Advertising @ Home

The term “internet marketing” was virtually non-existent a short 8 years ago, now it is a growing phenomenon that is raking millions every year. Because of this expanding industry, the internet landscape it changing. Where are the changes going to be? I fully expect a growth in interactive end-user experiences – an online environment catering to the individual preferences of a singular visitor. I also foresee a massive change in the way we market online. A change could include “personalized” advertisements embedded so deeply into the product that the user does not realize it as an ad.

Where is this marketing going? Where will it be in 2010? Here are some ideas:

Personal Ads:

Not “Single white male seeks.”. Advertisements displaying personalized data to the end user. This trend has started with products like Google’s AdWords, where visitors are greeted with ads specific to the content on the page. With the free flow of personal information on the internet, it is feasible that in a few years, the advertisements could be as specific as, “Bob, the Buick is over due for an oil change, here are the 3 closest Quick Lubes”

Advertisement Channels:

Cable channels are expanding so quickly it is hard to keep up, soon, we could be surfing over to channel 1430 for the “2010 Chevrolet Series”, where we actually sit down and watch a one hour special on Chevy’s – this mode of advertisement would work for a couple of reasons:

- It is highly targeted

Current television advertising (commercials) often get the MUTE button treatment or we get up to get more popcorn, leaving an unknown number of viewers watching the 30 second ad.

- Accepting market

When viewer tune in specifically for a product, your message effectiveness grows exponentially. For example, if you the viewer are not interested in the “Home Depot Shed Products” advertisement channel, don’t watch. For those of you who are interested in home and garden and Do It Yourself, this channel would serve as your personal how-to expert. Home Depot reaches only those interested in their product while maintaining their orange apron image.

Customized Webpages:

On some webpages now, a visitor can change the color and theme of the webpage. This makes for a more enjoyable destination – leading to more recurring visitors. Once a user has spent the time to build their own portal, they will return and use that as their primary resource of information (think MSN).

Webpages of the future must be able to support a “no two alike” mentality. End users must have the option of customizing their content, color, theme, and functionality.

The changes are on the horizon, prepare your business to capture visitors and give them the “one-on-one” feeling.

Jacob Madison is an internet marketing professional specializing in high-return growth and advanced marketing tactics. Find out more about him at http://www.jacobmadison.com

Tags: ads, advertisement, advertising, business, changes, Internet, Marketing, public relations, sale, web

As I promised in my previous article “Pixel Advertising – A new trend in Online Advertising”, this is a guide on how to build your pixel ad site. The best part of making this site is you don’t need to buy an expensive script; all you need is the cost of registering a domain and web hosting.

To make it easy for you to follow, I organized it step by step.

Step 1
Register the domain name you will use for the site.

Step 2
Prepare the web hosting account for the site.

Step 3
Create a mysql database and user in your hosting account. Make sure the database account has full access to the database. If you are using cPanel, just click on the mysql icon.

Step 4
Download the FREE pixel ad script at www.pixeladraptor.com and uncompress it to your PC.

Step 5
Locate and edit the file config.php and enter the details of the mysql database you created in step 3. You will also have to enter an admin user account and password.

Step 6
Using an FTP program (I use smartftp, its FREE), upload all the files to your site. Iif you want the pixel site to run in the root domain (www.xxx.com), you have to upload the files in the root folder (usually in public_html). If you want the pixel site to run on a subdomain or specific folder, you have to make sure you upload it to the right folder.

Step 7
After uploading the files, access the admin site which is under www.yourdomain.com/admin/ using the admin account you entered in Step 5.

Step 8
Click on the “Settings” tab and enter all the details asked on that page.

That’s it.

If you installed the scripts in the root domain, you will be able to access the pixel ad site by typing www.yourdomain.com. If you installed it in a subdomain, enter www.yoursubdomain.yourdomain.com. If you installed it in a specific folder, enter www.yourdomain.com/yourfolder/

Marvin Gorospe is writing for OnlinePixels4u.com and maintains the site below.

OnlinePixels4u.com
XsiteProTemplates4u.com
eDirectoryPages.com

Tags: ads, advertisement, advertisements, Internet, online, pixel, pixel ads, pixel advertisements

Shortly after the hurricanes tore up the Gulf Coast, I had opportunity to drive Interstate 10 through southern Texas. As I approached the Louisiana/Texas state line the devastation became more and more evident. Trees had been broken or uprooted, signs torn apart, and homes and business buildings invariably showed indications of damage ranging from superficial exterior damage up to complete destruction.

As I drove along, I got the feeling that nothing had escaped damage by the storm. Then, on the south side of the highway, I saw several very nice homes which showed no visible signs of damage. This was in distinct counterpoint to everything around them. At first, I thought to myself, “Those people sure were lucky.” As I kept looking at the homes, however, I became aware that I was looking at the sales models of a company that built homes on people’s lots.

