Keyword tools are something every marketer needs to utilize but there are problems that come with using just any of them. When you’re a niche marketer, you rely on keyword tools to help you find the perfect words and phrases that will catapult your online campaign ahead of your competitors.

There are three tiers of keyword tools – free, affordable, and expensive. Which ones are worth your investment of both time and money (if applicable)? Well with free keyword tools, you’re going to run into some problems – primarily that they tend to be short-lived.

People will create free keyword tools as part of a viral marketing campaign, release it to the masses who get used to utilizing it, and then quit supporting it, allowing it to become outdated and useless. Now some free keyword tools, like those provided by major search engines such as Google, may have more staying power.

Then there are other keyword tools that are affordable to the niche marketer just getting started online. These usually come in packages where a later upgrade to a more expensive model or tier is available.

Take WordTracker, for example. This particular keyword tool has been around for years and has become a staple for many online marketers. The company permits a free trial, but then you’re given the choice of several tiers for paid access.

For WordTracker, access is marked by a timeline. You can buy a monthly subscription for the keyword database, or pay less by investing in an annual subscription. Other keyword tools simply give better information with a top tier package.

Spyfu is another popular top keyword tool used by Internet marketers. It gives a sneak peek into the system using a free trial subscription, but then with a paid subscription you’re given advanced analytics information.

In addition to just getting more data (free trials get you a top 10 result while paid gets you unlimited results), you also tack on additional perks. For example, with a paid subscription of Spyfu, you could find out the cost per click of a keyword, the number of ads and search results, and more.

Many marketers are jumping ship to get onboard the Keyword Discovery train. They do the traditional free versus paid subscriptions and give you access to basic keyword research, spelling mistake data, seasonal search trends, KEI and density analysis, and more. They have three tiers – free, standard and professional, with each one increasing the number of benefits and results that you get when you sign up.

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Keyword Tools

A keyword list can grow to mammoth proportions before you know it and then you’re left staring at a bunch of words, wondering which ones will provide the biggest return for you if and when you use them in an online marketing campaign.

Some marketers use what’s called KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) to figure this out. It was originally created by Sumantra Roy and it’s fairly easy to use for your own online marketing campaigns.

First, you have to brainstorm all of the words and phrases that are relevant to your website’s products or services. KEI generally takes long-tail keywords into effect since the competition for broad keywords is too great.

KEI examines the number of searches for a keyword phrase against the number of search results. The tools that find your KEI for you will spit out a ranking for that keyword phrase and the higher the KEI, the better your chances of ranking higher in the search engines for it.

Some people rely heavily on KEI but you have to use some human common sense, too. This is because KEI doesn’t take into consideration what type of quality those competitor sites have in regards to content. There may be many competitors with low SEO strategies in place, or only a handful of competitors but those who happen to have massive pulling potential in the SERPs.

The common sense comes into play when you start evaluating the keywords and phrases on your list against the motivation of your reader. For instance, a keyword phrase with the word “free” in it might return high KEI statistical data, but you know that because it’s someone searching for a freebie, the likelihood of them whipping out their wallets and paying for your products or services is diminished.

You’ll want to use keywords with qualifiers in them. For example, instead of using the keyword phrase, “Internet marketing guide,” you might get a more targeted buyer if you add certain words in it, such as “buy Internet marketing guide,” or “best Internet marketing guide.”

Typically, long-tail keywords with modifiers added to the mix will help you rank higher and make more money with the content than if you try to dominate early on using broad keywords that don’t tell you much about why your visitor is using the phrase.

You can also take the tedious route and do various campaigns by cloaking your links using different keyword phrases and seeing which ones get the best results in clickthroughs and sales. Just make sure you don’t start randomly using keyword phrases because you want to focus your efforts on those that will help you profit.

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Finding Profitable Keywords

Keywords are vital to your online success. Your goal is to organically (naturally) rank high in Google in and other search engines, so you need to implement certain SEO (search engine optimization) strategies and keywords will play an important role in those.

When you conduct keyword research, you’re doing it to learn how your prospective customer is utilizing search engines to find the information or products that they want. You then take the words (and phrases) and use them on your site, to ensure it’s relevant for your target audience.

In the old days, keywords could be stuffed and hidden all over a website to trick search engines into helping a site rank high. Now that they’ve caught on, you have to use them with a more whitehat approach or risk getting de-indexed in Google and other search giants.

Where do your keywords generally need to be? Don’t discount Meta tags in your HTML code. These are still important, but they may not be the most important tactic to use anymore.

Keyword placement depends on what type of page you’re building. If it’s a web 2.0 property such as a Squidoo lens, Hub Page or Google Knol, then you want a keyword in the URL that you register, in the titles, subtitles and content that you write, and also in any tagging space they give you the opportunity to fill in.

If you’re making a blog post on your blog, then the keyword should be in the URL, too. But you may have to check to ensure that your blog template is using this strategy. Under settings and then permalinks, you’ll be able to set your preferences.

For instance, many blogs default to give your post a number like this: http://www.yourblogname.com/?p=123. You’ll need to choose custom structure and enter this code: /%postname%.html – this will make your blog post URL appear with the title of the post, where your keywords will be, like this: http://www.yourblogname.com/title-of-blog-post

Use keywords within all of your content, especially the first paragraph and preferably in the first sentence, so that the initial snippet Google shows has your keyword included (it will appear bold if the person searching uses this exact keyword in their search).

Experts disagree about what density you have in regards to keywords. Some say 2% and others go as high as 10%. What you really need to do is write both human visitors and search engine spiders alike. That means enough keywords so that the searchbots see your content’s relevancy and not so many that it turns off your reader because it reads awkwardly.

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SEO Keyword Strategies

Many newbie marketers (and even moderate to advanced marketers) have diligently learned to do their keyword research, proudly sharing their experiences of researching, compiling, cleaning and putting their massive lists into action.

But what many don’t know is how to use keywords and phrases that aren’t traditionally thought of in order to help you bring in more targeted traffic for your online marketing campaigns.

Whenever you’re creating your keyword list and before you clean and organize it it, don’t forget about these:

Plurals – if you’re targeting “Internet Marketing guide,” make sure you also include “Internet marketing guides” as the plural version. Many people either do one or the other, but not both.

Misspellings – This can be caused by typos or the fact that the person searching doesn’t know how to properly spell a word, but some keyword tools provide you with spelling errors that you can add to your list.

Here’s the bad news – you have to intentionally go use those spelling errors in your marketing campaigns. If you’re a stickler for proper spelling, this may annoy you, but try to keep your eye on the prize and realize that you’ll be ranking very high and capturing a segment of the population other marketers are ignoring.

Starting With – this is a way of gathering keywords where you’re in charge of what words are chosen and in what order (for example, used cars – making sure used comes first and is paired with the word cars).

For some newbies, they get very frustrated when their search results deliver a variety of words like new cars and used furniture because they didn’t know how to properly filter out these phrases.

Phrase Match – this includes all of the words you put in quotation marks, plus any words before or after the phrase, such as – buy used cars today – (if you put “used cars” in the keyword tool).

Negative Match – this method of searching includes some words and leaves out others. For example, if you type “cars” -“used” it would return keyword phrases with cars in it, but none that have the word used.

Keyword variables help you expand your list and casting a wider net means you capture a bigger percentage of the audience that could be buying your products and services, so it’s always a wise move.

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Important Keyword Variables

Keyword lists can get very messy – especially the larger they get. You’ll want to compile a massive list of keywords for your niche marketing needs, and then organize them so that you can access them and put them to good use whenever you’re working on tasks.

