wordpressrobot.com » Marketers

Top 5 Seo Realities For Business-To-Business (B-To-B) Marketers

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:21:21 +0000

QUICK Q & AQ. Is search engine optimization (SEO) underutilized in the b-to-b space?A. Yes.Q. Is b-to-b SEO misunderstood?A. Yes.Q. Is SEO reality, or it is more spoke-and-mirrors.A. It’s a reality. And SEO is critical for b-to-b sales and marketingsuccess. Notice, “b-to-b sales and marketing.” SEO may just be the single most important tactic in driving sales leads into your organization.Then there’s SEM (search engine marketing). SEO and SEM work in tandem.In this article you’ll learn about the basics of SEO and discover the top five realities that surround SEO for business to business marketers. You’ll also learn how SEM (search engine marketing) complements SEO.First, what is SEO, or search engine optimization?Let’s see: maybe we should consult Wikipedia… amazing, they come up on page one of Google! Maybe their site is optimized!”Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.”The top 5 SEO realities for b-to-b marketers:1.Without SEO, your website is just a virtual brochure that your salespeople have to “hand out”. If that’s OK by you, stop reading.2.Men are from Mars. Search engines are from Montreal (fact).3.SEO is not snake oil or complicated or expensive. But it needs to be managed by experts.4.SEO is just the ignition. SEM keeps things rolling along.5.SEO must be integrated into your sales / marketing / customer service mix. But then, you knew that, right?Let’s explore these, one by one…1. Without SEO, your website is just a virtual brochure that your salespeople have to “hand out”. If that’s OK by you, stop reading.Many b-to-b marketers build a nice-looking website for the primary purpose of having a virtual brochure for their prospects: prospects who have been contacted by a sales rep.Of course, sales reps can point prospects and customers to your site – your rep just gives them your url (website’s address). But that’s not how b-to-b buyers (consumers as well) go about buying things. People do research first. They try to get the best deal. And that takes homework.And your sales reps can’t possibly even come close to contacting the number of prospects who search for your product or service every single day by using search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN. etc.If your website is not optimized, it’s extremely unlikely that your site will be found on the first several pages of a search engine result. Try it: imagine you’re a prospect of your company. Now enter a two, three or four-word phrase (not a brand name necessarily, but a generic phrase; this is how people search). Look at who is on page one or two. If you’re not there, but your competition is, you need to think about SEO.2. Men are from Mars. Search engines are from Montreal (fact).According to the website searchenginehistory.com, “The first search engine created was ‘Archie’, created in 1990 by Alan Emtage, a student at McGill University in Montreal. Archie helped solve [a] data scatter problem by combining a script-based data gatherer with a regular expression matcher for retrieving file names matching a user query. Essentially Archie became a database of web filenames which it would match with the users queries.”Pretty simple! Mr. Emtage realized that to enable a massive amount of script to be searchable, along with associated file names, an “engine” of some sort was needed. Once people like Google caught on, the internet search world exploded. Google and others created massive engines that could scour billions of pieces of information and return “search results” to your desktop in less than a second.But search engines won’t return relevant results from a website (actually, web pages) if the site / pages are not built properly. That’s where SEO comes in.3. SEO is not snake oil or complicated or expensive. But it needs to be managed by experts.SEO is more than ten years old now. At first, SEO was indeed a technical, complicated tactic; that is, trying to figure out – and stay ahead of – the search engines and their ever-changing algorithms.Here are a few FACTS you should know about search engine optimization:A) Optimization is not voodoo: it’s a defined set of technical and non-technical things you need to do to your site to make it “found” by the search engines. Search engines have rules; you need to play accordingly.B) SEO does not have to be expensive. It does not (in most cases) require a total re-design of your website (after all, creative design is always costly). To be SEO-ready, most sites require some creative and navigation tweaking, but not a creative overhaul. SEO costs? Here are two of the more common models out there for typical websites:1) pay a one-time optimization fee that usually also includes keyword analysis and some basic tweaking of navigation and design… this can range from $3,000 to $5,000, and typically offers an option of monthly SEO maintenance (recommended) that may be $250 to $400 per month2) A contract that lasts at least six months whereby the SEO firm tackles just about everything that SEO needs, from keyword analysis to design, links, submissions, content management, reporting and on and on… here you are typically paying $2,500 to $6,000 per month on a multi-month or year-long contract.C) A website that is optimized works as a website should: it organically (meaning, without PPC or “pay per click” ads) draws visitors who are looking for your products or services. Why do you think some sites are always organically on page