Archive for April, 2009

In order to be successful advertising must have a number of key elements. A successful advertisement will appeal to your target audience, it will be positioned in a place where they will see the advertisement and it will have a measurable result. Let’s take a look at each of these elements independently.

Make the most of your advertising by appealing to your target audience. To appeal to your target audience an advertiser must do their research. To understand your audience it’s important to know not only what their problems are but what their fears, desires, and passions are. This means demographic and psychographic analysis.

Once you understand your audience then you can craft a compelling advertisement which will address their concerns, needs, and desires. A successful advertisement doesn’t need to capture your audiences’ imagination and sell them your brand image. What it does need to do is capture their attention, make a compelling promise, back it up with some proof or credibility and then provide them some means to act – a measurable call to action. “Buy now.” “Visit www.yoururlhere.com to claim your free report,”

The second phase of making the most of your advertising is by placing your advertisement in a location where your target audience will see it. This involves both research and trial and error on your part. Research complimentary websites in your industry to find websites and blogs to advertise on. Consider what your customer might do before or after they make a purchase from you. For example if own a dating membership site then one thing someone might do before they join a singles website is lose weight or visit a tanning salon or gym.

Also look to find out where your competition is advertising. If they’re advertising on weight loss sites then you know you may have success there too.

The final element in making the most of your advertising is to make sure you can track and measure results. The only way to know if your advertisement is hitting the mark is to make sure you have data to compare. One excellent way to make sure you have a call to action.

A call to action is a statement which tells your reader what to do next. It is the “call now,” “buy now,” or “grab your free pen before they’re gone,” command. If you send people to a unique phone number or URL then you know how many people have responded to your advertisement.

Couple that with the data from the number of people who have viewed the advertisement – this data is usually provided by the place you buy your advertising space – and you have a percentage to compare with other advertisements.

For example, if you place an advertisement in a national magazine with a readership of 100,000 and 500 people respond to the ad then you have a 5% response rate. Compare that to an ad that runs for 10 days on a website that has 10,000 views a day and 1000 click throughs or results in a 10% response rate. If the ads cost the same then you would likely repeat the website advertisement more frequently for a bigger return on investment.

Advertising can be a great way to build your income when it is approached strategically and you keep the three factors for advertising success in mind.

What’s the hardest thing about blogging? Coming up with fresh, new content! And you have to publish new posts frequently – twice a week at the very least – to keep readers interested and earn search engine love.

If you’re feeling stuck, here is a list of 50 blogging ideas that are sure to inspire you to come up with new content for your blog. Most of the ideas can be used more than once, so you won’t run out of blog posts for months to come.

(And by the way, if you’re looking for ideas AND want to make money from them, sign up for the Blogger’s Paycheck course)

1. Special events – Relate your blog topic to a special event, national day of, or holiday.

2. News – Subscribe to Google news alert on your keywords and write about the latest news in your niche.

3. Book review.

4. Respond to a post on another blog in a niche similar or related to yours.

5. Blog milestone – Write about your blogging milestones, such as publishing your 100th post, getting your 1000th comment….

6. Niche heroes -Blog about a person who made a positive contribution in your niche.

7. Blog memes – Join in blog memes such as “Wordless Wednesday”. There’s at least one for every day of the week!

8. Product review – An excellent way to work in some affiliate links.

9. FAQs in your niche – Write a short Q & A based on FAQs about your niche.

10. Blog comment response – Write a long and expanded response to a comment on your blog.

11. Predict trends – What do you see happening in your niche in a year? 5 years?

12. Historical view – What was your niche in the past? Or what past event influenced your niche?

13. Top tips on a topic of interest to your readers

14. Best of… – A good year ender, make a list of your best posts for the year.

15. Contests – Organize a contest for your blog readers, or make a list of contests your readers can join.

16. What I learned from… a current event, a person you met, or an experience you had.

17. Definitions – Define terms that are commonly used in your niche but a beginner may not understand

18. New products – Not a review but simply an announcement of a new product relevant to your niche. This is another good opportunity to drop in some affiliate links.

