As Internet marketers we all know how important it is to have a successful newsletter to help us keep in touch with our customers. But it can be pretty frustrating to spend all those hours developing content and campaigns only to have the program flop. Open rates can dive into the single-digits and click-through rates can fall to mere fractions of a percent.

So if this happens, what do you do?

First of all, don’t panic. Usually, if you spend a few minutes looking at your data you can identify the problems pretty easily.

Determine Which Problem to Fix

Take a look at where your leads are coming from. If you are purchasing lists from other websites or publishers, make sure you segregate each source in your reporting so you can measure the quality of each list. You want to make sure you have a way of determining the quality of a list source before you merge the purchased group into your master list.

Also, if it has been around for a while, try segregating your opt-in list into three groups by age:

* Under 6 months
* 6 months to 1 year
* Over 1 year

It is normal for open and click through rates to be highest for the “Under 6 Month” category, and lowest for those who have been on your list for over a year. However, there should not be a significant drop off as people move from one category to the next.

Look for anomalies in the data. Here are a few things I look for when I’m troubleshooting a client’s campaign:

* Is there a significant drop-off behind the first mailing? If the first mailing that a recipient gets typically achieves a 35% open rate, but the second has a 7% open rate, then the problem is not with the list source, or the header information (subject line, “From” address, etc.) it is with the content of the newsletter itself. If the drop off is 35% to 29%, then one might consider that to be normal.
* Has there been a change in frequency? We all get busy, and one of the first activities that can get forgotten is the newsletter. Unfortunately, absence in the Email marketing realm does NOT make the heart grow fonder. In fact, a prolonged period of non-communication is one of the leading causes of opt-outs.
* Are your articles relevant to the demographic? It is a good idea to survey your house list periodically to test your assumptions about their levels of expertise and interest in different subjects.

Wake Up Your Sleepy Optin List

Look at how you approach the people who have subscribed to your list. Remember that with email newsletters the permission your subscribers have given you to send email to them is not permanent; they can opt out at any time if they lose confidence or interest in your newsletter.

More often than not, however, people don’t actually opt-out. They simply stop opening and reading your email. I call these “sleepy” subscribers. They are getting your messages, but since they are “asleep” they can’t read them. Although there’s no way to know for sure, I would guess that your “sleep” rate is probably about 4 to 5 times the size of your opt-out rate. So your opt-out rate is an indicator of your “sleep” rate.

It is vital to understand what your subscribers think of your publication. Again, surveys are a great way to get feedback on your program. You can also provide an open link on each newsletter that asks for general feedback. Very few people will take the time to provide feedback on a feedback form, but you can bet that those who do represent a large chunk of your audience. Take their feedback seriously, and learn from it.

Five Steps to Improve Your Performance

Following are five steps that have always lifted the performance of my campaigns.

* Get in touch immediately – From the moment someone signs up for your newsletter, they start to forget you. If you take three weeks to send something to them, then they won’t remember signing up and they will reject your email as spam. Make sure they get an issue of your newsletter (or an ebook, or a free report; something that is relevant to them and has value) immediately after they sign up.
* Make it personal and entertaining – Email marketing is a one-to-one communication, it is almost always best to keep the tone personal and entertaining. Try telling a few stories about yourself or your company. Let people get to “know” you, and feel like an “insider” with your company. This increases their personal equity in your brand.
* Make all emails “high-value” – Every time you send an email it should be valuable to the recipient, not just to you. Straight sales letters with no “meat” can dampen open rates for future mailings. Train your recipients to view each email you send as a valuable piece of information they cannot afford to miss.
* Test multiple article types – You can write all kinds of articles, and depending on your industry and demographics of your subscribers, they may prefer instructional and how-to articles; others may prefer current industry events, or breaking news. Test these out and see what works best.
* Test different formats – Try splitting your list and send half your recipients an HTML newsletter and the other half a “text-looking” email. Make sure that the “text-looking” email really does have HTML in it, or else you won’t be able to track the open rates!

Keep Your Chin UP

All newsletters can experience a blow to their response rates. If this happens to you, it is important to identify the problems and fix them before you lose too much of your list to opt-outs and list fatigue. Variety is the spice of life, and it can “wake up” a sleepy list by injecting some excitement. Make sure each communication you send is high value, and provides something new. And keep the lines of communication open so your subscribers can help you improve the quality of your content.