one whereas others on page 17? It’s not luck; it’s SEO doing its thing as it should.D) SEO should be a key component of your marketing plan. It must be an ongoing tactic, since SEO is a living, breathing thing. It’s not “SEO-and-we’re-done.”E) “Don’t try this at home”… SEO experts are called “experts” for a reason. It’s like going to a specialist if you have a problem; you want the right people doing the work, and these people are charged with staying current in their field. Most firms that list “SEO” in addition to 15 other things they do (notably, design and web development firms), do not truly know SEO.F) SEO is measurable, search engine by search engine; keyword phrase by keyword phrase. This allows you to track results and modify your SEO specifics.G) SEO does take some time, but not all that long: expect to see initial meaningful, measurable results in three to four months, and some very nice results – if your SEO is done right – within six to nine months.4. SEO is just the ignition. SEM keeps things rolling along.Search engine optimization jump-starts your web presence. It ensures your web pages are found by the search engines, and thus by those who query. SEO is a combination of technical necessities (code, primarily) and the right (meaning, relevant) content on your pages. That’s the simple explanation: SEO is your ignition, if you will.Now comes another key component: the wheels that keep you rolling. SEM (search engine marketing) is like those wheels. You need good wheels and you need to keep them balanced.You know what marketing means… you know that marketing is not defined by one tactic such as a brochure or a trade show or a sales tool or an ad. SEM is the same, and like marketing, SEM is only limited by your imagination.Search Engine Marketing definedMany people define SEM as pay-per-click advertising: driving people to your site with keyword-targeted ads on Google and other sites. But it’s far more than that. SEM is utilizing a wide range of marketing tactics to drive traffic to your website, ensure a positive visitor experience, and generate “conversions”. (More below on conversions.)Think about SEM this way: find ways to get them to your site, then find ways to market to them once they’re there.Here are some important SEM (search engine marketing) tactics to consider:CONTENT: SEO experts will help you create “search content”. But you can’t stop there. You need to continually add content and change content. Why?Because search engines are very smart, and they love sites that are evolving; they don’t like sites that get stale. Of course new content has to be purposeful and relevant. Surely you have new products, services, recognitions, case studies and solutions, right?KEYWORD TRACKING: Your SEO people should help you track the performance of your site, by page and by keyword phrase. Adjust accordingly.HOW-TO’s, PDFs, FREE DOWNLOADS: Offer information that is of value to your customers and your prospects: how-to pages, white papers, refreshed Q&A pages.E-MAIL MARKETING: How can this be part of SEM? Simple: your e-mail campaign, whether simple e-mails or e-newsletters, should drive people to your existing – and to new – pages on your site. This lifts traffic and improves your rankings in the search engines’ eyes.PAY-PER-CLICK (PPC) CAMPAIGNS: PPC campaigns, one of the most common SEM tactics, can drive web traffic, elicit sales leads and help with your optimization. Use PPC to kick-start your SEO. PPC ad campaigns can be set up quickly, can have modest or aggressive daily budget limits, can be modified on the fly, and are measurable with built-in analytics.BLOGS AND FORUMS: Creating a simple blog (even one that does not attract a lot of participants) can help you a lot with your SEO. Search engines like it when you post news, add keywords to the post and point the post to one of your web pages. It’s also fairly simple to set up a blog on your website that allows interaction.ONLINE VIDEO: Yes, video. Yes, YouTube. Even in the b-to-b selling environment, people love to watch videos – so they get a lot of views. (Of course, relevant, informational content). Videos on your website generate interest and traffic, and videos in turn can help you promote your brand and your website address.INBOUND LINKS: Search engines like it when sites point to your site. No need for a lot of traffic; just the fact that they point helps with SEO. Keep your link building effort up, but make sure the sites are relevant to your business.5. SEO must be integrated into your sales / marketing / customer service mix. But then, you knew that, right?At this point in this article you should have realized that SEO does not operate in a vacuum. Nor is it a one-time fix. SEO needs to be integrated into your marketing mix and into your sales strategy. Virtually everything you do marketing-wise and sales-wise should include your website.Think of your website as the heart of your marketing effort: you need to keep it healthy, feed it, exercise it.Same with sales: use your website to elicit sales leads, educate customers and prospects, maybe even entertain. And call on your salespeople to report on competitors’ sales, marketing and web-based tactics so you can counter with your own.CONCLUSIONWell, it’s pretty simple: SEO is a reality today. It’s your ignition, with SEM being your wheels. Things change. You’ve adapted to other changes in your business or in your marketing career; it’s time to change to a “search” driven organization. After all, “search” is also a reality – a big one. It’s the way people start their buying process.

