Optimize Google AdSense With 3 Important Topics

Google AdSense can bring anyone a ton of money. A ton of money to the people that have a lot of incoming traffic, right type of ads, a number of ads per page, and the perfect placement of ads. Through my experience of Google ads, I cover 3 important topics that may help anyone increase their clicks.

Number of Ads per page

This is subject that really needs to be addressed because I have seen so many websites with Google ads taking up half the website. I know e-business owner's are in the web business to make some money, but you have to be realistic now.What I do is select the areas where I wish to place ads. I would go through an ad to content ratio check list. I would check to see how many ads there are in comparison to how much content I have on my website. I never want to have more ads then I do content, because the main reason why people come to my website is to get some kind of content out of it. I would recommend the maximum of 3 ad types per page. Anymore, and it would seem too cluttered.

Ad Types

No matter what, if you have the room, and you plan on keeping the maximum ads at 3 I would highly recommend having at least 1 image ad from Google Adsense. Image ads stand. out a lot more then text ads, and people are more attracted to them. What I usually do per ad space is stick to image ads, or text ads only. I don't like the idea of having less control then I already have lost by using Google ads. So try to stick to one or the other, the combination of both could cost you some clicks!

Placement of Ads

What will make a user want to come back to your website? I would say, a user that can navigate through your content without accidentally clicking on one of your ads, and having to hit the back button out of frustration. Ad placement on a site is very important. It can be clicked on a lot by accident, causing it to be annoying for your users, it could also be not noticed at all, and nobody will ever click on it.

It's all about the placement of your ads. For each of my websites I have done different placements of the ad types I am using because each layout is different. As I said earlier, image ads stand out more then text ads. So with each, and every one of my domains I have at least 1 image ad on every page.

One thing that some web site owner's do is place a horizontal image ad, and on top of that image ad they placed a link unit ad that sits on top of the image ad horizontally as well. The image ad will attract the attention, but then there are more ads with text that they have the option to click on also!

Owner of E-Business Startups [http://www.lasthaven.com], a blog dedicated to e-business owner's, and provides everything they need from startup, to growing!

Written By Richard Petrov

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Petrov

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/715227

Working Online From Home and Making Money - Surely Not?

We have all done it...You search on Google, AOL, Yahoo (Or whatever search engine you like) for ideas as to "How Can I Make Money Online While Being At Home"? There are certainly no shortage of websites telling you how easy it really is, but have you ever asked yourself the question "how easy is it?"

In this article i would like to discuss and show how given the current economic issues all is not doom and gloom for those wanting to make a living from working online, at home in your own time.

The first obvious point to mention is that since the economy has declined significantly in the last 12+ months, there are more and more people finding themselves out of work. As the redundancies continue and the traditional sources of income dry-up, it's likely that more people will be trying to find other sources of income by working from home, online.

I don't believe that the quality of most of the offerings online is that great. So a caution here, if you are going to shop for paying opportunities online, be very careful about what you see, don't just jump in. Question everything and do your research. Due - Diligence is so important!  

By far the safest way to make money from home using  the internet is to establish relationships with people off-line first. Yes, the old fashioned method is still the best. If you can by any chance meet someone locally who has an online business you may be able to use them as a mentor / sponsor which you will find so helpful as they would have made all the mistakes so you ideally wont have to. If this is not possible, you can still find opportunities by searching online (I still suggest to settle for something where you have a 1-1 mentor). Be careful about the claims made by many websites and be sure to research carefully. Due - Diligence, Due - Diligence and more Due - Diligence!

If you are looking for a legitimate make money from home opportunity, working 1-1 with a mentor and have everything systematized in a turnkey way then please visit [http://www.WealthCreationMentor1.com]

If you would like me to show you how to brand yourself online (This is so vital in succeeding) then please visit [http://www.WhoIsMartynHickey.com]

Written By  Martyn Hickey

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martyn_HickeyArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2197545

What Are Website Inspectors And How Can Website Inspectors Improve Search Engine Rankings With SEO

As their name suggests, website inspectors examine flaws in websites in order for clients to obtain higher search engine rankings. Website inspectors carry out full SEO (search engine optimization) evaluation of websites and report suggested changes that should be made in order to make a website more search engine friendly.

Website inspectors perform in-depth SEO website analysis of website HTML code, including META tags and Alt image tags, along with SEO analysis of website design, keyword text weight, download time and other SEO features. Website inspectors then produce a detailed SEO report consisting of manually generated META tags, alt tags and suggest other website alterations.

There are a number of differences between website inspectors and other SEO companies. Most SEO companies only evaluate and report on general website HTML code and limited website design features. By contrast, website inspectors will offer detailed evaluations and SEO reports of HTML code, and all aspects of website design from textual relevance to aesthetic design. Website inspectors will offer a comprehensive SEO report consisting of workable alterations that should be made to a website in order to significantly improve search engine rankings for the long-term. General SEO companies, by contrast, will only focus on what is wrong with a website without offering many good suggestions to improve search engine rankings.

Most general SEO companies will provide customers with "cookie cutter" style SEO reports. This is to say that the vast number of SEO companies will evaluate a website using automated, report generating software and send their client a print out of a generic SEO report. Such SEO reports will provide irrelevant information to the client's website and will not provide any solid suggestions as to alterations that should be made in order to improve search engine rankings. By contrast, a website inspectors company will treat each website as a unique piece of material. A good website inspectors SEO company will refrain from using any automated software to analyse a website or to generate an SEO report.

