Announcements

When search engines pay website owners a percentage of the bid cost, youre just looking for trouble. This is the problem with Pay Per Click PPC advertising, especially with smaller named search engines. Many websites request or even pay there visitors to search a specific search engine and click on a result. This just sends advertisers fake leads and causes problems for the advertisers that paid for the keyword listing. Many PPC search engines offer webmasters up to 80% of the bid price. For example, lets say I pay Example Search Engine $1 for the keyword Viagra, they then pay webmasters $.80 per visitor they send that searches and clicks on a bided search term. You can see why PPC can be a problem.

Paid Inclusion offers a safer, less expensive form of search engine advertising. You pay one price to have your site listed in a specific search engine, often under a specific keyword. Your site will also be updated on the search engines data base more often then non paid sites. Paid Inclusion costs and average of $25 a year per URL submitted. Plus the cost goes down the more URLs you submit at one time. PPC usually starts at $.01 per click being the cheapest bid per keyword, but youd be lucky to find a keyword that low that would result in any clicks.

Something to be aware of when advertising on PPC search engines. Although you are paying for your site to be viewed in a search engine, many times your site will show up on other people websites. This is a common practice on both Google and Overture search engines. Advertisers have to opt out of this service if they only want to be shown in the search engine,. In my opinion, this will help reduce fraudulent clicks of your paid search term.

This isnt to say every PPC search engine is bad. For example, Mamma.com offers a fixed price per website category. They then rotate all the websites in a category evenly. Websites big and small get their advertising site seen the same amount of time. Before spending money on a PPC search engine be sure to read how they protect advertisers against fraudulent clicks. This will help make sure you get more for your money.

If there was only a way to eliminate fraudulent clicks in PPC advertising. It would make using this method of search engine advertising well worth the extra costs. After all, you are getting targeted hits to your site by people searching for precise keywords.

About The Author

Kristian Pulz is the owner of http://www.Links2See.com an internet directory and http://www.barterNsave.com a direct partner of the First Barter Network. He can be reached at webmaster@links2see.com.

Unless you're a techie and such technical stuff sets yourheart a racing, knowledge of such material is not reallyrequired by the end-user. People don't have to understand 'HTML' to enjoy the Internet.

Likewise, knowledge of RSS is not important to theordinary computer or Internet user. Microsoft'sRSS Longhorn statement puts RSS where it rightfullybelongs, in the background, invisible...seamlesslyintegrated into your computing and web browsingexperience.

It will make RSS an integral element of its new operating system which has the codename - Longhorn. It will firmly place RSS into the heart of your computing experience, enriching and enhancing it in more ways than even Microsoft is probably aware of yet!

RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication' and it haslong been associated with blogs and blogging becausethey are written in RSS or XML format - code like HTML.DOS stands for 'Disk Operating System' by the way and its the platform for operating systems on yourcomputer. MS-DOS is the most widely used system.Ignorance can sometimes be overrated.

Microsoft's announcement to place RSS features into its nextWindows version - due out in 2006 and in servers by 2007- is truly groundbreaking . You can read more aboutthis June 24th announcement in an eWeek Articleby Peter Galli.

This takes RSS out of just browsers and RSS readers (called aggregators); and gives it much more powerful applications. Most interesting is a new set of applications - Simple List Extensions - allowing web sites to publish feeds containing lists such as a wish list or top 10 list. Should make DavidLetterman happy!

All kidding aside, for you, these RSS applications willmake subscribing to a web site or feed a lot easier. You can now take control of your Internet, viewingand accessing the information you want to digest.

What's really important about Microsoft's plans, (I believe)is the fact that this now makes RSS legit. Lets face it,outside of blogging and a few alert online marketers, RSS isstill not understood by most people.

But as stated before, people don't have to understand 'HTML' to enjoy the Internet. They don't really have to know about servers, DOS, or even ISPs to get full benefit from the web. Likewise, RSS doesn't have to be known or even understood by the majority of the people who will be using it.

But it's helpful that you do understand that for you the future of RSS holds many treats and the full impact won't really be known for years. Under the Creative Commons license,RSS applications could have a far reaching impact on your computing world of the future.

The potential of RSS is enormous. It may even pave the way for a 'Billion Channel Internet' - where each web site is its own little broadcasting system. An interactive channel that broadcasts audio and video feeds to all interested subscribers.

Microsoft's announcement may just be the nucleus of sucha system. Many components are already in place like podcasting,broadcatching, data feeds, etc. and it's not that great a leap or too fantastical to imagine such a system will exist in the very near future.

For RSS changes HOW information is transmitted on the web...from a passive role to a more pro-active one.Don't come to us - we will deliver.

RSS is also one of the more democratic elements of theweb where the little guy has a say. It was more than fitting that Microsoft's RSS team met with Dave Winer(Mr. RSS to those who keep a close watch on all things RSS)and asked his opinions on these recent developments.

Ordinary Bloggers have preached the benefits of RSS for solong - the mantra was becoming a tiresome echo across theweb. No one seemed to be taking RSS seriously.

In that light, it can't be understated that Microsoft's incorporation of RSS into Windows is one of those true 'turning points' that has to be acknowledged. It does change how computers and the Internet will work.

This is a great step forward in making RSS an integrated andseamless component of computers. Without a doubt, it is the most important thing to hit the computing world since Bill Gates learned how to count to one!

At last, someone has gotten RSS right.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins. This author's articles on RSS have appeared on such sites as: Sitepronews, Bonafidereviews, Addme, and Ezinearticles. To add RSS to your Site within minutes, download this simple RSS and Blogging Guide.This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

About the Author

Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A completeebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing & Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies." http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1

Newspaper advertising is a tremendous source of new business that for so many businesses doesn’t ever reach its true potential. These 3 steps will help you change that forever!

You’re about to find out the mistakes that your competitors keep on making, and to start using techniques proven to grab your prospect’s attention and draw out responses that turn your ad into the customer producer you always knew it should be.

Small Business Realities

All business owners want to increase sales, generate more customers, and make more money. Yet few take the necessary actions to do so. Providing a quality product or service is simply not enough.

Many business owners think they need to set an advertising budget, send out a few sales letters, put a few coupons in the local circular, run a newspaper ad, hand out flyers, and do a bunch of other things trying to get their name out there.

The problem is... a small business that uses that approach wastes a lot of potential. Spending money on this type of exposure is known as advertising. The goal of advertising is to establish a brand name, build an image, and achieve top of the mind awareness. These are some fancy terms taught in business school, but unfortunately they steer everyone in the wrong direction.

You see, small businesses arent supposed to advertise. Advertising is all about repeating exposures and building an image. Think about all of the many McDonalds commercials you see on television in a week. Thats high frequency. Dont they all seem to show a feeling of friendship, eating happily with family "we love to see you smile" Thats image.

Do you think they intend to get you up out of your seat and go to your local McDonalds right as youre watching the commercial Not really. OK, they hope you might, but that’s not what they intend. They are paying to have you see their message so many times that when you are ready to buy their product you will remember them and go there. Now,let’s get to work on your steps to advertising success.

Proven Step #1

So what method will work for your business Its called direct response marketing. Here’s an example. Have you ever bought anything after watching an infomercial Even if you haven’t, infomercials work, they make a lot of people a lot of money. It might surprise you, infomercials are not advertising - they dont try to build an image or get you to remember a brand, the products arent even sold in stores!!

What do they do

** They take a receptive audience.

** They get them excitedly to pick up the phone and buy. They create action!

This is why most newspaper ads don’t deliver big results. Most newspaper advertisers choose the commercial, but you want the infomercial. Your one and only goal in newspaper advertising is to create action.

In the usual types of Newspaper Directory ads youre dealing with very targeted prospects. These are people looking up your company type and ready to call you. Thats the beauty and the curse of Newspaper Directory ads. The beauty is prospects can find you easily, the curse is that your competitors are right there with you!!

So how do we get them to pick up the phone and dial your number

Use direct marketing...which is:

** Directly target a group of people who are in the market for your product or service.

** Offer them what it is they want.

** Generate a response by forcing them to respond to your offer.

Proven Step #2

Your competitors probably waste a lot of money because theyre charged for people who will never even consider their offer. There is a definite and specific market for your service and these are the only people that you should aim your offer to.

For example, if you repair dental equipment you want to market your service to dentists, oral surgeons, etc.. But its not generally that easy.

Consider a Home Cleaning Service in a suburb of Cleveland that advertises in the Cleveland Plain Dealer due to the tremendous readership. If 75% of the cleaning companys clients and target prospects are 3 person families and larger, with incomes of $100,000 per year, living in suburbs A, B and C., theyve wasted a big chunk of money. Here’s why.

They just spent a lot of money for an ad that will be seen by college students, low-income families, and others that would never consider using their services anyway. Their high percentage prospects make up only a small readership of that paper. Who knows what percentage of those people will see the ad

Maybe theres a magazine or community mailer that caters to middle/upper class families in a county neighboring Cleveland or in one of the many suburbs. Sure, maybe the readership is nowhere near as large but the lower cost and targeted readership will generate a much greater return on the companys investment.

A mailing list of 3-person households and larger with incomes above $100,000, who moved to such-n-such city or county within the last year can be purchased. Direct marketing targets the people most likely to respond to your offer.

Proven Step #3

Most advertising has no offer. And so the prospect has no incentive to respond right now. Direct response always tries to get a response by offering something of value to your prospect right now.

Using the home cleaning service in the example above, you could offer a free hour of cleaning, 20% off the first job, a free pack of sponges and a bottle of Simply Green or anything of value that will cause a person to act.

Since the offer is subject to your terms, you set a date when the offer expires, a number they have to call, a letter that they must bring in, a form that they must fill out.

So, at the end of your promotion you know exactly how much was spent reaching how many people. Also, you will know how many people responded and how much business was generated.

Most of your competitors don’t do this little analysis! They repeat campaigns that cost more than they bring in. So they are forced to set advertising budgets that limit the amount of advertising they can run each year.

But, if every one of your promotions cost you $55 and brought in $225 in business, why would you need a budget Wouldn’t you just keep repeating the promotion over and over

Your goal should be to repeat and improve what works for you. If you do, you will not need a budget and you will be able to predict what kinds of repeat and new business each promotion will generate.

Bob Markovsky Millennium Services Group Start Your Own High Profit Cleaning Business http://www.Cleaning-Biz.com

About The Author

Millennium Services Group has been assisting people to start and succeed in their own cleaning businesses since 1999.

Article copyright Millennium Services Group - 2004

About the Author

Randy has more information on birth announcements and other tips and ideas for your baby shower. You can also purchase and find free baby shower party games. Randy owned and operated a very successful storefront/mailorder business from 1988 to 2003.

During a wedding ceremony, when people are joined together in matrimony, they swear and vow to honor and respect each other and to remain partners both during good and bad times.

But in most marriages, this is not always the case.

One out of every two marriages in America is failing and will explode in divorce.

It takes two people to make a marriage succeed.

Marriages fail because of the differences in the two people involved, because of conflicts and various problems in life.

Here are some marital insights to help you to cope with a divorce announcement.

No one is perfect, and happiness in life is a matter of learning from our mistakes.

There is no greater emotional pain that can be inflicted upon a woman than the announcement by her husband that he wants a divorce.

Even if both parties have "seen it coming" for some time, and the announcement really comes as no big surprise, the actual announcement is quite similar to a bomb exploding in your face.

It can be difficult to finally admit that the person you held hands with so many years ago, and promised to love - honor - and obey - to be supportive of, to stand beside in good times and bad - through sickness and health - for richer or poorer -who no longer wants you or your love, has turned out not to be an angel as you originally thought and believed but a monster.

When you first hear the announcement for a divorce from your spouse, it may sound unreal, and difficult to believe.

You may be thrown into a cyclone of self-denial.

It may take time to sink in your head.

And when it finally sinks inside, you may be overcome with a feeling of betrayal, then guilt, then hot anger and finally perhaps rage.

You’ve to understand that these feelings are normal and don’t let them destroy the rest of your life.

It is of the utmost importance that when you face this kind of heart rendering situation that you find the courage to understand that you can recover -that you will recover.

It will be hard, but you must immediately and absolutely turn the page on that chapter of your life.

You must quickly and absolutely sever all ties with that person - the one that has inflicted this pain upon you.

Get them out of your house. Get rid of all things that remind you of them. Change your phone number.

If necessary, move into a new home or apartment.

Re-locate to another city.

You must put an immediate end to your marriage.

Once a man/woman has announced to you that he/she no longer wants you for a wife/husband, you have to start thinking about your own survival.

It's going to be similar to losing a vital part of your body, but you must let go, and the sooner you do let go - completely end that chapter of your life - the sooner you'll be able to set about rebuilding your life and ultimately finding the happiness you want.

Between the time that your husband announces the end of the marriage, and the time when you'll find new happiness, you're going to hurt like you've never dreamed possible.

You're going to go through a number of mental and emotional phases - all of which are perfectly normal and necessary in order for you to "heal yourself" of this great hurt.

You'll never be able to enjoy love or attain true happiness until you have discharged the past from your system and healed yourself.

Think of all you're going through as a wound similar to a gash on your arm or leg.

It's going to hurt, and you're going to bleed, but with the proper care and time, you will recover.

You must understand that divorce is quite common - you're not alone nor going through anything that a lot of other people haven't experienced - and that in order to "get well," you must understand the nature of the wound, what to do in order to heal it, and as much about the pre-requisites to total recovery as possible.

At first, you'll probably deny that this is happening to you.

You may pretend that it's just a bad dream or some sort of bad joke he's pulling on you.

This type of thinking is normal, but it only prolongs the agony of your hurt.

You must face the reality of the situation - accept the fact that your marriage is over - and get on with the task of finding happiness for yourself, immediately.

You'll probably lay awake in bed at night and review "every minute" of your marriage - thinking that in this or that circumstance, you could've been a better wife, and from there beg for another chance.

You'll want to accept full responsibility - at least a big share of the guilt - for the problems that caused the break-up of your marriage.

These thoughts are only natural, but they cannot put your marriage back together, and any attempts to "try one more time," at this stage will only cause you greater pain.

You must accept the fact that your marriage is over, and busy your mind and yourself, with activities that don't allow you time to "rehash" the events of the past. Don't allow yourself to dwell upon guilt feelings.

Just because your marriage is over doesn’t mean that your life is over.

The earth is very big with billions of people and you must believe that there are many other human beings out there who will love to become your partner again.

Accept your own short-comings; vow that you will profit from what you've experienced; and then get on with your life.

You'll never be comfortable with yourself, nor find real happiness so long as you're dragging "guilt feelings" from your past around with you.

Somewhere along the way, you'll become so angry with your ex-husband - the world - and even God, that you'll be beyond yourself in your ability to express it all.

If you feel you need it, go for a therapy and counseling.

It will be necessary that you express this anger - to get it all out of your system -before you'll be able to "feel good" around men again.

Anger is the process of projecting onto another person, your own sense of hurt and frustration.

It's such a volatile and all-consuming emotion that unless you give it an outlet, it will literally eat you alive.

