Posts belonging to Category Internet Marketing



The Importance of Branding a Domain Name Correctly

By Graham Jones

Google is one of the most well known online brand names – indeed it is one of the top brands of any business. Yet the name is wrong…! The correct spelling is “googal” – the mathematical name for the number of items the founders of the company were hoping to index. But in spite of the incorrect spelling, the name “google.com” is one of the most recognized and used in the world.

Facebook, started out as “facemash.com”, almost certainly for the better. Twitter is what birds do, of course. And few people would ever have dreamed of going up the Amazon to get a book. Many well-known online brands use domains which fail to really tell us what they do – yet we know and love them.

But you have to ask yourself why is it we love to buy books from a domain name which actually represents the name of a river? Or why we are prepared to adore a search engine whose owners clearly cannot spell? It is because they are massive brands and they have built those brands almost entirely OFFLINE. Massive public relations campaigns, journalistic articles and media coverage have meant that in the early days of each of these well-known domain names we all heard about them. Indeed, even today you can hardly move in the media without bumping into mentions of Google, Facebook, Twitter or Amazon. The URLs we type in are so well-known we don’t really stop to think how daft they might be..!

For the rest of business – companies that do not have the fame of international brands, or who cannot afford their PR budgets – the domain name they choose matters much more. There are a couple of reasons for this. (more…)

“I’m a Newbie…..get me out of here!”

You are reasonably happy in your 9 to 5 job. So what if it is sometimes more like 6 to 10, it is no big deal. There is enough money to cover the bills, give the wife and kids some nice treats, life is OK.

A little extra would be nice, though, wouldn’t it.?

Then it starts. The siren song leading you to a place of promises, dreams, sidewalks paved with gold, unlimited wealth. You are ready to listen. How about $50,000 a week for 4 hours work a day? Good for starters. Or even better, earn $40.000 overnight, while you sleep.

You will find literally hundreds of Gurus ready to brainwash you into signing up for their particular set of dreams. That is what they are really selling, dreams…….and hope.

Your eyes glow, your heart beats faster, you can’t sleep at night. At last… the answer!!

Welcome, my friend, to the world of internet marketing.

The siren song has led you into a big blue ocean of hopes and dreams, where there are lots of much bigger and cleverer fish, and a good many sharks. Can a little tiddler survive?

One of the first things you notice is that you are no longer an ordinary member of the human race. You are now a member of a sub-species…a newbie. There, you thought you were just a beginner! No, No, the internet has its own language…..

Bombarded on all sides ….. to eBay or not to eBay, affiliates, eBooks…it just goes on.

There are two possible endings to this story. I think we all know what the first could be, so let’s ignore that and concentrate on the positive…… The Happy Ending.

You write that eBook that becomes a cult bestseller around the world, is translated into 60 languages and solves the world economic crisis at a stroke. Or you find that one amazing product that solves every crisis the world has ever known. Climate change is reversed, Icelandic volcanoes stop erupting, and Jeremy Clarkson becomes a polite pussycat. They create a new Nobel Prize especially for you.

Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Ron Woodham come to you for advice. Barrack Obama sends Airforce One to fly you to the White House for an urgent consultation. You are a sensation on MySpace, Youtube, Facebook. In fact, there are so many hits on your Youtube videos that their servers crash and they have to upgrade them before reloading the videos.

Congratulations, you are no longer a newbie. You are now officially a Guru.

But that, dear reader, is another story for another day!

 

Creating an Online Business in Seven Easy Steps

Notes for Newbies: Finding Your Niche

When you begin your Internet marketing career, the very first thing you hear over and over again, is “FIND A PROFITABLE NICHE”. I have put this is capital letters, because, to an Internet marketer, this is the Holy Grail, Paradise Found, and winning the lottery all rolled into one!

Finding a profitable niche is one of the most discussed subjects in Internet marketing and can be a scary prospect for the newbie. Everybody talks about it, everybody has opinions on it, and the poor newbie will have many “rabbit caught in headlights” moments just thinking about it.

But the hard fact is, if you have a product in mind, and you don’t find a niche market for it, then how much success are you going to have? Not a lot. The days of just putting a product up on the internet and making sales without effort are long gone. Now extra effort is essential.

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Repurpose Your Articles

Did you know that EzineArticles are now encouraging their authors….that’s you and me….to “repurpose” content for submission to them as an article?

That includes blog posts that you may have already written, and have been afraid to reuse for fear of being penalised for duplicate content.

So what exactly do they mean by “repurpose”?

Take a look at 2 Minute Submission Tips from EZA where it is all explained in great detail, with a brief video.

Make sure you read the comments underneath the video as they are very informative also.

The duplicate content dilemma has always been a major factor in article writing, and many people will still feel happier submitting only original articles to EZA, and then publishing them elsewhere later.

Still, it is good to know that there is another acceptable way of doing things, and many people are unaware of this.

This quote from Christopher Knight of EZA…..

“You can submit to EzineArticles ANY article that you own the exclusive rights to… but the articles you submit to us do not have to be exclusive to EzineArticles.com.”

 

Notes for Newbies:Resell Rights Explained

The most difficult  part for many people starting out online trying to make some extra  cash is having a product of your very own to sell. Having your own product is the best thing you can do eventually to make a name for yourself and build a business.

The next best thing for many is to become a licenced reseller for a product. In most cases this will allow you to resell, reprint and distribute a product and keep all the sales.

However, this can be a confusing issue for beginners, as they struggle to understand the different licencing terms that go with a reseller package.

Here’s a quick overview of the different rights:

Giveaway Rights

You are free to pass on the ebook or software at no cost to anyone. You sometimes are not even allowed to sell it. You can find these rights usually stated at the beginning of ebooks or somewhere in the software file.
Giveaway rights are good for the end user as long as the content is quality and helps those who use it.

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Notes for Newbies: Getting Started with Forum Marketing

If you are serious about building an online identity, make sure you don’t neglect the marvellous resource that is online Forum Marketing.

This should be one of the first options you consider when setting up your online business, and you can begin participating in forums even before you have your website set up.

Participating in forums in your niche, will not only help build your online presence, but you will be able to develop your own knowledge base by reading posts by other more experienced marketers.

Forums can be a great source of learning, to ask questions and receive answers from those who know, but you must tread cautiously to begin with, and carefully abide by the terms and conditions of each forum.

Your aim must be to become a regular participant in your chosen forums, and then when other forum members read and like your contributions, they will be encouraged to click on your signature link and visit your website or blog. This is a great way to build relationships with others in you niche.

With this in mind, there are steps to take before you actually get to the “marketing” aspect of Forum Marketing.

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