Horacio’s Blog

What makes podcast beneficial as a marketing and publishing medium? What would the consumers get from adopting the new technology?

Just because it is all in the rage doesn’t mean you should use it. Podcasting is more about a complete marketing strategy that requires marketers and publishers to be consistent. There is no such thing as overnight success.

It helps to think about podcasting as another strategy like search engine optimization, pay per click, or email marketing.

Getting top rankings on organic search starts from your site’s pages, structure and theme, on to building inbound links, link bait, and so on. Being competitive in pay per click, for example, means bidding on the right keywords, writing great ad copy, knowing what the searchers want, create optimized landing pages. The combination of all those and more — even a bit of improvement here and there — matter for the end results.

Podcasting as a strategy is not just a key that anyone can tap and get immediate outcome. If that is what you think it is, then you will be disappointed. A few years back it might be easier to get noticed if you have a podcast. If it was all that appeared in the podcast search results in the directory, all the attention is yours.

But of course, back then this was not yet in the mainstream. There are fewer people who know what podcasting is, not to mention consuming podcasts regularly.

Nowadays, people have more choices although the choices are nothing compared to the amount of indexed web sites available on Google. Just do a search on business podcast, you should find hundreds of results.

As to which podcast the audience is going to listen is a matter of being visible, interesting, relevant and good in content.

Publishing and marketing with it involve planning for content, keeping on the edge of industry happenings and events, setup landing pages to capture leads, offer white papers or sell products, manage ads and sponsors, respond to listeners feedback, and so on.

It works more or less like other marketing technologies and strategies. You also need to consistently get your content out, promote it, deliver what the audiences want, get and implement feedback mechanisms. The more you do it, the more you become familiar with it.

Just like email marketing, podcasting allows you to reach qualified audience repeatedly. Building your list takes time. However, at the end of the day, the number of podcast listeners is not as important as the responsiveness of the audience.

Hendry Lee helps small business owners and web publishers overcome challenges in using marketing technologies to start and grow their online business. Do you want to start marketing with podcast? Download white papers and subscribe to weekly dose of podcast profit tips and get concise information and strategies to get the most out of your podcast.

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Creating a Facebook for FUN and PROFIT in 4 Easy Steps!

Step 1 - Select a valid email account to use for Facebook

a. Choose a valid email account you will use, if you don’t already have an account, you may sign up for a free account at MSN, Hotmail or Yahoo.

Step 2 - Facebook sign up

a. go to facebook.com, click ‘Sign Up’

b. your new sign up screen will open up

c. the profile type is ‘personal’, there is also the option to create a business or band page

d. fill in your full name

e. select choice of “I am” ……

- in college/graduate school

- at a company

- in high school

- none of the above

f. different drop down boxes will appear depending on your “I am” choice

- for college or high school there will be additional fields for you to fill in

g. fill in your valid email address

h. create and fill in password (a strong password is greater than 8 characters, contains upper and lower case characters, a number and doesn’t spell a name or word)

i. date of birth (later you can choose to not display any or all of this field)

j. type in the ‘capcha’ 2 word security check

k. check “I have read and agree to the terms of use and privacy policy”

l. click ’sign up now’

Step 3 - email confirmation

m. confirm your email address

- a verification email will be sent to the email address that you filled in

- sign in at this email account and click the link in the email to verify that you are the owner
of this valid email account

- by clicking the link in your email, you will be taken to your Facebook Welcome Page

” re-enter your email address and password that you listed above if searching for friends

n. Fill out your preliminary profile (these fields are optional - you may enter your information or choose to leave this blank)

- your city, state, country

- your company

- your college

- your high school

- join a network based on the state you filled in above - you may only belong to one network at a time and may change networks only once every 60 days - see ***** for more details on networks

Step 4 View and edit your profile

o. click ‘basic’

- select your gender

- edit birthday options to show full birthday, show only month/day or don’t show

- choose hometown, state, country

- select political views from drop down box

- select religious views from drop down box

- click ’save changes’

p. click ‘contact’

- add or remove email addresses to limit or encourage email contact

- add a screen name using AIM, Skype, Windows Live, Yahoo, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ

- add mobile phone

- add landline

- add street address

- add zipcode

- add website (this will be clickable links!)

