Last weekend I took my two dogs, Hunny and Maggi to get their annual shots. There’s a feed store a few miles from our house (we live out in the country) that advertises shots are available once a month. The lady in the feed store told me that the vet comes once a month to administer shots and a quick exam, between the hours of 9:30 – 11:00 a.m. She said if I don’t arrive at 9:30 a.m. I might as well shoot for 10:45 a.m. because the line would be long.

Taking her advice, I arrived at 9:20 a.m. and waited in my car until the vet motioned us in. I was third in line and by the time we were done, the line outside the small building had grown to about eight people with varying sized dogs and several cats. The parking lot was full with more people pulling in. Read the rest of this entry

Forum Marketing

Today we are looking at Effective Forum Marketing.

Forums are a great way to get in touch with potential customers.  There are various forums all across the internet that are devoted to an incredible range of topics.  That means that regardless of the type of product you are working with, there is likely a forum somewhere that is devoted to that field.People who frequent forums know for a fact that they can reach a highly targeted demographic, they include warm prospects, with very high conversion lead potentials.

Establish a Presence

However you need to work hard on establishing your presence and reputation.  Forum marketing is not about just posting a couple links and watching the sales come rolling in.  Forums have moderators and administrators who look out for marketing scams and immediately delete those posts and ban the user who posted them.

So how can you use forum marketing effectively?

Trading value for value.Bear in mind that the forum users offer their attention to your posts and will most likely buy them if you know how to promote it accordingly.The value you will provide is determined by the very nature of the forum.

For example, if you are selling a how-to product that teaches people how to use Photoshop software, then look for forums for beginners to the software.Most likely they will ask questions on how certain things are done, so you can find the answer and post it.  That is the value you give them.  When you post in a forum, you are usually allowed to have a link to a website either in your user profile or as a “signature” – text or images that appear automatically at the bottom of each of your posts.

Don’t Blatantly Sell

So long as you provide value to other forum users thru informative posts, and remember to never blatantly ofoer to sell products or spam te boards or else you will be kicked off the forums.  And the people that you advise will often follow your link out of curiosity, or the need for more information. One they are able to see that you have a product that actually solves their problems or can ease their burdes for which they are hanging out on such forums then it is most likely that they will buy your product.

Forum marketing is being used more and more by internet marketers, and while it does take time to establish a credible preference in the forum, the benefits are great if it is one that is very finely targeted to your niche.

Have You Tried This Yet

Have You Used a Technique like this before or during your product launch? Maybe you have used it as an affiliate for other products… What Results have you seen from Forum traffic?

Colin Klinkert is a full time internet marketer making high six figures a year online. He runs many membership sites, one of which makes over a million a year in revenue.

Colin also blogs on his personal site about Marketing techniques, methods and news. Read more about Forum Marketing.

The viral marketing business model was first described by Tim Draper and popularized in 1997 to describe Hotmail’s practice of adding advertising to the outgoing mail of their users. Viral marketing had been around for ages. So, it is word-of-mouth marketing.

It is in the nature of a person’s tendency to “tell their friends”. The terminology, or what we refer to this as, is new. Surveys tell us that the average individual online has at least six close friends they communicate with on a regular basis. If they have a great experience with a product they will on average, tell six people.

When an internet user finds something valuable, informative, hilarious, interesting or free online, they will share it with up to 12 friends. Thus the internet is the backdrop for the most successful viral marketing business model.

Marketing pros insist that in order to sell something, you need to give something away for free. I recently read an e-book about dieting and it was completely free. It made perfect sense. It was written by the marketing department of a supplement manufacturer. He suggested that you share the book with everyone. His goal, of course, was to sell supplements.

He might have sold the book. It contained as much information as many of the diet books that line bookstore shelves, but he realized the value of giving something away, in order to get something. Not only do people love free stuff, they have a tendency to “trust” people or companies that give them something with no strings attached, especially when that something has value.

You will see numerous software programs on the web that offer a free version and a “pro” version. This is another example of a viral marketing business model. If a person sees any free software program, they usually share it with up to 12 people they know would like to try it as well.

