There are over 200 million people worldwide connected to the Internet, with over 64 million regular users in America. It's no wonder that such a vast audience has made online marketing one of the fastest growing industries in the world. However, half the trick of conducing successful ecommerce is finding a way to get people to your site in the first place-hence online advertising.
Internet advertising generated an astounding $1.92 billion in 1999, double from the amount generated in the previous year.
According to the Association of National Advertisers, nearly half of all American companies are selling online. The American City Business Journal reports that businesses that use the Internet grow 46% faster than those that don't.
Online advertisers beware; marketing trends in this industry often become outdated faster than you can say "pop-up". Here are some of the most common outdated online marketing techniques that should be avoided:
- Pop Ups Ads- Pop-ups ads are like the billboards of the information superhighway-you can't go anywhere without seeing at least one. The Internet has become so saturated with pop-ups that overall web traffic times are slowing down. Most web users are downloading software that eliminates them from their system, so they are not the best way to reach prospective consumers.
- E-commerce sites- Internet stores have become way too abundant, especially when likely 99% of what you're looking for can be found at Amazon.com, the site that boasts "Earth's Biggest Selection". Unless your product is so extremely unique that it can't be purchased elsewhere on the Web, an e-commerce site may just be a waste of time and money.
- Re-selling E-books- E-books seem like a great idea. However, most of the sites that sell them offer the seller the right to resell the book to others. Therefore, the market has become saturated with books that are often available for free from some sites. And why would someone want to buy an e-book from you that they can get for free elsewhere?
- Safelist Advertising- Like e-books, this is theoretically a good idea. Safelists are groups of members who have opted to receive ads from fellow safelist members. This form of marketing loses its effectiveness due to the fact that most members just mass-delete their bulk emails without reading them. Everyone wants others to read their ads, yet no one will stop to read other people's ads.
- 'Free For All' pages- FFAs will post your ad in one of seven categories on their page. Like safelist advertising, the idea is that the thousands of others that post ads will see your ad and click to your website. Again though, everyone goes to FFAs to post, and not to access ads. On top of this waste of time and Internet space, your email account will get flooded with massive amounts of spam if you sign up with one of these sites.
Jessica Klein is a member of the 'Mount Real Research Team', whose aim is to seek out and distribute business information to the virtual public. She is a freelance writer based in Montreal, Canada who loves writing about anything from accounting to zebras.
For more info about Mount Real, visit http://www.mountreal.com.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Kaizen in Online Marketing
Many people throughout the life of online marketing have utilized the use of Kaizen. As a matter of fact I would venture a guess that almost all successful businesses in today's markets are using it. Which leaves one to wonder, what is Kaizen? Well, to put it in a layman's words it is the practice of continuous improvement; the fact that we should never be satisfied with what we have, and instead always press onwards to improve what we have to something better.
This can be utilized in many ways, for example, you might own a home based business such as a plug-in-profit homepage where the biggest work load is the advertising campaign. To find new ways to complete tasks in this process easier and faster can mean that you will be getting more done and earn a better income, or maybe just have the time to catch up with some sleep that might be long overdue.
However, it is important to know that Kaizen is something that is utilized over time and is a never ending process. As time goes by you have to keep in touch with all new opportunities that comes flying your way to keep competitive in a way that lets you choose what to improve in you business. This in itself has the effect of giving you a competitive edge against all those that ignore this very easy, but vital step.
Many believe that one can get a successful business by working really hard in the beginning and then wait for the money to come rolling in. I would say this is the best way to kill a business and it is also totally against everything that is Kaizen.
Ok, it is true that the business starts to flourish in the beginning when the efforts by the owner and/or employee is at its peak, however once the well deserved payoff from all the work starts to roll in many sits back and forgets the most important step in any business; too keep the payoff at it's peak capacity at all times!.
