Jobs: Software Update to Address iOS 4 Performance Issues on iPhone 3G 'Coming Soon' Marco Spoerrle

Jobs: Software Update to Address iOS 4 Performance Issues on iPhone 3G 'Coming Soon' Marco Spoerrle: http://bit.ly/a12sgW

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Advertising and Marketing Techniques, Marco Spoerrle

Advertising and Marketing Techniques, Marco Spoerrle

I've been involved with Internet marketing
for over twenty years and have seen marketing techniques come and go. Some are still around and some are new and innovative. Below you will find what I believe to be the best and most effective online marketing techniques.

Article Marketing - Article marketing was and is one of the most powerful online marketing methods available. Not only does it do wonders for you and your business, it's also free! Article marketing consists of writing helpful, informative, easy-to-understand articles that actually help your readers, instead of trying to sell them something. You then submit your articles to article banks, directories and ezine publishers. When your article runs in a popular ezine, it can make a major difference to your business. Contrary to what you might think, it's not that hard to get started.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

- Don't worry about your ability to write. People are looking for help, not big words.
- Advertise in your resource box, not your article.
- Provide real, helpful information and resources, not hype!
- Write from the heart! Let your personality shine through in your articles.

Blogging - Blogging is a newer form of online marketing that became popular in the late 1990's. Blog is short for weblog and is an online publication in the form of a log or journal. Blogs can increase your customer base, your traffic and your search engine ranking, thus increasing your sales.

Blogging can be done for free through such sites as:

- blogger.com
- wordpress.com and
- livejournal.com

Be sure and update your blog regularly; every day would be best as people like fresh content, ideas and information.

Ezine Publishing - Ezine publishing has been around much longer than blogging and is far more effective, in my opinion. Your ezine needs to contain helpful resources and information, not just sales pitches. It's important to develop a relationship with your readers. Let them know they can trust you and rely on you when they need your help.

Things to remember when putting together your ezine:

- Keep it clean and easy to read.
- Limit your advertising and be selective.
- Always provide quality content and information.
- Add your personality into your writing. This helps readers to get a feeling for you as a person.
- Always provide contact information and be accessible.
- Be consistent; send your ezine regularly as scheduled.
- Be sure and proofread your copy before sending it out.

Online Networking - Online networking, as with offline networking, is very important to your business. This is where you connect with as many people as possible to learn more and share information about your business. Many leads can come from networking. There are several ways to do this online.

Email Discussion Groups: Go to yahoogroups.com and search for appropriate groups.

Message Boards: Be sure and follow the rules for posting and offer your help as much as possible.

Social Sites: Examples include: MySpace.com, Ryze, Merchant Circle, etc. These can be great ways to make more contacts and get leads.

Joint Ventures - This is when you enter into an agreement with another online marketer that will benefit both sides. Examples of joint ventures:

- Ezine ad swaps
- eBook ad swaps
- Subscription page ad swaps
- Affiliate programs
- Exchange advertising for a percentage of the sales

and the list goes on and on. Be creative and come up with new ways for you and your associates to help each other.

Podcasting - Podcasting uses digital media files which are distributed all over the Internet via syndication feeds. Podcasting is still a fairly new way of online marketing and has great potential. Podcasting can be powerful because it uses voice, instead of written words to get the message across. Offer your articles, do voice interviews, offer a chapter in your ebook via podcast, etc. Again, use your imagination to create new ways to spread the word about your business.

Ezine Advertising - Advertising your business, product, service, etc. in quality ezines can be well worth the money spent. Before you do so, here are a few things to consider:

Conduct a search to find ezines that cater to your target market. Once you find several targeted ezines, subscribe to them so you can look them over and see if the publisher is reliable in sending them out. You can also look over the other ads and make sure the publisher is selective in their advertising. You might be able to learn what the other readers think of the ezine as well.

Try contacting the publisher to see if they respond to your email. Ask about testimonials from other advertisers. Find out how many ads they run per issue and what it costs. You could also ask the publisher to do an ad swap to get an idea of what the response is like. Be selective in your choices and always code your ads so you know which ezines actually deliver.

I hope this article has given you some insight as to how to market your home/online business. I use several of these methods and know from experience that they work.
 
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Apple Beefing Up iPhone and iPad Antenna Engineering Staff

posted by Eric Slivka on Wednesday June 30, 2010 10:31 AM

As noted by Engadget, Apple has been busy posting job listings for engineers to work on design and testing of antennas for the company's iPhone and iPad. While Apple typically posts a number of new job listings each day, the fact that the company has posted a total of eight antenna-related positions over the past two weeks naturally leads to speculation that it is beefing up its staff to investigate and deal with signal issues being experienced by iPhone 4 users.

The eight job listings comprise three separate job titles, with the most relevant being three "Antenna Engineer - iPad/iPhone" positions. The three listings, all posted on June 23rd, are looking for individuals with a high level of qualification including 10+ years of experience in RF technology and a preference for PhD-level training.

Responsibilities: Define and implement antenna system architecture to optimize the radiation performance for wireless portable devices. The candidate should be able to design antennas suitable for wireless handheld devices with excellent radiation performance, including TRP, TIS, SAR, and EMC. Work closely with other RF and antenna design engineers, mechanical and industrial designers, and EMC engineers to integrate the antenna design in our products.

Also posted on June 23rd were two listings for "iPhone OTA Wireless Systems Engineer" to focus on validation of antenna radiation performance. And just one week earlier, the company posted three listings for " RF Systems Validation Engineer iPhone" positions also focused on testing the iPhone's RF systems, noting that "as we add more and more capabilities to the iPhone, testing the radios becomes more and more complex."

It is unclear exactly what role these new hires might play in addressing the current issues, as it typically takes some time for a hiring process to run its course and new employees to arrive and get up to speed. The job listings could suggest, however, that the company is looking to bring on additional hands to work on designs and testing for future models as some of the unit's staff is absorbed in addressing issues with the current model.

http://marcospoerrle.com/blog/?p=10

The American dream ran out of steam on Saturday as Bob Bradley's team exited the World Cup with a 2-1 extra-time defeat to Ghana. blog @ marco spoerrle

