Marketing on a Shoestring

Most four letter words have a negative connotation but, work is not one of them. Many people are destined to fail on the internet because they are unable or unwilling to put in the work necessary to become a success. If work is a nasty word for you then you might as well go back to your job (just over broke) because building a business is far more work than doing the 9 to 5 thing.

It is unfortunate that so many sales letters promote products that say all you have to do is join our site or buy our ebook and then sit back and cash the thousands of dollars worth of checks that you will receive. All you have to do is promote your free site and the money will just start rolling in. The real shame is many people fall for this ploy because what they fail to tell you is that marketing is 90 percent of the business. In the end, the budding internet marketer becomes discouraged and it gives our business another black eye.

Sure, there are many business opportunities on the market that will automate much of the mechanical side of the process but, to be a success, you must learn everything that you can about internet marketing and then put in the work necessary to build the business. The fact that you can build an internet business with little or no financial investment is one of the great things about internet marketing. However, work is the key ingredient in building an online business. Massive action leads to massive success.

There are many great programs marketed that will give you a great head start in internet marketing success. For a nominal fee, they will provide squeeze pages, presell pages, sales pages, free ebook offers and great training on internet marketing. They will even collect your sales and then directly pay you the proceeds. The one thing that they can’t do for you is the work necessary to promote your products.

Call it promotion or call it marketing, this is where the real work comes in and if you are unwilling or unable to put in the necessary time and work, you should reconsider going back to your 9 to 5 job. It will require much less work on your part. On the other hand, if you are willing to put in the work to learn and apply internet marketing techniques, you could be the next internet millionaire. Just remember that you are creating a business not a hobby. You must treat it as a business and if done properly, you will be able to live your dream life.

In closing, take care when joining any program that promises that work is not required. If you are going to be a success, work is absolutely required and massive action leads to massive results.

If you are interested in the program that started my trip down the road to success, just click on the splash page example in the blogroll.

It is an old expression and I am sure you have heard it many times: It is always better to kill 2 birds with one stone. Actually, you can actually kill 3 or 4 birds with one stone, if you do it right.

If you are internet marketing there are a number of similar things that you are doing: article marketing, blogging, email marketing and possibly also forum marketing. It is a fairly easy step to combine all of these different methods without having to be constantly writing new entries for each of them. If you do a little preplanning, you can take care of all of them in one fell swoop.

It is really rather simple, you take your time to write a good solid content article for your article marketing and then with minor modifications, you can also use the same content in your blog and in your newsletter. The only difference is that in your blog and in your newsletter, you can add some direct advertising into your article. If fact, if your article is good then this is what you should be doing.
There is no sense in creating more work that is necessary. Internet marketing is time consuming as it is, why make it any harder on yourself?

The forums are a little bit different however. While a 300 or 400 word article may be just fine for an article, blog or email, it is simply far too much information to use as a topic in a forum.
If it will make a good topic, rewrite it so that you only hit the key salient points and not be excessively wordy. Quite simply, in forums, you are already dealing with experts in net marketing. You only need to give them the highlights, they already have the necessary backround. In the forums, a bloated post will either not get read or you could end up with some negative feedback.

Your time is limited, so, try to make the best of it.

It doesn’t matter what business opportunity you research, there are people out there who will call it a scam. I recently asked for assistance in checking out a bizop on one of the internet marketing forums and the one response that came back was like a slap in the face. The respondent basically said: Fool, if you had done a Google, you would have realized that this guy is an absolute scam and you best run for cover. Well, I had expected that it was a scam but Google is probably the last place that I would research a business opportunity.

As a test, I researched a number of respected programs with the search parameters being: program name scam. I got just what I expected. Every single program came back with scam results. When I am looking for programs to promote as an affiliate marketer, there are two things that I rely on. First, I ask for assistance in the forums and then I usually buy into the program myself so that I can make a responsible decision as to if I should promote the product.

In an overwhelming number of cases, I have found that most people call things scams because they are looking for a free lunch. What they are looking for is a program that does all of the work and all they have to do is sit back and collect the checks. OMG, if it requires work, they call it a scam. The fact of the matter is, if it promises that you won’t have to work, you can be pretty much guaranteed that it is a scam. You just don’t get something for nothing.

