Copywriting Formula for Direct Response Advertisements

1. Get your attention. Successful copywriting is designed to boldly grab your attention now. The opening message or headline should ideally pull you from your life right into the message in such a way that you will ignore the conversation you are having, or the magazine you may be browsing, or your desire to run to the kitchen for a snack, or anything else you may be doing or about to do. If your are not instantly engaged, the rest of the copywriting will not likely move you to make a purchase.

2. Pose a problem. Whether it’s your weight, your hair, your breath, how you prepare food, personal finances, debt, health, the performance of your car, or countless other issues, you were presented a problem. Such can even include positioning something you hadn’t previously considered to be irksome as old and problematic. The more generally troublesome something can be presented, the more you are likely to relate to it.

3. Solve your problem. Yay! The product you purchased was demonstrated to save the day. On TV or web video, this is often represented by visually showing benefits and results as effectively, quickly and easily as possible. With written text, the words will be woven to create similarly strong visual impressions.

4. Offer you a great deal. This is where you were presented a special price, purchasing instructions, added incentives, bonuses, and anything that increased the value of what you purchased.

You were directed to call a toll-free number by showing and/or repeating it over and over and over. Whether on TV, radio or in a written advertisement, that number was presented so that you would take advantage of it now!

If the copywriting directed you to a website to complete your purchase, the web address was shown, announced and/or featured prominently enough for you to get some paper and write it down (even if you had to run across the street to borrow paper and pencil from a neighbor).

5. Guaranteed! The guarantee was designed to lower your resistance and assure you that you made a right decision to purchase the product or service because you could get a refund for any reason. A “no risk,” money-back guarantee would have been emphasized to ensure you reach for your wallet and make that phone call.

As a bit of counter-intuitive benefit to advertisers, in many cases, the longer the guarantee period, the less likely a refund will be requested. It doesn’t make sense, but I have conducted tests that have shown longer guarantees to be more effective in generating sales and still result in less refund requests (obviously this would not hold true with an inferior product). Better guarantees should be longer than 30 days, and in some case can go as far as offering “Lifetime guarantees.” (Although the latter is less effective for companies that are not well established and might even raise doubts about the sincerity of the guarantee for a new company).

6. Call to action. This is when you were told to “BUY NOW,” “ORDER NOW,” and/or “CALL NOW.” This was likely accentuated by emphasizing that the product or service is available only for a “limited time” and/or “while supplies last.” The success of many direct response offers, whether by commercials, infomercials, website ads, direct mail ads, email marketing, magazines, newspapers, etc, is a result of impulse decision making, which diminishes rapidly with passing time.

Furthermore, successful direct response campaigns have had each of these elements (and more) tested and tested and tested again to refine the copywriting and the presentation for the purpose of generating the most sales or responses.  (For more complex or expensive products, the “response” may not be a sale, but a sales lead or prospect, who has requested information in exchange for their contact details).

Heck, even the term “Search Engine Marketing” (SEM) has not established a universal definition. To many folks SEM refers to the various forms of paid marketing, such as pay-per-click advertising.

To others, SEM encompasses paid search marketing and search engine optimization (SEO), for developing non-paid traffic.

Regardless of the terminology, paid advertising and SEO are the two general ways to get more traffic to your website.

Ideally, your website marketing efforts would include both, however the most non-optimum circumstance is not taking advantage of either.

How about you? What do you do to get visitors to your website?

Although Facebook is a popular social networking platform, from an advertising perspective, it’s more noteworthy as a large marketplace replete with a generous amount of user demographic data that can be readily translated into more targeted ads to carry your message. But not all products and services are profitably suited to advertising on Facebook.

What Products and Services Sell Best on Facebook?

Facebook primarily caters to individuals inclined towards communicating about their lives to friends and family. Hence, products or services that are business-to-consumer oriented (B2C), have a better opportunity at establishing positive results than a company which is advertising business-to-business (B2B) products or services.

Having said that, if you do sell B2B products/services, recognize that you are more likely to successfully advertise to small business owners who are on Facebook, rather than larger company buyers. (Statistically, there are more of the former).

Facebook is a good advertising channel for generating business for art, music, clubs, shared beliefs (ie. political, religious, social causes, etc.), live events, travel, entertainment or for marketing custom or personalized products, as well as things that express individual tastes and preferences.

Facebook Advertising is Not for Everyone

Some examples of B2B products or services that would not likely yield positive results on Facebook would be technical, industrial, or complex products/services.

Also, if you sell products that can be readily purchased anywhere with a price that is well known, then – unless you have a compelling price – your product may not do well on Facebook.

Facebook Advertising Conclusion

Facebook offers a unique opportunity to demographically target a large audience of users, with qualifiers such as likes and interests, geography, age, gender, single or married, and education level.

Even so, if you have a product or service that fits the criteria outlined in this article, then you would be wise to stick your toes in the water first via market testing to develop and refine your advertising, rather than diving in head first with a large ad budget just because it appears so promising.

A) Shorter website names are better because they are easier to remember, and they are easier to communicate to others. (However, all the really short names are taken).

B) It can be useful to have one keyword in the name to benefit from some extra search engine traffic. However, some companies will use relatively short names that have no keywords and no other meaning, and then build a brand around it. (Think “Google” or “Kodak”). That works great as long as you can gain enough attention to get people to look for that name.

C) If your own personal name is available, that may be useful for certain professionals, artists, or anyone who wants to publish a website using their own name. In fact, if your personal name “is” still available, you SHOULD buy it! For less than $10/yr you would have the opportunity to build a website for your name at any point in the future.

D) What about choosing “.com” “.org” “.net” and all the other “top level domains”? (The top level domain, or TLD, is the last part of the website address). In simple terms, “.com” is the best TLD. But if you are a non-profit, you should get “.org” since that is its intended function. If you buy a website name with anything other than “.com,” just realize that you will lose visitors to your competition because, out of habit, visitors will type your name and type “.com” at the end. By the way, even if you are a non-profit, you should buy “.org” as well as “.com.” You can “redirect” the .com use of your name to your .org website. For example, if your non-profit is named “ABC,” you should by abc.com and abc.org and redirect abc.com to abc.org. What that means is every person who types in abc.com will be sent to abc.org. In fact, it is not uncommon for a business to buy their domain with a number of endings, and even common misspellings of their website name and redirect them all to their primary website. (Actually, there are other strategies that get more complex, but that is beyond the scope of this article).

E) What about buying a website name with hyphens? If you have the option of buying abc-business.com or abcbusiness.com, the non-hyphenated version is best. Hyphenated website names are not the first choice one would make, but they can provide website names that might not otherwise be available. A disadvantage is that if your business name is ABC Business, and abcbusiness (no hyphen) is not available, if you buy abc-business.com (hyphenated) and promote it, some of your potential visitors will end up going to the non-hyphenated website. Alternatively, if both versions are available, you can buy both, and redirect one to the other, to exert greater control over your business name.

In most cases a landing page is not a home page (although there are exceptions – including for certain websites that only sell one product or service).

In certain limited examples, a landing page is not even part of a website’s navigation menu, which means that users would not end up on such a page as a result of browsing a particular website. They would arrive, or land there, by being purposefully directed to that page via an email, or an advertisement.  (By the way, the advertisement could be an ad on one’s own site, in addition to other sites).

Landing Page Expectations

Typically, a visitor “lands” on a landing page via an advertisement (such as PPC or other ads), e-mail, or search listing. That initial message establishes the viewer’s expectation for what the user expects to see when they click on a link that leads them to your landing page.

An obvious point that contributes to the sales success of any landing page is how well the landing page delivers on the promise of the ad or email that drove the visitor to the landing page.

If a person clicks on a link from an ad, or email, or search result, with a promise of a solution to a problem, or more information, or certain details, only to land on a generalized page about a company (such as a home page), then the visitor is forced to search again for the information that brought him to the site. Most visitors will leave such a site and look for another website that makes it easier for the searcher to find what they’re after.

