If you have a web based business, you know how important it is to drive traffic to your website. One great way to increase traffic to your business is to market yourself through articles. If you’ve ever been directed to a website like” ezinearticles” or “squidoo” during a web search, then you have firsthand experience with article submission websites. Most of the content on these websites comes from people who are promoting businesses. Each of them shares their knowledge with people on the web through these article websites in order to drive traffic back to their businesses, and it works.
Article submission sites are typically pretty high ranking in search engine results. If you write an article that contains keywords that someone searches for, the chances of your article coming up on the first page of search results is probably much better than for your blog or website. Another benefit of writing articles is that search engines can only read text. If your website is primarily comprised of pictures or short product descriptions, the text in an article will provide search engines with much more information to search for. At the end of articles, most websites allow authors to link back to their personal websites. Articles diversify your business’ web-presence and improve your odds of finding customers with links back to your website.
If you decide to start using articles as a way to drive traffic to your website, make sure you follow a few simple rules. First, choose keywords that you think your readers would choose when searching for the information in your article, and use those keywords in your title. You should also use these keywords in the body of your article, but only 3-4% of the time. Any more than that, and search engines might throw out your article as an “ad”. Articles also need to really be about something. Instead of writing an article about “why you should buy your toothpaste from don’s toothpaste warehouse”, write an article about the “benefits of fluoride in toothpaste” or “product reviews on the most effective whitening toothpaste”. Linking the article to your website should be the most advertorial thing about your article. If you don’t offer real information or advice in your articles, nobody will read them or trust you as a businessperson. Lastly, make sure to keep your articles short. Between 400 and 800 words is ideal. Most internet readers only spend about a minute reading an article, so make sure you get your information in before customers lose interest.
Some of the most reputable article submission websites are ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com, and squidoo.com, but there are many more. A simple keyword search for “article submission” will provide you with more information about marketing with articles and more websites where you can post them.
You have probably visited a website where the images either displayed incorrectly or failed to appear at all. This is a problem plaguing a surprising number of websites and blogs. The experts from Professional Marketing International know that with multiple image formats, it can be difficult to know the best method to use for your sites. The three most common image forms are GIF, JPEG and PNG. Here are brief descriptions of all three to help you identify which format is best for your images.
GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. The compression method used for GIFs makes them optimal for images with large areas of flat color. They are often used for company logos, banner ads and other graphics. This is the most commonly used format on the internet and is the only one to be supported by all versions of browsers, such as Firefox and Internet Explorer.
JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. This format is favorable for photographs because it can display a much broader array of colors than GIFs, which are limited to less than 300 colors. But JPEGs are highly compressed, meaning some of the other image information is discarded. Although the difference is rarely visible on a computer screen, some designers opt for the GIF format. JPEGs are supported by most browsers.
PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics. This is a relatively new format, so it is also the least supported by internet browsers. PNGs don’t support animation like GIFs do and they can’t be compressed as small as a JPEG. One huge advantage of PNGs, however, is that they have gamma correction, meaning that the colors of a PNG image will display exactly the same on different computer monitors. You may have noticed this problem in the past – what looks great on your monitor at work looks very different on the screen of your laptop at home. While PNGs have their benefits, they aren’t fully supported by many browsers, so it is generally best to go with the more accessible GIF and JPEG format.
PMI Education consultants know that many new website owners are unfamiliar with HTML. They feel intimidated by the term and feel that is something that only computer experts can understand. While it’s true that only those with formal training can fully utilize HTML, it is easy to gain a basic understanding of what it is and how it works.
To begin with, HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a computer language that tells your web browser how to display files. When you open a website, all the text, graphics and design elements are tagged with codes. Layout and formatting are also created using HTML, and are easily updated once the file has been created.
