Do It Yourself Internet Marketing (5 Tools To Get Started)

Internet marketing for newbies can seem a little challenging. But once you understand the basic principles you can develop that knowledge as your needs grow and change.

Internet marketing is the process of promoting your business online. The tools are different to other types of marketing, but you still need to know your target audience is, the benefits of your product or service and why people should buy from you rather than from somebody else.

Let's take a look a the 5 tools to get you started with internet marketing.

1. Your Website

The cornerstone of your online business is your website. To get started you'll need a name for your website. This is known as a domain name. You'll also need some website hosting so that you can 'rent' space on the internet. There are a number of website platforms that can help you to get your website online easily and quickly.

2. Your Content

Your next step is to generate some content to put on your website. Content drives traffic and provides your audience with the value and information they're looking for. In addition to text, content includes video clips, online surveys, infographics, pictures and mp3 files, etc.

3. Your Traffic

You need people to visit your website. There are two major ways you can do this. You can bring in free website traffic or you can pay for website traffic. Free website traffic needs time to gather traction, but when it starts, it can deliver a constant flow of site visitors. Paid website traffic delivers immediate results, but the moment you stop paying, the traffic stops.

4. Your Emails

To connect with your prospects and encourage them to visit your website again, or buy from you, you need to get their email address. You might offer a free report or eBook in return for a website visitor's email address. You could ask them to become a free member of your membership website or to sign up to receive your newsletter.

5. Your Social Media

Social media makes it possible for you to connect with your target audience on social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Provide value in the form of help, advice and tips in relations to your niche and marketplace. As you build your followers, you'll develop a relationship of trust and recognition which in turn motivates them to visit your website or buy from you.

Internet marketing is a step-by-step process to putting the right elements in place so that you get the desired result. An effective sales funnel puts your business on autopilot and consistently converts leads into customers if you structure it the right way.






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How To Deal With Too Much Work

An online entrepreneur will always be busy but more work doesn't necessarily mean better results.

Sometimes, when trying to do everything yourself, nothing gets done very well. Aside from bad work productivity, the consequences of working too much can lead to anxiety, stress, being alone, and general bad health and fitness.

But your business won't operate by itself and you can't afford to hire somebody full-time. Maybe it's time to outsource some jobs to a virtual assistant.

Can A Virtual Assistant Help You?

A virtual assistant (VA) is similar to a private assistant that you connect with online and outsource work to them to do for you. Some VAs work on their own and some work via various websites as a way to more easily find clients.

They can charge on an hourly basis, by each task, or you can pay a monthly fee for services. Many VAs are happy to work out a fee framework with you that suits you both.

Only Pay For What You Need

You don't need to provide a VA with any resources to complete the tasks you need to be done. They should have everything that they need.

Using a VA actually can save you money, as well as time. You only pay for and seek the services of people to do work specifically when you need it. This means you can spend more time completing the tasks for your business that actually make money and take on extra work when it becomes available, as your VA can assist with the parts they can do.

How Can They Help You?

A VA can do a wide range tasks to help you in your online business. This includes administrative jobs, the creation of content material, website construction and troubleshooting or even social networking.

Some administrative duties are financial such as book-keeping, managing affiliate payouts, and keeping track of income sources. They can handle inbound and outbound email, sending certain kinds of email to you when your attention is required. They can also plan meetings, online seminars, or phone calls for you or help you plan your work week. This is particularly useful if you have difficulty with time management.

Your Success Is Their Success

Virtual assistants realize how vital it is to provide good work to you due to the fact your success is dependent upon the work they provide. The more successful you become the more work that you will need them to complete for you.

They teach themselves to do jobs that are in demand. You simply use the skills you need for your projects, whether it's a long-term or on a project by project basis.

If you are spending too much time working, a virtual assistant can save you time and money. They free you up to do the most important tasks for your business. It's how the profitable online businesses generate the wealth and freedom their owners enjoy.





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What To Do With Email Subscribers So They Don't Ignore You

You've probably gone to a lot of hard work to get somebody to join your email subscriber list. But are they then ignoring your emails or even unsubscribing almost as soon as they've signed up? Email marketing is still the most effective form of online marketing. So you don't want to give up on building your email list.

You have to take care with your email list. Treat everyone on it as a potential customer, because that's what they are.