http://marcospoerrle.com/blog/?p=3

The U.S's strengths throughout this tournament have been their work-rate, self-belief and determined spirit but those proved not to be enough against the African team who also knocked them out of the tournament four years ago.
Once again, a U.S. side which twice gave up early goals in the group stage, conceded before they had even got into their stride and yet again they came back after Bradley astutely changed things around at the break.
A Landon Donovan penalty brought the Americans on to equal terms but this time it was their opponents who found the extra something to come back from a setback - Asamoah Gyan's superb strike in extra-time giving Africa just their third ever quarter-finalists.
The Americans, who fought back for draws against England and Slovenia, couldn't make it back one more time.
Their legs looked tired, their play was imprecise and somehow that fighting spirit that pushed them to a last minute win over Algeria just was not quite enough.
The weaknesses of Bradley's side though go beyond conceding early goals and the draining effect of playing three days after the grueling and emotional victory over Algeria.
The U.S. midfield, with two defensive central operators and two attack-minded wide players in Clint Dempsey and Donovan, was over-run at times by the numerically stronger Ghanaian midfield.
That uneven battle was not helped by Ricardo Clark's wayward performance, his yellow card and the subsequent need for Bradley to replace him, with Maurice Edu, in just the 31st minute.
The U.S. coach addressed the problem by bringing in Benny Feilhaber to give him three genuine midfielders in the second half with Clint Dempsey moving into a full attacking role.
The floating Donovan is the main creative spark in the U.S. team and in fact, with him not finding his touch, it highlighted just how much the Americans rely on him for that little bit of something out of the ordinary.
When Donovan doesn't deliver the U.S. are far too predictable going forward -- needing a sharp turn from Clint Dempsey or a burst of pace from Jozy Altidore -- neither of which were frequent features at the Royal Bafokeng stadium.
The full-backs, Jonathan Bornstein or Steve Cherundolo, were solid defensively but didn't offer much of a threat from wide positions -- both found space on several occasions but were unable to deliver dangerous crosses or get to the byline.
Up-front, for all their efforts, the American strikers didn't have the sharpness or the clinical finishing displayed by Ghana scorers Kevin-Prince Boateng and Gyan.
For the U.S. to move from a decent qualifier from the group stages to a team that can really threaten to make the latter stages they need to address those limitations.
A midfield playmaker, a genuine winger and an international class striker would transform them from a solid, workmanlike team into something that their fans could get really excited about.
They have four years to find those players.
(Writing by Simon Evans; Editing by Kate Holton)

http://marcospoerrle.com/blog/?p=3

Relationship Marketing: Blogging and Inbound Marketing

One of the most effective inbound marketing strategies available for businesses, online and offline, both in terms of cost of implementation and in overall return on investment (ROI), is blogging. Why has business blogging become so important as an inbound marketing strategy? There are a variety of reasons. Blogging is conversation, it’s personable, and it’s informative. Blogging is attractive for both online and offline (i.e., brick and mortar) businesses because consumers (i.e., customers, clients, and patients) feel they are being told a story rather than sold a product or service; and, no one wants to be “sold!”
Significantly, clients and prospective clients become part of the conversation by reading the blog posts and leaving their thoughts and feelings in the form of comments.

Who doesn’t like being asked their opinion?
And, what business owner wouldn’t pay big money to know what his target audience is thinking, as well as what they react to and why?
A blog is a great way to show the world your expertise, thus establishing authority and demonstrating your competence in the marketplace and to your target market. People like to do business with business people they know, like, and trust. Prospective clients are drawn to businesses and business people who are experts in their field. Demonstrating competence enhances your image and makes the prospective client feel confident about their decision to purchase from you…you, as the expert in your field.
When properly constructed and implemented, an effective business blogging strategy is an incredibly valuable asset. Blogging for business is crucial, whether the business is entirely online or a combination of both, as is the case with most brick and mortar businesses today.
When organized and well written, a blog conveys the ultimate Internet image, an image that announces:

“This business is well run, this is a business I can do business with!”
A well thought out, well constructed blog, combined with an effective overall inbound marketing strategy, conveys a message, an image if you will, that this business owner is knowledgeable and cares enough to seek feedback about products and/or services offered from his or her clients and prospective clients.
A wise business owner values feedback, realizing there is always room for improvement, both in sales and service. Why not ask for feedback from the very people who use the product or service day in and day out? A blog can accomplish this for a business, creating a link both valuable and, ultimately, profitable. The feedback a blog offers is an often over-looked advantage; and yet, it is an incredibly powerful resource.
Significantly, the proper blogging strategy will provide a window into the thinking of your client-base and create a vehicle you may then use to improve your products and/or service.
The feedback from your business blog will also provide ideas and strategies for new products and services. Interestingly, you may even be able to gain a competitive advantage by learning what your clients and prospective clients like and dislike about your competitors, their products and services. Perhaps it’s a product or service you don’t provide but should? Perhaps it’s something to do with price? The blog provides the vehicle, the opportunities are there; and, it is up to the individual business owner to take advantage of them. A well constructed inbound marketing strategy, one that has at its center a well-thought-out and appropriately implemented blogging strategy, will put your business on track to accomplish all of the above and more.
One last word about inbound marketing, blogs, and blogging for business: photographs, audio recordings, and short videos are worth their weight in gold. If you aren’t the greatest writer, and don’t have the money in the budget to hire a good copywriter, also worth their weight in gold, a photograph or short video can help you tell your business’ story. With today’s technology, a photograph, audio, and/or video is easy to create and it’s often the first item to catch the attention of a visitor to your blog.
It’s worth taking some time each day to blog. Think of it as going out to talk to the man on the street. Think of it as time well spent. You will find it to be a great investment in time and effort, the ultimate in ROI.

HTML5 - The Future of the Web, Marco Spoerrle

Steve Jobs was recently quoted as saying "No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5" igniting interest in HTML5 and sparking numerous debates online in blogs and forums.

Jobs' prediction that flash is dead invokes memories of the famous Mark Twain quote "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated". While the debate rages on over the future of Flash, HTML5's destiny is assured.

It's not just Apple pointing to HTML5 as an internet revolution, Microsoft, Google, Opera, Mozilla, W3C and even Adobe themselves agree. In fact HTML5 may become historic for that very reason. It is arguably the only time Google, Microsoft and Apple have ever agreed on anything.

How HTML5 evolved was largely due to a disagreement with the W3C over Error Handling and the failure to embrace modern Internet applications. In 1997, W3C announced it would no longer extend HTML4 and saw XML and XHTML as the future. Draconian Error Handling, (Draco was the Greek leader that issued death penalties for minor offences), instructed that browsers were to treat all errors in XML as fatal. With 99% of web pages showing minor errors, and the lack of new features in XML, many webmasters ignored the new standard or continued to serve their websites as HTML, even when adopting XHTML.

In 2004, a group of developers and browser vendors including Apple, Opera and Mozilla gave a presentation to the W3C on evolving HTML4 to include new features for modern web applications. The W3C rejected their proposal of extending HTML and CSS. Those interested in evolving HTML4 rebelled and broke away from the W3C, forming their own working group called WHATWG (Web Hypertext Applications Technology Working Group). At the core of the WHATWG beliefs was backwards compatibility and forgiving error handling. WHATWG's vision was to extend HTML features including form handling while ensuring that it would degrade gracefully in older browsers. While the W3C wanted the world to move to a new standard XML, WHATWG planned to evolve existing HTML to support a modern Internet.

In 2006, Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the W3C, recognized that the rebels at WHATWG had gained momentum and announced that the W3C would work together with WHATWG to evolve HTML. The W3C HTML Working Group was formed, working with HTML in conjunction with XHTML. HTML5 was officially born. In October 2009, W3C shut down XHTML2 making HTML5 the future of the Internet. The pirates had taken over the ship.

