dubdesign.co.uk

Sharing knowledge on the web can be a very powerful way to establish your online presence and credibility. First, you write a thoughtful and informative article on an topic in your area of expertise. Then you submit it to e-zines to be read by the general public and possibly re-published on other web sites. Appended to the end of your article is a resource box containing a brief promotional message linking to your web site. Webmasters who wish to reprint your article on their sites are required to include your resource box along with any live links to your site. For example, an article written by me might have the following resource box: Article by Oudam Em. Oudam is the publisher of ArticleWorld.net, www.articleworld.net, a free online article directory.  Oudam is also the webmaster of many other web sites, including WebLaunch, www click here .nexcomp.com/weblaunch, and SiteSeek.net, www.siteseek.net. The benefit that you get from your article is two-fold. First, your article will be read by visitors to the e-zine site. If they find it helpful and interesting, they will likely visit your web site to see what else you had to offer. Second, webmasters who find your article useful to their visitors may re-publish it on their sites, giving your article additional exposure. Every time your article is re-published on a web site, you gain an additional one-way link to your site through the live link in your resource box. This adds to your link popularity and ultimately increases your search engine rankings.  As you can see, the true potential of your article lies in its ability to propagate virally in cyberspace. For your article to propagate virally, it should appeal to both readers and webmasters alike. Keep in mind that your goal is hold your readers' attention long enough for them to get to the  resource box.  If your article is boring and uninformative, few people will read it beyond the first or second paragraph. Below are some pointers to consider when writing an article: 1. Give your article a catchy title. Your title is the first and often the only thing that visitors see when they skim through a list of articles on an e-zine page. Put some thought into coming up with a title that grabs the reader's attention right away. Words like “Secrets”, “Free”, and “Successful” tend to attract more attention than others. 2. Your article should not read like an ad. Most people read articles to find information they can use, not to see a pitch about your products or services.  If they see your article as nothing more than a shameless act of self promotion, they'll get turned off and hit the “Back” button right away.  Put yourself in the reader's shoes. What benefits do you want to get out of reading an article?  Cater to your reader's  interests rather than your own. 3. Offer lots of free, useful information. Following on the last tip, keep in mind that your readers are looking for specific “how-to” instructions to help them achieve a certain goal.  Offer lots of tangible information that is immediately useful to them. Do not lead them through hoops just to get to an order form for a $29.95 “Make $50,000 in 30 Days or Your Money Back!” e-book. 4) Avoid gimmicks. While it may be true that a sucker is born every minute, most internet users are sophisticated enough to tell what's legitimate and what's not. Write with the intention of offering something substantial to the reader. Be honest and forthright. Your article should not cause the reader to think, “What is this guy trying to sell me?” 5) Be succinct. Get to the point quickly, preferably in the first or second paragraph. Avoid lengthy paragraphs. Use lots of white space to separate your paragraphs to make them easier to read. 6) Your article should not be too short. Certainly, it's possible to write a good article packed with useful information using just a couple hundred words. If your article is too short, however, some webmasters may feel hesitant to reprint it on their sites. They may, instead, borrow your ideas and write their own articles, gaining authorship without having to give you credit for your ideas. How long should your article be?  I suggest at least 500 words, preferably longer.  Longer articles give webmasters the impression that you have put some time and effort into your work and, thus, are deserving of being reprinted on their sites. 7) Use live (clickable) links in your resource box. Many e-zines permit clickable links in  resource boxes. Yet, many authors forgo this privilege by simply spelling out their URLs. Whenever permitted, you should spell out your URL as well as make it clickable (e.g. http://www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch). The advantages of a clickable URL are, (1) readers can go to your site simply by clicking on it,  and more importantly, (2) search engines will be able to record the ezine page containing your article as a link your web site, adding to your link popularity and search engine rankings. Avoid hyping in your resource box. Your resource box, while promotional in nature, should be brief and tasteful. The purpose of your resource box is not to sell your readers something, but to lead them to your website which does the actual selling. Your resource box should contain your name, your company name, a brief description of your products or services, your web site's URL, and a clickable link to your site. 9) Put some thought and effort into your writing. E-zines have varying standards for accepting articles, and some accept and publish all submissions without any human review at all. However, this does not mean you should write an article just for sake of having it published somewhere. If your article comes off as half-baked, readers may make a similar assumption about you and your business practices. 10) Submit your article to as many e-zines as feasible. There are dozens of e-zines on the web that welcome submissions from independent authors. Ideally, you'd want your article to be exposed on as many of them as you can. But it takes time to register and submit to each one of them. Therefore, I recommend that you submit to only a handful of the more popular ones. Below is a list of e-zines along with their Google PageRanks (PR). The higher the PR of an e-zine, the greater its online visibility. Amazines - www.amazines.com - PR4Articles411 - www.articles411.com - PR0Article Alley - www.articlealley.com - PR5Article City - www.articlecity.com - PR6 Article Emporium - www.article-emporium.com - PR4Articles Factory - www.articlesfactory.com - PR5 Article Finders - www.articlefinders.com - PR5ArticleSubmissions.com - www.articlesubmissions.com - PR3ArticleWarehouse - www.articlewarehouse.com - PR4 ArticleWorld.net - www.articleworld all-carlisle.co.uk .net - PR4AuthorConnection.com - www.authorconnection.com - PR5 Business Know-How - www.businessknowhow.com - pr6BusinessToolchest.com - www.businesstoolchest.com - pr3 Buzzle.com - www.buzzle.com - PR6 Common Connections - www.commonconnections.com - PR3 Connectionteam.com - www.connectionteam.com - PR3 Constant Content - www.constant-content.com - PR6 Createonlinebusiness.com - www.createonlinebusiness.com - PR3 Digital Women.com - www.digital-women.com/submitarticle.htm - PR5 Ezine Articles - www.ezinearticles.com - PR7Family-Content.com - www.family-content.com/articles - PR4Free Content - www.certificate.net/wwio - PR5 FreeTrafficTip.com - www.freetraffictip.com - PR4FreeZineSite.com - www.freezinesite.com - PR2 Fresh-Articles.com - www.fresh-articles.com - PR3 GoArticles.com - www.goarticles.com - PR6 Home-Business-Directory.com - www.home-business-directory.com - PR3Home Based-business Opportunities - www.home-based- business-opportunities.com - pr5Home business Tips Newsletter - www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com - PR3HowToAdvice.com - www.howtoadvice.com - PR4 IdeaMarketers.com - www.ideamarketers.com - PR5 isnare.com - www.isnare.com PR5 Jogena's - www.jogena.com - PR4 jorbins.com - www.jorbins.com - PR5 Li'l Engine - www.lilengine.com - PR7 LinkSnoop.com - www.linksnoop.com - PR3 Main Street Mom - www.mainstreetmom.com - PR5 Marketing PitBull - www.marketingpitbull.com - PR2 NetterWeb.com - www.netterweb.com - PR4 OpportunityUpdate.com - OpportunityUpdate.com - PR3 Organic-Rankings.com - www.organic-rankings.com - PR3PromoteNewz.com - www.promotenewz.com -PR4 PromotionWorld.com/articles.html - www.promotionworld.com -PR4 Sales Masters World - www.sales-masters-world.com - PR5 SearchWarp.com - www.searchwarp.com -PR4SmartAds.info - www.smartads.info/articles - PR4StoreBuilder.co.uk - www.storebuilder.co.uk - PR4  T & I Grafix - www.tigrafix.com/articles.htm - PR3 TheEzine.net - www.theezine.net - PR4Top-Web-Marketing.com - www.top-web-marketing.com/article - PR3 Web Host Industry Review - www.thewhir.com/find/articlecentral - PR5 UniTerra.com - uniterra.com -PR3 upromote.com - www.upromote.com - PR3 The Warrior Forum - www.warriorforum.com/forum - PR4Web Host Industry Review - www.thewhir.com/find/articlecentral - PR5WebMomz.com - www.webmomz.com - PR3 WebProNews.com - www.webpronews.com - PR7 WebsiteFuel.com - www.websitefuel.com - PR3 website-promotion-ranking-services.com - www.website-promotion-ranking-services.com/article.htm - PR4Web-Source.net - www.web-source.net -PR6Womans-Net - womans-netnews.com - PR4 WorkAtHomeArticles.net - www.workathomearticles.net -PR3Work-at-Home-Jobs-Iowa.com - www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com -PR3 Work911.com - www.work911.com - PR4Xongoo.com - www.xongoo.com - PR6 zinos.com - www.zinos.com -PR6 Article by Oudam Em. Oudam is the publisher of ArticleWorld.net, www.articleworld.net, a free online article directory.  Oudam is also the webmaster of many other web sites, including WebLaunch, www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch, and SiteSeek.net, www.siteseek.net.

