Tag Archives: Internet Marketing

Gearing Up For Black Friday & Cyber Monday – Some Marketing Strategies

Gearing Up For Black Friday & Cyber Monday – Some Marketing Strategies

BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News!

No doubt if you have a website where you’re selling products
or you’re into affiliate marketing like me, next week and the
days following it will be very important to your bottom line.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are very busy shopping days in
the real world and online.

Each year, for the last 4 or 5 years, I have seen my online sales
jump on those days… actually sales have already picked up for my
sites since I mainly sell high ticket custom electronic goods
which have to be configured to the buyer’s requirements so buyers
like to order early to make sure they get them by Christmas.

In this Newsletter, I thought I would give you a run-down of some
of the things (marketing tactics) I am using to bring in more
sales. Keep in mind, I am doing affiliate marketing (selling other
people’s stuff – I make no direct sales from my sites – all I do
is refer potential buyers to my affiliate partners via my
affiliate links) and it is the kind of marketing and lifestyle
that I prefer.

Now, you too, should be gearing up for the big selling days
next week and beyond.

Here are some things or marketing tactics I do every year.

1. I review all my affiliate links and web pages to make
sure my content and links are up to date. Mainly because I
don’t want to lose any commissions but also because Google
is taking a hard line with it comes to broken links that break
down the quality of your content and their index. Make sure
you check all your links to see if they are good. If you have
a small site – a free service like LinkTiger.com will help
you find the broken links.

2. Key up or ramp up your own marketing… put out extra articles,
do press releases, run sales if you’re selling your own product,
release videos to coincide with the big shopping weekend. I am
planning on doing all of those things.

3. Increase your advertising budget. Buy special advertising
such as links on popular sites, order special ezine mailings
to targeted groups. Also, I always increase my PPC (Pay Per Click)
advertising at this time of year. People are shopping and your
conversion rates will be much higher – at least that is what
I find.

4. Coupons, Coupons, Coupons – all the major companies have
special discounts, sales and coupons for the holidays… make
sure you’re featuring them on your site or sites. Buyers will
expect big discounts on those days and if your site doesn’t
carry or offer them your buyers will go elsewhere. Collect all
the best deals and discounts and make special mailings to all
your lists. Many marketers also make a special page on their
site featuring all the major Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals.
Everyone loves getting a bargain.

5. Use or sell major brand names with your online marketing,
I have constantly found promoting big brand name companies like
Dell, HP, Toshiba, Sony… always do better because buyers
respect and trust those companies and their products. Also
I have found using big brand name retailers like Amazon.com
bring in many more sales – again, buyers respect and trust
Amazon and your sales will reflect this fact.


Those five marketing tactics have worked for me and here are some of
my most effective marketing strategies which are a little more
complex and detailed.

1. Leveraging your keyword rankings. Around this time each year
I do a close check of all my top rankings in Google. I choose
the ones that will return the most revenue. I place most of
my ramped up marketing efforts on these keywords – making
sure I have found and listed all the best deals and discounts.
Also the price of the affiliate products and my commission rates
play a big part in which keywords I increase my marketing on.
For example, high ticket items like gaming laptops give very
good returns, whereas small items such as laptop cleaning kits
do not. It’s only common sense as to which one I will be
promoting heavily at this time of year.

2. Sell what people are buying. You really have to do some
market research and find the hot items everyone is buying.
This doesn’t really have to be heavy-duty research, just using
something like Google Trends will give you a pretty good
idea. So too is checking out lists of popular items such
as those presented on major sites like CNN, Time… I am
sure we all have read these kinds of lists – such as “Top 10
High-tech Holiday Gifts” just use them to find the
hot items this year.

3. Comparison Shopping The Internet was invented so that
people could do comparison shopping! Well, not really, but
using comparison shopping prices and charts will increase
your sales. Keeping track and getting all the best deals
and discounts can be tedious and time-consuming. Many online
marketers use services such as those presented by comparison
shopping services provided by sites like this one:

www.datafeedfile.com

It sends out data-feeds and the latest deals and offers
are presented on your site. This is great if you’re not
really into affiliate marketing but want to monetize
your site or content. Only catch this site takes every
fourth click in return for using its services. Still
a good arrangement especially if you don’t have the time
or resources to pull all this pricing data on your own.

4. Buyer’s Mindset You probably already know this one
but you should make it your objective to find the buyer
at the exact time someone has their mind made up and are
ready to buy. That one of the main reasons Black Friday
and Cyber Monday are such great shopping days. Everybody
and their grandmother has been convinced by all the
major retailers those days is the time to start buying
your holiday gifts and everyone does. Along those same
lines, PPC and keyword marketers take advantage of this
right buying mindset by targeting certain keywords that
show buyers are ready to buy. For example, something
as obvious as someone searching for the price or lowest
price for a product means they are more ready to buy
then someone just searching for a general product.