- select ‘only my friends’ if you want these fields to only display to your friends

- click ’save changes’

q. click ‘relationships’

- select ‘interested in’: men / women

- select ‘relationship status’

a) single

b) in a relationship

c) engaged

d) married

e) it’s complicated

f) in an open relationship

- fill in ‘former name’ used to help friends find you by a maiden name

- select ‘looking for’ (you may select more than one)

a) friendship

b) relationship

c) dating

d) networking

- click ’save changes’

r. select ‘personal’ and fill in

- activities

- interests

- favorite music

- favorite tv shows

- favorite movies

- favorite books

- favorite quotes

- about me

- click ’save changes’

s. select ‘education’

- university - fill in:

a) class year

b) college or graduate school

c) concentration or major

- high school - fill in:

a) class year

- click ’save changes’

t. optional - ‘find classmates from…’

u. select ‘work’

- fill in employer

- position

- description

- city/town

- time period

- click ’save changes’

v. select ‘picture’

- click ‘browse’ to locate picture from your computer in JPG, GIF or PNG format

- click ‘I certify that I have a right …’

- click ‘upload picture’

w. select ‘layout’

- this gives you the ability to move displayable fields on your profile by using your mouse to drag them

x. congratulations! your setup is complete, now you can begin to show off your Facebook!

y. set aside time everyday to invite new friends and approve friends who invite you

z. start ‘poking’ (sending messages) to your friends and you’re on your way to being a Facebook favorite friend!

So now you know the secret of creating your Facebook in 4 easy steps from A to Z! Caution: This only works if you use it! Make a decision to actually put these steps into place. If you find…

This information helpful but aren’t sure that you’re up to the challenge of researching all of the new options and features of href=”http://www.jakesfacebookfacelift.com/” target=”_new”>Facebook I’ll show you another way to optimize your Facebook to bring traffic to your website! Jake Christian is a successful Facebook user who researches new Facebook tools and options everyday for customizing your website for href=”http://www.jakesfacebookfacelift.com”
target=”_new”>Social Marketing and Web 2.0 so that you don’t have to!

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I’d like to give you a few thoughts to think about, maybe something that is, up until now, has not been a big part of your Internet marketing toolbox. Perhaps you are just now embarking on your maiden voyage to the vast seas of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), or, perhaps you are an ol’ sea dog, and you have been around the horn a few times and there is absolutely nothing new about SEO to learn. Or, you are already tired of my sea-going metaphors and just want to move on the Zen of SEO!

The basis of measurement success is of course the Google Page Rank (PR). New sites start off with a PR of zero, and, depending on all sorts of criteria, may stay at zero for what seems like forever. At the other end of the scale is a page rank of ten, of which very few sites achieve -that is unless you are one of the huge directory sites like Google, or Yahoo. Even PR’s of 8 and 9 though are illusive and out of reach of the most average businesses. So it’s that area between PR 4 and PR 7 where one finds their website getting potential visitors in the amount of thousands per day. Do not get me wrong, even a PR of 2 or 3 is good, and you can congratulate yourself for achieving this - but the road to internet success is found in the area of PR 4 and above.

As with anything, there is more than one way to accomplish something. And with attaining a high Google PR, there are plenty ways to try to “trick” the Google search spiders to give your site a higher PR - sometimes you can attain a very high PR this way. These techniques include link farms, spamdexing, etc. This process is referred to as black hat techniques. On the other hand, white hat techniques utilize legitimate, organic, search engine optimization.

As you move forward with your own SEO endeavors, it is probably best to make your choice of which methodology you want to use right off the bat. Potentially quick rise to a high PR using any method possible, or staying within the confines of what is ethical and falls within the specified Google SEO parameters. If your decision is to play on the “dark side,” be forewarned that if caught, Google will not think twice before taking your lofty PR 5, 6, or 7, right down to zero. In fact, you could face not getting indexed on Google at all.

