Keywords Drive Traffic.

If you ever attended one of my Internet Marketing Seminars then you know that “Keywords Drive Traffic” is my online marketing mantra.  This short blog post is focused around the importance of using your keywords (and keyword phrases) for social media marketing.

This starts with understanding that keywords drive traffic, but with social media marketing it’s not the typical usage of driving  traffic to get people to buy a product or service.

In fact, if that’s all you’re trying to do with social media networking than you are approaching social media with the wrong perspective and will waste a ton of time.

Social Media Markeing is all about relationships, adding value, joining the conversation and getting and giving feedback.

With Social Media the words you use in your profiles, account names, tags, blog titles & descriptions, user groups, and other posts all help you expand your digital footprint.

The top 5 Social Media sites that I recommend you focus your efforts are  Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn and Your Blog.  There are thousands of others and depending on your niche or focus area, there may be a few others that you want to leverage, but how many more in-boxes and accounts do you really need to manage?

Okay… first thing about keywords is that you should be focusing on keyword phrases of at least 2 to 5 words. Most people search for at least 3 or more words so they get better search results.  So when you are on the user account settings screen in twitter, facebook and linked in, and youtube, make sure you take the time to completely fill out your profile and use keywords so that your account will get properly cataloged and make it easier for people to connect with you.

When you post a video to YouTube (subscribe to my YouTube Channel www.Youtube.com/primeconcepts for other internet marketing videos), make sure you work your keywords into the video title and video descriptions… don’t try to manipulate the listing, just use compelling copy and work in your keywords.   Tags are critically important too… and tags are just keywords to help users find related content.  In YouTube make sure you put quotes around your tags when you have multiple words. For example, if I use a tag with my name Ford Saeks, and don’t use quotes, the site engines see FORD as a single word, and I don’t sell cars or need unwanted traffic,  so use “quotes for multiple words” to make the keyword phrase tag the search element.

On Twitter, make sure you go to the settings screen and fill out your Name, URL and Bio line.  Especially if you have a more common name. That way, when others are searching to find YOU, they can identify which twitter account to follow.

When you make tweets, and use keywords, you’ll attract readers that are searching for or following the same topics.  Same goes for Facebook and Linkedin, you need to revisit your profiles and update them with keywords so other people can find and connect with you.  And of course, when you blog, you should work in your keywords into your titles

Jot down your top 25 to 50 keyword phrases. Keep the list handy during your Social media networking. And most importantly, Always write for the site visitor FIRST, and then for the search engines. If you have great content, share it, and engage in conversations you’ll be well on your way to monetizing your Social Media Marketing Efforts.

What do you think?  Post your comments below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The video about is a segment from a show about Creating Your Online Money-Machine… a.k.a., your website.   If you want to see more videos like this one, go to my YouTube Channel and subscribe to the channel:  www.Youtube.com/primeconcepts

Keep the Graphic Designer and Web Programmers in Check.

It picks up with Secret # 7. Your web designer shouldn’t be in control of the marketing process

• Identify your specific outcome for each area and page of your website.  What do you want the visitor to do?  Fill out a form, subscribe, call, click a specific link, download something, or make a purchase?
  

• Remember that you’re the marketer, regardless of your formal title.   You need to control the sales processes.  Don’t lose navigation ease for special effects. Please avoid a circus look with too many fonts, sizes and colors. Remember to construct the site with clear and redundant navigation. That means adding the main navigation choices to the top and relevant navigation at the bottom of the page.

• Add a site map for the search engines and visitors.  A site map is a directory listing of your pages listed on a pages for easy access.  Make sure your web designer checks the visual layout and menus on a PC / MAC with different browsers.

• Check your site on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Google’s new browser Chrome.  Also, some new java-type menu programs work great on one type of browser and are all messed up on a different type of browsers.
  

• Before you hire any web design firm, or other vendor for that matter do you do diligence and check out their references.  Review samples of their work too! If you don’t see clear marketing messages and actions steps find someone else.  You can check out my client testimonials here.
  

Secret # 8: Use your Stats!  Set up your analytic tracking methods and calculate your visitor value?

This is also know as Value-Per-Visitor (VPV) Take your sales Sales $ dollars for a given period, usually a month and then divide by the number of visitors to your site = VPV (Example: $1000 / 5000 = .20)

How much is each one of your site visitors worth? This will also help you determine how much you can spend in PPC too.  Not to oversimplify, but if your visitor value is only .30 cents, then you wouldn’t want to bid higher than that or you’d be losing money.

For most of you watching this short clip, the point is for you to identify and calculate your sites performance benchmarks.

Do you know how many people visit your site?

What is your average conversion rate? Are people joining or unsubscribing from your lists.  How long are they staying on your site? You can learn a great deal from your site because it tracks everything. Check your site statistics Ask your webmaster. This helps you identify areas for improvement on your site so you can turn more clicks into customers.

We use Google Analytics. Its free and quite powerful. It tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site. The new Google Analytics makes it easy to improve your results online too.

When you pay attention to your stats and track your results you can then Write better pay-per-click ads (AdWords campaigns), strengthen your marketing initiatives, and create higher-converting websites. And the best part is that its free!

Lets Review the concepts from this 4-part video series:
(Blog Readers… subscribe to my Youtube Channel at www.Youtube.com/primeconcepts to watch other short videos on Internet Marketing.)

1. Get clear on your outcome and purpose for your site (Add value, make a profit)

2. Get more domain names.

3. Design with marketing in mind

4. Create your top 50 Keywords

5. Help the Search Engines find you. SEM / SEO

6. Build your Database

7. Keep the Graphic Designer in check

8. Use your Stats and calculate your value-per-visitor VPV

I hope you’re excited about all the ways you now have to increase your websites performance. Each ONE of the ideas I’ve shared with you today can make you a lot of money if you take the time to implement them.

Remember, whether you’re the an Entrepreneur, CEO, Marketing Director, or Staff Member everyone on the team plays an important role in being sure all of your marketing efforts Add Value and Make a Profit.  Connect with me, Ford Saeks on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/Prime_Concepts

Click here to view the embedded video.

It doesn’t matter what you’re selling or what industry you’re in…if you selling online or offline you can only stay in business if you’re making a profit. That profit comes from either increasing sales or reducing your expenses…

This blog Video is about both, because when you make your marketing materials more effective — you’ll increase your bottom line.

Did you watch the video part 1 of How to Design Effective Marketing Materials? If not, you may want to check it out and then continue with this post.

I’m a big believer in systems, formulas and concepts… anything that’s proven to produce positive results. Here is a basic formula that you probably have heard of… or at least are familiar with if you’ve ever read any good sales material.

It’s called the AIDA Formula.

AIDA is an acronym for the formula used in creating powerful and effective marketing communications, sales letters, and is widely used in advertising too.

A – Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer. Stand out!

I – Interest: raise customer interest by demonstrating features, advantages, and benefits.

D – Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs.

A – Action: lead customers towards taking a specific and measurable action.

Gather up a few samples of your marketing materials or view your website and ask yourself these questions:

1. What’s the PURPOSE for the specific marketing Piece or web page? Again, the AIDA formula applies to your website, print materials and Radio or TV advertising too!
   1. Is it to provide information & support the sale? – Is it to help prospects gain knowledge? Or…
   2. Is it to get the prospect to take immediate action? – For selling & promotion?
2. Is there an attention getting headline? Sub-head?
3. Is there a clear Benefit Message?
4. Who is Your Target Audience?
5. Is it designed with Your Prospect in Mind?
6. How would you score this piece on effectiveness from 1 to 5 stars with 5 being very effective-and 1 being boring and a cure for insomnia?
7. Always ask yourself: “Does this convey the message I want my reader to get?”

Now, make a note of this Action Step: Review all of your materials and see if they follow the AIDA formula, and then identify your super stars! You might be surprised by what you find when you look at your materials through the AIDA formula. This exercise will help you identify which pieces are designed well, and which ones need to be re-designed.

Of course the best measurement for any marketing materials is the response it generates. But when you’re planning your designs you’ll have a head start when you follow the AIDA formula.

Now that you know what to look for, let’s see what you should do when planning new marketing materials? Our goal is to follow the AIDA method. Remember, regardless of your role in the process, if you’re the CEO, Marketing Director or staff member, it’s important for you to understand and use these strategies even if you’re only using desktop publishing or creating more elaborate materials.

Plan ahead by answering the 5 W’s… This is very important.

Get focused on:

Who are you designing to? Who is the target prospect?

What do you want them to know or do?

Why should they care? Why should they pay attention?

Where can they get more info?

When should they respond or take action?

It’s helpful if you actually create a Word Document or template with the 5W’s… Who, What, Why, Where, and When? This will help you and/or your designer understand the purpose of the piece.

Now that you’ve have an understanding of AIDA and the 5W’s, I’d like to explore the two main parts that make up every marketing piece or advertisement… The first part is crafting a compelling message-writing the copy (the words you’re going to use to communicate value). The second part is the layout & design.

Subscribe to this marketing blog’s RSS feed in the upper right hand corner to be notifed of future blog postings where we’ll explore more on how to design effective marketing materials. And of course, post your feedback below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

In this video segment we’ll look at what kinds of things that might be blocking your creativity.

The Three things that can get in your way and block your creativity are:

• Your Perceptions
• Your Emotions
• Your Culture & Environment

Perceptions. – What things MEAN to you?

Like…. Stereotypes. Or having a Limited Vision Or being set in your ways with Habits that might keep you stuck in old patterns. What about your perception of Tradition VS. Change? Are traditions keeping you stuck?

Or your Emotions - How do you FEEL?

Does it bother you to look like a fool? Do you fear taking risks? Are you afraid make a mistake or fail? Real problem solving and idea creation is messy.

When you change your thoughts and change your actions and you’ll get better results.

