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Looking for a Bid Management Tool, Get Some Tips with a Free Webinar

June 16th, 2010 Ryan Comments off

Are you handling a large scale SEM portfolio, something with more than 10,000 keyword terms or are you on the look out for a bid management tool to handle your SEM campaigns?

If you are, you might want to check out this free Webinar which will cover the “Top Three Mistakes Marketers Make When Choosing a Bid Management Tool”

Summary of the Webinar

The right bid management solution can give you a competitive edge – you can spend more time optimizing your paid search programs and less time dealing with repetitive issues.

Choosing the “right” solution isn’t as easy as it sounds. Learn the valuable information you need to make the right decision, join PPC Summit for this FREE webinar.

You’ll get glimpse inside PPC Summit’s 2010 PPC Management and Optimization Report which will be officially unveiled at our upcoming B2B event in San Francisco June 23, 2010.

IN THIS WEBINAR, YOU’LL DISCOVER
• The one thing to help you make smarter buying decisions
• The common practice that leads to buyer remorse and what to do about it
• Where paid search is heading and why that matters to your business
• Important lessons you don’t have to learn the hard way

WHEN: June 16th 2010, 11am (PT)

PRESENTERS: Mary O’Brien, PPC Summit President and Lisa Morgan, Report Principal Analyst

It’s FREE, Register Now!

Ideas For Creating Twitter Backgrounds

June 3rd, 2010 Ryan Comments off

Looking for tips into helping you create your Twitter backgrounds is only sensible; to ensure you project the right image to your list of dedicated followers. However, the first tip is one that you are most likely to have already completed, so well done. If you have not spent some time considering what it is you want to say though; now is the time.

Do not panic if you haven’t thought along these lines yet though; consider simply using one of Twitter’s own templates until you become inspired. Okay, so they’re not going to win any awards, but they have been professionally and tastefully completed.

There are of course some key areas of your background design for Twitter that you need to look out for. As with any graphics, it is important to pay  close attention to the size and resolution of the image you wish to upload. If using text in  your background, try to keep it to a minimum and clearly defined.

An important aspect that many first time tweeters fall foul of regards the incorporation of Twitter’s own logo. As a result, use a border so the Twitter logo and user panel do not impede onto your design.

It is not possible to preview your design on Twitter unfortunately but, being such a  straightforward process to update, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem for you.

If you are really stuck; feel free to have a look at what professional companies could do for you. Prices can be quite affordable. If cost is at a premium, (or even if it isn’t and you have the time), designing your own is far the better option.

However you approach the design and publication of your Twitter backgrounds; always ensure you do not neglect the content. Remember that it is the content that really matters.

Are you a Yahoo email User?

June 2nd, 2010 Ryan Comments off

Yahoo plans to join Google in allowing their entire email subscriber base to be able to share information on the web. This is something similar to Google Buzz but its different as the program wouldnt expose a user contact list to the public as was done by Google through its social networking application.

Not sure how this will go with Yahoo mail users or how it will help with social media marketing, so we will have to wait and see how it goes

Read the Report – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/01/AR2010060100577.html

A Guide to RSS Aggregators

June 1st, 2010 Ryan Comments off

One of the most popular features of Internet portals, websites, pages and even emails is a frame that features an organized list of news headlines and periodic updates from other web sources.  Really Simple Syndication, formerly ìRich Site Summaryî or simply, RSS makes this possible.

Most users visit a lot of websites whose content continually change, such as news sites, community organization or professional association information pages, medical websites, product support pages, and blogs.  As Internet surfing became an intrinsic part of business and leisure, it became important to get rid of the very tedious task of repeatedly returning to each website to see updated content.

RSS easily distributes information from different websites to a wider number of Internet users.  RSS aggregators are programs that use RSS to source these updates, and then organize those lists of headlines, content and notices for easy reading.  It allows computers to automatically retrieve and read the content that users want, then track changes and personalize lists of headlines that interests them.

The specially made computer programs called ìRSS aggregatorsî were created to automatically find and retrieve the RSS feeds of pre-selected internet sites on behalf of the user and organize the results accordingly. (RSS feeds and aggregators are also sometimes referred to as “RSS Channels” and “RSS Readers”.)

