4 Reasons Your Marketing Stinks!
By David Cooper | August 6, 2008
Making marketing mistakes is a common theme among new online business owners. Becoming a marketing whiz can be a sometimes painful and often lengthy process. Many of us have learned marketing lessons through trial and error. There is nothing wrong with that. I believe learning something by doing, even if it’s wrong, provides us with a priceless education. Today I want to talk about some of the more common marketing mistakes that are made and how you can avoid them.
Problem #1: Lack of Target Market Definition
Your target market is the group of people you are trying to sell your products and services to. If you don’t define who your target market is, or you try to make your target market to big, you are going to have a hard time convincing your prospective customers to buy.
Here is an example, lets say that you are a direct sales consultant for a cosmetics company. Now you may think this is easy, your main target market is women. You would be only partially correct. The target market “women” is way too general, and while yes women may make up a good percentage of the target market, not all women wear cosmetics.
In order to find out who your target market actually is you need to ask yourself some questions. Who wants my products or services? Why do they want my products or service? You want to be as specific possible when you target your market. Determine what age group you are going to market to, where do they live, what are their hobbies, what is their income level, marital status, etc. The more you know about your potential market and customers the more you will improve your marketing efforts.
Problem #2: Sending Confusing Marketing Messages
Once you have defined your target market you have to create your marketing message.
Your marketing message is what is going to grab the eyeballs of your potential customers and tell them why they should be doing business with you or using your products and services.
Your marketing message should detail how you can solve their problems, or alleviate their fears, or make their life easier. It should also offer the benefits the potential customer will receive from choosing your product or service over that of the competition.
Problem #3: Not Getting Feedback from Your Market
Whenever you implement a marketing technique or strategy you should always test it out on a small market sample and ask for feedback from your test group before diving in unchartered waters head first. Yes, it can be a solid pain in the rump and yes it will be a little more time consuming, but it is much better to invest some time and money into one bad advertisement than dumping a whole boat load of time and money into a terrible ad campaign!
Problem #4: Lack of Consistency
So many marketers miss the boat when it comes to creating brand recognition. Using a simple consistent theme and feel in all of your marketing techniques is always a good move. Why? Because this will help you to create brand recognition. Using similar colors, fonts in your ads, website, and blog design will help you develop a more recognizable brand. Any graphics that you use in any of your marketing pieces should be consistent with your overall marketing message.
Look at Nike. Now we all know that Nike is selling athletic apparel and footwear. Nike’s marketing is filled with images of athletes pushing themselves to their limits. It goes perfectly with their slogan of “Just Do It”.
The bottom line is this. Marketing is the one thing in your business that should not be hit or miss. Yes, it’s okay to make the occasional mistake. We’ve all made mistakes. Mistakes aren’t permanent and they only become fatal to your business when you don’t learn the lessons the mistake has taught you.
The really important thing about marketing is this. Always keep learning, stay on the cutting edge of what is going on in your market, and correct mistakes as quickly as possible after they occur.
Topics: Affiliate Marketing, Internet marketing | No Comments »
Discover the Secrets of Marketing Mojo!
By David Cooper | August 1, 2008
Do you have the Mojo? Do you know what the Mojo even is?
The word mojo can mean different things to different people. For some people it might mean they are simply “with it” or “in the swing of things” or “in a zone” or maybe they are just “on top of their game”. When a marketer has their marketing mojo going, they are on top of all of their marketing efforts and are having fun. Ever heard of the Midas touch? Mojo is the same type of thing. Everything you touch or get involved in seems to work out for you.
Obviously, having the mojo is something we all desire. Are you having fun with your marketing efforts or do they seem like a chore to you? If you aren’t having fun then I highly encourage you to read on.
Perhaps one of the easiest ways to develop this marketing mojo is for you to fully know the products and services you are promoting. What are the best features of your product? What does your product do that the competition’s doesn’t? What are the benefits to the customer if they use your product? It doesn’t matter if you own your own product or are marketing a product as an affiliate. You need to dig in and study. Find out the features, the unique qualities, and the benefits of the products you are promoting.
Let me ask you this. Do you set goals? Setting even small goals can bring some fun to your daily marketing activities. Setting mini marketing goals will help you stay on track. Think of it this way. By setting and meeting deadlines and goals that you set for yourself you will improve improve your confidence level and that is one of the best ways to kick-start your mojo.
