Internet Marketing Articles

Advertising your website in online directories is a must. This is in order for your customer to be able to find you easily. However, you should not just rush in to advertise in online directories before you have done proper homework on your product and services, particularly in the marketing aspects.

Marketing is the biggest job of a CEO. Without an effective marketing plan you will have no customers. Listing your website in online directories is the final step you should do, after you have done proper marketing planning. Here are some pitfalls you should avoid in your marketing planning.

If you want to make it big in internet marketing you need avoid some common mistakes. Here a list of the top ten pitfalls that trap beginners and seasoned marketers alike.

The problem is you do not realize you have fallen into one of these holes until someone points it out. Marketers tend to be stubborn and suffer from tunnel vision, hopefully these may help you kick a few bad habits.

1. Procrastination

Putting things off is a killer where this career this is concerned. You need a plan and some kind of time management system in place. Prioritize your tasks and keep lists of everything that needs doing. And no matter how much you do not feel like doing something just get it out of the way and never leave it until the next day. Tips, use post it notes, they are low tech but work great.

2.Striving for Perfection

You will likely never have a perfect website or product but you know what? It does not matter. It is important you get started as soon as you can and make your site live. You can tweak things as you go along and improvements will come later but if you try to get everything right before you start then you’ll never start. Tip, update your site daily in little ways, it save from doing everything at once and the search engines it too.

3. Wasting Money

This one is important especially if you do not have money to burn. Do not get caught up jumping from opportunity to opportunity or buying everything that lands in your in box. You will be surprised how much you can get for free. Trust me, you do not need half the stuff you see online. Try to control your emotions and think before you buy. Write a list of pros and cons, and make sure that the product or service is essential to you. Tip, look for reviews by people without a vested interest in the product and ask questions in forums.

4. Not Spending Enough

Unfortunately you have to spend a little. It would not be much starting out, but you will need more as you grow. For a start you will need a domain, a host, an auto responder, but these are pretty affordable these days. The bulk of your expenses will be on promotion, usually newsletter ads or pay per click. If you are paying someone to create your product or you are buying resell rights then this is another expense, but you can start with free affiliate programs. Tip, keep your Internet income separate and reinvest. You will be glad you did later.

5. Wrong Markets

This is a tricky one. If you are dead set on conquering a certain market you could end up on a long and expensive journey that is doomed to failure. Do some research first. A so called niche market is a good find but only if this niche will spends. Other markets, like internet marketing, are very busy but internet marketers spend money, and the drive to make money is a strong human emotion. There is a lot of them around.

Tip, find something that interests you and use a site like niche bot site to see how many searches there are for that subject. High traffic and low demand are your goal.

6. Lack of Growth

You must continuously grow yourself and expand your mind. Learning is essential. If you do not you will be stuck with the same skills and ideas and you will never even notice when you are bogged down in complacency and routine.

Tip, put some time away each day to read a few articles and browse some sites. Learning just one new idea a day can increase your potential rapidly.

7. Doing It Alone

You can do it alone but it is harder, and without support you are more likely to fail. It does not have to be much. Online forums, for example, are an amazing source of ideas and encouragement. And with other people, by forming joint ventures or starting your own affiliate program you can really leverage your efforts and do far more than you could ever do on your own.

Tip, visit forums, message boards and mail lists. Lurk for a while until you are ready.

8. Going For The Small Money

You will ever gonna get rich selling $20 items. Seriously, include some higher priced goods and services in your marketing. You will get less sales, but more profits. You would not know if they sell until you try. But do not fall into the trap of selling any old thing because you get a high commission. Integrity is important, too.

Tip, high ticket sales work better with existing customers who you already have a relationship with. Try them as a back end.

9. Separating Life and Work

One of the biggest pitfalls when working is the fact that life can encroach your activities, simply because you are at home. Try to separate the two and have fixed times when you work, and a set area to do it. Work does not have to take over your life, but neither should you let life interfere with your work.

Tip, use a spare room or a spare corner and only use it for work.

