Friday, May 10, 2013

How Important Is SEO, Really?

doublelinx:

I pride myself in being a bit of a contrarian.

When the ‘masses’ start taking to an idea in large numbers, I start to get suspicious. More and more people are accepting search engine optimization (SEO) as a way of life in business. The phrase is thrown around with reckless abandon amongst business people and there are literally thousands of new articles about the topic emerging on the market every single day (this article being one of them).

But, what difference is SEO really going to make to your business? What kind of results has SEO produced for other businesses? How well does it work for small to medium-sized business?

Well, I decided to find out.

The Biggest Market Ever

The Internet is the biggest market of consumers there ever was.

There are currently two billion Internet users around the world and that number is projected to jump to 2.7 billion by 2015. That’s more people than any other media source and makes up 40% of the world’s population.

That’s a figure that could make even the most self-restrained marketer salivate. All you need is to get the attention 0.000001% of this market and you’re on a major gravy train, right? Well, not exactly. The perils of working in market that big far outweigh the benefits.

There are approximately 634 million websites on the Internet – 51 million of which were added in 2012 alone. How do you stand out with so much competition?

That’s where SEO comes in…

Don’t operate in a vacuum

If your business doesn’t have a website, it doesn’t exist. In 2013, if your business website isn’t search engine optimized, it doesn’t matter either way.

The first thing most people do before they buy anything, even if it’s offline, is search the Internet. Approximately 89% of consumers look to websites like Google, Bing and Yahoo before making a buying decision. Search engines are the number one source of traffic, beating social media by 300%. For these reasons businesses work very hard to make friends with the likes of Google.

But, it’s not enough to be ranked on Google, if you want to have any kind of impact you’ll need to be on the first page because, and although as much as 61% of people look for products online, only 25% ever go beyond the first page of results.

Give The People What They Want

There are two main reasons people use the internet: To check their emails and to get information.

Although email marketing and search engine optimization is linked, the former is a huge field of study in its own right. SEO is more concerned with the second reason – giving people the information that they’re looking for.

Most of your customers go on the Internet to search for information on a certain topic, which is related to your product or service. They aren’t looking for your business, they aren’t even necessarily looking for products and services like the one you offer. However, if you can be the one to give them the information they’re looking for you’ve instantly proven yourself knowledgeable and reliable, which can be a doorway to a very profitable long-term relationship.

To answer the original question I posed in this article – yes, it really is that important. A good SEO marketing plan can mean the difference between a massive business success and operating with a vacuum.  

Need help with your SEO marketing plan? Try a few SEO services on Doublelinx.

Thursday, May 9, 2013
nba:

Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder greets young fans on his way to the court to play against the Memphis Grizzlies in Game Two of the Western Conference Semifinals during the 2013 NBA Playoffs on May 7, 2013 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
 (Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images)

nba:

Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder greets young fans on his way to the court to play against the Memphis Grizzlies in Game Two of the Western Conference Semifinals during the 2013 NBA Playoffs on May 7, 2013 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

 (Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images)

New Post has been published on Free Affiliate Program | Free Affiliate Marketing

juhui1:

New Post has been published on http://freeaffiliatepro.com/hard-time-getting-results-with-your-affiliate-promotion-venture-try-these-ideas.html

Hard Time Getting Results With Your Affiliate Promotion Venture? Try These Ideas

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What great timing! This article will help answer any questions you may have about how to get started. Read on to learn more about online marketing and how it can benefit your business.

This is a process that is vulnerable to abuse, which you and the affiliates your work with must avoid. This can irritate potential customers. However, the worst case scenario is that vital affiliate customer strings are broken, and nasty viruses are spread.

Always disclose when you are using affiliate marketing and see how it affects your readers and visitors in a positive manner. Honesty is always the best policy if you are using affiliate marketing. Being open about why you are participating in an affiliate program will make people more likely to follow your links.

Try asking for a raise if you are generating a good amount of leads. As you’re generating a large amount of revenue for the company you’ve affiliated with, they’ll be more than willing to work with you to keep you selling their goods!

To make your internet marketing programs pay off, you should maintain only the most profitable affiliates. Check thoroughly on the performance of all of your affiliates on a regular basis. Taking out the least effective affiliate partners makes room for better ones.

There are many affiliate marketers around that push themselves too hard to try to become a “super” affiliate. They put their energy in too many places, they choose too many products, and they have too many promotions going at once to stay effectively competitive at any one thing. Maximum results do not exist. It’s just a matter of finding the techniques that give you results.