For example, if a searcher clicks on an ad that describes a sale for a particular brand of motorcycle tire, only to land on the home page of a motorcycle dealer’s website that features all kinds of motorcycles, helmets, jackets, accessories, parts, mechanical services – as well as motorcycle tires – the visitor would be forced to do further searching on the dealer’s website to find the tire sale.  Many visitors will leave such a website disappointed, and continue their search for a site that will show them the exact motorcycle tire they’re after.

A better example would be a searcher who clicks on an ad for a particular brand of motorcycle tire, and arrives on a web page that has a picture of that exact tire, with the regular price, the sale price, the tire’s specifications, shipping details, a phone number to call for any questions, and a very easy-to-see “BUY” button (or “Add to Shopping Cart”) so that such a consumer can get the info they’re after (if they want), but more importantly, so they make their purchase and move on with their day.

Landing Page Call-to-Action

The “call-to-action” is what you want the visitor to do, such as make a purchase, download some information, make a phone call, etc. In the above example, the call-to-action is represented by a very prominent “BUY” button.

Whatever it is you want the visitor to do, be sure to clearly state it on the landing page. Any visitor should be able to quickly identify what their expected action is.

Market Testing Landing Pages

There is more than one can know about landing pages, including not distracting visitors from the main intent of the web page. Hence, landing pages can be made more effective by “not” including other advertisements.

More importantly, landing pages can be made more effective by testing, testing and more testing. Market testing landing page variables such as the wording in the headlines, the main copywriting information, the placement of “more details,” and product images are among some of the fundamental items that should be statistically compared and then refined.

For more information about testing to improve efficiency, click on “Testing” Your Way To Internet Marketing Success.

For many businesses, ONLY advertising on Google’s search pages is the mainstay of their paid traffic strategy.

However, the Content Network is workable for other businesses.

Google’s Content Network includes all the websites that host ads for Google, and whose publishers are paid when their visitors click on the ads.

One advantage of the Content Network is that ad costs are lower than on the search pages.

But since traffic from the Content Networks comprises a different mindset in relation to viewer interest in such ads, these ads not only necessitate a different copywriting strategy, they may simply NOT be workable for a given business.

Of course, in both circumstances, the ads are displayed only when they are contextually relevant. For example, if you are paying to advertise motorcycles, those ads will only show up for people who are searching for motorcycles (for the search page ads), and they will only show up on website pages that have content that has to do with motorcycles (via the Google’s Content Network).

A DIFFERENT MINDSET ON THE CONTENT NETWORK

The thinking underlying the difference between buying ads on search pages and buying ads on the Content Network could be summed up as follows:

1. Paid ads that are displayed on the search pages represent ads that are relevant to what the searcher has actually indicated they are looking for “right now.” So the ads have a greater potential tendency to engage visitors. (Someone searches for “motorcycles” and sees search results for “motorcycles” as well as ads for “motorcycles.”)
2. Paid ads that are displayed on the Content Network, however, are presented to viewers who have already gone to a website for information, and the ads “may” be deemed more of a distraction. However, the ads are still contextually relevant, in the same way they are on the search pages. (Searcher arrives on a website that has an article about “motorcycles” and sees ads about “motorcycles.”)

As an example, let’s say someone is searching for information about “buying a motorcycle.” When the searcher is reviewing the displayed results of his/her search, he will likely also see paid ads from advertisers who are selling motorcycles. Depending upon where such a searcher is in the process of possibly buying a motorcycle, he may, or may not, be interested in advertisements to buy motorcycles at that moment. He may only be interested in free information about the process of selecting motorcycles.

If that same person then clicks on a search result and goes to a website page that has an article on selecting the best motorcycle, the searcher has found something they are interested in. If that website ALSO happens to be hosting Google’s paid ads (as part of the Google Content Network), then the searcher may once again see ads on buying motorcycles. So, an important question would be, “Is this searcher more inclined, or less inclined, to click on an ad about ‘buying motorcycles’ on the web page he/she has visited, as compared to the search page?”

Market testing will provide the answer for any given product or service.

The distinction is significant enough to recognize that if you are interested in maximizing the performance of your ad budget, ads should be tested on the search pages and ads should be tested on the Content Network separately.

On the other hand, the different mindset of the searcher/visitor on the Content Network “MAY” represent a lower cost media opportunity and even a better quality lead. To continue the example above, let’s suppose the searcher elects to read an article on the process of buying motorcycles and as a result of reading the articles, discovers that there is much more to know about this subject than he/she originally considered.

And then let’s suppose this website visitor sees an advertisement for a book on selecting motorcycles.

At this point, such a person may be considerably MORE inclined to click on such an ad, even if the same ad were displayed on the original search results page. And to further emphasize the different mindset that could be established after a searcher lands on a website, what if that same article about the process of buying motorcycles also recommended the reader buy a book?

You can probably imagine your own scenarios where the Content Network could be a better or worse media. Hence, they need to be tested separately.

TEST THE GOOGLE CONTENT NETWORK SEPARATELY

Bear in mind that Google charges less to advertise on their Content Network because it is not as effective for most advertisers. However, not all advertisers are savvy enough to test DIFFERENT ads on the Content Network, so these advertisers are missing out on a potential opportunity to generate more leads/sales for less money. The fact that some advertisers simply choose NOT to advertise on the Content Network because their results are not as profitable, is part of why the price is lower. But if they never tested DIFFERENT ads on the Content Network, they never actually found out if there is a real opportunity or not. (And again, for some products/services, the testing may confirm that the Content Network does not present an opportunity).

To establish the most fruitful pay-per-click ad testing, it is best to run such ad campaigns independent of each other: Conduct one series of tests on the search pages and another series of tests on the Content Network.

Depending upon the resources you have available to devote to testing, you might even test each area one-at-a-time, instead of concurrently, for the sake of simplicity.

Click here to view the current Introduction to Google Adwords series, and check back to see more as the series continues to expand.

8 Tips For a TV Interview Guest

1. The main point is being relaxed enough to come across naturally. That’s sure easy to say, but for some folks that’s their main hurdle. A good interviewer can help the guest be comfortable, but even so, some folks freeze when the cameras goes on. If that is a potential problem for you, one thing to do is put all your attention on the interviewer and focus on the conversation, which should help you ignore the cameras. If you are able to take a short walk before the interview, that can be beneficial. (However, be sure to coordinate with the Director or Floor Manager, as you may be asked “not” to go away if it’s too close to starting time.)

2. Knowing the material that you are going to be interviewed about is another way to support coming across naturally. However, even if you have a list of “talking points” from the interviewer beforehand, don’t try to memorize what you will say, which can make you appear stiff and unnatural. Just answer the questions as you would in a regular (off camera) conversation.

3. Related to the first point, even if you aren’t afraid of cameras, lights and TV studios, generally speaking, you still don’t want to look into the cameras when they are rolling. Simply look at the interviewer (and not the cameras) in the same manner that you would anyone else you were having a conversation with.

Note: There are certain instances when a person will intentionally look into the camera.  For example, the host of the show “may” look into the camera to speak directly to the audience at the opening and the closing of the program, but that generally does not apply to a person being interviewed.  Even if that were desired for some reason, you would be specifically requested to do so.  However, that would be rare.

4. The interviewer may have some notes to refer to during the discussion, but you won’t. Unless you are specifically required to cite some reference as part of your interview, don’t bring notes onto the set. The information you are imparting as part of a conversational interview should come from your head, not prepared notes.  In fact, bringing anything on the set can be distracting to the audience.  For that reason, even if you are the author of a book, which is the subject of the interview, in many cases it will be the person who is asking the questions who will physically handle the book itself.

