Tag Archives: Internet Marketing

Simple Marketing Tips For Black Friday & Cyber Monday



BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News





Some Simple Marketing Tips For Black Friday & Cyber Monday


just a short email this week since I am extremely busy gearing
up for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Since I do a lot of targeting
to the “gift markets” especially corporate business gifts, I have
been updating my pages with the constant flow of offers/discounts
coming from the different companies which I promote.

Regardless of whether you’re promoting affiliate or your own
products… you should be taking advantage of next week and the
following weeks leading up to the Holiday Season. These have
always been my most profitable times, especially the days following
ThanksGiving.

Although I must sound like a broken record and I know not
everyone reading this is into online marketing, but targeting
the “gift markets” is still one of my most effective ways to earn
online revenue. Getting buyers when they are ready to buy is
the whole key.


Obviously, someone looking for a gift is ready to buy.


Now you can target different kinds of gifts: wedding gifts,
graduation gifts, christmas gifts, holiday gifts, birthday gifts…
any occasion where people give gifts to loved ones or colleagues.

If you’re selling your own products – try to find a way to
promote them in any one or all of these gift niche markets.
This can be an easy way to boost your sales.

Since I am into affiliate marketing, many if not all of the
companies I promote, have special holiday discounts and deals.
Combining these holiday discounts with the gift market has
been a winning formula for me.

It has proven very effective since promoting holiday gifts with
special discounts will increase your sales. People are in the mood
to buy a gift but in these harsh economic times, they also want
a bargain and a way to save money. Just give them what they’re
looking for on your web pages.

While I promote products mostly through the big affiliate networks
such as Commission Junction, LinkShare and Shareasale… another very
good one for me has been Amazon.

Now, I find Amazon commission rates to be rather low compared to what
you can get through CJ and the other networks. However, there is a catch,
and it’s rather significant. Over the years, I have found that featured
Amazon products on my sites have a much higher conversion rate than
anything else that I have tried.


That is, you will get less for selling Amazon products but you will
sell more of them.


One of the major reasons I believe why this is the case has to do
with trust. Online buyers have come to trust Amazon. They know
they will get fast service and they will have few problems if
they want to return an item. This reputation or trust has been
built up over the years and can prove very beneficial to your
online marketing.

Another reason Amazon products convert very well is the low prices
offered. Prudent shoppers know where they can get a good deal and Amazon
is one of those recognized places that’s in the back of everyone’s mind.

Furthermore, another reason why I believe Amazon products sell so well
has to do with the very convenient way product ads can be placed on
your site… an image is given and the buyer just has to place the
cursor over this image and more information pops up – usually the price
appears, along with consumer ratings. Very effective.

Regardless of whether you’re heavily into affiliate marketing or just
want to earn some extra cash from your site or blog, I would strongly
recommend trying some closely related Amazon products. Tying in these
products with the upcoming Holiday Season gift market could prove very
effective for you – I know it works for me and my sites.

If you still have trouble finding buyers or visitors to your site
who are in the right “mindset” to buy, I would suggest you use this
handy tool from Microsoft which tells you the commercial intention
of your keywords.




Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

http://www.bizwaremagic.com

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Has Google Gone Too Far With Instant Previews?



BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News


Has Google Gone Too Far With Instant Previews?




Google Spot!






Has Google Gone Too Far With Instant Previews?


If you’re a regular reader of this small newsletter, you will know
I keep my eyes peeled to what Google is doing. I do this mainly because
Google sends me the best quality traffic and Google accounts for 60%
to 80% of the traffic on most of my sites. And since I am heavily into
affiliate marketing and keyword targeting in free organic search,
anything affecting those searches directly affects my bottom line.

Now, I don’t want to sound like I am complaining, but this has been
the most disruptive year for online marketing in a long, long time.

This all comes back to the massive changes Google has made over the
last six months or so. Starting first with Google Caffeine which really
affected which keywords were ranking, then we had Google Instant Search
which affected HOW your keyword results were displayed. Instant Search
has and is playing havoc with “long-tail keyword” phrases because
searchers don’t get a chance to get to those lucrative keywords since
they are constantly being bombarded with instant results.



Just a few days ago, Google introduced Instant Previews.


