Marketing

Thursday, April 26, 2018
VWO, A/B Testing.

 Saturday, December 16, 2017
from Gary North.  from this list. 
Your microsites should offer only one choice of action; e.g., download a free white paper or leave.
A Microsite: How to Sell Just One Thing
Bob Bly - October 21, 2017
Dear Direct Response Letter Subscriber:
A "microsite" is a small website dedicated to selling a single product, service, or offer.

I am frequently asked, "Does each microsite need its own domain name, or can I just make it an extension of my main domain name?"

For instance, if your main site is jacksfoodsite.com and you have a separate microsite selling your healthy eating cookbook ...

... your domain could be an extension -- jacksfoodsite.com/cookbook -- or a unique URL; e.g., eathealthyfood.com.

For my product microsites, each has a unique domain name.
And an article in ClickZ (7/26/17) agrees with this domain strategy, saying:
"As a general rule, a microsite should have its own dedicated domain or subdomain.

"While it might be appealing for a microsite to be hosted on a primary brand domain for SEO purposes, and there are instances in which this might make sense, more often than not, it's best to host the microsite on a dedicated domain.

"There are numerous reasons for this. For one, a dedicated domain is typically easier to promote."

They point out that a dedicated domain such as cooldomain.com is easier to remember and type in than brand.com/microsites/something.
For instance, the domain for my microsite on how to write and sell your first ebook is: www.myveryfirstebook.com.

Having an easy-to-remember dedicated domain is especially helpful when someone asks me about one of my products, because I can instantly recall and tell them the site domain.

Now, you may object, "But that means I have to buy a separate domain for every microsite I have and every product I sell!"

Well, last time I looked, you can buy a domain name on GoDaddy.com for an annual fee of around $12.

Domain names are the real estate of the web.

That means for $12, you can own a piece of real estate online that produces for you sales of $5,000 a year ... $50,000 a year ... even $100,000 a year or more.

Owning actual real estate doesn't give you anywhere near that kind of return most of the time.

And having just spent $4,500 to fix problems at a rental property we own, I can tell you microsites are a lot less of a headache to manage than houses.

To be fair, my best microsites make just thousands of dollars a year each -- not $100,000 or $1 million or more like the big boys of ecommerce do with their websites.

But with dozens of sites each making a few thousand bucks a year, my little online info business makes me a nice spare-time annual income ... in the six figures ... with me "working" on it just a couple of hours a week.
Another key to having a business with a lot of microsites is to get a hosting service that allows you to host an unlimited number of sites for one flat monthly fee.

For instance, one hosting service is, on the surface, very cheap at just $19 a month.

But, it's $19 per site. That's OK if your business has one big website, as many do, such as my CPA and my attorney.

My hosting service is more expensive at $49 a month -- except, for that fee, I can host as many sites as I want at no extra charge.

And with my 100 microsites, that means my hosting costs are less than half a dollar per site per month.

Very affordable.

One more tip...

Your microsites should offer only one choice of action; e.g., download a free white paper or leave.

Or buy the product or leave.

Nothing else.

No navigation ... no links to other pages ... no free content.

If you have navigation on your squeeze pages for lead generation ... or on microsites for product sales ... strip it off immediately.

Then sit back and watch your conversion rates rise like bread dough in a hot oven.

And make more bread online!

Sincerely,
Bob Bly
Copywriter / Consultant
31 Cheyenne Dr.
Montville, NJ 07045
Phone 973-263-0562
Fax 973-263-0613
www.bly.com

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Nobody has to pay $50 a month to gain hosting for a couple of micro-sites. You can buy this for about five dollars a month. It will host all the micro-sites you want. You're not going to generate that much traffic to your site. The site will be there so that you can refer people to it. It will promote whatever it is you want to promote. It will do the job.
Read reviews of the various hosting services here: http://www.toptenreviews.com/services/web-hosting/best-web-hosting.



 Marketing Automation
1.  Pardot:  B2B Marketing Automation by Salesforce. 
2.  Hubspot:  Inbound Marketing & Sales Software.
3.  Marketo: Best In-Class Marketing Automation.  Where's the proof of that?
4.  

SmartAcre is a Lead and Demand Generation Marketing Agency. Like I said, incredible.  SmartAcre provides certification for B2B Marketing Automation.