If you are looking to be successful internet marketer, with proper backround knowledge, massive action leads to massive success. There is no getting around it if you want success, you are going to have to work. Case closed.

By the way, if you are wondering why I trust the forums rather that Google, the forums are filled with successful professional internet marketers and you can put reasonable trust in the answers that you receive. As far as Google is concerned, every lazy wanabe that doesn’t want to put the work necessary into a program is going to end up in the search results crying his heart out about how he has been scammed.

If you want more proof, just Google the term “Google Scams”. At last count, I got back 634 thousand results. Do you really think that Google is a scam. Well, one thing is for sure, you certainly can’t tell by their search results. I know that work is a four-letter word to some people but, to be a success, that is what it is going to take. There are many good programs on the market but, to be successful, they all require work.

All of the gurus seem to come up with the same advice. Search for a keyword or set of keywords that get a specified number of hits a month and then set up your business around these keywords. This may lead to some degree of success but to be really successful, set up your niche around something that you love and you will be far more successful.

It is really simple, if you are doing something that you love, success will come. No matter what niche you settle upon, there is no niche that is so small that you can’t produce a reasonable income from it. If you really love something that means that you have spent countless hours, days or years learning everything there is to know about your passion. It could be something as common as golf or as obscure as collecting salt and pepper shakers. You have taken the time to become an expert in the field and with the countless millions of people online, there are customers out there waiting to learn from your expertise.

Yes, you are going to have to study internet marketing. Just putting up a website isn’t going to make you an overnight success. You are going to have to learn about blogging, marketing, forums, websites and more but, if you really love what you are doing, you won’t mind spending the time to make you passion into a success story.

Another area that you are going to have to research are products that are available in your market. If you don’t have something to sell, there is little chance that you will make any money. Since your niche is your passion, search for products that you would be willing to buy yourself. It could be Ebooks, hard-cover books, membership sites, physical products or if you really have the desire, you could produce your own Ebook, real book or perhaps a training course in the object of your passion.

So many people are stuck in the 9 to 5 rut that they never have time to truly fulfill their passion in life. In internet marketing, you have the chance to not only do what you love but also, love what you do and this is your key to success.

Forget about all you have heard about keyword niche marketing. Put your heart into passionate niche marketing and success will follow.

As internet marketers, we are constantly trying to improve ourselves. We subscribe to numerous lists, download Ebooks and business programs and except in very rare cases, it is usually safe to do so. I said usually, sometimes these downloads come with a little hidden surprise package and the net result could be disaster.

Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous marketers that will hide surprise packages in the form of spyware, viruses, keyloggers and other malware in what appears to be a program that you thought was intended to help you in your internet marketing campaign. You must protect yourself. While it is nice to be able to pay for the best internet protection packages, not all of us can afford to pay a small fortune for a comprehensive internet security package. There are a number of free alternatives and the ones that I am going to mention here are time proven effective programs.

Ad-Aware is no ordinary anti-spyware, it is the original anti-spyware product, offered to consumers worldwide to protect their personal and home computers from malware attacks. It is both free and effective. You can download the program at: http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

Many people swear by Spybot Search & Destroy but I have found that it does not interact well with certain other programs. As a result, I no longer recommend it nor do I use it.

Another free download is SpywareBlaster 3.5.1 It prevents the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers,
dialers, and other potentially unwanted software. It will block spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox. It will also restrict the actions of potentially unwanted sites in Internet Explorer. It may be downloaded free at: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Of course you need a good anti-virus program. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition for private and non-commercial use at:
http://www6.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/crp/2

Another suggestion, do not give out your primary email address. You can sign up for any number of free Gmail accounts at:
www.gmail.com. Although almost everyone that you deal with in the BizOp industry claims to have a solid privacy policy, My experience is that once you give out your address, you are going to receive some unwanted spam. I do not recomend Yahoo or AOL as they block spam at the server level and you may not receive information that you have actually requested.

One final note of caution. Due to federal regulations, many sites will ask for either your Social Security Number (SSN) or your federal
Employers Identification Number (EIN). It only takes a few minutes on the IRS website to apply and receive an EIN and it is far safer to give out your EIN. Allowing you SSN to be floating around on the web is just asking for identity theft. Remember that nothing is truly private on the internet. At least, if you use an EIN, some hacker in cyberspace won’t be able to steal you identity and charge up thousands of dollars in your name.

