Branding Yourself For Success
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Branding yourself solidifies you in your business niche.
It can establish you and your business as a name that can be trusted. Here are some tips to help you build brand success.
What is Branding Yourself About?
When you see the swoosh logo, what does it make you think of? And how about Coca-Cola?
You know the tagline, don’t you? And if we say “You’re in good hands with -” you can probably finish the sentence.
All of these show how a particular brand has influenced not only society but also our idea of what these certain products should be.
For instance, when it comes to photocopying, people use the term “Xeroxed.” Actually, Xerox is a brand name that has become synonymous with the act of photocopying. How is that for brand success?
Branding Yourself as the Brand
Who’s to say that you won’t become as big as Xerox one day? For any business, you start in the same place – building your brand.
Here are some tips to get the branding yourself ball rolling.
* Be real with your customers – Anyone can create a “smoke and mirrors” advertising campaign. You can promise the world and some will believe you. But, when you don’t deliver, your credibility is shot. One way to be real is to put a face on your business. Add your photo or a cartoon likeness. Speak plainly and in simple terms with your customers.
* Branding yourself by making good on your promises – The problem with many companies is poor customer service. If you promise to send a confirmation email after purchase or an answer to an information request, then do so in the time promised.
* Sell your product – Inspire customers to buy by giving them a reason to use your product or service. Describe how their life will benefit from having your product in it. Help the customer make an emotional connection to your product.
* Branding yourself by promoting your product in as many places as possible – When new products come out, do a press release. Promote it on your social networking site, your blog and your website. Create YouTube videos and also podcasts about your products to increase the talk. Don’t forget offline promotion as well.
* Be consistent with your brand – Whatever you decide that branding yourself will stand for, be true to that. Use people and ideas that are in line with your brand to help identify it for your audience.
* Target your customers – Now that you know your brand, you have to connect with the people who “need” what you offer. Use keywords such as Affiliate Marketing to draw your customers to you. Create a list of potentials and then stay in contact with them.
What does your product stand for? Take some time and create your brand. Then, provide quality products that connect with your customers so they almost sell themselves.
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Strategic Marketing Using StumbleUpon
By · CommentsIt takes trial and error to develop effective strategic marketing for your online business.
What is StumbleUpon and How Can it be Used in Strategic Marketing?
It would be wise to consider different types of marketing tools when coming up with a combination that works. Have you considered StumbleUpon?
You may see it listed with other social bookmarking sites but it differs slightly. You use StumbleUpon by signing up and then downloading their toolbar.
When you sign up, you will be asked a few questions about your interests – what types of sites and articles you want to see when you search.
Then, plug in keywords that pertain to your site. Your results are targeted to those keywords and the information that you provided when you signed up.
Now you can begin viewing content on similar sites and rating it. StumbleUpon is a voting site as well.
Positive ratings are represented by a “thumbs up.” Conversely, negative ratings are represented by a “thumbs down.”
How to make it a part of your strategic marketing
As with all strategic marketing, there is a method to the madness. With StumbleUpon, don’t think profit – think networking. In order for this tool to work, you have to follow a process to get to the desired end.
Here is what we are talking about. Now that you have signed up and started using the toolbar, begin reading and rating the articles and sites you find there.
If they are within your niche, then you will also be able to see what your potential competition is writing about and how their work is being rated. Leave a review for new sites you discover in your searches.
Join the community. This site is built on the strength of its users. Network with others who are also using StumbleUpon. Create a list of “Friends” who you share favorite sites with.
They can point you to theirs and you can do the same. Participate regularly so you are not perceived as only being seen when you want to promote your site content.
You can also increase your list of friends by encouraging friends from other social sites to join StumbleUpon.
With the toolbar, you have the option of sending the URL for content you like to your friends to read and rate.
The more friends (especially those with similar interests) you have, the more chance you have to see your own work read and rated. Sites that are rated high and often fly to the top of the pile.
Lastly, write good quality content on your website. Just like you, your friends and your potential traffic want to read good stuff, too.
