Free Advertising Methods

January 7th, 2010

Perhaps the most effective free advertising method is social networking. Yes it is time consuming but you do get to know people and have them get to know you which is the whole reason for it’s effectiveness.

It is a minefield and there are certain rules of etiquette to be followed as in any other form of communication but basically if your follow the attraction marketing principles of giving (information and support), and avoid spamming (simply throwing ads and links out there) you will be off to a great start :)

Other popular methods include micro blogging sites such as Twitter, MyLikes & Sokule. These sites give you the option to post short messages and communicate with your followers via direct messaging, answering their posts in public  or simply re-posting their messages. This can be great fun and very productive and addictive, so be careful if you get into these sites :)

Some of the old staples still include credit based safelists and traffic or text ad exchanges. I use several traffic exchanges regularly and about 7 credit based safelists which generate some good returns for me. These forms of free advertising are great for giving away free information and advertising. They work well as list builders whereby you can then begin to build relationships with the people who want to develop their own internet marketing skills and business.

All free methods are time consuming so as soon as you can afford to invest a little in pro memberships and buying credits in the sites you find most effective, this brings great benefit in terms of freeing you up to do more social networking and micro blogging.

A great way to manage your credit based safelists even while you are a free member, is to sign up for a free membership at Viral Mail Profits which enables you to set up templates for 7 of your favourite safelists and they will even send you reminder emails when you are next due to mail, (how often have you missed a mailing because you are busy and didn’t remember to write it in your diary or to do list?), it is possible to manage more lists and gain even more benefits if you choose a paid membership, the free one is a great way to trial the system though and works very well in it’s own right so you don’t need to feel hard done by if you can’t afford the investment, or are simply unwilling to take the plunge,  right now.

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Generating Generic Traffic to Your Site

September 29th, 2009

Natural traffic or generic traffic is the kind that all site owners are most interested in, it’s targetted and it’s free :)

This kind of traffic is generated by good use of SEO and also from your list (once you have built one). In the initial stages of list building, you need to focus on getting the SEO right on your site so that you start to generate generic, targetted visitors.

On page factors that increase your chances of achieving this include choosing a great domain name that has direct association with your site content, this means that even if someone simply types the keywords you have chosen as your url into their address bar, your site will come up. Good use of keywords throughout your site content is of great importance too. Don’t use the same keywords too often, look up long tail keyword phrases and associated keywords and phrases and include those in your content in order to build relevance and convince the search engine bots that will crawl your site that you have a lot to offer people looking for info on those topics.

Use the search phrases that you have identified within the content on your site, but make sure that you use them apporpriately so that your content makes sense and adds value.

Over doing this point or not using the keyword phrases in an appropriate manner will work against you..

Devote a whole page to each topic area so that you can expand on your theme and include more relevant keyword led info on each topic.  Having more pages on your site helps to convince the search engines that you are providing valuable info that is worth ranking higher for each search term.

Make sure all inks included on your site pages are working effectively, search engines don’t like broken links, and use tags on your images, this can be a great way to increase your rankings for a search term especially if you are selling products..

Off page SEO includes submitting your site to directories and internet guides, exchanging relevant links and buying links form higher page ranking sites that are relevant to your content. You can also request site reviews from more experienced marketers in your niche with a link to your site included.

Using forums can also help you to generate generic traffic, to do this effectively you need to use forums that are relevant to your niche and then position yourself within that forum as someone who is willing to share useful information on your niche topic so that people have their interest in your signature link piqued and follow it to check out what you have to offer on your site or to find out more about you.

Use your social networking and social media profiles wisely, provide an interesting background for yourself (truthful, but interesting be it in terms of what you have achieved, what you believe in and even consider using a little humour to engage people and interest them in finding out more about you).

Make sure you follow social networking etiquette closely and don’t ever spam your link everywhere no matter how tempting it is, it’s much harder to regain a good reputation than it is to generate a good reputation from the start.

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Some Basic Tips

August 14th, 2009

Today I just wanted to share some useful tips on getting set up and established in the internet marketing arena.

With blogs becoming so classy and with so many plug-ins available, the interactive nature of them, many marketers are using this medium as their main web-site now. The advantages include:

It’s free to start, unless you want to create your own domain name in which case it will cost you a few dollars for the year and I would suggest this as it creates more individuality and helps to brand you :)

It makes you easily accessible to your visitors as they can leave comments and if the comments require an answer it’s going to bring them back to find out what the answer is :)

There are masses of free wordpress templates available so you can easily personalise your blog without knowing about html or php programming.

It’s easy to log in and add content regularly without having to worry about opening a html editor and / or an ftp client.

If however you want to go the web-site route for any reason (I use both but developed my own web-sites way before I started blogging lol), there are some really useful open source products that can make your life a lot easier.

