HOW TO MONETIZE YOUR WEBINAR

Apparently, there is money in webinars that is why it has become one of the top marketing tools today. More than starting or increasing a company’s client base, webinars can also be a business opportunity. There are free webinars being advertised on the internet but at the same time there are those that require fees. To come up with webinars that are worth somebody’s hard-earned money, there are certain tips that could help you do it.

A webinar’s top selling point is content. People buy tickets to webinars because they know that they could get something out of the presentation or lecture. The basic question they would ask themselves is, “what’s in it for me?” Thus, if you are conceptualizing a webinar which focuses mainly on selling something, then you are in for disappointment. If you want your webinar tickets to sell like hotcakes, you should stop thinking about what you can get from your audience but what you can offer them. This way, you can give something of value to your audience which could be additional skills, a solution to a problem or personal development.

Once you have laid out the content of your webinar, the next thing to do is to set your ticket price. It is best to study the prices of similar webinars you are offering. When you are a beginner in the field of webinar hosting, you should set a price lower than the prevailing price in the market. You can raise your price once you already established yourself in the field.

To further get attention to your webinar, it is best to offer incentives to those who buy your tickets. One suggestion is to offer two webinars for the price of one especially when you are promoting your first webinar. You can also give out free tickets to those who register early or cash to those who refer a friend. Or you can start a raffle and give out the prices on the day of the webinar.

To maximize the potential of your webinar to give you extra income, you should schedule your webinar properly. Webinar developers have found webinars are less attended during vacations and holidays because people are busy having fun. It is also not wise to schedule it over dinnertime for obvious reasons. Webinars are best scheduled during the middle of the week because this is when most people have time to spare. 

Mondays and Fridays, on the other hand, are usually the busiest days of the week so inserting a webinar into their working schedule could be close to impossible.

THE BENEFITS OF ONLINE MARKETING

This post will give you the latest information in marketing trends so that you make the most of your marketing budget.

Marketing rules are the same no matter how big or small your business is:  (1) brand your product, (2) determine who your target audience is, (3) get the sales, and (4) establish repeat customers.  Online marketing is very effective in managing all four of these rules.

Online Marketing Defined

The definition of online marketing is: Placing your business or product on the Internet for millions of users to access so that you can turn your website into a strong tool to maximize your sales and business potential.

But online marketing is much more than putting your advertising online. Marketing online includes such areas as communicating with your customers, promoting your business or product online, and making sure that your website content is useful and up to date.  The great thing about online marketing is that you don’t need to have a huge budget to put together a marketing campaign that is effective. There are tools that you can use to make your marketing techniques easy and profitable such website templates, shopping cart templates, and online marketing templates.

What You Need for Online Marketing to be Successful

There are some important points to consider before you get into the strategies and intricacies of online marketing:

•    Communication.  An important part of online marketing is how you respond to your customer’s e-mail.  You don’t want to lose potential customers after you’ve made the effort to have them visit your website and then contact you for more information.  E-mail is a very effective and cost efficient way for you to generate more sales.  The key to this effectiveness is “consistency”.  You need to be consistent in your response to your customers.  You’ll also want to make sure that the tone of your e-mail corresponds with the tone you’ve set in your website content.
•    Human Resources.  If you’re going to succeed online you need to have enough people working with you.  Efficient websites incorporate a personal touch with a fast response time to customers.  Your goal is to turn the visitors to your website into customers.  The standard time for a return e-mail is from 48 to 72 hours.  If you wait any longer to e-mail back you risk losing the customer.  This means that if you don’t have the man power to return e-mail in two to three days you need to take another look at your marketing strategy.
•    Products people want to buy online.  Before you start marketing online you need to be sure that you have a product or service that people want to buy.  Customers need to find a value in what you’re selling.  There are two motivating factors when it comes to selling online:  cost and convenience.  Ask yourself if customers will find it easier to buy online than finding a local store.  Is it cheaper for them to buy this from you online?

Online Goals

Once you’ve established that there is a need for your service or product you’ll be ready to determine your business goal and whether or not you can meet this goal online.  If your main goal is to sell a product online you should decide how you want to make those sales.  For example, do you want customers to buy from you online or do you want them to come to you to close the sale?  You’ll need to decide what action is needed for the sale to be finalized.  Small businesses need marketing efforts that are targeted and precise.

SEVEN DAYS TO PROFITABLE BLOGGING

Starting a blog is as simple as finding a space online to write – and the time to write. 

To start though, you'll need to work through a brief list of steps to create your space.

Before you even consider your blog though, you have to think about WHAT you're going to blog about.  It’s important to stop and think about your blog, before starting it because, to be quite honest, without purpose, blogs are pointless.  And this pointlessness will dilute your message considerably.

So, you need to think about what you're writing and why.  Consider your theme – and then build some keywords around it, because for the first little while, you should try to include at least some of them in every post.  You'll get archived in all of the right places that way, which will lead valuable NON COMMENT generated traffic to your blog.  You'll also be commenting on blogs similar to yours and hopefully, generating more traffic based on the links you leave.

You can choose your topic, keyword, and theme simply by considering what, in connection to your business you're an expert in.  Once you've looked at that, you can decide whether it’s profitable, or viable to pursue it.  If not, look at a related area that you can cover – your blog should always relate to your business choices, and give you interested traffic.  Having said that, your blog isn't a free advertising system and nothing more – you've got to remember that people will be turned off by blatant advertising.

Choosing your keywords

Keyword Research

Keyword research is relatively simple – you can undertake basic research at http://www.thetoolman.net/keywordtool/research.php

You can use this to research your general keywords – and check on their general profitability, if you're using CPM advertising.  You might not be – but most blogs make a residual income from Adsense or similar, and it’s not something you should overlook, for your long term stratagem.  Niche blogs can earn well.

Once you've found a profitable overall keyword, you'll need to check out your competition -

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Though considered less effective now – it’s still a good tool for finding your competition levels.  You'll be able to assess your competition – basically, you're looking for a niche that's either tiny, if it’s narrow, or large, if it’s broader.  Your narrower niches can only support a tiny amount of blogs – whereas the broader your definition, the more your niche will support – but the flip side to that, is that you've got more competition.

Once you've worked out your profitability, and competition, you can also use the keyword search at Overture to evaluate your other keywords (and get an idea on where to start blogging from).

You can place that information in a spreadsheet for reference – or use programs like article architect to extend on your research (affiliate link for article architect)

Once you've made a list of your keywords – and paced them into a spread sheet, you can take your research a step further. Article architect does it for you, but if you've not got that piece of software, or a similar one that researches keywords, you can do it manually.

Open up both Google and Yahoo, and start plugging your keywords into it – at the top you'll see a listing 1 of (a number) – you can then divide your 'competition' number by the total of your searches (a number) – that will give you a rating for that keyword – and the keyword with the 'best' ratings are the ones you'll probably want to focus on.

Article architect does this automatically – highlighting the 'optimum' keywords – and there are other pieces of software will do the same.
The reason you're doing this is to see where your keywords will have the best chance of ranking – you'll be able to find the best place to 'position yourself' this way.

Keep those keywords handy – you'll need them when you start writing content.

Got your keywords?  What do you want to blog about?

Once you've got your keywords, you'll have an idea, at least, of the profitable areas of your niche that you can take advantage of.  You'll be able to choose an interesting niche – for both you to write in, and your prospective readers.

You'll find that you can narrow it down pretty easily based on what you've got on your keyword lists – and what YOU feel like you want to write.

While its important to work out what you want to do with your blog, based on your view of profitability, it’s also important to remember that working based on keywords alone is a sure fire way to build an impersonal, and possibly unmotivated blog for your readers.

HOW TO CREATE CONTENT THAT IS EFFECTIVE IN YOUR ONLINE MARKETING

The Internet is designed to be changing and dynamic.  People who visit your website want to see content that is new and filled with ideas and business promotions.  If people visit your website and don’t see new content on a frequent basis they’ll think that your site is stagnant and has been abandoned without any customer service there for them to rely on.  The home page of your website is one of the most important aspects of your online marketing strategy.  It’s the content of your home page that gives your business a brand.  The more useful and professional the information on your home page is the more credit you bring to your product or service.

The Internet is one of the best places for consumers to find out about new products and services.  This places the net above television, radio, magazines, and newspapers.  When you use the Internet to promote your product or service you have the opportunity to reach a multitude of potential customers anywhere at any time.  The web is one of the most powerful mediums for reaching and influencing people and the decisions they make about business. 