So there are two parts to your keyword maintenance. Well, three if you consider the compilation and gathering portion a part of its own. Once you have the keywords compiled, you want to first clean the list, and then organize it for future use.

Your keywords might be gathered from multiple sources – like your own analytical tool or several free and paid keyword tools. So first, you’ll want to use a keyword cleaning tool to remove duplicates.

Your keyword cleaner can also make your keyword list alphanumeric for you. It can take out numbers and remove bad keywords that aren’t proper for a marketing campaign (such as those that contain the word free). It can also extract any phrases that contain bad words in them.

Alphanumeric keyword lists will help you get rid of anything with a hyphen or other symbol in it. It takes out periods and commas as well. With some keyword search tools, the results will include the search volume. A keyword cleaner removes those for you. Some of the keyword list cleaning tools will remove capitalization, too.

You can organize your keyword lists with a tool, too. If you’re using Pay Per Click search engine marketing, you can use exact or broad match keywords. Let the tool take a single list and deliver the extra results fully formatted for you so you can just cut and paste it into action.

You may want to group your keywords with modifying words like “best” or “buy.” Some list cleaning tools will help clump those particular words that you specify into groups for specific niche marketing campaigns you plan to launch.

Depending on the niche, you may want to organize your keyword list into group according to age, gender or location. Depending on the list cleaning tool you use, it can do all of the work for you.

Some keyword list cleaning tools use a tree-like branch function to organize your keywords and phrases. For example, let’s say you had a pet website. It could group the keywords according to animals first (birds, cats, dogs) and then branch out within each keyword for more precise phrase (buy a bird bath, cat clawing toys, dog training guide).

You can even use multiple keyword list cleaning tools if you find certain aspects you like among many of them. Organization will help you dominate in a niche easier than if you randomly pick and choose a word or phrase to use in your online campaigns.

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Clean Up Your Keyword List

Keywords are not a one size fits all. You have two very different types of keywords – broad and longtail – and they can both help your site achieve authority in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Broad keywords are very generic in nature. They tend to get more overall searches but it’s harder to rank high for those keywords due to the larger base of competitors. A good example of a broad keyword would be “dog.”

Longtail keywords are more focused and narrow. They have more words attached to them. Because fewer websites are trying to rank for those longer keyword phrases, you have an easier time ranking higher than your competition. A good example of a long tail keyword phrase would be “best dog training guide.”

For the very best results, you’ll want to use both types in your content creation. Sometimes you’ll be forced to use one over another, and sometimes you’ll choose to on purpose.

For example, when registering a domain or a web 2.0 property, you may not be able to find a URL available with a broad keyword. You may be forced to go down your keyword list and find the first available URL, which could be grouped in the longtail category.

In some instances, you’re going to want to shoot to the top of the SERP rankings, so you’ll go after a longtail keyword on purpose, whether it’s for a web 2.0 property or your own domain.

Here’s how many marketers think about the value of longtail keywords: while the longtail versions may get fewer searches individually, if you rank high for a large volume of longtail keyword phrases, you could effectively dominate in a niche where your competitor has only worked on ranking well for a couple of broad keyword phrases.

Consumers tend to type in longtail keyword phrases whenever they’re in a buying mood. Using our previous example, someone who wants to spend money on a dog training guide would go with the longer version.

A person who just types in dog could be looking for a pet, facts about a dog, pictures of dogs, or even using random slang to describe an unsavory cad who mistreats his girlfriend. You just don’t know, so the volume of traffic may not even be from prospective buyers, making their visit virtually worthless.

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Broad Keywords and Longtail Keywords

Google Slap

EBAY

Enjoy!

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Been Google Slapped Or Banned By EPN?

The year 2009 was the year of slaps, smack and strict rules in the world of web 2.0. Social networking sites saw a mammoth rise in membership by marketers, followed by a surge of spammers and eventually got punished by Google for their leniency.

So their slap by the search engines is being passed down to you. Everyone has tightened their belts, restricted certain content, lessened the number of links you can use – and implemented any other rule to prevent Google from doling out the same harsh punishment in the future.

Social networking was once a way for peers to share information and opinions – it’s so much more than that now. It paved the way for marketers to immerse themselves in communities where targeted consumers were lurking, converting peer traffic into click-throughs and sales.

It probably would have been smooth sailing if everyone had done his or her part to provide great content and keep topics above the board. But it’s inevitable that when a good thing surfaces (like web 2.0), spammers and seedy characters will suck it dry of any opportunity it possesses.

Certain social networking sites such as Squidoo, Ezine Articles, Google Knol and Hub Pages have already learned their lesson when it comes to cracking down on spammers and unsavory marketing tactics.

The year 2010 promises the evolution of more niche-specific social networks for people – along with some broad web 2.0 creations that cater to many niche groups. It will be your job to infiltrate these membership areas in a way that helps the community with true value so that you’re branded as trustworthy and not a leech of their online society.

It’s estimated that blatant advertising on social networking sites (like Facebook for example) will reach a whopping $2 billion in the year 2010. So marketers may not have to be as stealth in their promotions as they once were, if they’re willing to pay for the right to be there.

Social networking will also play an important role in on-the-go advertising. Mobile Messaging will evolve into a new sort of social marketing. You’ll be able to designate ad groups that are shown to people while they’re away from, their computer, reaching them on their cell phones.

People are already social networking from their cells – logging into Facebook, Tweeting about their everyday actions. You’ll become part of the common mass marketing strategy already being tested in many markets today.

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Social Networking 2010

Aren’t you glad that the social networking sites are making it more difficult for marketers to use stealth tactics to market to (and spam) its members? Even if it’s fruitful for you, it never makes you feel good to deceive customers and annoy the masses.

In 2009, Facebook really took off, replacing MySpace as the marketer’s adult web 2.0 playground of choice. There were some drawbacks, though. You had people complaining that their friends were only talking about business opportunities – and some complaining that they didn’t care to know the personal aspects of their friends lives because they were there to conduct business.

Many marketers decided to clean their friends’ list and open fan pages instead – reserving their official Facebook profile for close friends and family only. Facebook has a lot to ensure their income continues to soar with this influx of non-college students.

Their estimated revenue for the year 2010 is over $710 million. They’ve grown to over 350 million members and that number will continue to soar. While it’s traditionally been a closed site, Facebook is now working to connect its own member content across the World Wide Wide, enabling members to share on their own websites or blogs via Facebook connect.

Facebook will continue to lead the social networking scene when it comes to globalization. It started with a nifty translator that enables you to participate on the site in more than 70 different languages.

One thing is for sure. Facebook’s going to have to find a way to help its members avoid spam. Right now, anyone can send you a message without even having you confirm them as a friend.

That means you’ll get all sorts of spam content – from the long lost relative with the same last name who wants you to pay her $14,000 so she can transfer $1.4 million into your account to the cutesy women who want to chat with you, big boy!

Users of Facebook will be hyper-sensitive to any changes the site makes in regards to the privacy of their content, after 2009’s fiasco of announcing they officially owned your content and then going back on that statement to put out all of the fires that started.

Advertising is rampant on the site, so more marketers will be looking for ways to pay to play there. Right now you can run an AdWords-like campaign on Facebook, targeting individuals by age, location and more. Then you create an ad, choose PPC or pay per impression and track your conversions. Competition for 2010 may heat up, so learn to tweak your campaigns early on.

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Facebook Marketing 2010

Twitter rose from the lowly ranks of new microblogging social networking sites swiftly. Some say an entire Presidential campaign was won partially off the viral nature of this site – but regardless of whether or not you believe that, there’s no denying it can be a very powerful method of reaching a large audience.

