Internet marketing tips for Your home based biz

2005-08-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

Froogle it! In 24 hours your products or services there?

As A Home based business entrepreneur, the first question you need to ask yourself is: "Where do customers shop?"

Consumers frequent places that are familiar
Consumers frequent places that are convenient
Consumers frequent places they trust
Consumers frequent places that are well advertised
Consumers frequent places they ve shopped at in the past.

So what does all this have to do with Froogle, the comparison shopping engine? Well simply put; many people have been to Google or Froogle before, it's well promoted, and as always it is convenient. People are basically familiar with Google's various search engines and they trust this newer comparison shopping engine because it's backed by Google. While Google's Froogle does not sell or price products or services themself, they do allow shoppers to search for good prices. Froogle has hit the consumer's nail right on its head.

It's one of the rare exceptions to the old expression, "there's no such thing as a free lunch". At Froogle, if you're looking to marketing something, lunch is on them. It's on the house!

After some few facts about Froogle, I'll cover the steps for uploading your products or services information.

Points About Froogle

Froogle is on the Google home page.
Millions of people come to Google each day, and many are actively looking for the products you're selling. Froogle connects shoppers with merchants.

You can list your products on Froogle for free.
Unlike other online shopping sites, Froogle costs nothing. There's no spending account to set up and maintain. No cost-per-click. No cost, period.

At Froogle you control your product information.
Simply upload a new product feed at any time to ensure Froogle displays the most accurate descriptions and promotions for your products.

Froogle provides store ratings and product reviews.
Google's technology scours the web to identify relevant information about listed stores and products. This information is in the form of review 'snippets' from independent ratings sites.

Any product or service can be sold online, but can it be listed in Froogle.

What follows are some key steps toward getting your products or services listed in Froogle using their data feed system:

Go to the Froogle Merchant Center and sign-in
If you do not have an account, open one and enter the merchant area.
Set-up an FTP account
Set up an FTP account so that later you can upload your 'product or service' feeds in the Froogle system.
Adjust your feed's settings
Your feed will have a filename and other parameters. You must set this up as well.
Upload your feed
After you create a feed according to Froogle's instructions you'll upload it by FTP. Check that your feed name matches the filename you chose above in Step 3.

Are you learning valuable ideas? We recommend you check out our previous blog posts for many other marketing ideas. In fact, why not add our RSS feed to your "Feed Reader" so you don't miss future trainings?

Technorati:
Your home based biz | Froogle | Dan Hollings |
Other recommended blogs:
Tastefully Simple | The Traveling Vineyard | Tomboy Tools

2005-08-23T22:54:00.000-07:00

Mompreneurism and your home based biz? Ever thought about it?

Source: Direct Sales Association

Perhaps I was bored when I stumbled upon this statistic, but the more I thought about it, the more excited I got... based on numbers available from the Direct Sales Association, 79.9% of people in "direct sales" are female. Figure it another way and the guys total a paltry 20.1%. Many of the women in our industry (and prospects we seek) are current or future moms. It seems natural that a new term has come on the scene: Mompreneurism.

Books About Mompreneurism Yes, you're reading it right. According to authors Patricia Cobe and Ellen Parlapiano, who trademarked the term "mompreneurs" and were recently featured in Time magazine and various other programs like the CBS Early Show; their mompreneurs online web site (www.mompreneursonline.com) draws millions of visitors each month.

In reading through the Mompreneurs Online web site you'll find that they've interviewed hundreds of work at home moms. Their interviews revealed that these goal directed women share certain secrets for cyber-success. I borrowed a few points about mompreneurs from their site... below is a sampling of why and how mom-owned businesses are surviving and thriving on the web according to Parlapiano and Cobe:

Web Wisdom. Work-at-home moms understand that a dot.com name alone is not enough to power success. But the Internet can be a very valuable tool when used in conjunction with more traditional business strategies.
Money Smarts. Moms don't overextend their financial resources and are less likely to use outside funding during start-up. So they don't have to worry about venture capitalists pulling the plug on their businesses.
Team Work. Mompreneurs® forge powerful alliances--both online and off! Together they harness technology to build an instant network of personal and professional support through online communities and marketing cooperatives.