Cultural & Environmental Blocks might be…. Other People’s Opinions… Lack of cooperation and trust among colleagues or co-workers. And then there’s Distractions – phone calls, and easy intrusions. All of these things can block your creativity…

Have you ever had a big idea that you didn’t take action on… Maybe it was your Perceptions or emotions that got in your way… Well, it almost happened to me…

In 1986, I invented a product line that was used to store bicycles inside your home or apartment… Maybe you’ve seen them in the Sky Mall Magazines on airplanes, in Sharper Image, sporting goods stores or other specialty catalogs…. The main line was hand-crafted from solid Oak and was a tension-mount system that went from Floor-to-Ceiling, to hold 2 bikes in a limited space, protecting your bikes and your home.

In the beginning, I tried several different ways to get the product to market. It was a tough first year and I thought about quitting many times. I can assure you that my own perceptions, emotions and my environment got in the way more than just a few times… but through creativity and innovation, and using the mindset tools we’re going to be exploring today, I was able to sell over 28 million dollars worth of product in just a few short years…

I’ve used these same tools, again and again to help clients differentiate themselves in a competitive market; to launch innovative publicity campaigns; to build websites and online marketing strategies that created virtual money-machines; to design new advertising concepts, and improve many other areas of their businesses, even beyond the marketing department. These are proven tools that YOU can start to apply immediately…

Think about your business… Products… or Services… Are you truly doing everything you can to find, attract and keep your customers?

Are you allowing self-imposed limitations to hold you back? It’s time to breakthrough those limitations, use your resources, and expand your creativity. You deserve it!

Wow, Might seem like a lot to think about, but actually, it’s all about your B.S…

You remember… Your Belief System (from Marketing Mindset Video 1) that can either get your way or launch you to success.

(continue reading… this part isn’t on the video clop… Enjoy!)

I’ve used the tools I’m about to share with you to help organizations in many different industries around the globe achieve amazing improvements in their marketing results and you can use them too.

You may be familiar with some of these techniques, but I’m sure you’ll have a new appreciation for them as they apply to your marketing strategies!

Have you ever heard of Idea-mapping or Mind-Mapping? It’s one of my favorite creativity tools! Idea Mapping is a simple technique you can use to capture and organize your thoughts and Ideas visually on one page.

Idea Maps are especially helpful for Brainstorming to help you think up new and creative ideas more quickly and easily. Here’s how you get started…

Take out a blank piece of paper with out lines. You want it without the lines because the lines can restrict the natural flow of your thoughts. Turn the paper landscape… with the long side of the paper at the top.

Next, in the center of the page, draw an image or print the words that represent your main theme, concept or topic that you want to brainstorm. For example, you might start with “ideas for New products” or “How to sell product X”…

State it in the form of a question… who, how, what, why?… you decide. Allow plenty of white space for the rest of the map. I like to have a few colored pens available too because color stimulates the brain and helps captures attention.

At first, your Idea maps might be pretty simple branches with lines and a few words and that’s okay… As you practice, you’ll become more creative and you’ll find this to be a fast way to capture and generate new ideas. This will also help you create new connections between ideas and concepts.

A picture really is worth a 1000 words! It stimulates the brain to think up new associations, it focuses the thoughts and it results in much better recall of the content at a later date. So draw pictures to represent your ideas. They can be simple stick figures, sketches, symbols…what ever makes sense to you. The brain works by association so by connecting the main branches to the central topic, the brain links those elements together.

The main branch words and images stimulate other thoughts and associations. They allow the random flow of your thoughts as you add other levels of thought. So make the central lines from the center thicker, curved and organic (like the branch of a tree attached to the trunk) to help organize your sub-themes.

Start to add a second level of thought. These words and/or images are linked to the main branch that triggered them. Add more branches and levels of thought as ideas come to you. Feel free to jump from branch to branch as the mood strikes you.

Remember, You can use:

• Pictures
• Line drawings
• Patterns
• Symbols
• Shapes, boxes, circles
• Colors, etc…

I encourage you to use this new tool. Use it in meetings, sales presentations, and of course when you are planning your marketing strategies. While I started out drawing most of my idea-maps, now I also us mind-mapping software called “MindManager from www.mindjet.com. There are several others too, but don’t think that you need to get software… Start right away using paper and pen to open your mind and expand your creativity. I’m sure that you’ll quickly see how using idea mapping can help you and your team!

I’ve explained how Idea mapping can work for brainstorming… and I’m sure that most of you are already familiar with the concept of brainstorming…but just to make sure, here is a quick review of the rules for GROUP BRAINSTORMING:

• Set a time frame… generally the shorter the better… like 15 to 30 minutes max!
• The Goal is to collect as many ideas as possible from all participants with no criticisms or judgments made while ideas are being generated.
• All ideas are welcome no matter how silly or far out they seem. Be creative. The more ideas the better because at this point you don’t know what might work.
• Absolutely no discussions during the brainstorming session. Talking about the ideas will take place after brainstorming session is complete.
• Do not criticize or judge the other people’s ideas. Seriously….Don’t even groan, frown, or laugh. If you do… you’ll hamper the creative process.
• Write all ideas on a flipchart or white board so the whole group can easily see them.

Here’s a great tip! If you’re in an organization that’s had trouble with brainstorming, either because of certain people, egos or office politics, or have trouble in getting a large list of ideas, then I suggest you send out a memo before the meeting with the main brainstorming topic or question?

Ask them to print their ideas on paper as a requirement to the meeting, or you can use post-it notes during the session, so people can participate anonymously.

Let’s talk about making your final selections.

• When all the ideas have been recorded–combine ideas as much as possible,
• Next, Vote to select the best 3 to 5 ideas.

Let’s review what we’ve covered so far…

That it’s your mindset that determines the actions you’ll take.

Without action… you can’t improve your results. Why improving your creativity helps your mindset as well as your business. We discussed removing the mental blocks that get in your way… like certain perceptions, emotions and your environment. And then how to use “idea-mapping” and brainstorming basics to stimulate your mind!

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Whiz-kid goes from Rags to Riches and Makes Millions with Bike Rack Idea!… was the headline in The Globe Magazine in 1988. That was just one of literally hundreds of articles and stories that were generated from my publicity efforts for my sporting goods company.

Now the GLOBE wasn’t my first choice for my entrepreneurial story when I was working to increase exposure and sales using press releases. It started with me sending press releases about my products to local papers, then trade publications, and went on to include national & international magazines, including USA Today, Entrepreneur, Success, Popular Science and many others.

“Using the Power of Publicity to Increase Sales”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Those media efforts launched and helped the success of my business grow into a multi-million dollar company. Those releases gave my products millions of dollars worth in free advertising, outstanding third-party endorsements, squashed the competition, created a ton of sales leads…. and they positioned my products in the eyes of my prospects & customers.

Since then, I’ve harnessed the power of publicity to promote all kinds of products and services in more industries than I can count. Now I use publicity efforts to promote my Direct & Internet Marketing services, along with efforts to promote my client’s products that lead to millions in sales each year. It’s much easier than most people may think. There are hundreds of magazines starving for content, but it has to be of value or forget it, not to mention the millions of internet sites craving for new content.

When was the last time YOU sent out a press release? What’s YOUR opinion of media releases? Do you have a Media Section of your website? Learning how to craft and use press releases is extremely valuable for your promotional efforts…. and we’re going to look at how YOU can do it better too! The impact, reach and power of publicity have never been greater. You’re ability to get your stories published and read is much easier than ever before. Using publicity strategies with the power of the internet can give you a competitive edge, and increase your sales. Publicity is a valuable component of any company that wants a competitive edge.

For the purposes of today’s show, when I refer to either a press or media release, I’m referring to the same thing. Sure, if you want to get nit-picky a *Press* release is sent to print publications and a media release is sent to TV, Radio, and internet sites, but for today… the outcome is the same… to send a news worthy article or story that is something of value to a group of listeners, viewers or readers… and that includes your prospects searching the internet.

Just a few years ago, if you wanted to benefit from sending out press releases you had to identify media outlets, attempt to entice overworked and underpaid reporters, publishers or editors to pick up your story. It could be a long and arduous process. Even if you hired a PR Firm, you still were stuck with them targeting journalists and media outlets to select your stories. Today, you can benefit from online media sources that post and distribute your releases to millions instantly… We’re going to explore the strategies that you can use to become a publicity powerhouse!

You still want to include a strategy to get printed in traditional publications and viewed through media sources, but now you can use the power of the internet to do it faster and more effectively. Keep in mind, a poorly written, self-promotional press release will be just as useless in any medium… so you need to understand how the process works best to benefit from it.

It’s important to note that not all of the rules have changed for getting free publicity. The benefits remain virtually the same. You’re leveraging the resources of other media sources to reach your target market for much less money than advertising. The main difference from then to now is that before you had little to no control over what stories and how much of the story actually got published, but now thanks to online PR Services, your press release automatically becomes web content, which means it has a much better chance at automatically becoming news, and more importantly helping your prospects find you.

Follow me on www.Twitter.com/Prime_Concepts

Click here to view the embedded video.

How to increase targeted traffic to your website and sell more products and services.

On our Internet Marketing Video Part 1 (see other blog posting) we were talking about getting into the mind of your prospects… and the Four-stages of the buying process.

Here’s the first stage:*  Your prospects need to recognize they have a “Problem“ - to become aware of need or desire! Sometimes, as marketers, we need to help them see the problem… we need to give them the headache…and then sell them the pain-reliever.

* Next is the “Information research & comparison shopping phase” -  You can help guide your prospects through this phase by using free articles, specials landing pages, and content devoted to help them along.

* And the third stage is the actual Purchase -You must make it easy for your customers to purchase from you-especially online.

* And finally, there’s the forth stage in the buying process– the Post-Purchase Evaluation-Are they Satisfied or dissatisfied with the purchase?  Prospects ask themselves “have I made the right decision?”   You can reduce their concerns by offering: guarantees, warrantees, and testimonials, along with after sales communications.

So Let’s say I am in the market for new energy efficient car… how about a hybrid car… But I don’t want a little whimpy car… I want an SUV…and a Luxury SUV….

Think about the types of keywords that I might type in the search-engine?

“Hybrid car” …, “Luxury Hybrid SUV”…  “How Hybrids Work?”… “Hybrid SUV Performance Ratings” and so on…  If you’re selling these models you’ll want to have content and keywords on your site that matches my search engine inquiries.

