Outsourced IT

The constantly changing and maturing playing field of search engine optimization (SEO) and internet marketing can be quite confusing to business owners. With all the overload and hype of information on the world wide web, it can be a daunting task to determine the best avenue to invest your time and resources in. Here you’ll find my compiled list of the top 20 internet marketing weapons that are a “must-do” for any business owner concerned with serious growth and brand awareness.

1. Advanced internet marketing knowledge and mindset. Trying to wrap your head around all the ins and outs of internet marketing can be quite overwhelming. Start with a solid foundation, learn the basics and you’ll ensure you’re using more time, knowledge and imagination, and less money.

2. A well researched, written plan for marketing on the internet. Your odds for achieving your business goals will increase substantially.

3. A professional looking and easy-to-navigate website. Higher browser-to-buyer conversion rates, generating income online, offline, or both.

4. Keyword-rich domain name. A keyword rich domain name makes it easy for people and search engines to find, and remember, your website.

5. Effective search engine optimization (SEO). SEO moves your website closer to the top of the search engine results pages. (SERPS) It’s the most powerful and cost effective path towards sustainable, long-term internet marketing results.

6. Compelling and well written direct response sales letter. Makes it more likely that prospects will act as invited.

7. Ad tracking software to measure opt-in and sales conversions. Tells you what’s working well and what isn’t so you can earn, and save, more money.

8. Blogs. Search engines, and people, love these affordable, flexible, self-publishing additions (or replacements) to traditional websites.

9. Email autoresponders. Follow up and stay in touch with large, and diverse, groups of people without lifting a finger.

10. All-in-one shopping carts. Eliminates the need to purchase and set up separate payment, communication, and tracking automation software and ensures that all elements work in harmony with each other.

11. Email campaigns. Highly effective and a free way to get more people to visit your website. Consider adding video elements for higher response rates.

12. Email list-building strategies that combine opt-in opportunities with compelling offers. Increases the pool of interested prospects and begins the relationship building process.

13. Multimedia: Audio and video to enhance communication. Enhances visitors’ experiences by engaging multiple senses and makes product demonstrations more effective.

14. Joint venture and strategic alliances. Allows business owners to share the work and wealth by joining forces.

15. Podcasts and nanocasts. Cost effective vehicles for repurposing and repackaging existing products and increasing brand awareness and visibility.

16. Teleseminars, teleconferences, and webinars. Offers many of the same benefits as face-to-face communication far less expensively while allowing global participation in meetings and classes.

17. Involvement Devices: wikis, surveys, polls, forums, blogs. Enhances the relationship building process by transforming traditional one way web conversations into two way dialogues.

18. Affiliate programs – Yours and others’. Allows business owners to hire an army of sales people without hiring employees and allows business owners to earn money on other people’s products and services.

19. Web 2.0 Social Media. Provides everyone the opportunity to expand their personal and business networks globally.

20. Outsourcing. Cost effective to outsource routine administrative duties to ensure that business owners are free to spend time where it counts most.

Warming Up the Art Business

When an artist takes a photograph, paints a picture or molds a piece of clay, it can feel natural, magical and instinctive. However, when forced to execute the business side of art, it’s often not so effortless. Whether dealing with complex inventory management or Internet marketing, so many facets to the business of art can seem cold.

These days, successful artists and gallery owners are pulled in many different directions and the result can be disastrous. When their focus is shifted to all-things-business, what happens to the art? Where do passion and creativity go? The reality is, sometimes they dwindle. This is where software and technology can play an integral role. By outsourcing the pieces of the business that are tedious or difficult, precious time – and often sanity – is restored.

Masterpiece Solutions (http://www.masterpiecesolutions.com) is an art-focused business that knows the industry. With more than 12 years of experience, the Company’s solutions were built by gallery owners for gallery owners/operators and artists. With over 1000 art gallery customers, we know the tools and the secrets that help artists and gallery operators succeed; even in the most difficult of times.

Have you recently had the time to thoughtfully consider inventory tracking, an online presence, POS technology, or Customer Relationship Management? Even if you’ve tackled some of these challenges, which have escaped you? Inevitably something has been put on the back burner. The good news is that all of these obstacles can all be swiftly addressed.

Where’s My Art, Again?!

Many artists juggle exhibits in several locations, trying to strategically keep track of what is where. Handling inventory management and consignment agreements can become a burdensome element of the art business and technology can make a tremendous difference.