What kinds of mini goals should you set? They can be anything really, base your goals on tasks that have to get done. Things like writing your weekly newsletter or spending an hour doing some social networking. You can even set some mini goals to learn something new everyday.
One of the best ways to learn something new is by doing something new.
Like the Nike ad says, “JUST DO IT!” One of the best ways to build your marketing mojo is to just get out there and do it! Instead of spending a couple of hours at your favorite forum reading post after post on the latest and greatest marketing techniques and then having a debate with yourself over which of these techniques will benefit you the most, try implementing different ideas and techniques in your daily marketing activities.
By dipping your toe in the pool, so to speak, you can gain a better understanding of what is going to work in your particular situation. You will be able to better judge what activities will be worth your time to implement and what activities will need to be tweaked to suit the products you are promoting.
Don’t feel like you need to stay with the marketing status quo. Experiment with ideas that you have, modify techniques that you have discovered. Change the standards! You never know when that one little tweak to your marketing strategies will give you an edge over your competition.
Heck, even if something you tried doesn’t work out for you, analyze why it didn’t turn out. Perhaps you will learn how you can still build on the strengths and weaknesses of a particular marketing strategy. The really successful marketers, the ones with the marketing mojo, learn from their mistakes and their failures. Do they quit? Not likely. They go back to the drawing board and create a better plan for their next strategy.
Do you emulate anyone? Who are your mentors? Do you ever study the best marketers in action?
Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Feed off the marketing mojo of others to help you jump start your own mojo. Watch the strategies of those people who have already achieved the success you are looking for. Hey, if it worked for them it might work for you too.
Get out of your comfort zone a little bit. Start networking with other business owners both inside and outside of your niche. This can really pay off in the form of learning new and different ways of doing things. Trade marketing tips and ideas with others. Ask for advice or just keep an eye on what others are doing to market their products and services.
Start today! Set some goals for yourself, try out new ideas and strategies, learn from others and more than anything else start having some fun with your marketing efforts. A change in attitude and strategy may be all that you need to kick your marketing mojo into overdrive. Hopefully soon you will be reaping the rewards of your new found success.
Learn more about Marketing Mojo
Topics: Affiliate Marketing, Internet marketing | No Comments »
Can Free Affiliate Marketing Work?
By David Cooper | July 26, 2008
Free Affiliate Marketing
One of the biggest expenses you will face as an affiliate marketer is advertising. You have to advertise in order for people to learn about the products and services you are promoting. Now, most forms of effective advertising takes money. So what do you do if your funds are limited? There are actually a number of ways you can get started with your advertising efforts without spending much money at all.
First of all you have to get into the “Free” mindset. To market your products for free you have to start thinking free! Think about what it would take for you to buy a particular product or service. I search the internet on a regular basis for information about “how to get started” with something or “how to improve” this or that. I truly hate it when I come across an offer from a marketer to buy something when instead I think they should be providing information!
I am more likely to bookmark and return to a website if they provide me with at least some of the information I am looking for. Yes, I may buy the product you are offering, but if I am searching for a particular piece of information, I probably won’t whip out my credit card if I’m not even sure you are going to provide me with the information that I need. To be a more effective affiliate marketer you need to give your prospects a tiny taste of what they are looking for. Whet their appetite and they are more likely to come back for more.
Offer your visitors something of value. Free e-courses on a particular topic are always enticing. If you have a site that sells arts and crafts supplies could offer free e-courses on how to cross stitch, or how to set up your display table at flea markets to make more sales. What you are doing is providing them with information about creating crafts and also improving their profits at flea markets. If they like the information that you have provided for free they may come back and buy some crafting supplies from you in the future. You don’t have to give away the ranch, but again you want to give them enough so that they will return to your website in the future.
My daughter grows cucumbers and tomatoes. Her tomato crop this year has not done very well. The cucumbers have been awesome. The last several days my daughter has been searching the internet for information about growing tomatoes. She wants them to do better next year. Now, she is willing to spend money and if she comes across a website that gives her some proof that the information on growing tomatoes would be to her advantage she will buy it.
I sat with her as she watched a video that discussed various aspects of growing vegetables. Part of the video was about choosing the right seeds and on when to plant. Basically, the video was demonstrating some, but definitely not all of the aspects that are important to growing vegetables. From an affiliate marketing standpoint this was an awesome way of tempting the prospect to find out more information.