HTML5 marks a change in attitude from the W3C and seeks to support the diversity of HTML rather than just enforcement of web standards. It is an incredible achievement that HTML5 is backward compatible, meaning most of HTML5 can be used straight away albeit with some JavaScript hacks on semantics for IE. Ideas from W3C, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, Opera and many other experts combine to pull the best bits out of HTML and browsers past into an exciting upgrade of the HTML language that promotes inclusion not exclusion.

In many ways HTML5 simplifies web pages, taking laborious tasks such as form validation away from web authoring and into the browser. The idea of making the browser do the work probably stems back to IE3, where Microsoft provided the first browser to build in CSS support. HTML5 introduces new tags for page structure and semantics of documents.

New markets in Typography are opening up with the implementation of "@font-face", meaning designers at last can transfer the visual appeal of print to the web thanks to advances in CSS and HTML5. Large JavaScript libraries such as MooTools and JQuery can be slimmed down as HTML5 transfers many common tasks directly into the browser. Client side storage, session storage and client side posting are set to change how we communicate on the web. Web applications such as video are embedded by HTML without the need of JavaScript. Sites will begin to move away from Flash to deliver their video and onto HTML5, especially when current codec concerns with Mozilla Firefox are resolved.

New HTML5 API's, such as drag and drop, are reverse engineered from Microsoft, ensuring that they are supported from the start by IE. What developers of HTML5 such as Ian Hickson (Opera) have done is to view the modern web and say, "OK that's what people are trying to do, how can HTML5 support that".

Unlike previous web standards based releases such as XHTML 1.1 and the never finished XHTML 2.0, HTML5 is backward compatible and is here to stay. With the involvement of people that have been critical of the W3C, HTML5 brings a standard based upgrade of HTML that is fully supported throughout the industry. HTML5 will genuinely future proof your site without the danger of your markup depreciating in a couple of years.

HTML5 timetable for completion is in 2022, which has left many webmasters confused as to its relevance now. However, any website can begin using the new specification immediately by simply changing the doc type to "", the lowest number of characters required to trigger standards mode in IE. Currently, only beta versions of browsers IE9, Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Opera support advanced HTML5 elements. However, typography "@font-face" is fully supported in current browsers. For more information have a look at Ethan Dunham's "FontSquirrel.com" and Jeffrey Veen's "Typekit.com". Other HTML5 features such as "Drag and Drop" and "ContentEditable" are also currently supported. You can follow the implementation of HTML5 in modern browsers at "HTML5Readiness.com" and "Caniuse.com".

Further information:

     http://www.whatwg.org

     http://diveintohtml5.org

     http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html

 

About The Author
Jennifer Robinson currently works as an underpaid freelance writer for Online Connect, a supplier of photocopiers and Document Management. Visit their website at www.onlineconnect.co.uk

Facebook "Likes" Mean More to Businesses Than Just Traffic, Marco Spoerrle

Facebook "Likes" Mean More to Businesses Than Just Traffic, Marco Spoerrle

It's been nearly a week since Facebook rocked the world with its Open Graph announcements, and many of us are still wrapping our heads around all of the implications they have. I don't think there's any dispute that it's a huge move, and that it's important to pay attention to from a business perspective, but just what it means for businesses is still up in the air in some regards. Like Facebook itself, or even social media in general, we're going to see more benefits (and possibly negatives) as time goes on, and more sites and applications harness the power of said Open Graph.

As those wheels turn in our heads, there is plenty of discussion already happening around the subject - not just the Open Graph and the issues related to it (open web ramifications, privacy, etc), but how we can indeed take advantage of it.

Traffic

In a recent article we talked about why Facebook's Open Graph and particularly its social plug-ins will be good to drive traffic. It's pretty straightforward. The like and recommendation buttons are essentially different versions of the share buttons that people have been using to drive traffic for quite some time. The main difference is that instead of only showing up in the news feed only disappear shortly thereafter, they will remain on the user's profile page for people to see in the future - a fixed link to your content.







Marco Spoerrle, MARCO SPOERRLE

Report: Singapore to Soon Get a Facebook Office, Marco Spoerrle

Marco Spoerrle
MarcoSpoerrle.com

Report: Singapore to Soon Get a Facebook Office

April 8th, 2010

By Chris Morrison

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Following a string of other expansions this year, Facebook has moved to set up its latest outpost in Singapore. The company has registered its name, rented offices and listed a half-dozen positions with the intention of of opening the office this summer, according to Channel NewsAsia.
The new positions will be in sales and business development, suggesting that Facebook may have settled on the city-state to support its growing user base in nearby countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, all of which are among the ten fastest growers according to our March statistics.
Singapore also looks like a strategic choice accounting for the satellite office that Facebook anounced it would be opening in Hyderabad, India in mid-March. Taken together, the two offices should be able to serve most of the rapidly-growing audience in Asia, while the fairly cosmopolitan cities that Facebook has chosen should help it find multi-lingual staff. The report says that Facebook currently has six local job listings, “largely in business and sales develoment;” it cites a local publication’s source suggesting that Facebook will begin Singapore operations in ” the middle of the year.”
For the moment, hiring local developers doesn’t seem to be on Facebook’s slate, although it recently bought Malaysia-based contact importer Octazen, whose two employees continue to work from that country.
The initial number of people Facebook is hiring for the entire Asian region is probably pretty small, but the social network may find reason to expand it soon. The current Facebook audience of about 85 million people in the region may quadruple by next year, according to our Global Monitor stats (we’ll be covering Asia again next Tuesday).
Other recent expansions for Facebook include a larger European advertising presence, the purchase of a second building near its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., and the opening of a new 200-person office in Austin, Tex.

Marco Spoerrle
MarcoSpoerrle.com

Marco Spoerrle: Offerpal Expands to More Non-Traditional and Overseas Payment Options

Offerpal Expands to More Non-Traditional and Overseas Payment Options

April 9th, 2010

By Chris Morrison

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When Offerpal started out a couple years back, it was focused exclusively on online surveys and marketing offers. That’s no longer the case, as last year the company joined the race to become a full-fledged payment platform offering dozens of ways for users to send money to application and game owners.
Its latest raft of additions, announced this week, includes three payment options targeted at children and teens, including those overseas. For the US, Offerpal has partnered with BillMyParents, which lets kids tap into their parent’s credit cards with direct supervision, and Rixty, which uses existing ATMs and convenience stores to let kids pay for online credits in cash. In Asia, Offerpal has added MyCard, which sells gift cards throughout Asia.
Three other new OfferPal partners don’t specifically target kids. For the world market, it has added ClickandBuy, which lets users pay in 120 different currencies, while in Europe Offerpal has added Paysafecard, another pre-paid card. And for the US, the company now has STi prepaid cards.
Over time, the so-called “payment wall” loaded up by Offerpal for users should cater to just about anyone; in fact, it’s hard to imagine that anyone in the US would be terribly hard-pressed to figure out one way or another to pay for a virtual good or service, including the private virtual currency that Offerpal launched last August.
The picture overseas is more fragmented, but Offerpal is at least addressing the major markets of Europe and Asia. As each of the various payment companies fills out its wall of offerings, we’ll begin seeing them battling over finer points in their business models — which is probably why Offerpal also just hired Alex Brutin, who has previous experience with both Google Checkout and PayPal, as a new VP of business development.
Offerpal also just acquired TapJoy in March, which is part of a separate-but-similar move into mobile monetization for the company.

