by Anthony M. Flores
PPC, or Pay Per Click Advertising, from companies like Google AdSense or Adwords is one way to market your business. But these are only one of the variety of options out there for the business owner. A number of them cost less. Even so, it is important to understand how it works to make the best possible choices when it comes to your expenses.
Chances are good if you're reading this article, you know what PPC Advertising is. But for those of you who don't, Pay Per Click or PPC Advertising is where your ads are placed on the top and right side of Google (or other Search Engines like Yahoo or MSN). Although there are many more factors and cost is not the only variable, basically it is a bidding process where you are competing with other advertisers for the higher positions. The terrific benefit of this is that the only time you pay is when someone actually likes your ad and clicks on it!
If done correctly, you can target your ad to specific keyword terms and put your ads right in front of people who are actively searching for what you sell! However, if done poorly, it is a way to quickly drain your credit card & cost you valuable money, time and effort. This article isn't about PPC best practices, and we cover that in other articles, but more to show you the additional places to put your money on the internet.
At times it may be possible to place ads on a business site belonging to another person. Purchasing banner space in this way can be more costly. Careful research concerning the web site is crucial to the advancement of your business. The site must already be targeting your desired market, and your target market must be appropriate towards the product you are selling. For instance, banner space on a product designed for gardening probably wont generate sales when located on a site dedicated to monster trucks. Some companies will charge you when someone views your ad, some will charge when a customer emails you. Having a clear idea of what you are being charged for will help you to make the best decisions. You must pay attention to all these factors in developing your advertising strategy.
Expand your internet marketing and allocate funds accordingly. If you do your homework, harnessing the power of the internet can provide large payouts for you.
Anthony Flores of www.attorneymarketingnow.com is an authority in Attorney Marketing and Law Firm Marketing. Contact us with proven PPC and SEO results for attorney's all across the country.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
How to Prepare a Market Analysis for a Business Plan
by Amy Nutt
Putting together a business plan can seem like a daunting task. In order to do a thorough job, you must take your time with each of the different components. One of the most important components of a business plan is the market analysis. The market analysis section of your business plan will help you understand the domain in which you plan to operate. More importantly, it will also help potential investors see that you know your market and have a plan that can work within its context. The following information will help you prepare this critical piece of your business plan.
Identify Target Markets
Preparing a market analysis begins with thinking about who your prospective customers are. Some of the factors to consider when deciding who will be included in your target market include:
- Demographics such as age and sex, race or ethnicity, levels of education and income - Geographical location - Personality traits, attitudes, preferences and needs - Shopping habits such as frequency, loyalty and likeliness to purchase online
When identifying target markets, it is important to define a realistic and proper span. If your market analysis focuses on too extensive a segment, it may be difficult to reach (or prove you can reach) all consumers within it effectively. On the other hand, if your defined target market is too narrow, you may not be able to generate enough business to be profitable.
Getting Started
In your market analysis, it is important to be thorough and to describe your methodology for defining your target market. A good way to start is to ask yourself "who will potentially be a consumer of my goods and/or services?" Saying "everyone" will be too broad and make your job of narrowing down your focus more difficult. Instead, consider your potential market. This is the total number of people who could buy from your business. For example, if your concept is a local flower shop, your potential market might be anyone within an eight-mile radius. If you're also selling over the Internet and offering delivery, your potential market might expand to people who have credit cards and a reason to have flowers delivered in your geographic area.
Once your potential market is defined, it's time to start narrowing down. Now you must figure out how much of your potential market is also within your addressable market. You must ask yourself who within your potential market is likely to have an interest in your product. Going back to the local florist example, perhaps you include individuals of a certain age who have special occasions coming up. Perhaps you also include organizations such as churches and businesses that might have a regular need for flower delivery.
Finally, you etch out your target market from the addressable market. Identify who within your addressable market is likely to buy from you based on demographics, geographical limitations, personality traits and attitudes and consumer habits.
A Final Word
Though the competitive analysis section of a business plan typically follows the market analysis, it is a good idea to perform your competitive analysis before setting your target market in stone. This can help you define a target market that is actually attainable.
Whether you're dealing with Trinidad and Tobago money, Jamaica bank, or Bahamas money, merchant banking operations offers a variety of finance services for both personal and business purposes.