Already, warning bells are ringing in my head, now don’t get me wrong –
there’s nothing wrong with these Instant Previews. Actually for the average
searcher this is a great innovation. And I believe it will prove very popular
with Google users.

However, from a webmaster and marketing perspective, these new previews could
potentially prove very troublesome. Why? Because if Google users find the
information on the SERPs or Google’s landing results pages – THEY WILL HAVE
NO NEED TO CLICK YOUR LINK.

If searchers find the information they need on these results landing pages,
they won’t click through to your site. Your site loses a visitor. What really
bothers me is how large these previews are. Thankfully, the small print can’t
be read but they do take up a lot of your browser’s space.




Google Instant Previews







































Click Here to check out – http://www.google.com/landing/instantpreviews

It’s just one more marketing hurdle, webmasters and marketers have to jump
through in order to get that quality traffic from Google. This could prove
very pragmatic for everyone, especially the small online marketer who now
has to not only compete with other webmasters’ listings/previews in order
to get the click, but they may just have to compete with Google itself.

What are you talking about? Google, how will I have to compete with Google?

Maybe I am jumping to some big conclusions here, but I have been following
Google religiously since they began, and recent changes within Google has me
very worried. With all these new changes, Google is keeping the searcher/visitor
on their Results Pages for as long as they can. If they keep these searchers
on the Google site, it greatly increases the chance that they will eventually
click an ad.

If you were a search engine like Google, it is in your own best interest to
decrease the importance of organic search and increase the emphasis on your
paid links. You have to do everything in your power to increase the chances
that those ad links are clicked. One obvious way is to increase the time spent
on your site.

Sound silly, not really.

If you look on Alexa, Google’s “Time Spent On Site” has increased from around
7 minutes in 2009 to around 14 minutes in 2010. That’s nearly a 100% increase,
double the time and double your chances of getting those ads clicked. No wonder
Google workers got that 10% raise, they really deserved it.




Alexa Google Facebook Comparison































Now, as I said before, there is nothing really wrong with this, Google visitors
don’t pay for those ads and if they can get a better search result by staying on
Google longer, they will still find what they’re looking for and come away happy.

However, if you’re a webmaster or marketer, you’re now competing with Google
for that searcher’s attention. And all the recent changes within Google has made
your job of getting that click through to your site much more difficult. You have
to compete with all the limitless resources of Google and everything they can
throw the searcher’s way.

So what can the small webmaster or marketer do to increase their chances of
getting those clicks. Well, I believe your site’s design and layout/look will
play a more IMPORTANT role in getting those all important clicks. Here’s what
I think will happen:

1. You really have to capture the searcher’s attention in those Instant Previews
so your graphics may become much more vital. So add a few eye-popping graphics
next to your important information.

2. Headlines will become more important. Place some great headlines in these
previews to grab the searcher’s attention, nothing works like a good bold
headline which can be read in Google’s Preview.

3. Bullet summaries or placing your important information in a nice summary
format could draw the searcher’s attention to your site. But webmasters can’t
give away all the information because the searcher will have no need to click
through to your site.

4. Take a multi-layered approach to your Google marketing. Just don’t aim for
free organic search (which I believe is becoming a dead duck for extremely
lucrative keywords, especially within Google) but try video listings, news listings,
image listings… to get those all-important clicks from Google.

5. Lastly, no one wants to hear this, but paid listings with Google Adwords
may soon be your only option to get on the first page of Google. As major
companies pour unlimited resources into SEO and Keyword Link Buying, organic
search is not really free or available to everyone anymore. In the not so
future, paid listings may be the only way to get that Google click.

On a brighter note, these Instant Previews may also decrease the importance
of your rankings on the first page. Getting the top or number one ranking will
not be so important, if searchers spend more time checking out ALL of the top 10
listings on the page. A nice preview could help you get the click, regardless
of position.

Of course, how all these recent changes within Google plays out, makes all
this online marketing stuff very interesting. Will searchers even use Google’s
Instant search and these previews? Or will they be turned off by all these
improvements? More importantly, has Google just become every webmaster’s
and marketer’s most daunting competitor? Enquiring marketing minds want to know!




Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

http://www.bizwaremagic.com

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5 Top Traffic Sources For Your Site



BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News


5 Top Traffic Sources For Your Site




Google Spot!