With all that said, lets assume you would like to take the white hat road to PR SEO. It may be more time consuming, and take a little more work, but you will ultimately be doing something quite nice for yourself, your visitors and customers, and the web in general, you will be providing something of value. And the foundation of what you are building (your website) will ultimately be stronger and much longer lasting.

I am going to share with you my own plan for optimizing one of my own very new websites over the next 6 months to a year. That’s right, it may be at least a year before you will see the fruits of your hard labor. But if you want success with SEO and marketing your website, the kind of success that means 5,000, 10,000 or even 15,000 visitors EACH DAY, then just know it will be worth it. An interesting thing that I have learned, and this is really very helpful, is that giving yourself an expanded, slowed down, timetable for your website’s SEO (like 1 year), will help you keep the proper perspective and maintain the patience you will need not to give up.

Google works at their own speed and (if you stay with the white hat approach) cannot be rushed too quickly. So just know that if you have recently launched your site and are sitting at PR 0 - you need to give yourself several months before you typically will see any kind of jump at all. Also know that Google will hold back making public a new site’s actual PR (one showing 0) for up to several months to keep the playing field fair. In their view, having a brand new site jump to PR 5, would be more problematic in the long run. So take heart that your site may in fact be climbing in page rank far before you actually see the results. Once you do start seeing movement, continue being patient.

Okay, I am going to give you a very abbreviated list of things you can do to consistently improve your site’s PR ranking. This is basically my list of how I am taking my own brand new website to a PR 5 within the next year or so.

1) Become an expert in the field that your site is addressing. The more you know about the site’s contents, the more you will be able to build on that knowledge.

2) Outline what you want your site to “accomplish / do.” Who is your audience? What are you offering to your audience? Where do you want your site to be in one year, two years, three? These type of questions are important - play out the direction you want to go in.

3) Plan on having a lot of test content on you website. This can be articles, how to information, customer testimonials, product user information, you name - you will need to have a lot of text. Google (and the other search engines) love good relevant content. When your site is periodically “spidered” the text that is easily available on your home page (or can be directly linked to) will be looked at by the search engines, ultimately helping your page rank. This is important - add at least one page of new content each and every day…. That’s right, plan on having hundreds of pages (over time) on pertinent, related, copy about your site’s subject matter.

4) Become familiar with what your site’s “keywords” are and how you need to ensure that the content you have on your site has these keywords imbedded there. There is a lot of information out on the web about this and you need to research this and implement a strong keyword strategy for your site.

5) Get high positioned links to coming into your site. Do not be afraid to ask for links, everyone was once at a lowly page rank and most will understand where you are coming from. If you have taken the time to create a site with great content, others will be happy to associate with you by providing cross-links. Google will be the first to tell you that nothing makes for a quicker rise in PR status than having external high ranking links coming in to your site.

6) Flex those typing fingers because you will need to start writing. In addition to having plenty of onsite copy, you will want to write relevant articles (to your sites keywords and subject matter). There are tons of great websites out there that are looking for fresh new, well written articles. You may want to check out sites like Ezine Articles where they have 70,000 authors sharing their thoughts and ideas. Typically, you do need to sign up for a membership, but this just takes a few minutes and is well worth the effort.

Spend a little extra time on filling out your personal bio info too. This is very important because this is how your articles will ultimately be linked back you and your included websites URL. If you can get one article written a day, so much the better. These articles do not have to be all that long, but a full page or more is best. Having several hundred articles (relevant content) on multiple article sites, all with corresponding bios with your websites URL will get spidered by Google and the other search engines.

7) Configure your site to have an ongoing Blog area and contribute a new blog each and every day. Make the content pertinent and relevant to your website’s keywords and overall theme of your site. This will add ongoing content to your site each day.

8) Configure your site to have an ongoing Forum area that you and others can contribute to each and every day. Make the content pertinent and relevant to your website’s keywords and overall theme of your site. This will add ongoing content to your site each day.