Perhaps you think Your home based biz is a good place for moms? Maybe you're hoping to attract work at home moms to your site, blog, product or business? Or, maybe you already have lots of moms and a true mompreneurial mindset?

Whatever the case, at home mompreneurs are an important niche and your marketing campaigns can target these moms. Moms are both a consumer and a business force to be admired and respected.

With any luck, your product or service will be just the thing these mompreneurs are wanting? Now, let's continue (below) with more tips in our series on pay per click strategies for gaining highly targeted traffic. Maybe you can get some moms clicking!

Search engine marketing tips:

If your product or service is something that can be related to a locale, like a city, state or region you may be able to find some ripe tomatoes in phrases like: 'retirement homes in Florida', 'Mississippi flat rate phone service', 'herbal sunscreen for southwestern sun', 'indoor air filters for Los Angeles'.
Discover more keywords by narrowing down to extreme specifics. People can be VERY specific when they search. Use names of months and years like '2004 tax savings', 'May flowers', 'Christmas of 2005' or 'September back to school supplies'.

Let's say you are marketing a broad line of herbal products... why not get a list of all herbs (there may be thousands) and use that list as a keyword list. Maybe your product doesn't contain every herb on the list, but people searching for any ONE herb specifically may be interested in others. Try specific model numbers, makes and designs if your products are sometimes referred to this way: 'Epson stylus CX6400', 'Apple G5', etc.
Add adjectives to your keywords like: big, purple, new, cheap, affordable, soft, aromatic, healthy, etc.

Making Yourself (or Your Business) Attractive to Mompreneurs

Here's one way you can be relevant and attractive in reaching out to work at home moms:

SUPPORT: Create strategies to support this emerging entrepreneurial niche. Provide convenient pathways and remove as many barriers to entry as possible. Almost every industry can tap into the mompreneur market by making their lives and their businesses run more smoothly.

Over 50 tips have been published in this ongoing PPC tips series; please check our archived posts for many more helpful marketing recommendations. OK?

For additional internet strategies visit:
Internet Marketing Tips for Your home based biz

Until next week, happy pay per click campaigning...

Technorati:
Your home based biz | mompreneur | mompreneurs | mompreneurism | entrepreneur | PPC | pay per click | Google AdWords | Dan Hollings |
Other recommended blogs:
Stanley Home Products | Sunrider | Tahitian Noni

2005-08-17T23:44:00.000-07:00

Any product or service can be sold online, but can it be sold successfully via marketing on search engines

Perhaps the product or service offered by your business is not widely known by consumers. This can be a positive or a negative depending on the mindset of your potential customer. What's important in all cases, is that you provide the features and benefits that your product or service offers and focus on that. The fact that you are running a "home based business" can often be an advantage, because some people like the more personal touch. If a customer likes what you offer, they will naturally want to recommend it to others and this helps grow your business through positive word-of-mouth.

As A Home based business entrepreneur you know your product and you've set your goals. Your web page, site, or blog is up and you're pondering methods to get search engine traffic.

Can your product or service be sold via marketing on search engines or not? This is question number one, right? But equally important, can you figure out a pay per click strategy that produces more real customers than promotional expense?

Exciting news, the answer is: "without a doubt, YES!"

More tips for your PPC campaign:

Expand your keywords by asking your spouse, friends, neighbors, relatives, existing customers and strangers to look at your web page and offer their keyword suggestions. In this phase you cannot have too many cooks in the kitchen.
Put your biscuits in the oven and watch'em rise... That is, use web based 'keyword expanders' and research tools to expand your keywords beyond what you can come up with on your own.
Remember, searchers may type in something that describes your product, but more often than not they will be typing in words describing their problem. If your product or service solves, fixes, heals, masks or even distracts them from their problem, you want those keywords on your list.
"In-house" keywords (those used frequently by others in your industry or business) are often the most costly because lazy business owners don't often think beyond their own nose. The result is these limited keywords get bided-up sky high. Customers on the other hand seldom search using "in-house" keywords. Your goal is to find keyword niches popular with customers but less popular with your competition.

Last week I posted the another round of search engine marketing tips and even more tips in the weeks before that. Check previous weeks for more suggestions.

