Internet Marketing Archives

The Rich Jerk Review

NOTICE: Rich Jerk is currently SOLD OUT and has been taken off the market indefinitely.

However, here is a new product from the creator of the Rich Jerk (Kelly Felix) outlining how he wrote a simple ebook that he built into a passive $3k per month income on Clickbank, then ultimately turned it into an infomercial that sold over $50 MILLION USD, and became the #1 half-hour show in the USA — Ahead of MANY very well-known companies/products that are household names!

Check it out >>> Underestimated by Kelly Felix

The Rich Jerk Review – New Updated Version

The much anticipated brand new version of the insanely popular and highly controversial “The Rich Jerk” make money online training program has just launched. So, these are exciting times in the internet marketing world!

Anyway, let me digress just a bit…

Sometime back around 2004 or 2005 (I don’t recall the exact date) the original “Rich Jerk” took the internet by storm! It was all anyone could talk about and was hugely successful.

I happened to be lucky enough to already be a part of the internet marketing world back then but was still relatively new in my venture to make money online. I had been in the industry for about two years at that point and had worked my way up to earning a decent living online, but was certainly not successful enough at that time to overlook a program like this.

Everyone and their dog was promoting it as the best system out there, so I bought it and agreed that it was FANTASTIC! There is no doubt that I learned a lot from it and was definitely able to apply the information to earn more money than I ever had before on the internet. I credit the original rich jerk program with helping take my home business to the next level. I will never forget that.

I’ve also met a LOT of people over the years in various places – both online and offline – that were able to make money at home for the first time because of The Rich Jerk, and the vast majority went on to become successful internet marketers… some are even millionaires today! It’s incredible what this foul-mouthed, politically incorrect, offensive, obnoxious, prick has been able to do for the financial security of so many people!

Now that the new version 2.0 is out all these years later, I am excited to dig in and see what I can learn from it once again. Even though my online business is very successful these days, there’s always an opportunity to grow, and I hope the rich jerk will fulfill my expectations just as much now as he did the first time all those years ago.

There is certainly a large amount of people who are turned off by his style, and that’s what he wants. The Rich Jerk is purposely trying to offend people. That’s the way he is. Personally, I actually like it. To me, it’s refreshing to see someone be totally over the top with an “I don’t give a f#(k” attitude in this day & age where everyone is so sensitive and politically correct. Obviously it’s just an act but it’s fun if you don’t take it too seriously, and it definitely works from a marketing standpoint for sure! He clearly knows how to create a buzz.

Read my full review below, but first check out these videos for some cool stuff about the infamous asshole we call the rich jerk…

Video of Gary Busey and the “Rich Jerk”

Howard Stern discussing The Rich Jerk 2.0 (NSFW)

Is it a scam? Does this online marketing system really work? Continue reading for the answers…

Okay I’ve now gone through the entire new Rich Jerk and here’s my review of it…

First off, I will let you know that the training has do to with several aspects of internet marketing which includes making a LOT of money with Facebook, getting your website to the top of search engines (such as Google) through SEO, and much more. The strategies taught in this program are seriously responsible for MILLIONS of dollars in online sales every year.

If you are impatient or hate to read, and want to skip the details, then let me save you some time with a quick summary…

YES, this course is worth every cent, and then some! It is definitely NOT a scam. I would pay at least 10 times what it costs to get it again if I had to. You could literally go pay thousands of dollars and spend hundreds of hours at a college to get your degree in internet marketing, and you still would not come close to learning what you will in the Rich Jerk Program. It’s real, it works! Enough said.

I understand if you are skeptical, it’s human nature. I was too. But in this case you really shouldn’t be! I have no complaints whatsoever, and I’m the first to call out something when it just doesn’t add up.

Anyway, for the rest of you, let’s get back to it…

I actually know many of the people involved in creating the Rich Jerk training system. So I can say, without a doubt, that these guys know what they are talking about and consistently deliver HIGH QUALITY information products that can make you a shitload more money than you are right now, or ever have before. That’s just real talk right there – no bullshit!

When RJ version 2 was first launching, I had a long time business friend of mine call me to ask; Why I was promoting it and why they are selling it like this if the information is really so good? Basically, he didn’t like the way it is being sold.

I’m paraphrasing a bit here but my response was something along these lines:
Review of the Rich Jerk
“I am promoting it because the information is INCREDIBLE, and because I honestly believe it is worth at least 10X what they are charging for it. And if you being offended by the way something is being sold is going to get in the way of you getting your hands on a product that can truly help you make money online, then that’s your problem! The Rich Jerk markets his course in a very unique way, and if that offends you… oh well!”

Finally, I want to point out that I’ve been a successful internet marketer for a very long time, so I am very good at sorting the truly great stuff from the pure crap – quite quickly. And this is the real deal. It’s totally legit. I am very confident in that fact!

Maybe you think the rich jerk himself is awesome. Maybe you think he’s offensive and don’t like his angle.

Either way, if you’ve been wondering whether or not the product is any good, and whether or not you should actually buy it, I will say it’s definitely a great training course and is worth far more than what it costs in my opinion. If you put the obnoxious nature of his personality aside and just focus on the program itself, I believe you will find it to be very useful.