The RSS aggregator is like a web browser for RSS content.  HTML presents information directly to users, and RSS automatically lets computers communicate with one another.  While users use browsers to surf the web then load and view each page of interest, RSS aggregators keeps track of changes to many websites.  The titles or descriptions are links themselves and can be used to load the web page the user wants.

RSS starts with an original Web site that has content made available by the administrator.  The website creates an RSS document and registers this content with an RSS publisher that will allow other websites to syndicate the documents.  The Web site also produces an RSS feed, or channel, which is available together with all other resources or documents on the particular Web server.  The website will register the feed as an RSS document, with a listed directory of appropriate RSS publishers.

An RSS feed is composed of website content listed from newest to oldest.  Each item usually consists of a simple title describing the item along with a more complete description and a link to a web page with the actual content being described.  In some instances, the short description or title line is the all the updated information that a user wants to read (for example, final games scores in sports, weblogs post, or stock updates).   Therefore, it is not even necessary to have a web page associated with the content or update items listed — sometimes all the needed information that users need would be in the titles and short summaries themselves.

The RSS content is located in a single file on a webpage in a manner not very different from typical web pages.  The difference is that the information is written in the XML computer code for use by an RSS aggregator and not by a web user like a normal HTML page.

There are 2 main parts that are involved in RSS syndication, namely:  the source end and the client end.

The client end of RSS publishing makes up part of the system that gathers and uses the RSS feed.  For example, Mozilla FireFox browser is typically at the client end of the RSS transaction.  A userís desktop RSS aggregator program also belongs to the client end.

Once the URL of an RSS feed is known, a user can give that address to an RSS aggregator program and have the aggregator monitor the RSS feed for changes.  Numerous RSS aggregators are already preconfigured with a ready list of RSS feed URLs for popular news or information websites that a user can simply choose from.

There are many RSS aggregators that can be used by all Internet users.  Some can be accessed through the Internet, some are already incorporated into email applications, and others run as a standalone program inside the personal computer.

RSS feeds have evolved into many uses.  Some uses gaining popularity are:

- For online store or retail establishments:  Notification of new product arrivals
- For organization or association newsletters:  title listings and notification of new issues, including email newsletters
- Weather Updates and other alerts of changing geographic conditions
- Database management:  Notification of new items added, or new registered members to a club or interest group.

The uses of feeds will continue to grow, because RSS aggregators make access to any information that individual users like more convenient and fun.

Maximum Website Promotion through PPC Bid Management

June 1st, 2010 Ryan Comments off

Tools for Internet Marketing have been rising to popularity these days because of cost-effectiveness and the possibility of measuring increase in profits and sales.

Pay per click (PPC) is a means to advertise business through the use of keywords/phrases in the search engines. The advertiser is required to only pay for each click that sends a visitor to his website. Search engines such as Overture, Google Adwords, Search Yahoo and Miva are just some examples of search engines. They offer top positions among the sponsored listings for particular keywords/phrases you choose. The idea for bidding is you have to buy/bid on keywords/phrases relevant to your business. The highest bidder gets to be on the top of the search result listing and the second highest bidder, of course, gets the next top listing and so on. Every time a visitor clicks on your website, you will have to pay the same amount that you bid on that particular keyword.

PPC can be very costly, time consuming and sometimes not worthy. But if you know how to go about the step by step procedures, PPC is a welcome change to traditional advertising.

If you do your searches for products, articles and auctions in the net, you usually type in a keyword or a set of phrase to guide you in your search. Either you use Google or Yahoo Search depending on where you are most comfortable at and where you usually get the best results. As soon as you key in the search button, immediately a long list of keywords or phrase will be displayed containing the keywords you key in. The first or the top link that you saw is most likely the one who bids the highest for that keyword you type. In this way, businessmen will produce the desired results; they get to be advertised, at the same time, saving and spending only for the clicks they need that might translate to potential sales.

The way to start PPC bid management is to identify first the maximum cost per click (CPC) you are willing to pay for a given keyword or phrase. CPC varies from time and even search engine to search engine too. Maximum CPC can be measured by averaging the current costs of bids (bids range from $0.25 to $5). Average of these bids is to be used as the maximum CPC to begin with. As your ad campaign progresses, the actual conversion rate (visitors turning to potential buyers/sales) will be determined and you may have to adjust your CPC (bidding rate) accordingly.