Learn and gain certification in Google Analytics, Google AdWords (in 2 days!!  Check it out), moz.com, and Hubspot Inbound.  


 B2C: BUSINESS TO CUSTOMER MARKETING
Business-to-customer marketing refers to the tactics and best practices used to promote products and services among consumers. B2C marketing differs from B2B marketing in a number of key ways, one being that it often depends on campaigns' abilities to invoke emotional responses, rather than solely demonstrating value.

 Regarding B2C v. B2B marketing, Bob Bly excels at destroying business and marketing myths.  He starts this off by citing someone who says that all buyers are alike. And punctuates that notion with a "He's wrong!"  Read on.  

 B2B: BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING
1.  Always start with Bob Bly.  See here.
2.
3.

 CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
1.  Use surveys in follow-up.
3.  
WEBSITES

Is your website achieving these results?
*  Must be at least 2 years old. 
*  Needs to net at least $4,000/month.
*  Willing to pay 1-2x annual net profit.
*  Looking to close in 30 to 60 days.
*  Total budget is $150,000.

SUBSCRIPTION MARKETING

Friday, August 26, 2016

1.  Start here. 
The most profitable model in onlione subscription marketing is to build an e-list of subscribers to a free online electronic newsletter, or e-zine, and then provide to that list.  The alternative--emailing to rented e-lists of opt-in names to acquire new subscribers--has met with extremely limited success.
Your marketing website should have a prominent box for e-zine sign-up; see TheDailingReckoning.com for an example. The Daily Reckoning is a free daily e-zine published by Agora, the financial newsletter publisher,.  They have hundreds of thousands of free e-zine subscribers to whom they market their paid subscription newsletters with great success.

LEAD GENERATION  

Friday, June 10, 2016

1.  LinkedIn.
3.

WHITE PAPERS

Thursday, June 2, 2016

1.  What are they? 

According to Guardian writer, Justin Pugsley, white papers are reports that address
a particular issue or problem and then presents a solution. White papers were first published by the British government in the early 20th century. They explained government proposals for new policies and legislation and are still used for that purpose to this day.
However, since the early 1990s they have become a tool for business to business (B2B) marketing. They are heavily used by IT companies as their products tend to be expensive and complicated.  But, increasingly, management consultancies, engineering firms, banks, lawyers and others selling to businesses are using them as well. This is not surprising. White papers are ideal for explaining everything from new manufacturing processes through to the impact of new government rules on business.

Reviewers of Bob Bly's book, The White Paper Marketing Handbook, have some good insights, least those who like Bly and his book.  Bob Bly also has written a book, called Business to Business Direct Marketing: Proven Direct Response Methods to Generate More Leads and Sales, 2nd Edition, 1998.

2.  What are some good examples?

3.  What is their purpose and how are they different from press releases?  According to reviewer, Robert Morris, Bly explains that "white papers have the same sales purpose as a brochure . . . to sell or help sell a product or service . . . but reads and looks like an article or other important piece of authoritative, objective information."  A book mentioned by Morris is Michael Stelzner's Writing White Papers. On writing white papers, not only do you have to craft content that people want, you also need to market the letter and part of that is covered in the letter itself.  Here's what Bly says

It may well "sell or help sell" but it never "sells"; rather, it makes a favorable impression on the recipient . . . .  Even better, it can create a sense of gratitude to the provider."  In Chapter 3 of Bob Bly's "Your White Paper Marketing Plan," as one approach he recommends a 10-Step approach:

1.  Determine Your Target Market
2.  Problem Identification.
3.  Solution Identification.
4.  Content.
5.  Media.
6.  Tactics.
7.  Schedule.
8.  Budget.
9.  Objectives.
10.  Measurement.

Nothing new for me there.  This is more concise. 
. . . adopted by businesses to support marketing.
Some 61% of businesses . . . in B2B marketing . . . use white papers, according to the US-based Content Marketing Institute. Marketing Sherpa, another US institute, reckons white papers are probably the most important tool for those marketing to businesses.
White papers tend to be long documents packed with useful arguments and data. They're usually written by experienced in-house or freelance copywriters. But to resonate with their intended audience they must be written objectively and present genuine solutions to real problems. 

This begins to outline it: 

1)  Identify a key problem faced by your customers and explain how it can impact them--such as lost market share, cost increases or reputational damage.

