you riches without the work. Free instantly downloadable ebook “The Affilliate Masters course” to help you get started.http://www.site-builder-review.com

I just received the following email from one of my mentees:

“I just got my first order ever. It was for $147. I think I am going to print it out and frame it!”

Heck yeah, frame that thing! This is a big moment.

Whether it is through BuidlingYourIdealPractice.com or TheArticleGuy.com, one of my greatest professional joys is hearing the excitement of a student, member or mentee who has made their first passive income.

3 steps to passive income

The student that emailed today is not in a traditional helping profession. She is a piano teacher. What’s great about this is that her success demonstrates that these principles work in any area of expertise.

Step 1 – Clearly define your niche.

This is where most entrepreneurs sabotage themselves at the start. Afraid to be too narrowly focused, they try to market to everyone.

Simply stated, if you do not have a specifically defined niche, you have no one to market to.

Step

2 – Identify a common problem in your niche.

What keeps your ideal client up at night worrying? What scares them? Where is their pain?

You can discover this by asking informally (asking just one person that fits your niche) or formally (survey, questionnaire, etc.)

Step 3 – Provide a solution to their problem in form they can use.

Help people solve their problems and you can have a customer or client for life.

Provide solutions in an easily accessible form, such as an e-book or audio CD, etc.

Enjoy your first order and every one after too.

Visit The Article Guy for more leading edge tips and tools for writing articles that bring you prospects, publicity and profits. You can also subscribe to our monthly Article Writing & Marketing Tips Newsletter. You are also invited to visit my Express-Start Article Writing Program for more information on the next article writing tele-seminar.

January — time for serious housekeeping and a website annual health checkup! As we make resolutions for ourselves, we can’t leave our website un-healthy a minute longer! You may not even realize your site is ailing.

Sick websites are just like sick people. They’re not as productive or functioning as they normally are. Broken links and outdated info compare to a sore throat and nagging cough. Ignored and left untreated will eventually lead to bigger problems ahead.

So prepare to take notes while you read this article. Print this out and grab a pen & paper, I’ll wait.

1. Remove outdated events or expired offers.Nothing is more unprofessional than outdated info. Ie, Sign up for our August Super Conference. Either revised it, or delete it. As you prepare for 2006 include your “still on the burner” projects on your site. Give your visitors something to look forward to.

2. Update client testimonials and completed projects.Let the world know how busy you’ve been and what you’ve been up to. If you’ve not been so productive – make it look like you are – new clients are attracted and want to work with successful “happening” people.

3. Move a successful product or service to the front page.Make it a feature product and run a “special” for the month. Then next month, swap it out for another service or product. Take the time now to plan your “specials” for the next 6 months, or better yet – for the whole year!

4. Have your products or services morphed into a life of their own?What I mean is, look at your navigation – do these categories still apply? (ie. About us, web development, business solutions, etc.) Break out an item worthy of standing on it’s own into your navigation menu. Your customers will thank you for bringing your goodies out of hiding.

5. Got an updated photo of yourself? Or is it time to make an appointment with the photographer? Enough said… just do it.

6. Check your auto-responders. ALL of them.Test the entire series by sending to yourself and

scouring over each with a fine tooth comb. Prepare to update your copy.

7. Review your Pricing.Do you have unnecessary services listed you can delete? A new service you can add? This is also good time to do a rate change.

8. Revisit your pre-contact Assessments and Questionnaires.Did you notice questions that went unanswered more often than others? Perhaps re-wording the question or deleting it all together would be wise.

9. Double check your contact info.Include your instant message (IM) id’s or modify your business hours. Add your turn around time for answering inquires, etc.

10. Edit copy on all your web pages but save the homepage for last.Now stand back, see the big picture and incorporate those edits into your homepage. Remember, you’re going to take your visitor by the hand and lead them where they are to go.

While you’re on a roll – don’t forget to take a look at your System’s housekeeping. For example, I revisited a production checklist I use for one of my major clients. Adding in little tid-bits of info that I spent way too much useless time searching for each month will save me thousands of moments of frustration. Plus, every production based item I need for this client is right at my fingertips.

WOW, now doesn’t that feel better!

While you still have pen in hand, what else can you do to improve and simplify?

What about being creative – do you spend enough time marketing to attract clients? Do you spend quality time reflecting on your business to learn from past mistakes and how to avoid them?

Now that you’ve created a weekend project, please don’t obsess. Start out spending only 15 minutes with each task. You can do ANYTHING in 15 minutes.

