Internet Marketing Hints And Tips » articles

Improve Usability of Your Website

Gary Knox — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:35:32 +0000

No matter how brilliant your website design is, if it is hard to reach the content of your site then your site is as useful as an empty shell. Here are some tips to improve the usability of your website to ensure it serves its functions optimally.

The first method is to make sure the typography of your content is suitable. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to use CSS to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to read easily. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text.

Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle. Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or just a glossary or index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease.

Ensure that your site loads fast if you do not want to lose visitors. Most internet users will leave a website if it doesn’t load completely within 15 seconds, so make sure the creme de la creme of your website is delivered to the visitors as soon as possible to retain their attention.

Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be very careful about that.

The above tips are the minimum that should be considered, there are plenty of others but these will serve you well as nobody likes a slow loading, poorly laid out website with a decidedly dodgy search function.

Four Good Reasons to Use Viral E-books

Gary Knox — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 11:35:55 +0000

It is a well known and widely recognised fact, that E-books. FREE E-books that is are among the best weapons in a viral marketing campaign armoury. Here are four good reasons why this is true today and will continue to be true for the foreseeable future:

E-books are inexpensive to produce and do not take long to prepare. If you have articles that you have already written on the subject you are promoting, you can simply combine these articles into anE-book. If, on the other hand, writing isn’t your strong suit, you can employ rebrandable E-books that have been created by others. Just use your favorite search engine and do a web search for “rebrandable E-books”. You will get a lot of hits and have a lot to select from. One way to dispense these E-books to visitors to your website is to give them as a free gift for subscribing to your newsletter. If your E-book contains material that people will want to share with their friends and family, they will pass it along to them they will pass it along to others and you will make money.
E-books are capable of attaining a large audience. The only restricting factor is the enthusiasm or the participants. Hence, it is absolutely vital that your E-book contain something that people will want to share like timely information or humour. Remember that people like to know something that the rest of the world needs to know. They will pass along something that makes them appear like they’re in-the-know.
E-books are a way to sell additional products other than the one you originally targeted. For instance; if you are selling garden products, your customers might also be interesting in E-books about lawns, trees or landscaping, etc.
E-books are effective in building your reputation. It is an implied recommendation if you give a quality E-book and readers are often willing to pass it on to others.

Promoting Your Free Membership Website

Gary Knox — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:24:39 +0000

Promoting a free membership website is done exactly the same way as any other website is promoted.

When you build any website the only person that is aware that it exists on the Internet is you so it is up to you to promote and advertise your site and let the rest of the world know where to find you.

You accomplish that task while you are building your own credibility. One will not exist without the other. A free membership website builds credibility and credibility builds a free membership website. There are several very well established ways to promote a website on the Internet…and the first three listed here are free.

1. Write (or have written for you) short articles, 300 to 400 words, and put them into article banks for others to use.

Your resource box will include a link to your free membership website. The same is true for E-Book. Either write short 10 to 15 page E-Books or have them written for you. List these E-Books with E-Book repositories for others to use and be sure that there is a link to your free website on every page.

2. Post to blogs and forums on other related websites after you join them.

Do not go in like gangbusters promoting your free membership site…that will get you kicked out. Simply include a link to your free membership site in your signature tag and post thoughtful and helpful information.

3. Find link exchange partners and exchange links with them.

Since you are not actually selling anything it should be very easy to find link exchange partners.

4. Buy advertising for your free membership website in related E-zines.

This is a very cost effective method of advertising. The cost of advertising in Ezines is usually less than say $20 and the advertisement is sent directly to those people who are going to be your best prospects for your free membership sites as well as for the products and services that you will be marketing to them.

Positive Aspects of Article Marketing

Gary Knox — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:36:21 +0000

Using articles in your marketing has several advantages. The greatest advantage is that article marketing is highly effective, and it is free. If you decide to pay someone else to write your articles for you, of course, it won’t be free but will be very low cost.

Writing and submitting articles offers you the chance to build a large number of back links to your site without having to provide outbound links in exchange for these, all in a relatively short amount of time. This helps boost your search engine rankings by increasing your search engine optimization.

If you like to write and can do it fairly well, you can easily express yourself by produceing quality articles in a very short time, all at no cost. These 300 to 500 word articles will help to establish you as an expert within your niche. When you establish yourself as an expert, you are also building trust with those that read your articles, and this in turn, of course, creates more sales.

Articles have a domino effect. Viral marketing means that you do something once and it spreads, providing you with the benefits far into the future. That’s how article marketing works. You write and distribute the article one time, and it serves you with back links, increased traffic, credibility, and trust for years to come.