As an affiliate marketer you have to find a way to separate yourself from the crowd of other affiliates promoting the same product you are. This can be a hard thing to do. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by giving your visitors an offer they just can’t refuse. Create some quality bonus products to give away when they purchase the product from your affiliate link.
I have a friend that holds contests on his forum periodically. One of the conditions for entering the contest is to join his free forum. Now, he doesn’t give away junk either. He gives away really cool prizes. His last one was an Ipod Touch. Why does he do this? He knows that once they become a member of his forum, he can market to them over and over through the forum with various other advertising strategies. Pretty sharp!
There are tons of way to get the word out about the products and services you are promoting as an affiliate. The key is to get them to come back to your website over and over. Joining forums and posting valuable information about the topics being discussed is a good way to establish yourself in a community. Use your signature line to promote your website and what it has to offer. Never, ever, ever miss out on an opportunity to advertise what you are doing and how people can find out more about your product and service offerings.
Marketing and Advertising in ways that take little or no money will involve some creativity. Use your creativity and the magic of the Internet to your advantage! Think about this, the internet puts the world at your fingertips, where else can you market your affiliate products and services across the globe without spending a fortune?
Find out more about Free Affiliate Marketing
Topics: Affiliate Marketing | 2 Comments »
Niche Marketing Research is the Key!
By David Cooper | July 14, 2008
Niche Marketing Research is the Key!
Niche marketing is simply one of many ways to increase the profits for your business. If done correctly, niche marketing can open up new avenues of products and or services that will benefit both you and your customers. However, before you jump in with both feet you need to make sure that you have done your homework.
Niche Marketing is a hot topic. It’s on everyone’s radar. The experts make it sound so exciting. All you have to do is tap into an untapped market and you will become a gazillionaire overnight! Wrong! Many get fooled by these claims. Yes, some people may do quite well, but that’s certainly not the norm for every person or business. Did they get lucky? Some people will say yes. I don’t necessarily subscribe to this line of thinking.
Having the foresight to research any potential niche market will give you a broader picture of the chances that you have for success with your idea. You have to keep in mind that someone half a world away could have the same idea as you and are a little further along in their research. Should this stop you? Definitely not! The difference between you and others who potentially enter into a seemingly untapped market will be how you go about researching your idea and how you interpret the data you collect.
Even in these seemingly recessionary times there are so many new websites and businesses opening every day. Competition is fierce. It amazes me that there are any new markets left to tap in to. But guess what? There are! The key is finding them and that my friend takes time and patience.
Obviously one of the easiest ways to see if your idea is viable is to use the internet. Everyone today uses the various search engines to find what we are looking for on the web. Start out by searching for items that fit the profile of what you want to sell. Always, always, always check out the potential competition in any market you are considering entering.
If your search brings back thousands of results it probably means that your idea may be too broad to use. It may already be extensively populated by others. This is frustrating to say the least. The chances of you hitting on an instant pay day are not exceptionally good. What the search results can be used for is to see exactly what angle the competition is using to market to their prospective customers.
When you research any potential niche, use as many search engines as you can. Using just Google or Yahoo will give you false results. I always seem to find websites in some of the smaller search engine results that I didn’t find in Google, Yahoo, or MSN.
So you’ve researched a potential niche that you had your heart set on and realize that it is just too competitive for you to break into. This doesn’t mean that you have to toss the whole idea. You can still use your idea, but you will have to refine it. Make it narrower. Zero in on a more specific target than you did before. This is why you do research!
Imagine if you didn’t do any research and just jumped in feet first with your original idea. Your results would have probably been mediocre to poor, especially if making a lot of money was one of your original goals.
Without doing the proper research, starting a business in any market is risky to say the least. You want to make sure that you are able to hit within your target market. Even if you already have what you think is a great business idea and are just looking for ways to expand, treat your new niche marketing idea like you are starting from scratch.
Put in the time and effort to find out if your idea is sound!
Learn more about Niche Marketing Research
Topics: Niche Marketing | No Comments »
All Incoming Links are Not Created Equal (Part 2)
By David Cooper | July 11, 2008
All Incoming Links are Not Created Equal (Part 2)
In Part 1 of “All Incoming LInks are Not Created Equal” we talked about the fact that Search engines want you to have relevant links pointing back to your site. I highlighted the first step in the process is to research links that are already coming into your website.
Today we are going to take a look at Step 2…
Step Two involves building relevant incoming links. You can accomplish this a number of ways.
* Create Compelling content on your site, webmasters will naturally link to you because your site will be valuable to them and their visitors.
