Archive for the ‘Internet Marketing’ Category

Today’s virtual and globalized working environment finds company CEOs looking at employee engagement as a key challenge. Reaching out to its people in a distributed working environment is done through the global phenomenon – the internet.

The World Wide Web brings closer the physical distances and bridges these distances between people in the communities and the society as a whole. While this method of communication is not yet all pervasive, it is certain to become the basic standard for communication in the future.

Blogs, an abbreviation for “weblogs” are microsites on the web that stand by themselves or are part of traditional websites. A corporate blog is either published by or with the support of an organization in order to reach the organizational goals. External blogs help strengthen relationships with target groups and position the organization as industry experts. Internal blogs on the other hand are used as tools for knowledge management and collaboration.

From politicians to novelists, business pros and aspiring businessmen, everyone seems to be starting a blog. Many large corporations already use blogs to communicate internally to their employees on a regular basis. This helps the organizational heads to cut across hierarchies and deliver their views without the concern of misinterpretation. Blogs are also considered to be a less formal way of communicating with the existing customers, prospective customers and investors. While many of the blogs are authored by individuals, group blogs are also becoming popular in a company setting. (more…)

That’s all you hear all the time. Gotta have a GREAT product. That’s how you get the big bucks. Okay, but how?

For an internet marketer, one of the most difficult things to do is coming up with product ideas. For people who are new to internet marketing, it becomes even more difficult as they have no idea where to begin or even if their idea is going to be a success.

There is nothing better than creating your own product. Let us see how you can go about getting new products into the market. Once you come up with an idea that you like, make sure it is implemented immediately. This is where a newbie remains new for a long time. Because they are unsure of themselves and of their product, they do not implement many of their ideas.

“Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one’s ideas, to take a calculated risk – and to act.”
~~ Andre Malraux (more…)

If you are looking to start an internet business, the first thing that has to be done is choosing a niche market. We know there is plenty of competition out there for every niche. But not everybody offers the same as you do.

The first thing that has to be done is to get a good idea on whether to pursue a niche market or not. This entails keyword research, which includes coming up with keywords that people are searching for and finding out how much competition there is for that particular keyword.

Initially, it is no good going for generic keywords that have a lot of competition. For example, if you type “Golf,” it is a generic term with millions of sites. If you target your keywords better, such as “Golf balls” or “Travel Golf,” you will find less number of searches but you are aiming at a particular audience in the niche. Remember! It is always better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.

After you have chosen your niche, choose a few more keywords specific to your niche. Now time to check on your competition. What are the keywords and phrases they are using? Right click on “view source” and look at the META description tag (you will find it at the top.) Are these keyphrases helpful to you? Narrow down your list. Search on Google with the keyphrases you are planning on using and see if any similar sites are coming up. If they are, you are on the right track. Some of these keyphrases will be used on your site in the content and some will be used as links.

To do well with your website, it is important to be high up in the search engine rankings. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong. How many times have you gone to the 3rd page of Google search results when looking for something? Most people click on the first few results only. (more…)

As an internet marketer, the first thing one has to do is look for a good domain name to register. Domain names are the real estate of online business. They are the cornerstones of a good internet business. It is really not a difficult task finding a domain name. There are several places online where a search can be done to check if a domain name is available. You must be wondering, if it was such a simple thing, why all the hue and cry about domain names.

That is because, it is a tough task deciding on the kind of domain name that catches people’s attention.

There are a couple of ways to go about this. One is using the keyword method and the other is branding.

The keyword method involves keyword research, where one searches for a domain name that is rich in keywords, on the niche that is being targeted. They say that Google loves keyword rich domains.

For example, if you are planning on setting up a website on weight loss, the first keyword rich name that comes to mind is obviously something like weightloss.com, which would obviously be taken already. So, you will need to search for other keywords in the same niche. (more…)

Social Media though an emerging term in the Internet Marketing circles, has grown its roots deep in the concepts of Search Engine Marketing and Optimization, and Web 2.0 standards, and is evolving with Web 3.0. To understand the core concept of Social Media and its optimization, it’s crucial to identify and analyze its connections with SEM/SEO, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. The evolving needs of web users and alterations in search functionalities demand equal upgrades in SEO/SEM strategies, and as user is the main focus, there’s an ultimate need of full duplex communication between a business and the end user. On the other hand, Web 2.0 as it provides a platform for the execution of high end functional applications sets a base line for social media to grow and evolve. Further, as Web 3.0 is all about enhancing your online presence and the business are rapidly getting online, so they need to have a direct access to the end users.