Marco Spoerrle,
MarcoSpoerrle.com

Marco Spoerrle - Facebook’s Search Traffic Continues to Grow

Facebook’s Search Traffic Continues to Grow

April 10th, 2010

By Chris Morrison

The latest ComScore numbers for the search market reveal an interesting fact: Facebook’s search query volume is rapidly approaching that of the smallest major search engine, Ask. Citi Group, in its own take on ComScore’s numbers, noted Facebook’s 647 million queries in March, which was in turn picked up by Liz Gannes at GigaOm.
That number is equal to about 2.7 percent of all searches performed in the U.S. market — a big number, especially for a company whose business isn’t really search at all. But with almost half a billion users trying to find their way around an ever more sprawling social network, there’s a real need for all those queries.
Measuring Facebook against, say, Microsoft’s Bing does sound like an apples-and-oranges comparison at first. Then again, ignoring the site would create an excessively narrow definition of what search is. It’s not unheard of for large destination sites to become search portals of a sort; YouTube, for example, serves as a portal for a lot of kids, some of whom will go straight to the video site when they need to look up something. Over the years, YouTube has grown big enough that it can actually serve a general search audience, especially with the help of content creators like Demand Media.
The purpose of search on Facebook is a bit more narrow. People tend to be searching for something in particular: a person, a group, an event or an application. Yet over time, if Facebook becomes a central location for those categories of information, it could end up drawing traffic away from the dedicated search engines.
Of course, we all know there’s a lot of money to be made in search, and it’s not hard to imagine how Facebook could successfully seed some results with sponsored results, and create another revenue stream.
In fact, the company is already starting to take advantage of this, via its strategic partnership with Microsoft. Right now, it is running links to Bing web results for searches made on the site, recently tweaking this interface to make Bing more prominent by adding the the official logo. But that’s just the start. The companies also plan to use Facebook data to improve the relevancy Bing’s own search results, and Microsoft is handling search ads on Facebook. While these initiatives are not too far along yet, they could make Facebook search even more significant.

Marco Spoerrle - Use These 3 Tips so that Your Online Income Affiliate Business can Survive

As an affiliate marketer who would like to not only survive but also generate a large income you will need to utilize these 3 tips given here and be prepared to work hard as there is not magical formula to success.
As an affiliate marketer using these 3 tips will help your chances of success with your online marketing business. Using these 3 tips will help your online business survive the competition that is found in an online based business environment.
1. Give your readers free reports.
Either place these reports where they can be easily seen near the top of your website or alternatively give them as an incentive to visitors who are will to give you their name and email address.
Use a unique squeeze page, in other words one that is different from what everyone else is using, to offer your reports in exchange for their email address and make sure that you have an opt in box on that squeeze page that goes to your auto-responder account.
It is a known fact that the majority of people will not purchase anything the first time they see it. Normally it will take a minimum of seven views for them to make the purchase. Keep in mind that usually people are more willing to spend money with a person that they believe is trustworthy and has taken the time to build a relationship with them, they need to know that they are not just dealing with some faceless website but a real person who is willing to help them.
If the only connection is the product on your website, not only will you not build a list, but chances are that even if someone is interested in the product you are selling they will move on and in the end buy it from someone else.
2. Promote each product on a separate web page.
If you use this method of marketing your products you will be keeping the reader focused on one thing at a time and they will become less distracted than if there were too many things on the one page.
Help the reader to make a decision on each product by having a review for each one on your website. This not only gives it a more personal touch but also helps to encourage a sale. If you are able to get some testimonials from any of your previous customers who have already tried the product then this is something that you can use to your advantage.
Just be sure that those customers are happy to allow you to use their name and if possible their photo.
3. Aim to generate a lot of targeted traffic to your website.
There is absolutely no point in getting people to visit your site who have no interest whatsoever in the products that you are promoting. Write articles and submit them to ezines and article directories and focus on the niche that you are promoting your products to. There is no point in spending your time promoting your affiliate internet business where no one is interested in what you are selling, but writing articles and publishing them in article directories is a great way to become known and brand yourself and your business and the best thing is that this type of advertising will not cost you any money.
If you want to benefit from marketing your online business by using article marketing you will need to write a minimum of 2 articles every week. If you continue to do this consistently you will see that over time your traffic will increase and it will be people who are interested in your products and what you have to say.
None of these tips are really difficult to follow and take action on it just needs some time and thought from you. Try using these tips for a few of your affiliate internet based business programs and see how they will help your opportunity to survive as an online affiliate marketer. Another great thing about this is the increase in the pay checks you will be receiving.

Five secrets to success on the Web (Marco Spoerrle, marcospoerrle.com)

Five secrets to success on the Web

Is your XSite doing everything it can to boost your business?  We give you all the tools you'll need to maximize your online ROI, but in the end it's up to you.  (We just gave away secret number five!)  Step back and take a look at the whole of your website/online marketing plan.  Here are five secrets to its success.

1. Eyeballs. 
   If a total of five people see your website, its chances of reeling in one of those five to apply online is remote indeed.  If 5,000 see it, your chances of landing an applicant are exponentially better.
   
   Consider exchanging links with local agents and other real estate professionals you work with.  The more links to your site, the more people will find it from your partners' sites and the better your search engine ranking is likely to be.
   
   And speaking of search engine ranking, consider a pay per click campaign.  It's the best — and only — way to guarantee a first-page search result placement.  See our article on Pay-Per-Click 101 here.
   
   
2. Time.
   The longer visitors spend on your site, the more powerful your branding and marketing message becomes.  The more likely they are to see you as the mortgage professional they can trust.
   
   You keep visitors on your site by including lots of engaging, relevant content, like the pre-written material available to XSite owners.  Give them tools like calculators, rate sheets and local information.  Retail stores know they have a better chance of selling you more the longer you stay.  The same principle applies on the Web.
   
   Add content to your site that increases the time visitors spend there. Write about local events, add high school sports schedules or include our newest feature - RSS Feeds. Click here to learn more about RSS Feeds.
   
   
3. Flash.
   It's human nature: the more attractive and engaging information is, the more persuasive it is.  The more people pay attention to your site, its tools and your content, the more likely they are to request more information or apply online.
   
   Your Mortgage XSite lets you showcase your business with rich tools, sound and graphics.  You have a better chance of selling with a feature-rich, attractive site than a simple online brochure.  (Just be sure to complement your substance with style, not drown it out.)
   
   Add one of our pre-made Flash intros to your XSite or create your own. Just log into your XSite, click on the XSite icon and then My Intro to get started.
   