2) Describe other approaches and solutions to this problem that have been used and point out their limitations. Now present your solution and address how it has helped other companies and why it works.  Describe in detail, preferably with numbers, demonstrating the scale of improvements.  The round-up with a conclusion.

3)  Wherever possible, back your arguments using research and statistics from respected third parties such as government agencies and trade associations.  This builds credibility.

DIRECT MARKETING

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

DIRECT MAIL PACKAGE
1.  The Lift Note.
2.  The Buck Slip/Premium Sheet.
3.  Order Forms. 
4.  BREs, Business Reply Envelopes are typically #9s.  Optional with lead generation and soft offers, but strongly recommended whe nyou are generating orders.  People will not send mail orders with payment (credit card information, check, or money order) unless you supply a BRE.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.  
FACEBOOK 



How to spend your first $100 in Facebook ads?  Go find a small business and offer to split the cost with them.  Yes, this will cost you $50, but that is a cheap lesson to learn how to actually do Facebook advertising.  Remember, reading about it doesn't count.  

1. Then write up what you learned, and what could have been clearer in the post you read. Think about how to make it easier for others to do it themselves.
2.  Send your write up/notes to the marketer/blogger that wrote the post. Add value back to them. You'll learn in the process and you might even find someone who wants to teach you and pay you at the same time.
3.  Next pick another article and do what it says.
4.  Repeat, repeat, repeat.

FORMS OF DIRECT MARKETING

2.  Face-to-face selling.
3.  Direct mail.
4.  Catalogs.
5.  Telemarketing.
6.  Direct-response advertising.
7.  Kiosk marketing.

CONTENT MARKETING

Saturday, January 17, 2015

TARGET MARKETING

Saturday, January 17, 2015
1.  Target Marketing, Bob Bly.  He is the best.

Do this and you’ll not only learn marketing, you’ll be able to take a product, service, or brand and make it profitable. If you want additional accountability, you can try Summer of Marketing.



 

He needs to work for some businessman who knows how to market. He needs to be in the back room, working his magic. I suspect that is where he will wind up. Some men want to be their own boss, but most of them cannot do this profitably.

Its practitioners refer to it as Direct Response.



MARKETING TERMS

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MARKETING SPECIALISTS?  
(I don't see Bob Bly's name here)

JON BENSON, online copywriter.  
PAUL ARTUNI
JOSHUA AUERBACH
JOE POLISH, the Genius Network, and those who inspired Joe.

5 apps that manage your time, starting with Google Keep?

On August 5, 2014, Gary North recently recommended Danielle Adams. Here article there on shopping for a list and which ones are best is pretty good.  So categorize her name under Direct Mail Marketing or Email Marketing.  Danielle Adam is a publishing company, located in Merion Station, Pennsylvania.  It's a book publisher, not an individual.  Jeffrey Dobkin is the head of the research and writing team.  He is an individual who has published books.  See here.

DICK BENSON.  Who is he?
BottomLineSecrets.com is Dick Benson's website, though he is no longer with us and therefore with the organization, it continues to keep his name.

AUTO-RESPONDER TOOLS

Aweber is a proven, feature packed email list service.

". . . one of the best, if not the the best, auto-resdonder services available."

The Lyris Deluxe service . . . has no purpose other than sending out email to a list. It has no additional options, features, reporting, or other services that are found in Aweber.


What is Double Opt-in all about?  Is double opt-in confirmed opt-in?

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WEB MARKETING 


Friday, December 26, 2014
Video Sales Letter

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Monday, November 10, 2014 
(Happy Birthday, Antoinette!)

My Advice to a Struggling Computer Repairman: Raise Your Prices

Gary North - November 10, 2014

Technicians are not good marketers. That is why they don't make much money.

I have a local computer guy. He is cheap. He gets the job done. But he may quit. His little business is not thriving.

I would hate to lose him. So, I sat down and wrote a plan for him. I don't think he will do what I recommend. The mental outlook of technicians and marketers are just too different. But he is in his late 40's, and he will soon have to start over in life. He is motivated.