Understand your anger, and manage it in a manner that will benefit you - in such a way that your expression of it is constructive to your regaining your emotional health.

A few things you might think about doing: write the complete story of your marriage for your kids,; how you met, your dreams and hopes, the good and the bad, the sacrifices each of you made, and how - beyond either of your capabilities to control - the marriage just came to an end... write in precise detail exactly what is making you angry, and why.

Put it in letter form to your ex-husband and really tell him everything that has been, and is bothering you.

Let him know that you are a person with wants and needs too.

Stand in front of a mirror and "rehearse" an angry confrontation with your ex-husband and/or anyone else involved.

Make an appointment with your priest or minister; or find a friend who'll listen as you explain the frustration, hurt and futility you feel.

Regardless of how you do it, it is an absolute necessity that you let it all out. This anger and bitterness you feel is like a poison that you must cleanse from your soul.

The sooner you get rid of it, the sooner you'll be able to get on with your life –re-gain your mental health and position yourself for happiness.

Finally, there'll come a day when you'll no longer be bothered by thoughts of your ex-husband.

It won't even bother you when you see him with another woman, and that'll be the day when you've finally accepted the fact that your marriage to him is over.

You will have truly let go of him, and will be ready for a new try at happiness.

Your progress from being rejected by your husband (or wife) to acceptance of the fact that you don't want him (or here) if he/she doesn't want you, and positioning you for a second chance, won't come easily.

It may take you about two and a half to three years.

You must understand the damage you've sustained, the healing that's required, and the time it's going to take to get well.

May these insights into divorce and how to cope with it help you to re-discover yourself and sustain you for a better future.

Warmly,

I-key Benney

About The Author

I-key, a Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of "Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System", a home based business opportunity which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.

Mscsrrr Millionaire Secret Cash System (http://www.home-based-business-opportunity-center.com) helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000-$2000 free “cash”…

mscsrrr3@yahoo.com

About the Author: This article courtesy of http://www.wedding-invitation-guide.com

Cleveland, Ohio (June 2005) eMergent Marketing is pleased to announce the addition of Susie Lanza to the company.  Susie joins eMergent Marketing’s organic search engine optimization team as a Senior eMarketing Strategist.

Before joining eMergent Marketing, Susie worked as a consultant for a leading technology services company, providing eMarketing and metrics strategy for the Cleveland office.  Prior to that, Susie held the role of Senior Marketing Manager for Edelman Public Relations, where she founded Edelman’s Interactive Marketing Practice.

Susie brings extensive eMarketing capabilities to the eMergent Marketing team.  In addition to leading the organic search engine optimization practice, Susie will play in integral part in helping to further build and promote the capabilities of eMergent Marketing. 

“eMergent Marketing is extremely excited to have someone as talented and experienced as Susie join our team,” noted Paul Elliott, President of eMergent Marketing.  “We looked for a long time to find just the right person for this position, and Susie is a perfect fit.”

According to Susie, "Emergent is an exciting opportunity and natural fit for me.  I thrive in an entrepreneurial environment and am thrilled to help mold the SEO business.  I also connected right away with the team and share the same philosophies on building culture and conducting business."

Organic search engine optimization continues to be a leading service offering for eMergent Marketing.  With a highly experienced and trusted team of optimizers, eMergent Marketing continues to win business in the local market and throughout the country, with clients including: Dirt Devil, Third Federal, Renaissance Hotels, Marriott, Ambiance, Troy-Bilt, and many more.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brett S. Lane is an Internet Marketing Specialist for eMergent Marketing, located in Cleveland, Ohio. Web Site Conversion & Usability Testing

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Bill Platt is the owner of http://ThePhantomWriters.com . Consider employing our team of professional wordsmiths to weave articles developed to reach your target market. We can help put your business on the road to Internet success, with custom,ghosted articles that will drive targeted and motivated buyers to your domain for years to come.

About the Author

Kevin Nunley writes press releases and sends them to 5,000 medianationwide. "I've never seen a business that couldn't get freemedia." See his PR deals at http://DrNunley.com Reach Kevin atmailto:kevin@drnunley.com or 801-328-9006.

About the Author

Article © 2002 by writer, Ken Hill. Discover how you can generate more profit online by writing articles. Get your FREE 4 part "Beginner's Guide To Profiting With Articles" marketing course now at mailto:yourfreecourse@zipresponse.com

In the marketing world, radio has earned the reputation of being the odd step-cousin. You know the one. No one knows quite what to do with him. Especially at family gatherings when everyone tries hard to avoid sitting with him. After all, who knows WHAT hell start talking about.

Much of that reputation comes from radio being tough to track. On one hand, radio does work. Businesses do notice an increase in sales when they add radio to the mix. However, radio doesnt test well. In surveys and other tracking methods, radio tends to be the one with the dismal scores.

A good friend of mine, whos also a marketing consultant but before that she sold radio for many years, has a theory about that. She says radio works on a subconscious or unconscious level. People remember the ad, but not that they heard it on the radio. So, they tend to credit a different medium for the ad, like the yellow pages. Yellow pages gets a boost while radio drops a few points.

Regardless, radio should not be ignored because it does work. And many marketing consultants will probably tell you radio is an excellent medium to reach a local market.

However, I feel there are possibilities beyond merely reaching local customers.

Internet radio shows are starting to take off in a big way. That means advertising and sponsorship opportunities are also taking off. In addition, "offline" methods have been shown to be pretty effective at driving traffic online. If increasing Web traffic is your goal, using traditional media outlets to increase traffic should be a part of your mix.

If people already know you which they might in your local market theyre more likely to be loyal. And theyre more likely to send other customers to your site. Depending on the costs of radio in your community, radio may be a very affordable way to get a good viral campaign going. A viral campaign is what happens when other people pass around your business e-mails to their friends and family, or send them to your Web site.

Below are some other positive reasons to use radio:

* Affordable -- when you compare spot to spot, radio tends to be one of the least expensive media out there. However, one spot aint going to do it. To reach your target market, you need to purchase several spots. Thats why radio can also turn into one of the more expensive media. However, there are ways to keep your costs in line yet still reap the benefits of radio -- for instance, buying less spots but running them all in one or two weeks, so your customers are more likely to hear your message.

* Psychological, if you voice the commercials yourself -- hearing your voice makes people feel like they "know" you. Hence the popularity of audio on Web sites. In fact, marketing gurus claim just by adding audio to a site substantially increases how many people buy.

People tend to buy from people and businesses they know and trust. Hearing your voice helps them feel as if they know you. These psychological aspects may be another reason to consider running a few radio ads in your local market even if you have an Internet business.

* Speed -- you can get your spot up and running in no time.

* Loyalty -- listeners choose stations based on the music or shows they like and they tend to be quite loyal to that station. If you know what your customers enjoy listening to, its an excellent way to reach them. I include both music and talk shows in this.

* Good support medium -- radio works really well when paired with other marketing mediums like print, direct mail or television.

But for every positive, theres a negative. In the spirit of being objective, here are a few for radio:

* Background medium -- radio tends to be on in the background, which means it tends to be ignored. Generally, your target market needs to be exposed to your ad more times than other marketing media before theyll act upon your message.

* Little staying power -- the lack of visuals again keeps radio from "sticking" with people. At least, thats what some of the marketing gurus say. But, here again my marketing consultant friend differs. She thinks its that subconscious thing again.

And if you can write a spot that creates pictures in your customers heads, you can actually work this to your advantage. In fact, according to my friend, if the picture is defined enough, not only will people remember it better, but theyll also think it was a print ad instead of a radio ad. More on the art of creating pictures using words in later issues.

* Hard to track – its impossible to know exactly how many people are tuning in at any given time.

A final note: Because radio is subconscious, keep that in mind when crafting your ad. Repeat your business name a lot and any other branding info, so it gets into your customers heads. Dont put in phone numbers. Instead, purchase a memorable Web site domain name and repeat that. And remember to create "pictures" whenever possible.

Creativity Exercise -- How can you use radio in your business

Would radio work for your business Lets find out.

Take out a sheet of paper and a fun pen. Im partial to gel pens. Draw a line down the center.

On one side, put the header: Why advertising on radio is a good idea for my business. On the other side, put the header: Why advertising is a bad idea for my business.

Now pick a side and start writing down reasons.

You might be more comfortable starting with the side thats easiest for you. Then when you work on the other side, you can simply turn the reasons around.

For instance, lets say you started with the bad idea. One of your reasons was: My product is completely visual. You could turn it around by saying "Because my product is so visual, Ill have to work harder to create pictures in my customers minds. And because the customers create their own pictures, theyre more likely to remember them."

Or what if you started with a good idea, and one of the reasons was: "Because my business is local." You could turn it around and say "Because radio is holding me back -- Im only reaching this local market." Ah, now Im even going against what I said earlier. Maybe with this statement you could look for ways to get your customers to spread the word outside the area about your business.

As you saw by my last example, youll be amazed at what comes out when you do this exercise. Even if you dont change your views on radio advertising, you may come up with new and powerful insights to your business.

About The Author

Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting, a writing, marketing and creativity agency. She offers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at www.writingusa.com.

Copyright 2004 Michele Pariza Wacek. michele@writingusa.comk

You need to be advertising and marketing your home-based business, but what does it all mean You need customers. You need sales! But where do you start FFA Pages Banners Traffic Exchange Programs Reciprocal Linking

These are just some of the ways for your home-based business to be advertising and marketing online meaning on the Internet. But, what do they mean FFA Pages - You submit your site to a FFA page or network of pages and agree to get one E-mail from every other website that is listed there. Banners - These are ads shown at the top usually of many webpages and they sometimes rotate to show a different ad each time the page is loaded. Traffic Exchange Programs - You submit your ad to be shown to other members of the program when they load the program start page. Reciprocal Linking - You place a link to someones website on your site and they place a link to your website on theirs.

Other Internet Marketing Suggestions

Search Engine Optimization SEO - Keywords are placed throughout your websites pages to tell the search engines what your page is about. Keywords are simply words or combinations of words that describe your business.

Content is king. Provide good content basically, articles about your area of expertise about your subject and sprinkle the keywords and combos through the page. This basic strategy will get you a higher ranking with the search engines and many more customers because youre giving them something that they need -- information!

PPC Pay Per Click Advertising - Instead of submitting your pages for inclusion in the search engines database, you bid on the keywords that relate to your website. You can find out in advance what other sites have bid for a particular keyword and then decide if you want to outbid the number one spot or maybe bid a little less and get the number two, three, or four spot or lower if the keyword is expensive.

Ezines/Newsletters - These are delivered through E-mail and can be either plain text or HTML with full graphics. Although they can sometimes be expensive, you can get free ads by writing articles about your subject area and contribute them to the ezines. Why would you want to give them away Because you can put in a "Resource Box" at the end of each article. At the very least this box will contain your name, website address, and a brief one or two line "bio" about you some ezines allow more room. See, free online advertising for your home-based business!

For a more detailed explanation, and more great advice for your home-based business, please visit my-home-based-business-advisor.com/startup-ideas.html.

Terry Nicholls My Home-Based Business Advisor my-home-based-business-advisor.com

Copyright © 2004 by Terry Nicholls. All Rights Reserved.

About The Author

Terry Nicholls writes from his own experience as someone who wanted to start his own home-based business. Now that he has, visit my-home-based-business-advisor.com for free help for YOUR home business, including ideas, startup, and expansion advice. Make your passion explode.

articlecity@my-home-based-business-advisor.com

Can it be

Is there advertising that people actually love

You bet there is! And you are already very aware of it. The type of advertising Im referring to is promotional items, also known as advertising specialties. Its anything a company would put their logo and contact information on, and then give away. They are used by many businesses all over the world to help maintain, and increase the amount of business they do with their customers every day.

Why do people love it Because we view the item more as a gift from the giver instead of an advertising tool. Have you ever been handed a logoed scratch pad, coffee mug, pen, coaster, calendar, etc. and then said THANK YOU Of course you have. We all have.

When you accept it, an emotional almost an obligation to do business with type of attachment is created in you. A kind of warm & fuzzy feeling if you will. For a long time theyll remember the gift you gave, and in order to show their appreciation to you, almost instinctively, theyll try to do more business with you. Thats the secret behind this type of advertising!!!

And thats why its The ONLY type of advertising people love. AND itll work powerfully for you too!!

The next time youre pondering ways to increase your business, consider using promotional items.

Scott Rauber , Biz Promo, LLC 727-733-8387 getmorebiznow@verizon.net

About The Author

Scott Rauber In the business of helping business get more business. Has started several businesses over the past 15 years and is now focusing on helping others succeed in business. Master in finding prospects using little or no money!

getmorebiznow@verizon.net

The long term benefits from pay per click advertising.

Businesses are starting to look closely at the long-term benefits from pay per click advertising. Pay per click search engines are primarily used for sales in the now time frame, but they are also being used to build a business identity that their customers will remember. This form of brand awareness can be applied to a company of any size, large or small. If you take a look at a traditional magazine or newspaper ad, the companies are using that advertising to increase their brand awareness. The purpose of the ad is to direct the customer to their products or services but there is no chance to make a sale immediately. They are referred to a website or a retailer. When search engine advertising, as potential customers search the web looking for a product or service and see the same site come up in their searches time and time again it begins to create that same brand awareness for that product or service.

Over 85% of all searches on the Internet are done through search engines and they are the best tools for enhancing a company’s identity. They are identity builders, and they direct targeted consumers who are looking for your product or service right to your doorstep. In the long term, brand awareness can bring visitors to their site without additional advertising. By using the power of search engines you can use the Internet to deliver a targeted prospective customer who is actively looking for your products or services right to your doorstep and build long term brand awareness at the same time.

About The Author

Kevin OHara Pres. & CEO buzzseek.com http://www.buzzseek.com kevin54321@optonline.net

How You Can Make Advertising Pay Big Dividends source: www.chetholmes.com

McGraw Hill once commissioned an extensive study to determine what marketing weapons make a company famous in it’s market or community.

The study went on to show that advertising created more product, service, or brand awareness than all other marketing weapons combined.

The fact is, we know that Coke is “The Real Thing” because Coke advertises, not because it has good salespeople or does great direct mail.

Advertising stays in front of your prospects when you can’t be there. While a handful of salespeople can only be in front of perhaps a hundred or so prospects per month, advertising can reach thousands of potential buyers each and every month, week, or day.

Studies also show that advertising inspires confidence from your current clients. When current clients see your ad, it reinforces their belief in you.

It makes them feel like they made the right decision to be your client. But advertising can also waste money if you don’t use it properly.

To avoid wasting money, keep these three tips in mind. Don’t spend money on an advertising vehicle if the majority of its listeners/viewer/readers will never buy your type of product or services.

For example, let’s say that you own a commercial real estate company or a business bank. In both cases, you are only interested in business people.

Broad-reaching television or radio stations or general-interest daily newspapers base their rates on how many consumers they reach.

An examination of their audiences may easily show you that a high percentage of their listeners or readers are not business people, yet you will have to pay to reach all of them.