   
4. Lead capture. 
   Lots of visitors is good.  Getting visitors' contact information for followup is ten times better.  Mortgage XSites come with pre-built, customizable lead capture forms you can drop on any page. When visitors submit responses, the lead is sent to your e-mail and your mobile device. It's also automatically added to your contact manager.
   
   Relying on a dazzling, information-rich website to sell isn't enough — you'll want to follow up with visitors who began applications but never completed them, visitors who supply you their contact information and more.  XSellerate campaigns are a great way to stay in touch with minimal effort. Set up campaigns that automatically go out to website leads or stay in touch with past clients to encourage referrals. Which brings us to the final secret:
   
   
5. You.
   Your XSite will inform and empower visitors, and provide incentives to return.  Once they leave though, you take over, by following up quickly and aggressively with web leads, marketing to contacts and providing the kind of attention and quality service your clients expect.

Blog your way to more business - part three (Marco Spoerrle, marcospoerrle.com)

Blog your way to more business - part three
by Carla Chadwick, Web content specialist

In part one and part two, I covered how to develop blog content, and gave you some marketing ideas and free blog resources. In this issue, I’d like to focus on fundamental tips for using social networking to promote your blog.
One of the reasons blogs are such powerful marketing devices is that they’re a key component of Web 2.0. Although the term Web 2.0 seems technical, it’s just a way to identify the recent shift in the way people interact online. There’s plenty of disagreement about what Web 2.0 means. But for the purpose of this article, I’m going to say that Web 2.0 is, among many other things, a more collaborative approach to online interactions.
Because of this movement, a lot of sites have sprung up under the Web 2.0 subset of “social networking.” Social networking can take many forms when used for blog promotion, but they come under two major headings: social bookmarking and social networking. I’ve included samples of both below. All the sites I mention are free, although some have upgrade options.

Social bookmarking

Social bookmarking sites allow you to save your bookmarks and share them with others. The advantage to you as a blogger is that you can save your individual blog posts as bookmarks. These can subsequently be found by anyone searching for information on your topic. Good social bookmarking etiquette dictates, however, that you bookmark pages from other people, as well as your own.
Here are some of the more popular social bookmarking sites:

del.icio.us

This is one of the most famous bookmarking sites, so it has a lot of users. To make sure your blog posts can be found in de.licio.us, just go to the link above and click the “post” link at the top. This will bring you to a page where you’ll enter the address of your latest blog post. While doing so, you’ll want to enter a description and tags that detail the content of your post. Once posted, if anyone within de.licio.us searches for any of the tags you used, your blog post will come up in the search results. If your headline and description are compelling, you’ll have a good chance of getting people to click through to your blog.

 

StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is a world onto itself, in that it has a different model than the other bookmarking sites. “Stumblers” as its users are called, are served up Web site and blog pages, based on the preferences they chose in their profile and how many people have voted for the pages they’re viewing. If a Stumbler likes your page and gives it a “thumbs-up,” this pushes it to the top of a list to be shown to other Stumblers. The more thumbs-ups the page gets, the more people will see it. For this reason, you would only want to post original content with widespread appeal. You also would want to choose the category carefully when you submit a story. As with all other bookmarking sites, you must join to submit articles. And if you want to use StumbleUpon to view sites and blogs, you’ll need their toolbar.

Digg

Digg is another popular site that gives you the ability to submit blog posts, Web site pages, photos, video or podcasts. The site has a user-based voting system that causes a submission rise to the top. I’ve had submissions that never got a vote that still brought traffic to my blog; so don’t let the lack of votes stop you from submitting again. There are plenty of other sites that provide social bookmarking services. You can find more of them through SocialMarker, which also has shortcuts for submitting to all the sites on their list. If you’re going to use  social bookmarking, I recommend choosing just a few sites and getting to know the way they work. This will allow you to get the most out of each. Although the sites I listed above are popular and get a lot of traffic, there also is a lot competition to have your posts be seen. Sometimes one of the smaller networking sites can be more beneficial. If you plan to use Social Marker as a means to find the sites you like, I would suggest selecting just a few sites to visit for each Social Marker session. Otherwise, you might find using their program too overwhelming.

Social networking

The main goal of social networking sites is to make it easy for people to connect. More social networking vehicles come online every day, but for blog promotion, I recommend the following:

Linkedin

Linkedin is a twist on a traditional social networking site because it’s focused exclusively on people who want to promote their businesses. The premise of the site is that there are only three degrees of separation between your group of friends and a massive group of contacts. The easy-to-navigate interface allows you to connect with people you know who are in the Linkedin system and then connect with their connections. When you then connect with the people in that extended group of connections, the number of people with whom you can be in touch is huge.

BloggingZoom

This site is the new kid on the block, but the fact that it was developed by two bloggers specifically to serve the needs of other bloggers has drawn an enthusiastic response. Like Digg, BloggingZoom has a voting system. But don’t worry if people don’t vote for your post. Like with Digg, people will often read a post but not vote for it. Also, their submissions process is set up specifically to be search-engine friendly, so if you submit according to their guidelines, you have another chance to be found by the engines for each post.

HubPages

HubPages offers a different sort of social networking, in that it gives you the chance to express yourself while connecting with others. Although you can also use it to connect, join subject-related clubs and comment on articles, HubPages is perfect for people who write well and want to use that skill to promote their businesses. You can create your own pages, called “hubs,” which can then potentially be seen by the HubPages community and millions of people the search engines bring to the site each month. You can even use articles you have already written for your blog, as long as you change the content by at least 20 percent. Click here to see a typical hub. These are just four of the many social networking sites that are available. To access links to many others, view this Wikipedia page, which contains a large list of them.
But don’t go off into the social networking world just yet. There’s some terminology you should understand first, so your time will be more productive.

Social networking glossary

Keywords
I’ve covered this topic in other issues of the Marketing Insider newsletter because there can never be enough said about it. But rather than go over it again in this article, go to this page for information on using keywords for beginners. You might also want to sign up for WordTracker’s free easy-to-follow nine-part e-mail series on using keywords.
Tags
Tags and keywords are closely related, in that they both are shorthand for identifying the content of a particular blog entry, photo, geographic map or video clip. Unlike keywords, each user chooses tags when one of the aforementioned files is created or saved to a bookmarking site. Users search by tags, which cuts down the time it takes to find information. To see examples, click on this page. The words in gold-colored boxes are tags. If you click on any of these tags, you’ll bring up all the posts that have been tagged with the same name.
Tag cloud
A tag cloud is a method of arranging tags by the amount of information connected to each one. The point of a tag cloud is to show the user at first glance which topics a blog contains and how much information there is on each. The more information about a tagged subject, the larger and bolder the tag. To see an example of a tag cloud, click here and scroll down the page to the “WordPlay's Tags” box.
Categories
Categories reflect the major subject groups covered on a blog. They’re similar to tags, except the person who generates the content chooses them.
Avatar or icon
An avatar or icon is a graphic that accompanies you as you comment on a blog post or use a social networking site. In some cases, it can be seen even if you visit individual blogs. An icon is sometimes accompanied by your username, so it’s a good idea to choose a good username (one that brands your business at first glance) when you sign up for networking sites. For examples of good icons, click here. For free images you can use to create your icon, click here for clip art and here for photography.
Bookmarklet
Most social bookmarking sites offer a bookmarklet, which places a bookmark in your browser. Once it’s in your bookmarks, if you want to submit a page to that service, just navigate to the page you want to submit, open your bookmarks and click on the bookmarklet. This will automatically take you to a page that has your page information filled in, making the submission process easier.
Knowing these terms in advance should cut the time it takes to get up to speed with social networking. I think you’ll find it can be a lot of fun to use social networking sites. And in the process of promoting your own blog, you’ll probably even come across interesting information you never would have found otherwise.