.

To put it simply, the act of meditation involves quieting the mind so you can open the heart. That's it in a nutshell. We often believe our hearts are open and we can feel much of what is going on in our lives. Yet to truly open the heart means we have to stop the thinking, the judging, the opinions, the analyzing, the questioning, the doubting, and just love. It's all that unconditional stuff. The act of doing this, takes practice and patience. Learning to meditate means learning to love. To love our self. To love all others. To love the oneness of all. To love more. The connection you feel when you ?plug in' to this oneness is the most irresistible state of love you will ever feel. Makes it sound like it's worth the effort doesn't it? Maybe you've had glimpses of this - moments when you felt it, and your heart expanded. The beauty of nature in a spectacular sunset or a magnificent rushing waterfall, a child's innocent embrace, a long awaited accomplishment, an exhilarating sport or excursion, being with the one you love. These can make you 'feel' in the biggest sense of the word. And the feeling can be described as wonderfully peaceful, coupled with a glorious uplifting, a lightening up of the heart. What these experiences all have in common is an external factor all-woking.co.uk . Something had to be there, something had to be seen, in order to involve our senses business . These 'things' serve to trigger this feeling. Meditation serves the same purpose. It teaches you to connect with this feeling all on your own, without any outside stimuli. The source of that loving feeling is always within you. But what happens most often is that you don't know how to access it on our own. You wait for the triggers, look for the triggers, and in fact even seek out the triggers, because you believe they are the source. When you quiet your mind, you are closing down the outside stimuli. You are holding the mirror up to yourself, deep within yourself, and waiting to see/feel the love. It's there, but the practice is necessary to learn to wait quietly, build patience, and stroke and nurture your loving heart. Most of us have shy hearts and loud minds, and meditation serves to reverse this so we can truly feel the bliss and the joy and the 'highs 'we so crave in our lives. Now, meditation can be made to be much more complicated than what I have described. There are countless books, tapes, courses and workshops that deal with the core principles of meditation, and then expand upon them. They go into many, many aspects, avenues, theories, understandings, types, etc. It can be quite overwhelming for the beginner. But it's perfect for the intermediate student of meditation. When you are beginning, the less said the better. Keeping it simple is very important, because the process of meditation is so simple. If it's not working, or if you want to know more about it, or you are ready to know more about it, then by all means read, study, learn. It's like taking the same route to the supermarket every day and then finding out there are other ways of getting there, other roads that lead there, other journeys you can take. Study and practice of meditation has the potential to open up many layers of your heart. Everything in your life therefore opens up with it. Relationships bloom, work purpose is found, vibrant health is allowed, because love affects your belief system, your attitudes, your choices. Anger dissolves before it ever manifests, frustration mellows out, the pit of sadness and depression are filled up like never before. These are the promises of meditation. These are the long-term rewards. But in the beginning, meditation is simply quieting your mind so you can open your heart. © 2004 Christopher Stewart Christopher Stewart is a Medical Intuitive assisting others in their healing process. His work is compassionate, uplifting and empowering. You can visit Christopher?s website at http://www.clairvoyantguide.com for further information and to schedule a private consultation. You can also look for frequent updates to his blog at: http://intuitiveliving.blogspot.com/ Publisher's Guidelines: You may freely publish this article online, in email newsletters, or in print so long as the resource box and byline are in tact. Author would appreciate a notification, however that is optional.