Pay Attention To Your List

If your emails are not getting responded to, reassess your offers and check for errors in your autoresponder delivery process. Having said that, don't get embroiled in the "They'll unsubscribe if I send too many emails." There will be unsubscribers regardless of what you do. The loyal customers will always remain, so let the non-buyers filter themselves out.

Don't Continuously Send Sales Messages

People signed up to your list because they believed that you provided value. They will ignore you or unsubscribe if all you do is send them sales messages. Yes, you will have to send some sales messages but also send them special rewards, giveaways, bonus deals and discounts. Make them feel they are valued for opening and reading your emails.

Your Subject Line Is Dull

The subject line of your email is vital to get your email subscribers to open the email. Make sure your subject lines are appealing and not commonly used ones. Don't trick people into opening your email with a subject line that doesn't deliver what it promises. That's a sure way to lose the trust of your subscribers.

Remember Your Target Audience

It's much better to have fewer subscribers that are really targeted than to have thousands of untargeted subscribers who will hardly ever buy from you. If you have various offers for different niche markets, segment your email lists to make sure you send the most targeted offers to the appropriate audience.

Have A Proven Sales Funnel

People become your email subscribers because they want to know more about you and your products and services. If you just aimlessly send out emails, occasionally with information with a sales offer thrown in from time to time, your messages may seem to be unorganized and ambiguous. A solid email marketing sales funnel guides your email subscribers through a pre-planned series so that they get all the information they need, in the correct order and leads them to want to buy from you.





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6 Tips For Getting People To Share Your Content

Content marketing has become very effective and is a major element of a successful marketing strategy. But just posting content alone isn't enough to take advantage of this powerful marketing technique. You need people to share it so that as many people as possible can see it.

This is where social media sites like Facebook, Google+ and Twitter come into play. So that you can get new followers, likes, comments and shares your content must stand out from all the other the noise that surrounds your socially savvy online audience.

Here are 6 simple ways to get people to share your online content.

1. Make It Easy To Share

One of the easiest ways to get your content shared is to use social media sharing tools on your website. These 'one-click' buttons make it quick and simple for your visitors to share your content with their friends and followers.

2. Publish Interesting Content

Understand what content your audience is interested in and customize your material so that they will want to share it. Create content that's compelling, interesting and engaging. A great way to achieve this is to make your content posts interactive by asking for comments.

3. Use Different Media

Written text, illustrations or photos, and online video are all possibilities for sharing content on social media. Images get noticed and capture audience attention. This is proven by the tremendous success of Pinterest for business. There are over 150 million users are on Pinterest and more than 65% of pinned content is from business websites.

4. Don't Forget Video

Video is essential in any marketing plan. In social media, it can be used to really attract and make an impression on your target audience generating you those likes and shares that you need to boost your marketing campaign.

5. Know When To Post

Be aware of any trends or patterns for when your audience is most receptive and active on your page. Then plan your upcoming content to go live at a time that people will be most likely to see it, take it in, and take action to share your content.

6. Ask Questions

Asking a question with your content will generate much more reaction. You can use it to get a better understanding of what people think about what you're publishing and adjust future content if necessary. Think about the pain points your audience has, and ask a question that will bring in a lot of comments.





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How To Develop A Website Content Strategy

A website content strategy is a plan of how you are going to use the content material to develop and market your online business. Content isn't just limited to written text. It can involve videos, polls, graphics, images and many other things which make your website more interesting for your readers.

There are two fundamental components of a website content strategy:

The content material you actually publish on your website. This includes, how frequently you publish, what you write about, how far in advance you plan and produce the content, etc.
The content you use to promote and market your website, such as social media posts and emails to your subscriber list.

Why Is A Content Strategy Important?

Having a strategy means you can plan ahead. Instead of simply publishing a new post on any random subject, you can plan subjects strategically based on special offers, the time of the year etc. Planning ahead also helps you post on a regular, steady schedule. This is important for keeping readers interested and the search engines happy, as they like new content.

Creating An Online Content Strategy

Regardless of how valuable your content is, if you publish a huge chunk of text that looks boring, you won't get many readers. The eye isn't drawn to large sections of text. This is why it's so important to have different types of content on your website when promoting your online business.

Video

Videos are one of the top ways to bring in more traffic and keep people on your website for longer. There are numerous ways to make videos and it doesn't mean you have to stand in front of a camera. You can create videos using just text, images and a voice-over.