In essence, the theory of Kaizen can be compared to the fable of "the rabbit and the tortoise"; a rabbit and a tortoise are going to race each other from one end to the other, the rabbit runs fast and quick but gets burned out very fast, while the tortoise takes it slow but keeps his pace and even slowly increasing it at times, and in the end he gets past the rabbit and wins the race. The quick rabbit that is all burned out, and lays in the grass beside the road halfway through the race, thinks for himself, even I, will take it slow and increase my pace as I go along next time.
In this fable Kaizen is the tortoise and just like the tortoise slowly improved his pace, so can a business person improve the business that is being conducted. Since it is better to take it slow and learn on the way meanwhile you keep improving all aspects of the business, rather than to rush things through just for the sake of getting it done.
A famous quote that I heard once goes like this "Rome was not built in a day...but alas...it was built indeed".
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Kaveh Fard is currently running a free ezine about home based businesses which can be joined at: http://www.Profit4Ever.biz/biztipspop.html or, you can check out his homepage at: http://www.Profit4Ever.biz
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This can be utilized in many ways, for example, you might own a home based business such as a plug-in-profit homepage where the biggest work load is the advertising campaign. To find new ways to complete tasks in this process easier and faster can mean that you will be getting more done and earn a better income, or maybe just have the time to catch up with some sleep that might be long overdue.
However, it is important to know that Kaizen is something that is utilized over time and is a never ending process. As time goes by you have to keep in touch with all new opportunities that comes flying your way to keep competitive in a way that lets you choose what to improve in you business. This in itself has the effect of giving you a competitive edge against all those that ignore this very easy, but vital step.
Many believe that one can get a successful business by working really hard in the beginning and then wait for the money to come rolling in. I would say this is the best way to kill a business and it is also totally against everything that is Kaizen.
Ok, it is true that the business starts to flourish in the beginning when the efforts by the owner and/or employee is at its peak, however once the well deserved payoff from all the work starts to roll in many sits back and forgets the most important step in any business; too keep the payoff at it's peak capacity at all times!.
In essence, the theory of Kaizen can be compared to the fable of "the rabbit and the tortoise"; a rabbit and a tortoise are going to race each other from one end to the other, the rabbit runs fast and quick but gets burned out very fast, while the tortoise takes it slow but keeps his pace and even slowly increasing it at times, and in the end he gets past the rabbit and wins the race. The quick rabbit that is all burned out, and lays in the grass beside the road halfway through the race, thinks for himself, even I, will take it slow and increase my pace as I go along next time.
In this fable Kaizen is the tortoise and just like the tortoise slowly improved his pace, so can a business person improve the business that is being conducted. Since it is better to take it slow and learn on the way meanwhile you keep improving all aspects of the business, rather than to rush things through just for the sake of getting it done.
A famous quote that I heard once goes like this "Rome was not built in a day...but alas...it was built indeed".
----------------------------------------------------------------
Kaveh Fard is currently running a free ezine about home based businesses which can be joined at: http://www.Profit4Ever.biz/biztipspop.html or, you can check out his homepage at: http://www.Profit4Ever.biz
----------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, April 19, 2010
Educate Yourself to Succeed in Internet Marketing
More and more people are considering the World Wide Web as a great opportunity to offer their products and services to a new, bigger market or even as a chance to create entirely new businesses online.
Even if the perspective to reach millions of potential customers is surely exciting, the truth is that internet marketing is more difficult than it may seems and if you don't have a sufficient experience you will usually waste a lot of time and resources doing things that don't produce the results you expect.
For this reason, seeking advice from competent internet marketing experts is essential if you want to succeed online.
Hiring a consultant can be very expensive, but fortunately this is not the only possibility.
In fact you can utilize one of the many internet marketing informational products (like books, manuals or ebooks) that are available online.
There are complete courses that deal with every possible aspect of the entire process of building, managing and promoting your business online.
Other products concern very specific topics like how to write effective advertisements or sales letters, or how to promote your site on search engines.
You can usually choose among a great variety of media formats: printed manuals, downloadable ebooks that allow you to use the product immediately, CD-ROMs, or even videos and audio tapes, if reading a big manual is not something for you.