Conversely, there are more specialized advertising vehicles that target a far greater percentage of your potential buyers.

A business radio program or a business publication will offer you an audience comprised mostly of your potential buyers.

If you do advertise, do not expect that a single ad, or even a few ads, constitute effective advertising. Effective advertising needs to be consistent and steady.

However: If you don’t have the budget to take a full advertising schedule, I often recommend that my clients buy one, well placed ad in the ideal magazine and then use that piece for years sometimes with a banner that says: “As Seen In Industry Today.”

This ad then works very hard for you as a direct mail piece, promo piece, or even a hand out at a trade show.

Don’t spread your advertising too thin. Some years ago, a corporate training company launched its services by buying a few spots per week on seven different radio stations.

Since it was not on any one station long enough to give its message a chance to take root, the advertising was a total failure.

The company should have taken its entire budget and sunk it into one or at the most two primary vehicles. Each advertising vehicle has a loyal audience.

You are far better off having a heavy schedule in one vehicle, where you have a chance to break through the clutter and get noticed, than to take a few spots in a half-dozen vehicles in which you get lost in the commercial clutter.

Today, repetition and concentration are the keys to successful advertising.

Another important point along the lines of advertising smart is that cable TV today can virtually change your life in a week. I know a fellow who has an electronic repair business.

He would fix VCR’s, TV’s, Toasters, etc… and he also would come to your home to hook up your entire entertainment system if you needed him to do that. The name of the business was Mr. Tim’s Home Electronic Repair and Installation Service.

First, on my advice, he took an insert in the newspaper. An “insert” is a flyer that is printed separately and “inserted” into the newspaper as a loose piece of paper.

This is generally a very good way to go with B2B in a trade journal or B2C in a newspaper.

These are good because they fall out of the magazine or newspaper onto your desk or kitchen table and they are less expensive to buy than printing your ad right in the vehicle of choice.

When I ran magazines and newspapers, we discouraged them because we NEEDED ads in the magazine/newspaper, but when we had a client we were going to lose over lack of response, we ALWAYS recommended the insert because they almost always worked.

So Mr. Tim’s Home Electronic Repair and Installation Service took the newspaper insert in the local newspaper and bought, specifically, the major neighborhoods where he felt they have more time than money.

That’s the other beauty of newspaper inserts is that you can generally buy a small piece of the circulation to test the idea or to concentrate geographically. This worked for months for Mr. Tim, as people kept the insert around until they needed him.

But one of the people that spotted that insert was the local cable salesperson who told him he could make him famous. Mr. Tim thought TV would be WAY too expensive, but, as it turns out, in some markets, you can buy just a neighborhood. You can buy by zip code.

So for $200 per week, Mr. Tim was on TV like 60 times per week, spread all over 50 different cable channels.

It was amazing. You’d be watching re-runs of Seinfeld and there would come this Mr. Tim’s Home Electronic Repair and Installation Service ad and his phone would ring. It worked great.

Then one day he walks into a bike shop and someone recognized him from his TV ad. He was becoming famous from this mere $200 per week.

Not for everyone, but if you sell B2C, look into local cable and concentrate with a lot of spots.

Every business action requires some kind of cost justification. Does the effort justify the cost Company X advertised its professional educational materials.

When it seemed as though the advertising was not working, the company was going to cancel its ad campaign.

Then it discovered a startling correlation between its advertising and its direct-mail efforts: Its direct-mail response went up by 30% in the months it advertised to the same audience.

This is typical. The more penetration you can get to the same audience, the better the possibility that you will get noticed.

In the ’90s, getting noticed is everything. In today’s commercial clutter, you get noticed only by continually reaching the same potential customer with a consistent theme, message, look, and feel.

If you advertise in a print medium magazine, newspaper, etc., you will find that most publications will rent you their mailing lists.

This means you can direct mail to the same audience to which you are advertising! This is a very smart usage of marketing dollars.

Look at the lifetime value. If you have an inexpensive product, your advertising has to deliver a high number of leads, or every lead has to turn into a repeat customer.

For example, say your average customer spends $25 with you. If you are spending $1,000 per month on advertising, you will need to attract 40 new customers per month to break even on the ad, not counting any of your other costs, such as product costs and overhead.

If those customers are one-time buyers, then you have to find a way to make your advertising more effective or less expensive. If they become regular buyers, then you can accept lower response rates.

The key here is to look at the “lifetime value” of a customer. A customer who spends $25 a month and comes to your store only once is only worth $25 to you.

But if you can get that customer to be a repeat customer, then that customer is worth $300 a year, or $1,500 over five years!

Most business people do not understand the power of advertising; they do not realize that each new $25 customer is potentially a $1,500 customer!

Advertising brings in the customers, but it is your job to keep them buying from you.

Advertising promotes word-of-mouth

Often, a loyal customer will see your ad while with a friend or business associate. Your customer will show your ad to the friend and say, “Hey Joe, now this is a really great company/product/service.”

Joe will come into your business, and you will ask him how he heard of you. He will say that his friend referred him and never think to mention that it was your advertising that prompted the friend to open his mouth in the first place.

I headed up a Neilson study that tracked hundreds of ads and the response rate each ad generated. Each month, a computer printout listed the ads and how much response each had generated. The first printout came and it looked like this: X Company…………22 responses Y Company……...….20 responses Z Company………….23 responses K Company………..223 responses J Company……….….26 responses

In the midst of all the other ads generating responses in the low 20’s, one ad was generated more than 200 responses!

Turning to the ad, we expected to find some totally new or unique offer, product or service.

Instead, we found that the product advertised was nearly identical in price and features to four or five other products in the same publication.

Thus, it wasn’t the product that made the response jump so significantly, it was the ad! After a year of tracking the highest response generating ads, we learned that, for the most part, the ads that pulled the greatest response followed four primary rules:

Rule No 1: Is it distinctive You must design advertising that is so distinctive looking or sounding, if you’re on the radio that it pops out of the clutter.

In print, the first goal of high-response-oriented advertising is that it be visually distinctive. On radio, the audio must be distinctive. Naturally, TV has both visual and audio possibilities.

I ran a TV spot advertising a free seminar I’m doing with Jay Abraham. Among other images we used in the spot, I put a shot of me throwing a double side kick I have 23 years of karate training to the head of a business owner we’re both in suits.

What’s the point of that One point. It makes you want to find out “what the heck is going on there” Today, 70% of TV watchers are muting out the commercials.

But if you see something really intriguing, you will UN-mute just to see what the heck is happening there.

There’s a spot running right now where this kid sprays his mother with a squirt gun and she pulls the hose out of the sink and nails the kid with it.

I saw that spot several times and it finally got my goat. I wanted to see what they were advertising.

So make your ad distinctive. Something that makes it STAND OUT.

Rule No. 2: Tell me what you want to tell me. If you page through a magazine, you will quickly notice that you do not read the ads that make it difficult for you to figure out what they are selling.

“Clever” is only better if it is “super clever.” Clever headlines that do not tell you what they are trying to sell are simply not effective.

Most ads in most publications today don’t have headlines that tell you what they are trying to sell. In the information age, don’t hint around; say what you want to say, right in the headline.

A good headline follows these four criteria: It tells you what the product or service is. It starts with the word you or your not always, but mostly. It contains a benefit to the reader. Most companies brag about themselves, rather than talk about the benefit to the reader prospect. High-response-oriented advertising focuses like a laser beam on the benefit to the customer. It makes the consumer want to read on.

The headline is the ad for the ad. If the headline isn’t good, no one will read the rest of the ad. Responses to ads have jumped ten fold by simply changing the headlines.

Rule No. 3: The body copy should…

Be curiosity driven, unfolding the story you want to tell.

By highly benefit oriented. So many ads talk about features, when it is benefits that motivate buying.

Give you a reason to take action now! Can you offer something for free that will help you engage the potential customer

Rule No. 4: Ask for the order. Too many ads do not give explicit instructions as to what action you would like the customer to take: “Order today and save,” or “Call us today and receive this free….”. You must always ask for the order!

Summary

Advertising is a powerful tool for becoming a well-known player in any market.

Even if you take a small schedule and a small ad, by consistently letting it run in an appropriately targeted vehicle, over time that ad will have an impact. People will see your logo and it will register.

Advertising supports everything else you do in your business. But it is only part of a total package.

You must have other marketing, and you must make sure, ultimately, that you are treating the customer like gold. Happy customers will spread the word faster, and advertising will help facilitate that. Happy advertising!

Chet Holmes is President and CEO of Jordan Productions, an international training firm that helps companies accelerate growth using Chet’s proprietary techniques. See www.chetholmes.com to attend a webinar about Chet’s concepts.

About The Author

Chet Holmes is author and creator of the popular business series Guerrilla Marketing Meets Karate Master with Jay Conrad Levinson, Business Growth Masters, and Zero to $100 Million.

Chet charges $5,000 an hour and has been paid fees up to $1 million dollars from a single client. Hes personally had 50 Fortune 500 clients and has 60 products selling in 19 countries.

The opportunities for getting free advertising for your product or services are limited only by your own imagination and energies. There are so many proven ways of promoting your own objectives without cost that it literally boggles the mind just to think of listing them.

One way is to write an article relative to your particular expertise and submit it to all the publications and media dealing in the dissemination of related information. In other words, become your own publicity and sales promotions writer. Get the word out; establish yourself as an expert in your field, and "tag-along" everything you write with a quick note listing your address for a catalog, dealership opportunity, or more information.

Another really good way is by becoming a guest on as many of the radio and television talk shows or interview type programs as possible. Actually, this is much easier to bring about than most people realize. Write a letter to the producer of these programs, then follow up with an in-person visit or telephone call. Your initial contact should emphasize that your product or service would be of interest to the listeners or viewers of the program - perhaps even saving them time or money.

Other ways of getting free or very inexpensive exposure include the posting of advertising circulars on all the free bulletin boards in your area, especially the coin-operated laundries, grocery stores, and beauty and barber shops. Dont discount the idea of handing out circulars to all the shoppers in busy shopping centers and malls, especially on weekends. You can also enlist the aid of the middle school students in your area to hand out circulars door-to-door.

Some of the more routine methods include having a promotional ad relative to your product or service printed on the front or back of your envelopes at the time you have them printed with your return address.

Be sure to check all the publications that carry the kind of advertising you need. Many mail order publications just getting started offer unusually low rates to first-time advertisers; a free-of-charge insertion of your ad when you pay for an order to run three issues or more; or special seasonal ad space at greatly reduced rates. And there are a number of publications that will give you Per Inquiry PI space - an arrangement where all orders come in to the publication, they take a commission from each order, and then forward the orders on to you for fulfillment.

Many publications will give you a contract for "stand-by" space. In this arrangement you send them your ad, and they hold it until they have unsold space, and then at a price thats always one third or less than the regular price for the space you need, insert your ad. Along these lines, be sure to check in with the suburban and neighborhood newspapers.

If you send out or publish any kind of catalog or ad sheet, get in touch with all the other publishers and inquire about the possibilities of exchange advertising. They run your ad in their publication in exchange for your running an ad for them of comparable size in yours.

Finally, theres nothing in the world that beats the low cost and tremendous exposure you get when you advertise a free offer. Simply run an ad offering a free report of interest to most people - a simple one-page report with a "tag-line" inviting the readers to send money for more information, with a full page advertisement for your book or other product on the backside. Ask for a self-addressed stamped envelope, and depending on the appeal of your report and the circulation of the publication in which your ad appears, you could easily be inundated with responses!

The trick here, of course, is to convert all of these responses, or a large percentage of them, into sales. This is done via the "tag-line," which issues an invitation to the reader to send for more information, and the full page ad on the back of the report, and the other offers you include with the complete package you send back to them. As mentioned at the beginning of this report, its just a matter of unleashing your imagination. Do that, and you have a powerful force working for you that can help you reach your goals.

About The Author

Want to learn how to start and grow your very own Home Business If so, visit our internet home based business resource center at http://www.internet-based-home-business-ideas.com articles@internet-home-based-business-ideas.com

After conducting months of research towards developing an online Marketplace, Mjmls.com initiated beta-release of a new Classified Advertising Venue http://www.mjmls.com. With several modifications to the Mjmls Website, users will now see the Classifieds as the main page at Mjmls.com. The original Web Directory, has been moved to a Sub-domain on the server, but is still available for Webmasters to promote their Site through a, “Link-Exchange”.

Michael Medeiros, the founder of Mjmls.com, obtained services through Geodesic Solutions, A Limited Liability Company in Software Development http://www.geodesicsolutions.com, for the release of the Classifieds segment. The Classified application utilizes the PHP Language, enabling an easy to use interface. James Park, Geodesic Enterprise Developer, stated, “The benchmarks of the PHP/MySql application are comparable to any other scripting language and data storage, especially when compared to the expense of hosting the application”. Mr. Medeiros believes that the PHP/MySql application will deliver convenient features, while the reduced operating expense will allow Mjmls.com to remain competitive among its competitors, as it progresses into the future.

Geodesic Solutions, is providing continued support of the Database application, as the Classifieds are being developed. The Mjmls Classifieds are currently open for advertisers, as the staff released Beta Development. While there are no fees for advertising, or attached to the sale of an item, Mjmls.com is relying on utilization of enhanced features for continued support of the domain. These optional features include Better Placement of ads, Featured Ads, Attention-getter Graphics, and Bold Text. Arrangements have been made with 2checkout.com and PayPal.com, to accept secure online payments for these optional features.

Previous users of Mjmls.com can find the Web Directory in its new location, http://links.mjmls.com. The directory has only one modification, but Mr. Medeiros stated, “A new facelift is in order”. The original Directory served as a place for Webmasters to list their Website, through a link-exchange, and for end-users to locate businesses and information on the Internet. Mr. Medeiros went on to say, “With the Beta-release of the New Classifieds, the directory will now be displaying one featured advertisement. The Ad Display is a summary of the actual advertisement. It is relatively smaller than most common banners”. Mr. Medeiros still intends for the directory to serve as a free portal for users to find a variety of valuable Internet Sites.

The Mjmls Classifieds currently offer a variety Marketing Venues, but they intend to keep Website promotion within the Directory. Businesses and individuals may advertise items for sale in a variety of categories. These categories include Automobiles, Real Estate, Electronics, Boats, Motorcycles, and Recreational Vehicles. In addition, there is a category for Businesses to advertise their, “Storefront,” in the Classifieds Business. The Mjmls Staff intends to update the Category structure through user comments and suggestions.

To begin advertising, a user is required to create an advertiser account by registering. Once registered, users can place multiple advertisements. End-users can contact advertisers through the ads, get directions to their business or items for sale Utilizes MapQuest.com, forward ads to friends or family, and save advertisements for later comparison. In addition, the site offers an account manager. Advertisers can easily monitor advertisements in the classifieds. The account manager will reveal the number of views, replies, and times an end-user forwarded the ad to a friend or family member. Mr. Medeiros commented, “Geodesic Solutions has provided many useful tools for our End-users and Advertisers. We plan to be implementing different options as the Website progresses. This will help ensure that Classifieds remain fully functional when development is complete”.

