Internet Marketing covers a lot of subjects. It can be 24 7 Internet Marketing, abacus internet marketing, business from home internet marketing, web advertising, positionment web and many more.....
Friday, April 25, 2008
Changing Affiliate Marketing
Posted by Michael Singer, Apr 25, 2008 07:27 PM
Sometimes you just need to change the rules to stay on message. So when a panel of affiliate marketing experts and consultants convened Tuesday to discuss their industry and how it can evolve and mesh with Web 2.0 ideas, we had to know more.
Joy Culbertson, a member of our production team was on hand at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco to give us the play by play on this one. Her friend Lisa Picarille Revenue Magazine was moderating the panel which included Stephanie Agresta (Affiliate Karma), Cam Balzer (DoubleClick Performics), Sam Harrelson (Sam Harrelson Consulting), and Jeremy Wright (b5media).
NOTE: AFFILIATE MARKETING IS BECOMING AN UPTREND IN THE WEB BUSINESS.
Affiliate Marketing is a business model based on earning revenue by driving traffic to Web sites. The industry is comprised of publications, networks, and online marketers. What follows is her report:
Though often thought as innovators and risk-takers in the internet marketing world (for example, they were the first industry to buy-up domain names for profit), Affiliate Marketers are also challenged with a "scrappy" reputation and a branding problem. To attract and recruit more affiliates, some marketers are rebranding their companies using euphemistic titles such as "Performance Marketing" etc.
And some are working to gain (potential customer) trust and legitimization by moving into new, more personal areas of the Web, such as podcasts, video blogs, and other social media interaction.
Panelists gave an array of examples of marketers who have successfully tapped into Web 2.0 technologies to gain revenue.
These include retailers:
* Jonessoda.com has a popular community site. They use contests and forums and more to create a buzz.
* Kaboodle is a community site popular with tweens, who have user-generated an entire retail site about shopping. (bought by Hearst Interactive Media in August 07)
* Zappos.com the CEO has an entertaining tweet stream that has attracted more than 2,000 followers with his charismatic personality and things like shoe giveaways. Gimmicky, yes, but 2,000 followers see it and many of them blog about it.
* Jet Blue and Southwest Airlines have active Twitter accounts and blogs. Contests, flight updates, customer comments.
Also services:
* Mint.com is a free personal finance manager that is sponsored on lead generation from financial institutions.
* Wine Library.com's Gary Vaynerchuk taps his knowledge of wine with a successful daily videocast that together with dozens of web tools (widgets, badges, twitter, etc.) has fostered a community who are making a collaborative wine "Vanyiac", all the while showcasing his winelibrary.com e-tail site.
* Even in a lagging economy, affiliates of Debt Consolidation and Online Coupon Sites are extremely successful engaging communities and user interactivity.
Still, Many on Web 2.0 sites and communities are not expecting (or happy) to see an ad presence on Facebook, twitter, other outlets.
NOTE: IT IS SAD TO NOTE THAT THERE ARE 'BAD' AFFILIATE MARKETERS AROUND.
Most Affiliate Marketers, even with the bad rep as "the scrappiest marketers on the Web" can utilize Web 2.0 technologies to gain revenue, but it needs to be done in a wise and responsible fashion. Marketers need to choose content sites and communities that are related to the product they represent, and establish a trust with community members. They need to get personal and be personable. They need to be tactful, entertaining, and innovative. Hidden, masked or suspicious search affiliate-types need not apply.
Companies should consider a "Community Evangelist" expert or consultant to help identify which sources are the best fit to tap into, and innovate and develop new apps (such as Facebook apps) that can entertain target customers. When an audience member asked what kind of applications would work well for Affiliate Marketers, Cam Balzer gave an example of a product data feed to a storefront app on Facebook. Something that could match a data feed with a Facebook profile. Or a generated birthday wish list. One panelist said "viral growth comes out of personal connections".
All panelists agreed that online merchants should embrace social media and establish a presence now. Marketers used to traditional metrics should look beyond the clickthrus and rely on other "metrics" such as "how many Facebook friends" you have or cookie duration. The big winner in linking Affiliate Marketing and Web 2.0 technology could be the innovator who figures out the metrics and ROI.