If you have any interest at all in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Facebook marketing, or making money online in general, then I highly recommend you grab this product and do exactly what it says. The strategies inside are truly groundbreaking, and haven’t ever been shared before.

The marketing angle itself is a priceless lesson to be learned if nothing else. There’s no denying the fact that it gets a lot of attention and has been wildly successful on two separate occasions – more than a decade apart. Rather than being offended by what he is saying, you should be absorbing what he is doing. Watch a master marketer do his thing and learn something from it!

And that, my friend, is my honest review of the Rich Jerk. So take it or leave it, but don’t come crying to me if you miss out!

Now, go watch the Rich Jerks R-rated Video (Warning: Very offensive!)
With appearances by: Dennis Rodman, Gary Busey, and Ron Jeremy…
new rich jerk program

Remember…

We are ALL exactly where we want to be. If your life sucks, it’s YOUR fault! Because you have allowed and accepted every circumstance in your life. If you want something more, you need to do whatever it takes to change it! If you want money – go get some – it’s as simple as that.

Empower Network Version 2 (ENv2) Blog Beast Review

Now that Empower Network’s Blog Beast launch has finally happened the internet is being flooded with all the fake reviews from members who are doing nothing more than deceptively promoting the program in order to try getting you to join under them. This tends to happen every time something big launches in the internet marketing world where people are able to make money promoting it.

Spoiler alert! See our review of 123profit for the best way to earn money online right now.

So, I figured it was time for me to give you my real review of the new Empower Network blogging system (also known as ENv2, Blogging Beast, BlogBeast Redemption, and several other things) so you can get totally unbiased information and make a truly informed decision on whether it’s for you or not. You won’t find any affiliate links, hype, false deception, or anything else shady in this review. It is simply my opinions of the program based on personal experience, history, what I have heard from people I trust, and what I have seen thus far.

There are people who swear it’s an all out scam, there are people who are livid at the way they launched blog beast, there are people who couldn’t care less either way, there are people who say this is the best way to start an online home business since the internet was invented… and everything in-between. Love it or hate it, one thing is for sure, ENv2 is causing quite a stir in the make money online world.

There are huge name internet marketers on the inside and plenty of them who are very outspoken against it, which is understandable considering the intro BlogBeast video for ENv2 starts out by bashing some of the biggest names of the internet marketing industry. Anyway, that’s beside the point, I’m not here to give a lesson in how you should or shouldn’t create a launch video. I’m just here to give you my honest review of the Empower Network ENv2 Blog Beast Viral Blogging System.

Personally, I have opinions on both ends of the spectrum. Some things I really like about Empower Network Version 2 (ENv2) and some things I think are not good at all. I will warn you ahead of time that I have cancelled my membership. Maybe that tips you off to how my review will turn out and ruins it for you, or maybe it makes you curious to read on? Hmmm…

* Why should you listen to me?

You might be thinking to yourself, “Who is this guy and why should I even listen to him?”

Well, I’ve been a full time internet marketer and blogger since way back in 2003 so I have more than a decade of experience in this industry. In that time, I have been a part of more than my fair share of network marketing programs, home business opportunities, and every other type of money making system.

I’m also a moderator of several work at home, online business, and entrepreneur related forums where I’ve had the duty of reviewing hundreds of different programs in order to help the members with their questions. Plus, I own or manage well over 100 websites and blogs in all sorts of different niches.

I guess you could say that I have basically seen it all and done it all when it comes to the world of making money online. I can pretty much see all the angles and look past all the hype of this industry in order to truly see whether something is legit or not. I know how to make money with various programs and whether they are worth the investment, or not.

* What is ENv2 Blogging Beast?

Well, if you are completely new to everything to do with the original Empower Network and the new ENv2 “Blog Beast” Viral Blogging System, then here’s a quick rundown of the features:

* Simple Audio and Video Blogging
* Maintain Multiple Blogs at Once
* Easy Mobile Blogging
* Re-Blogging
* Social Sharing
* Content Locking
* Full Training
* Business Opportunity
* Lots of Kool-Aid to Drink (Ok, I may have added that one myself)

If you dig deep enough, you will find that ENv2 is a blogging system crossed with an affiliate program combined with a network marketing company married to a MLM commission structure. Yeah, that pretty much covers it all when it comes to internet home business opportunities and make money online programs. However, this really is a hybrid that pretty much takes them all into account and tries to include the best parts from each one.

There’s no denying that Empower Network offers one of the biggest blogging communities and best publishing platforms on the internet. They also give very good leadership training products and services to internet marketers and small business owners. It was originally created to help struggling internet marketers and home based business owners build and grow a successful online business. Their flagship product is a viral blogging system that boasts more 70,000 users and growing all over the world.

Their new version 2, called Blog Beast, will cost you $25 per month at the lowest level, which is the same price as the original EPN system. It gets progressively more expensive depending on what you want to buy and whether you want to go “all in” or not. Honestly, I think it’s insanely expensive if you do go all in and buy every level.

If you were already a member of Empower Network then you will be automatically switched over to the new system, and the first thing you will notice is that ENv2 Blog Beast features a bunch of new features that were not in the first generation of the EN system. It is undoubtedly faster and easier to use than it was before. Also, members can now run multiple blogs from one account.