I am almost 10 years now FULL TIME working from home on the internet making money online and I have put together the following website to share all of my secrets with you at http://www.DecideYourIncome.eu

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.CoachOfSuccess.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1

I have learned so much over the past year about creating an online presence. There is so very much to know and most people who start their own businesses really don’t know how to create, maximize and leverage their online presence.

I will give you just a summary of what I’ve learned over the past year from reading, masterminding and coaching. I know I have only scratched the surface but if I can in any way cut down on your learning curve by sharing the things I’ve already learned, then that’s what I want to do.

Niche Marketing

This is the first thing you learn when creating an online presence. It’s about narrowing your focus. It is not possible to be all things to all people and when you try, you end up watering down your message and in essence, being nothing to no one. This probably was the hardest lesson I learned. I fought the whole niche marketing idea because I believed that my niche was choice theory and I know choice theory applied to every possible life situation. While I still believe that this is true, I need to focus my marketing efforts on a much more specific and targeted niche. While I am still refining this, I have decided to market to two basic niches. The first is small to midsize companies who are interested in creating, inspiring and leveraging diversity in the workforce and the second is managers interested in learning Empowered Leadership to increase production, improve quality and reduce employee turnover.

What is your niche? You know you have a good one if you can identify how to find them. You need to know what they read, what entertainment they gravitate toward, and what groups they belong to. It is your goal to ultimately obtain a mailing list or email list to be able to market to your niche. If you can obtain a list, then you have a well-narrowed niche.

Creating a List

This is perhaps the most important asset to an online business—the email list of potential customers and prospects. When doing business online, it is critically important to capture prospects’ email opt-in addresses so you can begin to market to them. The best way to get people to give you their email address is to offer them something compelling. This is intricately tied to your niche. Find out something they are looking for—create a giveaway product in exchange for getting their email address. You can see how critical it is to have correctly identified your niche market because if you offer a list of cat owner’s information on how to train their dogs, you can see how that might not entice them to provide you with their email address. It must be information they are hungry for.

The opt-in part is also important. You can’t just go add people’s email addresses to your mailing list. That is considered spamming. They must have the opportunity to opt-in, as well as the opportunity to remove their address from your database. Don’t ruin your business before it gets started by tainting your reputation unnecessarily.

Sales Letters

Sales letters are very important. If there is one thing I’d like to outsource, it would be sales letters. They are not fun for me to do but they may be fun for you. There are several things to be considered in a sales letter. First of all, research shows that the longer a sales letter is the better. It must have a captivating title. It must be filled with information about WIIFM—What’s In It For Me, meaning your readers or potential customers. This is again tied to the first point about niche marketing. Your sales letter will be most effective when you can write as if you know the mind of the reader. You must understand their pain or speak to a goal they have. How can you be specific enough if you haven’t narrowed your niche? You can’t.

The letter should be crafted with both the skimming reader and the detail reader in mind. This means making main points subheadings so the person who skims can get the general idea of what you are talking about just by skimming the headings. However, include sufficient detail to convince the person who is interested in lots of facts and statistics. You don’t want to write your letter with only one group in mind because then you will lose out on the possibility of selling to the group you omitted.

Create products and services your niche is hungry for and then tell them why they must have your product to either solve their problem or help them become more successful.

Sales letters must have an urgent call to action. Create some type of advantage for those who act NOW. Research shows that even if a person is interested in what you are offering, if they don’t act as they are reading your letter and decide to wait for another day, they never come back to it. Get them to act now by making it worth their while. You can even offer an extra incentive for the first 20 people who respond. It’s up to you.

Articles

Writing articles is a tremendous way to get your name out there to the general public. I write at least two articles each month. I used to have my virtual assistant submit each one to online article banks individually. Now, for $100, I submit my article to I-Snare and they do the submitting for me. They will submit 100 articles for my $100 which is much more cost-effective than having to pay my assistant to do it.

The purpose of writing is to help readers get to know you and what you have to offer. When you write, you are not necessarily trying to sell something—you are basically providing useful information, just like this article does. And you get to include a bio box at the end with a link back to your website home page, a product page or a sales letter. This will help increase the traffic to your website and it will be a targeted audience, meaning those who are already interested in what you have to say.

These are just some of the things you want to give attention to as you develop your presence on the World Wide Web. My next article will focus on writing press releases, generating search engine traffic and getting listed in various online directories. Then, we will discuss writing a blog, producing an online newsletter, creating a sales funnel and embarking on joint ventures.