9) Content over pretty images. Remember that Google, and other search engines, will spider your relevant text, but big images, videos, and Flash objects, will be for the most part, ignored. You need to take a look at your website as if you were a google-bot, and ensure that your web pages - home page especially, is full of a lot of pertinent (keywords) copy. Do not be afraid to have a longer than normal home page too - one that you need to scroll down to see everything. Have lots of links to other areas of your site as well.

10) Become a great communicator. Network with other similar minded website owners. Thinking in terms of “competition” will not work well for you over time. Look for ways that you can collaborate together to promote an idea or project together.

11) Create a dedicated page on your site for your favorite links. Then, when you can ask others to cross link, ask them how they would want to be represented or promoted on your website. If at all possible, communicate directly to a specific person (using their name). Do your research, and check out their website so you can specifically talk about what you saw - people will appreciate the time and attention you give.

These are just some of the things that I have found to be effective for attaining higher Google Page Ranks. Once you make “content development” an ongoing priority in your life, things will fall into place before you know it. Learning to enjoy the writing process is key. Best of luck!

Copyright 2007, Avenstar Enterprises, Inc./Our Inner Source

Mark McGinnis is a businessman and entrepreneur running multiple businesses as well as being the co-founder of Our Inner Source http://www.ourinnersource.com, a popular inspirational/motivational website.

If you are looking for inspirational items to create a sense of serenity in your home (inside and out) visit Mark at his beautiful website, A Zen Gift http://www.azengift.com

To find out more about Mark’s magical and romantic Fireflies product, check out http://www.magicalfireflies.com

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How do you write a killer headline for your sales page? Have you written forty-two articles with no headline and can’t think of a single word to insert in the Title Category? I can’t imagine it being difficult, but I have a plan.

Here’s my plan:

Keyword optimize.

Use the two keywords you want your reader to find first. What’s this article about? Marketing Headlines - those are my first two words. Then tell them what they can do with those two words. NO! You don’t want them to HIDE the words. Tell them what they can accomplish.

Reuse at least one keyword.

In your phrase, reuse at least the most magnetic of your two keywords for emphasis. That’s the driving factor of your headline. It grabs and it repeats. Use the magic keyword again! Add a benefit to it and you’ve got a great start.

What does it do?

If your keyword is just going to lie there, bury the darned thing and get it over with. Where’s that tombstone? But you don’t want it to lie there. Give it some action - remember Noun followed by VERB. You might even want to use your keyword as an adverb and slice in another noun. But use a verb that drives attention home. (It’s okay to use adverbs in the headline.)

Do you have more than four words in your title?

I strive to get seven words in my titles. I don’t know why. I just like the number seven and it’s a nice odd number so my readers have something subliminal to grab onto. It’s unfinished. Round numbers finish. Odd numbers leave something out. There’s something more.

What are you looking to find?

Jan Verhoeff shares her business expertise at http://janverhoeff.com with Jan’s News & Updates revealing the simple secrets of Brand Recognition. Visit her site and learn how to drive traffic to your own website, with power-charged ezines and info products that market business development and high quality planning strategies.

Just keep reading. That’s the message you want your reader to get. You want them to read until they get to the Click. Of course, the next step you want them to take is to click on the Click and go to your website, so TELL them. Give them directions. And tell them why. If you go click on the Click you’ll get Two FREE Article Marketing Templates.

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Getting the marketing mix right for your product or service means you are covering all of the important bases in your marketing campaign. Here is a definition of marketing mix and a description of its main components.

The term marketing mix refers to the primary elements that must be attended to in order to properly market a product or service. Also known as The 4 Ps of Marketing, the marketing mix is a very useful, if a bit general, guideline for understanding the fundamentals of what makes a good marketing campaign. Here is a brief description of each component of the 4 Ps of the marketing mix.

Product: The marketing mix concept has its roots in the 1950s U.S. corporate marketing world, and the practice of marketing has obviously evolved tremendously since this term was invented. One of the changes is that there are a lot more services available nowadays, such as those available online. Also, the distinction between product and service has become more blurry (e.g., is a Web-based software application a product or a service?). Either way, product here refers to products or services. The product or service you offer needs to be able to meet a specific, existing market demand. Or, you need to be able to create a market niche through building a strong brand.