Promoting user-friendly SEO reports and ethical, 'white hat' SEO practices is key to the ethos of website inspectors SEO companies. All good website inspectors SEO companies will refrain from using the out-dated practice of automated website submissions. Most generic SEO companies continue to use automated submission software although they know by now that such software submits websites to unorthodox, unethical sources such as FFA pages and link farms. Top search engines regard submissions to such sources as 'spamming' and will ultimately result in websites being placed in the Google Sandbox for extensive periods of time, if not banned from search engine rankings entirely. Website inspectors SEO companies will only promote the ethical use of manual website submissions to discriminative sources.

Another consideration is that website inspectors SEO companies will alter their services to suit their client's needs. Good website inspectors SEO companies now offer on-site or on-page SEO website designs and SEO implementations in order to save clients a lot of time and hassle. Website inspectors offering on-site SEO website design will ask clients for access to website files in order to improve website features directly, so as to improve search engine rankings. Onsite SEO web design is a firm favourite of website inspectors clients who have limited website design and SEO implementation knowledge in order to promote their website in search engine rankings. Website inspectors SEO companies are seeing a great rise in clients opting for onsite SEO web design as they know that all onsite SEO web design implementations are performed by professionals who are well aware of effective and ethical SEO practices.

With all of these factors in mind, it is strongly recommended that clients seeking good SEO in order to improve website rankings look for website inspectors SEO companies if they wish to see long-term, positive search engine rankings. With comprehensive SEO reports and the option of onsite SEO web design at hand by SEO professionals, website inspectors are the way to go for anyone looking for strong and successful search engine rankings.

Victoria Powell is an SEO expert who works for a number of Website Inspectors SEO teams.

Written By  Victoria Powell

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Victoria_Powell

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/351799

Can You Become a Professional Internet Marketing Consultant?

Becoming a professional internet marketing consultant is a
business opportunity that individuals who are well-versed in e-
business and internet marketing may be interested in pursuing. If
you are new to internet marketing, you could certainly become a
professional internet marketing consultant; however, a lot of
preparation is needed because providing professional services as
an internet marketing consultant requires knowledge and
experience with a variety of different types of internet
marketing.

If you are interested in become a professional internet marketing
consultant you should analyze your internet marketing skills,
identify your strengths and weaknesses, and craft a plan for
educating yourself and strengthening your internet marketing
skills in areas that are lacking. Developing your expertise in
the field of internet marketing prior to offering services as an
internet marketing consultant is crucial.

As an internet marketing consultant you will come in contact with
a variety of clients with varying levels of knowledge about
business and internet marketing. Some will be completely new to
business and will need basic guidance from their internet
marketing consultant in regard to basic business matters as well
as entry-level internet marketing concepts. On the other hand,
you may have business professionals who are seasoned in business
and marketing but are clueless about internet marketing. Last but
not least are the e-business professionals who commission an
internet marketing consultant for research, planning and internet
marketing services including management of marketing campaigns.

As an internet marketing consultant you can provide full-service
consultations, or you can target specific internet marketing
areas in which you have gained expertise. Sometimes the latter is
best because not only is there less for you to learn which
enables you to truly provide expert services, but a narrowed
scope of services can also provide a niche market which gives you
potential for developing a thriving practice as an internet
marketing consultant.

Niche areas you may wish to pursue as an internet marketing
consultant include:

1. Market research

2. Preparation of marketing plans and/or business plans

3. Search engine optimization

4. Pay-per-click campaign management

5. Email marketing

6. Viral marketing

7. Link campaign management

8. Ezine advertising

9. Newsletter publishing

10. Distribution of expert articles

11. Media campaigns

12. Copywriting

13. Website development

14. Web hosting

15. Coaching services

16. Training and education

17. Publication of internet marketing books

18. Operation of a subscription service with

information about internet marketing

These are all services that an internet marketing consultant may
offer. The service menu for an internet marketing consultant may
focus on one specific type of internet marketing, a few different
types of services, or full-service internet marketing
consultation that includes all of the suggested services and even
more. While providing some of the service offerings would require
an internet marketing consultant to pursue self-development
opportunities through continuing education and experience, some
areas are easy to master without extensive experience or
training.

When you specialize in a specific area of internet marketing, the
fact that you are specialized can actually build your credibility
as a professional internet marketing consultant. You can also
participate in online forums about internet marketing or publish
expert articles about internet marketing which can position you
as an expert in internet marketing consultant further building
trust and credibility which will enhance your business through
word of mouth referrals.

With the exception of web hosting, no expensive equipment is
needed to provide services as an internet marketing consultant.
To provide services as an internet marketing consultant you will
need access to various resources and publications which will keep
you abreast of changes in the internet marketing industry. Basic
computer equipment and some specialized software may also be
necessary. The most important factor to remember is - to be a
professional and credible internet marketing consultant you must
develop expertise in whichever area of internet marketing you
wish to consult in.

Copyright Christopher J. Enders. Are you at the end of your rope, fed up and confused by all the scrambled internet marketing advice you're getting? Whether you are new to internet marketing, or a website owner who wants to make more money from your website, learn the proven strategies that will sky-rocket your internet business at [http://BiznessTips.com]

Written By  Christopher J Enders

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christopher_J_Enders

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/120410

Your SEO Service, Ethical SEO, and Competitor Monitoring

Your SEO Service, Ethical SEO, and Competitor Monitoring

When a company undertakes a search engine optimization program, whether it is performed in-house or outsourced to an SEO service, most of the attention (and rightly so) is focused on the company website. This is the one aspect where there is a feeling of control--once a website is released into the wild, the company will have to see how its site fares against all the other websites out there, whether the other sites are using ethical SEO tactics or not.