The only risk is to be confused by so many possible choices. So how can you determine the product more suited to your needs?
When I need to decide about the purchase of an informational product, the first thing I do is reading each and every page of the author's site.
You may think that the informations on a site designed to sell a product are, by definition, not objective.
But you can still find a lot of useful elements that will help you with your decision.
The following are the most important for me.
1) How is the product presented?
Reputable authors will never tell you that you will be able to make a lot of money without work simply by reading their ebook or manual.
They will warn you that personal efforts are always needed to succeed online and every concept you learn must be applied to your particular situation.
Disappointment is the only thing you will earn from an informational product that is presented like a 'magic recipe' to make money fast and without efforts.
2) How many details the author gives about him/herself especially with regard to past business experiences?
You want to be sure that you are about to spend your money to learn proven techniques successfully tested on real businesses not some vague theory.
3) Does the site contain customers testimonials? Do they sound genuine?
A testimonial should be always followed by a full name, a website or email address so that it can be verified.
4) What kind of guarantee is offered should you dislike the product once you have purchased it?
Ideally every good informational product should be covered by a full money back guarantee as it's always the best protection for your investment.
If you pay attention you will find many other elements that will tell you a lot about the author and the product he/she sells.
Learning how to market online is an ongoing process. Even if your personal work is always needed, with ebooks, manuals, courses you can learn from successful marketers experiences, concentrate your efforts on strategies that worked for them and consequently avoid mistakes and save time and resources.
You are welcome to use our site (see the link below) as a starting point of your quest for your ideal internet marketing informational product.
Even if the perspective to reach millions of potential customers is surely exciting, the truth is that internet marketing is more difficult than it may seems and if you don't have a sufficient experience you will usually waste a lot of time and resources doing things that don't produce the results you expect.
For this reason, seeking advice from competent internet marketing experts is essential if you want to succeed online.
Hiring a consultant can be very expensive, but fortunately this is not the only possibility.
In fact you can utilize one of the many internet marketing informational products (like books, manuals or ebooks) that are available online.
There are complete courses that deal with every possible aspect of the entire process of building, managing and promoting your business online.
Other products concern very specific topics like how to write effective advertisements or sales letters, or how to promote your site on search engines.
You can usually choose among a great variety of media formats: printed manuals, downloadable ebooks that allow you to use the product immediately, CD-ROMs, or even videos and audio tapes, if reading a big manual is not something for you.
The only risk is to be confused by so many possible choices. So how can you determine the product more suited to your needs?
When I need to decide about the purchase of an informational product, the first thing I do is reading each and every page of the author's site.
You may think that the informations on a site designed to sell a product are, by definition, not objective.
But you can still find a lot of useful elements that will help you with your decision.
The following are the most important for me.
1) How is the product presented?
Reputable authors will never tell you that you will be able to make a lot of money without work simply by reading their ebook or manual.
They will warn you that personal efforts are always needed to succeed online and every concept you learn must be applied to your particular situation.
Disappointment is the only thing you will earn from an informational product that is presented like a 'magic recipe' to make money fast and without efforts.
2) How many details the author gives about him/herself especially with regard to past business experiences?
You want to be sure that you are about to spend your money to learn proven techniques successfully tested on real businesses not some vague theory.
3) Does the site contain customers testimonials? Do they sound genuine?
A testimonial should be always followed by a full name, a website or email address so that it can be verified.
4) What kind of guarantee is offered should you dislike the product once you have purchased it?
Ideally every good informational product should be covered by a full money back guarantee as it's always the best protection for your investment.
If you pay attention you will find many other elements that will tell you a lot about the author and the product he/she sells.
Learning how to market online is an ongoing process. Even if your personal work is always needed, with ebooks, manuals, courses you can learn from successful marketers experiences, concentrate your efforts on strategies that worked for them and consequently avoid mistakes and save time and resources.
You are welcome to use our site (see the link below) as a starting point of your quest for your ideal internet marketing informational product.
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