.

Have you ever wondered why that girl from the bar never called you back? The conversation came easy, the drinks were flowing, you could feel the chemistry, and you were dressed to kill?or were you?Your mother always told you that you only get one chance to make a first impression and first impressions can make or break you. Women look at every last detail, from your tasseled shoes to the amount of goop you have in your hair. Be honest guys, women aren?t the only ones who try on five different outfits before deciding what to wear for a night out on the town. And it is perfectly normal. But how do you know which outfit is the right one to impress the girl on your first date? Let me take you through it step by step. Clothes aren?t the only thing a woman looks at when you?re dressing to impress; it?s the whole package. Fortunately or not, the outside is what she sees first. What you see is sometimes what you get. So what do you wear? Out with the Old?Rule number one is: don?t under dress. Guys have a tendency to pull on a pair of pants and the first shirt they find and head out the door. You have to look put-together, like some sort of effort was made for her. So take those ratty, old tennis shoes and toss ?em! Take your t-shirts with big, loud prints and forget about them! And yes, women think carpenters are sexy but that doesn?t give you the green light to wear your paint-stained jeans. The solution is simple. Ask a friend (male or female) over the day of your big date. Not only will they help calm your nerves but they?ll also give you their honest opinion on your chosen outfit. Second, an iron can also be a man?s best friend. You?d be surprised what a little pressing can do to change your look. Finally, don?t rush! There?s nothing wrong with taking an extra half hour to prepare. If you take the time to get ready, your date will take the time to notice. ?In with the NewSo while the first rule might seem simple enough, some guys might take it too far, which brings us to rule number two: don?t overdress. We don?t expect you to know all the latest fashion trends of the day and we don?t expect you to follow them either. This second rule doesn?t only deal with being a label whore but also with men going overboard; that is to say those men don?t know when enough is enough. While some guys take a shirt, smell it and decide whether or not it is clean, others think their shirt has to say Hugo Boss, Armani, or Ralph Lauren to look good. So let?s make your sweater selection. Stay away from Grandma?s knitted birthday gift and nipple shirts. The former screams little kid while the latter leaves nothing to the imagination. The tight shirt may not be an option if you?re not comfortable enough with your body, but if you are physically fit, why not let the woman imagine what?s under there to maintain an element of mystery. You can?t go wrong with a button shirt, leaving the first couple of buttons at the top undone. It?s casual, comfortable, and classic. A Dab Will Do You.Do you remember the last time you were walking down the street and almost got whiplash because someone passed by you with an overwhelming smell? Our sense of smell is one of our most powerful senses, which leads us to rule number three: always remember to smell good. Some smells take us back to childhood and others remind us of something very specific. The same applies to your cologne. But why is cologne used in the first place? Its purpose is twofold: it becomes your ?signature? and the sense of smell is heightened when things start getting hot and heavy. Again, less is more. No need to drown yourself with the stuff, keep in mind that when it comes to cologne, a little goes a long way. The best places to apply your signature are the inside of your wrists, your neck, and even your chest. Attention to DetailSometimes it?s the little things that make a difference and rule number four reminds you to pay attention to detail. We all know women have an eye for the minute and the slightest thing can turn us off. So the solution is simple boys, don?t overlook the small stuff. Just like women like carpenters, some women also think scruffy is sexy, but on your first date, go with the clean shaven look to be safe. And not only are you going to brush your teeth, you?re also going to break out the dental floss for this one just to be extra safe. Make sure your hair is neat and doesn?t hold an entire bottle of product in it click here . Remember to clean those nails. You may look like a man?s man with dirty nails, but it?s a turn off for women. Finally, keep the accessories to a minimum. You can wear your watch and necklace or a ring but that?s it. If you?re wearing more jewelry than your date then we could have a problem!Of course, not all women are the same but most will agree that less is more when making a good first impression. So remember the four simple rules: don?t dress like you?re going to watch the game at a buddy?s house or like you?re about to walk down the runway; smell great and put in the effort to care of the details. You?re sure to have plenty of second, third, and fourth dates! Marisa Pellegrino is freelance journalist and a writer for a Montreal radio show called Passion, a program about dating, relationships, and sex. She is also the writer/webmaster for Dating Ideas (www.dating-idea.com) a website with advice about dating and relationships click here .

.