Apart from changes made to the company website, the assumption is often that the company and, if it is using one, its SEO service, has zero control over what appears in search engine results. However, this is not usually the case. Often, you or your SEO service can have a direct effect on search engine results by monitoring your competitors and reporting them to the major search engines when the SEO techniques used on their site fall outside what is popularly referred to as ethical SEO. (Please note that while I believe that the word "ethical" is tossed around too often, "ethical SEO" has become the standard phrase to describe white hat techniques, and so it is the phrase I use throughout the article.)

Primary Competitors

To start with, let's define competitors. Almost every company has at least a handful of other companies that it considers to be primary competitors--the ones that sell the same products and services, that are of similar size, and so on. It is important that the SEO efforts (or lack thereof) of these competitors, whether they are using ethical SEO techniques or not, be monitored on a routine basis. If they have not hired an SEO service of their own, or if they have not started doing SEO in-house at all, you will have peace of mind knowing that the use of this channel, for the moment, is yours. If your competitors begin an SEO campaign, with or without an outside SEO service, you can learn much about their sales and marketing tactics by evaluating the keyphrases that they target. And you can also investigate whether they are using ethical SEO practices in their campaign.

Your Online Competitors

It's important to keep in mind that it is unlikely that searchers are going to decide only between you and the primary competitors you have listed. They are going to consider any company that matches their particular needs and that shows up for their search term. This is why your criteria for a competitor online should broaden to encompass any company that offers products or services like yours that outranks you for any of your targeted keyphrases. If your in-house staff or your SEO service not only continually monitors your search engine positions but also analyzes the companies that appear above you in search results, you can often identify forward-looking competitors of which you were previously unaware--your primary competitors of tomorrow.

Violations

This brings us to the key issue of ethical SEO. Search engine optimization is still a very new concept to most companies. Even the most respected companies can make mistakes in this arena, either by choosing the wrong SEO service, or by trying to avoid hiring an SEO service altogether by bringing it in house with well-intentioned but unqualified people. For example, BMW's German site was recently removed temporarily from the Google index for using doorway pages--something that is not considered an ethical SEO practice. It stands to reason that your competitors are also not immune to violations.

Bad Firms

There are very notable examples of otherwise smart and established companies hiring an SEO service that put them in a worse situation than before they pursued SEO--by getting their site removed from major search engines for violating the engine's terms of service, for example. Not long ago, there was a well-publicized example where most of the clients of a Las Vegas SEO service were penalized. Almost all of the clients claimed that they were not informed that the firm was not practicing ethical SEO and that they were therefore at risk.

SEO firms are generally divided into two camps--those called "White Hats" (those that use ethical SEO practices and will never knowingly violate a search engine's terms of service) and those called "Black Hats" (those that do not use ethical SEO practices and that will attempt to unravel the latest algorithms and exploit any loopholes to achieve rankings at any cost). Neither approach is invalid--it is not against the law to violate the terms of service of a search engine. Moreover, black hat techniques can be quite effective. However, the tactics are risky, and anyone hiring an SEO service that wears a black hat and does not use ethical SEO practices should definitely be apprised of this risk up front.

Internal Resources

Firms are often tempted to avoid hiring an SEO service by performing SEO in-house, and the project almost always falls onto an already overburdened IT department. The problem with approaching SEO from a strictly technical mindset is that the strategies employed, such as the keyphrases targeted, will not necessarily be in line with the goals of the marketing and sales departments. In addition, an IT resource will usually approach SEO from a purely technical standpoint, without being aware of ethical SEO practices, and this can lead to trouble. Penalization is a very real possibility, and it is hard to get back onto an index once your site has been removed.

Monitoring

A thorough SEO service will monitor not only the handful of competitors that you deem crucial but also the sites that appear higher than you for any of your chosen search phrases. This may be somewhat controversial, especially to any SEO service or webmaster that uses tactics forbidden by the search engines' terms of service. However, many white hat SEO service firms consider it an obligation to their clients to routinely monitor the sites of any competitor found on the engines to be sure it is using ethical SEO techniques.

There is a reason that every major search engine has a form to report sites who do not use ethical SEO tactics and who violate the terms of service so that these sites can be subsequently penalized or removed. Spam filters cannot catch all violations without also removing a large number of good sites. Search engines rely on their users to help them to keep their indexes clean and free of sites not using ethical SEO tactics. There are many techniques to spam an engine--far too many to list. However, a good SEO service not only knows what all of these techniques are but knows how to identify them when it sees them so they can be reported to the engine accurately.

The End Result

Business is business, and your interests often run directly counter to that of your competitors. When you report a website that is not using ethical SEO, it is very likely that it will be removed. This means there is one less company that you need to worry about in the online arena, at least for the time being. If the site in question outranked yours, you also get the added benefit of seeing your rankings improve as the violating pages are removed--provided, of course, that you are using ethical SEO techniques and steering clear of violations yourself, or you may be reported by a competitor of yours or its SEO service!