19. Biggest problem – Ask your readers what their biggest problem is about your blog topic or niche. They post their answers in the comments section.

20. Biggest problem follow-up – Summarize the comments from #19 in another post.

21. Biggest problem follow-up series – Write a separate blog post tackling each question from #19.

22. Interview somebody knowledgeable in your niche, or has succeeded in it, or is otherwise interesting to your readers.

23. Big list – Compile a big list of various resources, just like this one. The bigger the better!

24. Reader Survey – Put up a brief survey online and blog about the results.

25. Be provocative. Challenge a common belief or widely accepted idea in your niche.

26. New idea – What new idea about your blog topic or niche have you come across lately?

27. YouTube – Embed a funny, moving or insightful video on YouTube. You can even have a “video day” once a week.

28. YouTube version 2 – Make YOUR own YouTube video. Publish it on YouTube then embed on your blog. This way, you can attract traffic from YouTube to your blog.

29. Freebie – Scour the ‘net for freebies that your readers will love. Or create a freebie of your own, such as a checklist or special report.

30. Personal story – Use a personal story to illustrate an important concept or principle in your niche.

31. Free to publish articles – Check out relevant articles in article directories such as Ezine Articles… but don’t publish them entirely on your blog. Instead, use an article or a group of articles as your take-off point for a blog post, or several.

32. Link love – This is a post with links to other blogs. Some bloggers set aside one day a week to publish a list of the best blog posts on their topic.

33. Photo – A picture is worth thousand words, right? Search Flickr for creative commons pictures that your readers will like.

34. Hot topics – Look at Digg for hot topics in your niche

35. Pros and cons – Examine what’s good and bad about something related to your blog topic

36. Respond to relevant questions you find in Ask.com

37. Guest post – Invite another blogger to write a guest post for your blog

38. Reader’s post – Invite blog subscribers to submit an article or post to be published on the blog

39. Inspirational post – Write a motivational post for your readers.

40. Update an old post with fresh ideas, new learnings and current research findings.

41. Beginner’s guide – What do beginners in your niche struggle with? Write a post to guide them through it.

42. Best list – Patterned after “best dressed lists” make a list of the best ___ in your niche.

43. Worst list – Make your version of the “worst dressed list” for your niche.

44. New uses for – Think of new ways your readers can use gadgets and other stuff.

45. Write about a live event that you attended and what you learned from it.

46. Bribe post – Bribe your readers with a freebie in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter or RSS feed.

47. Around the world – Compare how people in different countries do something related to your niche.

48. Seasonal – Relate the month or season to your blog topic.

49. Blog carnival – Join or host a blog carnival, where several publish posts about the same topic on the same day.

50. Host a virtual “conference” on your blog – Invite “speakers” to publish their post on a specified date and time. Q&A happens in the comments section.

Now that you’ve got a steady flow of fresh content, how do you actually make money from your blog? Visit Blogger’s Paycheck for a step-by-step guide on blogging for profit.

….how’s the content?

(Side note to my friend “CH”…I meant ACE is cute, wasn’t referring to John Reese in this case. )

I finally had a chance to check out John Reese’s latest video for his upcoming Opportunity.com project. It’s actually a very cool video and gives affiliate marketers a little blueprint for making affiliate commissions. What’s really nice about is that it’s simple (and I assume that will have some critics screaming that it’s basic info) and can certainly give those struggling some good direction to go in.

Part of the tips include advice on handling an affiliate autoresponder sequence and since I am coincidentally updating all my autoresponders, I’ll be working in his idea of re-ordering some of my messages.

Overall, it’s worth a watch, as long as you don’t mind giving up your email address in the process (and yes, you’ll have to confirm your email address before you get to watch). Well, it’s better than giving up your first born.

I know a lot of online business owners do things that they’ve always done simply because they feel like they have to…or because it’s just what they’ve always done them – despite the fact there is no benefit to their business from doing so.

Um yeah, I do it too sometimes.

But it’s time for you to confess. What do you do in your online business over and over again, despite the fact you KNOW it’s not helping you grow.