Blog your way to more business - part two (Marco Spoerrle, marcospoerrle.com)

Blog your way to more business - part two
by Carla Chadwick, Web content specialist

In part one, I covered basic content issues and how to use free photography to increase your blog’s post appeal. In this issue, I have a few more content tips for you, but I mainly want to focus on some effective free methods you can use to market your blog.
Content tips
If you’re feeling stuck for a something to write about, sometimes getting a little inspiration elsewhere can help. The following ideas and linked resources might just give you the kick-start you need to write memorable posts:

• Try using a quotation from a famous person to get your creative juices flowing.
• Use clip art, either alone or in conjunction with a quotation, to provide some visual interest.
• Include a free cartoon in your post to inject some humor.
• Use the Cool Text Generator to create fun graphic headlines for your posts.

You can incorporate any elements you want as long as they relate to your subject. Remember, if you stray from your subject, your readers will stray from you.
Free blog marketing resources
Once you’ve become inspired and written those wonderful posts, you’ll want as many people as possible to see them. There are myriad ways to market a blog, some of which require special expertise. If you’re a new blogger, though, you might want to begin with the following relatively simple methods:
Print materials, advertising and XSellerate
It might seem obvious that you should put your blog address on all your communications, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded. Opportunities to promote your blog on vehicles you’re already using abound. These include:

• Letterhead
• Business cards
• Listing fliers
• E-mail signature
• XSellerate messages
• Web site home page
• Advertising

Class reunion Web sites
Class reunion sites, such as Classmates.com, Reunion.com or ClassReport.org, get a tremendous amount of traffic. You never know; there might be people from your past looking for you on these sites. It takes just a few minutes to register for each. When you do, make sure your Web site and blog are listed in your profiles.
Commenting on other blogs
You can gain exposure by writing entries in the comments fields of posts on popular blogs and Web sites. Well written, on-topic comments in the right places can generate buzz about you and your business. When you make comments, remember the following guidelines:

• When you enter your name in a comment form, use a name that identifies your business. Unless your name is well known, using “Jones Mortgage” would have more benefit to you than using “Jane Jones.” That way, when people read your comment, they’ll see your business name right next to it.
• Keep your comment focused on the topic in the story or post.
• If you have content on your blog related to the story, provide a link to it in your comment. (The obvious exception would be on blogs or Web sites that don’t allow URLs in comments.) Be sure to explain briefly in the comment why readers would find your information beneficial. This would give them incentive to click through to your blog.
• Since you would be posting comments with the ultimate goal of marketing your business, stay away from writing anything negative. A good rule of thumb is that if you wouldn’t make a remark to someone’s face, don’t post it in a comments field.

Here are some tips for finding suitable sites for your comments:

• Look in the a la mode blog directory for blogs from companies that provide allied services in your area.
• Search in a major search engine for government Web sites or blogs in your city, county and state.
• Search in a major search engine for community-oriented or personal blogs in your town. For example, if you’re in Boca Raton, Florida, search for “Boca Raton Florida blogs.”
• Visit the Web sites and blogs of local newspapers, and television and radio stations to look for stories related to your business.

Real estate blog directories
If you’ve been blogging through a la mode, you’ll automatically be listed in their blog directory. You’ll probably also want to submit your blog for inclusion in the following free directories that rank high in Google:
Real Estate and Mortgage Blogger's Exchange (REMBEX)
To submit your blog to be considered for inclusion in REMBEX, click the link above and follow the instructions.
MortgageBlogs.com
As you can tell by the name, this directory is dedicated only to mortgage-related blogs. They offer a map-based search system so readers can easily find local blogs. Click here to submit your blog to the directory.
I hope you’ll find these methods useful. In part three of this series, I’ll delve into even more free ways to market your blog.

Blog your way to more business - part one (Marco Spoerrle, marcospoerrle.com)

Blog your way to more business - part one
by Carla Chadwick, Reseller

The old adage says that you need to market more, not less, when business is slow. And it’s true; it takes extra effort to capture business when the pool of available clients is smaller. But paying for that extra marketing can sometimes be a problem when the economy is sluggish — unless you have an XSite. As you know, XSites already have a full range of features that allow you to promote your business. But to truly maximize your marketing, you have to use those features to their full potential.
It’s natural that the first thing you would do when you get your XSite is to configure it with your Web site content. But don’t let it end there. Once your site is up and running, the XSite blog feature should become your best friend. The approachable, personal nature of a blog can enhance the reputation you’ve established on your Web site, and even reach some people that your Web site might not. Also, people are interested in learning what the real estate market is like from local professionals. There are a lot of scared homeowners right now because all they hear is doom and gloom on the news about the market. Your blog could help counteract that negative influence. Not only that, your daily or weekly blog updates can give potential clients a window into not only your professional qualifications, but also how you think and interact.

A funny word for a powerful feature

Short for “weblog,” a blog is the place where a marketing Web site and a traditional diary meet. With such a weird name, it would be tempting to ignore this powerful feature if you weren’t familiar with its benefits. But you shouldn’t pass up this marketing opportunity, because blogs have proven to be effective promotional tools. One of the primary reasons for this is that search engines love content that changes all the time, and changing content is what blogs are all about. Also, you can never underestimate how much people want to read what other people are thinking! Blogs excel at presenting personal perspectives, even when they’re used for business marketing. And if you blog through XSites, you have the additional advantage of being listed in the XSites blog directory, which allows potential customers to search by geographical area. This directory provides yet another arena to highlight your services, but you won’t be found there unless you’re using your blog.
If you’ve already been blogging for a while through XSites, you know how easy it is. For those who haven’t tried it, you don’t even have to think about the technical aspects; those are already taken care of. All you have to do is write. Now, I realize that fact can stop some people in their tracks. But again, because you have access to the vast selection of XSites content, you don’t have to worry about writing. In case you didn’t know, all the content available for your Web site is also available for your blog. This gives you a powerful source of quality information.
Since XSite blogging is so easy, I won’t go into the physical details of how it works. I’d rather focus on how to give your blog a personal touch and provide information people want to read. First, let’s determine what type of blogger you are. Are you a writer or a non-writer? Obviously, we can all physically write. But if you don’t feel you write well, the time to admit it is before you start blogging. There’s no shame in being a “non-writer” because we all have different talents. And even if you can’t write well, you can blog; you just have to use a different strategy.
Before I go into the strategies, it’s probably a good idea for you to get an idea of what other people are doing with their blogs. To view other XSite blogs, go to the XSites Network site and choose a category from the pull-down menu in the “Mortgage Lenders” box. Choose a state and county, and you’ll be shown a list from that area. Looking at blogs in your area can help you understand what information other professionals think is important and how they’re reaching out to their readers.