Keep in mind that your customers could visit you at several different stages of the buying process or just jump to the sale.  Use caution on your assumptions.  Let the market tell you what’s working… If what you’re doing now isn’t working-that’s a clear sign you need to CHANGE.

As an action step, think about the problems that your products and services solve.  Are you making the fatal mistake that your prospects will just figure out the benefits you offer.  Are you making too many assumptions about your prospects decision making process?  Remember, stage one is your prospects need to know they have a problem that you can solve… and that problem may be positioned as a desire too, but it should be clear to your prospects that they’ve reached the best source for their wants and desires when they reach your website.

I’d like you to map out on paper the content you feel that YOUR prospects would need in the “research & comparison” phase.  If you have several products, then you’ll need to repeat it for each one.  What questions do they have about your products or services and make sure you provide the answers or a way to get those answers on your site.   You may want them to fill out an online assessment form, download a special report….  Or create a comparison of features or products chart… or maybe have them fill-out a request form.

Next, go through your Purchase process, step by step and see if you can improve or simplify it.  This episode is about driving traffic…and if you’re site’s easy to purchase from, it will enhance the customers buying experience and make it more likely that they’ll spend money with you and tell their friends and associates.

To help you increase your rankings in the search engines and for future Pay-per-Click advertising planning, make a list of the keywords you think your prospects would type into their favorite search engine at each phase of the buying process..  from research through to the purchase.  Use a spreadsheet to help you organize and sort them for future use.

Before you invest in Pay-per-click and other efforts to drive traffic to your site, you must make sure your site is designed properly.  You certainly don’t want to waste your efforts driving traffic to a website that sucks!   Please don’t confuse Sucks… with ugly.   Sometimes websites that you think would never sell anything, like one long scrolling page selling only one product…with three different color fonts and a big “buy now” at the bottom outsell the fancy sites with all of the bells and whistles.  Your website is only effective if it quickly moves the visitor from the inquiry stage to becoming a qualified lead or by making a purchase.

My measurement of a website is by the profit it generates and that’s how you should evaluate your site too. (read more below.. this isn’t on the video clip)

Look at your site through the eyes of a marketer and the mind of the prospect.

Now let’s explore how to use that information to get more traffic.

The question I get asked the most when talking about increasing site traffic is
“How do we get higher rankings in the search engines?” – for free, not using Pay-per-Click to help position rankings.

Higher rankings means more traffic because your prospects can find you easier.   While we could go on for days about how to get higher “organic or natural” ranking placements, let’s look at the key factors that you can benefit from right away…

First, you need to understand that the search-engines responsibility is to provide the searcher the best “user-experience” by providing them with the most relevant search results. related to the users SEARCH TERMS. Your job is to help the search engines catalog your site content so your site listing is displayed high in the rankings for those keyword searches.   Each major search engine uses complicated algorithms and techniques to create their listings and its changing all of the time, but let’s look at the main things that you can do to that seem to be constant in the ranking process.

Having a large amount of relevant CONTENT about your products, services and solutions.  The more content, and fresh content you have related to the main search terms and stages of the buying processes you’ve identified, the more likely the search engines are to raise your rankings.

For example, if you’ve identified the top ten keywords that you think your prospects would use to find you–you then will want to create at least one web page dedicated to that keyword term.  On one of my sites I sell a program for information marketers, (experts who speak, train and consult)… the program is called The Internet Profit Kit, and I have special landing pages with article content related to the keywords that I know my prospects will be searching for… and then at the bottom of the page is the promotion for the product.  It’s a win-win for everyone.

With many search engines, the information displayed on search results page comes from two places: the HTML <title tag> and the <meta-description tag> if you have one, or it selects text from the landing page for the description.  What Is a Title Tag? This is the list of words that show at the top bar of your web browser.   The title tag has been–and probably will always be–one of the most important factors in achieving high search engine rankings.   In fact, fixing just the title tags of your pages can often generate quick and appreciable differences to your search rankings.  And because the words in the title tag are what appear in the clickable link on the search engine results page… changing them usually results in more clickthroughs to your site.

Title tags are definitely one of the most important factors as far as the algorithmic weight given to them by search engines; they are equally as important as your visible text on the page and the hyperlinks pointing to your pages – perhaps even more so.

Each page should have a unique page title and description meta-tag.   A common question is “Do Company Names Belong in the Title Tag?”…  I’d say YES! Of course, but this doesn’t mean that you should put “just” your company name in the title tag.   You also want to add a good descriptive keyword phrase too… something that will help compel the prospect to click on your listing.   You’d be surprised how many sites just use “HOME PAGE” as the title, or worse they don’t use anything and it shows untitled page… or they use the exact same words on each page of their site.  When you do that, you make it hard for the search engines to know what each page is about that lowers your rankings for sure!

Your Title Tags Should Contain Specific Keyword Phrases that match the content on the particular page.

For example, if your company is **ACME Incorporated** a Specialty Glassware company in California, you shouldn’t place ONLY the words **ACME Incorporated.** in your title tag, but instead use something like… ** ACME Incorporated Specialty Glassware – Bar Glassware, California **  Be sure to do your keyword research to find the best phrases!  You would need to be even more specific if you prefer to work with people only in the Los Angeles area.  In that case, use keywords such as **Los Angeles Specialty Glassware** in your title tag or maybe **Specialty Glassware – Bar Glassware – Los Angeles**

How your listing appears on the SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS PAGE (SERP) is a critical aspect of you improving traffic.  After all, if you have high search engine rankings but your targeted buyers aren’t clicking through, it won’t do you much good.  Write compelling titles tags and description tags so that your prospects select you over the competition.   Just Search your top keywords and see what the competition is using for page titles and descriptions.   If you’re not the person who actually works on the site, you still need to communicate exactly what you want and make sure that your web designer understands these critical elements.

Oh, yeah… How many words should you use in the title tag?  Google will display up to 66 characters of a title tag, cropping it to complete words.   Yahoo! has an absolute cutoff in presenting titles of exactly 120 characters, which is substantially longer and gives you much more room to present longer titles.  The best strategy for creating a long title is to make sure that the title works for both Google and Yahoo.

The Description tag is very important too.  When your page listing comes up in the search results, the contents of your META description tag are displayed right below the title of your page.  If no description tag is found, the search engine attempts to create a description for you and often fails to describe your page properly.  Make your description meta tags short but informative.   If you can trim them to less than 14 words that give enough information to compel the user visit your site.

Don’t make yourself crazy trying to create the perfect title and description tag, as there’s just no such thing.  The best thing to do would be to test different ones and see which rank higher and which convert better.

That’s all I have time for today… subscribe to the Blog RSS feed and enter your comments below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Increase Sales with Internet Marketing Speaker Ford Saeks

It was 8:00 o’clock on a Thursday morning. I arrived at my office to find my email-inbox filled with orders worth over $70,000 dollars…  It was a great way to start my day!

Earlier that week, I’d launched my Marketing Mentorship program by sending out a 3-part email series to my customer list.   The first email mentioned that something big was coming soon-that was the teaser…  The second email sent one day after that…  was the reminder message…, and the third email, was the actual sales letter with links to the special landing page.

Now, I’d experienced this type of success and even better ones many times before… for generating sales leads;  growing ezine subscriber lists;  and selling a wide variety of products and services, with prices ranging from 9.00 to $90,000 dollars. “Make money while you sleep”….they said… “Grow your business exponentially by leveraging the power the Internet… they said… And I listened!”

Now-there were many voices-some good-and some full of hot air… but through testing and tracking… and testing again, I was able to formulate and perfect many methods to get more visitors to our sites.

I’ve been marketing on the internet now for over a decade… My company, Prime Concepts Group owns and operates over 100 websites for our products & services, and many more for our clients around the globe… and if there’s one thing I’ve learned… be careful of anyone who claims to know everything about the internet, or internet marketing, pay-per-click, search engine optimization, or any subject for that matter…  The culture and behavior of internet users, along with the search engines are constantly in flux and you’ll want to adapt or you’ll get left behind.

Even experienced Internet Marketers-like me-are quick to tell you to test everything in the sales process; track the responses you get: and measure the conversions and everything you do to make sure it’s effective!  Even in this fast changing environment, there are proven Internet marketing strategies that have worked repeatedly to produce profitable results… and that’s what today’s show is all about!

Oh… and just in case your curious… this isn’t a blog posting about technology… it’s about communication and adding value…

The ideas and concepts I’ll be sharing can be used by the novice, the techie, and the corporate executive.   They apply to entrepreneurs, small businesses and corporations and for not-for-profit organizations… A couple things for sure, you don’t have to be a techno-geek to understand everything… but you will want to take good notes!

The next suggestion is to split your notes into two categories… one half for “Aah-Haa moments” and the other half for “Action Steps“.  That way, when you review them you’ll have a clear plan of action!  Are you ready?  Let’s go!

Think about your last big purchase…  Did you use the internet-either for research or to buy something?  What was the last thing you purchased from a website?   What are your favorite sites–and why?  Make a list of the top five that you visit and after watching the video above, go visit them through the mind of an “Internet Marketer”   I’ll let you know what to look for…

The next important concept is to “get inside the mind of your prospects.” Get to know their behavior and habits.  How do they buy?    What factors influence their buying decision?  Over the years, I’ve worked with entrepreneurs, small businesses and major corporations to improve their sales and profits.  Through that experience, it was common for some of them to under utilize the main stages of the buying process.   Keep in mind that the actual purchase is just ONE stage.

Sure… this concept of *stages* applies to all types of selling, but especially for the web–where you’ll most likely need CONTENT to address each stage in the buying process.  This not only helps your site visitor have an improved experience, but it also helps the search engines catalog you as a good reference.

Subscribe to the Blog RSS Feed to be notified for Part 2 and check out www.InternetProfitKit.com for more resources on using Internet Marketing to Grow Your Business

Using Relevant Keywords is the Most Important Element to Increase Your Site Traffic

Everyone I talk to as an Internet Marketing Consultant wants to know how to get more site visitors from search engines.  It starts with a basic understanding of how the search engines work-or rather what their responsibility is to their user-the searcher.

