Monthly Archives: August 2010

Is The Web Marketing Lifestyle Worth It?



BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News


Is The Web Marketing Lifestyle Worth It?




Making a living online is not easy to do but it
can be done. Here’s my story and what I did first…


No matter how long I do this web marketing stuff, it never fails to amaze me.
Perhaps, what sticks out the most, is the fact that people can actually make
a living online. It is still a fairly new concept.

We never know what life has in store for us, if you told me ten years ago
that I would become a full-time web marketer with 9 or 10 websites I would
have probably asked you: What’s a web site?

Today, young people have grown up with the web and it has always been there
for them. But older folks like me experienced the birth and growth of the
web in the ’90s and have a fuller understanding of this new creature.

I live in a very remote part of the world and if you go back 10 or 15 years,
the whole concept of the Internet was totally foreign. We simply didn’t have
access to this new world of computers, servers and wired connections. When we
finally got web dial-up, it was extremely slow but we did become connected
and I started exploring this new world at full-throttle.

Coming from a background in art and art education, I was blessed with some
graphic design skills which proved very helpful when I started to create my
web sites from scratch. As an artist, I was used to learning new techniques
on my own which also helped me tackle the Internet. Those skills were greatly
needed because I even had to learn how to write HTML code in order to create
those sites, something I still do today, even though we have many software
programs that can do it for you.

Since I had to do all the coding myself, I kept my sites very simple and
started re-using templates of pages which proved successful. I believe one
of the keys to succeeding online is to find that one thing that works and
keep duplicating the process. Once you have made that first dollar, just
keep repeating the process until you make another dollar.

Once you have created one site that’s bringing in a profit, design other
sites that do the same.

Even though I have an art background, I don’t let fancy graphics or too much
design interfere with the main objective of my webpages – ranking high for
my chosen keywords in all the major search engines. You must focus on those
keyword rankings because that’s what will bring in the targeted traffic and
sales.


Keywords That Sell


You really have to find the keywords which produce the sales. This is easier
than you think. One handy tool is from Microsoft of all places, but it has
proven very helpful, it’s called:



Detecting Online Commercial Intention

This tool will tell you if your site or keywords has economic potential
on the web.



Another Major Key For Me Was Google.


Truth be told I didn’t really get anywhere until my keywords and sites
started ranking high in Google. Like I have told you a million times,
I have no magic formula – just steady article writing and promotion,
plus creating valuable content which web users need and want.

These simple techniques can work for anyone. I recently helped my brother
set up sites and a year & half in – his sites are selling something every day.
These sales numbers are only small but all he has to do is keep repeating
what he’s doing and the revenue will increase. If you’re curious, here is
one of his sites: Blu-ray Dvd Players

Like me, for him Google is also the key, getting those high “first page”
rankings will bring in the traffic and sales. And like me, he started with
the basics, concentrating on Google keywords and starting with this simple:



Google Keyword Tool

Once you get started with this online marketing stuff, it can become addictive,
but addictive in a good way. Learning how to make extra money in your spare time
is never really a bad thing. Working full-time on the web and from the comfort
of your home is not a bad thing. Most of all, being your own boss and answering
to no one is a very good thing. There is no life like it.

Like I said at the beginning, making a living from the web will totally amaze you.
Well, at least it amazed me, especially when you’re doing other things and then
you check your stats to discover you have made money. Once your sites and marketing
are set up, it runs automatically 24/7, earning you revenue whether you’re
actually working at it or you’re on vacation.


Or doing anything which humans can possibly do…


That part still puts a smile on my face every time… that and the fact because
it’s web based, I can work and live just about anywhere I want. That sense of
total freedom can’t be matched unless you win the lotto or something.




Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

http://www.bizwaremagic.com

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List Building Tips For The Affiliate Marketer



BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News


List Building Tips For The Affiliate Marketer




List building is one simple marketing strategy any affiliate marketer
can use to increase traffic and sales. But there are a few simple things
you can do to make your list building and affiliate marketing much
more effective…

If you’re into affiliate marketing you will probably already know how
important list building is to your overall success. However, I sometimes
get the feeling from close examination of my competitor’s sites that
list-building takes a back seat in their site layout and design.
One also gets a general feeling that list building is not as important
as it once was, especially in the early days of online marketing before
the advent of so many social media/networking sites.