Components of Good Content

One of the key ingredients to success on the Internet is creating website content that Internet users want to read.  When you have content that is (1) interesting, (2) factual, and (3) well written, you have some of the main tools that you need to get the desired traffic to your online website.  

Writing Decisions:  When you first start writing content for your website you’ll find yourself facing many decisions before you even sit down at the keyboard or pick up a pen.  As you begin to develop the content on your website pages you’ll find that you’re often changing many of your first instinct decisions.  This is all part of the process of writing.  But how can you most efficiently sort out all you need to think about so that you develop website content that users want to read?
   
It’s important that you find out what it is that Internet users are looking for on the Internet so that you can focus your website content on these issues.  Take some time to study at the top hits in the search engines for products or services that are similar to what you’re selling.  Even though these top ranked websites are most likely using Search Engine Optimization techniques you can still read what it is that they’re using to draw in the crowd.  Take some of these concepts and include them in the flow of your web content….but ONLY if these concepts enhance what you’re writing and are entirely relevant to the products or services that you’re selling.  Keep in mind that although one website may be at the top of the search engine rankings today, it won’t take them long to fall back into the ranks of “mediocre websites”.  Websites that rely on SEO techniques don’t give people the information that they’re looking for to keep them coming back.  How many times have you yourself searched a topic in a search engine only to find that the top hit is filled with articles and web content that has nothing to do with what the website is all about?

People who use the Internet are looking for one or more of the following components:

•    Entertainment
•    Information
•    Community issues

If your website provides at least one of these components you’re on your way to attracting potential customers and repeat customers.  Websites that contain valuable content not only bring credit to your business but also position your company as an expert in your business industry.  Keeping your website fresh with new content doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task.  There are cost-efficient and time-saving techniques you can take advantage of to keep your website up to date at all times…without having to hire hundreds of people to help you!

Dynamic Home Page:  One way that you can have an ever changing home page is to design five to ten unique pages and then rotate them every month.  Take a couple of weeks to design different ideas for your home page.  Create random page promotions that include a message that is timeless or that have seasonal images with announcements such as “Holiday Specials”.  When you design different features for you home page all at one time you’re forced to look at your marketing strategy for at least one year.  This will save you a lot of time since you then won’t have to think about your home page content for about 12 months.  A web developer can put your home pages on a rotating script or use an automatic timer.  You can then rotate your home pages to highlight a new tip every month or to promote a featured product.  The home page of your website is much like the front cover of a magazine.  People want to see a home page that has different photos and content at least every month.  You won’t want all of the content of your website to be featured on the home page as this will overwhelm your website visitors.  Choosing one or two features to highlight each month is much more effective.  The rest of your website content should be well organized within the rest of the pages of your site.  When you’re ready to update your home page all you have to do is grab content from other web pages.  This way you’re not always having to create new content but are reorganizing your current content so that people think it’s new.

Changing your Home Page Too Often:  Even though you want your website to be new and dynamic you also don’t want to change it too often.  People who surf the Internet take comfort from their favorite websites and want them to be familiar.  If you change your home page too often you may confuse people who come to your website on a frequent basis.  You also run the risk of compromising your positioning in search engines if you don’t maintain some type of consistency on your home page.  When you’re updating the content on your home page you want to make sure that you don’t confuse people.  When you make changes to graphics or content it shouldn’t change the way your website looks and feels.  Regular visitors to your website should be able to find the same information that they’ve always found on your home page.  In short, the headers and navigation tools on your home page shouldn’t ever change.  Change content and images with other content and images while maintaining the sites original functionality.  Home pages that are consistent lend a feeling of comfort to users.  If your customers learn to expect consistency they’ll also learn to rely on your quality customer service.  If you’re a small online business, gaining your customer’s trust is synonymous to dependability.

Search Engine Positioning:  Search engine positioning can be affected by the changes you make to your home page.  There are some search engines that “spider” websites anywhere from three weeks to three months.  These search engines take a look at all aspects of your website from the home page content to the tags you have for your graphics.  Your website will be ranked higher the longer your keywords remain consistent.  You need to find a balance between keeping things on your home page new and exciting while at the same time keeping things familiar and similar.  The best way for you to achieve this is to keep most of your home page the way it is and change only a portion of it.  This allows visitors to your website to see new content and you won’t have to worry about your website disappearing from search engine rankings.

Benefits of a Flexible Home Page:  Once you’ve mastered the technique of updating your home page, while at the same time keeping the core content the same, you’ll be well on your way to recognizing the benefits of a flexible home page.  A flexible home page lets you test your offline marketing efforts.  Before you spend money on a magazine or newspaper ad you can test it out on your website.  You’ll be able to see how people react to the ad.  Your home page will let you determine which featured products attract the most interest.  You can also determine which graphics generate the most attraction.  You’ll need web tracking software to get this type of information.  Tracking software lets you obtain marketing data that is detailed and precise.  You’ll be able to see which graphics people have clicked on as well as what web page they were on just before they left your website.

Content if You Don’t Write:  If you don’t write, or know how to take photographs, there are still some things that you can do to generate content for your website:

•    Buy content:  You can buy images and photographs that are of high quality without spending a lot of money.  Spending a few hundred dollars on some great images will go a long way in giving your website a professional look.  There are many websites on the Internet where you can find images and photographs that relate to your business.  It’s not recommended that you buy written content for the simple reason that it’s not cost effective.  Many of the services on the Internet that supply written content are geared towards large online companies that have a big marketing budget.  The goal of content on your website is to make your company and product appear credible.  You can accomplish this by having a few well placed articles on your web pages.

•    Let customers create content:  You can have your customers generate content for your website.  One way to do this is by creating a section entitled “Frequently Asked Questions”.  Here your customers can ask you questions about your product or service and you can list your answers.  You can rotate this type of information and feature a different question every week.  Another way to create content is by holding a contest by asking customers to send you stories about how they enjoy your product or how it has helped them in some way.  You can offer a special prize such as a coupon for free product.  You can take the best written stories and post them on your web pages.  Not only is this type of material great content for your website, it also acts as a testimonial.

•    Links to other content:  Another way that you can get updated content for your website without having to write it yourself is by posting headlines of related news items to your website.  Then simply provide a link from the headline to the original article.  Content for small businesses on the Internet doesn’t have to be original.  It should, however, be useful to the people who are reading your website.  The content you choose for your website will show your customers that you care enough about the information that you’re providing them with to post links to original articles.  This information can include anything from health issues to new items to information about family.  Make sure that you accurately quote your sources and never copy articles without first getting permission.

The Importance of Communication:  One thing that you need to remember as you make the decisions about what you want to say on your website is the importance of communication in anything that you write.  These days competition for communication on the Internet is difficult.  The sheer volume of information being routed on the Internet is a huge communications barrier.  Every day people on the web are bombarded with websites and businesses lobbying for their attention.

People are busy and time is short.  So it’s all the more important to know how to get your marketing message across. 

The key aspects of good customer communication in clue:

•    the ability to read customers
•    the ability to understand which communication style your customers are most likely to pay attention to, and
•    the ability to adapt your website content for your customers.

When you communicate with your customers through the Internet you have only one shot at communicating your marketing message.  You need to keep in mind that those customers, and potential customers, reading your marketing message don’t have a long time to read what you have to say….so you better say it fast, accurately, and in words that they want to hear.  Learn how to keep it simple and direct.

There are some basic ideas that you should keep in mind when you’re writing website content that customers want to read:

•    Identify and clarify the marketing message that you want to get across to your customers.  When you pinpoint your focus you have the ability to zoom in and give your customers content that they can rely on and trust.

•    Gather information.  Don’t just write website content for the sake of filling up your web space.  Find out what customers want to read and then write for them

•    Evaluate the information that you’re writing about.  Make sure that the information that you’re basing your website content on is precise and reliable.  Does the information represent the points of view about your online business that you want to get across?  Is the information fact or opinion?  Many times a combination of (1) fact, and (2) customer opinion, go hand in hand for writing web content that people want to read.

•    Consider the alternatives and implications of what you write.  Make sure that you draw the appropriate conclusions from what you write and that your readers will draw the same conclusions about your web content.  What are the costs, benefits, and consequences of the content that you have on your website?  Take the time to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of moving away from Search Engine Optimization techniques and instead focusing on writing what people want to read.

