Internet Promotion: Ezines

One of the more important things that you can do to generate return visits to your web site is to publish an e-newsletter (or e-zine). Give your visitors a chance to subscribe on your home page, and you've got them for life! That is, as long as you send a newsletter on occasion and makes it interesting.

Here's the problem: someone visits your site and likes it. But the internet is a big place, so he may never return. But if you can get him to sign up for an e-newsletter, you'll get a chance to remind him to come back periodically.

Send something out at least once a month. Less often than that and you are losing out. If you can do it, send out an e-newsletter more often, even once a week.

What do you put into this newsletter? Well, you should be changing your site all of the time. A stale site simply will not make it on the web. That's the first thing to put in your e-newsletter - changes. You want to remind your visitors that you exist and that there is new content for them to look at.
Point out new content without giving away the store. For example, if you've written an article about money making opportunities on the web, then describe the article. Don't include the article as you want to get the guy back to your site.

Be sure and mention any specials or any new free things. This is very important. Tease them with something free, something which absolutely requires them to visit the site. A free desktop theme, or some wallpaper, or clipart or anything like that.

Don't overload the thing with ads. A few is fine, especially for your own services and offerings, but if you include more than half a dozen ads your e-newsletter will wind up deleted more often than not. Especially if those ads are at the top of the newsletter.

HTML format is great, because you can also include nice looking graphics and other things. In addition, the HTML code can be included in your site as content - previous issues. I would stay away from any Java, ActiveX, JavaScript, VBScript or any other fancy things as these tend to be frowned upon in emails. Just a nice looking, simple, quick newsletter describing what's new and telling the visitor why he needs to come back to your site.

Source: http://www.smartads.info/articles/em/8.html

Golden Rules for Writing the Right Keywords

Keyword Rich Web Site leads to Higher Rankings in Search Engines
The use of right keywords or phrases can make all the difference to your website's ranking and visibility on search engines. More than anything else, selecting the most appropriate keywords that match with your products, services or area of expertise is most critical to your success and higher ranking. After all, it is with the help of the keywords only that the visitors will land on your site.

Read the rules below before you start identifying the keywords for your site:

1. Never be allured to look for popular keywords. The more a keyword is popular, more are the chances that many of your competitors are using the same keyword for their sites. A more sensible thing would be to look for keywords that may not be very popular, but very much relevant to your site. The ideal scenario would be when you have keywords that are appropriate to your site, may be not hugely popular, but capable of bringing targeted audience or visitors to your site.

2. It is always better to involve more people in the keyword building stage as others may be able to come up with words that you might not have thought of and that might turn out quite beneficial for you.

3. Using free and low cost online keyword search tools like WordTracker, Keyword Suggestion Tool, Keyword Ranking Tool, Overture Keyword Tool, Google Suggestion, TheDowser help rethink about and modify the keywords already selected by you. In Fact, these handy tools will help increase your database of keywords that you can manipulate on and select the ones you feel are the most appropriate to your site.

4. Investing some time in looking at the log files of your web sites will definitely help you in understanding the pschye of the customers and clients because you will come to know the words they are using to find out about you and your services.

5. There is no harm in checking out the websites of your competitors in order to find out what is working for them and what you can learn or adapt from their success and incorporate in your keyword writing strategy. You can see their meta tags to enlarge your repertoire of words.

6. Check a good Dictionary or Thesaurus to find out more related words and phrases and also include the misspellings of your keywords that are sometimes written by people in a hurry or mistake. Even consider playing with different tenses, plurals and other forms of word and phrase construction to give yourself that extra edge over others.

7. Check how many people have send posts in response to your blogs and also measure the success of the keywords used, so that you come to know which area still needs to be polished up. This will also give you insight into how you can match your efforts with what the customers are looking for in your site.

5. There is no harm in checking out the websites of your competitors in order to find out what is working for them and what you can learn or adapt from their success and incorporate in your keyword writing strategy. You can see their meta tags to enlarge your repertoire of words.

6. Check a good dictionary or thesaurus to find out more related words and phrases and also include the misspellings of your keywords that are sometimes written by people in a hurry or mistake. Even consider playing with different tenses, plurals and other forms of writing to give yourself that extra edge over others.

7. Check how many people have send posts in response to your blogs and also measure the success of the keywords used, so that you come to know which area still needs to be polished up. This will also give you insight into how you can match your efforts with what the customers are looking for in your site.

Get Your Facts Clear about Web Marketing:Truth versus Myths

Misconception 1-There is nothing like instant recognition on the web

The truth is that you attract attention or popularity on the web only if people are looking for the kind of information you are providing them. There is no doubt about the fact that internet is the fastest, best, and cheapest mode of advertising your product or services to millions of people in seconds. A consumer or customer is always looking for a specific product or service and if you specialize in that field, you will surely attract his or her attention. It is important that people see your web address somewhere else, maybe on some other web site or print and media ads, in order to feel excited enough to contact you.