About The Author

Michael Medeiros Mjmls.com 1032 Bradford Dr Williamstown, N.J. 08094 609-922-1800

Advertising is a necessary irritant in the world today. You cant drive down the street without coming across an ad, either a billboard suspended over a road or a large poster plastered down the side of a bus. If you walk into a shopping centre it doesnt matter where you look, you see an advertisement of some kind. Even the tables in the food court now have ads embedded in them, and on my last trip to Melbourne I noticed that they were starting to embed flat screen TVs into the tables to deliver the full commercial experience to your meal. If you jump on the Internet you have to contend with pop-ups and banner ads, with some advertising agents being ruthless enough to write malicious code that embeds the ad into your computer so that you still receive the pop-ups even when youre not at the original site.

In the past, pop-ups and banner ads have been easy enough to avoid with the right software installed incidentally, am I the only one who finds pop-up ads that advertise pop-up blockers tremendously amusing but now the software developers have worked their way around that little problem. The solution was simple; sell advertising space in your software, not just on your web page.

As much as I like to complain about this new idea, it does come with a significant upside. These days, not all Shareware applications drop out after a limited period of use, nor do they constantly remind you to register. Having ads in the software provides the application developers with the necessary funding to live but leaves the user free from having to pay to use the software. It ends up being in the developers best interest to ensure that the user continues to use the software for as long as possible, because that means an increased income. In my opinion this was a brilliant idea, and I wholeheartedly supported it until they started building unblockable pop-ups into the software.

The gaming world is getting in on the act as well, which could be both positive and negative. The Internet provides the functionality for games to constantly update the virtual world with new billboards, TV ads, clothing and so on, keeping the content fresh and the ads current. From an advertising standpoint its an amazing idea, people are spending less and less time watching TV and more and more time immersed in virtual worlds. The interactive nature of the ads means that they will remain in a players mind for a lot longer than the TV ad break that can be walked away from, flicked over or simply ignored. The game developers on the other hand now have an added source of income, meaning that they can take more risks without the fear of losing money.

Advertising in games is not a new idea, the soft drink 7-Up created a game many years ago called Cool Spot, which had the player controlling a red dot with sunglasses in his quest to collect 7-Up logos. The game was remarkably solid, leaving the players to enjoy the game while still getting its message across. I played it a long time ago as a child, but I still remember how much fun it was and exactly what product it was pushing. Pepsi released a Playstation game called Pepsi Man that involved a blue and white striped super-hero running around collecting cans of Pepsi. Red Bull got in on the game with Wipeout featuring Red Bull banners and a loading screen bearing the phrase "Increase your reaction time with Red Bull". Worms 3D featured Red Bull as a power up. Crazy Taxi had customers jump in the players taxi and holler "Take me to KFC!" or any of the numerous other licensed locations in the game. True Crime had the characters dressed in Puma attire, with the main character changing his outfits several times throughout the game. Until now Ive always thought that the ads in games were amusing and, so long as they didnt interfere with the playing of the game, I was all for them. However, there are new ideas afoot that seem set to change my mind.

The main problem I have with ads in games now is the same as my issue with Pay TV. Youre shelling out a lot of money for a product new games being sold for upwards of $50.00 U.S. and youre still getting ads. If developers are going to start flooding my entertainment with advertising, Id like to see a significant drop in the price of games.

The other big issue is that of spyware. Until now, spyware has been a hated part of existence. This malicious software digs its way into your system and collects information about you: your Internet surfing habits, the contents of your hard drives and even the unblocked ports available on your computer. This has lead to the necessity of loading a system with anti-spyware utilities to run alongside the pop-up killers, anti-virus programs, firewalls, registry guards and whatever other protective measures a paranoid PC user has to implement. Now paradoxically, someone has had the fantastic idea of building spyware into software, and games in particular.

In the future the games that youve just paid such a high price for will sit there monitoring you in the background, watching your every virtual move. Then they can target ads that are more likely to have an impact on you based on the contents of your hard drive or your Internet surfing habits. The best part about it is that as soon as you click I Agree and install the software, it becomes legitimate and youve agreed for them to access information about you. Many software products already feature clauses in their license agreements that have the user permitting the developers to collect anonymous information in order to provide the customer with a better experience. The other part of this that irks me is the fact that Im going to have to have my computer connected to the Internet and chew through my download limit just to play a single-player game.

In the end, I suppose that theres no way to avoid advertising in our current world. Having it implemented into software and games was simply the next logical step. I suspect that I will be looking to download the inevitable Ad Blocker cracks that I imagine will appear shortly after the wholesale introduction of advertising into the gaming industry, but I do believe that with appropriate tact and respect for privacy, advertising could turn out to be a positive addition to the interactive experience.

About The Author

Daniel Punch M6.Net http://www.m6.net danielp@m6.net

Budweiser has the frogs. McDonalds has Ronald. Goodyear has the baby. Each of these companies has used different images as a means of advertising with traditional media. Television, radio, and print ads have been extremely successful in helping companies develop a successful brand image. With the World Wide Web, however, marketing departments struggle to incorporate traditional advertising into a high-tech medium like the Internet.

The Internet continues to grow at a rapid pace. Billions of dollars have already been transacted this year and with the holiday season approaching those numbers will only increase. The traditional forms of marketing and advertising still have their place; however, in a world where one out of every eight dollars is spent online, the traditional 4P’s of business might not fully apply.

In the past, the business mantra was “location, location, location.” More businesses have realized that, with the Internet boom, the new mantra is more like “logistics, logistics, logistics.” Marketing is not an issue of where you are anymore. Instead, companies need to properly place themselves in the vast World Wide Web so that customers can easily search for the products and services they are looking to buy. This becomes difficult because consumers do their shopping from their computer at home.

According to a recent study conducted by DoubleClick and Nielson/NetRatings, the last quarter of 2003 yielded amazing results, up 40 billion impressions from the third quarter. Throughout the year, advertising volume on the Internet increased by 49 percent—that equals about 200 billion impressions in the fourth quarter!

Rand Blair, of 10x Marketing http://www.10xmarketing.com, believes the increased numbers result from the fact that people are using the Internet more to find products they are seeking to buy. “As people become more familiar with the Internet, they are becoming more comfortable searching, learning, and purchasing. As a result, online advertising is booming!”

Two of the most popular and successful advertising techniques on the Internet are pay per click campaigns and natural search engine optimization campaigns. A brief description of each is listed below:

Pay Per Click

A pay per click campaign consists of advertisements on the side and top of search results pages. For example, try searching for a popular item. When Google, Yahoo, MSN, or any search engine brings back the results, there will be some links near the top and side of the page. These results are placed there because companies pay the search engine each time a visitor clicks through to their site.

When companies pick the right keywords to target and monitor, a pay per click campaign can be extremely effective. Many executives like this type of campaign because they only pay for those people who click through to their site. If nobody clicks on the link, no money is spent.

Natural Search Results

On the other hand, when search results come back from a search engine, the websites listed in the heart of the page are those pages that are the most exact match for the keyword. Each search engine uses complex algorithms so that the most relevant websites will naturally appear at the top of their results. As consumers realize that pay per click ads are placed at the very top because companies buy that position, consumers are looking to the natural results with greater frequency.

It is possible for a company that is nowhere to be found to take steps to increase their placement on the results page. In fact, those companies who do nothing to increase their page ranking are giving potential millions of visitors away to their competition.

Deutsche Safa Rashtchy said last year, “The search market has become the Holy Grail of Internet advertising and continues to grow faster than our expectations. Our initial estimate of 7 billion by 2007 is most likely to be too conservative and we believe we are still in the early stages of an expanding and large market.”

In April, PricewaterhouseCoopers released a study that showed the dramatic increase in keyword search revenue spent the previous years. While most other advertising techniques are failing, keyword search investments and pay per click campaigns are skyrocketing for more information, please see http://www.10xmarketing.com/internet-advertising-statistics/.

What Does This Mean for Your Company

As a business owner or leader, you might ask yourself the following questions: Where does my business appear in search engine results for keywords associated with our company Are we putting any money into search engine marketing Remember that almost 90% of Internet users are using search engines to find products and information How much Internet revenue is our company bringing in How potent is our Internet presence compared to our competitors

If your company is not competing at the level it should be, perhaps it is time you looked into focusing more of your time and efforts into Internet advertising techniques that are successful. Don’t be left in the dust as your competitors invest and reap the rewards of the Internet.

About The Author

This article was written by Mike Barton of 10x Marketing. Mike works with various companies to help them increase their Internet presence through Internet marketing techniques like search engine optimization, link popularity, and affiliate marketing programs. For more information regarding and advertising strategy that will increase your marketing ROI, visit http://www.10xmarketing.com/res/advertising-firm.asp mike@10xmarketing.com

Back in the 1760s, the great Dr Samuel Johnson delivered himself of the dictum that ‘promise, large promise is the soul of advertising’. It’s a good thought, a great thought; and I contend that what was true then is equally true today. But it seems to me that modern advertisers are tying themselves into unnecessary knots in an attempt to reach audiences which they believe are becoming increasingly indifferent to their blandishments.

Well, yes, markets are turning deaf ears and blind eyes, but they always have done, though not for the reasons generally espoused by the world’s marketers. I am convinced that despite all the sophisticated research and marketing effort that goes into advertising these days, the real reason that markets are indifferent to advertising is because much of it ignores the many splendoured principle that people don’t buy products, they buy the benefits of owning those products.

Today, the great proportion of advertisers don’t deliver sales messages, they tell what they hope are emotive stories with which the market can empathise, then they drop the product in as an afterthought, hoping that enough emotional cross-communication has been achieved for people to reach for their credit cards. That it doesn’t and people won’t has resulted in huge advertising budget cut-backs in the developed world in recent years. Only a manufacturer who has taken leave of his senses will throw even more money at a strategy that doesn’t work.

The strategy responsible operates under the title Emotional Sales Proposition ESP, thought in some quarters to be an advance on the Unique Sales Proposition USP which, on the contrary, does actually work. What has been overlooked or, more likely, ignored, is that in developing the principle of the USP in the late 1950s, the brilliant Rosser Reeves was striving to replace an advertising strategy that had been in situ for 30 or so years and was fast running out of steam. What was the device he was hoping to supersede Well, by any other name, it was the emotional sales proposition. I won’t bore you with the detail, but if you’d like to find out more, you should lay your hands on Reeves’ book, Reality in Advertising MacGibbon & Kee – 1961. It could be an eye-opener.

So, it’s true – the one thing we learn from history is that we never learn anything from history. Let’s go back to Dr Johnson. It’s worth remembering that the kind of advertising old Sam was talking about in the 18th century was fairly innocuous and largely unexceptionable. It could be read in coffee- house flyers, in chapbooks and in rudimentary newspapers; and it consisted of sales messages as diverse as where to get your wig powdered and the date of the next public hanging at Tyburn. Even so, the products and services on offer were as important to the people of the time as mobile phones and computers are to us.

In the human condition, nothing much changes. Our egos still need to be massaged and we are all in hot pursuit of happiness. Only our methods for achieving these goals, only our technologies, vary with time.

So the next time you are tempted to commit advertising, think about Sam Johnson and give your market a reason for owning your product. A good reason.

About The Author

Patrick Quinn is an award winning copywriter with 40 years experience of the advertising business in London, Miami, Dublin and Edinburgh. He publishes a FREE monthly newsletter, AdBriefing. Subscriptions are available at: http://www.adbriefing.com

Is a phone call better than a click Pretty soon advertisers will be able to make the final call on that question.

Ad developers are pushing a new type of paid search ad dubbed "pay-per-call."

The technology for pay-per-call was actually introduced in April by Ingenio, a San Francisco-based company that develops technology for delivering online ads.

Five-year-old, privately held Ingenio has 90 employees and expects 2004 revenue of $65 million to $70 million, says Marc Barach, chief marketing officer. He says its been profitable the last seven quarters.

Barach says Ingenio has received a patent for the main technology that enables pay-per-call. It deals with call- switching software and hardware that track and route 1-800 calls made by consumers to advertisers.

In paid search, advertisers pay companies like Google to place their ads prominently on their results pages for specific search terms.

The main type of paid search involves pay-per-click ads. Thats where advertisers pay a certain amount each time someone clicks on their ad.

Pay-per-call takes that idea one step further. Heres how it works: Advertisers pay a certain amount only after a user dials the 1-800 number that appears with the ad. In theory, advertisers will be getting an even more interactive response than if someone merely clicks on their ad.

Pay-per-call ads are currently in the process of being tested. The target market appears to be mostly small businesses. The ads will be programmed to appear in local searches, which target a specific ZIP code. Local search is a quickly developing market.

Advertisers will have to pay more per call than per click, but if the pay-per-call ads provide a better lead than the pay-per-click ads, developers and analysts alike expect the market to really take off.

Jupiter Research says U.S. advertisers will spend $3.2 billion on paid searches in 2005, up 23% from an expected $2.6 billion this year, so a lot of advertising dollars could be at stake.

Developers think bigger companies will also use pay-per- call, if they see small businesses having success.

"The customer sees the ad, calls in and the call is routed through our software and hardware to the advertisers phone," Barach said.

Advertisers know who called, where they called from and how many calls were made by any caller.

Ingenio has just completed most of the testing on its pay- per-call technology, and the first big distributor is signed up.

Barach says Internet marketing company FindWhat.com of Fort Myers, FL., is promoting the ads with clients.

FindWhat runs online ad campaigns and places ads for clients on search engine networks.

Spokeswoman Karen Yagnesak says FindWhat is starting to distribute pay-per-call ads on hundreds of search engine and portals, including Terra Lycos and Verizon SuperPages.com.

FindWhat says interest is "strong," but it wont say how many advertisers its signed up for pay-per-call.

Barach says pay-per-call gives small companies a "bigger bang for their buck." These companies cant afford to waste advertising dollars trying to get clicks that dont lead to sales, he says.

Phone calls give companies a much better chance of making a sale, Barach says.

Another plus for small companies is that pay-per-call doesnt require that they have a website.

According to researcher Kelsey Group, 70% of small and midsize U.S. businesses dont have a website.

"Pay-per-call opens Internet advertising to millions of businesses that wouldnt otherwise participate in it," Barach said.

In the case of FindWhat, advertisers will bid to get placed in the results of certain search terms.

Thats a method commonly used with pay-per-click as well. FindWhat expects that the minimum price will be about $2 per call, much higher than the pennies, that advertisers pay per click.

FindWhat says there will be no extra charges for multiple calls from the same consumer made within a 10-day window.

In addition to paying $2 per call from a consumer, FindWhat might charge advertisers up to 10 cents for each minute they talk after the first, free 10 minutes.

FindWhat is waiving the 10-cent charge for now to encourage advertisers to try pay-per-call.

Personally, I love the pay-per-call idea! If someone is willing to pay $2 for a telephone call, I would say thats a pretty solid lead.

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions Comments Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net

Make Money Online! Internet marketing expert, Dean Phillips will teach you how to make money online, starting today...Guaranteed! For details just visit my website.

