If you're in business for yourself, you know the importance of having a written business plan of some kind. If you have no written plan, you need to do one, regardless of the size of your business. It doesn't have to be a complicated, 50 page plan. It can be as simple as you want, but it needs to be done. The process of writing out some kind of business plan will force you to think about your business.

And this is also the time to plan out your Internet marketing for 2007. Don't just wing it. There are many facets to Internet marketing, and you should write down what areas of Internet marketing you plan on utilizing. Ask and answer questions such as:

• What am I going to do? Search engine optimization? Pay-per-click? Blogging?
• Who is going to do it? Am I going to do it myself or hire a third-party firm?
• How much money am I going to spend on each? How much time?
• How often am I going to do these things? For instance, am I going to blog every day or every week?

There is NO better investment you can make in your business than Internet marketing. Unlike expensive mass advertising such as TV or most print, you can aggressively target very specific markets. But if you just throw money at it or try things hapharzardly, you are less likely to be successful than if you think things through and write down a plan.

It doesn't have to be perfect. And it doesn't have to be written in stone. It is very likely that your plan will change as time goes on and you discover what works and what doesn't.

If you need help creating an Internet marketing plan for your business, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or info@workmedia.net.

Labels: blog, blog marketing, blogging, business plan, business planning, internet marketing, search engine marketing, web marketing

The Christmas season, while jolly for the family gatherings and children, can be a financial nightmare for service oriented businesses. As retail businesses scramble to get their messages out during the holidays, it drives television ad rates through the roof. Guess what? I have a tip for you. I’ve been preaching this for a month now…listen closely. Now is the time to place your TV budget online. With Pay Per Click you can target specific markets (GEO Targeting) so you’re only paying for visitors in your area. In fact, 2 out of 5 local searchers (41%) are looking for information in their local area and 37% of this traffic is actually going to contact a local company as a result of this search. Now that’s what I call TARGETED advertising. If you can match those numbers with any offline advertising, I’ll manage your online campaign for free.

If you have any questions regarding your internet advertising and how it can be improved, give us a call. We would love to speak with you.

Labels: internet marketing, pay per click, ppc, seo

[Jerry:] I'll be heading down to Memphis Monday morning to spend Christmas day (and a few days afterward) with my wife's family. I lived in Memphis for several years and still have good friends there, so I enjoy the visit. Although I'm always anxious to get back home and get started on something. I'll have my laptop with me and will hopefully be able to get some things done and maybe do some writing - writing, by the way, about my favorite topic: Internet marketing. Sunday will be spent with my family. We'll be presenting my 3-yeard old son, Logan, with a John Deere tractor that he can ride that also has a working front loader and wagon. Sweet. So it's Christmas weekend, and things at the Work Brothers headquarters will definitely be slowed down. But it's alright to take a day off every now and then. I hope y'all do the same and have a good one.

[Chris:] I guess i'll be marketing websites.. ha ha.. just kidding! Actually, my time will probably be spent opening gifts because i've been so damn good this year! I'm slightly fearful that Jerry may have bought me a gift and..well.. i didn't get him anything. Hmm.. Maybe i'll clean out the spam in his mailbox or clean off his desk. I'll have to think think about it. Regardless, I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Labels: Christmas, internet marketing

Scarborough Research has released a new research report about the buying habits of online newspaper readers based on data from newspapers in five markets: Sacramento, Houston, Providence, Orlando, and Kansas City. The data proved that online newspaper readers tend to be avid online purchasers. This supports our belief that people who are going to do business online tend to do other activities online, such as reading their newspaper.

If they are already reading a newspaper online and buying online, chances are very good that they are also reading blogs and other content-oriented web sites. So if you engage in a targeted blogging campaign, combined with periodic targeted online press releases, you will have a very good chance of getting your message directly in front of the people who are seeking information about you.

The interesting thing is that online blogging + PR works irrespective of how well optimized your web site is, and the traffic is free (except for the cost of distributing your press releases).

However, even if your web site is not optimized, your blog should be, and your press releases can be (sorry). You still need to do your keyword research. You need to target a very specific set of keywords, and you won't really know what those keywords are if you don't look at the traffic numbers behind them. You also need to keep in mind SEO principles such as keyword density.

And while you're at it, you might as well optimize your web page because you are going to be sending traffic to your web site. Remember from an earlier blog that you want all of your links pointing to your home page to maximize your buildup of Google Page Rank. As you distribute press releases, you are going to have the opportunity to create lots of new keyword-rich links pointing back to your site.

The single most important thing, however, is to be consistent. Blog 3 - 4 times per week, if not more, and ping various blog directories every time. And do an online press release every 2 - 3 weeks.