The search engine’s job is to provide the best and most relevant results to the person using their search engine to find solutions to their searches. To do that they need to catalog a site’s content and while there are every-changing algorithms for top rankings a critical element for search engine optimization (SEO) is the content, which of course is made of WORDS.

Those words when filled with your “keywords” make up your content.  Knowing which words to use and where to put them on your site is a huge element of SEO to get more traffic.   Keywords and keyword phrases are the same thing.

Here are a few tips for keyword success:

1. Make a list of the main types of prospects you want to attract.

Create a marketing profile for the typical prospect and customer for your business in a word doc. Get as specific as you can so you can put yourself in the “mindset” of the type of people you want to attract.  Ask yourself and evaluate what keywords you think they would type into a search engine to find you, your products or services.

2. Do your research.

Look at your website statistics because that will show you what words people are using now to find you. It doesn’t mean they are the best words, but your stats will show you what keyword phrases they are using now.  We use “Google Analytics” for sites. It’s a free service, easy to implement and offers a ton of benefits.

You want targeted traffic that will convert into customer leads and sales.  Many years ago I optimized my Internet Marketing Speaker website for my name “Ford Saeks” but because my first name Ford is also a major automotive company I was receiving tons of spill over traffic for people looking for Ford cars and Ford car parts, and not my professional services to help people improve their marketing results and profits.  The keywords we use now are related and relevant to what our prospects and customers are searching for to find our solutions.  The research results, our site statistics and usage of the popular keywords research tools all help us optimize our sites for top rankings.

Two of my favortite Keyword tools are:

Google Keyword Tool Sandbox:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

and the WordTracker Free Keyword Tool

There are several other sources for keyword research and they all offer specific advantages and benefits. WordTracker’s Free Keyword Tool and  Google’s Sandbox Tool will keep you busy for a while and help you create a nice list of keywords.

3. Use your Keywords on your website content, blog headlines and postings, articles, media releases, and social media website profiles.

Remember, keywords… sorry scratch that… The right keywords, meaning most relevant keywords that your prospects would type into a search engine are what you want in your content.  This includes the content on your website and any content that you place on other people’s website.

For exampke, if you have your company profile or products listed on directory sites or association listings you want to include relevant keywords.  If you have a blog then your blog headlines and blog postings or comments you place on other people’s blogs should include relevant keywords.  If you are using Social Media Marketing Websites — like FaceBook, Linkedin, YouTube, MySpace, and many others to grow your business — then you need to include your relevant keywords in your profiles and postings.

Make certain that your webmaster understands the proper SEO elements necessary for top rankings so you can take advantage of your keywords.  Or hire an SEO Specialist like me, Ford Saeks, to help you and your organization dramatically improve your search engine rankings and make more money. There are 7 critical places you must place your keywords to get top rankings.  One of the best places on your site is the PAGE TITLE and it must be unique on every page.

I explore over 10 other keyword research and SEO strategies going into much more detail on finding the best keywords, including the seven critical places you must use your keywords to increase your targeted site traffic on Keyword Secrets: 60-Minutes to Simple Keyword Success Audio.

Also, WordTracker offers a 7-day free trial and 7 free keyword videos and a Keyword Basic’s Guide that you and your webmaster will find extremely helpful.  I guarantee it!  

Start Now. Add a comment below on this blog posting with your top keywords and put a link to your website.  This will give you an in-bound link that also helps your site rankings.

The real power of Social Media Marketing (SMM) is the “social” part meaning that anyone with the desire can now become a publisher, host or broadcaster of content. There are new SMM sites popping up daily.

Just visit www.Go2Web20.net and you’ll find thousands of sites on every topic imaginable. Eventually, there will be a few winners and a ton of losers. It’s easy to get carried away and jump at every new site, but before you waste a ton of your time — think about the purpose and outcome of your efforts.

For me, as an Internet Marketing Speaker with new topics on Social Media Marketing presentations, It makes sense for me to research and become an active member on several sites.  My role is to evaluate the effectiveness along with the pros & cons, and determine the best way to use them to help my clients grow their business. This goes way beyond the purpose of branding, claiming your space and protecting your image to attracting new customers and creating new relationships with prospects in your target markets.

I’m curious what you think… so take a second and fill out the quick form below and tell me which Social Media Web Site, if any, is your favorite and why? 

It’s a fact: People won’t use your website if they can’t find their way around it.

Yesterday’s Web looked far different from today’s Web, and tomorrow’s Web will look more different still. Amidst all of this change, however, one aspect of Web use remains the same: The sites that offer the best, easiest, most intuitive experience are the ones people visit again and again.

To ensure that your sites provide the best user experience, you and your web developer need the essential guide from Steve Krug “Don’t Make Me Think; A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” (2nd Edition)  that distills his years of on-the-job experience into a practical primer on the do’s and don’ts of good Web design. His book is a quick read and while there are a couple of points I don’t agree with for SEO reasons, I agree with his basic concepts outlined below.

The number-one usability rule, most often expressed by users…  

1. Don’t Make Me Think. Basically your website visitor doesn’t want to venture into a site that requires them to figure it out. It should be self-explanatory. Web pages should be obvious and self-explanatory. Buttons should have short text and look ‘clickable.’ The default search for your site should be simple.

2. Design for scanning not reading. By observing users Krug found that people glance, scan some text, and click on the first reasonable option. People scan Web pages, they don’t read them. We don’t make optimal choices, we click on impulse.
 

** In our copywriting courses (Ford Saeks), I express that there are two main types of people reading your copy (text in print or online) and those are “scanners” and “readers.”  You should write your copy for both types of readers. Give enough headlines, subheads, and bullets along with limited use of bold and color to help the scanner get the gist of the main benefits or message, and then enough information for the reader to get the necessary details. Formatting is just as important as the copy. **

Okay, back to Steve Krug’s Book points…

Here are some things you can do to make sure your users understand as much of your site as possible:

a. Create a clear visual hierarchy to show relative importance of content (H1/H2 etc.)
b. Break pages up into clearly defined areas or sections
d. Make it obvious what’s clickable
e. Minimize noise and distractions

3. Users like mindless choices.  We don’t figure out how things work, we muddle through.

4. Omit needless words. Get rid of half of the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left. This is especially important on home pages and gateway pages.  

** Now this is the point I would take with a bit of caution. I agree about omitting needless words, but keep in mind that you should be designing your site and writing copy for the VISITOR and the SEARCH ENGINES. Effective use of keywords in headlines, page titles and bullets helps catalog your pages in the search engines. Just make sure you do your best to communicate value and benefits, substantiate your claims with features and credibility, and ensure you have a specific and measurable action step on every page. **

5. Navigation: Use street signs and bread crumbs.  These visual cues help the reader know which page or section they are on and how to get back. They are a navigation element on the page that reflects the structure of the site’s folders and a path back to home along the folder structure. Basically, bread crumbs are where you are at in relation to home, not the pages you’ve visited.

For example, you visit a page and along the top of the main content area are links…

Success Store >> Products >> Books >> Marketing Magic by Ford Saeks

(Yes, I know that underlined text should be linked. This was just an example of bread crumb navigation)

Factoid: The back button accounts for 30 to 40 percent of all Web clicks. Persistent navigation should appear on every page of the site and should include the following five elements:

a. Site ID – headline, logo, name
b. A way home
c. Search features
d. Sections by relevant content, topic, category, or type of visitor
e. Footer Links

Your navigation should answer these questions:

a. What site is this?
b. What page am I on?
c. What are the major sections of this site?
d. What are my options at this level?
e. Where am I in the scheme of things?
f. How can I search?

6. Your home page should convey the big picture

What is the site about? Use a good short tag line and welcome blurb. Rotate site promotions. Remove everything nonessential.

7. Most Web design usability arguments are waste of time

These “religious debates” consist of people expressing strongly held personal beliefs about things that can’t be proven. All Web users are unique. There are no average users. There are no simple “right” answers for most Web design questions. What works is good, integrated design that fills a need, that’s carefully thought out, well executed, and tested.

The antidote for religious debate is to ask specific questions and test with real users. The last three chapters of the book show how to perform testing on the cheap with three or four users. It’s required reading for my design staff and I’m sure it would be helpful for you! 

Have a question… enter it below and I’ll answer it.

The beauty of blogging is that if you can send e-mail, you can blog.  Blogs make it easy for the non-techie person to add new content to their site and build relationships with new prospects and customers.  Every site we build now includes a blog as part of the actual domain. 

Q:  Why do I want my blog to be part of my site when I can set one up for little to nothing at sites like BlogSpot.com or WordPress.com?

A: Host Your Blog Directly on Your Domain
Hosting your blog on a different domain from your primary website can limit the value of your blog to your business.   We started out with a blog at typepad.com a few years ago, then realized that it was much more valuable to install a Wordpress blog (www.wordpress.org) .ORG software on our server and had our techs configure the templates, plug-ins and interface. 

The main reasons for having your blog as part of your actual domain is that a blog on your domain can attract links to other areas of your site, increase visibility, improve publicity efforts, build trust, and raise your search rankings. 

Our old blog platform using Typepad:   primeconcepts.typepad.com

Blog as part of our corporate domain:  www.PrimeConcepts.com/blog 

What is your favorite Blog application? Comment below:

For you Social Media Marketing buffs… another day… another social media site… and they all need your profile information to help you benefit from the site and help you drive traffic to your other sites.

The SMM site of the day is http://www.naymz.com/ and it offers you the opportunity to tell the world why you are talented, valuable, and unique.  What I like about Naymz is that it allows information to be verified, and as such, should become a trusted resource.

Anybody can post information about themselves on the Internet.  This site allows the people who are closest to you to vouch for your reputation.  Through the power of the Naymz Reputation Network, you can now allow others to verify the information you claim about yourself.

You can view my profile at http://ford.saeks.name/  I signed up for the premium service option because of the reports and other features.   When someone visits my profile at http://ford.saeks.name/  I get detailed information about who is visiting my personal profile.  It’s pretty cool and a bit scary at the same time.