* Testimonials and review sites often provide links to your website. Contact them with a link request.
* Write articles for other sites. Writing articles is a great method for getting inbound links and most webmasters are happy to give you a link back to your site.
* Write press releases and submit those releases places like www.prweb.com, www.24-7PRessrelease.com, www.i-newswire.com, www.addpr.com, www.free-press-release.com, www.prfree.com, www.prleap.com, and www.emediawire.com Be sure to include your website link at the end of the press release.
* Blogs. While blogs are viral in nature and links are swapped freely, don’t host a blog unless you can contribute to it regularly and provide valuable content.
* Beware of reciprocal links. Some reciprocal links are good, just don’t go overboard. You’ll want to mix up your linking tactics so it looks natural to the search engines.
* Beware also of link farms. Many search engines consider link farming a form of spam and have procedures to banish sites that participate in link farming.
It’s important to mix up your linking efforts in order to have the best effect with the search engines. At the same time it is vital the links coming into your site come from relevant websites. If you own a pet business links from a furniture store just don’t make sense. Link exchanges, link farms and reciprocal linking from non-relevant websites will hurt your results. It’s just not worth it.
Topics: SEO | No Comments »
All Incoming Links are Not Created Equal (Part 1)
By David Cooper | July 8, 2008
All Incoming Links are Not Created Equal (Part 1)
Linking is a great way to build your search engine rankings. As a matter of fact, many search engines may not list websites that do not have relevant links pointing to them. What this means is that you can optimize your website and still get overlooked by some of the search engines. The key thing to remember is “relevant” links.
Search engines want you to have relevant links pointing back to your site. Well, that’s just great, but how do you obtain these relevant links?
The first step in the process is to research links that are already coming into your website.
1. Find out how many links are linking to your site. There is a really good tool over at Marketleap that will allow you to search by URL and find out how many links you have pointing back to your site. The other cool thing is you can spy on your competition and see how many links your main competitors have also. Once you acquire this information you can determine the quality and quantity of links you will need to obtain to help vault your website over theirs in the search engine results.
Next try to find out who is linking to your competition. You can do this by visiting Yahoo. Once you are there type the following into the search box: link://http://www.**********.com, replacing the ********* with your competitors URL. Yahoo should return a list of websites that are linking to your competition. You can now use this information to find relevant websites that might also link to you. 
Check back tomorrow when we will take a look at various strategies you can use to build relevant incoming links to your website.
Topics: SEO | No Comments »
Law of Attraction? What a load of %$*#! (Part 2)
By David Cooper | July 6, 2008
“Law of Attraction? What a load of %$*#!” (Part 2)
As I mentioned yesterday, fear is crippling. It can be fatal to you personally and professionally. Fear causes worry. Worry that your efforts might not ever be rewarded. Fear allows negativity to creep into your life. Those individuals that let fear and the resulting negativity into their lives only seem to compound their existing problems.
Let’s look at this scenario. Think about affiliate marketers. The most successful affiliate marketers seem to be eternally positive and upbeat. They want to be able to make their prospective customers comfortable. If the affiliate projects an Eeyore type of attitude, you know woe is me, that is going to show through in their presentation.
Tell me, who are you more likely to purchase from? A positive person or a negative person?
If you don’t exude confidence and happiness, your customers will notice. They will pick up on it almost immediately in your dialogue with them. The more your customers refuse to buy, for whatever reason, the more your attitude is going to falter, which in turn will bring you even fewer sales. It all becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy sort of thing.
On the other hand, an affiliate marketer with an extremely positive attitude will inspire more confidence in their potential customers. Their demeanor and upbeat attitude will shine through and their customers will not only like them, but they will trust them.
Now, because of their more positive outlook and overall likeability, they’ll probably make more sales than their more negative competitors. Many of these sales will come by word of mouth from very satisfied customers. As they make more and more sales, their overall confidence will grow even more, and the cycle will continue in a very positive way.
In order to experience positive effects like this in your own life, you need to adjust your thinking. It is very, very hard to switch from a negative/pessimistic outlook to a more positive one, so you are going to have to really work at it.
What can you do to become more positive? Simple things work best. Get a pad of sticky notes and put them all over. Jot down things that remind you of the positive thoughts you should be having. Don’t think in terms of what you want to happen. Think of them as having already happened and you will start to turn the corner.