Copyright 2005 Donna Payne

Donna Payne is the Chief Web Goddess of The Web Coach.net, and is known as the gal to call when you’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed by the internet. To spend more time with Donna and experience Web technology, Development and Marketing in the most SIMPLIFED way possible go to http://thewebcoach.net

Much as I would love to say that your success solely depends on how you build your business, I cannot. You see, much like in real life, you will need to compete to attain success. In Internet marketing, you will have to compete against the greatest and most innovative competition anywhere online.

The fact that Internet Marketing is so competitive is the reason for the massive growth in niche marketing where the competition is less fierce. In such a competitive market and even in the smaller markets you need to adopt a particular strategy to make sure you stand a good chance of getting your message seen at all by interested prospects.

The trick? You must beat your competition at their own game, of course. And the only way to do that is to “know thy enemy”.

There are a number of ways to do this and resources to make your job a lot easier. Time is the most valuable commodity you have and if there is a way to save time by investing a little cash then I suggest you do this.

Run a search of your more popular keywords in any search engine. The results will reveal the number of websites targeting your market. Each and everyone of them is your competition. The ones at the top 10 in the first page of the results should be your targets. Your goal is to topple them from their position.

And you WILL be able to accomplish this by first knowing what they’re doing right.

Try to visit their website and observe the way

of how they do things. How are their keywords positioned? How are their pages designed? How is their content laid out? How is their information presented?

At the top of your browser click “view” then “source” this will show you the inner html workings of the page you are on. Have a look at the alt tags in the page, are they laden with keyword phrases?

What keywords are your competitors targeting in the meta tags?

One of the most important things you need to know about your competition is which, and how many websites are linking to them. I use Brad Callen’s SEO Elite to find out this info( http://www.malkeenan.com/offers/seoelite.html ).

With this info in hand your task then would be to get the same linkbacks and more. It is unlikely that the top rankings in your determined keyword phrase are all linking to the same websites. So take the top 10, find out all their link partners and beat their link popularity by swapping links with a greater number.

Especially target those link partners with high Google ranking. The aforementioned tool will give you all the required info. Google rankings of 0 PR should be ignored.

The golden rule in beating your competition is by copying what works for them and improving on the same.

Retain what works and discard what doesn’t.

I hope you found this article helpful.

Copyright 2005 Mal Keenan

Mal Keenan is editor and publisher of Home Business Tips Newsletter:http://www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com/Visit his home business opportunities website for more ideas, articles and resources:http://www.workathomebiz.infoWe are currently giving away a free 30 page e-book.

Article marketing has produced great success for many affiliate marketers, with the ever increasing numbers of article directory websites; this has increased article marketing greatly for affiliates and their websites.

Affiliate marketers are everywhere within the internet world. It is not unusual for an affiliate to gain six figure commission checks on a monthly basis. Article marketing is free so there is no outlay needed, but the benefits are extreme.

But one problem some affiliates are faced with is the lack of knowledge in article marketing. And this is how the top affiliates produce enough leads to their various programs. To be successful in any online business an affiliate needs various leads For more details go on www.ppc-profit-marketer.com, this can be achieved by free article marketing and including a link to their particular program, that way the leads they will receive would lead to having a great chance of turning them into actual sales.

To be successful in article marketing one must produce keyword rich articles, content must be well written and unique. 500-750 words are an ideal length for an article. Also submit to numerous free article directories, there are thousands out there. There is also semi-automatic article submission software’s out there you can purchase to help you with your submissions; these can be great time savers!

Article marketing isn’t just for affiliates; you may have a website selling products or even an eBay shop. Article marketing is ideal for the new business to get their name out there. One of the most important items in your article is your title; make sure your keywords are all within your

title, but at the same time making

it catchy to the user.

One sure way of getting your article rejected by the article directories is to have spelling mistakes and poor grammar. It’s just common sense to run your article though a spell checking program before submitting to the article directories. I personally use Microsoft word which incorporates a spell checking facility. Your article should be informative to the reader and offer something of interest.

Your article should be easy to read with the correct formatting, it’s better to have lots of paragraphs than to have a huge paragraph with no breaks. The ideal paragraph would consist of two – four sentences; just like this one

the most important part of your completed article is the author’s bio. This is where you’ll place your name, link to your website and description of your website or go on www.master-affiliates-marketer.com. Make sure your anchor text includes your main keywords, so when the search engines crawls your article in the article directory it picks up your link with all your main keywords. It’s also advisable to include some keywords with your description.

It’s always ideal for some other person to proof read the article before submitting to the various article directories. If time is an issue, you might want to consider hiring a writer to publish some articles for you. Elance.com is a great place to hire writers but remember you get what you pay for. If you hire a writer check they have recommendations from previous article writing projects.

I hope you’ve found this article informative and helpful. Free article marketing is definitely a great way to promote an affiliate program or website.