A lot of affiliates will get tasks in their email and then check them. Saving important assignments to Notepad or Word documents will save time and make your effort more productive. By using the document as your reference, you can work more quickly and efficiently.

A bad habit of many affiliate marketers is they try to be super heroic at their job. Ambitious affiliates take on too much work load, push too many widgets and just overextend themselves to the point of breaking. Do not have the mindset that you need to maximize everything. Just work slowly and carefully and identify the best fit for you.

If you want to get paid quickly, you should select an affiliate company that offers you different payment options. Some companies will pay through PayPal and AlertPay, while others mail checks.

Try out secret link systems. You can place your affiliate links in your website in a subtle and inoffensive way. Use these thechniques as best you can, but avoid trying to deceive any of your readers. Be sure that potential customers do not feel duped by content that is irrelevant.

You will lose many of your initial customers, and you will need to get more people on board. In order to attract the attention of potential new customers from the very first moment they hear from you, you’ll need to have your best-performing emails on file.

You can use affiliate marketing programs to develop a very effective online marketing scheme for your business. In most cases, you’ll get a bigger traffic boost from an affiliate program than you will from banner ads or contextual networks. When you are ready to pick your affiliate program, look at the payment that you will get for giving a referral, how popular the directory is, and how easy it is to navigate.

Choose the affiliates that are most likely to put you in front of your target audience. In addition to increasing your traffic, this will also communicate to the audience that you understand their needs and have a clear feeling for who they are and what they want.

You should consider paying a little bit for advertising, it could work for you. They supply keyword friendly ads to increase sales on your site. It is a targeted approach for online publishers, with revenues generated by showing relevant ads that are more likely to attract buyers.

It’s imperative to have access to real time statistics. Tracking systems know how many people came and what they did when they go there.

Gaining your reader’s trust is important in becoming credible. Your readers will search for and click referral links if they like your content well enough to make a purchase.

For maximum results in your affiliate marketing venture, select an affiliate program through a business with a healthy sales conversion ratio. Earning 1% is a good ratio to achieve.

Know who your audience is and what their interests are if you hope to be a successful affiliate marketer. You need to work to meet the needs of your readers. Determine what it is about your site that is making them return. What pages are they spending time reading?

Disclose your affiliations to your readers. They will think you are a better company and feel better about your affiliates.

Knowing and reaching your target audience is extremely important to increasing your profit. It is easy to make low-cost products sell in high volumes through low-click approaches. The pricier products especially require this thoughtful approach appealing to a clear, specific need. This will help turn visitors into customers for these high-priced products.

In some cases, a vendor will attempt to scam you via a tracking system of their own design. Just use something that has a good reputation.

Try using a handwritten ad on your website. Adding a unique element to your website could be an effective way to generate sales. A more personal online experience may convince potential customers to make purchases. Consider using a freelance writer to create your ad if deciphering your handwriting is difficult.

The number of backlinks that come to your website will factor into the success of your online marketing only if the links take visitors to worthwhile and meaningful content, and prospective customers will find themselves on a page that was appropriately described. For example, a visitor would not be pleased if he or she clicked on a link that took him or her to a page selling Apple iPads when the link claimed to be about HP tablet PCs. Even if you’re some sort of marketing genius, there’s no way to smooth over the annoyance that will result from this shady strategy.

If you want to make more money in affiliate marketing, use your newsletter to funnel subscribers to your mailing list. In the past, people wanted to receive emails. Nowadays, people are weary of the constant stream of spam, so you have to make sure that your newsletter is something they genuinely want to see.

If you are an affiliate seller, try to present products with the same pride you have when you present your own. Each link should be subtly incorporated. When you use proper internet marketing methods, you will be viewed as more than just an affiliate, but a partner.

Keep your website’s banners to a minimum to avoid clogging your site with them. This will give your site an unprofessional, over-eager feel to it that will probably have visitors in a hurry to leave. Ensure there is enough content in contrast to your banners on-site, while those that are placed are appropriately spaced apart.

Honesty is essential when you are working with affiliate marketing. Building a solid base of loyal visitors is only possible if you are honest and display integrity. If you are not open and truthful with your audience, they will not click on your referral links to give you credit; they will probably just go to the seller directly.

Consider joining a forum or community dedicated to affiliate marketers and learn new tips and tricks. These are online places that you can share ideas, code for programming, pictures, and also get advice for your web marketing endeavors.

Always consider peripherals whenever you are creating affiliate links. Water bottles that come with a strap for easy carrying can be an accessory to a variety of article topics.