Another new and prominent feature of version 2 is the mobile app. This allows you to sync your blog(s) from your smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device. With the blog beast mobile app, you can easily record and upload videos on the go. It also makes it a lot easier to post and share all types of content without needing any technical skills. Therefore, you can really work from home with your blog, or from just about anywhere.

That all sounds great on the surface, and to many people it might be more than worth the cost of the ENV2 blog beast system. However, to me it sounds like a bunch of stuff that you can do on your own using existing platforms and plugins without needing to rely on empower network or pay for it.

Simply put, it is a fairly easy to use publishing platform and business system designed to give you a relatively simple way to make money blogging. Hence, the “viral blogging system” they are always ranting and raving about. There is also an affiliate program you can join to promote empower network itself in order to earn residual income from people who join under you. Not bad, but really nothing special.

* What are the Blog Beast 17 Blogging Blunders I keep hearing about and are they good information?

Officially, it’s actually called, “The 17 Super Dumbass Blogging Blunders” but that’s beside the point. I’m not going to say a whole lot about them simply because I am not here to give away their information, and you can get the ebook and video for free anyway if you just go opt-in to their sales funnel. Then, you can just turn right around and opt-out so you don’t have to keep getting their emails if you have decided that the empower network version 2.0 isn’t for you.

I will say that the information in the free 17 blogging blunders ebook is solid and legit. I’ve been a blogger for many years and can attest to the fact that most of the advice they give is true and useful. The worst part about it, in my opinion, is that they constantly plug their blog beast platform throughout the ebook. But that can be expected and if you can ignore it, then it’s pretty good. Plus, it’s free, so there’s no reason not to at least give it a quick read to see if you can pick up some tips to help you build a more successful blog, and therefore and more profitable online business.

* Is Empower Network Version 2.0 a scam or is it a legitimate way to start an online business?

There are a lot of people asking if empower network is a scam. No, it isn’t a scam. Some people like to be quite loose with the “scam” word and throw that label on everything. But I’ve seen a lot of real scams and this is not one of them.

Honestly, it is a legit way to start a blog which can be turned into a real internet business and be a great way to make money online. However, I do think it is overpriced and not actually needed anyway. Plus, their upsells are ridiculously expensive and certainly not nearly as vital to success as they try to make them out to be. But a scam it is not.

* Really though, can I make money online with the “Blog Beast” viral blogging system?

Yeah, of course you can, anyone with a blog can! But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are going to, or that you have any sort of advantage by taking this route. To be honest, most people with blogs never make a cent and many of them spend a lot of time and effort trying. For every person making a living from a blog there are 10,000 more that aren’t earning anything, or if they are lucky they are maybe scraping in enough to pay a bill or two.

That’s not intended to discourage you. I truly think starting your own business website/blog is an excellent idea! Everyone should do it, and I mean that with all my heart and soul. Honestly, I do! However, the fact is that most people who do will never make any money from it.

I’m just being real here. The ENV2 blog beast cheerleaders want you to believe that you will just join up, do a bit of writing, share some content, and then retire on a tropical beach somewhere. But that’s not going to happen! I can promise you that right now.

Yes, if you are willing to learn how to choose a profitable niche, do keyword research, write compelling content, blog consistently, implement on-page search engine optimization (SEO), learn and keep up to date with off-site SEO, master social media marketing, become a video marketer, and a whole bunch of other things just like any other internet marketing specialist or professional blogger has to, then yes you can certainly build a successful online business blog in order to make money on the internet. It sure as heck won’t be easy and it definitely won’t happen quickly, but you can do it if you are truly dedicated to putting in a LOT of time, effort, money, sleepless nights, arguments with your spouse, loss of friends, and no more television, or wasting time on anything unimportant!

* Should I join Empower Network?

In my opinion, you would be far better off starting your own blog with your own domain on your own hosting. There are a ton of advantages in the long run to doing it that way and very few disadvantages. Once you get past all the crazy hype, all you are really getting with Empower Network is an expensive blog with a network marketing program to promote on it, and a little bit of training. That’s nothing special by any means.

I will say that using the ENv2 blogging system may give you a slight headstart as far as search engine rankings are concerned simply because they have build up a lot of authority already, and your blog gets some benefit from that juice. But that’s the biggest benefit I see to using it, and it’s not nearly as enough of a positive for me to recommend the program.

You could even start a completely free blog on something like blogger.com and essentially do the exact same thing without spending a dime, and basically have the same benefits and risks.

* Final thoughts

The part that I dislike the most about the entire system, and the major reason why I cancelled my account before spending too much of my time or money with them, is because THE BLOG IS NOT YOURS! Let me repeat that… The blog is NOT yours!

That means if you ever stop paying, or if Empower Network ever gets shut down, or they ever re-structure to change the entire program, or anything else happens — You will lose all that time and hard work you have put in, and all the income you have coming in from it. You can literally lose your entire online business overnight at no fault of your own. It’s completely out of your control.

Trust me, this happens a lot more often than you might think with programs like this. I’ve been around the internet marketing industry long enough to have seen it happen many times, even with the most highly touted and seemingly rock solid programs. You never know what’s going on behind the scenes even if everything looks great on the surface.

This is the main reason why I do not recommend becoming a user of ENv2 Blog Beast.

Do you honestly believe they will be around forever? I don’t! And when they go down, your blog goes down with them along with all your time, hard work, content, and income! So, stay away folks.