Top 5 Seo Realities For Business-To-Business (B-To-B) Marketers is a post from: wordpressrobot.com

Twitter is an Effective Tool for Internet Marketers

admin — Sat, 15 May 2010 14:02:33 +0000

What is Twitter? Well, on the Twitter login page it is introduced as: a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?The concept of Twitter at first glance appears to offer a very unique method of communicating with people for casual banter. However, if you are marketing in any way on the Internet, this can be a powerful platform for providing information and for generating traffic.When entering a message (known as a Tweet), the user is forced to communicate effectively, because the content is limited to 140 characters. It does not take long to figure out how to concisely get your Tweet across.If Twitter is new to you, perhaps you have not yet grasped its true potential. It definitely has to be one of the best free traffic generators on the Internet. Its simplicity and accessibility has made this tool extremely attractive to over two million users, and that figure seems to be growing exponentially.Once you register to participate on Twitter (http://twitter.com), you will begin to follow other Twitterers. But, the real key for you as a marketer is to generate your own followers. Thus, giving you the opportunity to get your message out quickly and easily.As with any marketing headline, the goal of the Tweet is to capture the readers attention and lead them to where your moneymaker content is located (sales page, opt-in, article, etc). Within your 140 characters you hopefully entice the reader and provide a short hyperlink.Beyond the linked message area, the perks of this site are multifaceted. The page begins with an automatic welcome that introduces you to the reader and invites them to become a follower. Next, in a personal information area in the upper right corner of the page you can embed a link to a web page and provide a brief bio.Of course, if you are going to encourage folks to follow you (or to retain followers), your Tweets need to offer value. For the Internet marketer there can sometimes be a fine line between responsibly leading someone to more information or using a platform to blatantly spam an unwanted message.Take the opportunity to promote your Twitter page whenever possible. Place your Twitter link on your website, blog, ezine, article signature box, and so on. For example, this is my link: http://twitter.com/davidschaefer, and I encourage you to become a follower.Twitter.com includes a few more features not mentioned here – just visit the help section. And, everyday creative entrepreneurs are offering new products and services to independently support and expand the use of Twitter. The most important point is to take advantage of Twitters simplicity, effectiveness, and potential marketing reach.

Twitter is an Effective Tool for Internet Marketers is a post from: wordpressrobot.com

More Best of From Marketers on RSS

admin — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:42:52 +0000

What is the top advice savvy marketers can give you on RSS? We continue with “the best of” on RSS marketing from US marketing leaders.

1. WHY SHOULD MARKETERS AND PUBLISHERS START CONSIDERING USING RSS ANYWAY? Answered by Bill Flitter, Pheedo

I’ll give you 7 reasons:

1. Sender ID 2. CAN SPAM ACT 3. Blacklists 4. Known Sender 5. Email Filters 6. Bonded Sender Program 7. Cost of Sending Email

These seven items are a result of SPAM. The items represent an effort being put forth to stop SPAM but it is still a huge problem. I do believe RSS will be around no matter if SPAM was eradicated. RSS has some distinct advantages over email marketing, which include:

1. 100% opt-in – no worries of legal threats by consumers.

2. One-click unsubscribe – RSS raises the bar. Marketers will need to think about what their sending before they hit the enter button. I think this is a good thing. There is no free ride with RSS. Consumers are demanding control (do-not-call list, CAN SPAM Act, Privacy Bills etc.) and RSS delivers that control.