Try to make sure that you are proud of the items you sell. Research products online to determine their usefulness and desirability. There will be forums you can participate in, giving first-hand experiences of how you have used the product, and how it has helped you. With every post you leave on the Internet, include your affiliate link to allow readers to follow your message to the point of sale.

Front-end sales are not the only thing that is important to a successful online marketing campaign, back-end sales are as well. You have the right to a commission when a customer you referred returns to purchase the item again. You can maximize your return on investment by ensuring that your affiliate program pays you for both back-end and front-end sales.

Now, you will be more prepared for affiliate promotion. You may have thought you knew a lot before, but now you can see all you were missing. Get started today with your internet marketing website, and use the tips and advice you received in this article.

Make certain that you receive commissions on all the sales offered by a program before joining one. Find out if the system can track orders that do not come in online, like orders by fax, regular mail and telephone. This way you will be able to receive all the income that you generate for your affiliates.


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

ourpresidents:

Iconic Presidential Photos

The Presidential Libraries are now on Pinterest.  You’ll find some of the most requested images from the holdings of all 13 Presidential Libraries. 

We’re pinning the historic moments, meetings with world leaders, Air Force One, First Ladies, and much more.  You’ll find a fair share of White House pet pics too. 

Take a look and let us know what else you would like to see!

http://pinterest.com/ourpresidents/

Photos:  Lyndon B. Johnson gives Senator Richard Russell the “Johnson Treatment.” 11/7/63.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower Meeting the Troops Prior to the Normandy Invasion. 6/5/44.

The Big Three — Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference. 2/9/45.

John F. Kennedy points to a reporter at a news conference. 11/20/62.

Gerald R. Ford in the Oval Office. 3/25/75

staff:


ATTN: fantastic theme developers!Tumblr users can now interact with posts straight from the blog index and permalink pages on your theme! This is super exciting news! Previously blog visitors could only like or reblog posts through the controls in the corner of post permalinks.
All you have to do is incorporate our new Like and Reblog buttons anywhere in your design — we’ll take care of the rest.
If you’ve been using other methods to add this functionality to your themes, you’ll need to update to the latest code. Visit our updated Theme Developers documentation for more information.

Want to learn how to create your own custom theme or help invent new ways to use Tumblr with our API? Check out our Developer Center!

staff:

ATTN: fantastic theme developers!

Tumblr users can now interact with posts straight from the blog index and permalink pages on your theme! This is super exciting news! Previously blog visitors could only like or reblog posts through the controls in the corner of post permalinks.

All you have to do is incorporate our new Like and Reblog buttons anywhere in your design — we’ll take care of the rest.

If you’ve been using other methods to add this functionality to your themes, you’ll need to update to the latest code. Visit our updated Theme Developers documentation for more information.

Want to learn how to create your own custom theme or help invent new ways to use Tumblr with our API? Check out our Developer Center!

(Source: developers)

Monday, May 6, 2013

A Video Marketing Success Story – Learning From The Dollar Shave Club Case Study

doublelinx:

Video marketing can be intimidating for even the most hardened entrepreneur.

But for all the potential headaches it may present, the results can be phenomenal. Like in the case of the Dollar Shave Club.

The Dollar Shave Club is a business that delivers good quality affordable razor blades to its customers via the post– nothing spectacular right?

And yet one hour after they posted a particular video, the website crashed. In just 48 hours, they were recruiting family, friends and anyone they could pay to help them package 12,000 orders.

The video in question showed the company’s founder, Michael Dublin, making a few jokes and telling a few people to buy his razors. The video, launched in March 2012, has now been watched over 10 million times and launched the Dollar Shave Club into massive success virtually overnight.

I’m not telling you this for the sake of it. There are certain lessons hidden in the Dollar Shave Club story that can help anyone thinking about launching into video marketing.

Lesson One – “That’s showbiz, baby!”

The Dollar Shave Club video that went viral was, in essence, a comedy skit.

The people who watched and shared the now infamous video weren’t searching for affordable shaving solutions. They weren’t interested in how good the service was. They didn’t crave the convenience of having their shaving equipment sent in the mail.

They simply wanted to be entertained.

In the 21st century everyone’s an entertainment junkie and that’s something you should always consider when making any form of video marketing you do for your business. Whether it’s a simple message from the executive, a how-to video or an elaborate online commercial – your customers want to be entertained. In fact, they demand it.

Of course, there are many different ways of being entertaining (comedy-skit versus documentary-style) but the point here is that if you want to get more bank for video marketing efforts, always give your customers some ‘pizzazz.’