I am almost 10 years now FULL TIME working from home on the internet making money online and I have put together the following website to share all of my secrets with you at http://www.DecideYourIncome.eu

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.CoachOfSuccess.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1

Perhaps “blogging” isn’t such a graceful word. For me, personally, it sounds like a worded drudgery the way cereals can be soggy, skies can be foggy, and the way minds can be groggy. But for now, it’s too late to rename this shortened word for web-logging. Widespread blogging is nevertheless one of the most engaging Internet developments of the past few years. As a medium it gives rise to many new and worthy voices and plays a new and vital force in shaping opinions, political realities, trends, and even our language.

I believe that a blog is simply a tool to use for someone who’s got something to say. Let me be clear in saying that a blog is a poor choice for someone who needs a megaphone to scream out to cyberspace in order to elicit a meaningful response from Internet users. If you want attention and want it now and expect blogging to bring it to you, then this will surely be a disappointment. However, if you like to write and engage others on subjects of which you have some command or experience, then it’s a wonderful application with which you can interact with people who share similar interests as you. The hype is well founded.

Anyway, here’s a list of blogging tips…

1.) Be topical.
Cohesiveness in message is not optional. Readers may or may not be interested in your topic, but if your message is haphazard that few will bother remembering to return to your blog because it essentially would offer nothing to remember. This doesn’t mean blogs can’t jump from subject to subject. For instance, a blog with a humorous focus has all the leeway in the world for subject matter, but it would be foolish for such a blog to turn the humor on and off. In such an example, the aspect of humor would be content’s glue, the strength of the blog. The beauty of staying on point and on topic is that eventually, due to the nature of the Internet, you will find those interested solely in your topic. (as opposed to online diaries. There are millions of them on the internet, few have any readers. Email me with examples if I’m wrong and I’ll be able to show you why you’re showing me a blog and not a diary.)

2.) Refresh your content
Create a schedule and stick to it. Realizing that blogging requires time and effort, don’t create unrealistic expectations and be unable to deliver. An occasional lapse or holiday is generally understood but readers returning to find stale, out-dated content are going to find another blog with similar content. New blogs and RSS feeds are popping up on a daily basis. If you have worked hard to develop an audience and a community you don’t want to lose them due to lack of communication.

And remember, what’s old is not new and, for blogs, thusly not interesting. 2006 isn’t the time to rail against Enron or Vanilla Ice. Insight doesn’t matter much to yesterday’s news.

3.) Clear Language Counts.
Blessed is the blog with a clear line of logic. Write without inside jokes, clique-y catchphrases or ambiguous logic. First time readers need to be close to your message. They are more likely to return to blogs that strike them positively. If the first read is confusing there will not be a second read.

4.) Feed the Spiders.
Search engines take notice of active blogs and blog search engines are especially sensitive to activity. If nothing else, search engines are smarter today than they were yesterday and are only getting smarter. In constantly improving they are seeking to aggregate quality; quality blogs are updated several times a week, if not daily, as opposed to once or twice a month. I don’t mean to scare you but a big spider is watching, so dance for them.

5.) RSS.
Think of RSS like a magic to blogging world, because that’s the effect it’s had. RSS feeds are a way to exponentially sound your voice to the interested. These feeds are a great means to increase the distribution and readership of your original content.

6.) Spell check.
Hey man, use the spell-check. I do – if I didn’t you probably wouldn’t have made it to #6. It only takes a minute and can save you from looking like a hack.

Your weblog audiences will be small at first. And, frankly, that’s the way it should be. Who are you to think that half the internet will flock to you after three or four posts of your blog, anyway?

If you tough it out while maintaining quality, readership will materialize. You will link to good, relevant blogs and, in turn, they will to you. While your voice may be unique, your niche likely isn’t and if your content is emitted smartly to the Internet those relevant readers will respond through readership and interaction. That I guarantee.

I am almost 10 years now FULL TIME working from home on the internet making money online and I have put together the following website to share all of my secrets with you at http://www.DecideYourIncome.eu

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.CoachOfSuccess.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1

Your web business probably gets product inquiries from potential customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly as you can. You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood of making a sale by satisfying each person’s need for information quickly!

But, after you’ve delivered that first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?

If you are like most Internet marketers, you don’t.