The engine also benefits from users reporting violations. Engines do not like people trying to trick their indexes, since there might then be pages showing up for particular search terms that are not actually relevant to those terms. Clearly, search engines understand this benefit--if the engines thought they could weed out all the spam themselves, they would not provide a reporting system. Supporting such a system, after all, is not free. Real people employed by the engine have to visit the offending pages to confirm that they are not using ethical SEO tactics.

In the notable example cited earlier of the firm that got most of its clients penalized, the owner of the SEO service in question was quoted as saying, "Google can kiss my ass. This is the Wild Wild West." He may be right--maybe it is the Wild Wild West. But there are a whole bunch of new sheriffs in town--and they are wearing white hats.

Scott Buresh is the founder and CEO of Medium Blue, which was recently named the number one search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld. Scott’s articles have appeared in numerous publications, including ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, SEO Today, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. He was also a contributor to Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004). Medium Blue is an Atlanta search engine optimization company with local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, Cirronet, and OneSource. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.

Written By Scott Buresh

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Buresh

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/205763

SEO Software: Trying To Catch The Spiders...

SEO Software: Trying To Catch The Spiders...

SEO software does what exactly?

SEO software frequently starts from the following assumption:

- look at the page that ranks number 1 in Google,

- do exactly the same + a bit better,

- and you will be number 1

SEO software will then examine "all" the SEO parameters that it finds out about the number 1 site in Google. Then this SE software will automate the process in mimicking this for your site.

SEO is more than a software-approach!

SEO is the art of ranking number 1 in any search engine for any keyword.

Spiders rank a web site number one because spiders "think" that this site deserves to be number one. Of course the spider cannot think: there needs to be a programmer who programs the spider to find out which site is best.

Now if you are smart enough to feed the spider exactly what the programmer thinks is important, you will have the knowledge to rank number 1.

This is exactly what SEO software does: it claims to know and tackle "all" the parameters that make a web site ranking number 1.

Pitfalls of a software-approach to SEO

Suppose you find all the parameters needed to rank a web site number 1. You manage to get all this parameters onto your site and you even manage to be rank number 1.

Now if your site is really deserving to be ranked number 1, all is fine. But if surfers start complaining that you are not, the search engine will be blamed!

It won't take long until Google finds out that "somebody broke the code" of the spiders. The spiders will be updated to give quality results to the visitors!

This means you need to get an upgrade of your SEO software approach... : you are running after the facts in stead of above the facts.

How to be ranked number 1?

You rank number 1 because you deserve it.

In spider logic this still means:

- your page talks about the keyword you are optimizing for

- you page has lots of incoming links about the keyword you are optimizing for.

This is what ranking number 1 should be about.

But my SEO software is really up to date, or is it not?

Your software can only be up to date AFTER the spiders' software is updated. Unless you write the spiders yourself, you will always be a bit later.

You cannot know all the parameters the spider takes into account, unless again you are writing the spider software yourself.

Some of the parameters you cannot influence: age of the web site is one of them. Suppose the spider needs to choose between 2 websites: the oldest one and the SEO mimic: which one to choose? The oldest one would be the easiest bet, and you cannot change the age of your web site can you?

A close look at SEO software

SEO software advertisements could say that you can get a top 5 Google Ranking in under 30 Days... If that is true, then check out to see:

- is the web site of this SEO software ranking number 1 in Google for SEO or SEO software?

- are the example web sites the SEO software mentions to be ranked number 1, really number 1: number 1 in Google that is?

It's very easy to type in the keyword phrase of the SEO software example web site and see if they are number 1 or not.

And don't be fooled by SEO software that gives numerous examples of number 1 rankings in MSN or Yahoo: if you want to have a long lasting number 1 ranking in any of the search engines, you better start having a number 1 ranking in Google.

I didn't say that it is a guarantee to rank number 1 in Yahoo and MSN once you rank number 1 in Google, but you will surely be high up there as well. On the other hand, a number 1 ranking in MSN can mean that you are no where to be found in Yahoo nor Google.

So you say: well, then I just try to rank number 1 in MSN since it seems to be easier. Well, it is easier, but then it is easier for your competition as well, so it won't take then too much effort to out-play you again. Therefor do the job good once and for all: thrive to be number 1 in Google and then fine-tune if needed for MSN or Yahoo.

Why do you do SEO in the first place?

SEO is 1 of the ways to get more traffic to your web site. But there is more in getting a lot of traffic to your site, than "blindly ranking 1 in Google":

--- Always make sure you rank number 1 for a word a lot of people are looking for! ---

If you buy any SEO software or out-source your SEO to the SEO specialists: always check their SEO examples:

- are they ranking number 1

- are the keywords they rank for popular search keywords (bigger than 10.000 searches a month in the Keyword Selector Tool from Yahoo's search-marketing is considered not too low)

- how long did it take them to be number 1

- how big is the competition for the keyword-phrase (smaller or bigger than 5 million? As a general rule : above 5 million keyword-phrase results in Google, things become though)

- how big is the competition for the quoted "keyword-phrase" (smaller or bigger than 33.000? As a general rule : above 33.000 quoted "keyword-phrase" results in Google, things become though)

If for all these items the SEO software or SEO specialist can answer YES, then you can start taking them very seriously!

Try it out for each example web site any SEO software claims to have ranked number 1 for a certain keyword-phrase. And of course, always start with checking if they are ranking number 1 in the first place! If they are not, then you are going to buy SEO software that doesn't do the job! Ranking number 2 is ALMOST number 1, and even worse, ranking number 9 is nowhere near to ranking number 1.