The problem to date has been to determine just how to single out the right people to communicate with. With the implementation of robots to add friends or auto-follow people, you never knew if those who reciprocated your follow were even interested in your products or services that you market online.

In 2009, Internet marketers learned how to get traffic to their domains, blog, Squidoo lenses and forums simply by devising a potent Tweet and sending it out to the web-o-sphere.

They learned how to personalize their Twitter profile page, including product images, tag lines, and hyperlinks to important sites. Some lucky users were grandfathered with the ability to have an animated avatar (which catches many eyes) before Twitter nixed it to the masses.

Just before the end of the year, the site created a Beta test version of list options, that supposedly wasn’t available to everyone using the site. With lists, you’re able to take the people who you’re following and categorize them, allowing you to read the Tweets of one particular group at a time rather than wade through hundreds or thousands of Tweets that might just be a courtesy follow instead of a true interest.

Biz Stone, the founder of Twitter, is going to help marketers out by allowing you to open a business account for the year 2010. It will be a paid version of the site, but you’ll get perks such as analytic tools to help you focus your message more precisely.

You can’t blame Twitter. It must be horrible to have developed such a powerful social networking site that’s become a household name and still not be profitable. That’s the primary goal of Twitter in 2010 – to make acquisitions of developments that help them make revenue for the site. As marketers, we’ll be paying the bill for things we use, but hopefully well be reaping the rewards and our ROI (return on investment) will make it well worth it.

Another 2010 forecast is that your Tweets will soon be indexed in real time on both Google and Bing. As any marketer can tell you, this is wonderful for those who are marketing trend products and services and want to defeat their competition using effective keyword-laced Tweets that result in decent conversions.

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Twitter Traffic 2010

There are always certain topics that remain the same in nature and some that evolve from year to year (even faster in many instances). If you enter a niche where trend spotting is important, then that’s a skill you need to learn how to master.

For example, if you were to write an eBook about the grieving process when a loved one dies, you could get away with writing an eBook that pretty much didn’t change from year to year (unless there was some new mind-blowing process someone came out with). Dog training is another similar niche – dogs aren’t changing, so training them pretty much remains consistent over the years.

But if you are in a niche about fashion, Internet marketing, finances, or technology, then you’d better stay abreast of several things – consumer needs, wants and demands and marketplace developments that create selling opportunities for you.

Let’s take finances as an example first. Consumers are going through a disastrous economical crunch right now. They need, want and demand money savers. Your info product could teach a wide variety of things.

When gas prices hit the roof, a ton of eBooks about saving on gas were flooded into the marketplace, but what else happened? Technology developers created tools to help convert water into gas and stretch the gas out. Those who were early on this trend made a lot of money with it.

In 2010, consumers will continue to need cost cutting advice. We’re not out of the recession yet. They’ll also need advice on how to find or keep a job, since unemployment is very high going into the New Year. Work at home topics will be highly sought after for those who want to save on daycare and commuting costs, or those who weren’t able to find a job the traditional way.

Mobile networks will become even more popular in 2010. Cell phones, social networking from your mobile gadget – all are on the horizon of becoming mainstream, where grandma has a Motorola Droid and she’s Tweeting at her grandchildren’s recital. Even your gadgets will have gadgets developed for them. Cell phones are going to have boosters – if you only get 1 bar in a certain area, you can use a gadget that boosts you by 3 more bars.

In the gaming niche, video games will almost make handheld clunky controllers a thing of the past – developers are coming out with games that are controlled more by the movements of your own body.

You’ll need to determine if your own niche has trending possibilities and create a forecast based on some market research that you conduct with keywords and a little investigative spying on what manufacturers or experts are predicting.

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2010 Trends For Info Products

Expect more competition both as a product creator and an affiliate marketer on ClickBank. While this prediction might make you squirm a bit, consider it a beneficial forecast. A thriving marketplace attracts more consumers.

ClickBank just introduced three tutorial videos to help bring on German, French and Spanish speaking sellers and affiliates. This will help widen the global audience and your potential for sales.

They will be doing more handholding for the masses, training product creators to stay above the board and not spam or do unethical things, and training affiliates to utilize tools to make more sales.

For example, in a recent ClickBank blog post, they even advised affiliates to use PLR to help promote ClickBank products. That’s a positive thing for marketers, because many online companies frown on PLR, not understanding its ability in the marketplace.

ClickBank is going to continue cracking down on vendors. Many topics are already being declined from the list in 2009, and you can expect them to continue weeding out topics in the coming year.

They’ve recently shut down topics such as credit repair, marketing through social networks, multi level marketing memberships, and more. You’re unable to submit topics in these categories at all and they will not review your product for you.

ClickBank plans to ensure its vendors are in compliance with the FTC regulations – especially if you’re using the Vendor Spotlight feature. They don’t tell you what’s wrong, just that you’re not in compliance – and they direct you to the FTC’s website so you can investigate the rules yourself.

The site has also begun expending its marketplace categories, and probably will widen it more as the number of vendors and affiliates grow. You may have noticed, if you already have a product there, that when you log into your account, you’re told of your new category and subcategory – and given a chance to dispute it if you wish to do so.

Some people complain about the ClickBank marketplace, preferring instead to use another form of affiliate marketing like PayDotCom. But for those who want to cover all bases and have their products promoted by a large number of affiliates (or want to have a large number of products to promote as an affiliate), it’s best to just stay abreast of the ClickBank rules as they’re announced, which means staying tuned into their blog.

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Changes At Clickbank 2010

Internet marketers have been buzzing about their plans for 2010. What did they need to learn? What tools did they want to invest in? Video marketing was the top topic for so many people hoping to edge out the competition, and with good reason. It conveys professionalism and personalization all in one.

There are a lot of tasks you have to learn in this industry and it can get overwhelming trying to decide which to focus on and which to ignore. You need to know how to conduct niche and keyword research, how to set up an email marketing campaign, how to cash in on social networking.

Video marketing is just one more important component of your online strategy. It’s powerful. But to date, only top marketers who had the money for tools and the technical savvy to master them had been riding this wave of success.

In 2010, every marketer will be searching for video marketing methods that help them dominate in their niche. Because of increased demand, developers have been working on tools that help the average consumer.

Video marketing will help you brand your company in a positive and professional (not to mention cutting edge) slant. It helps you highlight the benefits of your products and services. It increases the stickiness of your site, which is how long your visitors stay on your domain. And it also help you connect to your audience for sales conversions and instructional tutorials.

Some marketers have yet to invest in their copy of Camtasia. Editing video was deemed too hard. But there are free tools like Camtasia Studio that can help you get started and get comfortable before immersing yourself into more complex recordings.

You can even invest in simple point and click technology where you aim, click the button to record and stop, and upload it online via your USB port. You can do this with a Flip Video Camera.

In 2010, there will be more tools dedicated to helping marketers use video marketing as an SEO support system. Video advertising will be one of the increasingly used media formats in the social networking world, too.

Not only will your target audience be seeing a video played automatically on sites like Facebook, but there will be mobile video advertising, too. It’s not too late, but you want to educate yourself ASAP about this form of marketing so you won’t be behind the times when it comes to capturing the attention of your consumer base.

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Video Marketing 2010

Don’t you hate it when you spend a lot of money on how to guides, memberships and tools helping you with your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts, only to find out everything’s changing for the coming year?