You have all read them, offline anyway, in papers, magazines and journals among other places. Well online classified ads work the same way. You write a headline, description and post some contact details for potential buyers to get in touch with you. Offline classifieds would direct people to a phone number while online classified ads would contain your URL and an email address. Offline you'll have to pay for almost all classifieds you post, however online there are thousands of free sites which will allow you to post your ad and of course there are plenty of low-cost sites which will also except your ad. Apart from the fact you can get free classifieds online, online ads have a few advantages compared to offline ones business . The Internet has a much much larger audience than your local or national newspaper has so more people can potentially see your ad and act upon it. You can post your ads online and you could have feedback and sales within a very short time as usually people just have to click on your URL for more info rather than make a phone call or send a letter. Ads that are placed online are much cheaper than their offline counterparts, this is because space is not tight on the Internet as it is in a magazine or newspaper. A user looking for a particular product can usually perform a search for a particular word or phrase from the classified ad site whereas offline people have to manually scan through the different categories. A disadvantage of online classified ads to the webmaster is that it can be quite time consuming to do especially if you want any sort of success with them, which you obviously do. However many good pieces of software are becoming available which can automatically submit your ad to lots of these sites, they aren't cheap but if you're interested try doing a search for 'classified ad software' or something similar on Google.com or Yahoo.com. Let's get on to the good part, how to make the most out of posting to classified ads. Stay specific, always post to the most appropriate category or categories there are, this way you'll be posting to an area where people will actually be interested in your product, this is vital all-maidenhead.co.uk . Remember especially with free classified sites that a lot of other webmasters will be trying to promote their products and websites with ads too so you'll have to repost your ad regularly to stay near the top of the bunch, nobody will even see your ad if it's at the bottom of another 50 ads, will they? Now on to the actual copy of your ad, since few classified sites allow you to post graphics you'll have to rely on your headline to grab the attention of the people scanning the ads in front of them. You can do this by using words like 'free', 'secrets', 'how-to' and other words which will make them curious to find out more. If you can, include your keywords in your headline as some classified sites will use the headline as the link to your site this in turn will help you when the search engines examine your link popularity. Always target your market, if you sell a product for webmasters mention 'webmasters' in the headline and body, next you should mention what your product will do for them (i.e. the benefits of it. - how will it make their life easier). I have read this in numerous places and now you're going to read it too, the idea with classified ads is to generate interest and not to actually sell anything there and then, that's far to hard to do, you want to get the reader wanting more information and you should give this to them through your website or autoresponder. This is why your ad body should always be short, concise and to the point, a big long page sales letter will scare people off. Follow the above few tips and you should see some results, before you go I want to put this to you. Which is better paid or free classifieds? Well for me paid classifieds have always produced much better results, I think this is because advertising in “Free Classified Sites” has now become an almost automated task which means not many people actually visit and respond to classified ads. Submission spiders are wonderful creatures but aren't often interested in clicking on your well-crafted classified ad. Two of the best places where you can place fee based ads which do bring results are AOL.com and Yahoo.com. Good luck!Article by David Callan. David is an Internet marketing professional and webmaster of AKA Marketing.com webmaster forums. Visit his webmaster forums for the latest discussions on search engines, website authoring and Internet marketing related issues and topics.

.

If you?ve been getting caught up in all this talk of RSS versus email, its time to stop wondering.Marketing Sherpa just posted a new report that stirred up the old RSS vs Email debate again business . http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2988The report starts out by stating, ?It chills our blood when we hear email marketers and publishers blithely state, ?I?m thinking about switching over to RSS entirely!? Oh no. Please don?t. RSS is worthy of testing, but it?s not an email replacement and it never will be.?A report in Jupitermedia titled ?E-Mail Marketing: Alive and Well? notes, ?RSS won't be immediately effective as an alternative to e-mail marketing. (But) for some companies (primarily publishers who cater to a technical audience), it's sensible to press forward with RSS now as a supplement to e-mail marketing.? http://www.jupiterresearch.com/bin/item.pl/research:concept/1103/id=96103/A lot of people think this debate has been going on for long enough. RSS is NOT a replacement for email. It does not (and may never) rival the marketing reach and immediacy of an email message.Those who?ve been mourning the death of email marketing don?t seem to ?get? the fact that RSS hasn't reached the tipping point yet. More people read email than RSS feeds ? many more.I believe that a smart publisher or marketer must use both - Email and RSS. Its not an either/or question. I know for a fact that my blogs get read more when I send out an email with a ?blog post roundup.? I personally prefer email and tend to read those blogs more frequently that use email notification. But the news is not all good for email marketing. According to DoubleClick, 64.7% of all legitimate email being sent (based on their own customers' stats) is never opened. Email delivery is cited as the #1 email marketing headache.The good news is that email marketing has a terrific Return on Investment (ROI) bringing in $15.50 per dollar spent on a campaign according a report in Email Sherpa. http://www.emailsherpa.com/emailblog.cfm?ID=360That $15.50 per email-marketing dollar spent is roughly 17% more than in direct-mail campaigns and 73% more than telemarketing campaigns all-glasgow.co.uk .eMarketer reports that email is still a powerful marketing tool if used well in a new report, “Email Marketing: How to Improve ROI.” http://www.emarketer.com/article.aspx?1003369Some points it notes: · 71 percent of US online advertisers used email marketing in 2004, while 77 percent using paid search. · Despite spam and email overload 45 percent see email as a good way for companies to stay in touch with customers. · Customer retention and increased loyalty is the main objective for email marketing among 63 percent of surveyed marketers · 62 percent also see email as a way to acquire new customers. · Email volume in the US is expected to rise from over 2 trillion message this year to nearly 2.7 trillion by 2007. Even though both email spam and email delivery are on the rise, end-users are getting used to spam and it's bothering them less than it used to.The Marketing Sherpa report also notes that 91% of US Internet users use email on a regular basis, while roughly 4% use RSS feeds on any sort of basis at all. It suggests that publishers do test RSS, but recommends that they not treat RSS as ?shovelware for email content? because it is a new medium. Other disadvantages it notes for RSS publishers is the challenge of metrics. ?No deliverability, open rates, hard vs soft bounces. No a/b tests, no usability tests, no offer tests, no recency/frequency tests, and multivariable testing?”"The kind of data that marketers and publishers rely on to make business, content, and marketing decisions for email campaigns is almost entirely lacking for RSS at this time,? says the report.So if you?re wondering what you should publish - a blog or an email newsletter - I suggest you do both. Or at least publish a blog with email notification built in. Remember, your list is still your most valuable asset online.Keep either Email or RSS out of your marketing toolbox and you?re losing out on a significant portion of your audience. RSS has other advantages that email does not have - like being able to syndicate your content across the web. It can be a very useful tool for building link popularity - if you do it right.As a marketer you do need to start brushing up on your knowledge of RSS and a good place to start is here. http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/rss-blogging.htm Priya Shah is the CEO of eBrand360. She writes the Marketing Slave blog and publishes an internet marketing newsletter.This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.