Blogging strategies

For non-writers (or people in a hurry)
Obviously, you can always hire someone to write your blog or edit something you’ve written. But if you want to stick to no-cost blogging, the 106 pages of XSites content are a great starting point. You can use any of the articles as-is or you can modify them a bit. If you followed the suggestion above about looking at other blogs, I’m sure you found other companies that are geographically close to you that also use XSites content in their blogs. Since a potential client might look at some or all the blogs in the area, you might want to have your copy look a little different than anyone else’s. This is especially important because people can subscribe to get e-mail updates when blogs are updated, which could lead to a potential client receiving e-mails with the same information from two different companies.
So, if you’re not a writer, how do you customize your copy while also making it different from other blogs? It’s easy. Just choose an article on a subject you’d like to feature, and then use only some of the content. For example, the “401K for Down Payment” article under the “Provided” tab in the XSites Wizard has seven paragraphs. But if you use just the second, third and fourth paragraphs, instead of the entire article, you’ll have solid content that won’t look like anyone else’s. This is because the first thing people will see in other blogs that use this article will be the first paragraph, which won’t be in your copy. And if you add one or more photos (see this page for a free photography resource), you can differentiate your post even further.
To have this strategy work, you just have to make sure the paragraphs you choose stand alone and don’t read as if something were missing. It also would be advisable to identify the content as a “tip” rather than making it seem like a full article. This would allow you to add a teaser at the end to announce your next tip, which would help build interest in upcoming posts. In the case of some articles, you could even use other paragraphs to form a completely new tip for your next post. This would give you two blog entries out of one article!
This same strategy can be used with any number of article types. For example, you can pull a list of area attractions from the XSites local content or feature one of your recent listings. And if you have a professional XSite, you have even more options, including using stories from Inman News, which would give you a continual source of fresh content.

For writers

Sometimes the biggest hurdle when writing is getting started. XSites content can help with this, too, because just looking at the list of available articles could inspire you or provide a topic. When you’re ready to begin, keep these things in mind:

• Although a blog is a marketing device, the less you can make it appear like one, the better. This means you should focus on copy that benefits the reader. Some examples would be to provide updates on interest rates; the development of new loan types, or any other information that someone looking for a loan would find useful.

• Include keywords in your blog posts. Search engines deliver search results based on the words they find in your blog, so it’s important that you feature your keywords. It’s also important to know that people are actually searching for those words. But how do you know which words people are looking for? This topic is too detailed for this article; so click here for more information on doing keyword research. Once you find the best keywords, try to use them a few times per post, as long as they read naturally. Search engine technology has become so sophisticated; it can sniff out copy that has keywords repeated with no rhyme or reason.

• Check your work before you post. Although the XSites blog interface allows you to edit or remove copy even after it’s been posted, the e-mail announcing the new post will have already gone out to subscribers. So, it’s always a good idea to check your writing over thoroughly before you post. Click here for a checklist of things to review before you post. You might even want to add a few checklist items of your own.

• Above all, have a good time! Blogging is actually a lot of fun and a great creative outlet. While working toward mastering the aspects above, you can also allow your personality to come through. That can even mean being a little irreverent. You want to stop short of being offensive, of course, but if it’s in your personality to joke around, let that come out in your blog. It will give your writing a human touch that will set you apart from everyone else.

I think you’ll find it’s relatively easy to get blogging, even if you aren’t a writer. If you write well, though, you’ll probably find you enjoy the opportunity to express yourself. And don’t forget, once you’ve created your first blog post, you can use XSellerate to announce it to the world.
In part two of this series, I’ll discuss ways to be even more creative with your blog, as well as options for marketing it free on the Internet.

Marco Spoerrle - Plan Your Marketing Strategy

Marketing During a Recession
It's true businesses are pulling their marketing budgets and as a result they are going to see a decrease in sales, while their competitors will continue to market and see growth during these difficult economic times. Learn the importance of marketing during a recession and gain the information you need to do it effectively and at low to no cost.

MarketingPlan Pro Software by Palo Alto Software
MarketingPlan Pro software was developed by PaloAlto and powered my marketing guru John Jantsch. I had the opportunity to play with this software package. In this review I share with you the pros and cons and tell you if it's worth your money.

What to Look for When Outsourcing Your Marketing
The option to outsource marketing functions is becoming increasingly popular. If you are evaluating the option to outsource there are a few things you should know when selecting a marketing consultant or outside firm. Learn what information your should gather and what things you should look for to find the right marketing consultant for you.

What’s the Future for Marketing in the Media Industry?
Like any business, the media industry evolves in cycles. The career potential for marketers in the media industry is anticipated to keep growing. Learn what you need to know about the future for marketing in the media industry and how to break into the career path in this guest article by Rick Linde.

Being Unique is a Good Thing... Isn't It?
Distinguishing your product or service from the competition can make your marketing more effective. Learn how to stand out in a crowd by being unique.

Marketing Power In Podcasting
Podcasts are audio or video files distributed over the internet. Listeners download the files, and either play them on the computer or a listening device, such as an I-Pod. Learn how you can market your company using the new technology of podcasting.

4 Ways to Overcome Marketing Challenges Forever
For most small business owners, marketing is an overwhelming concept. They need marketing solutions that ensure a smooth-running, profitable business yet most don't know where to begin or how to focus their efforts. Guest author Leslie Hamp shows you four ways to overcome marketing challenges forever.

Create an Effective Marketing Kit
The trifold brouchure is outdated. No one even reads them anymore, so how can you get the attention of prospective customers and clients? Learn how to make an effective marketing kit that will drive business to your company.

Dare to Be Different In Your Marketing
Why is it so difficult to find new ideas in the industry of marketing? Have we become complacent when it comes to developing new campaigns and strategies? Is it just easier to copy campaigns and change them up to make them our own? Learn how getting back to the basics can help you stand out and put you on a path that is unique and different. By daring to be different I guarantee you'll see the effectiveness and the excitement of your marketing endeavors increase.

Elements in the Situational Analysis
Before developing any given marketing strategy it is important to conduct some form of analysis. This week guest author Alex Margarit shows you a raw marketing 101 introduction to what to take into account when conducting an analysis. He also provides you with with a checklist of the most important factors to take into account. In his article you will learn how to evaluate the elements in situational analysis.

