Reducing your bounce rate

May 4th, 2011 No comments

To reduce your bounce rate you firstly need to understand what it is.
If someone comes to your website, without looking around they can be defined as bounced from your site. So if you have a high bounce rate it means you are getting traffic to your site but they are not hanging around when they see it. The practical aspects of actually getting people to hang around is harder than it sounds!

Did you know that on average, a female takes just 3 seconds and a male just 5 seconds to decide whether they are going to stay on a website or not?

There are many reasons why they may not hang around on your site. You either arent interested, therefore not targeted traffic or no connection points, it could also be that the site is talking to them but there is nothing for the customer to do (no action step) so they dont know what to do and just leave.

When you go on a blind date with someone there are a number of unknown variables. You may get on really well straight away, or you may not. What are the reasons you dont…  was it because they werent exciting enough for you, nothing that you had in common with them, or perhaps they just didnt look like you thought they would!?

This analogy is exactly the same as your website. Ensure it is portrayed as your customer would want it portrayed. The look, design and feel must be right but more importantly you have to have the copywriting spot on.  You can get them to the site but the harder thing is to get them to stay and get them to buy!

So for the design.. have a graphic that catches their eye, and some text by the side of the graphic which make the sale. Always remember benefits rather than features will make the sale for you.  The sale does not have to be a product to buy, it may be a free info product or signing up to a newsletter. You then have that customer in your database and hopefully repeat business after you have gained there trust.

To ensure you reduce your bounce rate one important thing to do with the above is to Test And Measure. You will here me saying this alot but ensure if you change anything on your site then test it to see if it works.  Test and measure will be another blog post as this is an integral step of being a successful internet marketer.

Bounce Rate = Total Number of Visits Viewing Only One Page / Total Number of Visits



Powerful words you need to use

April 4th, 2011 No comments

What are the most powerful words in the human language that are proven to attract attention and cause a powerful reaction and why do you need to know them?

If you are on the internet then you need to be able to utilise copywriting to ensure someone stays on your page for more than 3 seconds. You need to make an impression in that 3 seconds and you want them to preferably want to hear more about you so they then go onto buy your product or service. You need the reader to finish what they are reading and also have a rapport with you.

This logic applies with all the writing you do on a daily basis. For example – You might be writing an email to your boss to ask them if you can have a day off to take your kid to the dentist or you may be asking for a payrise. You could be writing a article that is selling a $10000 product, either way – you need to make a connection with your audience.

What are connection points?

A connection point is something that may stir a reaction or emotion in someone as they have had a similar experience or similar life. For example if you are married, with 2 kids and have a big brown dog. You then have 3 connection points immediately (married, kids and dog)

Lets look at some of those powerful words that stir an emotional reaction in people to encourage them to take action.

* You
* Proven
* Results
* Health
* Money
* Save
* Love
* New
* Discovery
* Safety
* Easy
* Guaranteed

Using these words can save you money, guaranteed, they will give you proven results to promote your product in a easy, safe and effective method that will improve your love life and health, TODAY (see how it works!)

The addition of action words to these key emotive powerful words will force an action from your audience

Adsense uncovered

March 1st, 2011 No comments

What is Adsense? Adsense is a creation of ads supplied by google for placement on your site. It is also classified as a content network campaign.

Adsense is common for raising revenue amongst bloggers. Can you remember looking at a website and seeing identical looking ads down the side of the site?

What is Adsense

Alot of the internet public has heard of advertising using google. In this case we are  marketing via google where our adverts are placed only on the appropriate search results pages.

Adsense offers the service to website owners, for placing adverts from Goggle onto their website and they will then share in a part of the revenue when someone actually clicks through on the advert.

The adsense ads are targeted by two factors: By the keywords on the page and by site selection.

For example, if i am bidding on a term the content network will then pull that ad through and display it on the page where the term appears, (Matching the keywords to terms and words on that particular web page, as opposed to search results)

Wikipedia definition

AdSense is an ad serving application run by Google Inc. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Google beta tested a cost-per-action service, but discontinued it in October 2008 in favor of a DoubleClick offering (also owned by Google). In Q1 2010, Google earned US$2.04 billion ($8.16 billion annualized), or 30% of total revenue, through AdSense.

Is Market Research REALLY necessary?

February 10th, 2011 No comments

Well, do you want to waste your time marketing the wrong product to the wrong group, or an over exposed product to a tired audience?

No?

Then you need to do market research.

market research

Market research isn’t hard. And it isn’t just for people who are trying to break into a new market with a new product. Business owners that have been in business for a while can definitely benefit from regular market research.