5. Short answers are best. Even though you may have a lot to say in response to a given question, you don’t want to speak more than a few sentences at a time. This keeps the dialog going back and forth, which makes for a more interesting program for the viewers. Also, unless you are confident that your program is being produced for a specialized audience, you will connect better with more viewers by avoiding technical jargon, as well as avoiding terms specific to your industry.  Use simple language that will be understood by a broad audience.

6. If the video interview is being conducted in your home or office, instead of a TV studio, you’ll want to use chairs that do not swivel. Interviewees, in particular, tend to move when they are uncomfortable and this is noticeable on TV.

7. Another point about interviews in a home or office is that it’s best to use a room that has as little outside light as possible. Unless the Director specifically prefers to have natural light in the background, it’s trickier to balance the brightness of inside lights with outside light. Furthermore, outside light (daylight) has a blueish cast compared to most lights used inside, which would also require added effort to balance for the camera and lighting crew.

8. Get plenty of sleep the night before, so that you are well rested. Also, have a good meal beforehand so that you are well fed (but don’t eat so much that you become groggy). You may also want to have water readily available so you can start the interview without being thirsty.

BONUS TIP! If you are able to interject some appropriate humor at an apt point or two in the interview, that will help make the conversation more enjoyable for the viewing audience. However, unless you are a comic, or are doing a comedy show, there is no need to go overboard on the humor. For most interviews, the idea is to keep things light. This can help, at times, even if the discussion is about a serious matter. (However, “appropriate humor” is the operative term here as well as good judgment).

By the way, if you are interested in how to dress, you may want to check out this article on What Clothes To Wear For A TV Interview.

It’s worth re-stating that the main idea here is to present yourself on camera at ease and naturally, which contributes to the ease and enjoyment of the viewing audience.

Click To Enlarge

What’s the best price to charge for a product? How about, what’s the best price to charge for a product that’s not even developed yet?

Market price-testing is a simple concept: It’s mostly about finding the price that makes the most money.

For example, if you market test the prices of $50 and $100 for the same product, you might expect to make more money on the $100 price.  However, if you sell more than twice the amount of the same product by charging $50, then the lower price would be the most profitable one.

Of course, you really have to analyze this against all your costs, to reflect your overall return-on-investment (ROI) of producing, marketing and delivering the product.

Although in another example you may very well sell less of the same product at $100, as long as you make more overall profit than selling a larger quantity at $50, then the $100 is the way to go.

Oh! Of course, from a business perspective, sometimes it’s best to select the price that creates the most customers, regardless that it may not generate the most profit, simply because more first-time customers means greater opportunities for increased sales later on.

And just to make things more interesting, there are examples of selling a product at a higher price that results in a larger volume of sales than offering it a lower price.

Still, the more pertinent question for this article is how do you determine what’s the best price for a product that’s not even developed?

Market Testing For The Best Price

The accompanying flow chart illustrates a simple way to test 4 different prices via online pay-per-click advertising (in this case, using Google Adwords). This particular example is also constructed to determine if the product in question should be developed at all. (In this example, what is being tested is a potential information product).

An important purpose here is to spend a small amount of advertising money upfront – before creating the product – to determine if the product will be profitable enough to bother developing in the first place.

Another important purpose of this test is to determine the response levels of four different prices. The responses are then evaluated to determine which price is the most profitable.  Of course you would also evaluate the results against your business intent:

• Do you want to use the price that generates the highest ROI?
• Or do you want the price that generates the greatest number of responses with an acceptable ROI?

Price Testing Flow Chart

In this flow chart the four prices are rotated and displayed to searchers looking for the keywords specified for this product. (The same keywords are used for all four ads).

Google Adwords allows rotation of the ads to searchers and provides good metrics to evaluate the responsiveness of each ad. (Which, in this case, is simply how many clicked on the product landing page).

If this were solely a “Price Test,” this campaign could be simplified by ending the test at the landing page to reveal which ad generated the greatest response. However this flow chart depicts a test which goes further by also seeing how many respondents would click on the “Buy” button.

If you were testing different prices with a product that was ready to be delivered, then anyone who clicked the “Buy” button could be charged the indicated price and the product delivery would be executed.

However, in this flow chart example, the product has not been developed.

Hence, each visitor who clicks “Buy” is directed to the Registration Page, informed that the product is not ready, and is given the opportunity to be notified as soon as the product is available.

Of course, not everyone who lands on this page will enter their name and email.  For example, those who would want the product immediately will probably continue their Internet search to buy what they’re after. However, any visitors that do add their name and email would be categorized as “hot prospects” in a database.

So in addition to using this test as a way to determine the best price, it’s also a way to generate potential buyers. (Of course a number of the hot prospects will have been introduced to the offer by any of the other four prices than the price they originally clicked on, so not all “hot prospects” will buy the product in the end with a different price).

From a testing perspective, the amount of visitors who click the “Buy” button represents an important metric, since it would be the best estimate of what percentage of visitors would result in a purchase.

Once the results of the test have been evaluated and the price determined – and in this case, the decision made to even develop the product – then the hot prospects can be sent a series of emails offering them the opportunity to buy the product when it is ready.

In this way, some of the advertising money may be offset by some initial purchasers.

This would also be the time to ramp up all of your marketing efforts to sell this product in volume at the best price.

Future Price Testing

Once a product is developed, price testing for the exact same product can be repeated from time to time, as the market evolves and changes.  Some of the conditions that might indicate an opportunity for a higher or lower price could be accounted for by more (or less) competition, an increase in your brand’s prominence, a greater (or reduced) demand for your product, or even a different business intent for the product itself within your company’s overall business goals.

Of course if the results of the test demonstrate that it won’t be profitable to develop the product at all, then the next step is to abandon this product and test your next product idea.

By the way, it’s worth emphasizing that this article is about “Price Testing,” especially to determine the viability of developing a product. However, there are other types of testing. In fact, testing is an ongoing proposition. For example, once you have determined to develop a product and have determined the best price, a larger body of testing would be directed towards improving various aspects of the ad copy and the landing page presentation, to make the sales process MORE profitable. For more information on this topic visit this link on Internet marketing testing.

♦ Driving LEADS into your business

♦ Converting LEADS into SALES

♦ Turning SALES into PROFIT

And it all needs to be continuously refined for greater efficiency and affluence.

In my experience writing and executing large direct mail and email campaigns, “the offer” is the most vital. The offer is how you are presenting what it is you are selling (product or service). Although some might argue that the headline is the most important element of copywriting because it is the first point of contact with potential visitors, in my experience, no matter how many individuals you drive to your offer through an effective headline, you will not capitalize on that traffic without an effective offer.

Conversely, if you have a weak headline for an email or direct mail piece or print ad, you can still convert the visitors that do arrive to your offer – as long as you have an effective offer!

Of course the headline is very important, and it would not make sense to craft a weak headline and a strong offer. The point is that focusing on and testing different headlines for their value in determining which is the best headline to attract visitors, should be done in conjunction with testing which offer is the most appealing to your visitors. In fact, a heavier emphasis should be given towards testing the offer.

Here are a few traditional components for crafting an offer:

1) Presenting Something New
Rightly or wrongly, consumers are more interested in “new” stuff as opposed to old stuff, even if old stuff might be better. What can you present as “new”?

2) Sale
Positioning any product or service for a reduced cost is the surest way to boost sales.

3) Premium or Bonus
Including bonuses for “buying now” are an effective way to sweeten any offer.

4) Limited Time Offer
Making any offer available for a limited time will inspire some potential customers who are sitting on the fence to “Buy Now,” which is always a good thing, since so many transactions that don’t occur “now” will simply never occur.

5) Free Trial
If you can introduce people to your products or service for free, so they can experience the real value you are presenting, you will eliminate the major obstacle that potential customers have when considering a purchase: “Am I going to get ripped off?” Of course, a percentage of those users who take advantage of your free trial will never become clients or customers anyway, but the percentage of those that DO give you money for your offer will be higher overall.