Develop Your Value Proposition
An effective and well written value proposition describes what you do in terms of tangible business results. It draws interest and shares a success story within a few words. Learn how to write yours today.

Changing Your Position When There's Competition
Are you finding many of your best prospects already working with competitors? When you pursue a new opportunity, is someone else capturing the prize? Maybe it's time to re-evaluate your positioning. Learn how in this guest article by C.J. Hayden.

Make More Money with Marketing Metrics
Knowing which marketing endeavors pay dividends will save you time, money and effort by allowing you to focus your marketing budget on tactics that work. Learn how to measure the effect of your marketing efforts to make more money in this week's guest article by Jeremy Cohen.

Is Procrastination Holding You Back?
Putting off unappealing tasks may be human nature, but for an entrepreneur, procrastination can be deadly. Is it holding you back? Find out how to overcome procrastination in this guest article by C.J. Hayden.

Reach Customers with Your Marketing Mix
Learn how to effectively reach customers with your marketing mix in this guest article by Alan J. Zell.

What's Your Marketing Attitude?
As business owners you may not lacking in the knowlege of marketing techniques but what about your marketing attitude? Are you sabotaging your own marketing efforts by carrying the wrong attitude? Find out in this guest article by C.J. Hayden.

Developing Your Marketing - 4 Ps of Marketing
Your marketing mix is a combination of marketing tools that are used to satisfy customers and company objectives. Learn how to develop a successful marketing program.

The Marketing Value of a Mission Statement
Your mission statement has marketing value, unfortuntaely it's often lost in wordy and meaningless jargon. Let me show you how write a mission statement that reflects your company's purpose and gives you marketing value.

Featured Article: Marketing Ideas & Strategies to Help Your Business Grow - Marco Spoerrle

How do you grab people's attention, arouse their interest, trigger their desire, and motivate them to take action? Answer that four-part question correctly and you've identified the secret to achieving tremendous sales and marketing success in your business or profession. To complicate matters, however, the potential answers are as numerous and multi-faceted as the growing number of niche markets, products and services, and evolving marketing strategies and trends in our culture.

While not all inclusive, the following list of marketing strategies, marketing tools, and free marketing ideas can help establish a marketing framework that can put your small business on a faster track to growth. If you need more information on a particular business marketing topic, there are opportunities throughout this page to purchase and download relevant digital books from eBooks.com. (Note: Ten additional marketing strategies have recently been added to this page. Take a look.)

Small Business Marketing Tip #1: Gain Customer Confidence. Customer indecisiveness, skepticism, indifference, or confusion are among the top sales killers in the business world. It's up to you to project an image of experience, quality, dependability, excellent customer service, and/or added value to your prospective customers in order to win their confidence and overcome sales objections. If you haven't clearly communicated the advantages and solid reasons for them to do business with you, then they'll be hesitant to commit and the sale will go to your competitor.

Marketing Tip #2: Penetrate awareness of your target audience by using integrated marketing strategy, which in many cases would include a well-planned website marketing strategy. Stated simply: the more ways the public hears about you, the better your chances are for achieving brand recognition, credibility, and greater market share. Effective marketing strategy is partly the result of exposing your target audience to your name and your selling points (unique selling proposition) as often as possible (frequency), in as many ways as possible, and as cost-effectively as possible. For more information, consider downloading these eBooks: Implementing an Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy and Strategic Integrated Marketing Communications.

How to Make Money Online by Starting An Internet Business | Marco Spoerrle

Experts say now is the perfect time to make money on the Internet, and online business owners are still seeing big profits, even in this roller coaster economy. That's why our entire range of information, software, and training products is designed to help you create an online business that you can easily run from your home, on your schedule. So if you're interested in making money online, we have everything you need to get started:

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DealDotCom: One Internet marketing product a day for low prices? Marco Spoerrle

There's a new service being launched this Tuesday that offers a two tier affiliating marketing program. According to their website they will sell one high quality internet marketing product per day for discount prices:

"Anything and everything related to building an online business, increasing traffic, monetizing your websites, blogging, web design... in short, we sell all things Internet Marketing. We've spent the last 4 months stalking big-name (and not-so-big-name) Internet Marketers who sell high-quality products, and convincing them to let us sell their stuff at huge discounts here on DealDotCom."

And so on and so forth, blah blah bladdy blah blah blah...

I signed up as an affiliate (accounts are free), but I'm VERY curious to see what kind of internet marketing products they're planning to sell. If there's one thing I'd love to see more of, it would be EFFECTIVE marketing services that can help promote your blog through WHITE-HAT means, without you having to pay for it using Bill Gates' checkbook.

If you do sign up, make sure to check out the site early morning on Sept 18th to see what their first product offering will be. That should give you a good indication of what they'll be selling and whether it's worth your time or not.

www.dealdotcom.com

Finding Your Niche - Marco Spoerrle

One of the first few and quite challenging tasks faced by people who are starting to work from home for the first time, more commonly referred to as newbies, is finding the right niche or target market to pursue. Finding your niche is indeed crucial for your online career since this will serve as your platform or kind of a blueprint as you tread on this new journey. That’s why you can find or read a lot of useful newbie tips all over the Internet regarding niches and all that.

When finding your niche and eventually choosing that niche for your work from home, you will have to start doing one important thing and that is to know, to learn, to research, to understand. The following are three things or newbie tips on how you can do that effectively:

Knowing something
Start by researching. Find out all about niches, what they really are and their significance in the Internet marketing industry. Then, research what particular niches are hot today. What are the latest trends? Which of the many choices can potentially bring great amounts of income to your hands? Just get out there and use the Internet to find the information you need and those details that you feel will help you tremendously with your decision-making later on. You can go read blog posts, articles and newbie tips like this one. You can join groups and forum discussions. You can chat with people who have some experience and knowledge. There’s so much that you can do and you should start doing it now because that will make you an inch closer to your goals.

Knowing your capabilities
By capabilities, we mean your knowledge, skills and expertise before going into this. Those traits may be able to help you in finding your niche and, more importantly, the right one. There are certain folks who chose niches that are somewhat related to their previous jobs or line of expertise. Someone who worked for a publication may go for niches involving books, e-books, blogs or reviews. There’s a great chance that a person previously involved in sales companies will go for affiliate marketing, stock photography or online selling and will become successful. This is because they can make use of what they already know and integrate that in their chosen niche and their work from home.

Knowing your interests
Another important factor that newbies should take note of is their interests on things. As you start finding your niche for your online business or your work from home, it would also be best to know and find out what your likes are, your desires, your passion, what interests you the most, that type of stuff, for that can also be a huge aid in narrowing down the niche that’s perfect for you. Some Internet marketers were influenced by their interests when they were looking for their target niches. So if you are very much interested in laptops and you think you can do well selling or promoting those, then by all means, do so.

As a newbie, finding your niche can either start your online career or end it right then and there. Therefore, take these newbie tips and reminders seriously because you may just be surprised with what you can do and achieve as an Internet marketer. As long as you stay focused and keep your head in the game, you will be able to do wonders.