5. The Gifts Angle This is a marketing strategy I have
been using for years, along with countless other marketers.
Targeting the gift-buying market is a very effective
way of selling your products. Someone looking for
wedding gifts, Christmas gifts, birthday gifts,
graduation gifts and the one I like targeting
corporate business gifts. All those customers are
ready to buy these gifts when they come into your
store or your online site. They are ready to buy…

Corporate Business Gifts


As an added strategy, I like to target buyers who are
buying gifts not just for one person but for a whole
lot of people. They won’t just buy one item, but
100 or even 1000. Don’t laugh, it happens, especially
if you’re targeting companies or the company boss
who are buying gifts for their employees or clients.
Also, promotional gifts falls into this same strategy,
some people do buy gifts in bulk! Target them.

But it doesn’t have to be anything complex, I have found
just promoting the Amazon Gift List Organizer brings
in a lot of sales because people do use that to buy
all their holiday gifts at once. Again, it’s finding
the buyer at the right time when they’re ready to buy.
Simple marketing strategy but it works.

I hope I haven’t wasted your time and that I have
given you at least some ideas to increase your sales
this coming Black Friday & Cyber Monday. Go get ’em!

Titus
www.bizwaremagic.com

Does Google PageRank Count Anymore?


BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News!

…….
Contents:

o Does Google PageRank Count Anymore?

…….

This week I would like to give you some news about Google PageRank
and my opinions on it. PageRank won’t go away and it is a much-discussed issue if you’re a webmaster and have a site.

That little green bar gives Google’s ranking of all the web pages
on the web – including yours. PR10 is the highest, PR0 is the lowest.

PageRank doesn’t mean much in SEO turns anymore – your page can
have a low PR ranking but still come up first in Google’s index.
Many times above pages that have a much higher PR ranking than
your page.

However, I take a much broader view of PageRank and find
it still very important. You can find out why by reading
my article below…

………………………….
Feature Article
………………………….

Does Google PageRank Count Anymore?
Copyright © 2009 Titus Hoskins

Being a full-time SEM (Search Engine Marketer) I have been
conditioned like Pavlov’s dog (not a pretty picture) to jump
every time Google twitches. Lately, Google has been doing a
lot of twitching.

Specifically, the rather startling news from Google Webmaster
Trends Analyst Susan Moskwa that Google has ditched PageRank
from Webmaster Tools.

“We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t
focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s
the most important metric for them to track, which is simply
not true,” states Moskwa. “We removed it because we felt it was
silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show
them the data, implying that they should look at it.”

Find more here on WebProNews:

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/10/15/google-ditches-pagerank-in-webmaster-tools

Now, for SEO reasons or for ranking in Google’s index, PageRank
has long been downgraded by Google. However, even missing
a few dangling bits, history has shown us eunuchs still wheel
tremendous power. PageRank is no different.

Regardless of what Google wants to happen, PageRank is still
extremely important to anyone marketing on the web, especially
if you’re selling SEO services or operating a web business. Try
selling SEO services when that little green bar on your site
is pointing to PR0 or worst yet, pointing to a solid gray bar.

Obtaining a high PR7 or PR8 simply means more business and revenues…
regardless of how Google is or is not using PageRank. People know how
to count and they learned long ago, a ten is a lot more than
a big fat zero.

Placed against a PR1 site, a PR8 will win more respect in the eyes
of potential clients and can produce enormous profits for the site
owner and we won’t even mention the still widely practiced
habit of selling links, which Google is desperately trying to stop.
Total and full elimination of PageRank would be an honest start
but it will still be an uphill, if not a losing battle, for
Google to fully eliminate link selling.

Even with my modest sites, I have turned down a small fortune
by not selling text links on any of my sites. When I had a PR6
site instead of a PR4 – those link requests were nearly doubled.
So one can easily understand Google’s position and the need to
downplay PageRank, if they even want to put a small dent in all
this link selling and buying which is still rampant on today’s
web.

PageRank is Google’s creation, and unless they remove it fully
from their system and the Google toolbar, then PageRank still Counts.
Actually, in the whole scheme of marketing your website on the
net, PageRank counts big time. And in more ways than one.

There are several reasons why you shouldn’t count PageRank out.

For years Google has been downplaying the importance of
PageRank and states it’s only one of about 200 ranking factors
that determine how Google ranks its index for keywords.
Obtaining top organic rankings for popular lucrative keywords
in Google simply means money in the bank. Actually, even a movement
of only one or two places on those first page SERPs (Search Engine
Results Pages) can make a major difference to any online marketer’s
bottom line.

Now while you can have a lower PR number and still rank above
other higher PR pages for your chosen keywords, I have even had
many times when my PR drops but my actual SERPs rankings in Google
goes up, mainly due to building-related relevant backlinks. So
PageRank counts little towards your keyword rankings but it can’t
be totally dismissed.

Mainly because, even if PR is just one ranking factor, in close
competitive keyword battles (I am presently fighting tooth and nail
for some very choice keywords) just one ranking factor such as
high PR can make the difference of whether or not you get to the
top spot. Big dogs are still jumping and for those of us who know
how to count, getting a number one spot in Google makes all the
difference in the world.

Not only because Google controls roughly 80% of all search engine
traffic, but more importantly Google has established unmatched
credibility and brand recognition in the eyes of potential customers
visiting your site. Web-users trust Google. Web users look to Google
for guidance and direction. Web-users believe what Google is telling them.
In the online world, rightly or wrongly, perception is everything.