3. 100% deliver rate – If I publish a feed or advertise in a feed, it reaches the intended recipient. This is minus any technological hiccups. Point being I don’t have to worry about SPAM filters, Blacklists, Sender ID, etc. My biggest worry now is whether or not I am publishing relevant content when my customers want it.

2. WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ARE THE BEST WAYS COMPANIES CAN USE RSS TODAY? Answered by Bill Flitter, Pheedo

1. External Communication: Create an RSS feed on your site. If you publish a newsletter already, creating a feed from that information is easy. It takes little effort. I strongly encourage this practice if you are in the tech sector.

2. Internal Communication: Using RSS (with a blog) to collaborate on a project within the enterprise is more efficient then email. The blog archives the project while RSS keeps everyone informed.

3. Advertising: If the problem of SPAM doesn’t get solved soon, marketers will turn to RSS as a means to reach new customers. RSS has two distinct absolutes over email – one-click unsubscribe and 100% opt-in. Email cannot emphatically say that. RSS puts the control in the hands of the publisher and consumer. It will become a more effective marketing channel because the market will demand that publishers be more conscience of the amount and relevance of the ads in feeds. Consumers will act as the filter. If the noise-to-value ration is out of whack, the consumer will simply vote with their mice.

3. HOW CAN RSS BE USED BY MARKETERS PROVIDING AFFILIATE PROGRAMS? Answered by Shawn Collins, Shawn Collins Consulting

My vision for the usefulness of RSS is to be a one-way form of communication – sharing updates, news, and tools with affiliates in an uncensored environment, since email has become too difficult with all of the Spam and other assorted hassles.

4. ONE OF THE QUESTIONS WE SHOULD START ASKING OURSELVES IS HOW TO FULLY INTEGRATE RSS IN TO OUR MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONAL MIX. HOW DO YOU SEE RSS IN RELATION TO OTHER COMMUNICATIONAL TOOLS AND APPROACHES? Answered by Jim Gray, Quikonnex

You’ve hit the nail on the head with this question. It is ALL about integrating new technologies into the marketing mix.

RSS/Blogs/Email/Instant Messaging are all just tools to those businesses can use to communicate with their customer base. People on the Internet jump on new technologies abandoning older system … this is wrong.

If you’ve noticed, you may have recently receive postcards and information packages from some well know online marketers such as Armand Morin and Corey Rudl. They look at traditional ’snail mail’ as a part of their marketing mix. RSS should be viewed the same.

Right now, blogs and RSS feeds are hot with the search engines, so a website owner should have one… period. However, to use it exclusively would be a mistake. The perfect mix is to use an RSS feed for the one to many communications and to use email for one on one customer correspondence.

More Best of From Marketers on RSS is a post from: wordpressrobot.com

Analyzing the New Yahoo! RSS Report for Marketers

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:34:43 +0000

We were waiting for something like this to happen for a
long time. Yahoo!, one of the key providers of mass-market
RSS aggregators, finally took a step forward and published
their RSS whitepaper, covering their own findings with RSS,
based on their usage data.

1. YAHOO!’S KEY FINDINGS

Let’s first take a look at Yahoo! key findings and what
they mean for marketers.

a] Awareness of RSS is quite low among Internet users. 12%
of users are aware of RSS, and 4% have knowingly used RSS.

Although RSS awareness is increasing, only few internet
users yet understand what RSS is and how to use it.

For marketers, this means that simply placing an RSS button
on their site it not nearly enough, with the report finally
demonstrating that marketers needs to use clear and
persuasive copy to get their visitors interested in RSS,
explain RSS to them and get them to subscribe to their
feeds.

In addition it also shows that marketers need to make sure
they are using “user-friendly” buttons to generate
subscribers, such as “Add to MyYahoo!”, which consumers do
understand.

b] 27% of Internet users consume RSS syndicated content on
personalized start pages (e.g., My Yahoo!, My MSN) without
knowing that RSS is the enabling technology.

This finding only underlines the above suggestions.

Stop touting your RSS feeds only using an RSS button, but
rather aim for a “subscribe feature” and then explain to
the visitor how to use it.

