The Harsh Reality Of Starting Your Internet Marketing Business by …
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admin on January 15, 2009 – 8:30 am - I’m guessing that if you had a food franchise business offline, you would treat it as if your life depended on it. You would probably even be willing to work 12-16 hours a day to keep your franchise running smoothly!
What you need to realize when starting an internet marketing business is that it is still a real business. Since you already invested up to a million dollars to start up your franchise, it makes perfect sense that you would do whatever it takes to first break even.
And after breaking even you would then wait a few years before you see a positive return on your million dollar investment. Most of you have a realistic mindset when it comes to a ‘real’ million dollar business like that.
But what happens when most of you start a home based internet business? For most of you, the first thing to come to mind is ‘fast money’ and ‘get rich quick’ and ‘effortless cash’. That’s okay, that’s what I thought when I first started in internet marketing.
However, this kind of mindset leads you into thinking that all you need to do throw up a fancy website, watch TV, hang out with friends, and play in your local sports league and you would be rich!
The reality is, to make decent money over the internet it takes time and effort, just like a real business. The only difference is that you are running a business over the internet and it also requires time and commitment.
You already know that an advantage of an internet marketing business is that it has virtually no overhead compared to a traditional franchise. BUT because it’s so cheap to start up, that is also internet marketing’s disadvantage.
Naturally, you and I tend to treat an internet marketing business more like a hobby than a real cash flow generating business because it’s easy to get in and easy to get out. Your life would not dramatically change if you started and did nothing with it and failed.
But in a traditional fast food franchise, you would starve if you had that kind of mindset. But because you put down everything you possess (home, life savings, etc) into your franchise; your focus, determination, and sacrifice to perform and treat it seriously is an absolute must.
You understand that about a franchise, so let me ask you what would happen if you treated your franchise like a hobby? What if you treated your fast food franchise like you treated your internet marketing ‘hobby’?
If you have a J-O-B, what will happen if you didn’t feel like showing up to work for a week because your friends were coming to visit?
What if you decided to close your franchise a little early because you must watch that new episode of ‘Sex In The City’? With that kind of attitude and lack of discipline, you would get fired and your franchise will close down.
Before starting an internet business, or if you haven’t given your internet business the attention it deserves, ingrain in your mind right now that you need to treat your internet marketing business as seriously as your job or business.
Like your job and business, expect to put in the time and effort into building your foundation with internet marketing. Only then will you be able to see the rewards and lifestyle that your internet business can give you.
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The New Internet Marketing Trend - Streaming Web Audio by Ying Wang
Written byadmin on January 15, 2009 – 8:30 am - Putting MP3 audio files on the Internet isn’t something new or recently invented, technology, it has been making noise online for quite a number of years, but has never had been quite so popular and talked about as it is in today’s internet market. There is definitely a buzz around it today.
When I first started multimedia design seven years ago, MP3 audio files were already spread around the Internet. MP3’s popularity rose rapidly after Napster released their P2P file sharing network program in 1999.
Because the MP3 file size is much smaller then ‘MOV’, ‘WAV’ audio format, and has better sound quality, it didn’t take too long for MP3 to become a major digital audio format of Internet.
Today, it continues to dominate the Internet’s audio market, and has remained unchanged as the best choice among digital audio music formats.
Historically, there was a lack of Internet speed and the size of computer hard disks and ROM’s were relatively small and expensive. Especially MP3 files had to be converted from ‘MOV’ or ‘WAV’ file formats and the audio recording, editing hardware and software was very complicated to use, as well as very expensive and only professional studios had deep enough pockets to purchase.
Therefore, it had never been an easy tool for Internet marketers and web developers to use to their advantage. I can still remember the struggles to compress the audio files, and balancing the quality of the sound, to make it 28.8kbps modem compatible.
Very few business websites had web audio in their website, and the ones who did were only there as background music. There wasn’t any marketing purpose or strategy behind it. It was largely designers showing off their ‘advanced tricks’, trying to impress their employers, essentially an ‘e-toy’ for website designers.
Today, the Internet bandwidth is no longer a major impediment to Internet multimedia data transferring. Technology continues to evolve at lightning speed, computers now have massive capacities and the price of hardware has dramatically dropped, making it possible for web hosting company to provide a large amount of server space for website owners to store and transfer audio and video content, at an enormously low cost.
But the price of audio editing software remained relatively high, with more advanced features, but still posed a barrier to Internet marketers who intended to make audio a part of their Internet marketing.
This presented an opportunity for Internet Marketers and software developers. Together, they have worked out these issues, limiting seldom used advanced features, keeping only the most utilized, and developed a much more simple software for web audio recording.