As a direct sales business owner one of you main sources of income comes from parties that others agree to host for you. It is important to not only book the parties but to also develop a viable partnership with your hostess. After all this is the person who is going to help you bring in the sales.

Partnering with Your Hostess: Pathway to Recruiting Success, is a book that provides you with the techniques to help you and your hostess accomplish your goals. Working with your hostess will determine how many sales you get and who you can recruit. You want to be sure that you create a win-win partnership with your hostess and help her feel like she accomplished her dreams as well.

You will discover a resourceful abundance of information to help you create a plan for a party that is fun, informative and filled with potential. Apply the techniques and they will work.

Partnering with Your Hostess: Pathway to Recruiting Success, is a book that you will want to refer to again and again. If you are a direct sales manager share what you learn from the book with your downline. Use it as a training tool and suggest to everyone who joins your team that they get the book and study it before giving their first party alone.

Direct sales is a great way to earn income. To do so with success you have to understand what you are doing and how to do it. If giving parties is a big part of your direct sales marketing funnel then you need to have this book in your reference library.

A guru is someone who has obtained notable status for their expertise in a particular niche. For example, Donald Trump would be a guru in the real estate investment niche, right? The benefits of finding a guru in your niche are huge. They’re a person from whom you can learn – presumably they’ve made all the mistakes already which will save you time, money, and heartache. A guru likely already has a following too, which can add credibility and even profits to your business. Finally, many niche gurus offer spectacular products which you can use and or market yourself.
This may sound too simple but one of the best ways to find a guru in your niche industry is to head to the bookstore or library. Why? Because we consider people who are published to be experts and chances are anyone who has tremendous experience and knowledge in your niche is going to have a book, or ten, on the subject.
Head to the bookstore or library, grab a handful of recent publications, and take notes of who wrote them and how you can get a hold of them. Do they have a website? Do they have a mailing address?
Another way to find a niche guru is to read industry periodicals. Many experts are also prolific writers – their knowledge is in demand and writing about it is the best way to communicate the message. They may also give speeches and workshops however the written word is more accessible to the public at large – message to the masses. Again you can visit your library for this one and investigate industry publications. Most libraries keep the last 10 or so issues of any particular magazine out for the public and the rest are archived. A years worth of magazines is probably enough to tell you who the experts are.
Browse the issues; take note of the authors who write on subjects near and dear to your niche, and jot down their information. Get at least a name and you can then Google them to see what comes up.
Speaking of Google, searching online is a great way to find experts. Visit industry blogs, participate in forums and see who is posting the most relevant, informative, and notable comments and posts on these blogs. Research these people a bit further to see if they’re guru worthy.
Finally, if after all of this work you’re still coming up short on finding a guru in your niche, just ask. Go back to those blogs and forums and ask who the biggest and best experts are. You may get 20 different answers however you now have a great place to start your research.
Finding a guru in your niche is a great way to expand both personally and professionally. Once you’ve found your guru, don’t be shy. Get in touch and see what you can learn.

If you are not doing keyword research then your business is suffering. With keyword tracking you can increase traffic to your site and bring more attention to what you have to offer. Keywords help you to understand what your potential customers are searching for and one of the best places to discover that is Wordtracker.

The folks over at Wordtracker created the perfect resource to help you with your key word research. The Keyword Research Guide is a free downloadable resource that will help you in many areas.

Using a fictional company as its case study, experts were asked to provide real answers to the problems facing the company’s CEO. The result is an e-book packed with insight, tips, and techniques on keyword research that you can apply easily to your own website.
The experts share advice on why keywords matter, how to use a tool such as Wordtracker, how to adopt a healthy position with keyword research and designing an online marketing strategy.

Other items discussed include:
• Converting traffic using Wordtracker
• Finding keyword and you’ll find your marketplace
• Where to use keyword phrases
• In paid search, Keywords are key.

All of this information packed in one handy book that you can simply add to you computer files and read right from you computer. It is imperative to your business that you learn about proper use of keywords and how to research them for optimization of your site and sales.

The Keyword Research Guide is a perfect tool for any online business owner to glean and grow from for success.