Price: The price you set for your product or service plays a large role in its marketability. Pricing for products or services that are more commonly available in the market is more elastic, meaning that unit sales will go up or down more responsively in response to price changes. By contrast, those products that have a generally more limited availability in the market (but with strong demand) are more inelastic, meaning that price changes will not affect unit sales very much. The price elasticity of your product or service can be determined through various market testing techniques.

Place: This term really refers to any way that the customer can obtain a product or receive a service. Provision of a product or service can occur via any number of distribution channels, such as in a retail store, through the mail, via downloadable files, on a cruise ship, in a hair salon, etc. The ease and options through which you can make your product or service available to your customers will have an effect on your sales volume.

Promotion: Promotion is concerned with any vehicle you employ for getting people to know more about your product or service. Advertising, public relations, point-of-sale displays, and word-of-mouth promotion are all traditional ways for promoting a product. Promotion can be seen as a way of closing the information gap between would-be sellers and would-be buyers. Your choice of a promotional strategy will be dependent upon your budget, the type of product or service you are selling, and availability of said promotional vehicle.

Marketing has come a long way from the 4 Ps of yesteryear, and yet understanding this marketing mix is for your product or service remains very relevant today. The marketing mix serves as an excellent touchstone for continually checking that you are covering all of the bases in your marketing campaign.

Building a brand for your small business? Download your FREE copy of my eBook, “The Anatomy of a Winning Brand,” at: http://www.jedcjones.com/brandmybusiness

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For your website to be part of the Internet, it needs a name and address. The name is the domain name you register which is the address to your website. You get your address by buying web hosting from a website hosting service. It then installs your website on its server which is connected to the Internet. Now you’re part of the World Wide Web and surfers can find you. In this article, we’ll look at how to find the right professional website hosting service for your needs.

First, let’s look at the types of website hosting plans available. The most basic plan is known as shared website hosting. This means that a number of websites are hosted on the same server. However, if your site is extremely resourceful and intensive, you might choose a dedicated website hosting service. This is an expanded form of dedicated hosting in which your website hosting company manages your dedicated server for you.

So how do you go about choosing the ideal website hosting service for yourself where there are thousands of website design companies that offer professional web hosting services? First you have to determine the specific requirements of your website hosting. The first requirement is technical. It covers the server platform and hardware.

The server platform is the operating system the server runs and is either Windows or a Unix OS such as Linux. Each OS has its own set of features. Your choice depends on the type of website you’re planning. If you’re just going to use static web pages, then either is fine. But if you’re looking to incorporate dynamic content such as databases or shopping carts, you need to consider what type of server the scripts run on. For example, if you’re planning on using Microsoft applications such as MS Access, or SQL server, then you’ll need a server running Windows, all these technical issues can be discussed with professional web hosting services, most of these services are also offered by professional web hosting companies in the UK.

Then there are hardware requirements such as disk space and bandwidth. These determine the amount of data you can store on your website and the volume of data you can send and receive. These specifications can vary between different professional web hosting companies in the UK.Similarly, your bandwidth requirement will depend on your anticipated site traffic. It’s wise to err on the side of caution as a data volume higher than that stipulated in your agreement can attract high surplus charges. An important related consideration is scalability. You should look for website hosting services that allow future seamless upgrading should your requirements grow in the future.

Next, there’s the matter of your actual operating needs. This concerns such matters as how many email accounts and sub domains you require. As a minimum you should go for hosting that offers 20 email addresses and 20 sub-domains. But these numbers can be much higher depending on your requirements. For example, some hosting plans allow unlimited domains. You should also make sure your website hosting services offers a control panel which gives a graphical interface to access configuration and statistics.

Finally there’s the matter of reliability, customer service and support. Your website hosting Service Company should be able to guarantee 99% server up time. And 24-7 technical support is essential.