SEO software web sites

Whenever you are interested in something to buy on the Internet, check out the overall web site of the product you want to buy!

Some SEO software web sites are 1 page web sites: just 1 page with the product, no links, no extra pages...

Again back to basics. What was the first idea to set up the Internet? To give people information, lots of information.

And we are talking about a "NET" in Inter"NET": "net" means links here, links there, links everywhere... (that's why links are so important in SEO)

If you don't see lots of links nor lots of content on a web site about SEO, then the SEO web site is not serious about its own subject: SEO!

Back to Basics: web-traffic

Your purpose is getting as much people to your site as possible, isn't it?

SEO software has the purpose of ranking 1 in Google.

Now it is very easy to rank 1 in Google for the keyword-phrase "jhdkghgkbdcds",
but who is looking for "jhdkghgkbdcds"??? Nobody!

So if nobody looks for "jhdkghgkbdcds", then why bother to rank number 1 with it?

What is a nice number when it comes to "popular keyword searches"? If you use the Overture Keyword tool, anything above 10.000 searches a month means quite popular, but: also know that above 10.000 "the big boys' are competing
with you, below 1.000 you have the field for yourself. So a good SEO advice is work yourself from the bottom up: start with keywords that are not so popular, and once you are ranked high for those, then tackle the next more popular keyword on the list.

SEO software Conclusion

SEO is the art to feed the spiders what they like.
SEO software is running after the spiders trying to catch their attention.

Always check the numbers and the facts about any SEO software and (this) SEO article!

Then make a decision yourself. If you see that the SEO software

- is ranking well for it's own product

- is ranking web sites for popular keyword well,

only then you can consider buying it.

Making money on the Internet is something that has always intrigued Stef Glassee, a Sun Certified Java Developer. Being into programming and software development he has a first eyes view how software can help people, but it cannot yet replace people. Same goes for SEO software.

...It's quick and easy to throw an apple pit in the soil. But be prepared: it takes a long time before the apple pit becomes a tree loaded with apples!...

You can read more about starting to make some money online, SEO and web-site marketing at : Quick and easy ways to make money

Written By Stef Glassee

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stef_Glassee

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/195358

YouTube for Business - Introduction

Forbes magazine says that YouTube generates over a billion views per day. To put that in perspective, in the time it takes you to finish reading this page YouTube users will view around a quarter of a million videos.

An audience this size is hard to ignore. In our work with clients we searched for studies about this audience and what one can do to reach it as part of a marketing program. When we established there was little that has been published we decided to create it. After all, Entertainment Media Research was founded over a decade ago by the former head of music information for MTV Europe with the belief that the coming digital revolution would bring together the worlds of entertainment and marketing.

With entertainment expertise and quantitative research skills we serve entertainment, media and consumer businesses around the world from our base in London and are therefore ideally positioned to study the impact and opportunities that YouTube has come to offer. We started by undertaking a comprehensive audit of usage, attitudes, and preferences of YouTube users in a robust online survey of 1,758 US residents. The sample was then weighted to the demographic representation of the US online population. We then applied the findings from this proprietary research to inform our YouTube User Guide and in doing so, remove wherever possible assumption from the marketing process. YouTube Revealed: a marketer's guide to understanding and making the most out of YouTube.

Our primary objective in writing this report is to help marketers sharpen their understanding of the YouTube phenomenon, grasp the marketing implications and flatten the learning curve to putting this knowledge to highly effective use. The User Guide therefore combines detailed practical advice at the functional How To level, with strategic thinking and background information. Here's a brief overview of what you'll find in the User's Guide.

YouTube is already a place where many kinds of businesses are starting to promote their wares so we begin with a review of how YouTube was founded and developed. But YouTube is developing fast, as changing demographics and evolving possibilities make it a place that is even more attractive to marketers of all kinds. Of course, teenagers and young adults are the dominant users right now but they're far from the whole story. We fully expect YouTube to change to such a degree that over the next three years its demographics will more closely match the online population as a whole. Every marketing-driven business needs to understand this market-place and how best to exploit it before its competitors.

The key marketing objective is to achieve a viral impact through user recommendation or "word of mouse." This is much easier said than done so we detail why and how people come to YouTube today, what are their primary reasons and how this is changing as the demographic usage mix inevitably changes. We identify the most popular types of video by demographic and we review the controllable and non-controllable factors that affect viewing of a particular video.

We move on to review the patterns of typical YouTube sessions. We cover what the "Watch Page" looks like along with advertising possibilities to ensure you get the most out of the available feedback. We analyze what happens after a YouTube visitor has watched a video and then recommend how you should structure your content to exploit this trend and optimize your opportunities for engagement and branding.

Much has been made in the mainstream media about the YouTube community. We cover some of the ways that marketing into this community is uniquely different. We will suggest to you that brand channels are an effective way to concentrate your marketing efforts on YouTube. In our chapter on channels we look at the place of channels on YouTube today and how to make your brand channels work most effectively. We review what YouTube users think of advertising on YouTube and what some of your options are today. Those options are bound to change as YouTube seeks more ways to make the site profitable.

Throughout the report we share key insights on how best to apply your marketing skills to YouTube whilst pointing out where the fundamental principles still apply. People or businesses who buy your product or service will still buy for the same reasons they always have. The marketing research you've done about important benefits and messages will still be relevant; only the environment of YouTube will be different.