What type of content does well on StumbleUpon? List articles (such as “Top 5 Funniest Movies”) are easy to peruse given their format.
Also, topics that are hot right now in the niche of your choice fare well, especially those that might contain a controversial opinion or a new angle on an old issue.
You can find ways to incorporate StumbleUpon into your strategic marketing. Best of all, it is free to try. So, you have nothing to lose.
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P.S. To find out how I make money by blogging about the term Strategic Marketing, just click here.
How to Come up With Cool Article Topics
By · CommentsFinding good article topics to write about to put on your site aint really all that easy.
On the surface, an article topic is just one line of text. But once you dive deeper into what it really takes to come up with some article topics, you’ll see that it’s a whole new kettle of fish.
Writing your topic requires a bit of knowledge of your target market. You need to have a form of understanding of what catches their attention and what doesn’t.
It also requires you to kind of know what your market already knows and what they want to learn.
Here’s how to come up with some cool and interesting article topics.
Look for Specific Questions That Need to be Answered
Go on internet forums and look for specific questions to give an answer to. Ideally the questions should be specific, but still appeal to the audience globally.
For example, let’s say your audience is pizza parlour owners. One specific question they might have is how to know when they need to start planning to replace their pizza ovens. It’s a very specific question, but it applies to all pizza parlour owners.
These questions work very well because often people have never read an article addressing those specific questions; but a lot of them will still gain a lot from reading the answer to such questions.
Checkout The Google Engine for Your Article Topics
Type your search keyword into Google using various search terms. For example, if you run a site on gold investing, type in keywords like:
“How to invest in gold”
“Gold investing tips”
“Gold investing mistakes”
“Top tips for investing in gold”
“Why invest in gold”
So on and so forth. Try to come up with as many search terms as you can. You don’t need to actually read any of the articles that come up.
Just use them as inspiration to come up with your own content ideas. Perhaps open up a few of them to see what they talk about and see if you can elaborate on any of those points.
Writing Your Titles for You Article Topics in an Attention-Catching Way
Once you have specific article topics that you want to write about, how do you write a title that catches attention and generates buzz?
There are a few different ways to do this.
The “X Tips” formula is tried and proven and works in just about every industry. For example, “17 Tips for Increasing Per-Pizza Earnings” would work very well for the pizza parlour market.
A cautionary or warning tale can also get a lot of attention. For example, “Sneaky Ways Your Delivery Guys Might Be Stealing From You” would instantly grab any pizza shop owner’s attention.
You can use the most shocking or attention-catching part of a story in the article title. For example, “His Customers Paid In Pennies, But When He Counted His Tips …”
Finally, if you have a really great topic, you can just use a straightforward description of the topic. For example, as discussed before, “How to Know When to Replace Your Pizza Oven” would likely work quite well as an article topic.
If you have both good topics and well-written titles that can catch and keep people’s attention, you’ll have yourself successful article topics.
Did you found this article useful? If so, please share it with someone that you feel could benefit from it. Or feel free to leave a comment below.
P.S. To find out how I make money by blogging about the term “Article Topics“, just click here.
Why You Should Create Your Own LinkedIn Group
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LinkedIn is the premier social site for business professionals on the Web. If you are not a part of it, get involved today. One effective tool is a LinkedIn Group.
You may be familiar with LinkedIn but don’t really know how it can help you.
Being a business professional, it can be hard to connect with other professionals.
Running an online business or holding a pivotal position in a company can consume most of your time.
A LinkedIn group takes the guesswork and legwork out of networking with others in your field.
This site allows you to search for, connect with and get needed advice from professionals with a few clicks.
There are no face-to-face meetings unless you want them. Even so, you can get to know people through their profiles and interacting in groups and discussions.
A LinkedIn Group Can Increase Your Visibility and Expert Status
This brings us to LinkedIn Groups.
What are they?
These groups are like small gatherings of professionals with similar business niches or interests.
The entire site is available to you, but concentrated groups help you to target those professionals with whom you need to network.