So how do you go about looking for a website hosting services? First, you have to determine the technical requirements outlined above. Then look for established companies and make a shortlist. Next, check on forums and review sites for reviews and feedback on your short listed professional web hosting services companies. The length of time the firm has been in business is a good indicator of their level of professionalism and stability. Cost is important but it shouldn’t be your main criterion.

There are many professional web hosting companies in the UK for you to choose from. Often website design companies or web design and development companies will offer this service. It’s generally best to entrust website design companies which can provide all your web development needs. This results in efficiency and clear communication as you only have to deal with one website Design Company.

Andy Lomax owns and runs Kudos Web Design one of the Leading Web Design companies in Manchester. He has been working within the internet industry for over 10 years and has advised hundreds of companies about their websites and online marketing strategies. Kudos Web Design provides website hosting services.

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Just think about how many times a week you search for something on the Internetâ?¦10, 20, 50, 100+ times? Reflect back upon any major business decision youâ??ve made over the last few years and my guess is that you utilized the Internet at some point in time to verify, analyze, research, confirm, compare, or evaluate something in regard to every one of those major decisions. The bottom line is that the key to your Internet experience begins with the search engine you choose to use. It is therefore important to understand which search engine will provide you with the best results and in turn the largest boost in productivity.

The analysis of search engines that follows will be much more practical than technical. It will focus on the needs of business owners and executives in terms of which search engines deliver the best search results and not who has the best entertainment sections or coolest consumer applications. That being said I believe you will find it enlightening and something that you can put to use immediately.

With more than 2000 (and growing) search engines available on the Internet there is no shortage of search options to choose from. If youâ??re like most people I know youâ??ve selected a search engine of preference, but my question is thisâ?¦Was your selection based on any real research or was it a selection by default? Have you been sucked in by marketing hype or just fallen prey to a comfort zone of searching the same way that you always have?

Letâ??s take a look at the major search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Netscape, AOL, Lycos, Ask.com, Alltheweb, Mamma, Dogpile and Open Directory. My guess is that most readers use one of these as their search engine of preference. When you look at the above referenced list Iâ??m sure that your bias comes right to the surface with thoughts like Yahoo and MSN are consumer search engines vs. Google that is a true commercial search engine, or how can smaller search engines like Ask.com or Lycos compare with Google or Yahoo or finally for search snobs, why would I ever want to put up with the advertising and clutter of AOL or Yahoo when I can use Mamma, Dogpile or Open Directory?

While one can make arguments both for and against any of the aforementioned positions in my opinion it all comes down to results and usability. As with most business people I know I was a die-hard Google fan for years. However along with a growing amount of others I have changed my opinion of late. In the text that follows Iâ??ll tell you why, and back it up with solid logic.

While Iâ??m sure Iâ??ll offend some for sake of brevity Iâ??m going to narrow my analysis to what I believe are the four search engines most often used by C-suite executives and entrepreneurs. Here we goâ?¦Open up four browser windows (Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com) and type in the search phrase advertising. Letâ??s examine the results by analyzing the following four areas:

1. Returned Searches: This is a pure quantitative analysis measuring only the volume of results that match your query. It has nothing to do with things like relevance or timeliness. If youâ??re looking for sheer girth, Google is the clear winner.

a. Google: 1,610,000,000 results containing the term advertising
b. Yahoo: 635,000,000 results containing the term advertising
c. Ask.com: 157,070,000 results containing the term advertising
d. MSN: 107,334,674 results containing the term advertising

2. Usability and Functionality: How easy is the search engine to navigate and what tools are provided to make your searches more productive?

Ask.com is the clear winner hereâ?¦Not even close are any of the other search engines. The site is simple and uncluttered, but loaded with productivity tools to help you search more effectively. You can mouse over an icon and get a visual preview of a site before you go there, and there are numerous options to either narrow or expand your search. With each subsequent drill-down you can continue to expand and refine your search parameters with an intuitive search agent that anticipates your needs as a user. I would strongly suggest if you are not using Ask.com that you give it a test drive to see what Iâ??m talking about hereâ?¦Brilliant!