To make certain you don't miss this series of pay per click tips, you might consider subscribing to my RSS feed.

Technorati:
Your home based biz | PPC | pay per click | Google AdWords | Network Marketing | Yahoo Ads | Dan Hollings | AdWords |

2005-08-09T19:57:00.000-07:00

Yahoo or Google or Both? Pay per click for Your home based biz.

When comparing the primary pay-per-click search engines, you might be challenged to figure out which is best for you. The top two are Google and Yahoo. It's a good idea to start your marketing drive with a small budget, spreading it out over a few different search engines to experiment and see where your target market may be lurking.

We recommend you begin by viewing the wonderful tutorials and flash overviews offered by Google and Yahoo. Below are samples, you'll find others at Google and Yahoo:

Yahoo Sponsored Search: Flash Introduction
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/tu_srch.php
Learn advantages of Yahoo's PPC program.

Google AdWords Keyword Matching Options
https://services.google.com/marketing/stats/tutorial_redirect

Refine your ad targeting and reduce irrelevant clicks.

Google AdWords Conversion Tracking
http://services.google.com/marketing/links/cvt_tutorial
Which PPC ads work and which need improvement.

Bidding Rules Are Different at Google and Yahoo:

Yahoo Sponsored Ads

Yahoo adjusts your bid to 1 cent over your next lowest competitor. Thus, if you bid $3.00 per click, and the next highest bid is $1.95 per click, you will only pay $1.96 per click.
Yahoo allows you to see who you are bidding against and what they are bidding, so you know exactly where you will rank, and how much you will pay.
Yahoo's maximum bid is $999.99
Yahoo's minimum bid is $0.10

AdWords by Google

Google doesn't tell you how much you will pay per click. Thus, if you bid $3.00 per click, you will pay anywhere from $0.05 to $3.00 per click.
Google does not allow you to know how much your competitors are bidding per click.
An advantage with Google is that you will rank higher if your click-through rate (CT rate) is better (a CT rate is the ratio of clicks on your ad to the number of times your ad is shown). Thus, you may have a better rank than your competitor, even if he or she bids more than you (because of your CT rate).
Google's maximum bid is $100.00
Google's minimum bid is $0.05

New Google AdWords keyword status changes: Simplified keyword states and quality-based minimum bids.

UPDATE: Google announced in early August 2005 that they will simplify their keyword status system and introduce quality-based minimum bids, giving us more control to run all keywords we find important.

Google's New Rule

Each keyword will now be assigned a minimum bid that is based on the quality (also called Quality Score) of your keyword in your account. If your keyword or Ad Group's maximum cost-per-click (CPC) meets the minimum bid, your keyword will be active and trigger ads. If it doesn't, your keyword will be inactive and will not trigger ads.

Previosly, keyword statuses were called normal, in trial, on hold, and disabled. Under the new rules, this will be replaced with active (triggering ads) or inactive (not triggering ads). No more slowed or disabled keywords if no do not have a minimum clickthrough rate (CTR) threshold.

Search engine marketing strategies:

Pay-per-click advertising tips for the Home based business entrepreneur continue below:

When cooking-up your keyword phrase list, use an extended "keyword discovery" phase. Your competition, like you, will do basic keyword research. You can only beat them if you take it to the next level, and that won't happen in the first day. Having a large number of targeted keywords in your campaign is a side effect of an extended period of brainstorming, discovery, research, or whatever you want to call it.
Not very wood with gords? There is a hidden target market of quality visitors who type in incorrect spellings of what they are looking for. Site owners often overlook this. In a recent 30 day period on a major search engine at least 108 people where searching for a 'buisness'? Hundreds more were searching for: 'vitiamins', 'vitimans' and even 'vitamens'... You can bid on misspellings and have very little competition on the search results page.
Assume that at least half your keywords will be rotten eggs, that is, no one will ever look for them and end up at your site. Because there is no extra cost to add as many keyword phrases as you can think up, treat them like biscuits and bake-up as many as you can... 100 or more keyword phrases for each destination page you list in any PPC search engine.

2005-08-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

Your home based biz? What's that all about?

Have you ever thought about the public's perception of what you do?

Your home based biz

Do you believe that visitors arriving at your site already know this about Your home based biz?