More about http://www.naymz.com/

Naymz helps others find all of your online content in one convenient place.  It allows you to publish a directory of links and feeds to your company website, blogs, social networks, online photo albums, bookmarks and any other items that define you.  You can build your professional profile by adding an up-to-date bio, favorite photo, current employer and contact information. 

The first place employers and colleagues are going to look for information about you is within Google and the other search engines.  Naymz will optimize and submit your profile to the major search engines so others will be able to find the most up-to-date and accurate information about you.  Naymz also provides RSS feeds and badges to help others keep up with you.

Personal information by and about professionals is getting added to the Internet every day at an ever-increasing rate.  Through their Reputation Monitor, Naymz can help you keep an eye out for personal online information that is published that contains information about you.

Time will tell how many of these sites last. This one has merit to me because it helps protect my online identity.  As an Internet marketing specialist who presents around the globe, it’s common for others to use my name to drive traffic to their site, even though I don’t know them or appreciate them doing so.  Sure, I could spend all day sending cease and desist letters (and do in some cases), but I’ve got better things to do… like grow my business.

Action Items of the Day:

1. Visit my profile at http://ford.saeks.name/

2. Set up your own http://www.naymz.com/ account and then if you know me, give me an endorsement and I’ll endorse you.

What are your favorite Social Media Sites? What do you think about creating online profiles?  Share your comments below.

The rules are changing and business models are evolving fast!

As a marketer… the buzz, hype and hysteria about Web 2.0 is similar to the Dot Com explosion of the late 1990s.   Everyone was scrambling to claim their space.  Experts were everywhere and multiplied exponentially as everyone rushed to create their sites. They started off simple, then got crazy with colors and animated .gifs, and we’ve all watched as the web evolved into one of the best business-building and social mediums in the world.  

Why do I think you should pay attention to Web 2.0?  Because if you’re a savvy business owner, marketing professional, entrepreneur, or corporate executive you’ll miss the next big wave on the Internet that can help you build your business.

It seems like every day there are more and more Social Media Marketing sites popping up.  Don’t take my word for it… visit http://www.go2web20.net/ and check it out.   It’s a search engine for Web 2.0-type sites.   It’s mind-boggling!

If you’re not familiar with Web 2.0, you can watch a five-minute explanation video at the end of this posting.  It explains Web 2.0 in technical terms… some things make you smarter… but won’t really help you grow your business.

As someone who wants to make more money using the Internet, just skip the video. What’s really important is the transition from the original Web 1.0 model of using your website to communicate value…  to the addition of Social Media sites where users congregate to discuss interests, share photos, share videos, post opinions, interact and of course… socialize.  

Those captive audiences are a marketer’s dream, but there are new rules for Social Media Marketing and they are changing, adapting, and specific to each type of site.  I’ll cover more about those rules and the etiquette of the main Social Media sites in a minute. 

 You’re familiar with the business model of Web 1.0 (web designers build your site):

1. Build a Site

2. Drive Traffic

3. Build a List

4. Make Money

Web 2.0 business model: (I still suggest you have your own company website AND you need to create a presence on the Social Media sites that make sense for your business, industry, topic area, and customer profile. If your customers and prospects are there… and they no doubt are… if you don’t claim your space your competition will, and you’ll miss out on the next wave on the net.)

In a nutshell, Web 2.0 sites are free and low-cost sites that allow users with little to no technical expertise to create content, profiles, pages and share all types of photos, videos and other media.  That’s why they are spreading and growing so fast, because anyone with a web browser and a little time can build web pages, create links, and create and expand their “Internet footprint.”  

Can Web 2.0 be used to build your business? It sure can… any medium that promotes communication and has a grouping of people will be a resource for finding, attracting, and improving relationships with your customers and prospects.  Not to mention how interesting and helpful some of the sites can be for pre-screening hiring applicants.  

For legal reasons I won’t say who or how that research helped, but I’m sure you can figure out that looking at someone’s Myspace, Facebook, or Linkedin profile before hiring them might give you some insight…  anyway, back to making money…

If you can fog a mirror, you can create your profile on Facebook and Myspace and upload videos to Youtube… although don’t just do it because you can.  Take the time to visit Facebook and Myspace and search for some “how-to” videos on Youtube and think about what would be of value to upload.

Make sure you follow the rules and etiquette of each site because they have strict policies and if you don’t follow their guidelines, all of your time and energy will be wasted.  They all understand that marketers are going to find ways to benefit, and most have proper procedures for placing ads, links, and promos.

The key to the Web 2.0 sites is to PARTICIPATE and get involved in the areas that interest YOU or YOUR PROSPECTS. That will help you build new relationships that will lead to new business.

Your homework for today is to create your profiles on the top Social Media sites of the day, like http://www.myspace.com/, http://www.facebook.com/, and upload videos to http://www.youtube.com/.    

Oh, yeah… here is the formal explanation of Web 2.0. Guess where I found it?

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’re a professional speaker, workshop or seminar leader producing live events or webinars using PowerPoint slides leader, check out http://www.slideshare.net  A fantastic source for sharing all types of presentations.  As a professional speaker, it’s a great way for me to upload great content and when formatted properly… with links back to my sites… it becomes a great marketing resource too. 

What do you think about Web 2.0 for Business?  Comment below and let me know.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) | Social Networking | Social Marketing

Do you have a profile page on Facebook.com? Or one on MySpace.com or Linkedin.com? What about the other social marketing sites and getting listed at social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and a host of others.  Are you posting Videos on YouTube.com?

Wait, you say. Aren’t those just for kids or college students to share gossip?

Not any more.

Not for a while now. These and other social networking sites like are being used every day by savvy business people looking for new ways to connect with potential clients and generate business. Granted… I should have been using them for at least a couple of years and now we’re jumping in full force to stake our claim and it’s already paying off in more traffic and higher search engine ranknigs.

You can use them to increase traffic to your site, gain a competitive edge and improve communication with your target market.

You’ll also want to secure your online identity and protect your brand.  My definition about social media is a community web site that allow users to:

• Create profiles and custom accounts
• Grow a network of friends
• Submit content or collaborate… Photos, video, etc.
• Vote on content
• Tag content
• Comment on the content

I’ll be sharing with you exactly what I’m doing and how well it’s working.

Here’s my simple 5 Step Plan for using Social Media Marketing to build my business.

1. Be an Active Participant on each site.
2. Have a Consistent Presence on the top 25 Social Media Sites
3. Add Value to the Targeted Prospects in each Category and Topic area.
4. Encourage feedback from the readers to create discussions and conversations.
5. Post my opinions and comments on other blogs, profiles and postings

MySpace:  http://www.myspace.com/primeconcepts

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/primeconcepts

Newsvine:  http://primeconcepts.newsvine.com/

Linkedin: “Ford Saeks” http://www.linkedin.com/in/primeconcepts

FaceBook: “Ford Saeks”

And we’ve claimed our blog on Technorati.com

What do you think about Social Media Sites?  Post your opinions and comments.

What’s a Blog and why should I care?

I get asked this all the time.  Let’s see if we can clear this up… 

Short Answer:

A blog is a type of website that is usually arranged in chronological order from the most recent ‘post’ at the top of the main page to the older entries toward the bottom. Watch this short video that answers the questions in simple and easy — non-techie — terms.

More Details:

The word BLOG is short for web log. A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called “blogging.” Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts” or entries. A person who posts these entries is called a “blogger.”

A blog may consist of text, images, video and links to other web pages. Blogs generally use a conversational style of writing with the best blogs focusing on a particular “area of interest.” They are typically updated at regular intervals using software that allows people with little or no technical experience to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured at the top of the page. Confused? Don’t be. It’s really quite simple.

Great Video Explanation

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you are thinking about using PPC to drive traffic to your site… this is a “must read!”

It happened again, I received a frantic call from an associate saying, “Help, I was charged $7,650.00 on my credit card for Google AdWords® charges and didn’t make any sales!”  I said, “John, I warned you to take the time to learn how to use PPC or hire someone with experience.”

You see, John and his staff were not experienced with PPC and didn’t want to hire someone like me, who is trained in Google AdWords and a Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador… they wanted to save my fees and just set up their PPC themselves.

Now, in hindsight, my fees for PPC services would have been well worth their money, but many people just think it’s easy to use Pay-Per-Click advertising. 

Well, it’s easy to set up an account and get started, but it’s also easy to spend a ton of money without knowing what you’re doing.  For this blog posting, I’m mainly referring to PPC with Google Adwords® and Yahoo Search Marketing.

Here are a 5 (over-simplified) tips if you’re considering using Pay-per-Click. 

1. First you need to calculate your Value-Per-Visitor (VPV).  An easy way to find your VPV is to take the total value of the sales you receive during a certain time period (gross), and divide that figure by the number of visitors on your website during the same time period.  For example, if you get 10,000 people a month to your site and sell $ 2,500, then you’d have a VPV of .25.   This is a benchmark that you can use to improve the performance of your site and it helps you decide how much you can afford to SPEND to bring in new customers. If you know that each visitor is worth .25, then you could spend up tp .24 and still make it profitable. Of course, you’ll aim for much better than that, but you need to start with VPV.

2. Do your Keyword Research.  Create an Excel spreadsheet of the keywords and key phrases that you think that people would search for that you want to use to attract new prospects to your site.  

3. Set up your “landing pages” that tightly match your Ad-group, Keywords and Ads.   Your goal is to create a compelling ad using very few words that when shown entices the right prospects to CLICK on your ad. Then you need to take them to a web page (landing page) that closely matches what your ad offers.  If your ad is about “How to Make Money on the Internet” and then takes them to a landing page selling something else, you’ll lose your prospect in a nano-second.  If it says, “how to” then give them the how to stuff.  How you design your campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads, and landing pages are critical to the success of your PPC advertising.  This requires the ability to write effective headlines, benefit copy and proper action steps.

4. I suggest using Google AdWords PPC first, getting everything setup with profitable campaigns, then duplicate them using other PPC sources, like Yahoo Search Marketing.  Again, learn from John’s mistake… Get qualified help to set up your account. Do this by yourself only if you’re committed to learning how the system works and then how to best apply PPC to your particular products and services.  This step cannot be taken lightly.  Google and other PPC sources have their “default” settings to drive the most traffic to you, which costs you the most money. The problem is, it might not be the most targeted or qualified traffic.  