3. Relevant Searches: Are you looking for quality, quantity or both? How many of you will actually go more than a page or two deep into the returned search results anyway? If youâ??re like me you want the most relevant and current information possible.

MSN probably provides the most currently updated information of all the major search engines updating daily. Therefore if youâ??re looking for the most current content MSN wins hands down. However Yahoo and Ask.com follow MSN so closely that the difference is negligible. The odd engine out here is Google. One of the reasons that they dominate in the quantity of returned searches is that many of their returned searches are not relevant. It is not uncommon to see returned searches in the top 10 results on Google that are 5 to 10 years old. I find this personally annoying and most often useless.

4. Popularity: In my opinion while this parameter is worthy of note, it is only really beneficial if you are an advertiser and doesnâ??t bear tremendous weight in terms of search relevance. That being said if youâ??re choosing a search engine based upon popularity Yahoo, Google and MSN rank 1, 2 and 3 respectively out of all the sites on the Internet in terms of popularity. While Ask.com ranks in the top 500 at 127 it is clearly a lesser known brand, but a good indicator is that it has climbed 35 spots in the last 3 months alone.

OK, so what are you supposed to conclude from all this hyperbole? First that I have abandoned Google for Ask.comâ?¦I know this must sound like heresy but I am not alone. Many of my peers and colleagues have drawn similar conclusions and have left Google as well. Google is so focused on conquering the world (generally something Iâ??m in favor of) that it has taken its eye off of search. If I want to use Google Earth Iâ??ll go there for that particular application, but if it is good solid search tools and relevance Iâ??m looking for Google has lost my business.

In this authorâ??s opinion Ask.com is best in class, followed by MSN, Yahoo and Google has fallen in the cellar. Ask.com is growing its business by focusing on the competency of search while Google is growing its business at the expense of search. Both models work, but when Iâ??m looking for search productivity Ask.com is the clear winner.

Mike Myatt is the Chief Strategy Officer at N2growth. N2growth is a leading venture growth consultancy providing a unique array of professional services to high growth companies on a venture based business model. The rare combination of branding and corporate identity services, capital formation assistance, market research and business intelligence, sales and product engineering, leadership development and talent management, as well as marketing, advertising and public relations services make N2growth the industry leader in strategic growth consulting. More information about the company can be found at http://www.N2growth.com

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What is direct mail marketing - it is simply a means to reach your customer directly, generally through paper or electronic mail. Direct mail that comes through the post usually contains a letter, a brochure or flier and perhaps a postage-paid reply envelop. The electronic version might take the form of a plain email, newsletter or even a fancy brochure with music and flash animation. Regardless of the format, the crux of direct mail marketing is that the sender selects who should receive the communication, based on a consideration of several factors which have helped him identify prospective customers. For example, a furniture store might choose to communicate with all those people who have purchased a house recently in the neighborhood.

Why is it so popular - direct mail marketing has several advantages, the first one being that this is the most targeted form of advertising. As a marketer, you decide who should receive your communication, and when. Thus, direct mail marketing helps to minimize waste. It also increases the chance of your message getting noticed - we at least glance at our letters before trashing them, but it’s not necessary that we would notice an advertisement in our favorite magazine.

Since direct mail reaches a pre-defined group, there’s probably a better chance of getting the constituents to take action. A good example is that of an optometrist who sends reminder letters about an eye exam that is due.

Another big advantage of direct mail marketing is that it allows a higher degree of customization, and lends a “one on one” feel to the communication. Better still, you have the opportunity to tweak the message even during an ongoing campaign.

Direct mail can also spur immediate action - sending coupons is a proven way of inducing customers to try a product. Again, a discount offer on a magazine subscription is quite likely to work well with regular readers. Unlike advertising, where there’s usually a gap between the timing of the communication and the resultant effect, the impact of direct mail marketing is quickly felt.

What’s more, the results are measurable, thus enabling marketers to calculate their return on investment.