What are you researching?

If you are starting out with a new product, you need to know everything about that product. How long it has been around, who is currently promoting it, what your competitors are doing, how the public is reacting to it at the moment.

If you are picking up a product that has been around for a long time and there have been very few changes or enhancements to it – are the public now sick of it? Will there be a new version of the product to compete with this one on the market soon?

You need to know these things before starting out in order to avoid wasting your marketing efforts.

If you have been in business for a while, you need to ensure you don’t become stagnant. You need to research your market – what are your competitors doing, are your customers happy, can you value add?

Finding out what is happening in the market will ensure that you stay on top of your business and your marketing efforts are effective.

Information is the key to business success. Understanding your industry is the only way to stay ahead. The only way you will understand your industry fully is to do market research.

Market Research is for everyone. Make sure you target all your business efforts in the right direction – arm yourself with the right knowledge and you will be successful.

Forum Posting – Making Useful Contributions

January 25th, 2011 No comments

Forum posting is one of the most traditional traffic generation techniques. It’s a technique that is wide spread. There are many different ways that people market in forums – there are some do’s and don’ts.

forum posting

There are hundreds of members of each forum, and many threads. There are hundreds of people reading these threads, so you need to make sure that your submission is worthwhile.

Mostly, a post will start off with a reasonable question, or a useful comment, such as “How do I get more traffic to my website” or “What’s better for traffic generation paid or free techniques?”.

You will get a few useful comments on this. People who have taken the time to read the question, think of an answer, and then make their addition.

However there are many posts after that that simply say “I agree with you avatar467″ and then add the link to their website.

The likelihood that anyone is going to find that post useful and then click through to their website is remote.

When forum posting, you need to give something back. It is not simply one way. You have to give something to get traffic in return. Give your knowledge, give your knowledgeable opinion, give something.

When in a forum, you are among your peers. Take the opportunity to show your expertise and enjoyment in the topic area – Remember with your forum posting –  you get more bees with honey than you do with vinegar.

The Trick to Free Traffic Generation

January 15th, 2011 No comments

The term nothing in life is free is true. Even free traffic generation has a price – your time.

Many people do not value their time enough, or even at all.

Though it may seem like an expendable resource, you must remember that while you are using your time on one task, you are unable to use it on another.

So while you are spending time on free traffic generation, you are unable to use it effectively in another area of your business – hence there is a price.

free traffic generation

However, with this said and done, is there a positive side to free traffic generation?

Of course! Free traffic generation involves many different techniques, all of which create new content on the web, which links back to your blog/website. This in itself is a good thing, especially with the new Google Caffeine release, it means that with the new and relevant content you are uploading to the web, you are placing yourself in a better position to be ranked higher.

Free traffic generation techniques such as article submissions, blog commentating, forum participation, journal submissions, press releases and more mean that not only do you get links back to your website/blog (traffic) but you are expanding your total online profile.

So although free traffic generation does cost you in time – done right, it does pay out as well.

Tweet Your Way to Affiliate Sales

January 4th, 2011 No comments

Affiliate marketing is fast becoming one of the main ways to promote your products online.

As more and more people log on everyday to do their banking, research and shopping, an army of affiliate marketers to promote your products is the ideal solution to increased sales.

affiliate sales

One way to increase sales for yourself as well as a technique to encourage in your affiliates is tweeting. More specifically a sales message through Twitter. It is a sure way to increase affiliate sales.

There are a few steps to follow to getting a message out through Twitter.

First – ensure you have a list of people following you that are interested in your product. If you have a list of 5000 followers and 4990 are generic people acquired through a twitter karma program, then you are less likely to get an action on a sales message. Aim to gain followers in trending topics around your product. If you sell sneakers, try to get followers who also follow Fitness, Fitness Equipment or Clothing. These people are interested in your product and a much better targeted audience. In order to move your sales messages to affiliate sales, your messages need to target the right people.

Second – refine your message. You have 140 characters, so you need to ensure that 140 characters worth of converting sales message appears. You will need to include a link to your website, and this should be provided through a link shortener such as bit.ly. Rewrite the message several times until you have a good copy. Then publish to your list.

Third – and most important, make sure that you do not bombard your followers with advertising. Provide interesting updates, insights and useful information as well as sales copy. You will maintain a healthy and responsive list this way.

Twitter can help sales dramatically if used efficiently. Encourage your affiliates to tweet more often and measure your affiliate sales success!

Why Is Internet Marketing So Popular?