His shop is in a mini-mall with very little traffic. It is in a tiny crossroads -- not really a town. It has one small Baptist church. He will never get walk-in traffic. There are no local businesses. He needs to move. He cannot afford to move. So, he has to generate income from direct mail. No businessman will find him otherwise. He is at least a 10-minute drive from any business.
He must go to them. He will have to do this digitally. They will not come to him unless he can make himself stand out.
Here is what I wrote.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Creating a High-Income Computer Repair Service

GOALS
1. Steady income, irrespective of computer crises.
2. Reduction of low-return walk-ins
3. Substitution of high-paying business customers
4. Increase of hourly income
5. Conversion of one-time customers into repeat clients
6. Expansion of client list

STEPS
1. A systematic program to encourage referrals
2. Annual fee program: "Emergency service program -- first in line"
3. This includes a one-day, twice-annual "scan, repair, and protect" service
4. Raise prices, but increase the level of service.
5. Raise prices, but decrease one-time repairs.
6. Create a mailing list: prevention tip of the month (or week).
7. Create a separate website: free WordPress.org software, $3/month hosting.
8. Write a simple special report: "One hour after your hard disk dies."
9. Target small businesses.
I am willing to donate one Saturday morning to outlining the details of this transition.

garynorth@garynorth.com

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This is basic. But he understands none of this.
My view: give the guy a chance at business survival.


2.  Get Mailing Lists from Associations Lists.  Use the Gale Directory to obtain lists.
3.  National.
4.  Regional.
5.  SRDS Marketing.  And here is their List Source.
9.  Info USA.
11.  Edith Roman.
12.  

Friday, December 19, 2014

Wednesday, December 17, 2014
1.  B2B Copywriting, Bob Bly.
2.   

Thursday, November 20, 2014
POSTCARDS

I am a believer in postcard ads, although it's not an easy field to master. There are specialists out there who are very good at it. If the postcard gets the person to a website, and the website in turn gets the person on a regular mailing, such as a tip of the week, I think this is the ideal use of a postcard ad. A postcard ad is not going to generate revenue directly. It is what I call the shotgun. You have to get from a shotgun blast to a rifle. The rifle is a specific sale that is an extension of the initial shotgun mailing. Then you target those people who have made a purchase. You have a more expensive item to sell them. This is what I call the scope. The strategy is simple: shotgun, rifle, scope.

I would probably put half of the money into a savings account. The other half would go into a systematic program to test new marketing strategies. The good thing about a postcard strategy is that it is not very expensive to run the first test. But anybody who is contemplating a postcard campaign had better do considerable reading on what generates responses.

The key to all this is a high-response landing page. Until you're ready to create a high-response landing page, such as the pages created by Bob Bly, you're probably not going to maximize your return on a postcard to campaign. Here are a couple of examples of Bly landing pages.


The alternative is to create a landing page on your website. Here's an example from the Ron Paul Curriculum.


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Friday, November 14, 2014
Know Your Terms: What Is Direct Marketing?
Direct Marketing is "advertising . . . that . . . includes
1.  cell phone 
2.  text messaging  
3.  Display Advertising is advertising located on websites.
4.  email
5.  interactive consumer websites
6.  Online display ads is online advertising.  It is also called online marketing or Internet advertising.  It's marketing and advertising that uses the Internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to consumers. It includes email marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing, many types of display advertising (including web banner advertising), and mobile advertising. Like other advertising media, online advertising involves both a publisher, who integrates advertisements into its online content, and an advertiser, who provides the advertisements to be displayed on the publisher's content. Other potential participants include advertising agencies who help generate and place the ad copy, an ad server who technologically delivers the ad and tracks statistics, and advertising affiliates who do independent promotional work for the advertiser.
8.  fliers
9.  catalog distribution
9.  promotional letters
10. targeted television commercials
11. response-generating newspaper or magazine advertisements
12. outdoor advertising.  


1.  Drip Marketing via emails.
2.  
3.

MARKETING TOOLS

Friday, February 20, 2015
1.  Moz.
2.  My Site Auditor is a site that audits your website for maximum maketability.  More site auditors here.
3.  Website Optimization:  A/B Testing & Multivariate Testing.

CLOTHING WHOLESALERS, LOS ANGELES


10.  lashowroom.
11.  Wholesalehub.
12.  Fashiongo.

FASHION NEWS
1.  Style.com.
5.  And others.
6.
______________________________________________________

MONETIZE DIGITAL PRODUCTS

1.  Gumroad monetizes music.
2.  Pivotshare, Tinypass. 

MAILING LIST BROKERS

Monday, December 29, 2014



AFFILIATE MARKETING

Tuesday, December 22, 2015
2.   