That's a mystery-factor in any search engine marketing campaign; you must decide upfront (as you are preparing your keywords, your ads, and your landing page) what the majority of visitors already 'know' about you and the product or service you offer. You might consider playing it safe and assume they've never heard of you. That's always the safe bet.

If you're selling iPODs or something very well known, you can approach things much differently. Less time explain 'what' you've got and more time explain 'why' they should buy from you.

If your selling something that might be considered a common commodity (vitamins, shoes, cosmetics, telephone services, etc), then you must differentiate your product from the other seemingly similar things consumers might associate you with.

Much of these consumer 'mindset' concerns should be addressed the moment they hit your first web page after clicking your ad; so before you start any strategies for getting targeted visitors, think like a customer and look at your landing page.

PPC Tips list continued from previous weeks:

So as promised, below you'll find this weeks installment of search engine tips...

Remember that with PPC campaigns, you are not sending search visitors to a site, you are sending them to a web page (called: a destination or landing page). You must discover keywords and set-up ONE page at a time.
Remember that people search by typing in more than one word:
The 7 most used word phrases in search engines according to OneStat.com:

2 word phrases 32.58%
3 word phrase 25.61%
1 word phrases 19.02%
4 word phrases 12.83%
5 word phrases 5.64%
6 word phrases 2.32%
7 word phrases 0.98%

Start your "keyword discovery" process by visiting the destination page you intend to send your search engine visitors to. Put on the 'reading glasses' of a customer and look at your page through their eyes.
Ask yourself this: "What keywords might a person type in a search box where when they arrived at this destination page, they'd say 'BINGO' this is what I was looking for?" Find these keywords and you've discovered your best keywords.

2005-07-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

FadSense? All Google needs now is Jessica Simpson or Jessica Alba to wear this stuff!

Maybe I'm fantasizing, but Google might actually do this. Imagine Jessica Alba wearing Google FadSense fashions (I'll sponsor those contextual ads regardless of the ROI). And if Google got Jessica Simpson in those FadSense sneakers, they'd have more advertiser requests than they could likely fulfill. For real? Well you decide.

Go to Google FadSense™

As A Home based business entrepreneur, you might be wondering why I'm talking about a futuristic contextual AdSense (AdWord) program like FadSense. It's partially because it's funny, but more importantly, it's because I feel the type of advertising we have been discussing here at my "Internet Marketing Tips for Your home based biz" blog, is critical to your future. What I'm hoping to teach you are skills and tips that will not only work for Google today, but for any similar type advertising in the future. Google FadSense, real or not!

To summarize the core of our current discussions, we want to know:

How to prepare your marketing campaign from the ground up.
How to track your traffic, results, and advertising ROI (return on investment).
How to create a destination or landing page that works.
How to write effective ads.
How to manage your advertising budget.
How to create eye catching headlines for your ads.
How to use the internet effectively in any marketing campaign.

My Continuing Tips To Help You With Your home based biz...

This week I shall continue with my PPC search engine recommendations. If you have been following (or subscribing by RSS feed) to these tips, you are aware that over the past few weeks we have hammered away with dozens of valuable tips. This week we continue.

Forget stupid characters. We are talking search engine listings (not eBay) so cool the clever punctuation it L@@KS stupid!!!!!!!! Don't make SOME words CAPITALIZED; it looks like you're shouting desperately for business. Respect the people who read your search engine listings.
People are by nature often interested in things like 'saving money', 'making money', 'curing something', 'striking a deal', and getting anything of value that is 'free'... but be careful. The addition of such self-interest phrases in your ad copy may skew your clicks upwards while leaving your sales flat. If you're tempted to try such phrases... test, test, test... while keeping an eye on your bottom-line.
Bluntness works: 'Refinance 4.5%', 'Viagra $39', 'No Interest VISA', etc
These are the type words that appeal to searchers: more information, complimentary, love, youthful, safe, new, benefit, gain, money, happy, glad, proven, guarantee, resource, fast, results, discover, how you, how to, your, yours, you'll, healthy, natural, magic, secret, comfortable, save, proud, secure, solution.

2005-07-17T15:33:00.000-07:00

What a day (historically speaking): Google, The Little Search Engine That 'Could,' Couldn't Make It Any More...