BEST PREPARATIONS TO MAKE FOR YOUR WEBINAR

If you are planning to promote a new product but do not have the budget to launch an aggressive marketing campaign on broadcast or print media, you might want to consider organizing a webinar. With the use of the internet, webinars can now be conducted for participants in different locations all over the world. These web-based seminars have been introduced recently as internet marketing started to become a popular and definitely cheaper alternative to traditional methods. From its inception, webinars are beginning to make its mark as one of the potent means in attracting more customers not only locally but also internationally.

Not all webinars are effective. There are those that were unheard of let alone get an audience. In order to avoid this, planning and preparation for the webinar should be given a lot of consideration. As the cliché goes, this can make or break the webinar. Planning for a webinar must focus on three stages which are conceptualization, preparation and promotion.

Prior to the conceptualization stage, you would probably already have a topic for your webinar. It is during the conceptualization stage that you start setting parameters on the topic because you cannot provide a lecture with an all-encompassing subject that would overwhelm your audience. A good seminar is supposed to provide clarifications on a particular topic and not to muddle audience with voluminous information that is hard to process. As an example, if you want to promote a diet program that you designed, talking about all kinds of available diet programs in the market would confuse your audience about what you are trying to sell. Instead, if the diet program does not entail the user to take diet pills, then the natural diet programs should be given focus.

The preparation stage is as crucial as the first since this is where the actual webinar would materialize. Details like who to choose as speaker or lecturer, moderator and assistant would have to be determined. The right webinar format should also be chosen such as one-way style where the speaker conducts the lecture and the audience asks him questions. Or it could be an interview style where there is an interviewer who asks the speakers a set of questions. It can also be a moderated panel discussion where a moderator facilitates the discussion of several people who are simultaneously online and the interactive style where the audience participates in exercises and conversation with other members of the group and the speaker.

The promotion stage is where the webinar is sold to the public. This could be the most challenging and the most exciting part as well because the webinar has already been put together and it is just a matter of delivery. Whether or not the webinar gets an audience depends on how effective the promotional methods used are.

CREATING/DEVELOPING A WEBSITE IN YOUR ONLINE MARKETING

The development of your website design is one of the most central phases of your tactics to establish your position in the market.  Without a strong and constructive design you fail to reach the customers necessary for your achievements.  The development phase consists of several phases that include:

•    Final review of website design.
•    Branding
•    Development of specific business divisions, such as e-commerce and website.
•    Testing 
•    Taking your website live

There are specific partitions that need to be developed before your web existence and business strategy is ready to go live on the Internet.  Once these partitions have been developed your company is ready to reach your customers and secure your position among your competition.  Partitions that need to be developed require unique techniques.

Website development:  Develop a web presence that is based on your business branding and design.  The combination of all three elements will reinforce your online business strength: branding, design, and website development.

E-commerce development:  A constructive and easy e-commerce experience is significant for capturing the confidence and self-assurance of your customers.  This includes all aspects of e-commerce: product database, product display, security, and shopping cart.

Marketing strategy:  The advancement phase is the prelude to your marketing strategy.  Marketing requires a strong and solid development phase from which to have a triumphant launch.

The development phase of your business strategy should be as meticulous as possible before you go live with your website.  The more safe and sound the multiple divisions of your company existence are the more success you’ll maintain. 

Your Business Design

Developing a design for your business that augments your image and reinforces your web presence is critical to the success of your business.  Your aim is to create a design for your company that you can use across the board:  advertising, branding, e-commerce, and web distinction.
   
The final result of the design procedure is the level transition between all facets of your company exposure to your customers.  You want a design that is outstanding and recognizable, and that suggests confidence and reliance from your customers.
   
There are several strategies that you need to build up in order to accomplish a successful design, design strategy and the design itself.  Design strategies include:

•    Logo and company identity.  Devise a company logo that is introspective of the image you want to portray to your customers.
•    Web design.  Develop a web design that is revealing, simple to navigate, and impressive to visitors.
•    Successful e-commerce.  Create an encouraging and easy e-commerce experience for your customers.

Design strategies include:

•    Simple Design.  Create a design that is uncomplicated and crisp for ease of recognition.
•    Bold.  Your design should be daring and clear-cut about the statement you want to make yet simple enough to lure customers to involve themselves in your web pages.
•    Interactive. The design of your company should be completely interactive linking the visual communication with your customers and your web presence.

Once you expand your company design you’ll soon see a noteworthy return on the investments that you’ve made, as you reach customers and build up your place among the competition.  Design is all about reaching your customers and interacting with them in a way that gets their consideration so they don’t forget who you are.
   
Make sure that you have strategies in place that apply successful and affirmative branding for your business.  Some strategies that you should keep in mind include (1) having clear and accurate goals, and know what it is that your company stands for, (2) have a mission announcement that is strong and definite so that you know exactly where your business is going and how you want to get there, (3) be single-minded and unvarying in the way you deal with your customers so that they know what they can expect each time that do business with you, and (4) remember that branding is all about reaching your customers and staying in contact with them.  The bottom line is that branding allows you to sell your products or services to customers in a way that makes you stand out from the crowd of competitors that are each looking for their share of Internet business.

Your Internet Image:  When you’re developing a company representation it means that you’ll be creating a “character” for your company that customers can recognize with and want to do business with.  The individuality of your company will be a blend of many things, such as the facts of your business, the aims of your business, the style of advertising that you choose to use, and the history of your business.  All of these basics will tie together to leave a lasting sense on your customers that can make the difference between the success of your business or its failure.  You want to leave a affirmative and lasting impression on the public and your potential customers.
   
Many large and flourishing companies have worked hard to develop their company image.  Part of this illustration is having an image, or brand, that customers can recognize.     
   
Developing your company representation means that you need to identify many parts of your business that include:

•    Knowing just who your target market is and how to reach them.
•    Developing a company image that is constant and revolves around your target market.

Whether you’re just starting a new business, or currently have one, it’s important that you continue to generate business growth by following five key points.  When you focus on the growth of your online business, no matter how successful you already are, you guarantee future profits, further expansion, and continued achievement.

There are some are key points that you need to pay attention to and implement in your business so that you can ensure the further success of your business.  These five key points include:

•    Build your customer database.  Make sure that you use a variety of methods to build your customer database.  The more leads that you have the more profits you’ll achieve.
•    Research your target market.  It’s important that you have a clear idea of who your target market is.  Take the time to research who your competitors are for the products or services that you’re selling.
•    Deliver what you promise.  Don’t make false promises to your customers that you can’t follow through with.  Promising certain products, services, or special deals to lure in people means that you have to follow through with the delivery so that you gain the trust and respect of your customers.
•    Have a definite business plan and goals.  Make sure that you have a solid business plan so that you know exactly what path you need to take to reach your goals and how long it will take you to get there.
•    Advertise and reach your customers.  You need to reach your customers so that they can see what products and services you have to offer.  Advertising can take place on or off the Internet using newsletters, e-mail automation techniques, or by following leads that are provided by your existing customers. 

By including the above five key points in your day to day business practices you’ll find that your online business continues to grow in its success.

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF WEBINARS AVAILABLE

Webinars are fairly new innovations but are starting to become a byword for internet savvy people.

Gradually, entrepreneurs, corporate entities and educators are beginning to look towards it to reach their market. Webinars, being proven to be effective as marketing as well as training tools, are now an important part of doing business. As such, there are different types of webinars available today.

The basic classification of webinars is based on whether they are free or not. Free webinars are usually just informational with the audience just being made aware of an important general issue. Basically, free webinars are designed for marketing purposes and are usually conducted to get a market for books and DVD’s or to get a client’s base for consultancy. Paid webinars, on the other hand, are usually for training whereby the goal is to provide audience with additional skills. They are conducted for the personal development of the audience, thus, the need for payment.

Webinars are also classified according to their format. These are interactive, non-interactive and question and answer formats. In an interactive webinar, the audience gets the chance to fully participate in the event with features for telephone conferencing and chat rooms. Interactive exercises and discussion also characterize these webinar types. The non-interactive formats are one-way with the speaker addressing the audience and with limited or no interaction at all from the audience. These webinar types are also called webcasts. The question and answer format, on the other hand, is also called an interview format whereby there is a set of questions posed to the resource speaker by the moderator with the audience being encouraged to pose their own questions.

Another classification of webinars is based on execution. They could either be live presentation or recorded training videos. While the two are the same in all aspects differing only because the latter has a speaker speaking live on schedule, there are pros and cons against either type. A live webinar just like any other live event is prone to mistakes compared to a recorded webinar. However, a live one can be more interesting as it is spontaneous unlike its recorded counterpart so there is room for necessary adjustments.