Social networking is becoming increasingly popular. People with a Facebook account have thousands of online friends and they communicate with some of them daily. If you can provide something that they want to share, then you may have a viral campaign waiting to happen.

There are other elements of a successful viral marketing business model. The key element is designing the free item campaign for something free that people can share with others.

The past few weeks I’ve been spending a lot of time learning how to do keyword research

and learning to love this part of internet marketing. Researching keywords and phrases that

people use to find what they’re looking for is the most crucial step in the process of creating a

site that ranks highest on the search engines.

I wanted to share some of the resources I’ve been using to learn this skill. First of all, here’s the

free Google keyword research tool that is probably one of the most popular keyword tools out there.

When I first started using it, I didn’t really understand it’s power and capability. I probably still don’t, lol,

but I’m learning and want to pass on what I learn to you.

So, let me share some resources that I’m finding helpful.

First is a thread on the Warrior Forum that Andrew Hansen wrote. It’s in three parts, so don’t miss any of it.

Second is the free SEO training guide from Shannon Lueck.

Third is Potpiegirl’s free Squidoo report. It’s not a keyword research guide per se, but does have tons of helpful info on creating Squidoo lenses that will help you get started with creating an affiliate business.

I can’t wait for Linda Caroll’s guide to come out. She’s teaching a system called The Whole E-Grail, pretty catchy, huh? Her Golden Ladder method is what made me fall in love with keyword research. She made it so easy to understand that I set up a service to help other people who don’t have the time or inclination to spend on this most important step in creating a website, blog, or even bummarketing approach to internet marketing.

I’m open for business at Keyword Angel.
See you soon,

Theresa

Finding the keywords or long-tail keyword phrases that your readers are using to find you is probably one of the most challenging tasks we face in internet marketing.

There are all kinds of software programs and many ebooks have been written on this subject to help you. Are you actually finding the gold nugget keywords that drive your pages to the top of the search engines?

I have a few suggestions that may help you.

Google Adwords has a great free tool that helps you to see what the average search volume is, advertiser competition, and returns a list of keywords related to your original keyword submission.

Jennifer “Potpie Girl” Ledbetter posted about how she does keyword research and has some very helpful tips on the subject.

I am studying Linda Carroll’s golden ladder method of finding keywords with high KEI (keyword effectiveness index) and am finding that I really enjoy research. In fact, I like it so much  that I’m creating a new site to offer a service to those who find this a daunting task or just don’t have time for it.

Stay tuned, I’ll let you know when the site is live so you can head on over and put  me to work for you.

Video Infomercials and Clickbank

Yesterday afternoon I had a very pleasant and informative chat with Rob Brooks, the author of The Beginner’s Guide to Making Video Infomercials That Make Big Money.

He told me a little about his background and how he got started with doing video infomercials. His free book is one of the best manuals on creating video and how to get traffic to them that I’ve seen. I like it so much that I’ve printed it out and put it in a binder for easy reference.

I chose Rob’s site for my blog of the week post because his style of writing is very easy to follow with a 1-2-3 approach, he provides useful information if you’re interested in video and affiliate marketing, and he really cares about helping people.

The interview/conversation is about 26 minutes. Rob tells stories about his experiences and gives vivid examples of how to use and find long-tail keywords.

One of the reasons I’m featuring these audio conversations is to help the newcomers to IM and affiliate marketing see that there are people all over the world who really want to help you grow your business and avoid the mistakes that are easy to make when you’re just getting started.

Click To Play

I think audio and video help the readers to see that we’re genuine. I hope you’ll listen and leave a comment letting me know your thoughts.

Warmly,

Theresa

I had a request to publish my schedule of daily tasks.

This is something that I had intended to do anyway just to keep myself organized and on track with my goals.

It’s also a way to keep myself accountable. I will make another post tomorrow to let you know what I was able to accomplish, so I hope you’ll check back.

1.  Post on my blog    15 minutes

2.  “Oil rig hopping”/visiting the blogs of class mates and other related blogs to learn from and leave constructive comments.   JT’s place is my first stop. 60 minutes

3.  Use BlogClicker to get credit for traffic to my blog and find interesting blogs to visit.   15 minutes

4.  Visit Warrior Forum and Internet Marketing Forum . Spend 30 minutes reading and posting comments.

5. Write an article about WebProsperity and post to Squidoo or Hub pages. 45 – 60 minutes.

Okay, that’s my plan for today. Do you have yours? You’re welcome to share your comments below about what your plan consists of or how you get traffic.