What started as a search engine using a unique approach to link analysis (initially called BackRub) and grew to become the "five-and-dime" of pay-per-click search engines, pulled the plug on the last server on this date in Mountain View, California. It's a story of a future time that could be soon, or beyond our horizon.

If anyone back in the late 1800's or early 1900's had been thinking ahead to the future of Woolworth Corp., it's unlikely they would have ever predicted that the famous five-and-dime would be a line item on a "Today in History" script published to millions of readers across this thing we call the internet.

Yet today, has I opened my RSS News Reader, there it was. I can recall shopping at the five-and-dime as a kid. It was the "best" store in town. Just like Google; the best. Now, its history. Perhaps the best is not good enough?

"The perfect search engine, would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want," says Google co-founder Larry Page, "Never settle for the best."

Today in History...

One of the strange things about Woolworth's announcement that it was closing its doors after 118 years, was that many of the calls to Woolworth's corporate headquarters afterward urging the company to keep the stores open were from people worried about what would become of all the fish sold in the Woolworth's store pet departments. Does anyone know what really happened to those fish on this day in 1997?

Could this happen to Google? Well, yes. Bill Gates is on a mission to build a Google killer. What got him so riled? Google, the darling of search is moving into software and that's Microsoft's turf. Fortune story here. For now however, it's all fantasy thinking as the titans of search (Google, Yahoo, & Microsoft) battle it out in cyberspace.

Research shows global Web search advertising revenue, which is big business for the Internet giants, will be almost $8 billion in 2005 -- more than 20 times what it was four years ago. (Source: Reuters 2005)

Good news for the Home based business entrepreneur

The Cost Per Lead using Pay-per-click is Cheap Compared To Other Ads

As compared to other methods of getting customers, PPC search ads seem to perform better. The cost to acquire a customer is approximately $8.50 for search, $20 for Yellow Pages, $50 for online display ads, $60 for e-mail and $70 for direct mail. according to Piper Jaffray & Co. research. Pay-per-click is obviously the lead horse.

"Paid-search advertising has become a do-or-die proposition," says Jeff Saville, a consumer direct marketing manager at Deckers Outdoor Corp. "The market is growing fast, primarily because the ads are trackable and target people who are already interested. The medium is also inexpensive compared with television, radio, direct mail and Web banner ads." (Nasdaq:DECK - news)

Are there dangers or flaws in search advertising?

Some worry that new advertisers are rushing blindly into paid search and inflating key word prices -- a concern underscored by WebTrends data.
An estimated 5 percent to 20 percent of clicks are believed to be fraudulent -- the result of people clicking on ads to drive up advertiser costs or to make a profit for Web site publishers who get a cut of revenue.
According to WebTrends the data suggests that 60 percent of marketers do not measure sales, leads or key actions resulting from campaigns. [This is a dangerous number because that means you are competing with people who don't know what things are truly costing them. You need to be extra analytical when going head to head with this guy.]

Adding all this up, we come to two conclusions: 1) It pays to get good at pay-per-click advertising if you plan to do business online and 2) we may only have 118 years left with Google :-)

Pay per click tips for this week:

On the subject of ad copy (the words which will comprise your numerous different listing titles and descriptions) we can sum it up briefly: RELATE your listing to the keyword the searcher has typed, SPARK curiosity in their minds to encourage a visit, be TRUTHFUL, be BRIEF, be CLEAR, don't HYPE, and FILTER out bad clicks.
FILTER OUT BAD CLICKS? Yes, if your product is NOT for certain searchers, be clear upfront before they click. Example: If you bid on the keyword 'herbal shampoo' because your product is an herbal dog shampoo, make sure your ad copy reads: for dogs, pets, or animals. If you only fulfill orders in Canada, state this upfront in your listing ad copy. There is no need to pay for a visitor click if you cannot service a particular customer's needs. Use words to filter out bad clicks.
There are many good resources to help you with ad copy, writing, and knowing what to say about your product. We recommend the eBook by Kim Klaver, "If My Product's So Great, How Come I Can't Sell It". Click here for a complimentary 'Mini-edition' of this eBook.

2005-07-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

A Home based business entrepreneur 'To-Do' list for targeting prospects with pay-per-click.