10. Be Ambitious

You would not know unless you try. Assume you can do anything, because you can. You may not be ready to do it yet, but do not set up mental blocks in advance. You can create your own profitable items, sell them well, and have others selling them for you. You can operate a range of websites, even host seminars, or teach others. You can.

Tip, recognize excuses for what they are. If you need help, invest in a good self help book.

I hope identifying these pitfalls help you look at yourself differently. Contrary to popular belief internet marketing is not an instant path to riches, but it is an achievable one.

Once you have all the above in place your advertisement or listing in online directories will be a much greater success.

Francis Suggest Malaysia Advertising Directory. i1Ad is the No.1 Malaysia’s Advertising Directory. The leading business advertising website in Malaysia. Visit www.i1ad.com

Search Engine Optimisation or Search Engine Optimization as the Americans spell it, is the practice of modifying a website so that it is considered to be search engine friendly.

It is the process of improving the ranking of your website in the natural search engine ranking to increase the amount of qualified traffic to your website over time.

Search Engine Optimisation typically includes keyword research and development, meta tags optimisation, linking strategy and implementation, website submission and results reporting.

Optimisation of your site is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to your web site from directories via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.

Market research has shown that 85 to 90 percent of those who search using Google, (the generally reguarded best search engine to verify your optimisation stratergy)don’t go past the first page of results.

Therefore getting your website search engine optimised can have a huge impact on you reaching a particular client base.

SEO is an abbreviation for search engine optimisation. It is used to describe the process designing your website in a way that it will appear higher in search engine rankings. Therefore your website becomes more visible to browsers when they use keyword phrases to bring forward the information they need. Rather than paying for advertising such as paid advertising like pay per click.

Your goal should be to secure a top 5 ranking in Google, the leading search engine, for competitive keyword phrases.

It’s now accepted that search engine marketing shouldn’t be taken lightly. Effective search engine marketing for major brands is a complex affair and it needs to be handled by experienced professionals.

Implementing a successful search engine marketing strategy can have a 6 or 7 figure positive impact on the profitability of your company.

Nearly 90 percent of people find websites through Search Engines. With organic search engine optimisation you can ensure a high return on investment by achieving maximum visibility within major search engines including Google, MSN & Yahoo.

Search engine optimisation is really straight forward as long as you understand the process. Make sure before you upload your site you have it optimised to ensure high placing for a natural search.

Search engine optimisation takes planning and preparation. It is all about fine-tuning your web site so that it displays prominently within a search engine’s results page.

For the new internet marketer sometimes it would be more beneficial to seek the advice of those professionals that fully understand how search optimisation works.

But above all you need to get it right.

Gav Shannon is a Network Marketing Professional who writes about different topics that he feels may be of an interest.If You want to know more about him go to www.gavshannon.com

Most people do not know where their advertising campaign went wrong. They have carefully identified their niche market. They have planned their logistics, analyzed their products strength, weakness, pricing, package, etc. They have identified their unique selling point. They have emphasized how their product is different from those already in the market place. They then launch their marketing campaign. The results should be favorable but it is not. Why? We have discovered one of the reasons it is bad copy writing.

Despite assistance from professional copywriters some of our important image building documents like brochures, write ups, proposals, billboard advertising and even online listings and websites are poorly written. Especially when you advertise on advertising directories in Malaysia, you should take care to put in a good copy. That is because online advertising directories in Malaysia today is slowly but surely replacing off line advertising directories.

This is because most copywriters have not understood the art of writing good copy. It is very simply actually but most copywriters are preoccupied with writing fanciful and bombastic copies.

No matter what your advertising medium, drive your message home by making it personal. This is because nobody wants to buy a product from someone who sounds stuffy and unfriendly.

Always Write in First Person

Lets say you are in real estate. You are running a print ad for an exclusive neighborhood. Tell your customer the benefits of living there as if you are having a one on one conversation.

For example, the body of your copy could read,

You dot not have to mow the lawn ever again. All of our properties are right on the beach. A breathtaking view without the hassles of yard work makes Grand Island the place you will want to call home.

Use Contractions

As you have probably noticed, all advertising articles here on the about network contain a lot of contractions. How many I ams and you ares, plus we wills would you like to read over and over?