I use Evrsoft 1stpage 2006 as my html editor, it’s a little complex if you are totally new to this, but they have good tutorials in their support forum. It’s free and it can read and programme html and php files for you if you need it to. You can download it from Cnet.

Although my html editor can ftp files to my server for me (and indeed if you use cpanel with yur web host I believe you can ftp files direct from there, though I’ve never explored this otion), I use Smart ftp client, simply because I needed it before I found 1stpage :) , got used to it and carried on using it. You can download a free trial version but you will need to upgrade if you want to continue using it. It’s a one time payment and not expensive.

As a web host I am happy with Hostgator, I have used them for 3 years now, they are extremely helpful even if you have a bit of a dim question, which even now I occasionally do :) , their staff are unfailingly polite and helpful and they have 24 hour service available to help if you need it. They also offer great functionality in my view.

In fact hostgator also have their own site builder as do many of the web hosts out there so it may be wise to choose your hosting first and then see how you get on with their site builder before downloading the other software I have mentioned.

It is possible to access some excellent free templates which you can easily adapt once you have learned the basics of html and css, so again you are personalising these free templates by changing the colour schemes, logo and images used.

A great open source graphics pack is called Gimp and again you can download this from Cnet. It is a little complex but you can find free tutorials by doing a google search and it’s well worth the effort, it’s like a  free version of photoshop and it works exceptionally well once you get used to it, (there are still a host of features that I haven’t explored as yet).

Another must have even when you are new is an auto-responder. List building really is an essential part of internet marketing. A good free one, which allows you to build one AR with as many members as you wish to add, is: ISO Responder which is part of the ISOR membership. This also includes a lead capture page maker which you can use to encourage people to sign up for your newsletter or give-away, whichever method you choose to tempt them :)

If you are new and uncertain, this can be a good way to start building a list with no cost attached, although many free auto-responders get bad press, this one is really pretty good, good tutorials to help you get started and good deliverability of your AR letters, which is definitely something to take into consideration :) .

When you create your lead capture page, you want it to be snappy, eye catching and to have all the must know info plus the sign up box “above the fold”. This means that when someone opens your lead capture page, they should be able to see why and where they should sign up with you without having to scroll down at all. You can add more info and another sign up box below that point, but always ensure that your why and your where are visible immediately on loading the page, this will give you a much higher ration of sign ups..

Well I think that’s probably enough for this post lol – it’s starting to look like war and peace and I don’t want to bore you :)

As always feel free to leave me a comment to tell me if you found this useful and / or what else you would like to know :)

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Our latest Site :)

August 9th, 2009

We just launched a new site with a new biz partner – and we’re really excited about it.

We have free podcasts for download on a variety of topics, firstly there’s the featured creative artist corner, this month is an interview with author Naya Lionsong and there’s also a reading of the prologue and a chapter of her latest book which is due out in late 2009!

We also offer internet marketing podcasts with some useful info and tips to help you focus your business and some stress management ones including a full body relaxation session. Who doesn’t need a little of that in these uncertain times lol :)

Our featured artist corner is going to focus mainly on authors and musicians, while our marketing podcasts will focus on providing quality info and advice and interviews with successful marketers to glean their secrets to success. We have some interesting stuff lined up so why not mosey on over to Biz Podcasts check out our current downloads and sign up for our newsletter so that we can let you know when the latest stuff is added..

We also appreciate feedback – our contacts are on the site and if you’d like to give us a testimonial we’re happy to add a link to your own site for you.

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Invest in Your Future

July 30th, 2009

These days invest is becoming a much maligned word with the different economic problems that seem to be pretty never ending..

However it is so important that we  continue to invest in ourselves, health and well-being uppermost and financial considerations next. In these turbulent times health and wealth are more closely linked than ever, with all the physical problems that stress can cause.

That’s why we have been so pleased to find a site where so far it seems totally possible to invest a relatively small amount of money and then sit and watch it grow (slowly). This is not a get rich overnight opportunity, it’s a well thought out, well planned, bona fide business, run by genuine, helpful people.

There is no need to refer others unless you wish to, you receive 5% of your direct referrals earnings if you do decide to refer but that is totally up to you. There is no need for you to advertise this site in any way unless you wish to, you will earn from your investment without having to move products, advertise or do anything else to help this along :)

If that sounds as refreshing to you as it is to us, come on over and sign up for AAN now.

You don’t have to invest on sign up,  so come on over, watch the video, create your account and when you’re ready, invest in your future the wise way.

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Building Relationships and using videos

July 10th, 2009

I made the above video using AVR technology which allows me to turn any of my articles or blog posts into a professional looking video in just a few clicks of the mouse. It’s great for those who don’t want to be in front of the camera, although not quite the benefit of people seeing your non-verbal as well as your verbal communication skills, it really does help to give more of a flavour of who you are and build that rapport more quickly. Do you agree after watching my vid lol?