For gallery owners, inventory is the most important factor of the business. It can be an expensive, time consuming, full-time job to effectively manage and track inventory and sales. This is where software can change the business overnight.

Masterpiece Solutions is the leader in comprehensive point of sale and business management software for art and antique galleries, artists and other independent retailers. With simple-to-use software solutions, we can track multiple mediums; differentiate between different kinds of inventory (limited editions, consigned vs. owned or mixture of the two – i.e. consigned art, owned frame); effectively track artists, suppliers and co-ventures; watch stock locations – warehouse, store, home, framer; watch costs, retail prices, wholesale and web prices; manage digital images and allow you to power search and filter your pieces by selecting criteria.

Get Out There!

In retail settings, sales and marketing are the engines to success. But with online consumerism booming, traditional marketing has changed its scope and new ways of marketing and sales have surfaced. These days, the most successful artists and galleries utilize the web as a sales and marketing tool.

Masterpiece Solutions offers a comprehensive suite of marketing tools. The best source of new leads and sales for both galleries and artists are those people that have purchased or expressed an interest in purchasing before. The question is; how do you effectively leverage this data to development marketing programs to convert these contacts into sales in the future? Our Customer Relationship Management module combines the power of a comprehensive database with a simple and intuitive e-mail marketing capability. With a few key strokes, you can direct targeted marketing campaigns and generate new revenues.

Masterpiece Solutions also provides comprehensive web services to build effective websites that showcase your art to the rest of the world. Once built, your site will be integrated directly with your software so that your website is constantly updated with your current inventory. This integration eliminates the need to pay pricy web developers or dedicated staff to keep your site updated. With over 400 websites, we work closely with artists and galleries of all sizes to build an online presence that suits their individualized needs.

In addition, with more than $460 million in inventory, Masterpiece Online (http://www.masterpieceonline.com) has become one of the most visited art sites on the web. Masterpiece Online reaches tens-of-thousands of art consumers every month, connecting art galleries and artists directly with art, antique, craft and jewelry consumers worldwide.

“Masterpiece Online is the future of art distribution for every gallery and artist. Art buying in the 21st century has shifted its focus to online browsing and purchasing. With hectic schedules and less free time, the online marketplace has become a convenient and necessary source for clients looking to peruse available art. With its new unlimited listing service, Masterpiece Online offers an invaluable service to anyone looking to purchase or sell quality fine art,” said Dean Lombardo of Objects & Images, Inc. Fine Art in New York City.

Don’t Be Afraid of the “T” Word!

Technology: the all encompassing term that often means change. With point-of-sale software, customer management, reporting, accounting and many more programs and products in the market, current technology available to artists and art galleries can be overwhelming. However, software solutions should make life easier, not harder. Gone are the days of missing papers, broken calculators and handmade sales charts. Let your software system do the work in a one-stop-shop.

Implementing new technology entails research, set-up, education and support. But that process should be clean and simple. It should be the promise of money back in the bank, operational efficiency and a feeling of relief.

Technology is the heart of most successful businesses – and for a reason. Software systems can automate what historically has been time consuming, confusing or monotonous. Masterpiece Solutions offers a suite of products that takes administrative work off the plate of artists and gallery owners, so that they can focus on their art and their customers.

You Are Not Alone

To many, the business side of the art world can be hard to embrace. In fact, many wonderful tools can assist in decisions that will improve your business, offering visibility, sales and continuity. But this is a tough time for all businesses, and artists and galleries need not feel alone. Behind the tools are people who are rooting for your success and can help you make decisions that can positively impact your business.

Masterpiece Solutions recently announced a comprehensive program to offer assistance to artists and gallery owners during this tough economic climate. The recently released Masterpiece Success Package offers much more than back-end software, including a suite of products to help small organizations stay above water during retail slowdown.

In addition to savvy technology, a good technical assistance program can be worth its weight in gold. We recommend working with organizations that don’t simply set up systems and disappear. Good customer service is the key to embracing new technology and sustainability.

So, whether you are a seasoned artist or just getting your feet wet, don’t let the business of art put out your fire. Warm up to the idea of help, though technology, outsourcing and external resources.