Strong copy has never been so important.

c] 28% of Internet users are aware of podcasting, but only
2% currently subscribe to podcasts.

Goes to show that podcasting still has a long way to go and
can right now function only as a supplement to your
existing marketing activities.

It might also give an indication that audio is not the most
appropriate format for much online content.

d] Even tech-savvy “Aware RSS Users” prefer to access RSS
feeds via user-friendly, browser-based experiences (e.g.,
My Yahoo!, Firefox, My MSN).

e] My Yahoo! has the highest awareness and use of any
RSS-enabled product.

Both of the findings above, although indicating that these
are the results Yahoo! would want to publish, show that
having browser-based RSS reader subscribe buttons is a must.

It also shows that the market is ready for the soon-coming
IE and Outlook integrated RSS features, which should really
boost RSS usage among consumers online.

Now, let’s take a deeper look at the report …

2. “UNAWARE RSS USERS” VS “AWARE RSS USERS”

The whitepaper makes a strong distinction between “Unaware
RSS Users” and “Aware RSS Users”, positioning the “Unaware”
batch as the mainstream Internet population.

This makes it absolutely clear that B2C marketers,
targeting consumers, should take special care to promote
their feeds using “friendly” subscribe buttons.

On the other hand, if targeting a more tech-savvy audience,
going the way of “RSS” and more complex RSS reading tools
might be a better choice. This might also prove more
effective for targeting executives and other corporate
target audiences that might be using an enterprise-wide RSS
solution, such as NewsGator.

3. CONSUMPTION LEVELS

The whitepaper says that on the average “Aware RSS Users”
subscribe to 6.6 feeds.

The consequences of this are not as simple as they might
seem. Even “RSS Aware” users do not subscribe to “just
anything” and seems they only subscribe or keep being
subscribed to the content of highest relevance to them.

The message for marketers is to become even more relevant
and more focused on providing real value for their target
audiences.

RSS does not mean that end-users will start consuming that
much more online content, but simply that their primary
consumption channel will change. It’s up to you to make
place for yourself in this consumption channel, but you can
only do so if you become one of the key targeted content
providers for your market and can deliver consistently
high-quality content.

4. TYPES OF RSS CONTENT CONSUMED

Even in the world of RSS, mainstream media rules, with
World news and National news both leading the pack at 52%
and followed by Entertainment at 34% and Weather ad 31%.

If we take a look at what lies beneath this we can see that
end-users still see RSS as a news consumption tool and a
tool to receive time-sensitive updates, such as weather
info.

The interesting part is that blogs achieve only 23% and
although they are gaining quickly are still not part of the
mainstream.

Whichever way you look at this, the real long tail is still
far from fruition.

There are two are interesting categories listed in the
report: investment/financial info/banking at 13% and
Shopping/online commerce at 10%.

The popularity of these two shows that RSS in fact is
appropriate for delivering business info and that RSS can
be used for e-commerce. A strong case in point urging
e-retailers to start providing RSS feeds.

5. WHY END-USERS USE RSS

“RSS Aware” end-users subscribe to feed because of “ease”
or “convenience”, followed by being able to choose what
they read.

To marketers, these three should be the founding stones of
how to get their visitors to adopt RSS.

6. THE FAMOUS ORANGE BUTTON

Marketers, pay attentin to this.

Only 4% of total RSS end-users actually use the orange XML
button, and only 38% of RSS aware users use it.

It seems the orange button isn’t dead … it was never
alive.

Let’s move on and replace it with something more
user-friendly.

And BTW — 22% of the people that clicked on the button
don’t even know what action they took after clicking the
button and 26% left the site. Goes to show the RSS button
is only losing us subscribers.

7. HOW USERS FIND THEIR FEEDS

50% use the defaults available in the RSS reader and only
13% use the search engines to find them.

Yes, it’s cruical to be in the RSS feed search engines, but
it would be even better if you could move your way to the
default seetings. And by all means, actively promote the
feeds on your site as end-users, according to the report,
actively tend to subscribe to the feeds on the sites they
find interesting.