When you don’t follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to make a purchase when your first message reached him. Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he doesn’t receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business elsewhere.

Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow up?
Following up with leads is more than just a process – it’s an art. In order to be effective, you need to design a follow up system, and stick to it, EVERY DAY! If you don’t follow up with your prospects consistently, INDIVIDUALLY, and in a timely fashion, then you might as well forget the whole follow up process.

Consistent follow up gets results!
When I first started marketing and following up with prospects, I used a follow up method that I now call the “List Technique.” I had a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of people who had specifically requested information about my products and services. These prospects had already received my first letter by the time they requested more information, so I used the company’s latest news as a follow up piece. I would write follow up newsletters every now and then, and send them, in one mass mailing, to everyone who had previously requested information from me. While this probably did help me win a few additional orders, it wasn’t a very good follow up method. Why isn’t the “List Technique” very effective?

The List Technique isn’t consistent. Proponents of the List Technique tend to only send out follow up messages when their companies have “big news”.

List Technique messages don’t give the potential customer any additional information about the product or service in question. He can’t make a more informed buying decision after receiving a newsletter! If someone is wondering whether your company sells the best knick-knacks, what does he care that you’ve just moved your headquarters?

List Technique messages convey a “big list” mentality to your potential customers. When I used to write follow up messages using the List Technique, I was writing news bulletins to everyone I knew! I should have been sending a personal message to each individual who wanted to know more about my products.

What follow up method really works?
Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this system up, though, you need to do some planning.

First, you’ll need to develop your follow up messages. If you’ve been marketing on the Internet for any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn’t have the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!

Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.

The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency in your prospect’s mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!

Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn’t yet placed an order? Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the product isn’t the right color or doesn’t have the right features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this time, it’s unlikely that this person will order from you. However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so that other prospects will order from you.)

The timing of your follow up letters is just as important as their content. You don’t want one prospect to receive a follow up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect waits weeks for a follow up!

Always send an initial, informative letter as soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying decisions!

Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors’. You will make the sale!

Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly don’t want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least 4 days apart.

Following up effectively seems complicated, but it doesn’t have to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up – don’t you want to be one of the few to get it right?

I am almost 10 years now FULL TIME working from home on the internet making money online and I have put together the following website to share all of my secrets with you at http://www.DecideYourIncome.eu

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.CoachOfSuccess.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1

The webmaster’s biggest job is to get their traffic up and keep customers/visitors coming back. Building the site is one thing, but simply building and posting a website does not guarantee traffic. In fact, a website could be beautiful and an example of all the latest technology and still not attract a single visitor if not promoted correctly. Here are 10 tips to guide you to success with your website.

(1) The internet is a new medium.
At least compared to print, it is. A website is a waste if it simply re-hashes something which could easily be put into print. Don’t have the site be just an online brochure. Put up features which take advantage of the internet as a medium of communication. Filter information for them. Provide search capability. Provide interactivity with features like forums, quizzes and tools. Web visitors like to interact.

(2) Treat the Customer’s Time as Valuable.
When a person visits your website, you have their attention for that point in time. You either need to use it or you will lose it – fast. Most visitors have short attention spans, what you need to design your site homepage so that it grabs their attention and provides what they are looking for right away. Its like walking into a restaurant. If you walk in and just stand there and nobody comes to greet you, you might wonder what is happening. But, if the hostess comes and greets you right away and walks you to a table, then you will be there for awhile and eat. The same analogy goes for websites. Don’t overcomplicate your website homepage. Best results will be obtained if you make it very clear where to click to find what they need.

(3) Design the site for customers, not the company.
Your site needs to satisfy the needs of customers, not the company. So, don’t post content which is not really useful to the site’s customer. And avoid over-flattering marketing hype about the company. It inflates the ego of the company more than it helps your customer.

(4) Involve the Visitor.
Keep the visitor involved and make them feel like a valuable contributor. Actively ask for the feedback and suggestions. Ask for communication from your visitors and answer that communication swiftly. When getting that communication, capture their email address. This will allow you to communicate with them long after they have moved on and forgotten about you.

(5) Keep it Current.
You need to have content on your website which is timely and relevant to the customer’s life. Posting month-old news is not interesting. Posting dry product information which never changes is not interesting. Yes, you need to have product information and other information on your site that won’t change much, but you can also post more timely content. You can, for example, post content about how your products can be used in certain situations in life. Provide tips and techniques – things which are immediately applicable and solve a problem.