Groups help you do many things:
* Discover other professionals to meet quickly
* Actively participate in discussions relevant to your interests and needs
* Zero in on the most influential people on LinkedIn within your professional sphere
* Know which profiles to view and which people to “follow” in discussions
* Begin your own discussions to help establish yourself as a leader in your field
These are also excellent reasons to begin your own LinkedIn Group.
Before you do, though, get a feel for the process by joining a group or two. You can search for relevant groups using different parameters.
Once you find one that you like, introduce yourself. Do this by posting a new discussion question and then leaving a comment.
Let people get to know you.
A LinkedIn Group can also increase your visibility and popularity on the site.
While you are leading discussions, don’t forget to leave meaningful comments on other discussion topics. It will look pretty suspicious if you only post questions and never join in the discussions of others.
Build up a presence and a following.
When you are ready, create your own group. If you work for a large company, creating a group for your co-workers gives them a place to connect with others inside the company.
Post about new job openings; get advice on job advancement and the like.
Ask your new business contacts to join your group.
Don’t forget business contacts on other social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Invite LinkedIn members with similar interests as a way of connecting with new faces.
Why should you create a LinkedIn group?
You can increase your visibility, ranking, popularity, network and credibility in the business world.
Did you found this article useful? If so, please share it with someone that you feel could benefit from it. Or feel free to leave a comment below.
P.S. To find out how I make money by blogging about the term “LinkedIn Group“, just click here.
Amazon Affiliate Marketing
By · CommentsWhy would you consider Amazon Affiliate Marketing?
Well it seems like affiliate programs are all the rage these days, and why not?
It is a good way to create an income stream with very little work. One such program is Amazon.com.
Before we get Into Amazon Affiliate Marketing, What Are Affiliate Programs?
In case you are a newbie in the world of affiliate marketing, here is a quick tutorial about the concept.
Affiliate marketing basically involves selling products for others and earning a commission on those sales or sales leads.
There are many advantages to this model. First, you don’t have to house any inventory.
The products are managed by the affiliate program owner, in this case Amazon.com. There is nothing for you to keep up with.
Second, you don’t even have to come up with tools to promote the products. The affiliate does that for you as well.
They provide an affiliate’s toolbox filled with all sorts of goodies that help you to get started.
You can use different codes on your site to embed pictures, text or both with your affiliate code so that it traces back to you when someone clicks on the links.
Third, you don’t have to monitor the clicks. All of that is done for you, by the affiliate owner. They compute your payment and send it to you.
So, what’s your responsibility?
Successfully promote the product and drive traffic to your site so others will take advantage of the offers displayed there. But, that is a subject for another time.
What about Amazon Affiliate Marketing?
Amazon is a pioneer in the affiliate marketing model.
When you are growing a company it is often hard to also grow the advertising. There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day.
Amazon have developed a strategy whereby others help to promote the products and services that they offer for a percentage of the commission on the sales.
It’s ingenious, actually. Now, someone else is working for you so you can concentrate on other business aspects.
With using Amazon Affiliate Marketing, you are backed by a brand that people trust.
When you promote any of their products, potential customers already know that it is good quality so you don’t have to sell them on that. The products practically sell themselves.
But, before joining any affiliate program, even Amazon.com, read the fine print.
Know about fee structures, payment schedules and what you are getting to help you be a successful affiliate. This will help you evaluate whether the program itself is worth the effort.
If you are looking for a constant income stream that gets better over time, then this one may work for you.
Some are skeptical about the low starting commission rate. However, while it is low compared to other programs, you can grow that as quickly or as slowly as you want with increased sales each month.
Also, Amazon.com pays quarterly. You won’t see a check until the end of the first three months depending on when you sign up. So, it is not a quick bucks kind of program.
Is Amazon Affiliate Marketing worth it? That depends on your needs and affiliate marketing goals.
Did you found this article useful? If so, please share it with someone that you feel could benefit from it. Or feel free to leave a comment below.
P.S. To find out how I make money by blogging about the term ” Amazon Affiliate Marketing“, just click here.
A WordPress Security Plugin and Why You Need One
By · CommentsWordPress is a customizable software platform that you can use to build a website in very little time, but I will state here from the start, you should have a wordpress security plugin.