Interactive Content

Polls and surveys are a great form of interactive content. People enjoy interacting online. It makes it more interesting for them and encourages them to stay on your website for longer. This drives up your income and boosts the reputation of your business, thus causing it to rank higher in the search engines.

Social Media

Having a live feed of opinions people are making about your content can encourage people to visit your website. Posting testimonials that people have given about your business will also make good quality content that people will want to read. You could even invite some of your regular readers to be interviewed for your next blog post.





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How Often Should You Post Content To Your Blog?

Updating your blog with new content is an essential part of making sure that your audience remains interested in your business. If you haven't posted anything for some time, people might lose interest or even stop following your blog.

On the other hand, posting too frequently can also present a problem, so it's important to get the balance right.

Not Updating Your Blog Enough?

There are a number of problems if you rarely post content to your blog. The first is that your followers don't find any value in subscribing to your blog because you don't often post new content and as a result, they've already read everything they're interested in.

Next, they don't know if you're on holiday, taking a break or if you've given up the blog completely. They may even forget who you are when you start posting again! Going quiet for weeks or months could mean it's much more difficult to maintain your readers and then pick-up where you left off.

Another issue with not posing new content regularly on your blog is that it's challenging to rank higher in the search engines.

Can You Update Your Blog Too Often?

Although you might believe it's great to keep publishing lots of content to your blog, people may find it too much to handle. This is especially true if there is the choice to subscribe to email alerts, which means they will receive an email every time you post something new.

Also, if you're writing short posts several times per day which aren't appropriate to many people or which don't hold much value, people will unsubscribe to stop getting all the notifications. Posting too much is also exhausting for you, and you may find that your quality suffers.

How Often Should You Update Your Blog?

The frequency at which you update your blog content does, to a large extent, depend on your niche. For instance, if it's news-based then it seems sensible to publish at least once per day. Having said that, for most online entrepreneurs, the ideal blog post frequency is around 1-2 times per week.

The posts should consist of information that provides some form of value for your readers and helps them in some form or another. And keep in mind, this doesn't continually mean that you have to post text. It could also mean video, or image-based posts if that works best for your niche.

Do you sometimes stare at a blank screen and struggle for content creation ideas? Those days don't happen when you have a system in place that takes the guesswork out of every step of the content research, creation and delivery processes.







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5 Steps To An Effective Email Marketing Campaign

Email marketing has still has a greater ROI (return on investment) than any other marketing strategy. Analysis shows that email marketing provides a ROI of $40.56 for each dollar that's invested.

Setting up an effective email marketing campaign can be a little baffling initially, but with some practice and with the right tools and techniques it gets to be very easy. And very effective.

1. Email Marketing Campaign Software

You need special software to manage your email marketing campaigns. Known as an autoresponder, it provides an efficient way to gather, deliver, monitor and review your emails.This would be impossible to do yourself with a regular email program like Outlook, Gmail, Webmail,etc.

2. Plan Your Marketing Emails

Have a plan of action before sending out an email marketing campaign. Think about your niche, your offers and most importantly, the action that you want your readers to take. Test every email by sending it to yourself to check links, grammar and spelling carefully. Don't let your subscribers get errors, find them first. Each email should focus on one or two topics at most. Don't complicate your message by overwhelming readers with a bunch of different offers and topics in the same email.

3. Quality

Credibility is your most important resource in email marketing. If you're an affiliate marketer, only promote only those products you believe in. Your subscribers will blame you if you recommend a product for them to buy and the product turns out to be rubbish. Don't just send continuous offers to your list. Send useful free information and other freebies too. The more value you provide to your subscribers, the more they will want to open your emails when they land in their inbox.

4. Subject Line

Almost one third of email users open emails because of the subject line. Exciting subject lines boost open rates, but can be risky if they don't mirror what's presented inside. Words like, "Alert," "News," "Limited Time Offer" and "Last Chance" in subject lines significantly increase open and click through rates.

5. The Sales Funnel

On average it takes approximately 7 communications with a prospect before they make a buying decision. Email is the perfect way to send these communications. Your autoresponder software can send out a series of emails on auto-pilot when a prospect joins your list. This is your sales funnel. It's simply a set of steps where you move a prospect through a sequence of communications that ultimately results in them buying from you.

An effective email sales funnel can put your business on autopilot and consistently convert leads into customers if you structure it the right way.






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