.

How it fits into your Internet marketing strategyIan Lurie, Portent Interactive, Seattle, WADecember 29, 2003Pay-per-click marketing is a great way to get visitors when you need traffic and you need it now. But it's risky: You can spend a fortune, generate many visits, and end up with nothing to show for it. This article will provide you with a high-level view of pay per click marketing, provide some general strategies and provide an example of what to do, and what not to do.What is Pay-Per-Click Advertising?On its face, pay-per-click marketing, or PPC, is pretty simple: Search engines and services, such as Google or Overture, provide listings on a per-bid basis. This is in addition to their 'natural' search results, which are still powered by a combination of keywords found on your site, link popularity and other formulae. If you place the highest bid for a specific keyword or set of keywords, then you rank number one in these paid listings. On Google, , PPC listings show up in the Adwords column on the right-hand side of the screen all-taunton.co.uk . Other engines, such as MSNSearch or Yahoo, display P P C listings as 'sponsored listings' in the same column as the natural search results.If someone clicks on your PPC listing, they arrive at your web site. And you are charged the amount you bid. So, if you bid $.15 per click on 'widgets', and that's the highest bid, you'll show up first in line. If 100 people click on your P P C listing, then the search engine or PPC service will charge you $15.00. Why PPC Advertising is BadBut PPC advertising can cost a fortune. It's easy to get caught up in a bidding war over a particular keyphrase and end up spending far more than your potential return. Some PPC engines, such as Overture, offer convenience features such as 'autobid' that will automatically increase your bid amount to maintain a particular rank. That sounds great on its face, but it can get expensive in a big hurry.Also, ROI can be very hard to measure. Some PPC engines (Adwords and Overture, specifically) provide conversion measurement tools, so that you can track whether your pay-per-click campaigns are generating the desired result. But these tracking tools aren't 100% accurate, and at the time of this writing the smaller PPC providers don't deliver any conversion tracking.And watch out for junk traffic. Most pay-per-click services distribute a segment of their results to several search engines. While you certainly want your listing displayed on Yahoo, AOLSearch and MSN, you may not want your listings showing up and generating clicks from some of the deeper, darker corners of the Internet. The resulting traffic may look good in statistics reports but is very unlikely to generate a return.Finally, pay-per-click advertising does not scale all-derby.co.uk . If you get more traffic, you pay more money in direct proportion to that traffic - your cost per click stays constant, and your overall cost increases. Compare that to natural search engine optimization, where you invest a fixed amount of time and/or money to achieve a better rank, and your cost per click goes down as you draw more traffic. Why PPC is GoodPay-per-click advertising can generate traffic right away. It's simple: If you spend enough, you can get top placement, and potential customers will see you first. If folks are searching for the keyphrases on which you bid and you've placed a well-written ad, you will get clicks the moment the ad is activated.So PPC advertising is fast: With some systems, such as Google Adwords, you can generate targeted traffic within a few minutes of opening an account.PPC advertising is also nimble: Where natural search engine marketing or other forms of advertising can lag weeks or months behind changing audience behavior, you can adjust most pay-per-click campaigns in hours or days. That provides unmatched ability to adjust to market conditions.PPC can also be a bargain: Sometimes, you can find keyword 'niches' for which the top bid is around $.10 - in that case, PPC is a great option, because you can generate traffic to your site for a fraction of the cost of any other form of paid advertising.So, balancing the good and the bad, where does PPC fit in? As a focused advertising tool.  The Role of PPC AdvertisingMost businesses can't afford to solely rely on PPC advertising. It's too expensive, and bid amounts inevitably climb. But pay-per-click can fill a few important roles: Campaign- and issue-based traffic: If you have a short-term campaign for a new product, service or special issue, pay-per-click can be a great way to generate buzz. You can start a pay-per-click campaign within, at most, 24-48 hours, and you can generally change the text of your ad in mid-campaign, so adjusting your message is easy. If you need to focus attention for a finite amount of time, PPC is perfect. Direct-response business: If you sell a product or offer a service that folks can purchase the moment they arrive at your web site, pay-per-click is a great tool. Online stores are a great example: You know that each click generated is a real potential customer, so spending money to increase the number of clicks makes sense. Niche terms: If you are trying to generate traffic for a highly specific keyphrase, PPC can often provide bargains. For example, you might not want to pay the top bid for 'bicycles', but 'Landshark Bicycles' is probably a lot less expensive ($.10 per click as of this writing, actually). The overall rule of thumb? Focus, focus, focus. Natural search engine optimization is a PR-based, long-term attempt to grow your brand and image. Pay-per-click advertising, however, should be handled like any other form of paid advertising: Gingerly, and with a clear, quantifiable short- or medium-term goal in mind. In other words, concentrate on conversions, not clicks.