8. CONCLUSION

To conclude this, here’s a direct quote from the report,
saying exactly what I’ve been trying to get through for a
couple of months:

“To position RSS among mainstream Internet users, it is
essential to effectively communicate the benefits of RSS
(ease, convenience, access to information of interest).
Internet users do not understand how to use the XML button,
how to actively seek out RSS feeds, or even what the term
RSS means. Instead, they need a simple interface where they
can choose the information and content that interests them.
This is where personalized start pages and browser-based
experiences can help move RSS into the mainstream.”

Analyzing the New Yahoo! RSS Report for Marketers is a post from: wordpressrobot.com

Robots.txt, An Online Marketers Friend Or Foe?

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:34:22 +0000

robots.txt is possibly the most miss understood file that a website can contain.
Many people think that by using a robots.txt file on their website they are protecting pages and folders from thieves and hackers. In fact it is totally the opposite! robots.txt opens up an enormous security hole that hackers and theives will use to easily gain access to the parts of your website that you don’t want them to.
What is robots.txt?
robots.txt is a file that you create and upload to your websites root directory that is used by search engine spiders to determine which parts of your website they should index and which folders/pages that you, the website owner,
don’t want listed in search engine indexes.
Why would not want pages indexed?
There are many reasons why you might not want search engines to index pages on your website, such as private membership pages or exclusive training pages and such like.
If you are an Internet Marketer selling your own ebook or other digital product, you wouldn’t want your thank you pages indexed either!
And this is where the misunderstanding comes to the fore, and robots.txt becomes your foe.
Many online marketers who provide ebooks or other digital products for instant download will list their download thank you pages in the robots.txt file because they obviously don’t want those pages indexed in search engines.
By using robots.txt this way though, you will be opening up your product to anyone who has a slight bit of knowledge about how the file works.
robots.txt is easily readable by any human that opens a browser and types in http://www.yourdomain.com/robots.txt and if you have listed your thank you pages, all they have to do is go to that url and take your product(s)!
It’s that easy!
And I’m living proof that this works, as this is exactly what happened to me. I had listed my thank you pages in robots.txt and thought that they were safe from hackers and thieves, then one day I was checking my web site stats and BAM, someone had been to every single thank you page, and taken everything.
The moral is, don’t list any URL in robots.txt that you don’t want humans to have free access to. Use robots.txt with great caution and secure your thank you pages using dedicated software.

Robots.txt, An Online Marketers Friend Or Foe? is a post from: wordpressrobot.com

Wordpress Content Generator © – Any Marketer’s Dream!

admin — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:08:09 +0000

No doubt that Wordpress Content Generator clearly gained popularity among many Webmasters in recent years simply because it is revolutionary. What if you could produce that precious ‘WebFuel’ for your Site (and much of it) in just few minutes? If you want to be able to quickly get more visitors to your Site(s) – read the following review. Basic introduction The secret of this advanced Wordpress Content Generator is it’s embedded engine – by providing it with your key phrases it’ll auto-scan the Internet for highly relevant sentences that are related to your topic. At this point – when all relevant information is collected, it’ll auto-separate and organize it under subtopics. Now comes the best part where all you got to do is to quickly construct entirely fresh and unique article(s) that can be used anywhere. Main advantages The solution described in this review provides the following: * Enables to create contents that can be submitted on free article-directories and get hundreds of back links to your Sites.* The new contents are completely your own, so there are no plagiarism issues.* It helps on-line businesses to simply attract more visitors from SE.* It doesn’t require any special editing/writing skills.* Helps you to focus your time more on making money rather than on writing.Summarizing this article Wordpress Content Generator enables you to promote any on-line business with significantly lower costs and at much higher speed. At this point the best advice would be to watch it in action and experience how it easily takes any on-line business to the next level. Different users would probably find various advantages provided by this important webmarketing technique simply because it is about providing you with a truly powerful webmarketing tool that can take any internet-based business to the next level.

Wordpress Content Generator © – Any Marketer’s Dream! is a post from: wordpressrobot.com

Wordpress Content Generator © – Any Marketer’s Dream!

admin — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:31:35 +0000

Wordpress Content Generator © – Any Marketer’s Dream! is a post from: wordpressrobot.com

Bloggers Vs Internet Marketers – Which One Are You?