Website: http://www.lets-make-money.net

There are a variety of advertising options available to online business owners small and large. Theres traditional banner advertising, text ads of both static and contextual varieties, popups and popunders, layer ads and pay-per- click search engine advertising.

For just about any business looking to advertise online, pay-per-click search listings should come first and be used to their maximum potential before investing elsewhere. They are the foundation of most online advertising plans, delivering the most precise targeting and the furthest reach for the lowest cost.

The concept of pay-per-click, or PPC search advertising is simple -- you have your listing placed within or alongside search results in exchange for paying some fee each time a someone clicks on your listing in those search results. Most search engines set advertisers against eachother in auction-style bidding for the highest positions on search result pages.

There are several benefits to this advertising method that make it useful to just about any web business, and make it so important that it should be exploited to its fullest before advertising in any other medium.

BENEFIT #1: TARGETING

Targeting is essential to any marketing, online or off. In order to be effective, ads have to reach the right people. If thats not happening, youre just wasting your money.

More than anything else, people turn to search engines to find things they need on the Web. Pay-per-click search engine advertising lets you capture these people while they are actively seeking out your product or service. By listing your site under specific search results, you capture your target audience and pre-qualify them with your ad at the same time. By the time the visitor is on your site, you already know they are looking for your product or service and have an interest in your particular offer.

BENEFIT #2: REACH

No matter how large the website, magazine or newspaper you advertise on, it will never reach as many individuals as the top search engines. Google and Yahoo! each reach 80% of the Internet using population and display pay-per-click ads above and alongside search results. Billions of searches are made every month which you can easily be listed within at no cost until an individual decides to click through to your website.

BENEFIT #3: COST

Banner advertising can cost $25 for 1,000 impressions of an advertisement regardless of the number of real website visits those impressions deliver. Top news portals can charge even twice that. PPC search ads cost nothing until an interested individual actually clicks through to your website. Even with the competitive bidding process that pits you against other advertisers for top spots at most PPC search engines, costs per click can still be just pennies. If you work out the average cost to acquire a new visitor from other mediums, itll likely end up higher than the search engine ad without the benefits of precise targeting and pre-qualifying the visit with the ad text.

It becomes clear why pay-per-click advertising should be the foundation of an online advertising plan when you consider the combined benefits of the targeting, costs and reach of the medium: Theres no guessing how many visitors will result from an advertising spend. Since you set your own click price, you know how many visitors each dollar buys in advance. Conversion rates and ROI are easy to calculate. Visitors are pre-qualified before arriving at your website by your ad text. Ads are placed without long-term commitments or high up-front fees. PPC search advertising reaches so many internet users that almost any niche audience can be targeted. Ad text can be changed at any time.

PPC search advertising is targeted, affordable and abundantly available. It should be exploited in full, at the many available companies, before spending money elsewhere as almost any other medium will be less targeted, less controllable and more expensive.

About The Author

Dan Grossman of Awio Web Services LLC http://www.awio.com reviews pay-per-click search engine services at http://www.searchenginereviews.info dan@awio.com

Advertising is the lifeblood of any business. If you do not learn how to advertise your products and services both efficiently and effectively, you wont be in business long. While the Internet has lessened or eliminated many of the costs normally associated with starting and running a small business, and its now easier than ever, youll never realize significant profits if you dont grow your business through effective marketing.

There are really just two kinds of advertising - that which you pay for and that which you get for free. And both should have their place in your overall marketing strategy. The problem arises when one does not understand how or when to use each.

Everywhere we look it seems that someone is claiming you can get rich online by taking advantage of the free advertising the Internet offers.

While its a true statement, the misleading part is that its almost always followed by something like, "Well give you a list of over 984324874984 places to advertise for free!" They normally go on to explain how anyone can get rich on the Internet because all of the advertising is free, and if you just send them $29.95 ... well you know how it goes.

Unfortunately, as anyone who has tried posting zillions of free ads on the Internet will tell you it just doesnt work that way. What you really need to know about posting free ads online is that for the most part its a waste of time - unless youre targeting other marketers - because an overwhelming majority of people who visit free ad sites are other online marketers like you who are trying to promote their own business.

Effective "free advertising" strategies do exist, but they arent what the average online marketer thinks of when hearing this often hyped-up phrase.

Are you ready for the one concept that separates the men from the boys, so to speak, online Here it is:

Free advertising is the laziest way to promote your site!

You dont really think that Yahoo became the most popular web site on the Internet, getting millions of visitors per day, by using free advertising strategies do you Heck no. Among other things, they spend millions of dollars per year on things like buying advertising on other big sites and advertising on both radio and television.

Now before you say you dont have millions per year to spend on advertising, allow me to show you how you can apply these concepts to your business on a smaller scale. The good news is that if you use the right approach you can start with a few dollars. It doesnt really matter what youre marketing, but lets assume that you sell artwork at your web site. How could you utilize paid advertising profitably

Now before I scare you off with the thought of having to spend lots and lots of money on advertising, theres something that you need to realize. And its a basic concept you should be able to immediately agree with:

If you spend $50 on advertising and it generates more than $50 in net profits, thats a good investment.

Simple right Well, through the use of proper testing and a "scientific" approach to advertising, theres no reason you cant turn your original $50 ad into millions of dollars in profits. Its just a matter of developing a system that creates a profit, and then reinvesting your initial profits back into your business in order to further expand your advertising.

Remember the artwork Assume that through proper tracking of your website youre able to determine that 1 out of every 100 visitors to your site buys artwork. Lets also assume that on the sale of every artwork you make a $50 profit. Do you see that any ad you buy which delivers more than 100 visitors to your site per $50 spent is a profitable investment

Promoting a site should be approached with this type of a scientific or mathematical attitude. Any advertising you do is either profitable or not, and you need to know which it is so you dont waste time and money.

Heres a somewhat simplistic strategy that you could use to get started:

Use a combination of free or low-cost strategies to promote your web site, generating initial traffic which will serve as a starting point. Through proper tracking of your site, determine the exact "value" of a visitor in terms of dollars and sense. This is absolutely critical. Utilize paid advertising that proves to be profitable according to step 2, based on the value of a visitor and the number of visitors generated. Through ongoing testing, tracking, and tweaking, try to increase the value of a web site visitor as well as response to your advertising. Repeat steps 2-4 as necessary - or forever. The power of this scientific or mathematical approach to web site promotion is that once you have completed the steps you will have an almost automated advertising campaign that can literally send you all the traffic you need. Rather than spending hours and hours each day promoting your site, you simply buy more advertising.

The bottom line is that there are only 24 hours in a day and theres only so much you can do during that time. Free advertising strategies can be effective, but normally, anything thats "free" is going to "cost" you time.

On the other hand, if you could spend $1,000 a day on advertising to make $1,000 a day in profits -- without spending hours doing it -- why wouldnt you just do that Its not hard at all. Consider Overture.com for example, where you can buy click-thrus for as little as 1-25 cents.

That fits the formula quite nicely. Overture alone wont send you enough traffic to make you rich, but its a good example of effectively promoting your site without spending much time doing it. There are lots of others.

Give this 2-step scientific approach a try. If you find you just cant seem to make the formula work, there can only be a few reasons for it - either youre not advertising in the right places, your web site isnt doing its job, your profit margins are too low, or your product or service itself is the problem. Figure out which it is and you cant fail.

About The Author

Steven Boaze, Chairman, is The Owner of Boaze.com Corporate Web Solutions Which houses Web Development services. Steven is also the author of two successful Books along with numerous articles on Marketing and Advertising published by Boaze Publishing.

http://www.boazepublishing.biz

Copyright © 1998-2004 Boaze.com

owner@boaze.com

If you advertise in any way, the following information could show you how to find and utilize untold advertising dollars you may not be aware of.

In the mid 80’s I was an account executive for a radio station located in Santa Rosa, California. During that time I became very familiar with what is referred to as co-op advertising.

Co-op advertising is a great source of advertising dollars. And there is so much of it available to people, yet most people know very little, if anything, about co-op dollars.

Interestingly, I was one of the only reps at the station who made sure my clients knew about this benefit. The reason was simple, there was more work involved in getting my clients set up, and yet, there was financial gain for both my client and myself by taking time to help them stretch their marketing dollars.

Co-opting is where you put in money for advertising and the manufacturer of a product you sell also puts in money. Often it is as much as 50% of the campaign. It is a great way to stretch your advertising campaign and to beef up your campaign.

Unfortunately, even though the money is available if conditions are right, many people either aren’t aware of this or if they are they think it’s too much work to meet the criteria. Granted, in some cases it is, but often utilizing co-op money is a great way to stretch your marketing budget.

There are many co-op-advertising opportunities available if you plan to do advertising on the Internet. Not all are good investments though. Check opportunities out very carefully before making a final commitment.

Using co-op dollars is an excellent way to build a stronger relationship with your retail suppliers and to generate a lot more traffic in your store or on to your web site. If the overflow of business is handled correctly you will increase your sales and profits.

The great thing about using co-op dollars when you are dealing with standard media is that your account rep can handle the paperwork for you. Many retailers hesitate using the “hidden” dollars due to feeling intimidated by the paperwork, the unknown.

Not only can the rep help you with the paperwork, they can also help you to build the campaign. However, before you trust them completely, find out what their experience is, what successful campaigns they have spearheaded and get some references. Take the time to do some research upfront to save money over the long run.

The reality is, if they are professionals in the truest sense of the word, they will be more than willing to take much of the paperwork burden off of you by handling it. After all, the more value an account rep creates for their clients the greater chance for an ongoing business.

Co-op dollars are not limited to retail businesses. Often, there are hidden dollars for non-profits. There are city and state funds that are set aside to help various organizations increase their visibility and reach.

One nice thing about using co-op dollars from a large manufacturer is that brand names do attract customers to your business—thats why you offer them. Advertising specific well known brands will increase your foot traffic. Harley Davidson has an amazing co-op program they offer to their retailers. It is a primary reason they have done so well. They encourage advertising based on specific guidelines.

It is to the advantage of an advertiser to utilize these dollars. Manufacturers in virtually every industry want to help with advertising costs. They are very aware that when you correctly advertise their brand name product you will probably sell more of it, thus increasing your orders.

The disadvantage of co-op advertising can be the restrictions set by the manufacturer. Often, they have such rigid guidelines about how to design the ad that you may lose all control of creative expression. For example, their logo may have to be positioned in an exact location in order for them to co-op the campaign.

If you are working with someone who claims to be an expert at advertising and they know nothing about co-op dollars they are not the expert they claim to be. Be aware.

Areas that you need to be educated on are program terms and reimbursement schedules. In some cases it can take months to receive reimbursement for a co-op campaign. In other cases, the company you are cooping with will send the money directly to the media source. Be sure to check this information out in order not to run into a cash flow problem.

Advantages of co-op advertising Extra money to advertise Account executive can do the paperwork More frequency

Disadvantages of co-op advertising Restrictions by manufacturer No guarantee it will work Limited creativity in ad copy

Before making a final decision, research your options on co-op advertising. You may be pleasantly surprised with what you discover.

Copyright: © 2004 by Kathleen Gage www.kathleengage.com

Publishing Guidelines: You may publish my article in your newsletter, on your web site, or in your print publication provided you include the resource box at the end. Notification would be appreciated but is not required.

About The Author

Kathleen Gage is a business advisor, keynote speaker and trainer who helps others gain marketing dominance and visibility within their market. Get Gage’s FR*EE report “Learn How One Salt Lake City Based Business Consultant Made Over 100k from One Idea” by visiting www.kathleengage.com.

kathleen@turningpointpresents.com

If online advertising had fads, contextual ads would be the latest "in thing." Also known as "content targeting," they seem to be "popping up" no pun intended all over the Web. From news sites to privately owned websites, everyone and his brother seems to be dipping his "toe in the water."

So what is contextual advertising and why should you care I thought youd never ask. You know how when you read a magazine, the pages are littered with ads Context ads do the same thing, but with a twist. Its a way of distributing Pay Per Click search results across the Net.

Heres how it works: the text of a web page is scanned for "keywords" or a theme, then ads are shown that are related to the pages content. A websites content is matched up with the advertisers keywords. For example,if I were reading a page about dogs. there would be pet related ads, usually contained in the right hand side or sometimes the top and bottom of the pages.

Unlike ads that are shown on Search Engine results pages, these ads are dynamic and allow you to reach people in a different mode other then search. Some call this more of a "shopping mode." Whatever you want to call it, context ads are distributed through millions of partner sites across the Internet.

Some advertisers claim that click thru rates are lower for this type of ad, compared to standard PPC search results ads. You might want to do your own testing to validate that claim for yourself.

There are two ways to approach contextual advertising: as a publisher, and as an advertiser.

Website publishers can earn extra money by displaying ads and enhancing their content. This is not a bad way to earn extra income that might just pay for your web hosting bills, and then some.

Advertisers may find that context ads provide yet another means of attracting targeted traffic. You only pay for click thrus, not exposure. Make sure your ads are narrowly focused, i.e., they should only deal with one topic. You can also "pre qualify" prospects by using whats called "negative qualifiers" in your ads description. Some examples are "For men over 35," or "For Career Women." This helps to insure that only your target market will click and not those for whom your product or service may not be suitable.

If youve been doing Pay Per Click advertising with Google and Overture, make sure you havent been participating already in context ads. Many times your ads will be shown on their context networks as the default when registering, and its up to you to opt out. You should always manage your context ads separately from your search to see which is working best.

Google and Overture are the "Kings of PPC" and both offer contextual advertising, but there are many other smaller companies to take a look at. Whether youre a publisher with web pages to fill or an advertiser looking for more exposure, theres something for everyone here.

1 Kanoodle: Calling their contextual ad program "BrightAds," small to medium sized publishers may display Kanoodle ads on their sites.

BrightAds are more relevant to your sites content due to the fact that they map ads by topics instead of keywords. Its easy to sign up and Kanoodle offers a variety of ad formats to choose from and also offers PayPal as an option for your monthly commission checks.

To join go to http://www.Kanoodle.com/about/brightads.cool

Their program for advertisers is called "ContextTarget." Your ads are placed adjacent to editorial content of sites such as MSNBC, CBS, Market Watch, USA Today, and AutoBytel.com. You select the topics that best describe the products and services you sell, set up your ads, and set bid amounts. The minimum bid price is $.20 but runs up to $2.10, depending on market demand for the types of pages you wish to be displayed on.

For more, see: http://tinyurl.com/4c8ff

2 Overture: Their advertiser program is called "Content Match." Your ads will appear on pages of their partner sites, such as Yahoo, MSN.com, CNN.com and ESPN.com. Overture makes it easy to keep your context bids separated from your PPC Search Engine ads. This makes it easy to track your return on investment from both types.

