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An Internet Marketing Tutorial for the rest of us

Welcome to An Internet Marketing Tutorial for the rest of us, where you can learn how to market yourself effectively on the web, get into major search engines, learn advanced SEO techniques, and not pay for it! Please support our advertisers and enjoy your new place on the Web! Subscribe to this site by entering your email on the right! Also sign up for the free offers we list. Internet
Sunday, 9 April 2006
Tutorial Changes
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Based on some of my readers feedback, most particularly the Bloggy Awards (check the link up top), I have implemented a few site changes. These are things you may want to consider as well. You've probably already gotten used to the subscription option I added a month ago or so. Thanks to my current subscribers! Please sign up as there's always room for more!

I have stopped clogging up my posts with links to my affiliate partners. Not only is it distracting, but I never got as many sales from them as I did from my other site, Unrapped Ministries, which offers several free Christian items (devotions, et. al.) as well as a book store.

Also, I just added a site search option, on the top left of the page. You can search for a particular item within this site or on the web, or get a site map.

Plus, I decided that I will kvetch on my podcast, which I have not used in about 6 months. I use Garage Band's Podcast Studio. Simply sign up for a free account with Garage Band. Sign up for the Podcasting portion (where it says (SIGN UP FIRST!)), then call 1-888-65-ICAST, enter the phone number you signed up with (area code and the number) and your PIN# and you're ready to record your podcast over the phone!

Leave me any comments about this podcast or any future podcasts on any comment link.

I'm considering adding a glossary as well, because the Bloggy Awards said I get a little technical at times. Look for that in the neasr future!

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 1:48 PM ADT
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Publisher Strategy - Part 2
Mood:  energetic
Topic: Make Money with Your Blog
Today's post I am quoting verbatim from the email I received from Kerri Pollard, VP of Client Services for Commission Junction. It's great stuff!


  • Price Comparison Sites - Many online shopping sites, such as PriceRunner, will list product information and pricing for free. Set up product catalogs and feeds with sites like PriceRunner to ensure you are in front of consumers at critical decision-making times.


  • Be Specific - Are your key words too broad? Make sure you have investigated all ways for someone to find your products - right down to SKU numbers and product detail. This will help attract customers as they are ready to make a purchase.


  • Think Locally - 70% of online households use the internet to search for local services and businesses. Take advantage of the geographical targeting capabilities of the major search engines to create localized campaigns. Increasing the relevancy of your campaign will increase conversions.


  • Think Globally - Consider promoting some of the many international programs that are available for US-based publishers. When launching an international campaign, make sure that you take into account spelling variations and different regional search habits. Consider hosting your pages in the country in which you are trying to increase their ranking. Also be sure to have as many local sites from that country linking to your site, which will increase your rank.


  • Put into Context - Have you considered contextual search? By having an ad or text link next to and matched with a relevant article or other non search engine-generated content, you can increase the likelihood of receiving higher quality traffic.


  • Best Behavior - Behavioral advertising is like a close cousin of contextual search; behavioral advertising is based on a user's historical behavior on the Web, which helps you focus your ad delivery on your target audience.


  • Also, come back tomorrow for part 3, which answers the question, now that you've got the traffic, how are you going to keep them?

    CIAO for now,
    Randy

    Posted by Randy at 9:01 AM ADT
    Updated: Sunday, 9 April 2006 9:04 AM ADT
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Saturday, 8 April 2006
Publisher Strategy = Part 1
Mood:  energetic
Topic: Make Money with Your Blog
Commission Junction recently sent me an email written by Kerri Pollard, VP of Client Performance.

Commission Junction, in case you haven't heard of it, is an awesome affiliate network, with several well-known merchants and products, such as the following:

Internet Marketing for Dummies

This marks the beginning of a four-part series on monetizing your blog. I will, of course, be adding my own comments along with the suggestions given by Commission Junction.

Part One: Drive Traffic

1) Hide and Seek - You can find new customers on chat rooms, blogs, complementary sites, associations, and groups of people that would be interested in your site. Great places to find blogs are Blog Explosion and Technorati. If your blog is geared to a particular niche, try promoting it at social events geared to that niche.

2) Channel Surf - "Can you take advantage of e-mail campaigns or traditional online banner ads? Do some research to see if you need a multi-channel approach to driving traffic." I also use some autosurfs like Honey Hits and Smiley Traffic.

3) Cover the Basics - Make sure you are listedon the basic search and Web directories, without getting tunnel vision. That is, look beyond Google and Yahoo to niche search engines, that Google and Yahoo spider anyways.

4) Search High and Low - Keep your content current. Even is you have a storefront, keep it up-to-date with the latest products and deals. Get incoming links to your site with "press releases, blogs or a unique set of features that allow people to link to from their sites."

5) Click Up Your Heels - Look into Pay-Per-Click programs to see if they are viable options. I have incestigated the so-called "free pay-per-click" models out there, with little to no traffic. Today I investigated Yahoo's Sponsored Search. I used the Self-serve approach, which is "free." Then I selected the keywords "internet marketing tutorial," came up with a monthly click volume of zero, so I added the other theme of this blog, "make money," and came up with a daily cost of $181 (monthly $5400), due up front before I know for sure I can recoup it! So, no PPC for me, baby!