If you need something you can basically just plug into almost immediately without needing to learn much of anything in order to get started, and you don’t mind paying the inflated costs for that luxury or care about the fact that you are at their mercy and could lose it all in an instant, then I say go for it. For some people that is okay but I don’t think it’s worth it, so I am not recommending it.

I’ll admit, it sounds awesome and very hard to resist, but that’s exactly what they want so you will join! They are great marketers – there’s no denying that.

Quick summary:
– Do I recommend joining? No, I don’t, but honestly it could be a lot worse. I’m close to the borderline on this one, so I wouldn’t completely blame you if you did.
– Is it a scam? Nope, I do admit that it is a legitimate online business blogging system, but still I am saying you can do better.
– Can you make money with ENv2 blog beast? Yes, it’s possible.
– Will you make money with it? That depends, but probably not.

And that, my new friend, is my honest review of empower network version 2… ENv2… blog beast… aka several other names. Hell, I don’t even know what it’s called. ;)

It’s Time for You to Start Video Marketing Right Now

In the online marketing world, videos are quickly becoming the king of content. They rank extremely well for SEO purposes, people love them so they are much more likely to share them to create a viral marketing effect, they are engaging and make it easy to get a lot of information out in a relatively short period of time, and the trend seems to be rising quickly in favor of video marketing over most other strategies. Internet marketers are jumping all over video marketing because it has proven to be a highly effective way to promote your business and/or expand your brand on the internet.

So, you need to start video marketing now before your competition leaves you in the dust. The longer you wait the further you fall behind!

This is true whether you are setting up an affiliate site or are building a website for your business. One of the biggest barriers that seems to exist isn’t necessarily the lack of desire to create videos but rather an inherent fear of actually doing it. However, the benefits of video marketing have become even more solidified over the past several years, and there’s little chance that video’s will become less important in the near future.

Here are some things to think about when deciding whether or not you should take the plunge into the realm of video marketing…

One of the first things to get over right away is that the people watching your videos are going to know whether you are an amateur videographer or a professional, and it doesn’t matter. You will find very few niches where your target audience will actually expect you to create super high quality professional videos. Most people who visit YouTube are expecting to find amateur videos shot at home or “on the run” in some random location. In fact, the vast majority of the most popular people on YouTube simply shoot their videos in front of a webcam, handheld camera, or their phones. You can do the same.

Your online marketing video may not be some big dramatic production, but that doesn’t take away from the value included in it – Assuming you are creating useful videos, which you should be! Like I said, many of the most successful videos are nothing more than someone sitting in front of their camera and just talking to the world. There is truly no need for you to waste a bunch of time and effort buying or figuring out how all those complicated video editing software’s work. All you need to do is sit down in front of your computer, record a video, do a few simple edits (or just leave it as is), and then publish it.

Another way to think about it is like this… Do you have to be a professional writer in order to become a blogger? Of course, not! The same rule applies to video marketing. In fact, you will likely relate to your audience better if you are just a “regular” person talking to them in real terms. No need to try to be bigger and better than everyone else. Just give useful information and they will respect you for it.

Clearly it is obvious that video marketing has more than proven to be incredibly beneficial for several reasons and isn’t going anywhere in the near future. And a huge reason why you should be utilizing it is because it gives you access to a unique traffic source that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to tap into, and it can be a huge amount of traffic. If you create a short video that someone watches and then they click over to your website, or share the video with others, they are already invested in what you are trying to tell them. As a result, they have prequalified themselves in a way that is difficult to replicate elsewhere and their sharing may end up making your video spread far and wide to thousands of people! You can’t buy that kind of publicity.

Another somewhat obvious but also very significant benefit to video production for marketing purposes is that videos are much more captivating so they allow you to capture the attention of people that would otherwise ignore your content. People learn in all types of different ways and will naturally choose options that they are most comfortable with. So it’s best to use a combination of text, images, audio, and video content on your website and in your marketing efforts in order to cover all bases. Not only will this pull more people to your website, it will also improve their user experience once they are there. Therefore, they will stay on your site longer, be more likely to share your content with others, and will be far more likely to purchase from you.

So, as you can see, there are a lot of benefits to video content and not really a whole lot of negatives, if any. It’s something that can only help with your overall internet marketing success. And that’s why it’s time for you to start video marketing right now!

The Important Factors for Pay Per Click Success

Obviously there are many different ways to market online, and one of the most popular is through pay per click (PPC). There are thousands of internet marketers and business owners who make a ton of money using PPC. However, there are a lot more people that have lost their entire marketing budget with PPC without gaining anything in return. That is exactly why you need to know the keys to pay per click success before diving into it.

Before you even think about getting into pay per click marketing, you need to know that there is a lot to learn. You really don’t want to jump in blindly and try to start making money with it. You have a lot of learning to do before you do that. This will help you be confident that you will earn money rather than lose it. However, to be honest, this actually isn’t the most important factor for PPC success.

Testing is really the most important part of marketing successfully with pay per click ads. It’s almost impossible to create the perfect PPC campaign. In fact, to get it exactly right you need to test different parts of the ad and different ideas and see which ads perform the best. The key isn’t just click through rate (CTR). The major factor is conversion rate.