Whatever type of webinar is chosen, the most important thing is that the message is delivered properly to the audience. So, preparation is the key to the success of webinars. When the right preparations are made, the goal of getting the message across will be accomplished regardless of the webinar type.

HOW TO USE CMS - CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

CMS means content management system and this is a descriptive term for keeping the website up and running efficiently and smoothly. Planning a new website usually entails a lot of proper planning and thought. Therefore doing all the necessary research would definitely help to ensure all the right choices are made very early on in the exercise.

The focus of any website building exercise has to have a good content management system. The CMS should facilitate in assisting in the initial creation of the website and also help to serve as an administration tool that can make necessary adjustments whenever needed.

This tool will help the website host to add, remove, and change text, graphics content and any other element that needs immediate and simple formats for change.

Using a password and username the webhost is able to access the CMS to make the administration changes in an easy and quick fashion. This is expected to be done on a timely and periodic basis as the information featured needs to be updated to give the visitor new or value added visits each time.
The CMS uses the easy administrative style that allows almost anyone who has a website to easily manipulate its contents without having any technical detailed knowledge on how the said contents is stored in the database or retrieved content. 

This is because all the information that the viewer to the site is privy to comes from the database which the CMS assists in tracking both in the text and in the graphics displays chosen.

As all this information is stored electronically the webhost does not really have to worry about the various exercises that this storage process requires in terms of managing it. This tool is definitely an advantage to have especially if the webhost is not very internet savvy and does not have the time to explore all the ins and outs of the internet tools available.

THE NO REGRETS METHOD OF GETTING STARTED WITH EBAY

If you think eBay might be a good place to make some extra cash, then you’re right.  With 157 million shoppers, and 100,000 new users each day, eBay is a hot market.  It is an excellent place for potential sellers of all experience levels to quickly and inexpensively set up shop.  The user-friendly environment makes it a great place for the budding entrepreneur to learn the ropes while taking very little financial risk.

This report will provide tips and warnings of potential pitfalls that will assist you in setting up your account, listing your first auctions, filling orders, and following up with your new customers so they come back and buy from you again.  Following these instructions will lay a solid foundation for the long-term success of your new eBay venture.


Setting up Your Seller Account

There are two important things you should consider prior to setting up your eBay seller account.  The first is what email address you will use, and the second is what your User ID will be.

You should avoid using a free email address for your account if at all possible.  The best solution is to use an email address on your own domain, the second best solution is one with your internet service provider (ISP), and the final and lest favorable solution is to use a free email address such as hotmail, yahoo mail, or gmail.  I recommend using separate email addresses on the same domain for your eBay and PayPal accounts (we’ll talk about PayPal later).  This will help you keep your auction and payment communications separate.

You should think carefully about your User ID prior to registering with eBay.  You are going to want to “brand” yourself in a way that your customers remember and recognize you.  Your eBay User ID is an important element of the branding process.  You are free to change your User ID later, however this is not advisable if you can avoid it.  Changing your User ID may result in your customers not being able to find your auctions later.

When selecting your brand or User ID, you should consider what you will be selling and what image you want to present to your customers.  If you already have another business that your eBay business will tie into, then you will want your eBay User ID to reflect that.  In that case your ID should probably be your existing business name, or an abbreviated version of it.

If you will be selling primarily collectibles, then your eBay User ID should reflect that in some way.  If your focus is cheap items in general, then your ID should emphasize cheap (my first eBay User ID was 99_cent_guy, and all of my auctions started at 99 cents).  If you’re going to specialize in college textbooks, then your ID should indicate that in some way.  Ensuring that your User ID reflects what you sell will assist greatly in ensuring that existing and potential customers are able to find you when they want to purchase what you are selling.

The use of website addresses (URLs) and email addresses in eBay User IDs is prohibited.  I have personally found a way around this by using an asterisk before and after the URL (*www.naijaultimateblog.blogspot.com*), however doing this could result in eBay requiring a change to the User ID. 


Setting up a PayPal Account

The more payment options you offer potential customers, the more sales you will make.  PayPal is the standard method of electronic payment on eBay, and many eBay’ers use PayPal accounts as their “mad money” accounts.  If you don’t offer PayPal as a payment option, you will never make a sale to these people.  PayPal is also the easiest way for you to accept credit cards and electronic checks as payment for your auctions.  PayPal and eBay have tracking mechanisms that interact with each other in a way that makes managing sales, payments, and shipping a breeze.

You should set up a PayPal account as soon as possible, because the verification process may take a few days.  At a minimum you should offer check, money order, and PayPal as payment options on all of your auctions.  (However, you shouldn’t accept checks from foreign bidders.)  You can set up a PayPal account at www.PayPal.com.


Deciding What You’ll Sell

While the online garage sale approach can be profitable, you are likely to have more success on eBay if you specialize in a particular type of product.  Your customers will learn to associate your specialty with your User ID, and will remember you when they are shopping for those types of products again. 

You should start by exploring your areas of personal interest.  What are you an expert at, and what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?  Simply answering those two questions is often enough to identify a niche that could be a goldmine for you.  After answering those questions, conduct a search of both active and completed auctions to see what related products are in demand and bringing a price that will adequately pay for your time. 

It is important to note that if a lot of products in your chosen specialty are going unsold, or are selling at well below their value, then you need to find a different specialty.  Spend as much time on this as necessary.  Diving into a market blind could result in a big investment with little return and a lot of unsold items collecting dust in your garage.

If you’re having trouble identifying a niche, just take a look around your house.  Do you have lots of old books or record albums?  Look them up on eBay and see what they’re selling for.  Go ahead and auction some to test the waters.  Do you have old collectibles, Christmas ornaments, or china boxed up and in storage?  Dig it out and research it on eBay.  You may have thousands of dollars in your attic and not even know it.  And exploring what you have in your house could reveal a hot product that you might otherwise not have thought of.

Are there products manufactured in your area that you can buy wholesale and pick up locally?  By not having to pay freight, you may be able to undercut competing sellers.  Explore everything you can think of and research it fully against what is selling and what it’s selling for before diving in head first.  This will save you a lot of money and frustration later.


Building a Reputation

Your biggest obstacle to selling at the outset is going to be that you have no transaction history on eBay.  Buyers have no reason to trust you.  And the best indicator of whether or not they should trust you to deliver what you promise is your feedback rating.

This is how eBay describes feedback ratings:

Feedback ratings are used to determine each member's feedback score. A positive rating adds 1 to the score, a negative rating decreases it by 1, and a neutral rating has no impact. The higher the feedback score, the more positive ratings they've received from members. However, a member can increase or decrease another member's score by only 1 no matter how many transactions they share.

There are two ways to quickly build feedback while you are establishing your new eBay business.  One is to make purchases, and the other is to sell inexpensive things that bidders are willing to risk a couple of dollars on.  You should achieve a feedback rating of no less than 25 before listing items in your specialty (unless you can sell some cheap items in that niche).  Doing so will bring more bids and higher selling prices when you list those items.

When exploring eBay for bargains to build your feedback, you might think about picking up some business or success books.  These are tax deductible for you as a business owner.  One book that every business owner should read at least once a year is “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.  You should be able to pick it up for five or six dollars, including shipping.  Be wary of shipping costs while bidding, by the way.  Always decide the most you are willing to pay for an item prior to bidding, subtract the shipping cost, and bid no higher than the difference between those two figures.  You might also look for some books about selling on eBay, or a recent edition of “Taxes for Dummies.”  If you haven’t received feedback by the time you receive your item in the mail, first leave feedback for the seller, then send them an email informing them that you received the item, posted feedback for them, and ask them to post feedback for you as well.

Another quick way to build feedback is by bidding on penny auctions that have no shipping fees associated with them.  These are usually placed by sellers trying to recruit bidders into a business opportunity.  Listing these types of auctions is against eBay’s policies, and many will be closed before the auction ends.  However you should be able to gain at least a couple of feedbacks a week by bidding on them.  Use the advance search feature to ferret them out.  Search for the terms “no shipping,” “free shipping,” “free auction” or something similar in the auction description, and only search auctions that are between one and three cents.  Sort the results to display the auctions ending soonest, and bid on the ones ending in the next couple of days.  Make sure you don’t win more than one from the same seller, as only the first feedback from each member will count in your rating.

We also mentioned selling some cheap items that bidders will be willing to risk a couple of bucks on.  Small paperback books or other items around your house that are inexpensive to ship work well for this.  Mark the shipping up by about a dollar more than it will actually cost to ship your item, and start the bidding at a penny.  Even if the item only sells for a penny, you will probably break even on the auction after you pay your eBay and PayPal fees.  Remember, this is about building feedback, and not about making money (yet).