Kevin Warr is CEO of Masterpiece Solutions: http://www.masterpiecesolutions.com

About Masterpiece Solutions

Founded in 1994, Masterpiece Solutions has grown to be the trusted authority on art gallery software products and services. Art gallery, antique, craft, and gift stores’ owners and retail staff rely on Masterpiece Solution’s unparalleled art management software and support services to help them effectively manage their businesses for greater operational efficiency, return on investment and peace of mind. In addition, Masterpiece Solutions also meets the needs of independent artists, offering artist software, artist website templates and much more at an affordable price. More information on antique software, art software and a wide breadth of other offerings can be found at http://www.masterpiecesolutions.com

Invented by CDNow.com at the end of 1994 and pioneered by Amazon.com in 1996, “affiliate programs”, also known as Associate Programs or Partner Programs, are a simple way for Web sites to generate revenue by directing traffic toward other sites and a great way for the operating site to increase its traffic and revenue.
Because affiliate programs are so convenient and work so well, they have become the industry’s dominant method of online Marketing.
There are 4 different kinds of affiliate programs to compensate “Affiliates” (or referring sites) for generating traffic to the Affiliate Program operating Website: Pay-Per-Impression, Pay-Per-Click, Pay-Per-Lead and Pay-Per-Sale.

Pay-Per-Impression (CPM)
The Pay-Per-Impression and Pay-Per-Click Model are not common to be used in Affiliate Marketing anymore. They were used in the Past, but were mostly abandoned due to Fraud and lack of Results.
The CPM (cost-per-impression) compensation Model was revived by Google for Google AdWords in summer 2005. The feature is called “Site-Targeting” in AdWords and allows you to display your Adsense Ad on a specific Website that runs AdSense Ads.

Pay-Per-Click (CPC) Model

Like the Pay-per-Impression model was the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Model popular during the dot com boom at the end of the 1990th but was mostly abandoned by Advertisers for Advertisements on other Websites due to rampart problems with click fraud.
The PPC Model was kept alive by the PPC Search Engine GoTo.com which became later Overture.com and is now owned by Yahoo! and renamed from “Yahoo Sponsored Search” to Yahoo Search Marketing.
Google launched their PPC Service AdWords in 2000. Ask Jeeves, now simply Ask.com followed with their PPC Service in 2005 called Ask Sponsored Listings and MSN.com in 2006 with AdCenter. Other PPC Services are Miva/FindWhat.com and 7Search.com.

Contextual Advertising

The big come-back of PPC came when Google launched AdSense in 2003, the birth of contextual Advertising. What is Google AdSense? Here is a quote from Google’s History at Google’s corporate Website.

Google AdSense: “… offering web sites of all sizes a way to easily generate revenue through placement of highly targeted ads adjacent to their content. Google AdSense technology analyzes the text on any given page and delivers ads that are appropriate and relevant, increasing the usefulness of the page and the likelihood that those viewing it will actually click on the advertising presented there.”
Yahoo’s Version of AdSense called Yahoo! Publisher Network was launched (beta) in 2005. Microsoft is also working on their own Version of AdSense which is expected to be launched (beta) in 2006.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Classic PPC Search Engine Marketing (Cost-Per-Click (CPC) advertising) is not Affiliate Marketing. It is an entirely different type of Internet Marketing and only has some technical details in common with old PPC/CPC Affiliate Marketing.
Ads are primarily displayed at the Search Engine Search Results Pages (SERPs) next to organic, free, Search Results. Contextual Advertising introduced with Google AdSense is also not Affiliate Marketing since no direct Partnership between the Advertiser who creates and pays for the Ads and the Publisher who displays the Ads on his Website.

This type of Marketing is generally referred to as Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and is often and wrongly mixed up and confused with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which is about improving the ranking of a Site in the organic, free, SERPs at major Search Engines via technical means and deep understanding of the complicated ranking algorithms used by modern Search Engines.

Pay-Per-Call Advertising is neither Search Engine Marketing (SEM) nor Affiliate Marketing. Recently developed call-tracking technology allows to create a bridge between online and offline Advertising. Pay-Per-Call Advertising is still new and in it’s infancy. It is expected to become the 4th major type of Internet Marketing next to Affiliate Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization within the next years.

The Affiliate Marketing shifted almost entirely to the Pay-Per-Lead (CPA or CPL) and Pay-Per-Sale Model (CPS) which is also known as Performance Marketing. The paid commission is usually a percentage of the referred sales or a flat dollar amount.