When you start to bid, see to it that you adopt different bidding strategies for various search engines. Search engines have their own PPC systems that require different approaches. It is also worthy to identify different bids for the same keyword phrases in various search engines.

Another thing, it is wiser not to bid for the top spot for two reasons: 1) It is very expensive and impractical, and 2) Surfers usually try different search queries in various search engines before they settle on the right one that fits to what they are looking for. This hardly results to conversion. Try to bid for the fifth spot instead and work your way up.

If you are now going steady on your PPC biddings, it is time for you to develop your own bidding strategy accordingly. It is important for you to track down which sites bring the bulk of your traffic and identify the ranking of your paid ads. This will help your bidding strategy to be effective and you should also decide where you want your ad to be positioned. Usually your maximum CPC will limit your choices.

Bid gaps (e.g. $ 0.40, 0.39, bid gap, 0.20, 0.19, 0.18) occur when there is a significant price increase to move up one spot in the PPC rankings. It is best if you take advantage of the bid gaps by filling them in so you can save up your cents to other bidding opportunities. Often there are keywords worthy of lesser bids to get the appropriate ranking on the list and produce a good number of clicks and higher conversion rate rather than bidding higher but having a poor conversion rate. You have to put in mind that overbidding too is not good but rather the best position for the most effective bid.

Using pay-per-click bid management in promoting your website will only be successful if you take time building many lists across many engines and studying the performance of every listing. In this way, you can make the most value from what you spend in the bidding process.  The key is to use the necessary precautions to stay ahead of the competition.

Bid Management Tools

In ensuring best results, you may use bid management tools. There are accepted and approved management tools that will help you in your bidding. They are categorized in two different types:

-    Web based (services by monthly subscription) or,
-    PC based (a purchased software)

Monitoring tools too may help in the tracking down of your keywords/phrases and search engines as to which among them often generate sales, overall and in relation to your cost per click. This is what you call return of investment (ROI) monitoring.

These bid management tools may include additional functions that may not get from online marketing tools that are readily available. Other tools can monitor competitorís bids, produce reports for different parties and offer the ability to interface with multiple PPC engines. This is particularly helpful to those who manage more than a hundred keywords across several PPC engines to boost productivity and save time.

Pay-per-click bid management is ideal for the effective promotion of your business online without the hassles of draining your financial keeping too much. It is now fast catching up as a means used in marketing your goods and services to reach to as many consumers as possible.

Using Blog RSS Feature

May 31st, 2010 Ryan Comments off

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a tool useful for saving or retaining updated information on websites that you frequently visit or websites that are your favorite. RSS utilizes an XML code which scans continuously the content or subject matter of a certain website in search for new informations then transmits the information updates by way of feeding the information to subscribers.

RSS feeds are generally being utilized in blogs or news sites, though any website wanting to broadcast and publish information can use them. Once new information is sent, it will contain a headline, a little bit of text, and either a rundown or a brief review of the news or story. A link is needed be clicked upon to read further.

So as to accept RSS feeds, a feed reader is needed, called an aggregator.  Aggregators are widely and freely available online, and all that is needed is a bit of searching, you will be able to locate a certain interface that best interest you. Whatís more, RSS feeds can likewise be read and retrieved from cell phones and on PDAs.

Once you encounter upon a website that you want to add or insert to the aggregator, the process can be done in two ways. Almost all sites offering an RSS feed displays an ìRSSî or ìXMLî button in their homepage and with one click, it promptly add that particular feed to oneís aggregator. Some aggregator however, requires the need to copy and then paste the URL of the feed unto the program.

Whatever the method used, you can be certain that the feed will be accessible soon as you have inserted it, likewise, in just seconds, the next update can arrive. In the event that you do not anymore would want to accept or take in updates, you may simply delete or erase the feed from the aggregator.

Through e-mail subscriptions, you can receive newsletters. RSS feeds on the other hand, can be more convenient in keeping up with newsletter updates since they are prompt and available in an instant; you no longer have to wait for a scheduled time or day to obtain a news summary, plus, these news will never be  detained through a spam filter.
RSS feeds are widely used everyday by individuals who understand and appreciate the accessibility of fast reports and news that can be readily read and only read certain updates that appeals to them.