It is all a part of making it personal. We are just having a friendly conversation about advertising.

Limit Your Commas

It is similar to the contractions rule. Commas everywhere really distract your eye. Your message gets lost because your reader is trying to make sense out of your sentence. Keep your sentences short enough that you do not require a lot of commas.

And, But, Because

You probably learned back in elementary school that you cannot use And, But or Because to start a sentence. Your teachers lied to you. It is perfectly all right to use them to begin a sentence.

Ask your old teacher. She will probably confess. You were taught that because they did not want you to make incomplete sentences by using And, But or Because to start a sentence.

And if she does not confess just remember it is advertising so anything goes!

Eliminate the Pressure

Just pretend you are talking to a friend. One way to make it easier on you might be to just forget it.

That is right. Forget that you are writing an ad, your company needs this ad to be successful, etc. Throw out all the pressures and sit down with your computer or legal pad and pen.

Now, write a letter to a friend. Tell your friend about your product. When you are finished, you will have a lot of copy blocks you can extract and use in your ad. It is a great mental trick that can help in a pinch.

Last but not least always remember this readers are always interested in only one thing, that is, themselves. We should therefore, always start and end paragraphs with you, your and yours. This will keep them hanging on to every word you say. Also, tell them the benefits instead of your products features or even advantages. They just want to hear about the benefits.

Benefits include things such as making money, saving money, improving their health, increasing the productivity, giving them enjoyment, helping them age slower, and so on.

Yes, the above are some useful tips that can help make your advertisement more appealing. When you finally put your ad online in a Malaysian advertising directory your potential customers will be reading every word of what you want them to read.

Francis Suggest Malaysia Advertising Directory. i1Ad.com is the No.1 Malaysia’s Advertising Directory. The leading business advertising website in Malaysia. Visit www.i1ad.com

You have carefully planned your marketing and advertising campaign. You have launched your product in the market in Malaysia. You have also made sure that you list yourself in both and online and off line directories in Malaysia. Wait a second. When you list your ad in the online advertising directories how much space were you allocated with? Did you have enough space to upload images of your company, customers and your products? Did you link your ad to movie images in YouTube? You should do that, you know. After all, the world has evolved from text to images and now the trend is into moving images.

Posting movie clips to YouTube is easy. The site is very user friendly. You just go in and open a free account. Then you just upload your movies from your hard drive and you are done. In case you do not know how to make movies, you can simply do that using any digital camera. Of course, the higher the resolution, the better will your movie look but it does not matter. Once you upload a few videos you will get the hang of it.

Do not let the money you have already spent on your commercial go to waste. You should stretch your ad dollar even further by posting your commercial on YouTube.

Here are some reasons why your ad in the Malaysian advertising directories should appear on YouTube.

1. Your Commercial Already Produced

You spent your ad dollars to create an effective TV commercial so make the most of your money. Posting your commercial to YouTube is free and you get a longer shelf life on your ad even after your run on local airwaves is over.

2. New Way to Reach Customers

There are a couple of new ways to reach customers by posting your commercial on YouTube:

a. Invite Current Customers

Send an invitation by mail or Email to your customers inviting them to watch your commercial on YouTube. If you have a newsletter mailing list or contact email addresses, send a personal Email that announces your commercial and where they can see it.

Just be sure your customers have given the green light to be contacted so your company is not considered a spammer. You always want to make sure you send any bulk Email responsibly.

b. Reach Customers Outside of Your City

Millions of people visit YouTube and the site traffic consistently falls in the top five of every online ranking system. Even if you live in Small Town, USA, selling local products, you have the ability to reach new customers by taking your ad campaign outside of your immediate area.

You may or may not get a sale because someone saw your ad on YouTube but you could generate a lot of buzz, which leads us right into the number three reason to post your commercial on YouTube.

3. Possible Local Coverage

There are a couple of ways you can get even more exposure for your company by posting your ad online. Make a PR effort after your ad is posted. Send press releases to local media outlets announcing that your company is taking its ad ad campaign online with your TV commercial being available on YouTube. This is a good story for newspapers, magazines and Web sites that cover local interest stories.