6) Buy Now, Pay Later
“Multiple payment” options, and “buy now, pay later” also lower the barrier of uncertainty among potential customers. This tends to work best for large ticket items: the perceived cost is reduced by breaking up an expensive purchase into multiple smaller payments.

Of course, the best offer includes many of these ingredients. In fact, whenever I write a sales letter for a client, I will attempt to include as many as possible to craft a number of powerful offers, and then test them to see which is the best!

Regardless of how you get potential paying customers to arrive at your website, the following six basic mistakes reduce the likelihood those hard-earned visitors will buy your products and/or services.

1. No prominent phone number. Displaying your phone number prominently not only provides a way for potential purchasers to get questions answered when they are read to purchase, in some buyers minds, it’s a credibility assurance knowing the phone is readily available, just in case they have a question after they buy.

2. You’re not attempting to gain email info from visitors who are “just looking.” Most visitors are not going to buy now. But if you offer something of value to these visitors in exchange for their email, you can send them marketing messages into the future to inspire them to buy with a sale or to stay on their radar screen until they are ready to spend their money. (Check out What Are YOU Giving Away For FREE?)

3. Your pages are text heavy instead of visually enticing. Pictures, graphics and videos can convey the benefits of your products and services more effectively and more interestingly than words – and are less boring to boot. If you are trying to sell stuff with too many words and few images, you are losing sales.

4. Your call-to-action buttons, such as “BUY NOW” or “ADD TO CART” blend in with your site and do not pop out with contrasting color to make it easy for visitors to get the goods instantly when they are ready to buy.

5. If you sell a lot of products, and your navigation bar is not segmented into logical and instantly recognizable categories, then you are forcing visitors to read every link to find what they want. Which means some percentage of your visitors are clicking away to another site where the pickings are easier.

6. You don’t implement cross selling and/or upselling for your products, which means your average sale amount is considerably lower than it should be.

Because you are so busy with life, family, business, social activities and learning more about Internet marketing, it’s easy to lose sight of some of the basics of using a website to help you make money.

Let’s say you’ve created an Internet marketing engine to drive traffic to your website:

• You’ve got a blog
• You’re adding new content to your blog every day
• You’ve got a professional email service pushing visitors to your site on auto-pilot
• You’re using photos, and graphics
• You’re optimizing the photos and graphics to generate traffic for your site
• You’re using video
• You’re creating a series of videos and optimizing them to generate traffic to your site
• You’re taking advantage of local search opportunities
• You’re using social media to drive traffic to your website
• You’re delivering great products/services which results in a stream of happy customers and clients and positive testimonials
• You’ve established an excellent reputation and word-of-mouth referrals from your happy customers, which is also driving traffic to your site
• You’ve established a growing network of incoming links
• You are using offline marketing actions, such as direct mail, print ads, radio, and TV, to drive even more traffic to your website

Jeez! Your Internet marketing engine is really pumping a lot of visitors to your website. How come you’re not turning more of those visitors into customers and clients!?

Before diving into a hefty evaluation of your entire Internet marketing machine, simply review what you are giving away for free.

A large percentage of those visitors are only coming one time. And they are visiting for a remarkably short period of time.

You’ve only got a few seconds to engage them and help them in some meaningful way, so that you can develop a relationship which will yield a greater benefit for them, and more business for you.

Many people who land on your site are looking for specific information: some need to solve a problem or to get an answer RIGHT NOW. Others are gathering info to support buying decisions that may be made sooner or later.

Even if some of these visitors determine very quickly that you are providing something they want, if you do not engage them, you will lose a number of your most interested visitors – every day.

And an easy way to engage visitors is to offer them something for free that is relevant to why they arrived on your site in the first place.

On top of that, you should present that free giveaway like you were selling an expensive diamond, because that’s how valuable it is for your visitors and for your business!

When you give away something for free – in exchange for their email – you have an opportunity to help them and of course, as a result, you are building a relationship, which is further developed through an automated email campaign.

In short, no matter how much (or how little) traffic you have coming to your site, if you are not engaging your visitors and offering something valuable enough to capture their imagination – for free – you have lost an opportunity to help them because the likelihood that they will ever return is very low.

If should be emphasized that whatever you are giving away better be GOOD, so that it will genuinely help your visitors, which will result in building a relationship that will be mutually beneficial.

Oh! One more thing. Giving away something valuable is also useful for building incoming links, which is just one more reason to really make sure your giveaways are REALLY GOOD!

Click To Enlarge

There are many ways to generate leads. Heck, there are many ways just to take advantage of online lead generation, which is only one component of all the channels that can be used to drive leads to your business. (Check out Ten Lead Generation Models).

In the world of online marketing, incorporating email into a lead generation campaign would be considered a mature practice, since it’s been so thoroughly and routinely utilized going back to the 90’s. (I began my email marketing career back in 1995 and have never stopped.)

The accompanying graphic of a simple email lead generation flow chart depicts the flow of a stream of Internet visitors moving through a website, getting sorted into segmented databases and leveraging those databases to maximize marketing leads and sales.

Free Offer in Exchange for an Email Address

It all begins with some kind of offer – and it’s typically a free offer. This can be as simple as a free download that would be valuable to the targeted market segment. The download could be a PDF, or an audio program or a video, or even a multi-part email educational “course.”

The offer should be something desirable for your target audience. As an example, if you were generating leads to cultivate financial service clients, you would offer something of value to those types of clients. If you were offering leads to potential students for educational products or services, you would need something that specific target audience needs, and it should also relate to the product or service you are selling.

Regardless of what the offer is, it should be emphasized that it needs to be valuable. Over the years it’s gotten harder and harder to inspire visitors to part with their email address in exchange for downloadable information, and if what you provide is not truly deemed valuable by the recipients, then you will have lost the opportunity to convert those visitors into new customers.  In fact, they might not be interested in anything you have to offer at any time thereafter.

Conversely, if you truly delight them with your offer, they may be inclined to consider that if you provided that much value for free, you’ll probably provide even more value for your paid products or services.

Do You Really Need More Info Than Your Visitors’ Email?

By the way, the more information you ask of your visitors, the less of them who will respond. Of course all marketers typically want as much information as possible from their potential leads, but that’s not always the best practice. In other words, if you ask for more info than their name and email (such as their phone number, and address, etc.) many visitors will decline your free offer.

It’s more acceptable to simply ask for name and email.  Some marketers only ask for an email (and no name), knowing that the more visitors that they convert into their database, the more FUTURE opportunities there will be to get more contact information, and more importantly, MORE SALES.

Lead Generation: Quality vs. Quantity

Some marketers are willing to accept less potential leads, and instead, ask for as much information as they believe is necessary to qualify a lead upfront. This is simply a business decision. Do you want a larger volume of leads? Or do you want a more qualified stream of leads?

However, this particularly flow chart highlights a process that attempts to gain a higher quantity of leads AND a higher quality by guiding visitors through an initial two-step process.  It’s simple and gives visitors more control over their experience while gaining more demographic information for the marketer.

More specifically, the initial offer in this example only requires name and email. However, once that is provided, an optional survey is presented, which has several qualifying questions, and also makes an optional request for a phone number. Since a visitor can choose whether to provide their email or not, most that do enter their phone number, can be considered to be amenable to a sales call. (Especially if you make it clear that someone will contact them if they leave a phone number).

By the way, if you want to make this simple flow chart even simpler, then the survey can be dispensed with.

Database Marketing

This flow chart represents a simple, rudimentary and initial aspect of database marketing. In this example, ALL emails that are exchanged for the offer go into a central “All Prospects Database,” and those that give their phone number are segmented into a “Hot Prospects Database,” whom are immediately contacted via telephone as part of a sales process.