As an online marketer, I am completely amazed each day at the
marketing power Google now commands with web surfers and with the
general population. Google is king of online search and no other
search engine even comes close to Google.

PageRank is Google’s ranking system and in the eyes of those who
notice these things, it still wheels tremendous influence and power.
By default, PageRank is Google’s opinion of your site, and web
users can count (at least to 10) and if Google believes people
are still not counting when it comes to PageRank, then they are fully
mistaken.

…
The author is a full-time professional online marketer who has numerous
niche websites. For the latest web marketing tools try:
Free Marketing Tools
Copyright © 2009 Titus Hoskins. This article may be
freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

…..

Kind Regards,
Titus

http://www.bizwaremagic.com

Should You Use Google Adsense On Your Web Pages?

BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News!

…….
Contents:

o Should You Use Google Adsense On Your Web Pages?
…….

This week I received an email from Marlon Sanders since
I am a long-time subscriber to his Newsletter… and
in it he referred to a long discussion/thread going
on over at the WarriorForum. It is all about Google
Adsense and the thread was started by XFactor who
only goes by the name of “John”.

The title of this popular thread is called:

6 Months Later: $300 Daily w/Adsense (Lessons Learned)


Keep in mind, this XFactor guy is, of course, plugging/selling
a $77 course entitled “Micro Niche Adsense Course”. So I have
long learned to view anyone selling stuff on the web through my
battle-weary and all too cynical eyes. I am extra critical of
what claims they make. You should do like-wise.

However, this is a very interesting discussion and it
brought back the whole issue of whether or not you
should use Google Adsense on any of your sites or web
pages?

Now, I have been using Google Adsense on many of my web sites
and pages for years. I have become addicted to getting that
monthly Adsense check from Google. I could arrange electronic
payment but I simply get a kick out of receiving that check,
mainly because years ago when I started earning income
from the web, it was the only check that impressed my family
and friends. It’s a bit hard to explain but it sort of made
all this web stuff “legit” in their eyes. Google has that power
over people!

In many ways, using Google Adsense on my web pages doesn’t make
logical marketing sense – why get 60 cents for a click when you
can get 60 dollars instead by using an affiliate program. That is,
you can often get 10 times, sometimes even 100 times more by using
affiliate links on your pages rather than Google Adsense.

Why use Google Adsense at all?

Besides the thrill of getting those monthly checks, I use
Google Adsense to mainly create another revenue stream on
my pages in addition to my affiliate links. I know I am probably
losing some sales to Adsense but on the other hand, Adsense
is a very steady consistent revenue stream that I know will
be there each day.

Actually, it has been more consistent than any of my affiliate
programs, it pays a lot less but at least my pages are making
something each day. It’s a “SureShot”.

Another reason I use Adsense, I find it almost impossible to
find affiliate programs for all my web pages, so simply placing
that Adsense code on the page, monetizes that page for me.

After years of using Adsense, I don’t believe it lowers the
quality of my pages, it’s just another component that my site
visitors can use to find what they’re looking for. Since I
use PPC advertising and Adwords – I know the deals and offers
presented thru Adsense are some of the most competitive
offers on the web. Nature of the beast.

Adsense does serve a purpose, other than making money for Google,
it does give the consumer some of the best deals on the web
in my opinion.

Now, whether or not you use Adsense on your pages is up to you…
I am mainly talking about affiliate links here… so if you’re
selling your own products on your site, why send those customers
to another store? Why get $3 a click, when you can earn $30?

It’s your call?


Now back to the WarriorForum and the Adsense thread by John
XFactor… I only read some of the thread before warning bells
started ringing in my head. I am not saying what this person
is saying is not true but please be extra careful and thoroughly
check out any claims before you buy any product on the web.

I have been at this web stuff for too many years and I know
the only way to get really high click-through rates (CTR) with
Google Adsense is to trick your visitors into believing the
Adsense links are interior links/clicks on your site. You camouflage
them to fit seamlessly into your site.

Create simple niche sites and then blend your links in at
the very top of the page… your visitor will click these links
more often than links buried on your pages.

Some people think this is wrong to deceive your visitors in this
way, others think it is a great way to make money. In either
case, the visitor is still taken to a great deal or site where
they can find what they’re looking for on the web.

Again, it’s a judgment call on your part.

Niche sites do work and people do make money with Google
Adsense on them but my main question to this XFactor
guy – if you have quality organic search engine traffic
flowing to your pages, why not use affiliate links instead
of Google Adsense?

To be fair, this guy is using Amazon links on his pages,
and maybe he just likes getting those Adsense checks each
month, but in the back of my mind I couldn’t dismiss the feeling
that he may be pushing Adsense in order to sell his course
or ebook.

I couldn’t help but notice that the XFactor guy doesn’t
have Google Adsense on his salesletter page for his
ebook. Maybe he likes getting $77 instead of 77 cents
for his clicks?

But check out this thread for yourself, it has many
good pointers and tips. Especially if you’re already using
Adsense on your web pages or are planning to use them in
the future.



Kind Regards,
Titus
www.bizwaremagic.com