December 26th, 2010 No comments

A perfect marketing mix for businesses today definitely includes internet marketing. More and more companies are committing themselves to this most effective form of advertising as it is the new face of marketing.
Freedom, flexibility, adaptability, measurability and cost effectiveness are just few of the benefits to businesses. And customers love it because it eases the process of comparing and searching for different products, while orders can be placed and received while sitting at home.

The very first reason for the popularity of internet marketing is its wider reach. The products or services you promote using this mode are accessible to all those who use the internet and there are millions of them. Just a single advertisement can get you thousands of qualifying leads. You can get in touch with many people in one go.

internet marketing

Another reason is the ease and flexibility of internet marketing is the ability to do it from the comfort of home. Many Mums and people who cannot leave their home due to certain circumstances can easily get into home based internet marketing where they get to set their own work timings, hours of work and schedules. The temptation of being your own boss is hard to resist.

Affordability is another very important aspect responsible for the fast growth of this industry. Putting up an advertisement on a billboard on the highway is far more costly than a large banner ad on a webpage and the visibility is much higher in the latter. The results are fast because people just have to click a link and they can find out about you and your products or services immediately. The internet ads are placed in relevance to the sites being visited. Take the case of a person visiting a camera website; displaying ads related to camera accessories, memory sticks, camera bags are sure to increase the interest level. And chances are that the person will visit these sites with genuine action to buy.

Internet marketing is pertinent to both sellers and customers. And there is still huge amount of potential lying untapped. It is matter of learning and monetary investment, so give it some time, learn the skills and use it to grow your business by leaps and bounds.

What Are Successful Video Marketing Strategies?

December 16th, 2010 No comments

Generating traffic and bringing in lots of quality backlinks are no longer limited to blogging or article marketing. A new technique that is picking up phenomenally is video marketing. As per reports, about half of the visitors on the Internet today like to use video and it is certainly viral in nature. There is no stopping the advertising that happens through this medium.

video marketing

Video marketing has become a necessity today so as an Internet marketer you should be familiar with the tricks of the trade. Let’s have a look at the successful strategies that you must follow to get the best results:

  • The most important advantage of video marketing is to have a live communication so the best strategy is to use it fully and develop a deep connection with the audience. The connection needs to be at all levels right from personal to professional. Your tone and expressions should be friendly, genuine and convincing.
  • If you are using the Internet, there is no escape from the appropriate use of keywords and optimization. So choose your keywords carefully and use them appropriately without sounding robotic. Video titles, headings, descriptions, tags all need your attention.
  • It is advisable to use meta-tags so that your video is also search engine optimized and features in the search results.
  • The key to video marketing is to design the video in such a way that it keeps the viewer hooked. So be precise, pleasant and concise in your briefings and explanations. Do not make it too long or boring.
  • Start discussions, initiate conversations and encourage people to participate. Video can be a medium for proper two way communication so involve people as much as possible.
  • You can also create video site maps that allow your videos to be indexed and hence the visibility increases.

Once you have all the things in place and you are ready to implement the strategies, shoot the video professionally and distribute it all over the Internet. Be a part of video marketing which is new, innovative and extremely effective.

Do Your Copywriting Skills Convert?

December 5th, 2010 No comments

The most important part of successful sales is convincing the prospective customer and leaving no chances for them to say no. On the Internet, where face to face communication is not possible, it is your sales copy and article marketing skills that do the job for you. But not everyone has the ability to turn visitors into customers.

Do your copywriting skills have the power to convert?

copywriting skills

The good news is that even if your answer is no, you can learn to write better and have your sales figures soaring.
Here are some tips to hone your copywriting skills so that you can be great at your internet marketing:

  • The focus should be on cutting down the clutter and getting your message across in the most precise and concise way. A brief introduction is important to set the tone but the objective of the article should not get diluted.
  • Write in such a way that it raises questions in the minds of the readers and the answers should be there in your article. They should be compelled to know more, learn more.
  • Think from the customers’ perspective and try to figure out their potential queries, issues and apprehensions. Write the article as per your findings and from the customer’s point of view. Make sure to use accurate facts and data.
  • One of the best copywriting skills is to use the art of subtlety intelligently and still drive home the point. You do not have to be pushy or awkward. Use the right words in the right places.
  • The copy should be easy to read and understand. Using heavyweight words without context takes away the appeal of the subject matter.
  • The title and sub titles in the sales copy should be interesting and alluring. The readers should feel compelled to read the whole article.

It is true that the instinct of writing comes from within but with practice and genuine interest to improve your copywriting skills, you can be successful in capturing the reader’s attention.