(6) Pay Attention to Form/Design.
Some sites simply over-do it on the eye-candy. Big graphics just for the sake of graphics often impress the site’s designer more than the visitor. Do not use graphics that are large and purposeless. Remember, some visitors may still be accessing your website via dial-up. Your site needs to load up quickly for all users. A slow website will cause your users to leave quickly. Also, pay attention to graphic and design size. Many web designers operate on fairly large screen resolutions and sometimes forget that even though a graphic looks great to you, it will appear enormous to somebody on a smaller resolution. On the flip side, don’t go too light on graphics. A site which is poorly designed and using the default font and no color is not very aesthetically pleasing. Any web visitor, whether they admit it or not, judges your company by your website unless they have something else to go on. A well-designed site communicates professionalism. A poor design makes the site seem like an afterthought.

(7) Promote.
When a visitor communicates to you via email, it is best to use a web form. not only will this keep your email address from being picked up by spammers, it will also allow you to ask your customers for their email address and then store that address for later use. Employ the “push/pull” marketing strategy. A visitor coming to your website is the pull, but later you want to push content back to them in the form of a newsletter or other promotional material. Start a mailing list and use it. Invite visitors to sign up. Promotion makes or breaks a business, and as long as you respect the ethical considerations of your mailing list, you should use it.

(8) Don’t Operate in a Cocoon.
The internet is a medium which is shared by millions. When you set up your website, don’t operate as if you are a self-contained island. Get out there and keep in tune with what is happening on other websites related to your own. Participate in forums. Post links to other websites and ask for a link in return. Form partnerships with other sites if it is appropriate. When it comes to communication, people like personal contacts. Hiding behind general email address like “sales” and “info” is OK as long as there is a way to also email you directly. A company site which allows email direct to the management is good. Just remember how much you hate calling a company and getting stuck in their phone system. Sometimes you just want to talk to somebody. Give your visitors that ability.

(9) Have a Plan to Attract Repeat Traffic.
Use newsletters, out-going email, contests, forums, clubs, auctions – anything that will cause people to return to your website. When posting links to other websites, don’t just send your visitors somewhere else. They may never return. Provide them an exit page. Give them a pop-up when they try to leave your site. Or at the very least make external links open in a new window.

(10) Track Your Visitors
Pay attention to your site’s statistics and react accordingly. What are people reading? How are they finding you? Do they just come and leave right from your homepage? How long as they are on your website? Do they return? This data is immensely valuable in fine-tuning your website based on customer needs and wants. Remember, the biggest mistake of any webmaster is designing the site for what THEY want. A successful website is designed for the target audience, not to impress the site’s owner.

I am almost 10 years now FULL TIME working from home on the internet making money online and I have put together the following website to share all of my secrets with you at http://www.DecideYourIncome.eu

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.CoachOfSuccess.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1

If you ever considered owning a piece of the ultimate real estate (internet), then this article is for you!

Whether you want a website for fun (e.g. hobby) or to making a living, there are a few basic factors to consider before jumping in. If you decide to buy a website, then consider looking at various online auctions (i.e. Flippa). The process works like eBay and the auctions are for intangible property (e.g. domain and website content).

In order to properly value a website, make sure to perform some basic research and consider the following questions:

Does the domain name contain keyword phrases of the niche topic which gears toward the website? For example, if you have a tattoos website, then does the domain contain the word tattoos or related keyword phrases (e.g. tattoo ideas, designs, images, pictures)? This will add more value to the domain, but good unique content carries more weight.

What type of domain is it? For example, does the domain extension have.com,.net, or.org, etc.? This is not really important, but.com is preferred.

What’s the age of domain/website? The more value is placed on established domains and websites.

How uniqueness is the content and has it been copied from another source? Often times, the contents are replicated and modified to look unique.

How easily can the website be replicated? Once you buy it, can someone easily steal the code and contents?

How many quality back links (sites linking to the site)? Are those links paid or organic? Back links represent votes to your site.

What is the page rank according to Google? This represents the trustworthiness and authoritativeness of the site and is related to the quality back links.

What are the keywords that generate traffic and how are those keywords ranked in various search engines? Ideally, you want a diversification of traffic source from various keywords.

What are the traffic sources to site? Is it from search engines or referral sites? Again, diversification is the key.