Putting together a business plan can seem like a daunting task. In order to do a thorough job, you must take your time with each of the different components. One of the most important components of a business plan is the market analysis. The market analysis section of your business plan will help you understand the domain in which you plan to operate. More importantly, it will also help potential investors see that you know your market and have a plan that can work within its context. The following information will help you prepare this critical piece of your business plan.
Identify Target Markets
Preparing a market analysis begins with thinking about who your prospective customers are. Some of the factors to consider when deciding who will be included in your target market include:
- Demographics such as age and sex, race or ethnicity, levels of education and income - Geographical location - Personality traits, attitudes, preferences and needs - Shopping habits such as frequency, loyalty and likeliness to purchase online
When identifying target markets, it is important to define a realistic and proper span. If your market analysis focuses on too extensive a segment, it may be difficult to reach (or prove you can reach) all consumers within it effectively. On the other hand, if your defined target market is too narrow, you may not be able to generate enough business to be profitable.
Getting Started
In your market analysis, it is important to be thorough and to describe your methodology for defining your target market. A good way to start is to ask yourself "who will potentially be a consumer of my goods and/or services?" Saying "everyone" will be too broad and make your job of narrowing down your focus more difficult. Instead, consider your potential market. This is the total number of people who could buy from your business. For example, if your concept is a local flower shop, your potential market might be anyone within an eight-mile radius. If you're also selling over the Internet and offering delivery, your potential market might expand to people who have credit cards and a reason to have flowers delivered in your geographic area.
Once your potential market is defined, it's time to start narrowing down. Now you must figure out how much of your potential market is also within your addressable market. You must ask yourself who within your potential market is likely to have an interest in your product. Going back to the local florist example, perhaps you include individuals of a certain age who have special occasions coming up. Perhaps you also include organizations such as churches and businesses that might have a regular need for flower delivery.
Finally, you etch out your target market from the addressable market. Identify who within your addressable market is likely to buy from you based on demographics, geographical limitations, personality traits and attitudes and consumer habits.
A Final Word
Though the competitive analysis section of a business plan typically follows the market analysis, it is a good idea to perform your competitive analysis before setting your target market in stone. This can help you define a target market that is actually attainable.
Whether you're dealing with Trinidad and Tobago money, Jamaica bank, or Bahamas money, merchant banking operations offers a variety of finance services for both personal and business purposes.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
One Meta Tag You Should Use Carefully - Description Tag
by David Anttony
There is only one meta tag that most search engines use - the description tag. It is not commonly used for SEO ranking purposes, but it is normally used (including by Google) as the text on the search results listing.
The content of the description tag is used more often than not by Google when it displays the results pages for a keyword. It uses only the first 156 characters though so make sure if you are using it to check the length of the text. If you do not check the length your text will be truncated and it will look funny.
Microsoft Word has a great tool that will allow you to check the text length very quickly. This tool is visible on the status bar at the bottom of the page. To use it select the text you want to control the length and then double click on the word count statistics box.
All meta tags should be at the start of the page inside the head tags.
Google is a little scallywag when it comes to using or not using the meta description tag. When it does use it you can have full control of what is exposed to prospective visitors but it will often change what it uses at will with sometimes it just picking up a piece of text from your page.
To ensure you have more control over what Google chooses as the text in the search results as well as setting the description tag carefully also make sure that the first 156 characters of text on your page says what you would like to see in Google.
If you have a flash site or just use images with a little text, you have a problem! We have seen Google pick up the alt text from an image and display this when it did not choose to use our description tag. This will tell you to ALWAYS have some text on your page even if it is only 156 carefully selected characters (including spaces).
Learn more about the available SEO services and SEO Trainings from SEO Magic Webs Singapore. You can get a unique content version of this article from the Uber Article Directory.
There is only one meta tag that most search engines use - the description tag. It is not commonly used for SEO ranking purposes, but it is normally used (including by Google) as the text on the search results listing.
The content of the description tag is used more often than not by Google when it displays the results pages for a keyword. It uses only the first 156 characters though so make sure if you are using it to check the length of the text. If you do not check the length your text will be truncated and it will look funny.
Microsoft Word has a great tool that will allow you to check the text length very quickly. This tool is visible on the status bar at the bottom of the page. To use it select the text you want to control the length and then double click on the word count statistics box.