See you later,

Theresa

Here’s my goal for the week of Dec. 29-Jan. 4:

• Get the give away books and opt in boxes on the site to give my visitors something of value.

• Increase traffic to 100 visitors/day . . . currently seeing about 10-20 so I’ve got my work cut out for me.

• Spend one hour per day “oil rig hopping”

• Visit four new forums on internet marketing and traffic generation

• Write two new articles and submit them to Ezinearticles.com

• Create another Squidoo lens and connect it to my blog and other lens I’ve already written
  

I’ll keep you up to date with what I’m getting accomplished.

Last Thursday was another marathon class and I’m learning to prepare for them by getting my glass of water, taking care of BR needs (don’t want to miss any of the class . . maybe that was more than you wanted to know), having my notebook and pens handy, etc.

Alex is using a contest to light a fire under us to take action . . . and an effective one at that! $1,000 goes to the person with the most traffic by January 1^st.

The rules are simple; we have to show results using Google analytics and write on our blog about how we’re getting traffic to our site.

So, here’s my plan:

• Use my kitchen timer to work in time chunks.
• Use Gary Simpson’s Time In Motion Action Planner
• Write on my blog what I plan to do that day and a goal for the week.
• Visit the blogs of my class mates to find out what they’re doing, answer any questions I can and just generally leave a comment that is helpful in some way.
• Search keywords in Youtube on getting traffic and list building.
• Use Word Tracker or another keyword tool to find out what keywords people are using to learn more about getting traffic and then using them in my post titles and articles.
• Join a forum on internet marketing, create a good signature file and leave comments that are helpful.
• Write a Squidoo lens on how to get traffic to your web site or blog.
• Write a Hub page on the same topic.

Whew! That should keep me out of trouble for a couple of hours

I’ll check back in later today and let you know what I’ve accomplished.

Theresa

This is a time of transformation for me. I’ve decided to become an “actioneer”.

I realize actioneer is not a real word, but I’ve made it up to describe what I want to be. I am moving from student and wannabe online business entrepreneur to being one. It is a definite mind shift. Like many others I have purchased ebooks that tell you how to become successful at online businesses. Someone else is making lots of money from people like me.

I know the principles work and it is time for me to make them work. So, I’m becoming an actioneer. Taking action . . . doing instead of reading about doing. This is the beginning of my journey and you are most welcome to come hang out with me. I welcome your comments, suggestions, and questions.

Have you heard of Alex Jeffreys? I hadn’t until recently. I can’t even remember where I got the information about him, but I watched a short video he did describing a coaching program he has spent the past several years creating. There was just something special about him. I could really sense that he deeply cares about people and wants to help them become successful.

Usually I spend quite a bit of time considering before jumping on a bandwagon for the brightest and newest program to come along. He used one of the common techniques of creating urgency, and I had no doubt that he meant it. Because of his presentation and what he was offering I signed up for his four week coaching course.

I’ll keep you posted on what I’m learning. Of course, I can’t give away too much information, but you’ll certainly have an idea of how it’s going. I am very excited about this new venture. It really is the tipping point for me. I have a successful internet marketing business person who is putting his own activities on hold to personally coach this group that are fortunate enough to get in before the deadline. What is so impressive to me is that he spent 3 hours on the first class which is taught by webinar, so it’s live and then Alex stayed on to answer questions for an additional two hours at least.

That first class created such a mindset shift in me, it was worth the entire fee. I feel like I received a years worth of university education in that first three hours. I am implementing what I learned already and am looking forward to next class.

One of the books Alex recommended is “The 4-Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferris. I went to the library and checked it out, but I’m definitely going to purchase a copy. It’s entertaining, easy reading, and gives very practical ways to change how you think about business and life in general.

The rest of the homework is helping me get organized and create some goals. This is pretty common sense stuff, but I had not been utilizing or implementing what I already knew. Anyway, I’m off to a good start.