It is popular with affiliate marketers who want the ease of use for their sites.
But, as with all web usage, there can be security risks. What about employing plug-ins?
When you set up shop on the internet you have to assume some risk. Yes, I said risk.
Why You Need a WordPress Security Plugin
Have you ever heard of hackers? If not, you will most definitely have heard of viruses and Trojan horses.
Those don’t just find their way to websites by themselves. Someone has to put them there.
While WordPress is easy to set up, it is what is termed “open source” software. That means that the entire public has access to it. So, someone who has less than admirable intentions could hack your site.
Now, it could be something as simple as leaving improper comments on your blog. People do that all the time.
But, that comment could be embedded with viruses that can infect your entire infrastructure, which would be bad for you and any potential visitors.
People can also steal your content. In the age of intellectual property disputes, it is hard to retrieve something once it has been stolen without going through a lot of red tape.
A hacker can do that as well by gaining access to your WordPress site.
Why not protect yourself from the beginning with a wordpress security plugin?
You may never have a problem with such things on any of your WordPress sites but why take that chance?
What is a WordPress Security Plugin?
Plug-ins are additional codes that you can add that will do things behind the scenes on your site.
There are free plug-ins, premium ones that you might have to pay a small fee for, and also ones that function specifically for affiliate programs.
If you are running an affiliate site, the last thing that you want is for someone else to hijack it.
So, using the security plug-ins that are available may be a wise choice for your protection. Here are a few that you might want to check into.
* Login Lockdown – Just like with password encrypted pages, if someone tries to find your URL with too many failed attempts they will be shut out.
* WP-Database Backup – Just in case one day the server may crash, you can be sure that all of your information is stored somewhere else. Use this plug-in to restore your blog database.
* Admin SSL – Single socket layer is your security protection to encrypt all information transmitted across your site. Most web hosts offer shared SSL for their users. With this plug-in, that encryption is available across all of your web pages, but you must own a SSL certificate.
Protecting what is yours is paramount when it comes to your internet business. Learn how a WordPress security plugin can help.
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P.S. To find out how I make money by blogging about the term “WordPress Security Plugin“, just click here.
How to Produce Effective Online Copywriting
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Coming up with highly effective online copywriting is in part about doing careful research into your reader’s psychology, in part about using proven copywriting tactics and in part about crafting an extremely compelling offer.
Here’s how to properly use each of these copywriting tactics.
Researching Your Reader’s Psychology
What does your reader want? What keeps them up at night? What would they give anything for?
What are their insecurities? What do they want – and why do they want what they want? What do they want that they don’t want other people to know they want?
Often the “magic bullet” in a sales letter comes from addressing wants other people don’t even know they want.
The copywriter who wins is often the copywriter who can dig two or three levels deeper than the other copywriter.
Before you put a single word on paper, get into your reader’s head and understand their psychology. Spend time with them, talk to them, get to know them.
Using Effective Online Copywriting Tactics
There are many online copywriting tactics that an expert copywriter needs to learn.
On a basic level, you need to learn the basic copywriting formulas like AIDA (Attention Interest Desire Action) that show you how to emotionally guide a reader through the buying process.
You also need to learn how to properly utilize each component of the sales letter. This includes (but isn’t limited to) Writing strong headlines, using subheads, writing the PS, having buy buttons, using proof elements, picking images and so on.
There’s both art and skill that goes into each and every element.
Learning all the different tactics can take as long as a year. But you don’t have to wait that long to get started – all you need to learn is the basic AIDA formula and as much as you can about writing good headlines.
Once you have the basics down, you can launch a product, see how it performs then move forward from there.
The Compelling Online Copywriting Offer
No matter how good your copy is and no matter how deeply you understand your customer, you’re not going to sell if you don’t have a good offer.
If you’re selling golf clubs at twice the price that everyone else is charging and they aren’t any better, you won’t get many sales – even with all the tactics and all the psychology in the world.