Though the www represents itself as an example of global village, but the whole system cannot work in isolation, i.e. standalone websites, and thus it needs transformation of ideas and experiences into a platform. The platform that best meets the requirements of contemporary times is Social Media. And this origin of Social Media defines it as a platform integrating technology and social interaction in order to bring innovative solutions through user experience with less response time. But this integration and interaction do not result as innovation if the optimization factor is absent, i.e. if website is not visible to the targeted user, or the user is unaware of it in any way. This creates the need of Social Media Optimization, but what actually it is?
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Social Media Marketing, being an emerging concept is still undiscovered for most of the individuals associated with web business and having most of the aspects unexplored, the sustainability of SMM is still a question mark. Though getting about rapidly, not everyone is familiar with the inner structure of SMM and the best use of it. The present culture of Social Media Marketing is relying more on extensive stumbling and digging etc that has not only shown the concept of SMM a convergent approach but also deployed its original essence.

Social Media Marketing is a divergent phenomenon, whereby the strategies are based on choices and preferences, tastes, variations and innovations, and something that supports a constant variation in procedures is always sustainable. But the present digging/stumbling culture and paid opinions may reel back the sustainability to the ninth degree. The true SMM culture can, however, be established only by having the inside picture of it, i.e. understanding the situation and nature of business and knowing that the variation will need equal change in strategies, outlining the short and long term objectives, and then using the appropriate social media tools in accordance with the research.

Whatever the situations are, marketers must know that:

1. He’s to think like a user not provider, as SMM is volatile in nature and knowing what audience likes is the key to success.
2. He’s to build relations based on trust because in Social Media that is open for all, the vulnerability to unethical practices is relatively high.
3. It needs parallel time to research and analyze the audience and to build an effective network.
4. It’s a learning process and you find something new each time you develop or execute a single strategy.
5. Knowingly relaying false information may let you get a single step ahead but the long run will be a dead end.
6. Since the SMM model works on choices, preferences, attitudes, tastes and style, no such thing can get about that’s not sought for.
7. It’s your identity that works more than you, so making best use of it is the way to leave imprints in all possible and related area of influence.
8. If you want others to abide by certain rules, be a live example.

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Social media depicts the online skills and techniques that everyone uses to provide outlooks, viewpoints, ideas, perceptions, information, entertainment, etc. These skills may be portrayed through technologies like blog messages, scraps, videos, podcasts, web pages, wikis, communication boards, etc. The freely accessible worldwide encyclopedia for reference (Wikipedia), social networking websites (Orkut, Myspace), business networking (ryze.com), video sharing sites (YouTube), etc are various mediums of social media.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) uses web marketing techniques for achieving brand marketing and awareness. It blends branding tricks through the social media. The branding and advertising needs and trends may be different for different organisations. While one tries to generate brand awareness, another may be looking for product visibility or market penetration. It may also take the form of online brand image management. The marketing strategy here is unlike the traditional hard selling techniques. Social media marketing requires tactful marketing of a particular product or service in a particular community or group to achieve maximum referrals. Identifying the target audience and adopting marketing strategies targeted at them, is the right way. It all starts with selection of the right medium and using it resourcefully to appeal to the target audience. A blend of information, leisure, hilarity, debate can do the trick.

Social media marketing is much like: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Word-of-Mouth Marketing, and Social Media Optimization (SMO). Many people consider that SMO applies the principles of SEO to social media websites. SMM takes a more vigorously premeditated role hinting at the community to unite with the content. (more…)

Marketing is a career that seems relatively simple to the observer, but when attempted, proves to be difficult. Many individuals get into internet sales, but are weak on the marketing aspect of the job. To market simply means to generate sales by attracting customers and building a brand. To do this on the internet is sometimes much more complicated than in a storefront operation. There are many online resources, web templates included, that can help.
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