| One of the things that the introduction of blogs has done is to cause an exodus of sorts from email newsletters or ezines to online publishers simply publishing the information on their blogs. It is not too difficult to realize why online publishers embraced blogs so quickly and enthusiastically. Actually the SPAM monster appeared to be slowly squeezing the life out of their online business. To meet the SPAM challenge most ISPs have set up SPAM filters that are so powerful that they quite often filter out mail that has been requested, especially mail of the massive opt-in kind. This has meant an increasing number of bounces and undeliverable mail. With the arrival of blogs there was an easy way out of all this anxiety. Ezines could easily be posted on blogs and no ISP SPAM filter would touch it. And what is more the email aspect of feedback was not lost because readers could easily post a comment at the blog. The huge advantage over email here was that one could see another readers comment and quickly support or disagree with it. Blogs have actually revolutionized publishing the way no other tool has in the history of mankind. So have blogs made email newsletters and opt-in email lists obsolete? The answer is a firm “NO”. Nothing would be further from the truth. Even when an online publisher delivers their weekly or daily content at a blog, what is the best way of sustaining and growing traffic to the blog? Actually even with a website, there is no other more effective way of sustaining high traffic than by harvesting email addresses. This is done by offering and email newsletter or an email course of sorts. This builds up a valuable opt-in email list that you can use again and again to direct traffic to your site. You can even sell them something. As internet marketing experts often point out, the money is in the list. This is the reason why experts advice affiliates to set up their own sites or blogs to play a key role in their efforts to market their affiliate site. This is simply because it is a huge waste to drive so much traffic to your affiliate site and end up having only a tiny fraction signing up for your affiliate program. By driving traffic through your own site, you have an opportunity to harvest emails and build up a huge, valuable targeted opt-in email list that you can still market the very same affiliate program to, later. In fact research has clearly shown that most people buy only after several repeated encounters of the same product or service. Even with the introduction of the extremely useful blogging tool and the change of business models by many online publishers, opt-in email lists still remain the most valuable online marketing tool. About the author: About the author: Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for Website Source, Inc.http://www.websitesource.com. Her established writing skills coupled with experience in thewebsite hosting industry have provided internet professionals with marketing, product and service ideas for many years. |
duminică, 14 august 2011
Are opt-in email lists still valuable in this SPAM age? by: Lois S.
Anatomy Of A Reciprocal Linking Campaign by: John Taylor
| Reciprocal linking means forming partnerships with other sites who place a link from their Web pages to yours. You then give them a similar link in return. When you look for people to swap links with, make sure that you don't reduce the quality or content of your own site. You don't want users to click straight through without reading your content; you want them to take action on your own site rather than have them leave empty handed. One way to stop them from running away too quickly is to create a "Webmasters Resource Page" and link to that page from your homepage. This doesn't take away from the content on your homepage and the links are just one click away rather than being buried deep within the site, giving value to your partners. In any case, you want to be sure that your site is more than just a page full of links. If your site contains more links than content, it will look like a link farm and it will certainly not be attractive to webmasters, search engines or users. Picking your partner Your link partners should be sites your target market will visit. Think about your product and its subject area and brainstorm to determine where people interested in your product might be looking online. For example, if you're trying to shift your book about blackjack strategy, it makes sense that the people visiting online casinos would make great customers. Online casinos then could be good partners. Identify top-ranked, high quality casino sites and find the email address, telephone number and snail mail address of their webmasters. You can also identify your competitors and see where they trade links. After all why reinvent the wheel when you can use your competitors hard work! Seven Top Tips For Requesting reciprocal Links... 