Every single day, you need to imagine what your life will be like once you have achieved the things that you want for you and your family. If you want to become a Gazillionaire (I made that word up), spend some time every day thinking of what your life will be like once you achieve Gazillionaire status.
Think about living in the home of your dreams, waking up every morning in bed with the partner you’ve always dreamed of, climbing into the car that you have always wanted or even flying to the most exotic and beautiful destinations that you’ve seen on the Discovery channel. Kick back and use your senses to experience your heightened visualized state of Shangri La!
The law of attraction is really very simple. In order to achieve great things, you have to think great things. Whether or not you think it’s some cosmic force or simply just an attitude, getting what you want all starts by thinking the right thoughts!
Topics: Affiliate Marketing | 1 Comment »
Law of Attraction? What a load of %$*#! (Part 1)
By David Cooper | July 5, 2008
“Law of Attraction? What a load of %$*#!”
That’s basically the response I got today at a 4th of July cookout I attended with some friends. I have a friend, he’s a nice guy, but he is also one of the most pompous people on the planet. He thinks the Law of Attraction is a load of %$*#. My rebuttal to him consisted of several points that I’m going to blog about today.
First of all, whether you believe that there are some unknown energies at work in our universe that can help you attain health, happiness, and wealth, or like my friend you think it’s all a load of %$*#, the guiding principles that the law of attraction is based on can help see you through many of the highs and lows that are a part of your everyday existence has an affiliate marketer.
Let me explain what the law of attraction is. The law of attraction is a theory that states whatever you think about on a regular basis becomes attracted to you like a magnet in a tack factory. For example, if you have a rotten attitude about things, bad things will happen to you.
Well, the more bad things that happen to you, the more negative your attitude usually becomes. The opposite of this is also true. People who seem to be upbeat and have a more positive outlook seem to attract more good things into their life.
Now, because they have all these good things happening to them, their attitude seems to stay positive and even more nice things seem to continue to enter their life. So, if you look at the law of attraction from this very simple and logical viewpoint, it makes sense.
Now if you are like my friend and you’re an eternal skeptic, and you have no use for words like karma or being able to attract things with your thoughts, then you might need to take a look at the law of attraction a little more logically. I believe that people that have a positive outlook and exude a positive attitude actually have less fear in their life.
Fear is a crippling factor to your Affiliate Marketing Success!
Tomorrow we are going to take a look a little more closely at fear and how you can defeat it!
Topics: Affiliate Marketing, Internet marketing | No Comments »
What’s the Word on WordPress?
By David Cooper | July 4, 2008
WordPress.
You may be familiar with WordPress as a blog format and it is, however WordPress can be modified, customized, and widgetized to create a fantastic and extremely easy to use website.
In addition to there being thousands of unique WordPress templates, designers can create a custom WordPress website for you.
Widgets and Plug-Ins allow users and site developers to add features to their site. For example, many internet business owners need an opt in form on their site for visitors to subscribe to. WordPress developers offer widgets and plug-ins which serve the same purpose.
That’s just one example, like WordPress templates; there are thousands of plug-ins and widgets available.
Building a business website doesn’t have to be difficult. There are tools available for any level business and skill level. Explore your options, ask questions and then make the choice.
So, whether you use Joomla, Frontpage, XsitePro, or WordPress to build your website – Have Fun! It’s an exciting process and you’re guaranteed to learn a lot.
Topics: Content Management, Website Publishing | No Comments »
How about Microsoft Frontpage and XsitePro?
By David Cooper | July 3, 2008
Microsoft FrontPage.
FrontPage is an HTML editor and website administration tool in one. Essentially, using FrontPage, created by Microsoft, you can create your website and then upload it using FTP to your website host’s server.
Sounds complicated huh? Most hosts offer easy instructions to upload your FrontPage site and FrontPage, though it is limited in options and features, is extremely easy to use.
Another positive aspect of FrontPage is whether you are uploading new content or changing your website design, it is easy and straightforward to use.
Learn more about Microsoft Frontpage
XsitePro.
XsitePro’s biggest strength is that it’s specifically designed for internet marketers. This is a huge plus, because there are specific tools internet marketers need to have on their site which are just not part of many website building products.
These features include Google AdSense, automatic keyword placements, visitor data and statistics, pop-ups, affiliate features, and linking features.
Additionally, XsitePro allows users to upload their XsitePro site into Dream Weaver or FrontPage. This adds to the overall flexibility of XSitePro.
Topics: Website Publishing | No Comments »