It happens to everyone and some marketers can roll with the changes with ease, while others struggle to keep up. If you look to the future, it can help you predict how things might change so you can head off the SEO lag time most marketers will experience and stay one step ahead of the competition.

The biggest change you’re going to notice is that things are evolving into real time. Keywords, indexing – it’s going to be updated quicker than in the past, so you won’t be able to rest on your laurels enjoying a top spot in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and likewise, you’ll have ample opportunity to move up in the ranks if you pay attention closely.

In 2010, you’re going to see Google working on ways to combine real time results (which basically means the last one to mention something, if it’s indexed, will be shown) with relevancy, which was Google’s biggest beef with websites that were using keywords to trick searchers in the first place!

Real time search doesn’t replace regular SEO page results, though. It’s integrated into the SERPs so that you have the option of choosing the latest results or the pages. So you’ll be able to capitalize on both options as a marketer.

All of the regular SEO tactics will stay the same. You’ll want to post frequently on your website or blog. You’ll want to use relevant keyword phrases without stuffing them into it so that it reads awkwardly.

Backlinks from the right kind of relevant sites will be to your benefit, while so-called bad neighborhoods will still damage your reputation with Google. It’s expected that businesses – both online and offline – will be increasing their spending to SEO experts and investing in SEO tools to help them either boost or maintain their position in the search engines.

You can be a self-taught SEO expert just by educating yourself about what tactics are allowed (and which are frowned upon) and tracking and tweaking your methods so get the best traffic results.

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SEO 2010

Keywords used to be used for one major purpose – to stuff a web page so full that Google and other search engines considered them the most relevant to a particular topic. We’ve come a long way, baby!

Keyword research is going to change dramatically in 2010 in a way that will help marketers capitalize on trends more than they have been. To date, most keyword research tools have been a bit lagging in results.

But now, developers are coming out with real time trend data for keywords. Google Trends, for example, is updated daily. And now you can access Hot Topics and get an hourly snapshot of what topics are most being investigated by the public.

You can periodically log into these free tools to see what topics or content is relevant or can be connected to your own niche site. Then create an AdWords campaign or blog about it or Tweet something to get that current flood of traffic diverted to your own website.

I predict that you’re going to find more free keyword tools that are almost as competitive as the paid versions. Developers will make their money elsewhere with the tool. For instance, Wordstream just launched two free keyword research tools (Keyword Niche Finder and Keyword Grouper) that search for, build and clean your lists for you.

In 2010, Google and other search engines will be looking for ways to counter keyword spam. They’re going to have future functions that weed out spammers and try to connect searchers to relevant content they really want.

Keywords will also be delivered via Google using the Real Time Search function, which will run side by side with the older results and will include information from social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Somehow I have a feeling spammers will find a way to capitalize on that, too.

You’ll be using your keywords and phrases – dominating with long-tail phrases as usual – in more places online in 2010. Aside from using them on web pages, in AdWords campaigns, and on typical social networking sites like Squidoo, you’ll also consider using them more in video marketing (which many marketers fail to do) and on mobile advertising networks, which are on the rise.

Whatever methods you use, you’ll want to make sure you continually build your keyword list, clean it for duplicates and irrelevant phrases, and then put them to use for you instead of letting them sit on your hard drive.

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Keyword Research 2010

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) passed new regulations that will affect Internet Marketers in regards to the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising section.

The changes they’ve made affect bloggers and website owners who use testimonials or those with celebrities. If you’re an affiliate marketer, it affects you, too. While most of the buzz was about celebrities who fail to disclose they’re being paid or receiving freebies when touting a certain product, it’s smaller entrepreneurs we’re concerned about.

You’ll want to do ample investigating on your own before you start promoting anything for a paid commission. This article isn’t meant as legal advice for you – it’s simply an observation about the new rules and how we might feel their impact.

The point of the changes is to connect the dots for consumers between advertisers and endorsers. Not everyone has an Internet marketing background and can spot an affiliate review compared to an unbiased, unpaid one.

This will affect marketers who make up their testimonials. Some of them have written up their own testimonials and bought a stock picture of the “testimonial giver” – falsely making the consumer believe people have gotten good results with the product, when it fact not a single person had tried or purchased it yet.

Traditionally, advertisers could simply put an asterisk next to a real testimonial with the words “results not typical” in fine print. This was still shady because it wasn’t blatantly exposed on the site.

Now, if you get paid a commission, or if you got a freebie in exchange for recommending a product, then you’d better openly disclose that connection to your readers or you could face an FTC fine.

There’s no broad laws governing bloggers and marketers, though – the FTC says each case will be investigated individually. Aside from the payment being disclosed, you also have to be honest. You can’t say something helped you make $10,000 in revenue if it didn’t – and if you get caught, you could be forced to pay up.

Now if you’re caught, the burden is on the FTC to prove their case and how it violates the FTC Act. You can order a copy of the FTC’s updated Act here: FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. The bottom line for 2010 is – don’t cheat your readers out of an honest review, even if that means you admit you’re getting paid for your opinion!

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How Will The FTC Affect Internet Marketing in 2010?

The movie Julie and Julia took blogging mainstream for many who had no idea that an everyday, average individual could command attention and pursue their passion using an online technology available to the masses for free.

And it’s not just movies and rare blog success stories that make people want to blog. In 2009, the job market resulted in a ton of layoffs for journalists and print newspapers and magazines went out of business. These writers will take their skills to the Internet.

Blogging will boom in 2010 even more than it already has in marketing circles. Just like reality TV has now become a career pursuit for some young adults, blogging is being viewed as a potential income source for those who don’t want to take the regular route to financial success.

Perez Hilton has been very open with the amount of money he’s raking in – and it’s substantial. There are so many blog success stories that you can learn from and apply them to your 2010 Internet Marketing strategy.

The Bankaholic blog was sold for $15 million. ArsTechnica sold for $25 million. PaidContent sold for $30 million. Someone recently commented that you can start a blog about Doritoes potato chips and once it gets rolling with traffic, wait and see how much they pay you to own it.

In the year 2010, you’re going to find many grassroots bloggers who are flying by the seat of their pants. The one edge they may have over experienced marketers is that they don’t just get into a niche because it sounds lucrative – they do it because they truly have a passion for it.

That passion will translate into frequent blog posts and the building of a loyal and enthusiastic like-minded core audience. It will grow like a wildfire and when that traffic hits a certain number, competitors will come knocking at the door of these bloggers hoping to make an acquisition and funnel that traffic to their own interests.

Many of these bloggers you’ll be competing with won’t have the marketing savvy and insight to monetize their blogs as well as yours, so initially they may not see the same financial success. But don’t count them out if they’re fierce about feeding the Googlebots with constant content and ensuring they’re not hyping up their reviews in a way that violates current FTC rulings.

Your goal for 2010 as a blogger should be to continue leaving breadcrumbs on a daily basis for search engine spiders. Make sure you utilize broad and long-tail keywords. Comply with FTC regulations about being transparent if you receive compensation for a review or testimonial. And narrow your niche down so that you have a high chance for success against the influx of new bloggers in the blogosphere.

Post from: Internet Marketing Blog

Blogging 2010

Ezine Articles (EZA) is perhaps the best known article directory and most widely used by Internet Marketers. It used to be that you could submit any topic to them, include links how you wanted, and reap the rewards for your content efforts.

But slowly but surely, EZA has been cracking down on marketers – and this may be an inconvenience to you, but it will ultimately provide a better marketing venue for you. Chris Knight, the owner of EzineArticles.com, has implemented new rules that will probably continue to grow in the year 2010.