Friday, November 27, 2015
1.  Marketing Demographics to consider.
2.  TeeSpring T-shirt company has a pretty good approach to solving the niche marketing plan.

Friday, October 30, 2015



Myers says that you can pick this software, VideoMakerFX Kinetic Typography, up for $69.  I haven't found the link for that product at that price or any other.  Bill provides some great links here for creating these sales videos.  Bill recommends using VideoHive, which offers templates for sale.  Once you get to Videohive, search for either "text" or "typography" to see examples of the kinds of sales letters that might match your project.  One of the other recommendations that Bill offers is Adobe AfterEffects.  He did say that you could produce some amazing videos with AfterEffects, while adding that the price could be prohibitive for some.  Bill priced it at $485; that's the purchase to own price.  Adobe does offer a user option of $20/month.  

Here Clayton Makepeace tries to sell you a $1600 course on how make more money with video sales letter.  I have no doubt that you will learn something for that money.  In fact, he offers enough information in the lead that will make reading the letter worth your while.  If you want to spend $1600, that is your decision.

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Friday, November 14, 2014 

1.  SEO Specialist, Denver.  

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Wednesday, November 5, 2014

TRACK WHO VISITS YOUR SITE OR YOUTUBE VIDEO
You can add an affiliate tracking system to your web site. Then create an affiliate link for your affiliate ID.

Use a url shortener to hide the affiliate link, and include that link in the video description and the video graphic overlay.

When people click or enter the link, it will show the visitor came as a result of your affiliate link.

If you don't want to add an affiliate tracking system to the site, you can add a bit of code to a landing page on the site to record all visits to that page. Use the link to that page as the link on the YouTUbe video.

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Internet Marketing Plans:

Part 1





Part 2




I am looking for an internet marketing position online at Craigslist with an eye to running my own internet marketing services.  I took notes on a YouTube video that covered internet marketing.  Most of it seems dated but still relevant and valuable.  My concern is that I fear that a wordpress site performs most of this automatically or at least through their plugins, and two, that your clone sites produce similar results, which means I’ve kind of wasted my   

I get that for social media, one needs to know how to run all of the social media sites—Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, et al. 

Which means that I would have to learn:

Learn Google Analytics and know how to read, understand, and explain activity and then explain or make suggestions on what to differently in the next month or quarter of the marketing campaign.

YouTube Account.
Google + Account.
Gmail Account.

BE WEIRD (WEIRD IS ANY PASSIONATE NICHE)
Ian Lurie says "Hire a search nerd and that person does mysterious stuff to help you move up in the rankings and they send you a bill once a month, and that's about all you know about them."

Results:  Scared, one, that you're not ranking yet.  And, two, you're ranking and you're terrified that for some reason you're going to lose that ranking.  Because as it turns out, Google is driving ALL of your customers to you and that's your only source of business. 

A lot more to marketing than just chasing rankings.  Marketing is a complex cycle and it works to your advantage.  Here's how. 

BE SIGNIFICANT
Search engines want to deliver significance.  Marketing is about significance. Showing yourself to the weird, making yourself useful.  Worthy of attention to people who many never buy from you but will always spread the word about you.  Can't force significance, but standing out to those who are compelled to respond. 

Make sure that people land on your site and make it easy for them once they're on, at, or in your door.

GOOD MARKETING IS:  GOOD SEO.
GOOD MARKETING IS:  GOOD LIST BUILDING.


Building your marketing around significance keeps you away from jumping on the next shiny new thing. 

Become useful to your audience.  Think about people in that audience.  Are they any crossovers of interest?  

BE USEFUL
You have to be useful.  And useful means providing definite value. How do you do that.  Talk to Realtors.  Ask them how you can help. 

Find the questions that most people are following or generating--on Quora or a Google search--and you can take that and build content.  There is also Ubersuggest.org.

ENTERTAIN
Appeal to weird audience.

Think of the company that sells razors.  DollarShaveClub. There is the Old Spice commercial with the black guy doing funny things. 

Try FollowerWonk.  Reach out for people on Twitter and data mining on Twitter.  When you do that you find people and find an overlap between them. If am selling puppy collars, then find people mentioning puppies or puppy collars.  