Your Auction Listings

The best way to learn about the best way to list your auctions is by analyzing auction listings for items that are the same or similar to what you are selling.  Try searching eBay for completed auctions of exactly the same item you are selling, sort the list by price (descending), and study the listings for the items that sold for the highest price.  Observe the similarities between the words in the auction title, similarities in the auction descriptions, what categories the auctions were listed in, how pictures were used, whether or not there were gallery pictures, the shipping costs, and what day of the week and times the auctions were listed and closed.  Analyzing this information will give you the best information on how to get the highest price for your item.

When listing an item, you should try to put yourself in the mind of your customer.  Think about what search terms your customer would use when looking for your product.  Those terms should be used in your auction title and description. 

Auctions for items such as collectibles, clothing, and jewelry should always include pictures.  Again, observe completed actions for similar items to see how pictures were used in the most successful auctions.  Items such as office supplies or paperback novels do not necessarily need an accompanying picture, though it certainly wouldn’t hurt.

Ensure you are charging an appropriate amount for shipping.  You will lose money by undercharging, and you will lose bidders by overcharging.  For expensive items, you should require insurance, and include that cost in your shipping price.  Marking your shipping up by a dollar or a dollar fifty will help defray the cost of your shipping supplies and auction fees.

Pricing your items can be tricky.  You don’t want an item to sell for less than you paid for it, but by starting the bid too high the item may end up actually selling for less than if you had started the bidding lower.  If you are selling an item that has resulted in a sale in nearly all of the completed auctions for that item, then you are safe in starting the bidding low.  Demand is high, so you item is very likely to sell.  Starting the bidding low will draw more bidders.  More people bidding against each other on your auction will ultimately drive the price higher.  If you want to make a quick sale, you can often use the Buy It Now feature, and price Buy It Now at a couple of dollars less than the average completed auction price of like items.

Don’t buy features such as bold, highlight, or border.  The extra cost of these items is generally more than the feature will increase the selling price of your item.  After you are more experience, you may want to try featured auctions, but it is expensive so use it with caution. 

After you gain some experience you will also want to try using html in your auctions, the free listing software Turbo Lister, or a third party auction manager. 


Shipping Your Items

You should always use quality packing materials to ensure the item reaches your customer undamaged, and you should also ship the item promptly to ensure the customer is satisfied and will purchase from you again. 

Always charge for insurance on items you think will sell for more than $50.  Don’t give the bidder the choice of whether they want to insure.  Just charge for it in the shipping and make it a requirement.  If you are shipping via UPS, your item is automatically insured for $100 at no additional cost.

Become intimately familiar with different methods of shipping, the associated costs, and the speed at which the shipping method will get the item to your customer.  Becoming an expert in shipping methods will save you a lot of money, time and grief.  It will also result in happy customers.

Include some kind of promotional material with every shipment.  This can be a flyer for your eBay business with your User ID displayed prominently, it can be a brochure and order form for items related to what you shipped, or it can be promotional material for another related business you may own.  You can even include promotional material for someone else’s business, and charge them to include it the packages you ship.

There is no need to ship daily.  Set a schedule of two or three shipping days a week, and stick to that.  Shipping every day will wasted valuable time that can be used for other tasks.


Following up With Your Customers

At a minimum, you should send three emails to every customer.  The first is to congratulate them on winning the auction, and instructing them on how to make payment.  The second communication is to let them know their item has been shipped, how it was shipped (USPS, UPS, Fed-Ex), and to remind them to look at your other auctions.  The third email should be sent several days after you expect they should have received their item.  Thank them for purchasing from you, tell them you want to ensure they received their item, tell them you have left them positive feedback, request that they leave feedback for you, and remind them again to look at your other auctions.

You should also capture the contact information of every customer and use it for further follow-ups.  Capture every piece of information you have access to:  name, email, physical address, and phone number.  Send all of your customers an occasional email reminding them that they purchased from you before, and that you have more items up for auction.  You can even include links to your current auctions in the email.  Once or twice a year, send them a postcard.  This will put you well ahead of your competition.


You are now armed with the information you need to get started on eBay.  You will learn much more by actually doing this than by simply reading about it, so go ahead and get started.  You have all the information you need to successfully sell on eBay.

LIVE WEBINAR OR RECORD AND UPLOAD FOR LATER USE

Webinars are fast becoming the trend in marketing due to various reasons. For one, webinars have greater reach than the usual on-site seminars. A company wanting to promote its products and services can use these web-based seminars to spread the news to potential customers anywhere where there is internet. Another reason is that webinars are definitely cheaper than other traditional methods of marketing giving companies huge savings that can utilized for operational costs for example.

Webinars can either be live or prerecorded with each type having its advantages and disadvantages. The choice of which type of webinar does not necessarily have an effect on the results of the marketing campaign. With proper study of the targeted audience, a company would realize that each type would work in certain cases. As such, a combination of both types in the marketing strategy would do well for the campaign.

A live webinar boasts of spontaneity and interactivity. In this type, a speaker can easily capture and maintain the interest of the audience. Its spontaneous nature allows for some necessary adjustments as the need arises. Plus, the speaker can easily insert some humor or an interactive exercise when he notices that he is losing the attention of his audience. Furthermore, this type gives more opportunities for interaction among the participants and the speaker unlike recorded webinars. Questions and concerns can immediately be addressed even during the middle of the webinar.

There are a couple of disadvantages of live webinars one of which is that there is more room for errors and glitches. An important detail might be missed like a set of visuals or a technical problem might occur while the webinar is going on. Furthermore, there are times when people who register for the event are not available at the last minute which could make you miss your targeted number of audience.

A prerecorded webinar’s advantage, on the other hand, lies in the opportunity that it gives to the company to give a perfectly designed and delivered webinar. Unfortunately, this where the waterloo of prerecorded webinars also lie because an audience have high expectations for this type, thus, errors would not be easily forgiven by the audience.

One other benefit of this type of webinar is that unlike its live counterpart where the audience has to convene in the virtual conference room in a specific schedule set by the company regardless of their time zone, the audience could view the webinar at a time convenient to them.

BEST WAYS TO GET MAXIMUM ATTENDANCE TO YOUR WEBINAR

The secret to getting the maximum attendance for your webinar is promotion. To get people to attend your webinar, you must first make sure that they learn about it. The best medium that you can use to promote your webinar is the internet as the same has better reach and is less costly than other medium.  The internet also provides you with more options in designing your marketing campaign.

1.       Articles and blogs. The web is a virtual marketplace and everywhere you look there are products and services being advertised. Articles and blogs are the most prominent marketing tools in the internet and it is best to take full advantages of their benefits. Prior to the scheduled webinar, you should make sure that write ups are scattered over relevant channels on the web about the subject of the webinar providing a link back to your sales page or your url where more information can be found.

2.       Website. If you have your own website, make sure that the sales page for the webinar is designed to attract attention. Weeks before the event, most roads on the web should lead to your website. If at all possible, a link to your website should proliferate in the internet. If you do not have one yet, you should consider coming up with one as this serves as your window to more clients.

3.       Social networking sites. If you want free advertisement, then social networking sites can provide you this and more. These sites are the most visited sites in the internet, thus, making your presence felt in these would do your webinar a lot of good. You can promote your articles, blogs, website and the webinar itself. If you have allocated some budget for the advertisements, consider pay per click advertisements as these come definitely cheaper.

4.       Joint Marketing. Having other people promote your webinar for you would multiply your promotional efforts. If you can partner with people who are offering the same product or service that you are offering, then you can present the concept of the webinar with him and split the income in half later on. You can share contacts for a bigger client base, thus, doubling the marketing efforts.

You can also offer incentives to your affiliates who get people to sign up for the webinar. Giving a dollar for every referral or giving ten or twenty percent of the signup fee would surely pick their interest.

FORGETTING ABOUT SEO (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMATIZATION)

Far too many Internet websites rely on content that is based on what is respectively known as “Search Engine Optimization”.   And just as many of these websites are coming to realized that SEO is not the greatest way to write content for their website customers and potential customers that is going to get them the attention that they want to bring to their online business.

Successful Branding
   
Successful branding is all about one thing: acknowledgment from your customers.  When your customers can recognize your product or service, and detach you from your competition, you’ve already taken the first step towards grabbing their notice.  Branding uses several methods to ensure that your name is out there at the top and that your customers can pick you out from the crowd.  Branding has one goal: to gain the confidence of your customers so that they stand by you.
   