All meta tags should be at the start of the page inside the head tags.
Google is a little scallywag when it comes to using or not using the meta description tag. When it does use it you can have full control of what is exposed to prospective visitors but it will often change what it uses at will with sometimes it just picking up a piece of text from your page.
To ensure you have more control over what Google chooses as the text in the search results as well as setting the description tag carefully also make sure that the first 156 characters of text on your page says what you would like to see in Google.
If you have a flash site or just use images with a little text, you have a problem! We have seen Google pick up the alt text from an image and display this when it did not choose to use our description tag. This will tell you to ALWAYS have some text on your page even if it is only 156 carefully selected characters (including spaces).
Learn more about the available SEO services and SEO Trainings from SEO Magic Webs Singapore. You can get a unique content version of this article from the Uber Article Directory.
New Original Content Quickly Sent To Article Directories & Blogs
by Bob McCord CBCP
How can you dominate niche markets when your time is limited?
Introducing the next generation of efficient content generation. The future is in producing solid, quality original content. This is why I am so passionate about Content FX which also posts content automatically to major Article Directories while also updating my favorite Blogs.
FX could not be faster. From start to finish, creating the article and posting it, takes me just 3 seconds. All I have to do is grab a keyword, click a button, click button to copy and paste article to my favorite website, blog, or article directories. You cannot beat this membership!
Do you struggle spending too much time to avoid overuse of keywords which lowers your search engine ranking?
Two of the reasons I'm excited about the FX membership are: (1) access to an easy-to-use blog script that automatically posts unique content articles to Wordpress and Blogger Blogs; and (2) access to an article directory script that automatically networks with hundreds of other members' article directories. These two scripts generate an awesome number of one-way back links to my money site!
If you're going to dominate a market, you must be careful not to use other people's content. Duplicate content must be avoided.
Is it possible that you waste precious time each business day? I bet since you started working on the internet you have stopped if not reduced your social life; the reason is you hardly get time to get away from your desk because you are too busy getting content created to get on your website.
Our time is one of the most precious of commodities. If, as a human writer, you are tired of staring at a computer screen for hours and hours, then this membership will eliminate the tiresome content rewriting effort you may now face daily.
Questions? Reply to mailto:ContentFX-4@i-Commerce-Business.com with blank email to get "ContentFX Revealed".
Before paying costly human writers to get original articles, check out how Bob McCord has unlimited, fresh articles to get websites, ezines, article directories, and blogs. This and other unique content 'Content FX' articles are available with free reprint rights.
How can you dominate niche markets when your time is limited?
Introducing the next generation of efficient content generation. The future is in producing solid, quality original content. This is why I am so passionate about Content FX which also posts content automatically to major Article Directories while also updating my favorite Blogs.
FX could not be faster. From start to finish, creating the article and posting it, takes me just 3 seconds. All I have to do is grab a keyword, click a button, click button to copy and paste article to my favorite website, blog, or article directories. You cannot beat this membership!
Do you struggle spending too much time to avoid overuse of keywords which lowers your search engine ranking?
Two of the reasons I'm excited about the FX membership are: (1) access to an easy-to-use blog script that automatically posts unique content articles to Wordpress and Blogger Blogs; and (2) access to an article directory script that automatically networks with hundreds of other members' article directories. These two scripts generate an awesome number of one-way back links to my money site!
If you're going to dominate a market, you must be careful not to use other people's content. Duplicate content must be avoided.
Is it possible that you waste precious time each business day? I bet since you started working on the internet you have stopped if not reduced your social life; the reason is you hardly get time to get away from your desk because you are too busy getting content created to get on your website.
Our time is one of the most precious of commodities. If, as a human writer, you are tired of staring at a computer screen for hours and hours, then this membership will eliminate the tiresome content rewriting effort you may now face daily.
Questions? Reply to mailto:ContentFX-4@i-Commerce-Business.com with blank email to get "ContentFX Revealed".
Before paying costly human writers to get original articles, check out how Bob McCord has unlimited, fresh articles to get websites, ezines, article directories, and blogs. This and other unique content 'Content FX' articles are available with free reprint rights.
Monday, October 12, 2009
How To Earn Money Online Surely And Steadily With Affiliate Marketing
by Hans Havasi
To those reading this article, I assume you have a basic knowledge of affiliate marketing, what it is and how it works. When I first started out, I used www.clickbank.com mostly.