LOOKING FOR THE WEIRD
Post content you create by posting it on sites like Slideshare.net.  It has an enormous audience.  Video hosting sites, like Vimeo and YouTube.  People don't just find the video on the website and blog but at a place with millions of viewers.

Free eBook answering some set of questions.  I could write 20 pages about Quora

IFTTT.com, If This Then That.

PAY FOR ADVERTISING
Outbrain.com.  So you can get your site up at Slate.com. Use StumbleUpon.com to get lots and lots of views.  Facebook to drop Facebook Sponsored Stories.  Push ads and stories to specific groups of people.  

DELIBERATELY REAP THE REWARDS. CAN'T JUST SIT AROUND AND WAIT
What happens when people get to you?  Make sure that you get shared.  Use Sharethis.  

If you're selling information, then you're going to want to have graphs that visitors can click and embed onto their website.  If you're sharing your content yourself, then ask someone to retweet it or post it on their facebook page.

USEFUL IS GOING TO RESPOND
Send out a retweet to companies that you do business with. Ian Lurie was waiting for his bags in checkout for over 30 minutes, and so he decided to tweet Alaskan Airlines if they could get comped for waiting longer than 20 minutes? Alaskan Air offered $20 off on his next flight or 2000 frequent flyer miles.  Alaskan Air showed their significance to Ian.  Ah.

SproutSocial lets you do searches on your brand across social networks. 

USEFUL CONVERTS
1.  Provide coupon codes.
2.  MailChimp has a single button for coupon codes. 
3.  A conversion might mean a click or it might mean a sale.

USEFUL IS JUST PLAIN COOL
You're making yourself cool to that narrow audience.
Which pages have the highest value? 
Which pages lead people to making conversions?
Which pages get the most looks?
So if you're using content to demonstrate significance, tracking allows you to see the performance of that content and to see which pieces of content are working better.  

Use sites like Majestic CEO or Open Site Explorer.

TEST WHERE EVER POSSIBLE
Use Unbounce to compare different landing pages.
CrazyEgg lets you measure how far people scroll on a page and where they click.

Online Marketing Fundamentals, Lorrie Thomas Ross
1.  What is online marketing?
Ties together the artistic and scientific with a marketing purpose.
a.  First is awareness. You could have the best products or services on the planet, but if nobody knows, what's the point? A big piece of the online marketing puzzle is finding out ways to build awareness.  Build awareness.
b.  Next is communication. Think of it as information distribution, or simply education; communicating who you are, what you do, whom you serve, why you're worth working with. 

c.  And the heart of marketing is connection. This is where we get people to know us, to like us, and to trust us.The heart of marketing is connection.  It's where we get people to know us.
d.  Service: one of the most overlooked pieces of the online marketing puzzle.This is where people may get frequently asked questions answered, may have a good experience shopping with you, even getting through pages of your Web site, or simply being found in the search engines may be considered good service. 
e.  And the last piece of the puzzle is sales. We've got to make money, honey, right? All of these pieces: awareness, communication, connection, service, all come together to help boost sales.

No right way to approach online marketing, but the power to think critically, solving problems is probably the biggest key.  Leverage new opportunities.

Online marketing works, not only to help acquire customers, but we can't forget its power to serve and support repeat sales. Think acquisition and retention.The true meaning of marketing means maximizing relationships. We must address the art and science of online marketing, but let's not forget that it's the heart, the relationship part of marketing, that makes marketing matter. It takes an average of seven touch points to make a sale. Touch points can mean anything from a referral, a Web search, a social media mention, seeing a press release, getting an e-mail, or seeing an online ad.

The more marketing pieces you have, the greater the chances you have of getting prospective customers to know, like, and trust you.  These are required before you make a sale.

HEAVY HITTERS of ONLINE MARKETING
1.  Content Marketing.
2.  Offline Marketing, like articles that you write and are posted elsewhere.
3.  Search Engine Marketing, SEM.
4.  Search Engine Optimization, SEO.
5.  Paying for search engine advertisement.
6.  Optimizing local search results.  How?
7.  Email marketing helps you recruit current and acquire new customers.
8.  Social Media: Blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Facebook, and comparison shopping sites.  What is a comparison shopping site?
9.  Online advertising--banner ads, search engine ads, email newsletters.
10. The website itself--it sets the tone for online marketing success.

