Outsourcing Your Articles
I often mention how important article marketing is to help drive traffic to your website. I usually suggest that you write the articles yourself so that you have your own voice projecting your message. However, I realize that this isn’t always possible for everyone. And to be completely honest, sometimes it’s a bit better to have a professional writer help you out with your project. You won’t benefit all that much if you have poor writing skills. That’s when outsourcing comes into the equation.
Having other writers write your articles can actually save you a lot of time. If you are working on multiple projects, it can help to have someone else write your articles for you. Professional writers will usually know what keywords to focus on, and will be knowledgeable when it comes to specific search engine optimization techniques.
If you decide to outsource, there are several good resources you can utilize to get your projects done. Be sure and do some resource before selecting a freelancer to write your articles. There are a whole lot of people willing to take on the job, but you have to look for the good ones who will write your articles for a reasonable price. Excellent places to start are GetAFreelancer.com, Elance, and ScriptLance. Keep in mind that it sometimes takes a little bit of time to sort the good writers from the bad. Unfortunately you can’t always rely on the feedback a writer receives. So if you choose to take this route, think wisely.
There simply are times when you need to focus on a certain part of your project more than another. The only way you’ll know weather outsourcing your articles is right for you is by experimenting. See what works better. You may ultimately decide that having someone write for you is not the way to go. On the flip side, you may find out that having others write for you provides a boost in both traffic and sales.
In: Article Marketing, Content, Marketing, Outsourcing · Tagged with: Article Marketing, articles, freelance, freelancers, Outsourcing, outsourcing articles
Low Cost Methods of Getting Your Promotion in Motion
Believe it or not, one of the toughest parts of an internet marketing campaign is promotion. The whole action of promoting your product doesn’t have to be hard, but so many simply over think the whole process. When you begin to put TOO much thought into your promotion, you sometimes begin to lose focus on the big picture. If you are in the stages of launching a new product or service, you’ll want to know the most effective and affordable methods of promotion so that you get started on the right foot.
Just about everyone wants to implement the most cost effective techniques when promoting their product. Thankfully there are plenty of low cost and even FREE methods of promotion that you can implement. FREE is always good, right? Well, it’s good to some extent. I find that some of the free techniques are easily abused, and this can do more harm to your marketing campaign than good in the long run. Many who see a free advertising opportunity will get carried away and instantly begin to turn their advertisement into SPAM. Two words for you, not good.
I know not everyone has the time and unlimited financial resources available to create the most perfect campaign, but if you want to get the most out of your promotion, you’re going to be required to put a significant amount of effort in to it. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t receive the results you want. There’s times when marketing campaigns go good, and time when campaigns go bad. My advice is to roll with punches and keep trying.
If you are working with a limited budget, the possibility of obtaining good quality targeted traffic to your site through low cost marketing is achievable. You don’t have to spend a huge amount of money to get your promotion in motion. All you need is a little bit of confidence and clever thinking to get the ball rolling. As I have mentioned many times in the past, writing articles is a highly effective method of free advertising. If you aren’t able to write articles, you can outsource this for a very low cost. Article marketing will bring a decent amount of targeted traffic to your site and should not be overlooked.
Once you have some original articles written, you can distribute them to a few article directories. It won’t be long until you see a nice steady stream of traffic flowing to your site. The key to this free method of advertising is high quality and original articles, distributed to high quality article directories. EzineArticles is a good place to start.
Another free method of promotion is through the use of blogs. I know many internet marketing professionals who despise blogs. But the fact of the matter is they are pretty much here to stay, and they work! If you have limited funds and are seeking ways to promote your products or services for free, blogs are the way to go. You can setup a free blog through sites like Wordpress, or Blogger. Keep in mind that if you use a blog, stay professional. Stay on topic with the product or service you are marketing. Always remember to include the link of your own web site on your blog. And also remember to keep your blog posts a bit interesting. The whole idea is to provide high quality content, just like when you are writing your articles.
If you still are convinced that blogs just aren’t for you, try setting up a free Squidoo page, or a page at HubPages. Both these sites are free for you to use, and they offer you a huge audience to market to, right up front. Another advantage of utilizing these sites is that you don’t have to be a web guru to get your page started. They make it extremely simple to get started, and you’ll be able to promote your product within minutes.
