Traffic is King, but this comes FIRST

Visitors to your site are critical – getting them there automatically is even better. Here’s how…

But, first…

The first thing you need to do before you start going after any traffic is keyword research. The reason this is so important is that you are going to be building content and traffic sources for specific keywords. This means it’s critical to select your keywords properly.

While doing your keyword research, keep the following in mind:

• How competitive are the keywords you’re going after? You’ll have to analyze the competition and see what’s out there for this.
• What kinds of visitors do these keywords bring? Certain keywords are good for generating a lot of visitors who don’t buy anything. You want to generate visitors ready to buy.
• What about affiliates? If you want to build a huge business, you’re going to need affiliates to help you. So make sure you are also targeting keywords to attract affiliates.

Although this is an essential step, doing it all by hand can take a very long time. And hiring an expert is very expensive. The upside is that these two factors keep most everyone from even doing their keyword research. What I recommend is using website traffic software to save the time of doing it yourself and the money of hiring someone else. This will not only speed it up. It will give you better results, as well.

Only then can you start getting traffic

Once you’ve done your properly keyword research, you’re now ready to start targeting these keywords to draw in visitors.

Powerful Traffic Tactics:

• Surveys
• “Answer” Sites
• Video

Surveys

The truth is that people really enjoy taking surveys and finding out what other people think. You can use this fact to provide “sticky” content for other website owners. And when they put your survey on their site, they will include a link back to your website. Think about that – you get website traffic for free just for making a survey! This is a sneaky little idea that most people never even think of. Just make the question interesting enough that people will want to share it with their own visitors.

“Answer” Sites

These sites, like answers.yahoo.com are filled with people asking and answering questions for each other. But, like the surveys, that’s not why you’re going to pay attention to these sites. The other thing they can be used for is to get traffic to your site, leads for your business and sales! Of course, the process of digging through these sites and pulling out the content info of leads for your business is very time consuming. But a much smarter method is to use website traffic software to do it for you. Then you just get a daily batch of fresh leads delivered to your inbox.

Video Sharing Sites

Another great resource is video sharing sites like YouTube. YouTube is one of the most highly traffic and search websites on the entire internet! If used properly, video sites can get you more website traffic than you know what to do with.

You don’t have to be able to make awesome videos for this to work. One super easy thing to do is take an article or website you’ve written. Then simply record yourself reading the text and you video the screen with a simple screen capture program. You can even get software that will automatically do this for you.

In Closing

Figuring out how to get some visitors to your site is not hard at all. Just be a creative and think outside the box a bit. You can even use software to automate most of what we’ve talked about.

Get started right away:

• Keyword research first is key
• Next, set up a survey or two with viral appeal
• Build your traffic traps
• And don’t forget about video

Affiliate Marketing Secrets

Learn Top Affiliate Secrets

If you want to get started quickly and easily making money online, then affiliate marketing is for you. What “affiliate marketing” means is that you just send traffic to someone else’s website, they do everything else! (make the product, design the sale page, handle the billing and support, etc.), and you get a percentage of the sale price as your commission (usually 50% or more for digital products).

The benefits of this are

1. You’re able to start almost instantly without having to develop a product, craft a sales letter, design the website, create marketing materials, or set up the ordering, billing & delivery system.
2. There’s no time investment from you because you don’t have to do the customer support or deal with billing or technical issues.
3. There’s no risk for you, because the product owner has already done all the research , development and testing. So you know that your traffic will result in sales.

Looking at these benefits, it’s clear that affiliate marketing is the way to go!

OK, but it’s not all rosy…

You work hard to send the traffic to the product owner’s website, but once you do that you will never see those visitors again. Unfortunately, the majority of those visitors (at least 90%) will not buy on their first visit. That’s fine for the product owner because she can sell to them again and again, but you can’t.

Is there are way around this?

Simply put, you need to capture the name and email of your visitors *before* sending them to the product sales page. This way you can follow up with them and keep sending them back to the sales page to increase your chances of making the sale. And if you want to do it like a pro, you’ll give them some great content before sending them to the sales page.

Here’s what these affiliate marketing strategies will do for you:

1. By building your own list, you’re creating a renewable resource that you can tap again and again for instant profits.
2. You’ll be warming them up by providing valuable information and then casually linking to the product sales page in the context of this information.

Here’s what you’ll need to create affiliate tools like this:

1. A Video Squeeze Page (with video)
2. Several high-quality content pages
3. An email series with at least 5 high-quality content emails

Instead of sending visitors directly to the product sales page, you’ll send them to your lead capture page first. This page is where you collect your visitors’ contact info and add them to your autoresponder, which in turn starts sending them the multi-part email series. After subscribing them to your email list, it redirects them to your content mini-site.