Granted for the ordinary webmaster, in the age of Twitter, Facebook and
YouTube, building your own personal autoresponder lists have taken a
backseat to these social networking sites which obviously builds your
subscriber list for you. But these are third-party sites controlling
your subscribers and while they more or less eliminates the whole notion
of unwanted spam, they do present issues regarding the use of these lists.

Coming from the old school of marketing, I realized the importance of
my lists from the start. I also realized the most difficult part of building
a list was not getting the subscribers, but connecting in some way with
them and building trusting relationships with lists in the tens of thousands
is not an easy thing to accomplish.

List building in regards to affiliate marketing is of special interest
to me since I am a full-time affiliate marketer and anything which makes
my job easier I will try. Like most affiliate marketers, I have created
niche sites dealing with the products and services which I promote. One
major component of these sites is the list building element. On almost
all my sites I try to capture my visitor’s contact information to give
follow-up information which lets me market to these subscribers in a
very subtle way.

The important thing here is to offer free ebooks, guides or e-courses in
order to capture this contact information before these customers are sent
along to the merchant’s site. This is the “old squeeze page” which many
online marketers use in order to build their own list of potential prospects
for their offers.

This must be a “win-win” situation for everyone involved so I like
connecting these lists to special sales, coupons and deals which are
offered by the merchants. These customers can get $100’s off the price
of the products featured so that they end up with a good deal and you
end up with a sale.

All this couldn’t be possible if you didn’t build your list of targeted
clients or customers looking for the products you’re promoting. List
building in this area has proven very effective for my affiliate marketing,
so effective I try to put my subscriber form or box on all my webpages.
So if you’re an affiliate marketer who is sending your visitors directly
to your merchant’s site, think again, and see if building or capturing
your visitor’s contact information is worth your while? If done properly,
this can be an excellent way of increasing your sales and commissions.

Another form of list building which I believe too many affiliate marketers
take for granted is the powerful little “cookie”. For those not in the
business, a cookie is simply a piece of code which identifies your referrals
as belonging to you or your affiliate ID, if a sale is made immediately
or for any time in the future you will get credit for the sale because
you referred the customer or client.

Now, the trick here is to pick affiliate products and programs which
have a 90 Day Cookie or more; if a sale is made in those 90 days you
get credit for the sale. The longer the length the better, there are
even some products and companies which give life-time cookies.

Why is this so important you ask?

Well, if you have a popular site you can quickly build up a long list of
potential customers cookied with your affiliate IDs. The larger the list,
the more sales you will make. Affiliate marketing is a numbers game,
the more numbers you have, the easier it is to succeed. I have found
this so profitable that I try to “cookie” all the lists I build in the
process mentioned above, so that all these potential customers have my
affiliate IDs attached.

So it doesn’t take a genius to realize, used in combination, this can be
an extremely profitable form of list building which every affiliate marketer
should be doing if they haven’t already figured out this simple marketing
strategy. Build your lists, cookie your lists, and then sit back and reap
the rewards.

….
If you want to find out more about list building, why try this handy eCourse: list building .
And if you want to check out a good practical Autoresponder System – Aweber




Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

http://www.bizwaremagic.com

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Some Tactics For Getting Those Top 5 Spots In Google



BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News



Some Tactics For Getting Those Top 5 Spots In Google



Google Spot!





Actually, getting in the #1 spot is best but I will settle for the top 5 or
even anywhere on the first page for very competitive keywords. Obtaining those top
rankings for your targeted keywords in Google will obviously be very important to
achieving your online goals.

I don’t have some magic formula just online marketing stuff that works. Very simple stuff
that everyone can do to get those top rankings. Here are some things I do:


– article marketing thru the free article directories

– create videos on my niche products

– make blog posts in my niche areas

– do press releases for my targeted products

– create free ebook guides on my subject areas

– build separate lists for each major niche market with follow-up emails

– participate in online forums with my sig links added

– find out my competitors’ main backlinks and duplicate them

– create Google Alerts for my major keywords and add comments/links to the ones I like

– keep adding fresh content pages to my sites keyworded to phrases used by buyers


Now on second thought, some of those are not so simple but they can be easily
done by most webmasters. Or you can get someone to do them for you, for example,
I get my videos done for me. If you’re poor at writing or have little time you can
even get someone to write your articles for you as well.