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:46:15 +0000

What is the fundamental difference between a blogger and an Internet marketer? Is there any difference at all to begin with?

Since I had nothing better to do today, I decided to take the risk of being flamed by hate mail by telling you exactly where the line is drawn. While these are examples from the extreme ends of the online publishing spectrum, I believe you’ll see my point by the end of this article.

Nowadays, almost every Internet marketer I know has a blog. However, none of them like to be called a blogger. Most bloggers on the other hand think they’re Internet marketers. Those poor misguided souls.

Here’s what fundamentally different between a blogger and a real Internet marketer making a living online:

1) Living on Search Engine Traffic

The most obvious trait I’ve seen in a blogger is their over-reliance on search engine traffic. In fact, probably the only way they know of getting visitors to their blogs is by getting a “degree” in Google, and spending all their time trying to please Big-G.

Internet marketers on the other hand see search engine traffic as just one component of their entire marketing campaign. They have access to a wider range of tools such as articles, joint-ventures, pay-per-click advertising and email marketing to mention a few. They have the knowledge to use them and they do so regularly.

2) Lack Of Control Over Their Mailing List

Another common trait of a blogger is the dependence on RSS subscription services like Feedburner to build a database of potential customers. they’re content with the fact that by doing this they will never be able to send messages to their loyal readers other than what they post on their blogs.

When you get to a blog maintained by an Internet marketer, instead of seeing a “Subscribe by Feedburner” form, you’ll see a “special offer” or reason to optin, followed by a customized form using Aweber or a similar service. By doing this, the Internet market captures the full details of his visitors and is free to send them emails that were never intended to be published on their blogs.

The Internet marketer also analyzes his list to determine their interests, and provides more value based on this findings. He masters his list and knows that they’re his most important asset; not the blog.

3) Reluctance on Promoting Affiliate Products

I’ve seen so many bloggers state “That’s my affiliate link” right after they post it on their blogs. It’s almost as if they’re afraid of their readers finding out that they somehow benefit by putting that link up. They feel guilty making money from others with an affiliate link, so they clearly brand it as such.

The Internet marketer however has no issues with this. His job is to promote products he feels will benefit his market, and he is not afraid to get paid for it. In fact, the Internet marketer EXPECTS to get paid for his efforts, or he doesn’t bother doing it at all.

4) Just Publishing Vs Real Marketing

Most blogger are publishers. They focus on getting content up, and then wait for people to come and chew it up. “Build it and they will come”, says the blogger. You can’t really blame them for taking that stand, because they lack marketing and advertising skills. They really have no other option.

Internet marketers on the other hand know that the marketing graveyard is filled with great ideas and excellent content that never saw the light of day. They know that they need to get out there and market themselves, their products and their overall brand in order to survive in the long term.

5) Limited Knowledge on Monetizing Traffic

Bloggers know of only one monetization method: advertising. The easiest is of course some sort of contextual advertising like Google Adsense or Chitika. Some even go for blog advertising networks and selling text links on their blog, but at the end of the day, they’re still dependent of advertising dollars.

The Internet marketer has more tricks up his sleeve. He knows that advertising income is as stable as a melting glacier, and he diversifies his income by selling his own products or services on his blog. In fact, most of them don’t even bother with contextual ads because they live much higher up the food-chain.

Let me just say that a true Internet marketer can make the same amount of money from 3 pages of his blog that the average blogger does with 300.

This article may disgust you (if you’re a blogger) or may strike a chord in your inner melody (if you’re an Internet marketer). Bloggers may say “Oh… but I get tons of traffic, I make money from Adsense and I’m doing fine. So what’s the problem?”

The problem is that Internet marketing is a volatile business. By observing both type of individuals all I can say is that in the next few years, the blogger will still be blogging. But the blogs they write for will be owned by a savvy Internet marketer.

It’s just the way it works!