Of course, not all the prospects that are included in the sales process will be reached by phone and of those that are contactable, not all will turn into customers.

However, by way of the ongoing email follow-up campaign, which integrates more information about the topic that is of interest to the visitors (as well as additional marketing email messages), these follow up emails represent the crux of this campaign as they can continue on indefinitely until the subscriber buys a product or service or unsubscribes from the database.

Bear in mind that most prospects will “not” provide their phone number, which means the majority of conversions from inquiries to actual hot prospects will be a result of the ongoing email marketing efforts.  It is only then, after those who are reading the emails get to know your business better, that they will select themselves into the “Hot Prospects Database” by contacting you to ask questions or to buy your product or service.

And the best part is that the entire lead generation process is automated up to the point that prospects enter the sales process.  (If interested, you are welcome to contact me about which email services may be best for your business).

Email Lead Generation Conclusion

There is certainly more that one can know about online email lead generation, including testing the offers and landing pages, testing which survey questions yield the best results in terms of prospect engagement and qualifying the leads. Furthermore, there is more that one can know about tuning the variables of quantity vs. quality of leads. And there is definitely more that can be known about database marketing and lead segmentation, especially as it relates to gaining more demographic information from your email database as time goes on and as your readers receive more of your mailings. But this simple flow chart does serve as an example of one method that can be used to construct an email lead generation campaign to increase your business profits.

One of the most fundamental aspects of utilizing search engine optimization to push your website higher on the search engine results page is to establish more and more links to your site (and specific pages) from external sites. And not just any links, you want inbound links that are high value – the higher the better.

Get Links From External High Ranking Web Pages

So, what’s “high value”?

Google’s PageRank is a scale that ranks web pages from 0-10 (10 being the best). Although all links have some value, the best links are PageRank 3 and higher. Each ranking up the scale is 10x the value of the one below. So, a PageRank 3 is 10x more valuable than a PageRank 2. A PageRank 4 is 10x more valuable than a PageRank 3.

Get Links With The Right Keywords

One more important point is that the anchor text (underlined blue text that makes up the link) should contain the keywords you are attempting to rank higher. In short, that text is a description of your page from an external site and the search engines consider that description when determining what your web page is about. And if the link and anchor text is from a high value (high PageRank) external site, then that inbound link has even more SEO weight.

Examples Of How To Get Links With The Right Keywords

In years past, the way to get links was to plead with other webmasters to link to you.

Then, and especially now, a better way is to create content that is of such value and usefulness that other website owners and bloggers would “want” to link to your site to share your content with their readers.

However, this can be easier said than done. In short, it involves work: More specifically, it involves research and creativity to provide something valuable that is better than, or at least different than, what’s already readily available to your visitors elsewhere.

Here are some examples of how to get links for the keywords you need.

1) Research, write and publish some type of valuable content for the audience you are targeting. This could be some kind of review or comparison of products or services that are of interest to your potential and actual visitors.

It could also be timely research, such as quarterly or annual reviews of your industry.

Heck, even explaining and/or presenting complex or technical concepts in simple ways to make the material more readily understandable to others can be very desirable to visitors.  This can include presenting graphics, charts, videos, and other content that is uniquely instructive to others.

Such types of content could be a separate web page, or a downloadable report. (The latter having the benefit of building an email list, since giving away freebies in exchange for email addresses is a common occurrence).

If you are simply re-writing what’s already out there and readily available to your audience then you won’t create the impact you are hoping for. But if you provide content that is truly unique, relevant and valuable, then you will be rewarded with links from other sites.

And what anchor text will they use?

Although you cannot control the text others will use when linking to your site, it is likely that if you name the title of the content with keywords that are relevant to what you are targeting, then you will get a good portion of links with those same keywords.

2) For top-ranked sites that you want links from, you can suggest content to those sites that you’ll provide for free.  Alternatively, just ask what content they might suggest you provide. If you write blog posts or articles that they publish on their sites, this will help them to raise value for their readers. And you’ll minimally be able to include at least one link back to your own site – but more likely you can structure the content to contain more links.

3) Interview industry leaders over the phone, or in person and/or with a video camera. Publish the interviews as valuable content for your readers.  Furthermore, the person who is the subject of the interview may very well post links to your content, too, from their company website. As you establish more prominent interview subjects, you will be able to leverage those contacts to get even more prominent interview subjects.

4) Write an ebook that will be valuable to your readers and give it away for free. If it’s truly useful, then you’ll gain incoming links.

5) Linkbait is content specifically designed to generate inbound links. Although it could be stated that any content published with the intent of generating inbound links would be linkbait, this type of content is often characterized as sensational, controversial or provocative, specifically presented to move visitors emotionally and get them to react (positively or negatively) and write their own responses with links to your content.

Note On Building Inbound Links

Any of these examples need some initial promotion to get the link building started. If you have an email list, that’s a great way to get some publicity established.

Additionally, generating press releases about your content is another way to attract interest (and you don’t need an email list to do so).

If you can cultivate partnerships with other website owners and/or owners of email lists who will promote your content, this is great way to maximize the potential impact your content will make.

The point is to generate as much initial publicity as possible, which will get others to start linking to you, which of course will begin to drive new traffic to your content, and ideally, a percentage of the new traffic will also link to your site.

In an ideal world, you’d hit a home run with your link-building campaign, and this endeavor would result in an ever-expanding stream of natural link building and achieve a viral aspect.  The reality is that you will likely need to keep going up to bat to hit singles and doubles over and over to generate a large quantity of inbound links.  Regardless, these are tried and true strategies for growing inbound links and increasing your search engine results, which I have used for numerous other sites for more traffic and profit.

For more info on how link building fits into SEO, check out this short video on Driving Website Traffic with the SEO Triangle.

Michael Arrington at Techcrunch posted “The Age of Facebook” today and, among other things noted “The fact is that Facebook is permeating the Web.”

More vital to marketers is how Facebook can help connect businesses to potential customers and clients.  Facebook has more demographic information available to advertisers than, for example, Google’s AdWords.

Facebook provides rich demographic data about their users, which is a goldmine for marketers, such as:

• Likes and Interests
• Geography
• Age
• Gender
• Single or Married
• Education Level

Furthermore, you can pay-per-click, to get your message out, or you can pay-per-impression to place your products and services in front of the prospects most likely to be interested in your offerings.

Of course there is the whole social media marketing aspect available, as well, which Facebook is much more widely known for.  (See Social Media Chocolate Strategy for integrating Facebook with other social media platforms.)

The point for marketers is simple: If you haven’t tested the Facebook advertising platform yet, the earlier you do so, the less it will cost, because we can be sure that advertising costs for Facebook will go the same route as Adwords, which has resulted in rocketing ad rates, compared to the Adwords rates of several years ago.  And it’s worth emphasizing that I’m referring to “Facebook Ads” and not Facebook as a marketing channel via their social media platform, which, although is effective for some businesses, is not universally as effective and as measurable as direct advertising.

Whether you utilize Facebook as a personal social media platform, or not, it is certainly an advertising platform that is worthy of your testing.

There is considerably more information available nowadays, but the common theme is what you and I have understood about evaluating the worth of most any item:  The final value of a website is determined between a buyer and seller.

Regardless, following are some tools, tips, theory, technical and practical info on ways to enter a discussion about website value.

Profitable Websites vs. Websites that are Not.

Although the ways to value a website are quite varied, there is a dividing line between websites that make a profit and those that don’t.

1) Websites that cannot prove profitability are subject to greater whimsy in terms of valuation between buyer and seller.

2) Websites that can prove profitability can be more effectively valued, but the ultimate worth is still subject to many factors that have varying degrees of importance between buyers and sellers.

In either case, sellers tend to believe their sites are worth more than some hypothetical reality, and buyers tend to believe they are worth less than some hypothetical average, so establishing some basis for discussion at least can allow a discussion to occur.