Has anyone mentioned to you that 192 days have passed since the beginning of this year?

Just as 2003 and 2004 marched forward in the blink of an eye, 2005 is rapidly marching on, yet for may web entrepreneurs few visitors are marching over to see what's up. Are they marching to a different drummer or is it that your ideas about how to get visitors to your blog or site are just not keeping the beat?

Are you getting your piece of the pie?
Retail sales by internet merchants will likely climb to over $109 billion for the current year.
(Source: Shop.org/Forrester 05/2005)

With 173 days remaining in 2005, imagine how much different your business would be if you could get just ONE serious customer, prospect or visitor to take action each day.

If you're asking "How do I get them to my site?" Maybe a little internet advertising is in order? Seems that's what a lot of successful online marketers are doing. And of all the methods out there, nothing seems to beat pay per click advertising...

Online ad growth of 33.7 percent is expected in 2005 to $12.7 billion, raising a previous estimate of $11.5 billion for the year. eMarketer had estimated 2004 ad revenue at $9.5 billion. (Source: eMarketer 04/2005)

Every place you read you find stories and statistics that prove "it can be done". Yes, online sales are happening. Reports are continuing, sales are up, and the drum beats on.

The Web is gaining a larger share of the overall retail market. Total online sales in 2004 reached $69.2 billion, just shy of 2 percent of all retail sales in the country. (stats from: U.S. Department of Commerce 02/2005)

But I'm A Home based business entrepreneur, could it be a waste of time for me?

Maybe you are thinking that "some things" sell online but not your product or service. Nothing could be further from the truth. In most cases, it is not the product or service that hinders a sale, it boils down to traffic, strategy and page presentation. Whether you advertise using Google's AdWords, or do pay-per-click at Overture, Yahoo or MSN search, it's the campaign strategy that's important.

In my previous blog entries (last week and the week prior) we started our series of PPC search engine tips. These tips will unquestionanly help your marketing campaign and hopefully put some of the statistics on your side. Without any further delay, I'll continue with my tips this week.

Tips for your PPC campaign:

Sometimes people type in web addresses in those search boxes! So bid on those if the search engine allows it: 'www.website.com', 'website.com', 'http://website.com' and every combination full or partial you think a searcher might actually type.
Match up keywords with words in your ad copy. Even though a 'spa', a 'hot tub', and a 'whirlpool' might mean the same thing in your mind, if a searcher types in 'hot tub' and your listing says: "Relax and save in your new Spa", you will miss out on many interested customers.
Think negative... yes, people search for herbs that can kill, plastic surgery pitfalls, mlm scams and sundry other peculiar things. Invite them to explore your related listing. Do you offer cosmetics or skin car as an alternative to plastic surgery? Is you mlm a beacon of light in a sea of seemingly dubious scams?
Get creative with interest spikes in the news. 'Mad Cow' might be a great keyword for your all vegetarian product line. The 'SARS' outbreak might have generated millions of searches that your 'immunity booster' could have benefited from (just don't make any false claims). And where were all the bra ads when a gazillion people typed in 'Janet Jackson' after the 2004 Super Bowl surprise?

For additional tips that might improve your pay per click ad campaign review the tips in my previous posts.

In addition, I've written a many 'how-to' articles specifically to help get your internet marketing strategy on-track. You might find these internet marketing articles for Your home based biz interesting or helpful.

To make certain you don't miss this series of PPC tips, you might consider subscribing to my RSS feed.

Technorati:
Your home based biz | PPC | pay per click | AdWords | marketing | search | retail statistics | marketing statistics | sales statistics

2005-07-04T16:41:00.000-07:00

Trajectory Correction Puts Nasa's Deep Impact Mission On Track. Search Engine Tips Might Correct Your Site Or Blog Trajectory.

After 172 days and 268 million miles of deep space stalking, NASA's Deep Impact successfully struck comet Tempel 1. The cosmic collision between the coffee table-sized impactor and city-sized comet occurred at 1:52 a.m. EDT.

"Fireworks pale in comparison to this!"

And you're wondering, "What in the blogging world is this all about?" Yes, this is a blog about improving your business by better implementing your online marketing campaign for Your home based biz. The bottom line goal is to get quality blog or web page "hits"... not a hit like Comet Tempel 1, but a hit none-the-less from a targeted visitor.