On the other hand, if you have a one of a kind product, coupled with unbelievable bonuses at a price that’s such a steal that few would believe you’re selling it at that price and it’s limited to only 200 people – then you’ve got an offer people will bend over backwards to take advantage of.
When you combine these three things: understanding of your reader’s psychology, strong online copywriting techniques and a killer offer, you’ll have a sales letter that’ll pull and pull and pull.
If you found this article useful, please share it with someone that you feel could benefit from it. Or feel free to leave a comment below.
P.S. To find out how I make money by blogging about the term “Online Copywriting“, just click here.
How to Set Up a WordPress Blog
By · CommentsWant to know how to set up a wordpress blog?
Well it seems like just about everyone has a blog on the internet these days. In fact, many people and companies have more than one blog.
For example, internet marketers who are actively involved in promoting multiple products often find it worthwhile to maintain separate blogs for each promotional campaign.
While there are many different services and software packages you can use to set up a blog, the most popular solution is WordPress.
How to Set Up a WordPress Blog Using WordPress.com
Many people who start off by asking how to set up a wordpress blog, set up their blogs by using the WordPress.com website. This is by far the easiest way to get started.
The service is free, and you simply go to the website and sign up for an account by selecting a unique username.
Not surprisingly, though, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a unique username on the WordPress.com service (or at least one that isn’t overly long and unwieldy).
In addition, using a WordPress.com blog makes it challenging to market your blog, because the blog is hosted on the WordPress.com servers.
For example, which of the following URLs do you think will be easier for you to promote (and easier for your prospects to remember): “thisismyblog.wordpress.com” or “thisismyblog.com”?
You need to self-host your blog (or pay WordPress.com an additional fee) to get a web address like the latter, and to get greater control over how your blog looks.
How to Set Up a WordPress Blog The Self Hosted Way
Self-hosting simply means that you run the blog yourself, and as a result you have complete control over how it looks and functions.
Setting up a self-hosted blog can be almost as easy as using the free service on WordPress.com.
The first step is to select a web host. A web host is a company that provides you with a portion of a web server and gives you space to build your own website.
In fact, even the most basic web hosting plans (some starting at just a few dollars per month) actually allow you to host multiple blogs on a single account.
Many web hosts offer a streamlined set-up process for WordPress. In the past, you’d have to download the WordPress software, upload it to your Web server, set up MySQL databases, and hassle with a number of different settings and configurations.
Thankfully, the set-up process today generally involves choosing your username and password, and letting the web host’s installation service do it for you.
The Customization and Personalization Way of How to Set up a WordPress Blog
The basic set-up process only gets a WordPress blog up and running in its most basic form. This means that the look and styling of the blog will be in a “default” configuration.
To set up your blog to look exactly the way you want, you’ll need to select a “theme” that suits your needs.
There are thousands of different themes available for your blog. Most of these themes also allow different customizations, so there’s a good chance you’ll be able to set up your blog to look exactly the way you want.
The best resource for free WordPress themes is at wordpress.org/extend/themes/.
There are also a number of different “premium” WordPress themes that are available through different companies on the internet.
Sometimes these premium themes can be worth the cost if you are looking to distinguish your blog from the countless others that are on the internet.
If you found this article useful, please share it with someone that you feel could benefit from it. Or feel free to leave a comment below.
P.S. To find out how I make money by blogging about the term “How to set up a wordpress blog“, just click here.
How to Increase Your Affiliate Lead Conversion
By · CommentsYour lead conversion rate is perhaps the most important factor to improve if you want to create a successful affiliate marketing campaign.
If you have a 2% conversion while your competitor only has a 1% conversion, it becomes very hard for them to compete.
How do you raise your lead conversion rates as an affiliate marketer?
You Start by Getting More Targeted Traffic
Start by improving the quality of your traffic.
One easy way to do this is to narrow down your keywords.
For example, if you’re selling sports shoes, instead of bidding for keywords like “Nike shoes” try going for specific models like “Nike Sprint Runner 2011.”
Also try cutting down on broad match or phrase match terms, and go for exact match terms instead.
The principles of getting more targeted traffic apply no matter what kind of traffic source you’re using.