In other words, people clicking on your ads is not what is most important. What’s most important is the people who do what you want them to do after they click on your ad. Usually this involves the person spending money or joining your list.

It is very important to learn as much about pay per click advertising as you possibly can before you actually begin using it. That is vital but it’s not the biggest key for PPC success. The most important thing you can do is test all your ads to keep improving them until you have achieved optimal conversion rate with the ads.

Make sure you remember these crucial tips when you decide to start using with pay per click as part of your internet marketing strategy.

Furthermore, you may want to look into pay per click (ppc) affiliate programs as a way of making money from your website if you already have a successful site with a lot of traffic coming in.

How NOT to Do Internet Marketing

Are you a newbie of the internet marketing world? If so, you need to be careful because there are a lot of mistakes you can make with your online marketing efforts from the start without even knowing you are doing anything wrong. There’s a ton of misinformation out there that you need to avoid. And when you are learning how to make money online there are several things that you really don’t want to do. Here are some of them…

1) Getting Traffic from Just One Source

Relying on just one web traffic source is a great way to put yourself on the fast track to total failure! What happens if that source goes away, or changes are made to it that kill your traffic? You are screwed! Not to mention the fact that one source can only give you so much traffic. If you want to maximize your website traffic, you need to use a combination of marketing strategies. Diversifying traffic sources is what smart internet marketers do.

It’s best to use a lot of different techniques so you can bring traffic to your site from all angles, and if one goes away it won’t impact your income very much. You can use article syndication, video marketing, content marketing, SEO, forums, blogs, social media, pay per click, paid advertising, press releases, and so much more. There’s no reason to rely on just one source.

2) Spamming Forums and/or Blog Comments

This is a huge example of what NOT to do in the world of internet marketing. Never do it! I know it’s tempting, especially when there are so many automated tools that will do it for you. But it’s just not worth it.

The only thing that you want to do on the forums or blog comments is be truly helpful and leave legitimate information. Ask questions, give answers, engage in discussion, and so on. They are not for dropping your ads or links in the hopes of gaining something from it.

It does you no good because your marketing message will be ignored and you will likely get banned, and it does the other members or readers no good because they don’t get anything useful from your spamming message. Don’t spam forums, comments, email, or anything else. It’s not going to get you far.

3) Not Tracking PPC Campaigns

If you are doing pay per click (PPC) marketing and are wondering why you aren’t getting the sales that you should be, then it could very well be that you aren’t tracking your campaigns. You need to know which keywords are performing and which ones aren’t. You need to tweak ads. You need to know how much to bid on certain keywords and how much to spend total each day. You need to know how many click you are getting and what percentage of those are converting into sales.

There are a lot of things you need to know and it all comes down to tracking. Quickly throwing up an ad with a bunch of keywords and letting it go is a big beginner mistake. Most things you do with online marketing will require tracking, but it is vitally important with PPC campaigns.

4) Trying to Exploit Social Media

Creating a zillion twitter and facebook accounts then building up a crap load of fake followers, and using them to blast out your messages/links to anyone and everyone is NOT the way to do social media marketing. Abusing the system might work for a while but in the long run it’s not going to get you far. As an internet marketer, you should be trying to get a loyal following and repeat customers. You will never get that if you try taking the easy route of simply flooding social sites with your affiliate links.

5) SEO on the Dark Side

Are you using link wheels, paid link services, link farms, xrumer, senuke, or other automated tools to build backlinks? If so, you are going to get penalized or all out deindexed at some point. Yes, black hat SEO techniques do sometimes work for a while, but eventually you will get caught, and it will come back to bite you. That is a huge thing to NOT do if you want to succeed at internet marketing into the future.

Alright, those are some ways for how NOT to do internet marketing. Don’t make these mistakes with your home business. Instead, do it right from the start and keep yourself out of trouble later. Diversify your online marketing efforts and avoid the temptation to take the easy route. It might suck at first but you will be thanking me later!

Cutting Costs in Promoting Your Business on the Internet

Marketing your business on the internet is typically a lot cheaper than advertising on TV or putting your ad on a billboard along the highway. You can advertise online for next to nothing, or even for free if you want to, but you certainly can’t do that on TV, billboards, or with most other traditional marketing methods. Factor in how many times you want to flash your ad on TV and you’ll surely need a lot of money to do that. You can even lose your entire budget just paying for the airtime.

However, even though it is a lot cheaper to advertise online compared to the conventional advertising strategies, it can still cost you a lot of money if you are not careful with your online advertising strategies. One wrong keyword choice and you can plunge into a costly and inefficient marketing strategy.

But aside from the generally cheaper cost of promoting your business on the internet, there are still cost-efficient ways to cut costs in online promotion and marketing. In this article I will tell you how.

Investing in free but effective ways to promote your business online.

How?

There’s social network marketing for starters. Social networks are taking over the internet these days. Not just for individual use, businesses have also brought their business to their social networks, hoping to connect to their target market.

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc… are all free to sign up and yet, they are among the best and fastest ways to connect to the right people who need your products and services.

Article Marketing – it is free to share information to online readers through informative and valuable articles, and in return, you can build links to your website for free. You may not be allowed to do directly promote inside your article, but they are good vehicles to build your credibility, to let your expertise be known and to promote your website through the resource box. With good articles, you can promote your website cost-effectively and benefit from it in the long run. For as long as your articles are live online, you can expect it at least bring in traffic to your site for a long time.