5 SUCCESS POINTS
1.  Credibility.  Credibility is exuded on our sites, blogs, through our content, videos, PR, social media, or reviews.
2.  Usability.  Usability is how well people can use your online marketing. Marketing work needs to be user-friendly. This comes from appropriate and professional design, site architecture, clear navigation, call to actions, e-mails, content, and even social media. 
3.  Visibility.  Visibility is critical as we build our online marketing plans. We can offer the best products and services, but if nobody knows about them, what's the point? Visibility can come from a number of marketing channels, including advertising, natural search, social media marketing, online PR, or e-mail.
4.  Sellability.  Sellability is a critical online marketing planning piece, as this is how well you show, and tell, and sell the value of your organization, products, and services.  People need to understand why you or your organization are worth working with.  This can come through in videos, testimonials, press releases, taglines, and photos.  Thinking about sellability, which means communicating and educating your value in the online marketing planning process, will help ensure that your value points are woven into site pages, and overall online marketing work.  When we employ credibility, usability, visibility, and sellability, we reap the benefits of scalability. 
5.  Scalability.

IDENTIFY, THEN UNDERSTAND YOUR TARGET MARKET
1.  Who is your ideal customer?
2.  What are their needs, wants, problems?
3.  How do you help them?
4.  You want to attract ideal prospects.
Understanding your target market will ensure that they are served from the time they see you through promotions, arrive on your site, and throughout their entire user experience.  A web user has a mentality of "All I want to see is what's in it for me."
5.  The key is to focus on attracting and connecting with people who really matter, so we don't waste our time, energy, and money with people who are not the best prospects.

CREATE, EXECUTE, & MONITOR: SUCCESS METRICS
1.  Branding, Credibility building.  Use quantitative metrics for success.

AD REVENUE:
Google AdSense.
Google Adwords.

SEO
Through WordPress, isn’t this organic and automatic?
Links do still help you rank.  One good link is worth an infinite number of lousy ones. One bad link can do really bad things. Google uses an algorithm change called Penguin.

Yes, you need to use the language your audience uses, but topics, topic focus, and semantic match will take care of themselves if you become significant.

TWO TYPES OF ADS
One print ad in Wired Magazine costs:
$200,000.  
Reach:  3,000,000.
Cost: $.07/person.
ROI: untraceable.

versus . . . 

Paying 10 authors to write really great articles:
$20,000.
Reach:  620,000.
Cost:  $.032/person.
ROI: 10:1

WEBSITE SHOULD BE A WEB SOLUTION FOR CUSTOMERS

SITE MAPPING
1.  A website map should be designed before website optimization begins. Spares unnecessary work.  Identifies what pages need to be built.  It gets specifications and their order.
2.  Strategy first, execution second.
3.  Main navigation, sub-navigation, and footer links.  Log-ins and client access are called "Utilities" and must be also be noted in the web design plan.
4.  

DEFINING SITE COMPONENTS
1.  Social Media links.
2.  Sign-up box for newsletters.  Newsletters can be case studies on the benefits of hiring an online marketer or a videographer for improving sales.
3.  A successful site needs to serve the target market.  Offer great customer service as a means indirectly to sell.
4.  

CALL TO ACTION PHRASES
Site mapping and calls to action go hand in hand.
1.  "Get a free consultation" action button for those on the fence.
2.  "Follow Me on Twitter."
3.  "Follow Me on FaceBook."
4.  "Follow Me on Instagram."
5.  "Follow Me on LinkedIn."
6.  "Follow Me on . . . ."

This site lists several calls to action and how to phrase them so that people know what to expect.  

HOMEPAGE, LIKE A NORTH STAR

1.  We want to get visitors to our site and through our site, so it's got to be on brand and on purpose.

2.  It clearly answers who you are, what you do, and who you serve.  Logo, clear website text, bullet points, photos, and video to attract ideal customers. Mindful messaging, show-me and tell-me ways.

3.  Privacy Policy addresses how you use personally identifiable information; what you do or don't do with email addresses you collect.  It discloses if you use any tracking technology, like Web Analytics, or if you have any type of cookies on your website.  A privacy policy also discloses if you sell or rent contact information collected on your site.  You can do a web search for a phrase like privacy policy to see examples or privacy policy best practices.  You can use free privacy policy generations online, or you  can go through a 3rd-party privacy company, like truste.com, for help on this.  However you approach this, know that having this is a critical must for online marketing management.  