$20.00 minimum monthly spend and $.10 per click is the minimum bid. Find out more at: http://www.overture.com/d/USm/ays/cm.jhtml

3 Google: The program for advertisers is called AdWords, while the one for publishers is called AdSense.

Publishers must first get accepted and approved into the program and are paid when they reach $100.00 in click thrus. You may choose to display only text ads or image ads as well. For more, see http://tinyurl.com/6e3uh

With Adwords, your ads will appear on their network of high quality partner sites which are all Adsense users, including N.Y Times Digital, Village, Weather.com, Primedia,, CNET and others. Text ads are also shown inside emails of Googles new Gmail account users. Google allows you to opt into contextual ads and keep them separated from your search results so you can view reports for each individually.

Context ads are displayed two to four on a page. You can set the daily amount you want to spend and your credit card will be charged monthly according to your wishes. If youre using Adwords now but dont know if youre being displayed in the "context ads," youll need to log into your control panel to see if you have that option selected. See

https://www.adwords.google.com/select/

4 BannerBoxes: Sign up as an advertiser or a publisher. Publishers must be accepted into the program to display ads and are paid 75% of the click thru price from the ads. Choose keywords that match your websites content, then copy and paste some JavaScript code onto your page.

Several ad formats are available, such as 468x60, 728x90 and others. Very similar to Adsense in formats that are available. Advertisers pay $25.00 to open an account and pay a flat cost per click, which means no bullying for position, as with some of the other Pay Per Clicks out there. You select the sites you want your ads to be displayed upon.

For Publisher info, see: http://www.bannerboxes.com/common/partners.cfm

For Advertisers info, see: http://www.bannerboxes.com/common/advertisers.cfm

5 Clicksor: Serving over 200 million impressions every month and partnering with over 10,000 specialized websites. As an advertiser you can run text or graphic ads that only appear on sites that best match your keyphrases. The higher you bid, the the higher placement your ad receives. For more, see: http://tinyurl.com/4yflt

For publishers, Clicksor pays you 60% of the advertisers clicks that your site generates. You must earn over $50.00 to be paid for the month or your earnings will rollover to the next. Free to join:

http://www.clicksor.com/PPC_affiliate_program.php

6 Bidvertiser: Publishers can join free to display text ads on their websites. You can customize the look of all ads you display and block any unwanted ones. You must earn a minimum of $10.00 in a month to be paid by PayPal or $25.00 minimum to be cut a check. For more information, see: http://tinyurl.com/4g23d

Advertisers can choose the sites to run their ads on and only pay for click thrus. You set a cap on how much youd like to spend daily, weekly, or monthly. Your bids are automatically adjusted so you only pay 1 cent more than your competition. No minimum monthly spend at this time. Advertisers find out more by visiting:

http://tinyurl.com/6w46m

7 RevenuePilot: Publishers can fill out an online application to be approved to display RevenuePilots ads. They do favor original content type of sites. Advertisers are paid 60% of each search terms bidded value. To be paid for the month, youll have to have earned a minimum of $25.00. You can sign up here: https://secure.revenuepilot.com/signup.jsp

Advertisers must apply to have their ads displayed across the network. Go to: http://www.revenuepilot.com/advertising.html

8 BidClix: If youre a publisher, youll find BidClix has strict guidelines for joining their network. Your website needs to be approved first, then youll be sent some HTML code to add to your pages. The types of ads served are skyscrapers, banners or pop unders. For more, see:

http://www.bidclix.com/PubTop.html

With over 30 million ads served per day, advertisers are sure to find targeted websites to run their ads. Advertisers can open an account for only $25.00 You select the "channels," such as entertainment, news, health, etc., that you want to bid on and pay as little as five cents per click. For more, see: http://www.bidclix.com/AdvTop.html

9 FindWhat: Targeting small to mid-sized businesses, Findwhat calls their program "AdRevenue Xpress," and uses category or keyword targeting for distributing their ads. At this time, this program is only available to existing FindWhat advertisers. Go to: http://www.findwhat.com/content/advertiser/index.asp

Publishers who want to display ads on their pages can choose between a search box that returns ads from Findwhat, or display text ads directly on their sites. You earn a portion of all click thrus and Findwhat offers a 10% reward bonus to publishers who also reinvest their share of what they earn back into their own Findwhat Advertising Account. For more, see their site: http://FindWhat.com

10 SearchFeed: This is a private label feed program. Webmasters can display relevant information and earn extra cash at the same time. Real time reports, publishers earn from 35 to 50% of all click revenue. For more, see

http://tinyurl.com/62g95

Advertisers can open an account for only $25.00. Find out more at: http://tinyurl.com/664ly

11 ContextAd: Serving up contextual ads with high precision. Publishers can choose from a variety of ad units and also have access to their very own dedicated account manager.

Publishers need to be approved before they can display their ads on their sites. Then its a simple matter of adding some cut and paste code onto your website pages. You can also review and ban ads that you dont want shown on your pages. Advertisers and publishers can find out more at

http://www.contextad.com/

12 Quigo: Calling their program "The AdSonar Exchange," at this time they only accept publishers and advertisers that cater to the Health, Beauty & Fitness, Travel and Educational Fields. This ad network includes over 200 sites, including USAToday and NYPost.com

For advertisers, Adsonar reads your ads landing page and offers choices for placement. You bid on topics, and keyword discovery is handled by Quigo.com. Then you set the price you want to pay per click. Advertisers and Publishers can find out more or apply at:

http://www.quigo.com/adsonarexchange.htm

Whether youre a publisher who wants to add content to your pages and earn some extra income at the same time, or an advertiser looking to get more exposure for your website, youre sure to find it here. So take some time and select one or even two programs that will work best for your site and increase your bottom line as well.

About The Author

Merle of WebSiteTrafficPlan.com offering a F-R-E-E ebook and an e-course that will teach you how to promote and market your website. Grab your copy now by going to http://WebSiteTrafficPlan.com.

Well this has been a busy day. I am truly fatigued. So I may cut my writings today short, but not cheap. We set a sales record today and entered more new printing orders than any other day since our inception in 1989. Today was a banner day…great.

What I want to write about today was advertising… When should I advertise How should I advertise How much of a budget should I allow

These are the three BASIC questions each business needs to answer before listing in any advertising campaign, online or offline. I will address each of these points very briefly in a matter of opinion.

When should I advertise When you’re busy. Many businesses make the mistake of advertising when they are not busy. This will often lead to the ‘feast or famine’ result. The time to advertise is always. If you need to start somewhere advertise when you are busy and watch the peeks and valleys level out.

How often should I advertise Repetition is good, it helps create brand awareness. Find the venue that works best for you and stick with it. Keep flow charts running so you can calculate return. Advertising, done properly doesn’t cost…it pays.

How much of a budget should I allow This answer usually comes from your business plan. Work your plan and plan your work. If you come in under budget and achieved or exceed projected results put the funds into growth of your business.

Here are a few free tips that may help you:

Tip 1

Do me a favor. The next time you are shopping at your local Wal-Mart, Home Depot or Tops, create a third eye for ADVERTISING. Walk the isles you would normally walk and buy the items you would normally buy. At the same time, keep your third eye opened. You will begin to recognize some common factors. Signage colors, placement of merchandise, free sample booths or aroma of baked goods. Allow these corporate giants to show you some advertising psychology that has proven success and apply these concepts in your world.

Helpful Links

Psychology of color- http://www.weprintcolor.com/moodofcolour.htm

What do you see http://www.cs.toronto.edu/%7Emoraes/illusion.html

How does color affect your mood http://www.weprintcolor.com/usingcolour2.htm

Tip 2

If you are an online business, exposure to search engines is becoming increasing difficult. Search engines are where most websites receive visitors from. Once your website is completed and ready for business submit it to search engines, guides and directories. Especially the more prominent ones such as Google, Yahoo, MSN. You may even want to consider a paid listing at Yahoo. Google offers AdWords and AdSense, great programs. AdSense offers you revenue opportunities fir running text ads on your site. Every time the ads get clicked Google will pay you. On the other side there is AdWords. AdWords offer you an opportunity to advertise your product offerings in the text ads that appear on there search pages. In both cases all you need to do is apply:

AdWords- https://adwords.google.com/select/

AdSense- https://www.google.com/adsense/

How to make money with AdSense- http://www.createonlinebusiness.com/adsense_index.html

Tip 3

Design and print quality marketing material. So many businesses try to cut costs in the wrong areas, when it comes down to your image don’t cheap out. Also do not forget to print your website address all of your company’s printing and marketing material. It would surprise you the amount of times I see this being overlooked. Keep all of your expensive, high quality printing brief in content and more about image. Why, you might ask Unfortunately, in my business I have seen my share of wasted printed matter because someone didn’t proof read the properly, product information changed or prices changed. Display all of this information on your website, changes are far easier and cheaper to implement.

Helpful links:

Full Color Business Cards with Free Coating- http://www.weprintcolor.com/

The importance of Logo Branding- http://www.designlogos.net/

Download Business Templates- http://www.cardtemplates.com/

Well that’s about it for me today, I’m on my way to Walmart.

About The Author

Robert is the marketing director of a leading online printing and design firm http://www.weprintcolor.com. Robert believes in an educated customer and has created a personal blog, online to help achieve this goal. Learn commercial printing and design tips from the pros http://www.weprintcolors.com.

So youve decided that maybe, just maybe, the rat race isnt for you. So what are your alternatives I suppose you could quit society, move to a remote area and live off the land. But Im going to go ahead and assume thats not an option. What is an option is starting your own home based business.

Millions of people around the world are already discovering the financial and time freedom that comes with owning a home business. Easier said than done, you say! Of course it is! Everything is easier said than done, but that doesnt mean you shouldnt try.

The fact is, although owning a business have its difficulties and stresses, mainly due to the fact that you are in charge of everything and that is something most individuals arent used to.

Three KEY advantages to own a business

1. Financial - On an average, home business owners earn over $50,000 per year, with 20% making over $75,000 per year. The average yearly take home for the average American worker is approxiamately $27,000. As a home business owner, you could easily earn $13,000 over the national average. And thats just the beginning. Those who run their home business wisely can multiply the average sum by whatever they want.

2. Lifestyle - Most people cant even imagine what it would be like to own their own business. For those who have resigned themselves to the rat race, its difficult to comprehend the idea that they could design their own schedule, make more money from using their talents, and have the freedom to live life the way it was meant to be lived. But guess what...IT IS!

3. Practicality - When you think about slaving away for forty years to make someone else rich, the whole idea seems preposterous. How the majority of Americans let themselves be talked into this collective masochism is a mystery.What makes sense is for you to work from home, where you can be with your family, and spend every minute of your work time making money for yourself, not some faceless stranger. This is not a risky choice but it is the only practical choice.

Many people who are now making a substantial living with their home business started with a small venture in their spare time. These part time ventures often create a gateway to a complete career and lifestyle change. When you discover that you can actually make more money with a part time home business, working for someone else absolutely makes no sense!

Dare to start your own profit pulling business Do you have the courage to create "Financial Security" The time has come to step up and take CONTROL of your life!

This is an article from *Getting rich selling information through classified ads* by Carael Knight. For more information, visit http://www.majorenterprise.net

About The Author

Carael Knight I started Major Enterprise about 5 years ago with a plan and today I help people "build a dream!".

majorenterprise@hotmail.com

Advertising is the life blood of any business, no matter how big or how small. No advertising usually means no business. Large companies have an almost unlimited source of advertising dollars. Small business owners on the other hand, are limited in the amount of money they have for advertising. So, the problem is how to make ones advertising dollar get the most bang for the buck. Its not enough to advertise. Your advertising must be effective. So, once you have a website or an ad to advertise, check out the following ways to advertise for little or no cost.

1. Advertising coop- Many businesses, especially work at home businesses, offer advertising coops. They will send people to your business for a fee. Usually the fee is relatively small. This is nice because you already know that these people have at least some interest in your business. Although they may not spend a penny with you, you at least get the exposure.

2. Website-The age of the internet has expanded the possibility of owning your own business to an almost unlimited number of people. It also has expanded the advertising audience to a tremendous amount of new people, world wide, who otherwise you would never have been able to reach. Although websites will cost you to get hosted, you can advertise it many ways for free. Things like link exchanges and article submissions allow you to get exposure to your website with no cost except for you time. And as we will see in a moment, your website can be advertised many other ways for free. The advantage of a website is that it centralizes all your business and products into one central location. It gives you somewhere to send people so that you dont have to do as much selling because you let your website do the selling for you.

3. Answering Machine-Change the message on your answering machine to reflect the fact that you are now in business for yourself. You could say something like," Hello. You have reached the home office of John Doe of My Business.com….." That way when you call that person back, they may ask you about your business and thus the door is open to discussing your business.

4. Put a sign in your front yard or in the yard of a friend or relative with your name and website address on it. This is a good way for your neighbors to find out about your new business as well as any people that ride by your house.

5. Place a magnetic sign or bumper sticker on your car. Now, when you are riding down the road, sitting at a stop sign, or leaving your car parked at the mall or grocery store, you are getting free advertising.

6. Wear your ad-Place your website on a sweatshirt, tee-shirt, or a hat. So, when you are out in public, people will see you ad and again it will open up the door to discussing your new business.

7. Flyers-There are many places that will allow you to place a flyer about your business. Businesses like grocery stores, libraries, laundromats, hair salons and others will let you place a free ad on their public bulletin board.

8. Business cards-Dont leave home without them. You never now when the chance to hand one out will happen. You may see an old friend, meet someone looking to get out of the 9-5 rut or who is in need of a new opportunity.

9. Free Classifieds-Use the internet and the many free classified ads on it to advertise your business. A search using "free classifieds" will give you an almost limitless number of places to submit your website and ad.

10.Ezines or electronic magazines are also a good place to advertise your business. Some charge a fee for placing your ad in the best location, some let you advertise for free. Again a web search will allow you find numerous ezines to place you ad in.

11.Place your web address in your e-mail signature.

12.Place a flyer or business card in your out going mail.

13.Word of Mouth-The least expensive form of advertising and maybe the most effective way to advertise your business is word of mouth. Simply tell those you come in contact with that you are in business for yourself. They will tell others and they will tell others and it can go on and on. Sooner or later someone will take a look at what you are doing.

Obviously, there are many more ways to advertise your business for little or no money. The point is you dont have to have the big bucks to successfully advertise you business or product. There are many people who have started and become extremely successful in their business on a shoe string advertising budget. There is hope for the small business owner. All you need is a website or add, a little creativity, a little time, and you too can advertise your way to success without going to the poor house.

About The Author

Donnie Baird has been involved with work at home businesses for 4 years and is the webmaster/owner of http://internet-work-at-home-opportunity.com. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and two children.

A successful marketing campaign needs certain elements to be successful. The following information will help you to develop a successful marketing campaign.

1 Establish a feeling of urgency for the buyer. Basically tell your customers, "You need to sign up today because it will make you reach your goals." Dont tell your customer the offer will still be as good tomorrow; they must buy today! Urgency! Study how successful ads make the customer act now. Remember the X10 Spy Cam advertising campaign They always had their website set up with a deadline for a special deal. Something like that is easy to program and will eventually urge the customer to sign up today. Dont over do it - use this tactic for a week - then switch to something else. Rotate these marketing tools. Start looking more closely at the marketing vehicles email, letters, postcards, you receive yourself every day, and youll begin to see that effective marketing always gives you a reason to act now.