You will absolutely drive a lot of targeted traffic to your site. And as the Scarborough report proves, this traffic will spend money.

Labels: blog, blog marketing, blogging, blogging advice, internet marketing, online pr, online press releases, online publicity, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, seo

Google has always been a step ahead of the other search engines in terms of providing tools to maximize the performance of your pay-per-click campaign. For instance, the Google Adwords interface has allowed for ad split-testing (or "A/B testing") for quite a while. The new Yahoo Search Marketing interface, still being rolled out, allows for ad split-testing.

In keeping ahead of the curve, Google has launched a beta version of a tool called "Website Optimizer." The tool allows you to test creative elements on your landing pages - titles, images, content, etc. Changing a single element of an ad or landing page can make a profound difference in its effectiveness. But to learn exactly what works the best, you have to test. The Website Optimizer tool makes it easy to test these elements in relation to your AdWords ads.

The basic way it works is this:

After signing up for the service (and receiving access - access is limited right now), you create an "experiment", which is similar in concept to a "campaign" in that it encapsulates a set of landing page elements the way a campaign encapsulates a set of ads.

Then you add "tags" to your landing page in the places where you want to test content. A tag is a Javascript script that allows for content to appear dynamically on the page. You also tag the page at the end of a conversion, which will be something like a form thank you page or order confirmation page.

Then you set up the page sections and variations for the landing page. The default is set to the content on the landing page that was tagged. Then you add variations. The variations will be rotated, with page content alternating between the variations.

The power of the Website Optimizer really comes into play when you perform the final part of the experimenting process, which is to view the reports generated by the data. If you use a fairly limited number of total variations and perform the test for a long enough period of time (probably a month of more), you will have strong proof of what landing page elements convert the best.

We'll discuss this tool in more detail in later posts.

To try Google Website Optimizer, visit http://services.google.com/websiteoptimizer/.

Contact Work Media for help maximizing the effectiveness of your Google AdWords or other PPC campaign.

Labels: google, Google Adwords, internet marketing, pay-per-click, ppc, search engine marketing, Website Optimizer, Yahoo Search Marketing

The keyword research process typically begins by generating as many keywords as possible from several different sources, such as the tools at Nichebot.com or the keyword research tool in your SEO software. Once you have a long list of possible keywords, you look at the numbers behind the keywords - the number of searches each keyword or phrase receives, the amount of competition for each, the KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index), and whatever other measure the researcher thinks is important.

You will be tempted to automatically select the keywords that generate the most traffic with the least competition. And this makes perfect sense, and is a good starting point for keywords to target for Search Engine Optimization purposes.

But it's not the ending point.

Even if you know what keywords you have the best chance of dominating while still generating a reasonable amount of search traffic, you still don't know what search phrases will bring traffic that will most likely convert into customers. That's where your Pay-Per-Click campaign comes in. By running PPC ads for your keywords, you can generate data that will tell you which keywords convert at the highest rate. If you then focus your Search Engine Optimization campaign around those keywords, you will generate the most profitable traffic possible.

So the formula is basically a funnel that starts with every possible keyword that relates to your business and ends with keywords that generate a reasonable amount of traffic, have little competition, and that convert at a high rate.

Labels: internet marketing, keyword research, keywords, pay-per-click, ppc, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, seo, sponsored search

Dan Kennedy has a piece of marketing advice that I really like, and that I try to adhere to every day (actually, Kennedy has many pearls of wisdom), that goes something like this:

Do something every day to put prospects in the pipeline.

In other words, do some kind of promotion every day to bring business. It could be:

• Make a blog post
• Send an email
• Write an article
• Send a newsletter

These are just a few examples. Unless it's a day where you are determined not to do any kind of work, don't rest your head at night until you have done SOMETHING to bring in business. Work Media really likes the approach of blogging every day. It creates lots of original content, helps our search engine rankings, and helps get our name out to the world. If we at least make a blog post, then we have made some kind of little effort in the name of marketing.

Which is why, as on many nights, this post is being made at just a little before 11:00 PM. It might be bed time...but we're still promoting.

Labels: blog, blog marketing, blogging, blogging advice, business, content, content creation, internet marketing

According to Online Media Daily, Yahoo! and Create With Context surveyed 2,261 customers who had recently engaged in an online transation such as consumer electronics, automobiles, hotels or loans. Their conclusion was that 40% of those surveyed could be classified as "brand advocates" - meaning they discussed and endorsed their preferred brands with others. For instance, they might discuss their favorite brands on message boards or on a mySpace page.

40%.