These high-quality content pages provide value and build good will. This way your visitor is more likely to buy when they get to the product owner’s website. And even if they don’t buy on the first visit, your email series sends them back to the product sales page again and again to increase your sales.

There’s no doubt that it’s worth the effort to put a system like this in place, because doing so will increase your profits by 500% or more. And once it’s set up, it runs automatically – you just send visitors to the squeeze page, instead of the product website.

If you don’t have the time or expertise to set it all up yourself, you can use something like Affiliate Silver Bullet. With a service like that, you don’t have to do anything. They make the video, build the squeeze page, write the email series, develop the content mini-site, etc. And then just give you a finished package. The major benefit of using a service like this is that you can get started right away, and for a whole lot less than it would cost to do it all yourself. One negative is that there will be other people using this same affiliate marketing system. However, the odds of you and them both finding the same visitor are so small, that it doesn’t really matter.

The other route you can take is to hire people on Elance to create and implement the various aspects for you. Either way, it’s an important step that you need to take if you’re going to be serious about your affiliate marketing.

Branding Your Business

Basic Models Used For Branding

Branding is a product of intense planning and conceptualization. To develop an innovative marketing idea and an effective way to brand your products, you need to carefully lay out the steps you need to get there. An effective plan will also enable you to take note of the vital aspects involved in the creation of a brand. There are many brand models that have been developed to create the structure needed to build an effective brand that will be able to withstand market trends and competition.

What is a Branding Model?

There are basic models utilized in the process of brand planning. Each of them will cover different scopes and aspects of the process to create a sound branding strategy. Aside from the ability to uncover different methods for arriving at a specific brand idea, these models will also help business owners understand the behavior of consumers in terms of their responses to a brand, which is helpful in adjusting old branding strategies or acquiring new ones.

All of these features are key to managing and reviewing brands, which are critical steps that must be taken by any company in their branding efforts. These models are not always directly linked but one does impact another.

Brand Positioning

This model involves your effort to create an image that will have its distinct position in the market. Firmly establishing your brand will help your target market to easily remember and and opt for your line of products. This is one aspect of your brand planning wherein you must focus on creating superior brands that will eliminate your competition. Here are steps you need to look into:

• This is the step wherein you begin to identify other brands you are competing against. Then, define the parameters of your own brand against your competition. This will enable you to focus your efforts.

• Next, your objective is to introduce attributes to your brand that will enable it to stand out from competition. You must also introduce elements into your brand that will produce in the mind of your consumers or target market the perceived quality of your brand.

• You must establish a slogan for your brand that will aim to reaffirm the position and values of your brand. Your slogan must aim to articulate the message of your brand and what it promises to deliver to the consumers.

Brand Resonance

Once you’re through the stage of creation and distinction placement in the market, your next step is to ensure and protect the loyalty of your consumers. To do that, you need to employ an efficient customer relations service and to provide a feedback system. This model follows from the initial steps laid out by the brand positioning methods. Once you have acquired targeted customers, your next aim is to strengthen the relationship between them and your brand. After all, a majority of your business sales will come from repeat customers, and maintaining that stream of income will become your top focus.

More than anything, this stage is where you must reinforce the messages initially conveyed by your brand. Hence, customers will remain satisfied with the level of performance and quality delivered by your brand. Are your methods consistent to the identity of the brand and its missions? Take into consideration the feedback of customers on your product and how you can build up on that relationship.

Brand Value Chain

This one is more focused on the financial impact of your branding efforts. The basic idea of this model is that the value of the brand exists in the mind of your customers, therefore this is where you should be focusing most of your branding strategies on.

Carefully combining these various models will provide a company a reliable view of the different areas involved in your marketing efforts. Bringing all of these branding steps into the formula will enable you to easily track the progress (or problem areas) in your branding system.

Your Home Business

A few recent topics on business around the world.

Unfinished Business – Japan’s Wartime Atrocities – By Christian …

Unfinished Business. For 65 years, Japanese corporations have escaped responsibility for abusing American POWs during World War II. BY CHRISTIAN CARYL | JUNE 28, 2010. Lester Tenney entered World War II as a strapping 21-year-old, …

Publish Date: 06/28/2010 14:11

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/28/unfinished_business

Are You A Home Business Voyeur? | Diane Hochman Home And Small …

Are you someone who watches other people conduct business as if it were a reality show or are you actually conducting business? Have you become a.

Publish Date: 06/28/2010 10:18

http://www.dianehochman.com/2010/06/are-you-a-home-business-voyeur/

Setting Up Your Home Business

Here are a few ideas to make money on the net and create a passive income for yourself.

Publish Date: 06/28/2010 6:00

http://www.freepressindex.com/news-setting-up-your-home-business-70946.html

Your Business – How Much Work Does It Really Take?