Aggregators

Aggregators are popular use of feeds, having several kinds. Web aggregators or portals as they are sometimes called, create this view which is then made available in a Web page. Also, Aggregators have been incorporated into e-mail patrons, users of desktops, or dedicated and standalone software.

Offering a collection of special features, such as combining more than a few related feeds in just a single view, hiding certain entries or statements that has been already viewed, and classifying entries and feeds, the aggregator is a versatile component.

Why make a feed available?

You will have more viewers, since now, your viewers can conveniently see your site without even going out and looking for that certain site. While at first, it may seem corrupt, it will in fact enhance the visibility of your site; this is so because users can easily keep up or keep tract with your site, to allow them to view in a way that they want to; itís more probable that guests are aware should something that is in their interest is available or accessible on your site.

For instance, every month your website broadcasts a new feature. Having no feed, your viewers will always have to keep in mind to go to your site in a certain time to see if they discover something new; that is, if they can remember, and if they still have the time. However, if you supply a feed for your viewers, they can just point to their aggregator and it will instantly provide them a link along with a description of happenings or events at your site immediately.

What format to choose?

Syndication is very confusing as it uses a lot of formats that can usually be come across in the web.  However, this can easily be solved as in general, syndicated libraries are used by aggregators which conceptualize a particular format that a feed is in, in order that they can utilize a certain syndication feed.

With this, whatever format to pick is just a matter of personal preference. RSS 1.0 is far reaching, and practical should it be integrated into Semantic Web systems. RSS 2.0 is very easy and simple create by hand. And atom is an IETF Standard, does it brings constancy, stability and a natural and accepted community to support its usage.

Read About – More about RSS ,What is RSS

Increasing Sales Through Strategic Internet Marketing

May 31st, 2010 Ryan Comments off

The Internet has now become an important medium for product and service advertisements.  Almost every company that can afford print, radio and TV advertisements have also ventured into placing ads on the Internet.

But with millions of websites out there being visited by millions of computer users, how can you make sure that your ad can be seen by your target customers and that your leads will be followed by these users?  Here are a few tips.

1.  Place an ad on the websites frequented by your target customers.  Before doing this, you need to define who will be your target customers.  Placing an ad on sites that they usually visit will increase the possibility that your ad will gain the attention and will be followed your target customers.

Also, consider the website’s search engine placement, traffic, external linking and the other ads placed on it.  External linking will determine if there are other sites that link to this site.  This will mean that people can get to the site where your ad is placed, even if they are browsing a different site.  Check if many of your competitors have ads on this site.

2.  Placing ads on some sites cost some money.  However, there are also sites that can place a link to your site, product or service in exchange of having their link being displayed on your site.  This is also true about the newsletters sent by site owners to its mailing list members regularly.

Also, having helpful links placed on your site and having sites link to your pages help in boosting search engine ranking.  This is similar to making a statement that your site’s content is important that other sites have links to your web pages.

3.  Pay-per-click (PPC) is also a good method in Internet marketing.  You will only need to pay for the ad if the link is clicked.  If you prefer this method of advertisement, make sure that you are using services that set limits on daily expenses.  There are also services that help you determine effective keywords and monitor the PPC results.

4.  Choose your domain name wisely.  It is still being debated if domain names matter when it comes to search engine placement.  Whether it does or not, having product related domain names help consumers remember your domain, that they can go back to your site even without the links.

5.  Make sure you have useful content on your sites.  While keyword density is important in search engine placement, having useless information or annoying repetition of keywords will not increase your customer’s confidence in your site.  It may even affect your sites traffic and can get your site removed from search engines.  So make sure that keywords are used strategically.

6.  When thinking of keywords, think like your target customers.  What do you think are they going to search so they can get to your site?  Also, use specific keywords or key phrases.  Submitting a single word or a very general phrase to a search engine will not get you to the top of the search results compared to submitting specific keywords that describe your product and services perfectly.

7.  Track your ads.  Always check how much you have spent on placing links on frequently visited sites and on PPC.  There are services that allow you to monitor PPC transactions and how many of these end in sales.  You always need to consider if the ads that you have placed on these websites are getting you to your target consumers and if these ads can lead to revenue.