The reason John spent $7,650 in a month was because he didn’t understand the difference between the “Search Network” and the “Content Network” options and by default, both were automatically checked. He also didn’t understand or implement the use of negative keywords.  He also had the option checked to “optimize” his traffic and stay in the top positions on search results making his bid the TOP fee… not a good strategy for him.

He’s a professional speaker that uses humor and focuses on motivational keynotes.  He was bidding on the keyword “speaker” that he thought would be good…. the trouble was he was getting traffic for stereo speakers, speaker repair, and a whole host of other impressions and clicks that were totally useless and very expensive.  

5. Make it profitable or focus on other forms of driving traffic to your site.  “You don’t go broke making a profit” — Ford Saeks.    Hey, I’m just saying that unless you’re willing to invest many hours learning how to use PPC, you’re better off getting professional help and focusing on the other things that you do best to add value and make a profit.

I’ve spent thousands of dollars on PPC training, participated in several “How to” events, read books, blogs, listened to countless teleseminars, tutorials and invested in PPC coaching from Perry Marshall and Brian Todd. Perry and Brian are considered some of the best sources for PPC training.  Why?  Because I wanted to use PPC to grow my business and help my clients make more money! 

Hopefully, if your considering PPC, you’ll avoid the horror stories that I hear so often from people who through good money away on bad marketing efforts.

PPC is very effective and a fantastic way to drive targeted traffic to your sites—just make sure you know what you’re doing or hire a PPC expert! 

Can anyone write great copy? I get asked that all the time. I tell them all the same thing: You already know how to do it! Because you already know how to tell stories. I just have to teach you the proper structure, and UNTEACH you all the stuff your elementary and high school teachers taught you.

If you ever made up a story for your children, you’re a copywriter. If you’ve ever gathered with friends as a teenager and told ghost stories, you can write copy. Great copywriters simply paint visual pictures of events. Events that happened in the past, events that may happen in the future, or events that won’t ever happen, unless you buy their product. You either paint the picture of the joy the prospect will get using your product, or you paint the picture of the hardship he will continue to endure without it. Why?

Because people love stories. No one is interested in dry facts and statistics about your product. But they will be captivated by a story that tells them how it will impact their life. And the more emotion that you bring into that story, the more compelling it will be to your prospect.

The reality is that if you can talk, you can write great copy.

Start right away… go get some of your marketing materials or look over your website and see if you are writing emotion-based, conversational-style copy using stories that people can relate to in their life.

A great source for learning more about copywriting is Randy Gage’s “How to Become A Copywriting Stud” home study course. Get the details at www.cashcopywriting.com  It’s mandatory for all of my sales and marketing staff and I know it will help you too… that is if you want to increase your sales and profits!

“How to Become a Copywriting Stud!”

Write Killer Copy for Sensational Sales of Any Product or Service, Even If You Flunked English…

When one of my clients says to me, “Ford… I’m not sure what to write about.  Aren’t press releases just for big news?” I tell them that kind of assumption just isn’t true. You can create press releases for a wide variety of topics, as long as you keep a few key elements in mind.

One of the most important ones to always follow is to adapt your “story”(or theme) to a favorite media topic in the news. That will make it more interesting to your media contact, as well as to their readers. To help you get started, here are my TOP 5 topics that I use to increase the chances of getting publicity through traditional sources like newspapers, magazines, and newsletters.

HEALTH is one of the most popular topics covered in the media. Can you find a way to tie your product, service, or media promotion to a current, health-related topic? One of my clients runs a successful pilates studio and even though it’s a local studio, her press releases and articles have been published in several national publications and on tons of sites.

Even if you’re not in the Health industry, who cares? You can still be creative and find a way to tie your media release to a health-related topic. Once you’ve found that connection… exploit it and editors and prosects will want to read about it.

HOLIDAYS are another great way to tie into your press releases. The media are always looking for stories related to holidays. Connect your product or service to a holiday–as a gift, a thank you, a recognition for a job well done–whatever–and you are halfway there.

A great publicity resource I’ve used for finding holiday-related topics (and one of my favorite marketing “secret weapons”) is called “CHASE’S Calendar of Events,” and it’s available as a book or CD-Rom.  For over 50 years, CHASE’S Calendar of Events has been the most trusted and comprehensive reference to what’s going on today. Be it an important historical anniversary, the phases of the moon, a sports event, the birthday of a favorite celebrity, a festival, CHASE’S has it all–and you can use it to come up with a ton of innovative publicity ideas.

CONTROVERSY sells, no matter what side of the fence you are on. Since this is an election year, you have multiple opportunities to tie your releases to controversial current events. You can take sides, give your opinion and show how your expertise on a subject matter can help.

One of my clients, Randy Gage, recently published his new book entitled “Why You’re Dumb, Sick & Broke… and How to Get Smart, Healthy & Rich.” We created a media release with the headline “Millionaire Messiah Debunks Politics, Religion and Society as Impediments and Reveals How Prosperity Begins in the Mind,” and that one release helped us get on the best-sellers list of the New York Times, USA Today and Amazon.

Now I’m not suggesting you copy the style we used for Randy–that worked for us, but it may not be congruent with your company and target audience. So think about current events and how you can create a bit of controversy.

MONEY is one of the few topics in life that never fails to grab a prospect’s attention. Do you know anyone who isn’t interested in anything relating to money? I don’t.

Does your product or service offer a unique way to save your customers money? Can you help them be more productive or profitable? Do you offer free training, special reports, or a resources section on your site that can help them make more/save more money. If you do, I guarantee you’ll get their attention. Write a release about it and publish and distribute it.

TRENDS are everywhere–and are the topic of discussion over dinner tables and around water coolers everywhere. Watch the media TV, or read newspapers and magazines to stay abreast of the latest emerging trends, and then see how you might tie your product or service into a particular trend.

Just by watching the news, reading popular magazines, or surfing websites you’ll be bombarded with the “topic of the week” or month.  Look for ways to leverage a particular trend through your press releases. You can do this with events, movies, or any topic on the “pop culture radar” of your prospects.

Develop a unique and interesting story angle and then pitch it to a media representative (editor, writer, etc.) and with a little luck you’ll watch your release go viral through the news distribution services.

Remember, the secret is to make your press release relevant. Tie it to a current topic and use emotion to make it entertaining. See how you (or your product/service) solve problems, meet a need, or fill a void… tell your prospects something that they don’t already know, or give your release a unique angle.

Good luck, and let me know how these topics work for you.

Unlock the secrets to writing powerful and intriguing press releases that hook editors’ interest with million-dollar copywriting advice from marketing guru Randy Gage at www.cashcopywriting.com.

This blog is devoted to design elements you can use in your e-mail mailings to grow your list quickly. Here are the remaining five tips I promised you last time. Hope they get you thinking about growing your own e-mail list.

Secret #6: ADVERTISE your site and electronic newsletter in other publications or use web banners and traditional advertising mediums, such as print, TV and radio. Encourage e-mail subscriptions on all print ads. This secret may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised by how often it is overlooked. Depending on your type of business and industry, this can be an effective method to grow your list. 

Secret #7: Use PAY-PER-CLICK Advertising to send targeted traffic to your mini-site or main site through Pay-Per-Click search engines. Pay-Per-Click advertisements show up alongside the natural site listings on the search results pages (SRPs). You go to your favorite search engines and set up an account and bid on the keywords terms related to your target market. By using PPC advertising you get you in front of your target market almost instantly. More traffic means more subscribers. But before you rush off and open a PPC account, keep in mind that you need to know the “value” of each subscriber, as well as your break-even cost of acquiring a lead and customer. If you haphazardly set up PPC and start bidding on keywords without understanding what you’re doing, you could easily waste thousands of dollars. If you can’t devote the time and energy to do it right, or can’t hire an expert certified in Pay-Per-Click advertising (like me!), skip this secret for now! I guarantee you that if you implement the other secrets I’ve offered you, you’ll still have more than enough to keep you and your marketing team busy for quite a while.

Secret #8: Get listed in E-ZINE DIRECTORIES. There are many sites that contain directories of e-zines; most list new e-zines for free. Getting your e-zine listed in these directories can help you attract more subscribers (and perhaps even some advertisers if you offer advertising in your e-zine). I’ve seen a wide variety of results generated from this method, so get listed! E-zine directories can also be a great resource for finding other lists for JV deals. 

Secret #9: Create an E-MAIL SIGNATURE.  An e-mail signature is the text that you see at the bottom of an e-mail message. Most e-mail software applications allow you to create a custom e-mail signature that will be used automatically each time you send out a message. I have several e-mail signatures that I use, depending upon the purpose of the e-mail, but all of them promote something with a link back to one of my websites. While advertising is often banned in mailing lists and newsgroups, e-mail signatures are not. Post a message and your carefully worded signature will follow. Use e-mail signatures and watch your subscriptions grow.

Secret #10: OFFLINE PROMOTIONS can work wonders. Don’t forget you can promote subscriptions to your e-zine offline too. Here are a few quick ideas–train your staff to collect subscribers from incoming sales and service calls; create printed subscription forms that customers can fill out and send back to you (add a field for them to enter their e-mail address if they want to subscribe to your e-zine); if you have a retail store, have your printed forms available on point-of-purchase displays or at the checkout counter. If you attend trade shows, make sure you have printed sign-up forms in your booth. If you send direct mail, include a subscription form with your sales letter or catalog. If you don’t want to bother with printed forms, simply put a note on your documents and brochures telling prospects how they can receive your free e-newsletters via e-mail. You can even use your voice mail system. For example, “Hi I’m Ford Saeks, I must be out helping someone improve their marketing efforts so please leave a detailed message.”

So there you have it–10 great strategies for building up your e-mail list quickly and dramatically. I hope you see how easy these are to implement right away. Good luck!

For more Internet marketing techniques to help you increase search engine rankings and generate more traffic to your site, check out the “Internet Profit Kit for Information Marketers: 101 Proven Tactics & Tools You Can Use to Build Your Business.” Visit http://www.internetprofitkit.com for details.