Is the niche of the website seasonal? Looking at a years’ worth of data for the niche market will usually determine if certain times of the year generate more traffic.

How competitive is the niche? Areas such as health related products are highly competitive and thus require more promotional effort to get noticed.

What are the monthly profit amounts and sources? Some of the popular revenue sources include pay-per-click (PPC), fixed revenue ads, or commission based.

Lastly, how much is the monthly maintenance cost and the required effort (hours and skills)? For example, does the site require a dedicated server which can cost hundreds of dollars per month? Ask about special software licenses and technical skills. You may need to hire a programmer to maintain it, so there is additional cost to think about.

The final value of a website can vary depending on the above factors. Typically if the site is established for 1 year or more and generating consistent revenue from month to month, you can expect to pay about 15 times the monthly profit to get an estimate of websites’ worth. Half of the challenge is to find timely information and there are great tools on the internet that can assist you in making the right decision.

Website buying experience: BuyingWebSites Blog

FREE tattoo ideas and tattoo designs: Tattoos Designs

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.OneMillionIncome.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1

If you currently have a Home Based Business which you are looking to build on the internet then you will know that one very crucial element to take your Home Based Business to the level where it allows you to earn extra income is driving traffic to your website. When it comes to driving traffic to your website there are many methods which you can employ however what you will find is that most of them are very much short term therefore you need to keep repeating them daily however you will never see any long term benefit from them.

So the question is what Traffic Generation Strategies will produce a long term benefit from you?

The answer to the above question is Blogging, ever since I started out on the internet full time just over 9 years ago blogging was a massively great way to get FREE traffic to your website both short term along with long term and believe it or not Blogging is even better now for getting FREE traffic to your website. One of the main problems I have noticed internet marketing entrepreneurs coming up against when looking to use Blogging to get FREE traffic to their website is quite simply they either dont know what to write onto their blog or they quite simply do not know how.

Which brings forward the question of what you need to do now in order to use Blogging?

Posting updates onto your blog will always be crucial in order to get the FREE traffic for your home based business that you are looking for in order to earn extra income however that alone does not mean you have to write the updates does it?

Below I have listed several things that other people producing massive results with Blogging do.

Alot of internet marketing entrepreneurs who have an issue writing to their blog hire a Ghostwriter to do it for them.

Some people who can’t afford a Ghostwriter then look for people throughout the world who want experience of writing and then get it done for FREE.

The remainder of Home Based Business owners research the subject of their articles to gain the information needed to write to their blog.

One of the important things you must remember when it comes to writing articles onto your Home Based Business blog is if you are experiencing difficult that will most likely be because you are short of knowledge in the subject you wish to write about. The only real answer to this is either have someone do it for you and post to your blog or research the subject in full then take time to put your article together for your blog.

Whilst many people know what I am about to say there is still alot of people who dont therefore let me tell you that the purpose of updating your blog is because the search engines such as Google will then index your blog for relevant keywords targetted to the articles you have on your blog.

In finishing to this article there is a few methods in which you can employ to bring further FREE traffic to your Home Based Business blog therefore allowing you to earn extra income even more.

Visit other people’s blog’s which are based upon the same Niche Market as your blog and leave comments regarding the articles posted on their blog which will then product traffic along with backlinks to your blog.

Placing Google Adsense or affiliate links to various Clickbank products onto your blog can also let you earn extra income due to everytime someone clicks on the Google Adsense ads you will earn money and of course if people clickthrough to the clickbank products and purchase you will also earn money.

Well that is me for now so I will wish you the very best of luck with your Blogging for your Home Based Business and may you earn extra income everyday with your blog.

Should you want to learn even more information to show you how to earn a very substantial Internet Income then I highly reccomend you check out Decide Your Income which is a DVD Training Set exposing every secret you would ever need to know and more.

You can find Decide Your Income at http://www.DecideYourIncome.eu

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.OneMillionIncome.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1

Everyday on the internet people worldwide are always coming up with a great idea for a new web site and then of course many of them make the decision to action this great idea for a new web site. So what happens now is they start to come up with ideas for their new domain name however the obstacles many end up facing is that new domain name is usually already taken. Therefore when you do finally find a domain name that has not already been taken you are so enthusiastic that you snap it up without thinking that you have not build the web site as of yet.