In 2009, they stopped letting you submit articles about certain topics. For example, you could no longer submit articles about private label rights – because they don’t want to promote the use of PLR to the public. Some people were sorely disappointed when a new rule impeded their progress.

EZA implemented the Premium account where you could pay almost $600 a year for faster service, better reporting, and more convenience perks such as an increased number of resource bio boxes you could store onsite.

Chris Knight is deeply aware of how Google perceives his site. For 2010, he’s considering making a change that will eliminate or hinder your ability to edit your article after it’s submitted and live.

Why will this be done in 2010? Because Google is being told there’s an article in a certain place. If your article is edited (and according to Knight, about 83% are just resource box edits), it ceases to be live, so Google goes there and sees nothing there – making EZA look bad in the eyes of Google’s indexing system.

Other article directories are going to clamping down on affiliate links and spam topics, too. Just like social networks, they fear their site will be slapped by Google if they allow marketers to create a “bad neighborhood” online.

As Knight said in his EZA blog this year, “Our reputation (and the reputation of everyone who participates in the EzineArticles platform/system) is on the line with every single outbound link included on every single article.”

They have to be very careful of where you’re linking and for what reason. Instead of being angry about the new rules they create, why not embrace them with a thankful attitude that this article directory is working overtime to help ensure your content is safeguarded against prevalent spammers and that it maintains its positive reputation in the eyes of search engines everywhere?

Author: Rich Henderson

Post from: Internet Marketing Blog

Article Marketing 2010

Anyway I have received quite a few emails, texts etc about Jeff Walker pulling his prduct of the market and people saying "OMG what can I do, even Jeff Walker is panicking". Well stop right there. Sir Jeff (yup he is one of the few marketers knighted by me for his services to my bank balance) is merely doing some really clever marketing as you would expect.

Personally I think it is a very clever piece of marketing on his part. All the talk at the moment online is about the ftc and the new guidelines (which aren’t actually new just the interpretations provided by the feds) and he has created the ultimate linkbait.

Basically he is giving away a ton of free content, which amounts to stuff he has used before to promote his previous launches as well as stuff you could only previously get by owning PLF1 and PLF2 so will have a big appeal.

There is no doubt that his stuff on launching a product has been the blueprint for every big launch in the last few years and works with lower end stuff too so we are talking about someone who knows his stuff.

I am lucky enough to have all his stuff and although I have never done a bona fida launch as such I learned tons from his courses, I have also been lucky enough to meet him a couple of times and he is not only a really nice guy, but a REALLY smart one too. Anyway I digress.

So Jeff has released this awesome linkbait for one purpose only. To promote his new launch. It is pure PLF. Give away a ton of great free stuff then ask the "Wowed" freebie grabbers to buy the new and improved version.

He is basicaly piggybacking on one of the major human emotions fear. Fear of the ftc. Now his product plf3 or whatever it is going to be called actually has nothing to do with the ftc although he has changed it dramatically to comply with new guidelines.

However it does not matter one bit. The whole point of linkbait is to draw the crowds, create controversy etc. And here is one of the most respected marketers online saying I’m taking my product of the market, come see why! Cha Ching!

Right or wrong this is simply brilliant and if you think its not just watch this space for Mr Filsaime, Sir Kern and all the other top gurus to jump on this proverbial nuclear bandwagon and use this method to either re promote their old products or launch new ones. Click on the link to see what I mean and NO THIS IS NOT AN AFFILIATE LINK!

Watch The Video

P.S. I am not suggesting for a minute that anybody goes and buys his new course, it is just another shiny shiny bauble in the IM world so unless you have a big product to launch then carry on concentrating on what you are doing!

P.S.S. Here is the link to that webinar with the FTC guy.

http://www.igottatellyou.com/blog/ftc-change-interview/

Post from: Internet Marketing Blog

Is Jeff Walker Scared Of The FTC???

PPC advertising can be intimidating and confusing for people just starting out. By using this simple AdWords Google Guide, you’ll have the tips and tricks to make sure that you’re starting out in the right direction. Make sure to pay attention – a poorly managed AdWords campaign can end up costing you a lot of money – and fast. You could blow your startup budget in a week, and your foray into making money online could be over before you even really got started.

The first tip in our AdWords Google Guide is to make sure you know what you want before you start. This means having clearly defined goals and aims. What do you want to get out of this campaign? Do you want to get sales, or do you just want to build an email list? If you know what you want before you start your campaign, you’ll have an easier time focusing and staying on track.

The second tip in our AdWords Google Guide is to choose your keywords carefully. Your keywords are what will get your ads in front of your target audience. Choose the wrong keywords, and you’ll be advertising to the wrong audience, and you won’t get the response that you are looking for (and you know exactly what that is because of your extremely well-defined goals.)

There are many different factors which define whether a keyword it right for you or not; you have to take into consideration the volume of searches and the advertising competition on any given keyword, which will then affect the starting price. You also need to make sure that they keywords you choose have something to do with your product or service – when people use search engines, they are looking for information on something specific, and one of the best tips I can give you in this AdWords Google Guide is to make sure that you are relevant to that.

Which leads us into our next AdWords Google Guide tip – make sure that whatever offer you used in your AdWords ad is prominently displayed on your landing page when the prospect clicks through. The number one cause of abandonment in PPC marketing is because the user didn’t think that the site followed through on what was promised in the ad.

Google Adwords is an amazing tool to help you make money in PPC marketing, and I hope that this Adwords Google Guide has been useful.

If you want to get serious about PPC marketing and AdWords, Click HERE Now to claim your $1 FULL ACCESS to PPCKahuna Now!

Post from: Internet Marketing Blog

Google AdWords Guide

When I say autoblogs are not dead it is very dependent on how you set them up, how you provide the content and how you promote them. In addition what you are actually expecting from them is also very important. For instance if you are expecting to make $15-20 a day from them, then you are likely to be disappointed.

I have over 800 blogs that are autoblogs. I set them up and then forget about them. Obviously I monitor the incomes and traffic and for the most part I actually use adsense for that. Why spend money on a traffic tracker when adsense does a perfectly good job for you and earns you some money to. The majority of the income does not come from adsense though, CPA and other affiliate products make up the majority of the earnings.

I am pretty happy if my blogs make 50c a day. Now I don’t mean 50c every day, I mean averaging 50c a day so $15 a month. Now if you consider that most of the cpa offers and affiliate products I use have a commission of $20 plus then one sale a month does it. How hard do you think that is? If you do it right it is not difficult at all.

But the real bonus for me is not just the income they provide but more importantly the information they produce. The niche i make the most money from in my "Normal" marketing I discovered purely from my autoblogs. I noticed several similar blogs getting decent traffic and earnings and immediately set about building £real" blogs and sites to make money in that niche.

A classic example occured yesterday. I saw a massive traffic spike for a blog in my adsense account and when I had a closer look it was an article from an article directory that was autoposted to my blog about a specific event. I leave all the links in these articles as it is only fair. you are getting free content from these directories so sticking to their publishing requirements is a must.

Anyway following the link in the article took me to a product and I joined the affiliate program, wrote a new post with the same keywords and my affiliate links and chucked some bookmarking links at it. By the end of the day I had already made $500. As of this morning there is another $180 in commissions. How is that for writing one article????

But the really exciting thing is I would never have considered this niche in a million years and although this was based on a specific event there are 3 or 4 similar events every month so the possibilities are huge. And all this came from an autoblog. So please don’t try and tell me autoblogging is dead, far from it!