Still, these tactics are fairly basic online marketing stuff which anyone can do
to get those higher rankings. Perhaps, what many webmasters fail to realize, getting
and keeping your keywords on the first page of Google does take a lot of work and time.

For very competitive keywords, I usually put in a year’s work to get to those top
spots. It sometimes takes a lot less if your content (an article or video) becomes
viral and lands on a lot of sites, that does happen but for me, it is mostly building
steady one-way quality links back to the page or site I want ranked high.

However, it is this time factor which DEFEATS most people, they don’t have the patience
or the resources to wait it out. After a couple of months, they throw up their hands
and come away believing all this Internet marketing stuff is for the birds.

Don’t get the wrong idea, there are probably programs and systems out there which
will give you instant success on the web – I just haven’t found them yet, nor am I
really looking since I have figured out how to get those top rankings and earn money
on the web. However, the catch is, it usually takes around a year or two of hard work
before the serious money starts flowing.

There are exceptions, if you’re good at writing articles, you can get immediate
traffic and a few sales. Same goes if you’re into making videos and they become
popular and featured in Google… you will make some sales.

However for steady targeted traffic which flows regularly and keeps the sales
coming each day – then you will need to keep those top rankings in the search engines
for your keywords, especially in Google. Once you get those top rankings, I find
you have to maintain them by continuing to build links by writing articles, making
posts, creating videos… and so on.

My goals are very modest, steady money for me is around $100 – $300 aday,
keep in mind I am doing affiliate marketing or sales where I usually get
from 2% to 5% since I am promoting high-end electronics which offer low
commissions. I also do some ClickBank type info products where the commission
rates are much higher – 50% or more.

I also concentrate most of my time on products/services which give me
a recurring income – make one sale and earn a percentage for years to come.
The trick here is to promote products where once clients sign up they tend
to keep these products for years… services like web hosting, autoresponder
services, telephone services, internet services and so on.

If you have your own products your daily earnings will be much higher, the same
thing if you do drop-shipping… but that also brings in other complications
and worries. I like affiliate marketing before it suits my lifestyle, I refer
the sales or clients and the merchants does all the rest.

Now, I have also found if you target longer keyword phrases which have little
traffic but also much less competition, you can bring in sales in a matter
of months, sometimes weeks. This “long tail marketing” as its called, those
faster but you have to cover a lot of ground to be successful.

I prefer picking “mid-range” keywords that have competition but if you put in
the work you will land on the first page of Google. I usually stick to keywords
that have around 1000 – 10,000 searches a month. Highly popular keywords that get hundreds of thousands or millions of searches I don’t bother with because I
know I just can’t compete with multi-national companies getting most of this traffic.

So it is a matter of picking the keyword battles which you have a good chance of
winning. You do need to do a lot of research to see who is ranking for these
keywords, what kind of backlinks they have and what kind of resources they’re
pouring into obtaining/keeping those rankings?

I also check to see who owns the domains in the top five spots or on the first
page, if one person or company owns 4 or 5 of these sites, it means you’re going
to have your hands full trying to compete for the top spots.

One simple strategy for getting those top spots in Google is to create two
or three keyworded domains competing for the top spot. Link these together
and one or in most cases all of them will land in the top three or four positions.
For lucrative keywords this can prove very profitable because your sites
are receiving the majority of the web traffic for those keywords.


However, keep in mind, in many niche markets major companies are now hiring
writers, SEO services and webmasters to get those top spots.


It sometimes can be unnerving – imagine you’re a small webmaster operating
in a niche for years and suddenly you have four or five top brand multi-billion
dollar companies competing with you for the same keywords in the search engines.
This happened to me and to Google’s credit, small webmasters still have a chance
to keep their spots on the first page.

How long before these small webmasters are totally wiped out is anyone’s guess,
but I believe for very lucrative keywords it is only a matter of time before
these big companies throw so much advertising revenue and SEO resources at getting
those top spots – a little guy will have a very slim chance of holding their
keywords.

Fortunately, there are countless small niche markets and products that an online
marketer can target and rank well for in Google with just a little hard work and
patience. Using some of the tactics listed above will get you to those Top 5
spots in Google – just give them and yourself some time to reach your goals.




Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

http://www.bizwaremagic.com

Did you find the above information helpful? If so, why not
help spread the word – recommend this content by using
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