However most likely you will not realise that you have a problem quite simply because once you have registered your new domain name your web hosting company will then put into place a domain name parked page which will disappear when you have built your new web site. When it comes to parked domain name pages I am sure you will have seen many of them around when surfing the internet visiting web pages especially ones hosted with GoDaddy as these are coming for having parked domain name pages.

What you have to remember in your mind is that you are planning to use your new domain name to build your new web site onto it which means you should beware of setting up a parked domain name page.

When the search engines such as Google crawl around the internet they tend to find out about your new domain name and new web site very fast which means when they crawl onto your new web site they will see your parked domain name page. At this point the search engine quite possibly Google will realise that they have hundreds of these parked domain pages in their index therefore they will hold your parked domain name page will very little priority meaning they will not crawl your web site for quite some time.

However when your new web site is live on the internet if you are like everyone else with a web site you will want the search engines especially Google to crawl your web site in order to give it good search engine rankings bringing FREE traffic to your web site but at this point search engines and Google will no longer crawl your web site once they have seen the parked domain page. Therefore the only way now will be hard work to bring the search engines and Google back to your web site now your parked domain name page is gone.

When it comes to getting Google interested in your web site after they have seen your parked domain name page that used to be there it can become extremely difficult.

Of course you also need to remember that you do not want Google to place your website into their Google Sandbox with alot of the other new sites awaiting entry into the Google Index therefore I would not place a parked domain name page on your new website but instead simply avoid anything untill your web site is ready.

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.OneMillionIncome.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1

Once you have made the all important decision to use social networking platforms as part of your online marketing strategy for your internet marketing business. However first of all you must plan your strategy in great detail quite simply because when you do anything new you have to understand the rules of the game which in otherwords means you must understand your new internet marketing platform in order to produce an effective result when engaging with the others on the social networking platform. When the marketing platform is different your style needs to be different from your other marketing styles.

In the past with commercial marketing you will notice when the television commercial came onto the television the volume of the commercial marketing would always be much higher than that of the television program that is being shown. The reason for this is to make you stop what you are doing and get your full attention. However if you where to employ this marketing strategy on a social networking platform you would quite possibly end up accused of spamming. You see social networking is not about selling to people however it is about networking and builing relationships which is why relationships will have to be the main focus of your new internet marketing strategy allowing you to take full advantage of the mraketing opportunity that awaits you.

At this stage you now need to start thinking about preparing your buyer to take action, if you are utilising social networking properly it will build very strong relationships with your future customers therefore letting you prepare your customers to take much more action. Social networking should be looked upon like a community where you treat it almost like a sales funnel and start making friends with like minded individuals interested in your product or service. Of course the ultimate goal is to get these prospects signing up to your e mail marketing list once they have become your friend on Facebook. The idea then is everytime you correspond with them your relationship should develop further. Once they have been interested in yourself along with the product you offer for a while then they should be almost ready to buy which means they have now proceeded further into your sales funnel where they will either buy right now or take some more time.
When interacting with prospects on a social networking platform you need to look at gaining an understanding of your prospects buying habits. Now this can be done simply by comparing a purchase that you have made by just looking at what you wanted and what made you buy it right there and then. Then you should take a look at another time where you did not buy straight away, possibly because you had un answered questions preventing you such as “Can I afford it?”, “Will this be right for me?” and when you can match these buying habits to your prospects they will move further into your sales funnel.

It is at this point that we now look at who is interested in buying your product or service and also those who are no longer interested in buying. The people who are no longer interested in buying are definetely not going to go fully into your sales funnel purely because there would be no real purpose to it. However when it comes to those who are still interested in buying you must further build relationships with them, treat them as your community that have a great interest in you and the product you are selling. Those people are valuable because not everyone on a social networking platform will be interested in your niche which is why you have your sales funnel to sort out the proper qualified leads from those who are not. This process will now continually bring you an abundance of qualified leads on a regular basis which means alot of potential customers that are with you on your social networking platform everyday. Overall this will make it easier for you to build relationships therefore bringing them closer to saying yes to you and your product once you ask them to take action.

Potential buyers usually need to know several things before making a buying decision. They usually like to know all about you which comes also with self branding, if you are self branding properly then they will come to like and trust you which means they are not ready to make a buying decision. When it comes to filling the above criteria it is very easy with social networking because the relationship is started on the social networking platform which means you are continuously interacting therefore they start to like and trust you without feeling at all threatened by you. The only thing you need to do is continue to self brand yourself simply by being yourself and continue interacting with your prospects without giving them a sales pitch. Lastly just keep inviting people into your community so you can get to know them.