Post from: Internet Marketing Blog

Autoblogging Is Dead

With an ever-growing base of Internet users and shoppers, internet marketing has acquired a position of utmost importance in the world of marketing. It is an extremely powerful tool for online marketers but its effectiveness depends upon the kind of approach taken towards it by a marketer. Most newcomers and even the very experienced ones make similar mistakes while approaching online marketing.

Let’s take a look at a few common marketing mistakes and sure ways to avoid them.

Waiting Time: Customers shop online for two important reasons, i.e. speed and convenience. If you are using a slow server or own a website that uses graphics which take ages to download, then it may be difficult to retain customers. You need to have web pages that load quickly. Customers do not like to wait. Remember, first impressions are really the ones that last.

Technical Issues: First and foremost, try and design websites that are user friendly. Not every one has the latest software that they may need to view your website so remember to include the basic html and web pages for customers working on computers with outdated hardware or software.

Offline Marketing: Online marketing is effective, but to a certain extent. You would also need to market your product offline in order to be really effective.

Search Engine Listings: A lot of internet marketers constantly use search engines but often conveniently forget to list their sites on those very search engines. Search Engine listings are important and should be done manually. Different search engines work in different ways and you need find out ways to move up in their rankings.

Staying Current: There are many commercial websites that are not updated regularly. Customers can be attracted and retained only if the website is up to date. You can’t afford to be found selling stuff from Christmas last year, this June.

Being Customer Friendly: Make it easy for your customers to surf your website. Do not hound them with unreasonable questions while they fill up a form to make a purchase. They may make a purchase just this once but may not come back for more if they find the transaction process too tedious. Allowing your customers to market your products with word of mouth or viral marketing is a good practice so include columns to obtain e-mail addresses of friends and family members whom they may like to refer.

Long Term Planning: You need to plan long term and not look for swift and easy profits. Many web marketers have really intelligent plans. Some of them risk losing money in the beginning to lure customers and make a loyal customer base because they know that losses in such situations can be recovered in a very short span of time. Though it’s not a rule to lose money in the beginning but you need to realise the long-term value of a customer.

Advertising: Advertising is indispensable. Besides free classifieds, links, banner ads, you need to make use of press releases that will help your product reach target sales in no time.

Don’t give up even if you lose some money in the beginning. Avoid making the above-mentioned mistakes and you will do just fine in your internet marketing efforts.

Post from: Internet Marketing Blog

Internet Marketing Mistakes

I have been expecting this for quite a while as squidoo has been consistently losing authority with google and it was only a matter of time.

Look at it from Seth Godins point of view. His brainchild ruled the world then along came hubpages. For a time they still ruled the roost but then hubpages decided to make spammer sacrifices to apease the angry God google and low and behold, they completely hammered Squidoo in google.

Just try to find high ranking sub pages in squidoo like tag pages they have been disappearing at a colossal rate.

I for one am overjoyed these changes are coming and lets face it they are overdue. Will this affect you? Probably….Possibly.

As i said I am overjoyed but it still measn I am going to have to start checking my 300+ lenses to make sure they are more “squidoo 2009″ friendly. Time to remove the overstuffed links to the same domain for one! That said they say you can have 9 outbound links so unless you have a colossus type lens you should be ok

The one issue I would have is when they talk about overly promotional lenses and yet they continue to find more and more ways to stuff as many ads as they can onto “OUR” lenses!

Anyway if for some reason you have not seen the email here it is.

1. No Spam. This one’s not new, but it’s worth saying again.

It’s simple: given our pedigree, our point of view and our dyed-in-the-wool, we-will-never-change-our-mind conviction on this issue, spam is not okay at Squidoo. For a few years now we have had a very strict and enforced stance against spam. That’s staying the same, and if anything, getting even more rigorous. If you actively spam people with your Squidoo lenses (by email, in blog comments, by stalking and harassing people on Twitter, by tricking people with the content in your lenses, and more) we’ll lock your entire account.
2. No more X-rated or Porn lenses

If you came to Squidoo to create X-rated or pornographic content, the time has come to say farewell. We’re not discontinuing these lenses because we’ve suddenly grown shy, or because we no longer believe in the freedom to publish what you want. We do. Practically though, supporting X-rated pages no longer makes sense, and it invites more spam and empty traffic and wasted overhead than anything. Find out more about why we’re making this very hard decision, and what it means for your X-rated lenses. (Don’t panic! You can export your content and take it with you).
3. No Junk Topics from our “SquidDon’t” List

Lenses on free movie downloads. Toenail fungus cures. LoseBellyFatNow promotions. Reverse Phone Lookup 4U. You know junk when you see it. And lots more examples.

Unforunately, topics like these are overwhelmingly conditioned and proven to attract spammers. If a topic has displayed enough trickery and spam and bad activity, we choose not to support it. If we find a lens on a SquidDon’t topic or something very similar to it, we’ll lock it. For good. Our best recommendation: Don’t bother with topics like these. There’s plenty of incredible stuff to write about and recommend online without having to go near the edges of what we’re got going here.
4. A new limit on overly promotional lenses

Making a lens to promote or recommend something is a terrific endeavor. It’s a big part of why a lot of our people are here. But: Less is more! Sales lenses far too often turn into junk lenses, as described by the relentless number of outbound links to the same exact domain. Being overly promotional rarely works. “Buy here buy here buy here!” never does.

So to help you focus your lenses, and sell even better–and to help surfers find our pages more useful overall–we’re introducing a limit to the number of outbound links to the same domain that you can have on a lens. If you have more than 9 links to the SAME domain on a single lens, your lens will get locked for review. Of course we’ll have domains that are whitelisted out of this (meaning, you can have as many outbound links to them as you like), as well as sites that are blacklisted (meaning, even a single link to that domain will get your lens locked).

Please read all the important details on how this works.
What now? First, take a deep breath.

We won’t be flipping the switch on these new policies until July 20, 2009 or later. So you’ve got more than a month to review your lenses to make sure they’re playing by the rules.

In the meantime, here are 4 things you can do to get ready for these changes.
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoo-policy-update#module37726512
Thanks, guys.

Thanks for reading this far. And thanks for caring about the quality, community and infinite possibility that is Squidoo.

Live long and prosper.

–The SquidTeam
Squidoo.com
***

P.S. Every Squidoo lensmaster is getting a note just like this. We rarely send huge updates like this because we know you’re busy. If you’d rather not get email from us ever again, you can login and delete your Squidoo account under ‘Account Status’. No hard feelings. No tears. Well, maybe a little.

I actually think this is only the beginning, call it a sacrificial lamb, before they sacrifice the entire sheep pop of Australia!

Post from: Internet Marketing Blog

Squidoo Deathray Is Coming, Be Afraid….. Be Very Afraid!

What this basically means is that as far as google is concerned links coming from these sites will add no authority or "link juice" to your site. Yes people will still be able to follow the link to your site but for the most part social bookmarking traffic is pretty useless and has the lowest conversion rate of any other traffic.

Another factor is the competition. Every marketer and his dog are blasting all these sites which means getting on a page with any link power is virtually impossible and even if you do manage it it will be for a few seconds and if the bots don’t happen to be crawling the site during those few seconds then when it does find your link its going to be on a page with no importance. Do not forget this is only for the sites that even allow "follow" links.