Likewise, publishers, networks and other companies should not overlook Affiliate Marketing when creating and fostering business. A panelist quoted Jason Calacanis (Weblogs, Mahalo and more) from his keynote at Affiliate Summit, saying "Affiliate Marketing is a $3 Billion industry that no one in California is talking about."
As one panelist said, Affiliate Marketing was Web 2.0 before Web 2.0 was a term.
As a post script to this:
Q: How do you know you are at a Web 2.0 session?
A: When the jumbo screen is displaying a twitter page of the moderator of your session, and he is twittering about moderating a session at Web 2.0
Great points to ponder, Joy, and very insightful. Thanks for passing this along.
As a side note, we're on Twitter too. You can get all our headlines by subscribing to our InformationWeek Twitter feed, selected headlines on iwpicks, and you can also follow me on Twitter.
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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Web Marketing
Web marketing all about focus, says expert
Joel Schlesinger, For The Calgary Herald
Published: Monday, April 21, 2008
Many small businesses will spend thousands of dollars on websites, yet won't market them properly, says David Cree, an Internet marketing consultant.
Note: It is important to note that most of businesses who owns a website doesn't know its earning potential.
This is where search marketing is effective, he says.
Search marketing involves carefully determining how people will be searching on the web for the product you are selling.
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It includes search engine optimization -- putting the right content on businesses' websites to increase the lik-elihood it will come up near the top of search results.
It also includes working with the advertising arms of search engines and purchasing common phrases that people would use to find a product.
"Search marketing is really the biggest and quickest avenue into e-business and spreading your market," Cree says.
But search marketing isn't just about having people find your product on the web -- it's also about having robots finding your product on the web.
Note: Search Marketing will really boost the marketing potential of any business!
"We market to robots that scan the web to determine what the rankings are going to be on search engines," says Cree, president of Clearpath, an Alberta-based web marketing consulting firm.
A large component of search marketing involves search engine optimization.
"Making sure that your site is optimized will tell Google what to rank you for -- what phrases is this site about," he says.
"What it won't tell it is how well it should rank you and the million other sites that are about the same thing as you."
And it's more than just the content on your website. Search engine optimization is also about what's not on your website. That's where marketing comes into play.
"Essentially, that's a political popularity contest," says Cree. "(Search engines) go out to the web and see how many people are linking to you. How much buzz is there out there about you and your company?"
A web marketing campaign can create a buzz in several ways. One of the best methods is through blogs and social networking sites, says Cree. "People don't realize that about 35 per cent of Canada is on Facebook."
Another way to build up a website's popularity is through search engine advertising. Many search engine companies sell keyword phrases to businesses that potential customers will use to search for a product.
If they use that phrase in a search, the companies that purchased that phrase will have a small ad, linking to its website, appear on the search results page.
Finding the right phrase is essential to this strategy's success, Cree says.
Search engine advertising is about finding the right description that will differentiate a business from others -- much like with traditional marketing.
It differs from more traditional methods in that it lets a business focus on consumers or businesses that would need its product, says Cree.
"You only pay for the people who click on your ad. You're only paying for highly targeted marketing."
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Monday, April 21, 2008
Internet Marketing
Internet Marketing Group of Cedar Rapids, Iowa drives MobileDemand to dramatic marketing results culminating in MobileDemand being awarded Iowa Technology Company of the Year.
Cedar Rapids, IA (PRWEB) April 21, 2008 -- When MobileDemand® contacted the Internet Marketing Group, they were a successful growing company looking for big results.
The rugged tablet pc market isn't as saturated as other markets, but the players have big names and even deeper pockets (Panasonic, Dell, and General Dynamics just to name a few). One of the difficulties faced by MobileDemand was the lack of a well-rounded Internet marketing approach to match the goals of the organization.
Note: Mobile Demand is taking a big step towards success through Internet Marketing.
The key to our success with MobileDemand was President Matt Miller's dedication and leadership. Without the strong support and involvement of top level management, the amount of success you can have is limited.