1. Before you contact webmasters, place a link to their site on your resource page to assure them that you will actually provide a quality link. 2. Create a subject line that will encourage them to read your message rather than deleting it - you don't want them to think you're spamming them. (Something about their site or product is sure to capture their attention; they will open it, thinking you're a potential customer.) Hint - subscribe to their ezine and then reply using the ezine subject line as the subject of your reply. 3. Begin your message by talking about your visit to their site and what you found interesting about it. Detail your product or service in one line and ask them to exchange links with you. 4. Tell them in detail where you have placed their link, include the precise URL, tell them where to find their link on the page and emphasize that it is only one click away from your homepage. 5. Tell them that if you don't hear back from them in a specific number of days, you will consider that to a negative response and that you will remove their link from your site. Give them enough time to respond but don't leave it open ended. 6. Sending a reciprocal link request by email is becoming less and less effective due to Spam filters and the high volume of email traffic received by webmasters of busy sites. Try sending your request on a postcard or better still make a phone call. 7. Tell the webmaster how they will benefit from the reciprocal linking arrangement - explain what's in it for them and use your selling and persuasion skills! Copyright John Taylor PhD August 2005 - All rights reserved. About the author: To learn more information about Reciprocal linking I strongly recommend that you visithttp://www.Link-Advantage.com |
10 Helpful Tips For Running A Profitable Web Site by: Dan Brown
| 1. Address your targeted audience on your business site. Example: "Welcome Internet Marketers". If you have more than one, address them all. 2. Make sure your content and graphics are relevant to your web site's theme. You wouldn't want to use a bird graphic on a business web site. 3. Alert visitors by email when you add new content to your web site. This will remind people to revisit your web site. 4. Offer a way for visitors to contact you on each web page. List your email address, fax number and phone number. 5. Give people the option of viewing your web site offline. Offer it by autoresponder or printer friendly version. 6. Make sure a least 50f your content is original. The other option is to offer something else original other than content, like software or an online utility. 7. Offer your visitors incentives for revisiting your web site. You could give them new content, ebooks, software, ezine, etc. 8. Publish a FAQs for your business, product and web site. They could have questions about multiple parts of your business. 9. Make sure all links on the navigational bar are clickable. If people can't get to where they want to go, they will leave. 10. Organize you web site in logical and profitable sequence. You don't want to give a freebie before they learn about the product(s) you're selling. About the author: Dan Brown has been active in internet marketing for the past 4 years. Dan currently is working with the Zabang search engine introducing their new affiliate program, which is due out July, 2005. http://www.zabangaffiliate.com/ |
5 Critical Promotion Mistakes People Make With Articles by: Jim Edwards
==
Did you realize that writing and publishing articles online
represents one of the best-kept website traffic secrets?
It's true! In fact, if you learn some basic principles, you
can drive thousands of visitors to your website without
spending any money on advertising. Publishing articles not
only establishes you as an expert in your chosen field, but
also allows you to fly under the natural "radar defenses"
your prospects have against advertising.
But, beware! My experience as a syndicated newspaper
columnist has shown me that people who would otherwise
succeed massively promoting with articles actually fail
because they consistently make one or more of these five
critical mistakes!
Mistake #1 - NOT Defining Your Target Audience
Many article authors make the serious mistake of not
clearly defining a niche audience before writing their
article. Successful article authors always know the exact
"niche" audience they want to reach before they write the
first word.
When targeting your audience, remember this rule: Narrow
and Deep! Always pick an audience with a specific,
pressing, or major interest in a narrow topic!
Mistake #2 - Spamming Ezine Editors
In their desire to cover as much ground as possible, many
article authors resort to spam techniques for submitting
their articles. Instead of tightly targeting appropriate
ezines that cater specifically to their audience, these
authors try to hit "everyone."
By trying to save time, they actually waste every minute
spent writing their article because most ezine editors will
just delete their submissions as spam!
Mistake #3 - Milktoast Topics
You can write the best article in the world, but if your
headline doesn't grab a reader's eyeballs and pull them
into your article - you lose!
Article authors should spend at least half as much time
writing the headline as they spend writing their actual
article.
In fact, an "average" article can get superior results
simply from having a great headline at the beginning.