And of course you can expand your ideas through the use of social media marketing. This option is completely free, and extremely effective. Use tools and resources such as Twitter, Stumbleupon, Digg, Delicious, etc. Chances are you’ll have positive marketing results if you utilize these tools. Just remember, don’t spam.
There are many more free and low cost methods of promotion, but these are just a few to get your creative thinking process in motion. Remember that you don’t always have to spend your life savings on advertising. Think smart, be creative, utilize resources, and put it all into action!
In: Article Marketing, Blogging, Bum Marketing, Content, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Promotion, Social Bookmarking, Social Networking, Traffic · Tagged with: Article Marketing, Blogging, free marketing methods, free marketing resources, free promotion, Internet Marketing, low cost marketing methods, Promotion
A Valuable Marketing Tool For You, FREE
Wow, what a weekend! I’ve been a bit slow to post simply because I’ve been working on several projects that have been pretty much taking up all of my time. The weekends go by way too quickly unfortunately. Sometimes it would be nice to have an 8th day in the week, especially for those of us who work all 7 days each week. The good news is I was able to accomplish quite a bit, and that’s always a good feeling.
Now even though I don’t have whole lot of time today, I thought I would post a quick piece of useful information. If you are active in the world of internet marketing, you know how important it is to build a list. List building is your gateway to becoming a successful in this field. There are a variety of options one can use to build a list, but one of the most effective ways is through the use of a opt-in squeeze page, or a landing page.
Anyone can create a simple landing page, but it’s how well you create the page that matters. I know quite a few people who get lost during this process, and it’s quite unfortunate that they do. Someone who has a new and exciting product that thy are eager to market will sometimes forgot or skip using opt-in pages. In my opinion, this is a huge mistake. If you think that creating these pages take up too much of your time, or that they are not effective enough, you might just like what I have to share with you today.
My buddy Jorge Sampson is being kind enough to offer up a FREE opt-in squeeze page generator. It’s like he’s simply handing over a cash producing machine here. If you have always been lost when it comes to creating a decent squeeze page or landing page, look no further. Like I said, Jorge is thrown this extremely valuable piece of software at you for absolutely nothing. It’s a $97 value, for FREE.
If you seriously want to start generating a massive stream of income, using this software will start you off in the right direction. This is a huge time saver and is something that will highly benefit your ways of marketing your products and service in the future. So if you’re ready to think smart, take action, and launch your money making ideas into high profits, download Jorge’s FREE opt-in squeeze page generator today. I’m quite certain you won’t be disappointed with the results.
In: Internet Marketing, List Building, Marketing, Squeeze Pages, Web Design · Tagged with: affiliate marketing, building a list, free, free landing pages, free software, free squeeze pages, Internet Marketing, landing page, landing page generator, list building software, Marketing, opt-in list, opt-in squeeze page generator, squeeze page, squeeze page generator
Grab Some Attention!
Yesterday when I was wasting some time bouncing from one web site to another, I found myself feeling a bit trapped. What I mean by that is, I would click over to a different blog or web site, only to find myself reading practically the same story or article that was on the previous page. Now it’s all fine and good if everyone wants to discuss the same topics, but how does one make this a bit more interesting?
I think if you want to stand out from the rest you have to take a whole different approach to the topic you are writing about. For example, one of the hot searches this very moment on Google Trends is “what does the secretary of state do”. That means a whole lot of people are searching this phrase right now, primarily focused on finding out what the Secretary of State does.
People with web sites that follow the trends will be quick to post this keyword phrase on their own site, eager to get in with the web surfing crowd. The whole goal for the web site owner is to get their site out in front of the rest. The owner of the site wants to build traffic, and if their site ranks well they will be able to get indexed pretty quick.
But what if they would just take a whole different approach and make it a bit more interesting? Stand out from the rest! Instead of simply throwing the search topic around carelessly, like “what does the secretary of state do”, incorporate this into something of more interest. Expand a bit on the topic. Yes, you’ll want to answer the question that is being asked, but throw in some additional helpful and useful information for the reader.
If you can be unique and offer up something more related to the topic other than a carbon copy article of your competitors, you’ll have an edge. It seems like quality news has been placed on the back burner. This is where I see a significant opportunity. If you maintain a website that is up to date with the current hot topics and trends, why not try and take a whole different approach. Be creative and try and do something different with your articles. Give some thought and write an attention grabbing headline. I believe if you can offer content that is of better quality than the next guy, and “think outside the box”, you’ll be able to grab a bit more attention right from the very beginning.