Free Tools for Website Valuation

There are a number of free tools for determining a website’s value, including:

http://directory.sootle.com/website-worth/

http://dnscoop.com/

http://tidget.com/

http://valuemyweb.com/

http://yourwebsitevalue.com/

Independent of the relevance (or not) of such free tools, which arbitrarily assign value to criteria associated with a website, here’s the most useful I’ve encountered.

http://ebizvaluations.com/

This tool includes user-input data as part of its evaluation. I also like the tools comparative analysis against a database of actual website sales.

“This tool values your site based on what hundreds of similar sites have actually sold for. As it’s a tool that is grounded in reality, it can offer an reliable estimation of your web business’s value.”

Theory and Technical Info on Website Valuations

If you want to gain insight into the subject of website valuations, I recommend the following two articles. They are both somewhat lengthy (6 pages each), but offer a good theoretical and technical overview.

The first link is what I consider to be a relatively simple and generally useful overview of the theory of website valuations.

What’s Your Web Site Worth? By Georgina Laidlaw.

The Ultimate Web Site Valuation Guide By Clinton Lee.

The second is more technical, and is an outline of what is behind the ebizvaluations.com tool above.

In the end, the final value of a website is determined between a buyer and seller. But the preceding info can help both buyers and sellers understand a broader spectrum of variables to consider for discussion.

Certainly, if you are an established author, traditional publishing makes sense, since you can focus solely on the writing and let the long-standing publishing machine do all the rest of the work.

But for everyone else, getting a book deal is somewhat akin to winning the lottery. Regardless, even if the likelihood of having your work accepted, printed and distributed by a traditional publisher were not so low, there’s still the matter of giving up a certain amount of editorial and design control that is unappealing.

Having been personally involved in the production of several self-published books (including one that became a #1 New York Times best seller), and in reference to the rise in popularity of the print-on-demand publishing model, I find it difficult to fathom why a writer would punish him or herself by contemplating a traditional publishing avenue.

Print-on-Demand Publishing is Not Vanity Publishing

First of all, let me ensure a proper understanding of print-on-demand publishing, which is very different from vanity publishing.

Vanity publishing is when you pay a company to print your book. You pay them a chunk of money and they delivery you a bunch of books, which sit in your garage until you toss them out some years later.

Print-on-demand publishing does not require upfront payments nor does it require the purchase of any quantity of books. In fact, you could upload your book online and buy only one copy.

Print-on-demand books are more expensive, per book, than getting a volume of books printed, but they are reasonably priced and, again, you don’t need to put up any capital to have a finished book.

Typically, a print-on-demand publisher will also handle sales of the books to others, including handling credit card transactions, shipping, returns, customer service, etc. (Of course you still have to get people to want to buy the book!)

NOTE: not “all” print-on-demand publishers handle their sales the same way, and some do not have phone support, nor do they accept returns. Other print-on-demand companies have very liberal return policies (but you may pay a premium for that, as well).

Check the resources at the bottom of this page and determine what is most workable for you. (I happen to like Lulu.com and Cafepress.com, because I have used them both for a number of books, however, like all such services, they each have advantages and disadvantages).

Three Important Caveats

1) Although technically speaking, you can prepare your book and have it ready for purchase for absolutely no cost on your end when using print-on-demand publishing, you would be wise to pay for professional copyediting, proofreading, and indexing to present your work at a professional standard.

2) As well, you should also have a professional cover designed for your book. The design of the book, and title, are a vital marketing factor for any book.

3) In fact, marketing the book is the primary responsibility you need to assume if you want to sell more books than to just yourself.  No matter how good your book is, you will not find the world flocking to buy it just because you have published it.

A Word About Blogs and Self-Publishing

A blog requires a good amount of writing to keep it current and to keep it fresh. If your blog is focused on a particular subject area, it also stands as a ready made resource for you book.

In fact, a savvy marketing concept is to promote your book on your blog, and promote your blog in your book, so that the book and the blog are synergistically promoting each other.

Self-Publishing Resources

Click this following link for a list of self-publishing companies from Writers Digest magazine. Although there are a number of different types of self-publishing companies represented, I would suggest the print-on-demand services that have no setup fees. Additionally, you might want to consider the relative merits of the add-on services those companies provide for preparing your book for publication and for marketing your book. (As noted above, your book needs to be presented in a professional light, and it won’t be sold without marketing efforts).

Final Note

By the way, if you really and truly want your book printed and distributed via a traditional publisher, self-publishing your book (and marketing the heck out of it), may provide a better opportunity for your book to transition over to a larger-scale publishing model. Literary agent, Andrea Hurst says:

We’re looking for one set of qualifications: a highly marketable hook and a product that has sold at least 5,000 books in (preferably) just a year or less on the market.

In brief, for writers who want to take control of the publishing process, print-on-demand is the way to go.

You can engage in a PPC campaign in the morning and refine the campaign based on stats in the afternoon. You can know very quickly if you are making more money than you’re spending – or vice versa.

As long as you are making money, all is wonderful. But, it would not be unusual to find that you begin a PPC campaign by losing money and will need to burn through some amount of cash in the testing and refinement process to determine if you really can make money or not, with PPC, for your given product/service and market.

Of course the irresistible allure of generating traffic via search engine optimization (SEO) is that you don’t have to buy the traffic at all. And the downside to SEO is that the results are not as immediate and not as exactly quantifiable.

Two Primary Criteria for Estimating SEO Results

1) Competitiveness of the Market
2) Age of the Domain

If the market is really competitive, then it can take a while before satisfying results are realized. On the other hand, if you are optimizing a website for a specialized niche market with nominal competition, then it is much easier to push a website up the search rankings.

An older domain has more search authority than a new one, so if you are working with a brand new domain, you’ve got a tougher battle ahead of you. When dealing with a brand new domain, it may take at least three months, but often closer to six to nine months, to gain the necessary “trust” for rankings for broad competitive terms. With a more established domain, you should start seeing results much faster.

Further, if you are optimizing a website for a brand name that is well established in an industry, then the opportunities for higher rankings will be more readily translated at a faster rate.

The main point to respect is that SEO is not as immediately satisfying as PPC, in terms of results, and it’s difficult to accurately assess how quickly SEO work can be translated into profit. However, the advantage is that once your traffic increases as a result of your SEO activities, the traffic continues. And of course with PPC, your traffic only continues while you’re paying for it.

In an ideal world, you would incorporate both an SEO and a PPC strategy into your marketing efforts.

1) How do you convert more of your website traffic to leads?

2) How can you convert more of your visitors to customers?

These are critical questions for any business person interested in making their website work harder for them.

Although converting Internet traffic to leads or customers is only one component of the entire sales process, it’s a very fundamental and critical one.

The answers to both the questions above is not one of opinion or conjecture. The ultimate answer is obtained via testing. And the more testing you conduct, the better. (For more info, click “Testing” Your Way To Internet Marketing Success and view the video).

Testing is not a new thing. In fact, back in 1923 Claude Hopkins emphasized its importance in his book, Scientific Advertising.

What is new is how readily it can be conducted. As a point of comparison, I have a background in direct mail marketing, which includes testing different copy for the letters themselves, as well as different headlines, different envelopes, different offers, different calls-to-action, and other components.

I conduct such tests using volumes of Excel spreadsheets in conjunction with special codes in all the letters to ascertain which variables and combination of variables generate the greatest number of responses and sales.

Each test takes weeks to write, print and mail all the versions, and then measure all the responses. After the results are tabulated, I repeat the process to increase the responses even further.

If this sounds like a lot of work, well … it is.

But since 2006, sophisticated online testing can be conducted using Google Website Optimizer. Although this doesn’t work for direct mail letters, it works fantastically well for websites, which is the point of this article. (However, as a bonus, it can be used to test some variables for direct mail, as well).