Mistake #4 - "What's In It For Me"
If they manage to make it past the first 3 pitfalls, many
article authors trip on their shoelaces at this stage of
the process! Don't write about what you want to write
about, only write on topics of high interest to your target
audience.
In other words, give them exactly what they want and they
will love you. Nobody cares how much of an expert you rate
on a particular topic until they know you can deliver
information they need in a way they can use - now!
Mistake #5 - "No Shoe Polish"
You could write an article worthy of the front page of the
Wall Street Journal, but as soon as somebody spots a typo
or misspelling, they immediately put your article lower
than a Sunday sales circular.
Seriously, if you want to undermine all the good you can do
with a great article, send it out without proper spell-
checking!
No matter what product or service you sell, once you
understand the promotion power of free articles, you'll
never look at website traffic generation the same way.
But remember, if you abuse the power, spam ezine editors,
or blatantly pitch people instead of providing real
information, you might as well skip the whole process
altogether.
About the author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-
author of an amazing new ebook, "Turn Words Into Traffic,"
that will teach you how to use free articles to quickly
drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or
affiliate link!
Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to
your website for weeks, even months... without spending a
dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
Did you realize that writing and publishing articles online
represents one of the best-kept website traffic secrets?
It's true! In fact, if you learn some basic principles, you
can drive thousands of visitors to your website without
spending any money on advertising. Publishing articles not
only establishes you as an expert in your chosen field, but
also allows you to fly under the natural "radar defenses"
your prospects have against advertising.
But, beware! My experience as a syndicated newspaper
columnist has shown me that people who would otherwise
succeed massively promoting with articles actually fail
because they consistently make one or more of these five
critical mistakes!
Mistake #1 - NOT Defining Your Target Audience
Many article authors make the serious mistake of not
clearly defining a niche audience before writing their
article. Successful article authors always know the exact
"niche" audience they want to reach before they write the
first word.
When targeting your audience, remember this rule: Narrow
and Deep! Always pick an audience with a specific,
pressing, or major interest in a narrow topic!
Mistake #2 - Spamming Ezine Editors
In their desire to cover as much ground as possible, many
article authors resort to spam techniques for submitting
their articles. Instead of tightly targeting appropriate
ezines that cater specifically to their audience, these
authors try to hit "everyone."
By trying to save time, they actually waste every minute
spent writing their article because most ezine editors will
just delete their submissions as spam!
Mistake #3 - Milktoast Topics
You can write the best article in the world, but if your
headline doesn't grab a reader's eyeballs and pull them
into your article - you lose!
Article authors should spend at least half as much time
writing the headline as they spend writing their actual
article.
In fact, an "average" article can get superior results
simply from having a great headline at the beginning.
Mistake #4 - "What's In It For Me"
If they manage to make it past the first 3 pitfalls, many
article authors trip on their shoelaces at this stage of
the process! Don't write about what you want to write
about, only write on topics of high interest to your target
audience.
In other words, give them exactly what they want and they
will love you. Nobody cares how much of an expert you rate
on a particular topic until they know you can deliver
information they need in a way they can use - now!
Mistake #5 - "No Shoe Polish"
You could write an article worthy of the front page of the
Wall Street Journal, but as soon as somebody spots a typo
or misspelling, they immediately put your article lower
than a Sunday sales circular.
Seriously, if you want to undermine all the good you can do
with a great article, send it out without proper spell-
checking!
No matter what product or service you sell, once you
understand the promotion power of free articles, you'll
never look at website traffic generation the same way.
But remember, if you abuse the power, spam ezine editors,
or blatantly pitch people instead of providing real
information, you might as well skip the whole process
altogether.
About the author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-
author of an amazing new ebook, "Turn Words Into Traffic,"
that will teach you how to use free articles to quickly
drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or
affiliate link!
Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to
your website for weeks, even months... without spending a
dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
3 Ways To STOP Affiliate Link "Hijackers" by: Jim Edwards
=-
Let's face the facts!