You want to develop branding for your online business that sends a clear meaning in one straightforward package.  And you want that brand identification to be an expression of your business and personal style. There are several methods that you can include into your branding strategy to gain recognition for your company.
   
There are several different techniques of branding that you’ll want to consider when you’re developing website pages so that they are readable and easily understandable by all your web visitors:

•    Visual communication.  Create a company logo which is displayed on your packaging and the visual communication you use with your customers.  This includes brochures, business cards, catalogues, stationary letterheads, and other marketing media.
•    Creative packaging.  Develop packaging for your products that is specific and outstanding to customers.
•    beneficial ad campaigns.  Take advantage of all media exposure by positively and importantly boosting your public profile.

The approach for successful branding is to keep it simple so that probable customers aren’t put off by the audacity of your logo.  The strategy for successful branding includes:

•    Develop a strong mission statement.  Know exactly where your company is going and how you want to get there.
•    Define company goals.  Be clear on what your business goals are.
•    Branding is for your customers.  Branding is all about your customers and not about what you sell.
•    Dependable marketing tactics.  Customers want reliability and simplicity when they identify your product or service.

Branding is all about identification for your company and not just the products or services that you sell.

The end result of successful branding is being able to sell your products or services along with positive recognition from your customers.  It’s this positive recognition and obligation to your business that develops the strong relationship that you have with your customers and creates profits.
   
There are many companies both on and off the Internet that use branding successfully so that you can easily recognize them and so that they are a bigger name than their competition. These names have become trusted among consumers throughout the world.  With so much business action that is now found on the Internet more online businesses are using branding to have their customers find them and remember them.  When it comes to your own online business you need to learn how to use branding in such a way that your service or product stands out among the many Internet websites that are all vying for attention and customers. 
   
Branding is a mixture of inspiration and the type of connection that you’re going to have with your customers.  The resourceful part of branding is all about the logo (or other branding that you choose to use) and the way that you market on the Internet, and off the Internet, using this logo.  The affiliation part of branding is all about the way you make your customer feel when they arrive at your website.  You want your customers to feel that they can trust you, and your product or service, so that they generate a sale for your business.  The bottom line is that branding offline and online is all about:

•    How your product, or service, looks whether it’s viewed on your website or on a shelf in your brick and mortar store.
•    How your customer feels when they arrive at your website.
•    How you deal with customer orders
•    The reliability and trust that you earn with your customers using a mixture of branding and successful Internet marketing

Developing your own branding for your business is a key step when it comes to the success of your company.  This means that you need to spend value time coming up with the right branding for your products and services.

Market Research

One of the most unbeaten ways that you can find out what customers want to buy, and find out more information about, is to do market studies.  When you watch and listen to what it is that customers are interested in, you raise your chances of getting their attention and giving them the information that they are searching for.
   
Take some time to carefully check the products and the services that you’re offering on your website or through your website.  You should be asking yourself include (1) what are the rewards and disadvantages to your business of selling or advertising online, (2) will you take payment online, (3) what details will you have to consider about shipping your product to customers, and (4) are you willing to constantly update and keep up your website. 
   
When you have an obvious business idea in mind, and know exactly what it is that you’re selling, you’ll want to find out what other businesses out there offer the same product or service.  You might want to talk to potential customers to see how they react to your product. 

Find other websites that are related to your business and take some time checking them out.  Look at how they endorse and market similar products or services as well as how each website is laid out and navigated. If a similar website uses a shopping cart for online purchases check it out.  See how smoothly the process works and what can be done to perk up the process.  Don’t just look at e-commerce sites that are within your own country since customers won’t limit their shopping to those countries where they live.  Look at the way other countries handle e-commerce websites so that you have a broad spectrum of websites to compare yours with.
   
Here are some things that you should be asking yourself when you’re doing market research for your online business:

•    Who are your probable customers?
•    What other businesses sell the same products or services?
•    Who is going to be your objective market and how are you going to reach them?
•    How much will it cost you to market, manufacture, and deliver your product or service?
•    Who is your competition?
•    How much can you fairly charge for your product or service?

What Are Customers Buying:  There are many ways that you can find out what customers are buying both from online businesses and from brick and mortar businesses.  Once you find out what customers are buying you can concentrate your website content and articles on what your mainstream customers are looking for.  Some of the ways that you can find out what people are buying include:

•    Check out the malls.  Go to a shopping mall and sit for awhile.  Make note of the shopping behaviours of those people who are around you.
•    Establish what stores have all the action.  Watch to see which stores have the most consumer traffic.  Take a look inside to see what is being sold, how it is being sold, how much it is selling for, and how the product is being marketed.
•    Take a look at advertising and marketing.  Although you may not be selling the same items as those stores in the mall you should still a look at what makes these stores stand out among the rest.  How are the products grouped together in the store?  How is the product being advertised.
•    What you find out from brick and mortar stores can be applied to your online business.  Learn what works when it comes to advertising online.  Find out what is visually appealing for consumers that makes them want to buy that particular product. 

REACHING YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE IN YOUR ONLINE MARKETING

This post will give you the latest information in marketing trends so that you make the most of your marketing budget.

A big factor to successful online marketing is knowing who your target audience is and how to reach them.  To determine what types of customers you are trying to reach you should be asking yourself the following questions:

•    What age group are you trying to sell to?
•    Are you selling to a specific ethnic group or gender?
•    Will most of your customers be married or single?
•    How fast will most Internet connections be?
•    Will you target customers who have children?
•    What level of education will most of your customers have?
•    Where will most of your customers live?
•    Will your customers have any specific hobbies?

The more you know about your customers the easier it will be to come up with a marketing plan.  You’ll also be able to design a website that is the most appealing to these customers.  The biggest advantage of marketing on the Internet is that it allows you to become very targeted towards your desired customers. 

Targeting Different Types of Customers

Marketing online is the same as marketing anywhere else.  There are certain products, colors, themes, and lingo that will appeal more to some customers than to others. When you know what type of customers you’re targeting you can meet their needs so that you grab their attention.  When you use certain features that pull customers to your website you have the ability to gain their attention, loyalty, and trust.  For example, studies show that most female shoppers like to save money and time.  Over 80% of purchases in the home are influenced in some way by women.  As well, these same studies show that women like to able to compare costs fast and easily without getting any kind of sales pressure.  If you’re trying to target women customers some things that you should keep in mind include (1) giving them a feeling of comfort and community, (2) let your website deal with everyday problems, and (3) focus on education, health, and family.

Get the Word Out

Doing something innovative and creative online, as well as using the latest technology, will always get attention.  For example, adding animation, flash, or a photo can create a buzz about the product or service that you’re selling.  Just as e-mail, which contains jokes and strange pictures, gets forwarded all around the planet so too can your marketing message make the rounds.  Come up with a marketing message and then forward it to family, friends, and anyone else you know.

Any time that you can get someone else to forward your e-mail to others you get the information out there about your website and the product or service you’re selling.  One key to great online marketing is remembering that quality, not quantity, counts.  Avoid buying e-mail lists and focus instead on building your own with people who are actually interested in what you’re selling.  Today online marketing isn’t about how many people you get to your website or how many people are on your e-mail list.  Today online marketing is all about how people react to your website and what it is that you’re selling.

Personalizing Your Website

Even if you’re not selling a product or service that is for a specific target audience you need to have a website that is personalized.  For example, even though Amazon sells products that appeal to all target audiences they have still managed to create a personalized website that fits every customer.  This is the goal of personalization technology.

Try to limit the number of products or services that you’re offering to your customers.  “Information overload” is one of the biggest problems on the Internet.  If you give your customers too many choices they’ll have a hard time making a decision.  The key to avoiding information overload is organization as well as making sure that products and services are directed towards your customers.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that online marketing stop when you generate a sale. Your current customers are the ideal way for you to reach new customers.  You want to get leads from your customers by using marketing concepts such as “tell a friend” e-mails.

One mistake that many small online businesses make is to focus only on self-promotion.  The bottom line is that customers don’t care about you.  They only care about what it is that you’re selling and what you can do for them.  When someone visits your website you have about ten seconds to get their attention before they move on to the next website.  That means that you have ten seconds to tell this person why it is that they need you.  The home page of your website should tell people why your service or product is just right for them.  Your home page should include information about your company and/or have a personal bio about who you are.