The Pay-Per-Lead (CPA or CPL) Model

The Advertiser pays Affiliates a Flat Amount Commission if a referred visitor performs a specific action on the Advertisers Site. It could be Actions like filling out a Form, Signing up for a Newsletter or Creating an Account.
The CPA Model is very popular with Online Services like Credit Card Providers, Insurance Services, DVD and Video Game Rental Services and Loans and Mortgages. Due to the usual high flat commission amount is the CPA very attractive for PPC Affiliates that do not have a permanent Website and an established User Base.
Before you consider the CPA Model for you problem, make sure to have mechanisms in place to validate the quality of referred leads. Your program will be vulnerable to become a victim of fraud, affiliates that generate tons of “fake” leads if you do not have anything in place to verify the quality of the produced leads.

The Pay-Per-Sale (CPS) Model

This Model is used by most Online Merchants today. The Merchant pays a percentage of the Order Amount that was created by a customer who was referred by an Affiliate.

Do not pay commissions that you end up loosing money on an order. You will gain new customers because of the Affiliate Program, but you will also pay commissions for returning customers.
Shoppers on the internet are more savvy today. Comparison Shopping Sites, Coupon Sites, Cash-Back Shopping and Charity Sites, that make up a large percentage of successful affiliates, are often visited by Shoppers first. See the Affiliate Program also as a Customer Retention Tool.
CPA or CPS?

If your competitors have affiliate programs and you don’t, chances are good, that you are loosing a considerable amount of business to them, because the lag of an affiliate program for your site.
If you want to use an Affiliate Program as an Online Merchant for the whole purpose of customer acquisition, consider the CPA Model and pay a flat commission for new customers referrer by affiliates.
Do the math to come up with a Flat Commission that makes it worthwhile for affiliates to promote you. Affiliates are not waiting for you, the next Merchant that has a Program is only one click away.
What you do and what commission you pay is up to you. You can also mix compensation models. The best thing to do is always to check first what your competitors are doing and use their compensation model as reference.
Pay-Per-Sale is by far the most common compensation model. 2/3 to 3/4 of all Affiliate Programs today are Pay-per-Sale Programs. The operating Site only pays “Commission” to their Affiliates for actual Results (a Sale, Sign-up etc.) and not just for promises (Clickthroughs, Banner Impressions).
Affiliate Networks

Operating an affiliate program to drive traffic to your website has never been easier. Most Sites utilize 3rd Party Services (so called Affiliate Networks). Those Services provide the infrastructure for you to track all the traffic and referrals to your Website.
Networks also work as a Recruiting Platform to find Websites willing to promote your Products or Services. The Integration of their Service usually takes just a few days or sometimes just a few hours.
Some of the Networks also help you to keep the generated overhead low (such as Payment of the Affiliates).
Networks usually charge 20-30% of the commission you pay to Affiliates as Fee to you. If the Fee is 25% for example and you pay 10% commission per Sale to you Affiliate, you must pay $12.5 in commission and fee for a $100 Sale.

In-House Affiliate Program Solutions and Software

You might want to have more control over your Affiliate Program and avoid the Network fees by running the program In-House.
You can, of course, develop all the necessary tools and technology by yourself, but that is may be not very cost effective and not as easy as it seems.
The technology has already been developed by various Affiliate Tracking Solution Providers and Software Packages.
They are most of the time easy to plug into your existing Sites and have already proven themselves. Be carefull with too small or too new Solution and Software Provoiders.
Check the Background of the Company you consider first. Do your diligence!
Outsourcing – Outsourced Program Management (OPM)

When you have your Program up and running, the first and important step was done. Now begins the complicated part starts.
The Wild West of Affiliate Marketing when quick and easy money was made and having an Affiliate Program running on “Auto Drive” generated a huge increase in sales by affiliates that seeked out programs and did everything themselves without the need of support and guidance is over. Business on the internet matured and Affiliate Marketing as well.
An Affiliate Program requires attention. To get active and quality affiliates requires active recruitment efforts. Support of existing affiliates also became vital. A clear set of Rules, the Affiliate Agreement, must be worked out and be enforced.
Allocate Resources to the program and don’t do it on the side.

Your program is destined to fail if you don’t spend the required resources and time for your program.
If you don’t have the resources in-house, consider outsourcing of your program management (OPM). There are today a number of quality service companies available that are specialized in this.