One final tip on marketing products and services, sell the benefits.  It will help your marketing strategies a lot if you highlight the benefits of choosing your products and services instead of merely discussing the product specifications.  Product specifications may not mean much to customers, unless they know what these stand for (how these specifications affect the quality of the product or service).

Many people say getting to the top of search engine results is difficult since millions of websites exist, which can be using the same keywords.  While this is true, this doesn’t mean that your website has to stacked under your competitors’ websites when presenting search engine results.  Strategic advertising and linking, together with useful content, can also get you to the top of the search results.

Twitter Marketing – How Can It Benefit Your Business

May 29th, 2010 Ryan Comments off

One of the best things about using a social media networking tool like Twitter is that it it works to get your message out in real time. And this is exactly how Twitter marketing can help build your business. Go ahead. Log onto Twitter right now and see how many people are on there right now. Wait a few hours and log on again. Notice anything? At any moment, there are literally thousands of people on Twitter reading and tweeting about a myriad of topics. In fact, the enormity of the Twitter database would allow you to find tweets on any current event anywhere in the world. There have been times when people found news faster on Twitter than on Google News. The brilliance of Twitter is that it is designed to mesh perfectly with today’s culture of brief interaction; it is limited to 140 characters, just like text messages, and allows users to succinctly express their thoughts on a matter. If you’re looking for ways to promote your product or service, here’s how Twitter can help you. Just like with other targeted marketing campaigns, you can focus on specific keyword searches by Twitter users and offer them a response back about your product or service that will fill their need. And so in an instant, you have an edge over your competition, since you can deal directly, and instantly, with these potential customers. Read on to see the many powerful advantages of Twitter to you as an internet marketer. There is a huge buzz around the newest keyword tool and you can learn about it at this IMEye site.

A visible benefit of Twitter is that it lets you kick off conversations with other people very easily. Twitter, which is a micro blogging platform, makes it simple to shoot new posts, which are similar to blog posts. If you sport a sufficiently large number of followers, you will see replies to your post roll in instantly allowing you to enjoy real time communication with your customers. Forget everything you’ve ever learned about marketing in the past – social networking makes it easy to brand your business and get information to your target audience in seconds. Twitter is also a great way to build solid relationships with colleagues, fans of your brand or service, as well as an excellent platform for solidifying customer relations. One of the easiest ways to attract interest towards your product/service is to ask questions. Just the act of posting a question will generate a tremendous onslaught of tweets and people leap to put in their thoughts on the topic. This will open the door for people to interact with you on your topic. It may surprise you that many of the largest corporations are taking part in these new marketing strategies and it is more than just small businesses and individual entities that are using Twitter for their advantage.

If you have coupon codes or promotional offers, you can utilize Twitter to spread the word and increase brand recognition for your product and service. Everybody loves a bargain and if yours is something special, don’t be surprised to see Tweeters re-tweeting your post to their own contacts – and on and on it goes. It won’t matter what type of promotion you’re sending out, if your target market is appreciative they’ll find helpful ways to thank you for sharing it. It doesn’t take a large corporation with a full-scale promotions department to achieve this kind of success – any size business can use this strategy to their advantage, if they know how. Find out what all the internet marketers are talking about right now at this IMEye review page.

Ultimately, if you’re looking for long-term success with this type of marketing, you’ll have to make the effort to build a base of loyal Twitter followers. It is important to make sure that these new followers are in line with your target market. Use Twitter the smart way and see how quickly you see the difference in your bottom line.

Great Links:
Video Engine Optimisation

3 Things You Must Do Before You Submit To Article Directories

May 27th, 2010 Ryan Comments off

To all writers and non-writers out there, now is the time to start digging up those creative writing skills back.
With modern communication technology comes the popularity of information-based marketing, which is one of the oldest and most effective techniques in getting targeted prospects to sites and converting them into buyers. This is why article writing, submissions and publications are also getting popular.

There are already many tools that people can use to make the process of distributing their articles more easily. Though this is invaluable in getting the contents more exposure, which is only half of the story.
Let us take a look first at the common mistakes that some people make before submitting their contents to article directories:
1. Confusing the reason to promote the articles with the reason to write them.

In article writing, there are three key benefits why you are promoting them; branding, lead generation and promotion, which are all part of your optimization efforts.