Why all the meteor talk you ask? Well the truth is, I found this news story fascinating , just as I'm sure many others did and felt it was rather topical for this Independence Day.

It just so happens that being "topical" and relating what you do with Your home based biz to news and current events is also an astronomically successful (if done right) marketing strategy. Millions of people are on the internet today searching for information about all sorts of current events. If you're writing about that event or news item, you can increase the odds that searchers will find you. If what you do (or what you market) is related in some way, then "bingo" you'll create some real traffic fireworks at your blog or site.

If you are as well prepared and "on the mark" as NASA was in their Deep Impact Mission, the magnitude of success you can achieve by riding on the comet tail of current events and news stories can be as spectacular as one might imagine. The impact on your business can be equally stellar.

Last week we started our series of PPC search engine tips that can help your campaign for better targeted earthbound visitors. Below are this weeks PPC tips (watch for more next week):

Tips for your PPC campaign:

When thinking up keywords, use examples of specific things your product is used for: 'clean floors', clean countertops', 'wash floors', 'mop floors', 'polish stove top', 'remove grime', 'shine appliances', 'disinfect bacteria', 'hide furniture flaws' etc.
Explore variations: 'soy milk', 'soymilk', 'soy-milk'
Add plurals: 'protein bar' and 'protein bars'
Use abbreviations and acronyms
Use US and UK spellings
Keyword phrases may be questions: 'how to repair bad credit', 'when should I diet', 'how do I lose weight', 'where are discount cosmetics', etc.

Check back next week for the next in this series of PPC tips... Until next week, happy PPC campaigning...

It happened on the 4th...
1970 - Casey Kasem hosted radio's "American Top 40" for the first time.

Deep Impact Kicks Off Fourth Of July With Deep Space Fireworks (Science Daily)
After 172 days and 431 million kilometers (268 million miles) of deep space stalking, Deep Impact successfully reached out and touched comet Tempel 1. The collision between the coffee table-sized impactor and city-sized comet occurred at 1:52 a.m. EDT. Mission scientists expect the project will answer basic questions about the formation of the solar system, by offering a better look at the nature

Hubble captures Deep Impact's collision with comet (EurekAlert!)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured the dramatic effects of the collision early July 4 between comet 9P/Tempel 1 and an 820-pound projectile released by the Deep Impact spacecraft.

Eyes to skies for Deep Impact (Bangkok Post)
Chachoengsao _ Students at many schools sat glued to TV sets and logged onto the net to watch the ``deep impact'' created when the Nasa space probe rammed into comet Tempel 1 yesterday.

Technorati:
Your home based biz | marketing | search | comet | NASA

2005-06-26T14:50:00.000-07:00

How's your PPC campaign going? Really?

Because pay-per-click ad campaigns are such a great source of targeted traffic, I've scheduled a series of posts over the upcoming weeks I think you'll enjoy. I plan to share what I consider the best tips for running a successful pay-per-click search engine campaign. I consider a 'successful' campaign one that generates destination page visitors perfectly suited to your ad offer and visitors whose clicks don't cost you an arm and a leg.

Unless you have very deep pockets, or you're completely nuts, or you have a solid money-making conversion rate, paying big bucks for clicks that don't pan out is busines seppuku .

What follows here and continuing for the next few weeks are my 'insider secrets' for setting up and managing a pay per click campaign that won't keep you awake at nights with worry.

Search engine campaign tips:

Forget stupid characters. We are talking search engine listings (not eBay) so cool the clever punctuation it L@@KS stupid!!!!!!!! Don't make SOME words CAPITALIZED; it looks like you're shouting desperately for business. Respect the people who read your search engine listings.
People are by nature often interested in things like 'saving money', 'making money', 'curing something', 'striking a deal', and getting anything of value that is 'free'... but be careful. The addition of such self-interest phrases in your ad copy may skew your clicks upwards while leaving your sales flat. If you're tempted to try such phrases... test, test, test... while keeping an eye on your bottom-line.
Bluntness works: 'Refinance 4.5%', 'Viagra 39', 'No Interest VISA', etc
These are the type words that appeal to searchers: more information, complimentary, love, youthful, safe, new, benefit, gain, money, happy, glad, proven, guarantee, resource, fast, results, discover, how you, how to, your, yours, you'll, healthy, natural, magic, secret, comfortable, save, proud, secure, solution.