This definitely underscores the importance in building a strong "brand" for your company. Working like hell to sell your product or service is a bit of a waste if you don't have a "brand" by which your market can identify you.

So think long and hard about the colors on your web site, your logo, the "look" of your web site. And think long and hard about the story of your business. And what it is that differentiates you from others. If there isn't anything, create something. Because it is likely that 40% of the people you sale to online will go on to endorse your brand and spread your brand to others. If they feel you're worth it.

And if you have a brand.

Contact Work Media at info@workmedia.net or 888-299-4837 for help building your Company's brand and infusing it into your Internet marketing campaign.

Labels: brand, branding, internet marketing, marketing, online branding, social media, surveys, Yahoo

Even if you don't know a thing about HTML, you can at least partially optimize the pages of your Web site by "eyeballing" them and passing the suggestions along to your web designer (or doing them yourself if you have that ability). Here are some tips to get you started (these tips assume you already have some idea of keywords you need to target):

• Does the web page have a keyword-loaded title?
• Does the keyword have a keyword-loaded header? A lot of un-optimized web sites have a header that says something like "Welcome to my web site!". Scrap that and replace it with a header that instead uses your keywords.
• Does your web page copy use your keywords and are the keywords used near the top of the page?
  
• Is the web site copy easy on the eyes? Copy on a web page is much more difficult to read than words on paper, so you should break the copy up into short paragraphs and use lots of bullet points, along with occasional bold text, italics, etc. And use dark text on a light background.
  
• Does your front page have some kind of call to action? You should try to get the Web reader to read more, sign up for your newsletter, read your blog, or whatever would further your objective.
• Is the web design clean and uncluttered? Is the site easy to navigate?
• Think from your customers' perspective. Are you giving them what they need? If you don't know what they need, you should find out by asking or doing surveys.

These suggestions have nothing to do with keyword density or anything like that. They simply relate to making sure your web site is easy to read, easy to use, and tries to get your visitors to perform some specific action.

For help optimizing your web site, contact Work Media at info@workmedia.net or 888-299-4837.

Labels: content, content creation, copywriting, internet marketing, search engine optimization, seo

I' ve been listening to a lot of Internet marketing podcasts lately. The people who are creating all those marketing information products (many of whom are the ones doing the podcasting) have some good ideas. And they're a lot more on the cutting edge than mainstream marketers. The major thing that they do differently than most marketers is that they take a direct marketing approach. They're aggressive and persistent.

But I digress. My point was to recommend a couple of podcasts that I've been listening to lately. Listen to these and you will definitely expand your knowledge of Internet marketing.

http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/entrepreneurs-journey-podcasts/
At times a bit rambling, but this guy does some really good interviews.

http://www.internetmarketingvoodoo.com/
If you're just starting in Internet marketing, then this might not be the best for you to listen to. But if you already know something about it, this podcast really digs in deep on some fairly specific issues.

http://www.internet-based-business-mastery.com/
Young, successful Internet entrepreneurs sharing their wisdom.

Contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or info@workmedia.net for help with your Internet marketing campaign.

Labels: internet marketing, internet marketing podcast, podcast, podcasting, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, seo, web marketing

Unlike the real world, where doing press releases is a slow, laborious process, in the on-line world, sending a single press release can result in extremely wide distribution and almost immediate feedback. The first key is to use a press release distribution service such as PRWeb. PRWeb already has a huge network of writers, editors, webmasters, bloggers, etc. who voluntarily receive press releases. You can also have the press release injected directly into search engine news results.

One powerful aspect of online press releases is how fast your information is distributed. Upon sending a press release, your information could appear on news-oriented web sites in 48 hours or less. These sites will now link back to your site. Also, if you use keywords in your press release, you could quickly achieve high search engine rankings for those keywords. In a 48 hour period you could create hundreds of new, keyword-loaded links pointing back to your site.

You need to take great care when composing your press release. You need to think in terms of both compelling, interesting copy, and of search engine optimization. Use your keywords as near to the top of your copy as possible, and use them as often as possible without sounding spammy. If your press release contains a strong call to action, that is even better. You want to compell readers of the press release to visit your web site for more information.

We will be talking more about using online press releases in future blogs. For help implementing an online PR campaign for your business, contact Work Media at workmedia.net or 888-299-4837.

Labels: content, content creation, internet marketing, online pr, online press releases, online publicity, pr, publicity, web marketing

The whole point of your Internet marketing campaign is to drive people to your web site and then get them to do something: buy your product, fill out a form, call you, whatever. The more traffic you can drive to your site, the better your chances of achieving your web site goal. So everything you do should be for the purpose of driving traffic to your site.