Almost everyone online today is looking to make or save a buck any way they can. In the past, most of the people who clicked on your affiliate links used to purchase without a second thought... but, as times get tougher online, it seems a growing number won't!
As money gets tighter and product prices rise, people who know how to manipulate the system will sometimes replace your affiliate ID with theirs and "hijack" your commissions.
Here's an example:
Let's say your affiliate link is www.ebookaboutcats.com/?live-well.
Say the highjacker uses the affiliate ID of captain-hook. What he would do is replace your ID with his, and buy from the URL www.ebookaboutcats.com/?captain-hook.
The bottom line: the hijacker puts your money in his pocket.
In other cases, they can't stand the thought of you "making money off them" so they bypass you by simply chopping off the end of your affiliate link that contains your ID.
Instead of buying from www.ebookaboutcats.com/?live-well, the bypasser will simply "chop off" the affiliate ID at the end and simply buy from the plain URL www.ebookaboutcats.com --without your affiliate ID attached!
Either way, you get cheated out of your rightful commission.
To help you fight these affiliate link hijackers I offer a couple of my best (proven and battle tested) tips, which will at least confuse these "hijackers" and, in many cases, often defeat and disarm them completely.
Side Note: If someone really, really wants to steal your affiliate commission, they will find a way; however, most hijackers are just opportunists who will only act if they see an easy buck.
The first and cheapest way to hide your affiliate links is using a javascript redirect page. This is where you hide your affiliate link in a page on your site using a simple javascript that redirects people to your affiliate link.
It works great not to expose your "naked" affiliate link in your actual email messages and ezine ads, but, once people get redirected to the true affiliate link, many affiliate programs expose the affiliate link along with your ID in the browser address bar.
Here's an example of a redirect script in action. Click => http://www.ebookfire.com/esejs.html
Notice how the link takes you to a page where you can see my affiliate ID, ebookfire, in your web browser's address bar.
Like it or not, someone can replace my ID with theirs and "hijack" the commission... but at least the redirect script keeps them from immediately seeing my "naked" affiliate link (http://hop.clickbank.net/?ebookfire/ebksecrets) when I publish it in my newsletter, email, or on my website.
You can get free redirect scripts just about anywhere you find free javascripts. Here is the script I use http://www.ebookfire.com/jrs.shtml.
A better way to hide your affiliate links is using a zero-frame or "invisible" frame that masks the affiliate link by making it appear you are sending people to a page on your website. In reality, you are actually sending them to your affiliate link.
This is the technique used by those "sub-domain" redirect services that provide you with urls like http://ese.ebookfire.net.
While giving someone a link like that is much better than using a "naked" affiliate link such as http://hop.clickbank.net/?ebookfire/ebksecrets, there is a problem. As soon as someone does a "view >> source" in their web browser they'll see your naked affiliate link plain as day... which instantly blows your cover!
Currently the best way to protect your affiliate commissions from ruthless hijackers is to use a combination of a zero- frame page along with URL encryption. This involves sending someone to URL that looks like a page on your site, but actually pulls in your affiliate link like those "sub- domain" services. However, there's one critical difference...
If someone does a "view >> source" in their browser, you have added protection in that all they will see is a jumble of computer code instead of your naked affiliate link.
Check out this example of a zero-frame with URL encryption in action. Click => http://www.ebookfire.com/ese.html
Side Note: Beware of cloaking scripts that use javascript to mask your affiliate link because they could malfunction in some web browsers.
Here's the bottom line: if you are going to sell through other people's affiliate programs, never send a "naked" affiliate link... you're just asking for people to hijack or bypass you if you do.
If you want to get paid more often through your affiliate links, make sure it's not obvious you're referring people to an affiliate link. If they can't easily see how to hijack or bypass your link, a lot more people who would have taken the money out of your pocket will just go ahead and buy through your link - which is, after all, the whole point! :-)
About the author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...
Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months... without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
Let's face the facts!