Misconception 2-There is a sea of market out there on the web

Again don't be tricked into the number game on web. If there are millions of people on the web who can be reached, the people who would be interested in your wares or who can be easily contacted may be in 100's or 50's only. Everything depends on your marketing skills and strategies. What makes you stand out in the unfathomable sea of people and your competitors, is going to decide your fate in the world of web marketing. Basically there is no difference between traditional marketing and web marketing, except that now, you can reach people through a new medium called the web.

Misconception 3-You can send information very fast through the web

The information is not transfered fast to the people, it is the changes that can be made very fast in the information through the web. Web information travels at the same speed as a fax machine and not any faster than that. So, the bottom line is to send only selective information and not every tiny detail through the Web. The reason being that the customer would not be interested in browsing through the whole site, if you have 100s of products or services to talk about. The trick lies in designing the web site in such a way that the client gets to see what he or she wants to, in two or three pages of your site. Every thing depends upon the organisation and presentation of the content, and not presenting hundreds of pages of cluttered information on the web site.

Misconception 4-Graphics are most important in Web Marketing

Well, take off your sunglasses and see the world with bare eyes. Graphics are not the greatest thing on web.They play an important role in web sites in only that they supplement content and nothing else. People who are visiting your site want information that they are looking for. And if your site has 80% graphics that are really cool, but the visitors don't get the information they are eagerly waiting for to find on your site, and you are not able to get many customers, do not blame any one for this. Blame yourself for not providing the visitors information that they are desirous of and wasting their time on viewing only graphics that mean nothing to them. Graphics do play an important role in the success of an ad to the extent of expalining the concept, product or service in a better way. They cannot be used alone for promoting your business. They have to be used in conjunction with content and very judiciously.

Misconception 5-Medium is more important than message

What use is the medium if the message is not good enough? There is no denying the fact that as a medium, web is a strong contender for the top position with other mediums of communication like radio, T.V, books or magazines. But the fact remains that medium may be any, the message that you want to convey has to be strong enough to capture your target market. The message must be designed in a simple, understandable manner and still be able to leave an impact on the audience. Only then can you think of increasing the targeted traffic to your site.

Misconception 6-Using the latest technology on web increases the number of visitors to your site

Nothing can be more wrong than thinking that if you use the latest technology in designing your web site and disseminating information, you can reach more people. The fact remains that not everyone has an updated, latest computer or technology with them. You cannot afford to lose people just because they don't have the latest technology to see your web site. So, think like the audience, keep their interests in mind before you spend time, money and energy in creating a web site that boasts of using the latest features, but has a sagging viewership. Keep in mind your target audience before everything else.

Make your business flourish:Identify your strengths

What makes your web site so special?

At this time when computers have become an inseperable part of every one's life and your web site is contesting with infinite number of other websites offering the same services and products as you, it becomes inevitable to have a perceptive eye and find out what is so special about the services and products offered by you. One of the ways of identifying your area of expertise is through customers' feedback. Find out how comfortable, secure, and satisfied your clients feel about your services through regular feedbacks. You may even put their comments on your site, if the clients allow you.

Making your USP seen by people

Fine you have a unique selling point that really sets you apart from the others in the rat race. But having a USP is not enough. You have to make it visible to more and more people. And how do you do that? Not a very difficult thing. You can have a "our expertise" or "our speciality" page in the web site that talks about your skills. You can also build something like a "strong Partnership" page in your website that helps you exchange trade links with others who are as keen on building good partnerships with you as you are. Adding your skills description in the Meta Description information helps the search engine find you easily and faster.

Connect, Connect Connect!

The mantra to a profitable business is to increase your network and connect with as many talented and expert people as possible. You may be good in one area, but there are many other areas that need the magical touch of an expert professional in that particular area. So the more associations you make with people in diverse, yet similar field as yours, better are the chances of increasing the prospects of your business online.

Go ahead and do some serious introspection to find out what your site is really good at! This is one thing that can do wonders to your business.

Promoting your web site through essential web marketing tools

Web marketing entails more than just creating a web site. How to use that web site for promoting your business online is an essential component of Web Marketing. Given below are some essential tools that must be used to market yourself online in a most effective and productive manner.

Tools for top placement in search results are:

1. Google Adwords that puts your text ad next to the top search results on google in a fast, affordable, easy and controlled manner.

2. Overture Precision Match tool that helps get your business listed in top search sites. You can write your own listings or take help of Overture. You set your own price and advertise to targeted visitors.

Tools for optimizing and submitting the website in major search engines are:

1. Overture Site Match tool that helps you reach over 75% of active web users by getting listed in the index that powers search engines like Yahoo, Altavista, Allthe web, etc.

2. Web Position Gold tool that helps bring the site at the top of search results by building HTML pages, providing advice and suggestions for content to optimize your pages in major search engines.

3. Visibility Online Program that not only sends direct submissions to major sarch engines, but also gets you better listings in internet yellow page directories and provides banner advertising facility.

Tools to track and communicate with your visitors are:

1. Superstats helps you track your visitors' behavior, right from who are they, where they came from, to what are they doing in your site.