If you write articles on a weekly basis, you will find that it serves to increase your back links, your traffic, your credibility, your trust, and ultimately your sales for an even longer period.

You can’t go wrong if you are producing quality, informative articles within your niche. While your articles should not be sales letters disguised as articles, you can use articles to pitch products, as long as the information is informative and useful to the reader, even if they do not purchase the product. Often a customer will return at a later time to buy.

Making Maximum Profits From Private Label Products

Gary Knox — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:31:22 +0000

Here are some guidelines on how to maximize your usage and profits from Private Label Rights:

1. Construct articles that will be displayed for your site.

Attach your byline or resource box to all articles then publish them. Permit visitors to “republish” your articles in exchange for publishing also your “resource box” in their site. This will spread your advertisement over the web at the same time increase your “link popularity”.

2. Make e-zine articles.

Affix your byline or resource box to your articles then publish and distribute in your “e-zine”. Announce that your articles can be republished if your subscribers will publish your “resource box”. Aside from the fact that this will spread your advertisement as well as increase link popularity, this can also improve your “pagerank”.

3. Offer PLR articles as free bonuses.

This will increase your products’ perceived value and encourage prospects purchase your products.

4. Offer PLR articles as bonuses for opt-in list.

It will entice visitors to sign up for your email list.

5. Create your very own original info-products.

Modify or rewrite the articles so to create a completely different article, include yourself as the author.

6. Create completely new articles to submit to e-zine “article directories”.

7. Create and then trade your content with different websites.

Affix your byline or resource box and then trade them with many high traffic sites.

8. Make articles out of your PL articles and then promote other person’s products.

Affix your byline or resource box to promote an “affiliate program”.

9. Make promotional content for your “affiliates”.

With your byline or resource box, permit your “affiliates” to incorporate their “affiliate link” to your articles.

10. Construct whole new original info-products then sell also resell rights.

Almost all PLR packages are controlled to only a certain quantity of buyers; so there is no worry that ‘your’ material will show up 3 million times over on Google.

Having the authority to rewrite, modify or alter the PLR articles indicate that your article is entirely different from everyone else’s who purchases and repackages that same article or material.

Here is an important tip. Before purchasing any PLR package, you must read carefully the terms and make certain that you will have authority to rewrite, alter, delete or cut the content in whatever way you want it and affix your name unto your new article.

Red Hot Tips To Get Your Articles Read

Gary Knox — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:31:39 +0000

There are many people who dread having to write papers or articles. Many just feel like it seems to be too much work and it all just goes to waste when no one reads the. To some people, reading articles seems like work to, especially if the article is boring and very bland. Well, articles are supposed to be read, that’s their purpose to impart your message and information. If it is not read then it is a waste of time and effort.

But all the same, articles have to be written to be read. It’s just a matter of making them good. Making a good article doesn’t have to be strenuous and straining. There are just some points needed to be reminded of, and some guides to follow. Once you get the hang of it, writing articles could be fun, as well as profitable for you and your site.

Of course, writing articles must be about something you know about, that’s why if you own a site, you probably is knowledgeable about that certain topic and theme. When you write about it, you won’t have a hard time because you already know what it is and what it’s about. It’s just a matter of making your articles creative and interesting.

To make sure that your articles get read and enjoyed, here are six red-hot tips to get your articles read. These tips will make your articles readable and interesting.

1) Use short paragraphs.

When the paragraph are very long, the words get jumbled in the mind of the reader just looking at it. It can get quite confusing and too much of a hard work to read. The reader will just quickly disregard the paragraph and move on to much easier reading articles that are good to look at as well as read. Paragraphs can be a single sentence, sometimes even a single word!

2) Make use of numbers or bullets.

As each point is stressed out, numbers and bullets can quickly make the point easy to remember and digest. As each point, tip, guide or method is started with a bullet or point, readers will know that this is where the tips start and getting stressed. Format you bullets and numbers with indentations so that your article won’t look like a single block of square paragraphs. Add a little bit of flair and pizzazz to your articles shape.

3) Use Sub-headings to sub-divide your paragraphs in the page.

Doing this will break each point into sections but still would be incorporated into one whole article. It would also be easy for the reader to move on from one point to another; the transition would be smooth and easy. You will never lose your readers attention as well as the point and direction to where the article is pointing.

4) Provide a good attention-grabbing title or header.

If your title can entice a person’s curiosity you’re already halfway in getting a person to read your article. Use statements and questions that utilise keywords that people are looking for. Provide titles or headers that describe your articles content but should also be short and concise. You could also use titles that can command people, these types of titles reach out to a persons’ emotions and makes them interested.

5) Keep them interested from the start to the finish.