Do not ignore your TV markets, though. While this is not really a story that is a right fit for TV coverage on its own, you never know when a morning show needs a guest to talk about online advertising and what you’ve done.

You also want to keep tabs on how your ad is doing. When you reach a milestone, such as 10,000 views, a spot on the Most Discussed list, being featured, etc, send out another press release to announce the latest news. Be aggressive with your PR efforts to get the most out of your YouTube ad campaign.

4. Potential to Earn Revenue

You can get paid when people watch your ad on YouTube if you qualify for YouTube Partner Program. You will want to stay on top of your PR push after your video is posted. The more people that view your ad, the higher your commercial rank climbs, the more potential you have to earn money back on what you have already paid to have created.

5. An Easy Way to Get Your Ad on Your Site

Your Web site helps advertise your company. Take your ad campaign to a whole new level by allowing your customers to watch your commercial just by visiting your Web site.

Once you have posted your ad on YouTube, you can easily put it on your site. There are a number of reasons why you would want to do this:

a. Save Your Bandwidth

When potential customers come to your site, they need to be able to see your products, prices and answer any of the questions they have fast. If you have people watching your commercial through your own site bandwidth, that commercial is hogging the speed and slowing down your site.

Most small business Web sites do not have a lot bandwidth to support videos being watched because they do not need it. After your ad is on YouTube, though, you have the option of linking to your ad or embedding it on your site. YouTube covers the bandwidth and your site continues to run smoothly and unaffected.

b. Increased Video Views

Adding a link or embedding it on your site helps your video views. Since the commercial hosted on YouTube server, you get credit for every view. This also increases your commercial rank, which helps you in your PR efforts as well as your potential to earn money if your ad becomes popular enough.

Many companies are missing out on a unique opportunity to attract customers. Do not post your ad and call it a day, though.

Be sure to follow up with an aggressive PR push and track your ads success. Not only do you get extra mileage out of your commercial, you never know who is watching.

Malaysia advertising directory and YouTube will help make your marketing campaign a success.

Francis Suggest Malaysia Advertising Directory. i1Ad.com is the No.1 Malaysia’s Advertising Directory. The leading business advertising website in Malaysia. Visit www.i1ad.com

You are new to online e-commerce. You have just done up your website. And you have done the final step of listing your website in advertising directories. They are a great way of generating huge amounts of traffic to your website. After all that is what we want am I right?

You have taken great pains to prepare your website. You have done a checklist of things to include such as

1. Look and feel of the website, particularly the homepage.
2. Color theme of the website.
3. Size and location of the company logo.
4. Make sure columns are arranged neatly and systematically.
5. E-commerce features and online payment systems.
6. Selecting your favorite font to be used across the website.
7. Essential pages such as About Us, Contact Us, Profile, Products, Disclaimers, Terms and Conditions, Privacy, Site Map, etc.

Your marketing planning also took a lot of your time and research. You have run through critical areas such as:

1. 4 basic rules like Products quality, Place, Pricing and Packaging.
2. Marketing research
3. Marketing budget
4. Advertising budget
5. Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
6. Logistics
7. Advertising media
8. Online advertising budgets including Malaysian advertising directories
9. Getting professionals to write good advertising copies

Is there anything you have left out? Probably not, but it is good to take a look at how you may still improve on your e-commerce venture.

You have got a product listed at the same price as your competitor. So how is a customer going to decide which company to go with?

You need customers now but you have waited until the last minute to start an advertising campaign. How are you going to get customers at such a late date? One word perks.

Use these perks to help you turn a potential customer into a paying customer.

Free Shipping

People love the convenience of shopping online. But they do not like paying for shipping. Offer your customer free shipping and you’ll generate more sales than you’ll lose in shipping costs.

Tip, when developing your free shipping special, consider a minimum order amount before the free shipping offer kicks in.

Discounts

Who says 10 percent does not go a long way? Discounts can help you obtain long-term customers the easy way.