This new web audio software and related services has been sold and used by Internet marketers and online business owners throughout the past few years and the results are quite convincing.
Some have claimed their sales conversion rate to have increased by 40) just by adding the audio sales litter on their web page. Can this be true? I will discuss this in more depth in another issue, but absolutely, web audio and video added a new ‘depth’, a new dimension to Internet marketing. It is mainly used for audio newsletters, web audio sales letters, audio testimonials, recorded tele-seminars, raining materials and more.
It is a very simple piece of software. If you know how to talk, and how to click, you can record your message and put it online. No experiences or technical know-how necessary, no special equipment needed, except a microphone connected to your computer.
I still use the advanced Pro version audio/video production software for my complicated projects, but I like to use this small, and feature-focused software for the smaller single task projects, because of the simplicity and the time saving. And the price of the software is so cheep!
For those who don’t have a computer, can’t figure out how to plug in the microphone into their computer, or are too lazy to do so, some marketers have even designed a telephone system for recording audio files for them.
You simply pick up phone, dial their number, record your message on their system, and they will deliver your audio file to your website. But you have to pay a monthly fee for your laziness, and you still have to pick up your phone and dial the number.
Some dedicated web hosting companies, such as the one I use, ThirdSphere, also jumped onto this new trend, including related features in their service package to gain sales. It provides Flash Audio Generator, Flash Video Generator software, and helps web designers to convert their pre-recorded audio and video file to a lightweight FLV file to be put online.
As a new highly effective Internet marketing method, streaming web audio and video will continue to grow in the Internet marketing realm and continue to grasp at Internet marketers and visitors’ attention for a number of yeas, until the day when all sites on Internet have a voice and talk to us.
For more information about how to use streaming web audio as am effective internet marketing method, and how to recording a mp3 audio for website use, please visit:
http://www.webaudiorecording.com
http://www.smartnewbies.com
http://www.webaudiorecording.com/recommends/WebHostForStreaming
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Rarely-Used But Very-Effective Internet Marketing Tools - free …
Written byadmin on January 15, 2009 – 8:30 am - Rarely-Used But Very-Effective Internet Marketing Tools
by: Willie Crawford 7eb
While many online marketers struggle to build a successful business, mine grows almost effortlessly. I’m going to share with you today the "rare" tools that I use to make that happen.
Briefly, my seldom-used tools are: actually caring about your customers; a lot of actual customer contact; and giving them tremendous value. Please allow me to provide examples of how to actually implement each. I’ll use examples from my own business so that you can see how EASY they are to implement.
Rarely-Used Tool Number One - Actually caring about your customers:
I’ve witnessed scams where retirees invested thousands of dollars in programs where they were told that all they needed to do was plug in traffic. Then they were offered this plug-in traffic for a few thousand dollars more. In every case, that untargeted traffic failed to produce many… if any… sales.
Having a HUGE list, I’ve often been phoned and asked to promote a program with a mailing or two to my list. I’ve been told that I just needed to plug into the system, allow them to "mine" my list, and they would build me a nice residual income. Ideal prospects from my list would identify themselves, they’d be signed up under me, and I could just sit back and collect the passive income.
I’ve seen this scenario in action before, so I do KNOW that this would generate a nice passive income stream for me. However, I also know that many of those recruited would not fare nearly as well. So, I’ve turned down all such offers.
Actually caring about your customers also often means telling customers NOT to buy some hot new product.
During many product launches, my customers have emailed me and asked if I felt that a given product was right for them. They often asked me at the same time if I had an affiliate url (if I had not actively promoted it to them). As often as not, I’ve advised them not to buy the product. If one of your customers hasn’t even finished going through the last major product that they purchased, perhaps you should advise them the same.
Rarely-Used Tool Number Two - Lots of actual customer contact:
First of all, realize that people buy from those that they know, like, and trust. Part of that puzzle is allowing them to feel that they know you. Online, one of the most effective tools for facilitating this is actually allowing them to speak to you, or at least hear your voice.
I accomplish this by "investing" 90 minutes of my time each week in a free networking and brainstorming call. The calls are actually very little work because other experts gladly join these calls and contribute freely.
Most Saturdays, between 11:00am and 12:30pm CST, I host these free networking and brainstorming calls. These calls are designed to allow my subscribers, clients, and contacts to connect, and also to help everyone involved improve their online marketing.
Some weeks we do reviews of 2-3 websites. Other weeks we have open Q&A. Other weeks I have "featured" guests, or I do a semi-lecture.
When we do website reviews, I email everyone slated to be on the call with a list of the sites, so that they can look at the sites before the call. Then everyone is free to offer their constructive feedback during the call.