.

Last time (AdWords Article) I talked about AdWords and how to make a killer AdWords Campaign. This article will show you when and why to use Overture and how to get the most bang for your buck.I highly recommend using these two PPC engines together… Both have advantages and disadvantages and really compliment each other well. I have found that I get very similar amounts of traffic from each for the most part, but the type of traffic is very different. Basically, I use Google for the “Main Industry Keywords”, i.e. the more expensive keywords. I try to list in the top 5 for these keyword in Google and do that by using the tips given in the last tutorial. I will alway list my sites for these keywords in Overture also, but I will only list them highly if they are affordable, which varies by industry.Overture Advantages1. You know your price. Unlike Google, Overture is based 100% on how much you are willing to spend. You know exactly where your ads will showup the first day you start your campaign and you can check them every day and tweak your cost to move up or down in the rankings.2. You can be more selective with your ads. Unlike Google, you don't have to worry much about your CTR. Overture will turn you off if it is horrible (or so I am told) but I have never had any turned off. This means you can really “pre-sell” your product or service from the ad, rather than just trying to get them to come to your site to keep your CTR above .05%. This means you can add the price of your product, etc. so they know EXACTLY what they are getting into before coming to your site. If they won't be interested, they won't click. This will save you money! Warning: Try this out, but don't oversell everything… some people need to get to your site and see your killer copy, promotional text, demos, and testimonials before they will buy!3. Overture always shows “Exact Matches” over “Broad Matches”. This means if you have a very specific keyword that you are paying just 10c for… and someone else is paying $1 for a more broad match your results will come up first. This give you incentive to find LOTS of keywords and customize ads for each one.Overture Disadvantages1. Usually more expensive, especially for the top keywords, and also the starting cost (10c rather than 5c for AdWords). This can be a substantial difference with the higher priced keywords, so often times I will list where my budget suggests rather than for position. 2. You have to do more research to get bargins and keep overall costs low. Like I said before, you can get great deals on specific keywords… you just have to find them all and write ads for each one… this is time consuming and sometimes difficult, but worth the effort.3. No “discount”. Unlike Google, your ads are only based on price business . For marketing managers who need to know exactly how much they are spending, this is the PPC Engine for them… Therefore, most large companies eat up Overtures top keywords with $10,000+/month budgets. It can be a tough place for a budget of $300/month but you can still get results. Overture Tips1. Write an Ad for EVERY Keyword. Don't be lazy. Take the time and do this right. No one has every made their millions by taking the shortcut.2. Use the Keyword that the add is for in EVERY AD. Yahoo's Engine BOLDS your keyword to make it stand out. I just see that MSN now LINKS your Keyword in every Ad! This means you get more chances for your ad to be clicked if you put your keyword in the ad. This is another reason you need to write an ad for every keyword!3. You get a little more room and flexibility in writing your Overture ads. You aren't tied in to that 3 line box like AdWords has. BUT it is VERY IMPORTANT to say what you mean at the BEGINNING. Many of the users of Overture CUT OFF YOUR ADS and put a …. If you wait till the end to say what you are selling, it might get cut off. 4. If you are in the top 5 positions, you get a little bonus. For Yahoo's Engine, you get listed TWICE on the homepage if you are in positions 3-5. You will get listed on the SIDE and AT THE BOTTOM. Check it out! The ads are the same for 3-5 as the very bottom under the results click here . This used to be the same on MSN, but they are now repeating ads 1-3 AT THE TOP and AT THE BOTTOM. Therefore if you are not in 1-5, you are missing out on FREE exposure.5. Check, Check, Check, Monitor, Check, Monitor, Check. Don't create your Overture account and then leave it. You should go in at least once a week and make sure you are still in the position you want to be. You need to check your competitors and see what they are doing. You need to write down every time you think of a new keyword and add it to your campaign. Every time you launch a new product/service, tweak the ads that need to reflect it. 6. Be creative! Make Overture ads for Specials you are running on a product. Are you offering Free Shipping? Tell them in the overture ad! Are you giving away a prize? Promote it! Use it for things that no one else is!Kobesent Solutions ..:.. Internet Marketing and Promotionswww.Kobescent.comKyle@Kobescent.com

.