From your opening paragraph, use real life situations that can be adopted by the reader. Use good descriptions and metaphors to drive in your point, just don’t over do it. Driving your examples with graphic metaphors and similes would make it easy for them to imagine what you are talking about. Making the experience pleasurable and enjoyable for them.

6) Utilise figures when necessary and not just ordinary and insipid statements.

Using specific facts and figures can heighten your article because it makes it authoritative. But do not make it too formal, it should be light and easy in them and flow. Like a friendly teacher having a little chat with an eager student.

Articles Are The Quickest Way To Your Customers Wallet

Gary Knox — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:35:27 +0000

One way of advertising your website and product can be accomplished for free. What is this method? you may ask. The answer is.

Articles. Among the easiest ways to promote your website in order to generate traffic and increase your earnings.

How does this work?

Write articles relating to your website and submit them to “free content” submission sites. Easy to do, takes little time and can increase your website traffic, sales and naturally, your income.

How can article writing boost traffic and income?

The article on the free content site incorporates a link to your own website. Readers, after reading your articles, may decide to click on the link and pay your website an unexpected visit. Having articles on the free content sites also makes these articles available to other webmasters who may wish to publish that article on their site.

If they do, your article will include a link back to your site. And anyone who reads the article on that site can still click on the link to visit your site.

As the list of your published articles grows larger, and progressively more of them are appearing on different websites, the total number of links to your site increases also. These days the major search engines are placing a lot of significance on incoming links to websites so they can decide the importance of a certain site.

The more incoming links the website has, the more importance a search engine attaches to it. This will then increase your website’s placement in the search results.

If you site is into promoting a product or service, the links that your articles have attained will mean more potential customers for you. Even if visitors just browse your website, you never know if they might be in need of what you are offering in the future.

There are also those who already have specific things they need on their mind but are unable to decide between the many choices online. Chances are, they may stumble upon one of your articles, become interested in the content you wrote, go to your site and become tempted by your promotions. See how easy that is?

Search engines do not merely index the websites, they also index published articles. They index any article that is written about your own website’s topic. So when someone searches for that same topic, the list of results will have not only your site they may even display the articles that you have written.

And to think, no effort on your part was utilised in order to bring them to your site. Simply your published articles and the search engines.

It is little wonder that several webmasters are suddenly resurrecting their old writing styles and taking time to write more articles about their site than performing other means of promotion.

Getting their site recognised is easier if they have articles increasing their links and traffic and making it accessible for visitors searching the internet. As many people are now taking their purchasing needs online, having your site on the search engines through your articles is one method of letting them know about you and your business.

The good thing with articles is that you are able to write about things that people want to know about. This can be achieved in the lightest mood but professional manner, with a little not-so-obvious sales pitch added.

If you think about it, only a few minutes of your time is spent on composing one article and submitting to a free content site. Also In the shortest span of time, those are circulated to more sites than you are able to dream up. Even before you know what is happening, you are acquiring more visitors than you previously had.

If you think you are wasting your time writing these articles, fast forward to the time when you will see them printed and wide-spread on the internet. Not to mention the sudden attention and interest that people are giving your website and your products or services.

Try writing some articles and you will almost certainly be assured of the sudden surge in site traffic, link popularity and interest. Before you know it, you will be doubling and even tripling your earnings.

Six Ideas for Viral Marketing

Gary Knox — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:31:32 +0000

Here are six ideas that can be used to assist you in commencing your viral marketing campaign:

Buy the branding rights to a viral E-book. Permit people to give away your free E-book to their visitors. Then, their visitors will likewise give it away. This will just continue to circulate your ad all across the Internet.
If you have the ability to establish a forum or other bulletin board, you truly have an outstanding tool. Allow people to utilise your online discussion board for their own website. Some people do not have one. Just ensure that your banner advert is displayed at the top of the board.
Do you have a knack for web design? Produce some templates, graphics, etc. and upload them to your site. Then, permit people to give away your free web design graphics, fonts, templates, etc. Simply include your advert on them or require people to link directly to your web site. Make certain that you include a link back to your web site in the copyright notice and require them to keep your copyright notice in tact.
Publish an E-book. Provide for people to place an advert in your free E-book if, in exchange, they give away the E-book to their web visitors or E-zine subscribers.
Compose articles that relate to your product or service. Allow people to reprint your articles on their website, in their E-zine, newsletter, magazine or E-books. Ensure that your resource box is displayed at the bottom of each article. The resource box should include a link to your website as well as details of the reprint options.
You can easily find products on the Internet that will sell you a license permitting you to distribute the product for free to other people. Search for those products that provide “branding rights”. That is where you are able to include your own name, website, and contact information.