Lesson Two – It’s a social, social world…

Your customers love to share information about their lives and their experiences that they think their friends will enjoy. Think about any email message you forwarded or any page that you’ve liked on Facebook. What you’re essentially doing there is saying “I think this awesome and I think you’ll enjoy it too.” What’s my Point?

The Dollar Shave Club video spread as fast as it did because of this same principle. When you make videos for your website (thinking of the potential of going viral) you need to keep in mind if the video is giving anything of value to your customer. It could be, like the Dollar Shave Club, entertainment value, or it could be valuable information they didn’t know (like in how-to videos), or it could even be a sense of becoming part of a community (like the Apple versus PC ads).

For most people it’s become virtually second nature to share everything they think is really great. Make your videos great too!

Lesson Three – The Power of video

There are certain things that are just expressed better in the form of video. Pictures, articles, social media simply can’t communicate a brand as succinctly and clearly as video can. When people watched the Dollar Shave Club video they didn’t just see what the product (razors) could do for them, they saw the businesses personality and identity which made it easier to buy into their brand.

When making videos for marketing purposes always remember to consistently represent your brand in how you choose to communicate with your customer and what you choose to say.

Get started today

Dollar Shave Club is an excellent example of the power of video marketing. This one video helped a little company with a weird business model become a household name. Imagine what it could do for your business.

Need help with your Video marketing? I’m sure one of our vendors can help you with that.

staff:

“Ok, I might be a Tumblr nerd but look what I made :)” — hoppip

staff:

“Ok, I might be a Tumblr nerd but look what I made :)” — hoppip

Tuesday, April 30, 2013
lauramcphee:

No girls allowed, Walt Disney Productions, 1938





“Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that work is performed entirely by young men. For this reason, girls are not considered for the training school…”
Jezebel is featuring this lovely rejection letter on its website today. You can find the original on Flickr, posted by Kevin Burg, grandson of Miss Mary Ford, the artist who was so soundly rejected by Disney Studios for being a girl…

lauramcphee:

No girls allowed, Walt Disney Productions, 1938

“Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that work is performed entirely by young men. For this reason, girls are not considered for the training school…”

Jezebel is featuring this lovely rejection letter on its website today. You can find the original on Flickr, posted by Kevin Burg, grandson of Miss Mary Ford, the artist who was so soundly rejected by Disney Studios for being a girl…

New Post has been published on College of Content Knowledge Blog

college-of-content:

New Post has been published on http://empowerment-knowledge-blog.collegeofcontent.com/4145/how-you-can-profit-from-dofollow-blog-commenting/

How You Can Profit From DoFollow Blog Commenting

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At empowerment-knowledge-blog.collegeofcontent.com, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us (See this article to learn more about Privacy Policies.). This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by empowerment-knowledge-blog.collegeofcontent.com and how it is used.

Home Business Websites - Authenticity

homebusinesss:

Start own business, in quick period of time and grow rich in a shortest span possible. Interesting advertisements of such a kind are quite popular in the internet as we could have witnessed several of these kind, day in and out while doing our internet routines.  Start online business, in the shortest span of time, without any big investment, is the claim by so many scammers in the internet.

 There would be pompous sales pitches that could ideally pull you in quite easily to join them as a member by paying some fast bucks. Usually it would not be anywhere in between 20 dollars to 70 at the most. The reasons are quite plenty though. People would not mind spending out a little bit of money in experimenting on what it could bring in. They might come forward to try their luck out of it.

Start Online Business

What if it clicks well for me at least in my specific case? It is a greedy thought that arises in the corners of the mind and then settles down slowly when you read the webpage completely again and again. Looking the photograph of the cheques received by other members, one would surely start to trust the advertisement quite easily. As a matter of fact, ninety percentages of such advertisements and promotions are fake.

Work at home online, at your convenient hours. Still do not expect to make huge amounts of money for doing some freelancing work to somebody. There is no career associated towards such freelancing in the first place. Even after so many years of dedicated hard work, all you could have gained is some little bit of savings in your bank account and that is all about it.

Home Business Solutions should be checked well before you enter inside. Home business ideas, are not always genuine. To put it other ways, most of the advertisements to start ecommerce business are not genuine. It is good to keep them at bay and start to research and find your own kind of Home Business Solutions that would ideally fit in your profile.

Everyone has different aspirations about their career path. Home business ideas, should suit in this basic interests of yours. Otherwise you start ecommerce business, and you yourselves would find it to be boring over a period of time. It is why while starting to look for the home Business Solutions, you certainly should research well.  Home business ideas, are offered in the internet for free. Start ecommerce business, only after getting everything confirmed with fool proof evidence.