One recent call was an all-open-discussion call. Topics covered included: methods and tools for combating or preventing email spam; the pros and cons of using private label articles, and ways to use them effectively; search engine optimization issues; and third-party credit card processors. As you might imagine, it was a very constructive call. All of these free networking and brainstorming calls have been very well-received. They all build customer relations, and they all allow existing and future client to connect with me (and each other) on a deeper level.
By the way, you can register for these call, get call-in details, and get instructions on how to submit your site for a free review at: http://williecrawford.com/free-brainstorming-calls.html
Another "almost effortless" customer contact tool involves sending many clients birthday or holiday cards. This shows them that you think of them as more than just a source of sales. We enter many customers, whose birth dates we have, into a database. Then we get an automated reminder a few days before, but the system can be set to automatically send them a card.
I use a system called "Send Out Cards" for this. This system allows me to send the same card to a batch of customers, or send a unique card to select customers. For those that get the "same" card, the card is still personalized with the customers’ information. The system allows you to indicated where personal data, such as names, children’s names, etc., should be inserted. The system can be completely automated (like an autoresponder) if you choose.
I send these fully-personalized cards, semi-automatically, for about $1 each (including first-class postage).
By the way, these are real, printed, full-color greeting cards, that you send right from your computer desktop. You can check out the system that I use for this at: http://SendOutCards.com/willie
Rarely-Used Tool Number Three - Deliver tremendous value:
My mentors often use the phrase "under-promise and over-deliver." This is just the opposite of what you see most hypey marketers doing today.
However, this is fairly easy to do. In fact, all of the things I mentioned above are a part of that formula.
This can be accomplished by giving customers numerous unannounced gifts with an order. It can also be in the form of making sure that every product you sell is worth many times what you charge for it.
Yes, value is in the eyes of the beholder. However, you can and should examine every product that you’re considering offering to your customers very carefully. If, when examining a product, you feel that you would not be absolutely thrilled if you personally had purchased it from someone else, then you should not offer that product to your customers.
Go back and study each of the tools and techniques outlined above. They are very powerful, and really do require very little effort. Used correctly, they will endear you to your customers, and allow your business to grow at a mind-boggling pace. Look for similar things that you can start doing in your business today.
Copyright 2006 Willie Crawford
About The Author
Willie Crawford serves as a consultant, mentor, and confidant to some of Internet marketing’s top income earners. You can tap into his 9 years of online experience and million-dollar, success-creating advice at http://BlueprintToInternetMarketingSuccess.com.
This article was posted on March 05, 2006
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Internet Marketing Companies, Online Marketing Degree, Online …
Written byadmin on January 15, 2009 – 8:30 am - ONLINE MARKETING SERVICE
Online Marketing Service, also referred to as Internet marketing service is about using the Internet as another channel to market your business or organization. It’s about broadening your Web visibility, attracting qualified visitors to your website or getting interested people to email or call without even needing to come to your site. When visitors do come, through on-site marketing efforts and strong features, you lead them to do what you want them to do: fill out a form, register for an event or make a purchase from you through the internet usage.Some people would be eased to make their necessary work about their company by providing online worker from other place to make their job more easy to do.
Here are some of the processes that the company should consider in getting their online marketing more effective:
1. Define Your Goal - work together with every member of your company to help clearly define exactly what it is you want to accomplish towards a more fruitful future using the online marketing service and how to set up goals which are important to the company.
2. Develop the Plan - the company should develop strategic, effective and measurable direct response marketing plans designed to achieve the company goals. Through the company’s efforts of each member, a more suitable and easy way of conducting the plan can be performed.
3. Execute the Plan - provide capable and experienced project management throughout the entire implementation process. Each member of the company should be reliable, thorough, well-connected, and determined to make satisfied clients that are connected to the company. With these at hand, satisfied clients are willing to cooperate and pay more for the efforts of the company.
4. Measure the Results - No online marketing campaign is complete without measuring the results. Internet marketing strategies take tracking and measuring of the clients website advertisements before implementation occurs. This way, the company can measure their effectiveness to the clients as well as how better they know their company’s effectiveness in the process. With the good results that the company is displaying, more and more clients are willing to be with the company and won’t have second thoughts of paying a good amount for a good service that the company offers. Clients’ satisfaction are very vital when it comes to consideration about the company’s main goal.
ONLINE MARKETING DEGREE
Online Marketing Degree generally refers to the degrees that are offered in the internet through advertisements and well-presented by different courses that are being offered by the colleges and universities throughout the globe. It most likely want to prepare individuals in undertaking and managing the process of developing consumer audiences and moving products from producers to consumers by the use of the internet.