If you’re not sure about whether your website is reaching the right people, ask them.  If you provide something of value to people who visit your website they’ll give you information.  Things of value include contests, coupons, and free products.  Make sure that you let them know they can trust you by including a privacy policy on your website that states you won’t share any personal information they provide with anyone else.  Stick to your policy and never sell the information your customers provide you with.  Otherwise you’ll lose and abuse their trust.

Once you know the demographics of your customers you’ll know how to spend your marketing budget.  You can focus your online promotions using targeted marketing strategy.  Even though you may end up with fewer people visiting your website, targeted online marketing is the way to go.

Using Banner Ads

One mistake that many online businesses make is using banner ads to reach the greatest amount of people.  Your focus when it comes to banner ads is to reach the right type of people for the product or service that you’re selling.  One thing to keep in mind is that, if you have a limited budget, you should avoid buying banner ads altogether.  If you have a big budget, banner ads can be great for branding your company.  You’ll be able to negotiate contracts that are long term with affiliated websites in your area of business.  However, the results of click-through marketing are usually low and this makes banner ads the least cost effective of all online marketing techniques.

If you decide that you want to purchase banner ads you should focus on buying them on web pages that are very targeted.  Ads are cheaper the more targeted a web page is.  And the cheaper the ad the more cost effective your banner ads will be. 

Another way that you can target the placement of your banner ads is to embed them in web page content.  Before you purchase a banner ad find out what content the website administrators will be including on their web page that may be related to your online business.  If the website uses a keyword search tool ask that your banner ads appear when key words that are linked to your product or service are typed into the search engine by visitors to the website.

Try to place your banner ads on a web page that is as deep into the website as possible.  This way you’ll be reaching people who are truly looking for information that relates to your business.  This is a great strategy to use if you want to get the most value for your online budget.  Again, if your budget for marketing is quite high, you’ll want to buy banner ads on the home pages of websites so that your brand reaches a lot of people.

Keywords

One of the most cost effective ways to use your online marketing budget is to buy keywords.  You can find out the price of keywords that are specific to your industry at www.Overture.com. You want your keywords to be as targeted and specific as possible.  Always remember the goal of your business and buy keywords that encourage people to visit your website.  Keywords that are general will cost you more and at the same time will attract fewer customers to your website.  Before you start buying keywords you need to look at the content of your website.  You want to buy keywords that are effective for your business content and that keep people coming back to your website.

BUILDING E-MAIL LISTS IN YOUR ONLINE MARKETING

A successful online business requires a trusting relationship with your customers.  When your customers know that your online business is reliable and honest they’re more likely to buy products or services from you, rather than from your competition.  But it’s up to you to let your customers know that you’re a better choice than your competitor.  One way that you can get those important sales is by building up e-mail lists so that you can communicate on a regular basis with your customers.

Never miss an opportunity at communicating with your customers.  It’s vital to your online company that you come into contact with as many customers and potential customers as possible so that you increase your contacts and eventually increase your sales.

There is so much competition on the Internet and this is why it’s important that you stand out for your customers.  When your customers know that they can rely on you for dependable service, consistent communication, and quality products or services, they will continue to buy from you time and time again.  Your repeat customers will become the mainstay of your business since it’s these repeat customers that refer you to their friends and family, thus bringing you more potential customers.

Opt-in Lists:  An opt-in list is list of people who have specifically asked to receive more information from your business in the form of e-mail, newsletters, or other types of communication.  These people will voluntarily give you their e-mail address to you so that you can communicate with them in the future.  Make sure that you build your list of opt-in e-mail addresses so that you can increase the number of customers that you come into contact with.

Online marketing studies show that opt-in e-mailing lists are more successful than other marketing techniques when it comes to sales.  When a potential customers requests more information from your business you know that they already have an interest in the product or service that you’re selling. 

So how do you develop your opt-in e-mailing list?  One way that you can start building your e-mail list is by having a place on your website where users can leave their e-mail address. 

When you have someone’s e-mail address it’s up to you to send them an e-mail that is about the products or services that you’re selling.  Some of the e-mail that you might want to send to your e-mail customers include:

•    Newsletters with information about the product or service you’re selling, such as information about new products.  Newsletters have already been discussed in chapter 5.
•    E-zines that have detailed information about what your company sells.
•    Discount offers that your send out to only those people on your opt-in list.

The first e-mail that you send out to people on your opt-in list should let them know that they asked to be included on your e-mail list so that they don’t think that they are being spammed.  As mentioned before, always give people the option to take themselves off your e-mail list at any time.  This way they feel that they are in control of all communication with you.

Importance of Building Lists 

One of the most important rules of online marketing is the need to have a list of opt-in e-mail addresses.  The larger your e-mal list the more successful your online business will be.  The bottom line is, if you want to have a successful online business you need to have an opt-in e-mail list.

Many online businesses overlook the other benefits of an opt-in list besides the bottom line of profit.  Each time someone buys something from you, you need to make the effort of obtaining their e-mail address.  If you don’t get your customer’s contact information you lose all chance of future communication with them.  And this may prevent them from buying from you in the future. 

Online marketing studies show that successful online businesses think of their opt-in e-mailing list as their most valuable marketing strategy.  Most online businesses keep a back up of their e-mail list so that there is no chance of losing it.  Without this e-mail opt-in list your business would lose valuable customer communication which is the backbone of their online success.

The more extensive your e-mail opt-in list is the more advertising you’ll generate for your online business.  You’ll have sales opportunities from your e-mail opt-in list that you wouldn’t be able to obtain in any other way.  When you regularly stay in touch with your customers you ensure that at least some of them will return to your website for a first purchase or a repeat purchase.  E-mail opt-in lists let you communicate with your customers with little or no effort on your part.

Make sure that your online website has opt-in options on every web page.  This way people who read your website have every opportunity to give you their e-mail address for future contact with your company.

HOW EFFECTIVE ARE WEBINARS AS A TRAINING TOOL

Today, with most of the world being affected by the internet revolution, innovations in the provision of basic needs like food, clothing and education have been introduced with online shopping and distance learning. Slowly, other services like banking and travel are already catching up with the trend. As such, businesses are beginning to look at the use of the internet as a venue for training their personnel through what you call webinars.

The term webinars actually refer to web-based seminars. Through the internet, speakers are able to give presentations, lectures or workshops to a group of people across distance and time. Webinars allow people who are in different parts of the globe with different time zones to come together in one virtual web conference room to listen and participate in one discussion. With this, companies that have branches all over the world are enabled to give trainings to their personnel without having to physically gather them together in one venue.

The effectiveness of webinars as training tools is now being explored. Are webinars as effective as their on-site counterparts? The answer will depend on how the webinars are conducted which is also applicable to on-site trainings.  However, webinars definitely offer some advantages which can enhance them as training tools.

For one, webinars can be transmitted across distance and time. This implies that participants can attend the webinar in an area where they are most comfortable whether at home or in the office. Usually, the physical set-up of the seminar venue can be uncomfortable to the attendees, thus, limiting comprehension of the training subject. Furthermore, technical problems like the audio is either too loud or too soft depending on where you are seated unlike the webinar audio which can be set based on the listener’s preference.

Another thing is that webinars allow for greater participation among audience. Unlike regular trainings where questions may only be raised at the end of the lecture, webinars allow participants to actively join the discussion even while the lecture is ongoing as there are features for chat rooms and telephone conferencing. There is also an option where the participant may remain anonymous if they choose to be. This functionality helps create an unbiased learning environment where the speakers and participants are not affected by prejudices brought about by race, gender or other factors.

These advantages can make webinars very effective training tools. When properly planned and executed, webinars would not just be mere practical alternatives but would help companies reach their goals in personnel development.

HOW TO CUT DOWN ON YOUR TRAINING COSTS WITH WEBINARS

Whether you are a company who wants to conduct training for your personnel who are assigned in different branches in one city or country or just someone who want to acquire additional training for career development, webinars are practical alternatives to on-site trainings because they radically reduce your budget for the conduct or acquisition of said training.

On-site trainings, when organized by a company for its personnel, are very costly. The cost of gathering your people together in one venue would entail cost for transportation, venue, accommodation and food. How much these will cost your company would depend on how many personnel you are going to train, where the training will be conducted and the duration of the training. This still does not include your costs for the speaker or speakers who you would most likely provide with better accommodation on top of their professional fees.

Individuals who want to attend trainings at their personal expense would probably spend for the same things. But unlike companies who can avail of discounts for bulk services, individuals have to pay singly for everything which could be costlier unless they find someone who is interested in the same training or be lucky enough to get training support from their companies.