In my last blog I told you about ways to increase your e-mail list by improving the content of your e-mail offers.

This time I thought I’d offer you a few “secrets” I’ve found that can help grow your list fast. These 10 list-building tips may sound obvious, but too often they are overlooked by novice Internet marketers. In part 1 of this blog, I’ll give you the first five, and then in my next blog, I’ll reveal the remaining five.

Secret #1: Add a Refer-a-friend form to your site. Consider placing these forms on your subscription and order “thank you” pages. Remember to add links in your footer navigation too. Using these helps make your viral marketing efforts easier. Many shopping cart services include tell-a-friend forms and there are several free ones that your webmaster can find online.

Secret #2: Offer incentives to give visitors that “extra push” to subscribe or fill out a form. Create a free e-book or special report as a bonus that has an opt-in form for your e-mail list, and then give it away like crazy. When people give it away, those who download it will become members of your list too. A free e-book is relatively simple to create, and can become the foundation of a strong list-building campaign. The key to making this work is that you must be willing to give away something with a real perceived value to encourage people to sign up to your lists.

Secret #3: Your website must have an effective landing page design. A landing page is simply what marketers refer to as the page your prospect visits to read and take action. You can have multiple pages offering your sign-up box. The key is to position it predominately on a page without overwhelming the other content on that page. I like to position our subscription boxes in the right-hand column of our sites and place the “Contact Us” link at the top and bottom of each page. Test different placements, pop-ups, graphics, and text to see which combination works best for your site. 

Secret #4: Create leverage. You get leverage and grow your list through Joint Venture (JV) deals. Joint Ventures are one of the most powerful ways to build your list fast. Who do you know in your niche that reaches your type of prospects but who is not one of your direct competitors? Contact them and set up a deal where they send a message of value to THEIR list with links promoting your site or ezine. You need to offer something so compelling or informative that your new JV partner will want to send it to their list. They benefit by providing their subscribers with exceptional content and YOU benefit from the increased traffic. Another JV method is to swap sign-up forms on your “thank you” pages. Every time someone gets to a “thank you” page you then have the opportunity for that prospect to opt-in to your competitor’s list (and vice versa). The key is to check your stats so that’s it’s a win-win relationship.   

Secret #5: Use mini-sites with squeeze pages offering “Free Courses.” A mini-site is a smaller website that specializes in super-specific content with one purpose in mind–to capture your visitor’s e-mail address. While these types of sites probably won’t get very good rankings by the search engines, they can be excellent viral and JV marketing tools. For example, my company Prime Concepts Group sells a product line of prosperity-related books, CDs and DVDs, so we created a mini-site at http://www.freeprosperitycourse.com/. It’s a one-page site offering one prosperity lesson a week for six weeks from prosperity guru Randy Gage. When prospects subscribed to the free course, they got two best-selling e-books and free success coaching software. Next, we wrote a compelling sales letter in the form of an article about prosperity that included links to our mini-site offering the course for free. The final step was to contact other site owners and encourage them to promote the course to their lists by placing a blurb about it in their “References & Links” sections. The results were phenomenal! We generated over 20,000 subscriptions in the first month of that promotion. Those subscribers received the lessons and bonuses… and were automatically added to a series of auto-responder messages that not only delivered the lessons, but also promoted up-sell offers.

Are you starting to see how many of these ideas overlap to give you exponential power in building your list? In part two I’ll offer you five more secrets to powerful e-mail list building.

For more Internet marketing techniques to help you increase search engine rankings and generate more traffic to your site, check out the “Internet Profit Kit for Information Marketers: 101 Proven Tactics & Tools You Can Use to Build Your Business.” Visit http://www.internetprofitkit.com for details.

These days it is important to keep in mind that no one really wants another piece of e-mail. They want solutions to their problems, to be entertained and informed, to socialize, and build relationships.
 
If you want to grow your list, start by reviewing your list-building activities. How many people are on your list now? Gather up your other marketing materials and check out your website to see if you’re offering benefit messages that match your target prospect’s needs.

I’m frequently asked what the number #1 secret is for building a large, targeted e-mail list. To my mind, it would have to be QUALITY CONTENT and benefits that drive the most new subscriptions to a list. Get clear on who you’re trying to reach and what information do they need or desire. Make a list of benefits, solutions, or resources and then make sure your site, contact forms, and subscription boxes communicate the reasons why prospects should give you their e-mail address.

Set up a business-related newsletter and offer it to those who those who opt-in to your lists. Make sure the content is well-written and relevant, and think about including a place where readers can respond. Look at your content through the eyes of your prospect. Is it just shameless promotions or helpful messages to educate, entertain and move them along in the sales process? 

The next secret for effective list-building is to Build Trust and Credibility with your subscribers. Do what you say, deliver what you promise, deliver helpful content with purpose and you’ll bond the relationship. Keeping them on the list is important so you can market to them in the future and keep the relationship alive. 
  
The third secret is to improve your e-mail “P” FACTOR (that’s “P” as in “Personality”).  As an action step, go look at your website and see if there is any personality that helps you connect with your target audience. Is your site boring with impersonal manufacturer-type instructional language, or does your site reflect a human factor, filled with conversational copy? Use graphics of people to enhance your website and attract attention to the information, but don’t get carried away with overused stock images. Help visitors feel that real people are behind the site, waiting to communicate and help. 
 
The fourth secret is strong COPYWRITING. It seems I mention this in every blog, but it’s so important and relevant when it comes to list building. It’s important for you to review the words you use to entice visitors to subscribe to your lists. Make each word you use descriptive and important. Remember that text is what sells and graphics attract attention. Review headlines, offers, and action steps. Read and rewrite your sign-up forms, thank you pages and opt-in messages to make sure they are compelling, interesting, and informative.

The fifth secret of list building is to implement the 90/10 RULE, which states that 90% of your e-mail correspondence to your list should be value-based content, with 10% used for promotional purposes. Like any rule, there are exceptions, but if you blatantly and repeatedly just try to sell, sell, sell, you’ll burn out your list. By delivering helpful information that your subscribers want to get, you’ll keep them subscribed to your list. If you offer real value, they won’t mind if you offer resources to learn more. Review your recent e-zine if you have one, and see if you’re following the 90/10 Rule.

Secret number six is to create a VIRAL MARKETING effect. This method refers to the engineering of word-of-mouth e-mail referrals. Ask yourself what could you do or offer on your site that would be so compelling that people would talk about it and tell their friends and colleagues to visit your site. To build your list virally, offer a product that has a viral aspect to it—for example, it can only be downloaded if the person downloading it has to recommend it to three friends to get the download. Imagine the viral impact of something like that! You can grow indefinitely in an exponential fashion.

I’ve just given you six powerful secrets for list building. Start implementing them today and you’ll be well on your way to a larger, more relevant list that will help you sell more product faster. Good luck!

For more Internet marketing techniques to help you increase search engine rankings and generate more traffic to your site, check out the “Internet Profit Kit for Information Marketers: 101 Proven Tactics & Tools You Can Use to Build Your Business.” Visit http://www.internetprofitkit.com for details.

With many search engines, the information displayed on search results page comes from two places: the html “title tag” on the web page and its meta-description tag if you have one, or the search engines select text from the landing page for a site description. I don’t have to tell you that leaving it up to the search engines to find text that describes your site is a bad idea.

What Is a Title Tag?
This is the line of words that show at the top bar of your web page’s browser. The title tag has been–and probably will always be–one of the most important factors in achieving high search engine rankings. In fact, fixing just the title tags of your pages can often generate quick and appreciable differences to your search rankings. And because the words in the title tag are what appear in the clickable link on the search engine results page… changing them usually results in more clickthroughs to your site.

Title tags are definitely one of the most important factors as far as the algorithmic weight given to them by search engines; they are equally as important as your visible text on the page and the hyperlinks pointing to your pages — perhaps even more so.

Each page should have a unique page title and description meta-tag. A common question is “Do company names belong in the title tag?” I’d say yes, of course, but this doesn’t mean that you should put “just” your company name in the title tag. You also want to add a good descriptive keyword phrase too; something that will help compel the prospect to click on your listing. You’d be surprised how many sites just use “HOME PAGE” as the title, or worse yet, they don’t use anything and it shows untitled page. Others make the mistake of re-using the exact same words on every page of their site, which makes it harder for the search engines to know what each page is about that lowers your rankings for sure! 

Your title tags should contain specific keyword phrases that match the content on the particular page. For example, if your company is ACME Incorporated, a Specialty Glassware company in Los Angeles, California, you shouldn’t place ONLY the words “ACME Incorporated” in your title tag, but instead use something like “ACME Incorporated Specialty Glassware – Bar Glassware, California.”

Be sure to do your keyword research to find the best phrases! You would need to be even more specific if you prefer to work with people only in the Los Angeles area. In that case, use keywords such as “Los Angeles Specialty Glassware” in your title tag or maybe “Specialty Glassware – Bar Glassware – Los Angeles.”
 
How your listing appears on the Search Results Page (SRP) is a critical aspect of you improving traffic. After all, if you have high search engine rankings but your targeted buyers aren’t clicking through, it won’t do you much good. 

Write compelling titles tags and description tags so that your prospects select you over the competition.  

Search your top keywords and see what the competition is using for page titles and descriptions. If you’re not the person who actually works on the site, you still need to communicate exactly what you want and make sure that your web designer understands these critical elements.

As for how many words should you use in the title tag, Google will display up to 66 characters of a title tag, cropping it to complete words. Yahoo! has an absolute cutoff in presenting titles of exactly 120 characters, which is substantially longer and gives you much more room to present longer titles. The best strategy for creating a long title is to make sure that the title works for both Google and Yahoo.

Now that you know how important title tages are for every page of your website, spend some time and come up with some that are descriptive and accurate. This will help the search engines find and rank your site, which should help more customers find you and buy your products. Good luck!

For more Internet marketing techniques to help you increase search engine rankings and generate more traffic to your site, check out the “Internet Profit Kit for Information Marketers: 101 Proven Tactics & Tools You Can Use to Build Your Business.” Visit http://www.internetprofitkit.com for details. 