I did pay a little for a domain name for my other site, Unrapped Ministries, which should be effective within the next week. This will be more effective than the domain I purchased for this site from GoDaddy, which only serves as a placemarker with a link to this page. Then they began offering a free blog with any purchase. ARRGGHHH!

Anyway, tomorrow I will publish the next installment, "Driving Quality Traffic to your site."

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 8:37 PM ADT
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Wednesday, 5 April 2006
the fire within
Mood:  bright
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Welcome to our newest blog renter, the fire within! The writer, dieselfire, is a self-described "sloth account manager" from Malaysia and "a happy entrepreneur who has her own fashion jewelry stall at a weekend flea market."

She offers "thoughts and mundane excuses for and on living on Planet Earth as viewed by a raging fire kept alive by hatred and love equally." Intense, huh?

She has a really interesting POV, as well. Check her out, get your copy of "The Adsense Code" (priceless resource), and visit some of our fine sponsors!

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 7:42 PM ADT
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11 Tips for Making Your Website a Great Informational Resource
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Why do most people use search engines? Primarily, to get information. Sometimes they will use search engines to purchase items, but usually only after extensive research. Courtesy of my friends at ourchurch.com, who host my Christian missionary site, Unrapped Ministries, are 11 tips for turning your website into a great informational resource that will, presumably, attract a lot of visitors.


  1. Keep it current

  2. Make it comprehensive

  3. Send a consistent message

  4. Double-check it for accuracy

  5. Proof it for errors

  6. Mention the website repeatedly in other forms of communication

  7. Use an intuitive layout

  8. Calendar

  9. Bonus features

  10. Two-way communication

  11. Be inclusive



If you need extra assistance with any of these points or would like to have us do some of the work for you for a reasonable fee, please leave a comment or an email: randy internetmarketing4.us.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 12:11 AM ADT
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Tuesday, 4 April 2006
New Tutorial Features
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Good evening, and welcome to An Internet Marketing Tutorial for the rest of us! I hope all is well with you! Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest information on creating + promoting blogs, making money with your blog, anti-phishing and other technology news, and an occasional kvetch.

New features include the aforementioned subscription option, a featured book of the week, and new sponsors. Please drop me a note and let me know what you think of the changes!

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 11:08 PM ADT
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Top Daily Keywords
Mood:  lyrical
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
This is an invite to check out my other blog, Top Daily Keywords. Each day I will update the top keywords for your site from a variety of sources and angles. Today was the top paying keywords and tomorrow will be the top traffic keywords.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 12:10 AM ADT
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Friday, 31 March 2006
What is Social Bookmarking?
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
For my next post, I'm drawing heavily on the Tlog, which has an awesome tutorial on social bookmarking. I'm just going to quote from the intro:

People talk about it a lot these days, but what, exactly, is social bookmarking? In short, it is an online, public bookmarks system (bookmarks are also known as "favorites", by the way).

If you browse the Web, surely you have some bookmarks saved in your browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, etc.), with addresses which you visit regularly, or which you save so you can check them out in more detail, when you have the time. These bookmarks have some faults, however:

1) the bookmarks in your home computer aren't available at your office, or at a friend's place, or at a cybercafe
2) above a certain number of bookmarks, it becomes hard to find what you need among so many, even when using folders to separate them.

Social bookmarking solves both of these problems. Bookmarks are now online, and, therefore, available to you wherever you are. Furthermore, when adding a new bookmark, you can classify it using tags, which are nothing but one or more words which describe the bookmark, such as "music" or "jobs". After, it's easy to see, for instance, just the bookmarks with a particular tag.

But what about the "social" part? That comes from the following: bookmarks are public. You can browse the bookmarks from anyone who uses the same social bookmarking service. It's also possible to see the newest added bookmarks, or the currently more popular ones (that is, those which are being added by a large number of people). You can also "give" (that is, suggest) any bookmarks to friends.


Great way to direct readers to your blog as well!

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 12:30 PM MNT
Updated: Friday, 31 March 2006 9:36 PM MNT
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Is NOTHING Sacred?
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
And if the last post wasn't bad enough, Stars and Stripes reports that "a portable drive with personal information on more than 207,750 Marines was lost earlier this month, possibly jeopardizing those troops’ credit records and privacy."

Allegedly, the information is encoded, and thus of no use to anyone, but is nothing sacred? Now we've got the few, the proud, the compromised identity, the Marines. Glad I'm a civilian!

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 11:51 AM MNT
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Fried PHISH
Mood:  hungry
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Yummy! Kinda reminds me of the sushi I had last night...getting a little off track, sorry. Castlecops and Sunbelt Software have teamed up with a project known as Fried Phish. No Kidding!

It's a community-based anti-phishing squad. If you receive a phishing email, just go to their PIRT page (Phishing Incident Reporting and Termination), enter the information, and when the submission is verified, reports will be generated and emails sent out to the appropriate authorities.

Quite a laudable effort! Please check 'em out, subscribe to ma newsletter, and support ma sponsors!

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 9:58 AM MNT
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