Matt Miller, MobileDemand President, has a strong marketing background and recognized the need for a more well-rounded and more effective Internet marketing approach. With this in mind, he contracted with the Internet Marketing Group.
Note: Matt Miller is not only an effective leader but also an achiever.
From the beginning, the Internet Marketing Group knew that in order to succeed the MobileDemand website needed to be "remodeled" and optimized to drive the desired behavior from interested visitors. Once the website was complete and search engine optimized, the systematic implementation of a well-rounded Internet marketing approach would be needed.
With the new website complete, PPC (pay-per-click) advertising optimization was the next step. Using data driven analytics and metrics, the Internet Marketing Group deployed their Google Adwords Qualified Professionals to fine-tune MobileDemand's Google PPC advertising. This included altering keyword selections, creating new advertisements, authoring new campaigns, and creating new industry specific landing pages to establish MobileDemand's reputation as an industry expert. Again, costs were reduced and benefits improved. Based on these results, the advertising was duplicated across many other search engines (Yahoo, MSN, etc.).
Next, MobileDemand started developing relationships with review websites and the social media. MobileDemand submitted their products to highly regarded industry specific websites for independent reviews. Their products shined! MobileDemand was gaining free press across the web from the review websites. Many of these sites submitted press releases at their own expense to tell the public of MobileDemand's superior products. These press releases created a viral effect that lead to the next steps.
At this point, it was clear from the analytic data that traffic from the review websites drove a more serious clientele. The cost per lead was significantly lower and the visitors were more apt to purchase. To maximize this opportunity, the Internet Marketing Group worked with MobileDemand to strategically place advertising on multiple industry specific websites.
Now that MobileDemand was gaining traction from the steps listed above, it was time to implement email and press release marketing. The Internet Marketing Group used its expertise and knowledge of the CAN-SPAM Act to implement an effective approach to start building an double opt-in email marketing database of names. Shortly thereafter, MobileDemand sent their first email blast to subscribers.
Note: this move from mobiledemand and internet marketing group made a blast!
Next, the Internet Marketing Group introduced MobileDemand to their Search Engine Optimized (SEO) press release process. In a very short period of time, MobileDemand was releasing their most recent news to the likes of Google News, Yahoo News, and even the Associated Press! These press releases were "re-released" by multiple websites, blogs, and other news related websites. This exposure resulted in hundreds of websites linking to various pages of the MobileDemand website, drastically increasing website traffic.
Each step of the way, MobileDemand was receiving exceptional results. These results kept MobileDemand motivated to do more. Next, the Internet Marketing Group helped implement an increased focus on social media marketing. MobileDemand started blogging, posting videos on YouTube, participating in wiki's, uploading images on Facebook, and a host of other activities. Again, a drastic increase in traffic resulted along with lower costs per lead.
"The key to our success with MobileDemand was President Matt Miller's dedication and leadership. Without the strong support and involvement of top level management, the amount of success you can have is limited."
- Jeff McEachron, President, Internet Marketing Group
Note: Jeff McEachron is a well respected and devoted achiever leader.
Once MobileDemand cycled through the process, they kept their eye on the ball and launched another new and even more effective website. They continue to do more of the same behaviors that have brought them success. As a result, MobileDemand was recently named the Technology Company of the year for the state of Iowa. During his acceptance speech, President Matt Miller said that in his opinion Internet marketing was the biggest opportunity for business growth in the state of Iowa.
"Working with the Internet Marketing Group has had a major impact on our successful growth over the last year. In addition to their Internet marketing expertise, they understand the role of Internet marketing in the "bigger picture" of growing a company. They treat our advertising dollars as if they were their own. I strongly recommend not trying to market your business online without the help of professionals like the Internet Marketing Group Team."
- Matt Miller, President, MobileDemand
MobileDemand is now an industry leader in the Rugged Tablet PC industry, and operates in multiple vertical markets with increased sales, and higher margins. They've gained recognition as an industry expert and maintain a diverse and well known customer base that includes the likes of Northrop Grumman, The Gap, the US Military, Anheuser-Busch, Disney, FEMA, NASA, and many more.
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