In their simplest form, HTML commands usually appear in brackets like “<” and “>.” For example, if you wanted to create a large, distinct headline for your website, you could code it like this: <h1><font size=”2”>My Amazing Website</font></h1>. The first bracket, <h1>, tells browsers that the title, “My Amazing Website,” should be bold and identified as a headline. The next bracket sets the font size at 2. After the text of the headline is entered, the commands are closed with a backslash and a repeat of the command. In this case, that means you would enter both </font> and </h1>. If you didn’t include the close commands, any text you wrote after the headline would also appear as an <h1> headline and in size 2 font.
To get an idea of how a full page worth of HTML looks, take a moment now to open your favorite website. Click View in the top menu of your browser and then click Source from the options below. The HTML code you see contains every bit of information that appears on your computer screen. There are codes for italics, bold, font color and image placement. Different browsers may interpret these kinds a little differently, but for the most part, HTML allows a web designer to create a page that will appear the same to visitors all over the world.
HTML code is a wonderful tool and it is relatively easy to use. For your next website design, try to do some of the basic formatting yourself. You’ll be surprised with how accessible it can be. A basic knowledge of HTML will provide you with countless opportunities as you develop your website and grow your online business.
Internet usage statistics indicate that 90% of internet users in the US have received and sent email. Worldwide, there are an estimated 1.4 billion email users sending 247 billion emails each day. These numbers underscore the fact that email communication has become an important aspect of everyday life and an essential element of business. Here are some email etiquette tips from Professional Marketing International to help ensure that your emails are readable and professional.
As a folk musician, I have spent the last ten years touring, performing and recording original music. For me, my music was a labor of love and I had no delusions of grandeur. But as the years progressed, I found that I had less and less discretionary time to devote to my music, it came time to make a decision. My job and family commitments had increased, and I either had to make some money with my music or cut back on the time I was devoting to it. As any musician can attest, it was an easy decision…I was going to have to make some money from it.
I had for years been selling my album on iTunes and other online stores like Napster. I was doing very little to promote it, so my sales had been understandably tepid. Rather than undergoing radical change in my operations, I just decided to do a little bit of market research. After studying my album sales information (which didn’t take long, because like I said, I hadn’t sold very many) I discovered that I had sold more albums in France than all other countries combined! For some reason, the good people of Paris had taken a liking to my music, and I had been fairly clueless to this fact up to this point.
In an effort to reach out to my French friends, I contacted Parisian blogs and magazines and did interviews. I made friends with fellow French musicians through Myspace and Facebook, allowing me to introduce my music to countless fans. The results were wonderful. I sold more albums. I generated more traffic to my website. I met new friends and felt like I was connecting with some truly amazing people. And to cap it all off, I traveled to Paris this past summer to play at the legendary Fête de la Musique. It was an experience I’ll never forget.
Finding your niche is an essential element to any business. Your time is important, so why would you ever want to waste time offering your services to people who will NEVER be interested in them? This would be comparable to me setting up a booth at a death metal concert and trying to sell my folk music. I might get one or two curious fans, but most people would be utterly disinterested. Targeted marketing can make or break your business success.
Many people find it helpful to work with proven entrepreneurs to help them identify their niche, such as the experts from PMI coaching. Whatever your approach, the time to act is now. Don’t waste another minute with broad, inaccurate advertising. Make the most of your valuable time by locating your niche today.
You’re not alone in wanting more time during the day to accomplish things. Just about everyone with a desire to achieve has had that same wish…more than once. Unfortunately, that wish isn’t going to come true. We are all allotted the same 24-hour period during any given day. The difference, however, comes in how we choose to spend those 24 hours.
It was once said that “Average people talk about the TV shows or movies they’re watching, while successful people talk about the books they’re reading”. This is simply an example of how people choose to spend their time. In most cases watching a TV show or a movie, while quite entertaining and a great way to keep you in the know in certain social circles, isn’t going to help you become a more intelligent or successful person. However, filling your mind with knowledge and new insights about various topics will certainly help you achieve greatness. If you really want to make waves in the world, you’re going to have to make changes. Most of all, sacrifices will need to be made. And remember that it’s not a sacrifice unless it’s difficult for you to do.