But there is only one reason why you write an article, and that is to inform your audience. If the article is not focused on this primary and most important purpose, it will fail to achieve the three promotion benefits because no one will be interested in reading them.
You need to figure out first how to get people to read what is in your article, then make them click on your resource box. You can achieve this by producing better contents.

2. Failing to maximize the promotional opportunities of article marketing.
You may know already that your articles can help you generate additional links back to your site. But do you know that you can get more visitors and better search engine results from that same articles?
Mention keywords at strategic places. Just be sure not to overdo them. Some are even using anchor texts which is also an effective method. But it is important to know that majority of the directories are not able to support this.

Remember that is not only about the links back to your site. Part of doing well in your article marketing is getting picked up by publishers with a large number of audiences and gaining the ability of leveraging other brands because of the quality of your work. Better search engine results also are great benefits.

But these things do not put much money in your pocket. There are other factors that can turn your article marketing efforts into an opportunity that can boost your earnings. Not just increase the number of visitors to your site.

Start out with a plan and see to it that your article will serve the function that you intended it to have.

3. Publishing content that does not help your readers.
Maybe in the process of writing articles, you are thinking that all that is you wanted is links back to your site. And any visitors it can generate are fine.

Guess what? Not all article banks and directories are going to accept your content automatically. Oftentimes, they have some guidelines and specifications on the articles that they are accepting.

You can double the number of sites you can submit to by writing articles that the directories want to share with other people. All it takes is one publisher with a hundred thousand readers to increase your potential audience overnight.

Write the articles that publishers want in their publications if you want your article marketing to work the most effective way for you. This also means you have to obey the standard guidelines, spell checks, researching on a good topic and even hiring a writer to produce a good content on your behalf.

In the end, it is all really a matter of choice on your part. You can start getting a little exposure from increased links back but on a very basic level. Or enjoy massive exposure from a little extra time making quality contents.

It will be your choice. You may not be aware of the fact that an article submitted on directories is not meant to have the same level of exposure as highly-targeted content ones geared on a narrow group of people.
Learn the difference between these two and it will surely help you know what kinds of articles to write and to submit.

What Are The Benefits To Using Video Marketing To Advertise Your Website?

May 26th, 2010 Ryan Comments off

If you are looking for a new promotional strategy to assist develop your on the internet organization, movie marketing may be the answer. Big hikes in profits have been witnessed by corporations that turned to movie marketing to sell their goods or services. A huge amount of first-time promoters have utilized this approach to launch their companies, and a lot of them really appreciate the outcomes it brings. Keep in mind that all items are distinctive, plus they each demand diverse approaches to hit the right marketplace demographics; the promotional methods that created money for ABC firm might have no relevance to you. Thus, prior to creating a full-on leap into movie marketing and advertising, you have to determine in case your firm is right for this form of advertisement or not. This post will go above the diverse benefits you experience with video clip marketing and also the methods you can incorporate it into your firm.

Producing video tutorials for publishing on the internet is relatively simple nowadays, assuming which you stick for the correct actions. All you would need is really a movie camera or even a digital camera would do (almost every cell phone has it nowadays) to shoot the movie. As soon as you are completed creating the video, you can use free of charge software like the Windows Movie Maker to edit the video and add any specific outcomes to it. Then you can also use this to edit and convert your video tutorials just before uploading them to 1 with the video discussing internet sites like YouTube. You will find absolutely no expenses required if you a digital camera to perform with. The whole procedure may be successfully completed by a complete novice. The idea of “video marketing” might sound daunting, but don’t let it intimidate you. Daily people have become well-known from their initial attempts at the movie marketing and advertising of special topics. Your principal aim is to get coverage for your video in order that you can drive site visitors to your web site. This won’t be difficult, when you clarify within your very own mind the topic of your movie.

An additonal plus to on the internet video clip marketing could be the convenience of recycling completed written materials into a refreshing seeking visual presentation. This could be completed by placing together a slide display or by recording yourself as the main element with the video clip clip. Following you have completed the video and produced its final format, upload it onto a video expressing website, like Youtube. The greatest part of this method is that you really don’t have to have to create clean content to your video clip and there is completely no have to be concerned about obtaining any duplicate content. This benefit just isn’t available using the created word. If you want to truly leveraging this method acting then go ahead and make your first cb predator or you can also outsource the work if you need.