Invest in a good and optimized website

Search engine optimization (SEO). You may have heard about it and seen these letters often on the web. That’s because SEO is an important element to be able to launch your business marketing effectively online. Remember that promoting your business online is still about making your business visible to your market and the best way to do that is to make your website visible to the top of the search engine rankings. You can do that with proper SEO strategies.

Without the right optimization practices, you might end up depleting your resources in costly advertising strategies.

Have a quality, web content. The base of your website is your content as it tells all about your business and what you do and what you offer. It is also tells the search engines that you do have a valuable website that they need to pick up and index thus, invest in top-notch, search engine optimized web content. Even if you have the highest traffic coming in to your site, you may find it hard to convert this into sales if you have poor web content. This is one big challenge in marketing and promoting your business on the internet as well.

Opt for an easy to use website. Convenience is a major deciding factor for many people these days, and in the online world, most people, if not all, love the instant, one-click-show-all features, thus aim to give your target audience a website that loads quick and something that is professionally designed, appealing to the eye and easy to navigate and read.

Outsource some of your marketing tasks

Social media, article marketing and search engine optimization can be your keys to promoting your business online but they can be time-consuming. That’s a fact. You can write your web content but you surely can’t devote all your time writing new and fresh quality web content constantly.

Article marketing is not a one-shot deal. You have to write and submit new articles consistently. Social media needs updating and needs to be up-to-date and with regular activity or else you won’t get a good following.

One solution to save time in doing these tasks while still keeping within budget is to outsource. It can be one of the most practical and wisest things you can do when it comes to having these tasks done regularly and keeping everything up-to-date. With people taking care of these things for you, you can spend your time focusing on the goals of your business and refining and redefining your business strategies.

But one thing to keep in mind is that it is vital for you to outsource to the right people! Finding good outsources takes time and a lot of trial. But doing it right from the start will help you avoid wasting more of your valuable time and resources, and will help you in effectively promoting your business on the internet.

One of the Biggest Myths about Internet Marketing

With each passing day there are more and more people & businesses getting into internet marketing, and that has led to many people becoming concerned that it’s either already too saturated or will be soon. The evidence they give to support this conclusion almost always pertains to products/services that supposedly teach people how to make money online, or something similar. In that regard they do have a good point. However, this shows they have a huge misunderstanding about what internet marketing truly is, and reveals one of the biggest myths about it!

You see, internet marketing is FAR from just being a bunch of people trying to promote get rich quick schemes and other “make money online” products and services. To put simply; it is any type of marketing that happens on the internet. In this post, I will attempt to clarify the definition of online marketing and reassure you that it isn’t oversaturated and never will be.

Pretty much any type of product, service, information, company, etc… Can be marketed on the internet. And all types of different businesses in millions of different niches advertise a virtually unlimited number of products and services online — Just as they do on TV, radio, magazines, billboards, newspapers, phonebooks, flyers, and so on. The internet is just one of many resources that people can use reach their potential customers.

However, unlike the vast majority of other marketing channels, the internet allows you to create a nearly limitless variety of different ads and strategies all at once, including video, audio, text and banner ads that can be seen all over the web, and typically for a far lower cost than traditional offline marketing methods. Using many different internet marketing techniques together lets you create a stronger campaign to get noticed by much more of your target market and has the potential to go viral.

So who can use internet marketing strategies for themselves or their business?

Basically anyone who has a product, service, message, etc… That they want to get in front of a targeted audience, or spread to as many people as possible. Think of the last place online that you purchased something from, such as Amazon or eBay, for example. They certainly don’t exclusively sell “money making” ebooks. They sell books, movies, electronics, clothing, and just about everything else under the sun. That clearly shows you that internet marketing is about promoting all types of products.

Of course those are just a couple of obvious examples. There are countless individuals, small businesses, large corporations and everything in-between involved in some form of online marketing in just about every industry you can imagine. These companies use websites, blogs, articles, press releases, email, videos, podcasts, pay per click, SEO, social media, banners, forums, webinars, and many other internet marketing tactics you may or may not have heard about. There’s something for everyone.

Now, I truly hope you understand that internet marketing definitely isn’t just limited to products about how to make money online, or anything else. It can pertain to every industry, niche, individual, and company looking to grow its customer base or get information out to the world. This means that virtually anyone can use the internet to market almost anything, and it’s certainly not “oversaturated” like some people would have you believe. That is nothing but a myth!

Have a Niche Business? Why Embracing Inbound Marketing Will Solve Your Customer Problems More Efficiently

Let’s say you are an expert in the field of online marketing. You have an online business that seeks to tutor people how to be successful in internet marketing. How do you reach your audience? Let’s also say you undergo the entire stereotypical paid search trauma and invest a huge amount of money to attract the eyes of unsuspecting viewers who might or might not buy your eBook or whatever product you are trying to “sell.” At the same time, however, you are spending hundreds of dollars on your paid search, plus hosting a domain and products.

So what do you do? Simple. You use your own expertise and guide people in that field. For free. Don’t jump. You can publish rich content and engage in problem solving through blogs, podcasts and videos. When you begin to offer something to your niche market based on your expertise, you earn the attention of your prospects, draw them to your website and make yourself easy to be found.