I hope that these suggestions help. Better to protect in advance than have to rebuild your entire operating system or worse yet, rebuild your credit rating after it has been destroyed..

It doesn’t matter how good an article, blog entry or email is, if it doesn’t have a great headline, it is destined for the sudden death of the dreaded delete button. Our potential readers are bombarded daily with hundreds of emails, blog entries and marketing articles. If you don’t spend the time to write a great headline, it all likelihood your words that you slaved over will never see the light of day. Your words will simply die an untimely and lonely death.

If does not matter your words are well written, contain solid content that will help your reader build his business or solve his problem. The fact is with the information overload that we all suffer, if your headline does not catch the readers interest, the article will hit the recycle bin without ever being read.

Of course, you have to write a solid content filled article to begin with but, you must spend even more time when considering what to say in your headline. Sometimes, you can write a shock headline as I did with this article. It is not often that you can do that but, you must use your headline to put a hook into reader. How will the article answer a readers questions? Will the article help build the readers business? Will the article solve some sort of problem that the reader has? If your headline answers one of these questions, then you may have found your hook and your article has a much greater chance of being read.

Just think of how you read the daily newspaper. The first thing you do is scan the headlines. If a headline catches your interest, you stop and read that article. It is no different in the online world. If a headline catches your interest, you will stop and read the rest of the article. Unfortunately, in the online world, we don’t have the luxury of an editor to build a good headline for us. You must take the time to work on the headline until you are sure that it will grab the readers attention.
30

Just in case you don’t know what 30 means, I’m an old news reporter and in the old days, 30 meant the end.

Even if you have a ton of money to pay for advertising, there are four key strategies to marketing on a shoestring that will in the long run that will build your brand and create links that will ultimately be far more effective than any paid advertising that you may do. In fact, paid advertising is typically only effective while you are using it and after the money has run out, you are back to square one. If you use these strategies, however, the effect is long lasting and provides a solid basis for a real internet business. The four strategies are:

1:List building. You have always heard that the money is in your list and this is a time proven method of business building. You will need a good opt-in page and a good autoresponder. For an opt-in page, you have several options. You can find free ones on the net just by doing a Google search, you can easily build your own or some of the better business opportunities will have a built-in opt-in page. The other thing that you need is a good autoresponder an this is one area that spending a little money will save you a ton of heartache. You can get a top of the line autoresponder for less than $20 a month and be assured that you will have a near 100% delivery rate. With the free or cheap ones, you will get what you pay for.

2.Article Marketing. The internet has a voracious appetite for fresh content. Ezines, newsletters, websites and blogs are always looking for fresh content. In article marketing, you write a simple content rich article that people can use and you will find you name being spread all over the internet. Make sure that you adhere to the article directories policies and don’t ever try to advertise in an article. If your article is interesting, the reader may click on your signature information and this is what links to your business offering. This is probably the single best method of free marketing. Not only does it build your reputation as an expert in the field but, it also produces links back to your website or blog.

3. Forum Marketing. No matter what your niche is there is a forum that is dedicated to it. It doesn’t matter if it is internet marketing or dog grooming, there is a community of like minded individuals who want to hear what you have to say. Typically, unless specifically allowed, you should not try to advertise in your posts. Let your signature do your advertising. If you can help someone answer a question and your comment is information rich, they will click on your signature for more information about you. There is a land-mine to watch out for. If your comment is not valid, contains misinformation or is overtly commercial, you can destroy your reputation just as fast as you can build it.

4.Blogging. Not only do you want your own blog but, you also want to comment on other peoples blogs. Just remember to treat this just the same as you would Forum Marketing. On your own blog, you can, of course, directly advertise but people came to your blog for information and not simply to hear a sales pitch. Let your links do your advertising for you and make sure that your blog is content rich. If you can help your reader become successful, they will also help you to also become a success. Wordpress has recently prohibited blogs that are for the purpose of affiliate marketing. However, you can still use Wordpress on your own site and there are also a number of companies offering your own blog with free hosting. Just Google “free blog hosting”. Make sure you read the Terms of Service (TOS) before signing on to one of these free hosts.

Although these methods will not have the sudden impact that PPC ads have, they will have long lasting results that will build a solid business base for you.