2.Counter is another essential tool that tells you how many customers visit your site every day. this information is quite preciouswhen you are evaluating and updating the content of your site.

3. Constant Contact, as the name suggests, is a tool that gathers information about the visitors to your website and sends emails to those who want to know more about you.

See your web site's ranking increase, attract more leads and track your results more efficiently by using these magical web marketing tools.

Update your Website Content Regularly for Higher Rankings in Search Engines

Content is King in Web Marketing-Inform and Update the Visitors

Web marketing is not just about writing flowery language to attract traffic to your site. You must offer the audience something new and exciting every time they come to your site. This doesn't mean that you start lying about your sevices. It simply means updating, polishing, rejuvenating and breathing life in your web site content regularly. Consider the content of your website as a well maintained vehicle. If you stop this updating and maintenance exercise, your vehicle will soon lose its shine and functionality. So is the case with web site content. Let it sparkle, shine and bubble with jewels of new and valuable information every time a new or an old visitor comes to it. The idea is to give something special to both the visitors so that the new visitor comes to your site again and the old one becomes your customer. Make you web site a dynamic entity that talks to the visitors and urges them to come back to your site again and again.

The bottom line is to engage your visitors in a dialogue with you through the updated and refreshed content of your site, in order to win their confidence in building your image and selling your products or services.

A New Rising Star in Web Marketing: Google Alerts

A New Google Feature

All those of you who trust and depend heavily on web marketing for improving your business online have got a reason to smile. Keeping intact its reputation as being the most favored and popular search engine today, google has come up with another innovative feature called Google Alerts.

How It Works?

Simple! all you have to do is to enter the URL of your site or any preferred key word that you want to keep track of and google alert will send you an email updating you about that change whenever it spiders or checks your site. Great! isn't it? But remember, this feature will not inform you every time there is a change in your site, it will inform only when it sees and checks that change. This also means that the more Google checks or spiders your site, better and more are the chances of your site getting a higher ranking in the major search engines.

The Hidden Benefit

Wouldn't you be extremely happy to know when ever someone new clicks on your site or checks your site? Well, that's what exactly Google Alert will do. The best part is that you can also check up about other (or your competitors') status too by entering their site's URL instead of yours. So, you will achieve two things at a time:

1. Know about number of people checking your site and
2. Know about the number of people checking out your competitors' site.

This will help you concentrate more on those key words that proved beneficial for your site or for the competitors' site. Thus helping you improve your web marketing strategies.

What's the Catch?

That this feature is absolutely free! So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and try out this fabulous google feature that's going to change the way you market your business online.

Promoting Your Business Online: 30 Short Steps to Effective Web Marketing

Search Engine Strategies

To rank high for preferred keywords on the main search engines in "organic" or "natural" search (as opposed to paid ads) is every website’s dream and desire. And the search engines do that for you by sending robot "spiders" to index the content on your webpage. So, let's look at the steps to prepare your web pages for optimal indexing.

1. Write an attractive but relevant Page Title.
2. Write a Description META Tag.
3. Include your keywords in Header Tags H1, H2, and H3.
4. Make sure your keywords are in the first paragraph of your Body Text.
5. Make your Navigation System search engine friendly.
6. Develop several pages focused on particular keywords.
7. Submit Webpage URL to search engines.
8. Fine-tune with search engine positioning.

Linking Strategies

9. Submit your site to Key Directories
10. Submit your site to Industry Sites and Specialized Directories
11. Request Reciprocal Links
12. Write articles for others to use in their Newsletters
13. Issue News Releases

Traditional Strategies

14. Include your URL on Stationery, Cards, and Literature.
15. Promote using traditional media.
16. Develop a Free Service

E-Mail Strategies

17. Install a "Signature" in your E-Mail Program
18. Publish an E-Mail Newsletter
19. Send offers to your Visitors and Customers
20. Rent targeted e-mail lists

Miscellaneous Strategies

21. Promote your site in Mailing Lists and News Groups
22. Announce a Contest
23. Ask Visitors to Bookmark your site
24. Exchange Ads with Complementary Businesses
25. Devise Viral Marketing Promotion Techniques
26. Paid Advertising Strategies
27. Buy a Text Ad in an E-Mail Newsletter
28. Begin an Affiliate Program
29. Purchase Pay Per Click (PPC) ads
30. List Your Products with Shopping Comparison Bots and Auction Sites

Source: http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/checklist.htm

On-Page Search Engine Optimization Search Engines ...

On-Page Search Engine Optimization Search Engines have computers and programs called "Spiders" that collect information about your web pages in an attempt to "figure out" what your pages are about. These spiders gather information from your pages and use these in factoring which sites get ranked higher than others. Search Engines analyze over 100 On-Page Factors when analyzing your web pages. Some of the major On-Page Search Engine Optimization Factors are: Keyword Density, Words in Title Tag, Words in the Page, Words in Links, Words in Headings, Words in Bold, Beginning Words, Words in URL, Meta Tags (some engines), HTML Validation, Directory Listings, Link Structure, "Indexability" of the page and hundreds of other factors. Source:http://www.webuildpages.com