Google Website Optimizer is a free testing application that helps online marketers answer the two questions above (and more).

In brief, Google Website Optimizer allows marketers to test different versions of complete web pages as well as specific elements on pages, to let your visitors tell you which variables help them to buy your products, or download your information, or whatever it is that you desire visitors to do on your website.

Following are two general categories of online market testing that can be executed via Google Website Optimizer:

A/B Testing

A/B tests allow you to test two or more versions of different pages against each other to see which performs best. If you are testing 3 different versions of a page, then you are conducting an A/B/C test and so on.

A/B tests are especially useful because they allow you to test major design decisions by placing two or three completely different designs against each other to find out which one resonates best with your visitors.

Of course, the downside is you can not pinpoint the elements that persuaded more visitors to convert.

Multivariate Tests

Multivariate tests allow you to test multiple elements of a page at the same time. This way you are able to test different headlines, different images, or different colors on a single page.

You can always think of A/B tests as a simplified version of multivariate tests.

The beauty of multivariate tests is the speed in which testing multiple elements can be conducted, and distinguishing which combination of elements inspired users to convert.

For more info on Website Optimizer, visit the following links:

Google Website Optimizer

Google Website Optimizer Blog

Consumer scams are not new.

As an example, in the 1920’s, the Ponzi scheme (bogus investment swindle) was a notorious way to bilk individuals from their savings.  However, the idea of that specific scam goes back earlier, to 1857, when Charles Dickens described it in his novel Little Dorrit. The recent example of Bernie Madoff, operator of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, is testament that old ideas can be given a fresh suit to steal from people anew.

Of course criminal behavior goes back much earlier than Charles Dickens depicts. One of the Ten Commandments (“You shall not steal”) is indicative of how long criminal acts have been problematic to Mankind.

Nowadays, a modern way for criminals to put on a new suit is by cloaking themselves behind the Internet.

Examples of Internet Scams and Fraud

The list of ways that theft is perpetrated via the Internet is seemingly endless.

The FBI maintains a website resource of “Internet Fraud” and how to avoid such.  The FBI notes that the most common categories of Internet fraud include:

• Internet auction fraud
• Non-delivery of merchandise purchased from websites
• Credit card fraud
• Investment fraud
• Business fraud
• Nigerian Letter Fraud

That last is so well known as an example of Internet fraud that the FBI lists it on the same page as its own singular category. Although it has been bilking individuals of their savings “online” since the 1990’s, the scam goes back decades earlier in the form of direct mail and faxes. (For more info, click here for the Nigerian email scam.)

Work-at-Home Scams

Due to the recession and a demand for new income sources, “work-at-home” scams have seen substantial rises in activity. The following article and video from the ABC NEWS Business Unit, Google Sues to Stop Work-From-Home Scams, highlights a number of such scams, including the widely propagated Google work-at-home scam, which includes “fake news articles, fake news blogs and fake testimonials to promote their services and direct them to credit card processing sites like the one run by Pacific WebWorks, Google said.”

Furthermore, the article states “Google is warning customers to be wary of the following work-from-home promotions: Google Adwork, Google ATM, Google Biz Kit, Google Cash, Earn Google Cash Kit, Google Fortune, Google Marketing Kit, Google Profits, The Home Business Kit for Google, Google StartUp Kit, and Google Works.”

Protect Yourself from Internet Scams

Internet fraud is common. And even though “auction fraud” is one category listed by the FBI, the vast majority of purchases made via auction sites, such as eBay, are fairly transacted.  In other words only a small percentage are fraudulent.  The same is true for business fraud and online credit card transactions in general: the vast majority of purchases made over the Internet are transacted fairly.

On the other hand, work-at-home opportunities are particularly prone to fraud. According to the ABC video (link above) 54 out of 55 such work-at-home opportunities are scams.  That means any time you see an advertisement for some work-at-home “opportunity,” there is a very high likelihood that its sole intent is to scam you out of your money.

The US Justice Department lists a number of ways to avoid becoming defrauded, including:

• Being Careful About Giving Out Valuable Personal Data Online
• Being Especially Careful About Online Communications With Someone Who Conceals His True Identity
• Watching Out for “Advance-Fee” Demands

For more info on protecting yourself from Internet scams click on this link from the United States Department of Justice on Internet Fraud.

There are two barriers that complicate your attempt at finding an SEO professional for your needs.

SEO Hiring Barrier #1

Optimizing websites to improve search engine positioning is predicated upon understanding the ways that search engines utilize complex factors to determine which websites to rank higher. But the exact ways that such are accomplished is not only a highly guarded secret, it’s also continuously being refined and changed by the search engine companies.

Stated another way, the details of the best way to get SEO results for any given website are subject to some misunderstandings, not only among the individuals seeking to hire a professional for guidance, but even amongst SEO professionals themselves. Talk about an opportunity for “The blind leading the blind!”

Case in point: if an SEO professional seeks only to optimize technical factors on your website, without executing necessary offsite actions (such as inbound link building), then a significant portion of potential search ranking opportunity will be left wanting.

SEO Hiring Barrier #2

The reason most businesses are interested in engaging SEO services is to make more money. But there is a broad area between the “strategy” of how to use SEO effectively, and the “execution” of it.

Stated another way, you could potentially hire someone for economical rates to “execute” on-site SEO factors, but you may be missing the boat in terms of what is the best strategy to monetize the very site that you are attempting to improve.

SEO is a marketing channel, but there are SEO consultants who have no marketing background. In other words, you could potentially hire a highly competent technical practitioner who may sincerely execute an SEO campaign for you, but alas, you may see no increase in profits.

Do not fault such an SEO technician.

Such a person is a not a professional marketer.

Case in point: I recently spoke with a potential client who was interested in on-site SEO guidance to improve search ranking and to generate more money from the firm’s website. However, as this person was not a professional marketer, and was interested in keeping costs as low as possible, this person had pre-determined that money could be saved by optimizing only one component of the website. Unfortunately, this component had the least long-term potential for generating ongoing profit. The end result of such an arrangement would yield higher search rankings for the client for the determined area, but not the expected profits. And more to the point, not the return on investment that this businessperson was attempting to maximize.

BOTTOMLINE: There are not only misunderstandings among those tasked with hiring SEO professionals on what to expect, there are also varied perspectives among SEO’s on how to best achieve a given SEO goal. More specifically, because SEO encompasses the execution of many technical factors, the actual strategy of how to make money with SEO may be largely missed if the consultant is technically savvy, but has very little marketing expertise and experience.

What’s the Solution to the SEO Barriers?

It starts with you.

If you happen to be a seasoned and experienced marketer, including with SEO, but don’t have the resources to actually accomplish the necessary actions to achieve what you know needs to be done, then you don’t need to hire an SEO consultant for strategic profit making purposes at all. You simply need to outsource SEO execution. In other words, simply hire someone to put your strategy into practice.

On the other hand, if you are NOT confident about the best ways to use SEO to MAKE MONEY for your business and website, then you would be wise to seek and speak with an SEO professional who not only has experience establishing high search rankings, but whom is also an experienced Internet marketer with a focus on making money and improving your marketing ROI.

1: Make a decision that you want to develop an online business and commit to some amount of time you can devote to it – ideally every day. (A failure in establishing personal commitment here will make the rest of these points moot).

2: Determine the business focus. If you already have an offline business that you want to promote, then you have a place to start. Otherwise, determine your area of focus around these two variables:

a) Are there people who will purchase a product/service you are offering?

b) Are you interested enough in this product/service that you will be able to devote some time to it every day?

3: Start a blog on that subject.

Although there are very simple and entirely free blogging platforms that you can use to start immediately (Blogger.com and Wordpress.com), a better choice is to pay for your own website name and host your own blog software. Here are the steps to accomplish that:

a) Buy your own website name (less than $10.00/yr)

b) Subscribe to a web hosting service (less than $10/month)

c) Download and install the Wordpress blogging software (free) from Wordpress.org (note the “.org”).  Many hosting services will walk you through this process.  (For more info, click the following link for You Need a Professional Wordpress Blog).