Done the right way, Forum Marketing can create a great stream of marketing. But, Forum Marketing may also be the financial equivalent of stepping on a land-mine. Forum Marketing is all about displaying your expertise and building name recognition and it can do exactly that. That is if you do it the right way. Done the wrong way and it does nothing but show your lack of expertise and turn your name to mud.

Once you have settled on the forums that you wish to use, read their rules and regulations. Each forum has a different set of rules. Many have topics that are not allowed, some permit you to advertise in your posts and others do not. The main thing, initially, is to learn the rules of the road. If you don’t follow the rules, you may find yourself banned from the forum. Even when it is allowed, it is never a good idea to advertise in a post or a comment that you make. Rely on your signature to promote you and your business.

Before starting to post or comment, it is always a good idea to read the forum before you start posting to the forum. By reading the forum, you will get a good feel for what the forum is about and the best ways to approach it. If you just barge in, you may find yourself creating a negative image within the forum and that is one land-mine that you want to avoid.

Remember that although there are many newcomers to net marketing in the forum, there are also many of the best known names in marketing that are also posting. So, when you decide to post or comment on a post, make sure you have the necessary expertise to comment on a given topic. If you shoot from the hip and don’t have the necessary knowledge to comment, at best, you will be ignored and at the other extreme, experienced marketers will call you to task and that will ruin your reputation.

There is nothing wrong with creating a little controversy in a forum. Sometimes, I get my best marketing ideas from forum topics that have created some amount of argument within the ranks but, that is a lot different that being called out as a fraud. Comment when you can help someone with a problem and keep your mouth shut when you can’t. The forums are all about helping each other with a common goal. If you can help the forum reach that goal, then, go for it. Good or bad, the reputation that you build in the forums will follow you throughout the world of internet marketing and your online career.

No matter what your niche, there is probably no better way to build your business and your reputation than through article marketing. Not only does it demonstrate your expertise in your niche, it also build links to your website. Building good links to your site has a very positive
effect upon SEO.

The internet along with blogs, newsletters and websites has a voracious appetite for information and if you have expertise in a given area,
you can fill this need and at the same time build your reputation as an expert in your field. It is a really simple process. Just pick a specific
area of information that you know people are looking for, put it into words and publish it too the net. The most commonly published articles are between 250 and 650 words and you can knock this out with just a few minutes of your time.

Don’t promote in your articles. Give good solid content that people are looking for. At the end of each article you are allowed to have a resource block. This is your author information which includes not only your name but also one or two URLs. In my resource info, I include my website address and my blog address. If the article was good, the reader may click on your URL for more information about you and whatever your are promoting.

Before you start writing articles, you should carefully study the policies information that is provided by the article directory that you are using. Although there literally hundreds of article directories available, I always submit my articles through: EzineArticles.com. Not only are they the most widely read article directory, they also offer a free ecourse in article writing that is truly a wealth of information.

In the world of brick and mortar sales, the salesman always assumes consent and offers the buyer alternatives in making their purchase. In the online world, we make a simple yes or no pitch and that makes for a ton of lost sales. If you had offered a couple of simple alternatives, you make it much easier for the customer to buy.

In online sales, we don’t have the luxury of meeting the customer face to face. But, like face to face sales, we do have the ability to offer alternatives rather than the common click here to buy. That approach in our sales letters makes it much too easy for the customer to simply click on the next site he wants to visit.

Instead, if your sales letter is really good, assume that the customer wants your product and then offer alternatives in how to make the purchase. For example, click here to instantly download XYZ Product or click here to not only download the XYZ Product but, also get a
free 2 week trial membership in XYZ Products Unleashed. The alternatives could be anything from free trials, automatic lifetime product updates or maybe a CD version of the product.

It is a simple idea but it works. If we simply ask for the sale, it is much too easy for the customer to say no and be on his merry way. But, in offering alternatives, we are not asking simply buy or don’t buy, we are making the customer think about how he wants to buy the product. Back in the day, I never asked a customer if he wanted to buy the house. That would have been a sure deal killer. The question was: Would you prefer to move in Tuesday or would next Wednesday be better for you.

So, assume consent, offer purchasing alternatives and make it easy for the customer to buy. By the way, will that be credit card or would you prefer PayPal?