Have you ever wondered why that girl from the bar never called you back? The conversation came easy, the drinks were flowing, you could feel the chemistry, and you were dressed to kill?or were you?Your mother always told you that you only get one chance to make a first impression and first impressions can make or break you. Women look at every last detail, from your tasseled shoes to the amount of goop you have in your hair. Be honest guys, women aren?t the only ones who try on five different outfits before deciding what to wear for a night out on the town. And it is perfectly normal. But how do you know which outfit is the right one to impress the girl on your first date? Let me take you through it step by step. Clothes aren?t the only thing a woman looks at when you?re dressing to impress; it?s the whole package. Fortunately or not, the outside is what she sees first. What you see is sometimes what you get. So what do you wear? Out with the Old?Rule number one is: don?t under dress. Guys have a tendency to pull on a pair of pants and the first shirt they find and head out the door. You have to look put-together, like some sort of effort was made for her all-peterborough.co.uk . So take those ratty, old tennis shoes and toss ?em! Take your t-shirts with big, loud prints and forget about them! And yes, women think carpenters are sexy but that doesn?t give you the green light to wear your paint-stained jeans. The solution is simple. Ask a friend (male or female) over the day of your big date. Not only will they help calm your nerves but they?ll also give you their honest opinion on your chosen outfit. Second, an iron can also be a man?s best friend. You?d be surprised what a little pressing can do to change your look. Finally, don?t rush! There?s nothing wrong with taking an extra half hour to prepare. If you take the time to get ready, your date will take the time to notice. ?In with the NewSo while the first rule might seem simple enough, some guys might take it too far, which brings us to rule number two: don?t overdress. We don?t expect you to know all the latest fashion trends of the day and we don?t expect you to follow them either. This second rule doesn?t only deal with being a label whore but also with men going overboard; that is to say those men don?t know when enough is enough. While some guys take a shirt, smell it and decide whether or not it is clean, others think their shirt has to say Hugo Boss, Armani, or Ralph Lauren to look good. So let?s make your sweater selection. Stay away from Grandma?s knitted birthday gift and nipple shirts. The former screams little kid while the latter leaves nothing to the imagination. The tight shirt may not be an option if you?re not comfortable enough with your body, but if you are physically fit, why not let the woman imagine what?s under there to maintain an element of mystery. You can?t go wrong with a button shirt, leaving the first couple of buttons at the top undone. It?s casual, comfortable, and classic. A Dab Will Do You.Do you remember the last time you were walking down the street and almost got whiplash because someone passed by you with an overwhelming smell? Our sense of smell is one of our most powerful senses, which leads us to rule number three: always remember to smell good business . Some smells take us back to childhood and others remind us of something very specific. The same applies to your cologne. But why is cologne used in the first place? Its purpose is twofold: it becomes your ?signature? and the sense of smell is heightened when things start getting hot and heavy. Again, less is more. No need to drown yourself with the stuff, keep in mind that when it comes to cologne, a little goes a long way. The best places to apply your signature are the inside of your wrists, your neck, and even your chest. Attention to DetailSometimes it?s the little things that make a difference and rule number four reminds you to pay attention to detail. We all know women have an eye for the minute and the slightest thing can turn us off. So the solution is simple boys, don?t overlook the small stuff. Just like women like carpenters, some women also think scruffy is sexy, but on your first date, go with the clean shaven look to be safe. And not only are you going to brush your teeth, you?re also going to break out the dental floss for this one just to be extra safe. Make sure your hair is neat and doesn?t hold an entire bottle of product in it. Remember to clean those nails. You may look like a man?s man with dirty nails, but it?s a turn off for women. Finally, keep the accessories to a minimum. You can wear your watch and necklace or a ring but that?s it. If you?re wearing more jewelry than your date then we could have a problem!Of course, not all women are the same but most will agree that less is more when making a good first impression. So remember the four simple rules: don?t dress like you?re going to watch the game at a buddy?s house or like you?re about to walk down the runway; smell great and put in the effort to care of the details. You?re sure to have plenty of second, third, and fourth dates! Marisa Pellegrino is freelance journalist and a writer for a Montreal radio show called Passion, a program about dating, relationships, and sex. She is also the writer/webmaster for Dating Ideas (www.dating-idea.com) a website with advice about dating and relationships.

.

If you?ve been getting caught up in all this talk of RSS versus email, its time to stop wondering.Marketing Sherpa just posted a new report that stirred up the old RSS vs Email debate again. http://www business .marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2988The report starts out by stating, ?It chills our blood when we hear email marketers and publishers blithely state, ?I?m thinking about switching over to RSS entirely!? Oh no. Please don?t. RSS is worthy of testing, but it?s not an email replacement and it never will be.?A report in Jupitermedia titled ?E-Mail Marketing: Alive and Well? notes, ?RSS won't be immediately effective as an alternative to e-mail marketing. (But) for some companies (primarily publishers who cater to a technical audience), it's sensible to press forward with RSS now as a supplement to e-mail marketing.? http://www.jupiterresearch.com/bin/item.pl/research:concept/1103/id=96103/A lot of people think this debate has been going on for long enough. RSS is NOT a replacement for email. It does not (and may never) rival the marketing reach and immediacy of an email message.Those who?ve been mourning the death of email marketing don?t seem to ?get? the fact that RSS hasn't reached the tipping point yet. More people read email than RSS feeds ? many more.I believe that a smart publisher or marketer must use both - Email and RSS. Its not an either/or question. I know for a fact that my blogs get read more when I send out an email with a ?blog post roundup.? I personally prefer email and tend to read those blogs more frequently that use email notification. But the news is not all good for email marketing. According to DoubleClick, 64.7% of all legitimate email being sent (based on their own customers' stats) is never opened. Email delivery is cited as the #1 email marketing headache.The good news is that email marketing has a terrific Return on Investment (ROI) bringing in $15.50 per dollar spent on a campaign according a report in Email Sherpa. http://www.emailsherpa.com/emailblog.cfm?ID=360That $15.50 per email-marketing dollar spent is roughly 17% more than in direct-mail campaigns and 73% more than telemarketing campaigns.eMarketer reports that email is still a powerful marketing tool if used well in a new report, “Email Marketing: How to Improve ROI.” http://www.emarketer.com/article.aspx?1003369Some points it notes: · 71 percent of US online advertisers used email marketing in 2004, while 77 percent using paid search. · Despite spam and email overload 45 percent see email as a good way for companies to stay in touch with customers. · Customer retention and increased loyalty is the main objective for email marketing among 63 percent of surveyed marketers · 62 percent also see email as a way to acquire new customers. · Email volume in the US is expected to rise from over 2 trillion message this year to nearly 2.7 trillion by 2007. Even though both email spam and email delivery are on the rise, end-users are getting used to spam and it's bothering them less than it used to.The Marketing Sherpa report also notes that 91% of US Internet users use email on a regular basis, while roughly 4% use RSS feeds on any sort of basis at all. It suggests that publishers do test RSS, but recommends that they not treat RSS as ?shovelware for email content? because it is a new medium. Other disadvantages it notes for RSS publishers is the challenge of metrics. ?No deliverability, open rates, hard vs soft bounces. No a/b tests, no usability tests, no offer tests, no recency/frequency tests, and multivariable testing?”"The kind of data that marketers and publishers rely on to make business, content, and marketing decisions for email campaigns is almost entirely lacking for RSS at this time,? says the report.So if you?re wondering what you should publish - a blog or an email newsletter - I suggest you do both. Or at least publish a blog with email notification built in. Remember, your list is still your most valuable asset online.Keep either Email or RSS out of your marketing toolbox and you?re losing out on a significant portion of your audience. RSS has other advantages that email does not have - like being able to syndicate your content across the web. It can be a very useful tool for building link popularity - if you do it right.As a marketer you do need to start brushing up on your knowledge of RSS and a good place to start is here. http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/rss-blogging all-basingstoke.co.uk .htm Priya Shah is the CEO of eBrand360. She writes the Marketing Slave blog and publishes an internet marketing newsletter.This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.