Professional Marketing International has frequently helped students learn to more effectively manage their limited time. It’s never a magic potion which provides them with more time, but simply a look into their schedules to cut out the waste and inefficiency. Our consultants’ aim is to free up at least 1 hour per day to enable our students to achieve their entrepreneurial goals.
With just an hour a day, you’ll be able to research Real Estate and ecommerce opportunities until you find one that catches your eye, create a basic game plan and schedule, work on your business, and very probably pull in the first of many checks to come in the first month alone! Realizing you have what it takes, however, is not the secret to success, but rather implementing what you’ve learned. Don’t just talk the talk, but walk the walk…all the way to a successful business complete with extra income!
One of the Social Media outlets that makes marketing VERY fun is the online video king YouTube. You can really get the creative juices flowing by using this method. Many entrepreneurs rely on free methods to advertise, and YouTube is the perfect example of free advertising. PMI coaches will suggest that their students use this method in almost every case, because it just works!
“YouTube is a community where people are entertained, informed, educated and inspired through the sharing of video. Did you know that 71 million DIFFERENT people throughout the world visit YouTube each month?!
Online Video isn’t the future, it’s the present: 75% of Americans watched a video online last month. And YouTube is far and away the leader in this space with hundreds of millions of videos viewed daily.
YouTube offers a unique opportunity to connect with your audience in a personal and targeted way — and the ability to do so at massive scale.”
Now, you’re probably wondering… “Can I REALLY make money with YouTube?” You’d better believe it! Wow…there are many different techniques to help you make money by using YouTube. So many that I’m certain I won’t be able to list them all, so I’ll introduce you to the main strategies that are out there right now.
Create great videos. If you’re creative, or have an idea…you can make great money. You never really know if a video is going to take off or not, but you should be prepared! I see videos that are getting thousands or more hits daily…but the owner hasn’t linked them to any ads! It’s crazy! For example, the other day I came across a video some lady at a block party in Milwaukee recorded of a tiny 7-year old dancing that had TONS of views…but she didn’t have a single ad! All those opportunities for revenue…gone. I just checked again, and it appears she’s since added some links, so I’m glad she figured it out.
The video is a perfect example of something out of nothing! Yet, for all those who have great videos like this one, but haven’t added anything to help them profit from it yet, I just think of all the money or potential lead generation they’re missing out on…and I honestly feel bad for them. Well…I’m jealous of their hits, but also feel bad that they don’t know what they’re missing. Maybe I should become an Ad broker for these types of people and introduce them to the opportunities available…then split the profit?!? Well…the secrets out. There’s another way to make money on YouTube!
Here you can show watermarked URL’s in your videos or post links in the description area to the right of the video. These are excellent ways to drive traffic to your personal or business website, or direct people go to buy products that you earn affiliate commission from. Of course, this is contingent on your video being found…but I’ll discuss more about getting your video found in a bit.
You can even use Video annotations to help viewers understand your video, which will help to promote it. Video Annotations is a new way for you to add interactive commentary to your videos! Use it to:
You control what the annotations say, where they appear on the video, and when they appear and disappear.
You can have your very own customized channel. Color, background, layout, etc. You can hold contests, promotions, or just become a popular site for people like you! Do this for yourself, your business, or anything else you want to spread the word about. If one of your videos catches on, and you’ve put the proper steps in place then you’ll start seeing the profits roll in and be glad you did something about it!
It doesn’t matter if you’re a top 50 advertiser or a local business, because YouTube has a way you can advertise that won’t break the bank! YouTube has made it possible to get your Ad seen by a particular group of people.
They have created incredible ways to get in front of your audience! You can place an ad just about anywhere on the page! Notice the red marks on each thumbnail. Each one of those represents an area where you can post your video Ad. Depending on which method you choose, people either view your ad right there, or are taken to another page to view your ad. YouTube is creating all sorts of methods to advertise to suit just about any situation.
People can watch an ad if they click on a transparent overlay ad that pops on your video. You get paid per view…and your video is paused while they watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-q5zZ1p2eM
These YouTube Promoted advertising Videos help you get more views for your videos, and they link to your Google AdWords account. They’re PPC, not pay per view. You can create your own advertisements and YouTube will send put them in front of the audience you choose!