In: Article Marketing, Content, Traffic · Tagged with: attention grabbing, Blogging, quality articles, trends, writing
Choosing the Right Domain Name
Many internet marketers will tell you that choosing a domain name is the least challenging part of online marketing. But is it? If you’re a newbie, you’ll want to get started off on the right foot. If you’re someone who manages hundreds, or even thousands of domains, it’s not a big deal. I personally think that choosing the right domain name plays a big part of the equation when it comes down to marketing your product successfully. With that said, I’ll offer up a few suggestions and opinions to keep in mind the next time you’re ready to purchase a domain name for your site.
The Name
So you’re all ready to start brainstorming to pick the appropriate name for your domain. Have you decided on what the name of your website will be? Do you have a specific name for the product or service that you are offering? These are probably questions that you may want to answer before actually picking your domain name. I see many who work this whole process backwards. For example, someone will spend hours working up a name for their domain, even before they have their product developed. They come up with a domain name, and now they are developing a name for their product based on the name of their domain.
This may work for some, but I think it’s a bit more effective if you put more thought into the name of your product rather than the domain name. Once you have your product name picked out, you’ll be able to place that product into the appropriate niche category. Now you’ll have a little bit more to work with when picking the actual name of your site. Does the name of your domain have to match your product? It doesn’t have to, but I suggest that the name you choose is pretty close or highly relavant to what your trying to market. Obviously you don’t want to confuse everyone with a domain name that includes the word “dogs” when you’re actually marketing a product for “cats”.
Remember to be careful when choosing the names however. The primary concern here is that you don’t create a website with a brand name or a name that is trademarked. So many will end up choosing a good sounding name, spend tons of time developing their website, only to find out that their name is trademarked and is in potential danger of being taken away. There can be a lot of legal situations that arise, but that all depends on the names that are involved.
Long or Short?
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine which option is better here. The shorter your domain name the better. It’s fantastic if you can narrow your domain name down to one or two words. If you want a one word domain it’s going to cost you, but there are plenty of two word domains that you can obtain for next to nothing.
The question will often arise weather or not you should use a the words like “the” or “my” in the title of your domain. I choose not to use these words, simply because I never seem to find the appropriate time or reason to use them. It’s not necessarily a bad choice, becuase depending on your product or service, it could work out amazing. Ever hear of MySpace? So when it comes down to it, if you find that it’s necessary to use these type of words, go for it! Just remember that you’ll want to attach this word to your product name as well. Otherwise you could potentially be advertising two different things.
Add a little dash?
To hyphen or not to hyphen, that is the question. I’ve never chosen to use hyphens in my domain names. Does this mean it should never be done? Absolutely not. I think that if you have two words that really fit your product, and the original non hyphenated two word name is taken, it’s not a bad choice to take the hyphenated option if it’s available. The only problem is that so many people will hear a name and completely forget the hyphen. And it doesn’t sound as nice to advertise, when you have something like “used cars” for example. It’s much nicer to say “used cars” dot whatever, rather than “used dash cars” dot whatever.
Should I .com, or .net, or .org, .info, or .us, or ….oh my.
This can really be a hard choice for some people. Others, it’s an instant hands down decision to choose the .com over anything else. You have to admit that .com is much easier to remember, simply because it is the standard. I’m one that likes to explore and try all sorts of options that are available. I must say, I’ve had just as much success with a .info or .net as I’ve had with a .com domain. Again, this will all come down to personal preference. You’ll be able to market each of these sites the same way. Just remember to make your domain name look good, and promote it’s full name. If you’re trying to keep cost down, go with .info site if it’s appropriate.
Once you take all the above things into consideration, you’ll be picking incredible domain names like you’ve been doing it for years. Just use a little bit of common sense. Don’t create sentances in your domain name, like “iwenttotheparkyesterday” dot whatever. “dayinthepark” dot whatever sounds a whole lot better for something like that. Remember you’re trying to stay professional most of the time while marketing your message out to others. With all that said, happy domain name hunting!
In: Domains, Internet Marketing, Marketing · Tagged with: choosing a domain name, domain name, domain names, Domains, naming your domain, naming your website