Almost everyone online today is looking to make or save a buck any way they can. In the past, most of the people who clicked on your affiliate links used to purchase without a second thought... but, as times get tougher online, it seems a growing number won't!
As money gets tighter and product prices rise, people who know how to manipulate the system will sometimes replace your affiliate ID with theirs and "hijack" your commissions.
Here's an example:
Let's say your affiliate link is www.ebookaboutcats.com/?live-well.
Say the highjacker uses the affiliate ID of captain-hook. What he would do is replace your ID with his, and buy from the URL www.ebookaboutcats.com/?captain-hook.
The bottom line: the hijacker puts your money in his pocket.
In other cases, they can't stand the thought of you "making money off them" so they bypass you by simply chopping off the end of your affiliate link that contains your ID.
Instead of buying from www.ebookaboutcats.com/?live-well, the bypasser will simply "chop off" the affiliate ID at the end and simply buy from the plain URL www.ebookaboutcats.com --without your affiliate ID attached!
Either way, you get cheated out of your rightful commission.
To help you fight these affiliate link hijackers I offer a couple of my best (proven and battle tested) tips, which will at least confuse these "hijackers" and, in many cases, often defeat and disarm them completely.
Side Note: If someone really, really wants to steal your affiliate commission, they will find a way; however, most hijackers are just opportunists who will only act if they see an easy buck.
The first and cheapest way to hide your affiliate links is using a javascript redirect page. This is where you hide your affiliate link in a page on your site using a simple javascript that redirects people to your affiliate link.
It works great not to expose your "naked" affiliate link in your actual email messages and ezine ads, but, once people get redirected to the true affiliate link, many affiliate programs expose the affiliate link along with your ID in the browser address bar.
Here's an example of a redirect script in action. Click => http://www.ebookfire.com/esejs.html
Notice how the link takes you to a page where you can see my affiliate ID, ebookfire, in your web browser's address bar.
Like it or not, someone can replace my ID with theirs and "hijack" the commission... but at least the redirect script keeps them from immediately seeing my "naked" affiliate link (http://hop.clickbank.net/?ebookfire/ebksecrets) when I publish it in my newsletter, email, or on my website.
You can get free redirect scripts just about anywhere you find free javascripts. Here is the script I use http://www.ebookfire.com/jrs.shtml.
A better way to hide your affiliate links is using a zero-frame or "invisible" frame that masks the affiliate link by making it appear you are sending people to a page on your website. In reality, you are actually sending them to your affiliate link.
This is the technique used by those "sub-domain" redirect services that provide you with urls like http://ese.ebookfire.net.
While giving someone a link like that is much better than using a "naked" affiliate link such as http://hop.clickbank.net/?ebookfire/ebksecrets, there is a problem. As soon as someone does a "view >> source" in their web browser they'll see your naked affiliate link plain as day... which instantly blows your cover!
Currently the best way to protect your affiliate commissions from ruthless hijackers is to use a combination of a zero- frame page along with URL encryption. This involves sending someone to URL that looks like a page on your site, but actually pulls in your affiliate link like those "sub- domain" services. However, there's one critical difference...
If someone does a "view >> source" in their browser, you have added protection in that all they will see is a jumble of computer code instead of your naked affiliate link.
Check out this example of a zero-frame with URL encryption in action. Click => http://www.ebookfire.com/ese.html
Side Note: Beware of cloaking scripts that use javascript to mask your affiliate link because they could malfunction in some web browsers.
Here's the bottom line: if you are going to sell through other people's affiliate programs, never send a "naked" affiliate link... you're just asking for people to hijack or bypass you if you do.
If you want to get paid more often through your affiliate links, make sure it's not obvious you're referring people to an affiliate link. If they can't easily see how to hijack or bypass your link, a lot more people who would have taken the money out of your pocket will just go ahead and buy through your link - which is, after all, the whole point! :-)
About the author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...
Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months... without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
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