This is known as “inbound marketing“

While “outbound marketing” relies on the traditional cold calling, TV, print and radio advertisements to get a random viewer’s prospective attention, inbound marketing tries to reach out to a smaller but more targeted customer base who are actually seeking your expertise in the field. This is why inbound marketing can be so effective for small businesses or businesses that revolve around a particular niche.

Online marketing strategist, David Meerman Scott in his ideology, “the new rules of marketing & PR” states that, instead of “buying or begging the media to write about you”, you should earn the prospect’s attention by “publishing your way in.”

Sounds vague? Well, you see, the internet today is a vast network of knowledge. People will pay you high dollars for your information. Originality is revered. Therefore if you don’t mind hard work, knowledge based products and long research cycles, then inbound marketing can be really profitable for your business objectives.

Initially inbound marketing dealt with three principles:

– Get Found
– Convert
– Analyze

However the field has become more nuanced and now deals with five stages.

Attract Traffic

All marketing plans seek to attract traffic but inbound marketing does this in its own style. Do you have a blog? A YouTube channel? This is where you begin to start your marketing campaign. You provide valuable information for free. Anyone can write or shoot a video but only few can create evergreen content.

Remember the people looking for you are desperate for answers which only you have and they will pay you well for it. Write content from your heart; instead of writing about everything and anything, choose the niche you are comfortable with, preferably something related to your business.

As your readership grows, you will be revered as an authority on your niche and what better reputation for your product? Your product will be known by your name, not the other way around.

Convert Visitors to Leads

It is great to write blog posts and be appreciated for them but your work does not end there. You have to convert your visitors to leads. Your dedicated readers will surely want to know more about problem solving from you and one way to help them out is lead generation.

– Record an interview with an industry expert
– Showcase a slide presentation
– Edit a mini eBook on the “Top ten mistakes in my niche and how to solve them”

Never stop updating your content.

Also choose your topics after communicating with your readers and employees. Never ignore their email, respond to their queries. That way, you already know what your prospective customers are looking for. That is 60% of the problem solved. All you have to do now is solve their problems through your unique expertise! You can also ask your prospects to sign up for newsletters so that they are always up to date on information.

Convert Leads to Sales

Make them offers they can’t refuse. If they liked your slide presentation, may be you can offer them a sequel. If they like the sequel, you can offer them a combo pack. May be you can release the eBook with an audio and more information for a special price. And while they are at it, don’t forget to display your proud products and services and how you seek to make the internet a better place for marketing with your eBooks.

Turn Customers into Repeat Higher Margin Customers

If you convert even 20% of your prospects into paying customers, you have already stepped onto the big band wagon of inbound marketing. Time to bring on the high stakes! These same customers who have bought your combo slides and audio eBooks are the ones who will be interested in big deals.

How about offering them your eBook on internet marketing along with a video on the “15 successful ways to break even into online marketing”?

Analyze for Continuous Improvement

Even though this is the last point, I have already mentioned how important it is to follow this right from stage one.

You cannot afford to be loose with this. White papers, blog articles, SEO, audio podcast, videos, downloadable eBooks, newsletters, flowcharts, worksheets, workbooks- the millions of ways in which you can keep updating your content is truly endless!

Think long term. What is relevant now will be common knowledge a few weeks later. The world of internet marketing is quite different from real-world marketing and you need to be flexible. Keep track of current market scenario, talk to industry experts and always have a good relationship with your customers.

Also never stop giving content for free. Everybody loves free information. Your downloadable PDFs might not get you money, but they will surely get you trust and likability in the marketplace. And needless to say, if your consumers like you, they will buy your products and services. And well their recommendations will surely work wonders.

Conclusion

The main goal of inbound marketing is to generate valuable content. Remember only when you throw the food, do the fish come. Not before that. Be patient, be persistent. Inbound marketing is here for the long haul and if you want to be the winning horse, you better get on the track now.

The Art of Building Amazon Sites Post Panda

Thousands of people supplement their monthly incomes through the use of Amazon affiliate sites – or at least they used to. Recently, Google introduced a major overhaul to their search algorithms known as Panda, and a lot of Amazon affiliate sites that could be politely referred to as “thin,” “spammy,” or “junky” quickly saw their search rankings plummet down to the depths where no practical Google user would ever find them.

For the uninitiated, an Amazon affiliate site is a website or blog that directly or indirectly promotes products sold on Amazon dot com, the ubiquitous online retailer. Clicking certain links at these sites redirects you to a product page at Amazon, and when you make a purchase, Amazon pays the affiliate site owner a portion of the proceeds in exchange for the redirect. With commission rates as high as 15% and the ability to promote whatever products you’d like, including the very expensive ones, it’s easy to see how a well-implemented Amazon affiliate site could turn a tidy profit.

The trick, of course, is to build an Amazon affiliate site that passes muster in the eyes of Google Panda, and achieves the search engine results ranking it deserves. This is how you can still earn big money with Amazon.

Build Your Site Around the Niche, Not the Products

Google Panda is all about attempting to ensure that the pages ranked most highly for a given search keyword are relevant and provide the best user experience possible. As such, most of the sites that experienced severe downranking at the hands of Panda were ones that offered a list of promoted products, along with maybe a brief description of each, some keyword-rich promotional text (“This is such a wonderful product!” without any details) and maybe a few pictures. In other words, the exact same content you could find by visiting Amazon directly and simply visiting the product page. Credit to Google for sending these two-bit sites where they belong: out of the public eye.