Conclusion

Thousands of Websites operating their Affiliate Program successfully today, prove, that Affiliate Marketing is the most cost effective and efficient way to promote your products and services on the World Wide Web.
Affiliate Marketing guarantees a fast ROI (Return of Investment) and for some Online Merchants and Services are the Sales generated through the Affiliate Channel making up a considerable percentage of their total online Revenue.

Important Abbreviations

CPA – Cost per Action

CPC – Cost per Click

CPL – Cost per Lead

CPM – Cost per (Mil) Impression (1000 Impressions)

CPS – Cost per Sale

CR – Conversion Rate

CTR – Click through rate

DRM – Dynamic Rich Media (type of Ad, technology). It has nothing to do with DRM as in Digital Rights Management

EPC – Earnings per Click / Earnings per 100 Clicks

OPM – Outsourced (Affiliate) Program Management

PPC – Pay per Click

ROI – Return of Investment

SE – Search Engines

SEM – Search Engine Marketing

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

SERP – Search Engine Result Page

SID – URL Parameter the Affiliate can pass to get tracked with Sales and Leads

Abbreviations of Websites you will come across

ABW – ABestWeb – Affiliate Marketing Forum

CJ – Commission Junction – Affiliate Network

LS – Linkshare – Affiliate Network

MyAP – My Affiliate Program – In-House Program Solution

PF – Performics – Affiliate Netwok

SAS – ShareASale – Affiliate Network

SEW – Search Engine Watch – News and Resources

SR – Share Results – Affiliate Network

TW – Thread Watch – Internet Marketing News Discussions

WW – Webmaster World Forums

Internet marketing is a huge challenge if you’re a terrible time manager. The time management habits that you have now will determine your success with online marketing unless you make changes today.

If you want succeed in your business, you’re going to have to manage your time well.

Most online money making experts will focus on the methods, niches and tools of Internet marketing first. But the foundation of your future success is closely tied to time management.

No matter what type of online marketing business you’re running, you need to manage your time well. Here are seven tips to help you become a better time manager so you can succeed online.

1, Figure out where you’re wasting time.

Everyone has the same 24 hours per day and if you aren’t reaching your goals, something has to change. Take note of how much time you are spending doing low priority activities – like watching television or checking out forums. You’ll be amazed by how much time you’re wasting.

2, Set time management goals for yourself.

Changing your behaviors is key to effective time management. Once you recognize your patterns, set a few goals for yourself – like limiting television to one hour a day or spending 15 minutes at the end of the day on social networking sites.

3, Gather time management tools to help you keep your goals.

Start using a time log to take note of when you’re working on your Internet marketing activities. There are several free software programs available that will keep track of what you’re doing and when you are doing it. Start using these tools to support your goals and keep you on track.

4, Prioritize your tasks.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming that everything is important and needs to be done right now. The biggest priority items should be done first and only then should you move onto lower priority tasks. But until you prioritize your tasks, you can’t really determine what should be done first. Make a list of your tasks and label them in their order of importance so you know what to focus on first.

5, Outsource what you can to free up your time.

Outsourcing is one of the best ways to manage your time better. You don’t need to personally complete every task that needs to be done in your Internet marketing business. Make use of outsourcing whenever you can.

6, Set time limits for yourself.

People tend to work better when they’re a bit under the gun. You can create this sense of urgency by setting a time limit for yourself. Make sure it’s realistic and then you’ll be more likely to get your tasks accomplished.

7, Get your systems organized.

Your internet marketing business is like a machine and if you don’t take the time to make it run correctly, your machine is going to break down.

Take an afternoon to get all of your systems in place so you can run efficiently. This includes your outsourcing plan, your marketing plan and even your business bank account.

Once your business starts booming, you’ll be glad you took these steps ahead of time.

Dear Reader,

Sometimes you feel like knowing more about offshore & outsourcing & you don’t find anyone to ask for it? Being the CEO of outsourcing company (Infotrex Services Pvt. Ltd), many of times people like you, ask me this question in email or on phone- "Please tell me the way you operate the business & how to proceed further?"
Let me break the problem into different chunks & solve it.

Lets understand – different offshore business methods:

We work using 3 offshore business methods:
1. Fixed Price Model: You tell us requirements, we estimate the efforts, you approve it, we work on it and you pay fixed money. You hold all intellectual property. Generally, online bidding falls under this model, where a buyer wants the lowest fixed price from the bids of sellers.