.

Banner ads, search engines and link exchanges. We've all tried them while promoting our sites and online businesses, some have worked more successfully than others mind you but just because you run an online business doesn't mean you've to always promote it online. In fact on many occasions a websites marketing budget can be spent just as effectively using offline methods as it can be using online methods such as the ones mentioned above. Indeed website branding seems to be much more successful using offline methods such as TV and Radio. This article is your guide to promoting your website offline, I hope you enjoy it. Your URL is very importantThe basis behind any offline promotion campaign for your website is of course to get your website visited more often and if your sales letter is good enough to get more sales from these extra visitors. This can only be done by getting the address of your site 'out there' and visible to lots and lots of people. It's for this reason that your URL is very important, it's your lifeline in the offline world, the amount of exposure it receives will make or break your offline campaign. It should appear on any material you send to customers or clients, others businesses you deal with and most importantly potential customers. More on where you can put your URL offline a little later, but for now here's a little paragraph or two regarding things which you can do online to help your offline marketing efforts. First off your website should always have a banner (a standard 468 x 60 or larger banner works best) at the top of every page with your website address clearly visible on it. The reasoning behind this it that many people prefer to print out larger webpages with articles, stories, tutorials and the like to read later and then keep for reference rather than read them online as they're surfing. Without your URL on your banner people may re-read your content but never revisit your site due to them simply forgetting your website address and you may have lost a customer. It's also a good idea to make available online any recent press releases you may have issued. This is due to the fact that many journalists and editors surf the web, if they like your company and product they might be inclined to let their readers know why. A press release will provide them with the latest information regarding your company helping them to do this. Now we'll go through where you can promote your site offline.Put your URL on all day to day business items In the day to day running of your business you'll use many document type items. By these I refer to invoices you send, faxes you send, checks you send, product packaging, business cards etc. Your URL, email address and an attractive website slogan which makes people want to visit should all be present on each of these items either in the form of a banner used with faxes, invoices or other letterhead paper items or simple text which is generally used for business cards and checks. You could even include your URL and if space permits your website slogan on all the simple letter envelopes you send out. TelevisionNext we'll talk about the big one - TV. This may well appear to be financially out of reach of all but the biggest websites with very large advertising budgets, but no this is not true. OK admittedly you probably don't and never will have the financial capability to run ads on mainstream Cable such as Fox in America or Sky in Britain and Ireland, not to worry though as such advertising is usually targeted very generally and is useful only to sites with broad appeal such as Amazon.com or Yahoo.com all-bolton.co.uk . Local cable television advertising is much more feasible and effective for the more 'ordinary website'. This type of advertising appears to be very reasonably priced at the moment and is particularly effective if your product or services is oriented toward a specific geographic target market, for example imagine if you were a Detroit web design company, simply advertise your company and URL on a local Detroit channel. Contact a Sales representative from your local cable company to find out more. You should of course mention your URL on numerous occasions within your ad spot. RadioRadio advertising can be very effective in advertising your URL if your domain name is short, catchy and easy to remember. Creative webmasters could develop short scripts themselves whereby their ad incorporates their slogan which in turn incorporates the benefits of visiting their URL. As with TV advertising radio ads work best when targeted towards a specific demographically segmented market such as a certain cities residents. Again price wise you mightn't be able to compete with the big boys and have ads on very popular stations, but local stations offer good prices. Keep in mind however that prices all depend on when and how often your ad is run business . Newspapers, classifieds and related magazinesThe print media which includes newspapers, journals and magazines is another avenue where your can have your URL exposed for everyone to see. It's best first to start advertising your products, services and URL in local newspapers and then if successful continue onto regional and national publications. If you can't afford the common graphical advertisement as seen throughout newspapers and journals related to your industry don't worry as most of these publications have classified ad sections. Classified ads allow you to reach a targeted audience very cheaply with a simple short message and of course your URL is included in there somewhere too. Company vehiclesWe all see vehicles with company names and telephone numbers on them driving our streets and motorways. This is a great idea as it gives potential customers the chance while out and about to learn about the company and also learn about how to contact them should they need the service or product they offer at some stage in the future. I often wonder why more websites aren't promoted in this way by simply adding the company website URL also, you definitely should do this. If your business is an exclusively online entity then your URL should be large and very visible to anyone who glances in the direction of your vehicle. Again many people would be driving or walking by as your vehicle drives by and wouldn't be able to write down a long website address so it would be an advantage to have a short, easy to remember URL. A word of advice before we move on, if you do choose to brand your personal or company vehicles with your URL have it done professionally, if your design looks poor people might be inclined to believe your site and products are poor too. Check a local business directory to find out who can do this for you.

.