Use Keyword Pass Through & Geo-targeting
Let’s say someone who lives in Boulder, Colorado typed in “Nike Shoes” and landed on your site. Which of these headlines would be more appealing?
“Buy Sports Shoes Online Today” or “Buy Nike Shoes Online, Delivered to Boulder in 48 Hours”?
Naturally, the latter is going to be more appealing.
Two quick ways to increase your lead conversion rate on anything you’re promoting is to add keyword pass-through and geo-targeting.
Keyword pass-through simply means passing the keyword someone typed in to get to your website to your landing page, and using it in the headline or body copy.
Geo-targeting involves using the IP address of the browser to detect where they’re located and then using that to increase conversions.
There’s a free script you can use from MaxMind.
Split Testing
Ultimately, the only way to really increase your lead conversions consistently is to split test on a regular basis.
If you have a small amount of traffic, start with basic A/B split tests that tackle large differences in your website.
If you have a profitable campaign that’s getting significant amounts of traffic, try using multivariable testing to figure out the best possible combination of factors.
Starting Your Lead Conversion With an Email List
If you have a campaign that’s profitable or breaks even on the front end, you might want to consider setting up an email list.
Setting up an email list will allow you to promote multiple affiliate offers to the same traffic source.
Since you’ve already proven that you’re able to get buyers to your landing page, you’re likely leaving money on the table if you don’t try to get them on a list.
These are a few proven tactics for increasing your lead conversions as an affiliate marketer.
The most important habit you could get into is regularly trying out different ideas.
Affiliate marketing is often just about trying out as many different things as possible until one sticks.
If you found this article useful, please share it with someone that you feel could benefit from it. Or feel free to leave a comment below.
P.S. To find out how I make money by blogging about the term “How to Increase Your Affiliate Lead Conversion”, just click here.
Becoming a Super Affiliate
By · CommentsThere are lots affiliate programs out there in the big wide web with an even larger number of affiliates. So, how do you make yourself stand out from the other marketers and become a super affiliate? The answer is, learn how to build your affiliate marketing business and fast.
Affiliate marketing involves promoting products for other businesses. Using marketing tools that you know and the ones provided in the affiliate’s toolbox by the business owner, you can draw in customers and make the sale. Best of all, with each sale, you earn a commission from the host business.
You might be making a good commission but you can still increase your business even more. Below are some tips for you to become that super affiliate who wants to ramp up their profits.
Tips For Becoming a Super Affiliate
* Get educated – There is always more to learn. Take a course on affiliate marketing. Find a marketing coach who offers seminars, webinars or coursework for sale to help you increase your knowledge of the online marketing world.
* Tap into the heart of your customers – What do they ultimately want from your site and the products that you promote? If you can get in touch with your customers’ basic needs then you can use every tool in your arsenal to make that happen for them. Set up a comment section on your site. Use customer feedback to enhance your content and marketing strategies.
* Update your sites – Keep the content fresh so that you can continually attract new visitors. If you don’t have time to write new content all the time, try investing in good PLR or hire a ghostwriting service. This can take the pressure off of you so that you can concentrate on simply getting your name and the product out there.
* Promote several products at once – If you want to increase your commissions, promote more products and become a real super affiliate. The key here is to choose products in the same niche or niches that you are interested in. You can get up and running with fresh content and a workable marketing strategy when you have prior knowledge of the type of product you are promoting.
* Guest blog for others – In exchange for your blogging skills, ask that you be able to link back to your affiliate products. Now, you have the audience of another blogger at your disposal as well as traffic that you have brought in.
Social Networking For the Super Affiliate
Use social networking sites – Facebook and Twitter aren’t just for socializing anymore. Post links and even create pages for your customers to ask questions and stay up on the latest news with your products. Keep friends aware of what you are doing in the business world. Friend other business associates so they can also have an opportunity to check out what you are doing.
Becoming a super affiliate fast will require dedication, knowledge and the motivation to get it done – and also the tips above.
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P.S. To find out how I make money by blogging about the term super affiliate, just click here.