Recently, I was thinking about what it really takes to build a business online, and how much time one should spend building this. I then realized that I spend way too much time doing this and not enough time with my family (as shrunken as it has gotten).  So, today I thought I would just update this blog and make changes to just one web site.

Until today I’ve spent parts of my Saturdays, and most t of my Sundays working on updating my web sites, and advertising messages. And as the inventory grows, I find myself getting inundated with the “chore” of doing this. I have seen the “gurus” talk about “outsourcing” the work, but to be honest, I am not comfortable with turning over my “stuff” to another person, or allowing someone access to my web servers. I’ve talked to my kids (young adults with a life of their own), I’ve mentioned it to my wife (not the worlds greatest techie) and I’ve mentioned something to my friends. But in the end I really do not feel secure in bringing outsiders into my inner sanctum.And because I still have a home (she hasn’t put me out – yet), the wife really wants me to spend some time doing things that have been neglected, like mow the lawn, fix the sticking doors, you know – the usual “Fix it Jar” stuff (although it’s not in a jar, it’s right in our faces).

But, the reality is simple – help is needed if I want to have a life outside of my “cave” (my daughters’ nickname for my office, which I seem to run to as soon as I get home. BTW: I still have a full-time job.). So, I would like to talk a bit about what to outsource and how to reliably accomplish it.

To my mind it seems the first step is identifying what to outsource. If you have a web site like this one at www.ksapp.com , an affiliate site with multiple vendors like Sears, K Mart, Amazon.com and many others, then frequent updates are required. But, do I open up my accounts to someone on the outside to gather the creatives and post them? Or do I copy and paste them myself?

For other web sites like my latest (www.kasventures.com) it seems more simpler to allow someone to update the links and images as more sites come online. Other sites are more static and require no updates, but they do require someone to monitor and respond to the emails and subscriptions.

And of course there’s the research. How much time do you spend on researching your niche? How much time is reasonably allowed to keyword research for your website? Is this something to outsource?

Well, those are my questions. I am in no way an expert in the field of internet marketing, but I am fascinated by the possibility of multiple streams of income it can provide. But, I have read many of the experts who talk on this subject (or written about it), and if you have done the same then you know you need to have the income to hire someone to assist in building your business, or at least know of friends who have the capability to help.

So, what is your take on this? I’m sure there are others who face the same dilemma and would like some honest input (and not just another e-book) on the subject.

Ken

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Your Business – How Much Time Should You Spend Building It?

Hello, Saturday. Recently, I was thinking about what it really takes to build a business online, and how much time one should spend building this. I then realized that I spend way too much time doing this and not enough time with my family (as shrunken as it has gotten).  So, today I thought I would just update this blog and make changes to just one web site.

Until today I’ve spent parts of my Saturdays, and most t of my Sundays working on updating my web sites, and advertising messages. And as the inventory grows, I find myself getting inundated with the “chore” of doing this. I have seen the “gurus” talk about “outsourcing” the work, but to be honest, I am not comfortable with turning over my “stuff” to another person, or allowing someone access to my web servers. I’ve talked to my kids (young adults with a life of their own), I’ve mentioned it to my wife (not the worlds greatest techie) and I’ve mentioned something to my friends. But in the end I really do not feel secure in bringing outsiders into my inner sanctum.And because I still have a home (she hasn’t put me out – yet), my wife really wants me to spend some time doing things that have been neglected, like mow the lawn, fix the sticking doors, you know – the usual “Fix it Jar” stuff (although it’s not in a jar, it’s right in our faces).

But, the reality is simple – help is needed if I want to have a life outside of my “cave” (my daughters’ nickname for my office, which I seem to run to as soon as I get home. BTW: I still have a full-time job.). So, I would like to talk a bit about what to outsource and how to reliably accomplish it.

To my mind it seems the first step is identifying what to outsource. If you have a web site like this one at www.ksapp.com , an affiliate site with multiple vendors like Sears, K Mart, Amazon.com and many others, then frequent updates are required. But, do I open up my accounts to someone on the outside to gather the creatives and post them? Or do I copy and paste them myself?

For other web sites like my latest (www.kasventures.com) it seems more simpler to allow someone to update the links and images as more sites come online. Other sites are more static and require no updates, but they do require someone to monitor and respond to the emails and subscriptions.

And of course there’s the research. How much time do you spend on researching your niche? How much time is reasonably allowed to keyword research for your website? Is this something to outsource?

Well, those are my questions. I am in no way an expert in the field of internet marketing, but I am fascinated by the possibility of multiple streams of income it can provide. But, I have read many of the experts who talk on this subject (or written about it), and if you have done the same then you know you need to have the income to hire someone to assist in building your business, or at least know of friends who have the capability to help.

So, what is your take on this? I’m sure there are others who face the same dilemma and would like some honest input (and not just another e-book) on the subject.

Ken

5 PLR IM Ecourses

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Flash Optin Personal Use

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