Networks such as www.clickbank.com keep out bad vendors and help by processing the payments so you get your percentage of each sale.
You can also find other companies that have their own affiliate programs. Be sure though to examine their affiliate programs so you don't get bad surprises!
You'll want a payment schedule and threshold that is fair and that you can live with. It's also great if you can have hands-on help and support as you are picking affiliates to partner with.
Those new to internet marketing can have a difficult time because they don't have a big list they can sell things to and market to. To give a good start you could consider to make a review site and through that get peoples emails by offering free ebooks and/or offering a marketing email course.
This was an easy way for me to get started and learn the basics and I think you'll find it will work for you too if you aren't already using this model.
A review site is a one page website that has a review of an affiliate product. To do this effectively you should actually purchase the product and use it and then write an original review.
Don't just rewrite a review written by somebody else. Make it as personal as possible and include your own results using the program. Your review will have much more credibility that way.
If you'd like, you can include more than one review on the page. For example, I like to have a review of my #1 favorite product in that category and then include 2-4 runner ups and include reviews for those as well.
I set a goal to create 10 of these review sites per month. It took me about 40 hours per month to create those sites. After you create one review site you have a template you can use and it goes much faster.
Then I spent about 10 hours per month marketing the older sites in the forums and other social media plus creating ad campaigns.
My expenses were $10/month for hosting for all of the sites and $8 or so for each individual domain. My marketing expenses, including purchase of the products I reviewed and ad campaigns, were $700-1000 per month.
My profit after expenses, was $4000 each month, which works out to $67 per hour. Not too many jobs pay that much money and I achieved that level in a very short time.
From here on you can grow your business, but for newbies its good to start with review sites. If you want to know more about internet marketing for newbies please visit my site
Hans Havasi is an internet marketer, musician and computer scientist. He has researched internet marketing for some years now to help him gain financial freedom so he can dedicate more of his time to pursuing his music production dreams. On his site www.wealthsecretsonline.net/superaffiliate/he will give you more secrets on how to gain financial freedom.
To those reading this article, I assume you have a basic knowledge of affiliate marketing, what it is and how it works. When I first started out, I used www.clickbank.com mostly.
Networks such as www.clickbank.com keep out bad vendors and help by processing the payments so you get your percentage of each sale.
You can also find other companies that have their own affiliate programs. Be sure though to examine their affiliate programs so you don't get bad surprises!
You'll want a payment schedule and threshold that is fair and that you can live with. It's also great if you can have hands-on help and support as you are picking affiliates to partner with.
Those new to internet marketing can have a difficult time because they don't have a big list they can sell things to and market to. To give a good start you could consider to make a review site and through that get peoples emails by offering free ebooks and/or offering a marketing email course.
This was an easy way for me to get started and learn the basics and I think you'll find it will work for you too if you aren't already using this model.
A review site is a one page website that has a review of an affiliate product. To do this effectively you should actually purchase the product and use it and then write an original review.
Don't just rewrite a review written by somebody else. Make it as personal as possible and include your own results using the program. Your review will have much more credibility that way.
If you'd like, you can include more than one review on the page. For example, I like to have a review of my #1 favorite product in that category and then include 2-4 runner ups and include reviews for those as well.
I set a goal to create 10 of these review sites per month. It took me about 40 hours per month to create those sites. After you create one review site you have a template you can use and it goes much faster.
Then I spent about 10 hours per month marketing the older sites in the forums and other social media plus creating ad campaigns.
My expenses were $10/month for hosting for all of the sites and $8 or so for each individual domain. My marketing expenses, including purchase of the products I reviewed and ad campaigns, were $700-1000 per month.
My profit after expenses, was $4000 each month, which works out to $67 per hour. Not too many jobs pay that much money and I achieved that level in a very short time.
From here on you can grow your business, but for newbies its good to start with review sites. If you want to know more about internet marketing for newbies please visit my site
Hans Havasi is an internet marketer, musician and computer scientist. He has researched internet marketing for some years now to help him gain financial freedom so he can dedicate more of his time to pursuing his music production dreams. On his site www.wealthsecretsonline.net/superaffiliate/he will give you more secrets on how to gain financial freedom.
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