Remember that if you run any PPC search engine ad campaign over a few weeks and you get embarrassingly dismal sales or sign-up results, the challenge is most likely NOT the traffic you're generating from your ad, rather it is your site, your landing page, your product, your service, your price or some factor other than your PPC visitor traffic . The first thing I'd look at ( in examining your campaign for flaws ) is your landing page. Your landing page needs to work like a high-performance race car. Dogs don't chase parked cars.

Check back next week for the next in this series of PPC tips... Until next week, happy PPC campaigning...

Best of Luck with Your home based biz !

2005-06-19T17:29:00.000-07:00

The "Get Rich" not so quick, Tips blog?

Welcome, it's my first posting to the "Internet Marketing Tips Blog for Your home based biz ." All blogs start somewhere and if you're reading this post, you are starting with me at the very beginning of this blog.

What prompted this bog in the first place?

Well, after writing articles, publishing eBooks and training entrepreneurs for umpteen years (or longer) , my supporters, followers, frieds, enemies and even my pooch, "Herbie" have been biting on my tail so long that I've finally decided to invest the time required (each week) posting helpful tips on all this strange and ever changing internet stuff that continues to possess about HALF of my brain.

So, here we are, and you're now thinking deeply about two things:

What might you learn by following Dan's internet marketing tips blog?
-and- What exactly dominates the other 50% of Dan Hollings' brain?

I might can help you on the first item, but even I am a bit foggy on what dominates that other 50% on my brain :-) So let's focus on marketing ideas to help you promote Your product or service .

I started out not knowing any of this "internet marketing" stuff. Yes, that was over 9 years ago. But today after hiding under the table at several top marketing firms (just kidding) , I've climbed out with a trick or two in hand. On this blog I'll strive to get to the point and offering you hands-on techniques and ideas that are proven to increase customers, prospects, and visitors to your internet sites.

In reality, I have helped internet entrepreneurs, website owners, MLM'ers, bloggers, affiliates, and even big companies over the years to improve their internet strategies. But what I enjoy most is working with the small business entrepreneur. Is that you?

I'll be blogging about anything and everything, as long as it works. It is likely that you are doing some things wrong or inefficiently and if you are like most, you're spending far more money than you should on 'stuff' that has questionable results.

Even though this particular blog will focus on strategies for Your home based biz and how to market Your product or service , I may from time-to-time give examples from other industries or areas to demonstrate a strategy or idea. It's your job to apply the concepts to YOUR particular site, blog, product or service.

Below are a few of the topics I'll cover in the future:

Opt-in mail list ideas
The how and why of newsletters
How to be a great blogger
Content creation ideas
Profiting from Adsense or Contextual ads
Pay-per-click search campaigns
Tags (the keywords of blogs and...)
Networking through "social systems"
Generating internet leads
Site design (with an eye for revenue)
Landing or destination pages
Syndication and feeds
Creating your own Press Releases
and Earning revenue from your web strategies

In addition, I've written a few 'how-to' articles specifically to help get your internet marketing strategy on-track. You might find these internet marketing articles for Your home based biz interesting or helpful.

Finally, you may be asking WHY I decided to do a blog specifically for Your home based biz ? The truth is, I run separate blogs for many types of of entrepreneurs. This is only one of my blogs!

Rest assured I am not a recruiter, I'm not active in any 'company', and I do not sell or share names on any of my opt-in lists. 100% of my money is made from helping others (like you) manage a successful online marketing campaign. My style is "go cheap" but hang tight with "quality". Doing a little, very consistently over a long period of time is my modus operandi. I'm a teacher first and a web developer and entrepreneur second (close second!). Occasionally I offer classes, sometimes I offer eBooks, and I have web systems that many subscribers use to improve their traffic, content and results online. That's the deal.

If you like what you're reading here I suggest you get the RSS or XML feed (look for the little orange feed buttons).

That's it for now, see you again soon (bring a note pad next time :-)