If you follow through with any of the above tips you are almost certain to see an increase in your client base.

Distributing Articles Through Blogs

Gary Knox — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:39:27 +0000

These days, it is hard to find anyone, of any age, who does not blog. Even people with a business have taken to blogging, from small ones to large corporations. The popularity and simplicity of blogging makes it popular with everyone.

Using blogs to help with your sales is easy and recommended. It is simple to create your own blog on which to post your articles. You can find a webhosting company that includes a blog in its webhosting package, or you can choose a popular blog site like Blogger at www.blogger.com .

The most important thing is to make your blog viral. Do this by creating an RSS feed and allowing readers to copy your blog to their own.

All you need to do is set up your blog and start posting your articles into categories of your own choosing. Using pinging features will allow blog directories to be kept updated whenever you add a new post to your blog. You can also sign up at pingomatic.com to have your blog pinged with many different services all at once. This will help bring traffic to your blog.

Another way to make blogs helpful in your article marketing is to seek out blogs that relate to your field of interest. Upon finding a subject that relates to your article, add a comment and a link to the article asking other readers of the blog to visit your blog and read the article.

Posting the actual article on someone else’s blog is rude and not accepted. A simple link to an article that directly relates to the topic in question is perfectly acceptable.

Marketing With Social Bookmarking Sites

Gary Knox — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 11:35:59 +0000

Social bookmarking sites allow you to create a profile then bookmark your favorite sites. These bookmarks will be shared with other users. When you book mark a site you will give a brief description and then pick a category and add keyword tags to your bookmark. These keyword tags allow your book marked site to show up when a user searches for book marked sites for that key word. This of course is the basic explanation of social bookmarking.

For your use you are going to bookmark your website and your blogs to better enhance your marketing potential. You will need to pick the appropriate category, give a short but to the point description of the bookmarked site and then pick the appropriate keywords to tag your bookmark with.

Not all social bookmark sites will have a category that fits your website. Some social bookmarking sites are geared toward a specific theme or a limited amount of topics. Should your website not fall into their theme or any of their topics then do not try to bookmark your website or blog on those social bookmark sites. This is considered under some circumstances as spam. Even when it is not considered spam to do this, it is still unprofessional. So stick with social bookmarking sites that offer your theme or category for your website.

Keywords should cover what you are bookmarking. Use as many keywords as possible that are relevant to your website or blog. Your account can be terminated by some sites if you are loading your bookmarks with a lot of irrelevant keywords. So refrain from doing this. Do not be afraid to use both singular and plural forms of words or variations of words for your keywords. In addition to creating a profile some bookmarking sites require that you download an application that will run in your browser bar. The purpose of this is so that when you are on a website and you wish to bookmark it all you have to do is click on their icon in your browser bar and you will be able to bookmark that site. Not all bookmarking sites will require this.

Most bookmarking sites offer you a feature so that you can place their buttons on your website so that your website visitors can bookmark your site themselves. Now while you are going to bookmark your site yourself, it is still a benefit to have these buttons on your site. Your site visitors who wish to bookmark your site will click one of these buttons and discover that it has already been bookmarked, now they have the option of voting on it. Since they were going to bookmark it themselves the chances are they will go ahead and take the time to vote it up. This means that you are moving up in the ranks with no extra work on your part.

To increase your review on these social bookmarking sites you should also bookmark other quality websites or articles that you find on the internet. Now you are probably wondering why I am telling you to bookmark other people. The reason is that if you are seen as a contributor who contributes quality bookmarks then your other bookmarks that you are bookmarking to promote yourself will also get good reviews.

Therefore, bookmark things that are of quality that are informative, useful and you will gain a reputation and thus increase your own traffic. In fact some social bookmarking sites will terminate your account if they feel you are spamming their site with your own promotions. While it is ok to promote your own website and such, you do not want to give the impression of spamming. You need to understand that a lot of traffic can come about as a result of bookmarking your website on one of these social bookmarking sites. Digg is one of them that if your content is good, other users will digg, your bookmark and thus raising you up in the ranks. As you rise up you will be hit with more and more traffic to your website, there fore make sure you have a server that can handle this possible traffic overload. While this does not happen to everyone there is still that chance that users on the social bookmarking site will love your content and thus your traffic increases.

Whilst you can end up with more traffic than you know what to do with, remember that this can take time to happen. As mentioned above you will need to have your website placed in the right category, use lot of relevant keywords and offer a good description. When you apply all of this you will have a better chance of getting known and rising in the ranks on these social bookmarking sites. This is all needed to see the huge amount of traffic that these sites are capable of delivering to your website.