Webinars are less expensive compared to on-site trainings for obvious reasons. Expenses for the usual logistics are done away with. For example, instead of transporting the speaker to a particular venue, providing him with an expensive hotel room, good food and some R and R, a company could choose to hire a webinar speaker who will conduct live training or provide previously recorded videos of a particular training topic. With this, the company would save a lot because they would only spend for the speaker’s professional fees. 

Web-based seminars would give the company even further options to cut on costs by giving them the choice to gather the trainees in one area or schedule the web conferencing during their regular work schedule. In any of these two options, the company has already cut down on training because the fact that the speaker does not go on site but does the training through the internet alone is already a huge source of savings. Still the first option is costlier than the second since fare, accommodation and food would still be at the expense of the company. The second option is apparently the better choice if the company really wants to cut training costs.

These very same parameters are the reasons why individuals who opt to get their training through webinars would spend less. Since webinars are less costly to organize, then the training fees would also be lesser.

RISING YOUR ONLINE MARKETING TO THE TOP OF SEARCH ENGINES

The most common way for people to access your website is through search engines.  And this means that whether you’re selling a product or service, or just want to get some free press about your business, your company website needs to found by the top Internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo!  Keeping up with search engines and their technology will be a full time job.  However, if your website is well designed, search engines can be your best ally in generating more Internet traffic. 

Search Engine Optimization Defined

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the technique of placing your website so that its ranking increases in search engine databases.  You want your website to have a high ranking and be as relevant as possible to a user’s search.

Successful SEO websites use articles and keywords that are based on those words that Internet users type into search engines when they are looking for a particular product or service.  As you’re building your website you want to ensure effective keyword placement in all of the content and in the HTML coding of each web page.

When you submit your website to the most popular search engines you’ll want to make sure that you’re making the most of optimized keywords, as discussed in chapter 2.  Your ranking in a search engine directory is closely connected to the quality of your website.  If your chosen industry is in a competitive market you need to make sure that you have as many people as possible visit your website so that you get those sales and, in effect, make the most of your online marketing campaign.

The more you understand about how important targeted keywords are the better able you’ll be to find the right marketing methods and solutions for your business. 

Optimizing your Website

One of the most important things for you to remember when you’re optimizing your website for search engines is that these engines read text and ignore graphics.  This means that you need to focus on the text that is part of your website content.

The Right Keywords:  Internet users will type keyword phrases into the search engine when they want to find a certain product or service.  Most users will type about two or three words and then do a search for relevant websites.  Before you spend a lot of time optimizing your website you should use a software program to help you determine which keyword phrases get the greatest search volume.  This will allow you to focus your efforts on optimizing your website for the right keywords.

Text on your Home Page:  Once you’ve decided which keywords are best for optimizing your website you’ll want to put those keywords and phrases into the content of your website.  You’ll want to start by focusing on the first paragraph on your home page since this is the first thing that most search engines read to determine if your website is relevant to a user’s search.  In that first paragraph you’ll want to use as many keywords and key phrases as you can so that your website comes up in a variety of user searches. 

Using HTML Tags:  You’ll need to make sure that you have the right tags in your HTML coding so that it corresponds with the text on your website.  Your ranking in search engines will be more solid if you’re consistent with your tags and text.  

Submitting Your Website to Search Engines

Registration with search engines, such as MSN, Yahoo, and Google, is crucial if you want to attract people to your website.  Before you decide what search engines to submit to, you should do a careful study of what features each engine provides.  Some of the features that you should be focused on include (1) how they promote websites, (2) what they offer in regards to advertising, and (3) if they have any other resources available.  There are analyzers available on the Internet that will help you compare search engines.  Your online marketing budget should include money and time so that you can find the right search engine for your business.

There are a few important things that you should focus on when it comes to submitting your website to the right search engine.  This includes:

•    The search engine generator should provide you with automatic updates.
•    The registration process should allow you to include the purpose of your business and website.
•    Do a quick study to find out where other businesses in your industry are submitting their website.

Your main goal should be to submit your website to as many top search engines as you can so that you get the highest rankings.  This will allow your customers and potential customers to find you fast and easily.

Search engine spiders:  A search engine spider is a program that methodically travels the Internet looking for all the web pages that have been recently visited and processing this information in a search engine so that pages are indexed and downloaded faster by the user.  When you overuse keyword and key phrases you risk this being noticed by search engine spiders and having them bypass your web pages for inclusion into the search engine.  Do you want to risk being left out of search engines by being guilty of keyword abuse?
   
Using a high keyword density may seem like a good idea when you first start developing web content for your website but the hazards far outweigh the risks.
   
Another mistake that many websites make is choosing their keywords and then not putting these keywords into the any of the relevant content on the web pages.  Search engine spiders are programmed to actually need to see the keyword used before it can acknowledge it and index the web page.  So why waste time coming up with keywords that don’t really have anything to do with what your website is all about only to have search engine spiders overlook your website anyway?

Creating False Web Pages:  One of the most serious mistakes that you can make when you’re developing the website content for your web pages is to provide your customers with information that has absolutely nothing to do with what you’re selling or advertising on your website.  Customers who use the Internet to buy a product or service, or simply to find out more information about what you’re selling, don’t want to arrive at your website pages only to find you’re not selling what your offering.  If customers are searching for stationary (and you include the keyword “stationary” over and over in your website content to push you up into the high rankings of the search engines) they expect to able to read accurate and dependable information on your web pages about this stationary.  If you’re not selling or advertising stationary you should avoid using this keyword to pull traffic to your website.  Customers who have been tricked will quickly leave your website to find the information that they are looking for elsewhere.

The bottom line is that keyword driven websites don’t always work.  These websites may get high traffic, and search engine ranking that they want, however customers won’t linger to find out what they are really selling.  This means a missed opportunity to develop a successful relationship with customers.

Goals for Successful Websites:  A quick mention about what your goals should be when you create web pages that are rich with information that customers want to find on the Internet:  One of your main tasks when you have an online business is building up your customer database.  You want to have as many customers and potential customers on your list as you can so that your online marketing strategy reaches a wide range of consumers.

Once you’ve built up a customer database you’ll want to make sure that you start to gather repeat customers.  Repeat sales are the backbone of a successful business and for increased sales.  One of the ways that you can achieve repeat sales is by generating great communication with your customers.  You can accomplish this good communication by using the following:

•    Affiliate programs
•    Coupons for repeat customers
•    Contests
•    Newsletters that provide useful information about what you’re selling
•    Banner ads
•    Discussion groups and forums
•    Relationships with associates
•    Chatrooms

As mentioned previously you’ll already have a lot of customer information that you can use.  This includes data that you’ve collected from previous sales, communication with your customers, and e-mail opt-in lists.  You’ll also want to collect the information listed here.  But just how do you go about gathering that data?  There are several different techniques that you can use to get the data that you need to build successful customer databases.
 
The most important thing to remember is that you always be honest when you’re getting information from your customers.  If you use deceptive means to get the data you risk losing the trust of your customer.  If being honest and above board means that you lose some of those opportunities to capture customer information then realize that the pay off will be the trust and respect you earn from these customers, and potential customers, when they realize that you’re doing what you said you would do: asking them to voluntarily to provide you with certain types of information.
   
The following methods of collecting customer data will help you keep track of sales and profit.  This customer data can be found in the following places:

•    customer order forms
•    warranty card information
•    servicing information 
•    records of returned products
•    questionnaires filled out at time of purchase

The above information is very helpful but you’ll need a bit more to build up a successful database that includes wide-ranging customer information.  This is where some of the newer techniques of data capturing enter the picture.  The Internet has provided you with some great opportunities to use technology tools to your advantage.  Again, keep in mind that technology is a utensil that you can use and not an end to a means.
   
All this technology means that you can use some very appealing and winning methods for having your customers leave you the information that you need.  
   
There are many ways that you can correspond with your customers once you’ve got their interest:

•    weekly newsletters
•    automated e-mails, targeting one time customers, referrals, and repeat  
•    customers
•    discount or free product offers to customers
•    e-mail postcards
•    follow up phone calls
   
Corresponding with your customers is much simpler after you’ve profiled them and know what they want to see and hear.  Database marketing means that you learn as much as you can about your customers and potential customers before sending them any type of messages.  Studies show that random messages sent to all your customers often fails since you’ll be spending a great deal of time and money to reach only a small portion of those customers that feel you have something to say to them directly.