There was plainly evident storm damage, right up to the edge of the buildings, but the buildings themselves appeared to be completely unscathed. With almost every home and business in the area showing damage by the storms, these three or four homes stood as excellent representatives of their company’s products.

My wife and I were making plans to retire to Florida. We were considering buying a piece of land and having a house built on it. As we looked at the homes on the sales lot, I said, “Write down that company’s name. We may want them to build our house.”

It’s a shame that it took a hurricane and caused so much devastation and disruption, but doesn’t that company have one of the best advertisements they could ever hope for? Their product proved itself to be a quality product, probably worth the investment.

When we buy a car, we either go on our own experiences or the experiences of others…or we are lead by advertisements which show the car performing improbable acts in improbable places. When we buy our favorite candy or beer or go to the same doctor over and over, it is because we are satisfied that it will do what we need and expect it to do.

Wouldn’t it be great if every product lived up to our expectations?

I have been in network marketing since the early 90’s, and on the internet since the late 90’s. I have bought my share of products relying on the claims and pitches designed to induce me to buy, often with subsequent disappointment. With time, I have learned to be a little more discriminating and knowledgeable, but it is still often difficult to separate the hype from fact, and reality from expectations.

You can imagine how interested and predisposed to buy I would be if the product I was looking at could PROVE that it lived up to the claims made for it! You can imagine how disappointed I am when that product fails to meet my expectations.

Again and again, I come in contact with people who are wary of becoming involved with network marketing or internet marketing because they, or someone they know (that’s called network marketing and it works both ways) has been burned in the past. It is so hard, and often simply impossible, to convert these people to a position of trust after the damage has been done.

Here’s network marketing (and it’s young cousin, internet marketing) in a nutshell. Make a real promise and deliver. Your customer will be satisfied, return for further purchases, and may tell their family, friends, and neighbors about how great your goods, services, or business opportunities are. Make false promises, or fail to deliver what is expected by the customer, and, not only will they NOT return to make future purchases, they WILL STILL tell family, friends, and neighbors about you and your business, and it will not be in flattering terms.

It is in the best interests of marketers, recruiters, and companies to provide factual, not fanciful, advertising together with products that deliver on the promise. This can help not only stop the loss of sales and downline members who leave due to unfulfilled expectations, but can also help upgrade the image of network marketers and internet marketers in the eyes of the general public as well.

The author is retired from the Army after 21 years of service. He has worked as an accountant, purchasing agent, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, instructor and long-haul, over-the-road truck driver. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. He has been an active internet marketer since 2000, and now makes his living online. He has blogs on the subjects of Internet Business and Marketing, Health and Weight Loss, and Real Estate Investing.

Tags: advertising, Internet, Marketing, network, network marketing, sales

The average employee corresponds to other companies via e-mail over ten times a day

Ten times a day is a rather frequently, especially when you look at it over the span of the whole company. Even a small company with 5 people, you are sending out fifty e-mails a day.

Now consider turning your email into a subtle marketing campaign. That is fifty potential advertisements a day, possibly more. Even if you are responding back and forth with the same people, each time they see the advertisement they are more likely to be interested. Think about how many times you see the same commercial on TV before you buy a product/service/etc.

So now the question is what can you do to turn your email into a marketing campaign.

The best way to go about it is to be as subtle as possible. People are very sensitive to spam now days, and if you make an e-mail full of images and HTML they are likely to be turned off quickly.

My best recommendation is to use your signature, insert links to pages of your site where you have affiliate links, services, products, etc for sale. That way every time they read your e-mail they are likely to see them.

However – this is not a new idea, and you may already be doing this. There is a twist, and that is how you are labeling your links and additional text that you can put with it.

Instead of just putting “Joes Plumbing” and linking it to your website, think of some aspect of your website that would interest people into going. Change the link to “Why pay a plumber to do a five minute job?” and link to your page where you have some basic how-to’s.

Further, you can add additional text to help increase the interest of every person who reads your e-mail. Every week put a different quote in the signature below your link, taken from an interesting part of your website.

For example –

Why pay a plumber to do a five minute job?

Tags: Advertise, business, clients, email, free, increase, Internet, Marketing, sales, success

As a local business owner you wear many hats and you have countless responsibilities. Consequently you’re not always able to follow-up on opportunities that could advance your business. It is the nature of running a business.

Once an awhile an opportunity comes along that you absolutely should not pass up. In this case it is a business listing on both Google and Yahoo local. Not only can it generate targeted traffic in your area, but the listing is FREE. And here is another reason why you need to jump on this, it doesn’t matter if you have a web site or not, you still qualify for the free listing.

Why would you want a free business listing with Google and Yahoo?

Because they are the two largest search resources online, and account for approximately 78% of the total search results. But even more important is the fact that your customers are searching for local products and services online in greater numbers. In some surveys it is suggest that as much as 25% of all Internet searches are local in nature.

Your customers are turning away from the cumbersome yellow pages. Instead their utilizing the content rich resources of the Internet. You have to ask yourself – if you competitors are listed and you are not, when a prospect searches online which business will most likely end up with a new customer?