Next the big sites are so power mad they take great pleasure in banning any account that looks like it might belong to a marketer. You might spend months getting all the links on a site and then wallop one person clicks on a complaint or report link and your accout is gone

So how can you get around this? My favorite ploy is using "average Joe" created sites. In other words bookmarking sites created by normal people and not by mega giants or corporations. The best type of sites to look for are pligg sites. Pligg is a free software that enables you to create your own social bookmarking or networking site. The beauty of these sites is that they get a lot of love from google and they are low competition. They are a clone of Digg the major difference being it only takes a few votes to get you on the coveted home page. Sometimes just creating 2 or 3 accounts and voting for your own bookmarks can achieve this. Remember to use proxies as pligg records the ip of sign ups.

I have seen better results in the search engines from bookmarks on a PR0 pligg site than i have from deliscious and other huge bookmarking sites. So how do you find these sites? Just look in google. A good way to get started is add the following to the google search box "Your Source for Social News and Networking"

Here are a couple I like to use

http://www.articwoof.com

http://www.madatac.com

Post from: Internet Marketing Blog

Social Bookmarking For 2009

THE WRONG WAY TO MARKET ON TWITTER!

There are some exceptions to this as there are a couple of decent guides to using twitter for marketing purposes. But in the main they are all a load of misleading tripe! I know i may be sounding a bit angry but that’s becuase I am. It is no wonder that every "normal" person regards anyone who is an internet marketer as a fruad or conman.

Anyway back to twitter. The reason that most of these guides are tripe is simple. Very few stress that any follower who is not targeted for your niche is a complete and utter waste of time. The internet is over run with claims like

I Got 5000 Followers In a Week And You Can Too

I don’t want 5000 followers unless they are all targeted for my niche. If they are just randomly added they are a complete waste of time and space. The tactics these guides teach are nothing short of spamming. Go out and follow everyone you can find and hope they follow you back. Nonsense.

Even the ones that show you how to search for followers by keyword do not explain what else you should be doing. The majority of keyword searches involve searching tweets. Sounds good right. Well no not really you could have a fanatical heavy metal biker dude who happens to tweet using the word stitch as in he hit someone and they needed a stitch. Now along comes a nice old lady who is trying to advertise her crochet guide and adds the biker dude because he has the word stitch in his tweet! Now ok that is an extreme example.

Not so long ago there was an internet marketers paradise called myspace. Along came a bunch of short term thinking spammers spouting guides about how to blackhat the heck out of myspace and sure enough it died a very quick death. By the time myspace realized what was happening it was too late. They tried to save the site but did not succeed and along came facebook and the rest is history.

Twitter will head the same way as myspace if all we see are guides on how to spam the heck out of it by getting 20,000 followers in a week and then send them 100 sales pitches a day whether they are interested or not. Don’t think "well if they don’t like it they can unfollow the spammer" because its not that simple, with myspace you can block people it didn’t stop that going down the pan.

Ok so the reason I don’t want to see twitter die or at the very least go ultra restrictive is because it makes me money. Yes I am writing this partly out of self interest. Last month I made more money advertising on twitter than I did from my lists. And yes you can too, LOL. But do it right.

Provide good content and resources targeted at your niche. Only send out one sales pitch for every 30 or so "content tweets". If you treat twitter like your most prized list you will get good results and without spamming the place to death. Twitter is especially powerful in the non IM niche. I have a twitter account in a niche similar to the one that the old lady from my earlier example used and it made me a thousand bucks last month. Now that may not be a lot but it was a thousand bucks I wouldn’t have had without twitter and that is just one niche and one twitter account.

So come on guys keep it respectable, look after twitter and it will look after you!

Post from: Internet Marketing Blog

Why The Majority Of Twitter How To Guides SUCK!

Ensure the subject is relevant to your target audience

When you chose your mailing list you must have targeted a group of people. It may have been based on age, people who love fast cars, or if you’re really lucky the people on your list are people who have asked for you to send them more information. When you write your subject line think about this group of people. If you were in their shoes, what subject would cause you to open and read the email? If you write a subject that has no relevance to the recipient or has been written on a whim, you can be sure it will make that inevitable trip to the junk mail folder.

Don’t use excessive punctuation. (But use it where it’s necessary)

A good way to get your mailing list black-listed is to use excessive amounts of punctuation, especially too many exclamation points (!!) and also question marks (??). Search engines are able to read emails that contain excessive punctuation in the subject line. You should also try to avoid using words such as “free”, “exclusive”, and “limited time”. If you use a combination of these words or phrases together with excessive punctuation you can almost guarantee that your mailing list will get added to the black list. However, if you go out of your way to use correct spelling and punctuation it will help your business to be recognized as genuine and professional.

Don’t send too many emails or the same email repeatedly

This is a common problem. When we receive ten emails in our mailbox from the same source it can be particularly frustrating especially when they are from somebody you don’t know who is plaguing you about their product. When you click the send button you need to be discrete and send emails out sparingly. Remember not to send the same email out time and time again. It won’t increase its chances of being read. If you put effort and thought into every single email message you send to the people on your mailing list your chances are increased of the email being opened and generating traffic to your site.

Don’t be sneaky with your subject line

This is another common trick used in many spam emails. This is where the subject line suggests that there has been previous correspondence with the recipient. Or some will make it seem as though the email has come from a friend. These are pretty easy to spot if you know to look out for them and you can then consign them immediately to the garbage bin. Some people will still open the email, but as soon as they read the contents they will soon be onto you and then the same will happen. Your email is sent to the trash and your address added to the recipient’s spam list. Whilst you may get some people to open your email they won’t provide you with the quantity or quality of customers your business needs. Deceiving people is never a good way to attract custom.

You need to think of your mailing list as a gold mine and treat it with respect. If you put the same amount of effort into the subject line as the content of the email you’ll find you can communicate better with your potential customers and avoid being added to blacklists.

Rich Henderson

If you are looking for a membership that will drastically improve your internet marketing skills across all levels then take a look at this Portal Feeder Review

Post from: Internet Marketing Blog

Email Subject Lines That Attract

Whilst attempting to develop a marketing system, market research is a critical phase in recognizing who your audience is and the right moment to speak with them. The information you’re required to know seems never ending and can seem a daunting process. Your instincts may tell you to collect as much information as you possibly can prior to your campaign launch, but be careful. It is much easier to be bogged down under the infinite quantity of information you collect. If you are spending too much effort on your market research you will be delayed for the foreseeable future.

Analysis paralysis is the name given to these obsessive market research habits. If you spend too much effort on trying to decipher how your market is segmented, objectives, market positioning, targets, you will soon see your efforts come to a halt. Of course, market research is a key part in the marketing machine, but you do have to watch that you do not lose sight of your goals by over-analyzing. The truth is, that those suffering from analysis paralysis are scared of failing. They end up researching over and over in order to gather more information that will give their ideas further support. They are seeking perfection before they act and start doubting that their ideas hold any water.

The solution for analysis paralysis is easy. You need to take control and use the information you have collected in your market research and start to put it into practice. If it’s not entirely perfect, don’t panic. Focus on the small things to start with, and then you can make tweaks as necessary. That’s the great thing about marketing: nothing is set in stone. If you find that one method doesn’t turn out how you want it to you can make the changes until you are happy. The point is that you have used the knowledge you have gathered from your market research and used it to your advantage.

Remember, it is essential that you do not over-analyze and become obsessive about market research. That doesn’t mean you should stop gathering it all together. Market research is a necessity and whilst the conditions of the market are always fluctuating you must learn to accept change and adapt accordingly. One thing that must be learned is to let market research assist you in achieving your objective, and not to allow the research decide on what those objectives for you. You need to also remember that the research you do will not always be of use to your business. If you carry out research, act on it, fine-tune your research and then act again etc. you will stop the rising panic that can come from analysis paralysis.