WIRE FRAMING: THE ARCHITECTURE/LAYOUT OF YOUR SITE
1.  Visitors need to be guided through your site once they get to it.

Do you have the time to build your own website?
Do you the funds to build a site?
Interview web designers.  Build your own or use your own expertise.
Higher a professional to get it done on time and on budget.  Shop. 
See examples of their work.  Ask for references.  

SELF-MANAGED SITES 

HOW SEARCH-READY A SITE PLATFORM IS
DOMAIN NAMES FOR SEO, ONLINE MARKETING CAMPAIGNS, AND BRAND PROTECTION .NET, .BIZ, .INFO.

WEBSITE
      1.       Branded Logo?
      2.       Lead Capture Opt-In Forms?  For newletters, click and subscribe, free report or e-book.  Turn leads and prospects into sales.  Sell them now or in the future.  Lead capture or opt-in form to do this.  Name, phone number, email address.  Offer free trial or coupon to test or try your product.  Write an ebook, as little as 10 pages or 100 pages.  Record a video, a screencast, a 30-day free trial to your service.  Create something of value to incentivize them to buy your product or service.
      3.       Building pages that increase your quality score, so that you place higher on search engines.  About Page.  Contact page.  Site map lists all the pages on your website, so that google can index.  Privacy policy—what you do with people’s personal information.  Terms of Service—how you run your business.
      4.       SEO.  Developing great key words.  Have a great key word generators—
             a.     Long tail key words: [phrases of 2 to 5 words].  Example: Downtown San Diego Group Fitness Bootcamp.
             b.     Negative Keywords.  Keywords you don’t want to be found for.
             c.     Combination.
             d.     Local key words.
             e.     Phrase keywords.
             f.      Broad Keywords.
             g.     Local Keywords.’
             h.     Google keyword tool.
              i.      Link Building:  Drives links back to your website:
              j.      Social Bookmarketing Sites.  Stumble Upon, Digg allow you to bookmark sites that are important or interesting.  Drives traffic back to you.
                   i.    Digg.
                  ii.    Article Marketing.
              k.       Expert in your field.  Ezine articles.  Write articles on your niche.  Drives links back to your website.  12 part email explains best markeint for your niche.
                   i.    HubPages is like Squidoo.com.  Demaz
                  ii.    Squidoo Lenses @ Squidoo.com.  Seth Godin.  Lenses are mini-websites for your product/services.
                 iii.    Guest Blogging.  Go to other bloggers to articles for them, ONCE you’ve become a semi-expert in that niche. 
                 iv.    Press Releases.  New product/service.  PRWeb.com.  $80-$300.  News services pick these up all over the net.  The New Rules of Marketing & PR, David Meerman Scott.  
                  v.  Blog Comments.  Few important blogs within specific industries, niches.  Go to their blog and write guest posts or comments on articles that are of importance to you. 
                 vi.     Search Engine Directories.  Demaz.org.  list business inside industries.
                vii.     vii.     StumbleUpon is a discovery engine that 

finds and recommends web content to its users.  Its features 


allow users to discover and rate web pages, photos and videos 


that are personalized to their tastes. Wikipedia   

      
      5.       Magnetic Headlines?

      6.       SMM, Social Media Marketing.  Create a FB fan page related to your business, related to what you do professionally.  About your product/service professionally.  Get 25 fans as soon as possible.  25 Fans, Custom URL, Group Marketing.  Send it out to anyone you know.  Once you get to 25 fans, you can get a custom or vanity URL.  Group marketing.  Put vanity URL on business card, website, anywhere.  Get 25 fans ASAP.  Learn group marketing campaigns so that you can keep in touch with your customers. 
      7.       Twitter.  Google licensed real-time search results.  Relevant information inside Twitter.  Tweet every day.  200 followers next 90 days.  Follow more people important to you and your industry.  Increase the 200 20% every 3 months.
      8.       Direct Response Copy?
      9.       Intuitive Page Navigation: Home button, About button, etc.  Have as few of these as possible.  Boil it down to the essential navigation buttons.
     10.   Photos?
     11.   Blog!  Fresh, updated content.
     12.   Color-coordinated pages.
     13.   Have pictures of end goal or benefit of the product or service.

     14.   Use Google Analytics to run tests to see which pages have the best conversion.  Which pages are being looked at the most?  Which links are being clicked on the most?


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