2. Monthly Price Model: You have lots of work, which you want to get it done regularly. You hire a person fully dedicated to you. You pay monthly salary. Again, you hold all intellectual property.

3. Partnership Model: You have the idea, but not much money. You want to get it implement it. In this case, we will evaluate the idea, develop it jointly and market it. Intellectual rights(source code) will not be with you. It will be with us.
In broad sense, you can choose any of the above methods as per your needs and grow your business.

Now, how to proceed for outsourcing work. Here are some common sense suggestions.

1. Trust nobody. Not me and not yourself.
When you outsource your work, you have to be careful There are many people who are not competent but still want to have your work and try to deliver it. They may fail and learn from it, but for you it will be loss of time & money. Talk to the CEO or founder of the outsourcing company, see the portfolio & talk to the references given by the company.

2. Prepare some small problems and ask the outsourcing team to solve it. May be you can decide to pay for it and sometimes you can ask for FREE evaluation.

3. Start with small project modules and watch for several points like – communication, project requirement analysis, how good they research or ask questions, regular status update etc. Small things can become bigger in future, so before you invest more of your time & money into outsourcing, just be careful and see if the outsourcing team can deliver.
There is a lot to say for outsourcing business & how to work with around it. So€ far, if you use above 3 offshore business models & use 3 tips above to start outsourcing work, I am sure you will achieve greater heights in future for your business. Good luck!!!

Building your list and adding prospects to your sales funnel with article submissions is the hottest sales lead generation trend on the Web today. However, the article submission process is one of the most boring and tedious tasks around. That’s why many authors, experts and businesses choose to outsource their article marketing efforts.

How can you choose the best company to handle this important process for you? Follow these tips to avoid being ripped off from unscrupulous merchants?

Here Are My Top 10 Questions to Ask Any Article Marketing & Submission Service Provider So You Can Reach Your Goals:

1. Are the sites on your company’s article submission list well known across the Web, or are they dummy sites that you set up? Some unscrupulous article submission service providers promise to post your article to hundreds or thousands of sites for a very low fee – like $15! What they don’t tell you is that these sites are ones they have created for the sole purpose of posting your articles. No one visits these sites. Search engines don’t index these sites. So no one will ever see these articles. Ask for a list of sites they submit to. If they don’t seem credible, run fast!

2. Does Google index the sites you submit to? If Google doesn’t, then you are wasting your time. Ask them for a list of success stories. By going to Google and typing the headline in quotes, you can check whether or not Google indexes the articles they submit.

3. Does Alexa index the sites your company submits articles to? Alexa.com is a website that tracks the traffic of all websites. Go there and type your website URL and you’ll see where your site ranks among the millions of websites. It’s easy and fun to do. Try it! Now, ask the marketing company to provide the names of 10 sites they will submit your article to. See where they rank on Alexa. Do they even rank on Alexa? If not, watch out!

4. Is this a targeted campaign, or a scattershot approach? Ask the company how well targeted the article submission process is going to be. Can they target specific audiences, like health, or marketing or C-level executives? If they can’t, then you are wasting your money reaching audiences that aren’t interested in your message.

5. Does your company submit articles by hand or by software? Most reputable websites that accept articles will not accept articles delivered by software. They want unique content and they know articles submitted by software will be sent to every site imaginable.

6. Does your company edit your article? I’ve written six books on marketing and the Internet that have been translated into six different languages, and I write and submit articles on a weekly basis. Yet, I still hire proofreaders to review my articles. Sure, you think you are a great writer, but there’s not a person alive who won’t benefit from a copy editor giving the article a second look.

7. Will your company use sound search engine optimization strategies to make my articles search engine friendly. If your hire a good article marketing company, they will not only edit your articles but they will make your articles search engine friendly as well. This way, your articles can be found on Google.

8. Will your company handle the day-to-day correspondence with site and ezine editors? You can spend hours answering questions from website and ezine editors. The best firms handle the routine correspondence for you. They bring you in only when you need to answer an important question. You should avoid firms that don’t respond to editors because your articles will never be published by highly targeted websites. They can say they submitted the article, but you won’t have any pickup.

9. Does your company submit articles in a way that Google respects, or do you blast articles out there? Google hates when people try to manipulate their rankings and will ding your article campaign if you send out too many articles too quickly. Make sure your article marketing company understands this. Otherwise, Google could blackball your article marketing efforts.