Bloggers Vs Internet Marketers – Which One Are You? is a post from: wordpressrobot.com

Free Wordpress Plugins: Top 3 Plugins For Internet Marketers

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:37:49 +0000

The free open source blogging platform Wordpress continues to be a popular tool for internet marketers who want to create websites fast. Though feature rich, an out-of-the-box Wordpress install lacks some features that many internet marketers rely on. Fortunately, there are many free Worpdress plugins that provide these features. Here are three of the most popular.
Keep in mind, before you install any of these plugins, you’ll want to make certain you have the current version of Wordpress installed to avoid any errors or possible vulnerabilities. The latest upgrade of the platform can always be updated at Wordpress.org’s main site.
All In One SEO Pack – Although blog traffic can come from many sources besides the search engines, there’s no doubt that free natural search engine traffic is still very important to the success of any website or blog. With the All In One Seo pack plugin, your Wordpress blog will be automatically optimized for onsite SEO. This plugin saves hours of time over tweaking themes, options and individual plugins to acheive the same results.
Please note that because the search engines often change the way they rank pages, you’ll want to have the most current version of this plugin. Check back frequently on their main site to make sure your plugin is up to date.
Adsense Plugin – This plugin has been around for a while, but it is upgraded to work with the current version of Wordpress. Seems the popularity of adsense never goes away, even if the earnings per click have gone down over the past few years. If you want a quick and easy way to get adsense or even Yahoo Publisher Network ads showing up on your Wordpress blogs, and you want an easy way to control where they show up and how they look, this is a must have plug-in. The learning curve is very fast with this plugin, and users will enjoy tweaking the settings to increase ad clickthroughs and profits.
Remember though, Adsense isn’t your only option for monetizing your blog. You can also run paid ads yourself by dealing directly with other sites that want to advertise. Though more profitable, it is also more time consuming.
FeedWordPress – Feedwordpress is a plugin that takes rss feeds and creates full pages out of them on your blog automatically. It should not be used alone, as your site will start to look like a scraper site. When added to a blog with original content though, it can greatly increase traffic to your site.
A couple of warnings though, the learning curve with this plugin is high and you need to make sure you have permission to use the rss feeds you program this plugin with. Most sites that have rss feeds available also provide a copy of their terms of service for using the feeds, so be sure to check those out. Not complying with another site’s TOS can lead to nasty emails or even a cease and desist letter, so consider yourself warned.

Free Wordpress Plugins: Top 3 Plugins For Internet Marketers is a post from: wordpressrobot.com

Do You Splog or Blog? – Affiliate Marketers with Wordpress Beware

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:10:18 +0000

If you are just getting started creating an affiliate marketing business online one of the easiest was to do so is to get a blog at Wordpress.com. It’s free, it’s easy, and you can be up and running in minutes. However, an affiliate marketing blog on Wordpress.com can be shut down before you can say why. Why? because of the Wordpress definitions of a spam blog that are often overlooked. So, do you splog or blog? Are you a splogger or a blogger?
A blog that is operating with the primary purpose of driving traffic to affiliate programs fall into the Wordpress category of “splog.” Wordpress defines an affiliate marketing blog as one it will ban. Wordpress states:
Affiliate marketing blogs: Blogs with the primary purpose of driving traffic to affiliate programs. To be clear, examples like people writing original book or movie reviews and linking them to Amazon, or people linking to their own products on Etsy do NOT fall into this category. We’re only talking about blogs that are primarily designed to promote different affiliate programs.
If this is your blogging strategy, get thy self your own domain and hosting company and get Wordpress installed on it. By doing so you avoid the risk of having your website removed. Nick at Wordpress Support told me that the Wordpress.com Terms of Service do not apply to the self-hosted version of Wordpress that you download at Wordpress.org. That software is free for you to use as you please with no restrictions or requirements regarding splogging or blogging in any way. Good news for those of us on our own websites. Good information for you if you are just getting ready to build a blog and use it for affiliate marketing information and sales.
As for affiliate marketers already established on a Wordpress.com host blog site, certainly you have concerns about moving to a new website as that would entail changing all of your URLs and losing the pagerank and traffic avenues you have established with your links. I suggest you write to the folks at Wordpress and ask them what you can do to comply with their terms of service to avoid being banned as a splogger. Do it now. It will give you peace of mind and if you are at threat you can begin restructuring your site to comply with what Wordpress will require of you to be able to keep your blog.

Do You Splog or Blog? – Affiliate Marketers with Wordpress Beware is a post from: wordpressrobot.com