Website Design and Landing page optimization

When you think about Website design keep the target audience in mind all the way through your process. The planned layout and content should reenforce the keyword traffic you are bringing to the site. Even the site name should play a role in the site focus.

As a visitor comes to your site they may enter from a variety of traffic sources; search engines, web sites, blogs, links and web directories. All these benefit from a simple URL name for the site that matches your target keywords closely. The banner at the top works better if that same keyword focused message is repeated. This is one of your many landing pages, you can have as many targeted landing pages as you have reasonable keyword matches for the site name. Some sites stretch this, be careful you must have some way to convince both users and search engines that your site is relevant. Other sites make the mistake of assuming everyone wants to see the same generic landing page regardless of what they came looking for.

Just think about the following scenario;
If you came looking for a specific keyword match and you see a bunch of unrelated site graphics and text content, your natural response would be to exit fast thinking someone made a mistake.

Simple graphics with text re-enforcement that the web traveller has arrived at the destination they have been seeking will set their mind at ease for at least a few seconds. Those few precious seconds are all you have to go the next steps in convincing them to stay a while and look at the rest of your keyword relevant content. Once they make the jump to see what you provide matches what they want your path to Web marketing success is clear.

Keep the site contents uncluttered and easy to navigate and your visitors will thank you later.

Post Election Opportunities for Web Marketing

Wow that was some media blitz for this years Presidential election! Hundreds of millions spent just getting the names out and getting out the vote. Much of this happened right on the Web using the very Web Marketing methods we talk about.

It does not matter who you were for or against, Obama/Biden(578 Million$ spent) or McCain/Palin(293 Million$ spent.)* At over a billion dollars raised for advertising, much of it on the internet. The impact of Web influence is staggering.

You too can wield your own ad copy and influence people the world over to take a position or buy a product. People will pay you to do that. Capitalism at its best.

When employing these methods you must make sure the outcome is really what you want. the power is in the message (or ad copy.)

* see - http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/index.php

Internet Marketing and the Recession of 2008

What to do when the economy bites the dust…

We all know that the world economy has had a series of seizures lately, and if it continues to decline, there will be a deep recession. People are losing their jobs; they may not have a source of income for some time, and because of this they will not be able to make ends meet.

As the economy crashes, what are you going to do? Do you have a game plan that you can resort to when things get bad? Give it some thought and make a mitigation plan. The risk is real for each of us.

It’s a trick question. We all should have a plan to guide us as we go through with our life, at all times. This way we can be ready for anything that gets thrown at us. Think of football. Does either team just rush out there without having some sort of strategy? Of course not, when you play football, you have a strategy for just about anything that could happen on the playing field. That is how our lives should be.

We should be prepared for anything in life, and have a strategy for whatever could happen.
Always be open for opportunity. In times like a recession, opportunity is everywhere. Just the margins are smaller.

That brings me back to the topic of web marketing. One major difference between 1929 and now is the Web. Looking at 1929 there were those who suffered and those who learned and came back stronger. One of those was a company called General Motors. Like the newly standardized automobile that had finally shown promise to really replace the horse and buggy the Web has now achieved a standard and popularity worldwide. If you master marketing on the Web this recession presents a huge opportunity instead of a barrier to you. Again the choice is yours.

With Web Marketing you can add value anywhere there is a market opportunity. People will pay for that value, even in a down market. Where else can you open a new store while keeping your other product lines going? Keep in mind the budget will be tight, but the job is still there. Think about starting small and working to independence from a paid job. You will work for yourself and set you own goals.

In this downturn can you afford to wait until it’s too late? Keep in mind, while you have a job you can leverage your current income into a future that you have control over. If cars stop selling maybe horses and buggies will make a comeback. Become an affiliate-marketer for the Pony Express!

Newsletters and Autoresponders in Web Marketing

One of the most useful tools to work with in building a web marketing campaign is an "Auto responder." This is an automated email handler that will take a person's email signup and process it for a series of relevant marketing email messages you may send. An example of this is found at AWeber Communications .

The handler will also keep you legal with respect to anti-spam laws for example, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. You are required to allow a person to opt-in and opt-out or un subscribe as they wish. Having all this automated is crucial to your marketing effort for two reasons. First, you don't waste time sending and tracking all the individual information and second, equally important you respond immediately to your customers wishes.

Once the auto-responder is set up you can now begin a newsletter campaign to inform them of new information about your site, the market topic or any special sale offers you may have including links (if they are allowed by your TOS with the marketer being linked to.)

Newsletters are best if they really are news related to what the person first signed up for. Stick to the relevant topics and your customer will appreciate you. Send a link to a useful free e-book or diagram and they will appreciate you even more. Later you can offer the full set for a special discount!

You get the idea. Your emails should have very catchy and interesting subject lines so they don't get caught up in the spam filter. This is your pitch line. Keep it short and drive their interest.

A good subject line must Grab Their Attention, for example;

• "Simpleton Web-Marketer Strikes Gold, Read!"
• "Newbie Web Marketer Strikes It Rich, Virtual Gold Mine Found."
• "Click Farmers Cause Massive Cave In, Virtual Gold Mine Found."
• "Batter Up! (tm) Cook-e-Books Now Has New Holiday Recipes!"

You should always evaluate different A-B test variations of these for best performance marketing. Track results and repeat to get even more sales or traffic or whatever...

In the body of the email, remember to put relevant content and related links or product references. This is where you build return traffic.

Remember, thank your customer, and they will come back!

Selling with Free E-Books

Here's a trick that works to drive traffic and generate better profits.

Simply create or obtain the rights to an e-book that you can give away. Make sure you have the right to give it away. Then embed links to your website on which you have more related items, either e-books or sales offers. Note: it is important to have related sales offers as you are working on converting an intersted reader to buy the related product. This is called an up sell or cross sale depending if it is the same type of product or something related to the original e-book content.

Now you may want to give a couple of e-books just in case they are interested in reading your material but not sure about your products yet. After a few of these helpful books they will be much more trusting and willing to consider your other offers. Respect their interest and they will return.

Let's look at a simple example;

Let's say you supply an E-Book on introductory to digital photography. In it you give the basics about what photography is about. Information on; lighting, tricks to frame pictures, stop action vs. blur action, etc. Now your free market offering is about ready. Set up a good web site with affiliate offers for cameras and books on photography (Especially gorgeous coffee table books.)

Now you set another related article or two in short e-book form on the site and viola! The site should have some unique quality camera work of you own or get someone to supply you with it. That adds a unique touch and shows that you (or someone you are working with) know your stuff. Now let the email marketing and web links to free info on photography begin!

Now the E-book may extoll the virtues of some piece of camera gear or a camera you like and you have a built in pitch. Not too much sales pitch though, try to supply more help than pressure. Think of how you would like to be treated. A good book or series of articles are worth the time spent. If I learn valuable insight I will come back for more.