10. What do you charge? It has been my experience that the article submission process, if performed correctly, can take up to 10 hours or more to submit your article to 100 sites. That doesn’t count the proofing, editing, optimizing, consulting and following up. All this work takes time and effort. If the price seems too low, remember the old saying, “You get what you pay for.”

You want an article submission company that cares about your success. Many fly-by-night artists just want to take your money and run. Make sure the service you select takes the time to get to know you, your marketing goals and your audience? Follow these tips to ensure you get what you pay for! If not, you could be headed for disaster.

I hope to see you all over the Web.

Banner advertising was around long before Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, and it’s no big news that PPC is the new dominant advertising tool for many businesses. After all, PPC is laser focused and very direct in working to draw a very specific customer type to your site.

Banner advertising has been described by some as being akin to the dodo bird. In essence the feeling among some is that this kind of advertising is nearing a point of extinction and may be remembered with warm fuzzies, but may not be missed.

However, a quick trip into the depths of cyber space and you will find all kinds of banner ads, and major corporations develop and use them.

Do they know something you don’t?

I think what some of these corporations do know is that banner advertising can move beyond simple static graphics. In essence many banner ads today are being developed to include bold interaction that may appear as a game or perhaps as a mini movie.

These banner ads serve a unique niche for the visually oriented consumer.

The use of banner advertising may be used when the advertising business has a fairly clear understanding of the benefit of advertising on a specific site or sites. For instance if a site draws thousands of visitors a day and your product or service fits the demographic of the site then using banner ads that can help the visitor visualize something more then PPC text has the ability to facilitate a better Return on Investment (ROI).

If PPC is the ‘everyman’ advertising method then the new generation of banner ads is for the expert advertiser. Banner ads can help you motivate potential customers to visit your site from the confines of a site they trust and a site you value for their ability to generate traffic to your site.

Banner advertising is also good for an industry specific website. If there is a site that is in concert with your business goals and directives it might make sense to look into using banner advertising on their site.

While banner advertising is not as laser focused as PPC it can be a significant help if you are willing to do your own research to see what sites may best benefit your business.

There are still banner exchange programs, but they are often meaningless in that they may send some customers to your site, but they aren’t targeted and the individuals may not be especially motivated beyond initial curiosity. Besides you may be required to place banner advertising on your site that doesn’t really fit with your demographic (or potentially objectionable) just to participate in the banner link exchange.

There is also the question of banner ad development. Unless you are especially skilled in graphic design you may need to outsource the banner ad development from a third party.

You may be able to access a low-cost or no-cost banner ad through a site like www.logobogo.com, but a banner ad will need to be created in either a visually static display or a flash designed banner with very specific dimensions.

So, to recap – the banner advertising of today requires a greater sense of business research to find the best fit for your advertising dollar and banner development is something you will need to develop as you begin to look into what possibilities exist in this refreshed advertising medium.

Video is king and it’s here to stay. Did you know that YouTube just vaulted to number 2 on the Alexa hit parade? Yes, it’s true. If you’re an Internet marketer, you need to make a note of this because video isn’t going to go away any time soon and if you want to be in on the craze and make the most out of your marketing efforts, for more details visit to www.outsource-beginners.com you might want to pay attention to some of these cool tips. They will make your videos that much more effective.

The first tip is probably the most important. Make sure the quality of your video is as good as you can make it and still make it manageable to work with. YouTube has limits as to how long your video can be and how large it can be. If you go over 10 minutes, your video will be rejected. Also, if you go over 100 meg, your video will also be rejected. By creating your Camtasia video in FLV format instead of AVI or MOV format, this will greatly reduce the size of the finished video. This is also important if you’re going to upload the video to your own site as bandwidth can get sucked up real fast with large videos.

The second tip is to make sure that your audio source is as clean as possible which means using the best microphones. Camtasia audio has a tendency to be a little scratchy with certain microphones. If you find that your audio quality is less than stellar, you might want to first try recording the audio into Audacity, for more details visit to www.forum-marketing-videos.com which is a free program, and then import it into Camtasia. You will find that the quality will be much better if you do this.

The last tip, which is a really cool one, is to use the callout feature in Camtasia to create URLs that the person watching the video can click on. This is done by creating what is called a Flash hot spot and entering in the URL into the hot spot that you want the person to go to. You can either have the URL open in the same window as the video or a different window. This is great for your Internet marketing efforts because this way, the prospect doesn’t have to write down or remember the URL. He can just go right to the web site from the video itself.