5 Top Traffic Sources For Your Site


I believe if you asked any webmaster or online marketer what their
most important aspect of running a site would be, you would get an
answer that’s some way related to traffic. Mainly because traffic
is your site’s lifeblood, actually without traffic you really don’t
have a site at all.

Traffic brings in the leads and the sales. Quality traffic is what
produces your online revenue, whether from advertising or from sales
on your site.


Traffic is king.


Now, I have sites which get less than 50 visitors a day, I have a few
sites which get around 200 visitors a day and I have one site which
gets around 2,000 visitors a day.

Don’t jump to any conclusions, some days the site getting 50 visitors
can make just as much as the site getting 2,000 visitors. It all has
to do with the quality of the traffic and how well it converts into
a sale. And of course, it all depends on what you’re selling… a LCD
cleaning kit for $20 bucks or a gaming laptop which sell for $2000+.

Regardless, you have to get that traffic in the first place if you
want to earn an online income. The more traffic you have, usually,
the more you will make; at least this has been my experience. Since
traffic is very important to me, I keep a lot of records and stats on
where my traffic is coming from on the web. I have to know what produces
the quality traffic and how to get it.

Now, below I have listed down my 5 most important traffic sources
and/or the marketing techniques I use to get that traffic. This list
might also help you with your own traffic and how you can increase it.

Here are my 5 main traffic sources…

1. SEO and the Search Engines

The majority of the traffic to my sites comes from the search engines,
mainly Google. It is my high rankings for my targeted keyword phrases
which bring in the most and the best quality traffic to my sites. Get
the SEO right and build a lot of quality one-way links from related
sites and you will get the traffic. Another tactic, don’t just create
a website with only 10 or 20 pages – create one with 1000 to 5000 pages.
I know this takes time but consider your site like a long-term business
which you will keep building for years. Produce plenty of quality content
and you will get plenty of quality visitors in return. Works for me.

2. Article Marketing

Another very effective way to bring in quality traffic to your site or
sites is article marketing. Just write short articles related to your
site’s keywords and place your keyworded links in the resource box.
Distribute these articles all over the web. Right now, what is working
for me, is writing unique articles which I only place on one important
site. I am using this technique with sites like SiteProNews, Buzzle and
many more. Article marketing is still one of the most effective ways to
get quality traffic, just try it.

3. PPC – Pay Per Click Advertising

I know, I know, this can be very expensive but PPC can be the quickest
way to get quality traffic to your sites. Just be careful and approach
it with kid’s gloves until you find campaigns which work for you – then
scale them up. Microsoft Adcenter and Yahoo Marketing have now joined
forces and I find this is producing good traffic for me. Google adwords
is probably better but they are a real pain to work with and have become
too expensive, at least for my keywords. But if you have the resources,
don’t rule out Adwords or any of the PPC programs.

4. Social Media Sites

From Facebook to Twitter to Linkedin, social media sites can provide a
lot of traffic and word of mouth advertising for your site. For me, even
though I haven’t worked these sites to their fullest potential, I still
get traffic from them. Getting your pages bookmarked in some of these
sites can bring in a flood of traffic overnight, while most of this traffic
will be temporary, you can get a lot of sign-ups to your newsletter and
different follow-up lists. While not exactly in the same group, I have
had some success with YouTube videos which also bring in targeted traffic.
Don’t ignore these social media and video sites in your traffic strategies.

5. Email Marketing and Follow-up Lists

This is another one of my major sources of “repeat visitors” to my sites.
You must be constantly building up your different contact lists for further
follow-up. This will bring in more visitors than you would expect, especially
if you put some simple viral messages in your emails. If you supply valuable
information, people will recommend your content to friends and co-workers;
again word of mouth can bring in a lot of traffic especially in this age
of Facebook and Twitter.

Of course, there are many more traffic sources such as Press Releases, Banner Ads,
RSS Feeds, Off-line Advertising… and if you have your own products to promote,
affiliates and joint ventures will be your most valuable source of traffic. Over
the years I have picked up a lot of information on traffic and traffic tips…
some of the best places/people for this has been:



trafficology.com – this site and newsletter give you off-beat ways to build traffic
to your site. Highly Recommended.




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
the social bookmark sites below. The SEO Gods will Thank You!