What can it be used for - direct mail can be used extensively across the marketing life cycle. You might use a simple flier to create awareness about a new product, or induce trial by sending out coupons. At the same time, business to business marketers might target prospective customers with the highest potential to convert to real leads. Loyalty Programs use direct mail very effectively to create a community of committed customers.

How do I do it - that depends on the size of your mailing list, and other considerations such as available manpower and budget. If you’d like to do it in-house, mass mailing software can help ease the drudgery of printing and labeling those letters. Alternatively, direct mail agencies take care of the entire printing and mailing logistics. You can even buy a targeted mailing list if you haven’t yet compiled a customer database.

Sounds too good to be true? You’re obviously wondering where the catch is. Well, the cost of reaching a customer using direct mail marketing is higher compared to other media. However, this is compensated by the fact that you reach a very targeted audience. At the end of the day, you can measure the returns on a direct mail campaign, and that might prove to be the decider!

Hi, I’m Akhil Shahani, a serial entrepreneur who wants to help you succeed. If you like to work smart, check out http://www.smartentrepreneur.net It’s full of articles and resources to help you start and grow your business successfully.

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An expert may find inexpensive quality website hosting easy to find but many newcomers aren’t that lucky. They don’t know what to look for and so usually make the mistake of either using the cheapest company or the one that offer the largest amount of space. This article will help to drive newcomers away from these mistakes.

Size.

Why did I say picking a host based on size was a mistake? Simple, companies usually charge more for there service because they offer it and yet less than 10% of all webmasters actually use anything near what they are permitted to. For this reason you shouldn’t base your decision on size.

Price.

Some great packages can be had at very affordable prices nowadays so you should no longer rush in and sign up with the cheapest service. The difference between a great service and the cheapest may only be a dollar or two so don’t sell your website short.

Features.

As great as it may seem if a company provides 100 free tools with their package it may still be useless if they aren’t the tools you need. If you want a blog be sure easy installs are provided, you want a site builder then make sure they offer it. Usually whatever your needs there will be a cheap host that provide it.

Customer Support.

Let’s face it anything can go wrong with a website as there is so much to go wrong. When this happens it takes a huge weight off of your shoulders if you know good customer support is there to help you, because if it isn’t you will endure a nightmare.

Reliability.

The most important thing to have. Every site claims they offer a 99% uptime guarante but you should ignore this as it actually means very little. For a more accurate answer look out for review sites that provide the information or search through related discussion boards looking for users of the service that can tell you.

Hopefully you are now better equipped to go out and find an inexpensive quality website hosting company that you will be highly satisfied with.

Are you looking for Inexpensive Quality Website Hosting? Then visit http://www.yourhostingoptions.com - the web hosting review site. Take a look at our top choice here!

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We learned that you need to brainstorm to find a profitable market if you want to make a lot of money with Internet marketing. This is a crucial step, so don’t try to escape. I’ve made this mistake when I first started and I can tell you that I lost a lot of money as a result.

Then, we learned that you need to know exactly what your market want, and finally, you need to find competitors already spending money to advertise in this market.

Now, let’s go more in depth and see where you can find them. We are going to analyze the competition.

4. Analyze your competition

It’s very easy to find out what your competitors are doing in your market. There are plenty of tools that allow you to find out, but for the purpose of this article, we will use Google.

You can use any other search engine like Yahoo or msn by the way.

You need to look at the paid search results, on the right side of the screen. Basically, you are going to find out how they are making money, and adjust your strategy on what they are already doing.

You need to find your unique selling proposition. To make a lot of money, you need to be different than others. Don’t try to be another “me too” in this market.

5. Create a landing page

Now that you found that your product is popular and that people are already making money in the niche, it’s your turn. You need to collect a list of subscribers.

Where is the product?

In fact, you don’t have a product yet. You are going to create it soon.

To learn more, download my Free Guide: “How To Earn $100K Per Year With Article Marketing“.

Franck Silvestre makes thousands of dollars a year from affiliate and article marketing. Wonder what the secret to his success is? Discover how he does it at: http://www.mynetmarketingland.com/article-marketing/

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