On YouTube, video is central. You will therefore discover ways to use video to build awareness, convey benefits, and support sales and service. On YouTube, word of mouse is crucial and the community is in control. We know that integrated marketing programs that tie YouTube marketing efforts to other marketing and branding efforts are generally the most successful so we‟ll show how best to facilitate the process.

YouTube offers marketing challenges and opportunities for everyone. Giant companies like 3M, Nestle, and IBM are already using it as part of their marketing and so are individual service firms. Whether it's the mass market or the farthest end of a long tail, you have the opportunity to derive important marketing benefits from YouTube. As there are special challenges for different markets and companies, we offer suggestions about how to adapt your use of YouTube for different kinds of businesses. There are chapters for B2B marketers and small businesses as well as chapters on ways to use YouTube to improve your relationship with existing customers and ways to use YouTube for marketing research.

This is just the introduction. For more information and ideas go to http://cashonline247.blogspot.com/search/label/Youtube

Written by  Salimeda Krishna Teja

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The Fundamentals of Direct Response Radio Advertising

The Fundamentals of Direct Response Radio Advertising

Direct response radio advertising, at its core, works in the same way regardless of what type of business you are in. Whether you own a direct-to-consumer model business, a retail business, a web business, or some combination thereof, direct response radio advertising can help you grow. And grow profitably. The fundamentals of direct response radio, then, must start with a discussion of how radio advertising works within the context of a basic business model. The purpose of this article is to convey the fundamentals of direct response radio advertising that apply across businesses.

First, Two Important Concepts

Throw out all you think you know about advertising, radio advertising, and especially direct response advertising. It's best to begin with a clean slate, a blank whiteboard so-to-speak. There are two important concepts I want to introduce before moving forward.

Concept One: Radio as A Highway From Your Business to Your Potential Customers

Think of radio advertising as a 5,000 lane highway from your business to groups (station audiences) of your potential customers. The many lanes on this highway are the many different radio stations and radio networks that are available for you air your radio advertisement. It is on these "lanes" that you send your message to your customers.

The lanes are clustered in such a way that they reach groups collections of customers who have similar tastes and demographic profiles. Therefore, some of these lanes lead to groups that have a high concentration of people who match your target customer profile. As a result, advertising on those lanes (stations) is more profitable than others with a lower concentration of your target customer profile. These groupings are the radio formats, which are used in radio advertising to enhance the efficiency of, or return on, advertising efforts. For more about radio formats, see our summary at http://www.strategicmediainc.com/radio-advertising.php.

Concept Two: Radio Advertising is a Profit-Driver, Not a Cost Center

At this juncture, the one thing many business people can't seem to put out of their mind is the one of "how much does it cost" to advertise on radio. We've written extensively about this question because it is one of the most common that we get. The problem is that embedded in this question is the presupposition that radio advertising is a cost. The concept that one needs to fully grasp is that radio advertising is not a cost center. That is, it does not stand alone without any relation to revenue or profit. It is detrimental to think of direct response radio advertising as a cost because that leads to managing as though it's a cost, which means minimizing or eliminating it. Contrast this with managing it like it's an investment, and maximizing the return you realize on it.

Direct response radio advertising - by its very definition - is a profit-driver. If it's not driving a profit, it would not exist - or at the very least it would not be called direct response radio advertising but instead "brand" or "awareness" advertising. Profitability is a fundamental aspect of direct response radio advertising.

On To the Fundamentals

Now that we've cleared our minds and allowed for two basic concepts about how to think about radio advertising, let's move on to the meat of the fundamentals of direct response radio advertising.

The Basic Formula

We'll begin with the basic formula involved in all direct response advertising:

You buy placement in radio media to air your radio ad, which gets your message broadcast to a certain number of people. This results in a cost per person reached with your message. In advertising this is known as CPM, or cost per thousand impressions of your ad.

Some percentage of those people will respond (call, visit your web site, visit your store), giving you a response rate.

Of those who respond (otherwise known as leads), a percentage will be converted into customers (orders), and by that conversion rate generate profit and revenue.

From this formula, you will derive your media "CPO", or "cost per order", which is found by dividing media spend by the number of orders achieved with that spend (media spend in the numerator/number of orders in the denominator). This is the amount it costs you in radio advertising to acquire one new customer, which is why it is also called "cost per acquisition" ("CPA").

The important question at this point is this: Is the lifetime value ("LTV") of each of your customers, on average, greater than this CPO? This fundamental question applies whether your business is a direct response advertising business (which includes radio advertising, print advertising, DRTV, catalog, or internet) or a traditional retailer. Every business pays to acquire a customer, and every business has a certain propensity to retain that customer over a period of time in a relationship consisting of subsequent purchases and therefore profit streams. Regardless of whether your business uses direct response radio to acquire new customers, or it uses one of the other approaches to customer acquisition, your success will be fundamentally based on whether your business model facilitates a strongly positive lifetime value. If it does not, there is little that radio advertising, or any other form of advertising, can do to change this.

If your LTV is not greater that your CPO, your business isn't profitable and you'll want to stop advertising so you can make the changes to both the advertising and the business model that will result in profitability. Even if LTV is greater than CPO, you will want to increase that amount to maximize your profitability. To do this, you'll need to increase LTV and/or decrease CPO. This process is called business (or campaign) profitability optimization, and it is absolutely essential to the long term success of any direct responses radio advertising effort.