Within your account you can see detailed statistics for your videos with something called Insight. It’s basically Google Analytics for YouTube, and it’s really cool to see. I found all sorts of interesting information that will help me to know the best times to place ads on my videos as well as the demographics of my audience for different videos. Incredibly useful information! Just think of what you could do!!
Here’s a list of some more ways you can make (or save) money with YouTube. All of these topics are discussed within the Videos and Articles within this website, so keep learning, find the methods that would be most beneficial to you, and get them rolling!
It makes sense to tap into YouTube. The YouTube community views hundreds of millions of videos everyday! That’s more than any TV network, Cable network, or social network COMBINED! It provides an incredible opportunity to get in front of your audience!
I want you to check out this page on YouTube to learn more about the incredible opportunities that are available to make money with YouTube. It’s an inspiring video, so check it out!! http://www.youtube.com/user/advertise
Chances are that if you’ve been alive for at least a year, you’ve received an autoresponder. Anytime you’ve received an automatic message that said something along the lines of “Thanks for your request (order, question, etc)! We’ll get back to you in 24-48 hours!”, it’s an autoresponder. It’s that company simply trying to reassure you that your message was received and they’re working on it. Mainly, it’s a feel good thing.
PMI coaching has long been a fan of autoresponders, and uses them on many of their products. Especially recommended for entrepreneurs, these handy emails can help any business owner gain a slight edge in success over their competition. Customers like to know that they’re being taken care of, especially when they can’t see it.
Internet entrepreneurs will especially want to pay attention to using autoresponders to fulfill parts of their products. If there are any processes that you go through on a regular basis, which are almost always the same, you should set up autoresponders. For example, if you have to write out an email after every order you receive…you’re wasting TONS of valuable time. What you need to do is get a management system (there are plenty of free or inexpensive ones out there) to help you keep track of your business and send autoresponders.
Now, every time someone wants to learn more about your particular industry or business, you can set up a system that will provide them training without ever moving a muscle. Simply instruct them to send an email to info@yourdomain.biz (or whatever your domain is) and have that email address automatically put them into a group which starts a process to send them 4 or 5 informative emails over a period of 1-2 weeks. SO much easier than doing it all on a case by case basis. And as the Professional Marketing International Real Estate or Internet coaches and consultants will teach you, “Time is Money”!
This topic has changed significantly over the past 10 years because of the immense growth in internet activity. There are only so many words and letters in the alphabet, and chances are you won’t get the first domain you’re looking for. Nor will people sell their domain names to you for a low price in most cases. The good news, however, is that if you’re creative…you won’t have to worry about it!
For example, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Craigslist, Google, etc are all words that while just about everyone knows what they are today, no one knew about them before they got started. For that reason, they probably didn’t have to fight over their domain names. The other HUGE benefit of choosing an unknown name is that you won’t have to compete with other people for keywords and placement in the search engine results. In other words, I’m pretty sure no one was ever searching for ‘Twitter’ before Twitter got its start.
Now, if you can be creative with your domain name, I suggest it for the aforementioned reasons. However, if that’s not going to be possible, you need to figure out what keywords are going to be most relevant to your product or service…and which aren’t already too popular on the internet.
For example, if you have a product that people will use at the beach, chances are that the keyword ‘beach’ is going to be quite difficult to make a name for yourself as thousands of other companies and websites will already be competing for the same word. But if your product is a beach toy for toddlers which has batteries and make noises, then you’ll want to see how many variations you can come up with which refer to the other words. Toddlers could be kids, children, tots, etc. You get the idea.
The coaches at PMI have extensive experience in helping internet or Real Estate entrepreneurs create an online presence. Their success team spends every hour of their workday consulting clients with the most effective strategies available, as well as providing them with products and services which streamline the process.
If you’re tempted to just pick a random domain, I strongly suggest you do your homework first. Doing your research could literally save you over a hundred hours of your time…not to mention hundreds of dollars after all is said and done.
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