Gifts

If a customer orders an item you specify or a minimum amount of products services, give them a special gift. The gifts you give do not have to cost too much. They are just a way for you to show your customers your appreciation for their business.

Specials

Having different specials every month gives customers a variety of reasons to keep coming back. Give your specials a variety so they can appeal to all customers. For instance, you would not want to offer a free coffeemaker with every dishwasher purchase month after month after month.

No Payments

If you can offer financing or delay someone payments for a period of time, this is an excellent way to get people in your store. Be sure you have the proper financing restrictions and policies in place before offering this option to your customers.

Easy Billing

Splitting your billing into two or more easy payments for your customers gives them more of an incentive to make expensive purchases.

Giveaway

Giving away products drives people to your store with little to no cost to you. You can require customers to have to fill out an entry form for your giveaway in person to get them in your store.

Sale

The most basic of advertising opportunities is often the most overlooked. Having a sale requires advertising through outside mediums but if your sale is good, customers will flock to your store with wallets in hand.

So with the above tips your efforts of listing your website in Malaysia advertising directories will prove to be very effective in creating a lot of business opportunities for you company. Directory advertising is one of the most overlooked activities of a business. Listing your business details such as name, address, contact details is crucial in making your business a success. Customers will then be able to find you easily.

Francis Suggest Malaysia Advertising Directory. i1Ad is the No.1 Malaysia’s Advertising Directory. The leading business advertising website in Malaysia. Visit www.i1ad.com

There are two types of advertising, general advertising and directional advertising. General advertising means telling the public about your product. You do it in the most appealing way possible in order to attract potential customers to buy your product.

Directional advertising functions once your general advertising is effective. It simply directs prospects who are already aware of your product through your general advertising efforts. Your prospects will need to know what is the name of your company because sometimes this is not so obvious as you have just advertised your brand and not your company. Then they will need to know where they can buy your product from, that is, your address or your branches is applicable. Of course they will need your other contact details such as phone numbers, fax, email address, etc.

There are many online advertising directories in Malaysia. Once you have done your general advertising you may select any one of the many directories available. Some offer free listing while most others charge a small fee.

Now that you see the difference between the two types of advertising and the importance of directional advertising, let us go back to examine why you need to advertise.

Advertising is one of the oldest forms of public announcement and occupies a vital position in an organizations product mix.

According to the American Marketing Association, Chicago, Advertising is any paid form of non personal presentation of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor.

To advertise means to inform, seen as the flow of information about a product or service from the seller to the buyer. However, advertising does not end with the flow of information alone. It goes further to influence and persuade people to take a desired action, like placing an order to buy a product.

The consumer market has become highly competitive with a new brand being born almost everyday. Irrespective of the kind of product you are looking for, be it consumer durables like refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines or fast moving consumer products, FMCG, the number of brands available is truly mind boggling. Naturally it is the prime concern of every marketer to promote their brand as a shade better than the competitors. Advertising comes in handy here.

However, simply informing a customer that a brand exists is not enough. Advertising should be targeted towards the prospective audience in such a way that it forms a positive impact on the customer and in the process creates brand recognition. Marketers generally target advertising campaigns at the groups of customers:

a. First Time Users of a product. Customers who don’t use that product category at all. The aim is to convince them to try that product.

b. First Time Users of a brand. Consumers who do not use a particular brand but might be using a competitor brand. The aim here is to convince buyers to switch from the competition product to theirs.

c. Regular users of the brand. Buyers who are using the brand already. The aim is to serve as a reminder of the brand benefits and convince them to continue using it.

d. Launch a new brand into the market.

e. Irrespective of who the ad is targeted at, a firm that plans to spend on advertising, must make sure that advertising campaign creates a positive impression of the brand in the minds of the customer, creates a need in them to try the brand and a commitment to continue using it.

To conclude, make sure your general advertising efforts are well organized before your place your website or listing in any online advertising directories in Malaysia.

Francis Suggest Malaysia Advertising Directory. i1Ad is the No.1 Malaysia’s Advertising Directory. The leading business advertising website in Malaysia. Visit www.i1ad.com