Improving Lifetime Value

There are a number of ways to increase the LTV of each customer. Let's look at three of the main ways:

1. Increase price without increasing cost. One way to do this is by increasing the percentage of orders that include high-margin upsells. Retailers do this all the time. They put super high margin items right at the checkout. Direct response advertisers can learn a lot from this. Identify widely appealing, complementary items and ensure they are offered as part of the sales process.

2. Increase repeat purchase. You have paid to acquire that customer, now develop a relationship and continue to meet their needs to drive repeat purchase. If they only buy once from you, you don't have a very viable business unless that first purchase is incredibly high margin.

3. Reduce your cost structure. Take advantage of your increased volume to negotiate better product costs, shipping costs, etc.

Improving Cost Per Order

Just as there are a number of ways to increase LTV, there are also many ways to decrease the CPO.

1. Reduce the media cost per person reached. Also known as CPM, this is a standard metric used in advertising. It reflects the cost to reach 1000 people. (remember that CPM stands for "cost per thousand" impressions of your message). This is a constant focus of any good direct response radio agency, and the element in direct response radio advertising that has received the most attention. This is why every dollar of media in direct response radio is remnant advertising. But that's not all that should be considered when looking to reduce CPM. Leveraging database technology and using scientific testing methodology, it is possible to identify the optimum schedule to use in placing the media. Thus optimizing the media schedule can meaningfully reduce CPM.

2. Increase response rate. Again, media scheduling will play a role here. In addition, use of radio formats to effectively target the right customers is vital to optimizing response rate. But perhaps the greatest impact on response rate in direct response radio advertising is the messaging in the radio ad itself. Great direct response radio ads significantly enhance the responsiveness of the media dollars spent. Your radio agency's ability to create radio ads that elicit response from your potential customers is a crucial element in direct response radio advertising success.

3. Increase conversion rates. Increasing the percentage of inquiries that become customers can have an enormous impact on campaign profitability. The factors that will most impact conversion rate are your sales scripting, web copy, product offers, pricing, and your guarantee or return policy. As much as any other variable, these factors need to be tested and continuously refined.

Implications and Conclusions

Now that you understand the fundamentals of direct response radio advertising, let's look at the implications and conclusions that these fundamentals illuminate:

1. The role of database technology and analysis

By now it is clear that optimizing both lifetime value and cost per order maximizes your business profitability. But doing these things also requires capturing and analyzing an enormous quantity of data. To do this in a way that allows for distilling insights requires a robust database specifically tuned for direct response radio, along with well-refined analysis approaches. Fortunately, database technology and robust analysis are a part of the services your radio agency will provide for you.

2. The importance of ongoing testing

Any discussion of the fundamentals of direct response radio advertising (or any type of direct response advertising) would be incomplete without addressing the topic of testing. When you look at the above approaches to maximizing campaign profitability, you see the key metrics that must be impacted. But how do you actually impact them? How do you know whether offer A is better than offer B? or C? How do you know whether copy D drives a better response rate than the control? How do you know whether the sales scripting or the pricing structure could be improved by certain changes? The only way to know these things is to test. As a result, testing is a never-ending element in direct response radio advertising efforts. If you are not testing, you are slowly going out of business.

3. Success in direct response radio advertising is about more than costs

As we've mentioned, one of the biggest questions we get is "how much does it cost to advertise on the radio?". Done correctly, direct response radio advertising is not a cost center, it's a profit center. It's a very efficient way to acquire new customers at a low CPO. To learn more on the topic of radio advertising costs and how to budget for radio advertising, see our article at http://www.strategicmediainc.com/radio-advertising-articles/.

4. Nearly any business can grow profitably with direct response radio advertising

It is difficult for me to think of businesses that cannot benefit from the kind of radio advertising that we are involved in. Direct response radio advertising is different from other forms of advertising because it is accountable for results, and the only way it can be accountable is to leverage a set of technological and human systems and processes to accurately capture, analyze and interpret results of the advertising. Once you have that in place, you have established a continuous improvement loop. Therefore, provided you have a profitable business model and a good product that delivers on a unique and relevant promise, your business can profitably acquire new customers with direct response radio advertising. That's the ultimate promise of direct response radio: the ability to grow your business profitably at the rate you want to grow it. Once you establish profitability, you need only increase your media spend to drive higher revenues and profits.

The Fundamentals in Perspective

Direct response radio advertising does not stand alone in creating a business. It works in combination with your business model to acquire new customers at a low, and therefore profitable, CPO. What makes direct response radio advertising so attractive is its efficiency and flexibility, which results in comparatively low CPO's relative to other mediums.

This article explains the fundamental elements involved in how nearly any business can use direct response radio advertising to acquire new customers and grow both profitably and rapidly. Once you understand the fundamentals of radio advertising, you're ready to embark on the process of building a direct response radio advertising campaign. That process involves developing a radio advertising strategy, creating radio ads that drive response, and implementing a radio media plan that delivers your message to the right people for the right cost.

Written by Jeff Small, CEO of Strategic Media, Inc., a leading direct response radio advertising agency. Jeff Small has over a decade of experience building profitable direct response radio advertising campaigns. Learn more about profitable direct response radio advertising strategies at http://www.strategicmediainc.com or by calling (207) 871-9958.