2 Show a list of benefits if the customer signs up with you. There must be a list of benefits to make him sign up. Will you be smarter using your services Will he get more visitors Will your server be better than the competitions hardware Will your business help to make the site more successful Or make him richer, or healthier, or faster Focus on the client, not the advertiser. Most benefits need to be skillfully integrated into the ad. It is a waste of time and money in an ad or on your website if you dont work in benefits and present them properly.

3 Call to Action: Tell them what they must do to get it. Dont assume that your prospects and customers will figure out how to get what you are offering. They wont do your work for you. So, go ahead and tell them what to do. If they have to call you to get it, then tell them to call to call you now!. If they have to write or drop a post card in the mail, or fax something to you, then tell them clearly and in words easy to understand. The point is to make it as easy as possible for your target customer to do what you want them to do. People dont like to do anything that is going to take work on their part. Make it as easy for them to respond as possible, or they wont = no good results for you.

3a Do it again: You have to must tell customer what to do to sign up with you. Tell your customer to order now this moment. So many ads assume that the customer will guess to fill out the contact us form, email you, or telephone for the information, or product. Tell the customer what to do. Provide the customer on how to respond today in several ways. As more options you can offer, the better will be the results.

4 Plan your advertising calendar and campaign several months in advance. Failure to plan advertising in advance will waste a lot of your money. Rush charges, poor design, rate increases, poor creative and poor copy are common results of failing to plan in advance. “I didn’t have enough time”, “I was under the gun to get this placed”, are common phrases heard under rushed circumstances. Take a blank calendar and fill in the days, months, or quarters to advertise to your target markets. Figure out the number of ad insertions that will make sense and negotiate a contract with the various media suppliers e.g. local newspapers. Book banner web space on the important website early in advance. Prepare your website with a special landing page for the expected visitors.

5 Test your banners and your ads. Only by trial and error will you be able to set a baseline as to the best response rates for your ads and banners. It is very important to maximize response for the amount of dollars spent. Sometimes re-phrasing text or adjusting the ad layout can make the difference between a low or just average response and a great success and high ROI Return on Investment. You will need to find out what works best for your business. After you find this out, you’ll want to stay on course and base future advertising campaigns on the success of the old one.

6 Avoid misleading or dishonest advertising in hopes of converting duped readers/website visitors into using your products or services. Honesty and integrity are the primary key to repeat sales and repeat business. If you have to trick your audience to get their attention, you will have a very hard time keeping their attention and their business if they sign up at all.

7 Running On-WebSite Events. Running events on your website is an excellent way to encourage repeat traffic and repeat visitors. Youll want to begin running events once traffic from your site launch begins to fade. Examples include contests, games, on-line interviews, chat sessions and maybe even audio broadcasts. Do the things your competitors dont do.

This article can be published by anyone as long as a live back link to http://www.webhostingresourcekit.com is provided from the authors resource box. this note can be removed as long as a link from the authors resource box is provided

About The Author

Christoph Puetz is a successful small business owner Net Services USA LLC and international author.

Guides, Tutorials, and Articles for small businesses - http://www.webhostingresourcekit.com

Most small businesses will not even try to advertise on television. It’s too expensive and the audience is too broad. The ads on television are not targeted enough. Think back to the last time your entire family was gathered around a television set. It was fun family time, but think of how different each member of your family is. The children at different ages want different things. The parents depending on their age and occupations could be concerned with wildly differing issues. Was there a grandparent or aunt or uncle there too Each person has entirely different attitude and interests, yet the commercial was tailored for only one person out of that group. The message is wasted on the rest of the family who don’t care about the product or the problem it solves.

There are ways that a small business and even a home based business can get on television and get their message to the market they are after. First of all, know your client. Know everything you can about who you are selling to. If you think your product is for everyone, this article will not help you. If you know everything about your target market, you will know where to find them. Where they hang out, what they read, eat, wear and watch. Who influences them, who angers then, who inspires them, who informs them. That where you want to be also. On television, check out the shows and cable channels that speak to your audience. For my show, The Wright Place TV Show, Lifetime, O network and WE channel are where a lot of my viewers will also be.

Copyright 2005 - Dr. Letitia Wright, D.C.

About The Author

Dr. Wright is a Stevie Award Finalist for 2004 and the host of The Wright Place ™ TV Show seen in 5 million homes in Southern California and on the internet at www.wrightplacetv.com. Get Your Free Special Report: 19 Secrets To Effective Television Advertising That Cable Companies Dont Want You To Know by emailing info1080-91878@autocontactor.com

info@wrightplacetv.com

If you havent made many sales or perhaps none at all, dont be discouraged. Use this 10-point checklist to breathe new life into your advertising campaigns and improve your response rate.

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Remind people they are ordering through a secure server. Tell them you wont sell or share their e-mail address and that all their information will be kept confidential.

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Your advertisement should outline benefits and not just features. In addition, your ads headline should attract your target audience. You should also list testimonials or guarantees.

Here are two free resources you can use to learn how to write effective ads and headlines.

5,000 Hypnotic Words and Phrases http://www.incomewaterway.com/free-book

Copywriting E-Course http://www.red-hot-copy.com/downloads.htm

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People usually dont purchase the first time they visit. The more times they visit your site, the greater the chance they will buy. The most effective way to get people to return to your site is to give them a free subscription to your e-zine. You can accomplish this by posting a sign up form or guestbook on your website. You could also list free and low cost resources on your website and update them regularly. Ask visitors to bookmark your site and visit again and again to discover newly added items.

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People will feel more comfortable if they know who they are buying from. Publish a section called "About Us" or "About Me" if youre a sole proprietor on your web site. Include your business history, profile of employees, contact information etc. Heres an example of my own "About Me" page.

http://www.incomewaterway.com/aboutme

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Accept credit cards, checks, money orders, and other forms of electronic payments such as PayPal, ClickBank, etc. Take orders by phone, e-mail, website, fax, mail, etc.

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You need your own domain. To find if a name is already taken and to register your own domain name go here: http://www.godaddy.com

Make sure your website is easy to navigate through. If you site has dozens of pages, consider including a site map.

Websites are most effective when the material all relates to one theme including the graphics.

Heres where you can find out how to download a free ebook that will help you design effective web pages:

webpages@frogleads.info

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When you use free stuff to lure people to your website include it below your ad copy or on another web page. If you list the freebie above your ad they may never look to see what youre selling.

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You wont sell steaks to a vegetarian. You want visitors that are interested specifically in what you offer. Consider surveying your existing customers to see what made them decide to buy from you. This information will help you improve your target marketing and advertising.

If you dont yet have a customer base, use ezine advertising to begin building one. Find ezines that cater to an audience interested in your marketing area. For instance, if your product relates to humor find publishers that distribute humor ezines. Heres one of the fastest ways to find the right ezines.

http://www.incomewaterway.com/ezines

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Every experienced marketer knows you must work at constantly improving various aspects of your business...especially your ad copy since its the lifeblood of your business. This is how you get the word out. So, you must be willing to try different headlines and revise ad copy if necessary.

Use an ad tracker for your advertising campaigns to measure how many clickthroughs you receive for a particular ad.

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Many people are interested in your product but they put off buying it till later and eventually forget about it. Entice them to buy now with a freebie or discount and include a deadline date when the offer ends.

If your business is at a standstill, it doesnt have to be. Use these 10 techniques to breathe new life into your marketing efforts.

About The Author

Karin Peavy has marketed online for three years. Her goal is to help others zero in on exactly whats needed for web success. In response to this goal she created http://www.incomewaterway.com, home to some of the webs best marketing resources including free articles and ecourses. Karin also publishes a free weekly e-newsletter that provides product reviews, income opportunities and marketing tips. Free gift with every subscription: http://www.incomewaterway.com/FreeTips.

You may use this article in your electronic publication or on your website as long as you do not alter the article in any way. You must also include my bio in its entirety.

karinpeavy@incomewaterway.com

When you are starting out in a new home business and no one knows who you are, one of the greatest challenges you will face is how to drum up new business.

If there were not people in your community or marketplace that you knew who needed your products or services, you probably would not have started your business to begin with. But, once you have talked to those who you personally knew who needed your what you offer, then your next task is to find others who will help keep your doors open.

Many people know that they must turn to advertising at some point in the future, but they hope that day will be long down the road. For some, this utopian concept will come to fruition. But for the rest of us in the real world, we must come up with creative solutions for meeting our home business advertising needs while working within our budget.

Most people have a misconception about having to spend lots of money in order to advertise their home business. When you start out, you honestly will not have much money available for advertising, and if you do, you should still spend it wisely.

Before you jump headfirst into the world of advertising, let me share some of the lessons I have learned concerning this most important topic.

LESSON #1

It does not have to cost an arm and a leg to advertise your home business, unless you fail to plan and fail to test.

As much as is possible, you should always test your advertising. If you jump in and start dumping tons of money in to advertising without first testing your advertising, you might find yourself broke and without sales at the end of the road. Most people who commit this error write off their failure on the home business they chose or the economy or any of a hundred other excuses. But, if they are unwilling to take responsibility for their mistake, they will never learn from their mistake. Dont let this be you.

LESSON #2

All testing should be done in blocks. If you begin to advertise simultaneously in newspapers, radio and television, how will you know which advertising is bringing people to your cash register You wont. All you will know that something might be working, but you will not know what is actually doing the trick.

Even if you tell people in your advertising to tell you how they found you, my experience shows that fewer than 10% of the people ever will tell you anything --- and those people who do may not even get the facts straight! You cannot rely on your customers to tell you what advertising is working for your home business. You must put in the extra effort to know for yourself.

LESSON #3

Only when you have a proven and solid advertising portfolio should you venture to drop big bucks in an advertising campaign. Even then, you should be careful to keep further measurements to determine how much the maximum advantage of an ad would be. Sometimes you might be able to reach ten times as many people, but depending on the kind of media and other factors, the additional exposure will only generate twice as many sales. Keep your eye attuned to situations like this to get the most from your advertising dollars.

LESSON #4

As Lesson #3 illustrates, sometimes your best advertising investment may actually cost you less money. When you are first starting out, whether you are running a home business or a business outside of your home, you need to be able to get people talking and thinking about your business.

If you are busy testing ads in medias such as the newspaper, magazines, radio, and television, you need to learn ways of promoting your business that do not require large cash expenditures. A few examples are: Word of Mouth Business Cards Press Releases Non-Primetime Ads on Radio and Television

Here is more information about each type of low-cost advertising:

WORD OF MOUTH

This of course is the cheapest kind of advertising on the planet --- it does not cost you anything. Ask your customers if they know anyone who could also use your products or services. When they are happy with your offerings and service, they will be willing to tell you whom you can contact, and they will pass the word for you.

BUSINESS CARDS

You can usually pick up 500 business cards for about $20. When you do, hand them out. Do not give more than a couple of cards to each person. If they need more cards from you, they will ask.

Some people are known to network with others on a regular basis. Some of these people are also known to be always looking for an extra few bucks. With these people, you can suggest to them that if they write their name on the back of one of your business cards and the card is presented to you, then you will pay a referral fee to them. You do not have to offer much --- sometimes one dollar is enough. Look at your home business and your offerings and decide how much would be a good referral fee.

PRESS RELEASES

Press Releases are a good source for generating news about your home business. The business editor at your local newspaper is always on the lookout for a good business story to fill the business news section of the newspaper.

Of course, the business editor understands the economics of running a paper and is more inclined to run your story if you buy advertising in his/her publication, but will still print stories for special events and openings.

The important thing to remember about Press Releases is that it must be constructed in the form of a news story. Even if you are a sole proprietorship, quotes from you should be written in a third person format: John Doe said, "Your quote here."

A Press Release should pack the most important information at the beginning of the copy, and leave extra details towards the end.

You should always provide the reporter who gets the task a simple and easy way for him/her to contact you directly. Often the reporter will want to contact you to get details that will enhance their take on your story.

To learn more about creating Press Releases, you may check out Rusty Cawleys site: http://www.PRrainmaker.com/

NON-PRIMETIME ADS ON RADIO AND TELEVISION

Believe it or not, some of the best rates for radio and television are on the overnight and non-primetime venues. These target times are not a total waste as they can easily keep the infomercial people in business.

These off-hours are just less populated than the primetime hours.

Dont be afraid to check your local radio and television rates for non-primetime hours to see what bargains may exist. With television, primetime is 7pm to 10pm. With radio, primetime is 8am to 5pm. This sure leaves a whole lot of hours available to advertise your home business at discount rates!

IN CONCLUSION

When it comes down to it, there is a lot to understand about advertising, but when you have the basic knowledge down pat, everything will fall into place and bring more dollars to your bank account.

Copyright 2004 Stone Evans

About The Author

Stone Evans Will Personally Build A Money Making Website Just For You Thats 100% Ready To Take Orders And Pull In Massive Residual Profits. Get Details And Signup Today At: http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com

You’re flipping through this publication as you wait for your latte, when suddenly you decide to stop and read an ad. What made you stop I’ll bet it was an attention grabbing headline.

It is a scientifically proven fact that 5 times as many people read headlines as read the body copy of an ad. So with the headline, an advertiser has spent about 80% of their advertising dollar. It doesn’t take a genius to realize then the headline is the most important part of any ad.

Yet, most small business advertising is wasted for lack of an effective headline or, worse yet, no headline at all. Don’t make this same mistake.

The headline is the first thing that your reader or prospect sees when they open your letter, browse a magazine, or flip your postcard. In that moment, about 3 seconds your reader decides whether or not to read any farther.

So first and foremost, any advertisement you produce must have a headline and your headline must grab your readers attention immediately. If you dont grab them by the throat and hold them right away, you never will.

Writing powerful headlines takes some hard work but it can be done if you follow some simple guidelines.

1. Your headline should give the reader a reason to stop and read now instead of later – a carefully chosen word or two can create urgency

2. Your headline should communicate something the reader considers valuable – they need to be able to justify the time spent reader your ad

3. Your headline should scream how you might offer something that is unique or at least interesting

4. Your headline should point to something very specific for the reader – use facts and how to’s

Using these points as a guide to create your headlines allows you to create headlines that hook your reader quickly, offers them a benefit they want, and gives them a reason to read on.

Never use boring, conventional or overused statements and never use a headline to trick your reader into looking on.

Attention Getting Power Words for Your Headlines

Look at powerful headlines and you will see that many contain one or more of the following words that sell.

Discover Easy Free New Proven Save Results Introducing

At Last Guarantee Bargain Easy Quick Sale Why How To

Just Arrived Now Announcing

Start of by writing some headlines that clearly communicate your promise, benefit or USP. Then look for ways to make them even more powerful by adding a power word or two and checking if they contain at least 3 of the guidelines provided above.

Copyright 2004 John Jantsch

About The Author

John Jantsch is a marketing coach and creator of the Duct Tape Marketing System. You can get more information about the Duct Tape System and download your free copy of “How To Create the Ultimate Small Business Marketing System in 7 Simple Steps” by visiting http://www.DuctTapeMarketing.com

From early on in my online career I realised that the fastest way to internet riches was to find a marketing concept that brought me profits and plough as much as I could into that resource, thus building my business and capital as I went.