How hard is it to list your business?

It can be done in less then an hour. Below are the two locations:

Local Business Center – https://www.google.com/local/add/login?hl=en-US&gl=US

Yahoo Local – http://local.yahoo.com/ (Click on the “Add/Edit a Business ” link at the bottom of the page)

The Benefits of a Local Listing

Besides the excellent exposure, you get to list important details about your business, including:

In addition to company details, Google and Yahoo both provide an interactive map for locating your business. I’m sure most of you have utilized the mapping service of either of these search engines and know how convenient it makes finding a business. Not only can customers find out who you are, but they also can pinpoint where you are.

As I mentioned, neither of these services require a web site, but when you combine your listing with a link to a killer web site you are in position to do so serious customer conversion. For those lacking a web site, Yahoo offers a free 5 page site. It allows you to get a basic web presence until you get the real thing up and running.

At this point few businesses are cashing in on local Internet marketing. For those that are the results show a higher ROI, and an improved customer conversion rate.

The future of your local business will depend on how effective you are in reaching your customers online. Getting a free listing on Google and Yahoo Local is an excellent start.

Fred Waters is co-founder of the Local Online Marketing Association, where you
can get the FREE 54-page e-book, The Indispensable
Guide to Local Online Marketing.

Tags: Advertise, business, engines, Internet, leads, local, Marketing, online, sales, search, small

High search engine ranks and listings can brand your website and drive a high awareness of your site. When search engine listings are within the first three, consumers are able to recall those sites at least 50% of the time. Banner ads and titles are usually ignored and avoided like the plague.

In the years before the Internet explosion, businesses had to identify a market and craft their messages in such a way as to target those markets. They used mass medio to deliver these messages, hoping that the right person will read them and buy.

Now things have changed. People are searching on the Internet for products, goods, and services. They are actively pursuing these online.
When keywords are typed in that are relevant to your business, then these people are sent to your website. These are highly qualified leads, with a high conversion and response rate.

Now the next step is to offer valuable web content. There is a saying, “content is king” and this is very true. People go to a website for the content. Your site has to be usable and it has to excite the user. You have to be able to balance usability and visibility of your website.

You could have a perfect site with great content, but you must take care to make sure it can be found. Or you could be ranked number one on all of the major search engines, but when people get to your site, there is nothing useful on your site.

Having useful web content and being visible go hand in hand. Using SEO as part of yoru overall brand and Internet marketing strategy will position you at the higher rankings of your industry.

Enigma Valdez is an internet marketer dedicated to helping businesses grow and succeed. You can access his sites at

http://resultsbasedmarketing.blogspot.com/

http://sevenfigurecopywriter.blogspot.com/

Tags: Advertise, advertising, business, content, Internet, market, Marketing, online, sales, sea, SEO, web

If you are looking to improve your marketing results, then you need to follow these quick & easy guidelines.

1. Know your consumer. You just cannot market to a market that you do not know. You have to get to know your market as if it were a person. What motivates that “person” to buy your product? How old is the average person buying from you? What gender are they? Where do they live? What kinds of jobs do they have and what is their income? The more you know about your market, the more you are able to target your message effectively.

2. You need to have the right timing to market effectively. You can have a great marketing message, but your market will not be interested if it does not reach them at the right time. Think about certain times of the year that your product or service can be advertised aggressively. Holidays such as Christmas, Fourth of July, and Easter could be exploited to increase revenue for your business.

3. You have to have the right offer. In direct response marketing, the experts say that only 20% of your results are based on your creativity. Then, 40% is dependant on your offer, and the last 40% is dependant on your list. With this in mind, you have to test your offers. You have to find the right offer that will beat all your other offers, and then turn around and test it again. You need to TEST, TEST, TEST, TEST, and then TEST again. In addition, after it is all done and over with, you need to start all over again, with your testing. In this way, you will be testing and refining your results for the better on a continual basis.

4. It is all about your communication and message. If you know your market well enough, you will be able to use that knowledge to create a message that hits them in the core. Your message will resonate with their hearts. It will address their needs and your service or product will differentiate you from your competitors. Be sure that you stress benefits over features. All too often, advertisers are hung up on the features, and leave prospects wondering what the benefits are. Do not assume that your prospect will already know the benefits. You have to spell them out for the market.

So there you have it. With these simple power-strategies, you will be able to approach your next marketing campaign aggressively. By knowing your market, you will ensure that you reach them at the right time. The right time means that it is the time when they are ready to buy from you. By experimenting with your offers and testing them on a regular basis, you will be able to find the most productive offer.

Enigma Valdez is an internet marketer dedicated to helping businesses grow and succeed. You can access his sites at

http://resultsbasedmarketing.blogspot.com/

http://sevenfigurecopywriter.blogspot.com/

Tags: Advertise, advertising, business, content, Internet, market, Marketing, online, sales, web