Post from: Internet Marketing Blog

Internet Market Research Without Analysis Paralysis

While it is true that you can get some very good information and advice on Internet marketing forums you must also bear in mind that many of the people posting information on these forums are marketers themselves and could well be there just to make a fast buck. One of the ways you can check the credibility of the marketers posting is to check the number of posts they have made and also gives the forum allows thanks to be given then you should check this to.

There is a downside to this method is that so many of these forums there are cliques of marketers that sometimes can band together to give each other credibility. Obviously this can be quite difficult to detect especially for newbies. This is especially important in your looking at a product review or a product that is for sale.

I came across a classic example of this only this month. I’m not going to name the product or the forum as I’m not in the habit of trashing other people, marketers, or forums for that matter. Personally I think that negativity does exactly what it says on the tin that is its negative obviously to the person you may be trashing but also to yourself.

What I will say is that the service in question was to do with writing. Basically it advertised itself much like an eat as much as you can buffet in other words you pay the monthly fee and you would get as many rewrites as you wanted. I actually thought this seemed a bit too good to be true but thought what the heck this guy has a good rep so I’ll give it a go.

In the thread announcing this service there were about 10 good reviews of the product and service. It seems to me like a good deal and was going to use it to get some click bank sales letters rewritten. As soon as I joined up I submitted five and was notified the next day the two of them had already started and giving me an estimated completion date of about 3 to 5 days later.

It seemed to me like this was off to a good start and was only slightly concerned when the following day the third rewrite was given an estimated date of 6 to 9 days. The warning bells should have gone off about two days later when the estimated time for the remaining two was given as two weeks in three weeks respectively. The last one actually had in a completion date of the day before my next month subscription was due.

As you can see it’s pretty apparent that this was a way of making sure it was not unlimited. Later to make matters worse the fourth rewrite was over two weeks late, I wrote to the provider questioning this. His reply was what you expect this is high quality work etc. etc. night in question the rewrites for good but it was advertised as unlimited. I wrote back and point this out to them and he said well you can always cancel. Great attitude or what? I replied that at the end of the month I would cancel once had received my five rewrites.

His response was to cancel my membership still with two articles outstanding and refused when asked for a refund. So not only had they not provided the unlimited service that they had not even completed the five articles I’ve requested. The interesting thing is I think with hindsight I’m not the only one. The thread in the Internet marketing forum concerning this service has been closed by him. Basically after the initial good reports the next four or five were all bad and have had experiences similar to my own. Closing the thread meant that I could not post my experiences and to be honest it isn’t worth the hassle of starting a new one.

Upon closer examination of the members who had given good reviews it was obvious that they took it in turns to recommend each other’s products. So take this as a warning always be very careful when buying products through a forum just on a few good reviews alone. Always make sure that you check the posts made by the people recommending the product, it could save you a lot of hassle in the future.

You might say I really should have known better but to be honest I assumed that someone with this reputation would not refuse a refund when they did not provide the service requested. I have initiated a refund request with PayPal but they are not always the best at helping out in these situations. Another good piece of advice when buying anything on the Internet is to always make sure you use a credit card and not a debit card at this makes it a lot easier to request a chargeback.

I know this may sound a bit negative but it is all about being careful about not saying for one minute that you should not visit forums as they can be a very good source of information. But bear in mind you should always do a little bit of due diligence before committing to either buying a product or acting on advice.

Post from: Internet Marketing Blog

The Dangers Of Internet Marketing Forums

I am not about to name any names but if you are involved in any way in the internet marketing world then you know who or what I am talking about. Now at first glance these services seem fantastic. No need to worry about spending hours writing you own content, instead you can spend more time on promoting your sites and more importantly making money from them.

However does using them run the risk of the ‘wrath of google’?? (Nice film title, expect to see it on some guide promising you the moon soon, LOL). There are two aspects to the wrath of google and somewhat surpisingly they are always mutually inclusive. They are getting banned by Google, the search engine, or banned by Adsense. As mentioned getting banned by one does not always meen getting banned by the other, but you could argue that getting banned by the search engine will make your adsense pretty worthless anyway.

So lets start with the search engine side of things. As long as the content is of a good quality then personally I do not see a problem with it. Ok so you are looking at a duplicate penalty, but if you read between the lines on what google has to say about this, it should not get you banned. There real problem with dupe content is when it is used on the same site and the only real risk you run is that your page will not be indexed as Google say they will only index one identical peice of content giving the honors to the original occurence.

Now this is my own opinion and not LAW so take it onboard with that in mind. Many of my niche sites (not IM) have content that is used elsewhere and it does get indexed but your own experience may vary.

Now to the more complicated adsense issue. I think using these services is more likely to get you banned by adsense (definitley the lesser of 2 evils) as you run the risk of being accused of creating sites specifically for adsense, at least in their eyes, which apparently they do not like. That said I can’t see anything specific in their TOS that says you can’t use articles from other sources but as laways it is very difficult to get a straight answer from Google and trying to decipher their rules and regs would take someone of the intellect of Einstein, in my opinion.

I am leaving the comments open, so please feel free to voice your opinion on this one though only use html to point to legitimate references lke google and not promoting your site (I will remove them) and if any of the Mights G’s minions are around, love to hear from you but I won’t hold my breath! I’ll send a personal invite to our lord and master Sir Cutts but this is probably not even worth him getting out of his chair LOL!

Post from: Internet Marketing Blog

Will Using Content From Automated Service Get You Banned

Suppose you are earning a nice profit of $3000 per month and that is also just due to your small home business. Your home business has been open for less than a year, but the noticeable point may be that you reached that amount just 1 month ago and now it will become difficult to raise profit level as we should not forget that you might have reached a limit.

Now the question arises that what steps or decisions can be taken to increase your monthly profit income. The answer can be simplified as that we may migrate to any third developing country or another source. It may function as that half of the work could be taken by employs living far away from our particular location.

Such as answering the phone calls for the customers and satisfying them with their problems. For this purpose the employment of the employs can be done from any part of the world as it don’t make any difference for a costumer that the person whom he is talking to is in U.S or Pakistan all what he needs is proper answers for his queries.

Now the question arises that when you work yourself your work is just kept limited to yourself there is no one to suggest you about your ideas or to provide you with any new plan which helps you in long run.

Outsourcing will provide you with a platform to break that limit. Because we all know that every mind has its own way to think about any thing. For example if you are working with fifty people around the globe every one can add some useful ideas and in other words we can say that one brain is replaced with fifty innovative brains.

On a smaller scope, you can outsource by hiring a virtual assistant when things get rough. Remember that you don’t need to do outsourcing just for the things that you cannot complete. You can use it as an effective tool in managing your time and your businesses operations.

By building an outsourcing capability in your business you can take that mark to a new level. By hiring the people from the same industry that you belong to you can easily multiply the income to your business.

The things you need to keep in mind are as follows:
- Hire people belonging to your same line of business. As they can be helpful while you are taking any decisions.
- Hire people that are just starting their career and have no much experience. Because young people are ready to learn new things and work at very low-price.

- Maintain a proper and continuous record of who you hire and what their actual duties are. It will help you to find out about their performance
- Enhance your work force at least after every two months. To achieve new levels of success
- Keep and maintain a proper system of records. As it can be helpful to calculate progress rate
- Be cooperative with your staff. People you hire are there to help, so always help them get ahead and be cooperative with your staff.
- Always have a positive approach. As most of the people consider it the main point of their business policy

Rich Henderson

Post from: Internet Marketing Blog

Increase Home Business Profits With Outsourcing