For those just beginning in home business marketing it would be prudent to start off with a very small investment I started with around $30 and try to build from there. It would like to report that I was very wise after the first investment but the truth is that the illusion of easily gotten riches lured me into a spree of buying virtually every item of software/marketing resource that I happened to feast my eyes upon.

Needless to say this is not the best way to go about building a successful online career but the experience and benefits I got from this initial burst of enthusiasm, in how not to go about targeted advertising, far outweighed the financial losses. I have spent money on most of what the web has to offer in terms of marketing and can now enlighten you on what to buy and what not to touch with a 12 ft barge pole.

FFAs or Free For All link pages were once a useful free resource and could have provided at least a few hits per day given the right ad. Today using the free version of these pages is all but useless and in my humble opinion a total waste of time. The vast majority of people submitting to these sites today are using automated submission software so human eyes WILL never see your ad and as far as I know Automatons Robots to some people DO NOT buy products;-

Paid or free safelists from my experience are just not worth the effort involved. The very fact that everyone posting to a safelist is not interested in the subject matter but in selling their own products gives us some idea on the ineffectiveness of this method. Couple this with the time spent sorting through emails mostly for deletion you really could spend your time in more worthwhile marketing ventures.

Moving up the ladder of effectiveness we have banner advertising. From my experience the best banner I was able to design brought me in a maximum of 2.8% click through rate and from what I hear this is a GREAT %. Most banners will only pull a 1% CTR. If you can find a company selling banner advertising cheap enough to bring you into the profit zone then certainly give it a bash. Please remember though to track all your banner ads otherwise you will not know whether you are getting massive click throughs or none at all.

If you are going to post to classified sites then opt for the free version. There is some good classified submission software out there and may be worth the investment. Again ALWAYS TRACK YOUR ADS. For free classifieds visit: http://www.workathomebiz.info/adlandpro.html

Renting an email list is a good option and can bring you many hits to your product or affiliate site. Make sure that the list is optin only, meaning the people have requested to see your ad. There are many good reputable companies out there and if you are willing to pay sometimes high fees to rent a list, this can be a profitable venture.

Search engine submission is definitely a worthwhile project and considering a good listing will bring you daily and continuing free traffic I suggest you spend a bit of time perfecting this method. I use Web Position Gold software to automate my submissions and prepare my pages for submission. This cuts down in hours of work and I would certainly recommend any budding business owners to get a copy. To learn more about Webposition Gold visit this link: http://www.webpositiongolddownloads.com

I have also paid for a listing to Yahoos directory. At $299 per year this may sound very expensive to some but the traffic I have gotten from this listing paid for the submission within a short period of time.

Pay per click advertising is another good advertising resource to drive TARGETED traffic to your site. First figure out how much you can afford to pay per visitor to your site. For instance if you make a sale every 100 visitors and your product costs $20 then if you paid 20 cents per visitor you would break even. The reality is of course that you can get visitors for much less than 20 cents and I have many keyword phrases that will send visitors to my site for 1 cent each. If you can find a few good keyword phrases at a profitable price then you will do well. Two good PPCSEs to start with and that I use are Overture.com and Findwhat.com.

Ezine advertising is by far the best form of advertising and more importantly is reasonably priced. From my own experience a solo or top spot ad are the most effective and will return more visitors for the price. For a good list of ezines visit: http://www.directoryofezines.com/

A word of WARNING before closing this article: If you want to keep your business and your reputation intact then NEVER EVER use bulk email advertising. It just isnt worth the risk. The hassle that you will get from sending out unsolicited email to 1000s of untargeted prospects will bring your business down in the long run. There are enough forms of advertising listed here to keep you going for a long time. Dont waste your time on unproductive and senseless SPAMMING.

I wish you all the best in your efforts:-

Copyright 2004 Mal Keenan

About The Author

Mal Keenan is editor and publisher of Home Business Tips Newsletter: http://www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com/

For a comprehensive leads package and followup system in one visit here: http://www.homebusinessnetworking.com

For A Home Business You Can Believe In: http://www.eliteteamireland.com/

There are lots of ways to advertise for free but they are time consuming so I guess technically, they are not free because your time is worth something! But if you have the time and not the money this is for you.

I posed the question of “free advertising” to a few forums and they all can back the same, but with new links to check out. It’s basically what I already knew, but it’s nice to try and find new ways of doing things.

For this article that has helpful links in it, Please go to my Website and click on Free Advertising.

Link Popularity:

This is the most important thing and in doing any or all of the below things, you will gain link popularity. Links to your Website, wither you link back or not, gets you ranked good with search engines the best free advertising of all and you will get visitors from other sites that are “targeted visitors” that are interested in what you have to offer, and that my friend is your “MAIN GOAL”

So here is what I know about free advertising and what I have recently learned in no particular order:

Articles:

Writing articles and submitting them to different Website will get you the exposure you need and also build your credibility. It’s not so difficult to do this, just give good advise on a subject you know a-lot about, hopefully it is somehow connected to the product/service you are selling on your Website. Make sure in your signature that you have your URL or a way to contact you. When you go to submit your article, they usually give you a step-by-step way to do this. You can always go to one of the site first to get an idea of what you will need to write and publish your article. You can also go to my Website and see how I have written them.You can go to Google or Yahoo and search on “Submit your article for free”.

Classified Ads:

Classified Ads are another way of getting free advertising for your business. In this you can highlight the benefits of your site and/or offer a special to get people to come to your site. These have limited space, so you need to make it short-n-sweet, and to the point to get them to your site. The key is to have a headline that sells, I can’t give you my source because I buy a program to get this kind of info., but you can do a search on Google or Yahoo for “Headlines that Sell” and it will give you some resources. If you would like to know what program I received my sources from e-mail me and I will give you the link.

Again, you can search on “Free Classified ad submission” to find places to place your ads.

Forums:

Forums are not only away for free advertising but you can also ask questions from people that have different way of looking at things or just plain have the answer to your questions. You can also answer question for other; it builds your credibility up and gets you exposure for your business. The way to find forums that relation to your Website is to do a search for “______ forums”, example: it could be video games forums, cb radios forums, Internet business forums, etc…

Press releases:

Sounds so professional, but you can do it, I have faith! A press release simply tells the World about your company and that you are ready to do business. Most sites you go to will have a temple you can go by to do this, I will be providing that soon, maybe by the time you read this. It’s pretty straightforward and anyone that can type can do this. You can do a search on “ Free Press release submission”

Link exchange:

Link exchange is a good way to get free advertising and looks good for the search engines. You can do this in a couple of ways but you need to do what is right for you! There are link exchange programs out there that are for free and some you pay for. Stay away for ones that you cannot pick and choose which sites you want to link with. Link farm are very bad for your site and can go against you with the search engines. Link farms are from companies that upload, let’s say 100 links to your site and those same links will be on all the other sites as well. It’s like a generic links pages, way not good. It defeats the purpose of links and shuts you out of search engines.

Paid vs free, Paid everything is done for you, all you have to do is accept links from other sites or go out and request a link exchange with another site with basically a touch of a button. The free link exchange you have to go out and request individual link exchanges manually. Then manually add their links to your site and there is not guarantee they will link back after doing so. It all depends on how much time you want to put into this.

Here are some links you can take a look at:

Good Luck and Please contact me if you need help or have any questions. That is what I’m here for,

Veronica Bath http://www.home-based-business-opportunities-central.com/

About The Author

My mission is to help people with their goals of becoming their own boss or just make extra money. I have been scammed big time before and want to help other avoid doing the same thing.

My Website is for this purpose, “Home Based Business Opportunities Central” at http://www.home-based-business-opportunities-central.com/!

Copyright SC Bath Enterprize - Fruita

Veronica@home-based-business-opportunities-central.com

First of all let me say that having spent the past 20 years working closely with small businesses I know exactly what works when it comes to offline advertising.

What I have found today is that online businesses have a built in advantage when it comes to promoting their business offline. You already have a website and autoresponder in place to lead your prospect to. When you combine that fact along with the traditional capture methods of telephone and snail mail there is no reason any online business cant use offline methods to build their businesses and sell their products and services.

A lot of online based businesses forget about offline advertising. I know I have. It is important to combine offline and online advertising together in your marketing campaign. This will give you to a more well rounded approach to promoting as well as attract potential prospects and customers you might not otherwise get.

In all your offline advertising you want to include your web site address, e-mail or autoresponder addresses, and your phone number and mailing address. This gives you the appearance of a real bonafide business.

Another thing is to start selling products for manufacturers who offer co-op advertising for promoting their products. You can read a little more about this technique in an article I wrote titled "Why Are You Wasting Free Advertising Money" http://sites-plus.com/articles/article2.html

Finally you need to view offline marketing as a long term committment. Ive seen businesses over and over run and ad not get the response they were looking for and quit.

This will not work offline. Or online for that matter. You need to establish a budget and stick to it. That doesnt mean that you cant change the ad copy if your response is marginal. It just means if you are going to run classified ads for example that you run them for a period of time and allow them to do their job.

Here are 10 offline marketing ideas. Use as many of these as possible to move your business forward.

Classified Newspaper Ads- Place classified ads in newspapers. Local newspapers often have great advertising rates that you can take advantage of to promote your business. Heres a great source for running classified ads. http://www.nationwideadvertising.com

Put up flyers. They could be in computer stores, libraries, restaurants, car windshields, or anywhere you shop that allows flyers.

Direct mail. A nice direct mail piece when done consistently over a period of time can bring tremendous exposure for your business. The biggest benefit of direct mail is it allows you to reach thousands of people at a bulk mail rate. You could not do this if you had to mail each piece individually.

Buy time on local cable T.V. It is surprisingly affordable and if you commit to a block of advertising you can develop Top Of Mind Awareness. TOMA is being there when they want or need you. If you are an affiliate or in an MLM consider doing group advertising and spreading the cost out over several of you. You can have leads routed into one phone number and divied out to all advertisers or have each ad display a different phone number.

Pass out your CD-ROM or diskette business cards at special events. It could be at trade shows, seminars, fairs, etc.

Get 250 free business cards here and leave them everywhere you go. http://www.vistaprint.com

Hold a free offline class and teach people how to use their computer or how to use the internet. You could have your web site on display as an example.

Give away promotional items such as free mouse pads. Put your advertising on the mouse pads and give them away at computer or internet events.

Advertise in card decks. The card deck you advertise in should be targeted toward internet users.

You would also want to target your offline advertising to groups of people that will actually be interested in your product or service. If youre selling business books, you will want to market to business owners.

In conclusion, if you have a business thats only based online using offline advertising to make money online is a great idea because so many people today go online to get information about products and services they are interested in.

Copyright 2004 Jeff Schuman

About The Author

Jeff Schuman is a 20 year veteran of sales and marketing and has made over $35 million dollars in sales in that time. His Team-Schuman.Com website contains the Top 5 work at home websites, make money fast websites, make money articles, a free classified ad service and more. Visit it here today: http://www.Team-Schuman.com

The goal of any business should be to reach the most amount of people possible with the right message at the right time and for the right reason. Many people with online companies are missing out completely when all they do is networking, search engine optimization, and some scattered direct mail to small amounts of people.

The majority of consumable dollars, by a very wide margin, are spent offline. The majority of people are spending more than 20 hours per week watching television. The majority of people also spend more than 10 hours per week listening to the radio.

Have you ever heard of companies like eBay, Travelocity, Priceline, or Monster Sure you have. You may think that the online environment is where you’ve heard about them. Sorry, you and everyone else are aware of these names due to offline advertising and marketing.

Even though your business is much smaller than these, you need to look into and take advantage of offline opportunities. It does not matter what category of business you are in…. you could be in network marketing, business services, giftware, or whatever. Your company can and should benefit from using offline surface exposure media.

Before embarking on any campaign, the business owner needs to know, understand, and specifically define the primary demographic group which comprises their customer profile. Without this, there cannot be an effective plan, which is a necessity for success. The fact is that less than 10% of all contacts a company makes will ever respond. So you could mail out your postcards to 100 select people and you’ll get, on average, less than 10 responses. So how about reaching 150,000 people each week with a radio flight Or over 400,000 people with an ad in a major daily newspaper.

Think about it. The opportunities are endless and the business potential is limitless. You need to make that commitment to grow your company. Offline advertising for online companies needs to be considered by you and all others in online business. The possibilities are there for the taking.

About The Author

c 2004 Michele Borowsky

Michele Borowsky is a 20+ year executive veteran in a Media Exposure Management firm and the author of "The Mother of All Marketing for Business Owners."

http://motherofallmarketing.com

She can be reached at 602-404-2657 or by emailing: support@motherofallmarketing.com

Learning how to convert visitors to your web site into buyers, is the single most important factor affecting the success of your online business. If you dont have paying customers, your business will fail.

FACT: 50% of Visitors are LOST because visitors cant easily find content - Gartner Group

FACT: 40% of Repeat Visitors are LOST from negative experience - Zona Research

FACT: 85% of Visitors ABANDON a new site due to poor design - cPulse

FACT: 70% of people who are ready, willing and able to buy online - dont complete the sale.

Just imagine, if you can improve your web sites conversion rate, you have the potential to increase your sales by over 233%. And you can do it without spending any more on advertising, or bringing any more traffic to your site.

Knowing how to increase your sites conversion of visitors into buyers can skyrocket your sales with the same exact amount of traffic you have now.

So how do you convert more of the visitors to your site into buyers One of the most important ways to increase your sites conversion rate is to improve your sites copy.

The purpose of the copy on your web site is to explain to a visitor how your product will fulfill their wants and desires. Notice I said wants and desires, not needs.

Its important to realize that people primarily buy based on what they want, not what they need. The first step in improving your web sites copy is to understand the wants and desires of your customers.

Next, make sure your copy is focusing on providing solutions to problems that are important to your customers. Review your copy and be sure it mainly talks about the benefits the customer will get by buying your product, and not about your product s features.

A feature is what your product does. A benefit is want your product does FOR your customer. You customer is only interested in what your product is going to do to make their life better.

Be sure that your copy focuses on your customer instead of on you and your company. Your sites copy should talk about you and your, instead of me, my and our. Your customer is interested in themself, not you or your company.

Your sales copy needs to:

1 Grab the visitors attention with a powerful headline

2 Draw the readers interest by creating a connection between their problem or desire and your solution

3 Peak their Desire by making an emotionally compelling & believable case for your product

4 Motivate the reader to take action and fulfill their wants by their purchasing your product or service.

Online or offline, conversion is the key to business success. Your copy is your sites salesperson. On the Web, improving your copy is the first step to doubling your sales without spending another dime on advertising.

About The Author

Mark Jarmel & the Editors of Trafficology.com co-authored the eBook: How to Turn Your Website Visitors into Buyers Learn scientifically PROVEN methods to TRIPLE your profits FREE at: http://www.4-targeted-web-site-traffic.com/buyers.