A few weeks ago I was watching my 7 year old Grandson Joel as he was drawing a picture of a strawberry patch.

As he drew, it began to look more and more like a Christmas wreath than a strawberry patch. I told him that it looked pretty good, for more details visit to www.outsource-beginners.com but suggested to him that “maybe you could put a few strawberries here, and here and here” as I pointed to the big white area in the middle of his drawing.

He looked at me in all seriousness and said…

“Grandpa, it doesn’t matter what YOU think, it’s what the artist thinks!”

It was funny at the time, but I have been thinking about this quite a bit. 

You know what? He is right! 

There is a great lesson to be learned here. The lesson applies very well to Internet marketing. Actually it applies well to ANY kind of marketing, it doesn’t necessarily have to be on the internet.

We have a tendancy to come up with an idea that we think is the greatest thing since sliced bread. We’re absolutely convinced that everybody will beat a path to our door to buy our product. We spend lots of money to develop a sales campaign, for more details visit to www.internet-marketing-word.com build a website, buy advertising and so on, and spend a lot of time and effort to draw people to our website, get good search engine positioning, and then more often than not we’re disappointed because very few people buy our products.

Could it be that the marketplace doesn’t care about our opinion? 

Does that hurt your ego? It shouldn’t. It should open your eyes to this very simple, but wildly profound truth.

IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK, IT’S WHAT THE MARKETPLACE THINKS THAT IS IMPORTANT! 

Big companies spend millions of dollars on market research, testing and surveys before they ever spend any money in developing a product or marketing a product. Doesn’t it make sense that before we ever spend a dime on any kind of product development?
website development or whatever that we should spend some time first to find out what people are buying, when do they buy, and how do they buy? 

By doing proper research in advance, you’ll save yourself a lot of wasted time and effort, and you’ll be rewarded many times over by successful, money making websites. Finding profitable “niches” is not a difficult process, but it can make all the difference in the world as to whether or not your website will be a huge success or a dismal failure

I hate the name. I really hate the name. And I don’t like those Caribbean movies. In fact I nearly missed out on this opportunity because I thought this is just too gimmicky, too over-the-top, or as we say in this country, too wanky. In this Clickbank Pirate Review I will give my honest opinion on the good, the bad the ugly about this program. So the name is ugly – but, hey, I have built a bridge and got over it – enough to purchase this program, any way.

A little about me first: I have been marketing online for a couple of years. At first it was a dabble, then I really got serious over the last 18 months, and so far this year I was doing between 5 and 9k a month with Ebay Partner Network, with a keyword targeted, article based approach in a couple of profitable niches. EPN is now the Name which should never be spoken in my household as a result of their unfathomable decision to get rid of vast swathes of successful affiliates in July 2009. It is still a bit sore as that decision cost me big-time, and for such a poorly articulated reason, and no avenue for recourse. Nothing dodgy happening in my marketing methods, I assure you. Anyway, I was in the process of investigating alternative business models when the crunch came.

I had never been a big fan of Clickbank, so I haven’t really learned the ropes. I assumed all vendors were snake oil salesman, so I tended to stay away. I have changed my view on Clickbank now – there is certainly a raft of products that are super hyped, but as with all things, the buyer must be cautious and do the due diligence. There are some good quality products on Clickbank that I feel quite comfortable to promote.

One of the things that I have learned in affiliate marketing is that building a list and following up the list with useful information is the key to making more sales. And this is what I didn’t do very well. I never really mastered how to make squeeze pages, write enticing copy, and follow up customers with further information – in fact I probably could do it ok, it is just my time is so limited, working my normal jobs 7 days a week. I always look for the automated or outsourced method of getting the job done.

So when I finally opened up one of those follow-up emails from a list I was on about Clickbank Pirate and saw that the killer application was ready-made squeeze pages coupled with an integrated ready-made auto responder campaign, I had a closer look. I did my due diligence, and dived in headfirst into Clickbank Pirate.

The business model is quite simple- you offer free reports on selected topics….that is all it is….providing free and useful information on selected niches, in return for an email address. The free report may be on SEO, or PC cleaning, or weight loss, or blogging or acne, or many other popular and profitable niches. The customer is provided a report that is useful, informative, well written and (partly) solves their problem.