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My Business Has a Website, But No One Can Seem to Find It

My Business Has a Website, But No One Can Seem to Find It

The internet is maturing, and the list of websites has grown into the Tens of billions. There are billions of searches every day. If you own a business, and you want current and potential clients and customers to be able to find your website, it's very important for your business to be on the first few pages of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Although this is very important and necessary, it's getting harder and harder to accomplish. Everybody wants to be on the first page, and the competition is fierce.

That competition is the reason SE Optimization (SEO) was created. People, whose business depends on their Internet presence, created systems and procedures, which when implemented properly, gave their website a higher ranking with the search engines than their competitors.

In the beginning, all you had to do was put some keywords in the Meta tags of your website and you lived happily ever after. A keyword is a word or a short series of words that provide an overview of a website's page content. These keywords are placed in the website page's Meta tag. A Meta tag is an informational file in the software of your website that is visible only to the search engines

After a while, as always, people tried to beat the system. They came up with all kinds of devious tricks. Eventually, Google, Yahoo, and the other search engines, to try and level the playing field, started banning what is now known as "Black Hat SEO". The black hat coming from the old western movies where the good guys wore white hats, and the bad guys wore black hats. These Black Hat techniques try and trick the system into giving them a higher rating than they deserve, according to Google and the other SE. People who use these kinds of tricks run the risk of getting their website banned from SEO results. Not a good idea if all or part of your income is derived from your company's Internet presence. As SE Optimization evolves, the list of Black Hat SEO techniques grows.

You should always follow the recommended guidelines of the search engines. SEO is an ongoing process by which the website's text, Meta tags, and many other aspects are continually edited and tweaked to give your site a higher organic rating. The Organic rating means that the placement of the website in the SERP was generated strictly by the merits of the website's content. This is different from someone paying for a higher placed ranking which is the case in Pay Per Click (PPC). More on PPC next time...

Written by Michael Smacdougall is President of The Darwin Agency.A full service of Denver Marketing Agency and Advertising agency with offices in Florida and Colorado. He can be reached at mike@thedarwinagency.com, or through his company's website at http://TheDarwinAgency.com.

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Small Business Marketing - 7 Ideas For Great Video Content

Small Business Marketing - 7 Ideas For Great Video Content

Video Content: Video is a great way to create content, it's also good for exposure and back links. So here we're going to give you a few different ideas that you can use to create videos.

There are a few different ways to create videos. If you're just doing a straight forward video the simplest way is to use a Flip video camera. You can find the Flip video camera at many local stores and you can also get it at Amazon. If you would like to include screenshots or other special effects in your video you could use Camtasia. You can get Camtasia by visiting their website at Camtasia.com.

So after you have some way to create videos the next step is to decide what kind of video you would like to make.

The videos you create could include:

• A video testimonial from one of your customers. You could do an interview with a customer or ask them to share their experience with you and your business and record the conversation.
• A video case study with a client. You can conduct an interview with a client, asking them to share statistics, findings, results, their experience, basically the overall story of their results.
• A video teaching your viewers how to do something. For example... If you sell calendars for instance, what could you possibly teach in a how-to video? Perhaps you can do a video on better time management and organization, how to balance life and work, and how to add inspiration to your work and living environment with inspirational calendars.
• A video showing people how to use your product or service. What you're creating here is an excellent video on how to use your product and not a sales pitch. So if you have a service or product that is complicated or if you're involved in a complicated industry you can actually teach people how to use your product or service.
• An interview with a leader or a famous person in your industry or area. You may be surprised by how easy it is to get interviews with influential people. Just reach out to 10 people you would like to interview with a brief one-page proposal about what you would like to interview them on and how the interview would be used. You will probably get one or two of these people to accept your offer.
• A controversial, funny or inspirational content. People love these kinds of videos and you could get large amount of traffic from this type of video, but it's hard for companies to pull this off. You may want to play it safe and stick with inspirational type content.
• User generated content. You could hold a contest or encourage your customers to submit videos.

The possibilities are endless. A good rule of thumb is that anything you can write about, you can craft into an interesting video. The same rules apply - keep it short and sweet, actionable and informative, and try to be interesting, funny, or engaging without sacrificing your professional image.

Videos can rake in views and traffic.

Videos also build trust because they see you're giving valuable information without beating them over the head with a sales pitch.

An incredible example of this is Wiley Books' promotion of the book, "Brewing Up a Business." They held a contest on YouTube inviting people to read the book and then submit a short video showing how they implemented the business advice and approach explained in the book and what their results were. The book was fun and funky and they kept that vibe in their contest and materials promoting the contest.

The result was over 60 videos from 60 different video makers all discussing and promoting Wiley's book in a creative and engaging way. Think about innovative ways you can get your audience involved in discussing and promoting your company and its offerings.

Another great tactic for creating popular, viral videos is to monitor trends in your industry and hit hot topics as soon as they pop up. If a hot new iPhone is coming out, and you sell phone accessories compatible with the iPhone, then hop on that popularity wagon and do a video about iPhone innovations. You don't even have to mention your site except to introduce yourself and the company you're with.

Regardless of the type of video you create, you can brand your company without ever pitching it in your videos.

Options include... Adding the URL to your company website at the bottom of each video and branding your YouTube channel with your company's URL, brand identity, and calls to action to your site.

So regardless of what type of videos you decide to create, the biggest thing is to get started. Get out there and create some videos and get them posted online.

And now I would like to invite you to stop by our site where you can pickup additional lessons and training about how you can market your business better online. Just visit our site at http://JoeMarshMarketing.com

Written by Joe Marsh -Your Online Small Business Marketing Coach

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