Hopefully now you will have an understanding of why Social Networking will benefit your online internet marketing business and with the internet constantly evolving it really is time to get involved. Create accounts at MySpace, Facebook and even twitter and simply spend time connecting with like minded people.

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.AmazingExtraIncome.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1

When it comes to starting out within internet marketing it makes me remember back to the early days of my life as an internet marketing beginner where I had to learn the skills to build a website so that I could take advantage of everything the internet had to offer for me to begin work from home on the internet. Now anyone who wants to work from home and run a profitable online business or even those of you who are just wanting to put online a personal website if you have no experience then it can appear very distressing trying to learn the skills to build a website however you can rest assured because these skills can be very easy to master so long as you will apply your self to learn these skills and make it happen.

On the otherhand though you may well at this point be very much ahead of me where you already know how to build a website on the internet because always remember each and every single day people are searching online via the internet for products or services they want and at some point they are led to the destination that provides them with all of the required information.

Now when it comes to the internet visitor online at your website I would hope you would be wanting to make a great first impression upon such visitor due to the fact that you will not get a second chance to do so. The best way to do this is to make sure your website has a great design which is attractive, very much pleasing to the eye but is also very fast loading therefore giving the internet online visitor what they are looking for in which case it will bring greater results for you.

Now when I speak to people on the internet everyday about them taking the time to learning how to build a website most of them always feel that it sounds too difficult for one person that is just getting started however I always make sure they rest assured because they can do it. It just means when you are a beginner starting your very online home based businesses or even just an information site then it will take you a little more time than others but you can still do it. Anyone can learn anything and that includes the skills that are required to start creating your very own internet website pages.

Now when it comes to the time to using one of the several types of website designing software that you can find on the internet I have found that the best approach to succeed when building a website is to use one that keeps it so very simple for a user with absolutely no experience to succeed in building a website. Simply because the time it would take you to learn every single html steps required to building a website would be a very long time therefore it is faster for you and easier to use a program that will accomplish everything you need there and then for you.

When it comes to getting your website on the internet one of the key things you will definetely need is a domain name which means purchasing a domain name ownership which will be the actual address where your website will be on the internet. Now what I reccomend is that when purchasing your domain name you keep your mind open to using keywords in your domain name and these keywords will come from the content of your website, what it is about and so forth because this will increase your online presence on the internet and help you achieve far greater search engine rankings. Therefore your position will be far greater meaning you will be found quickly on the search engines.

Before you even begin to start to create your new website I reccomend that you take the time to search online via the internet for targetted keywords relating to your niche market because it is always very wise to use keywords that you have researched that are related to your products or services. Should you search the internet you can also find programs to help you do just that. Once you have found targetted keywords to use in your domain name, your website then you should also start to use these in your online content when writing articles to promote your brand new website which means that the search engines will find those keywords which will in turn bring FREE traffic to your site.

What alot of internet marketers do is take a different option rather than take the time that goes into online article writing they tend to take the option of buying traffic which does prove very valuable however you will require alot of money to invest into it however if you are starting out and having to watch cash flow then focus on bringing in FREE traffic to your website.

When it comes to web hosting services there are many low cost web hosting services available however you should also speak to your ISP or Internet service provider as they also knows because sometimes they offer you hosting services as part of your package with them. This is very important because it is what will put your business or personal website online via the internet so I would start doing research to find the best suitable company for all of your online needs.
When you start the process of becoming part of the Internet it will seem to yourself to be an extremely exciting process allowing you to learn within the Internet possibly even in the future to maybe become an expert however it will start from the day you take the very first step. So just keep investing into your knowledge and remain patient untill everything starts to fall into place then all the bits and pieces will mean more than they do at present.

Now that you are starting to see the larger picture on the internet all of the information I have discussed with you and the details should not be making alot of sense and always remember you can do this also. Success is waiting for anyone on the internet so long as it is what you are looking for and of course if it is not and you simply want to meet new people you can do this online also with your new website on the internet.

The way in which you build your new website will be essential and crucial however have fun and you will learn along the way.

Regards Always

Mark McCulloch

http://www.OneMillionIncome.com – mark@markmcculloch.com

Internet Marketer and Entrepreneur, Committed to creating success

(UK) 07875 647 867 (Call Me Anytime), Skype – mark.mcculloch1