I hope that you found the video useful and / or at least interesting in terms of helping you to develop your relationship building skills, please feel free to leave me a comment..

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Inspirational thought for the day?

June 25th, 2009

Earlier today I came across this quote from Rudyard Kipling:

“If you don’t get what you want, it’s a sign either that you did not seriously want it, or that you tried to bargain over the price.”

It’s pretty adept at getting to the point of the matter isn’t it? How many times have you failed to get what you want because you just didn’t want it enough or because you balked at the price you would have to pay for it in either monetary or time commitment terms?

If we truly want something enough, we will go that extra mile to find a way to get it, whether that means somehow earning the extra money required or re-jigging our schedule so that we can fit in the time commitment we need to invest in it.

The point of this quote, comes back to having a deep enough reason ‘why’ you want something. When your ‘why’ drives what you want, you will do what it takes, when your ‘why’ is not strong enough to drive your want, you won’t get it – so simple it seems stupid huh?

Next time you are sitting there feeling sorry about not getting something that you ‘want’, take a couple of minutes to analyse that situation a bit more so you can figure out why you couldn’t have it:

Was it because you couldn’t afford it?

Was it because you liked the idea at the time then got side-tracked by something else before you hit that buy button?

Was it because you liked it but not enough to pay the asking price?

Now ask yourself  how much you really wanted whatever it was that you didn’t get?

You see if you really, really wanted that thing, if wanting it tapped into your driving force, you would have found a way to get it. Instead of talking yourself out of it for whatever reason, you would have been talking yourself through ways of overcoming any obstacles to getting it.

So what I’m trying to say here is:

Don’t waste time regretting what you didn’t get – use that time constructively – spend a few minutes analysing precisely why you talked yourself out of getting it, then let it go. This will give you more time to work on those strategies to help you get the things that you really do want!

Don’t sweat the small stuff and don’t waste time haggling the price of something that you do want – if you can’t afford it right now, spend that time working out ways to help you to afford it as soon as possible. If you can afford it and you want it enough, don’t let the opportunity to fulfil yourself slip by – but by the same token, if you are balking at the price of somethingthat you can afford, do a quick re-check because it probably means that deep down, that want is not driven by your ‘why’ – face up to that and again, let it go…

 

 

 

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Creating Professional Looking Videos

June 21st, 2009

A great way to build a relationship with your targetted traffic audience is via the use of video on your sites. This enables you to really start to build a relationship with your visitors, and fast, as they can see and or hear you rather than simply read your words.

If you are like me and are wary of being in front of the camera, it is possible to still make professional videos using  just your voice rather than you sitting in front of a web-cam.

Two of the greatest finds that I have made in the past couple of months, enable me to do just this. For example the videos in my posts below were made using a great new software called Article Video Robot those videos literally took me a few minutes to create, as a basis for them, I used blog posts that I had written for one of my other blogs.

All I had to do then was copy paste that post into the software, click a button to split it into paragraphs, add my voice over to each paragraph and choose a background. Hey ho it was ready to go, the software converts it for you and sends you a download link when it’s ready to be downloaded to your hard drive. Alternatively you can choose to upload it immediately to YouTube or any of several other media sites..

See a little more on how this works here:

The second excellent find in relation to creating videos was JingProject.com this literally enables you to create videos in much the same way as when using Camtasia software. There are free and an upgraded version of this software license available, and believe me for $14.99 per year, the upgrade is well worth it. You can see an example of a video I made using this software here:

By the way if you aren’t using Viral Networks to enhance your business networking opportunites (that’s their forum you see in the vid), you really need to consider it, it works very effectively for free members as well as upgraded ones :)

As always feel free to let me know if you have any questions about this post, I’m always happy to hear from you..

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Hope, how does it affect you?

June 17th, 2009

I recently blogged a little about this on one of my other blogs and because I like this topic so much, (and because I like to share some pretty esoteric thoughts now and again), I decided that if I make a video of the post I would be able to share it on some of my other sites without upsetting the search engines :)

 

I used the Article Video Robot software that we mention on our main site to make this video, it’s very simple to use and I think it turns articles and blog posts into pretty professional looking vids with very little work on my part (let me know if you agree lol).

If you are interested to know more you can check out AVR for yourself here: Article Video Robot – (free trial available).

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Targetted Traffic

June 13th, 2009

I thought it would make a change to do some video blogging – a great way to share my blog posts without upsetting the search engines I hope lol).

The following video I made using the article to video software that we recommend on our main site, I find it wonderfully beneficial because although I don’t mind doing the audio, I don’t like being on camera so this software enables me to make my own vids, using my own words, I just love it!

Hope you enjoy the video, it’s about getting generic traffic to your main sites.

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