4: Start an email subscription service, such as an email newsletter, to develop a subscriber base that you can build a relationship with. Click here to for more information on giving away valuable, free information, to build an email list.

(In fact, this would be a good place to plug my own free newsletter: to find out more, click Skyworks Orbit.)

5: Create content every day on the subject of your blog. This is important enough that it deserves special emphasis. You will need traffic arriving to your website. You can either buy traffic or grow traffic naturally. If you are going to develop traffic naturally (free), you’ll need to develop a lot of content over time. The more content that you have, the more reasons search engines have to bring traffic to your site. There is considerably more to know about this subject, but for the sake of simplicity, recognize that a lot of content is needed. (Click here for more information on Generating Free Traffic with Blogs).

6: You need a product or service to sell online. This relates to point 2 above. If you already have a service and/or products, you are already set. (Even so, you will want to consider NEW products and services). One simple option (not the best option) is to create an eBook that can be sold from your blog. (Or, you can hire someone to write an eBook for you.) However, generally speaking, eBooks are not as effective as they used to be, especially since, for many subjects, there are lots of established “Free” eBooks already. The point is you need some kind of product or service, and if you don’t have anything to sell right now, physical products, and especially digital products, represent business opportunities that can scale up more effectively than providing services.  “Scaling up more effectively” refers to increasing  business profits with an increase in sales, without a proportionate increase in labor.  (If you sold 10 widgets last week, you may be able to sell 20 widgets this week without hiring more staff).  On the other hand, in some cases providing services may be an easier to way to start a business.  Conversely, since there is only so much time in a day, the amount of service that can be delivered by a business is limited, even when more personnel are hired to deliver the service.

7: You’ll need a way to accept money online. There are many shopping carts available online, which facilitate the exchange of money on the Internet.  A very simple one to start with is Paypal. Although there is no fee for using Paypal, they do take a small percentage of your payment as a commission. As your business grows, there are other paid options, that will save you money, as long as you are generating enough business to make it cost effective.

8: Steps 5 and 6 need to be repeated to expand your income opportunities. Furthermore, if you have a product/service that is purchased month after month (consumable products, such as vitamins, and/or online services that are paid monthly, are some examples), the built-in repeat sales establish a very good business foundation.

NOTE: Although these steps are relatively simple, it should be emphasized that there are more details to know to expand your business faster. Further, step 5 includes an ongoing and continuous flow of activity that should not be undervalued.

The real point is that it is SIMPLE to get started!

Answer: It depends on the purpose of the video and who it’s for.  The following are guidelines and you could find exceptions for each.

1) “Introductory Videos” are short: 30 seconds to 2 minutes, and no more than 4 minutes. If you want to expose a brief message to as many potential viewers as possible, who do not otherwise know you, the shorter the better. Anytime someone clicks on a video they are making a small time commitment and a shorter video just makes it easier for someone to make that decision. If they like what they see, then they may be more inclined to watch a longer video from the same creator.

2) “Content Videos” or marketing videos should be less than 10 min. These are videos that have good info and can even be condensed highlights from longer videos. They have the potential for being passed along to others should the content be valuable, interesting and/or entertaining.

3) “Training Videos” can be any length. Training, or educational videos could include how to use a specific software, or how to perform maintenance on an engine, or how to use a specific camera, or anything you can imagine. These could even be complete seminars. However, the longer a video is, the less likely it would gain traction as a property that gets passed along broadly (although anything can happen on the Internet). In other words, if a 3 hour presentation could be edited down to less than 30 min, it would generate more views. However, given a valuable enough seminar, there would still be a smaller amount of viewers who would watch the entire 3 hours.

Of course, regardless of how long or short the video is, you might as well increase its chance of gaining viewers by incorporating the 6 Ways to Optimize Your Videos for Maximum Search Impact.

However, for businesses that have more expensive and/or complex products, as well as businesses that provide service offerings requiring person-to-person conversations, there is an inherently longer sales process.  Of course the more expensive or more complex the offering, the longer the sales process.

Lead generation is a vital component of establishing the initial flow of potential customers or clients (beginning with an “inquiry”), who would then move through a sales process, ultimately resulting in money being exchanged. Of course, not every inquiry will turn into a sales-ready lead, and only a percentage of the those leads will become qualified prospects, and in turn, only a percentage of those will become customers or a clients.

Lead Generation Statistics

So, what would be some benchmarks for a lead generation and sales process?

The following chart from Sherpa sheds some light on to that question. This chart and statistics represent “Average Conversion Rates in the Marketing-to-Sales Process.”

“We wanted to know what percentages of leads in each stage of the pipeline are likely to advance to the next stage. As this chart shows, on average, nearly four in 10 leads move from initial inquiry to being sales-ready, and approximately the same ratio advance from sales-ready to qualified prospect. As might be expected, the trend deteriorates moving to the next stage where only three in 10 qualified prospects convert to a sale.”

It cannot be overemphasized that these numbers represent “averages.”  The specific percentages along  the various stages of the sales conversion process will be more or less effective depending upon the quantity of education required before buying decisions are made, as well as the quality of the  information provided, and the effectiveness of sales personnel closing the entire process.

Regardless, the chart serves as a practical reference for marketers launching sales campaigns for which they have not yet established any metrics for comparison.

The first point to understand about transitions is that misuse or overuse of transitions is a sign of an amateur, in the same way that overuse of slide transitions in a PowerPoint presentation are unprofessional. Especially if too many different types of transitions are utilized.  In short, any way that transitions call attention to themselves and distract from the video continuity would be poor utilization.

Conversely, when used professionally (“not” to the point of overuse), effective transitions bridge different video shots together to produce a better message or story flow.

There are more transitions than depicted in this article, but the following are among the most widely used.

Video Transition: The “Cut”

The most common transition is the “cut.” This is simply one video clip changing instantly to the next shot.

Cuts are the best way to keep the action or momentum moving along at a good pace.

Straight cuts are not only simple, but they create smaller overall file sizes, which are an advantage for web videos. (In other words, adding transitions create larger video files, and on the Internet, smaller files are desirable).

Video Transition: The “Crossfade” or “Dissolve”

The next most common transition is the crossfade, or dissolve. This is simply one video shot gradually changing to the next.

The timing of crossfades can be made shorter or longer and they generally provide a more relaxed feel than a cut and slow the pace of the video.  Dissolves can better convey a sense of passing time than a cut.

Video Transition: The “Wipe”

A wipe is a more complex transition, and includes a number of variations.

One way to think of a simple wipe would be imagining a single sweep of a slow windshield wiper as a transition from one shot to the next while it moves across the screen.

Variations include an iris wipe, a heart wipe, a clock wipe, and a star wipe, in which the name approximates the geometric manner in which the wiping motion occurs.  Examples: an iris wipe is like an expanding or contracting circle. A heart or star wipe is like an expanding or contracting heart or star.  And a clock wipe moves around in a circle.

Video Transition: The “Fade”

Two key transitions are fade-up from black and fade to black. Fading in from a single color, such as black, conveys a sense of “beginning.”  And nothing says “the end” like a fade to black. (Fades can be used with other colors, too).

Conclusion: Keep it Simple

Effective integration of transitions should always be inspired by some aspect of the story that is being conveyed in your video. For example, a transition may signify a change in location, or a change in the pace of the action, or simply the passage of time.  If there’s no specific reason to use a transition, keep it simple and use a cut.

Another application of transitions is to smooth out minor video (or even audio) errors, which could appear more prominent with a cut, but which may be less apparent by a well-placed dissolve.

As a concluding note: Transitions should not call attention to themselves. Their job is to subtly support the video story or message.