Your job is to make your site stand out. You can accomplish this by building a site based around an entire niche, or a specific product category, instead of just the products themselves.

Let’s say you want to promote security cameras. Instead of making a thin site like the one described above that simply lists and promotes the cameras, build your site around the niche of home security, and particularly the ways that technology can be used to improve it. This is something that will provide actual value to your traffic. A few examples of content ideas that could be applied to other niches as well:

Stories of break-ins and robberies that could have been prevented with a wireless security camera.
Comparisons of the top-rated security cameras.
Software programs that integrate well with security equipment.
How to set up home security equipment.
Common misconceptions held by those purchasing home security cameras for the first time.

Once your readers see how valuable home security cameras are, they’ll be far more likely to click your affiliate links and actually make a purchase.

Know the Products You’re Promoting

Although you may be tempted to select products to promote simply based on their value or apparent immediate popularity, the post-Panda online environment dictates that it’s better to promote products that you’re actually comfortable discussing through knowledge and experience. Your readers will be able to tell whether you’re an expert regarding the products you’re discussing, and they’ll be more likely to stick around at your site if you are.

If you really want to promote a certain niche that you may not be totally familiar with, there are some good ways of conducting research:

Visit forums devoted to discussing the products and learn from experts who use them every day.
Watch Youtube video reviews of the products to see how they work in action.
Download the manuals for the products to get additional details that might not be included in their general online product descriptions.
Take advantage of return policies and trial periods. You may be able to try the products in your own home and return them for a full refund, so long as you don’t damage them. Any fees you incur in the form of return shipping will be worth the content you’re able to generate by actually using the products.

Allow for Interactive Discussion

Speaking of forums, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t set one up on your own Amazon affiliate site. Google Panda loves the idea of increased website functionality and interactivity, making a forum for your users an excellent Panda-baiting feature.

It’s important that forums are moderated and kept on topic, so don’t expect to simply create the forum, let it run itself and return to your normal daily operations. Jump in frequently to participate in discussions and answer your visitors’ questions.

Post Video Reviews of Products

Placing some multimedia content on your Amazon affiliate site can truly make it stand apart from the competition. If you have access to the products you’re promoting, record a video of yourself using them while you discuss what you like about it, how you like to use the product, your favorite features, etc. Doing so paints you as an expert with hands-on experience, and builds a higher level of trust between you and your reader.

It’s also possible to review the promoted products using video even if you don’t actually own them. Although “talking head” videos are maligned by some, the fact is that they prove that you’re a real person and not some faceless marketer hiding behind a potentially dubious site.

Think from the Consumer’s Perspective

When creating your Amazon affiliate site, it’s important to occasionally stop and think: If I were a customer researching these products, would this site provide me real, valuable assistance? If the answer is “not really, but I think I have good advertising strategies,” then your site will need a lot more work before it’ll pass the Panda test. Think about the things that you want to see when you’re researching a potential purchase for yourself, and implement them into your Amazon affiliate site.

Branding is Very Important for Online Marketing

Far too often the individuals that get into internet marketing think about nothing but themselves. They have nothing on their minds except how much money they can make or how successful they can be. These thoughts aren’t necessarily wrong (there is a lot of power in the law of manifestation) but they certainly should not be the only thing inside your head as an internet marketer!

To be a successful internet marketer, you have to be aware of how others think and know how others see your business and the products/services being promoted. What that basically means is that branding is very important to the success of your online business. You need to be sure to never forget about your personal and business brands.

Now, you might be wondering what exactly a brand is? The vast majority of people assume it’s the advertising slogan or the logo of a particular business. Or that it’s a company’s colors on their ads or other things that stick out to people. But while these things do make up part any company’s brand, they certainly are not everything that it entails. Actually, there is a lot more to it.

The simplest way to put it is that your brand is everything you do online for yourself or your business. Make sure you always remember that when you are doing anything on the internet. It is the way you handle your customers, every blog post you make, every forum discussion you participate in, every social media account you post on, every picture that gets posted, every email you send, and so on. It’s also every product or service you sell or promote.

Your branding is done through everything you do so you need to always remember that whatever you are doing is potentially affecting your brand, either positively or negatively. Think about that the next time you are about to publicly rant on a forum about a refund request. Remember that the next time you are about to send a nasty email or write a blog post trashing a fellow internet marketer. Just don’t ever forget about your business brand.

Branding is very important for any internet marketer or other business owner. You are your brand and everything about your business is your brand. So you need be sure you that everything you do represents your brand in the best possible way.

For proper branding you must first decide what exactly you want your business to be portrayed as and then make sure you are doing things that are in line with that decision. It doesn’t have to be all perfect and nice. There are plenty of people and businesses who brand themselves as a “jerk” or something else like that. You can become very successful by doing things differently than everyone else. Just make sure you create a brand that you can stick with and keep up the persona in order to build it successfully.

Really what I am trying to say here in not so many words is that branding is very important for your online business and marketing, and you should never forget about your brand in your daily life. This will certainly help make your internet marketing business more sustainable and increase your income.