If you have a blog that is separate from your web site, you are splitting your efforts. Your blog should be part of your web site. Your blog can be used to feed content throughout your site. This can be accomplished by specifically tagging your posts and then using your own RSS feed to feed content to different sections of your web site. Using the Work Media web site as an example, our page about Pay-Per-Click Marketing features snippets of blog posts that have been tagged "pay-per-click". As a result, every time we update our blog, we create new content that gets spread throughout our web site. And you know search engines love content that changes often.

The same effect could be achieved with a blog that was hosted with your blogging service (such as blogger.com) or at a separate domain, but you weaken your branding effort. Readers of your blog won't see your domain name in the browser window. They may not even see the connection between your blog and your web site. You should set your blog template to look as much like the rest of your web site as possible. Think "branding".

Contact Work Media for help implementing your blog marketing campaign at info@workmedia.net or 888-299-4837.

Labels: blog, blog marketing, blogging, blogging advice, branding, content, content creation, internet marketing

When deciding on keywords for which your web site should be promoted, you should think in terms of what keywords are most likely to be used by people who are most likely to purchase your product or service and, preferably, are close to being ready to make a purchase.

The best way to find these keywords is to run pay-per-click ads with all of your possible keywords. Those keywords that convert the best (all other things being the same), are the best ones for which to optimize your site.

You should collect data for several weeks before you make your judgement about which keywords are generating the hightest return on investment.

Quick and Easy.

Contact Work Media for help with your search engine optimization campaign at workmedia.net or 888-299-4837.

Labels: internet marketing, keyword research, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, seo

Here is some advice on writing successful pay-per-click ads.

You're probably going to have to write a lot of ads. Even if you only have 100 keywords in your campaign, those ads need to be targeted to the keywords. You can somewhat reduce the workload by using lots of tightly bound categories and writing your ads at the category level. By tightly bound, we mean that the category refers to only a few very similar or complimentary keywords. For instance, you might have a category with the keywords "candle wax", "candle wax for sale", "buy candle wax", and "hobby candle wax", in which case you could get away with just writing one ad for all of the keywords.

A strategy that is often recommended is for your ad titles to match exactly the search phrase. For example. if the ad is for the search phrase "Nevada hunting trip", the title of the ad would be "Nevada hunting trip". This might be a good way to write headlines quickly, but in general we are not in favor of this approach. The title is the most important part of your ad. You only have 40 characters. You should use the keywords, but put some effort into writing a title that will compel the reader to click. In the above example, how about something like "Find freedom hunting in Nevada" or "Nevada hunting trips for your family".

This is a good time to point out that you really have no way of knowing what headline or description will be the most effective without testing. But when changing your ad, only change a single element at a time. For instance, only change the title, or only make a change to the copy, or maybe only change a single word.

As far as the ad copy goes, here are some writing tips:

• Write in a casual, conversational style. Don't over estimate the intelligence of the reader of the ad.
• Use a call to action: "Find it here", "Click here", "Click now", "Save now", etc.
• Mention a strong guarantee, a special offer, a discount, etc.
• The most powerful word you can use is "you".
  

Think from your prospective customers' perspective. If it were you, what would make you click the link? Your ad is nothing more than salesmanship in print - just like any form of direct marketing. You are using words to pursuade the reader to click the link and come to your web site for more information. Keep that in mind and craft your ads carefully.

For help managing your search engine marketing campaigns, contact Work Media at workmedia.net or 888-299-4837.

Labels: ad writing, copywriting, internet marketing, pay-per-click, ppc, search engine marketing, Yahoo, Yahoo Search, Yahoo Search Marketing

If you only approach blogging from the perspective that you are going to post blogs and hope people read them, you are missing half of the equation. There is a community of bloggers engaged in discussion about your industry. Be a part of their discussion. Search out blogs that deal with your industry and post intelligent, informative comments (but make sure you have something legitimate to say). You will receive two benefits from doing this:

1. You will expose yourself to others who may be interested in what you have to say and may even be potential customers. You will get your name "out there".
2. You can get some links from very popular blogs pointing to your web site, which will drive traffic to your web site or blog and possibly raise your search engine rankings.
   

Really, you just have to remember that you're not blogging just to sell stuff - you are trying to build a community of people who are interested in what you have to say, and you are participating in a larger community-wide discussion that involves your blog as well as the blogs of others.

For help implementing your own blog marketing campaign, contact Work Media at workmedia.net or 888-299-4837.

Labels: blog, blog marketing, blogging, blogging advice, internet marketing, search engine marketing, web marketing