A more easy way to determine whether you’re making the right decision in improving and pursuing your career as student is to continue studying and taking one of the major courses that the college or university offers. Online Marketing Degree includes instruction in buyer behavior and dynamics, principle of marketing research, demand analysis, cost-volume and profit relationships, pricing theory, marketing campaign and strategic planning, market segments, advertising methods, sales operations and management, consumer relations, retailing, and applications to specific products and markets.
Many colleges and universities have come up with the idea of advertising their different online courses because through this, a more practical, faster and easier way of advertising through the web can be seen and noticed. They will no longer have to make certain advertisements through television and radios just around their country but through online marketing service. The degrees that they offer will be seen by anyone from anywhere around the globe by the use of the internet. An effective way of advertising without the high costing.
A slight example on the online marketing degree is the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration - Marketing (B.S.B.A./MKT.) which puts working professionals on a clear path to lifelong learning and success. Maximizing their career opportunities, making important contributions to the profession, reaching the potentialthat define success.
Through a program that combines academic theory with practical application, and includes courses in Ethical Leadership and in Social Responsibility, the students will gain knowledge and experience in areas vital to business and society. This concentration will help the students develop insights into an organization’s marketing effort by learning not only the traditional disciplines of alternate marketing channels, sales management, advertising and research, but also emerging marketing approaches related to consumer motivation, global customer management, customer relationship management, and marketing on the Internet.
Another example of an online marketing degree is the Master of Business Administration in Marketing (M.B.A./MKT.), it provides students with the ability to examine the relationship between marketing and corporate strategy and the tools necessary for developing and implementing strong marketing tactics throughout the companies in which they work. Through a hands-on curriculum including case analyses, this specialization lays the practical groundwork necessary for students interested in strengthening or furthering their career as a marketing professional or decision maker.
INTERNET MARKETING COMPANIES
Internet Marketing is a broad term that can include everything from pay-per-click management to a full-blown online marketing campaign that builds traffic and tracks site visitors to increase conversions from all mediums. Internet Marketing can be thought as encompassing all of the following disciplines: search engine optimization, pay-per-click management, link building and affiliate marketing.
Internet Marketing Companies work solely towards getting their client’s product or services marketed online, and this is really becoming something that modern businesses can’t live without. Obviously, an Internet marketing company can’t use the same techniques that a traditional advertising agency would use, such as television commercials and special promotions.
The things that an Internet marketing company can do are pretty amazing, though, because the costs are fairly low and the results can potentially reach a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, which allows businesses to draw out an instant response from potential customers, is a unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing companies can bring creative and technical aspects together, including design, development, advertising and sales. Internet marketing methods include search engine optimization, pay per click management, display advertising, email marketing, interactive advertising, blog marketing, and viral marketing.
The services that an Internet marketing Company offers aren’t always something tangible that people can see, although things like banner ads and social media marketing (using sites like MySpace) are quite visible. Things like search engine optimization and pay per click management are more intangible, but they help promote a website by placing it where people will see it when they are looking for that type of product or service. Internet marketing companies grow and promote an organization using online media.
An Internet marketing company does not simply build a website or promote a website… They make that website visible to people who are likely to become real paying customers. For some reasons, people are making easier ways of advertising their products and news through the Internet because of its lower cost and its effectiveness. Consumers can see the products and massive orders and requests could be in any instant on line with the company which provides the products.
An online marketing campaign is necessary these days with the Internet become bigger and bigger by the day. Therefore, it is crucial to hire an effective Internet marketing company to help your business achieve the online results you are looking for.
Since the advent of the World Wide Web, there have been many new evolutions to online marketing. Thankfully, there are many Internet marketing companies that can show you the ropes about the industry so that you can capitalize with your online venture.
There is a wide variety of items that a quality Internet marketing company can provide to your business. One of the main sources of online marketing is in search engine optimization, commonly referred to as SEO. This process simply refers to the act of ensuring that your website appears in the top of the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. This is achieved by submitting articles and keyword phrases all over the Internet because the more links that your website has on the Net, the higher your search engine ranking will be. Since most customers will choose to use the services of a company that is among the top ten in the search engines, SEO can work wonders for your online venture.
However, an Internet marketing company also has many other services that can benefit your business. Many of these particular companies also provide website designing and graphic design help that will make your website much more appealing to the public. If you search hard enough, you will be able to find a quality company that will produce your website from the ground up and then use SEO to ensure that your site gets the recognition it deserves.
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internet marketing money
Written byadmin on January 14, 2009 – 1:46 pm - Mail this post| 3.2 |
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