Are you taking full advantage of the free publicity available to you? When was the last time YOU sent out a press release? What’s YOUR opinion of media releases? Do you have a media section (or page) on your website? 

I’ve harnessed the power of publicity to promote all kinds of products and services in more industries than I can count. I still use publicity efforts to promote my Direct and Internet Marketing services, along with campaigns to promote my clients’ products (and that has lead to millions in sales each year).

Putting free publicity to work as part of your marketing campaign is much easier than most people think. Why? Because there are thousands of print and online magazines out there starving for content. There are millions of Internet sites craving for new content too.

Note the word “content” in that last sentence. The content of your publicity piece has to be of value to their readers or else forget it. If it reads like a commercial or blatant ad for one of your products, no one is going to devote coverage to it.

Before we go any further, let me make a subtle but important distinction. When I refer to either a press release or a media release, I’m referring to the same thing. If you want to get nit-picky a “press release” is sent to print publications (magazines and newspapers) while a media release is sent to non-print media outlets (TV, radio, and Internet sites). But for the purpose of this blog, we’ll consider the terms are interchangeable.

Just a few years ago, if you wanted to benefit from sending out press releases you had to identify media outlets, and then try to entice an overworked and underpaid reporter or editor to pick up your story. It could be a long and arduous process. Even if you hired a PR firm, you still were stuck trying to target journalists and media outlets to select your stories. I’m glad to say that’s not the case today.

Now you can benefit from online media sources that post and distribute your press releases to millions of prospects instantly. And that’s what I want to discuss today—new and faster ways you can use to become a publicity powerhouse!

The main difference from then to now is that before you had little to no control over what stories ran and how much of the story actually got published. But today, thanks to online PR services, your press releases automatically become web content, which means it has a much better chance at automatically becoming news and getting read by prospects.

When my company recently launched a new membership website called ProfitRichMarketing.com, we had to focus on a publicity campaign. We wanted to drive traffic, generate leads, gain subscribers, and get higher rankings in the search engines so prospects could find us when they searched for specific keyword terms.

The process started by creating the publicity plan. Our goal was to reach business owners, marketing directors, entrepreneurs, sales people and anyone else who wanted to learn how to promote and use marketing methods effectively. We knew our prospects weren’t searching to join a content membership site, but that they were searching for solutions, tips, tactics, strategies, and techniques related to marketing, sales, promotion and publicity. So we created press releases and articles that were newsworthy, and filled them with keyword-rich search terms. We made sure to include hyperlinks back to us; and added a tagline about our company.

The most effective way to get your release published is to simultaneously place it on your own website and then send it to a press release distribution service. I’m sure you understand the concept of posting it to your site–just get your webmaster to create a section on your site with clear navigation and links with the keywords, titles, and topics of your release.

Next, you’ll want to utilize a press release distribution service. Keep in mind that they fall into two categories, each with their own benefits. First are distribution services that specialize in getting your releases out to lots of different Internet sites, which helps you reach thousands of people almost instantly because listings get automatically sent to Google News, Yahoo News and others. Your search-engine rankings improve too when you include hyperlinks back to your site from your releases because in-bound links are a weighted component of the search-engine rankings algorithms.

The other type of distribution service focuses on getting your release into the hands of broadcast and print reporters. While some services claim to do both, usually you’ll have to use more than one service and track the results. While I don’t endorse any particular service, you can find several services on Google or Yahoo just by searching for “News Release Services.”

That’s enough information about publicity for this blog. Hope you found this helpful. Remember that there are many ways to promote and market yourself or your products—with solid content and some persistence you can connect with prospects quickly and consistently, as often as you want.

Discover the secrets to writing press releases and copy that hooks editors’ interest with million-dollar copywriting advice from marketing guru Randy Gage at www.cashcopywriting.com.

Always keep an eye on your Keyword Placement and Keyword Density on the body of your web pages. Try to think of specific “keyword phrases” and not just “keywords.” Why? Due to the extreme amount of competition for general terms in the search engines, if your keyword phrases are too general it’s very unlikely you (or your site) will rank high in the search engines.

You stand a far better chance to rank well with specific keyword phrases where there’s much less competition. The resulting traffic–because it is more highly targeted–should also be a much higher quality too.

From industry-dominating Google, to Yahoo, to MSN Search, and all of the various other search engines, each search engine has a different keyword density calculation. Some search engines permit heavier keyword numbers and density on the page, while others (like Google), have much more strict density levels allowed. The placement of keywords, in any number of locations on the page, has different results on the various search engines as well. 

Another factor in your search engine rankings is the proper use of Keyword Text Links (also known as Anchor Text links). For example, if I wanted to create a link for one of my products–let’s say the Internet Profit Kit–I’d link the words “internet profit kit” and not the words “click here.” That’s because the words “Click here” don’t mean anything to the search engines.

As an action step… take a moment and go through your website, looking at the words you used in your links (not just to pages within your site, but pages with links off your site as well).Remember content is king, and using keywords in your hyperlinks helps your search engine rankings.

This brings us to the concept of Link Exchange Reciprocity & Popularity.

Having links from other popular sites to your site is preferable to having a bunch of links OFF your site. While it’s true that links are very important to helping a site gain visibility and search engine traffic, in the long run quick-fix link schemes aren’t going to increase rankings for your site. I know this is a touchy subject and there are many theories as to the validity and value of reciprocal links. In my experience I’ve found that it depends on your topic and niche, but generally it’s helpful if you have keyword links coming into you from popular sites.   

Think about your target audience and how you can let them know your site exists. It’s really just marketing, plain and simple. You have a website and a business that is presumably better, cheaper and more friendly than other sites out there and it needs to be marketed. You may even have to spend a little money to publicize your site with traditional direct mail, newspaper, magazine, and even TV ads. 

And then of course there’s Pay-Per-Click. When used properly PPC can be highly effective. The more visible your site is, the more it will be talked about in the right circles, and the more links and traffic you’ll get.

The point is people have to find your site one way or another while you’re waiting for your search-engine optimization elements to start working. It’s up to you to figure out how to get in front of your prospects as often as you can.

For more Internet marketing techniques to help you increase search engine rankings and generate more traffic to your site, check out the “Internet Profit Kit for Information Marketers: 101 Proven Tactics & Tools You Can Use to Build Your Business.” Visit http://www.internetprofitkit.com for details.

Think about your last big purchase. Did you use the Internet, either for researching a product or to buy something? What was the last thing you purchased from a website?

What are your favorite websites—and why? Make a list of the top five that you visit and once you’re finished reading this blog, go visit them again and evaluate them through the mind of an “Internet Marketer.”

As a marketer, being able to get inside the mind of your prospects is critical. You need to understand the behaviors and habits of your prospects (what do they buy, how do they buy, what factors influence their buying decision, etc.).

Over the years, I’ve worked with many entrepreneurs, small businesses, and major corporations to help them improve their sales and profits. Through that experience, I’ve realized that it was not uncommon for many of them to be under-utilizing the four stages of the buying process. Yes, there is more than one stage in the buying process; the actual purchase is just one of four main stages.

The concept of multiple “stages” in the buying process applies to all types of selling, but especially for the web, where marketers will need content to address each stage in the buying process. This not only helps your visitors have an improved experience, but it also helps the search engines catalog you as a good reference.   

Here are the four stages of the buying process.

Stage 1—“Recognition that they have a problem.”
Every sale begins only after your prospects realize that they have a need. Once your prospects recognize that they have a “problem” (i.e., they are aware of a need or desire!), then they will begin their search for a solution to that problem.  Sometimes, as marketers, we need to help them see the problem… we need to point out their headache before we can sell them the pain reliever.    

Stage 2—“Research and comparison shopping phase.”
You can help guide your prospects through this phase by including on your website an archive of helpful, free articles they can read to learn more about a particular product or service, “specials” landing pages, and content devoted to helping them along through the purchasing process.    

Stage 3—“The purchase.”
This is the stage where the actual purchase takes place. Once a prospect is aware that they have a need, and they’ve done their research and comparison shopping, they are ready to buy. All that you need to do here is make sure your website has easy-to-follow navigation and links to get them to the check out page. Make the process as easy as possible for your customers to purchase from you—especially online.   

Stage 4—“The post-purchase evaluation.”
You’ve sold a product and they’ve spent their money, but your job isn’t over if you want them to keep coming back to you. Always follow up a sale with a post-purchase evaluation from your customer. Ask them if they are satisfied or dissatisfied with their purchase? Prospects are always asking themselves whether or not they made the right decision, but you can reduce their pre-purchase concerns by offering guarantees, warrantees, and testimonials from satisfied customers. You can help eliminate any post-purchase doubts with after-sales communications (including a post-purchase satisfaction evaluation).

As an example, let’s say I’m in the market for new energy-efficient hybrid car, but I don’t want a little wimpy car. I want an SUV… and a luxury SUV at that!   

What types of keywords might I use to do some online research?  I’d start out with “hybrid car,”
“luxury hybrid SUV,” “how hybrids work,” or maybe “hybrid SUV performance ratings.”

If you’re in the business of selling high-performance luxury hybrids, you’d better have content and keywords on your site that match my search engine inquiries. 

A final point to keep in mind is that prospects who visit your site will invariably be at different stages of the buying process (a few may even jump right to the purchase stage). Be careful with your assumptions. Let the market tell you what’s working, and if whatever you’re doing now isn’t working—that’s a clear sign you need to change.

As an action step (and you know how I love action steps!), think about the “problems” that your products and services solve for your customers. Are you making the fatal assumption that your prospects will just figure out the benefits you offer on their own?

The best advice I can offer is to resist the temptation of making any assumptions about your prospect’s decision-making process. Remember, stage one of the buying process is helping your customers become aware that they have a problem that you offer a solution to. Their “problem” may also be positioned as a desire, too. But the goal here is to make it crystal clear to them that they found the best source for resolving their problems, wants, and desires when they reached your website. 

For more Internet marketing techniques, check out the “Internet Profit Kit for Information Marketers: 101 Proven Tactics & Tools You Can Use to Build Your Business.” Visit http://www.internetprofitkit.com/  for details.